On Sat, 16 May 2009 03:02:23 -0700 (PDT)
moghouse wrote:

On May 16, 10:58Â*am, "Kate Morgan" wrote:
Hello,

What is the going rate for someone to mow a lawn?

(Front and back, fairly small as it is a new-ish property, on a
slope).

Cheers

Here in S. Devon it's about £13 per hour, using his own equipment and
having to move lawn furniture, too!
--
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials
South Devon

£10 per hour in Gloucestershire, whatever happened to Scouts and Bob-a-job ?

Oh what nice young men! Will you really mow my lawns for 5p?

Bob was fired. In 1971 I think, and they hired Ten-Pee instead. Then
we had inflation.

In the mean time all the Boy Scouts (who understood lawnmowers at the
time, but now probably don't as you can't play video games on them)
decided to become Hoodies instead, and the Scouts was taken over by
Girls (who didn't understand lawnmowers at the time, but probably do
now in this enlightened era of equality).

I think they scrapped Bob-a-job week too.

R.

--
..
"TheOldFellow" wrote in message
. ..
On Sat, 16 May 2009 03:02:23 -0700 (PDT)
moghouse wrote:

On May 16, 10:58 am, "Kate Morgan" wrote:
Hello,

What is the going rate for someone to mow a lawn?

(Front and back, fairly small as it is a new-ish property, on a
slope).

Cheers

Here in S. Devon it's about £13 per hour, using his own equipment and
having to move lawn furniture, too!
--
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials
South Devon

£10 per hour in Gloucestershire, whatever happened to Scouts and
Bob-a-job ?

Oh what nice young men! Will you really mow my lawns for 5p?

Bob was fired. In 1971 I think, and they hired Ten-Pee instead. Then
we had inflation.

In the mean time all the Boy Scouts (who understood lawnmowers at the
time, but now probably don't as you can't play video games on them)
decided to become Hoodies instead, and the Scouts was taken over by
Girls (who didn't understand lawnmowers at the time, but probably do
now in this enlightened era of equality).

I think they scrapped Bob-a-job week too.

R.

.............................................

Bob a job was scrapped ages ago because of abuse. Not sexual abuse but abuse
of the title 'Bob a Job', Scouts and Cubs were doing quite arduous jobs,
like mowing lawns and taking the morning to do it, and being given 'A bob'.

Mike

In message , June Hughes
writes
In message , Gordon H
writes

Joking apart, I can remember when I attended an ICL programming course
in Windsor, back in the 70s, we were entitled to 1st Class train
travel, along with the brief cases and umbrellas.

I too attended an ICL programming course in Windsor back in the early
'70's. Plan. 1900 series machines. Before that, I had attended an
IBM course for Autocoder (1400 Series) - also in Windsor. IIRC, I
preferred Autocoder to Plan but then we moved over to Cobol, which was
much easier but not half as much fun. I don't remember having first
class travel on any of the courses but do remember staying in an hotel
in Old Windsor.

The first class travel didn't last long once they realised how many
grades qualified for it! :-)
I had been put in the position of writing a Cobol program without having
any training, so I had to work from the green book (can't remember the
authors now), and crib from the print-out of a comprehensive program
someone had written.
I requested a Cobol course, but when I attended, it turned out to be a
conversion course for Plan programmers, of which I hadn't a clue!

Eventually I was moved into test programming for the Intel mini which
did the environment checks before booting up the S3L and DM1 machines.
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

In article ,
'Mike' wrote:

Bob a job was scrapped ages ago because of abuse. Not sexual abuse but abuse
of the title 'Bob a Job', Scouts and Cubs were doing quite arduous jobs,
like mowing lawns and taking the morning to do it, and being given 'A bob'.

That's a little economical with the truth. Yes, there was such abuse,
and it was getting out of hand, but the opponents of the scheme blocked
any serious consideration of methods to control the abuse. Whether any
would have worked, I don't know, but they weren't even tried.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Gordon H wrote:
[...]
I had been put in the position of writing a Cobol program without having
any training, so I had to work from the green book (can't remember the
authors now), and crib from the print-out of a comprehensive program
someone had written.

My first job after joining a consultancy in the early 1980s was to write
a Programmers' Manual for a new Cobol compiler for Z-80 based computer.

This in spite of the fact that I had not ever programmed a line of
COBOL. Nor had we a copy of the compiler and/or any computer that would
execute it.

And you all wondered why computer manuals were so useless ...

Now, I wish somebody would write a manual on how to grow carrots --- or
even to get more than 1% of the seeds to germinate

Best regards,

Jon C.


[...]

--
Jonathan Campbell www.jgcampbell.com BT48 UK

On 2009-05-16 13:28:46 +0100, Jonathan Campbell
said:

Gordon H wrote:
[...]
I had been put in the position of writing a Cobol program without
having any training, so I had to work from the green book (can't
remember the authors now), and crib from the print-out of a
comprehensive program someone had written.

My first job after joining a consultancy in the early 1980s was to
write a Programmers' Manual for a new Cobol compiler for Z-80 based
computer.

This in spite of the fact that I had not ever programmed a line of
COBOL. Nor had we a copy of the compiler and/or any computer that would
execute it.

And you all wondered why computer manuals were so useless ...

Now, I wish somebody would write a manual on how to grow carrots --- or
even to get more than 1% of the seeds to germinate

Best regards,

Jon C.

See if there's any help here - there's a FAQ on carrot fly. ;-)
http://www.u-r-g.co.uk/urgfaqs.htm

--
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
Exotic plants, shrubs & perennials
South Devon

On May 16, 11:18*am, Martin wrote:

£10 per hour in Gloucestershire, whatever happened to Scouts and Bob-a-job ?

Oh what nice young men! Will you really mow my lawns for 5p?

Only after your background has been checked by the police.

Well lads you get on with the mowing, I'm just going to pop into the
potting shed with Akela to negotiate the going rate for a spot of
weeding. She says take your time and do a good job for the nice man!

Jonathan Campbell wrote:

My first job after joining a consultancy in the early 1980s was to write
a Programmers' Manual for a new Cobol compiler for Z-80 based computer.

This in spite of the fact that I had not ever programmed a line of
COBOL. Nor had we a copy of the compiler and/or any computer that would
execute it.

And you all wondered why computer manuals were so useless ...

Now, I wish somebody would write a manual on how to grow carrots --- or
even to get more than 1% of the seeds to germinate

Just make sure you haven't missed the full stop ;-)

I managed a bit of self-taught COBOL on a DG mainframe, but it
was hard going.

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

In message , Gordon H
writes
In message , supercarl
writes

Hello,

What is the going rate for someone to mow a lawn?

(Front and back, fairly small as it is a new-ish property, on a
slope).
Cheers

I'll do it free, subject to travel expenses second home allowance and
utility bills.
And food. Don't undercut the needy.
--
hugh
It may be more complicated but is it better?

In message , Martin
writes
On Sat, 16 May 2009 11:20:52 +0100, Gordon H
wrote:

In message , supercarl
writes

Hello,

What is the going rate for someone to mow a lawn?

(Front and back, fairly small as it is a new-ish property, on a
slope).
Cheers

I'll do it free, subject to travel expenses second home allowance and
utility bills.

and first class train pass, gift of large petrol engine powered lawnmower,
extremely short working year and immunity from prosecution?
....and the gaze of HMRC
--
hugh
It may be more complicated but is it better?

In message , Gordon H
writes
In message , Martin
writes
On Sat, 16 May 2009 11:20:52 +0100, Gordon H
wrote:

In message , supercarl
writes

Hello,

What is the going rate for someone to mow a lawn?

(Front and back, fairly small as it is a new-ish property, on a
slope).
Cheers

I'll do it free, subject to travel expenses second home allowance and
utility bills.

and first class train pass, gift of large petrol engine powered lawnmower,
extremely short working year and immunity from prosecution?

Joking apart, I can remember when I attended an ICL programming course
in Windsor, back in the 70s, we were entitled to 1st Class train
travel, along with the brief cases and umbrellas.
Bloody hell. I went to Ealing on a System 4/70 engineering course in
1967 and we only got 2nd class. But then I was in manufacturing. You
were obviously sales.
--
hugh
It may be more complicated but is it better?

"Jonathan Campbell" wrote ...
Now, I wish somebody would write a manual on how to grow carrots --- or
even to get more than 1% of the seeds to germinate

Find some non F1 seed and grow up and let some of it seed (2 years) and use
that fresh unpolished seed when you will find almost 100% germination even
if you keep it somewhere cool for a few years.
I am convinced it's the polishing of the seed that causes a problem, if you
have never seen fresh carrot seed it's got burrs on it and sticks on
clothing.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
just W. of London

In message , Martin
writes
On Sat, 16 May 2009 14:38:00 +0100, hugh ] wrote:

In message , Gordon H
writes
In message , Martin
writes
On Sat, 16 May 2009 11:20:52 +0100, Gordon H
wrote:

In message , supercarl
writes

Hello,

What is the going rate for someone to mow a lawn?

(Front and back, fairly small as it is a new-ish property, on a
slope).
Cheers

I'll do it free, subject to travel expenses second home allowance and
utility bills.

and first class train pass, gift of large petrol engine powered lawnmower,
extremely short working year and immunity from prosecution?

Joking apart, I can remember when I attended an ICL programming course
in Windsor, back in the 70s, we were entitled to 1st Class train
travel, along with the brief cases and umbrellas.
Bloody hell. I went to Ealing on a System 4/70 engineering course in
1967 and we only got 2nd class. But then I was in manufacturing. You
were obviously sales.

I travelled by plane and underground to an IBM course near Lords cricket ground
in 1969.

I did that in 1969 on a course for Autocoder (IBM 1400 series computer).
Perhaps we were on the same course. I think I stayed at the Clarendon
Hotel, which I am told is now a bed and breakfast hotel. I may be
wrong. I can remember a girl who had been to Essex University and lived
in a flat in Chelsea because I went for a meal at her place. I can also
remember a girl from Hungary but that is all. However, it is a long
time ago.
--
June Hughes

In message , hugh
] writes
In message , Gordon H
writes

Joking apart, I can remember when I attended an ICL programming course
in Windsor, back in the 70s, we were entitled to 1st Class train
travel, along with the brief cases and umbrellas.

Bloody hell. I went to Ealing on a System 4/70 engineering course in
1967 and we only got 2nd class. But then I was in manufacturing. You
were obviously sales.

Obviously not! I was at W Gorton most of the time, PCDO, then test
S/W, then support at Ashton where the mainframes were built and tested.
--
Gordon H
Remove "invalid" to reply

In message , Martin
writes
On Sat, 16 May 2009 16:53:42 +0100, June Hughes

wrote:

In message , Martin
writes
On Sat, 16 May 2009 14:38:00 +0100, hugh ] wrote:

In message , Gordon H
writes
In message , Martin
writes
On Sat, 16 May 2009 11:20:52 +0100, Gordon H
wrote:

In message , supercarl
writes

Hello,

What is the going rate for someone to mow a lawn?

(Front and back, fairly small as it is a new-ish property, on a
slope).
Cheers

I'll do it free, subject to travel expenses second home allowance and
utility bills.

and first class train pass, gift of large petrol engine powered lawnmower,
extremely short working year and immunity from prosecution?

Joking apart, I can remember when I attended an ICL programming course
in Windsor, back in the 70s, we were entitled to 1st Class train
travel, along with the brief cases and umbrellas.
Bloody hell. I went to Ealing on a System 4/70 engineering course in
1967 and we only got 2nd class. But then I was in manufacturing. You
were obviously sales.

I travelled by plane and underground to an IBM course near Lords
cricket ground
in 1969.

I did that in 1969 on a course for Autocoder (IBM 1400 series computer).
Perhaps we were on the same course.

I did an OS 360 and IBM Assembler course in January or February1969

I think I stayed at the Clarendon
Hotel, which I am told is now a bed and breakfast hotel. I may be

Near Russell Square??


wrong. I can remember a girl who had been to Essex University and lived
in a flat in Chelsea because I went for a meal at her place. I can also
remember a girl from Hungary but that is all. However, it is a long
time ago.

I stayed in a hotel just around the corner a few minutes walk from where they
gave the courses.

The course was memorable for IBM losing all our punched cards.

I don't recall that happening. I can remember someone saying something
about being able to see into the cricket ground from the windows but
that is all.
--
June Hughes