The totally off-topic thread

[Pushka]

The Torch is on fire again in Dubai. We saw it 18 months ago just after the first one.

 

[Flying mermaid]

When the boss arrived in Canberra from Vancouver in late 1990, she said her first winter here was the coldest she had been in her life.

Growing up in the old inner south in a monocrete house without any insulation must have toughened me up. Boy that place was so cold in winter and so hot in summer. Although I am again thinking about moving somewhere warmer in winter, but isn't excessively hot in summer.

we thought about moving when we retired, but the problem is all our friends are here and we wouldn't want to move away from them. The plan was to come to Canberra for a few years and then move to Brisbane. We even owned a block of land there. Somehow we stayed and by the 90s admitted we were here permanently and sold the land...

 

[RAM]

Society goes through trends, in the 80s to see to men hugging might suggest that they were gay and with the AIDS around then no one would hug, but now there is some evidence to suggest that being touched in the way of a hug is good for you.

One big change I've noticed is the epidemic of hugging and kissing that goes on with secondary school girls these days.

I can understand some 'eagerness' after say the Xmas holidays but since the previous day at school?

Has social media/reality tv re-educated the western world over the last 20-25 years perhaps?

They are constantly bombarded with this image in the soaps/reality tv so it is now the new-normal.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Oh dear. Weather is going to be ....... Bring brolley, coat and scarf. .................

I just looked at the weather for when we are at Kangaroo Island next month !!! The BOM historical weather info for the same time last year gives a temp range of 5C to 15C !!!!! I will have to pack our thermals !!

 

[Denali]

I just looked at the weather for when we are at Kangaroo Island next month !!! The BOM historical weather info for the same time last year gives a temp range of 5C to 15C !!!!! I will have to pack our thermals !!

I thought you were going for Chrissy? Ocean Lodge isnt it?

Looking forward to your tips, we're going there Dec 23 by memory.

 

[Cossie]

we thought about moving when we retired, but the problem is all our friends are here and we wouldn't want to move away from them. The plan was to come to Canberra for a few years and then move to Brisbane. We even owned a block of land there. Somehow we stayed and by the 90s admitted we were here permanently and sold the land...

Also we really like our block, it may be cold but when you look out the kitchen window and can only just see one other house, we think why move. Plus I don't know how I would get all my accumulated stuff up north, 5 cars, 1 bodyshell, numerous parts, couple of thousand number plates, plus items collected on my travels........

The boss says get rid of some of the possessions, move countries like she did, she gave a lot of things away to come here. I'm guessing that you had to do the same.

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

I thought you were going for Chrissy? Ocean Lodge isnt it?

Looking forward to your tips, we're going there Dec 23 by memory.

Yes, the Southern Ocean Lodge for 4 nights in the middle of next month. Xmas we are in the USA - taking the grandkids to Disneyworld !

 

[Denali]

Yes, the Southern Ocean Lodge for 4 nights in the middle of next month. Xmas we are in the USA - taking the grandkids to Disneyworld !

It looks amazingly beautiful... and I will gaze upon it from my Hansen Bay cabin and wonder if my hubby really needs that kidney.

 

[Flying mermaid]

Also we really like our block, it may be cold but when you look out the kitchen window and can only just see one other house, we think why move. Plus I don't know how I would get all my accumulated stuff up north, 5 cars, 1 bodyshell, numerous parts, couple of thousand number plates, plus items collected on my travels........

The boss says get rid of some of the possessions, move countries like she did, she gave a lot of things away to come here. I'm guessing that you had to do the same.

this is the problem - we really like our house and the area as well. Lots of trees and a big reserve just behind us where we walk the dogs most days. The blocks start from 800 and go up, ours is nearly 1500, so it feels secluded even though we are only 10 minutes from Civic.

You sound like Mr FM - the stuff he has hoarded over the years! He is a gamer so so many games and little figures! I arrived in Australia with a backpack and once I was settled there was one box that followed me, so yes gave everything away before I came here.

i am supposed to be going through all the cupboards and getting rid of stuff, so when we get too old and have to downsize it will be easier, but it is so boring

 

[Denali]

.....i am supposed to be going through all the cupboards and getting rid of stuff, so when we get too old and have to downsize it will be easier, but it is so boring

I do this every few months and thankfully a younger family member often has boot sales or garage sales so my off loads always gets sold.

In another life, I was a trained massage therapist. My old, but perfectly good, massage table went to a man that raised grey hounds and apparently they need massages so now he had a proper table for them. Go figure, theres a market for everything.

Im going to try to off load a old fold out couch/bed next. Made so well, strong and lots of metal that I dont remember how we got it in the room to begin with!

 

[Flying mermaid]

I do this every few months and thankfully a younger family member often has boot sales or garage sales so my off loads always gets sold.

In another life, I was a trained massage therapist. My old, but perfectly good, massage table went to a man that raised grey hounds and apparently they need massages so now he had a proper table for them. Go figure, theres a market for everything.

Im going to try to off load a old fold out couch/bed next. Made so well, strong and lots of metal that I dont remember how we got it in the room to begin with!

you are clearly more efficient than me - I would rather sit in the sun and read a book, with the puppies on my lap. I must get back to it though, as I know I will regret it if I don't. I did the library and cut down the number of books to under 2,000. My current work in progress is my "office". Do I really need to keep my super paper trail going back to 1985? Not to mention dozens of boxes of staples and yellow post it pads. What do you do with 500 promotional mouse pads!

 

[Hvr]

All this talk of cleaning up brings to mind the hard rubbish collection we're having soon. The place looks like a mobile rubbish dump for a week or two but used properly it is a great way to get rid of heaps of cough.

 

[love_the_life]

you are clearly more efficient than me - I would rather sit in the sun and read a book, with the puppies on my lap. I must get back to it though, as I know I will regret it if I don't. I did the library and cut down the number of books to under 2,000. My current work in progress is my "office". Do I really need to keep my super paper trail going back to 1985? Not to mention dozens of boxes of staples and yellow post it pads. What do you do with 500 promotional mouse pads!

We were pretty ruthless when we moved last time. Old photos were digitised and any that were just scenes that I could't recognise were shredded and thrown out. Hard copy books all went, except for maybe 20. Tax files are ditched after the requisite number of years. I drastically cut down the number of sheets, pillow cases etc. Like, how many do you need?
MrLtL did most of it fortunately as it was a big job. We made the conscious decision to downsize to 2 BR apartment (our second downsize) and it has suited us very well. We don't even have a guest bedroom (it's a tv room) as we are surrounded by 5 hotels so we put up guests there. Any anyway we don't have staying guests very often.

 

[Quickstatus]

Or use Grinder

I thought that is an app so should be ok?

 

[Katie]

Out of curiosity, did those German lessons ever come in handy?

For me, absolutely. I went on to study German, and then Business German at university. I did two months' work experience in Germany as part of the business german program.
Part of my job is now managing translations and localisations of documentation and software - if I didn't have a deep understanding of a language or two, it would be much harder to do what I do and understand the potential problems of translations.

It was handy in Budapest a few months ago when I needed to buy a bunch of band aids and antiseptic ointment; the nearest pharmac_ was Drogerie Markt (German brand), and most products were available in German as well as Hungarian.

It's helped for travel and getting around in Germany (I haven't yet been to Austria or Switzerland), and some other European countries.

It's also helped to understand different outlooks on life - there has been research to show that speaking other languages does help one understand different outlooks/mindsets that comes from understanding a different grammar and that other cultures have different words for the same thing.

And it helped at a German sausage stall last week near work, when someone couldn't pronounce leberkäse, which was written on a specials board outside the shop, and couldn't be seen from the register. I was able to tell the guy behind the counter what this other customer was attempting to order.

 

[Denali]

All this talk of cleaning up brings to mind the hard rubbish collection we're having soon. The place looks like a mobile rubbish dump for a week or two but used properly it is a great way to get rid of heaps of cough.

In my neighbourhood, anything you put on the foot path for council pickup usually gets taken by someone else.

 

[Hvr]

In my neighbourhood, anything you put on the foot path for council pickup usually gets taken by someone else.

Same here but the council has 'reminded' people that once on the lawn it is theirs (i.e. the council's) and taking it is considered theft.

 

[Denali]

Same here but the council has 'reminded' people that once on the lawn it is theirs (i.e. the council's) and taking it is considered theft.

Gosh. I dont care as long as someone takes my broken rubbish away!

We did an office clean out, replaced about 30 office chairs. The chairs were still OK but just replaced as they were out of date. I put them on my footpath for council pickup and all but one was gone by morning plus the other bits like printers, display thingsy for brochures ect.

I would hear cars stop, doors open close, more doors open and close and cars take off. I said to hubby, This must be what living next to a drug house must be like. Cars and people coming and going constantly and quickly.

 

[Flying mermaid]

We were pretty ruthless when we moved last time. Old photos were digitised and any that were just scenes that I could't recognise were shredded and thrown out. Hard copy books all went, except for maybe 20. Tax files are ditched after the requisite number of years. I drastically cut down the number of sheets, pillow cases etc. Like, how many do you need?
MrLtL did most of it fortunately as it was a big job. We made the conscious decision to downsize to 2 BR apartment (our second downsize) and it has suited us very well. We don't even have a guest bedroom (it's a tv room) as we are surrounded by 5 hotels so we put up guests there. Any anyway we don't have staying guests very often.

we were when we built this house - Mr FM and I had to both agree to keep something, so we got rid of a lot, but we seem to have rehoarded in the last 16 years. I can't get rid of my books and Mr FM won't get rid of games. I did go through photos after books and threw out a heap, all I have left is have a pile left to digitise.

I have always been very very good about getting rid of tax records for the company, but seem to have hung onto everything for our SMSF since we started it.

Kids stuff is another problem, before they left I made them go through cupboards and get rid of or pack into boxes anything they wanted to keep. The plan was once they have big enough houses/are settled, to dump the boxes onto them, but somehow that is taking a long time. Then there are all the toys which will go to the grandkids, except they don't seem to be happening.

we do have people stay with us a lot, but I suspect if we didn't have all the spare rooms that wouldn't happen and I doubt if I would miss it . With the kids gone we have a guest wing upstairs with bedrooms, bathroom and a lounge area. Makes it very comfy for guests.....

ok ok I need to get ruthless and start really throwing stuff out. In the spring - too cold today 8 degrees + windchill is not motivating

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

....................
i am supposed to be going through all the cupboards and getting rid of stuff, so when we get too old and have to downsize it will be easier, but it is so boring

That's my idea to - except we are both going out of this house in a box :shock: but I would like to make it easier on my DIL as I know she will be the one to throw stuff out. But what to do with a "good" dinner set and heaps of "dust catchers" !!!!!!!!!!