Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

V8 Nutter · Joined: 27 Aug 2012 Posts: 605

Tools usually seem to come back, often because the people who borrow them don't know how to use them and I finish up doing the job. Books are another once they'r gone the they'r gone. I don't lend them out any more.

RUSTON · Joined: 07 Mar 2011 Posts: 144 Location: Matlock.

colwyn500 · Joined: 21 Oct 2012 Posts: 1745 Location: Nairn, Scotland

I can really empathise with all these answers. There are borrowers and there are lenders. Many borrowers, as we can see, don't return things for a variety of reasons; the main one being they have no empathy with the feelings of the lender.

I have a friend whose attitude to borrowing, including of money, was that if the lender didn't ask for it back they obviously didn't miss it.

That couldn't be further from the truth for most lenders. I still remember lending an orange coloured pencil to the same friend that was never returned for an exam that was taken in 1975. It was a part of a set that I had been given to me by my Godmother for my 16th birthday (how times have changed!).

The most annoying thing is when you have to buy the same thing again when it isn't returned.

When I need a tool, I grit my teeth and buy it or failing that I improvise.

I NEVER BORROW.

clan chieftain · Joined: 05 Apr 2008 Posts: 2041 Location: Motherwell

I was over at my brother-in-laws last night and my orbital sander was on a shelf in his shed. It was that long ago since he borrowed it and now I have it back. Cool

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The Clan Chieftain

Churchill Johnson · Joined: 11 Jan 2011 Posts: 359 Location: Rayleigh Essex

I remember many year's ago a bloke across the road who believe or not was supposed to be a mechanic and to whom i had lent tool's in the past and yes got them back the same day,while i was having sunday dinner and could see my large shed/garage he decided to come over walked into my shed borrowed something and walked out, with that i rushed out and had a go at him,well i always bring stuff back he commented not understanding that it was at least polite to ask first you can guess that after that he did not get lent any more tool's.

Peter_L · Posted: Thu Feb 07, 2013 5:08 pm Post subject:

May I take up our honourable member's time by telling/re-telling the story of a friend who had a lawnmower.

It is a beautiful lawnmower, cleaned, cherished and maintained but borrowed, on a regular basis, by a neighbour. For over two years the neighbour would ask to borrow the mower, repeating the same story that his was either waiting for parts, at the repair shop or the old one " I must buy a new mower"

Now our friend has much more sympathy than I have, but came the day when having the mower returned with an empty fuel tank, he decided enough was enough.

Rummaging through the shed he found an old radio controlled toy and constructed a cunning device by which he could remotely kill the magneto.

The device was secreted away under the mower's housing and he sat back, waiting to seek his revenge.

So the mower was borrowed again, and while our friend sat in the sun, remote in hand and enjoying a beer, he would listen to the shouts of frustration coming from over the fence. The mower would start, run a few minutes and then stop. This would be followed by several minutes of desperate tugging on the starter, before it would splutter back into life again, only to mow another few lengths of the lawn before spluttering to a stop. Sometimes it would even splutter to a near stop, before bursting back into life. Our friend was becoming a control freak.

The mower was returned, along with a beautiful tirade that included such suggestions as "why don't you get your mower fixed" and "it's a load of crap"

So over the course of the summer, our friend maintained a well manicured lawn whilst his neighbour stuggled with the demon machine.

The following year, our friend reported that he could hear the steady "phut phut" of a lawn mower coming from over the fence and walked around to admire his neighbours new machine.

"You should get one " proclaimed the neighbour, " I don't know why you struggle on with that old piece of junk"

"Nah !" replied our friend, "It has worked perfectly since you bought your new one"

Byee !! ! "

RUSTON · Joined: 07 Mar 2011 Posts: 144 Location: Matlock.

I was reminded today of this story, I loaned my Sister in Law (she lives two doors away!) my hot air gun several years ago and never had it returned. However some new neighbours moved in a few years later and proudly showed me their nicely stripped windows and doors, accomplished with 'my' hot air gun loaned by my in laws! Still not got it back but bought myself another one a year or so ago.

Pete.
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