Red's Roots

[ariston]

Ok I will change my generalised views on old people as well then. Not all old people constantly missread their hands- I have never had willie tann turn J2 over on me claiming he thought they were kings. 

[Robert HM]

Ive never watched coupling robert but if thats a quote from it it sounds like my type of show  Is it on sky?? Also I think I may need a lawyer to defend me against alleged ageism, I dont think I have ever been ageist but you know these old people- they just need to find something to moan about to make them feel important/wanted 

Russ, you have missed much! It was on BBC2, and hilarious, so well writen and performed. here's the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/coupling/

Yes TightEnd. Miss Alexander, sigh!

Another quote shamlessly nicked of the site:

"Maybe women are completely different when we?re not with them. Maybe they?re not cross all the time."

Ageism is a poor allegation. You can defend yourself in a defamation action by simply saying " I told the truth",  if you say that in defence of being accused of ageism you are just digging a hole.

[tikay]

Nun's post is a beaut (like her....) but it cuts, almost accidentally, to the heart of Tom's "problem" with posting this story, about which I must say he consulted me first.

Nun says she does not know why he felt he should worry, that we would all say "what's the prob?".

Well let me now tell you something that will hurt and surprise and shock you all.

I said EXACTLY the same thing toTom - "what's your problem Tom, you know how we all feel about you?".

He told me this. When he moved to a new site recently, the local shop refused to serve him. Because he was a Gypsy, or an "Ethnic", from an Ethnic Minority (which, I would infom you, he is officially classed as by the Government).

WHAT?! Now THATS discrimination. They refused to serve Tom because he is an ethnic.

Get your head round THAT.

[Robert HM]

What is WRONG, is saying, for example, "all travelling people are bad". A SECTION of them ARE bad. I choose to call them Diddy Ky's.

No community is without those who bring them down, it is a fact of life. Too often a group is assessed by it's worst member.

[The_nun]

All I can say to that is ..They are not WORTHY of his custom,, let alone friendship. Sounds like a small minded community to me.

[Ironside]

i'd refuse to serve tom too as he looks like bob calgeeze

[tikay]

So Ariston, are you saying that fellow blondeite Willie Tann is OLD......? He ain't gonna be happy......

But talking of "Kings", a weird thing DID happen to me on Monday, & "thee from thine" witnessed it.

I pick up KK, bet, & Matey Boy moves in, I'm Pot Stuck, but who cares, I ain't laying KK down.

HE wins the hand though, not me. How so? Nope, wise guys, he did NOT 4 flush it.

I say to the dealer, "hey, it's a split pot", & he replies, nonchalantly, as if it were an everyday occurrence, "sorry Tikay", but KK beats K-8. So even dealers can misread hands! The rest of the table agreed too - the ALL misread my hand. Now that's really weird.

[The_nun]

What is WRONG, is saying, for example, "all travelling people are bad". A SECTION of them ARE bad. I choose to call them Diddy Ky's.

No community is without those who bring them down, it is a fact of life. Too often a group is assessed by it's worst member.

Exactley .. look at this community, if we are not careful ...Ironside is going to get us branded as perves..

[tikay]

Dammit. I was rather hoping you WERE a perv Mauireen. Sigh......another dream shattered.

[Ironside]

can i just say i am the only non perv on this forum

but thats cause i cant get into any of the places you pervs can

[RED-DOG]

why are the Official sites horrible places Tom?

If you don't mind me asking, what sort of place do you live at now?

Ok, TightEnd's Question first, I will answer the others

why are the Official sites horrible places Tom?

If you don't mind me asking, what sort of place do you live at now?

Most official Gypsy sites are built on old rubbish dumps, under flyovers, beneath pylons etc, in fact anywhere no one else wants to live, and you have to wait for someone to die before you can get a 'plot' on one, and there are only enough places for about 30% of the Gypsies in the country today

They are horrible places because you have to live on a concrete slab, cheek by jowl with neighbours you didn't choose, traditionally Gypsies live in small family groups and don?t like being forced to live with 20 or 30 other families, add to this the fact that site admin don?t distinguish between Gypsies and other groups in caravans, so everyone is lumped together

The local people will hate the fact that the site is there at all, and if someone from the site does anything wrong, all the rest get the blame

I decided to try to find somewhere to use as a permanent base for several reasons. For one thing we were being forced to band together in larger groups than I would like, simply for security, I used to go to work and leave my caravan unattended, but things got to the stage where you would come home to find graffiti, smashed windows or worse, and we were moved on, with no idea where to go, sometimes twice a day

Then one of my children became seriously ill and I had nowhere to stay while he was in hospital, I moved on to an official site but there was no 'plot' available, I had to park my caravan in the road on the site, I was told I wasn?t allowed to do that but I refused to move

Why not move into a house?  I have tried it, but Mrs Red and I have lived all our lives in a caravans, a building doesn?t sway when the wind blows, you can't hear the rain falling lightly on the roof, you can't turn it around when you are fed up of the same view

So, I decided to try to buy a small piece of land to use as a base, somewhere to go when the going got tough, the Government are supposed to be encouraging Gypsies to do this, and its a great idea, Gypsies who own their own are accountable, almost always behave in a responsible manner, and it is in their own interests to get along with the local community, plus, it eases the burden on the already overflowing official sites at no extra cost

But the problem is, no one wants a Gypsy in their community and local planners and councillors want to be elected again next year, the obstacles they can put in your way have to be seen to be believed, 95% of planning applications by Gypsies are refused

Before I bought the bit of land that I occupy now I did as much research as possible, it seemed Ideal, out of the way and unused, it seemed to fit most of the criteria, and that?s virtually impossible

The day I moved on almost 5 years ago, all hell broke loose, the locals were up in arms, some of the things people wrote to the council complaining about defies belief "We can't sleep safely in our beds" "property prices will plummet"  "If I go down there I can see them" "They will put their kids in our school"

The local bobby (a nice chap actually) asked us "If anything goes missing, can I come and look in your sheds?"

I went to the planning meeting, they didn't know who I was or that I was there, It took them 30 seconds to refuse an application I had spent two days writing, I have a daughter who suffers from Tuberous Sclerosis, luckily It doesn?t affect her day to day life, but she needs medical procedures periodically and she is on the kidney register so we have somewhere safe to stay when they need to treat or examine her, they didn't even take the time to read it, they just started eviction proceedings

Eventually 2 years later, it went to a public enquiry, by this time all the locals were on my side and some brave souls even spoke up for me, but the council produced expert witnesses by the boatload, environment officers, planners, Highway officials, the ramblers association and someone from the natural history museum.

Never the less, the inspector who heard the case gave us temper permission to stay for 5 years, I was happy, the locals were happy (I?m on the environment committee now, and they use my truck to remove rubbish from the village, lol) but we only have 18 months left, and the council are still determined we must go

[tikay]

Iron,

That's a generalisation. There is at least one - maybe two - non pervs on this site.

WARNING - Cochester Kev has logged on. Stand by for pervy posts.

[Ironside]

why are the Official sites horrible places Tom?

If you don't mind me asking, what sort of place do you live at now?

Ok, TightEnd's Question first, I will answer the others



Most official Gypsy sites are built on old rubbish dumps, under flyovers, beneath pylons etc, in fact anywhere no one else wants to live, and you have to wait for someone to die before you can get a 'plot' on one, and there are only enough places for about 30% of the Gypsies in the country today

They are horrible places because you have to live on a concrete slab, cheek by jowl with neigbours you didn't choose, traditionaly Gypsies live in small family groups and dont like being forced to live with 20 or 30 other families, add to this the fact that site admin dont distinguish between Gypsies and other groups in caravans, so everyone is lumped together

The local people will hate the fact that the site is there at all, and if someone from the site does anything wrong, all the rest get the blame

I decided to try to find somewhere to use as a permenant base for several reasons. For one thing we were being forced to band together in larger groups than I would like, simply for security, I used to go to work and leave my caravan unattended, but things got to the stage where you would come home to find graffiti, smashed windows or worse, and we were moved on, with no idea where to go, sometimes twice a day

Then one of my children became seriously ill and I had nowhere to stay while he was in hospital, I moved on to an offcial site but there was no 'plot' avalable, I had to park my caravan in the road on the site, I was told I wasnt allowed to do that but I refused to move

Why not move into a house?  I have tried it, but Mrs Red and I have lived all our lives in a caravans, a building dosn't sway when the wind blows, you can't hear the rain falling lightly on the roof, you can't turn it around when you are fed up of the same view

So, I decied to try to buy a small piece of land to use as a base, somewhere to go when the going got tough, the Government are supposed to be encoraging Gypsies to do this, and its a great idea, Gypsies who own their own are accountable, almost always behave in a responsible manner, and it is in their own interests to get along with the local community, plus, it eases the burden on the already overflowing official sites at no extra cost

But the problem is, no one wants a Gypsy in their community and local planners and councilers want to be elected again next year, the obsticles they can put in your way have to be seen to be believed, 95% of planning applications by Gypsies are refused

Before I bought the bit of land that I occupy now I did as much reserch as possible, it seemed Ideal, out of the way and unused, it seemet to fit most of the criteria, and thats virtually impossible

The day I moved on almost 5 years ago, all hell broke loose, the locals were up in arms, some of the things people wrote to the council complaining about defys beliefe "We can't sleep safely in our beds" "property prices will plummet"  "If I go down there I can see them" "They will put their kids in our school"

The local bobby (a nice chap actually) asked us "If anything goes missing, can I come and look in your sheds?"

I went to the planning meeting, they didn't know who I was or that I was there, It took them 30 seconds to refuse an application I had spent two days writing, I have a daughter who suffers from Tuberous Sclerosis, luckily It dosnt affect her day to day life, but she needs medical procidures periodically and she is on the kidney register so we have somewhere safe to stay when they need to treat or examine her, they didn't even take the time to read it, they just started eviction proceedings

Eventually 2 years later, it went to a public enquirey, by this time all the locals were on my side and some brave souls even spoke up for me, but the council produced expert witnesses by the boat load, environment officers, planners, Highway officials, the ramblers association and someone from the natural history museam.

Never the less, the inspector who heared the case gave us tempery permission to stay for 5 years, I was happy, the locals were happy (Im on the environment commitie now, and they use my truck to remove rubbish from the village, lol) but we only have 18 months left, and the council are determined we have to go

let us know when they try to move you on it'll make a change being chained to a caravan

[The_nun]

someone mention chains??

[tikay]

Wow, WHAT a story that is Tom. If anyone is not moved by that, well, they are not human.

but Tom is incapable of writing a post withoit bringing a smile to our faces - even if, in this case, it's so-called "black humour".

"...if we go down there, we can see them....." Oh DEAR.

And a real Tom gem, talking about his love for living in a Caravan rather than a house. "you cant turn a house round if you get fed up with the view".......!.