PRESSIES

What's the best and worst present you’ve been given.

The best for me was back in 1988 when my husband bought me my Ford Cortina MK V Estate. She was 18 years old when I sadly had to have her put to sleep.

The worst was many years later when my partner came home carrying a blue plastic bag and said: “I’ve bought you something.” Eager to see my wonderful gift, I opened it, only to find a spray bottle of Cillit Bang! I swung at him with it but he dodged out of the way! He did make up for it later on with a ring with a heart-shaped diamond, flanked with six smaller ones either side.

Play your cards right mollie and tom might bring you a stick of rock

Nah, that would be right up there with the Cillit Bang! I'd bash him o'er't yed wi' it.

You must firstly listen to my mitigating circumstances before branding me as a , none thinking , anything will do type gift buyer,

It was the run up to Christmas one year and I was refurbishing the bathroom because it was looking a bit scruffy and unloved, I descaled all the wall tiles, polished up the taps, fitted a new shower curtain, renewed the white seal round the bath and when Mrs Plum came to inspect, she was delighted but, Her only negative remark (* and she always has one) was, We now need a new toilet seat to make the job complete,
So that was my Christmas present to her, Was she Happy ??? No she bloody was't.
I'm still baffled about that

i bought my wife a bag and a belt one xmas,she wasn't
happy but a least the hoover worked

Tom and Tommy:



So generous. I bet both your missuses were thrilled on the quiet that you'd thought to buy them anything on the quiet, but what did they buy you?

Let me guess. I pair of gardening gloves for Tom, and a pair of driving gloves for Tommy.

funny you should mention gardening because , Years previous when I was accused of, Never thinking of what what Mrs Plum would like or need and just buying any ole thing, I tried a bit harder, During the Summer of that year I had a ' light bulb' moment as. I watched Mrs Plum cutting the lawn edges with a pair of scissors and thought, Yeah, A strimmer would help and be a good pressie, I kept silent about the idea and researched the market for a decent strimmer and thought that, a battery powered one would be ideal, It ticked all the boxes for me, A big boxed present, easily bought from B+Q because they don't have Christmas shopping queues so it was an, In and out shopping experience, Then I wrapped it and hid it and put it under the tree for the big day, On Christmas day, was she pleased,
No she bloody was't,

Why do men have the mentality that women would like something for the house for Christmas and birthdays? If my husband even thought about it, the sun would not be shining permanently.

Its because we are practically minded , we don't like 'splashing out' on something that will not be used, Even then we can make mistakes, I once spent a good amount on a top of the range Hover vacuum cleaner and ended up selling it on ebay because, All it did was sit there in the cupboard collecting dust,,,

Serves you right for spending so much on something that wasn't a personal treasured gift!

Now, this is me being practical, on your behalf. You could have spent a little less and bought her a nice fancy draught excluder. I tell ye, her eyes would have lit up with gratitude!

In my defence Mollie, In the past I have spent loads on gifts that just go into a drawer or ' jewellery box' and never get worn and, In my lifetime spending money on waste is a mortal sin, So I go practical every time and, that is very difficult with Mrs Plum because,
she don't smoke ,she don't drink , she don't eat chocolate , she don't like the donkey jacket I bought, she is very hard to please , She does like to shop and likes to give presents so, That works well with me,

She doesn't like the donkey jacket? Shame on her. I'm with her about the chocolate though - horrible stuff!

My daughter told me this morning she has found a new apartment So i told her i will get her a new dishwasher .... so got off phone told wife that i have found the birthday present for our daughter..... She answered me no you have not

Good for her,

Pressies !

Peter Izzie, When I got married and my Dad bought us a new washing machine, I was over the moon with delight, In the context of Mollies thread I would say . that was the Best Pressie ever for me,,
So '' I'm confused

Ah, yes Tom, but who did all the washing?

no one did Mollie, The machine does it, open the door, push it in, put powder in, turn it on and go to work, when you get home, its done, magic, best pressie ever,,,

My early days of a bachelor and going to my Mums and using the twin tub was a chore,

Posted by: tomplum (12347) View tomplum's page
"no one did Mollie, The machine does it, open the door, push it in, put powder in, turn it on and go to work, when you get home, its done, magic, best pressie ever,,,"

Oh right, I was picturing a dolly tub in my mind.

Strangely enough I loved my mum's twin tub, which dad bought her as a pressie! Poor mum!

I bet your Mum would be pleased with a twin tub and I've just realised why Women would not buy such practical labour saving devices, It is because they are very hard to wrap in gift paper,
That occurred to me as I asked the counter assistant in Screwfix where I bought the toiler seat, Would she gift wrap it for me, I'll never forget the look she gave me,

Actually Tom, she was thrilled with the twin tub. Before that she had a gas washing machine in the late 50s. Yes, gas. It was made by Fisher, the body of which was cream in colour and was a top loader with an agitator. She had to plug the gas pipe into the cooker gas outlet, then light it underneath. No idea how it worked, but I think she had to agitate by hand. Before that she had what all other women had – a dolly tub, posser stick, and a scrubbing board, so even the Fisher was better than that.

When she got the twin tub, she’d remove the washing and put it in the spin dryer, thereby eliminating the use of the mangle, then the laundry would go on the drop-down maiden which was on a pulley on the ceiling over the fire place to dry, or be pegged out if the weather was fine.

Women back then worked darned hard in the home, so the “new” gadgets were a godsend back then and she still had it in the 70s but, when we lived in Worcester, she came down to visit and one day we wondered where she’d gone as she was supposed to be making a cup of tea. I went into the kitchen where I’d put a load in the machine to wash, and she’d drawn up a chair to watch it. She’d never seen an automatic before. To her, it was better than the telly! On returning home to Wigan she immediately went out to buy one exactly like mine, and she was made up!

Good story that Mollie it made me smile thinking about your Mum watching the washing machine, The invention of the auto washing machine was good for me too, because fitting the washing machine valves was a major way to make money, because the auto washing machines were selling like hot cakes and in the 1970's many houses still had lead pipes and cutting into lead pipes was beyond the DIY or handyman so, It was Kerr ching time for the plumbers,,,

For a period of about four years in the 1980s I had a twin tub

I moved into a flat and it wasn't fitted out for an automatic washing machine and me old automatic washer had conked out, so I bought the twin tub out of the paper and it was cheap, but on closer examination it was quite new and in mint condition, and at the time I was working in shops with a collar and tie, and it was a clean shirt every day, because when you work in a shop you get filthy very quickly, and because I was washing me laundry frequently but with very light loads, I found that a soak in the twin tub and then heat it up and wash, and then the rinse in the spin dryer, was brilliant, the shirts washed whiter, they spun to almost iron dry, and it was a lot quicker, and less electricity too, eventually I plumbed the flat in for an automatic washing machine, and bought one, but I kept the twin tub for shirts and small things, and I was happy

After four years or so the motor and the spin dryer conked out, and a new motor would have cost more than the whole thing was worth, so it was bye bye twin tub, and I missed it

And I have been driving automatics ever since