Early Risers.

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Funny how one countries "gentle Rom-Com" is another's laddish humour!  

Not only that, but it’s also attitudes towards the body. In the Nordic and DACH countries nudity is not considered particularly remarkable. In fact, in these countries going into a sauna means going in “buck nekkid” whether the sauna is single sex or mixed sex (most saunas in the fitness centres around where I live are mixed).

 

You can always tell the Brits and the Americans in such fitness centre saunas - they’re the ones with the slightly panicky look, desperately trying to make a hand towel do the job of a beach towel…

 

Japan also insists on total nudity at the onsen (though few are mixed) going into the hot spring bath or pool in a swimming cozzie is considered as unhygienic (you wash well, before stepping into the bath/pool, making sure you’ve properly rinsed off).

 

Germany, of course, is the home of FKK, with the Island of Sylt in the North Sea being a famous FKK destination. But the attraction of stripping off completely and dashing into the North Sea during winter escapes me. But plenty do it*. And if you can’t get to the North Sea, many local Schwimbad have FKK afternoons (often segregated. Tuesday men, Wednesday women, etc.) when swimming cozzies are verboten.

 

Oddly enough, the US has (had?) a tradition of “skinny dipping” in rural areas, whether that still exists I don’t know. Perhaps one of our North American correspondents can enlighten us. Nothing but the bare truth (so to speak).

 

* I might be wrong about this, but I understand the people who do this call themselves eisbāren - polar bears

 

Edited Sunday at 06:23 by iL Dottore
Format

[TheQ]

Twas also Bo'ness fair day yesterday.

https://news.stv.tv/east-central/boness-childrens-fair-2024-what-is-it-history-explained-and-what-is-means-to-locals-taking-part

[roundhouse]

Good morning from a slightly cooler Surrey.

 

The new boiler was comissioned yesterday afternoon. We just need to get the electrician in to run a fused spur into the kitchen from the old airing cupboard so that the wiring in the kitchen can be tidied up as currently the boiler is plugged into a wall socket as per the old boiler but as there is more wiring it doesn't look very neat at the moment as the heating engineer left enought cable for the electrician.

We also now have a new stopcock as the old one was siezed up, so water had to be switched off in the drive. The outside tap has also been fitted after buying it many years ago.

 

We went out for a few beers then back home my other half couldn't wait to try out the shower now that we have a much better pressure. She was over the moon and I think its going to be hard to keep out of the shower. We now just have to plan what we will change in the bathroom.

 

This morning will be putting everything back into its proper place. I will hopefully rip out more redundant pipework in the loft once I move more boxes around to get to it.

 

Last nights pub crawl in Dorking I made use of this Police box before wlaking to the station to head back home.

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

@jjb1970.. you cant have a "make Britain great "again party unless you are 77 years old  or over....

 

The garden fete I attended yesterday was a bit like those seen on TV (Midsomer Murders, Miss Marple etc) but without the murders (or dead bodies).

 

It was a pleasant day and the model of the local station was much appreciated.

 

Today is a bit grey and overcast so her indoors put some washing in early as "it will dry before the rain at 2pm"... no chance..

 

I won on the lottery last night.. a whole £5 plus a free go...wooooopppppiiiidddddooo.. now what can I spend my winnings on??? Will try to avoid the kickball tonight.. just gets me very annoyed..

 

Baz

[iL Dottore]

5 minutes ago, roundhouse said:

Good morning from a slightly cooler Surrey.

 

The new boiler was comissioned yesterday afternoon. We just need to get the electrician in to run a fused spur into the kitchen from the old airing cupboard so that the wiring in the kitchen can be tidied up as currently the boiler is plugged into a wall socket as per the old boiler but as there is more wiring it doesn't look very neat at the moment as the heating engineer left enought cable for the electrician.

Is that for both hot water and central heating? It seems awfully small to serve both?

 

I don’t ever recall seeing a stand alone boiler for just hot water in a Swiss house, the systems are always integrated. And of course, apartment buildings have large integrated hot water and central heating plants.

[roundhouse]

3 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Is that for both hot water and central heating? It seems awfully small to serve both?

 

I don’t ever recall seeing a stand alone boiler for just hot water in a Swiss house, the systems are always integrated. And of course, apartment buildings have large integrated hot water and central heating plants.

Its for both and isn't the smallest one that they do.

[TheQ]

That boiler set up looks familiar, same position and colour tiles as ours, but our socket, and spur is on the left wall.

 

MooringAwl, 

A terrible night's sleep, 1.5 hours, looooooooooong awake, 1.5 hours sleep, short awake, 1/2 hours sleep.

 

Swallows and Amazon's piece on TV at this moment. 

 

Ben the not happy collie hasn't moved yet this morning, but I'm still waiting till cooking time after taking the pill.

 

I'm off to Coot Club territory this morning sailing through many of the places in the book.

It's a down river race to Thurne this morning. Low tide is just about when we get to Thurne so the timing is perfect.

The wind is forecast to be a north westerly 15mph so that's also near perfect.

The welkin is currently 100%. grey at the moment but that's supposed to break up a bit ...

 

I see from the news the middle third of Il Dottore won something played on plastic pretending to be grass.. while the southern third lost

Should another match go a certain way il Dottore will have another split personality.. with the north playing the middle.

 

Half hour almost gone, 

Time to wake up Ben by putting the frying pan on.

 

 

 

 

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

It was bit dull earlier but the sun has made an appearance.  Showers and sunny spells forecast.  16°C rising to 22°C.

TBH I'm hoping for some heavier rain later this afternoon otherwise I have 3 gardens to water.

Tea has been taken up as usual to Herself who had a restless night so is not a happy Boss.  She'll cheer up later as Steve is paying us a visit. 

Plans today after some egg and bacon etc will include a visit to The Shed and help from Steve with a couple of IT glitches.  This afternoon I'll probably watch some more T de F.  I definitely and absolutely without a doubt whatsoever will not be watching football. At all. Ever. I'd rather poke myself in the eye with a sharp stick.  Careful Bob, you actually did that once and ended up in A & E!!

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

Edit:  Only just occurred to me that I was an ER visiting the ER.

 

Further edit:  I too had lottery wins last night, £15 and 3 lucky dips. Note to Puppers,  I normally do 4 lines but when I have a win I usually do two or three  extras and one of those came up as well.  Some may think I spend too much but it's the only gambling I do and is far far less than I'd spend if I was still  a 35-40 a day smoker.  I did have a 5 figure win about 5 years ago, still hoping for the really big one.  It'll never happen but who cares,  I can dream and will carry on as long as I can afford it. 

Edited Sunday at 07:14 by grandadbob

[DaveF]

The forecast for my bit of Northumberland says it might get up to 15°C today.  I rather hope they are wrong.  It was will also be mainly cloudy with a little rain.

 

I woke during the night with indigestion, I'm not sure why so I'll have to have a good think about what I've eaten - or to be exact the combinations of things I've been eating.

 

Today should include church, the usual e mails and phone calls, the Tour de France and possible the Grand Prix.  I also want to do my accounts.

 

David

[Coombe Barton]

11 hours ago, The White Rabbit said:

Shorter. Always shorter... It's a pet peeve of mine, women with long nails. Psychiatrists may speculate but all the women I have ever been attracted to have all had short (properly manicured?) nails. For me, long and or painted nails are an instant turn off, as effective as a bucket of cold water. Which is why you may often see me shivering in mixed company... 

Pet peeve of mine is people with nails so long that they can't type and/or make unforced errors when typing. In analytics accuracy is, of course, important.

When Sandy left school she trained to be a secretary and told me that they lessons in properly manicured nails. This was when secretaries were the thing and touch typing was a taught skill. Nowadays with IT prevalence it is still a necessary skill for everyone but seldom applied.

One female graduate, now employed by the university, commented on a (female) student with overlong, individually painted talons with attached 3D bows saying "Bet they don't cook." Her nails are what I'd call sensible and suit her. She also commented that lots of life activities, such as getting dressed, would take much longer.

So it's not only us.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

Today has started well.  As I got up I was aware of blood trickling from my nose, that then became a significant flow. I managed to not bleed all over the bedroom and tried to control it with cotton wool plugs and pressure in the bathroom. I then used ice. The Miele ice trays produce small bullet shaped pieces of ice of a size suitable for shoving up a nostril. Seems to have stopped now.

Aditi is making something to take over to her Mum’s for lunch. Suspect it is something vaguely Mediterranean, the nose bleed hasn’t affected my sense of smell. Perhaps the La Ratte potatoes I was sent to buy will be included. I had to look up whether they were La or Le. Aditi once misgendered a salad in Paris and was firmly corrected by a waiter. 
Tony

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Had a decent lie in this morning as I couldn't get to sleep last night. Quite restless as well going by how the duvet was halfway to the floor. Not sure what I'm doing today as I haven't checked outside yet but if it's OK its a bit of the G word.

[monkeysarefun]

2 hours ago, DaveF said:

The forecast for my bit of Northumberland says it might get up to 15°C today.  I rather hope they are wrong.  It was will also be mainly cloudy with a little rain.

  Snap!

 

 

 

It does not "get up to" 15 here.  We are in the depths of serious winter!

Edited Sunday at 09:42 by monkeysarefun

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

Cloudy. Damp after yesterday's rainfall. 11.1C.

 

Still struggling with the clogged up respiratory system. Improving but I still feel tired all day.

Some jobs are a no-no, like the G word although I do have some bamboo to cut down when the weather dries up. Other than that, life still goes on, if not a little slower. TOTF🎶 is more focused, one line of the song, and a set of honed down exercises, and is proving to be productive as well, so thumbs up to that.

 

Later, I will probably scour the TV channels for something to watch but, like yesterday, I will probably swap over to yootoob where, yesterday, I came across a favourite l*y**t at exhibition (Arun Quay) before dosing off on the sofa to some music.

 

Take care. Be good. Keep going.

Polly

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

Pet peeve of mine is people with nails so long that they can't type and/or make unforced errors when typing. In analytics accuracy is, of course, important.

When Sandy left school she trained to be a secretary and told me that they lessons in properly manicured nails. This was when secretaries were the thing and touch typing was a taught skill. Nowadays with IT prevalence it is still a necessary skill for everyone but seldom applied.

One female graduate, now employed by the university, commented on a (female) student with overlong, individually painted talons with attached 3D bows saying "Bet they don't cook." Her nails are what I'd call sensible and suit her. She also commented that lots of life activities, such as getting dressed, would take much longer.

So it's not only us.

 

 

I just  want to know how they can still use their &$*@#& phones!

 

 

All the time.

Edited Sunday at 09:47 by monkeysarefun

[Tony_S]

Mostly cloudy with possibility of light rain here too.  It is certainly overcast now.

 

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

The weather is looking decidedly dodgy today, grey and overcast and looking like it could chuckitdarn at any moment. I'm not doing a great deal today, as we’re going out this afternoon to my uncle and aunt’s 62nd wedding anniversary. They are currently halfway through a 3 month cruise of the North Atlantic. They docked at Liverpool yesterday and have decided to miss the tour of that city and instead organised a celebration party at a local golf club for family and friends. They did the same thing 2 years ago and were hoping today will be as good as the last one! 
 

Back later.
 

Brian 

[monkeysarefun]

Fun moment today down the street.

 

Walked past some "Supercar"  parked outside Woolies  -  I have no idea what it was, they all look the same to me these days, like the vehicles in  every other motoring sector, but it did have lifty uppy doors if thats a clue to anyone.

 

Anyway he started it up  and like every other supercar with the usual small V8 or triple turbo V12 or whatever, it sounded tinny and annoying,  like a cheap stereo - its like they need a decent Subwoofer in them to be in any way interesting audically - the ground didn't shake  like it does when a properly fun  car starts up. 

 

 I just felt sorry for him that he'd spent so much on a car that A) sounds like a Hilux Diesel with a dodgy exhaust  when it gets going and B) can now be out accelerated by your gran in an EV Hyundai. 

 

Anyway, he got to the head of the T-intersection and obviously didn't see the Chrysler 300C highway patrol car with "!!!!!!!!!!!!HIGHWAY PATROL!!!!!!!!" etc stickers all over it and covered in aerials and light bars  that was heading towards him down the road on  his left,  because he planted his foot,  turned right and went sideways  at a rate of knots way beyond the 60kmh limit right in front of the  the Highway Patrol car.

 

   The cop  had the easiest pull ever and as a bonus it was right outside what passes for our "Cafe Strip" where a crowd of people enjoying the sun on the pavement tables gave him a satirical cheer.

Edited Sunday at 10:16 by monkeysarefun

[Tony_S]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

You can always tell the Brits and the Americans in such fitness centre saunas - they’re the ones with the slightly panicky look, desperately trying to make a hand towel do the job of a beach towel…

Aditi said it doesn’t bother her in such places, her glasses steam up so she can’t see anyone anyway. 

[Tony_S]

11 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

thats a clue to anyone.

Perhaps a Konigsegg Gemera?  It has an unusual engine that might sound a bit different.  Never seen one myself. 

[monkeysarefun]

14 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

 It has an unusual engine that might sound a bit different.

 

 

 

No this just sounded like the run of the mill annoying "supercar" sound! 

 

 

From  half-hearted googling I'm thinking maybe one of these kind of things  but thats as far as I can be ar5ed to go into researching it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, at least 100 people got to laugh at him, the knowledge of which, even owning a  very expensive car cannot soothe.

Edited Sunday at 10:33 by monkeysarefun

[polybear]

27 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

Fun moment today down the street.

 

Walked past some "Supercar"  parked outside Woolies  -  I have no idea what it was, they all look the same to me these days, like the vehicles in  every other motoring sector, but it did have lifty uppy doors if thats a clue to anyone.

 

Anyway he started it up  and like every other supercar with the usual small V8 or triple turbo V12 or whatever, it sounded tinny and annoying,  like a cheap stereo - its like they need a decent Subwoofer in them to be in any way interesting audically - the ground didn't shake  like it does when a properly fun  car starts up. 

 

 I just felt sorry for him that he'd spent so much on a car that A) sounds like a Hilux Diesel with a dodgy exhaust  when it gets going and B) can now be out accelerated by your gran in an EV Hyundai. 

 

Anyway, he got to the head of the T-intersection and obviously didn't see the Chrysler 300C highway patrol car with "!!!!!!!!!!!!HIGHWAY PATROL!!!!!!!!" etc stickers all over it and covered in aerials and light bars  that was heading towards him down the road on  his left,  because he planted his foot,  turned right and went sideways  at a rate of knots way beyond the 60kmh limit right in front of the  the Highway Patrol car.

 

   The cop  had the easiest pull ever and as a bonus it was right outside what passes for our "Cafe Strip" where a crowd of people enjoying the sun on the pavement tables gave him a satirical cheer.

What will the Plod do to him?

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Coombe Barton said:

Pet peeve of mine is people with nails so long that they can't type and/or make unforced errors when typing. In analytics accuracy is, of course, important.

When Sandy left school she trained to be a secretary and told me that they lessons in properly manicured nails. This was when secretaries were the thing and touch typing was a taught skill. Nowadays with IT prevalence it is still a necessary skill for everyone but seldom applied.

One female graduate, now employed by the university, commented on a (female) student with overlong, individually painted talons with attached 3D bows saying "Bet they don't cook." Her nails are what I'd call sensible and suit her. She also commented that lots of life activities, such as getting dressed, would take much longer.

So it's not only us.

I’ve referred to this before: reading the Ian Fleming James Bond books in my early teens had quite an influence on me.
 

One of Bond’s “hates” (so presumably Ian Fleming’s) was long painted fingernails, preferring neatly trimmed, short, clear varnished, fingernails. And that is my preference as well (it wasn’t that long ago that long painted fingernails were considered the hallmark of a slattern or of “trailer trash” - especially if chipped).

 

Another Bond peeve, and one of mine, are women who wear too much make up - giving them that “embarrassed panda with lipstick” look. Surely makeup is supposed to beautify, not turn you into Bozo the Clown?

 

Finally (and an equal opportunity critique) another peeve of mine are people wearing clothes inappropriate for their age or - worse - clothes that don’t flatter. Age appropriate clothing is a bit of a minefield: some people can dress like teenagers and get away with it, most can’t (wearing a baseball cap backwards when you’re 45! Really?). If we find that an 8 year boy dressed up in a three piece suit like a 40 year-old lawyer is a bit ridiculous, it should also work the other way.

 

As for clothing that doesn’t flatter: how about 40+ beer bellies drooping over skinny jeans, middle-aged double-wide derrières in leggings, chubby teens in miniskirts above elephant leg thighs or wrinkly old men in budgie smugglers?
 

And the sad thing is that many of these afflicted individuals would look distinguished, elegant or even stunningly beautiful with the right clothes…

 

 

[Coombe Barton]

5 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Another Bond peeve, and one of mine, are women who wear too much make up - giving them that “embarrassed panda with lipstick” look. Surely makeup is supposed to beautify, not turn you into Bozo the Clown?

 

That will not escape from my mind. It's a perfect description of some of the people I have to teach.

[polybear]