And undoubtedly an Ignobel prize in the making...

When Lady Penelope swoons
Here bosom pops out like balloons
The butler stands by
With a glint in his eye
And pops them back in with warm spoons.
- K. Everett.

And a court appearance alongside Max Clifford.

another issue, from experience. Too much "boing, boing" without bra.

Or swinging as you get older lolol

The amount of dross I'd have bought down the years only for Amazon's reviews

I'm feeling a bit angry.
Friends of the family, a lovely couple, have moved.

Now, some back story here:
They're in their 70s, she worked for the Citizens Advice Bureau, he had a successful car import company, bringing in tasty Japanese stuff.
His accountant did some shady deals, and essentially snaked the company and it's capital out from under him and did a bunk.
So, we have an elderly couple, with practically nothing after Mr Accountant did one with the company. And they can't afford to keep their home.

Homeless, at 70.
His brother steps in, and offers them lodgings in the flat above his garage.
His brothers place, I should point at this juncture, was recently on the market for £5 million, had a tennis court and a helipad. I believe he's involved with a helicopter firm.
Our hero couple move in to the lodgings. It's cold. There's no insulation, it's tiny.
Her knees start to give out. Walking becomes a real problem, sometimes, let alone climbing the stairs into the flat.
He starts to find sitting or standing for long periods is becoming an issue, and it looks like there's not only a problem with the nerves in his lower spine, but his hips are deteriorating too.

Then brother decides to sell the mansion.
He gets about £3 million for it - the market isn't what it was after all.

What does he do?
Buy another place, this time with even smaller lodgings for his brother and his wife, who by now has been diagnosed as having cancer.

Yes, the brother is content to spend £3 million on another pile, and watch his own brother and his wife shack up in another tiny, uninsulated space over a garage.

What a [LIFTED].
For less than a tenth of the sale price, he could see to it that his sick brother and his sicker wife are at least comfortable. That they have somewhere safe and warm to live in, because let's face it, they don't have any options.
It's not as if either of them are suddenly going to raise a mortgage.
What a [LIFTED].

I'm actually a bit angry. If it were me in the mansion, and my sister in the annexe, I couldn't sleep at night knowing. What a [LIFTED].

I'm already peeved at the first step: accountants. My previous boss got screwed over because the accountants didn't do their work properly.

The affluent relative doesn't surprise me. I work in an affluent area (houses go for half a million to £5million around here) and there are basically two types of rich people: those who have always been rich and tend to be very pleasant to deal with, and those "nouveau rich" who demand xyz and don't give a toss about anyone else. It's the kind of stuff that pisses me off. These same rich people are the ones working tax loopholes etc and then complain about immigrants* being the cause of the UK's problems.



*or whichever group they choose to pick that week.

I have nothing to say to this but to agree with you.

Mark

I can't honestly believe that his brother would be any less happier living in a £2.5 million pile than he is living in a £3 million pile of bricks.
I have no particular affection for the chap with the mobility problems - his politics are slightly to the right of Genghis Khan - but at the same time, he deserves a better break than this.

I live in a small village where there are more than a dozen houses for sale for £1.25million. I do agree with you that there are two classes of rich and the old money are nice, the new money are not worth the effort. They tread on people and do not care about anyone else.

Why someone who works in tv advertising deserves a 'media' pass to the Roskilde Festival?
Oh wait, it's the D cup and the blonde hair.

PoiDH

What did people do before ready to roll puff pastry? Just made some Cornish style pasties with some ready to roll puff pastry. 30 minutes in microwave and very nice, though think I should cook them differently next time.

Going home, it's been a long week already. Fcuk all has gone right this week and it's only Tuesday.