Thread #106: Jim’s in a jam, Peggy’s made a pickle and Lexi is blooming - sounds like the entries are lining up for this year’s flower and produce show, but who will be on the organising committee?

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads and @DadDadDad for being our resident statistician and keeping the ball rolling when Pseudo stepped back a bit.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed. We don't all agree on all points and most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd like to be Susan's best friend or other unusual views.

Spoilers: not on this thread, please. We don't wait for the omnibus to discuss the weeknight episodes, but we do try our best to avoid cross-contamination from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3439443-keep-it-to-yourself-the-archers-spoilers-thread-4, where spoilers are positively welcomed!

For newer listeners, lurkers or those who just have no idea what we're talking about, DadDadDad has created this useful thread: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/radio_addicts/3557323-For-Archers-fans-a-guide-to-acronyms-on-the-long-running-discussion-threads-and-any-other-meta-thread-questions-you-may-have BOOP point for him! (See thread for explanation.)

Thanks to LillianGish for the title of this thread.

Holding episode tonight, I thought - not much progress on any current storyline. I was a touch surprised Natasha wasn't offended by the postnup idea but I suspect she's biding her time.

Thank goodness parallel parking wasn't part of the test when I took it. Reversing round a corner was bad enough...

Oh, heck, had forgotten reversing round a corner! Must've blanked it out! My three-point turn was masterful, though I say so myself, and my hill start was OK, like Ben, I found the bite easily.

I had to do a hill start in 1976, I was good at them but not so good at reversing round the corner. A dog ran into the road during my test, I had seen it coming so stopped safely but the examiner said I wouldn't need to do the emergency stop.

I didn't even have to learn parallel parking to do my test. I learnt how to do it years later from a Reader's Digest in a hospital waiting room.

And I learned how to parallel park from one of my MIL's copies of Good Housekeeping.

Still yawning

Glad Cursedy got the job. Hope Feebs does too and one that is not in Borsetshire unless it is a high flying one.

Ah, reversing around a corner, the most useless of all the compulsory driving skills. I mean, all the others you do actually use in daily driving - parallel parking is difficult to learn (at least it was for me), but you do then use it regularly. Reverse parking is less difficult but still very useful. But reversing around a blooming corner, when would you ever need to do that with the degree of accuracy / closeness to the kerb that the test requires?! You're only ever going to reverse around a corner when there's nothing coming round the corner, so why the necessity to keep it so tight?!

I think a lot of recent graduates feel like Phoebe. I remember I did- and so did my dd, except she was lucky to get a job very quickly. The coming home and “now what?”feeling is very real.

I’v been driving for 30 years and still can’t parallel park. I would never have passed my test if it had been required! Excellent at reversing round corners and hill starts though!

I am really good at parallell parking on one side of the road but rubbish at the other side. It's practice.

I had to learn a hill start, but it wasn't a named manoeuvre, it was part of the general driving. Mid-2000s. The manoeuvres were turn in the road (what used to be called three point turn), reverse bay park, parallel park, and reverse around a corner. You got tested on 2 out of the 4, unless the examiner decided otherwise.

Emergency stop was a separate category.

I'm the same Mike. If I find a space where I'd have to parallel park on the non-driver's side, I turn around and come at it from the other direction. I'm fine with it being either side (i.e. British or European car), as long as the driver's side is against the kerb.

I park on the passenger's side where I live and can squeeze my small car into the tiniest space. I am trying to practice the other side too.
I was even better in the car I had before this one, I could get it in to spaces that I never thought I could but it had better visibility and I'd had the car a long time.

Haven’t listened yet and can’t for a while- has Phoebe got her results?!

Don't think so but I don't really listen properly.

Parallel parking wasn't a thing in my day - not examined and therefore not taught. I muddled through for years until the DC had lessons and then learned the procedure off them!

BTW: Ambridge to SonA is 17.6 miles or half an hour.

when would you ever need to do that with the degree of accuracy / closeness to the kerb that the test requires?! You're only ever going to reverse around a corner when there's nothing coming round the corner, so why the necessity to keep it so tight?!

I know. I'm brilliant at parallel parking- either side. Unfortunately I'm also a very nervous and non confident driver.
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The coming home and “now what?” feeling is very real.

Yes. But I find it impossible to believe that there were no conversations (with Hayley, Roy, tutors, careers people, let alone milk round) that might have steered her to at least some temporary position.

Anyway, it looks as if she’s about to go global (from a standing start) with her green start-up.

(I see the start of a time when I will not understand a single word the young are saying ...)

I know plenty of students (even Oxbridge) who were pretty clueless - although if she was going to be an entrepreneur there is a lot of support for that at Oxford at present. The careers service is still available to Phoebe after she has graduated and will have some reciprocal arrangements with Felpersham University. The majority of my friends children and my nieces have taken time after Uni to sort out where they were going with their careers (one worked as a casual refuse collector and now has a career in the city for example). The only ones who seem to have clear career paths were either going to be Doctors or the one who aimed for a career with the Church (although most people I know going into Church seem to be Mums of teenagers).

It's about showing that you have control of the car.

Phoebe has done no internships/work experience/part-time work apart from strawberry picking. She’s shown no entrepreneurial spirit whatsoever so far. But it sounds as though her green start-up is going to stop Peggy’s half a million. That’s one way at of keeping her in Ambridge after getting a degree (of an unspecified classification) from Oxford.

Sorry that should say scoop not stop.

I still think that Kirsty will get it - the 1/2 million. She will actually be working in the area, and will be able to show a clear way her plans will improve the environment - especially enhancing the environment of the Am.

Personally I would like some rewilding and introduction of Beavers as a flood control measure.

And Peggy seems to have a soft spot for Kirsty.

Maybe someone sensible will form a consortium and present a coherant plan which benefits everyone and brings employment to some of the village's less wealthy residents.