Ooooh, I’m rare! Colour me capercaillie.
Go on go on go on go on go on
Ooooh, I’m rare! Colour me capercaillie.
the old boat has oars
Which no-one is using. It’s the first thing I noticed. There’s a man sitting in the stern with a tiller and rudder, but there’s no visible means of propulsion, no other crew. Weird.
Edit: I zoomed in, and it’s possible there is someone else in the boat, hard to see.
My refund was for a pack of tomatoes, boring! So I’ll tell you a funny refund story I heard today. Friends, mostly a bit squiffy (driver aside) were trying to book a hotel at their destination on booking.com. There were rooms available in hotel A. “Check the reviews” said Ms Sober. “Nah, just book it!” said Ms Squiffy.
Booking made, they tried to contact the hotel. No answer. Reviews were AWFUL. “Rats behind the bar” type awful. Fast forward to arrival aaaand the hotel was closed. They moved on to hotel B, where they learned that hotel A was shut because the owner was in jail for repeated violation of food hygiene standards.
So they called booking.com for a refund. “We can’t refund you until we’ve heard from the proprietor.” “The proprietor is in PRISON.” “Well we’d still like to give a chance to get in touch.”
It took them weeks to get their money back. Moral of the story is always try to book directly with the hotel.
I just had a look and apparently it’s back in business.
Review from this month: “Refused to stay, checked in 3 rooms & all checked out within 10mins of arrival, the disgusting place is a health hazard, taps not working, mould all over walls, the place needs closing down.”
Owner: “Sorry this not true just looking for refunds.”
I cut it in half and kind of gnaw the innards out. I don’t eat the skin, too fuzzy. I think some of modern kiwifruit have smoother skins, but I’ve been eating them since they were called Chinese gooseberries and to me they’re forever fuzzy.
Same here! I feel like we should get paid for giving Google this fantastic idea.
Rin Tin Tin, Lassie, the Lone Ranger.
I’m not THAT old, but New Zealand didn’t have television until late in the day, so we got cheap, years-old US kids’ shows. I was ten before our region got TV and it was a few years after that when we got our own set. The first TV I ever watched was coverage of what must have been one of the early Saturn rocket launches. We went to my older sister’s boyfriend’s house to watch it. Very exciting!
I liked Lone Ranger best. “Hi ho Silver, and awaaaay!”
Phone in left front pocket, keys in right front pocket. Nothing else, that’s all I need if I’m just stepping out. I have several hobbies though, and I have a separate backpack/bag for each one, loaded and ready to go.
I had a dog who’d lived rough and he stole stuff too. The pack of toilet paper was his biggest disappointment - “Hey this is all wrapping! There’s nothing inside!”
I was minding a friend’s cat one time. She wanted out into the back garden, but changed her mind when she saw the rain. She walked through to the front door and meowed there. I had to open the door and show her that yes it’s raining on this side of the house too.
Following up on that, I’d been trying to remember the song in Blazing Saddles, when they literally break the fourth wall and there’s an anachronistic musical number being filmed - it’s called “The French Mistake”. https://youtu.be/FezOkjeNs5Y
1967, dir Mel Brooks - I mean, who else? What a guy. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Producers_(1967_film)
Springtime for Hitler, The Producers https://youtu.be/1zY1orxW8Aw
I was born in the year Princess Elizabeth became Queen. Also, Evita died that year.
I tell you what freaked me out - I was tidying up my contacts and my late sister’s photo had changed to that of a nice-looking youngish man. She died of brain cancer in Jan 2020. I’d left her contact there out of sentiment, but of course her number has been recycled. Ooof.
It wasn’t always this way. When I first started working in the early 70s, women weren’t allowed to wear trousers at work. Or have bare legs, even in summer. Women called bullshit, and the rule was relaxed in most places to allow us to wear trouser suits. But as late as the mid-80s I was chastised for wearing trousers at work. I had to point out that the then prime minister, a woman, wore trousers at work!
If you want the dress code to change, then lobby for it to change. I honestly feel sorry for men locked into their own notions of what they’re “allowed” to wear. I remember a friend whining enviously about how breezy my summer skirt looked. I suggested he wear a skirt himself. “I can’t! People would think I’m gay.” Sigh.
Also - men used to make an effort! https://media.newyorker.com/photos/5ec9401b929e439dacc2a56a/master/w_1280%2Cc_limit/Piepenbring-Codpiece02.jpg https://www.thecultureconcept.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/404448.jpg
I’m on my second Oppo. Decent specs (I like the 512Gb, double SIM slot, superfast charging) and cheaper than anything comparable.
Couple of HR people had sex on a desk, not realising they could be seen from the upmarket hotel across the street. Oops!
There were quite a few other incidents - it was quite a lively workplace - but this was the funniest.
Back in the 80s TV where I lived used to show Bollywood films at about 1am, which was when I got home from work. So I started watching this film, which was apparently a romance. Sparky career woman rejects advances of handsome fellow. Everyone starts singing and dancing. Ok, a musical then. Thugs burst in and shoot the place up. Woman’s father is killed, she swears vengeance. Uh ok… Local politician tries to shut down newspaper our heroine has just inherited, handsome fellow intervenes. More singing and dancing, ending in fireworks! which is apparently Bollywood for hot sex. Plot twist, handsome fellow is actually a baddie! I had to stop watching at 4am, no idea how it ended up.
Culture in general was much more monolithic
That’s interesting - I didn’t experience the advent of the internet like that, probably because I’m from a fairly multicultural background and travelled at lot at that time. I lived near DC for a few months in 1976 and went on a three-week road trip around California in 1990 and did notice how isolated from the rest of the world Americans in general seemed, especially outside the big cities. I was a real novelty, exotic even, and I’m a white cis het woman. Just with a funny accent, from a country they’d never heard of.
About half an hour ag