About half an hour ag

TIL, that is so interesting! I should start selling my blackcurrant jam in the States, it’s delicious.

A couple of times I’ve travelled Air NZ route that goes London-Auckland via LAX. The plane has to stop to refuel I guess. All the passengers are forced to queue up to be fingerprinted and have their eyeballs scanned, while a security guard walks up and down screaming “STAY IN THE LINE!” Then they’re herded into a lounge barely big enough to hold everyone (first class passengers have their own little pen next to the toilets). Apologetic air crew distribute apples, crisps and bottles of water. For hours. Through a glass wall is a view of the rest of the airport: shops, cafes, bars, space to stroll. But hey, at least you get to not miss your flight, and the US is safe from Kiwi tourists.

I don’t know if they still do this, I avoid the route.

Ha ha, my random text was really vague about what council had issued the bogus parking ticket. By contrast when I strayed into a bus lane one time I got a letter from my council, complete with a very clear photo of me driving my car in said bus lane. And yes, I got a discount for paying right away.

Uxorious: devoted to one’s wife.

At least they still exist somewhere, albeit hidden. In the early days of television, the BBC routinely taped over episodes, even of really popular shows, because the tapes were expensive.

Example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_missing_episodes

Every now and then a box of old VHS recordings turns up in someone’s shed or attic, and can be added back in to the archive. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-67218634

One thing that helped my posture was raising my monitor - a hardback copy of Infinite Jest did the trick. But follow all the good advice here too - core strength, stretching, massage. It is really, really worth the effort.

https://japaneseemoticons.me/all-japanese-emoticons/

Yeah, I guess … two out of ten for effort though? I mean, everything was spelled correctly!

Ooooh, I’m rare! Colour me capercaillie.

I regularly shop at a supermarket built on a site where people were burned as witches in the 17th century.

A ship’s captain was away at sea and died after his ship was wrecked in a storm. Back home, his housemaid was accused of having created the storm and was burned at the stake. And there I am buying lemons and ice cream and toothpaste. It blows my mind.

I’m from New Zealand originally. Small town in a small country. The time zone joke back then was, “If it’s 5pm in Sydney, it’s 1956 in Auckland.”

You dialled by putting a finger in each number hole one at a time, dragging each one to the stop. When I was a kid our town’s phone numbers had just four digits, didn’t take long to dial.

You could opt out of being in the phone book. I had to do this because a crazy woman who had had a teacher by the same name as me, in the same suburb as me, kept ringing me. First call she said, “Guess who this is?” Dunno. By the tenth call that first day she was yelling down the phone that I was a liar, asking me “Why are you being like this?!?” Because I was never your teacher! No caller id back then, so I had to keep right on answering. One time I picked up and shouted “FUCK OFF!” and yeah it was a work colleague, that was awkward.

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.

That punch! The whole episode nearly gave me a heart attack.

I’ve just caught up with Slow Horses. The main character is played by Gary Oldman in top form. He’s a spy, so decrepit and filthy you can almost smell him. He runs an outpost of British intelligence from a filthy, decrepit office staffed by a bunch of fuck-ups. It’s the best thing I’ve seen in ages. Lots of character development, back stories, car chases, bloodshed, even a tiny splash of romance. It’s on its 4th series, so I’m very late to the game. Probably because I don’t have Apple+.

https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_Horses

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, my body goes to the local ned school. They’ll return to he ashes if you want, but I don’t care. I cleared it with my sister before signing the forms because she does care about cremains etc. Apparently the university has a memorial garden where they spread the ashes.