Early Risers.

[monkeysarefun]

6 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I think you've got that confused with New Zealand mate. 😉

 

Aussies need the partition to take the drop bears to the Chlamydia clinic.

 

 

 

Yes, I did google "Sheep in the back of cars" to see what you meant but I  just got a whole lot of pictures of New Zealand families from Dunalley. 

Edited June 23 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

A somewhat warm morning for here being 22C in the bedroom at dawn .

 

 

 

There is obviously  a conspiracy that makes us think that the temperature scale is the same all over the world when it apparently ISNT, because 22 is the setting for my air conditioner in summer overnight, and I wake up chilled and have to either turn it off or throw a blanket over myself. 

Edited June 23 by monkeysarefun

[jjb1970]

Happy anniversary to Barry and Mrs Barry, enjoy many more!!

[Peterem]

17 hours ago, BoD said:

Today’s mail consisted of a batch of election communication - I understand that each candidate is entitled to one free mail shot from Royal Mail

Only one for me so far - a lady from Reform UK. Not from the Postie though as this guy couldn't be bothered to use the letterbox but preferred to leave it stuffed between the front door and the frame. Instant bin fodder.

[Coombe Barton]

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

It is our 45th Wedding Anniversary today.. I must be due for parole!!!

 

Congratulations to both of you

Edited June 23 by Coombe Barton

[jjb1970]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I find the reaction of many on ER to “pollyticks” quite fascinating.
 

Setting aside for the moment the intriguing philosophical notion that every choice we make and every action we do is a political choice and a political action, three things emerge:

1. a disengagement from politics is a godsend to the ideologues, extremists and zealots of all political persuasions - it allows them to take control of the political narrative - with predictable outcomes.
2. people are far too ready to slap on pejorative labels on people who deviate from the political orthodoxy of the day. (Don’t like tinned baked beans then you must be a bigot, etc. etc.)
3. there is a lot of mendacity in the political narrative, especially when it comes to taking things out of context (so “I hate tinned baked beans, they are absolute rubbish compared with homemade baked beans from fresh ingredients” becomes “tinned baked beans…are absolute rubbish”)

So, perhaps the philosophers are right that that every choice we make and every action we do IS a political choice and IS a political action….

 

I think it's true that at a certain level politics permeates almost everything in life. The arts (painting, literature, music, theatre etc) have always been a vehicle for political ideas and influencing people, sport is political, politics affects what shops sell etc.

 

I see a similar change in politics as in business. The concept of banking, capitalism and the idea of corporations which have been battered and seen a collapse in perception because of how they have evolved. Markets went from a mechanism to provide capital and corporations from entities providing goods and services to short term speculation, obsession with shareholder value and creating money out of the ether in schemes nobody can really figure out until they crash. An unfair generalisation based on jaundiced views but there's enough evidence of corporate greed and excess for it to be a perfectly understandable position.

 

So in politics, at one time there was an ethos of service and an interest in policy, while elections did offer voters a choice. Now team blue and red are interchangeable on the really important issues and so play up emotive trigger issues to create an illusion of a difference which doesn't exist while their MPs are increasingly in it either for themselves or interests which aren't their voters or constituents. Image is all. I am not a fan of George Galloway, but his comment that Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer are two cheeks of the same a**e is the best summary of contemporary politics I have heard, genius. So there are reasonable reasons why people are disengaged or turn to alternative choices.

[polybear]

VSBAW's to Baz & Mrs. B 🎂🎂

[grandadbob]

Good morning all and a very Happy Anniversary to Baz and Hilary.

Sunny day here in The Land of Sutt although it may cloud over this afternoon.  20°C now and it may reach 26°C.

Parcel wrapped up to return broadband kit etc to BT.  I'm trying out the Royal Mail collection service for the first time tomorrow.

Nottalot else planned until Steve gets here at some stage when I hope he'll be able to help me with a couple of IT problems.

Grandkids are making the most of their holiday in Thailand and today are flying from Chiang Mai to Hua Hin.  I believe washing elephants is on the agenda.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

I'm not sure if @Gwiwerhad a hand in it but the Melbourne Metro "Dumb Ways To Die" ad campaign of about 10 years ago was great fun and phenomenally effective.

Well that's a blast from my past indeed.  

 

Our media team had a significant hand in the creation and promulgation of the "Dumb Ways to Die" song and the message it contained.  Some of us thought it was a bit too cheesy at first until it suddenly went viral overnight.  

 

Did I have a hand in it?  Yes, a quite big hand.  Two hands, a mouth and a brain in fact.  I was one of those taken off normal duties for a short time to develop the then-planned campaign and asked for feedback and input.  I was aware that a few years earlier Queensland Rail had launched a successful campaign displaying posters on the platform ends saying "Don't say you didn't know" which reduced the number walk-off incidents with its in-your-face style.  

 

So when Melbourne (and Metro Trains Melbourne in particular although Public Transport Victoria as the franchising authority were on board from the start and it was rolled out across bus and tram networks too) came up with a catchy little ditty, however cheesy, it almost had to work.

 

And it did.  

 

QR 2004-style message.  25kVac overhead.  Frequent trains moving in all directions as this is at the main Brisbane Roma Street station.  

 

[iL Dottore]

4 hours ago, polybear said:

Some scrote reporter was even planning to release a story about the leader of the Bear Party being a "(semi) Recovering Cakeaholic".......CC soon explained the error of their ways to them, however.....

Quite so.

 

”semi-Cakeaholic” and “recovering” are vile calumnies on the Great Beary Leader - who has never made a secret of being Cake-Positive…

 

CC

Edited June 23 by iL Dottore
Spelling

[southern42]

23 hours ago, southern42 said:

' morning all from red dragon land.

Sunny. Some blue sky. !6.9C. Oooooooooh!

 

Nothing like that, yesterday, so I did a lot of repetitive work on my TOTF🎶. Time, shortly, to find out if it has done me any good!

 

Th garden looks tempting. Very tempting and I am not talking about the G word! Sitting in a secluded spot with a mugadecaf down by the Rock Rose sounds just up my street/right of way/walkway/daisy path/other description at your inventiveness.

 

Prongs = cat deterrent 🙀

Take care. Be good. Take advantage of any  😎

 

' afternoon all from red dragon land.

Fog given way to cloud. 14.6C.

 

Well, yesterday, I did make it to the garden - to put the washing out! Later, I went out with a mug of coffee but saw our next-door neighbour sitting out on the terrace and we ended up putting the world to rights! After the lovely chat with her, I came in and warmed my coffee up in the popty ping and drank it this time! 

 

A couple of short TOTF🎶 sessions saw my best playing so far with finger movement completely relaxed despite my tensed up breathing << Yup! The bug is still lingering....>> so no complaining and a determined effort to keep playing without tensing up.

 

Then followed dinner and Judge John Deed on the tv.

 

Lots of odds and ends to sort out today if I can muster up the strength and mojo to do them. I'll probably end up doing them one at a time with sit-downs in between. Always good to have an excuse reason to have a break for a mugadecaf!

 

Take care. Be good. Be strategic.

Polly

[BSW01]

Good morning afternoon everyone 

 

Happy anniversary to Baz and Hillary. 

 

I had a quick look in before I headed outside to do some work in the garden. The wheelbarrow is now full, but before I go to empty it, I thought I'd have a short rest and drink a muggertea. Max is due to come round this afternoon, so I'd better get the gardening done. 

 

Back later 

 

Brian 

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

sport is political

 

 

International sport is political. The answer is to design a sport that only YOUR country plays, eg NFL in the USA, AFL in Australia.

 

Once the rest of the world gets involved its a slippery slope to corruption and sleazery, and  as soon as the Europeans muscle into  a sport  with their ridiculous  committees and meddling around with the  rules and so on all the fun goes out of it and  you are better off just setting  up a screen around it and putting  it out of its misery with a 12 gauge.

 

Edited June 23 by monkeysarefun

[Gwiwer]

My inbox reminds me that it is car insurance renewal time.  They want £405 this year.  That's a significant jump from last year.

 

I visited my current insurer's own website, entered identical details to my current policy and obtained a quote for £307.  The words "Thieving" and "Persons of questionable parentage" came to mind.  

 

I tried a couple of the comparison sites and found similar cover which would be acceptable for as little as £182.  The under-writer is not known to me and the add-ons which I normally add on take the premium to above £500!!!  

 

To level the playing field the quotes referred to above also include add-ons.  I opt for a zero excess policy with windscreen, breakdown, home-start and hire-car cover plus No-Claims protection.  Some policies include some of those features as standard, some offer most or all of them as add-ons at additional cost.  Buyer beware.  

 

I then located my current insurer on the comparison site and entered details matching the current policy.  £385.  Still lower than the automated renewal quote. 

 

Both our major motoring organisations offer insurance so I tried them through the comparison site.  AA cover was inferior to RAC and at a slightly higher premium but both just below £300.  I tried their own sites and was unable to match exact details at the AA but closely similar details generated a quote of £309 with add-ons bringing that to £367.  RAC online (not via comparisons) came to £278 inclusive of the required add-ons.  

 

Guess who got my renewal.  

 

As always if one has the time and inclination it pays to shop around.  And for what it's worth when one takes off the value of those add-ons when separately-priced my comprehensive policy is still coming in at a little over £100.  Or £198 with the add-ons then effectively discounted making up the other £80 of which the lion's share is of course breakdown cover.  

[Gwiwer]

10 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

Happy anniversary to Baz and Hillary. 

You get less for terminating someone's existence in a premeditated manner! 

 

Happy Anniversary 🍾

[Sidecar Racer]

 

  Happy Anniversary wishes to Mr & Mrs O .

[PupCam]

Morning (pre-munch😉)!

 

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

Ey up!

 

It is our 45th Wedding Anniversary today.. I must be due for parole!!!

 

 

Many congratulations to you both.   I'm afraid you've got some way to go before parole can be considered Baz 🤞

 

2 hours ago, Winslow Boy said:

We've got one of those- guided bus and yes it does run for part of its way on an old train line.

 

Yes, what an expensive and complete waste of time and resources guided busways are.  Our one has to have a driver as some of the route is over normal shared roads.    So, save the expense of the guided bus and the infrastructure and just get the driver to drive the blxxdy thing all the way!   (I suppose that qualifies as a mini rant?)

 

Back in my early training a part of the GE was involved in developing a thing called Minitram which was (well would have been) a guided tram.     A bunch of apprentices built a 1/2 scale chassis and another couple of herberts (including Puppers) were tasked with testing it.  We clearly couldn't afford and didn't have the wherewithal to develop a section of guided road (IIRC it was going to be like Scalextric track) so we towed it beside an old Landy.   The chassis had steering at either end so the "slot" was provided by rods going to the Landy chassis - where the Landy went the Tram was sure to follow!    Needless to say the tests were not conducted on a public highway.

 

 

ION

 

Went for a thrash on the RD over to Dunstable Gliding Club this morning.    The cafe has been taken on by new people, seems very good and very reasonably priced.     Some of their offerings obviously had to be consumed in the name of research.

 

We've just had at least 6 (it might have been more at one point) Red Kites circling and diving down into next door-but-one's garden.   Either they've been feeding them (foolish and unnecessary) or something's died ...

 

Just had news from Junior Puppers who has been on an organised cycle ride around Dartmoor this morning.  Completed the course and in a very respectable time too so very well done JP!

 

Lunch time now and then I think it will be MIUAYGA.

 

TTFN

 

 

 

 

 

 

[polybear]

24 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

My inbox reminds me that it is car insurance renewal time.  They want £405 this year.  That's a significant jump from last year.

 

I visited my current insurer's own website, entered identical details to my current policy and obtained a quote for £307.  The words "Thieving" and "Persons of questionable parentage" came to mind.  

 

I tried a couple of the comparison sites and found similar cover which would be acceptable for as little as £182.  The under-writer is not known to me and the add-ons which I normally add on take the premium to above £500!!!  

 

To level the playing field the quotes referred to above also include add-ons.  I opt for a zero excess policy with windscreen, breakdown, home-start and hire-car cover plus No-Claims protection.  Some policies include some of those features as standard, some offer most or all of them as add-ons at additional cost.  Buyer beware.  

 

I then located my current insurer on the comparison site and entered details matching the current policy.  £385.  Still lower than the automated renewal quote. 

 

Both our major motoring organisations offer insurance so I tried them through the comparison site.  AA cover was inferior to RAC and at a slightly higher premium but both just below £300.  I tried their own sites and was unable to match exact details at the AA but closely similar details generated a quote of £309 with add-ons bringing that to £367.  RAC online (not via comparisons) came to £278 inclusive of the required add-ons.  

 

Guess who got my renewal.  

 

As always if one has the time and inclination it pays to shop around.  And for what it's worth when one takes off the value of those add-ons when separately-priced my comprehensive policy is still coming in at a little over £100.  Or £198 with the add-ons then effectively discounted making up the other £80 of which the lion's share is of course breakdown cover.  

 

There's also a "sweet-spot" day for getting quotes - leave it late and the price goes up.....

(The Moneysaving Expert website tells all)

 

 

 

 

 

[monkeysarefun]

11 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

My inbox reminds me that it is car insurance renewal time.  They want £405 this year.  That's a significant jump from last year.

 

I visited my current insurer's own website, entered identical details to my current policy and obtained a quote for £307.  The words "Thieving" and "Persons of questionable parentage" came to mind.  

 

 

 

 

There's an actual official term for that, I don't remember what it is but the current federal Government has announced they are going to make it illegal for an Insurance company to give you two different quotes in that manner. 

 

What annoys  me is the total lack of showing the workings that goes into the quote ,  they are relying on you to just pay it automatically.

 

On their  side of the deal, they have sophisticated computer modelling that can work out the chance of a storm going through your street  compared to the suburb next door and can work out the risk to them accordingly. But still when it comes to you paying them they just slap on a heap of money on top of their calculations, hoping you won't notice.

 

My one pleasant encounter with an insurance quoterer was when I got a renewal for the ute about 5 years ago and the premium was around 80% up on the year before . I phoned them up to question it and I got a lovely lady who told me she lived in Devonport in Tasmania.  Now, she volunteered that information without me asking where she lived  - as part of the opening pleasantries she told me that the insurance company had opened a call centre there so they could put an end to  complaints that we were  calling a pretend Australian called "Trevor"  who was actually in  Mumbai.

 

. Anyhoo, we had a lovely  chat about V8s and Holdens and she reminisced about her dad who had put in his will that when his time came the hearse must not be a Ford, then she re-asked me the standard questions but put them in a more positive slant aimed at putting me in a good light and I got $300 knocked off, which made it the cheapest premium I'd paid since I bought the ute back in 2013.

[PupCam]

31 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

My inbox reminds me that it is car insurance renewal time.  They want £405 this year.  That's a significant jump from last year.

 

I visited my current insurer's own website, entered identical details to my current policy and obtained a quote for £307.  The words "Thieving" and "Persons of questionable parentage" came to mind.  

 

I tried a couple of the comparison sites and found similar cover which would be acceptable for as little as £182.  The under-writer is not known to me and the add-ons which I normally add on take the premium to above £500!!!  

 

To level the playing field the quotes referred to above also include add-ons.  I opt for a zero excess policy with windscreen, breakdown, home-start and hire-car cover plus No-Claims protection.  Some policies include some of those features as standard, some offer most or all of them as add-ons at additional cost.  Buyer beware.  

 

I then located my current insurer on the comparison site and entered details matching the current policy.  £385.  Still lower than the automated renewal quote. 

 

Both our major motoring organisations offer insurance so I tried them through the comparison site.  AA cover was inferior to RAC and at a slightly higher premium but both just below £300.  I tried their own sites and was unable to match exact details at the AA but closely similar details generated a quote of £309 with add-ons bringing that to £367.  RAC online (not via comparisons) came to £278 inclusive of the required add-ons.  

 

Guess who got my renewal.  

 

As always if one has the time and inclination it pays to shop around.  And for what it's worth when one takes off the value of those add-ons when separately-priced my comprehensive policy is still coming in at a little over £100.  Or £198 with the add-ons then effectively discounted making up the other £80 of which the lion's share is of course breakdown cover.  

 

They rely on the victim's customers apathy ....   Martin Lewis is always saying that the optimum point to renew insurance is ~23 days before the policy expires.

 

I concur with your phrase.

 

 

[jamie92208]

Good after moaning from the Charente.  The market has been visited and lunch consumed.  Some DIY awaits but at least it isn't raining and it's warm. 

 

Happy Anniversary to the Baz's.  You obviously got married three weeks after us.  I think we were just getting back from our honeymoon on this date 45 years ago. 

 

Regards to all. 

 

Jamie

[DaveF]

Happy anniversary Baz and Hillary, and hopefully many more to look forward to.

 

David

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Just spent a couple of hours watching the Yesterday channel about things that run on parallel strips of metal propelled by boiling water. Nothing much else on TV, ping-pong on grass or kick ball  so I'm looking for some other programs. Another interesting program was about spying in WW2. The Nazi's set up a brothel in Berlin just before the war started employing girls specially trained to encourage patrons to talk. There were hidden microphones leading to SS headquarters where everything was recorded.  A British spy (posing as a Romanian businessman) realised what was going on and arranged for the line from the brothel to be tapped.

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

[southern42]

5 hours ago, Barry O said:

Ey up!

 

It is our 45th Wedding Anniversary today.. I must be due for parole!!!

 

We are eating at a local family run Italian Restaurant later.. don't upset the owners..  they are Sicilians!

 

More paintwork completed yesterday.. a rest day is scheduled for today.

 

If you think trains in Britain are bad.. well compared to DB they are wonderful. I must be lucky as I haven't needed to get on a rail replacement bus.. ever... despite Dr Beeching and his axe we do still have a lot of railways in Britain (in 2021 we had 4 times as much track as Switzerland for example).

 

So..Time for my tea!

 

Baz

 

Firstly, Happy Anniversary to @Barry O and Hillary. Enjoy your day.

 

Just as well you are not in this part of the world.

Arriving in Chester our tr**n into Wales was delayed and a bus service was put on. Not a bad journey, just not the one we were expecting! This was at least four years ago....

 

Also, travelling to London Euston, these days, can entail changes at both Chester and Crewe, and if you are really lucky, on the return, you can change at Crewe, Chester and Llandudno Junction, with a direct Wales service bus to Bangor to boot! This is a Saturday service. I have not checked out Mon-Fri options.

 

 

[petethemole]

Happy Anniversary to Baz and Hilary.