Are you a Bob Ferris or aTerry Collier of Likely Lades fame?
Both working class lads, one who is a petty social climber who surrounds himself with his baubles of achievement and loves to flaunt his new lifestyle but tells the world he's working class, or someone who is just you and happy in yourself.
The reason I ask is meeting a couple who went into a bragfest about holiday retreats in France and thinking of a place in Thailand. ....the wife said she was so pleased I kept my mouth shut and just looked bored and called me a Terry Collier .......

You wanna stand outside The White House pub Snowy, around the Patio Heaters, at about 11 bells on a Friday Night. Honestly, its a fucking eye-opener..you'd never think you were in a Working Class town some of the conversations I've heard round there. Talk about Hartlepool Glitterati...Smug Cretins.

You made the mistake of going in the White House!

I had the unfortunate experience of going there in February with work..... I got a bad neck from constantly shaking my head in disbelief at the overheard conversations...someone came in who I knew as kid, she had to wear her school uniform after school because the family had nowt...here she was, tits like torpedo warheads, going on about their far from cheap new cars, the past erased.
It's a bit like a cross between Lourdes and cocoon for tanned fading looks, where there's a spring of eternal youth bubbling away and everyone kids themselves they're always 24, as they preen themselve in the mirror (which has lovebites)... the low lighting helps fuel the delusion, in a heady atmosphere of potent aftershave and loud perfume.
I felt as comfortable as an outbreak of rabies in a guide dog puppies kennels, yet oddly you always bump into someone you know and wonder what thry 're doing there.

Well living the life I do completely corresponds to the Rodney Bewes version, but I can't be him, can I, because I don't bang on about it (at least I don't think I do; if I'm wrong, you should be able to tell me exactly where I live).

So put me halfway between them I guess.

There's more chance of me organising a stripathon in a retired nuns home than ever going in there again. I'd just be too tempted to pass comment.

I think it's all about forgetting where you came from and airbrushing it from your life. People may have done it, but seem to forget everyone else remembers even if you choose not to.

Id rather drink in the Centenery Lounge than in the friggin White House.

Decent selection of beer but its overpriced and full of nob heads.

It's Terry Collier all the way for me, love a bet, love a beer ( although not as often these days ), try to get through life as best I can while keeping my head down and not taking it in the least bit seriously, just getting on with it, and as Terry said in an episode recently, at least I'm honest. I've no time for people who think they're something they're not.

Give me old school pubs anyday. I like overhearing conversations in Cambridge from the toffs it's an eye opener. I actually heard someone who was called Bertie and will the other day going on about a new blazer he had ordered the said he was off punting in the afternoon with some rugger chaps! And yes he had a rugby top on with collar turned up and a jumper over his shoulders with the sleeves tied around his neck.

I'm not working class.

Here, in a nutshell, is the conflict between aspirational Labour and their stuck-in-their-ways socialist Andy Capp voters.

It almost makes me feel sorry for the Labour Party's Head Honchos. Like herding cats

Good to have your irrelevant input Jiz.

I'll put you down as a 'Bob Ferris wannabe ' then.

Where were you stood when you heard these conversations?

Near the patio heaters maybe?

When I started work in the seventies, my gaffer was one of those blokes who had to have everything that caught his eye as being a status symbol ...new house, new car, new telly , he just had to have and brag about it.
He came into work to announce to anyone who'd listen he'd bought a new 'music centre' , a top make whose name escapes me. I tried to to look mildly interested and asked him about his taste in music...he just went blank as if deep in thought.... then announced he'd have to buy some records and left.....

Recently had a mate visit

and he brought home made hummus with him, which he insisted on eating for breakfast with his home made soda bread


I happily called him a middle class prick and took great delight in telling him to fuck off to Tory land at every opportunity

Background - him from Park Road, Hartlepool

Me - From West View Hartlepool

Both university degrees - professional jobs

His stories - I went banger racing and was amazed at how many grease monkeys / chavs there were - I've never seen them in Worcester (where he now lives)

My Stories - finish work - head to the pub for a few ales - go home (I live in Hull)

I think I fit into the Terry category and am happy to be there

Hey, you've done it again.

Following on from your Nazi comment, you've doubled up with the change of my name to Jiz. As with the Nazi comment, the only surprise is that it took you so long.

I'm loving this comedy masterclass.

That's a fantastic anecdote.

Do you do after-dinner speaking?

Definitely a Terry. Me and our lass will be defined as middle class by our jobs and education, but I drive an old banger, most of our holidays are in my mam's caravan, we are always in pound shops and I spend as little as I can on clothes. The lads' clothes are nearly all hand-me-downs from their cousins, we eat loads of corned beef, and go to the pub regularly. We live in a modest house in an average area, and piss in the shower.

On the Bob side, we will splash out on good quality food and drink now and then, and we like to go to cultural things like English Heritage and National Trust properties.

And we also do things that are now considered middle class that weren't not too long ago, like having an allotment, buying food from local grocers and butchers instead of supermarkets, and using public transport.

I suppose going to footy matches is becoming a middle class pursuit now too.

Yes I do actually.

If you haven't been to Glyndebourne, you're working class.

Have you been?

Not yet this year.

So, you're into opera then, anything in particular?

Wagner/Verdi are my favourites composers opera-wise but I'm a much bigger fan of conventional Classical Music.

Looks like I'm working class then. Ah well, I'll just have to cope.
That said, Chopins' polonaise militaire always pleases.

In hindsight, I got the Venn Diagram the wrong way around. If you go to Glyndebourne you're middle class. You can still be middle class and not go to Glyndebourne.

Chip it means nothing to me your last post.

There's a surprise... Thought Wagner fuvked off as soon as the X Factor finished..

i,m definately a Terry,i'd give you a can but i've only got six

Snowy wrote:
Looks like I'm working class then. Ah well, I'll just have to cope.

Sounds to me like you once had middle class aspirations and things didn't quite work out as intended, still it's much more satisfying to be a working class hero and enjoy all the bitterness it brings.

You appear to be a member of the lumpen proletariat so if they let you in that can only be a positive step forward for equality, right?

Equality of what?

it will always be the roulette of birth that has the primary say on how much opportunity you get in life. But whatever dice you threw, you always have the opportunity to better yourself.

only a desperate nob would try and score points from an uncapitalised letter.

the irony of you highlighting anyone's punctuation is also not lost on me.

Is Jez the most boring, smart-arsed poster The Bunker has ever seen? I can't think of any other candidates that even come close.

He is dull with a capitalised D.

He is deeply dull and an offensive rarf to boot. I have a question for him though.

Shouldn't that be 'whatever dice you were thrown'? Babies don't pop out and then get straight down to a game of Yahtzee do they? The whole point of fate, or even the idea that life chances are random, is that you aren't in control.

You need to tighten up your performance Jiz. If you're going to play the superior intellect you have to get the little details right.

You missed the 'k' off knob as well. I think you might have lost your mind.

Sounds to me like you still have what I never had, my sarcasm appears lost on you...... aspirations ?..... aspirations to what ... climbing the greasy pole to look down on others?

majoring on the minor and building strawmen - an unoriginal diversionary tactic by the Bunker's rarfery.

That should be '...by the Bunker's rarfs.' You're having a nightmare today Jiz, might be best to spend the rest of the day trying to impress people on other boards. Maybe try one where you actually have a shared interest?

i have no desire to impress anyone - hold a mirror up to a few of you, maybe.

That's a bit sinister. What if people don't want you holding mirrors up to them?

sinister?

*drama-queen alert* *drama-queen alert*

Just how many different user names has the terminally Pools/Bunker obsessed 'DJ' had over the years!?

You appear to be a member of the lumpen proletariat so if they let you in that can only be a positive step forward for equality, right?[/quote]
Equality of what?

it will always be the roulette of birth that has the primary say on how much opportunity you get in life. But whatever dice you threw, you always have the opportunity to better yourself.[/quote]

Equality of access to bourgeois opera festivals, regardless of social class is what I was getting at.