Early Risers.

[polybear]

47 minutes ago, Grizz said:

However…..If they live in fear it will help focus their minds. Until they do nothing will change. In fact it will get worse as it will just encourage other morally bankrupt filth to behave in a similar way. 

 

Justice must always be seen to be done. Good people must be helped, publicly recognised for being good people and told that they are good people. 
 

Such people could be you or someone you know. It could be someone who does a regular mundane job or it could be the person who dreamt up L.D.C…….(Sainthood does await some). 
 

@polybear the world needs you. 

 

Now how could Bear ignore such a plea from a Buddy....

 

[iL Dottore]

17 minutes ago, Grizz said:

Comic Con dressed as ‘Furies’…..🤨….there were a couple of hundred of em, with a variety of Anthropomorphised creatures featured ….🧐

Furries or Furies?

 

The Furies are chthonic goddesses of vengeance in ancient Greek religion and mythology. 
 

I have NO idea what a "furry" is

[Tony_S]

Just now, Grizz said:

But I was listening to what she was saying and I now realise for the first time in my life that the golden blue lesser striped mouse mole is endangered”……..nah that one didn’t even work the first time I tried it. 
 

I think most of the chuggers in the UK are trying to get you to sign up to charities but in some other countries big cities, someone approaching you with a clipboard is quite likely to be distracting you for pickpockets or a fake charity. Places like the Louvre were infested with them. They gravitate towards people speaking English. The suggestion to respond in something other than English does work. 

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

What matters is that when the pagers sound there will be a crew of willing volunteers ready to put to sea in any conditions to the aid of those in need. And they will have the best kit and training available. 

 

 

You'd personally be aware of the strong volunteer culture in Australia! 

 

Both the Rural Fire services of every state, and the State Emergency Services are volunteer organisations because the necessity for them is seasonal, and varies  from state to state.

 

Although (a t least in NSW) the state government now pays for off-road appliances, fire-bombing  aircraft, command centres and a professional staff to man it, the individual rural fire stations  are largely funded through sausage sizzles, meat raffles in pubs, and donation boxes on shop counters. 

Edited 4 hours ago by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

BH....

 

Bear is in "Give the Lounge a deep clean" mode today.....it'll feel reeeeeeal good when it's done....

 

ION....

 

I see The Orange One has been displaying his endless motivational skills again....  🤣

 

"Go and vote. Make sure you vote and bring all our friends that want to vote for us. Tell them, 'Jill. Get your fat husband off the couch. Get that—get that fat pig off the couch. Tell him to go and vote for Trump. He's going to save our country.'

"Get him up, Jill. Slap him around. Get him up! Get him up, Jill. We want him off the couch to get out and vote," Trump added.

 

Nice.

 

Right, Mickey the Miele time has arrived.....

 

BG

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Grizz said:

Strangely I have a bit more time for female persons with the second group of attributes that you have highlighted. Yes I can definitely stop and listen to the second group….that is until Mrs Grizz finally catches up with me and asks me why I suddenly rushed off in such a hurry and helpfully extracts me away from happily and voluntarily being S.O.Chugged. She does this in the same way and using the same type of language that you would use extract a small child from a sweet shop…..by telling them that you have bigger and better sweets at home! 

 

”But I was listening to what she was saying and I now realise for the first time in my life that the golden blue lesser striped mouse mole is endangered”……..nah that one didn’t even work the first time I tried it. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Its kind of funny when they try to use it as a selling tactic here, like they have something special to offer us.  I just want to tell them - "This is Australia,  theres f%&4en  b00bs everywhere, mate!" 

Edited 3 hours ago by monkeysarefun

[Grizz]

11 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Furries or Furies?

 

The Furies are chthonic goddesses of vengeance in ancient Greek religion and mythology. 
 

I have NO idea what a "furry" is

Sorry Doc as usual my ever helpful auto correct mis-spelt Furry or Furries…..

 

The best advice that I can give on this subject is….

 

If you have no idea what a ‘Furry’ or ‘Furries’ are….then keep it that way. A mind such as yours shouldn’t be littered with this kind of thing with it’s associated deviant leanings. 
 

It is best to remain living in happy, blissful ignorance, than open this particular peculiar Pandora’s Box…..

 

I so wish to the gods that I had not. Unfortunately I cannot un-know what I now know or un-see what I saw at Comic Con. 

 

If, when you are reading up on the world’s latest medical developments in your medical journals, it should turn out that they have created an industrial jet wash for erasing memories, please could you let me know….ASAP….it would be greatly appreciated. 

[monkeysarefun]

12 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

 

Bear is in "Give the Lounge a deep clean" mode today.....it'll feel reeeeeeal good when it's done....

 

I

 

 

 

You name everything else, why not your lounge?

 

 

I sense you are an Old Testament "eye for an eye" kind of bloke, so may  I suggest Leviticus,  Lysanias or Lysimachus?

[TheQ]

12 minutes ago, Grizz said:

 

 

If, when you are reading up on the world’s latest medical developments in your medical journals, it should turn out that they have created an industrial jet wash for erasing memories, please could you let me know….ASAP….it would be greatly appreciated. 

[monkeysarefun]

 

 

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

Furries or Furies?

 

The Furies are chthonic goddesses of vengeance in ancient Greek religion and mythology. 
 

I have NO idea what a "furry" is

 

 

 

 

But you've been at the epicentre of furries for the last three weeks! 

 

They follow the ASia-Pacific  Comicon circuit, south from Asia, via the Philippines to sunny Brisbane  and  Sydney and less sunny Melbourne,  but their hometown litter tray   is up there , did you not ever think "Hmmmmmm - The cats are rather large around here!?"

 

 

 

 

Edited 3 hours ago by monkeysarefun

[TheQ]

Well, what obvious is the dire warnings of these Semaglutide tablets not to leave the tub open is because they weaken by exposure.. So even as you open the tub each day for a few seconds to get one out they weaken.

This new tub and the pill has really made me real rough today.. i suspect whenever they get officially released they'll be in sealed blister packs..

 

We had 3 hours light rain nothing too spectacular, but the wind is increasing, with the peak being nearly 50mph at 13:00 tomorrow, that's halfway through the passage race, that's a certainty to be called off.

 

I've cut lots of lengths of 38mm square timber, 1 1/4 inch that is.

Marked most of it up for mortice and tenon joints a few lap joints. After I've had some thing to eat I'll go start cutting again.

 

Time to find something to put between two slices of bread.

[iL Dottore]

In light of recent posts about being "accosted" in the streets, you may find the following amusing (from my current Japan Blog:

 

POOR GIRL
I have just had the most interesting experience. I was sitting on a bench in Ueno Park, enjoying the environment when a young Filipino girl came up to me and asked did I speak English. I replied in the affirmative, thinking that it was just someone asking me if I could give them directions But no. It was a young missionary from some Pentecostal sect. 

 

Anyway, to make a long story short: I don't think the poor girl realised what she had gotten herself into. For instead of HER telling ME about "Jeezus", she got herself involved in a discussion about comparative religion, the three great monotheistic faiths, why Buddhism and Shintoism can coexist quite happily and I challenged her by saying that those who have the answers and say they know everything have neither the answers, nor know much about anything.

 

We parted amiably, with her saying to me that I had given her a lot of food for thought.

I can be a right evil s*d sometimes! 🤣

[jjb1970]

I once knew a young lady in Japan who was in some strange Buddhist sect and had some very odd ideas. Nice lady but a bit intense. In the Western world people have a very narrow idea of Buddhism,  imagining it as like a vegan pacifist humanist thing free of the less desirable aspects of religion.  Which may well be true for some but Buddhism is no different to other faiths in that what people see in it tends to reflect their own personality and values.

[monkeysarefun]

26 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

In light of recent posts about being "accosted" in the streets, you may find the following amusing (from my current Japan Blog:

 

POOR GIRL
I have just had the most interesting experience. I was sitting on a bench in Ueno Park, enjoying the environment when a young Filipino girl came up to me and asked did I speak English. I replied in the affirmative, thinking that it was just someone asking me if I could give them directions But no. It was a young missionary from some Pentecostal sect. 

 

Anyway, to make a long story short: I don't think the poor girl realised what she had gotten herself into. For instead of HER telling ME about "Jeezus", she got herself involved in a discussion about comparative religion, the three great monotheistic faiths, why Buddhism and Shintoism can coexist quite happily and I challenged her by saying that those who have the answers and say they know everything have neither the answers, nor know much about anything.

 

We parted amiably, with her saying to me that I had given her a lot of food for thought.

I can be a right evil s*d sometimes! 🤣

 

 

I answered the door bell  one Saturday morning to find some Jehovah's  Witnesses on the front step. I listened to what they had to say, bought 2 copies of The Watchtower from them, and when they told me that they'd be back in the district in 4 weeks time with some kind of special NSW boss guy and could he call on me  , I said yes, youse can all come over whenever youse want. 

 

 

Fast forward a month or so and my phone rings. Its my sister, really p!ssed off because all these Jehovah's Witnesses  had turned up on her doorstep saying that Chris had said they could  drop in anytime.   I told her that I had agreed to look after her house while she was on holiday for 2 months, but  if she had been  concerned about the possibility of Jehovah's Witnesses visiting her  then she should have told me that  beforehand because I just assumed she'd be all for them coming around every Saturday. 

 

She lately moved up the Far North Coast, but when I saw her at my sons wedding a couple of weeks ago she brought it up again, 26 years later!

 

 

 

Edited 2 hours ago by monkeysarefun

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

the ride on these things is incredible, Rolls Royce, eat your heart out!

Absolutely. And when you consider the average Australian track is nowhere near the standards of British main lines that is all the more remarkable. 
 

I have had a great respect and love for the V-sets since I first encountered them in 1998 on a trip to Newcastle (NSW). 
 

That trip was also my introduction to the venerable “630-sets”, those twin-car diesel units used beyond Newcastle and the wires up the Hunter Valley. To find embossed leather seating (NSWGR lettering in the blue hide), full-drop windows and open-flame gas-mantle heaters with gas bottles strapped up in the guard’s compartment was a real surprise. What was more of a surprise was that they survived for around another ten years or more!  

[Coombe Barton]

... Amazon are again trying to annoy the neighbours and are offering me a banjo. They are also trying to annoy me by offering a stylophone. ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/10/19/postcards-from-home-2024-52-vaccinations-and-horizon-enquiry/

[Grizz]

30 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I once knew a young lady in Japan who was in some strange Buddhist sect and……

JJB…The first few words of your post momentarily made me think that you had written a Limerick….😂

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

You'd personally be aware of the strong volunteer culture in Australia! 

 

Both the Rural Fire services of every state, and the State Emergency Services are volunteer organisations because the necessity for them is seasonal, and varies  from state to state

100% 

 

Even in the UK one does not find full-time firefighters on a three-watch constant-attendance system where there is not the need.  Many are “retained” which is not the same as volunteer but they might not be called out at all in a year. Or they might be required to tackle huge gorse / grass fires and / or traumatic road events. 
 

I had an issue with the fact that across Melbourne - Australia’s second city and soon by population to be its first - fire cover was provided to all but the City and inner suburbs by CFA volunteers. In a very fire-prone part of the world and where most homes are built significantly from wood (often “brick veneer” these days which is a single outer skin of bricks on a wooden frame) it felt as though the State Government was happy to allow phenomenal residential growth without funding support services. 
 

A handful of key stations, of which our nearest at Frankston was one, did operate a three-watch constantly-manned system but still came under the Country Fire Authority not the fully-paid Metropolitan Fire Brigade. Smaller stations - we were also covered if required by Seaford, Langwarrin and Chelsea - were entirely volunteers called out as required. 
 

I have no issue with the commitment nor the fire-fighting ability of those folk. They equate to the British RNLI in always turning out in the face of danger for no reward. Their performance at some of the major bushfires (remembering I was up-close and personally involved with Black Saturday as a recovery volunteer) was exemplary. A few paid the ultimate price. 
 

My issue was always that knowing the risks and when allowing development at the rate which allowed (2014 figures) 100 households a week to move into just one area (City of Casey; Cranbourne and its surrounds) plus all the rest there should have been far more fully-paid fire cover funded from Spring Street. Or even Canberra. 
 

Aussies chose to differ. They preferred the volunteer culture. It’s a different background. 
 

[monkeysarefun]

9 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Absolutely. And when you consider the average Australian track is nowhere near the standards of British main lines that is all the more remarkable. 
 

I have had a great respect and love for the V-sets since I first encountered them in 1998 on a trip to Newcastle (NSW). 
 

That trip was also my introduction to the venerable “630-sets”, those twin-car diesel units used beyond Newcastle and the wires up the Hunter Valley. To find embossed leather seating (NSWGR lettering in the blue hide), full-drop windows and open-flame gas-mantle heaters with gas bottles strapped up in the guard’s compartment was a real surprise. What was more of a surprise was that they survived for around another ten years or more!  

 

 

 

Into the 80's the inter-urban diesels from Goulburn and  further south had corridor stock,  the carriages had mounted pictures in frames of various NSWGR highlights like the viaduct at Gundagai and so on in each compartment, taken in the 1940's. 

 

In 1982 I went to a technical college west of Parramatta and one day a week my timetable allowed me and my mates (who were doing Animal Husbandry at the same tech...) to catch  a midday "country train" ie a diesel from Goulburn and southwards that stopped at very few stations.

 

In winter me and my mates my mates and I (look at me - improving my speech for the current royal visit!)  would be sitting in a carriage waiting for the train to depart, and a railway person ( don't know what he was officially called ) would knock on our compartment door and offer us some kind of metal hot water bottle for us to put our feet on .

 

  We agreed to it, but looking back, here we were, the classless society, us working class blokes with feet on hot water bottles, while  meanwhile  , our progressive radio station was bombarding us with angst music from the UK saying how everything was rubbish and there should be anarchy. We'd sing along to it, anarchy and all that but jeez, looking back through my rose tinted lenses, we had beaches, we had sunshine  we had v8's, we had drive in movies...  what an awesome place it was to grow up in.

[monkeysarefun]

25 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

 

Aussies chose to differ. They preferred the volunteer culture. It’s a different background. 
 

 

 

 

We don't expect the government to be able to provide all support so from colonial times we have cultivated a level of self-sufficiency that has grown into the State Emergency Services and the Rural Fire Services. 

 

When a fire or flood happens, its this volunteer network that is on the ground first. the government will follow up with th eDefence Forces  but its a culture here of help each other out, no matter what.We don't expect  or demand that "the government"  just come and fix it all, our mates will help us out.

 

Edited 2 hours ago by monkeysarefun

[TheQ]

My house has many of the external features of CBs Photo, including tiled roof, brick quoins and cornices, Flemish bond and lintels though somewhat smaller and 200 years later (1906). Chimneys are in the  same Position.

 

Internally paneled doors ( if somewhat ropey)

Downstairs ceilings have mouldings all round. Sorry for the poor pic

 

With swmbo out at the AGM I'm chief cook and bottle washer..

So I've been chopping veg not bits of wood.

 

The battery for the lamp she bought has arrived and now installed and on charge. Being sealed lead acid it maybe some time.

 

Time to get some coal in, I don't fancy getting it in tomorrow..

 

 

 

[PhilJ W]

50 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

I answered the door bell  one Saturday morning to find some Jehovah's  Witnesses on the front step. I listened to what they had to say, bought 2 copies of The Watchtower from them, and when they told me that they'd be back in the district in 4 weeks time with some kind of special NSW boss guy and could he call on me  , I said yes, youse can all come over whenever youse want. 

Fast forward a month or so and my phone rings. Its my sister, really p!ssed off because all these Jehovah's Witnesses  had turned up on her doorstep saying that Chris had said they could  drop in anytime.   I told her that I had agreed to look after her house while she was on holiday for 2 months, but  if she had been  concerned about the possibility of Jehovah's Witnesses visiting her  then she should have told me that  beforehand because I just assumed she'd be all for them coming around every Saturday. 

She lately moved up the Far North Coast, but when I saw her at my sons wedding a couple of weeks ago she brought it up again, 26 years later!

Like an elephant a woman never forgets a misdemeanor.

[PhilJ W]

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Its kind of funny when they try to use it as a selling tactic here, like they have something special to offer us.  I just want to tell them - "This is Australia,  theres f%&4en  b00bs everywhere, mate!" 

And thats just the men.😁

[Grizz]

10 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Like an elephant a woman never forgets a misdemeanor.

Yeah I’ve learnt not to compare women and elephants over the years……especially when talking with women. 
 

Because just like elephants they remember the time when you compared her to an elephant…..they may not remember all the fiddly details about how you were complimenting her on how great her memory was….just like an elephant’s. 

[monkeysarefun]

41 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Like an elephant a woman never forgets a misdemeanor.

Yeah, she (my older sister) deserved it.

 

When I was  very little she'd "trip" over on the floor and pretend to be dead. I'd eventually come across her and apparently be all inconsolable because I believed my sister was dead.

 

It took me 40 years or so to get my revenge, but I am very patient.

Edited 1 hour ago by monkeysarefun