Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

Before I forget, happy birthday Simon!

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Done the 'big shop' at lunchtime, big surprise it was raining, no wonder Arthur Itis has been banging on his drum.

5 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

Its Big Brother. Once your in the system that's it they've got you for life.

I listened to the Jeremy Vine show going from Tess Coes and they were talking about C-19 in China. Apparently it is no longer a problem, the odd flare up is quickly dealt with. How? apparently everyone is expected to have a mobile phone and on that mobile they must have a government app that tells them where you've been and where you are. This has enabled track and trace to be very effective but I find it disquieting.

52 minutes ago, BoD said:

I wonder if ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells’ has written to the paper about it yet.

58 cases per 10,000, no wonder he's disgusted.

[Ian Abel]

21 hours ago, Tony_S said:

Is it a particularly British trait that as soon as any rules/regulations/advice are released there seems to be a lot of “what can I get away with?” “how can I bypass these conditions?” 

Sadly, NO.

Even with everyone "sensible" recommending NO TRAVEL over the Thanksgiving holiday over here, millions managed to decide it was OK for them to do just that and storm the various airports. One stupid woman interviewed at MSP (according to the local newspaper) was reported as saying "I'd considered not travelling, but then came to terms with it being OK...", another said "I had COVID in early summer so as I know you can't get it twice I'm OK travelling". Where do they get this bullsh!t?!?!

 STUPID IS as STUPID DOES!

 

[Ian Abel]

Morning all (well afternoon).

 

Thanksgiving was quite as we made the sensible choice to self-isolate as di the rest of the family.

We enjoyed the day, relaxed, puttered about, made a delicious beef stew and had a nice Zoom meeting with the kids, this is what Thanksgiving 2020 looks like...

\

 

Today was BIN day, because of the holiday yesterday, so managed that!

 

Saw our next door neighbor, from a safe 20+ feet away - she's just tested positive for COVID, simply had a test as her son was to join her for Thanksgiving. She's no idea how she was infected and wasn't/isn't showing any symptoms, as she works from home, but of course, now self-isolating and was alone yesterday instead of her son coming over. 

 

We've little planned here, more work in the basement to move in the direction of getting the model railway resurrected, possibly a walk and make dinner, that's about it.

 

Started out -2 and sunny will be +2 for the high.

 

Tally ho.

 

[Tony_S]

20 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

? I would contend that once you start bringing political parties into the discussion then it does become “political

I think that is pretty much how I think. Though trying not to upset people is important. For instance I am not in favour of keeping the remnants of feudalism going in our government but it isn’t a view that many people ascribe to so why upset people. 
When the National Curriculum was first set up here History was defined as up to 1975 I think. This meant the issues of the day were not on the syllabus. Not sure if has moved on since.  After that date it was Government & Politics. Matthew did A level Government & Politics and there were lively discussions. Though he said the first year of A level Philosophy where they studied Religious philosophers led to be him be denounced for heresy by fellow students. He wasn’t bothered. They failed the first year exams. 

[AndrewC]

2 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Very unusual to find support for my accent, usually quite the opposite from anyone south of the Tees, with much sniggering.  I love accents, and find them fascinating and often ask folk where they are from if I can't work it out.  A recent one was actually Canadian, but didn't sound it at all, I am fairly attuned to Canadian as I have a friend from Ottawa but this guy in a local shop foxed me.  It would be very boring for me if we all spoke RP.

 

Edit:  we did have a class to attempt this when they were trying to make me an officer AND a gentleman......one worked, maybe not the other!

Despite rumours to the contrary, there is no Canadian accent. Like the U.K. there are regional differences. A lot of it comes down to Which Europeans settled in an area. Southern and Eastern Ontario is quite different than the maritimes. Manitoba and parts of Central Alberta have a rather clipped way of talking. Dees dem doze for example. Mostly German and Ukraine settlers.  Many First Nations people have their own accent as well as a unique turn of phrase. We won’t even go into Quebec. 

 

Oh and only Ontario and small town people say eh after every sentence. 

[tigerburnie]

3 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

 

Oh and only Ontario and small town people say eh after every sentence. 

I thought that was Dundonians..............................

[Tony_S]

29 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

Despite rumours to the contrary, there is no Canadian accent.

When Matthew was in the sixth form he and the other students went off to a taster day at Essex University. The man doing the introduction for some reason asked if anyone could identify his accent. Someone suggested Canada, but he said not precise enough. So Matthew called out “Newfoundland”. The man asked how he had identified it, he said from watching hockey on the television. Apparently one of the commentators on the UK television was from Newfoundland. I don’t know if they had subtitles. 

[Tony_S]

37 minutes ago, AndrewC said:

Despite rumours to the contrary, there is no Canadian accent.

Whenever Aditi mentions she is Indian there is always someone who says “you don’t sound Indian”. 

[simontaylor484]

Its amazing the variation within a regional accent as well taking a Yorkshire accent its slightly different in Leeds to what it is in Barnsley and Sheffield

 

Its the same with the Scottish accent i needed subtitles with some people in the Glasgow area

 

[Tony_S]

2 hours ago, AndrewC said:

. We won’t even go into Quebec

We had a really nice time in Quebec last year! Aditi had been informed not to bother speaking French as no one would understand her accent. This turned out not to be true. The first place we stopped was a fairly new cruise stop. The craft fair that you had to walk through was full of local stuff not imports from China. Aditi saw a woolly hat she wanted and chatted in French to the saleswoman who answered in English. She had clearly been practicing in anticipation of about 2000 Anglophones passing. She suddenly said to Aditi “you are speaking French”, “This lady speaks French” to the neighbouring table. 
Tony

Edited November 27, 2020 by Tony_S
Removed surplus m

[tigerburnie]

Forget accents, you should hear my pronunciation of Gaelic place names, when I was a depot manager sending lads out for their next job the following day, the bu**ers used to be giving it the old "where was that again" routine, since when does Finzean get pronounce "Fing 'un"..............................I often hear Burntisland pronounced as Burntissland, instead of Burnt...Island.

[Coombe Barton]

Just opposite the University is the HS2 station site. The original (listed) station building I illustrated on my blog yesterday.

What I didn't  know until today was the mummified cat that was found during previous building works

 

https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/directory_record/175785/curzon_street_station_cat

 

 

Edited November 27, 2020 by Coombe Barton

[PhilJ W]

9 hours ago, rockershovel said:

 

We moved there around the same time. My recollection was that the “washings” were sold to the landscaping contractors then engaged in constructing “the Ortons”, the suburban sprawl between Oundle Road, the Parkway and the A1. 

 

British Sugar Peterborough was as closely secured as any supposed UFO base in Arizona. Mind you, considering the amount of it dropped in the roads generally, there was plenty to be had. 

Indeed, most of the washings went to a turf producer. My parents were resident in a mobile home park that ended up backing on to the Parkway (it was open ground when they moved in).  I recall that near the entrance to the mobile home park a fly tipper once dumped some builders rubble. Not broken bricks and concrete as one might expect but some honey coloured sandstone blocks many the size of a football or bigger. Many of them ended up as part of a few rockeries that sprang up on the park.

[Barry O]

5 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

Very unusual to find support for my accent, usually quite the opposite from anyone south of the Tees, with much sniggering.  I love accents, and find them fascinating and often ask folk where they are from if I can't work it out.  A recent one was actually Canadian, but didn't sound it at all, I am fairly attuned to Canadian as I have a friend from Ottawa but this guy in a local shop foxed me.  It would be very boring for me if we all spoke RP.

 

Edit:  we did have a class to attempt this when they were trying to make me an officer AND a gentleman......one worked, maybe not the other!

When I was younger I could identify the local village accents (yes they were different which I am hopeful @Two_sugars will agree with.  At University a lot of the girls liked my accent.. but I was accused of putting it on to sound like "When the Boat comes in".. to attract the girls.. 

 

@New Haven Neil my accent has almost disappeared  due to the time being away. NHN has a very quiet accent. Mine gets louder and quicker when I talk to a mate on the phone.. this results in her indoors complaning .. "slow down.. I can't understand what you are saying".. good!

 

 

Baz   

Edited November 27, 2020 by Barry O
machine had ate part of a sentence PAH!

[polybear]

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I was in the Cubs. I didn’t really want to join but Mum was pressured to make me and my brother join by an acquaintance.

 

A true story.....

Bear was a Cub (of the Baden-Powell variety) for all of two weeks.  It was pure coincidence that one of those weeks just happened to be the Chrimbo party.  Not sure why I jacked it in - guess it wasn't fun enough for me.

 

4 hours ago, Barry O said:

It was great to do..and prepared me for my next presentation..on stage in the big theatre at QEII conference centre in London to 1000+people.. I had to follow the headline speaker..it was a lot nerve wracking but I got thought all..including answering questions from Russian and Indian attendees about things I wanted to answer but couldn't.

 

A workmate of mine ("Vic") attended a Conference on Radar with his Boss.  They were sitting in an auditorium listening to the various speakers when the Boss turns to Vic and says "You'd better get ready".

"What for?" replies Vic.

"You're on next" says the Boss.

It was the first Vic had heard of it - no prep, presentations, nothing.  So he had to wing it, but pulled it off by all accounts.

 

As regards the content of some posts:  Bear is an easy-going kinda dude - as long as it isn't offensive, racist etc.  then normally it doesn't phase me.  If I don't like it/doesn't interest me then I just skip over it.

 

In other news:

Bear has finished scraping paint off the last wall and cleaned up the mess

Hang, it's better than that:

That's better....

 

Tomorrow will be an easy going day, Bear has decided - so a bit of kitchen planning work.  There's a "box" on the kitchen ceiling in one corner, maybe 2.5 - 3 ft cube; it conceals the stairs where they turn 90 degrees at the top for the last 2 or 3 steps to the landing.  I'm pondering seeing if I can make it a bit smaller and/or alter the shape (sloped maybe) to improve the appearance and make it less of an eyesore.  Using a holesaw to drill a couple of investigation holes thru' the sides may be in order so I can see inside and decide if it's a goer or not; if it's a no-no then I can easily fix the holes ready for the visit by the plasterer.

 

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Done the 'big shop' at lunchtime, big surprise it was raining, no wonder Arthur Itis has been banging on his drum.

I listened to the Jeremy Vine show going from Tess Coes and they were talking about C-19 in China. Apparently it is no longer a problem, the odd flare up is quickly dealt with. How? apparently everyone is expected to have a mobile phone and on that mobile they must have a government app that tells them where you've been and where you are. This has enabled track and trace to be very effective but I find it disquieting.

58 cases per 10,000, no wonder he's disgusted.

Well when you live in a tolitarian society that is what can be done. That's after of course denying that there is a problem to start with. Something tells me also that disgusted of Tunbridge wouldn't like his treatment either.

 

 

[Gwiwer]

Evening all.  A Happy Birthday to Simon.  

 

Well that was a day.  It began at 02.15 with an enforced nocturnal visit to relieve the waterworks.  It resumed at 03.45 when there was noise from Neighbours (Upstairs) which, since March and the onset of restrictions, has become unusual at that hour.  It resumed again at 05.00 when the alarm decided it was time to rise for work.

 

My usual outside-temperature touch-test of the bathroom window decreed that thermals top and bottom would be required.  I wasn't wrong.  It was icy outside and foggy with it.  I had commented to an early-rising SWMBO that there continued to be an unusual amount of noise from upstairs as I prepared to leave.  

 

As I walked out of the gate I encountered all of Neighbours (Upstairs) outside on the pavement, clad only in pyjamas, one in tears and most on their mobiles.  No-one should be out in sub-zero fogginess at that hour in just PJs, not even wearing slippers, so something was amiss.  I asked how I could help.  I was thanked with "It's OK".  It clearly wasn't at all OK but when an offer of help is declined the best course of action is to walk away.  So I did and wondered what might have brought about such an episode as I sat on the train bound for the House of Fun.  

 

I concluded it must have been one of the Three B's of student life : Breakdown, Boyfriend or Bereavement.  I may never know.  I alerted SWMBO as she was due to head out for an early morning walk with a work colleague.  She found no-one there an hour later.  I'm sure if they had been there would have been frostbite in the equation as well.  

 

A cold, foggy and grey morning finally gave way to cold, weak sun as I left for home.  At least the Hill of Strawberries was nicely warm as I had left the heating set to 24-hour mode rather than timer.  

 

Ocado arrived spot on time at 4pm with 100% of the order this week although the driver said I was one of the lucky ones.  I was outside with a muggercoffee waiting for them  and watching the world go by - when Neighbours (Upstairs) all trooped out, fully dressed this time.  She who had been in tears earlier drove away while the rest returned.  I wonder if she had a melt-down and left for home earlier than planned.  As none of them spoke this time I remain none the wiser and it's none of my business anyway.  

 

The official government statistics now show us as "white" on the map which means fewer than three cases have been recorded in the past seven days.  Our rate of infection per 100,000 has dropped from 139 ten days ago to 0 because no cases have actually been recorded at all.  

 

Friday Drinks was duly celebrated followed by fish & chips; sea bass with a cheesy-herby crumb coating, "shoestring fries" and a tagliatelle of zucchini.  Courgette for those playing at home.  Tiramisu followed.  "Notting Hill" followed though we were by now both dozing and abandoned it at the half-way stage.  

 

And that was a week and a day in the life.  There are suggestions that a G***** C***** may be visited tomorrow but that may prove to be Fake News   There is muddling and administration to be done.  And the place needs a decent clean.  Guess whose job that it?  

 

Stay well.  

[jamie92208]

Yes accents are funny things. On my firstvtrip across thecpond, I was on a train about to leave Chicago for Cheyenne Wyoming (plus other places).  I got chatting to the American woman next to me but behind us were three real cockney girls. I rather surprised the American lady by telling her that I could place their origin within about a 5 mile radius.  The lady was worth talking to as she gave me the number of her cousin in San Fransisco, that info earned me a tourvof that city in a Porche 911.

 

Jamie

[Coombe Barton]

... and a mummified station cat ...

 

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2020/11/27/family-transmission/

[Gwiwer]

2 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

accents are funny things.  I rather surprised the American lady by telling her that I could place their origin within about a 5 mile radius. 

Indeed.  I have on several occasions been able to place an accent to the exact town or village in the south-west.  I reckon I am reasonably good with Cornish accents (yes there is more than one) but majorly surprised a work acquaintance one time by pinning his deeply Devonian accent right down, correctly, to Broad Clyst.  

 

British regional accents are a great study subject.  They vary so greatly and many are unique to a very small area.  Unlike Australia which has about four discernible accents.  "Melbourne", Sydney", "Bush" and "Queensland" about covers it.  The latter is a particularly laid-back and slowly-spoken drawl.  It's so hot and humid up there that nothing is rushed.  Including speech!  

[TheQ]

1 hour ago, tigerburnie said:

Forget accents, you should hear my pronunciation of Gaelic place names, when I was a depot manager sending lads out for their next job the following day, the bu**ers used to be giving it the old "where was that again" routine, since when does Finzean get pronounce "Fing 'un"..............................I often hear Burntisland pronounced as Burntissland, instead of Burnt...Island.

This is because of the old English/ old Scots letter yogh / yoch which looked like a deformed number 3, early printers used the letter z instead, hence menzies is more properly pronounced mengis.

This added to the great vowel shift, means many places and names are pronounced nearly as they always have been. But modern teaching of the sound of letters has changed.

 

Looking it up finzean is Scots i.e. old English, the Gaidhlig is finnean, but the word is probably of Pictish i.e. old Welsh descent .

 

Down here in Noorfuk, Neatishead is pronounced Neat-iss-head by visitors but neat-stead by locals

 

[New Haven Neil]

Pronunciation is certainly an issue here, Manx Gaelic names tend to be terribly shortened, Barregarroo = B'garrow as an example.

[Erichill16]

7 hours ago, simontaylor484 said:

Happy birthday Simon G i will raise a tin of sugar free pop in salutations to your birthday.

 

Last nights corned beef hash has been consumed at dinner time. Festive gifts have been procured. 

 

 

Ugg boots and hand bags?

[simontaylor484]

3 minutes ago, Erichill16 said:

Ugg boots and hand bags?

Actually i managed to find some Kookaburra boots who are made by Ugg and were half price for black Friday.

I used to have a Kookaburra cricket bat different company