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Minor Strangeness (IHTM)

Yeah they do - there are modern properties that have deliberately been designed with grass and wild flowers on the roof.
They look great when they're new but because it's difficult to get up there with the mower they very soon look terrible, and then die.
Like these ones that I drive past regularly, next to the A1 at Welwyn.
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You shouldn't use grass on a green roof. You need mediterranean type plants with very shallow root systems, that are drought resistant. Hence the usual use of sedums and sempervivums or herbs that grow naturally in barren rocky soils. Grass is really really unsuitable for green roofs, although it's great if the entire building is covered with soil - like the Gloucester Services service station on the M5.
 
You shouldn't use grass on a green roof. You need mediterranean type plants with very shallow root systems, that are drought resistant. Hence the usual use of sedums and sempervivums or herbs that grow naturally in barren rocky soils. Grass is really really unsuitable for green roofs, although it's great if the entire building is covered with soil - like the Gloucester Services service station on the M5.
My old dear's retirement complex has a roof with plants on. It always looks brown to me.
Residents complain that the 'roof lawn' causes swarms of flies in summer. Proof of this is seen when the occasional gnat drifts by.

It's just another excuse to keep all the door and windows closed and the heating up to industrial kiln temperatures. :chuckle:
 
I took a picture of that roof (from the back) and the dead bit of hedge yesterday.
 

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Got talking to a woman in the shop the other day and she said how she won't use self-service tills because a) ''it takes a job away from someone'' and b) ''it means that people use their cards more instead of cash'' (bit strange?), but, regards the first (which I have heard people say before), going by that mentality, shouldn't we then ban JCB's as even one with the smallest bucket can do in one scoop what it would take five men an hour to dig?
Or go back to gas lighting in the streets so a guy can come round every night to light them? It seems strange to say it for some things but not others.
Or is she right?
 
Got talking to a woman in the shop the other day and she said how she won't use self-service tills because a) ''it takes a job away from someone'' and b) ''it means that people use their cards more instead of cash'' (bit strange?), but, regards the first (which I have heard people say before), going by that mentality, shouldn't we then ban JCB's as even one with the smallest bucket can do in one scoop what it would take five men an hour to dig?
Or go back to gas lighting in the streets so a guy can come round every night to light them? It seems strange to say it for some things but not others.
Or is she right?
But they’ve already cut back on staff so people not using the self checkouts are making more work for the people that are there. I like self checkout the less people the better. I like the scan as you go. I get very annoyed when I have to drag everything out and put it on a conveyor belt these days.
 
But they’ve already cut back on staff so people not using the self checkouts are making more work for the people that are there. I like self checkout the less people the better. I like the scan as you go. I get very annoyed when I have to drag everything out and put it on a conveyor belt these days.
Oh, me too. Can't stand queueing. (I've never done the scan as you go though).
 
Oh, me too. Can't stand queueing. (I've never done the scan as you go though).
There’s a good one in some M&S shops if you’re a sparks card holder. If you scan and spend less than £45 on the app (no age restricted things) you just pay on the app and walk straight out. I do whilst waving my phone about with the confirmation screen.
 
But they’ve already cut back on staff so people not using the self checkouts are making more work for the people that are there. I like self checkout the less people the better. I like the scan as you go. I get very annoyed when I have to drag everything out and put it on a conveyor belt these days.
I hear this said every day. 'You won't have a job if I use the self service tills'. I keep pointing out that there are plenty of other jobs to be done in the shop, it's not just 'manning the till' and anyway there always (honestly, legally) has to be someone on a till to sell cigarettes and lottery. AND someone has to be standing around to age check on the self serve tills. So, no, it doesn't 'do away with people's jobs', those people just get moved to other jobs elsewhere in the shop. I guess it may mean that the level of recruitment may drop, but only by maybe one job per year. There's a LOT more to a supermarket job than just standing behind a till (but I guess the general public don't see it, so never think about who is putting stuff on shelves/unloading delivery/sorting out the freezer/doing paperwork/managing the warehouse/rotating stock etc etc etc.
 
I read recently, that some grocery stores are now opening "slow" checkouts. This has come about in direct relation to the isolation that people experienced during the (never ending) pandemic. Many people have few to no other social interactions. The grocery store may be the only place they can talk to someone. The slow lane has a cashier and people can chat.

I personally hate the self checkouts. They are not faster. Unless I have only one item, I avoid them. You get stuck waiting cuz the item won't scan and then you have to wait for the cashier to come and fix it, after s/he has finished troubleshooting another customer's problem:roll:
 
Yes the self-checkout can be convenient, if the member of staff who is supposed to be 'helping' people is actually on the ball. More often than not they're off chatting to somebody or fannying about with (eg) someone who bought clothes with tags on that won't come off.
I can pretty much guarantee as well that every time I use the self-checkout that at least one of my 'regular' items refuses to scan for some reason so the bleepmeister has to come and sort it out for me.
 
I read recently, that some grocery stores are now opening "slow" checkouts. This has come about in direct relation to the isolation that people experienced during the (never ending) pandemic. Many people have few to no other social interactions. The grocery store may be the only place they can talk to someone. The slow lane has a cashier and people can chat.

I personally hate the self checkouts. They are not faster. Unless I have only one item, I avoid them. You get stuck waiting cuz the item won't scan and then you have to wait for the cashier to come and fix it, after s/he has finished troubleshooting another customer's problem:roll:
We always say that the self serve checkouts are fine if you just want a packet of crisps and a can of coke. Anything else, unless you are a checkout operator and know how they work - it's quicker to use a human. It's truly astonishing how many people put the items the wrong side (so the scales don't register), don't realise that they have to put, for eg, costa coffee cups onto the scale for them to register, that tills that say 'card only' don't take cash, etc etc. And then spend ages pressing all the buttons trying to get it to work.
 
Some people who go through the self-serve are just plain simple morons who seem to just forget how the world works, don't realise they have to scan it, and then put it on the flat metal 'bagging area' scale thing before then scanning the next item. And there's always one idiot who scans the stuff and puts it in the bag on the scale, and then once the bag is full they lift it into a trolley, and wonder why they can't carry on , and the assistant has to come over to sort it.
I bet these people do it every time they shop, and moan about the tills, when it's their own stupid fault.
And it's not like it's new technology - it's been around for years.
 
Even in my location human check out people are disappearing while self check outs lanes are increasing.

This is ridiculous since grocery prices have ridiculously gone up.
 
Even in my location human check out people are disappearing while self check outs lanes are increasing.

This is ridiculous since grocery prices have ridiculously gone up.
They might not be visible (on the check out) but they will most likely be utilised elsewhere in the shop. Self check outs aren't losing people their jobs. Nobody is entirely a check out operator (at least not in the UK). You have to also be able to shelf stack, do stock control, work the warehouse etc.
Some people who go through the self-serve are just plain simple morons who seem to just forget how the world works, don't realise they have to scan it, and then put it on the flat metal 'bagging area' scale thing before then scanning the next item. And there's always one idiot who scans the stuff and puts it in the bag on the scale, and then once the bag is full they lift it into a trolley, and wonder why they can't carry on , and the assistant has to come over to sort it.
I bet these people do it every time they shop, and moan about the tills, when it's their own stupid fault.
And it's not like it's new technology - it's been around for years.
We, ahem, do mutter about the intelligence or otherwise of some of the customers. Especially when there is a quite frankly bloody ENORMOUS sign saying 'Card Payment Only' and they are trying to find the slot to insert their cash. Hey ho.
 
@Mythopoeika
I could/should have just said 'passageway'.
Genal (soft G) where I grew up, Gunnel (hard G) here and I think Ginnel in Yorkshire.
I've got one of them but I don't know if there is a specific local name. I call mine 'the tunnel'. Estate agents call them a 'passage'.
 
Yes the self-checkout can be convenient, if the member of staff who is supposed to be 'helping' people is actually on the ball. More often than not they're off chatting to somebody or fannying about with (eg) someone who bought clothes with tags on that won't come off.
I can pretty much guarantee as well that every time I use the self-checkout that at least one of my 'regular' items refuses to scan for some reason so the bleepmeister has to come and sort it out for me.
LOL - I use the self service checkout because who wants to stand on those (forever) lines, and it's usually fine until I want to use a coupon, which those machines never accept. Then I have to stand there looking about for the customer service person who doesn't want to be found, or left on break, or price check, or is busy flirting with someone in an aisle somewhere.
Never mind cameras to watch customers, they should be watching the employees! :)
 
The Potato Bandit Strikes Again!
In a shocking turn of events, The Daily News has discovered *another* potato left on the doorknob of the ever-humble regular person and definitely-not-a-potato-himself, MercuryCrest. There are no further reports incoming at this time as this average citizen seems too concerned to voice his opinion on the matter, but we can be sure, The Potato Bandit (TM) will strike again. Is NO ONE safe?

Speaking on condition of anonymity, which is pointless because he's a known poster on this forum, Merc's Person X's first remarks were "Why and wherefrom?" followed by, "I'm not cooking with *that*."

The police have not been contacted, as they have better things to do, but we'll keep at this story all night because...well, we *don't* have better things to do.

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Seriously, though, I did come home to find yet another potato, this time resting on my doorknob. WTF?

Edit: I know I'm being "pranked" or someat, and that's just fine. Mayhap it's a new TikTok thingy or whatnot. It's kinda fun and cute and I'll roll with this as long as the potatoes keep coming in.
 
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LOL - I use the self service checkout because who wants to stand on those (forever) lines, and it's usually fine until I want to use a coupon, which those machines never accept. Then I have to stand there looking about for the customer service person who doesn't want to be found, or left on break, or price check, or is busy flirting with someone in an aisle somewhere.
Never mind cameras to watch customers, they should be watching the employees! :)
We don't even HAVE a customer service person (well, we do, it's me - and involves me either calling for someone else to come and help at an AST (self serve till) or leaping out from behind my till to assist, causing my queue to mutter). Only the bigger shops have someone permanently on the self serve tills. We were supposed to have a person who manned those tills when it was busy, but there's not enough of us on shift. If a person is standing around near the self serves, then they aren't doing anything else, which is inefficient, especially if those tills aren't that busy or nobody is having a problem. Of course, the very second that person wanders off to restock bananas or to tidy up the mess that the Costa Machine has become - that's when instantly every customer presses the Assistance Needed button and the damn things light up like Regent Street on Christmas Eve.
 
I did come home to find yet another potato, this time resting on my doorknob.
There are a number of ways in which burglars etc determine the presence of people in a house.
If they suspect a property of being empty (eg if the homeowner appears to have gone on holiday) they might place something on the door handle to act as a passive indicator of movement.
A potato (such as in your case) would possibly be viewed, like you did, of someone 'pranking' you, but someone with criminal intent would know that if they returned at 1am and the potato was still in place, hours after it had been placed there, then the likelihood of someone being home is slim.
 
There are a number of ways in which burglars etc determine the presence of people in a house.
If they suspect a property of being empty (eg if the homeowner appears to have gone on holiday) they might place something on the door handle to act as a passive indicator of movement.
A potato (such as in your case) would possibly be viewed, like you did, of someone 'pranking' you, but someone with criminal intent would know that if they returned at 1am and the potato was still in place, hours after it had been placed there, then the likelihood of someone being home is slim.
I think most burglars would just ring the bell. No answer - go in hard.
I'm not sure many burglars make an 'appointment' with or without potatoes. Besides - what if everyone used the back door? They may confidently jemmy the window, safe in the knowledge that the pre-placed potato was still firmly in situ, only to find that fifteen thugs and their associated rotweilers had all gained ingress round the back.
 
We don't even HAVE a customer service person (well, we do, it's me - and involves me either calling for someone else to come and help at an AST (self serve till) or leaping out from behind my till to assist, causing my queue to mutter). Only the bigger shops have someone permanently on the self serve tills. We were supposed to have a person who manned those tills when it was busy, but there's not enough of us on shift. If a person is standing around near the self serves, then they aren't doing anything else, which is inefficient, especially if those tills aren't that busy or nobody is having a problem. Of course, the very second that person wanders off to restock bananas or to tidy up the mess that the Costa Machine has become - that's when instantly every customer presses the Assistance Needed button and the damn things light up like Regent Street on Christmas Eve.
I was talking about our huge new supermarket that has a dozen self service checkouts, and there are always two or three customer service people whose sole job is to man those checkouts.
They are always there, watching, until your checkout machine suddenly decides to stop working. :)
 
I was talking about our huge new supermarket that has a dozen self service checkouts, and there are always two or three customer service people whose sole job is to man those checkouts.
They are always there, watching, until your checkout machine suddenly decides to stop working. :)
We are quite a big supermarket and we have eight self checkouts.

And only me watching them...
 
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