Early Risers.

[DaveF]

Thinking about moving to other countries, when I gained my Biology degree in 1971 I was offered a place to work towards a PhD, but there were no grants available.  I could have moved to the USA or France and money would have been provided but in the end I stayed in the UK and did my PGCE, ending up teaching which I enjoyed until I retired the first time.

 

Funnily enough when I had completed the PGCE year I was again offered a research place this time with funding in the UK but turned it down as I felt it was time to have a proper job.

 

David

[TheQ]

I don't think  Ben has forgiven me about his bath yet...

 

I spent 6 years in Saudi, we didn't think of ourselves as expats or anything else like that, we were employees of the company. We went there did a job and got out.. that was it.

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

It's the 'drop bears' that keep a lookout for the clueless Pommy economic migrants. 😉

Not that old chestnut!! Even the most gullible tourist won’t buy that any more.
 

But the Psycho-Koalas - that’s a different story: one minute cute & cuddly, the next minute they’re beating the **** out of you with a heavy eucalyptus branch.

 

(of course, this is all hushed up: the Australian government really doesn’t want you to know about the Psycho Koalas, they’d much rather you believe that these tourist deaths were due to some poor, innocent, spider, snake or crocodile. Keep Koalas Kuddly! Gotta keep those tourist dollars rolling in….)

[New Haven Neil]

2 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

Having now lived in Scotland for 20 years, I'm classed as an incomer rather than a white settler........................................

 

Same here, 21 years, and even though my Mum was Manx, I'm forever a 'stopover'.  'Comeovers' are tourists.  I engage with local issues, worked in the heart of the local criminal justice system, do voluntary work, jointly ran a business with over £1.3m turnover......still a stopover. 🤪

[DaveF]

I've just had an odd experience while standing looking out of the kitchen window talking to a friend on the phone.

 

A grey and brown object fell out of the sky very fast into a flower bed and promptly took off again.  It was a sparrowhawk, I think it had seen a woodmouse in the plants and tried to catch it. It didn't have anything when it took off so the mouse must have moved in time.

 

David

Edited July 15, 2023 by DaveF

[southern42]

Bread pudding in the oven - the second this week! 

Smells good!

 

 

[polybear]

Bear here.....

Big Tick of the Day was polishing then refitting the glass panels ("spindles") beneath the Bannister hand rail on the landing, along with a very brief session with the splurge gun.

Good 'ol Amazon finally delivered the safety picture hooks (they have a "catch" to prevent the string/wire on the back of a picture frame from coming off the hook) that were ordered a week ago - only they weren't as described 🤬 as the hooks were "ordinary" ones with no catch.  T0ssers.  I've already done the return procedure - the good news is they've refunded the money and don't want the hooks/nails/screws/wall plugs returned, so that's a result; an alternative has been ordered.

 

Post - din dins meant a tidy up & minor clear out session in the Shed - the tidiness factor has improved somewhat and some cr@p ditched; I also found stuff I'd forgotten I had.  The bad news is the rest of the stuff is "good stuff" or "useful stuff" so is currently earmarked for keeping; as to whether or not it'll actually be used is another matter entirely, however......

 

In other news.....

The Freecycler who wanted a couple of items baled out, though he did message me several hours before he was due to collect to let me know so he stays off the "banned list" - for now at least.  One of the items is wanted by someone else, so they have a chance to collect tomorrow.

 

BG

[Ozexpatriate]

49 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Psycho-Koalas

Just as well Chris isn't here to hear you say that. There's a good chance that might unbalance his gentle temper. 

 

Very fond of koalas was he. But I am glad you didn't call them "bears".

 

I've probably related the story of the Australian tourism minister who made a comment along the lines that he didn't understand the fuss over koalas - "Flea-ridden, piddling, stinking, scratching, rotten little things"* - which was a bit career limiting for a tourism minister.

 

* John Brown Minister for Sport, Recreation and Tourism (1983)

[Ozexpatriate]

3 minutes ago, polybear said:

Big Tick of the Day was polishing then refitting the glass panels

"When I was a lad ... I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor and I polished up the handle of the big front door."

 

Comes to mind for some reason.

 

But no matter how much polishing, I doubt you'll be ruler of the big empire (which happens to phrase nicely in the right place).

[polybear]

Oh yes....

And I've had several emails in the past week or so to warn me that my McAfee Security is about to expire - which is pretty surprising cos' I don't use it anyway.  T0ssers.

The other one I had a day or so ago was to warn me that my Cloud Storage Account was about to be deleted (meaning I'd lose everything stored there) if I didn't contact them asap.  I'm not overly worried cos' I don't have a Cloud account - no way am I ever going to trust someone else to keep all my info & piccies safe (and run the risk of some Herbert having a nose thru') thanks very much.  Another T0sser.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Keep Koalas Kuddly! Gotta keep those tourist dollars rolling in….)

Aussie projection of soft power. (Google it) You'll see article after article like these:

 

Australia's soft power: Speak softly, and carry a fluffy koala

The rise and influence of koala diplomacy

Koalas, platypuses and pandas and the power of soft diplomacy

Koala diplomacy: Australian soft power saves the day at G20

Koalas are Australia’s Most Effective Diplomats

 

As a footnote, even Australians probably avoid slogans with the initials K - K - K. That one is almost up there with the topic of Godwin's Law as related to "things to avoid".

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[Tim Dubya]

I'm at an evening of flamenco dancing*, food and drink.... mostly drink (them Brazilian's sure are fursty ferrets), at St. Luke's Church Hall in Bath (the Devonshire tunnel runs underneath, I believe).

On my way to the facilities I've just noticed this door, I've knocked several times but he's not coming out for nobody 🤔

 

 

* I done a deal with the former Mrs Dubya, she gave me a lift to LarkRail (I've been a little poorly sick and ill recently) and I promised not to laugh at her dancing... I mean, I said I'd come with her to watch the fun (very loud fun).

 

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by Tim Dubya
pink wine

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Keep Koalas Kuddly!

As many people are well aware koalas are anything but kuddly. 
 

They are big and heavy, have huge claws which they are not afraid to deploy, they smell (of koala - which not everyone likes) and have breath to match. They also leave odorous scat behind. 
 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Psycho-Koalas

Drop-bears as they are also known.
 

These can be distinguished from koalas (assuming you survive the attack) by their even longer teeth and claws, drooling mouth, evil-red eyes and their habit of dropping from trees without first announcing their presence and often with fatal results for the tourist humans beneath. 
 

Koalas are not bears. They are koalas. Drop-bears are just a paranursine menace which Australia tries to deny by selling you Vegemite. You apply it behind your ears to repel attacks. 

[Gwiwer]

The shipping forecast shirt-of-the-day 

 

[Gwiwer]

Distant (Signal) West update. 
 

We have a signed but not-yet-dated contract deposited with our conveyancer. A couple of items remain outstanding; neither is a deal-breaker on our side if unresolved.  
 

We remain hopeful that the process concludes smoothly allowing us to plan the relocation 

 

Speaking of which it seems to be relocation season. Two more tenants left the sinking ship Hill of Strawberries today more or less against their will. The block is being emptied; tenancies are not being renewed even for these two who are on US-UK exchange studentships and were due to go anyway by the end of the year. They have had to find a short-term let and move on. 
 

And after a long silence Former Neighbour (Upstairs) who hasn’t spoken to me in over a  year is on the move again and asked me if I would take back the items we gave her when she left here. That was now two moves ago but she hasn’t need of or room for the bedside units. If they fit in the back of the Little Red Driving Box I’ll relocate them to a charity shop. 

[Hroth]

All Koalas do is sleep, eat and procreate.

 

Very human.....

 

[monkeysarefun]

5 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

It's the 'drop bears' that keep a lookout for the clueless Pommy economic migrants. 😉

Even the baby ones can tell a tourist a mile off.  NO australian  would go into drop-bear territory when the young have just hatched.!

 

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[tigerburnie]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Same here, 21 years, and even though my Mum was Manx, I'm forever a 'stopover'.  'Comeovers' are tourists.  I engage with local issues, worked in the heart of the local criminal justice system, do voluntary work, jointly ran a business with over £1.3m turnover......still a stopover. 🤪

I do have Scots ancestry it turns out, but it was a very long time ago

Mungo Mure Laird Rowallen

B:1500 Rowallan Castle, Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland

D:10 Sep 1547 Battle Of Pinkie, Inveresk, Midlothian, Scotland,

so I don't think I can stake a claim on the castle lol

[Gwiwer]

35 minutes ago, Hroth said:

All Koalas do is sleep, eat and procreate.

 

Very human.....

 

But beware if you have to arrange transport for them. The paperwork can catch you out 
 

There’s a lot of difference between “Eats shoots and leaves” and “Eats, shoots and leaves”. 
 

🤣

[monkeysarefun]

7 hours ago, Tony_S said:

We had visited a wild boar reserve in Southern Germany. They were running around in quite large paddocks and you could admire the baby ones. At the entrance bags of corn were on sale. At the exit there were assorted sausage and other wild boar products. Afterwards we crossed the road and got back in the car.  Then it started shaking. The most enormous boar, bigger than anything we had just seen, complete with tusks, had come out of the woods and was licking the insects off the car and having a scratch. Aditi wondered what I was going to do. I said “I wasn’t getting out” .

 

 

 

The scrub is alive with wild pigs here (they are called pigs here thought they look nothing like a your standard pig! )

 

Beloved by the hunting fraternity since all our native wildlife is protected (except kangaroo if you're a licensed shooter and its a registered cull ). The pigs have recently been appearing closer and closer to the eastern seaboard, one theory is that bad-egg hunters capture younger pigs and bring them back closer to the city and dump them in the bush to breed up so they wont have so far to drive when they want to go shooting. This one was in Penrith, a western suburb of Sydney.

 

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

There is also the issue of the 'locals' wanting to live in the 'fun' places (usually, but not always* the big cities) - leaving health care deserts outside major cities where staffing is dire.

 

The situation is the same in the US. Not too long ago I watched a news magazine story about the pipeline of Filipino nurses being imported to keep hospitals in the Dakotas open.

 

Australia has long had a policy of recruiting overseas healthcare workers to remote areas. What has changed is how much they are now needed in the cities.

 

* Even desirable locations can be starved of heathcare. My cousin speaks of a colleague (retirement age) who relocated to a resort community on the Queensland coast (barrier reef area). With a large number of older people retiring to such locations the (formerly barely adequate**) heathcare resources cannot cope.

 

** Maybe not even that

 

 

There are incentives starting to be implemented aimed at getting medical staff (and teachers) to work in remote areas, cash bonuses for the experienced and offers of accelerated promotion, uni-debt rebates and various other things for new graduates.

 

  Our concentration of population in major centres along the coast helps a little, I imagine things would be much more difficult if the middle-bit of the country was habitable and the population was spread more thinly and  evenly through-out it like the US. 

 

For those that do live remotely, the Flying Doctor does a brilliant job for emergency cases, and the Angel Flight network also provides flights from remote areas to medical facilities for those requiring regular cancer treatment and so on , and they are both a completely free service for all who require them .

Edited July 15, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[grandadbob]

Evenin' each,

Not a bad day here at GDB Towers.

Shed visited and track painting was the order of the day.  As some of you may possibly remember (if you're still awake)  I'd ballasted some track before painting it. That's now been put right and I've started painting the rest of the unballasted track including the new sidings....only about 35 feet to do at rough guess. 

Had a break for lunch then did a bit more but by 15.15 The Back, Knee and Hip had formed a trio and were singing in harmony so I gave up for the day.  Back to the house for a muggatea and another small piece of bread pudding.  I could easily have eaten more but had to think of the diet.

Friend whose garden I've been watering for the past fortnight popped in to say thank you and bearing gifts of wine, shortbread and fudge.  There was no need for gifts and I thought it would be churlish to refuse as I'm on a diet and accepted them with a smile.  I'll just have to savour them slowly over a period of time......Hah! Fat chance of that happening.

Watched the last hour or so of the T de F and very enjoyable it was too.

More salad tonight with a bit of pizza to add some body.  Still no booze as I'm saving this week's allowance for tomorrow as we're out to lunch.

 

Edited July 15, 2023 by grandadbob

[monkeysarefun]

5 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

The fecundity of the tropics is conducive to biodiversity - in spite of the concrete.

I saw that in Darwin. Down here unkempt yards are often a patch of brown dead grass and a few water-starved looking shrubs. Up there its usually a rampant jungle so thick that you cant see the house!

[polybear]

Bear here....

Just watched a special episode of "Casualty" (not a programme I routinely watch - though it's ok) to mark the 75th anniversary of the NHS; tonight's programme was a bit different in format and I have to say it was very, very well done - worth a watch if you've nottalot better to do.

 

BG.

[zarniwhoop]

6 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

I know I keep saying it, but it never ceases to amaze me just how much wildlife there is here despite it being an urban city state:

 

 

 

I clicked on 'Quote' to ask if there was a picture, and if so was it some obscure format (I'm using firefox). But now I can see the video. Thanks.

[Coombe Barton]

... the back of the sofa yielded £5.48, a pair of knickers, two pairs of socks (all clean and mine) and Sandy’s binoculars ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/07/15/covid-data-unchanged-and-some-are-planning-on-leaving-a-ship-which-may-be-sinking/