I made the home-made mayo to go with the lobsters when visiting friends near Bairnsdale my first year in Australia. Too many bush flies landed on it between plate and mouth for it to be regarded as a success.
I made the home-made mayo to go with the lobsters when visiting friends near Bairnsdale my first year in Australia. Too many bush flies landed on it between plate and mouth for it to be regarded as a success.
I read the wrong line in a list, so used the wrong ISBNs when searching for some books. I therefore ended up with the trade paperbacks instead of the normal-size paperbacks. So I've spent this evening checking the returns instructions on abe.books, buying postage, and re-packaging four books to go back to 2 different booksellers. Then I got the right ISBNs and bought the editions I wanted!
Looks like I get a lunchtime walk to the Delivery Office tomorrow, instead of daylight time after work in the back garden. At least it's walkable without making my lunch break stupidly long.
Yes, the advantage to the cattle-crossing being so far south, and to working from home this year The commute to the office only takes a little bit longer than setting up the work laptop on my desk at home, but it's enough to mean no daylight out of work (and the commute is only a 1.5 mile bike ride!)
Buses. Today I have to visit an opticians and have been told I mustn't drive because of possible drops.
I have not looked at the bus times for some time, probably since before my guest. The appointment is for 2 pm.
Bus at 11.40 arrives 12.35. Next bus arrives at 14.35.
Return bus at 15.59. With school children. Who will already be on the bus. Previous one at 14.45, and a long way from the opticians. Next one at 17.15.
Can't get round the children by going to the nearby mall and getting a bus from there, because now they only go to and from there on Saturdays and Sundays.
These journeys used to be doable.
May need a taxi.
Bus timetable again. times wrong by 15 minutes, and it does go to the hospital and the mall, but only on that leg of the journey, not going back. The times were listed at the top of the list, not in the middle wghere they belong. Senseless.
Now sitting in the library where a man with no mask has adopted the desk opposite me, a desk marked with a cross, so it shouldn't be used. My plans for using the time between the bus and my appointment have evaporated. I can't rudely move within the same room - lots of spaces - because it might look racist. He's, I think, Chinese. So off to an armchair and my newspaper.
This year, if my husband comes home all jolly from his last day of work before Christmas, tells me that he is in the mood to start writing the Christmas cards and is surprised to be told that the last posting date was two days earlier and that I have single-handedly written, addressed and posted eighty cards prior to the last posting date I will not be responsible for my actions.
How can it come as a surprise every single fucking year that the last posting date is not the evening of 23 Dec?
The salt in the wound is his disappointment in having "missed out" on the joy that is writing cards.
It's not even as though I don't chat to him about the progress of the card writing as it happens, but my passing remarks don't get past his "trivia filter."
I had to laugh at your rant. My friend J was speechless when, after retiring, her husband of 16 years posed the question "Do we send Christmas cards?". After she left the room (she said she'd have killed him if she stayed) their children pointed out that she sat and wrote 100+ cards every year, plus bought snd wrapped the pile of presents under the tree, as well as remembering his children and work colleagues.
In the library again after only just missing the bus before the school one. I think it was the bus outside the opticians, its last stop on the way in, but it moved off before I could ask if I could get on there. It managed to get all the way round the one way system, load up and move off while I walked as fast as I could manage (not very) the shorter distance through the town.
But I have managed to get back and load up with Ecclefechan tarts from Sainz...
I am still allowed to drive, but have to go to see the great expert at a hospital for the eye to be diagnosed properly. Again not driving, but no bus route. I wonder if they will collect me....
In the library again after only just missing the bus before the school one. I think it was the bus outside the opticians, its last stop on the way in, but it moved off before I could ask if I could get on there. It managed to get all the way round the one way system, load up and move off while I walked as fast as I could manage (not very) the shorter distance through the town.
But I have managed to get back and load up with Ecclefechan tarts from Sainz...
I am still allowed to drive, but have to go to see the great expert at a hospital for the eye to be diagnosed properly. Again not driving, but no bus route. I wonder if they will collect me....
I use taxis more and more these days. Hospital visits I used to be able to use free hospital transport (because of the lack of sight problem) but now they have changed the system so that only a first referral visit is available that way. However, there is a Neighbourhood Care system where a driver will take me, wait and return, with no extra charge for waiting. Have you got something similar in your area?
Talking of appointments ... I have a hernia. I went to the doctor a few weeks ago and got put onto the waiting list for an op - told I'd have to wait at least a year, probably two.
Yesterday I got a call offering me the op in a fortnight's time, on the NHS but at a private hospital ... and I had to decline, explaining that, as a Minister, I couldn't take the time off so close to Christmas.
Local NHS provision. My eye problem - very good.
My friend's agonising leg with red lines - not.
We went into the surgery with my referral letter, and his leg, and an outline of the attempt to register him. The receptionist could not offer any leg help - nobody there - did not look at the outline and offered two more copies of the application form. Suggested he ring 111 or go to A&E.
111 - recorded message - many calls, unable to answer for a long time.
We went to the local walk in centre. This now needs appointments made through 111. My friend was unable to get through the door he was advised to use to proceed. A large queue had built up when I picked him up.
He is now in A&E at another hospital. I was not allowed to accompany him (covid), and there seems to be a phone blocker, but a nurse took details and told me he would be taking 3 hours, so advised me to go home. Which I have done.
He's just rung from their phone - his dead - still three hours and 14 people ahead of him. But at least he's with people who will look at him, not send him away because the system has lost him.
I sympathise, but at least he's not had to spend 11-12 hours in the back of an ambulance, whose crew are unable to even hand him over...
The longest I ever had to wait to hand a patient over was one hour, and that was on a very busy winter's night... Our controller was Not Pleased, but there was nothing we could do.
Therefore TICTH the evil muppets in government who have brought the NHS to this pass - and there's far worse to come.
I know, it's vile.
There were very few ambulances at the hospital, in fact, I only saw one, and it was one of the smaller van shaped ones.
My friend was passed in ahead of a lot of people in the waiting room, mostly middle aged. He hadn't let me look at the red marks, so all I could do was say it might be serious. I noticed that the poster in the surgery about sepsis had disappeared.
What worried me a bit was that people were suddenly bringing in carryable toddlers.
As an aside, on our way to the "walk-in" centre, as we passed a health centre opposite our local police station, we spotted a number of people holding up (in the dark!) posters against vaccination. "Our children are not lab rats" "Why vaccinate teenagers?" and others we could not read, but were clearly anti-vaxxers.
Glad to hear your friend was given a measure of priority - yes, I suspect the red lines may well indicate sepsis, to be dealt with a.s.a.p., of course.
🙏
As for the anti-vaxxers, well, the fools are always with us.
I had rather expected that the mention of the red lines would push an emergency reaction in the surgery, even if there were no doctors present. The good point though is that his leg was not hot.
It's very tricky dealing with an adult when one's instinct is to bundle him into the car and off to the hospital at once, and he wants to take his own decisions. Which he did in the end.
Three hours up.
Missed a call. After several attempts at each end to contact phones which were trying to contact each other we fixed up for me to collect him.
One hour driving to and fro. - I'd shut down without posting.
I've now picked him up with a five day course of antibiotics - they think it was an insect bite.
I know it's probably my own fault for listening to Classic FM, but if I hear that Amazon Black Friday ad one more time I swear my radio's going sailing out of the window.
There is no good reason for "hosting Hannah" to be inviting (however many people a 90 piece cutlery set caters for) around the house. Especially jellied eel loving Uncle Fred who is presumably old and therefore not unlikely to die after catching Covid at Hannah's massed gathering. Has no one told them there's a pandemic on? Who the **** thought that was a good idea and how much did they get paid for that bloody appalling ad?
@la vie en rouge glad it’s not just me who finds That advert especially annoying.
Currently CTH all adverts on that radio station, especially the mobile phone one that blasts into my eardrums during the quiet hours late at night . Just why
Thankfully I haven't come across that one here, but it's the Petstock kitten looking forward to all the toys I am going to buy it on Black Friday that is all over the place here. Aroha has no more need of toys - she has the cat from up the road to play with and beat up free..
Black Friday has become such a spending time here that budgeting agencies are warning people not to get into debt to "save" money.
Can someone explain to me why it's Black Friday please? We always thought that was Friday 13. It's 26th today and so perhaps that's double 13 and hence Black Friday ( assuming those doing the promotion are able to do the arithmetic).
My understanding was that 'Black Friday' came about to:
(a) shift stock of older items before new models arrived;
(b) to even-out the pre-Christmas rush;
(c) to give more time for preparing year-end accounts for tax purposes.
I always understood that it was "Black" because the entire US nation was too stuffed post-Thanksgiving to go shopping, so shops effectively did no trade -hence the online sales association with big discounts.
Thus far this Black Friday I've saved an absolute mint by not buying anything at all - though, once I've seen my payslip pop up, I might treat myself to a flywheel pulley cover for my Allen Scythe - at less than a tenner!
I've seen adverts referring to *Black Friday Week*...
Yes.
This was an American habit that the UK adopted around 10 years ago. In 2014, things got rather out of hand - see (for example) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-30243092
This is all speculation on my part but I get the distinct impression that after 2014
- the police weren't happy
- the police had a word with the Home Office (their government department)
- the Home Office had a word with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (the government department for - among other things - retail)
- BIS had a word with the British Retail Consortium (BRC) (the trade organisation for the retail trade)
- BRC shouted very loudly indeed at their members
- the shops were a bit more responsible from 2015 - hence Black Friday Week.
Although since 1979 (the start of Mrs Thatcher's time in office as Prime Minister) there has been a lot of emphasis on having all-out competition and less on co-operation, my impression is that the BRC still - in effect - has strong reserve powers over their members. This showed up at the beginning of the pandemic as well, when the supermarkets clearly worked in co-ordination with each other and the government to maintain food (and loo paper) supplies: although permission not to compete was sought from the government, it was fairly obvious that there were plans in place for what to do in a crisis, and these plans were successfully implemented.
(Declaration of interest: I did seven years back at the turn of the century working as a computer programmer for a retail organisation.)
Can someone explain to me why it's Black Friday please? We always thought that was Friday 13. It's 26th today and so perhaps that's double 13 and hence Black Friday ( assuming those doing the promotion are able to do the arithmetic).
Kevin Drum at Mother Jones has a good explanation:
Thanks to all - the conclusion we've reached is that someone thought of the idea as a way to move Christmas shopping a bit earlier, and that resonated with others seeking to take away our money.
Transport to hospitals. This morning the letter for the appointment arrived. Panic mode at the other end, it's for Monday pm. Which is great if really urgent, but instructions include not to drive after the appointment. Not one mention of actual transport to main hospital some miles away, or, more importantly, from it. It is not reachable by public transport. The hospital is not reachable by phone until Monday after 9.
Now I can afford the £36 plus suitable tip for the taxi, but what about someone my age on state pension only?
Found the Patient Transport page.
I was unfair about no mention on the letter. There was a reference on the back of the letter, but the address led to "page not found"! And a phone number. Which would probably not have helped if working on a Saturday. Apparently, according to the web page, if I can use public transport or a taxi, I am not eligible for G4S to collect me. I think using volunteer private drivers is not appropriate in my case.
This year, if my husband comes home all jolly from his last day of work before Christmas, tells me that he is in the mood to start writing the Christmas cards and is surprised to be told that the last posting date was two days earlier and that I have single-handedly written, addressed and posted eighty cards prior to the last posting date I will not be responsible for my actions.
How can it come as a surprise every single fucking year that the last posting date is not the evening of 23 Dec?
The salt in the wound is his disappointment in having "missed out" on the joy that is writing cards.
It's not even as though I don't chat to him about the progress of the card writing as it happens, but my passing remarks don't get past his "trivia filter."
I had to laugh at your rant. My friend J was speechless when, after retiring, her husband of 16 years posed the question "Do we send Christmas cards?". After she left the room (she said she'd have killed him if she stayed) their children pointed out that she sat and wrote 100+ cards every year, plus bought snd wrapped the pile of presents under the tree, as well as remembering his children and work colleagues.
No, he didn't change 🤣😂
Reminds me of a conversation a few years back with Mr Nen. We were going to see some friends of his and he (unknown to me until it was all done) had an exchange with them about the visit. On the way there in the car the following conversation ensued:
Mr Nen: I asked them what time they wanted us to arrive, and to give me their address. They gave me the time but not the address. I had to go back to them and ask again.
When Mrs BF and I were together (O! so long ago!), we divided the cards job between us. I sent them to my relatives, and a selection of friends, and Herself did the same for her side of the family.
When Mrs BF and I were together (O! so long ago!), we divided the cards job between us. I sent them to my relatives, and a selection of friends, and Herself did the same for her side of the family.
Wouldn't that Mr Nen were of the same mindset. When we were first married I refused to send any Christmas cards at all, having been in a job where I had to organise my boss's Christmas cards, which literally ran to hundreds. I told Mr Nen he was most welcome to send to his family and friends if he so wished, and while he huffed and puffed about it he never did. After some years I decided I would start to send some and we negotiated a list of about 30. It remains exclusively my job, but 30 is manageable.
Puddingmas/Tinseltide/Winterfest can be a real nuisance if peeps are at variance as to who should do what, when, and where...
These days, I have only myself to look out for, and since my family Does Not Do Presents, cards are all that is required (along with phone calls and emails).
When Mrs BF and I were together (O! so long ago!), we divided the cards job between us. I sent them to my relatives, and a selection of friends, and Herself did the same for her side of the family.
TICTH the Maskless Morons crowding our local Co-Op today, to wit, everyone in the store, bar myself and the two check-out staff...
I still haven't managed my weekly trip to Tess Coe, falling foul of traffic jams again, but at least there's more room in that store to keep away from the bare-faced Covidiots.
I sympathise with the store staff, who really cannot be expected to police Boris' latest ruling (and I bet we soon see a photo of him without a mask in a place where a mask would be required).
I found myself thinking, as I was admiring the high number of mask-wearing students (many of whom could easily be exempt, on account of their multiple disabilities and many of whom do indeed wear sunflower lanyards to indicate their hidden disabilities) around my workplace today, "Bet it won't be this good on the bus or in the supermarket tonight!" And, lo! I was proved correct.
I decided to apply the bus company's instructions of being kind and considerate to myself only and got off the bus to finish the journey home by walking. Away from people who can't follow a simple request.
Not sure who to call for this. Phone rang. I saw it was a Private Caller, and expecting a hospital call picked it up, unfortunately just after my friend downstairs picked up another handset, and who called me by voice. I heard a mechanical voice saying it was a local hospital group calling me by name. If I was me by name, to press 1. So I did, and all went dead. The other handset was still connected, but pressing 1 on that had no effect. The hospital was apparently not connected any more.
I am now wandering round with a handset and a strict instruction that no-one else is to pick it up next time. Over an hour ago, and no repeat attempt.
Why couldn't they have a proper living person at the other end who could realise that there was a handset problem this end?
And why can't they use an actual number so they can be called back?
Comments
Did the flies survive?
I read the wrong line in a list, so used the wrong ISBNs when searching for some books. I therefore ended up with the trade paperbacks instead of the normal-size paperbacks.
Looks like I get a lunchtime walk to the Delivery Office tomorrow, instead of daylight time after work in the back garden. At least it's walkable without making my lunch break stupidly long.
I finish around 2.30-3pm, and I'm barely getting daylight after work.... On a dull day, it's decidedly gloomy by 3pm.
I have not looked at the bus times for some time, probably since before my guest. The appointment is for 2 pm.
Bus at 11.40 arrives 12.35. Next bus arrives at 14.35.
Return bus at 15.59. With school children. Who will already be on the bus. Previous one at 14.45, and a long way from the opticians. Next one at 17.15.
Can't get round the children by going to the nearby mall and getting a bus from there, because now they only go to and from there on Saturdays and Sundays.
These journeys used to be doable.
May need a taxi.
Now sitting in the library where a man with no mask has adopted the desk opposite me, a desk marked with a cross, so it shouldn't be used. My plans for using the time between the bus and my appointment have evaporated. I can't rudely move within the same room - lots of spaces - because it might look racist. He's, I think, Chinese. So off to an armchair and my newspaper.
I had to laugh at your rant. My friend J was speechless when, after retiring, her husband of 16 years posed the question "Do we send Christmas cards?". After she left the room (she said she'd have killed him if she stayed) their children pointed out that she sat and wrote 100+ cards every year, plus bought snd wrapped the pile of presents under the tree, as well as remembering his children and work colleagues.
No, he didn't change 🤣😂
But I have managed to get back and load up with Ecclefechan tarts from Sainz...
I am still allowed to drive, but have to go to see the great expert at a hospital for the eye to be diagnosed properly. Again not driving, but no bus route. I wonder if they will collect me....
Yesterday I got a call offering me the op in a fortnight's time, on the NHS but at a private hospital ... and I had to decline, explaining that, as a Minister, I couldn't take the time off so close to Christmas.
🙏
My friend's agonising leg with red lines - not.
We went into the surgery with my referral letter, and his leg, and an outline of the attempt to register him. The receptionist could not offer any leg help - nobody there - did not look at the outline and offered two more copies of the application form. Suggested he ring 111 or go to A&E.
111 - recorded message - many calls, unable to answer for a long time.
We went to the local walk in centre. This now needs appointments made through 111. My friend was unable to get through the door he was advised to use to proceed. A large queue had built up when I picked him up.
He is now in A&E at another hospital. I was not allowed to accompany him (covid), and there seems to be a phone blocker, but a nurse took details and told me he would be taking 3 hours, so advised me to go home. Which I have done.
He's just rung from their phone - his dead - still three hours and 14 people ahead of him. But at least he's with people who will look at him, not send him away because the system has lost him.
So far this has taken us about four hours.
The longest I ever had to wait to hand a patient over was one hour, and that was on a very busy winter's night... Our controller was Not Pleased, but there was nothing we could do.
Therefore TICTH the evil muppets in government who have brought the NHS to this pass - and there's far worse to come.
There were very few ambulances at the hospital, in fact, I only saw one, and it was one of the smaller van shaped ones.
My friend was passed in ahead of a lot of people in the waiting room, mostly middle aged. He hadn't let me look at the red marks, so all I could do was say it might be serious. I noticed that the poster in the surgery about sepsis had disappeared.
What worried me a bit was that people were suddenly bringing in carryable toddlers.
As an aside, on our way to the "walk-in" centre, as we passed a health centre opposite our local police station, we spotted a number of people holding up (in the dark!) posters against vaccination. "Our children are not lab rats" "Why vaccinate teenagers?" and others we could not read, but were clearly anti-vaxxers.
🙏
As for the anti-vaxxers, well, the fools are always with us.
It's very tricky dealing with an adult when one's instinct is to bundle him into the car and off to the hospital at once, and he wants to take his own decisions. Which he did in the end.
Three hours up.
Missed a call. After several attempts at each end to contact phones which were trying to contact each other we fixed up for me to collect him.
One hour driving to and fro. - I'd shut down without posting.
I've now picked him up with a five day course of antibiotics - they think it was an insect bite.
There is no good reason for "hosting Hannah" to be inviting (however many people a 90 piece cutlery set caters for) around the house. Especially jellied eel loving Uncle Fred who is presumably old and therefore not unlikely to die after catching Covid at Hannah's massed gathering. Has no one told them there's a pandemic on? Who the **** thought that was a good idea and how much did they get paid for that bloody appalling ad?
Currently CTH all adverts on that radio station, especially the mobile phone one that blasts into my eardrums during the quiet hours late at night . Just why
Black Friday has become such a spending time here that budgeting agencies are warning people not to get into debt to "save" money.
(a) shift stock of older items before new models arrived;
(b) to even-out the pre-Christmas rush;
(c) to give more time for preparing year-end accounts for tax purposes.
Thus far this Black Friday I've saved an absolute mint by not buying anything at all - though, once I've seen my payslip pop up, I might treat myself to a flywheel pulley cover for my Allen Scythe - at less than a tenner!
For the bemused - Allen Scythe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e9dgqSu3eI
Yes.
This was an American habit that the UK adopted around 10 years ago. In 2014, things got rather out of hand - see (for example) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-30243092
Things were a lot quieter after that - see for example this from 2015 https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/black-friday-2015-everything-you-6808685. A number of the shops are reported as having started things some days earlier.
This is all speculation on my part but I get the distinct impression that after 2014
- the police weren't happy
- the police had a word with the Home Office (their government department)
- the Home Office had a word with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) (the government department for - among other things - retail)
- BIS had a word with the British Retail Consortium (BRC) (the trade organisation for the retail trade)
- BRC shouted very loudly indeed at their members
- the shops were a bit more responsible from 2015 - hence Black Friday Week.
Although since 1979 (the start of Mrs Thatcher's time in office as Prime Minister) there has been a lot of emphasis on having all-out competition and less on co-operation, my impression is that the BRC still - in effect - has strong reserve powers over their members. This showed up at the beginning of the pandemic as well, when the supermarkets clearly worked in co-ordination with each other and the government to maintain food (and loo paper) supplies: although permission not to compete was sought from the government, it was fairly obvious that there were plans in place for what to do in a crisis, and these plans were successfully implemented.
(Declaration of interest: I did seven years back at the turn of the century working as a computer programmer for a retail organisation.)
Kevin Drum at Mother Jones has a good explanation:
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/11/real-story-behind-black-friday/
A flack putting lipstick on a pig is a pretty good explanation.
Now I can afford the £36 plus suitable tip for the taxi, but what about someone my age on state pension only?
I was unfair about no mention on the letter. There was a reference on the back of the letter, but the address led to "page not found"! And a phone number. Which would probably not have helped if working on a Saturday. Apparently, according to the web page, if I can use public transport or a taxi, I am not eligible for G4S to collect me. I think using volunteer private drivers is not appropriate in my case.
Reminds me of a conversation a few years back with Mr Nen. We were going to see some friends of his and he (unknown to me until it was all done) had an exchange with them about the visit. On the way there in the car the following conversation ensued:
Mr Nen: I asked them what time they wanted us to arrive, and to give me their address. They gave me the time but not the address. I had to go back to them and ask again.
Me: We know their address.
Mr Nen: How do we know their address?
Me: Well, we send them Christmas cards, don't we?
Mr Nen: ...
>rolleyes<
When Mrs BF and I were together (O! so long ago!), we divided the cards job between us. I sent them to my relatives, and a selection of friends, and Herself did the same for her side of the family.
These days, I have only myself to look out for, and since my family Does Not Do Presents, cards are all that is required (along with phone calls and emails).
Yep that's how we deal with it too...
I still haven't managed my weekly trip to Tess Coe, falling foul of traffic jams again, but at least there's more room in that store to keep away from the bare-faced Covidiots.
I sympathise with the store staff, who really cannot be expected to police Boris' latest ruling (and I bet we soon see a photo of him without a mask in a place where a mask would be required).
I decided to apply the bus company's instructions of being kind and considerate to myself only and got off the bus to finish the journey home by walking. Away from people who can't follow a simple request.
I am now wandering round with a handset and a strict instruction that no-one else is to pick it up next time. Over an hour ago, and no repeat attempt.
Why couldn't they have a proper living person at the other end who could realise that there was a handset problem this end?
And why can't they use an actual number so they can be called back?