Early Risers.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

There is a whole industry based on criticizing the POTUS (often deserved, sometimes not) - without involving any threat of jail time. Long may that continue.

Even thinking about removal of the monarchy is illegal here. Not sure how that can be prosecuted. The law has been updated though as transportation to Australia has been replaced with life imprisonment.  

Edited April 24, 2023 by Tony_S

[New Haven Neil]

It's getting far too political around here.

[Tony_S]

10 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

It's getting far too political around here.

I didn’t think I was being political, just commenting on an interesting constitutional difference between here and there.  

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

CNN was running that story over the weekend, under their "Travel" umbrella.

 

CNN: This uninhabited Scottish island could be yours for $190,000

 

That's the one I posted originally.

[Gwiwer]

5 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

with converging verticals straightened....

You've been playing Mornington Crescent again, haven't you 🤣

[Gwiwer]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Scottish island could be yours for $190,000

Is that Scottish dollars? 

 

Do they know something the rest of us don't? 

 

I thought the future currency for a devolved nation might have been the McBitcoin

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The arthritis has been playing up this afternoon/evening. Not surprisingly as the rain has been heading this way and arrived about five, Nurofen has been taken. 

[Tony_S]

We had Indian food tonight. I discovered something new. I have had my hearing aids for about 10 days now and I am well on the way to not being affected by how my voice sounds. However eating noises are more obvious. This should disappear as my brain learns to ignore it, however the meal tonight seemed silent compared to the other meals consumed recently. Toast at breakfast had an interesting sound quality!

[Tony_S]

2 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Evening all from Estuary-Land. The arthritis has been playing up this afternoon/evening. Not surprisingly as the rain has been heading this way and arrived about five, Nurofen has been taken. 

The rain had been quite heavy at times over the last few days. We have a path made of blocks with holes in them. Normally they drain well with the sort of rain normally experienced here, but they have had puddles recently. Also all the moss has been washed off the roof tiles!

[New Haven Neil]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

I didn’t think I was being political, just commenting on an interesting constitutional difference between here and there.  

 

Wasn't aimed at you, Tony, just happened to arrive after your post.

[Tony_S]

9 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Is that Scottish dollars? 

 

Do they know something the rest of us don't? 

 

I thought the future currency for a devolved nation might have been the McBitcoin

The CNN report had the price in USD. British articles had the price in Pounds. 

[pH]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

One motorcycle accident that stuck in my mind was one that involved a young lady wearing only a helmet, boots and a bikini (well, it was a hot day) who came off the back of the bike on a gravel road and tumbled.

A friend of mine came off a bike and slid on his back, head-first, along the road (and onto a grassy verge, then back out onto the road). He was wearing a crash helmet and a studded leather jacket. The studs wore right down and the jacket was badly scuffed, but it didn’t wear completely through, so the skin on his back was OK. However - his jeans were pulled down by friction on the road and he had great problems sitting down for a few weeks.

[Ozexpatriate]

15 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Is that Scottish dollars?

The article offers:

Quote

Situated just off the southern coast of Scotland, Barlocco Island is up for sale, priced at offers over £150,000 ($190,000)

 

[pH]

3 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

Is that Scottish dollars? 

In Scottish coinage, it’s 9 million groats or 6 million bawbees.

 

(Edit- apparently, there once was a Scottish dollar:

 

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/x45999

 

though other references say it was worth 60 shillings:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_Scots

 

So, in ‘60 shilling’ Scottish dollars, the island would cost 50,000 Scottish dollars.)

Edited April 25, 2023 by pH

[Tony_S]

My town is in the news, well at least the regional news. A valve stuck at the local  sewage treatment plant.  Not nice apparently. The clear up was delayed as the tanker despatched to pump away the effluent was too big to go under the railway bridge. 

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 

 

I'm guessing that the realtor doesn't have islands in the Whitsunday group come up very often, 

 

 

Actually there's been quite a lot lately.

 

Many of the old resort islands , South Molle, Lindeman, Brampton, Dunk, Hinchinbrook  and so on which were big travel destinations in the 70's 80's and 90's have slowly fallen into disrepair, due to reduced trade now everyone goes so cheaply  to Bali, Phuket, Fiji etc , then a series of cyclones then Covid.

 

Most are now abandoned shells and the islands have been coming up for sale over the last couple of years. Some are bought by locals as mega weekenders , others with the intention of re-imagining them as eco-resorts etc, others by overseas investment companies, usually Chinese who do nothing with them at all but leave them to decay further.

 

 

 

Edited April 24, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

@Gwiwer's comments about the 370 started me thinking about how the London route numbers were allocated. The numbers were allocated by the Metropolitan Police Public carriage office. Quite a simple system, 1-199 were allocated to double deck routes, 2** were single deck routes, 3** were country routes north of the river Thames and 4** were country routes south of the river. The Greenline routes originally carried letters not numbers. Trams (and trolleybuses) had a separate numbering system. This was the situation when London Transport came into being in 1933. The first change was to add 600 to the trolleybus numbers to avoid clashing with bus and tram routes and when trams were replaced by trolleybuses 600 was added to the route number. When single deck routes were changed to double deck they often retained the 2** number.

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, Andy Hayter said:

 

That of course is highly dependent on wind direction

 

 

That is a Canadair water bomber about 3km from our village last summer.  No smoke smell.  No sign of smoke from the other side of the village.  All it would have needed was a change in wind direction.........

 

 

Yeah I was riffing on the "major fire" bit. The one I pictured was the Green Wattle Creek fire that blazed out of control for 2 months and ended up burning almost 300,000 hectares.  We were certainly well aware that it was there no matter which way the wind blew!

Edited April 24, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

 

Day four of a 4 day long weekend coming about due to ANZAC Day being Tuesday so we all took Monday off too.

 

That is exactly the kind of  Australian freedom that the diggers  volunteered and travelled thousands of km to the Middle East then France  to fight for and makes up  for us not getting any time off for King Chuck Threes Sparkly Hat Day. 

Edited April 24, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[45568]

For our Australian and N.Z. readers...

Lest we forget.

From Oz,

Peter C.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

After I’d completed this morning’s shopping trip and packed away all the shopping , I made myself a muggertea and decamped to the living room and carried on reading the book I bought on Friday and I finished reading it before we had tea tonight.

 

Goodnight all

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Many of the old resort islands , South Molle, Lindeman, Brampton, Dunk, Hinchinbrook  and so on which were big travel destinations in the 70's 80's and 90's have slowly fallen into disrepair

Mum and Dad honeymooned on South Molle in 1961. Dad's slides are great - like the lizards on the ceiling of the open air bar. There was an old deuce and a half truck* that they drove into the water to meet the boat, in lieu of a jetty.

 

* Probably war surplus

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Mum and Dad honeymooned on South Molle in 1961. Dad's slides are great - like the lizards on the ceiling of the open air bar. There was an old deuce and a half truck* that they drove into the water to meet the boat, in lieu of a jetty.

 

* Probably war surplus

 

 

I honeymooned on Dunk Island 1988, it was still pretty posh then. Had its own airstrip and was a bit of a destination for the international well-heeled,  holidaying somewhere different from South Of France or whatever.

 

We'd book a shared table each evening and met quite a cross-section of society. One night it was a theatre critic from The New York Times and his boyfriend, another night it was a German industrialist and his young  blonde pretty-boy pilot who'd flown him there and looked like he provided more services than just piloting,  wink wink nudge nudge.

 

Another night it was an English family who spoke  Ridiculous Posh which sounded weird, I'd just assumed people bunged it on for the telly -  "We're fwom Cambwidshire!" or whatever - and all looked very ill due to them being the reddest I've ever seen anyone get after a day in the sun. 

 

Famous for its Ulysses butterflies, which were everywhere. (Not my picture!)

 

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[BR60103]

Today we went to an opening performance at Stratford of King Lear. The title role was done by a fellow who appeared in one of Jason Shron's recent videos.

I remember our English teacher, last year at school, strongly recommending that we pass that year as the play the following year would be Lear.  

I wasn't keen on going and do not want to go again.

We're still not sure who all the characters were.