What do I need to know to be a Proper Grown Up?

Leo

Leo

Well-known member
i know some "successful" PGUs who are miserable, selling their soul to some horrible corporation because they are financially overextended with huge mortgage, kids' college tuition ($50k per year for top schools in the states!), summer house rentals, multiple cars, wife who has to have all the latest fashions every season, etc. in this economy, many are also worried about losing their high-paying jobs, cutthroat office politics, depressed about hair loss, need viagra (that's if the wife still gives him any at all anymore, LOL!), etc.

PGU, followed closely by mid-life crisis!!
 
  • Like
Reactions: sus
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Mr. Tea said:
I bought a nice brown tweed suit last year, so by this criterion have only just graduated to PGU-dom. :)
Click to expand...

Actually it was just a jacket, not a whole suit. A whole tweed suit at 30 would be madness. I've got to take PGU-hood in baby steps (so to speak).
 
john eden

john eden

male pale and stale
STN said:
sigh
Click to expand...

That feeling that there is a conspiracy of bullshit is key.

I'm increasingly resistant to new things. Partly because having a historical perspective helps you realise that new isn't good in and of itself. Partly because so much change has happened around you that sucks, and you hanker after the old days. It's partly nostalgia. But it's partly the realisation that some things are actually getting worse.
 
Leo

Leo

Well-known member
john eden said:
That feeling that there is a conspiracy of bullshit is key.

I'm increasingly resistant to new things. Partly because having a historical perspective helps you realise that new isn't good in and of itself. Partly because so much change has happened around you that sucks, and you hanker after the old days. It's partly nostalgia. But it's partly the realisation that some things are actually getting worse.
Click to expand...

it's all...RETROMANIA!!! :)
 
slowtrain

slowtrain

Well-known member
john eden said:
That feeling that there is a conspiracy of bullshit is key.

I'm increasingly resistant to new things. Partly because having a historical perspective helps you realise that new isn't good in and of itself. Partly because so much change has happened around you that sucks, and you hanker after the old days. It's partly nostalgia. But it's partly the realisation that some things are actually getting worse.
Click to expand...

I think this kind of stuff happens sooner and sooner nowadays as well, with technology speeding up. I'm only 20 but I hate having to use 'web 2.0' - always find myself getting grumpy and annoyed at "what - i have to sign in using my google account?'

I just want to go back to irc and complete segregation of the net from my real life.

Sometime I do almost break and down have a little cry over not knowing what sort of (eg washing powder, although i'm OK witht hat one - usually it is lunch or 'do i get the nice bread or the cheap bread' - esqu thigns) but I think taht that might be just me.
 
N

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
on clothes:
- get a good smart/casual jacket ("blazer"): it goes with both "proper" clothes and jeans/tees-combo and you look OK in most environments without looking like a twerp (go to the sales, at the fag end of them you might be able to pick up a 300 quid jacket for 30 quid)
- Pique shirts might be a good compromise between tees and proper shirts (Fred Perry?)
- don't wear stuff with big logos and under no circumstance stuff the kids wear (A&F, Hollister, Jack Wills and all that shit)

golf: no way. I like the style of some of the attire (ie Lyle&Scott), but I'm with Mark Twain on the activity itself: I'd rather just walk.

jazz - yeah, but not all the time

--

- be prepared to change your opinion, it's a good thing
- say straight NO to things you don't like/don't want to do (like stupid work parties and the like).
- watch Newsnight once in a while (and if it gets too tedious just switch off)
 
hint

hint

party record with a siren
Knowing the phonetic alphabet is a must for Proper Grown Ups. For reading out postcodes / reference numbers (for ongoing disputes about washing machine repairs etc.) over the phone and sounding like an Action Man.

I always end up saying stuff like "errr... Windy, 1, Neville, 4, Dog, Jumper".
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I worry a good deal about money precisely because I don't have any at the moment. Hopefully that won't be the case for ever...I hate how long you always have to wait to hear back about interviews...
 
Ulala

Ulala

Awkward Woodward
hint said:
Knowing the phonetic alphabet is a must for Proper Grown Ups. For reading out postcodes / reference numbers (for ongoing disputes about washing machine repairs etc.) over the phone and sounding like an Action Man.

I always end up saying stuff like "errr... Windy, 1, Neville, 4, Dog, Jumper".
Click to expand...

Not necessarily - it's the first thing they teach you when you work in a call centre, which is one of the least grown-up jobs of all. Learning it independently, though - yes.

It doesn't always make things clearer, anyway - one caller had mumbled his name, I wasn't sure if it was "Mr M Smith" or "Mr N Smith". Conscientiously using the phonetic alphabet, I asked "Is that 'M' as in 'Mike'?". His response, in an affronted voice, was "No! I'm called Matthew!".

Crap anecdotes? I got 'em.
 
you

you

Well-known member
ulala - some people just don't actually know their alphabet, on more than one occasion this has happened to me in the past....

Me : 'is that Jay for Juliet or Gee for Golf?'
Caller : 'yes, Jay for Golf'
Me : 'errr so Jay or Gee'
Caller : 'definitely Jay, Jay like, Jay for good'
Me : 'ah, ok then'

sigh....

...my parents have crazy knowledge of things like flooring, wood types, granite worktops, curtains, where the hell do they learn this crap?
 
Dr Awesome

Dr Awesome

Techsteppin'
Ulala said:
Not necessarily - it's the first thing they teach you when you work in a call centre, which is one of the least grown-up jobs of all. Learning it independently, though - yes.
Click to expand...

No sir,

You should have learned it during your formative years, reading Tom Clancy novels (Which is a good definition of a grown man).
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
you said:
...my parents have crazy knowledge of things like flooring, wood types, granite worktops, curtains, where the hell do they learn this crap?
Click to expand...

my parents have little of this, but still more than i do. yet i remember some old friends knowing an amazing amount of stuff about it...i guess some parents do pass on lots of this stuff. i feel slightly annoyed that i don't have this knowledge.
 
you

you

Well-known member
there are so many things I do that I shouldn't but just dont know better, last weekend my dad caught me cramming food down the plug and...

dad - 'you can't do that'
me - 'why not, that's what it's there for, that's why the holes are big'
dad - 'yes, but it'll get blocked'
me - 'then why aren't the holes smaller'
dad - 'you shouldn't do it, you'll block it'

I know i'm very unpractical, but how do I know if no one tells me.

Saying about kitchen knowledge, it dawned on me the other day after sitting with my great uncle and grandma that it's nothing compared to proper local legal knowledge.., they talked about the various solicitors of the area and the comings and goings for half an hour, the majority of the information was acquired through friends or golf or both, shits next level fo sho. Knowing architects through friends that's well grown too - how do they get into this shit? Masonic Society?

Oh - and on that tip, David Starkey and Paxman both sport a gold ring with a red gem upon their pinky - what is this?? Co-incidence or something I can look into, significant or only connect?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top