The totally off-topic thread

[Simo]

Hope everyone is staying warm...

 

[rainbowgirl]

Hope everyone is staying warm...

I'm trying to stay warm. My partner is contemplating a family trip to the snow. I don't want to get that cold again.

 

[Simo]

I'm trying to stay warm. My partner is contemplating a family trip to the snow. I don't want to get that cold again.

We are doing a family holiday on Sunday to the Snow in NZ... I booked it in a moment of weakness when the DSC was on offer... Easy 110SC trip

 

[OATEK]

Battle of the Somme commenced 100 years ago today...

Battle of the Somme: Centenary remembrance events held - BBC News



Great photos in this link..

100 years later, scarred landscape from Battle of the Somme | Daily Mail Online

Did you hear that management decided that it would be too draining for the English football team to visit Thiepval during the Euro 2016 competition.

There have been great short documentaries on various channels (eg BBC World) in the last week or two about the slaughter of Somme I.

 

[JohnK]

I'm trying to stay warm. My partner is contemplating a family trip to the snow. I don't want to get that cold again.

Perish the thought.

 

[medhead]

Hope everyone is staying warm...

Will be in 5 hours when I'm in cairns. Shame I forgot my sunnies. Damn earlier starts.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Growing up in the 50s and 60s =



Curry was a surname.

A takeaway was a mathematical problem.
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A pizza was something to do with a leaning tower.
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All potato crisps were plain; the only choice we had was whether
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to put the salt on or not.
Rice was only eaten as a milk pudding.
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Calamari was called squid and we used it as fish bait.
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A Big Mac was what we wore when it was raining.
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Brown bread was something only poor people ate.
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Oil was for lubricating, fat was for cooking.
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Tea was made in a teapot using tea leaves and never green.
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Sugar enjoyed a good press in those days, and was regarded as
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being white gold. Cubed sugar was regarded as posh.
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Fish didn't have fingers in those days.
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Eating raw fish was called poverty, not sushi.
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None of us had ever heard of yoghurt.
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Healthy food consisted of anything edible.
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People who didn't peel potatoes were regarded as lazy.
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Indian restaurants were only found in India.
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Cooking outside was called camping.
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Seaweed was not a recognised food.
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"Kebab" was not even a word, never mind a food.
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Prunes were medicinal.
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Surprisingly, muesli was readily available, it was called cattle
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feed.
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Water came out of the tap.
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If someone had suggested bottling it and charging more than petrol
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for it, they would have become a laughing stock!!
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But the things that we Never Ever had on our dining table in the
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Sixties -
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Elbows or Phones
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[cove]

So many changes mrs.dr.ron and today (or earlier) you get to vote for a favourite or a best of the worst.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

So many changes mrs.dr.ron and today (or earlier) you get to vote for a favourite or a best of the worst.

Ron and I voted last week ! Our senate ballot paper was over a metre long !

 

[cove]

Democracy by the metre....our turn today. Both my sons voted early so we are the tail end seeing 4.5 million had already voted before today.
I do hope we have a Senate result inside 3 months of today.

 

[straitman]

Picked up the new car on Wednesday and managed to pay 'in full' via credit card. A bit messy as it had to be in $5000 increments.

 

[cove]

Wow straitman you have set the bar high for other new car buyers on AFF!

 

[RAM]

Battle of the Somme commenced 100 years ago today...

Battle of the Somme: Royals at Somme centenary commemoration - BBC News


Great photos in this link..

100 years later, scarred landscape from Battle of the Somme | Daily Mail Online

As a youngster in the 70s while visiting relatives we went on a 5 countries in 7 days coach tour.

One day was spent touring the WW1 battle fields and museums. Incredibly poignant even for a youngster (easier in some ways as many WW1/WW2 war movies on TV through the late 60s and early 70s vs today).

However as a youngster, attention span may not have been as long as desired - so after 90 minutes or so at one Somme museum that was mainly extolling the virtues of the French armies achievements despite the Allies mistakes - I left the tour group and guide and went outside for some sun and a look around.

The large museum was a magnificent building to look at, lots of gleaming white/cream marble(?) and was nearly one storey above the ground level. You reached it by walking up a very wide stairway.

As I was walking around the outside of the building I noticed these large barred access points around the perimeter of the building (at ground level). Much like movie jail doors. So i went to have a look at was more surprised by what I saw than appalled.

As far as I could see (the sun light coming in through other access points lit it up very well) through the underneath of this large building - were thousands upon thousands of skulls, skeletons and every sort of bone imaginable piled up nearly to the floor of the museum above. There looked to be some fragments of something every so often but I didn't know what it was.

I ran around the entire building looking in every one of these access points and the view was the same.

Eager to share my discovery I went back in and told my mother who did not believe me but an elderly man (part of the coach tour) became the peacemaker and said he wanted to go outside, so he'd come with me.

He did, his face went ashen and he was silent for a few minutes before he went inside and asked the tour guide (and museum guide) to please come outside and explain something. Other than us the other 30+ were all UK tourists.

His family were asking him what was going on but he told them to just be silent and come outside.

Everyone looked under the building, some burst into tears others were silent. Some looked very angry.

The man asked the museum tour guide (who at the start of the tour explained the painstaking effort taken to bury every French body in the adjacent cemetery) what were all the bones doing there?

"After the war there were not enough resources to deal with any other soldiers but the French. Those are the remains of the other war dead."

Even I then understood.

Lest we forget.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I really hope that the bones are not still there today.

 

[RAM]

Picked up the new car on Wednesday and managed to pay 'in full' via credit card. A bit messy as it had to be in $5000 increments.

and it was a 3 points per $ spend I hope?

 

[straitman]

Wow straitman you have set the bar high for other new car buyers on AFF!

I took your advice and looked very hard before buying 'new' but ultimately did so as we managed a fleet arrangement and the new model has substantial safety improvements over the previous models and IMHO that's saying something for Subaru. Possibly/probably the last new/almost new car we will ever buy so that was also a consideration.

and it was a 3 points per $ spend I hope?

I wish!

 

[cove]

Which card got the job straitman?
Now never think it will be the last car. What actually happens is you can update more often as your driving becomes a little erratic. The test for this is fitting the car between those white parking lines.

 

[Bundy Bear]

View attachment 74196

Picked up the new car on Wednesday and managed to pay 'in full' via credit card. A bit messy as it had to be in $5000 increments.

Should be a nice car to drive to and from Melbourne airport when family go off flying.

Possibly/probably the last new/almost new car we will ever buy so that was also a consideration.

Another person that doesn't want you to think like that,

I am sure you are good for another 2 new cars and 200,000 kms.

I wish!

Well 1.5 points per dollar.

 

[Austman]

Can't we soon vote ON-LINE instead of IN-LINE?

I know there are ways to do early voting but hey it's 2016 and so much can be done on-line!

Is it anonymity and security that stops this? Other countries seems to be able to do it. Even some state elections can do it.

Waiting 40 mins today, plus the time getting to and from the polling booth was OK I guess but we have to do this for all or most elections (federal, state and local) in Australia.

Some had to wait hours!

 

[Pushka]

Can't we soon vote ON-LINE instead of IN-LINE?

I know there are ways to do early voting but hey it's 2016 and so much can be done on-line!

Is it anonymity and security that stops this? Other countries seems to be able to do it. Even some state elections can do it.

Waiting 40mins today was OK, I guess but we have to do this for all or most elections (federal, state and local) in Australia. Some had to wait hours!

The delay today was due to getting someone mark off our names. Surely a bank of computers with touch screens so we can find our name, confirm we haven't voted before then click. Someone to hand out the slips. At least as secure as the current method.

 

[Hvr]

The delay today was due to getting someone mark off our names. Surely a bank of computers with touch screens so we can find our name, confirm we haven't voted before then click. Someone to hand out the slips. At least as secure as the current method.

They actually had computers to find our name and then mark off our attendance at my prepolling location. Much quicker than the all paper check off method.