The Framers Forum

I missed a delivery the other day, even though I was in.
Some people don't seen to be able to master the complexities of the doorbell.
He left a card saying he had dropped the two parcels at a local PO. Which was six miles away.
No big thing. I felt like a wee drive. Except, I was expecting another delivery. The PO was open 'til eight so
I waited until just before six. No second delivery so I thought it was safe. Never had a delivery that late in the day - ever.
Went and picked up my first two parcels. Got back and another "we've missed you" card. Fortunately, the packages didn't need
signing for so the driver thankfully left them behind my wheelie bins.

Got the same scenario tomorrow. This time it's the local sorting office 8 miles away. And a DPD man due.

Great this online shopping ain't it?

Great this thread as well. A damn good moan is very enjoyable.

Whatever the recent cock-up, the televised moron will quote the immortal words
"LESSONS WILL BE LEARNED".
So that's OK then, until the next disaster, when once again.....
Oh, and the other annoyance is a radio request for a futuristic event (marriage, child, concert, holiday etc.),
"I CAN'T WAIT".
You're gonna have to, Pal. Is it just me?

......As a codicil to my last post, one of the packages was an new extra loud wireless doorbell with pager.

Well...... The DPD man has been. So I took the opportunity to scoot over and collect my doorbell.
When I got back, another card though the door. So I have to return tomorrow and the depot is only open until 1pm.



The doorbell/pager work a treat btw.

I REALLY like the 'click & Collect' option on ebay.

I often filter my ebay searches, so only click and collect items show.

So easy: the items go to an Argos inside the big Sainsbury's near me, and I collect when doing the weekly shop.

Well got my parcel and managed to get back with no missed deliveries.

Some days you're the pigeon.

People (usually pro footballers, but it's spreading) who litter their speech with 'to be fair'. Oh, and people (and this has spread) who start sentences with 'so'.

I thought it was just me. I see well educated, articulate folk who will begin even their opening remarks with "So", it appears to be quite accepted now, like the way, maybe 35 or so years ago, everybody decided that henceforth data will be pronounced day-tah, and nobody informed me.

The other one is "if I'm honest" where did that one come from? Why would anyone want to include it in their everyday conversations?

LOL. I'm with you on that, John.

I know some might think such 'nitpicking and old-soddery' about such things trivial, but I'm with Orwell on this. To mis-quote the great man ' when our ability to express ourselves clearly goes, so will our ability to think clearly'.

Or maybe we're just whistling in the wind, and we're inevitably headed for some Bladerunner-style mish-mash of languages (and sloppy thinking).

Part of the reason I'm getting out of copywriting is that I spend too much time correcting the grammar of junior writers - whose written English is often appalling - before getting on to the bones of what they are trying to say.

PS. I take it we've all given up with people who write 'there'' when they mean 'their', 'to' when they mean 'too', it & it's etc. etc.

I don't think I'm doing so well with increasing age and having had two strokes has messed up my short term memory and my ability to spell. Most people probably don't realise just how much your short term memory is needed to stay organised. I guess we all develop characteristic traits in terms of words, or phases which creep into our normal ways in which we express ourselves and it probably comes bit by bit over the years, without us noticing that it's happening.

I spent most of my life living in surrey, but every now and then my wife reminds me how much I'm now speaking like a Devon local.

You only have to go on Facebook to judge the standards of literacy. Of course, it's not a schoolroom. It's 'conversational'
English and some grammatical anomalies (big word are going to creep in. It's not just the modern generation - some are
from quite senior people.
The thought occurred that people of that generation probably left school at 14 and got a job. After that, they were never
called upon to write anything other than their name. Higher education was for posh folks.
With the advent of the internet with message forums and whatever they suddenly had to express themselves in written dialogue.
So you get all the interchangeable "there", "their"and "they're" words. And "quite" for "quiet" and vice-versa.
Some posts are unintelligible (another big word. ) when people don't put the punctuation in.........

As a matter of interest, I left school at 15 and got a job. I could have left a year earlier.

Not your average framer wrote: ↑Sat 24 Aug, 2019 11:14 am
I spent most of my life living in surrey, but every now and then my wife reminds me how much I'm now speaking like a Devon local.

"Surrey". Should be capitalised. See me in my study at nine-o-clock.

So, ( Paul) I'm not the only one regarding there, their they're etc, I put it down to predicted text , and laziness to correct

Chap on FB the other day had an infinity for dogs.

We all make mistakes After all, none of us are inflammable

Steve, it goes without saying that mods get a free pass; especially our shiny new sheriff (though probably ‘deputy’, as John is our sheriff ).

Seriously, I didn’t mean to come over like the grammar Stasi. I just find it embarrassing for writing 'professionals' to not know their rs from their elbow.

I agree, things like texting and social media make us all a tad sloppy and are a little dangerous. For example: I did a job for Barclays years ago, and Spell Check didn't pick up I'd typed 'Online Baking' in a headline .

Also, it doesn’t help when you’ve left school at 7, as Prospero did (only kidding, Peter, writing is yet another thing you are annoyingly good at!).

Anyway, I hope everyone’s enjoying the whether (see what I did then?).

Here's a big word: Schadenfreude.



Here's another one.

Backpfeifengesicht

My current pet hate as I have had a bit of an influx over the last couple of weeks, is the dirt brought in on pictures that people want re-framing. Inch thick dust, cobwebs, spiders (dead and alive) and my personal favourite - cat sick. I would be embarrassed to take something to a shop in that state and would run the vacuum over it. I'm trying to keep my workshop clean people!

I've got a job at the moment, 10 pictures which the lady wants new frames on, using the existing glass/mounts etc. All different sizes and frames and yet she asked for a discount as there were so many! Luckily she didn't push it when I said no (meaning not a hope in hell) - I'm not even making any profit from mounts and glass and no doubt she will want me to dispose of everything as well.

We could just sum up our pet hates couldn't we - 'Customers'

I used to get asked to take on all sorts of manky jobs like that at one time, it still happens from time to time, but it a lot less regular these days. I was fairly stable business in those days, but that was when we still had an auction house in the town. The auction house is now long gone, but it used to generate lots on business for me. Customers used to buy pictures from there and bring them to me for re-framing, restoring, or repairing. Antique dealers use to drop things off and collect framing repairs on auction days.

Customers wanting re-framing rarely wanted old rippled glass, so I had a ready supply of old rippled glass and quite often this came in handy for my business with the antique dealers. I still have several triangle and diamond point guns which were very popular with the antique dealers, who were always keen on anything that looked in keeping with old pictures and frames. I've still got several large yogurt pots pots full of old salvaged hanging fittings.

Old frames that customers did not want back often became mirrors, which went back into various local auction houses. They did not fetch big money, but it was still worthwhile and it was a useful added income stream at the time, particularly as I had a ready supply of free old bits of mirror glass at the time. It all came to a rather sudden end when the auctions closed down and I have not had much of that sort of work since then. It may surprise you that I rather enjoyed it at the time.

Some of the nicer old frames got re-made and hand finished specifically to customers requirement. Some customers would pop in just to see what old frames I had in stock and if they liked a particular frame, the would go and get something that could be framed in it. These old frames were generally re-finished, only a few did not get re-finished. Most of the time these old frames were re-made and re-sized to suit the size of the artwork. Some were stacked with other frame mouldings to create enormous profiles.

it was quite a big thing for me in the earlier days of my business and I guess you could say that the period when all this was happening provided a lot of my practical experience which helped to shape my business and had a lot to do with my financial survival at that time. I'm now 67 and after having to move to a smaller shop, followed by having a stroke, I don't mind taking thing a little bit slower. I did not know it at the time, but my whole business came out of being the guy who was different and did things that the competition did not do.

I've said this plenty of times before, but "don't be afraid to be different in ways that customers regard as something special". It's a good thing to do and customers don't mind paying a proper price for top quality specialist work.