Are happy people boring?

[version]

the forum pyromaniac, tossing unextinguished cigarette butts by his wayside, waiting to see if smoke appears in the rear view mirror

No cushion is safe.

 

[Corpsey]

There was a show on iPlayer a year or two ago about some country estate they'd resurrected. It was a nature program about the animals that lived there. But it was also about the gardens, and the gardeners. I remember looking at them at work and thinking it looked like heaven.

But, aside from it paying pittance, I also instantly wondered if I would enjoy it for a few hours and then rapidly get insanely bored and end up resenting my decision to chuck in the rat race to be a fucking gardener.

There's definitely something healthier about doing that then sitting in an office all day.

 

[Corpsey]

In the aftermath of acid I was walking around ally pally park thinking maybe I should take steps right away to be a landscape gardener.

Probably that was wisdom talking. The real world encroached back in and I wanted something to fund a big screen TV and a nice armchair.

 

[IdleRich]

My friend was telling me about his friend who chucked in this high-powered financial job to be a butcher, apparently he loved meat and food and stuff and thought it would be rewarding. But it turned out to be bollocks, there was stuff about tricking people to buy more expensive cuts and disguising the old bits etc same cynicism but less money basically. Also a guy from my school, left big accounting job to open a cafe in the New Forest, did it for a year and went back to accounting.

 

[entertainment]

Just doing physical labor which doesn't occupy your mind but allows you to reflect and daydream is a nice change

 

[Corpsey]

The fact of the matter is I'm very very lazy and I'd rather do nothing at all.

Some people seem to genuinely believe that if they won the lottery they'd keep working. Not me. I'd go full time holiday. Rich meals, relaxing siestas. Heaven.

 

[craner]

My friend was telling me about his friend who chucked in this high-powered financial job to be a butcher, apparently he loved meat and food and stuff and thought it would be rewarding. But it turned out to be bollocks, there was stuff about tricking people to buy more expensive cuts and disguising the old bits etc same cynicism but less money basically. Also a guy from my school, left big accounting job to open a cafe in the New Forest, did it for a year and went back to accounting.

Maybe the missing component in their lives was the sexy Russian girlfriend.

 

[Corpsey]

Walking around in the park
Should feel better than work:
The lake, the sunshine,
The grass to lie on,

Blurred playground noises
Beyond black-stockinged nurses -
Not a bad place to be.
Yet it doesn't suit me.

Being one of the men
You meet of an afternoon:
Palsied old step-takers,
Hare-eyed clerks with the jitters,

Waxed-fleshed out-patients
Still vague from accidents,
And characters in long coats
Deep in the litter-baskets -

All dodging the toad work
By being stupid or weak.
Think of being them!
Hearing the hours chime,

Watching the bread delivered,
The sun by clouds covered,
The children going home;
Think of being them,

Turning over their failures
By some bed of lobelias,
Nowhere to go but indoors,
Nor friends but empty chairs -

No, give me my in-tray,
My loaf-haired secretary,
My shall-I-keep-the-call-in-Sir:
What else can I answer,

When the lights come on at four
At the end of another year?
Give me your arm, old toad;
Help me down Cemetery Road.

 

[entertainment]

The fact of the matter is I'm very very lazy and I'd rather do nothing at all.

Some people seem to genuinely believe that if they won the lottery they'd keep working. Not me. I'd go full time holiday. Rich meals, relaxing siestas. Heaven.

What motivates you then? Money, proving yourself to someone, self-actualization?

 

[IdleRich]

Maybe the missing component in their lives was the sexy Russian girlfriend.

People are often chasing the wrong shallow pleasure.

 

[Corpsey]

What motivates you then? Money, proving yourself to someone, self-actualization?

To work? Money.

Obviously I get other things out of it - seeing people every day, a bit of praise from time to time...

The problem is (Aside from the money) that everybody has a job when you're grown up so if you don't have one you're just going to be mooching around on your own most of the time.

 

[luka]

I've done years of physical labour and I've also spent a bit of time not working and neither is nearly as good as you lot are imagining it to be.

 

[luka]

Also if you are a landscape gardener it's more like being a builder that never gets to come indoors than anything else. You build a lot of decking. Lay a lot of patios. It's not just pottering about doing the occasional bit of weeding and admiring the flowers. You also have to price jobs and work to a budget which might turn out to have been wildly over optimistic. You will feel harried and rushed and stressed. Work will dry up over winter and the jobs you do get will be cold and miserable.

 

[Corpsey]

Thanks, you've ruined that dream for me.

No seriously thanks, sounds awful.

I was imagining designing gardens.

 

[luka]

The drawback of not working is all the lies you told yourself about what you would do 'if only you had the time' are exposed. There's nothing to shield you from the truth that you are a feckless layabout with no motivation no discipline and no talent. This you may find to be depressing. Better off keeping the day job and lying to yourself about what you could of been.

 

[version]

My dad was a gardener for a bit and enjoyed it, but think he left because of the pay. One of my brothers is a tree surgeon and he's permanently knackered, the customers often do his head in, there's all sorts of paperwork to do and plenty of other things.

 

[luka]

My friend was telling me about his friend who chucked in this high-powered financial job to be a butcher, apparently he loved meat and food and stuff and thought it would be rewarding. But it turned out to be bollocks, there was stuff about tricking people to buy more expensive cuts and disguising the old bits etc same cynicism but less money basically. Also a guy from my school, left big accounting job to open a cafe in the New Forest, did it for a year and went back to accounting.

Ive always told Craner that he is he opposite of his. He likes telling himself he would be happy as an investment banker or as the partner in a big corporate law firm but he probably wouldn't. Surrounded by human sharks.

 

[luka]

Places like this are great if you enjoy trying on positions to see how they play out. Daft takes can be great to force people to clarify their position. I start to get claustrophobic when the chat gets too serious for too long, and equally if it's only bantz allowed, like is a stag do whatsapp group say. I often wonder if this holds me back in life.

Me too. I like to think this place strikes a good balance. You can be very earnest and no one will call you a cunt, but also you can mess about and take the piss.

 

[luka]

Thanks, you've ruined that dream for me.

No seriously thanks, sounds awful.

I was imagining designing gardens.

I'm friends with four self employed landscape gardeners they're all seriously depressed and they all seriously hate their jobs.

 

[craner]

My dad was a gardener for a bit and enjoyed it, but think he left because of the pay. One of my brothers is a tree surgeon and he's permanently knackered, the customers often do his head in, there's all sorts of paperwork to do and plenty of other things.

You'd have to be mad to be a tree surgeon. Incredibly dangerous job.