Does parking on a closed road count as a live parking thread? 😁

[DailyMaui]

So they have closed the road I live on to resurface it. It will be closed for the next two nights. We’ve had multiple letters from the council, there have been signs up for at least a month and yesterday they painted NO PARKING THURSDAY AND FRIDAY all over the road.

8 cars are still parked there with 15 minutes to go until resurfacing begins. One of the cars is right outside my house and when I saw them out the window, I tried to explain to the two women (looking like they were off for an evening in town) that they were probably not going to be able to get their car until morning but they told me to fuck off!

The road is lorry central, a guy is taking pictures of the remaining cars… it’s all go here.

Anyone know what they do? Do they just resurface round the cars? Tow them away? Do they get brutal? There’s a fair few annoyed looking men in hi-vis walking up and down! Should I get wine and a comfy viewing position?

😉

I live in the county town but spent my youth in this town. I remember drinking wine and cider at the top of that hill. I actually lived in the town next door but we didn’t have any pubs there so this place was our destination of choice on a Friday and Saturday night.
I love the town and have recommended my young adult son buys a house there when he steps on property ladder. Lovely place.

@PlantingTrees
The bones you unearthed could be from a dog?
People did/do bury dogs in gardens.
That could explain a long, fine bone , but a doctor was probably winding you up by saying it was a ''Child's femur''...Human bones are pretty idiosyncratic.

The lung tonic bottle probably harks back to the days of TB, bottle diggers often find a lot of quack medicine bottles, some related to lungs &c.

Sandeford's Laudanum, Tiny blue Collis Browne bottles, 'Soothing syrup' bottles to give to fractious babies..

Oh dear I am supposed to be going away today... Need to keep checking in though!!

I haven't read the whole thread, but when this happened near me they moved the cars to surrounding roads, rather than impounding them (I'm guessing becasue it was faster than driving all the way back and forth?) so there was a big old car "hide and seek" going on on the local Facebook!

I do wonder that if your car gets towed away for works like this, whether the council contact the DVLA to find out who the registered owner is and contact them to let them know that the car has been towed or whether they leave it up to the owner to contact the police reporting their car is missing/stolen?

I think if your car is towed under normal circumstances you are left to track it down - if you report it as stolen the police might tell you it's been towed though. A friend was towed for parking in the wrong bay and I'm sure they just came out to find the car gone.

@LookItsMeAgain

I didn't realise there was a typical 'look' of a MNetter... I must find out more about that.

In the meantime, @DailyMaui I'd imagine that if the Fuck Off Woman was only intending to return to her car this morning having been on a night out, the fun and excitement is only going to get started this morning.

I do wonder that if your car gets towed away for works like this, whether the council contact the DVLA to find out who the registered owner is and contact them to let them know that the car has been towed or whether they leave it up to the owner to contact the police reporting their car is missing/stolen?
Does anyone know the intricacies of this??

Where I used to live they towed them to the car pound (which was bizarrely just across the road ) and then sent a notice with a fee to get it released. And you had to pay and then go and collect.

Not that I've ever been towed, but it was an occupational hazard in my old street - so there was much wailing, gnashing of teeth and regular discussion about it in the local WhatsApp threads.

Plus an early alert WhatsApp system like a load of meerkats chirping if either the tow truck or garbage truck made an appearance.... so many bin men strikes there, it was worth moving just to get away from that. And when one did make an appearance it was a moment of joy and wonder.

This is one of 2 “standard builder measuring units”. The other is the “stride”. 2 sets of builders both measured in my house using the “stride” units last week.
they must spend a lot of time on their apprentices calibrating their shoes or strides to adhere to the British standards

@MayMorris - yup, and then several weeks later they are standing round scratching heads about fact it doesn't quite fit, or they've bought two boxes too few tiles / planks / whatever....

Other builders' measurements are a Smidge, yay much and a gnat's bollock

Thank you OP for this very entertaining thread that I only found this morning.
Mumsnet: why on Earth didn’t this thread show up in ‘trending’ last night.

Ah but they're only really builders' measurements if accompanied by a sharp intake of breath, sucking on teeth.

<shamelessly here for the towed away update>

I’ve taught Functional Maths to construction apprentices and they are indeed often very resistant to standard units, particularly metric units, apart from carpenters, who love millimetres. “About this big” <with indication> is a favourite, especially when describing diameter/circumference (looking at you, plumbing apprentices).
Interestingly, many people seem to think that a mile is a metric unit because it begins with m. (Of course, its original derivation is from the Latin mille, so the mistake is perhaps forgivable).

Those baby steps and stride measurements have been in use for some time... they are called a 'foot' and a 'yard'. Until we went all metric of course.

(Waves to fellow hedgehogs)

My DP is a carpenter. If I ask him how big something is he will go very quiet, and then say a number without any indication if he's talking in metric, imperial, Roman feet or about the bloody time. Just that tradey silence, an indrawn breath, and "three-thirty-two".

It's a very dramatic way to discuss the size of the possible online purchase of a packet of biscuits.

We only moved to this street just before Christmas and it was lovely!

Though we have to not name the town because its too lovely and everyone will want to move here 😉

Does he then walk away muttering “three-thirty-two” under his breath?

I can relate.

It definitely did, it was at the top of the list for a very long time.

Also used in the field by landscape archaeologists. I had my stride calibrated in training. I am short with tiny feet, so we settled on me doing mine in half-metre strides.

Well, this thread has made my morning far cheerier! Very familiar with where you are, too! (Waving hello from St Evenage!)

Yes! Now if only someone could invent some kind of standard way to measure. Like a long line. We could call it a ruler. Or an extra long one could be called a tape measure. Someone should come up with something like that for these guys.

I second the nomination for classics. I have not laughed out loud at mumsnet for many a year.

Thread has it all, diagrams, photos and CF comeuppance!!

Round here they tow them. However when they last did ours - a proper remove all the old stuff and start again, not just a patch it up and resurface - the workmen were great. Saw me pushing ds in his wheelchair laden with shopping, helped me home and subsequently let me park in solitary glory if it was safe to do so. [Grin]. They would knock the door if they needed me to move.

Love the measurement stuff!

our fancy kitchen designer ostentatiously measured our kitchen by eye/feet whilst brown-nosing my husband (professor therefore much more interesting than me his actual customer). When I said “aren’t you going to measure?” He turned to my husband and said “ooh she’s getting impatient with us now”.

when they fitted the kitchen the fridge extended 6 inches across the doorway.

twat.

I did a summer as a chain man (although I am a lady), setting out on building sites and I tell you back then (25 years ago) it's a wonder anything was ever built where it was supposed to be. These days it's all done with computerised kit for getting it millimetre perfect, and honestly some of it is very impressive.

I moved a whole building once with a crane and the new foundations were perfect, exactly where they were supposed to be to pick up the feet of the building being moved (prefab type on little feet, like a portakbin but BIGGER).

I moved a whole building once

That you Supergirl?