Castle Aching

[Joseph_Pestell]

16 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

I'm afraid I have been using BBO to play bridge solitaire (me and three virtual players) much to my England U21 squad son's despair. I really wouldn't trust myself playing with human beings!

 

I have not played for about 35 years. So starting off with some virtual players would be good.

[Edwardian]

11 hours ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

 

 .... he died of something else far less polite but endemic to that period and was to remain so until the discovery of penicillin. 

 

Less polite, perhaps, but certainly social.

[Edwardian]

11 hours ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

 

 .... he died of something else far less polite but endemic to that period and was to remain so until the discovery of penicillin. 

 

Less polite, perhaps, but certainly social.

[runs as required]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I genuinely find him incredibly strange/bizarre. Leaving aside the content of what he says/tweets, it’s the fact that he says/tweets most of it at all that is so strange ........ it’s as if he genuinely has no filtering or post-processing capability between the early generation of thoughts, and their utterance.

 

Add to that a blindingly-obvious and unsophisticated self-centredness, and it is really disconcerting.

 

The post processing, the tidying-up into cogent statements, the filtering-out of randomly whimsical stuff, the cutting of the ‘me, me, me’ out of sentences, the calibration with facts, all has to be done after he has uttered, by others mostly. Normal adults do a lot of that inside their own heads.

Its clearly a weirdly effective strategy, a sort of spoilt-toddler-ocracy, because he gets things done (mostly not things I much like, but then I’m a namby-pamby euro-liberal), possibly because it is so weird actechnique that it ‘blindsides’ most normal people.

 

Over a nearly 40 + year career as an academic since I lost my practice job in Tanzania in 1970, I’ve found some of the most successful academics exhibit Trump-like characteristics: Ruthless cut throat Deal makers, refusing to take their share of teaching load or Univ/Departmental admin tasks like timetabling, placement supervision, Erasmus tasks, admissions.

For them it is solely Research avoiding teamwork, Moving on for Promotion, Conferences, going off to US prestigious ‘Centers”

 

When you trip over them again - they are just as boringly uncommunicative as ever they were.

Some of the most fun inter-disciplinary as well as international experiences I had were in small African Univs and Polytechnics.

dh

[Welchester]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Less polite, perhaps, but certainly social.

 

'A social disease', as many school French texts described the final illness of a number of French writers.

[Hroth]

3 hours ago, Edwardian said:

 

Less polite, perhaps, but certainly social.

 

Was that second post a hiccup?

 

8 minutes ago, Bishop of Welchester said:

 

'A social disease', as many school French texts described the final illness of a number of French writers.

 

Tsk.  These people really did need to perfect their Social Distancing technique.

 

A social disease, leading to the undiscovered country....  Euphemistic fun!

 

Then again, unpleasant truths were always skirted about.  The death of RJ Mitchell, as described in "The First of the Few" makes it appear that he merely died from overwork in designing the Spitfire, not that it was from bowel cancer that though operated on, took his life.

 

 

[Edwardian]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

Was that second post a hiccup?

 

 

 

The vagaries of crap internet. 

 

However, after a mere 2 hours on the 'phone today, involving 3 members of home-working staff of a major mobile 'phone network  (who were jolly nice and helpful), tomorrow The Gigacube lands!

 

With luck I'll be able to stream video content from the web again.  Yay! Self-isolation, a gift for the socially awkward, will achieve new levels of fulfillment.  

 

Having the cyber warfare unit of the People's Liberation Army monitor my internet activity round the clock will be a small price to pay to be free of BT's failing copper wires, and will at least give those diligent souls at GCHQ a break.  Mind you, much good it will do them. And, if there is an outbreak of pre-Grouping era railway modelling in Beijing, at least we'll know why. 

[Buhar]

9 hours ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

I have not played for about 35 years. So starting off with some virtual players would be good.

Same length of time here, I only really knew a limited number of the bidding protocols and the passing of the years has reduced that.  I think I'd be getting virtual "looks" from any partner.

 

Alan

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

13 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

I really wouldn't trust myself playing with human beings!

 

As the bishop said to the showgirl ........ boom boom 

 

Well someone had to say it  

[Hroth]

8 hours ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

As the bishop said to the showgirl ........ boom boom 

 

Thought that was Basil Brush?  But the Bishop would have been chatting to an actress...

 

 

Anyhow, seeing as we're all staying at home and maintaining social distances, I've decided to let my beard grow out again.  It certainly saves the faff of shaving every morning!  And as it will have achieved a respectable length by time we're allowed out again, it won't look as if I've been too lazy to have a shave in the morning!

 

(I'm probably not the only one, have you seen the upsurge in ads for beard-colouring products on digital tv stations?)

 

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Hroth

[Nearholmer]

I gave it three days, then decided that going around with what looked like the rear view of a fast-retreating badger across the lower half of my face wasn’t a good look.

 

As for tinting (Herge’s Adventures of .....), that is just for people who look scruffy, and would prefer to look embarrassingly ridiculous instead.

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

2 hours ago, Hroth said:

Anyhow, seeing as we're all staying at home and maintaining social distances, I've decided to let my beard grow out again.  It certainly saves the faff of shaving every morning!  And as it will have achieved a respectable length by time we're allowed out again, it won't look as if I've been too lazy to have a shave in the morning!

 

(I'm probably not the only one, have you seen the upsurge in ads for beard-colouring products on digital tv stations?)

 

 

I'll have you know Sir!!! that I have worn a beard for the last 50 years - and I can safely now say that I've forgotten what I look like.   

[Northroader]

The all clear sounds for Covid 19,

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

And a further Coronavirus subsidiary pandemic, goats have invade a Welsh town -

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-01/goats-running-wild-wales-town-coronavirus-lockdown/12111152

[Nearholmer]

They’ll move on soon enough: there’s nothing worth stopping for in Llandudno.

[drmditch]

The follow on to the Llandudno 'feel better' story will be 'Goats ate my hedge/daffodils/crocuses/potatoes/vegetables'.

How long do you give it.....

[Buhar]

I started my beard the day I retired but prefer to keep it short, sort of a week's growth. If it's too long it's a booger for collecting building dust and compromises any mask when stone cutting.  That's also an issue with spray painting (see Ian Rathbone's video.) 

 

Further complications arise around protection in the current crisis, especially if in a high risk environment. 

 

Alan 

[drmditch]

Which reminds me.....

How about a game of 'Spot the most inappropriate television advertisement'?

The cruise line advert contracts seem to have run out now!

[Edwardian]

A moment of Edwardian beard celebration, then ....

 

[Nearholmer]

19 minutes ago, drmditch said:

Spot the most inappropriate television advertisement'?

I don’t watch TV, but the laptop I’m using for working from home keeps giving a huge red ‘pop up’ with graphics of scary bugs and the words “YOUR VIRUS PROTECTION HAS EXPIRED”, which I find more than usually disconcerting at the moment.

[Hroth]

48 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

I gave it three days, then decided that going around with what looked like the rear view of a fast-retreating badger across the lower half of my face wasn’t a good look.

 

All it needs is perseverance, the "designer stubble hipster" look will dissipate after a few more days and you'll eventually end up with a beard suitable for straining nourishment out of the atmosphere with!  This can then be trimmed and shaped into a low-maintenance yet distinctive feature of the fizzog!

 

No more time wasted buzzing or scraping at your face in a losing chase for pre-adolescent smoothness...

 

 

 

 

Edited April 1, 2020 by Hroth
spelin, as usushal....

[Nearholmer]

I got beards out of my system in my late teens/early twenties, when I had a whopper, bushy black one that may or may not have been inspired by reading a certain C19th political philosopher ....... even pre-teen I couldn’t keep it at bay, and learned reflexive verbs by having my German teacher repeatedly ask in sarcastic tone “Rasierst du dich?” and having to reply “Nein, ich rasierer mich nicht.”.

Son now has an emerging black ‘tache at just the same age, so he’ll doubtless get the same in French!

 

(Urgent spelling correction: rassierst = racist; rasierst = shave.)

Edited April 1, 2020 by Nearholmer

[jcredfer]

11 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

All it needs is perseverance, the "designer stubble hipster" look will dissipate after a few more days and you'll eventually end up with a beard suitable for straining nourishment out of the atmosphere with!  This can then be trimmed and shaped into a low-maintenance yet distinctive feature of the fizzog!

 

No more time wasted buzzing or scraping at your face in a losing chase for pre-adolescent smoothness...

 

 

 

 

 

Father had a beard, for the first 6 years of my existence, on the grounds of being made to shave, whilst in the Army for 5 N-Africa years.  He gave up because of the continual faff, trimming, combing etc.

 

When I reached the end of puberty, at the age of 70, I was on holiday in S-Africa, with Mrs R and Daughter, where a few days on a wildlife reservation, meant early out of the accommodation.  I couldn't be bothered to shave that early and in the dark, which was eventually noticed by my young daughter.  After explaining why I hadn't bothered, she said I should grow it properly, which got backing from Mrs R.  Reluctantly I gave in to the constant nagging and decided I would "grow", as the RN put it. 

 

It lasted until the next year, Summer time, along with constant trimming, combing, washing it, finding bits of errant food and dust, which had taken up lodging in it.  My daughter had, by this time tired of it, but Mrs R voted to keep it.  So, one vote in each direction, but that year was that long dry one, so the Sun got the other 8 votes and off it came.

 

Julian

 

[St Enodoc]

Never wore a beard but when I went to Uni my roommate and I decided to grow moustaches, the idea being to see whose looked better by Christmas. That was a dead heat - they were equally awful - but I've kept mine ever since. Now I tell folk that it will come off when I finally retire.

[wagonman]

59 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

All it needs is perseverance, the "designer stubble hipster" look will dissipate after a few more days and you'll eventually end up with a beard suitable for straining nourishment out of the atmosphere with!  This can then be trimmed and shaped into a low-maintenance yet distinctive feature of the fizzog!

 

No more time wasted buzzing or scraping at your face in a losing chase for pre-adolescent smoothness...

 

 

 

 

 

You could practise a sort of facial topiary...

Edited April 1, 2020 by wagonman