I have never shopped in Eyres because I've always found their prices to be way over the top, plus I've never been overly keen on what's on offer {most of it looks very heavy}.
Now there is going to be a "big sale" it will be interesting to know what these "massive savings" are going to look like According to this weeks D.T. a sample of what's on offer, as I sit typing this I'm sitting at my dining room {extendable} table with four chairs I got last year from Argos Circa £170 and it does what it says on the tin, also my wife can move it if needs be to clean. In the Eyres sale a dining room table and four chairs has been {drastically} reduced to £900 yes most prices have been drastically reduced but it's still far more than I'm willing to pay, I'm not a tight wad I just don't see the need to splash out on something that you can get from somewhere else that does just as good a job at a fraction of the price. I can understand some people obviously will buy {my sister in law has shopped at Eyres for years and won't go anywhere else} that's fine if you don't mind spending and you like what's on offer.           
Plus delivery/installation is always extra, for those prices the least I would expect is free delivery.
We recently got new settees from D.F.S, another place that knows how to charge but compared to what they normally charge these were in the sale and the price was reasonable, but we were charged £67 for delivery, I asked them when they turned up how many deliveries they get through in a normal day they said at least a dozen a day, so each van every day will generate a least £750 - £800 less running costs and crews wages each van can comfortably clear £400 per day not a bad little earner.
We were a little put out as we went to town the other day intent on having breakfast in Poppies only to be told that was not open either.

I am not one of life's D.I.Y'ers. Yes I can get by, so long as it's not too complicated, but I've never been overly keen when it comes to decorating. Wallpapering never done it wouldn't know where to start so I get a professional in. Likewise painting, I can wield a roller but if I come into contact with certain paints I'm in trouble, I have skin issues, so don't use brushes {get him in again}
So anything that makes my chores easier I will buy and try...... the latest one I bought the other day was the newly advertised Unibond re -new bath sealant as ours is long overdo and as I made a pigs ear of the last time I did it {with a tube and gun} I thought that's the very thing for me as it says you put it over the old sealant, so less work, and has it's own leveller etc. and well you've probably seen the advert.
Why do adverts make it look so easy, people in the trade who probably do this about 20 times a day yes they can do it with their eyes shut  but I've just used the sealant and with everything prepared it's taken me well over an hour and a half to just go round the bath and the sink and it's far from being a professional finish.

The old saying "A bad workman always blames his tools" in this case I do. It looks a doddle on the telly but it doesn't show the sealant coming out in fits and starts, the slightly uneven tiles and grout leaving gaps in the sealant, the smoother falling off and I gave up trying to get behind the taps. The only way I could get it to look anything like decent was to remove the levelling nozzle, squirt sealant directly from the tube and smooth it using the leveller in my hand. If I do have to do this again I'm going back to the gun, at least you can smooth it with a wet finger, something you can't do with this stuff.

As most people on the other forum knew, I very rarely get into discussions about politics, as everyone knows, your views, liberal or otherwise, will no doubt offend someone so you can't win, in other words your damned if you do and damned if you don't but in the case of Boris v's the burka that's in the news I can actually see where he's coming from. He, I believe, is just saying what most people are thinking and is being pilloried for it. Don't get me wrong I'm far from being a fan of Boris's {or any politician for that matter} but I believe he has a point.

First of all the "letter box" and "bank robber" remarks are not aimed at the burka {as reported in the media} I believe he is referring to, or SHOULD be referring to, women wearing the niqab. Although both closely resemble one another the burka covers the eyes with a mesh type cloth that the ladies look, or more likely squint, through, the niqab leaves the eyes uncovered. If I were to walk into a bank or say air terminal wearing a crash helmet and I refused to take it off how far do you think I'd get, yet this is no different, apart from the fact they seem to be under protection from a religious point of view so therefore they are more or less untouchable. A couple of years ago I was at traffic lights in Derby and a school of motoring car came out of a side street and passed me, the "learner" was wearing a niqab and I watched as she negotiated that tight turn, talk about tunnel vision you could see she had limited vision to see anything so had to keep turning her head, her peripheral vision would be almost nil so god help anyone in her blind spot. 

These woman I suspect would dearly love to stroll about in western clothes if given the chance but most say I dress like this for my religion but I think they are still in a society were the men make [all] the decisions and this could be seen as being oppressed.

I watch BBC news this morning and the sports part of the programme came on. Am I missing something by not understanding the rules, nay the reasons, these so called sports even exist, take this morning:-

Tour de France... It is not a race {but is always referred to as one} but a time trial lasting approximately three weeks. After three weeks the times are accumulated so therefore the cyclist with the overall shortest time is deemed to be the winner and as such when it "finishes" in Paris on the "last" day the leader is not challenged as he cruises over the finish line, so to me that means it finished YESTERDAY if he's not being challenged as a race is first over the finish line.
And the spectators en-route stand there for hours just to watch cyclists roar passed them in less than a minute.

Formula 1.... This is even more bizarre, these drivers tour the world racing cars that you couldn't afford even if you did win the lottery, and the beauty of this is when I catch the results sometimes the winners seem to be the same three or four names, you may as well just have those four only in a race because the other teams seem to be wasting their money.

Football.... All I can add to what I've already said about football is I don't understand why, if the players are not winning because their cr*p, why sack the manager, he's not playing. People will say "Oh you don't understand" your right I don't.

Round the world yacht race...What the hell is all that about, gone for eleven months, trying to kill yourself {one did die apparently} not what you would call a spectator "sport". Apparently Robin Knox-Johnston the first person to solo non stop round the world {obviously wasn't working at the time then} said "What an achievement..do you realise more people have climbed mount Everest than have sailed round the world" so he's obviously never been on a cruise liner then. {F.Y.I. Everest, another waste of time climbing that, it's been done to death}   

Golf..... Don't get me started.

Apart from the yacht race why do the above also insist on having dolly birds draped everywhere.

Going now as my croquet mallet wants polishing.



 

As has been mentioned before I was a taxi {hackney} driver in an earlier life, didn't spend a long time doing it, possibly less than 3 years full time and then a bit of p/t weekends after that. The last time I drove a cab was August 1976, this was for Shady's taxi's {Brian Shaw} but I started my career working for Fishers.
I seem to recall my Hackney test was taken with the transport manager of Fishers sat in the back of the taxi and a "suit" from the Corporation bus depot in the front, anyway I passed and got my shiny new badge.
There seems to be very little about Fishers out there so would have to go on memory {as I don't twitter/facebook}
Fishers was a subsidiary of Boddy industries which was also called Thomas Black possibly based in Sheffield. Their main fleet at the time was Morris Oxford Diesels, a couple of "London" style black cabs and a couple of white Peugeot 404's, their funeral side consisted of Austin Princesses.
I fancied driving an Austin for weddings {as they used them for that as well} but was told if you don't do funerals, which I flatly refused to do, then I couldn't do weddings.
Another thing I flatly refused to do was what they called "B.I.D.'s" or sometimes referred to as "specials", this was basically picking up dead bodies and transporting them to either the hospital or a funeral director at the request of a funeral director or the police they certainly didn't put that in the job description
I cannot remember my wages at Fishers but it wouldn't have been a deal.
It would appear the car I used regularly was one of a batch sold to Yates's in Brimington circa 1975. The rest I don't know the fate of but these were possibly replaced by more Peugeot's. Fishers didn't stay in business much longer after that possibly late 70's, as I remember the funeral cars were sold to the Coop.
When Shady started to get established I was "poached" from Fishers
Other taxi firms at the time I can recall, Shady's taxi's {who was just starting up} Jocks taxi's {off Newbold rd}, Bowers taxi's {behind Chesterfield hotel}, Yates's taxi's {Brimington},

I have seen quite a few of these cop chase programmes {Traffic cops, Interceptors etc} and I look at the carnage created by these morons trying to escape the clutches of the law and when they are caught and brought to book what happens? I'll tell you, £$%%&* all that's what happens.
To the career criminal getting caught is an occupational hazard, but the derisory sentences metered out to these morons, when caught, makes our judicial system the laughing stock of the world.
Have you ever wondered why we get so many crooked people coming to England to ply their "trade" it's simple, should they be caught and heaven forbid incarcerated, our prisons are like holiday camps in comparison to other countries. 
One episode a "career" drug dealer led the police on a 42 mile chase along a motorway hitting innocent motorists as he tried to flee, when they finally stopped him they found a small child with it's mother sat in the back of the car.  All that damage, distress and mayhem he caused and a record as long as your arm and he got less than 3 years, with time served in custody and "good behaviour" he could be out in less than 18 months.
Cross over the pond and a similar situation he would have got a minimum of 10 years. Say what you like about the Americans when they pass sentence, they pass sentence.
Take the sentencing, in the U.S. of an ex police officer charged with rape and other offences, he got 263 years. Straight away you think what a stupid sentence, but is it? because of the severity of the crimes and the fact he was a police officer sworn to "Protect and Serve" this reflected in his sentencing, even with time off for good behaviour he will never see the light of day again.

In this country we DESPERATELY need an overall of the judicial system.