Sign in / up

back to article Starship Voyager dumped into skip

One Trekkie's dream of boldly going where no interior designer has gone before appears to be over – thanks to his estranged wife, who has decided his starship Voyager-themed flat isn't entirely suitable for the terrestrial housing market. Former DJ Tony Alleyne, 58, has spent 10 years and a wad of cash coverting the one-bed …

COMMENTS

House rules Send corrections
This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I have always enjoyed The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, but that does not mean I will be decorating my house with spurs and lube.

    Time for someone to grow up and accept real life for what it is.

    15 53
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      'Real Life' is whatever you make of it, not something that you need to mindlessly conform to. Why should we 'grow up' out of video games, Star Trek and posting turds through objectionable neighbour's letter boxes?!

      71 4
      1. Bassey
        Reply Icon

        Re: Real Life

        "Why should we 'grow up' out of video games, Star Trek and posting turds through objectionable neighbour's letter boxes?!"

        Erm, because it will send you bankrupt, your wife will leave you leave and you'll be left destitute and in tears. Man, you really weren't paying attention, were you!

        8 3
      2. Frank Bough
        Reply Icon

        Yes

        YOU should.

        0 1
      3. ItsNotMe
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        @Anonymous Coward 13:00 GMT

        Still living in Mummy's basement are we? Hmmm.

        1 5
        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Anonymous Coward

          @ItsNotMe

          No: Still enjoying what life has to offer, rather than becoming an embittered drone.

          It's ok, though: I can totally understand why those who feel pressured into 'growing up', breeding, participating in a 2 hour commute and suchlike like to try to look down on those with a little bit of élan and imagination left in them.

          0 0
      4. Tapeador
        Reply Icon
        Stop

        @ AC turdster 13:00

        You really are an Anonymous Coward, aren't you?!

        1 1
    2. Thomas 4
      Reply Icon
      FAIL

      Seems perfectly reasonable

      After all, the man has put his heart and soul and ten *years* of hard work into it. So on top of bankruptcy, losing his home and a failed business, why not completely destroy the one thing he had to keep him going? I'm sure he'll be very appreciative of your sentiments. Jackass.

      47 5
      1. jake Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        @Thomas 4

        Perhaps if he had put his heart and soul into his RealLife[tm] for the past ten years, he wouldn't be facing this "hardship"?

        Perspective, man. Perspective ...

        9 10
      2. David Neil
        Reply Icon

        Did I imagine the bit where it said his missus had been paying the mortgage while he was building his playden?

        Time to grow up

        4 0
      3. Scorchio!!
        Reply Icon

        Re: Seems perfectly reasonable

        I'm sure his wife will be only too willing to keep up the payments for him, estranged or not, divorcing or not. After all, is it not the role of wives to treat their husbands as mothers do their sons?

        0 1
      4. Ian Johnston Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        Other people's money

        Having fun is all very well, but less attractive when it's done at the expense of other people: the creditors he stiffed for £165,000 when he went bust and the ex wife who paid for the flat.

        0 0
    3. Greg J Preece
      Reply Icon

      I've said it before, and I'll say it as many times as it takes for idiots to understand it: fun things do not stop being fun because you get older, and the definition of "fun" is personal. Anyone who subscribes to the notion that they may no longer do something because they have passed some magical imaginary number boundary has voluntarily made themselves more boring.

      Let the nerd have his fun. That goes for his wife, too. Hell, in the current housing market, something unique like that would probably make selling easier!

      Cue an internet whip-round to buy out his wife's half of the property.

      40 3
      1. Aaron Em
        Reply Icon

        There is a big difference

        between 'let the nerd have his fun' and an albatross of a flat that costs a bomb in increasingly expensive electrical power and won't sell in a million years because, meticulous reproduction of a fictional universe that it is, normal people won't want to live there. Too, his wife having paid eighteen years' worth of the mortgage, I tend to suspect her ownership interest in the property amounts to a fair bit more than half -- too bad for him, if he'd paid the mortgage off before he started remodeling, he wouldn't be having this problem now.

        14 8
      2. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        @Greg

        "Let the nerd have his fun. That goes for his wife, too."

        She *is* having her fun. Hence the shitcaning of the beloved set.

        2 1
    4. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      You grumpy asshat...

      If he likes it then why not, his hobby is no harm to anyone else - and if you'd spent 10 years on your hobby and it went in the bin you'd be pretty pissed I'm sure.

      Get back under your bridge!

      16 6
      1. Is it me?
        Reply Icon

        When is a hobby a hobby, and when an obscession

        And it's all well and good having a hobby, if you can afford it.

        We are all free to make our decisions, and life is free to show us the consequences.

        A shame it has to go, none the less.

        8 0
      2. Annihilator
        Reply Icon
        Meh

        re: you grumpy asshat

        "his hobby is no harm to anyone else"

        Except his to-be-ex-wife, y'know, the owner of the property? It won't sell any time soon at its correct price. You're right, he's perfectly entitled to a hobby/obsession and good luck to him, but spunking close to (what's now) £100K on permanent fixtures/fittings to a property that's not in your name isn't the brightest idea, and from what I can tell they'd separated when he kicked off his project, so knew this must be on the cards at some point.

        18 1
        1. Graham Dawson Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Annihilator, what is its "correct price"? Goods are priced at a level the market can bear. There is no "correct price", there is only the price a buyer is willing to pay.

          4 2
          1. Annihilator
            Reply Icon

            @Graham Dawson

            In the case of the seller, it's the highest they can get away with. Chances are good they can get it higher if they're not being hampered by £100K worth of day-glo covered MDF in the living room.

            6 1
          2. Tom 13
            Reply Icon

            When the flat doesn't sell at any price in a fair time frame

            the problem is the design, not the market. And when you ain't paying your own bills, you have to yield to the one who is. Which is especially bad news when it's an ex, even if the divorce was a "friendly" one.

            1 0
    5. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      A

      "I have always enjoyed The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, but that does not mean I will be decorating my house with spurs and lube."

      PRAT

      2 1
    6. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Just an hour ago...

      ... found this in a signature on a model railway forum:

      "Born to be child -- Für eine glückliche Kindheit ist es nie zu spät"

      ["It's never too late for a happy childhood".]

      0 0
  2. Phil W

    Compromise is futile?

    Seems a bit of a shame tbh, shame they couldn't compromise and try and sell it as is first. If I had a spare pile of cash lying around I'd buy it.

    2 3
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      @shame they couldn't compromise...

      You've never got divorced have you? It's not a great time for compromise

      8 0
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        That depends on the people ...

        0 0
    2. Is it me?
      Reply Icon

      Rather than throw it in the skip, put it on eBay, someone's bound to want some of it.

      8 0
  3. Smallbrainfield
    Paris Hilton

    He should apply for listed status,

    or enter it in the Turner prize.

    2 0
    1. TeeCee Gold badge
      Reply Icon
      Thumb Down

      "...or enter it in the Turner prize."

      Fat chance there as it doesn't qualify:

      1) It looks like what it's supposed to be.

      2) It's not completely shit.

      51 2
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        But if he entered the skip containing the all the bits after they'd been ripped out of the flat then it could be an incisive post-modernist comment on the ephemeral nature of modern culture

        27 0
        1. BorkedAgain
          Reply Icon
          Happy

          @AC 13:30

          You've done this before, haven't you?

          0 0
  4. oddie
    Unhappy

    :'(

    I guess now that it's gone news-worty some rich trekkie might pick it up as it is? maybe?

    from the mood-lit picture he appears to have done pretty good work :) I had to read the description to make sure that was actually his flat and not just a promo shot from the series :)

    2 0
    1. LaeMing
      Reply Icon
      Meh

      Yeah but,

      It has been up on the 'net and in the news extensively before. With a view to getting it sold. No-one bit. I think even the mostdie-hard treckie balks at that point.

      2 0
    2. C 2
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      RE: rich trekkie

      ... is an oxymoron

      0 0
  5. Adrian Challinor
    Joke

    It's a flat Jim, but not as we know it

    That is all.

    10 0
    1. Lord Midas
      Reply Icon
      Go

      Don't bin it..

      He should just move it into his garage (if he has one). Then she can have the flat all doyleyed up with kitten plates hanging on the walls, and he can have his Trek garage to chill in.

      2 3
  6. Doug Glass
    Go

    Brings whole new meaning ...

    ...to the phrase "Get a life". Or in the case of Sci-Fi, "Get a frakking life". And grow up in the process.

    4 31
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Because it's far better to surrender your identity and become a mindless conformist, isn't it?

      You just sit there and watch your 12 hours of soaps a week, it's the adult thing to do after all.

      17 3
      1. Lamont Cranston
        Reply Icon

        @Norfolk 'n' Goode

        All well and good, but it's not his house.

        There's a difference between living the life you choose (nothing wrong with clinging to the passions of youth, imho), and acting like mummy is still looking after you.

        Sadly, this guy is firmly in the latter camp.

        0 0
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      "The difference between men and boys is merely the size of their toys!"

      Why should he grow up? Plenty of people like playing at being kids when they're adults. From extreme end of the scale infantilists to more conventionally accepted nerds playing with computers and video games. What's mending cars other than a full size Mecanno kit?

      Leave him alone!

      5 0
      1. LaeMing
        Reply Icon
        Megaphone

        I keep looking at this 'life' I am supposed to be getting.

        I just don't see what is so great about being like everyone else.

        (Admitadly, I go to some trouble not to let my hobbies bankrupt me or financially disadvantage others, which isn't the case here, but that is more about getting a brain than getting a life.)

        3 0
    3. Graham Marsden
      Reply Icon
      Windows

      Re: "Get a life"

      What, you mean become a mindless drone assimilated into the mass collectivised culture rather than trying to be an individual?

      Hmm, that's an interesting thought, I wonder where I've heard it before...?

      1 0
      1. MJI Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Assimilated

        Like the Borg?

        What is wrong with being an individual?

        I still buy the odd toy* and I am getting towards 50

        * OK video game character model, mine is sitting there ready to shoot people attacking my desk!

        1 0
  7. Tatsky

    I don't understand the problem...

    Just throw a few twigs in a vase, throw some candles on the console, maybe a rug in front of the captains chair. Sorted. The little I have learnt about interior design from the wife are:

    Twigs in a vase = Good

    Empty vase on shelf = Good

    Candles = Good (Candles should never be lit)

    Cushions same colour as Candle = Very Good

    Rug = Perfection

    28 2
    1. Silverburn
      Reply Icon

      You forgot:

      'doilies' = good

      'throws' = good, as long as it matches the rug.

      1 0
    2. Annihilator
      Reply Icon
      Pint

      Combination

      You forgot the combination:

      Candles in a vase = amazing (candles should still not be lit)

      Or the Christmas alternative:

      Twigs spraypainted gold or silver in a (inexplicable different) vase = Festive and good

      2 0
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        What is the difference between a 'throw' and a 'blanket'?

        Everything needs to be terracota or cream.

        Vases with stones in them for the twigs to rest in.

        2 0
        1. Graham Dawson Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          "What is the difference between a 'throw' and a 'blanket'?"

          About thirty quid.

          23 0
    3. Greg J Preece
      Reply Icon
      Coffee/keyboard

      "Candles = Good (Candles should never be lit)"

      Captain, I appear to have nasally ejected a carbonated beverage. Should I scan it for life forms?

      9 0
      1. perlcat
        Reply Icon
        Coat

        Don't forget the seventy-five pillows.

        All different shapes and sizes. All must be arranged in a certain order every morning, all must be carefully stored every evening. The one with the blue stripes on a green background goes over *here*, and the one with the green stripes on the blue background goes over *there*.

        Her: "Don't forget that dusky muave, dusty rose, and a pale purplish pink are entirely different colours and belong in entirely different locations."

        Me: "What? They're all the *same*."

        Her: "Go sleep on the muave couch."

        Me: "WHICH ONE'S THAT?"

        crazywoman. (n). Usually pronounced [woom-uhn]. Sometimes the crazy is silent, but it is always there.

        IGMC -- I'll need it for whatever the hell couch she's pointing at. I think it's some god-awful shade of pink.

        1 0

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.