Early Risers.

[DaveF]

The church service went well this morning,  Just as we were getting our coffee afterwards a number of small children and their adults came from a local infants class to see the Christmas trees, then a couple of dozen people arrived, their walking group had decided to make the church today's destination, then more turned up so it got very busy, the trees were much admired and a lot of coffee was consumed.  I ended up being in charge of washing up for a while!

 

Eventually I came home and made a start on writing Christmas cards to people in the UK, that continued all afternoon with a short break for bacon and eggs at lunchtime.  All the ones to be posted are now done as are various gift tokens.

 

I did have another break from doing them, I needed some bread so went to Lidl and had a walk round to get a few extra things I decided would be nice to eat.  They have at last got some more of the shallow shopping trolleys which makes life much easier than using either the very big ones or baskets.

 

It's been a very wet dark afternoon, a typically miserable December day for weather, at least it didn't snow.  I've just had a very nice jam doughnut with my mug of tea, next will once again be a cheese sandwich.  I don't yet know what I will do this evening, I am tempted by a concert at church but the last time I went in the evening I caught a terrible cold - indeed it always happens after I go to something in the evening so I will probably stay at home quietly.  I also feel vey tired as I was awake a lot last night.

 

There are a lot of fishing boats in the harbour, they were loading their catch into lorries this morning.

 

David

[Ian Abel]

BIN day

 

Yesterday quiet and peaceful, nothing to see here. We did venture out and obtain a Christmas tree early evening, positioned awaiting the decorating phase.

 

Today will be much the same, some "report lunacy" to deal with but otherwise a normal work day.

Tonight, the choir embark on the first of three rehearsals for our Christmas services, expected to be a breeze as we pretty much always sign the same catalog.

Will be a pre-rehearsal happy hour and some pizza and beer consumed to fortify us for the task ahead.

 

Weather surging into mid-autumn state,  2c at BIN time, sunny and headed for 8-10c for a high, 5c overnight and 10-12c the high expected tomorrow.

[RobAllen]

Collected son from university as his semester finished today. M42 was Not Good in either direction.

[polybear]

44 minutes ago, DaveF said:

I don't yet know what I will do this evening, I am tempted by a concert at church but the last time I went in the evening I caught a terrible cold - indeed it always happens after I go to something in the evening so I will probably stay at home quietly.

 

Probably too late for tonight (unless you have some) but why not wear an FFP2 grade Mask?

[polybear]

Someone fitted a ULEZ Camera at lunchtime.

Someone else blew it up a few hours later - literally; judging by the damage to a van parked on the other side of the road and also a house I'd say they overcooked it just a tad.......

They'll be in deep, deep Poo if caught - the Anti-Terror Police are all over it.

[New Haven Neil]

19 minutes ago, polybear said:

Someone fitted a ULEZ Camera at lunchtime.

Someone else blew it up a few hours later - literally; judging by the damage to a van parked on the other side of the road and also a house I'd say they overcooked it just a tad.......

They'll be in deep, deep Poo if caught - the Anti-Terror Police are all over it.

 

They were only supposed to blow the bl**dy box off....

[Tim Dubya]

Just given porch tomato a trim, feed and moved 'im against the house. 

 

 

Porch chilli is now kitchen window chilli.  They're not particularly pokey on their own but en masse they work their magic 😬

 

 

It must be the "special" light of Radvegas 🤔

[PeterBB]

On 06/12/2023 at 19:34, Winslow Boy said:

 

WB importers & exporters here.

 

We are very grateful for your enquiry. Unfortunately all of our operators are busy at the moment and your call is important to us.

 

You are 1,589 on the list.

 

Have you thought of going online? Our website WB.com has all of our products and if you have any questions we have a comprehensive Frequently Asked Questions section.

 

Yours

 

WB enterprises.

 

Please note do not reply to this as it will not be responded to.

Would be funny if it wasn't a truism ... one that costs because of the time held on ... that uis until they cut you off!.

 

[Barry O]

My dad had a white Mark 1 Cortina. I wanted to paint the lotus stripe on it but that was vetoed. It went to the scrapyard in the sky when the Macpherson struts appeared through the bonnet one night on a very bumpy road...

 

Her indoors was "loaned" a company Mark III Cortina in Saluki Bronze.. an automatic.. not the best vehicle to drive from Central London to Bragbury End in..I think it was a 2 litre version. Nice to sit in.....

 

Busy day.. a load of tinplate items have been catalogued, railway room tidied, ironing .. ironed, washing done and hung up in conservatory.

 

Been chuckinitdarn all day.. very depressing!

 

Her indoors has gone out for the recoder group session.. I may have an early night.

 

In Barnsley the locals are prone to gas axing speed cameras.. easier than explosives...

 

TTFN

Baz

Edited December 7, 2023 by Barry O
Spullung

[Coombe Barton]

... question – the UK is having an enquiry. Are other countries? Did they do better? ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/12/07/sounds-of-the-season-2023-05-covid-up-again-and-dont-tell-him-pike/

[Gwiwer]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Christmas? Bah, Humbug!

 

And while we’re at it 

 

[monkeysarefun]

32 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

... question – the UK is having an enquiry. Are other countries? Did they do better? ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2023/12/07/sounds-of-the-season-2023-05-covid-up-again-and-dont-tell-him-pike/

The  Australian Federal Government  held a Senate inquiry which handed down its recommendations in September 2022. 

 

Individual states have held similar inquiries.

 

A full national COVID inquiry will commence next year and is due to sit until September 2024.

 

Most of our issues were to do with demarcation of  federal government VS state government responsibilities, the tardiness of the vaccine rollout and how to better manage the aged care sector and remote indigenous communities.

 

Total deaths here from the outbreak in Jan 2020  through to December 2022   were just under 23,000,  I'm not sure how that compares with other countries.

Edited December 7, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. A slow old evening so I might have an early night. But first I've got to go through the threads that I follow here on RMweb.

[PhilJ W]

8 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

The  Australian Federal Government  held a Senate inquiry which handed down its recommendations in September 2022. 

 

Individual states have held similar inquiries.

 

A full national COVID inquiry will commence next year and is due to sit until September 2024.

 

Most of our issues were to do with demarcation of  federal government VS state government responsibilities, and how to better manage the aged care sector and remote indigenous communities.

 

Total deaths here from the outbreak in Jan 2020  through to December 2022   were just under 23,000,  I'm not sure how that compares with other countries.

Here is the recorded deaths country by country.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries

When opened click on countries.

Edited December 7, 2023 by PhilJ W

[woodenhead]

5 hours ago, woodenhead said:

And the day we've booked to go to a Xmas lights display at a country park is today 🤣

 

Been perfect light display perusing weather for days now, the forecast is drizzle by the time we are booked in and dry by the time we leave.

 

Taking a brolley just in case.....

It stopped raining about half an hour before we left the house and remained dry - excellent light show at Dunham Massey though as expected mulled wine, paella and coffees were expensive for what you got but that's Christmas markets isn't it.

[polybear]

3 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

They were only supposed to blow the bl**dy box off....

 

Looking at the piccies on the news it was quite a miracle they didn't kill anyone........

 

ION.......

 

Washing done.  Tick.

Co-op raided.  Tick; some emergency Mince Pies secured, as well as a couple of bottles of Jam Shed Wine......

 

Apart from that it's been yet "more of the same".......one paw forward, 0.9 paws back......

 

BG

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[jjb1970]

On COVID, something which has been very interesting is the different death rates by region. Much of Asia, for example, saw much lower death rates than Europe,  at the time I remember many claiming it was because Europe is densely populated. I think it'd be big new in Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, Indonesia, Singapore etc to find out they're not densely populated (Indonesia may look quite low but much of the population is in very tightly packed cities).

 

I am genuinely curious how much of this was down to government intervention and effectiveness, how much down to luck and whether environment was a significant factor. For example here there's lots of sunlight all year round and it's always warm, good for vitamin D and maybe permanent warmth is good for COVID resistance. However that falls down for Japan, China and Korea where seasonal weather swings are huge and winters are savage (not all of China, but a lot of China). Maybe it says something about the quality of health services, countries like Japan,  the Republic of Korea and Singapore have superb health services, but other areas which had lower mortality rates aren't particularly known for great health services,  which were overwhelmed in some countries despite much lower mortality rates.

 

I am not a medical person (as is obvious) but I think there are many aspects of the pandemic response which merit serious investigation. For all the UK response was pretty hapless our mortality rates were similar to the US and much of Europe.  Many of those countries also weren't especially impressive in their response but I think there are serious questions which need to be considered by people who know what they're talking about. 

[BachelorBoy]

14 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

On COVID, something which has been very interesting is the different death rates by region. Much of Asia, for example, saw much lower death rates than Europe,  at the time I remember many claiming it was because Europe is densely populated. I think it'd be big new in Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, Indonesia, Singapore etc to find out they're not densely populated (Indonesia may look quite low but much of the population is in very tightly packed cities).

 

I am genuinely curious how much of this was down to government intervention and effectiveness, how much down to luck and whether environment was a significant factor.

 

In my experience, memories in Asia of SARS were still quite fresh so people took the warnings seriously and started to take action voluntarily before governments asked.

 

There was no debate about whether masks were a good idea or not. (People in East Asia often wear masks when they are suffering from a cold or flu to avoid infecting other people.) 

[pH]

I used a new-to-me product today to re-seal round the bottom of posts on our outside deck. Applied as a paste, hardens to a flexible rubber coating, will cure on dry or wet surfaces - even underwater. Adheres to almost all surfaces. Well, it certainly stuck to the tools and to my hands. The surfaces I was trying to seal? Meh - not so much!

[jjb1970]

41 minutes ago, BachelorBoy said:

 

In my experience, memories in Asia of SARS were still quite fresh so people took the warnings seriously and started to take action voluntarily before governments asked.

 

There was no debate about whether masks were a good idea or not. (People in East Asia often wear masks when they are suffering from a cold or flu to avoid infecting other people.) 

 

I think societal attitudes are another important part which merits further study. Many Asian societies still emphasise the role of individuals as part of society and the importance of societal cohesion and obligations rather than the primacy of individual rights. 

 

[BachelorBoy]

10 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

I think societal attitudes are another important part which merits further study. Many Asian societies still emphasise the role of individuals as part of society and the importance of societal cohesion and obligations rather than the primacy of individual rights. 

 

Yes, hence wearing masks to protect other people, whereas in the West, people tend to wear masks (before covid) to protect themselves from pollution, etc.

 

[BachelorBoy]

18 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

I think societal attitudes are another important part which merits further study. Many Asian societies still emphasise the role of individuals as part of society and the importance of societal cohesion and obligations rather than the primacy of individual rights. 

 

 

"The Geography of Thought" is very good on this. 

 

In summary: it's all to do with rainfall patterns in ancient Greece and ancient China.

 

[Ozexpatriate]

19 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

It wasn’t until about 1942 that - for the Germans - things started to unravel.

Unless you count "Germans" of Jewish ancestry. Were they not equally "German"?

 

Kristallnacht was in 1938. It was bad before that too. But I'll willingly let our fulfilment of Godwin's Law alone.

[Ozexpatriate]

20 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Unfortunately, Darwinism and (what should be accurately termed) Spencerism have become conflated in the eyes of… well most anyone. Thus becoming a convenient short-hand for describing the process of social “survival of the fittest”

Yes, but this is in ignorance and education is the cure. As I know you well understand, "survival of the fittest"/best adapted is the evolutionary meaning, not "survival of the strongest" in a social context.

 

When you live in a place where people start conflating extrapolations of "social Dawinism" into arguments why disguised 'creationism' needs to be taught in science classes in public schools you would be sensitized to it too.

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Ozexpatriate
Edited wrong post