Praise and Thanksgiving for those brave and angry ones of the Stonewall Riots, 50 years ago! Praise and Thanksgiving that their righteous anger brought forth justice and good. May we be so blessed as to emulate them.
Appreciate that! I don't know what the equivalents are around the world, but it's basically the highest rank and takes a metric f*ton of work to earn. The kid has done well.
You mean one that scouts out eagles? If so, he needn't sit up a mountain; sitting in my computer chair right here will do the trick. (It overlooks the fishpond by our bedroom. I caught a bald eagle sitting on the roof one day, trying to pick out his dinner)
Ooh, must look into that. LL put a poster up on my cube at work which features Sam the Eagle from the Muppets. So I think ridiculous interpretations of his new rank are going to be the theme for his party.
Giving thanks for and praise to the wonderful woman in our local station who has tried, every day for three weeks to get me a booking on a certain train, on a certain day in August, with my bike (which was the tough part). Scotrail was not opening up tickets for this day, for some reason, but my lovely Sharon has achieved the impossible. She did not need to try every day, and I didn't ask her to, but she regarded it as a challenge and she did what I, looking at the public website every day,ncould not.
Bugger. House we had made an offer for and had it accepted turns out not to be ideal. Middle daughter, who knows these things (she does quite a lot of recruitment for part-time and casual work) reckon's it is a dodgy area. I told her I couldn't see any training shoes hanging over telephone lines (the usual borders for drug gangs) but she says she won't visit when it's dark so ..... we're still looking.
@sionisais please do not rely on the sneakers over lines as a technique for detecting drug areas. I live in an area where there is a constant ongoing low-level selling of drugs. I have seen sneakers once. The view is that there is a variety of reasons and for the drug selling one they are pretty impractical.
What to look for instead:
small groups of people hanging out often around dusk who are not simply youths
big cars turning up stopping for a few minutes and then going out
needles discarded on paths, hedges or other peripheral lands
Off licenses - though they do not get on the drug taking community and the street drinking community often share the same spaces and I suspect many drug takers use alcohol as well
Look at the anti-social behaviours committed in the area. The Police can supply a crime map which gives you this detail.
Bin stores locked or without roofs
cigarette butts
However, as a rule, if you are not part of that culture
I did mention that the "tell-tale" that is prominent around where we used to live was absent (part of the same city), but once we had been alerted by our knowledgeable daughter we had a look round one evening. Points 1, 2 and 4 were definitely seen. According to the crime statistics anti-social behaviour and public order offences are high, but not absurdly so for Newport.
We should have checked that but the agency handling the property doesn't provide a link to the crime stats database, as some others do. It was a real shame though, because the house had what we needed and was in very good order.
Son who has reasonable experience in real estate says there is always another place. I had to tell myself there was always another buyer when selling my apartment coincided with the downturn in property here. Buyers came and went till one stuck at almost the price I wanted.
I lived then over a car park associated with Maccas, Nandos and a service station. Yes, I know there were deals. There were also deals in a long established park not far from me locally. There were usually families there and dealers used these as cover.
Sorry to hear about the house, SS - but as the others have said, better to find out now.
Our last house was in a fairly dodgy area of downtown St. John's, and the house across the road, which was divided up and rented out, was little more than an unlicenced pharmacy, with regular visits from the Rozzers.
It probably explains why the house was so ridiculously cheap.
I'm sitting here thinking why not take a chance on the house and see if the area gets an upgrade? Isn't "gentrification" all the rage? Someone has to be first.
big cars turning up stopping for a few minutes and then going out
Aberdeen police spotted a big car stopping at red traffic lights, someone approached, handed a £10 note through the passenger window, something was passed out through the passenger window, the lights turned green and the big car drove off.
The car registration was clearly seen, and traced to a William Connelly. Off went the police to make an arrest. Turned out that a passer by had spotted Billy Connelly in the car and, having no spare paper on him had asked Billy to autograph a £10 note. Which Billy did, and it was handed back through the window.
Just back from meeting the new Baby Beaky- they are doing well but very tired.
Little Beaky is still in a lot of pain - his brain damage meant that his eyesight was severely compromised at birth but his hearing is very acute and he is fascinated by the noises his new baby brother makes.
This birth experience is in many ways so very healing for them after the trauma they went through with Little Beaky.
Much thanksgiving here!
Praise and thanksgiving for the plastic surgeon, Mr. Charles McCash, who - over 60 years ago now - agreed to operate on my burnt and damaged left hand while I was still an infant, rather than leaving it till I was 18 or so, as all his colleagues agreed.
Thank you, Mr. McCash, for your care and skill, which I have no doubt have blessed me with whatever I can do with that hand (i.e. most things, except play the saxophone )
(I recently found a tiny scrap of paper, a letter in which one of said colleagues requested 'Charlie' to look at my hand )
Praise and thanksgiving that Tiny Toby seems to be perfectly ok apart from being so premature (25 weeks, 950g). No Particular Causes for Concern they tell me! He is in a Really Big City Hospital NICU which is very well set up for family visiting,etc and the plan is that he will be there for about 16 weeks. It's 20 min from his parents' home so again not terribly onerous logistically
Thanks for prayers - everyone and their friends and friends of friends and innocent by- standers who joined in The Effort
TBTG for the safe arrival of the second Intrepid Grandson after a mercifully brief labour, this morning at 7.50. The first Intrepid Grandson is delighted with his small partner in crime, who has to stay in hospital while his mother's blood pressure medication works its way through him. I am so relieved that he and his mother are doing so well (but why is it that small children, when excited and insecure, can't help but misbehave? Mr S and I are exhausted after 30 hours or so...)
I remember the suspense as we waited to meet my youngest brother. The three eldest of us had all come down with the measles ahead of the occasion, so my dad had to take care of us until it was safe to release him and mom into the germ-ridden world.
We were driven once into San Francisco, where we stood outside as mom held him up in a second-story window.
Comments
Snoopy, OTOH, was Joe Cool
I've gotta go with @The Intrepid Mrs S on this one!
Congrats to LL!!
TBTG, wish us luck with ruthless downsizing!
What to look for instead:
However, as a rule, if you are not part of that culture
I did mention that the "tell-tale" that is prominent around where we used to live was absent (part of the same city), but once we had been alerted by our knowledgeable daughter we had a look round one evening. Points 1, 2 and 4 were definitely seen. According to the crime statistics anti-social behaviour and public order offences are high, but not absurdly so for Newport.
We should have checked that but the agency handling the property doesn't provide a link to the crime stats database, as some others do. It was a real shame though, because the house had what we needed and was in very good order.
I lived then over a car park associated with Maccas, Nandos and a service station. Yes, I know there were deals. There were also deals in a long established park not far from me locally. There were usually families there and dealers used these as cover.
Our last house was in a fairly dodgy area of downtown St. John's, and the house across the road, which was divided up and rented out, was little more than an unlicenced pharmacy, with regular visits from the Rozzers.
It probably explains why the house was so ridiculously cheap.
It's a lesson learned, as is said when a project fails. Fortunately there's been no direct expense, although prices may rise with the delay.
Aberdeen police spotted a big car stopping at red traffic lights, someone approached, handed a £10 note through the passenger window, something was passed out through the passenger window, the lights turned green and the big car drove off.
The car registration was clearly seen, and traced to a William Connelly. Off went the police to make an arrest. Turned out that a passer by had spotted Billy Connelly in the car and, having no spare paper on him had asked Billy to autograph a £10 note. Which Billy did, and it was handed back through the window.
No arrests were made.
Little Beaky is still in a lot of pain - his brain damage meant that his eyesight was severely compromised at birth but his hearing is very acute and he is fascinated by the noises his new baby brother makes.
This birth experience is in many ways so very healing for them after the trauma they went through with Little Beaky.
Much thanksgiving here!
Thank you, Mr. McCash, for your care and skill, which I have no doubt have blessed me with whatever I can do with that hand (i.e. most things, except play the saxophone
(I recently found a tiny scrap of paper, a letter in which one of said colleagues requested 'Charlie' to look at my hand
Blessings and thanks for all those like 'Charlie'
Thanks for prayers - everyone and their friends and friends of friends and innocent by- standers who joined in The Effort
We were driven once into San Francisco, where we stood outside as mom held him up in a second-story window.