Watcha Doin' - 2016.1 Showing 2,201-2,250 of 3,910

[Sarah]

Fingers crossed for you and Australia Rusalka.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Well, handing out how to vote cards was surprisingly fun. Had heaps of chats with really interesting people (including opposition vollies and pollies), I taught some new voters how to vote, I patted many a dog, and had a lot of people coming out whispering behind their hands that they had voted Green. Woot

Election results. It's 2am, no one can call it. It looks like it will be a minority government (something Australians think is ridiculous, but Europe deals with every day). Everyone is confused. I'm a bit happy at that, and the result. See what it's like in the morning. SNAFU all round really.

[Peggy]

Just dropping by to say goodbye, we leave for our holiday tomorrow and I'm going to try again to leave my internet off as much as possible. Not completely though, both my cousin and a friend are expecting a baby soon, so I'll check for news from them every day ;-)

[Sandra, Moderator]

Enjoy, Peggy!

[Janice, Moderator]

Have a great holiday, Peggy!

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Enjoy Peggy!

[Lisa]

Enjoy your holiday, Peggy!

[Tasha]

Have a great time, Peggy!

Good luck, Rusalka. Hope results turn out in your favor. :)

[Sarah]

Enjoy Peggy!

I'm having a bit of a nightmare! The accelerator cable went on the boat. I had to cycle/drive to get a replacement and fit it which I was rather proud of myself for. So that's fixed. However, now the propeller on the boat won't work so we can't move the boat! I can't work out what's wrong now. My partner is away and I have my parents (and 96 year old grandmother) staying with me. I need to get them off the boat tomorrow to go home but where we're moored at the moment is a million miles off the bank and I don't think we'll get her over the gang plank. Lost for ideas right now.

[Tasha]

oh no!! I hope things work out. What a nightmare for you. :(

[Sandra, Moderator]

Is there something like AAA for boats, Sarah?

[Sarah]

@Sandra- Yes there is but we don't have it. Kind of pointless because we don't have a mooring for them to tow us to and they still charge for it to be fixed and tends to be more expensive than normal boatyards. I'm hoping a friend will come over in the morning and see if he can work it out. Worse case scenario we have to pole the boat like a gondola back to the bridge where it's easy to get my nan off but that will take a lot of time and energy. Fingers crossed we don't have to do that. And top it all off I've been eaten alive by horseflies!

[Lisa]

That sounds like a complete nightmare, Sarah. I hope you get it all sorted soon.

[Mariab]

@Sarah ... and boaty friends? (I mean, other boat's owners...)

[Janice, Moderator]

Aww, I'm sorry you're having problems, Sarah. Hopefully your friend can help figure out the problem and get you to the mooring spot.

[Lisa]

Happy 4th July to all the Americans here! :)

[Sarah]

Phew! My boatie friend came through for me. He popped over to have a look and there wasn't anything majorly wrong. What I had done to fix the boat had worked it just needed some extra adjustments. So we were able to go on our way. My parents have now gone home. And I have a nice quiet boat all to myself. I could do with a few days off to be honest but I now have 3 mental days at work, with a LONG commute.

[Lynn]

Whoop! Glad to hear it all worked out.

[Sandra, Moderator]

Great news, Sarah! Take a rest now. :)

[Tasha]

So happy to hear it all worked out well in the end!

[Sandra, Moderator]

Two of my boys are playing "battles", and one of them says "you should be afraid of me because I got an A+ in my ninja class". :D

[Janice, Moderator]

Sandra wrote: "Two of my boys are playing "battles", and one of them says "you should be afraid of me because I got an A+ in my ninja class". :D"

LOL! That's cute.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

SO glad to hear Sarah. I hope you have a relaxing weekend once the craziness at work calms down too.

I have Pokemon Go released today, which is geocaching while hunting Pokemon. If you don't hear from me for a few days... yeah... got to catch them all.

[Travis]

Hillary is a pig. "All animals are created equal. Some animals are more equal than others". #georgeorwellhadacrystalball

[Sarah]

Thanks Rusalka.

Oh my God I itch like mad. Who knew horse fly bites get WORSE before they get better. I am covered with bites and some are in places I shouldn't be scratching in public. Argh! And I seem to have prickly heat for the first time too. It's not even that hot. So I'm on the full on antihistamines which did ensure a good night's sleep as they make me a bit drowsy.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

I must say, I have no idea what horse fly bites nor prickly heat is. And you make this sound like a good thing. Hope you stop itching sometime soon, and the antihistamines start kicking in!

[Sarah]

Horse flies are nasty buggers. Feed on blood of horses. But they seem partial to any mammal's blood. Bite hurts a little but nothing major. A little immediate itching but again not that bad. Then a day or so later, Bam! swelling, itching, redness, inflammation. I had only seen a horse fly for the first time ever last year and these are the first bites I've had by them. I'd say avoid like the plague! Prickly heat is a kind of heat rash but bumpy rather than smooth. And incredibly itchy. A bath of calamine lotion sounds appealing right about now.

[Sarah]

I just had the worst commute home possible. The train I was on hit and ran over a person resulting in a fatality. It was pretty scary and horrible - felt them go under the tracks and I briefly thought we were going to derail. We were then stuck on the train for a further 2 hours whilst emergency services etc. did their thing and a new driver arrived. Took me 4 hours to get home :-( Feeling a bit on edge now. I'm not having much luck this week.

[Lisa]

Sarah wrote: "I just had the worst commute home possible. The train I was on hit and ran over a person resulting in a fatality. It was pretty scary and horrible - felt them go under the tracks and I briefly thou..."

Oh, Sarah! That's really horrible! Sorry to hear you had to go through that :(

[Sandra, Moderator]

Sounds terrible, Sarah! Was it an accident or a suicide attempt? I hope the week improves soon for you.

[Janice, Moderator]

Big hugs, Sarah. That must have been a horrifying experience.

[Sarah]

Thanks guys. I'm not sure Sandra - they didn't say. I've not checked the local news yet today. It was pretty horrifying. I'm off work now for a couple days before going away at the weekend for a boating holiday. I am very much looking forward to it. It's exactly what I need.

[Lisa]

Sandra wrote: "Sounds terrible, Sarah! Was it an accident or a suicide attempt? I hope the week improves soon for you."

I would imagine it was suicide, Sandra. Or possibly someone playing "dare" with the train and it went wrong.

[Tasha]

Yikes, Sarah. Things are bound to start turning up for you after all this bad going on. I recently had a couple of horsefly bites and the same thing, a bite and itch but then the next day or two the bites get red, swollen, itch like crazy! The hole where they bite is big too!!

[Sandra, Moderator]

That's what I though too, Lisa. So sad...
I hope you really enjoy your boat vacation, Sarah. You really need a break!

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Oh wow Sarah. How sad and scary.

May you have a wonderful, relaxing trip with no surprises and only fun things.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

We're into day 6 of having no Government here. It's actually kind of relaxing...

[Renee]

I am still "enjoying" all the family down for the holiday. I love my family but am glad we don't all live in the same state. We are too alike. It get annoying sometimes when you go to say something that is alreay being said.

[Sandra, Moderator]

My oldest one got her driving learner's permit today. Now comes the stressful part of sitting besides her and teach her how to drive... It's gonna be hard to make my husband do it, at least at the beginning, so I guess it's my duty. Wish me luck!

[Tasha]

Good luck, Sandra!!

[Lisa]

Best of luck, Sandra!

[Janice, Moderator]

Have fun, Sandra.

My granddaughter just got her learner's permit too and she wanted me to let her drive my car home from the restaurant. I was a basket case, and it was only a few blocks. LOL! She did well though. My grandson just got his first car. I'm still waiting for a ride in it.

[Elsbeth]

Oh, Sarah, I just read some of your comments on the Brexit. I understand why you didn't want to go there again in the other threaf (apart from the fact that it was off-topic).
Somehow I totally missed this thread...

I, too, hope that it won't come to it. But We'll just have to wait and see...

[Travis]

I jist don't know what this world is coming to. Talking about Dallas. Glad my dad is retired from police work but I know many others still in the businrss.

[Sarah]

No worries Elsbeth. It's complex as you know so I didn't want to start up the discussion over there.

I have to say, I have not been reading the news for the last week so I am feeling a bit better about things not being bombarded with negativity and uncertainty. I know we have a stupid race for prime minister though. At least it's not Boris. Looking like we might get a woman. I don't like either of them. Annoying that we will have an unelected prime minister. I really think there should be another general election. I know Labour is still all over the place with the Corbyn coup. Rusalka mentioned a few posts up that Australia has been without a government for a few days. It feels like we are too whilst they squabble amongst themselves and try to score points against each other.

I also know unfortunately that hate crime and racist abuse has gone up and this makes me very sad. The crazy thing is, even Canadians, Americans and other non-EU born tourists and residents have been told "to go home". Some people are just plain dumb.

There have been a lot of protests in London and across the country. Pleased to see it. Not sure it will make much difference though. It was a democratic process which brought about brexit but for something that big, I think it should have had to have a bigger majority win than just 4%. Democracy is a process too and the government still have ultimate say and have to vote on invoking article 50. We'll see what happens I guess.

[Rusalka, Moderator]

There is nothing wrong with a unelected PM, can I just say. It's my biggest problem with Australian politics, and I believe UK is the same in this regard.

You don't vote for the PM. You vote for your local member who *should* (yes, ideal world here) represent you no matter what. The leader of the party should represent the party, so therefore should be similar no matter who it is. If not, the party has chosen that, and we all get to vote on that within 3-4 years. You vote for your local member, not your PM. The only people who vote for the PM are their electorate.

We have gone through quite a few PMs recently, and people go rabid over this (not you Sarah) and jeez it gets me riled up. Mainly because here in Aus people just don't know and can't be bothered to understand how their government and parliament works.

Day 7 by the way. Looks like the Liberals (our conservatives) will form government again. Bah. But still no government!

[Rusalka, Moderator]

Yeah Dallas is horrifying, Travis. As are all the events leading up to it. I was just watching the news tick over at work today before I left, and couldn't believe it. Glad your Dad is out of the police force!

[Elsbeth]

That is what I thought, too, Sarah. How can something SO important be decided by such a small majority!
My (Dutch and Australian ) friends from the UK come over next week. I wonder what their experiences have been, lately...

[Rusalka, Moderator]

I'm guessing, if again like us, which is fair in some ways seeing we pinched half of how our parliament runs off the Brits and half off the States, that plebiscites and referendums are passed with a 50%+1 rule? Our constitution states that, those votes need to get a majority with 50% of the vote, plus one more vote and then they are passed. But it is a tally, not first past the post. Is that right for you guys, Sarah?

[Sarah]

You're right Rusalka. We don't vote for the PM but our local MP but a lot of people base their vote still on who the PM might be. Yes the members of the parties vote for the PM. Quite often i forget this fact, mainly when i go off on one so thanks for reminding me. I still think we should have an early general election. There has been a surge in Labour membership since the ref and them trying to get Corbyn out. A lot of people want him to remain. And to be PM instead.