Paul,

  Actually her name was Hannie Schaft and for the English speaking members this Wikipedia link :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannie_Schaft

gives some information.


Dirk

Paul.

When you mentioned "female spies" I realised I passed on some information about Mata Hari.

What I did not mentioned was the fact that she was born in Leeuwarden , same place where I come from< and My grandfather and Mata Hari's ( Gertruda Zelle's) father were good friends.

But although my grandfather ( passed away 1952) sometimes mentioned her name when I was very much younger I never took that much notice.

It was only years later when the name Mata Hari made sense but then it was then to late to ask questions.


The BIG mistake we all make by not asking our parents/grandparents more questions about their younger years.

How I regret now that I  never asked my paternal and maternal grandparents more questions.

Dirk

Dirk Marinus wrote:

The BIG mistake we all make by not asking our parents/grandparents more questions about their younger years.

Very true, except for me I think that it is only now that I am older and know more, that I  know enough to know what questions I should have asked all those years ago.

Dirk and Meles meles, thank you both for your comments.

But a bit ill this evening, and a bit recovering I wanted to start in full my thread, but now already nearing 11PM in the Benelux, I promise to do it tomorrow evening. Including the moral stance... BTW. Dirk as I assumed already from the time of BBC and now again in War tourism thread too, that you were 7? in Leeuwaarden in 1940 I allude to your intellectual awareness, if you haven't said it, nearly a youngster in his Thirties. And yes Szabo the female spy was the name of her man.


Kind regards to both from Paul.

I'm not sure whether it was earlier on this thread or another thread but before I went base over apex (nearly two months ago now) I mentioned something about having missed a one woman show about the writer/playwright and apparently also a spy, Aphra Behn (sorry I can't copy over the Wikipedia link about her) at the local (to me) theatre last October.  I know in 1688 she wrote "Oroonoko - The Royal Slave" about an African tricked into slavery.  How authentic her story was I cannot say.

I've seen the (now quite old) film "Carve Her Name with Pride" about Violette Szabo a few times on TV now (Virginia McKenna playing Mrs Szabo I think).

Hope Paul and Nielsen(?) are both feeling a little better today.

I wonder if ferval is poorly too? She has not been around for ages.

A glass of Sanatagen Tonic Wine for all Res Hissers who are under the weather.

My aunt used to drink that by the tumbler-full. I'd be fearful that it would make me look like her ... or those two on the bottle. Mind you I wouldn't want to be associated with the average guzzler of this either, although I gather you do get more kick for your money:



I'd much prefer some of this:

Tumbler-full? Down here they drink it by the tanker-full (not me, I hasten to add).

Yes, they look a really loathsome pair, don't they? Très smug. But her lot cannot be cast in that goodly a heritage if she is knocking back the Sanatagen Tonic Plonk as if there is no tomorrow. I reckon he's a control freak in the marriage, and he just lets her have the STW to keep her quiet and happy.

So here starts a  fest of watching  daft things you can do better than someone else when it freezes over; a good feet up, hot bovril time of waiting for the prat falls - and hoping only their pride is bruised. There ought be a games for things to do on desert hot sands; bare foot run? Time is young but the future offers daft things to do on the moon but alas I'll not be around to gawp and watch people on my team get a gallant 23rd mention for the one leg hop race there...... I wonder what cycling would be like on the moon - in a drome even? Veritcal overtaking? Oh yes, bring on moon sports.

Been to physio clinic again today and going back in early March.  The lady I see said she was quite pleased with my progress though the one reaching up my back is still restricted though she says there has been some improvement.  She has given me some strengthening exercises this time.

Did I mention I went back to British Sign Language classes on Monday though I wimped out of French conversation on Tuesday because of snow?  The lady leading the sign language class had us revising signs using the index finger of the dominant hand including the one for 'bossy' which I misheard as 'botty' (childish word  for bottom as in the sense of buttocks in case anyone whose first language is not English doesn't know). I hope I'm not becoming hard of hearing though if so BSL might be an appropriate skill to learn.

LiR, you must be better than this bod:

Well, the local by- elections are over - for now. Felt rather sorry for the Labour candidate in the one ward - she actually polled fewer votes than "Spoiled papers". Not too sorry though - after all, they called the election!

Sunny start but icy underfoot - feeding birds I almost did a triple sad-cow followed by a triple whoops. So back to the sofa to watch it done a bit better. I gather none of you watches these sports[ the men's tea down the big drain is over. Someone won by 1000th of a second.......I expect they make ever such good clocks in Korea.

I watch some of it, Priscilla.  Mostly enjoy the figure skating.  Such grace and beauty.  We (NZ, I mean) have only won one medal in the winter Olympics and that was in 1992, when Annalise Coberger won a silver in some sort of skiing.  We had hopes for this one but so far no joy, as far as I know.

I'm not interested but I was intrigued to see that the Netherlands is doing rather well for medals. While I know they have been skating for centuries on the frozen canals and polders, the country doesn't have any mountains at all: half the land is no higher than a metre above sea level and the highest point, Vaalserberg, at 322m, is an otherwise undistinguished wooded hill on the border with Germany and Belgium. So I guess the medals are in skating things rather than skiing.

Temperance wrote:

Hope Paul and Nielsen(?) are both feeling a little better today.

I wonder if ferval is poorly too? She has not been around for ages.

A glass of Sanatagen Tonic Wine for all Res Hissers who are under the weather.

 
Temperance and all other companions, just back from hospital today. On the day Tempernace started her appreciated wishes I was in the morning  on my way to the emergency. Again the same as last year in July, but not that bad: an infection on the urine tracks and with high fever: 38.2 centigrade. Because of the transplant we have to take drugs to surpress our defence system. So we can catch easier virusses and bacteria...it was a bacteria...

I hope Temperance and the companions that I will be in due time back as the "normal" Paul to contribute as usual.

PS: With "normal" Paul, I mean it in both sences, in fact the one you are used to ...

PPS: Don't expect elaborated messages from me in the first days...have to become used to the daily trends of before....

Kind regards to all from Paul.

Paul, ik hoop dat je snel herstelt.

Beterschap.

MM

Paul,

 ik haak even in met Melesmeles  en wens je een  spoedige beterschap.

Do hope you feel back to "normal" soon, Paul! Sorry I cannot say it in the Flemish tongue, but keep warm and safe - I believe there is a lot of snowy weather heading your way over there in Euroland. You will soon have all those nasty, opportunistic bacteria beasties on the run.

Temperance wrote:

Do hope you feel back to "normal" soon, Paul! Sorry I cannot say it in the Flemish tongue, but keep warm and safe - I believe there is a lot of snowy weather heading your way over there in Euroland. You will soon have all those nasty, opportunistic bacteria beasties on the run.

Thank you all for your kind replies...and I will try to do as you say, dear Temperance.

Kind regards to all, Paul.

I hope you are keeping well, Paul.  My laptop wouldn't boot up on Thursday so I took it to a shop which does computer repairs (as well as selling 'em) in my town.  I asked them to load my data on to a hard drive I provided to them just in case they had to override the main hard drive. I think they have reloaded the operating system.  Anyway it is working again even if I am £65 down in my piggy bank and the ExpressScribe (I have the paid for version so I can listen to  the DS2 sound files when I type).  So I've been off res hist for a couple of days.  I see them there Downing Street kitties have been at it again.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

I hope you are keeping well, Paul.  My laptop wouldn't boot up on Thursday so I took it to a shop which does computer repairs (as well as selling 'em) in my town.  I asked them to load my data on to a hard drive I provided to them just in case they had to override the main hard drive. I think they have reloaded the operating system.  Anyway it is working again even if I am £65 down in my piggy bank and the ExpressScribe (I have the paid for version so I can listen to  the DS2 sound files when I type).  So I've been off res hist for a couple of days.  I see them there Downing Street kitties have been at it again.

Lady in retirement,

thank you for thinking at me, it's very kind of you. I am still tired from doing nothing. And en plus a heavy cold since nearly a month. Was this morning at the doctor (general practician) and he said it was again a sepsis on the urinary tracts as in July the year before. All to do with the surpressed resistance because of the drugs against the donor kidney rejection. I will to be careful when on holidays to warn the clinic, when I have again a sepsis, about my special condition and to take immediately contact with my clinic in Belgium.

As soon as I have a bit more energy I will start my spy thread especially for Dirk Marinus.

Kind regards to you and everyone from Paul.

Take care Paul and looking forward to the spy thread!

Meles meles wrote:

I'm not interested but I was intrigued to see that the Netherlands is doing rather well for medals. While I know they have been skating for centuries on the frozen canals and polders, the country doesn't have any mountains at all: half the land is no higher than a metre above sea level and the highest point, Vaalserberg, at 322m, is an otherwise undistinguished wooded hill on the border with Germany and Belgium. So I guess the medals are in skating things rather than skiing.

The BBC was yesterday listing off GB's 11 gold medals won over the decades at the Winter Olympics. It mentioned that GB beat Canada in the final of the Men's Ice Hockey tournament at Garmische-Partenkirchen in 1936. What they failed to mention was that everyone on the rink that day was Canadian. The 'Great Britain' team that year was actually the Canada A side who managed to beat the First Team thus cocking a snook at the Canadian selectors.

I never knew that Vizzer (i.e. that in 1936 the G.B. team that won were Canadian).  I remember there being some media interest back in the day about "Eddie the Eagle" who came last in everything - living embodiment of the idea that it's the taking part that is important rather than winning, I guess.  There was a British lad who actually won something at the same games as Eddie the Eagle didn't (win anything) but the press seemed to make more fuss over Eddie.

A lot of us seem to be experiencing a little less spring in our step at present.  I think I've slowed down rather ever since I was whisked into hospital for the blood transfusion 17 months ago though of course I am getting older every day.  I know it may seem that I like "history light" but I have been known to read hefty tomes though not so much recently.

One book which was not so heavy that I read recently was a whodunnit set in the 1660s.  It mentioned St Paul's Cathedral (the pre-Great Fire of London one) as having been in bad repair and there having been some difference of opinion among people at the time as to whether the building should one restored or knocked down and rebuilt.  Does anyone know if that was in fact the case?  (Maybe I can find a book [non-fiction] at my local library on the subject though hopefully not too hefty).  I read Harrison Ainsworth's "Old St Paul's" more years ago than I care to remember though I don't recall the book awfully well.  I think I neither loved not hated it.  Probably wasn't any more historically accurate than his book about Dick Turpin.

Restoration work was started on Old St Paul's by Indigo Jones in the 1630s and he completed a new classical-style colonnaded west front before all the work got stopped by the Civil War. With Charles II back on the throne, repair work was started again by Christopher Wren, and he was in the midst of this work when it was all destroyed by the Great Fire (wasn't it mentioned at the time, perhaps by Pepys, how the cathedral might even then have escaped the fire had not the flames gone up the wooden scaffolding that was in place for the repair works, and so got a hold in the wooden beams of the roof?). I seem to remember, well before the fire, there were some - including both Indigo Jones and Christopher Wren who were doubtless keen to get the commission - who argued that it would be cheaper to pull it all down and rebuild rather than keep patching it up. In the event the fire of 1666 rather decided the matter.

This was Indigo Jones' new west front which he built before the Civil War. The result was a bit of a mish-mash of a new style tacked onto the old, and I'm sure he'd have liked to have rebuilt the whole thing in a "modern" classical style. The cathedral had already had the tall medieval spire removed after it had caught fire and collapsed in 1561, and it was the shoddy repairs to the roof after that incident that were largely to blame for the poor state of the cathedral structure in the 17th century.



In the late 1500s/early 1600s the whole St Paul's area seems to have been rather insalubrious. There were booths, sheds and lean-tos built right up against the cathedral walls (many were businesses of the printers of scurrilous broadsheets, who had to use temporary premises as they were continually being raided and shut down); the area, including even the church itself, was frequented by street-sellers, beggars and prostitutes; and the chuchyard was plagued by ferocious feral dogs.

Oh, thanks for that info, MM.

Has anybody on Res Hist ever done anything about history that was anachronistic?  When I was at school some of us were given tasks to do small booklets on various scientists.  I was given Archimedes and I think the facts were basically okay (as long as the facts as given in the history books I consulted were correct) but I drew him in the bath (no naughty bits showing) and put him in a 1930s enamel bath like we had in our house and not in a sunken Greek one.

Vizzer wrote:

Take care Paul and looking forward to the spy thread!

Vizzer and all,

thank for you kind words. But still fighting the bacteria of the sepsys with antibiotica...no fever, but no energy to do whatever...the general practician has said to take rest until I am a bit recovered...

Kind regards from Paul.

You need another glass or two of a cheering Tonic Wine, Paul - none of this Wine Jelly nonsense. What on earth was wine jelly doing in a bottle rather than a jar?








Seriously, really hope you are back on your feet soon. Do take care of yourself: these bacterial infections can be really debilitating.

Temperance,

as usual reading your heart warming "publications" with a feeling of great comfort...
Thanks for the leaflet...

Kind regards from Paul, already mentally recovering from reading your empathetic message...

Last night I lurked on a site called "Penny-Arcade" (for gamers I suppose) and a forum called "Choose Your Own (Conspiracy Theories)".  These were - certainly for the most part - debunkers (i.e. normal people not conspiracy nuts).  One person had said he had been speaking to a 9/11 "truther" and explaining that he had been there and seen it happen and that he still had flashbacks of people jumping to their deaths from windows.  The "truther" apparently asked him how much the Government were paying him to say that and he thumped said truther.  Somebody mentioned Buzz Aldrin, the astronaut, punching a "moon hoax" conspiracy nut who had been pestering him; I hadn't known about him throwing the punch before.

The questioning part of me wonders why folk come up with these sometimes bizarre theories.  Anyway, somebody had come up with what seemed to me a plausible explanation for the "lizard people" theory.  As I say the explanation comes not from me but from someone called "The Ender" on Penny-Arcade (hope it's alright for me to post it without having asked The Ender.  The Ender was writing in response to someone called "Priest" so the first part of the quote about reptiles under Colorado is by priest with the part about the scam in Los Angeles coming from The Ender.

"   »
Ok. So I'm here in this thread because apparently I just found out that there are allegedly lizard people living under my fair state.
   
        
         Presumably the people who fear these alleged lizard-people avoid Colorado because that would put them in proximity of reptilian influence, hence why I have never heard of this before.
        
         Could someone give me the SparkNotes version of this conspiracy? I'm not really comfortable typing in "Lizard Conspiracy" into Google, as diving head-first into crazy is a sure way to become so yourself. Are we talking the Lizard-People in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that keep getting voted into power? Or are we talking about another whole level of batshit insanity here?


         The genesis for the modern mythos is a drawing made by a man named Warren Shufelt in the 1930s:
        
        
        
         Shufelt used what amounted to a glorified dowsing rod to 'detect' subterranean caverns beneath Los Angeles, which he believed /claimed were encrusted with gold. Shufelt invented a native American Hopi chief, whom he called L. Macklin, and via this proxy fabricated an 'old Hopi legend' about lizard people who dug-out great underground cities and stored vast sums of precious metals / gems within.
        
         It was a scam to try and get money from investors to 'explore' the non-existent caverns, with the investors supposedly getting a share of the gold in return.
        
        
                  This story has been carried forward & evolved over the decades to today's contemporary David Icke story, which involves shape-shifting 'Reptoids' who control all major governments, all major media entities and all major businesses. But! There is a silver lining! The Reptoids keep us safe from the Grey invasion, and are the only reason that so few people are abducted and anal probed each year. 

The Ender on May 2014
With Love and Courage 
    "

I still haven't found out why the theory that the Illuminati have some gender reversal programme in motion - and our famous people and the royal family are deemed to be the opposite gender to how they present - occurred but there has been some suggestion that Michelle Obama appeared on a TV show and there was a bit of a bulge in her slacks.  Actually, I have seen her dancing and I think it could have been a panty liner come loose.  I have kept off the gender reversal videos though - actually now that I can at least use my right arm even if it's achy I have stuff to catch up on.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

I still haven't found out why the theory that the Illuminati have some gender reversal programme in motion - and our famous people and the royal family are deemed to be the opposite gender to how they present - occurred but there has been some suggestion that Michelle Obama appeared on a TV show and there was a bit of a bulge in her slacks.  Actually, I have seen her dancing and I think it could have been a panty liner come loose.  I have kept off the gender reversal videos though - actually now that I can at least use my right arm even if it's achy I have stuff to catch up on.

Lady and all,

today found out in the clinic that the antibiotica taken for the last sepsys, wasn't compatible with the medicament that I take for the depressing of the immune system to avoid repulsion of the donor kidney. This noon changed to the same antibiotica as after my first sepsys. I hope that my ten days bad experiences are now over. Ten days that could have avoided with the correct antibiotica...
Hope to see you tomorrow in better circumstances...

Kind regards from Paul.

Paul -I hope they've got it right this time. Commoner than you think, though - from this morning's news on BBC R4 -
Doctors, pharmacists, hospitals and care homes in England may be making 237 million drug errors a year, a study suggests. Researchers from Manchester, Sheffield and York universities also say that up to a quarter of cases could result in harm to patients - with mistakes possibly being a factor in more than 22,000 deaths. Problems include giving the wrong drugs and the wrong doses, they add. In a speech later, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will promise the NHS will do more to end "appalling levels of harm and death that are totally preventable".

One of my bosses back in the day was susceptible to penicillin poisoning.  He went into hospital and fortunately the people listened to him and didn't prescribe said drug but one of the other chaps in the ward said to him "I get penicillin poisoning too but they haven't listened".  My understanding was that my boss told the powers that be and things were put in order - that's 40 or so years ago though.

Paul, I hope you make satisfactory progress now the error has been discovered.

I misread the suggestions for food suitable for an ill person posted by Temperance - well I just misread one line "invalid turtle soup" - in fact I read it correctly but I was thinking of invalid with the emphasis on the second syllable i.e. meaning 'not valid' as in 'mock turtle soup'.  Silly me - don't all agree at once.

I haven't read back to the very beginning of this thread but I've always taken it as in the old song "Tumbling along with the tumbling tumbleweed" and where one can post random things.

I don't want to go over things that have already been mentioned but does anyone know when YouTube went from being a facility where random people could share videos to something that appears to have making money as its objective [well I know random people can still post there but there seems to be a nutty content these days also]. I first used YouTube (not that I've ever posted content there) but before I ever had the internet at home I went to internet cafes (there were more of them when I lived in London - I don't know of any if my hometown though there are computers with internet access at the public library) and practised my shorthand taking down sundry matter (including YouTube videos).  Shorthand seems to be a declining skill but there were a few videos dedicated to stenography (mostly to machine stenography).  When I did google searches on "stenography" I used to get "steganography" which I think is embedding messages in website pages or something about a dolphin whose latin name is "Steno" something or other.

When I did look at the crazypants videos I couldn't make out (still not sure) whether the people making such videos were in earnest or were trolls just churning stuff out for clickbait.  I'm pretty sure that one of the men who says actresses X, Y and Z were born male is a troll - some of his other stuff was really "out there" (koalas were supposed to be a hoax and were in fact animatronics - yeah, I'm sure Captain Cook and Co had the technology to create fake koalas when they landed in Australia way back when...of have we been underestimating the technical knowledge of Australian Aboriginal people all these years?).  One of the things I couldn't understand with regard to the crazypants videos was why nobody had sued the makers but there is the "First Amendment" in USA law that gives freedom of speech.  I don't know if any  American citizens stumble on this board periodically (I don't belong to Historum; perhaps the question would be more suited to that site) but does anyone know if the freedom of speech right extends as far as lies?   Another problem of course could be that there are 50 American states all with their different libel and slander laws and of course before issuing court proceedings one would have to track down one's troll.

Some of the dodgy videos had like several K views though and there were more 'up' than 'down' votes and the comments varied from people who called the content out as being spurious to exhortations to carry on doing the Lord's work and that these "creatures" were so blatant and more extremely people who thought some of their work colleagues were transgender because their bums weren't big enough etc. Okay, some things were quite funny "In real women the crotch lies below the widest part of the hips" - I'm pretty sure my hip/pelvic bone is above my pelvic floor and I'm 100% certain I'm 100% woman.  It worried that among some folk at least common sense did not seem to be very common any  longer and I had a concern that somebody might turn on a cisgender person accusing him/her of being a 'tranny' (for the avoidance of doubt I would consider it just as bad to turn on a transgender person).  But as I've said I've banned myself from those videos now but I have an active memory (for things like that anyway - you can always trust me to forget at least one item when I go shopping, sometimes even when I've made a list).  Maybe I have an unnecessary anxiety about someone that believes something that is crazypants turning on an acquaintance.  There are certainly enough things to worry about that are already in existence without worrying about a possibility.

Addendum to my thoughts on the state of YouTube.  I suppose it is possible to set up "sock puppet" accounts on YouTube and "sock puppet" commenters.  When I was trawling the internet some time back for online work I could do from home somebody had mentioned a site called 'fiver'.  I did look at that site though I never advertised there or put in a bid for any of the jobs but there were adverts from people saying "Like my book on Amazon",  "Write a positive review of my book on Amazon" though in honesty I didn't see any advertisements for "put a positive comment on my YouTube video".

I've had the First Amendment in my mind because there was a case reported recently (I'm thinking about one of the online reports) where a young woman in north Staffordshire was fined for taking issue with some paramedics for parking their ambulance near her house when going to attend one of her neighbours.  The court case actually related to her having words with the paramedics but she added insult to injury by posting something to the effect that unless the matter in question related to someone in her house that the paramedics should have parked elsewhere. Some commenters from the item (from the USA) got the idea that she had been fined for the note (it was actually for her spoken words) and had asked whether freedom of speech was not allowed in the UK.  UK people explained that it was for the verbal component of what the young lady had done and not for the written component, but it did get me wondering does the First Amendment give people carte blanche to say all sorts of rubbish about people, though as I commented before this might not be the best board to ask any question in relation to that point.

Lady,

"this might not be the best board to ask any question in relation to that point"

I guess on this board one can aks any question as long as it is not offending to the others or until the owner of this board correct it. But of course one has to have a public interested in your question or knowledgeable enough to reply to your asking....and as the public isn't that large...me at least am interested but with my backlog now at the several fora...
BTW: Being good enough the last days to watch TV I agree with you when you were in my case it was that difficult to find something that interests you...in my case over 200 channels and as I know 4 languages and even can follow the standard spoken language on the Spanish TVE or the Italian RAI, I nevertheless, continously zapping from one post to the other, found: nothing...really nothing...I think only a 14 were worth a short stay...all the others complete crap...in fact I put always for a fortnight the, of interest for me, ARTE programs on my hard disc of the TV distribution modem...and look afterwards if the programs are worth  looking at....and many times I zap throught them at the 64 times speed...

Rant over.

Kind regards from Paul.

Well Paul (and anyone else really) I went out socialising yesterday for one of the first times since I made contact with the ice in my local Asda's* carpark before Xmas and broke my upper humerus.  I spoke to one lady there about how I'd gone down the conspiracy theory rabbit hole and how I felt indignant that spurious things were being said about people (sometimes even people I'm not particularly a fan of but they don't deserve to be slandered) and she said basically what people here said - that you can't argue with conspiracy theorists and better to ignore them and to concentrate on something more positive - well actually I have been doing that but the old memory continues being haunted by the conspiracy theories.

The sign language class I attend is held this morning (well at 12 noon so technically it's afternoon) so I can start getting involved with the activities in which I partook before I bashed my arm (and incidentally be less tempted to go on YouTube) but if there is risk of snow and ice (as there is some threat of here, though it seems to be the east midlands rather than the west midlands) I won't take the risk.

* Just in case non-British members of the board don't know (though they probably do) Asda is a UK supermarket.

Spoke too soon.  There has been some snow albeit slight thus far in my neck of the woods.  I would sooner be safe than sorry so won't go to sign language class today.  Those of you in nordic climes will probably think I wouldn't fare well in your part of the world.  I have some typing tasks to complete so they should keep me off YouTube pro-temp.  There are a couple of sewing channels I like on YouTube - not that I am a brilliant sewer but sometimes I get in the mood and make things.

Though at the moment if my life experience is akin to anything on YouTube it's "Simon's Cat".  LiR's cat has just jumped on the table and is trying to walk across the keyboard so I have to chase her off.  Probably a hint of "Me wants food".  Like Simon's Cat my cat does like her vittles.

Bum! I've got no water in the house this morning - I guess my spring has frozen over. And as it's not forecast to get above freezing all day, despite the bright sun, it'll probably stay frozen solid. Good job I filled the kettle last night for my morning cuppa. (Actually if necessary I've got 200litres stored in the cellar).

But it is very cold out - a good excuse to stay in and try a few more of the posers on Nordmann's quiz.

And has anyone heard anything of Ferval recently, she seems not to have been around here since the end of Jan?

No idea about Ferval, sorry.  I hope she is well.

That is a difficult situation about the water, MM, and I'm glad you have a little in store.

I ordered some provisions from Tesco's online yesterday which will be delivered later tonight - I have enough to get through today just about.  Besides typing I did some revision of my (admittedly all that profound) knowledge of sign language.  Some of the signs where I had done my very Heath Robinson sketches of such signs I had to look up in the dictionary, and I'm not sure the signs given there were the same as the ones in class with there being some regional differences in signs.  I did my initial BSL learning in Stoke-on-Trent and more recently in Stafford and although the two places are not that far apart as the crow flies some of the signs were different in the two locations.  Hopefully boning up on sign language is a more productive use of my time than lurking on darkest YouTube.  I should have a French conversation session this afternoon but if it's icy or snowy I shall stay indoors.

Addendum:  It is sunny but there has obviously been some light snow while I was concentrating on typing so I'm staying home today though I have to venture out to Fracture Clinic tomorrow though I have booked a cab to be on the safe side.  My audio file transcription player (Express Scribe for Mac) has stopped playing the DS2 files but I have managed to find a workaround pro-temp by downloading Switch converter and changing them to mp3 files.  I've contacted the company though because I paid for the professional version of the software particularly so that I could play those files.

Lady,

"with there being some regional differences in signs."
Couldn't resist. How very human...is that the way too how local languages developped, for instance of the proto indo-european languages into the several European languages of today...


MM I feel with you...some years ago in our appartments for hire in Bruges...the two toilets of the first and second floor on the same evacuation pipe, which was outside...and with temperatures as now sub zero...frozen...and when the lady on the second floor flushed her toilet, the toilet of the lady of the first floor overflowed...had to de-ice the pipe in stone with two hairdryers and a small camping gas burner....Lucky in the time I have isolated the pipe completely and put it in a wooden frame...

Kind regards to both from Paul.

Dickens' " A Tale of Two Cities" was first serialised in two local newspapers.

It was the Bicester Times, it was the Worcester Times.

Trike - you missed out the punchline:

'Tis a far far better coat I'll fetch than I have ever fetched ...' 

It's quite chilly here in Devon this morning: it's minus 6 actually, which is rather unusual for us. Like the rest of Europe, we are suffering from the Beast from the East or, as we call it in the UK, the Hysteria from Siberia. We are loving it, especially as the temperatures are really brutal and we are not actually fussing about nothing as we usually do: these extremes are a pleasing meteorological challenge for us wimpy Brits, and are giving us a chance to be thoroughly stoical - Darkest (Coldest) Hour and all that. The daytime temperature is set to be minus 11 as far south as Norwich (feels like temperature, that is), and even here in balmy Devon, the temperature is falling, not rising, as I speak: - minus 8 (feels like) is forecast later today for Exeter. A huge dump of snow is expected here in the south west tomorrow - proper snow, not just a pretty dusting of icing sugar.

The BBC, ever helpful in times of national panic, has just had a calming piece about how to walk in cold weather. I think the "Walk Like a Penguin" advice is commonplace in countries which are often cold and snowy, but it's new to us. I shall have a little penguin practice later.


This no doubt will be the scene on Sainsbury's carpark tomorrow:

Oh careful Temperance, it was on an Asda carpark I went base over apex and bashed my arm before Xmas.

UK supermarket carparks are some of the most dangerous places on earth, LiR.

Vizzer wrote:

Trike - you missed out the punchline:

'Tis a far far better coat I'll fetch than I have ever fetched ...' 

Very good, Vizzer.


Meanwhile, the Beast from the East, we are expecting two feet of snow;

Temperance wrote:

It's quite chilly here in Devon this morning: it's minus 6 actually, which is rather unusual for us. Like the rest of Europe, we are suffering from the Beast from the East or, as we call it in the UK, the Hysteria from Siberia. We are loving it, especially as the temperatures are really brutal and we are not actually fussing about nothing as we usually do: these extremes are a pleasing meteorological challenge for us wimpy Brits, and are giving us a chance to be thoroughly stoical - Darkest (Coldest) Hour and all that. The daytime temperature is set to be minus 11 as far south as Norwich (feels like temperature, that is), and even here in balmy Devon, the temperature is falling, not rising, as I speak: - minus 8 (feels like) is forecast later today for Exeter. A huge dump of snow is expected here in the south west tomorrow - proper snow, not just a pretty dusting of icing sugar.

The BBC, ever helpful in times of national panic, has just had a calming piece about how to walk in cold weather. I think the "Walk Like a Penguin" advice is commonplace in countries which are often cold and snowy, but it's new to us. I shall have a little penguin practice later.


This no doubt will be the scene on Sainsbury's carpark tomorrow:

Temperance,

I wanted to boast with the minus 17 C in Zürich where us granddaughter lives since the start of Feburary. But that was the forecast. As I see now it is only a mere minus 6 C on this moment...so for weather forecasts...here near Bruges this morning minus 6 and now minus 3.

Kind regards from your Belgian friend Paul.

Edinburgh has been issued a Red warning for snow, The Zoo is closed, and it looks a bit quiet on the Penguin front:

Live Penguin Cam

Wait, there is definite movement

They've disappeared again

Hi Ferval, how are you doing?