Early Risers.

[Dave Hunt]

14 hours ago, Barry O said:

 Singapore Airline stewardesses are drop dead gorgeous and very good at their job.

 

And very welcoming and attentive. Eight years ago I won two return tickets to Singapore with Singapore Airlines. I half expected to be treated somewhat offhandedly due to having a 'freebie' but far from it. We were almost treated like VIPs and the crew even knew that the reason for winning the competition was for saying why we would like to visit Singapore. They wanted to know what I had said and when I told them that it was because we had lived there when first married in 1969 and wanted to see where we had lived they thought that was terrific and a couple of them came to sit by us and chat about what we thought of their home country in those days. All in all it was a superb trip and I couldn't praise the airline too highly.

 

Dave

[southern42]

On 20/07/2023 at 11:47, southern42 said:

A quick visit to town to see if I can get a smaller size of the George Az Doh! trousers, first.

 

None in stock but, said store lady, I could order online and have it sent to store...but none there, either. I shall have to make do with the baggy trousers. Don't worry, come lots of C* cake and C* pudding at the end of the year and I will soon fill out again! 🤣

 

' evening all from red dragon land.

A lot of the wet stuff was around today.

 

Notalot achieved today. A bit of hoovering and clearing up. Other than that, a bit of toot on the flute to take advantage of last evening's venture with a drum beat video. At 110 bpm, it set rather a good pace - maybe, too good - for the first of my three songs. Nothing ventured, though...but I am making progress on the third song. Just waiting for the gut feeling/strike of impatience/right mood that will let me know when to start line 3 and its lot of twiddly bits.

 

I popped onto the live volcano video a few times during the day. Looking quite dramatic now it is dark; fascinating to watch. Screenshot taken at 20:20 UK time shows Speed of lava flow, Volume, Expanse, and CO2 and SO2 emissions

 

That is me done for the day.

Take care. Be good. Keep going.

Polly

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The rain is still persisting down, all that can be said for it is that it is (relatively) warm rain. Just had a very nice ham sarnie. The ham is a brand called 'Jolly Hog', a bit expensive but no added water and tastes like ham.

[NGT6 1315]

Evening all. Just saying thanks for all your support really doesn't seem enough, but I thoroughly mean it!

 

It seems like Mum is slowly coming to. Given the heavy sedation, this may take several days (probably has to in order to avoid further problems), but Dad informed me she was attempting to adjust her position in bed and reacting to her surroundings. It's still unclear what caused this emergency to develop in the first place. Further tests will be run after the weekend, though I understand that there's an even-money chance there may never be a definitive answer in such cases.

 

May I also use this opportunity to thank the paramedic team who I gather were on site within five minutes at most. However unlikely it may be that any of them should end up on this forum - cheers.

 

I can tell you that the past nearly-two days have been an experience I could rather do without, and sincerely hope I won't have to go through again. Being so anxious yet helpless to do anything at the same time will definitely deplete your reserves, no matter how well-composed you are.

 

I'll keep you updated, of course.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Hroth]

Can't see the puddleometer in the dark, but from the sounds its really splashing down!

 

Time for some soothing music....  😪

 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

Well, our day didn’t quite go as planned. Whilst we were at the Trafford Centre this morning, Sheila had a phone call from Mike, letting us know that they wouldn’t be coming round this afternoon, as Sarah’s grandfather had been taken into hospital, coughing up blood, which isn’t a good sign. Sarah was at the hospital when Mike called and the latest is that he has pneumonia and is very poorly. This put a bit of a damper on the rest of our day. So, we didn’t do any baking and we also didn’t have a takeaway, I cooked a small curry instead. 
 

It’s still chuckinitdarn here, but at least it’s slowing down. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Tim Dubya]

Day went pretty much to plan, I managed to stay dry despite attempts by the weather to do otherwise.  Out for dinner on the other side of the valley and back home in the dry.

Win, win!

 

Night everyone 👍

[Ozexpatriate]

5 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

... Woollen-GABBer are what’s often heard. 
 

Everyone knows it’s ... “The Gabba”, don’t they? 

It certainly is for the cricket ground and was for "the fiveways". It will be locally for the cross river rail with a station on the site of the old southside 'Gabba rail yards, though the new station name will officially be Woolloongabba - unlike the branch and yards which Queensland Railways spelled Wooloongabba - at variance with the Post Office.

 

Those who live in the area (my dad grew up there) would still put Woolloongabba on their addresses - my dad was fond of rattling off double you, double oh, double el, double oh, gee, a, double b a.

[Ozexpatriate]

My son and I took in the Barbie movie today. There is some wickedly funny satire there, though eventually I found it uneven and muddled toward the end. Director Greta Gerwig had some very heavy lifting keeping things 'light' with her chosen theme and finds her mark, albeit imperfectly (in my view).

 

Saturday Night Live alum Kate McKinnon outshines the main cast with her character in her scenes.

 

Today, Google is painting searches returning "Barbie" results with pink highlights, background and sparkles.

[jjb1970]

8 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

And that is why they are the chosen ones. Size, weight, looks, age and ability to do the job perfectly are all taken into account. 
 

You may find a male purser on an SQ flight but I don’t think they employ any other male cabin staff. Which rather flies in the face of equality. 
 

We noticed that on our recent Finnair flights that none of the cabin crew were “drop-dead gorgeous” but rather were quite senior and almost severe-looking ladies. With one young blond chap on the outbound flight. 

 

It depends on the flight, but the mix of male-female flight attendants can be 50:50 on Singapore Airlines and male attendants are normal. Their male attendants follow the same template as their female colleagues in being immaculately groomed and generally at the younger end of the scale. Unlike the famous female uniform, the kebaya sarong, male attendants wear the global standard suit type of uniform.

 

I like airlines which tip the hat to their own heritage. Singapore Airlines made the kebaya sarong their trademark, Malaysian Airlines and Garuda Indonesia have similar uniforms for their famale attendants. Vietnam Airlines uses the ao dai for female attendants which is very elegant, Air India female attendants wear a sari, I find it nicer than just another variation of the same bog standard uniform.

[Ozexpatriate]

Heading out to the movies today was met with disappointment. I had checked the show times late in the week and when my son and I arrived at the local multiplex cinema it was closed - apparently permanently, despite multiple online sources still posting show times for today.

 

The corporate website for the cinema chain has a notice saying the location closed on Thursday. Now, three of four cinemas (all in the same chain) that were within a 20 minute drive have closed.

 

I've been watching movies in that cinema for over 20 years. It was quite disappointing to see it close. My son and I watched the latest Indiana Jones movie there two weeks ago. Unlike the other two locations, which I knew ahead of time were closing, I had not heard this one was scheduled to close.

 

Google presently shows it as "less busy than usual"

No kidding. The doors are locked.

 

Edited July 23, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[jjb1970]

The movie I want to see is Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan is a brilliant director (one of those who isn't afraid to do things differently and challenge his audience to think rather than spoon feeding them) and the subject matter is compelling.

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

The movie I want to see is Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan is a brilliant director (one of those who isn't afraid to do things differently and challenge his audience to think rather than spoon feeding them) and the subject matter is compelling.

My son and I plan to see it next week.

[jjb1970]

4 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

And very welcoming and attentive. Eight years ago I won two return tickets to Singapore with Singapore Airlines. I half expected to be treated somewhat offhandedly due to having a 'freebie' but far from it. We were almost treated like VIPs and the crew even knew that the reason for winning the competition was for saying why we would like to visit Singapore. They wanted to know what I had said and when I told them that it was because we had lived there when first married in 1969 and wanted to see where we had lived they thought that was terrific and a couple of them came to sit by us and chat about what we thought of their home country in those days. All in all it was a superb trip and I couldn't praise the airline too highly.

 

Dave

 

All things being equal I'd have Singapore Airlines as my default choice, they're an excellent airline, but their fares for flights to Europe for local customers are bonkers. And they're red hot about plugging any gaps for people to bypass local fares. My son managed to get on their UK website for long enough to find fares on the same flights I wanted to London for half the price they wanted in Singapore before being kicked out and directed to the Singapore website. However their fares for inter-Asian flights are competitive for locals and I use them a lot for flights within Asia (many of which are long haul, people in Europe tend not to realize just how big Asia is) and they're excellent. Even their flights to Bangkok, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Jakarta (2 - 3 hours) offer a meal service, full inflight entertainment and the same seating as long haul.

 

Asia has seen the same changes as Europe and North America with low cost carriers (LCCs) capturing a huge slice of the market and really pressuring legacy airlines. Airlines like Air Asia, Scoot, Vietjet, Citilink, Jetstar, Bamboo etc have huge fleets flying very extensive networks and if you can time it right and don't need any of the extras can cost peanuts. And while they're low cost and frugal they do LCCs much better than Europe, basic but there is still some ethos of service and they seem to sit somewhere halfway between legacy carriers and the European type of LCC.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

wickedly funny satire there, though eventually I found it uneven and muddled toward the end. Director Greta Gerwig had some very heavy lifting keeping things 'light' with her chosen theme and finds her mark, albeit imperfectly (in my view).

Apparently the internet recommended thing is to see Barbie and Oppenheimer on the same day...

 

[BR60103]

With the weather for Dayle's birthday tomorrow being mainly thunderstorms, we made an event today.

She wanted French Fries under the bridge in Sarnia (her parents moved there for her last year of high school). We did the morning trip along the motorways. There were stops at a British shop and a book store in Sarnia, then under the Bluewater bridge to the USofA. Fries and hotdogs -- the fries were generous and we shared a "small" one.

One half of the bridge is currently closed (I forget why). Signs on the approach promised a 75 minute delay for cars; N/A for trucks.

Having seen excessively heavy traffic in the opposite direction, we decided to take lesser roads back. Assorted problems as what used to be the Queen's Highway 7 was divided up by a government a while back and can't be properly traced anymore. Extra problems when my chosen route turned out to a gravel road and another road was temporarily closed by the police. 

 

[monkeysarefun]

24 minutes ago, BR60103 said:

One half of the bridge is currently closed (I forget why). Signs on the approach promised a 75 minute delay for cars; N/A for trucks.

Having seen excessively heavy traffic in the opposite direction, we decided to take lesser roads back.

Earlier this month the Victoria Hwy in the NT was flooded  between Delamere (?) and Gregory when when the Victoria River broke its banks.

 

Usually the trip from one to the other  is a short drive.

 

 

The floods though meant that if you lived in Delamere and wanted to pick something up in Gregory, you were in for a  bit of a detour...

 

 

 

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

If you need to borrow the Ferrari Flavio just say 😉      I have no use for it .....

Thanks Puppers, but I’ll stick with the 1956 Bentley, thank you very much.

 

Never was a “Boy Racer”, truth be told. Always been “sedate, sober, studious and sensible” as opposed to “vroom, vroom”

[iL Dottore]

9 hours ago, DaveF said:

….I'd rather go out ino the empty bits of Northumberland where I sometimes don't see anyone for ages….

Paradoxically, I also like the solitude of empty countryside. I think that in both cases it’s because one is alone (in big cities I enjoy the solitude of anonymity).

 

I think that I am unusual inasmuch as I enjoy being by myself without the need for external distractions such as having the TV or radio on. I can also quite happily go for days without talking to anyone. Often, when Mrs iD and the Wolfpack are in the Holiday Hovel, apart from the people at the gym I don’t see anybody for days on end.

 

It does seem that there are two types of people: those who can define themselves and who they are internally; and those who must define themselves and who they are by what’s around them. Our late chum, ChrisF, was definitely in the latter camp - with Covid lockdown hitting him particularly badly.

[Flanged Wheel]

For those interested in the Oppenheimer film (and I definitely fall into that esteemed category), can I also recommend a podcast from the “Rest is History”? It is an excellent two part introduction to the historical character.

 

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rest-is-history/id1537788786?i=1000617838413

 

I’m sure that most people have come across this podcast series by now but I have to say that I find it hugely enjoyable. It is one of our default choices for long family car journeys (and if you are driving across Brazil, there are quite a few of those). The “Ten Worst Parties in History” is our acclaimed favourite. Well worth a few minutes of your time.

[Erichill16]

22 hours ago, polybear said:

 

VSBT's....

Give the offending persons an ultimatum - shift it or list it within a month or you'll deliver it on their drive.  BiL & SiL by any chance?  Will they get the ar5e 'ole?  Maybe - but Bear suspects not for long cos' they want an unpaid Creche at the drop of a hat.  Will SWMBO get the 'ump?  Ear Plugs.  She'll get over it - a brief spell of 'umpiness has gotta be better than your Garage being clogged with other people's cr@p for ever more**, hasn't it?

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them maybe you can hire The Bear.....

 

(**Cos' that's what'll happen).

 

Within a month, more like two weeks!

Ive already shown four people around the property and bil and sil go on holiday in a fortnight.
Once their stuff is out of the way I’d like to install some shelves from the old business premises and this will involve moving some of my stuff outside while I assemble it. Can’t do anything at the moment, it’s a bit like solitaire, but without the missing piece.

 

 

Edited July 23, 2023 by Erichill16
Add sy

[iL Dottore]

3 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

… I like airlines which tip the hat to their own heritage. Singapore Airlines made the kebaya sarong their trademark, Malaysian Airlines and Garuda Indonesia have similar uniforms for their famale attendants. Vietnam Airlines uses the ao dai for female attendants which is very elegant, Air India female attendants wear a sari, I find it nicer than just another variation of the same bog standard uniform.

From my experience of flying hundreds of thousands of miles with BA, that’s certainly something you can’t accuse British Airways of doing. I remember the furore that erupted when BA did away with the Union Jack (Union Flag?) on the tail fin, replacing it with a red white and blue swirl and then replacing that with “international designs” (the beardy one certainly capitalised on that when he  declared his airline to be “Britain’s flag carrier” since the Virgin Atlantic aircraft still carried the flag).

 

It was during this period that I won a very nice leather Samsonite roller cabin bag for writing “the letter of the month” to Business Traveller  magazine (remember those and the accompanying prizes they handed out?). I had just completed two back-to-back trips: one with British Airways, one with Air France and I wrote to Business Traveller, pointing out that BA seemed to be rather embarrassed about being “British”, whilst Air France was proudly and resolutely Gallic - this distinction extending as far as the onboard catering with BA serving bland “Euro Food”* and Air France serving a very emphatically French menu (including “stinky cheese”)

 

Here’s an interesting take on BA’s mishaps: https://onlykutts.com/index.php/2022/11/17/britishless-british-airways-the-branding-folly/

 

* on the subject of British Airways food, I was chatting to one of the cabin crew on one of my regular LHR – SFO trips about the lack of proper British food on BA and the cabin crew member informed me that they did serve some “ proper British food“ but only in First Class and it was always the case that nearly all the first class passengers asked for the British food menu and was always the case that they never had enough “ British Food” meals on board for all the passengers that wanted British nosh (you would have thought tha BA would have listened to their First Class passengers…. Obviously not)

[Ozexpatriate]

6 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

the Union Jack (Union Flag?)

Union Flag.

 

It is only a Jack when flown on a jack staff.