Form An Orderly Queue - the British thread 2025

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  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    Happy birthday for yesterday @la vie en rouge !

    Hedgehog sanctuary duty today for me,so an early start. See y'all later. 🦔
  • SandemaniacSandemaniac Shipmate
    Still in bed with a stinking cold, but this turned up overnight in my cricket club's group chat, which has brightened my day considerably:

    OTD in 2022 in Oxfordshire - Sandemaniac obtained his first smartphone, a moment many regard as the true dawn of the modern era. Once a man of paper diaries and landline calls, Sanders emerged overnight as a prolific sender of 🍆, 😂, and 🔥, bewildering teammates and terrifying group chats.
    The acquisition marked a seismic shift: group chats were never the same again. Within hours, Sanders had discovered emojis, GIFs, and the ability to send 14 near‑identical photos of his findings from his allotment from slightly different angles.
    Much like Wilfred Rhodes spanning three decades of Test cricket, Sanders’ digital career has already spanned three WhatsApp updates, two broken chargers, and many infamous incidents involving autocorrect that are still spoken of in hushed tones.
    Historians agree: civilisation may have advanced, but the group chat has never fully recovered.

    It probably won't surprise anyone to hear that my very first post included a less-than-subtle innuendo.
  • MrsBeakyMrsBeaky Shipmate
    Still in bed with a stinking cold, but this turned up overnight in my cricket club's group chat, which has brightened my day considerably:

    OTD in 2022 in Oxfordshire - Sandemaniac obtained his first smartphone, a moment many regard as the true dawn of the modern era. Once a man of paper diaries and landline calls, Sanders emerged overnight as a prolific sender of 🍆, 😂, and 🔥, bewildering teammates and terrifying group chats.
    The acquisition marked a seismic shift: group chats were never the same again. Within hours, Sanders had discovered emojis, GIFs, and the ability to send 14 near‑identical photos of his findings from his allotment from slightly different angles.
    Much like Wilfred Rhodes spanning three decades of Test cricket, Sanders’ digital career has already spanned three WhatsApp updates, two broken chargers, and many infamous incidents involving autocorrect that are still spoken of in hushed tones.
    Historians agree: civilisation may have advanced, but the group chat has never fully recovered.

    It probably won't surprise anyone to hear that my very first post included a less-than-subtle innuendo.

    This is absolutely brilliant!
  • JapesJapes Shipmate
    edited 8:41AM
    @Sandemaniac One of my colleagues sat me down in 2019 with a bargain offer to sell me his mum's first smartphone to see how I got on with it. This was just after I'd finally accepted out loud that a smartphone would have to be in my near future (due to getting a correct diabetes type diagnosis 3 years after the misdiagnosis which meant I was now eligible for a continuous blood glucose monitor which meant blood sugar readings could go to my phone). Also, I was being seriously left out of informal communications within my work team at the time as a result of everyone else having WhatsApp. Which said colleague was getting frustrated at on my behalf plus, as he charmingly put it. "My mum, she can't do computer stuff like you, she learned how to use it, so you will be fine!" I meekly complied.

    Until then, I'd been perfectly content with my small basic phones (one for personal life, one for work/church/organist/music teaching work) but they were also harder to get, and were getting more and more expensive to run.

    Now, the diabetes tech didn't actually happen until 2022, but in retrospect, my work in education during the Covid Lockdowns would have been very difficult without the smartphone.

    That first device still lives on as it has a radio which is not reliant on data! Just need to be using wired headphones which picks up the analogue signals.

    The one person who'd tried, and failed, over several years to move me on to a smartphone earlier is in absolute awe of this particular colleague who succeeded where they had failed and I must remember to get them in the same place at the same time sometime so this awe can be fully expressed. I do believe most of my friends described this moment in my life as "Japes finally joins the 21st century."
  • SarasaSarasa All Saints Host
    My first smart phone was second hand from a friend of my husband and I've never looked back. I do think I have a bit of an addiction to it, so I'm trying to make myself read more physical books.
    I could have nabbed a space to do Pilates this morning, but I'm feeling lazy so I'm going to mooch down to the market instead. On Fridays there is a brilliant farm stall that sells excellent 'traditional' veg very cheaply. I'm after some potatoes, cabbage and carrots so they should have those. Its where I get my Christmas veg and usually spend far less than £10.00 for enough to last a couple of weeks of meals.
    Last night I went through our physical photos trying to find some pictures of my late niece with us for her sister L who wants them for the slide show at the funeral. The whole thing was rather sad as there were lots of pictures of my late mum, and my dear friend T who died earlier this year.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    edited 9:44AM
    Feeling the teeniest bit ropey after last evening - though very nice dinner. To go with my apple cake, another guest brought a sweet wine which was 70 years old.* Mind you, that still made it the youngest member of the company.

    There was also a 2011 Chateau Musar, an Italian Riesling and a fizz. And sherry.

    *Previous record was a 1953 Trockenbeerenauslese I got for Mr F's 60th (he was born in '53).
  • PuzzlerPuzzler Shipmate
    Hygienist this morning then granddaughter popped in. Now I am off to my French conversation group. Thankfully no more commitments after that today. Busy weekend ahead. I’m ready for a breather.
  • ((Sarasa))

    I avoided any type of mobile phone until 2019, as I was brought up in a house without a phone and hated making phone calls. So my first phone was a smartphone and we bought it because my doctorate studies meant I would have a few weekends away and I would need to text to organise pick ups with my husband. I rarely ever make phone calls from it.

    A busy day so far of emails, admin and writing 2 tutorials. I’ve just had a cheese omelette (Perl wen) and I’m about to go back to work and start the first of this year’s marking marathons. My first batch are early reflections about studying a module on death.
    Mr Heavenly is out at a work do this evening so I might have a takeaway.
  • BoogieBoogie Heaven Host
    I'm an early adopter of tech. I've had a smartphone since 2008.

    Hedgehog duty was satisfying again. It's nice to leave them all clean and tidy and snoozing in their nests. Lots released today due to the mild weather. Good news and plenty more are nearly up to release weight (600g).
  • SarasaSarasa All Saints Host
    I rarely use my phone as a phone either. Being deaf, phone calls can be tricky, though the wonders of Bluetooth do make it a lot easier than it used to be.
    I had a successful trip into town and bought a cabbage, three carrots and a bag of potatoes for £3.00. Other than that I've been catching up with hobbies, a bit of writing, a bit of knitting and doing a jigsaw. I've also made the Christmas cake which is cooking at the moment.
    I'm jolly glad I haven't had to go out, we've had some very heavy showers, mixed with bouts of sunshine, including both at the same time, which meant a rather good rainbow over our local sugar factory.
  • '...a rather good rainbow over our local sugar factory' would be a wonderful title for a short story, or maybe a little film.
    :wink:
    No rainbows in Arkland the Mild, where it is again cloudy and windy. A few showers are possible, but nothing bad enough to deter the trick-or-treaters this evening. FatherInCharge has sweets ready for any who call at his parsonage, but (he says) he will only speak to children accompanied by adults. I expect he will deliver a little homily about the True Meaning Of Hallowe'en, but, if he does, I know it will be done in a gently humorous way...

    Italian cuisine for lunch - Spaghetti Carbonara, with Italian BEER.
  • NenyaNenya All Saints Host, Ecclesiantics & MW Host
    I went out for coffee with a friend this morning to one of our local garden centres, where Christmas was very much in evidence; also a lot of over-excited children running around screaming and dressed in various halloweeny-type costumes.

    This afternoon - much excitement as the engineer came and replaced the element in our fan oven. I've been fine managing with the small oven, but the Christmas cooking is on the horizon, plus we are planning to move house and it will be good to be able to say that both ovens work. I also apologised for the state of it (I clean it rather less often than once in a blue moon) and he said, "Believe me, that's spotless compared to some I've seen." He's a nice person :smile: .

    Spaghetti bolognese for tea again, and we'll be having a glass of red with it this evening, having not been able to last night because we were both going out.
  • PuzzlerPuzzler Shipmate
    My long waterproof coat proved its worth this afternoon. It wasn’t raining when I locked the door but I was very wet, or rather my coat was by the time I arrived at my French group, just a few minutes walk away. Dry and sunny to walk home afterwards.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Having been sufficiently cold yesterday for people to be scraping frost off their cars, it was unseasonably (but very pleasantly) mild today. Work was worryingly gentle; what will they all get up to at the weekend? No matter; an empty in-floor is always a good thing on a Friday afternoon.

    My new reading specs (which I only ordered the day before yesterday) arrived in all their multicoloured glory, but sadly they're actually not much use for the distance my work chair is from my computer ...

    Back to the old ones, which actually work fairly well. The new ones are quite good for reading, and doing things on the mobile or the Tablet; they're just not quite right for the distance between eyes and computer screen, which is what matters to me for a large chunk of my day (not to mention the bit of said day for which I get paid).

    Supper was, of course, f&c, because Friday.

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