Triceratops wrote:

Watched this on Saturday night. With a run time of about 3 hours it takes up the entire evening:

Trike I see now that I never saw the film and yes three hours perhaps a bit too long winding for me...perhaps better to see it in a "feuilleton" "series?" "in episodes?"...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feuilleton

And the film:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Lyndon
"the film recounts the early exploits and later unravelling of a fictional 18th-century Irish rogue and opportunist who marries a rich widow to climb the social ladder and assume her late husband's aristocratic position."
 
I can understand, as I read this that "turning?" on location could spark a bit fear for the IRA as mentioned in the wiki...
And I read further that they have had locations in the former DDR of the Seventies...those Americans seems to be able to work in a Communist block state. And it was not Yugoslavia or the more free Hungary (I was there somewhere in 1976 by car)...if one has money even the Communists seem...

Kind regards, Paul.

I saw 'Barry Lyndon' some years ago on the Drama channel.  Paul, I won't go to town about the plot because I don't want to spoil it in case anyone wants to watch it but the Irish rogue in question did spend time in some countries in mainland Europe.  I haven't read the book on which the film was based

I've had a phone call from one of the admin staff at the GP surgery I attend - I have been given an appointment to have a vaccination for Covid-19 next Tuesday morning.  It's out of town but there's a bus goes past the venue.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

I've had a phone call from one of the admin staff at the GP surgery I attend - I have been given an appointment to have a vaccination for Covid-19 next Tuesday morning.  It's out of town but there's a bus goes past the venue.

 
You lucky one LiR.

My partner and even I (with preference because of my donor kidney) haven't yet sight on a vaccination. And now with the trouble of the deliveries and that "troubles" between the EU (European Union for Priscilla) and the vaccination providers even threatening to forbid the deliverances outside the EU as to England...

Kind regards from Paul.

PS: I am glad for you.

I've had the vaccination this a.m.  In fact I had it 10 minutes earlier than scheduled.  I took a cab to the venue to be on the safe side.  As I was walking to the exit someone stopped and offered me a lift which I accepted - that was a decent thing to do.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

I've had the vaccination this a.m.  In fact I had it 10 minutes earlier than scheduled.  I took a cab to the venue to be on the safe side.  As I was walking to the exit someone stopped and offered me a lift which I accepted - that was a decent thing to do.

Hurray and glad for you. Up to the second one now LiR.
Regards, Paul.

Searching for a thread about a worldwide trade in the world of that time perhaps from the Bronze age on I searched for the meaning in English of the word "internet" as many call it World Wide Web.

After some search I came to the conclusion that it had to be "internet"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/47523993

And then I remembered my defence in the time on the BBC history messagebord against Americans, who talked about "their" ARPAD and I about "our" internet born at the CERN and introduced by the Englishman Tim Berners-Lee.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Berners-Lee
If you read the CERN article I think to see a small difference with the wiki article? Is it written by an Englishman?
Even I didn't escape a bit of Belgian "jingoism" , when I asserted that it was "our" Belgian Robert Cailiau who stand at the craddle of the "web" (and read about those " " )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cailliau
Can it be that this wiki is written by a Belgian?

From the wiki about Berners-Lee:
"Mike Sendall buys a NeXT cube for evaluation, and gives it to Tim [Berners-Lee]. Tim's prototype implementation on NeXTStep is made in the space of a few months, thanks to the qualities of the NeXTStep software development system. This prototype offers WYSIWYG browsing/authoring! Current Web browsers used in 'surfing the Internet' are mere passive windows, depriving the user of the possibility to contribute. During some sessions in the CERN cafeteria, Tim and I try to find a catching name for the system. I was determined that the name should not yet again be taken from Greek mythology..... Tim proposes 'World-Wide Web'. I like this very much, except that it is difficult to pronounce in French... by Robert Cailliau, 2 November 1995.^[36]"
Of course all important decisions in France and Belgium have to take place in a "café"...

Hopefully, I may at last get my new printer tomorrow.  The chap from the computer shop was going to drop it off but they've been told not to do any home visits in the pandemic now.  I hope to collect it from the shop tomorrow but there has been some snow this evening.

I've just been invited to go next week for my jab! Hurrah! I asked the receptionist if the nurse could cut my hair as well as vaccinate me - and she didn't realise I was joking. She very patiently explained the NHS don't cut hair.

I'd better stop making silly jokes before they have me put away.

For one, I think it's good you have not lost your sense of humour, Temperance.  I imagine the admin NHS staff are extremely busy which may account for the humour bypass. It's about 10 days since I had my jab - I can't recall whether I mentioned it before, but when I arrived back home after receiving said jab I found a letter from the NHS asking me to go online and book a jab.  It did say not to do so if I'd heard direct from the GP practice - which I had.  I've not heard anything about the second jab yet though.

I went to the vet's today to collect some of the special food for cats with renal problems (and her blood pressure tablet).  I did some 'ordinary' shopping though  not at the vet's.  I decided to get the bus rather than walk because the shopping was quite heavy and oh dearie me, I couldn't find my bus pass.  I've contacted the bus company by email to see if the pass has been handed in though as it was by then quite late on a Friday afternoon I doubt I'll hear anything before Monday.  If it has gone well and truly on the missing list it's possible to get a replacement though there is an administration fee.

By the way, is anyone else being asked to pay a fee for emptying of the brown (garden) bin.  It's £36 a year.  I still haven't paid my self-assessment income tax (HMRC have extended the payment period to the end of February this year) though otherwise I've filled in the form.  The amount I earned from home typing in 2019-20 was less than in earlier years - possibly because speech-to-text software has improved considerably over the last few years.

Standard charge these days, LiR.

My brown bag for cardboard recycling has blown away in the sub-zero gales we are experiencing here.

is there no end to the misery? I bet someone has pinched it because theirs blew away.

We will rebuild.

I have a blue bag for recycling, Temps.  I don't know about your part of the country but the council here are pretty good about replacing bins/bags etc which go on the missing list.  Today and yesterday we've had some sunshine here but the wind and temperature outside have still been cold.  £36 a year is £3 a month so looked at that way it's not much at all.  I think I mentioned that some months ago my cat, Tilly, managed to get into my neighbours' brown bin (the lid had come off - not when the bins were out for collection) and then couldn't get out again.  I managed to text my neighbours and they let her out.  The bins are by the partition fence so I think maybe she was walking along the wooden fence and one of nextdoor's dogs barked and she took fright and either jumped or fell into the bin.  Still all's well that ends well.

Because of the sunshine yesterday I took a chance on putting some small items of laundry on the line - also because there was some wind I thought it might be a 'good drying day' but of course if the ambient temperature is around 0 deg Celsius or even lower the washing is going to freeze even if there is a brisk breeze.

Not all that exciting but I found my bus pass fortunately - it's due for renewal in March anyway.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Not all that exciting but I found my bus pass...

And my diary entry for today happily records that my neighbour has returned my large, brown recycling bag, the one for cardboard (not the green one which is for paper - not used kitchen towel though - which bag fortunately did not blow away).

The Daily Diary thread, started for a laugh by the much-missed-and-lamented Priscilla, is perhaps furnishing us with material for many useful modern day parables. "And who was her neighbour?" "The one who returned her recycling (cardboard) bag."
"The Bus Pass That Was Lost and Then Found." There must be others.

You couldn't make it up, but we are - or someone is.

It is several degrees warmer today: the Beast From the East (another EU plot to bring us to our knees) has retreated. We shall never surrender, even if the gas boiler did start making funny noises.

How about the parable of the brexit sandwiches and fishes? "And lo it could have fed five thousand but the lorry drivers came unprepared without the correct paperwork. Thus it all went to waste with enough left rotting on the quay to fill twelve rubbish skips". Here endeth the lesson.

I had my Covid jab on Monday, and I spent all yesterday wondering if they'd given me the ebola vaccination by mistake. I felt awful - not an allergic reaction, just being, in true drama queen fashion, the 1 in 10 who get all the side effects. I blame the Vitamin D. But I've not turned into an anti-vaxxer - far from it. My neighbour, who used to be a nurse, told me to stop fussing and be happy (and grateful which I am) because such an immediate response was actually a very good sign. "You clearly have the immune system of a fifty-year-old," she cheerily informed me.

I supposed I should take that as a weird compliment. Fifty is better than sixty where immune systems are concerned - but it still sounds pretty ancient.

Temperance wrote:

I had my Covid jab on Monday, and I spent all yesterday wondering if they'd given me the ebola vaccination by mistake. I felt awful - not an allergic reaction, just being, in true drama queen fashion, the 1 in 10 who get all the side effects. I blame the Vitamin D. But I've not turned into an anti-vaxxer - far from it. My neighbour, who used to be a nurse, told me to stop fussing and be happy (and grateful which I am) because such an immediate response was actually a very good sign. "You clearly have the immune system of a fifty-year-old," she cheerily informed me.

I supposed I should take that as a weird compliment. Fifty is better than sixty where immune systems are concerned - but it still sounds pretty ancient.

Temp, I was many times told it...be happy with what you have...and here in the region they have such an idiom (to comfort you ): "Look once to all those who are worser off than you". To implement that you have luck and that you are better off as the others? And I said it already to you it is all in your "mind"...if you start to look positive to life, you are already recovered and can do it all...although for me it isn't that easy, as I am perhaps a pessimist expecting everytime the worst case scenarios...and have to do some muddling through all aspects of the case, before to find again some rest...perhaps a bit of a hypochondriac?...

KInd regards, Paul.

Well, we have all become hypochondriacs this past year, Paul -  I know I certainly have. But please believe me that I am fully aware of how lucky I am. My diary entry here bewailing my experience of the side effects of the Covid jab was actually me rather ruefully laughing at myself. I have lectured all my friends on the need for a universal acceptance of the vaccine and, of us all, ironically I'm the only one so far who has felt a bit rotten and 'flu-y after it. Serves me right for being so bossy and telling people what they should do. It was a tongue-in-cheek moan, honest! We Brits are all thanking God - and the NHS and Oxford University - that the vaccine is so readily available. Just hope it works against the rapidly mutating little beast.

The efficiency of the whole thing was amazing - all the NHS staff involved, plus the army of volunteers who worked outside the centre (last week in the sub-zero conditions), shepherding people from the car park into the actual vaccination room - Lord, they all deserve our thanks. We may be told here on a regular basis what a bunch of plonkers the British are, but honestly this was Brit organisation and efficiency at its best. Not one for sentimentally clapping people to say thank you - I'd rather give all the NHS staff a tax-free, post-Covid bonus in their pay packets, plus a decent, long-overdue pay rise.

All 'flu-y side effects gone now, except for a sore arm which I think I can cope with. 

Temperance, thank you for all your inside information and indeed after all that, I am relieved a lot to hear that it is all right with you.
Yes perhaps, and especially for me, all my ill feeling is in the mind, because perhaps of the shortage of social contacts (and as you know me the social (friendly) chat as in a "café" (pub)...)

PS: Friendly greetings from Paul
PPS: even not in a pub or for instance with Caro to the "other end of the world" (as we call it)

Temperance, a lady who attends the (currently virtual) U3A French conversation group I do felt unwell for the day after she had her first vaccination. There was something on the local government website for my local area that someone had tested positive for the South African variant of Covid-19 and people are being asked to arrange appointments for a Covid test.  I haven't done so yet.

I lost a post where I tried to start a new topic about how well or not inventors had fared as a result of their ingenuity.  John Kay (the Flying Shuttle one, not the spinning frame one) and James Hargreaves (Spinning Jenny) certainly didn't become millionaires - but I pressed a wrong key or button somewhere in the process.   I don't feel inclined to try typing it all again at the moment.  It might be a blessing in disguise because on reflection my thoughts may have been not very cohesive.

I've been reading on the itv website about a recent finding of a mass grave (well 81 bodies) at Vianen in The Netherlands.  The remains are thought to be those of British soldiers who perished at a field hospital in The First War of the Coalition (1792-1797).  The discovery was made during excavations to explore the possibility of building a new canal.  It look as though canals are still flourishing in The Netherlands even if they are used more for leisure purposes than as a means of transport in the UK.

If folk think this is the wrong thread let me know and I'll amend the post but does anyone know if 'green soft soap' is still available in the UK? Nothing came up on Google or Bing.  Back in the day dissolved in water it brought a decent shine to my hair but it may be part of history now - and I don't know if it used vegetarian ingredients.

I seem to remember a thread about hoaxes or frauds but I can't find it. I listened to a podcast recently which mentioned that a somewhat enthusiastic Trump fan had gone to the 'American Stone Henge' and painted slogans there in favour of the orange-headed one. This wasn't the Georgia Guide Stones.  It is located in Salem, New Hampshire, and the most likely explanation seems that it was a hoax built to encourage tourists to visit https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/americas-stonehenge-mystery-hill  It seems there is a Stone Henge replica in Nova Scotia but that has never been claimed, to my understanding, to be a genuine historical landmark