Early Risers.

[AndrewC]

Colour me annoyed. So many of you lot retiring around my age. I've got another 135 months before I can hang up my keyboard. Providing of course the markets rebound. At the moment I've pretty much lost the last 2 years worth of pension contributions with the funds tanking as of late. 

 

Then the bloody rest of you are at home and not having to work, or work much. DIY, modelling, etc. For me it is same old same old, except I seem to be working longer and longer each day. When to I get some time off? Crapspackle!

[Coombe Barton]

I've gone past looking in the fridge.

 

I'm telling myself jokes and groaning at them.

[Rugd1022]

A'noon all,

 

ERs moves on so quickly these days it's hard to keep up with everyone so warm Woganesque standard greetings all round. Had my rules exam today which went by in a blur, I'd forgotten just how much 'stuff' the human brain (such as mine is) can retain without some of it falling out. In truth it's more of a refresher than an exam but it's always a relief to get through it.

 

The rest of the working week will be fairly quiet as I'm on call till Friday then it's the Small Heath job on Saturday, always a doddle, might even take my camera in to work which I haven't done in ages.

 

Stay safe / well scrubbed up folks 

[Ian Abel]

Sincere condolences Simon

 

Chewsday it seems!

Precious little to report yesterday, just a drive-by collection of a med for the Mrs at the local pharmacy and a walk around the neighborhood with Whitney later.

Watching "Death in Paradise", a personal favorite of mine and the Mrs has taken a liking to it, also started at the VERY BEGINNING with "Cheers". Watching something that was set/made in the '80s is certainly entertaining in that so many things taken for granted now didn't even exist then

 

Jemma was expected home yesterday at the end of her trip, and over to collect Whitney, however, they had a mechanical problem with her ride home from JFK and a 5 hour delay putting her in at 1AM!

She'll be over later to collect Whitney and a visit with us across a wide distance in the front of the house.

We decided to try our hand at grocery order/delivery to relieve the kids of the task, and surprisingly everything we wanted to order was available, and will be delivered Friday late afternoon - result.

 

This morning we learned that our friend in Iowa has been in hospital for a week now, went in suspecting pneumonia, confirmed COVID. He has a compromised respiratory system and has been on oxygen etc., for the past week, but supposedly has turned the corner and will be released to home on Thursday. He will have to remain isolated from his wife for at least another week, thankfully she hasn't got it, but we were worried due to his pre-existing condition.

 

1 first thing, but sunny and headed for 13 for the high.

 

Stay safe and well everyone.

 

[Happy Hippo]

1 hour ago, AndrewC said:

Colour me annoyed. So many of you lot retiring around my age. I've got another 135 months before I can hang up my keyboard. Providing of course the markets rebound. At the moment I've pretty much lost the last 2 years worth of pension contributions with the funds tanking as of late. 

 

Then the bloody rest of you are at home and not having to work, or work much. DIY, modelling, etc. For me it is same old same old, except I seem to be working longer and longer each day. When to I get some time off? Crapspackle!

This little ol' tickturd retired at............................38!

 

After that I worked (by choice) in various part time jobs as took my fancy.

 

I gave that lunacy up at 56!

[jamie92208]

15 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

This little ol' tickturd retired at............................38!

 

After that I worked (by choice) in various part time jobs as took my fancy.

 

I gave that lunacy up at 56!

However was that retirement date a bit late. After all you did used to throw yourself out of perfectly  serviceable aircraft so maybe the lunacy has always been there.

 

Jamie

[Happy Hippo]

25 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

However was that retirement date a bit late. After all you did used to throw yourself out of perfectly  serviceable aircraft so maybe the lunacy has always been there.

 

Jamie

See my earlier post about having a brain smaller than an Entelodont

[Tony_S]

My nephew who is a locum GP in Sussex had just been told to self isolate as his girlfriend (they do live together) has a new persistent cough. She is a nurse. They did intend to do their shopping  today but now can’t. Josh rang up the local greengrocer who will deliver stuff tomorrow. So they won’t have to survive on the 24 tins of mackerel they bought in case of a hard Brexit. Whatever the media has mentioned they haven’t been offered a test for NHS staff. His Dad in Enfield is now having to work from home, one of the other practice GPs is unwell and probably has Covid19 as his wife does.

We are having sausages this evening. We haven’t seen any for a few weeks as they were omitted from our previous delivery. 
Tony

[Coombe Barton]

Tonight I'm putting potatoes in a nuclear reactor.

 

Fission chips.

 

[JohnDMJ]

15 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

Tonight I'm putting potatoes in a nuclear reactor.

 

Fission chips.

 

Groan button, where are you? It used to be nuclear integrated circuits!

 

BTW, there is another pun / irony herein: those who tick any of the like / agree / funny / etc. buttons are deemed thus:

 

"You, X and Y reacted to this"

Edited March 31, 2020 by JohnDMJ

[bbishop]

I'm back home after a long day at London Ambulance Headquarters, so no clinical work today.  I'm back there tomorrow.

 

Bill

[pH]

10 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

We've had a rainy, chilly week or so but I have noticed a lot more bird activity - lots of robins and something I didn't recognize but looked like a finch. I did see a humming bird which surprised me a bit.

 

We've had a couple of hummingbirds coming to our feeders all winter, and we're 500 km north of you. It used to be rare for hummingbirds to winter here but apparently, with so many people having feeders, it's now much more common. I've even got a picture of one feeding with snow falling on it.

[Ozexpatriate]

Just so I don't feel left out. In my formative years in Australia, meals were known as:

• Breakfast aka brekkie
• Lunch
• an unnamed after-school snack at 3:30pm (this would only be afternoon tea if there were visitors and tea involved)
• Tea (the main meal of the day at 6:00pm) 
• Supper (a night time feed on random occasions when dad felt so inclined to prepare one)

In primary school the two breaks were called "little lunch" and (big) "lunch".

 

In Government service tea ladies with trolleys provided "morning tea" and "afternoon tea."

 

The midday meal was never dinner unless it was Sunday roast.

 

Today my routine is essentially brunch and dinner. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is the US norm.

 

Edited March 31, 2020 by Ozexpatriate

[roundhouse]

Evening all form a warm patio by the shed. only due to the chimnera burning the chopped logs nicely. not a lot of modelling done but some. I have been building myself a log store form left over timber when the shed was built. The garden is looking much tidier but annoyingly cant buy plants even online as our local garden centres have closed, not even doing online orders. Such a shame that with reasonable weather and so many people in their gardens that plants are going to be skipped. i know that with so many people dying there are much more urgent needs but sad there's now so much waste aswell. i must admit that I find most of the news from officials both here and across the pond to be just twisted truths and why waste so much resources sending every household a letter when we can all listen / watch the news in various formats. It just crates even more waste of vital resources and filling up our recycling bins.

 

Looking forward to the weekly clap for key workers. its the least we can do.

[Ozexpatriate]

Similarly household room names in 1960s - 1980s Australia.

• Lounge room - no parlours in Oz. Chairs were ubiquitously "lounge chairs". Whether they were couches/sofas, etc or individual seating. Never "Chesterfield"
• Dining room, kitchen, bedrooms
• Bathroom - tub, separate shower if you were lucky and hand basin
  • In my formative days, there was never a co-located "loo"* in the bathroom
• Toilet aka "dunny", always indoors in homes I lived in, though Grandma** had an outside "thunder box" with the straw emptied by a brawny bloke who literally would jump the fence with the box of straw et ejecta on his shoulders.
• Verandah (not porch) out front
  • A sheltered rear projection at the top of back steps (not stairs) might be called a "porch"
• Patio out back
• Deck out back
• Garage whether a separate structure or under the house; "Car port" if a roofed, but un-walled structure was provided for the car.

* The term "Loo" was readily understood but not used, nor was "WC". My mother took care to teach me proper words. Others were available but were not encouraged.

 

** My paternal grandmother. My maternal grandmother was "Nan". My mother is "Nan" to my son.

 

Occasionally one might see a "study" or "office". In my formative days, terms like scullery, pantry, butler's pantry, basement, attic, loft, walk-in closet were the stuff of books. Any covered, built-in shelving was a cupboard - not a closet. Food was in a cupboard.

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. Not a lot to report, still playing catch-up with Farcebook. Re-arranged the fridge so that the stuff with the earliest use by dates is at the front.

Neil, you'll have to show Donk how to wear a face mask properly.

1 hour ago, KeithMacdonald said:

You know, I've had the nagging feeling that we've been through something like this before. Then I found the photo evidence. How time flies, and how quickly people forget. Swine Flu, 2009. 

 

 

Poor old piglet.

 

 

[New Haven Neil]

Down to me and two part timers now, and stress!

 

Still, we're all well thankfully, just folk are self isolating and I can't blame them - Mrs Lurker comes to mind immediately (Lurkia?) hopefully she is improving, and good wishes to anyone else ill or grieving.

 

We had a front room when I was a small kid, but it became a lounge over the years - presumably as the number of gold rings on Dad's uniform sleeve increased steadily to four.  Our titchy bungalow now has a lounge too, Mrs NHN coming from posher stock than I.  It's also at the back.....   Of course having a waiting room in the garden helps.

 

 

I retired from being office manager of our equivalent of a young offenders team at 55 as new management from one of the funding partners was very 'anti' to the team.  Now they are complaining about the increase of young offending.  Go figure.  Not hard to work out.  But they get away with it.....

 

I did that job for 9 years, the longest I have ever been in a job!  6 years on and what I do in Trackshack is nothing like the job I started here to do with John, but things develop and change.  And change. And change.  This current situation may change that yet again, it is most concerning for so many in all businesses, never mind just selling glorified toys.

 

 

[JohnDMJ]

11 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

Down to me and two part timers now, and stress!

 

Still, we're all well thankfully, just folk are self isolating and I can't blame them - Mrs Lurker comes to mind immediately (Lurkia?) hopefully she is improving, and good wishes to anyone else ill or grieving.

 

We had a front room when I was a small kid, but it became a lounge over the years - presumably as the number of gold rings on Dad's uniform sleeve increased steadily to four.  Our titchy bungalow now has a lounge too, Mrs NHN coming from posher stock than I.  It's also at the back.....   Of course having a waiting room in the garden helps.

 

 

I retired from being office manager of our equivalent of a young offenders team at 55 as new management from one of the funding partners was very 'anti' to the team.  Now they are complaining about the increase of young offending.  Go figure.  Not hard to work out.  But they get away with it.....

 

I did that job for 9 years, the longest I have ever been in a job!  6 years on and what I do in Trackshack is nothing like the job I started here to do with John, but things develop and change.  And change. And change.  This current situation may change that yet again, it is most concerning for so many in all businesses, never mind just selling glorified toys.

 

 

 

There must be a managerial equivalent to Sir George Bernard Shaw's idiomatic view that "those who can do; those who can't teach and (IIRC) those who can't teach teach teac...rs"?

 

I'm not thinking of the classics of mushroom or seagull styles of management either!

[roundhouse]

15 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

 

   Of course having a waiting room in the garden helps.

 

 

 

 

The waiting room looks empty but I suppose most waiting rooms are in the present situation. Have you reduced your train service to match?

[Happy Hippo]

Some smart techno plank in the family has been busy causing trouble.

 

I have been informed that a whole extended family picnics are going to take place via something called Zoom.  Apparently all it needs after setting it all up is a webcam.

 

I pointed out that I did not possess a webcam (and kept very quiet about the one on the laptop or the use of a smart phone.)

 

I fear my subterfuge will only last temporarily.

 

I wonder if the router could develop a fault?

 

ASFP Rules

 

 

[Erichill16]

I hope everyone has had a reasonable day, I have. Seams really weird saying that at the progression  of the Covid virus marches on. Good job we weren’t too busy and I could take a back seat as I feel drained. I took a sort of early partime retirement 10 years ago and since then have only worked the odd couple of half days each year. Everyone else seem still full of life at 6pm when we go home but I’m done for.

Keep safe,

Robert 

[Chris116]

4 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Some smart techno plank in the family has been busy causing trouble.

 

I have been informed that a whole extended family picnics are going to take place via something called Zoom.  Apparently all it needs after setting it all up is a webcam.

 

I pointed out that I did not possess a webcam (and kept very quiet about the one on the laptop or the use of a smart phone.)

 

I fear my subterfuge will only last temporarily.

 

I wonder if the router could develop a fault?

 

ASFP Rules

 

 

Simple solution to that is to pull the plug out of the wall! Sorry, I have a power cut.

[brianusa]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Just so I don't feel left out. In my formative years in Australia, meals were known as:

• Breakfast aka brekkie
• Lunch
• an unnamed after-school snack at 3:30pm (this would only be afternoon tea if there were visitors and tea involved)
• Tea (the main meal of the day at 6:00pm) 
• Supper (a night time feed on random occasions when dad felt so inclined to prepare one)

In primary school the two breaks were called "little lunch" and (big) "lunch".

 

In Government service tea ladies with trolleys provided "morning tea" and "afternoon tea."

 

The midday meal was never dinner unless it was Sunday roast.

 

Today my routine is essentially brunch and dinner. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is the US norm.

 

Sounds familiar, Mike, although lunch back home tended to be the main meal.  Tea was just that, toast perhaps and cake but we usually had a substantial supper, sometimes a pasty!

    Brian.

[Tony_S]

12 minutes ago, Chris116 said:

Simple solution to that is to pull the plug out of the wall! Sorry, I have a power cut.

Most phones would just switch over to 4G data if the router goes down. So would my iPad. 

[polybear]

My Neighbours have a place in France.

He says it's a Flat.  She says it's an Apartment.

He says it's got a Balcony.  She says it's got a Terrace.

You get my drift?