End of an era

I got my very last child benefit payment this month. Henry's 18 on 7 July. A very easy birthday to remember as he was born 7/7/87.

That's £17 a week from my budget. Ouch.

We expect to keep on supporting him while he's at university. He'll take out a student loan of course, but we hope we'll be solvent enough to pay off most of it for him.

If anyone wants cheap web space, on-line credit card systems, really complicated telecomms stuff (analysis-type stuff), etc., now would be a jolly good time to fund Henry's degree by giving Richard extra work.

How the British use names

Cultures are very different in how people use names, which name they use and how/when people introduce themselves.

For instance, I get very irritated when salesmen address me by my first name. My first name is for my friends. If someone wants to sell me a mortgage/gas company/sofa, he can darn well call me 'Mrs Proctor'. They only do it to make me feel I'm with a friend - you know they've been trained to do it for that reason - and it *grates*.

I love name badges at conventions - they remove all the awkwardness of asking people's names, especially when there's too many new people and you've forgotten...

If you meet someone at a party or in a social setting (assuming you haven't just arrived and been formally introduced by your host) how long would you wait before asking the name of someone you're talking to or before telling them what your name is? Would you do it immediately, after ten mins or so, maybe after a couple of hours, or never unless they asked you first?

(This isn't just about how easily you make friends or if you have Aspergers or whatever, I'm interested in English/american/Australian differences.)

Thinking about Dr Who

Cut for spoilers ( Read more... )