General Chat

That we were decimalised, I was working in a shop/supermarket, I believe the first supermarket in town, but it was a good place and company to work for.

It doesn't seem like 50 years.

For a while, I like many others converted prices back, while trying to assess whether or not something was worth the new price.

It's hard to believe that we would pay much more than 10/- for a little pot of yoghurt.

There's been quite a few coin changes since too

Gwyn we still do now and again :-D

I was a lowly bank employee at the time & we were given a 50p by Head Office in celebration of the momentous event.. ;-)

What can anyone buy these days with 50p.

A banana. :-)

I had just bought my first hand held calculator (Sinclair Cambridge Scientific" for which bank of dad forked out £ 80. I think it was more used for decimal conversions than pure maths.
It was also around the time of rocketing inflation, miner;s strikes, 3 day week and the most idiotic PM ever. With the money saved by not paying for the calculator I was able to buy a used mini-cooper. Selling it was a terrible mistake.

An amazing number of people who voted brexit seriously believed that a part of brexit would be the return of £sd and imperial measures. To thks day most Brits talk about mpg not litres/100km, do not knoww their weight and height in metric and national sport revolves around a distance of 22 yards. The UK is also the only country that talks of small coinage in terms of pee.

#include
#include
using namespace std;
int main()
{
int pound, shilling, pence;
float penceF;
cout>pound;
cout>shilling;
cout>pence;
//Pounds = Pounds + (Shillings/20) + (Pence/20/12);
penceF = (float)((shilling*12)+pence)/240;
pence=penceF*100;
cout= 100){
pound = pound + (pence/100);
pound = pound + (pence/100);
pence = pence%100;
}
cout>shilling;
cout>pence;
//Pounds = Pounds + (Shillings/20) + (Pence/20/12);
penceF = (float)((shilling*12)+pence)/240;
pence=penceF*100;
cout= 100){
pound = pound + (pence/100);
pence = pence%100;
}
cout<<"Decimal Pounds:\x9c"<<pound<<"."<<pence;

return 0;
}

Stupid people always seem to assume everyone else is stupid too.

vultus inter

Human stupidity is in the ascendency.

Ironically, I still convert back to imperial when roasting meat as that how I was first taught eg 20 mins. per pound and 20 mins over

OH just uses metric :-D

Mr Owl doesn’t use cm at all. He just uses metres and millimetres :-D

What can I say the building industry is a different planet. They talk about needing a piece of 8’ by 4’ 10mm thick.

Hubby wanted to buy some tools for his new job and ask for a 6 inch imperial rule and a 12 inch metric rule :-( the irony was that the sales assistant knew what he meant and got them for him.

I'd had a split mind about metric for many years we went metric in measurements in 1970 over here ...............

I was a science student from high school, so from then on I used metric in the lab, including saying the fridge should be 3-5C

At home, I used imperial for everything. including the temperature in the fridge.

I switched automatically as I moved between home and work.

Then Canada converted, and I found it a bit hard to convert at home! However I got used to it, now I don't use anything but metric, not even for temperature except when posting on a UK site.

I notice that a lot of people have found it hard, and there are also deliberate resisters ............ meat for example is still shown on display tags as price per lb, with price per kg in lower case, but the sales receipt will show the weight as gram or kilogram. That's because people have complained so often about not seeing the Imperial measurement!

The other strange thing is that manufacturers refused to change the size of containers to metric.

So, we buy milk as 1.89 litres .............. that used to be the 4 pint size. 2 l would be easier as a measurement, but the box wouldn't fit existing machinery, containers, etc etc.

However, we've always had a problem here with metric because we have an open border with the US, who are stubbornly metric, but not Imperial measurements either although the use the same words.

A US gallon is smaller than the Imperial gallon etc.


and we still use cups, tsps, tbsps, etc in recipes :-D

When im baking, I still and always will work in ounces and pounds. Thats the way I was taught. When we went metric, I hated it as an ounce wasnt/isnt an exact conversion. Same with cm/inches. 2.5 cm to one inch.

I still talk in feet and inches when measuring curtains. When asked my height at the hospital, I said well I have been 5ft 4 for years but it says 161 cm on my passport!
Allan, i still say for chicken/turkey etc 20 mins per pound plus 20 minutes.20 mins per 1/2 a kilo doesnt have the same ring does it?

Seeing as we are not in the EU anymore, are we now allowed to ask for a pound of bacon instead of 1/2 kilo?

Florence in the hebrides

Florence I so agree with your was only in my early 20s in 1973 but still can't get used to what I call the new way???? soon got used to using the money only because I had to use it every day but then would our children and grandchildren understand £ s d

At that time I was using my first skills set as an Office Manager for the finance company set up by two major banks and I was responsible, among other tasks, for the branch's ledger. (I changed tack completely in my middle years before coming full circle to use my early skills in my last job before I retired.)

The Branch Manager and I disagreed about how to handle ledgers. He thought I ought to enter every figure already converted to decimal currency. I believed I ought to carry on entering sterling, only decimalising the final monthly entry. He was my boss so, although I was responsible for all ledger entries, he carried the ultimate responsibility so his decisions took precedence over mine; I had no choice but I added that I was not going to be responsible for any shortfall at month's end - because I could see that was on the cards.

Come the end of the month when I'd totted all up, we were down. He was a bit nonplussed but he put his hand in his pocket and coughed up.

Among other responsibilities, regularly, I had to tell some applicants face-to-face that they could not have the loans they'd applied for. Some characters were what we'd call 'unsavoury' - one, in particular still springs to mind. My boss was probably hoping that because they were discussing things with a small, slim, short-skirted mid-20-year-old female they would not kick off. Wise move - the boss was right.

The worst I ever got were lies, denials and slightly raised tones of voice. I never got threatened, which surprised me because I knew the backgrounds of some applicants. I got many charm offensives from some men but I stood my ground of course - and developed a fairly thick skin at the same time.

A blast from the past!

I want to ask whether anyone came across the use of Michaelmas Days for payments?

In my job leading to retirement, I was surprised to see that several entries from years ago (though still in the 20th century) revealed that a fair number of people had stuck to four quarterly payments around 25th/27th of the month.

To this day commercial rents are paid Michelmas, Lent, Easter and , in normal times, in advance.
.
The dates used by trad universities, all the other students have another 2 weeks per term.

The French Directoire after the revolution tried to decimalise both the calendar and clocks but it never really caught on.

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”
G.O.

My occupational pension goes into the bank on the 25th of the month. Also, for Direct Debits, the bank offers a choice of 3 dates, one of which is the 25th.

JoyLouise you reminded me. I started work for the Revenue just after decimalisation and after 5th April all employers had to submit their Paye returns. They were supposed to draw a line under Feb. and convert, but needless to say, most didn't. We did it for them.

Every year we had to balance the books down to the last penny, and because conversion wasn't exact, this was impossible. The number of taxpayers we had whose records were a penny out was incredible!

The boss of just about every office in the UK was asking Head Office for a special dispensation to write off these odd pence. We eventually got it, several months later and our lists of "arrears" suddenly disappeared!!