Fairly Busy

Tried to go to Hull Fair tonight. For those of you from out of town, Hull Fair is the biggest travelling fair in europe. It is kind of a mega-fair, when lots of fairs from around the country meet up. Some fairs have a dodgems. Hull Fair has around 8 or 9. It is huuuge. And tonight everyone from Hull and the surrounding area was going. In the end we couldn't get there, which is a pity as I'd like to have taken some pictures of the place.

Maybe later in the week.

Negotiation Skills

Many years ago our family set out to buy a car for mum. Having seen a few vehicles and dismissed them as being made of mostly rust, and lacking confidence for the back of some of them to actually follow the front around corners, we finally found a good prospect. Good condition, reasonable price, just a bit of negotiation to get things where we wanted them.

By now father and I were well rehearsed in whistling through our teeth, tut tutting and generally looking unhappy with the situation. This, we thought, would serve us well towards the end of the process where the seller looks at us and says "Well, what do you think?". We could then use these cunning skills to further drive down the price.

Except that for this trip we actually had mum with us. And she had not been briefed on this part of the process. When asked by the seller "What do you think?" she replied brightly "I think we should just pay the money". Which we did. Took all the fun out of it though. Turned out to be a splendid car. An original Mini with the lorry driver's steering wheel and the super whizzy handling. Great fun.

I was reminded of this today, when we ended up buying a car. That we actually did this was a tribute to the skills of the salesman. I'm not sure where they train these people, and perhaps I might be a bit more suggestible than some, but it is kind of worrying. If these guys ever decide to take over the world we are all in trouble. Maybe the good ones already have, and we are just buying stuff to keep them all happy. I tried both the techniques to ward off sales pressure that I remembered from the Which Report I read a couple of years ago. The car arrives on next week.

The memories kicked in when I was summoning my last reserves of negotiating skill to try and improve the deal and number one wife said firmly "I think we should just buy it". If it is as good a car as the Mini was, we will be fine.

Welcome to Paradise

welcome to paradise
Originally uploaded by RobMiles.

I saw this lovely sign on the wall in the student hall where number one daughter is going to stay. I wonder if they were expecting her?

Happy Ending and a York Drop Off

Got the money back. Never has thirty five quid looked so good. All was well and so we went off to York to drop off number one daughter in her place of studies. Very busy. All around were harrassed looking mums and dads with shiny new students trying to look as if their parents didn't belong to them. Left daughter in a room surrounded by a pile of stuff. And now we are two.

How to make people unhappy

Went up town and noticed that a shop was selling a particular DVD boxed set thingy (CSI Season 4 - more bodies than you can shake a stick at) for a very good price. In fact half the price of a shop that number one daughter had mentioned to me. So, being the caring parent that I am, I of course bought the thing for us to share. Good plan. Call it a win. Except of course that number one daughter promptly comes back from town and shows me the thing she has just bought (at the higher price of course).

Cue much regret and unhappiness in the House of Miles (tm). Nobody's fault of course, except mine. The current recovery plan is to throw ourselves on the mercy of the shop and try to get our money back. Or vouchers.