Early Risers.

[Erichill16]

6 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Incidentally, my good chum, Captain Cynical, was looking over my shoulder as I typed the above and breezily informed that when he takes over the world, the use of any of the following will be grounds for immediate summary execution:

• Gifted
• Chrimbo

• Circle back

• Phraseify

• Bandwith for that

• Any ”Bizness Spik” (as in <action that> and so on)

• Train station

• Person with….

• Person of….

CC then paused for a sip of coffee and added “and that’s just for starters”

 

I think he was joking….

 

What about for example when telesales ring up and saying ‘yourselves’ instead of ‘you’ and ‘ourselves’ instead of ‘us’. 
I hope no ones call today I’m in one of those moods.😡  

If fact I’m just about to flip my lid

Edited January 5 by Erichill16
.add last comment

[iL Dottore]

Back from the vet.

 

Lucy had her op and all went well. She has awakened from the anaesthesia (very light: morphine plus something I didn’t recognise [a benzodiazepine variant I believe] to induce sedation and some propofol to keep her under). She is now sleeping off the op and the sedation.

 

She’s NPO until 16:00 when she’ll get half a wienerli (a treat she particularly enjoys) and a small meal. A light supper awaits about 20:00 and then back to normal tomorrow.

 

We do have a “cone of shame” for her,  but so far she’s shown no indication that she wants to worry the surgical site - so it’s likely that the cone will go back to the vet’s - unused.

 

We also have minimal medication for her (an eye cream) but no analgesia is required.

 

In all it went well (and somewhat better than anticipated), so the denizens of Schloss iD are once again happy campers.

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, PupCam said:

Morning All!

 

I'm off on a quest;  who knew purchasing distilled water could be so difficult .....

 

 

Batteries? I just get it from my local car parts supplier , but he was surprised when I bought 5 gallons..

24 batteries on the motorboat.. ( that's a years use).

But I agree it's getting harder to find now they rarely sell non sealed batteries these days. He sells more for steam irons now due to our chalky water..

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Feeling rubbish today. Was coughing/spluttering throughout the night. Head fuzzy, feel queasy, gippy tum, etc... etc... Had Lem Sip Max.

 

Wife suggests I sleep in spare room tonight so she can get her (much-needed) beauty sleep. 

At least the sun is shining.

Am still feeling angry after watching Mr Bates vs The Post Office. If you've not seen it you can catch-up on ITVX. Thoroughly recommended.

[Tony_S]

I have just been looking at my Facebook page. Today has loads of “on this day” memories. They all seem either to be  taking Matthew to an airport or  collecting him from one. 

[Barry O]

went for a walk, answered 3 cricket related phone calls then answered three cricket related Emails..

 

No wine delivery today the delivery van is not playing today.

 

An old boss of mine loved beetroot and cheddar sandwiches for lunch. Rarely did his shirt remain unstained!

 

Baz

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Mor...oh.

 

I was out early doors to the old farts, so lips have been exercised.

 

Words that annoy- 'roasted'. An Americanism one presumes.

 

Beetroot, I can take or leave but the chilli version from the Co-op is nice, and adds something filling to a salad.

 

As for Mr Bates and the PO, as a (briefly) one time Sub-Postmaster, it send shivers down my spine.  We rejected that Fujitsu system in Isle of Man Post, I was part of the team reviewing the replacement for the Old HiTec system, we didn't like it and went with an alternative, thankfully.  Our local Subbie and myself often discuss what might have been, had we chosen differently.

[BSW01]

Good morning afternoon everyone

 

Very late in parade due mainly to on going caring duties (of which I do not object) and shopping trips, all of which I had to squeeze into a 2 hour window. Anyway, 2 breakfasts prepared and eaten, 1st eye care provided, butchers visited, pork pie for dinner procured and Trafford Centre visited, all between 9:00 and 11:15, in time for the 2nd eye care. Then laundry put on to do and mail/email dealt with and now fully caught up with what’s happening in ER land. 
 

My next task will be to prepare dinner for 2 and then administer eye care No 3, after which will probably be a bit more laundry. I’ll try and keep up to date as the day progresses, looking in when I’ve a spare few minutes. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[Sidecar Racer]

4 hours ago, grandadbob said:

"Chrissie"  here is what The Boss is called by some of her friends.  I usually call her Ma'am! 😂

 As Ronnie Corbett said in a sketch , I know my place . 

[TheQ]

Afternoon Awl,

Reset the slab ok, what ever was under there must have been washed out as it was full of water.

 

Put down about a metre of unmentionable, did other stuff too.

 

Ben decided to use the most sheltered route for his walk.... Until he decided to go all the way round,  

Up to a foot deep on some bits of the track and road, we both took avoiding action where we could up onto banks of mud.

A hare passed about 20ft Infront of Ben , he didn't notice. Then we saw a Marsh Harrier. Shortly after we heard the lesser spotted bin lorry o recycling duties, someone has had a good couple of weeks by the sound of the crashing glass.

There were waves of drizzle horizontally attacking us when in exposed areas.

On return I noticed I could lower the garden water level in the garden by an inch or two with a bit of digging... So I did. I'll go out a later to see if there's more I can do.

 

But first more muddling.

 

Edited January 5 by TheQ

[PupCam]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

Batteries? I just get it from my local car parts supplier , but he was surprised when I bought 5 gallons..

 

No,   a very delicate process of cleaning extremely fragile telescope mirrors.

 

2 hours ago, Peter Kazmierczak said:

Am still feeling angry after watching Mr Bates vs The Post Office. If you've not seen it you can catch-up on ITVX. Thoroughly recommended.

 

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

As for Mr Bates and the PO, as a (briefly) one time Sub-Postmaster, it send shivers down my spine.  We rejected that Fujitsu system in Isle of Man Post, I was part of the team reviewing the replacement for the Old HiTec system, we didn't like it and went with an alternative, thankfully.  Our local Subbie and myself often discuss what might have been, had we chosen differently.

 

I've got the final part still to watch.     How some of the (real) characters sleep at night (and I'm most definitely not referring to the innocent, hard working and extremely hard done by sub-postmasters) I haven't got a clue!    I'd like to add a further comment relating to the "automatic goodness" of certain people just because they do a) xxxx, b) yyyy or c) zzzz but I would fall foul of forum rules so I won't.    Having spent a good deal of  time developing software systems in my career, albeit on a smaller scale, anyone who claims a system of software (especially one of such magnitude) is perfect and infallible is IMVHO either an idiot or a liar.

 

I'll look on the sub-postmasters with a new light in future and think who on earth would want to put themselves in such a position!   They have my greatest respect.

 

Alan

 

[jjb1970]

The post office scandal was one of those stories Private Eye ran for many years when the rest of the press either ignored it or gave occasional cursory reports (not always sympathetic to the victims). For all I lost most of the respect I  once had for Private Eye a long time ago and am now very much an occasional reader (20 years ago I read every issue  cover to cover) I will give them a tip of the hat for that one.

[PeterBB]

5 hours ago, Ohmisterporter said:

 

At my school it was drummed in by, "Similar to, different from" accompanied by a slap round the back of the head. Which may explain a lot.

Sounds like you went to a school with similar aims or, your teacher gained his English Language degree from Oxford as did all of ours at that time ... something else that would appear as 'discrimination' if such a requirement was on a current job description.

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, Hroth said:

There's nothing wrong with Chrimbo, unlike your other examples!

(Its probably an Aussie coinage, so BEWARE!)

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

No way mate! I've NEVER heard it here, it is always Chrissie.

Nor I. Never ever heard it in Australia - or the US.

 

Not colonial - purely British.

 

Wiktionary says:

Quote

The OED cites the first printed usage (of the variant spelling Crimbo) as being in 1928. They give John Lennon's 1963 usage in a Beatles' Fan Club Christmas single as the first recorded use of the variant form Crimble.

The 1928 reference may not be Christmas related.

[Ozexpatriate]

4 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

Words that annoy- 'roasted'. An Americanism one presumes.

OED

Quote

The earliest known use of the word roasted is in the Middle English period (1150—1500).

OED's earliest evidence for roasted is from before 1325, in Southern Passion.

 

Even in the US where you would find people saying "roasted vegetables", "roast beef" is the normal phrase.

 

This particular word lights up the linguistics blogs. There is an interesting frequency analysis here, with the following footnote:

Quote

• On skim(med) milk (which trends the opposite way)

• Note that BrE calls mashed potato(es) mash, but BrE speakers generally don't use mash as an adjective mash potato(es), and it's not common for AmE speakers either (in the GloWBE data). There's a different morphological difference, as indicated by my parentheses here.

 

Edited January 5 by Ozexpatriate

[DaveF]

Since writing late this morning I've done a bit of modelling.  Just before I got lunch I looked round the living room and found one Christmas decoration hanging from the tide clock   I am sure I'd checked there was nothing still out.  Anyway it has been put away, fortunately there was space in one of the boxes.

 

After lunch I read a magazine and watched Father Brown which left me nicely relaxed.  I then rang the Nuffield Hospital in Newcastle to enquire about getting my hernia fixed.  They did the previous one 6 years ago which on the other side of my body so they still had my details on their system which made it easier.  The outcome is that they don't need a letter of referral, if the consultant wants to talk to my GP he will do so after he has seen me.  I have my initial consultation on Monday of next week (8th) at 6pm.  Surgery is usually within 2 to 4 weeks unless there are other issues.

 

Since then I've had a good talk with a friend on the phone about Christmas, the weather and societies about photography and other things.

 

Next on the agenda will be a beef sandwich and some yoghurt for tea, the local news, then Robson Green.  After that I intend to read one of my new books - an early Ann Cleeves novel before she invented Vera and others.

 

David

Edited January 5 by DaveF

[Ian Abel]

POETS, yeah, why not! Also, BIN day, all done and dusted.

 

Yesterday fairly quiet, Mrs still recovering/resting. Work slow and choir rehearsal went smooth as can be expected.

 

Today, Mrs feeling better, off to walk/lunch with friends. Later we have her great-nieces over for dinner.

 

Weekend unplanned at present, but one item will certainly be taking down the Christmas decorations and packing them away for another year.

Beyond that, hopefully some relaxing, eating, drinking, etc.

 

Weather, -4c first thing, overcast with a high of 1c expected. Supposedly a 100% chance of precip tomorrow, mix of rain/slush/snow looks like.

 

Hope the weekend starts well for all.

[pH]

7 hours ago, Ohmisterporter said:

 

Last year a visitor from Australia was visiting Cornwall and got bitten by an adder. 

Was it on its holidays as well?

[Tony_S]

17 minutes ago, Ian Abel said:

Weather, -4c first thing, overcast with a high of 1c expected. Supposedly a 100% chance of precip tomorrow, mix of rain/slush/snow looks like.

You could work for the tourist office! Aditi mentioned to me earlier today she would like to visit Minnesota one day. I asked why and she said the scenery sounds wonderful in the novels she is currently reading. She is ignoring the fact that the books are full of violent criminals , except in Edina where respectable people reside! 

[pH]

21 hours ago, PeterBB said:

… the disastrous stage of being 'accepted' as earlier the use of different 'to' rather than the correct different 'from' in the latest lexicon dictionary acceptable word usage.

 

7 hours ago, Ohmisterporter said:

At my school it was drummed in by, "Similar to, different from" …

How do you feel about “different than”?

[The Lurker]

language evolves all the time. We don’t speak Middle English- we don’t speak Victorian English either. Different to or different from don’t alter the meaning to the average speaker of English. I do probably tend to use “from” naturally. From my ambivalent response, youcan tell I am a bit younger than Peter; I was not really taught English grammar at school although I did have apostrophe s drummed into me - and that does change the meaning of the phrase.

 

ironically I went to a grammar school!

 

on the other hand, different than is meaningless to me.

[pH]

2 hours ago, PupCam said:

Having spent a good deal of  time developing software systems in my career, albeit on a smaller scale, anyone who claims a system of software (especially one of such magnitude) is perfect and infallible is IMVHO either an idiot or a liar.

Completely agree. There’s also the problem that some users, especially if they are the ones paying for maintenance, can’t understand that it is statistically inevitable that there will be bugs in any system containing more than 10 lines of code. I’ve had one such user make the accusation that we deliberately included bugs in any new code we wrote for the system in order to provide ourselves with a source of future income.

 

The “10 lines of code” came from an article I read claiming that 1 line of code in 10 was in error. That doesn’t mean it will cause the program to fall over but that, in some particular circumstance, it will not do correctly what it was intended to do. Working on maintenance of a system containing several hundred thousand lines of code, that could be quite a depressing thought.

[jamie92208]

Good evening from a dark Charente.  We got to Niort yesterday and Beth had her shoulder scanned.  We the went and did a bit of retail therapy and bought a new sofa before having lunch. As we got home the scan results arrived by email.  Not good news,3 ruptured te dons and several other problems.  The simple summi g up is that her right shoulder is kn@ckered.  A not very happy bunny was the result.  Some French friends then arrived for mince pies and coffee. Charlotte and her boyfriend then came to the shed to play trains.Antoine is a fan.  After we got back from the shed some good conversation flowed. 

 

Today We headed off in different derections.  I went to visit the widow of a model railway friend then went trainspotting with Andy.  A good time was had.  When I got back we had tea and Beth has got her head round the results of the scan.  Nothing is going to happen till she has discussed the results with her GP later this week. 

 

Regards to all. And of course Sundry. 

 

Jamie

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, pH said:

 

8 hours ago, Ohmisterporter said:

 

Last year a visitor from Australia was visiting Cornwall and got bitten by an adder. 

Was it on its holidays as well?

 

Our snakes have good taste 🤣

[The White Rabbit]

3 hours ago, PupCam said:

... I'll look on the sub-postmasters with a new light in future and think who on earth would want to put themselves in such a position!  ....

 

I wouldn't ... and didn't. Some years ago I was looking for a new career and considered (very seriously) taking on a Post Office and general store in a small village in Yorkshire. All looked promising - until I saw reports about Horizon. This was before the scandal broke but enough was coming out to make me walk away - no way I was touching it given those issues. Later, I found someone else who had also considered buying it had also walked due to similar concerns. The village now no longer has a Post Office or store. I will not comment on the consequential loss to 'society' or the community at large, ERs are quite capable of drawing their own conclusions ...