Dragons drinks: hotel and pub

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 5:31 am

Originally posted by Dottie
It started to rain yesterday wich solved the problem temporarly.

We were forecast thunderstorms today

but it's looking pretty sunny at the moment...

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 5:35 am

Re my neightbours, I don't like them because they spend a lot of time and energy engaging in and complaining about what I think is very petty things. On the mandadory house meetings, people wish to spend hours discussing that we all should have identical name plates...last time they wanted an official "list" of behavioural rules everybody in the house should follow...I don't know why - nobody is even breaking the rules they suggested we should include...when I pointed this out, the reply was "well, it's always good to have a list so we all know"

This is so different from my experience in the US. House meetings? Not in any neighborhood where I've lived. That would be viewed as a form of creeping socialism, here.

And I'm not joking. I know it's the standard in many European nations (and in Japan), but in the US, "individualism" means that government has less interference from people getting together to postulate and formulate questions and demands. Citizen input is restricted to appointed Citizens' Advisory Boards, and they are necessarily stacked due to their appointed nature and small number of representatives. I served on several while living down in Florida, and came away with a very mixed impression of the process.

In our current area, the culture predicates that you are judged as a neighbor by two thigns: how well and often you tend your lawn, and how much you play competitive sports. Some of our neighbors literally spend upwards of 20 hours a week working on their lawns (perhaps 15 feet by 15 feet). They don't show much imagination, but they trim their bushes into odd shapes, mow, rake, and talk to one another. As we bring in a firm to cut our lawn, and otherwise go to a fitness center for our exercise (non-competitive), we're not considered good neighbors. We're stared at when we wave. Few will speak to us.

Down in a small North Carolina town (1,000 inhabitants) outside of Raleigh where we lived about a decade ago, on the other hand, we lucked into being on a street where we clicked at once. Despite the rural setting and small Southern town mentality, the people in our neighborhood were young adult couples with relatively worldly views, complex jobs, and an enjoyment in company. We helped one another out, and loved chatting at the end of day. We'd have impromptu street parties, and regular celebrations for the hell of it.

Dottie · Post by **Dottie** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 5:35 am

Originally posted by Georgi

We were forecast thunderstorms today but it's looking pretty sunny at the moment...

Like I need more motivation

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 5:47 am

Originally posted by fable
This is so different from my experience in the US. House meetings? Not in any neighborhood where I've lived. That would be viewed as a form of creeping socialism, here. And I'm not joking. I know it's the standard in many European nations (and in Japan), but in the US, "individualism" means that government has less interference from people getting together to postulate and formulate questions and demands.

How strange. Socialism? I suppose house meeting is something very, very Scandinavian...If you own property organised into a "house/condo/summer house owner's cooperation" (as opposed to a company - makes a huge different from a tax perspective) there is a law that you must have meetings and vote about finacal issues etc. Whenever something is to be done, major finacial issues or minor stuff like getting a new dustbin for $10 to keep at the yard, these meeting and voting procedure must be performed.

My husband lived in a gated community in Miami. That is the only experience I have of housing in the US. That was a horrible area - the lawns didn't seem of a great importance (perhaps because the lawns were not facing the street but on the back of the house) - instead, the cars and the golf handicap seemed to be major assessment criteria.

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 5:49 am

Originally posted by fable
As we bring in a firm to cut our lawn, and otherwise go to a fitness center for our exercise (non-competitive), we're not considered good neighbors. We're stared at when we wave. Few will speak to us.

Thats pretty sad, we have a big community feel in our street. It does get on your nerves sometimes, especially when people set high standards for you. I honestly think that they thought that I would get into Medicine or Law. And walking the dog is absolutely horrible, it takes ages and its always the same routine. They ask what I'm doing, how I'm going and to pop in. By the time I get home its almost dark.

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 5:52 am

Originally posted by Dottie
Like I need more motivation

@Tammy but of course, you live in Neighboursland

SYM is just not right today... It's a weekend, and yet lots of people are here... There are civilised discussions, involving posts of several paragraphs, in the pub threads... What is the world coming to?!?

I'm going to have to retire and rethink my life... Seeya later, people

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 5:52 am

Most apartments in the US are privately owned, and thus, the only decisionmaker in the owner. Laws governing what the apartment owner must provide differ from state to city and even municipality to municipality. Condominiums, in effect, individually owned apartments, are now more popular, but are generally very expensive.

Gated communities actually originated in South America. The idea came to the US by way of Miami. I can still remember the heavily gated communities and dwellings of middle and upper class Caracas: lovely, and protected like medieval fortresses. Definitely evoked a mixed response in me.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 5:57 am

Originally posted by Georgi
SYM is just not right today... It's a weekend, and yet lots of people are here... There are civilised discussions, involving posts of several paragraphs, in the pub threads... What is the world coming to?!?

I am afraid I'm responsible. I've probably pulled the pleasant, light conversation into areas it was never meant to go. I'll subside now; sorry about that.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 6:07 am

@Georgi: See you later and take care of your foot!

@Tammy: In a way it sounds nice, but on the other hand I grew up in an area like that, and even if I liked it as a child, it got to my nerves as I grew older. This was for two reasons:
1. Lots of people had so many opinions about me, my life and what I should do so I felt it was an integrity problem.
2. It was simply to time consuming to stay in every corner at chat with everybody - the conversations followed the same pattern anyway.

@Fable: A condo here is not the same thing as totally owning your flat/apartment (what is the correct word? what is the difference?). You own your flat, or rather, you own the right to live in that flat. You don't own that part of the house in the sense that you can do whatever you like with it.

Tamerlane · Post by **Tamerlane** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 6:08 am

Originally posted by Georgi
@Tammy but of course, you live in Neighboursland

Damn that neighbourhood watch program

@ fable

Don't listen to Georgi, she's just mean

*Well look at the time*

Goodnight, all

EDIT-

@CE

Well I can understand every bit of that. I tend to prefer my privacy at times.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 6:17 am

Originally posted by Tamerlane
Don't listen to Georgi, she's just mean

You're probably right. I knew she was evil when she walked in wearing a parrot and carrying an eyepatch. She had something to prove, and it wasn't the square root of minus one.

So...we're expecting 80 degree Fahrenheit weather today, with occasional clouds, maybe a thunderstorm if we get lucky. How about anyone else, out there?

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 6:23 am

Goodnight Tammy, sweet dreams.

@Fable: Hm, 80F, that's about 25C I think, so its fairly hot. Here it is cloudy but hot and humid, not very nice but better than the sauna weather in the middle of the week.

Kameleon · Post by **Kameleon** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 9:44 am

Ack! What's been going on here! I demand that everyone order seven drinks and pass out immediately! Dusty, sextuple vodkas all round! *paces up and down staring at the RT visitors*

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 10:15 am

Sorry Kam

It was Fable, he came here...and...and...started a conversation...and you know me...I'm so easily led and gullible, especially by someone like Fable

And I felt intellectually understimlated and all, ya see? I was in a vulnerable position...so I..I really couldn't help myself...I'm so sorry Kam

I'd better drop off...

Georgi · Post by **Georgi** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 2:16 pm

Originally posted by fable
You're probably right. I knew she was evil when she walked in wearing a parrot and carrying an eyepatch.

*sigh* I knew the plumage was sooo last season...

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 2:18 pm

Originally posted by C Elegans
Goodnight Tammy, sweet dreams.

@Fable: Hm, 80F, that's about 25C I think...

That was a mistake on my part. It was meant to read 90 Fahrenheit, and it's very humid out there, too.

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 2:21 pm

Originally posted by C Elegans
Sorry Kam It was Fable, he came here...and...and...started a conversation...and you know me...I'm so easily led and gullible, especially by someone like Fable And I felt intellectually understimlated and all, ya see? I was in a vulnerable position...so I..I really couldn't help myself...I'm so sorry Kam I'd better drop off...

It was probably the Rachmaninoff in the air. The burgundy was exquisite, the conversation was challenging, the cheese and ham sandwiches were as delectable as one could wish. We fell...what can I say, @Kam? Two existentialists bearing witness to their own mortality, accompanied by quotes from Camus and Colette. It was too, too, precious.

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 2:24 pm

Heh, Kam has left, hasn't he?

About 30C then, hot and humid, same as we have hear. I took a walk in a large nearby park a few hours ago, and it felt subtropical, just like the hot humid nights in places like Thailand or Malaysia. That (my thoughts of tropic nights), and watching a nature program about birds at New Guinea has made me convinced I have to go there some day(not that I am the slightest interested in birds.) Right now, I long more for Arctic climate, though...if I had the time and money for another holiday, I'd go to Baffin Island...

C Elegans · Post by **C Elegans** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 2:27 pm

Originally posted by fable
It was probably the Rachmaninoff in the air. The burgundy was exquisite, the conversation was challenging, the cheese and ham sandwiches were as delectable as one could wish. We fell...what can I say, @Kam? Two existentialists bearing witness to their own mortality, accompanied by quotes from Camus and Colette. It was too, too, precious.

ROFLMAO

fable · Post by **fable** » Sat Jul 20, 2002 2:35 pm

Originally posted by C Elegans
Heh, Kam has left, hasn't he?

I don't know. I'd better remove my hand from--there, until we'll sure.

Right now, I long more for Arctic climate, though...if I had the time and money for another holiday, I'd go to Baffin Island...

You and me, both. But this year, we're taking a couple of weeks in late September at the Northern Outer Banks in North Carolina. It will be hot and humid, only we'll have a very large house (they usually make 'em for 8-10 people), with access to a pretty excluded portion of beach, nature trails, a large, outdoor whirlpool on one of the upper story decks...even the heat won't be able to dissipate the sheer lazy, animal enjoyment of it all.

Then, in late October or early November, we may take the better part of a week to visit NYC. Next year, if all goes well, we'll be back in Europe for three weeks--maybe one (or two, at the most) of the cities in a Scandanavian or Baltic country. We'll see.