Be Excellent To Each Other

I believe the term is 'soft play'.

There's a Gambados a little distance from my house, and conveniently there's a similar one over in Ireland near the in-laws. They're usually on industrial estates, but they are AWESOME.

Onnie is small enough that she can play on them a bit, but often needs my help. That is officially the best time, as it means I get to play on them too.

They should totally open them to adults in the evening. So much fun!

I spent 3 hours in one of the aforementioned play areas on Monday morning with MiniPaz. It was awesome. I would have chopped an arm off to play there when I was 7.

As MarkG has already said, we had a few indoor play areas in Blackpool (he missed out Jungle Jim's too).

Awesome places. Doing the monster drop at Peabodies was a right of passage.

"My God, he's gone down in shorts!"

Wildcard: Halfords.

Nah, I'd say they're probably OK. It's not as though you can get Amazon to fix your car/physically fit a car lightbulb etc.
I'd say it's the box-shifters that are going to get the brunt of this sea change.

PC World?

But... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21055640

Meh. Shows how much I know, then.

I suppose with computers, particularly for the clueless end of the market (shit, I can identify with that ), people want to see stuff working and probably don't even have any clue as to what to buy? In consumer-speak it is a 'high added value product', I guess.

Thought I'd rear my semi-ugly head again to comment on this matter.

Personally, no matter how awesome online prices get, I do still like to, you know, get out of the house every now and then and explore a familiar or even new shopping centre. I'm not one to laze around and click my way around the market for eternity.

And as Mr Kissyfur pointed out, it's nice to be able to quickly get that one thing today, rather than wait around for the postman to get off his arse and deliver it to your place.

Yeah but to partially counter that, what a lot of people seem to do is try stuff out in shops, make a note of specific manufacturer/model nos., then see if they can buy cheaper online, having tried before they buy at someone else's expense lol. (I'm not moralising here as I've done this myself occasionally lol).

But that doesn't get around the "I need it now" thing, though, agreed.

Welcome back btw; I note you're a longstanding member but don't think I've seen you around here before, chap.

Less fun with one arm though.

I don't think I've ever actually done that. Apart from with cars. I've driven plenty I knew were overpriced but nearby and then looked for one somewhere else.

He was with us at WoS with a similar but not quite the same name, can't place my finger on what it was now.

Malc

RevMarzikins

Malc

Halfords is doing quite well, i think.

Yeah, a few retailers selling the very things that are most prone to online competition, and who have made no serious effort to change their businesses in the face of that competition is really not the same as the death of the high street. Shopping is still (sadly, I'd say) one of the main leisure activities for many people, and even some small towns get rammed with people when ostensibly there's no real draw there. Sort out the parking costs so that they do their job of rationing a scarce resource* and you might drag some of the traffic away from out of town super malls. And those are doing very nicely I'm sure, so it really isn't the death of retail at all. I suspect, also, that the population of the forum - mostly male, late 20s to 40s - hasn't exactly ever been the right group to look at as a typical shopping group, important as our cash is to some places.

*as opposed to being used to raise funds where there was no parking problem before

Mark's right. The major high street shoppers are wimmins, and wimmins buy clothes. You can't try clothes on over the internet. Therefore the high street won't die.

Yeah, it doesn't work like that. Trust me on this.

Fuck me,

Yeah, someone must've forgotten to tell that to Lady R - large soft packages arrive on a daily basis this end. I'm seriously thinking about confiscating her laptop

The wimmins don't go to the high street to do that though, they go to the shipping centre. More clothes in the same place, means less times endlessly circling the same shops and expecting you to have an opinion on something that looks exactly the same as something you might have seen 2 hours ago, see.

W-what, you actually think I go along as well...?

Fuck that, not a bleedin' chance. I'd rather pull my own nails out with molegrips. I dread the credit card statement but it's a small price to pay compared to the torture that is CLOTHES AND SHOE SHOPPING WITH WIMMINS.

It's even worse when there's two daughters as well. I can't even begin to describe the agony of it.

Amen, brother Raiden.

I quite like going clothes shopping with women. I have a habit of telling them the truth, which - once they get over the initial "insulted" phase - works quite well.

"Makes you look fat."
"Makes your head look big."
"Strapless isn't really you, is it?"
"Clashes with your hair."
"Makes you look like a broke goth."

Is there any relation between the outfit and the comment you come out with, or do you just have a list of them that you cycle through for comedy value?

Brilliant! and exactly the reason I make Sam come with me.

Oh, I do all that as well, and it's exactly as you describe. Takes a while to get through the 'insulted phase' and make it to the long term 'credibility plateau'

But y'know, fuck shopping, esp. with missus and even on my own. Lady R buys every single one of my clothes, bar the odd Harley T-shirt lol. If she laid out a clown's outfit on the bed in the morning, I have no doubt that I'd wear it without question. She even puts my socks and pants out for me lol.

Yes, but I never have any of those opinions.
I generally think "you look the same, but some bits are a different colour"

Me, too. I mean, mrsA, the majority, bar my cycling things.

Really? Wow.

No, I'm very honest. Just this morning I told our office manager, who I constantly tell off for always wearing black (she's one of those girls that carries a bit of weight and looks perfectly fine to everyone else, but thinks she's the size of a house) turned up in a red top "just to shut me up". At lunchtime she said that four people had told her she looks nice today.

Win.

Blimey. Mrs T sometimes buys me something, but in the main I buy all my own stuff and manage to dress myself in the morning without any guidance
She does exercise her right to veto on occasion though...

Yeah. I mean, I'll come homw/whatever and she'll be "I got you a t-shirt/jumper as the ones you had when you were 15 are dated and have too many holes in so I threw them away" not "she drags me around the shops, protesting". I rarely buy myself new clothes as there is nothing wrong with the ones I own.

If that's because some bits are starting to turn purple, that's important to point out.

Fair enough mate, I know it's me who's a bit odd in this respect. But I have no dress sense whatsoever, am partially colour blind and have no interest in clothes anyway, whereas Lady R loves all that shit.

I get to choose which cars, motorbikes, computers and hifi we have

Plus I expect old age means you would forget to put on trousers if left to your own devices

Cavey, yesterday.

Lulz.
Tell you what, Troops, how about I challenge you to a Gym showdown? See if you can out run, out lift, out row, out step a fat, wheezy old 20-a-day gimmer like me mate! You up for it? I'm game, should be easy meat for a young 'un like you. WHAT SAY YOU?

EDIT: Lulz @ Grim...! What the fuck is that guy doing in shorts?

No chance!
You're pretty much the only person on here that is older than me, so I take any opportunity I can get to stick the boot in

Gohhhhh.

Now, let's hope Throughsilver doesn't see this, else I'm feckin' goosed.

I'm starting to wonder if my girlfriend is moonlighting as your office manager.

This is why he never wears a red shirt when out without MrsA.

Nah, she's not pregnant.

Zio just called his missus fat. Epic.

Like I need another reason to you.

Good work sir.

I'm sure some stores do this already anyway, but: operate your high street branches as a place for people to do just that, and if they like said thing, give them the choice to order it on-line from the same store's website. Though I suppose it's not that different from when I bought my sofabed, I picked it in the store and it was (had to be) delivered the following week.




He's probably at a meet or something, and has had to leave the campsite/BBQ to go get something from his enormous panniers.

Absolutely not. She's not some skinny rake by any means, but she seems to think she's whale-sized, which is utter madness.

Being subtle, I always tell her it's just more cushion for the pushin'. But for some reason she never seems to want any pushin'!

On the subject of high street shops that aren't going anywhere, I'd say Boots are pretty safe.

Yeah, and SpecSavers.

Maybe we should stop referring to them as High Streets, and then people will think they're not so important, and the council will lower the rent.

She knows how fertile you are.

It's almost like you've never actually met a woman. But the UK birth statistics say otherwise. Baffling!

Prehensile cock.