Archers thread #179: Beavers, livestock, ferrets, but nododo! Discuss The Archers here.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Thank you, @PseudoBadger, for kicking off this long, long series of Archers threads.

All views on The Archers welcome here! New blood welcomed, and of course we are always delighted to welcome back former or occasional listeners/posters. We don't all agree on all points, although we do mostly try to be civil about it. Most of us are posting tongue in cheek a lot of the time, so don't worry about revealing that you'd be happy sharing a hot tub with Mucky Mick, 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 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/radio_addicts/4636789-the-archers-spoilers-thread-7-cant-wait-for-702pm-join-us-here, 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.)

The title started life with @JanglyBeads, whose autocorrect turned 'Oh no, nor do I!' into 'Oh no, nododo I!' on the last thread. For reasons of cowardice/prudence/lack of inspiration and the character limit, I haven't included @BeaLola's even more mysterious autocorrect - her phone had her asking Abdul if he'd always wanted children instead of Neil. Perhaps one of the mooted beavers can be Abdul.

For the first time ever I've added a poll to the OP. Over to you!

Tom didn't ask for silence from next door, he asked if they wouldn't mind not playing loud music or doing any DIY after 7pm, he went to say that 'they would really appreciate it' and he was 'sorry to ask'.

Ooh, it's quiet here on my own little island 😄

I don’t disagree with you fickle
but think he should have waited to see if there was actually an issue

Possibly 1 slightly wiggly road with an indent on the R to give more room for even houses than odd ones.

I don't think the request in itself was incredibly unreasonable, but it was completely cloth-earred to misinterpret a general offer of being neighbourly as a chance to set ground rules over noise levels. No DIY or loud music late at night would be fine, but not to start on about it before you've even moved in or have any inkling that it might be problematic, not to bring it up if you have no intention of it being a two-way street (letting your own kids make a load of noise in the garden immediately afterwards), and not to impose the ridiculously early curfew of 7pm.

As Helen said “oh, so it’s too small for you, but not too small for me and my Two Boys”

Does Helen really not know that four people is more people than three people?

I can see her point if it’s a 2 bed. But if it’s a 3 bed she could certainly make a temporary move. Henry doesn’t need much space of my teenagers are anything to go by but Jack may need a bit more

Sorry, editing because I misread the post I was quoting.

In fairness to Helen, though, an 8 year old and a teenager do take up more space than two toddlers.

And two adults sharing a bedroom don't take that much more space than one adult in a double bedroom, notwithstanding Natasha's known shopping habits.

But would still be better than sharing beechwood if temporary

Yes, but that misses out number 13 and would have to miss out one other.

Eighteen houses, twenty numbers doesn't make sense unless you are superstitious about13, and perhaps 4 if you are expecting to sell houses to Japanese people.

Even if Tom and Natasha don't have a reserve bedroom bolthole, they will still be sharing the kitchen, living room, bathroom(s), using the laundry facilities.

Four people is more people than three people.

And people under the age of three need space and laundry and food.

I think maternal mental health risks being compromised by increasingly stringent demands.

On our road, the odd numbers start at 21, go to 37, then (for reasons which escape me) jump to 43. There is nowhere to build Nos. 1 to 19 or 39 and 41. As to the even numbers ... they run from 6 to 32, then start again at 90. Who'd be a postman, eh?

Missing out 13 is fairly common, because they're perceived as being much harder to sell and commanding a lower price. It doesn't require everyone to be hugely superstitious (to the extent of thinking they will be forever cursed), but enough people are moderately superstitious (to the extent that, all things being equal, they would choose a house with a different number) for it to make economic sense to skip house 13.

It doesn't explain why you would have 20 but not 19 though. Maybe they just used someone like Eddie to number the houses and he dug out what numbers he had spare in the cider shed from a job lot off Terry Two Phones or something.

I always envisaged Beechwood to be like a modern day Brookside. I am anticipating that a body under the patio and a lesbian kiss materialise in due course....was there a plane crash too? (I stopped watching so that could have been Desperate Housewives or perhaps Lost).

In my mind I was under the impression that Philip had bought the biggest house on the estate (definitely 3 bedrooms, probably 4 or 5, and certainly more loos than anybody could possibly need). I felt certain that Joy had moved in opposite, not next door, but I will happily defer to somebody who pays a lot more attention to such logistics than I do.

I'm impressed that Mick and Joy can afford to keep a hot tub toasty on one wage (where did Joy get enough money to do no more than volunteer in the village shop). I'm hoping that it is deemed to be a drowning hazard for The Girls and far too noisy.

A lot of roads don't have a 13 - there are enough people who are superstitious to make house no13 more difficult to sell.

But if you want to include 13*,then 2..20 on the R and 1..15 on the L. There's no law saying there has to be the same number of houses on both sides of the road, so it's the norm for a street to have more odd numbers than even or vice versa

To fill in for others who may be unaware - the standard road numbering system in the UK is for the numbering to start from the end nearest the town/village centre, odd numbers on the L, even nos on the R. That way, if you're looking for no 97, you know it will be towards the far end, on the L, rather than not being sure which side or which end , as would be the case if the houses went 1,2,3 down one side and then continued in the opposite direction on the other.

Not all streets do this, but most do.=

So I live in no 13 but when it was first built it was no 6 because they numbered up the left then turned around and came back down the right. They then changed it to the standard form as described

13 has always been my lucky number!!

Maternal mental health is compromised even more by loss of a child. So we either have lots of mothers with slightly fragile MH and a few utterly devastated, or lots of mothers with medium fragile MH and much fewer utterly devastated.

It would take a very brave or foolhardy mother to ignore all the advice about avoiding SIDS or choking.

But since I had my babies we've moved through a period of avoiding peanuts in the diet, only to see peanut allergies rocket, and now I understand the advice is to introduce them early. We think we're making steady progress in our understanding, but it's not necessarily so.

It must be really disconcerting, to be fair, to live in a place where houses randomly grow extra rooms or shrink without warning. I can imagine that any Ambridge parent or pet owner must be perpetually worried about losing a child or a dog when a room suddenly disappears! Perhaps those are the same rooms that then pop up in another house: would any children or pets pop up with them?!

It doesn't explain why you would have 20 but not 19 though Because the numbering on the LHS (odd numbers) is completely independent of the numbering on the RHS (even numbers. If someone buys the plot next to 20 and wants to put a house on it, which would be no 22, they don't have to wait until someone has built 19 and 21 on the other side of the road.

I've just been looking at the little close where my parents bought their newbuild house trying to work out the numbering (and failing). Some of the houses I think of as part of the close actually front on the main road, but the residents probably go in and out mostly from the back door as that's where they park their cars. Must check next time I'm up there. (Chances of getting there have just massively increased, as anyone who saw the national news yesterday might have twigged. Phew.)

I did think of you when I was listening to Today yesterday morning! Glad things are (hopefully) easier now.

Oh yes - something about a late resolution of the transport situation? I was half asleep but heard a word and thought of you, @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g!

Tbf no one should be doing loud DIY after 7pm imo It depends on your definition of loud DIY. ND+1N works all hours in the summer.

My NDN's DC go to bed later than I do from the noise they make. I'm not too bothered by the noise but at times they make a racket and they are old enough to know better.

Today yesterday made me think of Gasp too.

This is the (newish build) estate I used to live on. No one had any idea where any of the other houses were. Note gems such as Numbers 42 in Road A and 42 Road D being terraced with each other, the odd placement of Number 58 in Road A, random missing numbers, the mix and match approach being counting all numbers or odd and even separately. Such fun!