I am beginning to despair of Gransnet.......

You know there are one or two long standing regular contributers to the forum chat on Gransnet whose humour have the makings of a comedy series......Patsy and Eddy style

Oh - just got you! AbFab!!

Yes, please do, phoenix!

OK, you asked for it! .............

OK, So picture the scene.........

It is stupid o'clock in the phoenix house,(I so do not do mornings) DH gets up to go & make me my cup of tea. I hear some muted swearing along the lines of the elderly cat has been sick on the stairs & that I will have to get the cleaning stuff & deal with it etc. I would like to point out at this stage that dh is a drainage engineer. Show him an overflowing septic tank with turds & tampons bobbing about, & he's your man, ask him to empty the cat litter tray or deal with a bit of vomit & he's marked absent.

I decide to do the decent thing & get out of bed to assess the damage. Bear in mind that I do not normally do movement of the walking variety until I have drunk the aforementioned beverage.

So, naked, (not a pretty sight, please see profile for further information, but not if you are eating)I venture forth.

At the top of the stairs, my right leg develops a mind of it's own & sets off. My left leg, however, decides it has become emotionally attached to that upright post at the top of the banisters & wraps itself around it.

This results in an undignified & painful occurrence.Thank god no video footage is available. My ankle now sports a sizeable wound, & has swollen to the point where the only shoes I can wear are my Birkenstock sandals. (Which, btw dh refers to as "you know, those lesbian ones you bought in Munich) My boss is less than impressed with my current work attire.

But what adds insult to injury, is that while I was dangling naked & in pain from the top of the banisters, dh, (by now at the bottom of the stairs) looked up & said "what ARE you doing?"

What the did he think I was doing?
Working on a new dance move?
Conducting an experiment on stair abuse for an obscure department of the EEC?
Testing the friction resistance of woolmix/manmade fibres for the British Carpet Manufacturers Association?
Attempting to see how much the human ankle can change colour as the swelling goes down & the bruising kicks in?

phoenix - please put us out of our misery! The suspense is killing me .

Oh, well, I got that post in just seconds after you obliged! Love your story, phoenix and your turn of phrase is nothing if not colourful! Are you a writer?

No, *Annobel", my job title is "Business Development Manager" , for my sins!

In that case, I suggest you have a new vocation waiting for you when you eventually retire!

I thank you, but given the state of my current financial situation, I think that retirement may not be an option!

Obviously it depends on the thread, but I have often found myself laughing aloud. I enjoyed the 'jokes' thread but don't enjoy puerile, silly comments and jibes masquerading as humour.

Cheers Phoenix! Hope the ankle recovering. At least you didn't dive head first into the cat sick.
I have just been talking to DH who was supposed to be picking his mother up at about 4 this afternoon but arrived 2 hours late. He was last seen (as I left the house) rolling on the lounge floor surrounded by leads and satellite boxes. The reason for this is that I had said, a while ago, "I think you are going to have to re-join Sky (and swallow the principles) if you want to watch the Rugby World Cup."
So he had dutifully reactivated the Sky subscription and was wrestling with the leads. Picture a collection of electronic boxes (amplifier, DVD player, radio, Apple box, Sonos sound system, Wiifit and of course the satellite box) nestling below the wall mounted telly. Recovering electronics addict. I hope. He was muttering "Why are these things always more complicated than I think and how are we going to watch that episode of Torchwood that is recorded on the freesat box now..."
Apparently the Rugby is on ITV.

I think the new vocation could be pole dancing from what I've read......or bannister dancing...or.....

Jess the icident described above was some time ago, so I am mended, but thank you for your concern.

Love your story Phoenix...hope your ankle is getting back to normal. I bet you wont swing on the pole again doing your impression of the full monty!!!

My gripe with Gransnet is I am interested in alternative subjects and if anyone ever mentions something along those lines it is quickly stifled. There are plenty of other threads for people to comment on subjects such as.... If I can't see it I don't believe it.

My other gripe is if someone has said something once, that is quite enough.

Killing threads is my most biggest annoyance. Some threads have one person after another with the near same comments, it gets annoying as you can see anyone else with an alternative view wont post their view so in the end the thread is booorrrrriiiinnnnggggg!!!!!!!

I guess I have said quite enough....

The OP was about the lack of humour on GN. Does it matter? We do get a certain amount of incidental (or even accidental) humour, such as that referred to by Jess on the travel thread. Jokes as such are best kept to the jokes thread. Forgive me, but what is beginning to bore me is the amount of gynaecological stuff, but then, I don't need to read it, do I?

faye, I sympathise, but I'm not sure I agree. I often feel I'm the only person with my views only to find that, when I state them, there are others who have similar views. It can be a bit intimidating to find no-one agrees, can't it? I'm sorry you have felt some threads were stifled. I doubt if that was anyone's intention, even if it seemed like that. They may have wanted a good old barney . And I'm sorry if I'm one of the guilty ones. I often find what you have to say interesting.

So Faye apart from serial agreement and lack of bottle to disagree, what other thread-killing behaviours are there?
i would like to nominate:
Going on a thread that does not really interest you and running interference - maybe by changing the subject . Not to say that some meandering threads are not delightful..
And which alternative subjects would you like to see getting a better airing.

Thanks baggy, I often find you and I think alike, sometimes, other times we are poles apart ....but that is okay.

Jess I am sure there was one originally on (for example) vaccinations, I cant find it, it probably fell by the wayside. I think without a doubt every single person had exactly the same view, then it died. I thought maybe some people didn't like to have an alternative opinion. I think a lot of people are not looking for an argument, they just have different life experiences so therefore different views.

I don't think anyone is guilty of changing a subject, conversations are like that, people comment and it moves on to other subjects without meaning to....meandering threads are the most interesting anyway. Conversations often get back to the original post anyway.

Phoenix Surely you could post your story if you did not actually copy it word for word? They can't have a copyright on an occurrence, can they, only on the words you used to describe it?

vaccine thread is still there if you search on the word *vaccine" in top box.

Well said Faye. It's often difficult to be brave and set out a view that is opposed to the one, seemingly, held everyone else. I sometimes feel uncomfortable expressing myself as I don't get chance to check in very often and feel like the new girl at school trying to get in with the 'in crowd'.

I agree with em. On occassions the sarcastic comments of some posters have made me feel very uncomfortable and some remarks are probably better suited to the playground than a social forum. I can't help feeling that some people might well have been put off contributing to a discussion for fear of attracting the attention of a poster who delights in being confrontational. However, as has been said before, we are all individuals so must try to live and let live.

There are enough of us on here now that we should all be able to find our own level of comfort, whether it's agreeing or disagreeing, being flippant or serious, grumpy or cheerful, sad or happy or, as is most likely (or so it seems to me), a combination of all those things.

kittylester - I can identify with your description of 'new girl at school', with regards to posting - but really why should it matter if I'm not well enough informed or disagree with an opinion posted? There are a few threads on here, the facts of which I've not been too sure of, so have held back from replying - then I question myself, why do I do that? Have we perhaps built up an 'identity' which we might fall down on if we say something that may seem stupid to someone else who appears to be better informed? If we feel that a sarcastic comment may follow, then so be it - it really doesn't matter. We really should feel that we can comment on how we understand things. Really - we're GRANS (!!), and shouldn't feel at all awkward - after all, if we were out in public and disagreed with something someone said, we'd soon tell them, wouldn't we - it should be the same here!!

jangly Who are you calling a bit frumpy?