Sitting opposite me are 2 men talking about what fantastic things they’ve done/ are doing/ are planning to do to their houses. How much money they’ve made, whether a £25,000 kitchen is good enough, how property bla bla, conservatories, bla bla, money, money, more money. SHUT UP!
I don’t know whether I want to kill myself or them.

I’m still in bed having my smoothie. Then I shall pedal off road to my shop.
Does that help?
Oh yeah mrs Zip wants a cuddle first.

Ah kitchen envy, its a terrible terrible thing.

At what time do you want to die by the way?

Just let out a massive burp and then stare them both in the face. They’ll sharp get the hint and move.

get on your mobile and talk to your swimming pool installer – you’ve changed your mind and want to cut down to 20 metre so there’s space for the snooker room to have a cinema behind it

Makes you sick doesn’t it. House prices are still shockingly expensive compared to what people earn.

We rent but do look around from time to time for what we could buy and prices are still insane where we are in South Manchester. We have a large deposit saved and could easily secure a mortgage but despite that can’t quite seem to find the will to commit to 25 years of mortgage slavery just to purchase a pokey little 2 bed at these inflated prices.

The quality of housing in the UK is criminally bad. Small windows, small rooms, little natural light, crammed together, poor parking, little storage space. This applies to both new builds and older stock. The UK really needs to take a leaf out of Germany’s book when it comes to building homes that are actually ‘livable’. Housing over there has embraced modern technology and modern construction whereas house builders and buyers in the UK seem more obsessed with whether the home has a mock Georgian dooway than whether there is room to store a bike and other essential requirements. Madness!

Wouldn’t surprise me if prices drop big time. I think they are going to have to – otherwise the whole market will grind to a halt. The banks still don’t want to lend and potential young buyers are either saddled up by huge student loans, or suffer the crippling cost of increasing rent and increased costs of living.

How are the young ever going to be able to afford property at the current prices? I think they are not so the only solution is for prices to drop.

I did an adventure race with three swimming pool owners. I came back with an intimate knowledge of purification systems and spare parts needed for pool cleaning robots.

Think yourself lucky, my mornings commute is Swindon to Oswestry (and then back this evening).

Beware jealousy, it is the green-ey’d monster…… 😉

No one returns from Oswestry Mr Nutt

been out with the hound in the peaks.

commuting by train? think i;d wanna kill myself regardless of the other passengers.

HTH

How are the young ever going to be able to afford property at the current prices? I think they are not so the only solution is for prices to drop.

I think to some extent that’s wishful thinking. There doesn’t really seem much reason for prices to drop when the supply of new houses isn’t keeping up with the demand for them. I agree 100% that the new ones that are being built on the whole appear dreadful though.
One possible starting point though would to vastly increase tenant rights and remove the tax relief on buy to let mortgages. Making this market less inviting, might then open up the property market a bit more for first time buyers.

Did they have red trousers on?

i have the same initials as op. well two at least for sure. oooooooooo

No one returns from Oswestry Mr Nutt

*Gulp!*

Oswestry, Friday the 13th, what have I done, the planets are aligned!

hahaha just looked on http://www.oswestry.com/ check out the businesses listed at the bottom of the website.

Does anyone have a Gurkha I could borrow?

Im pretty sure they dont let anyone INTO Owestry.

Most lenders dont care about student loans ( real ones not over drafts and cc) to an extent neither do i – its a fixed % of my take home little i can do to change that

Most kids these days are more obsessed about having the latest iphone than having a house ……

Id certainly have gone without an iphone and probably would of sold all my bikes bar one if it meant i could get out of renters hell.

you’ve got a phone/laptop that can post messages on the internet but you can’t play some music to drown them out?

Nice photo, they’ve managed to cut out the pound shops, but you can still just see the dry cleaners.
It could have been worse, you could be going to Wrexham.

Pull your phone out of your pocket and pretend to be answer it.

Say the following…

“Yeah, I’m sat opposite both of them now.

Now are you sure you want this messy?

…and you want them to found and identifiable?

Consider it done.

Make the payment as we discussed. No funny business, I know where you live.

There will be no further contact. Dispose of your phone.”[/b]

They will get off at the next stop.

Its better than having 30mins of a guy who doesn’t know how to put headphones in properly so the whole carriage was subjected to his loud music which was 80s power ballads …..got the song Gloria going round in my head now.

No one returns from Oswestry Mr Nutt

To be fair, if it was to Swindon, why would they?

I had a nice pie in Oswestry. True ‘dat.

One possible starting point though would to vastly increase tenant rights and remove the tax relief on buy to let mortgages. Making this market less inviting, might then open up the property market a bit more for first time buyers.

The UK already has one of the highest rates of home ownership in the world, 30% higher than Germany.

Encouraging ownership is not the issue, more that people see the house they live in as an investment. Its not, its a tool for keeping the rain off your head and if the market better reflected that then renting wouldn’t seem so unattractive, people wouldn’t be so desperate to get on the ladder, prices would drop and standards would rise.

Its better than having 30mins of a guy who doesn’t know how to put headphones in properly so the whole carriage was subjected to his loud music which was 80s power ballads ….

What, and you didn’t all sing along ?
<disappointed shakey head smiley>

I have the bike on the back of the car about to hot the trails.

I know i have made the correct life choices.

Who cares what others earn.

I’d say yourself

HTH
8)

I’m lying in bed drinking tea…I might do another century toaday.

I know i have made crap life choices.

Who cares.

Oi oik, shut up clicking on yer phone, we can read what your typing in the reflection in the window.

Get a life pikeyboy and stop whineng to yer pretend “mates” on that STW forum..

Tut.

I work in a very posh private school where the kids are bankrolled through a great enucation, free to them (i.e. Daddy pays) university with most getting a nice big “starter loans” to either afford to take the low paid job/internships (found for them by daddy) to get experience or setup/ buy into a business from a very young age. Long ago I realised comparing my life to their’s and my attributes to their’s was only going to do my head in and if I wanted an ego boost I needed to look down stream rather than up. Mostly I just ride my bike!

them. also, deep breaths. also, are you up for another London ride for sat/sun 28/29 april?

Theres a nice bike shop in Oswestry…

Local pub the other week, lots of youngish trendies came in talking about what they’ve bought and how much they made etc….figured they were all new BBC Salford staff.

Looked like nice intelligent people but the conversation ruined the atmosphere.

I’ve been spending my week designing basements for stupidly rich people in London for their essential underground gymn/sauna/cinema/pool/car lift. I just view it as a ‘oh well at least I’m relieving them of some of their money.’

I just view it as a ‘oh well at least I’m relieving them of some of their money.’

Exactly. People spending money to improve their houses provide money to the humble (Or not so in some cases 😉 ) craftsmen, building kitchens, plumbing bathrooms and laying nice shiny wood floors ( 😉 ). How can this be a bad thing?

the whole carriage was subjected to his loud music

did you tell him to turn it down? I do. Also once told someone to stop chewing gum with his mouth open, well, we were crammed on like sardines and his open gob was about 6″ from my ear.

I blame Thatcher!
For a) kickstarting the whole “housing Ladder” thing, by encouraging purchasing and the selling-off of council houses. If it’s a ladder, it should only have 2-3 rungs.
and b) removing the recommended living area regs. to which older houses were built (hence the larger sizes of pre 80s houses), and implementing minimum standards, to which so many 80s-90s rabbit hutches adhered.

Recently while sat in the Stretford End watching Bilbao hand Utd our arses, the two gents behind us never let up from discussing their pensions. Far more inappropriate conversation given the setting!

Theres a nice bike shop in Oswestry…

Where would that be then?