4,020 posts
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Post by Dawnstar on Aug 7, 2020 21:35:13 GMT
Oh I am sad for the slow worms now, not belittling your fear dawnstar, if you're scared your scared and i've certainly jumped on lifting up the compost top and finding a slow worm but I think they're beautiful and see them so rarely. Was once crouched down next to our pond watching the fish when I realised there was an adder sat basking in one of the baskets inches from me, I think the word there was freeze then slowly edge away. I think I would have died if I was that near an adder. I can still remember as a child crouching by a pond & suddenly realising there was a small frog next to me & I was quite scared enough by that. And the time a frog jumped out of a pot of alpine strawberries & hit me on one finger before hopping off. Plus the time I encountered a lizard while on a uni geography field trip in Spain. On that occasion I'm not sure which of us dashed off quickest! I suppose it shows how scared I am of reptiles & amphibians that I clearly remember each incident in my life when I've accidentally been near one.
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879 posts
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Post by daisy24601 on Aug 7, 2020 21:42:59 GMT
My parents switch the WiFi off at night. Does anyone else do this? I find it peculiar.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2020 0:29:32 GMT
My parents switch the WiFi off at night. Does anyone else do this? I find it peculiar. My parents did when I was younger. Now when I visit I'm often still working when they go to bed so they don't bother any more!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2020 3:29:07 GMT
My parents switch the WiFi off at night. Does anyone else do this? I find it peculiar. But ... what if you wake up at 03:00 and need to know how many calories are in an elephant or what bank notes looked like in 19th century Argentina? I remember my grandparents used to unplug all electrical equipment at night, apart from things like the freezer.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2020 7:23:10 GMT
Alarms going off at Sainsbury's this morning: "This is a test of the fire alarm system" over and over again, with occasional sirens or "Emergency; evacuate the building immediately". Then it changed to "Emergency; evacuate the building immediately" continually. Everyone ignored it at first, but after five minutes I was starting to think "Is this actually...?"
It wasn't, but I was concerned for a while.
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4,020 posts
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Post by Dawnstar on Aug 8, 2020 8:54:25 GMT
My parents switch the WiFi off at night. Does anyone else do this? I find it peculiar. Yes. My mother insists the Wifi is switched off every night. In vain I've spent the last 3 years telling her that it's designed to be left on. The TV is likewise switched off at night. She also tries to make me switch my phone off at night but I refuse to.
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4,955 posts
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Post by Someone in a tree on Aug 8, 2020 15:46:40 GMT
Last night's hot and sweaty sunset which I took from a pub in blackheath... The beer, was essential due to its cooling powers
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2,047 posts
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Post by Marwood on Aug 8, 2020 19:47:19 GMT
I went to the cinema today for the first time in almost six months (by my reckoning anyway), to see Proxima at Curzon Bloomsbury: I originally booked to see this at BFI Southbank at some point in April (I think) followed by a Q&A with Eva Green but that obviously got cancelled. The film itself was OK without being anything outstanding but to be honest I felt a bit mystified that anyone felt this was a story that just had to be told : I don’t know how much of a star Eva Green is in France but I don’t know if a similarly themed film would have found funding in this country (I’m not sure why Matt Dillon is in this either, other than to show that he is still available to work).
There was a grand total of three people in the screening I attended, and I was told I had to keep a mask on while watching but I took mine off about ten minutes into the film but no one was sat anywhere near me so I felt the whole mask thing was pointless. I’d like to have said I had been to see a masterpiece on my return to the cinema (the Prince Charles are screening 2001:A Space Odyssey when they reopen in October) but it just felt good to sit in a cinema again after so long. I think all of the mainstream studios are going to sit on their ‘big’ films for the foreseeable future but I hope to see Tenet when it’s released.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2020 20:03:16 GMT
I think all of the mainstream studios are going to sit on their ‘big’ films for the foreseeable future but I hope to see Tenet when it’s released. I hope some of the films that were released to video instead of to the cinemas will have at least a short release on the big screen. There were a few films I'd been looking forward to and it's just not the same experience watching something on TV.
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Post by marob on Aug 8, 2020 21:38:37 GMT
Quiet day watching a few things I'd recorded and never got around to to seeing, including the last few episodes of Great West End Theatres. Such a shame they never got to complete the series.
I was wondering if anyone could recommend any good books that cover West End/British theatre history?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 9, 2020 4:31:07 GMT
Not one for the arachnophobes...
I was puzzled by occasional faint clicking and scratching noises this morning: those vague sounds right at the edge of audibility that are difficult to place and always stop the moment you try to get closer to hear where they're coming from. It took me an hour to find out the source.
Spiders. Specifically, ceiling spiders. There was a large spider climbing the wall behind me and when it reached the top it was scrabbling against the paper trying to get a foothold or eight on the ceiling. It was too heavy, so it would fall down to the shelf below and start the process again.
In a way it's reassuring to know what the source of the scratching noise is because now I don't have to worry about it being something serious. On the other hand, I now know there is a large spider trying to get on to the ceiling and it's too heavy to stay there indefinitely. I'm going to be doing a lot of looking upwards this morning.
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4,778 posts
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Post by Mark on Aug 9, 2020 15:18:22 GMT
Today has been bittersweet. Amongst the many colleagues and friends of mine who have been made redundant, I’ve been very fortunate to keep my job. Extremely grateful and relieved.
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3,325 posts
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Post by Dr Tom on Aug 9, 2020 18:27:47 GMT
My parents switch the WiFi off at night. Does anyone else do this? I find it peculiar. My father insists on switching his Wi-fi (and PC) off completely any time he’s not using it!
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Post by Forrest on Aug 9, 2020 21:50:52 GMT
I am loving these wi-fi and parents stories! :) (And am happy to see the conversation has moved on from slugs in shoes and anywhere else, because slugs, caterpillars and the like scare me. Snakes too. And lizards. And reptiles in general. Unless they are toy alligators or emoji alligators. Those are cool.)
My parents don't turn off their wi-fi, I believe, although my dad probably would if it was up to him: he never really managed to understand the Internet, computers, smartphones and modern ways of communication in general. Luckily, my mum is the opposite, she is fascinated by it and she makes up for lack of knowledge with her keen enthusiasm to learn and use things that make life easier. Otherwise keeping in touch (especially now, while living in different countries) would really be a challenge.
My day was wonderful. I walked back to Greenwich to collect some photo-prints I ordered, and met up with a colleague from work for a long-overdue catch-up in person, with drinks in the park and random chat included. Can we have more sunny but breezy weekends in London, please?!
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879 posts
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Post by daisy24601 on Aug 14, 2020 12:17:10 GMT
My parents switch the WiFi off at night. Does anyone else do this? I find it peculiar. My father insists on switching his Wi-fi (and PC) off completely any time he’s not using it! 😂 They seem to think the wifi signals will kill us all. But there are radio and phone signals etc. all around us all day long so don't really see the point. Not sure if it actually has any benefits to be switched on and off or if it causes more problems.
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5,138 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Aug 14, 2020 14:20:50 GMT
You youngsters should switch everything off at night to save the planet. The reason us oldies do is because we were urged to in a public information film, featuring a Cowardesque couple singing and dancing in their dressing gowns. "Your life could depend on your bedtime routine."
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Post by Deleted on Aug 14, 2020 14:53:09 GMT
If you don't switch everything off at night then all the electrons leak out and stain the carpet.
I think this is one of those things where technology moves on but old habits persist long after the reason for them has disappeared, like the way people still run rechargeable batteries completely flat and charge them fully even though that's terrible advice these days. I imagine that back when appliances were considerably less reliable and safety standards were lower it made sense to switch off and unplug things, but these days everything is designed to be left on permanently and in some cases won't work as well if switched off most of the time.
But dammit, I wish they'd use dimmer LEDs. A couple of years ago I stayed somewhere where the shower's standby LED was a super-bright white one and even the indirect reflection off the wall was enough to disturb my sleep. I had to tape the black paper from the inside of a box of chocolates over it.
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2,047 posts
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Post by Marwood on Aug 14, 2020 19:32:38 GMT
I went to see Inception at Picturehouse Central this afternoon, first time I’ve seen it since it’s original release: thankfully I’d forgotten a fair bit about it since the last time (I didn’t remember Pete Postlethwaite being in it, although he’s not in it for that long) but what a good film, and the picture and sound were first rate. A ten minute or so making of Tenet was screened before it, I want to see that so much but might wait for the bank holiday Sunday to do so.
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Aug 15, 2020 17:18:20 GMT
Have been bitten/allergic reaction to something and have lots of little itchy as heck bits, driving me ever more crazy.
Taking acorns to feed the pig last night and trying to scare off the three sheep who are food obsessed and merrily flatten anything hence small children scared of them, I tried yelling lamb chops at them, look of utter contempt. Having assisted in trying to catch said sheep last week to get clipped can confirm sheep can travel straight vertically when they choose to.
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5,138 posts
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Post by TallPaul on Aug 16, 2020 15:45:59 GMT
Thank goodness for your posts, peggs. Now that The Archers isn't really The Archers, they're the only connection I currently have with the countryside! 🙂 I'm as miserable today as the weather. 😠 More by accident than design, by the time I'd motivated myself to go to the park, it was *only* raining, rather than persisting it down, so that's one positive, I suppose. I had 36 acres almost to myself...apart from a few ne'er-do-wells and drug dealers. Once Jazz Record Requests has finished, I'm going to have an early tea of soup and sandwiches, then I'm going to try and cheer myself up by watching old railway programmes on iPlayer.
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2,389 posts
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Post by peggs on Aug 16, 2020 22:31:42 GMT
Did get rather a start when I lay out the kids' wet swimsuits on what I thought was some wire mess and then a ferret peered out from behind it. But I wasn't wearing my flat cap so had not gone full countryside
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2,047 posts
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Post by Marwood on Aug 20, 2020 18:54:06 GMT
Booking for the BFI reopened today after what seems like a lifetime: I have booked to see Big, Breakfast at Tiffanys, La Haine and Taxi Driver next month and didn’t have to pay for any of them: which was nice 😝
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2020 15:23:29 GMT
Can I just say: What the hell, August? Torrential rain yesterday, 14° today. Did you trade shifts with February or something?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 29, 2020 18:04:56 GMT
Can I just say: What the hell, August? Torrential rain yesterday, 14° today. Did you trade shifts with February or something? I nearly put the heating on earlier!
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528 posts
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Post by ruby on Aug 29, 2020 19:11:24 GMT
Currently in a freezing cold marquee in the French mountains watching my dad's band playing. Would have been lovely if I hadn't brought the English weather with me!
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