AS: Cool Britannia (sort of): the British thread 2019

1353638404186

Comments

  • I had the option of voting for one person for the district council and up to six for the town council, two Tories, one Lib Dem and one Labour candidate standing for the district council. The Tories had fielded 6 candidates, the Lib Dems 2 and Labour 1 for the town council. I know 2 of the Tory, 1 Lib Dem and the Labour candidate, and one of those Tories does not impress me much (he took off to the local FiF church when offered women ministers, never to return, among other things), so I didn't vote for 6 candidates either.

    We had election stuff through the door from the Lib Dems and the Conservatives, I don't remember anything from Labour.

    And in three weeks we all vote again.
  • finelinefineline Kerygmania Host, 8th Day Host
    I was just talking to a friend who does political canvassing for the Labour party and she said they are told to ignore such stickers because it doesn't apply to political canvassing because they are not selling anything, but doing us a favour by giving us information. Though she agrees it is intrusive and doesn't like knocking on the doors that have the sticker, and she said I can probably ask to be put on a list of doors they don't knock on. It does seem only to be Labour canvassers who knock on doors in my neighbourhood. Only before the last general election did I get a Tory canvasser. To be fair, they are all very polite, including the Tory, and they go away when I tell them (also politely) that I don't want to talk to them. Not like the double glazing people.
  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    edited May 2019
    Fredegund wrote: »
    The ones I really hate are the blokes (not being sexist, they are always male) who offer to "prune that tree out front, love" I ask them what it is - they don't know. It's a magnolia which flowers twice a year. They seem not to notice the buds...
    For the record, I have my own chainsaw and a son or two to wield it.
    Wielding that should definitely prune the influx of such blokes, and rather efficiently. Especially if pointed at certain parts of their anatomy which they may be particularly proud of. (Probably not the thing on top of their neck.)

    I really like the thought of chainsaw-wielding in such a case! :) However, children, don't try this at home, or at least ask your parents' permission first. Usual elf and safety measures apply.
  • CathscatsCathscats Shipmate
    I just had Ipsos Mori in the phone, announcing that "she" was going to ask me questions about living in the UK.
    No "Is this a good time?" Which it wasn't. No "Would you like to take part/do you mind answering some questions which would help us?" So I said "No thank you," and hung up.
  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    edited May 2019
    With 'mori' apparently meaning ' death' in Latin, they're bound to be annoying.

    I've turned to blocking all cold callers' numbers, and in addition everything goes on my answerphone first. They're a real scourge of telecommunication!

    My commiserations!
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Fredegund wrote: »
    ... For the record, I have my own chainsaw and a son or two to wield it.
    Next time you get a cold caller, I should tell him about that! :naughty:

    Our bugbear at the moment is cold phone calls telling us that our (non-existent) Google business listing is out of date, and no amount of telling them that we haven't got one puts them off. We've gone through the "press 2 if you wish to be removed from our list" rigmarole several times each, but it doesn't make a blind bit of difference - the next day or the day after, they're back.
    [/rant]

    It is, however, a beautiful evening, and I must away to get myself sorted for choir practice.
  • Just finished today’s marking. Just 3 more essays for the weekend and I’m done.
    Tomorrow I am not working as I plan on spending the day panicking about my PhD interview in the afternoon.
    Foodwise, I made a chocolate custard and poured it over some stale sliced hot cross buns to make a wonderful bread and butter pudding.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    That sounds lovely, Heavenlyannie - and best of luck with the interview!
  • FredegundFredegund Shipmate
    Best of luck with your interview, Heavenlyannie. I have one at a northern university tomorrow, and am asking myself why on earth I did this. I could retire, but don't trust myself not to get even more depressed.
  • I went to my local Polling Station today, and overheard the chap in charge asking the clerks how many peeps had been in? This was at about 130pm.

    The answer was 250.....since 6am!...

    We didn't manage 250 in the whole 15 hours, though we did manage a half dozen dogs, none of whom were issued with ballot. The weather definitely didn't help us, but the area had a historically low turn out prior to the current political situation. Lord knows what the European elections are going to be like.

  • Fredegund wrote: »
    Best of luck with your interview, Heavenlyannie. I have one at a northern university tomorrow, and am asking myself why on earth I did this. I could retire, but don't trust myself not to get even more depressed.
    Oh, what is the interview for?
  • Wet KipperWet Kipper Shipmate
    This all seems so strange as we have no elections in Wales!

    same for Scotland
  • O Happy Lands Of Pure Delight!

    Your turn will come......
    :grimace:
  • FredegundFredegund Shipmate
    Finance related, I'm afraid. If I could be bothered I would consign to Hell my satnav - it had the nerve to tell me to turn around because I'd reached a pedestrian zone. I hate this gadget - if it wasn't built into the car it would have been out of the window. Never had this problem with the cheap and cheerful out of date plug in device.
    Also had a phone interview this evening.
    Boy am I out of practice.
  • My commiserations, I had my doctorate Skype interview this afternoon and managed to log up 2 miles on my Fitbit pacing around the kitchen in advance. Won’t find out the results until June but I have a reserve plan in case it fails (a masters in mental health which won’t need an interview).
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    ... we did manage a half dozen dogs, none of whom were issued with ballot ...
    Perhaps they should have been - they might have voted more sensibly than their humans! :smiley:

    Fredegund and Heavenlyannie - how did the interviews go?

    * * * * *

    We had quite a respectable crowd at D's recital today - we nearly ran out of programmes. Afterwards, we tried out a new Mediterranean/North African restaurant that's opened recently. It was quite nice, and we're glad we tried it, but it's probably somewhere we'll only go occasionally - when we're in the right mood. It was, however quite cheap, as they didn't have a drinks licence, so no WINE.
  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited May 2019
    We used to frequent a North African restaurant - must see if it is still there.
    I think the interview went okay, I guess it’s just a matter of whether it’s fits with what they want in the faculty. But it’s done so that’s a weight off my mind. I took the day off (I work flexibly anyway so can choose when I get my work done) because I didn’t want to be stressed beforehand by my marking.
    Had a Waitrose takeaway curry for tea and a glass of Prosecco.
  • ArachnidinElmetArachnidinElmet Shipmate
    edited May 2019
    Piglet wrote: »
    ... we did manage a half dozen dogs, none of whom were issued with ballot ...
    Perhaps they should have been - they might have voted more sensibly than their humans! :smiley:

    One dog did seem particularly interested in the register and had a good sniff at the polling booth. If he comes to the European elections, I might be tempted to let him. Not sure the boxes are big enough to fit a paw print though.
  • PigwidgeonPigwidgeon Shipmate
    A church where I used to work was a polling place. My dog at the time (now pestering the angels) always went to work with me and loved to check out the voters and the people working there. She was never given a ballot, but an occasional cookie seemed to have been a happy substitute.
  • Had a Waitrose takeaway curry for tea and a glass of Prosecco.

    Having finally had the fridge safely installed, and the shoe bench delivered on time, and to celebrate all the lovely baby news, I opened a bottle of Real Champagne that my brother brought down at Christmas. Mr. S doesn't care for fizz, but SiL will help me finish it off tonight when they come for curry (rogan ghosh, since you ask, and home-made onion bhaji - yum)

    Mrs. S, faintly perfumed with cooking oil

  • FredegundFredegund Shipmate
    Thanks for asking, Piglet. OK, I think. Hope one will take it further. Another couple locally next week, including the one I really want.
    Off to rotivate the other raised beds in the hope of planting spinach and rocket in vast quantities.
  • We do have a bottle of English champagne here but I think I’ll save it till I get offered the post!
    We’re about to go off to Loch Fyne for breakfast, my husband has been getting home at past midnight all week due to a deadline and I’ve been marking most evenings so we are having a family breakfast.
  • Wesley JWesley J Shipmate
    Fredegund wrote: »
    [...] Off to rotivate the other raised beds in the hope of planting spinach and rocket in vast quantities.
    Blimey, with all the housework so laudably being done on the thread, for a brief moment I thought there was talk of bunk beds (which are sorta raised too, at least one of them!) and that instead of undeserving kids, the offspring would now be replaced by garden veggies! An image to behold.

    In other news, it's rather Cool Continentia over here, with incontinent heavens and plenty of rain (needed, as you will know!) and snow announced for later. Why not indeed. Plenty to do in the house anyways, well, all with that, ehem, oft-mentioned housework!
  • CathscatsCathscats Shipmate
    Cool here too. We woke up to snow on the ground. Looks peculiar when coating the azaleas and tulips.
  • Walked to brunch in sunshine, came back in hail! And it’s quite cold now.
    I need to get my last couple of essays done so I’m off to do some work before relaxing with my crochet in from of the TV.
  • Squally hailstorms here.

    Is Outrage!
    :angry:

    Or Is Bank Holiday weekend....
    :cry:
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    It's definitely getting warmer here - the porcine socks have been discarded*, and the mercury's making a gentle ascent towards civilised numbers.

    We bought a humongous (20kg) bag of flour yesterday, but it's got a tear in the side, so we're going to have to get some kind of container to put it in (it usually just sits on the floor of the larder cupboard). Memo to self: take measurements - and take tape measure with us to the shop ...

    * and once they're off, I try not to put them on again until the end of October
  • O, it's still relatively mild here......my Episcopal Chariot told me this morning that the outside temperature was 9 or 10 degrees (C), whilst what appeared to be a form of sn*w was falling from the heavens......
    :confused:

    Now, the Sun is shining, but with hailstones still falling the while.....
    :cold_sweat:
  • FredegundFredegund Shipmate
    I thought we had hail earlier - turned out to be blossom from the giant bay tree outside the kitchen door. That stuff is loud! Just rain here, but at least I finished the lawns. Damned raised beds can wait - possibly for undeserving kids to do it.
    I feel a reread of Marcus Didius Falco and/or Flavia Albia coming on.
    Probably with white wine.
  • Cold but bright here ... My wife at a Welsh study day all day ... I visited our church young people who are away at an Adventure Centre, this involved climbing up a stack of rickety crates which were then kicked away from underneath me, leaving me dangling gracefully on the end of a rope ... I hate heights but this turned out to be fun, however the kids went up much higher stacks than I did. (Last year the weekend involved squirming through underground tunnels but they didn't do that this time).
  • I recall a friendly Visiting Priest recounting how he told his Yoof Group to do an Elf and Safe Tea assessment on some sort of similar activity, which they'd done previously for years immemorial.

    They duly came back to him, and said 'We've carried out the Elf and Safe Tea thingy, Father, and It's Dangerous!'.

    Whereupon, they all carried on as per usual, with no problems, or casualties.....
    :worried:
  • This Centre has good standards. What we did felt dangerous, but in fact wasn't, provided people did what they were told!
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    edited May 2019
    Ah yes, but that's quite a caveat (beware!), no?
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Circus Host, 8th Day Host
    Rain and hail in gai Paris as well.

    I have been thoroughly domesticated today: I finished making a tunic for myself, did the cleaning (the cleaner is on holiday so I had to do it myself) and then cooked for tonight and tomorrow. I have LENTIL SOUP on the stove for this evening and have made a fish tagine for tomorrow. I also made RICE PUDDING, which was an adventure - a certain person had opened the packet from the bottom and then put it in the top of the cupboard without closing it. I leave to your imagination what happened when I took it down... suffice to say I think we're going to be fishing rice out of every nook and cranny of the kitchen for some considerable time :grimace:
  • PriscillaPriscilla Shipmate
    We went to Wells, and were most disappointed to find a (fairly desserted) funfair on the market square instead of the usual market. The lady in the wonderful card shop on the Main Street said that most of the locals were not impressed, but it's a condition of the town charter that there has to be a fair on the market square in May.
    Still, a nice day out, sunny but windy and chilly. A previous sat nav gave us a route to Wells which we still use, taking us through the delightful village of Barrow Gurney and close to Nempnett Thrubnell and Ubley, two names Darllenwr loves!
  • Wonderful names!
  • With which Ukland abounds.

    Shame the same can't be said for our Polly Titians, but that's another (Hellish?) subject.....
  • Oh, I think that the Politicians are very good at abounding - what they get up to in that fancy building near the Abbey is quite another matter!
  • Hail and wind here, I was supposed to be part of the team manning the Guides stall at the May Fair, around caring for the offspring, but I came back, as planned, at lunchtime to feed and medicate, and she wasn't well enough to leave, so I stayed dry. I would have preferred to see the maypole dancing and Morris men, instead of staying at home.

    Interesting, that May Fair: I helped set it up, some 15 years ago. There was a historically a may fair granted in the 1253 town charter that also allowed the weekly market, but it's actually a Whitsun market and the town in 1253 was what is now the smaller village to the north. When we had the bright idea we were annoyed that we'd just missed the 750th anniversary.

    This year, and apparently last year, it was a pale shadow of its former self, as they've lost a chunk of the local nature reserve (LNR) site at that end*. So I asked why they hadn't moved it to the other end, which we used for other events in the past when I was running them. And didn't really get an answer.

    * one of the previous members of the Friends organisation owned the house on that end of the LNR, and I knew he owned an acre of the land, which he promised to make over when he died. Unfortunately he died unexpectedly from complications following an operation and the land was never made over. The wife sold the house with what had now become 5 acres of woodland as a purchase of an additional 4 acres had been made in the meantime. Two successive owners have neither sold his land on, although that has been requested, nor done anything with it, but the latest owners have fenced off their full 5 acres and are creating something big near the road. And that full five acres includes the original area where the May Fair was held.
  • edited May 2019
    Priscilla wrote: »
    Still, a nice day out, sunny but windy and chilly. A previous sat nav gave us a route to Wells which we still use, taking us through the delightful village of Barrow Gurney and close to Nempnett Thrubnell and Ubley, two names Darllenwr loves!

    The parents of a lovely friend of mine had a farm at Nempnett Thrubwell - it means 'the place of many wells', I believe!

    Tomorrow there will be mummers and maypole dancing in our village, round an immense maypole (last year there was a great deal of fuss about whether it needed planning permission or not!) However since this starts at 11 am we shan't see it, being on duty in church, so I may have to look out that Ngaio Marsh book about the hobby horse and sword dancing instead...

    Mrs. S, feeling nostalgic

  • We were promised quite heavy and prolonged showers over the last few days, but all has been blue skies and sunshine for the most part, and what showers there have been have been insignificant for garden-watering purposes.
    The temperatures have lowered noticeably, and there was mention of frost overnight tonight. My tomato plants are snugly wrapped in fleece, and the growhouse is firmly zipped up.
    I am desperate to get the climbing beans into the ground, as they are getting too big to fit between the shelves of the growhouse, but I'm not risking it yet - even though I don't believe in the frost forecast any more than the heavy showers.
  • PuzzlerPuzzler Shipmate
    Yesterday the cold weather and hail inspired me to cook. I made a sausage meat plait which we ate, and four sausage rolls with the leftover bits, a meat loaf, and a basic mince and onions combo for a future cottage pie, now in the freezer.
    Must parboil some potatoes ready for today's Roast beef. Maybe I will see if I can rise to Yorkshire puddings too. Definitely the cold weather urging me on.
  • HeavenlyannieHeavenlyannie Shipmate
    edited May 2019
    Mmm, meat loaf and sausage plait.

    The playing of Mornington Crescent is making me feel nostalgic for the places I lived and worked in London. I lived at Old Street (nurses’ home for Moorfields Eye Hospital) and in Bethnal Green for most of my twenties, with brief stays at London Bridge, Forest Hill and Clapham. I haven’t walked around London for ages so I’ve told my family we’re walking from the City to Westminster for my birthday. I love walking through the City on a Saturday.
    Games day at church this afternoon, where the geeky people get to play strategy games for 4-5 hours.
    Off for a walk before church.
  • I worked out I lived or worked in SW1, SW3, SW5, SW7, SW9, SW11, SW12, SW15, SW18, SW19 at one time or another. But since then I've worked across much of the East End and east of London, so Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Bow, Limehouse, Dagenham, Barking, Romford, Custom House, Canary Wharf and travelled around to support from Wembley / Hangar Lane to Hampton and Islington and places in between. I'm mostly using tube stations I know well.
  • FredegundFredegund Shipmate
    May I commiserate, CK? Family by marriage in that area. I hates it, precious.
  • I worked out I lived or worked in SW1, SW3, SW5, SW7, SW9, SW11, SW12, SW15, SW18, SW19 at one time or another. But since then I've worked across much of the East End and east of London, so Bethnal Green, Whitechapel, Bow, Limehouse, Dagenham, Barking, Romford, Custom House, Canary Wharf and travelled around to support from Wembley / Hangar Lane to Hampton and Islington and places in between. I'm mostly using tube stations I know well.
    When I was at Moorfields I sometimes used to work in an outreach clinic at Bromley by Bow. Most of my friends lived in Stepney, Mile End or Bow so I was forever walking around the East End. But I also worked at UCH (Euston), The Western Eye Hospital (Baker Street but now closed and swallowed by St Mary’s Paddington) and commuted to Queen Mary’s Sidcup from London.
    I heard the Baltic Exchange, Bishopsgate, and Canary Wharf bombs go off as I was living close by. The Baltic Exchange one was a terrible sound and shook the sash windows of the nurses’ home.

  • I wasn't in London for those bombs, but was around for the earlier late 1970s-80s bombs. I came up for a meeting shortly after those bombs and travelled on the newly built DLR, which had to be manually controlled through the bomb damaged area in Canary Wharf as there was a problem with damage on the tracks.
  • I was working in Westminster, not far from Parliament, and recall hearing the explosion of the bomb that killed Airey Neave:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airey_Neave
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    It’s the disconnect between the sight and the sound I always remember. Looking out over central Belfast from Queen’s library and seeing the mushroom of grit and glass fractionally before the boom.

    Mind you, you got pretty adept at categorising explosions by loudness=proximity on a scale from Ignore to Let’s Get The Hell Out Of Here.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Firenze wrote: »
    It’s the disconnect between the sight and the sound I always remember ...
    And the disconnect between distance and sound.

    The first bomb I heard going off after moving to Belfast in 1988 was the Midland Hotel, on the north side of the city. At the time, I was working, alone, in an office located in a house in the grounds of the University of Ulster at Jordanstown, about 7 miles away, and it actually made the outside door of the building rattle. At first I thought it was a particularly loud clap of thunder (it was a thundery, heavy sort of day, although I hadn't seen any flashes), but shortly afterwards one of the other staff came in and I asked him what the noise had been. "Oh", he said, "you haven't been living here very long, have you, Piglet? That was a bomb".

    The odd thing was, D. was working in the office of the Cathedral at the time, about half a mile away from the bomb, and only heard a very vague rumble: the direction of the wind had "blown" the sound down the lough so it seemed far louder to me.
    In happier news, it's a glorious day here (currently 16°) - I think the warmth must be blowing westward from your side of the Pond to mine! :smiley:

This discussion has been closed.