What's your cautionary tale?

[BrightInMyNorthernSky]

Having just got through the most stressful week ever due to a nightmare situation of my own making, I thought I would share a previous and current cautionary tale.

1. Always remember to change the address on your V5 and not just your license. I didn't. DH got caught speeding twice on the same day on the same stretch of road (33 in a 30) in my car. Both fines went to old address. Didn't answer them, obvs. The whole sorry mess played out without me being aware and by the time it all caught up with me it was had been banned from driving for six months and fined £2k - five months earlier! So had been driving while banned for five months!!!

I haven't RTFT yet, but just wanted to say that the four grandparents thing wouldn't work in Ireland. Everyone looks up every bereavement on rip.ie and everyone would leave a condolence message on there for a colleague.

"Always double check the knots when you tie something to the roof of the car."

DH was taught to check the knots carefully, set off, then pull in and stop a mile or two down the road and check again. He's really good at securing loads but even still, occasionally a few bumps and bends have found out the weak spots that all the pulling and shoving didn't- he readjusts and tensions it, off again for another mile, stop, check, all good and carry on for the rest of the journey.

If you move to another country (or move back after a spell abroad), go to your local police department and ask for a voluntary police background check covering your time in this country. Having the documentation ready will help with any jobs or similar opportunities in another countries, and trying to get a police check done from another country after you leave can be really tough.

Never ever step out of your hotel room in just your underwear (albeit late at night on a silent corridor) to place the iron and ironing board outside your door for collection. Those doors lock automatically, resulting in the walk of shame through a crowded hotel bar filled with your colleagues.

Don’t assume in the case of a potential job change or loss that your colleagues are your friends. When it comes to jobs, they will stab you in the back no questions asked. Thought I had made 2 real friends, both stabbed me in the back.

If leaving a job where your payslips are generated on email, download and save them all and forward them to a personal address to save before your last few days - also P60s etc.

Your work email will be the one that allows you to access the system and it may be deactivated very quickly, as well as your payroll no. etc, after you are no longer an employee.

Having those records may be very useful for financial queries that come up later (especially pension).

"When swimming in the same lane as your husband and you decide to tickle his bollocks as he swims past you, make sure that he's not switched lanes and that someone else hasn't joined your lane instead!"

Oh lordy. We have another hot contender for thread winner.

Don't try to get a baby poo accident out of a wool carpet with biological washing powder. The poo will come out...as will the dye.
Just use Fairy Liquid and tepid water like your mum told you, be patient and, as a PP and your mum told you- dab don't rub.

Never walk up the ladder of a play area tree activity house-adventure playground type thing filming your DC on your phone. This will avoid you banging your head, getting concussion and post concussion syndrome for a year, then a mental breakdown, put on a cocktail of neurotoxic psychotropic drugs... then get a stupid adverse reaction to an off label antipsychotic that causes a permanent neurological involuntary movement disorder that is like Tourette's and Parkinson's disease combined.

Then your life won't be hard forever, and you won't regret being someone who feels freak-like and a failure.

I guess it could be much worse, but my advice is.. don't become obsessed with phones or technology, or trust gaslighting incompetent doctors who have no idea about the potency of the drugs they prescribed, and vehemently deny they might cause permanent harm after just a week.

And don't think it might not be a medication that won't harm you much - the likelihood is just as high as it being ok.

This was an episode of ‘one foot in the grave’ 😃

Don’t marry the good looking, charismatic guy who is unable to let anything go. His inability to take ANYTHING on the chin will leave you a divorcee at 30.

Apparently not an uncommon mistake! 🫣

Omg 😂😂😂

they mean you will “make them die” when you need a day off. 🫣

Never ever trust family.

You are in good company. Paul Tortelier did the same. He was the star attraction, of course - in the concert happening a year after he arrived to play.

Choose your friends carefully... they may negativity impact your life in a way you couldn't imagine..

It may of been me you saw aa I have done exactly the same thing.

Don't mix business and family. I know, I know, you'll probably be able to point a number of succesful and even happy family businesses. They're the exception rather than the rule, and for every one that's a success there are many more than aren't.

Think of all the things that can go wrong with family. Think of all the things that can go wrong with business.

Each one has a differing and incompatible set of dynamics and consderations underpinning each one. For example if someone's not pulling their weight, or is a bad fit in a business, you have to let them go. Just consider the implications of that being a family member.

Also running a business tends to be a 24 hour a day, 7 days a week thing. Mixing a relative into that formula is a disaster waiting to happen, unless the relationship is inhumanly saintly, which I earnestly doubt. Just. Dont.

Sorry. Accidentally posted and couldn't edit.

Business is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And even with the best will in the world, about 60% of all businesses fail, often through fault of their own. If the biz is run on a strictly commerical and contractual basis, it can be dismantled, and people can be let go. If a relative is caught up in all this, fault lines and cracks can appear where you hadn't imagined.

Tell me more!

Don’t slam the door when getting out of a car on a bridge
Can't leave that one hanging there @AuntieJoyce

wow.

just reading this thread; is this what people's lives are really like?

im an ordinary, working class person but am so glad I'm elevated compared to the manner of living some people seem to have endured...

goodness me...

@Chocolatepeanutbuttercupsandicecream

Thanks!

Wolves in sheep's clothing in some cases, hiding in plain sight.

especially when inheritance is involved. There's no extent they won't go to, to stitch up their own flesh and blood. Seen it in this forum, hundreds of times over!