Something quite different. In fact I want to call some people to Heaven - my fellow bus passengers today. There were 12 on the bus "going" and about 4 "coming back" (we were fairly close behind another bus) - for the very first time everyone was wearing a face-mask. Perhaps the message is at last getting through!
Indeed, so (as a result of seeing a photo, in the news this morning, of him entering a shop) TICTH Stanley Johnson, the PM's dad.
He was NOT wearing a face-mask, but was presumably OK with breaking the law in a specific and limited way, following the example of his son and friends.
Some friends came over this weekend. This is allowed and AFAIK no one has Covid. What they omitted to mention however was that their baby had a streaming cold. Which Captain Pyjamas has hoovered up, because of course he has, and now he's a snotty little snotty person who's not napping properly because he has a cough. Now I know that small people catch colds all the time, but I'm still a bit ticked off. Am I right to be annoyed that they didn't at least warn us before coming over that their offspring was a snotty little ball of microbes?
Having said that, perhaps having two separate visits to snotsville in quick succession might build up his immunity to such things?
(I should add the caveat that I'm one of the fortunate people who rarely gets a cold; in the past I've had a couple of stonkers on moving to somewhere new, and then hardly had any for years. I hope this admission hasn't put a jinx on me) ...
Speaking of moving to somewhere new, LL is on his second bug in a month after moving in to university. He's getting COVID tested today. I could almost hope it was positive, as I know he's going to catch something at least six more times this first year, and at least we'd have that fear over...
It has been my happy place for years, and all of a sudden it tells me
Bad Request
Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.
Size of a request header field exceeds server limit.
I have cleared the cache and the cookies, and flushed the DNS (get me!) but to no avail. At first I thought it worked on my tablet, but alas, that too caught the infection, so I think I am going to have to call the helpdesk. That's this morning sorted then...
I go to the site on Saturdays to print the Cryptic and Quick, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that I don't come across that problem! They've altered something, though, which is that when I click on 'print' it comes up with a different panel. Tech chap was here the other day and said if I click on that, it comes up with the print version, but why add in an extra step I wonder.
We gave up on the Telegraph and Times crossword subscriptions years ago when we were having a cash-flow crisis (one of many), and discovered that the Grauniad online crossword (also printable) is free and actually rather more fun* than the Torygraph. I highly recommend it.
* It is a little more devious, but that's the whole point of cryptic crosswords, isn't it?
We gave up on the Telegraph and Times crossword subscriptions years ago when we were having a cash-flow crisis (one of many), and discovered that the Grauniad online crossword (also printable) is free and actually rather more fun* than the Torygraph. I highly recommend it.
* It is a little more devious, but that's the whole point of cryptic crosswords, isn't it?
Hmmm...Satan perhaps has many cross words...but Satan and"cross" in such proximity...
(Though I go with the idea that even he will be saved.)
Nice one! fortunately, I have a secret weapon- one of the posters on the R&E forum is a crossword genius and provides helpful hints wen requested whichmakes the exercise more enjoyable of course.
Wild fires, we are on evacuation stand by again. We have neighbors ready to help Mr. Image out of the house into our van. Love all of my neighbors, but I am moving. I can not take another summer of this, on top of the Virus and ill Mr Image.
Graven Image thinking of you. There has been a much smaller fire here in a lakeside village, with people evacuating and just getting out on time and half the houses destroyed. It brought home to me the horror of fires. I don't think I could live somewhere like that even with brilliant neighbours to help.
Thanks for the support everyone, it does mean a lot to me. Report just in fire is 30% containment from working the fires through the night. Still on stand by but feel a bit more relaxed now that day is here in the large planes can fly in. Blessing and safety for all those helping to stop the fire.
If someone is having a loud conversation on their phone on speaker phone in a public place, is everyone else allowed to join the call?
If it is not on speaker phone, what about then? Like when they have those wireless ear phones in and they obliviously talk away as if there's someone physically present.
I have to use the speaker on my phone otherwise I can't hear. Having said that I think I have answered only 2 or 3 calls in a crowded public place in the 10 years or so that I've had a phone and I keep them very brief as I have no desire to share with random strangers.
If someone is having a loud conversation on their phone on speaker phone in a public place, is everyone else allowed to join the call?
If it is not on speaker phone, what about then? Like when they have those wireless ear phones in and they obliviously talk away as if there's someone physically present.
On my morning walk I pass a junction with a slow traffic light change. Every day I hear speaker phones from waiting cars with open windows, and many of the conversations are work related and possibly confidential (talking about clients, etc). I work in health and social care where confidentiality is an essential and I often wonder what the person speaking would think if they knew they were being broadcast to the outside world.
I was on a bus once where a young woman was discussing her convoluted love life on the phone so that the whole bus could hear. The bus driver eventually told her to shut up, but I think half the bus was disappointed that we didn't get to hear what happened next!
My wife has a book of letters to the "Times" - quite old now. One writer describes how a businessman held forth about business matters on his phone for half an hour in a crowded train, and had the whole carriage in convulsions when he at last said, "It's confidential, so I don't know how the news got out ..."!
By the way, why do some people have to be so LOUD on their phones?
I think it's a throwback to the really early mobiles (the ones the size of a brick), when reception maybe wasn't very good - "I'M ON THE TRAIN", fortissimo, so that everyone else on the train knows that he's got a mobile.
I was on a train in which a young and heavily pregnant woman phoned her midwife (or possibly social worker?) so say that she was on her way home from court and her boyfriend had been sentenced to 7 years in prison. She was going to have to change her birth plan to have someone other than her boyfriend with her when she went into labour. The whole carriage listened transfixed as she discussed the pros and cons of various potential birthing partners. She was very pragmatic, and kept reassuring whichever professional was at the other end of the phone that she would be ok.
Slight tangent: When I was about 8 I went on my parents' work outing to an ice show. On the coach I got chatting to some other children who asked me who everyone was (I have 7 older siblings). When I got to my eldest niece, who was just a toddler, they asked where her parents were and I loudly proclaimed that her father was in prison. I was asked what for and I said stealing drugs from a chemist (this is true, btw). My Mother was mortified but I think they probably learned an important lesson about just how much info young children take in.
Many people talk louder on the phone than they realise. Which brings me to my current pet peeve: people who remove their mask when they're on the phone. When you're bellowing down the phone you're expectorating everywhere. It's precisely the sort of moment when you ought to be protecting your fellow citizens by wearing the damn mask .
Couldn't agree more. On our buses there's a sign saying (among other things) "Limit phone use" but no-one takes any notice. https://tinyurl.com/y3885nyo
There are a handful of people who get their jollies by pretending to have phone conversations in public places and saying things like "You mean he didn't use a condom? With his own sister?" as loudly as possible.
Some of them are videotaping reactions for YouTube.
I think it was Alfred Hitchcock who, on at least one occasion when leaving a crowded lift (elevator), said loudly to his companion 'Who would have thought the old man to have had so much BLOOD in him?'
(Or words to that effect, possibly quoting from The Scottish Play)
Southwark's car parking policy. I needed a loo rather urgently. There was one in a park building. I knew that they now have paying in the car parks and the visit would cost me £2 (per hour or part of an hour), as I didn't want to risk using the space labelled "Loading Only" by the building. The once full car park was barely used. I parked close to the notice about paying - by phone. "Download the app to your phone."
"Smaller print: If you do not have a smartphone, call ***********". So I did.
Robot woman's voice: "If you have a smartphone, download the app."
Me, somewhat desperate, loudly, drawing the attention of two mums loading their car with tinies. "I don't have a smartphone, you pillock!"
Robot woman's voice: "If this is the first time you have used this service, press one." So I did.
Robot woman's voice: "You will need to create a four digit PIN code."
Me, as above "All I want to do is use the toilet!"
Threw the phone and my credit card on the passenger seat and took off to the nearest Sainsburys, which wasn't very near, but fortunately, near enough, and with the toilets open.
Why don't they have short stay free spaces for loo visits?
The term .... when did you last see a videotape? They are extinct, late, defunct (although actually we still have a VHS machine to play back a few old tapes that haven't been put on DVD).
Well, "videoing" is ungraceful, with all those vowels right next to each other; "recording" could mean audio only, and for some of us, that's the first sense that comes to mind; "camcording" is DEFINITELY outdated; you see where this is going?
Wow, NP. I followed one of his cbc.ca links. Seems like the evangelist and the pastor are rather blithe about the pandemic altogether. Being Pentecostal is probably at least a good chunk of it--but AFAIK believing in direct healing doesn't mean that assuming it always happens, or that Pentecostals can't take care of their health or see doctors.
May I ask a question, NP? Americans generally really hate being told what to do, and I think that's responsible for a huge chunk of the craziness here. Is Canada that way, or sensible enough to follow rules that may save lives?
We're very much like Americans I think. Children of a common mother and father. Differences exist but on some dimensions they're not very significant. Western Canada is particularly weird for the last decade.
The Barnes and Noble Nook site and service is down, just when, for the first time in a couple of months, I wanted to download a book and read it (I've been reading physical books lately). Very frustrating, at first I thought something was wrong with my device, but eventually I found the service announcement on the Barnes and Noble website.
Cheap bin liners.
Couldn’t find the decent ones so I used cheap ones last weekend. DH emptied the bins just now and the liner split. My fault for using the wrong liner last time.
Of course if he had done the bin on the previous occasion, he wouldn’t have had the problem. It is “ his job” after all.
Cheap bin liners.
Couldn’t find the decent ones so I used cheap ones last weekend. DH emptied the bins just now and the liner split. My fault for using the wrong liner last time.
Of course if he had done the bin on the previous occasion, he wouldn’t have had the problem. It is “ his job” after all.
The scientists who described graphene as the thinnest material in existence had clearly never tried to use a cheap bin liner.
Comments
Commiserations.
Time to leave?
He was NOT wearing a face-mask, but was presumably OK with breaking the law in a specific and limited way, following the example of his son and friends.
I doubt if we'll ever hear of him being fined.
Some friends came over this weekend. This is allowed and AFAIK no one has Covid. What they omitted to mention however was that their baby had a streaming cold. Which Captain Pyjamas has hoovered up, because of course he has, and now he's a snotty little snotty person who's not napping properly because he has a cough. Now I know that small people catch colds all the time, but I'm still a bit ticked off. Am I right to be annoyed that they didn't at least warn us before coming over that their offspring was a snotty little ball of microbes?
*am I being unreasonable
Didn't the unfortunate Captain pick up a cold whilst playing in the park a few weeks ago? The poor chap has surely snotted enough snot for a while...
Having said that, perhaps having two separate visits to snotsville in quick succession might build up his immunity to such things?
(I should add the caveat that I'm one of the fortunate people who rarely gets a cold; in the past I've had a couple of stonkers on moving to somewhere new, and then hardly had any for years. I hope this admission hasn't put a jinx on me) ...
* It is a little more devious, but that's the whole point of cryptic crosswords, isn't it?
I used to be able to manage the Times and the Torygraph crosswords, but that in the Grauniad usually defeated even my mighty intellect.
Were I presently wearing a Hat, I would raise it as a token of respect to anyone able to complete (or attempt to complete) the Crossword of Satan...
(Though I go with the idea that even he will be saved.)
If you're joining in the comments, I sometimes post there as OrcadianPiglet. Good luck!
If it is not on speaker phone, what about then? Like when they have those wireless ear phones in and they obliviously talk away as if there's someone physically present.
By the way, why do some people have to be so LOUD on their phones?
One hopes it all turned out all right in the end for what sounds like a fairly brave (and unfazed) lassie.
Some of them are videotaping reactions for YouTube.
(Or words to that effect, possibly quoting from The Scottish Play)
"Smaller print: If you do not have a smartphone, call ***********". So I did.
Robot woman's voice: "If you have a smartphone, download the app."
Me, somewhat desperate, loudly, drawing the attention of two mums loading their car with tinies. "I don't have a smartphone, you pillock!"
Robot woman's voice: "If this is the first time you have used this service, press one." So I did.
Robot woman's voice: "You will need to create a four digit PIN code."
Me, as above "All I want to do is use the toilet!"
Threw the phone and my credit card on the passenger seat and took off to the nearest Sainsburys, which wasn't very near, but fortunately, near enough, and with the toilets open.
Why don't they have short stay free spaces for loo visits?
Is your horror over the possible act, or the term?
Their Christ is not my Christ.
Wow, NP. I followed one of his cbc.ca links. Seems like the evangelist and the pastor are rather blithe about the pandemic altogether. Being Pentecostal is probably at least a good chunk of it--but AFAIK believing in direct healing doesn't mean that assuming it always happens, or that Pentecostals can't take care of their health or see doctors.
May I ask a question, NP? Americans generally really hate being told what to do, and I think that's responsible for a huge chunk of the craziness here. Is Canada that way, or sensible enough to follow rules that may save lives?
(Not poking at you or Canada. Just curious.)
Thx.
Couldn’t find the decent ones so I used cheap ones last weekend. DH emptied the bins just now and the liner split. My fault for using the wrong liner last time.
Of course if he had done the bin on the previous occasion, he wouldn’t have had the problem. It is “ his job” after all.
The scientists who described graphene as the thinnest material in existence had clearly never tried to use a cheap bin liner.
Better a has bin than a never was.