Early Risers.

[jamie92208]

First of. Hello to Debs and of course to Baz, get that tunnel dug soon.  Much skipping has been done as we had an Internet/phone outage.  I achieved a miracle and managed to navigate the Orange help, Iine menuu in French on my mobile.  By an even greater miracle a very helpful technician arrived at 10.00 am and sorted the problem.  Someone had damaged a connection at the village hub.  This means they don't charge me €69 for the visit, the ironing has been done. 

 

Now take lunch and then head off train spotting  with Andy.  Not a bad day in prospect.

 

Jamie

[grandadbob]

Oven "gunk" has been sprayed on and now I just have to wait for it to do its magic and see if it's as good as they claim.

Must admit after years of using different stuff I am somewhat sceptical, the best I've found so far is Oven Mate but who knows?  I will be quite happy to be surprised.

The rain promised earlier never arrived and the sun is shining .... for now.

Edited September 20, 2023 by grandadbob

[PupCam]

I'm back from the Jabbage Emporium and now it's time for a muggacoffee and maybe a Shortbread all the way from Scootland  😀

 

I have to record what a first class service the local pharmacy provided with a most efficient, cheerful and helpful reception lady and a quick and painless deed from the youngish jab administrator.    To cap it all I got home just as my appointment was due so 10/10 and a Gold House Star to them.       I have a flu jab booked at the GPs in a few weeks time.  It will make for an interesting comparison!

 

TTFNQ

[tigerburnie]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

1/2 hour spent cutting brambles , morning glory, nettles, Ivy, the alleyway (3ft by 20 ft) is now cut down, thigh says no more, so clearing will be another day. I will buy a couple of bags of salt, since sodium chlorate was banned there hasn't been a good long term weedkiller available.

Just went looking for vinegar to go with the salt on eBay... Discovered the ebay supplier of high strength vinegar is....  13 miles away....

A trip will occur but not today, lugging 25kg bags of salt will annoy thigh.

I'd wish you didn't, poisoning the earth is not a very good idea really.

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, polybear said:

Dump the salad for beanz and it'd be even better.

 

 

?

 

Baked beans belong served cold in a sandwich.

 

When you were aged 8 and were at primary school.

 

 

 

Same goes for tinned spaghetti.

 

 

 

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

Days of the wetnwindies still ongoing although the pine cone pundits reckon on some sunshine today.

 

Not much to report other than some mags of the unmentionable type are ready to have some articles removed, toot on the flute is progressing nicely (atm, anyway!), the washing machine is lacking washing due to inclement weather for drying, and I am still restless after returning from two very enjoyable days on the SVR, not helped by webcam watching, yesterday, of its 75069 being prepared for carting off to the NYMR for its coming 50th Anniversary gala this coming weekend (Thur-Sun). With A4 'Sir Nigel Gresley' in blue, 9F 2-10-0 No. 92214, and Caledonian Railway 2P No. 55189 also joining the resident fleet, I am a tad envious!

 

Envious or not, time for a mugadecaf. 

Take care. Be good. Keep motivated.

Polly

 

[southern42]

16 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

?

 

Baked beans belong served cold in a sandwich.

 

When you were aged 8 and were at primary school.

 

 

 

Same goes for tinned spaghetti.

 

 

 

 

Pass!

[Barry O]

I like parmos and schnitties. Middlesborough is well known for Parmo availability inthe UK.

 

Prefer mine with salad and fries.

 

Good news is..Baz is getting better. Viral infection is root cause!

 

Great!

 

BUT fluid around my heart needs to be drained (nope not the blood stuff!).

 

That will be done tomorrow.. all being well. Senior doctors and junior doctors are on strike but they are still here in Cardio. One patient visited by a professor this morning. Fascinating listeneng to him mentoring a couple of junior doctors. Very good delivery and approach.

 

Guy next door to me is to receive a pacemaker. He sees no reason to stop smoking 20+ cigarettes a day...give me strength! But,as he has breathing problems he will have to wait until next week for his op.

 

Time for lunch methinks!

 

As an aside, inthe North East some councillors became "life time professional" councillors. Generations followed that path to a cushy living. Eventually the brighter locals twigged that they weren't interested in anything but themselves. Giant clear out occurred.. Good!

 

Baz

[PeterBB]

23 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Kingston and St Mary’s Universities students who have joined our population this week. 
 

 

Until you metioned this I had no idea that the teacher training college was now part and parcel of Kingston University or of the change of name.  

 

Best wishes for your move next Monday.

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

I'd wish you didn't, poisoning the earth is not a very good idea really.

It's between a conservatory, in name only it's an extension to the kitchen, with washing machines dryers and freezers in) and a six foot high brick wall other than the above mentioned jungle it should be just a gravel path. No wanted vegetation could be harmed, The only reason I don't concrete it is it would then be a pond ..

 

A choice for school meals? Never heard of it. You got whatever sludge was put on your plate and had to eat it..

[Debs.]

33 minutes ago, southern42 said:

 

Pass!

It's nasty stuff! 

I knew someone who got food poisoning from a can of Alphabet Spaghetti - They told me it caused the most painful vowel problems they'd ever had......and they ended up badly consonantipated.🫣

[iL Dottore]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

 

Good Grief, no wonder the Aussies are so keen on sports and exercise.
 

With a menu like that, if they took the British attitude to exercise (i.e. basically just reaching for the TV remote whilst opening another bag of monster munch) they’d be a bunch of larda**s instead of the bronzed, finely honed and chiselled Goddesses (and Gods) we admire and who install fear and panic into every British Athletic endeavour.

Edited September 20, 2023 by iL Dottore

[Tony_S]

48 minutes ago, Debs. said:

It's nasty stuff! 

I knew someone who got food poisoning from a can of Alphabet Spaghetti - They told me it caused the most painful vowel problems they'd ever had......and they ended up badly consonantipated.🫣

Oh dear. Thank goodness they hadn’t pasta way. 

[The Lurker]

7 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

This has long bugged me about the "British" view of the world. 

 

Why are half the countries of Europe (and many of their cities) Anglicized for English speakers?

 

Is "Italia" too difficult for the British tongue? Or "Roma" or "Milano"?  Why is "Deutschland" called "Germany"?  (Of course the French do much the same thing - as in Angleterre - but at least that is a literal translation - like Estados Unidos.)

 

The weird thing is that despite centuries of rivalry/warfare, there are few French cities that are Anglicized. Of course the accent is lost on Paris and we do have some Anglicized departments - like Brittany, but there isn't a "Marsez" for example.

 

It's a historic thing. the names of countries and cities have been anglicised for centuries; newer or less important places (historically) weren't familiar enough to get anglicised. Not just French place either; it would not surprise me if half the places in the old Hanseatic league have anglicised names. We certainly anglicised the pronunciation of places in WWI  - the Wipers Times being a a famous example. And other words too; allegedly "plonk" came from "plink plonk" which in turn was from "vin blanc".

 

As you say the French do it too with Londres and Douvres and Pay de Galle, L'Ecosse, Les Pays-Bas, l'Allemagne, amongst others. 

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, TheQ said:

A choice for school meals? Never heard of it. You got whatever sludge was put on your plate and had to eat it..

 

 

That sounds a bit like that communism that we were fighting in Vietnam against at the time!

 

In contrast we in the Free World  could  either take our own lunch from home, usually the afore-mentioned soggy sandwich with beetroot, or the  alternative of  ordering lunch at  the school canteen, which was manned by the Canteen Angels.

 

Who were actually just our mums on a roster.

 

You'd always hope that when it was your mums turn you'd be able to get a heap of free stuff, ice blocks, space food sticks, finger buns, .... but something about canteen duty always  made your mum change for the worse and she'd treat you just like she did  the other kids, no freebies.

 

For lunch orders you'd write what you wanted on a brown paper bag, with your name and class on it and put in the money and leave it in a box outside the school canteen. At lunchtime the lunch monitor ( not a lizard, which you'd probably expect in Australia, but  just an     actual kid who was on a roster) came around with the lunches in a milk crate and left them outside the classroom door.  Come lunchtime everyone would get to sit around in the shade of a spindly gum tree in the dust, to eat our lunch while bull-ants attacked us.

 

If it was winter there'd be pies and sausage rolls and tomato or chicken noodle cupa-soup on the menu. In summer it'd be sunnyboys and razzes. Which were basically pyramids of frozen flavoured ice.

 

Then we'd run around like mad in the heat until the bell  went off, at which point we'd go back to the hot classroom and stare out the window at the occasional lame willy-willy  stirring up the dust and  dried gum-leaves while the teacher droned  on about Burke And Wills , or the League of Nations.  Occasionally a blowfly would bang against the glass attempting to get out, they could be caught gently in your hands then you could lean across to Jenny-Lynne Warren  who sat in front of you and yank out one of her long hairs.  A loop   tied in the end  would  be placed around the flies neck and gently tightened, but not too much or its head would fall off, but if successful you'd have a kind of pet fly on a leash.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[BoD]

4 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

I'll be 53 tomorrow, I have two teenage kids, it's pretty clear they think differently to me and have very different views to mine on many things. I have just as much right to my views as they have to theirs, and the views of older people also need to be represented. But I hope that if I live to be 80 (maybe a triumph of optimism) I'll have a view of 'leave me alone, but I've had my life, it's for younger people to figure out what sort of country they want'.

In ‘that’ referendum back in 2016 I asked my son, daughter and eldest grandson what they wanted their future relationship with the continent to be, and voted accordingly. In effect, I gave my grandson, who wasn’t quite old enough to vote, my vote.

Edited September 20, 2023 by BoD

[45156]

Afternoon All

 

Great to have Debs popping in - good to hear from you.

 

Barry - get well soon.

 

Skipping has happened mainly due to lack of time and absence of mojo.

 

It's been chuckinitdarn here for a couple of days now - but that hasn't stopped us from taking Lily to Church Stretton today - the wet dog smell in the car was amazingly strong.

 

Not a lot more to say.

 

Regards to All

Stewart

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

46 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

With a menu like that, if they took the British attitude to exercise (i.e. basically just reaching for the TV remote whilst opening another bag of monster much) they’d be a bunch of larda**s instead of the bronzed, finely honed and chiselled Goddesses (and Gods) we admire and who install fear and panic into every British Athletic endeavour.

L unchtimes and recess spent running around under the sun like mad idiots,  playing Aussie Rules or British Bulldog kept us trim!

 

  For PE twice a week we'd have to run into town and back -  around 10km.  Mr Clark, the mad WW2 veteran ex-Changi POW PE teacher would follow us in his Datsun and gently nudge the slower kids with his front bumper as encouragement.

 

If  the temperature hit 40 or more we still got to run into town but we were allowed to stop  at the pool   for a 10 minute swim on the way back.

Edited September 20, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

4 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Or better yet unplug the phone and when BiL dashes round to 'find out if your alright' say 'Oops must have knocked it out when I was vacuuming, but thank you for dashing round to check on us. Now that your here though do you think you could take some of your crap from the garage please- you know the stuff that you said you'd shift three months ago. Thank You '.😆

 

Now that has possibilities.....

 

"You can unload your kid only after you've loaded up a boot full of crap out of my garage....."

 

4 hours ago, PupCam said:

That'll make a Bear laugh!        Clearly Captain C has no knowledge of the GE and Bear's exploits there 😂

 

 

The Bear.

The Legend.

 

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Baked beans belong served cold in a sandwich.

 

When you were aged 8 and were at primary school.

 

 

C'mon, own up....how much is iD paying you??

[monkeysarefun]

3 minutes ago, polybear said:

C'mon, own up....how much is iD paying you??

 

Shhh.  I have to be nice to him. I don't get Gary The Parrot back unharmed until I have finished the 3D  modelling task he has set me.

Edited September 20, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[TheQ]

 

Cup-a-soup didn't arrive in the UK till 1972, ( just looked it up) only shortly before I left school.

 

You could always bring your own sarnies to school, except at the last,   as we lived too far from a secondary school,  term time was at the council school hostel, so you were fed as though you were entitled to free school meals in the school and not only did we have school meals Monday to Friday, we had in the hostel canteen very similar food at the weekends, evenings plus breakfast.

 

Just got SWMBO's state pension payment record... 37 years, they encourage you to pay in for the missing payments.... that would be about £7000 ..

 

 

But they don't say it on the letter .. you only need 35 years to get a full state pension!!! So they won't be getting £7000 from us!!

 

Still no parcel from Royal mail, now over due...

 

[Andy Hayter]

8 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

This has long bugged me about the "British" view of the world. 

 

Why are half the countries of Europe (and many of their cities) Anglicized for English speakers?

 

Is "Italia" too difficult for the British tongue? Or "Roma" or "Milano"?  Why is "Deutschland" called "Germany"?  (Of course the French do much the same thing - as in Angleterre - but at least that is a literal translation - like Estados Unidos.)

 

The weird thing is that despite centuries of rivalry/warfare, there are few French cities that are Anglicized. Of course the accent is lost on Paris and we do have some Anglicized departments - like Brittany, but there isn't a "Marsez" for example.

 

 

 

A degree of over-sensitivity on your part perhaps?

 

It is very common  for nations to have their own names for countries and cities.

 

You might be surprised to find out what we and the locals call:

 

Bergen - Mons in Belgium

Genf - Geneva

Breslau - Wroclaw in Poland

Koenigsberg - Kaliningrad (Russian enclave)

 

All of the above are German names for the places named.

 

Edimburgo is Spanish for a place you might be able to guess in Scotland but where did the "m" come from?

 

 

As for Hrvatska, I doubt most non-Slavic speakers could pronounce it let alone realise it is Croatia.  Ditto Srbija - Serbia.  Some of the name changes are undoubtedly due to pronunciation problems.  

 

But you touch on one of my bug-bears with "Marsez", where I assume the "z" is supposed to represent the "s" that does not  exist in Marseille.  

[iL Dottore]

I forgot to mention, at breakfast I was joined by one of these.

Now my spider isn't very fluent, but I did gather that she was asking how to get to Bear Towers. So, being an obliging fellow, I told her (and made her a little spider sized map).

 

If Bear is concerned, he can always call the Swiss police!

https://www.dw.com/en/swiss-police-called-to-remove-spider-from-bedroom/a-41245861

[The White Rabbit]

12 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

A more fundamental question would be to ask why we even have so many laws and why are things like tax codes so complicated in the first place. 

 

Rabbit's suggested Politics/Sociology exam question: 'If a person has more laws in their society/country than they can remember, they have too many of them. Discuss *, with particular reference to the principle that ignorance of the law is no defence.'

 

* Though perhaps not on RMW ... 😉 

[Welchester]

9 minutes ago, Andy Hayter said:

Edimburgo is Spanish for a place you might be able to guess in Scotland but where did the "m" come from?

 

 

In French it's Édimbourg.