The FastDay Forum

[Tracieknits]

Congratulations!! That's fantastic!!

That's just thrilling! You're an inspiration!!!
Xxx

That must be a wonderful feeling. Congratulations!

I'm curious why the UK has gone metric and decimal for everything else but still measures weight in stones, and why 14 pounds to one? I can't do that one in my head. How did you all manage before calculators?

@Peebles when I was young we even bought things in guineas One guinea was one pound and one shilling so if you bought a coat, for instance it could be 14.5 guineas which was £14 + 14 shillings + half a guinea (10 shillings and six pennies ) which came to grand total of........let me think,.......it came to the grand total of......£15 four and six! WOW, old brain can still do it. And you can't cope with 14 lbs to the stone? sheesh woman, you don't know you are born as they say round here

Ballerina x

Edit to add.........and I still work with 16 oz to the pound but I don't do rods or perches

Just a bit of an update on our decimal/metric/imperial issues. I was telling folk at the pub about my post to Peebles, re buying things in my youth in guineas and this led to a lively and fun discussion of what we could all remember. I am old enough to remember farthings still being accepted in shops and most could remember threepenny bits, silver sixpennies etc. anyway, hubs shut us up when he asked how much it would cost to buy a gross of pen nibs which cost a penny farthing each.......answers please to.........

Ballerina x

P.S. I was the only one to get it right so mental arithmetic is still alive and kicking in the old girl yet even if I can't remember what I did yesterday

15 s 2 d?

15 s 2 d?

Close, very close........144 x 1.25 = 180 = 15s, not sure where your extra tuppence came from,

Ballerina x

Apologies to all our non UK friends if this is all nonsense but it used to be our everyday currency and no one had a problem with it but decimalisation is SO much easier, and we all thought we'd never get the hang of 100pence to the pound

I spent much of the summer of '64 in England and handled the pounds shillings and pence quite easily, but now I can barely do any arithmetic in my head. It's the one change that tells me I must be getting old.

15 s 2 d?

Close, very close........144 x 1.25 = 180 = 15s, not sure where your extra tuppence came from,

Ballerina x

The extra 2d was for 'running the message' @Ballerina! Maths was never my strong point but I just can't think in metric measurements, always have to convert back to imperial to make any sense to me!

I know what you mean @Callyannabut since I've been on the forum I'm getting used to people talking in Kilos so it is not quite so alien to me and the other thing I'm getting used to the American use of lbs for their weight, but I'm afraid I'll always be a stones girl, makes me sound like some sort of ageing rock groupie

Ballerina x