Amazon exiles discussion
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A fella could get paranoid y'know. I mean I haven't had a reply from NC on FB Messenger (for about a month) to my last message. Nothing from my message to Suze. Now Collette? Hmmm any chance of getting clued in here? Is this some kinda witchcraft or summat??
Nothing from Suzy to me, either. Numbers seem to be dwindling away ...
Blastronaut wrote: "A fella could get paranoid y'know. I mean I haven't had a reply from NC on FB Messenger (for about a month) to my last message. Nothing from my message to Suze. Now Collette? Hmmm any chance of g..."
Hi Blastro. I'm still here. Just busy with Miss Snowdrop etc. Hope you're well. 😊
Blastronaut wrote: "A fella could get paranoid y'know. I mean I haven't had a reply from..."Don't be paranoid, it's been very quiet on here recently and a few people have gone awol - hopefully just temporarily. I don't mind if you tell me about your hairdo, maybe we need a bit of inane chat on here at the mo?
Anyway, you're welcome to have some tumbleweed:-
Helen The Melon wrote: "Blastronaut wrote: "A fella could get paranoid y'know. I mean I haven't had a reply from..."Don't be paranoid, it's been very quiet on here recently and a few people have gone awol - hopefully ju..."
That's no tumbleweed, it's Blastro's hair clippings! No wonder 'e wears that 'at!
Yeah don't worry Blastro, always good to see you on here!! I've been meaning to e-mail you for a while. Had a week off work as I have a rotator cuff injury, tennis elbow and R.S.I. See, hit 50 and you fall apart!! Been strange on here for a while, when Lez died I had The Chills 'Don't Be Memory' in my stupid head for about a week. Then Suzy and Sera69 have gone AWOL, and now Duke's out of action. Hope all 3 are ok. I did think a while ago that this would make a good Agatha Christie murder mystery, where music posters from the Amazon site went missing one by one.
Anyway, like the tumbleweed Helen, I did consider buying one years ago, (they sold them on Ebay from America for about £25 quid), but I thought it would either get stolen or blow away.
In the process of selling my house at the moment, hopefully going to buy a static home for £44,000. Its actually pretty spacious, 2 bedrooms, one with an ensuite shower, and another shower room. The home comes with everything included and isn't restricted to a site, the cost is actually £39,000 with £5000 for transport and disassembling, reassembling, and weather proofing the house. IIf I do get it, I'll post a picture in my profile.
Edit - this made me smile amidst all the doom and gloom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=We-Bj...
The doped cat reminds me of one of our cats, long time ago. He went off to the vets for the snip and they told us to ring after lunch to see if we could bring him home. We'd only been in about half an hour when they rang for us to collect him. We could hear a loud wailing noise over the phone and it turned out the anaesthetic had a strange effect on his system and he was absolutely manic for several hours until it wore off. The staff at the vets couldn't stand the noise, so sent for us early. Didn't think it was the most responsible attitude but thankfully, he was ok.
Collette wrote: "Blastronaut wrote: "A fella could get paranoid y'know. I mean I haven't had a reply from NC on FB Messenger (for about a month) to my last message. Nothing from my message to Suze. Now Collette? ..."
So sorry, Blastro, I've been remiss. I will rectify immediately.
Brass Neck wrote: "That's no tumbleweed, it's Blastro's hair clippings! No wonder 'e wears that 'at!"😁 Hee hee. That's one hell of a hairball. I wonder if Blastro is like Samson?
TheFoe wrote: "Been strange on here for a while, when Lez died I had The Chills 'Don't Be Memory' in my stupid head for about a week. Then Suzy and Sera69 have gone AWOL, and now Duke's out of action. Hope all 3 are ok. I did think a while ago that this would make a good Agatha Christie murder mystery, where music posters from the Amazon site went missing one by one..."
I had a message from Sera a few weeks ago & he said that "all good here".
I'm not sure if Goodreads send email notifications of private messages any more, so people will only get messages if they actually log-in. I know this was the case a couple of months ago, Sept even (Suzy was v frustrated by it), but I permanently have notifications disabled so I don't know if Goodreads have sorted it out.
Helen The Melon wrote: "Brass Neck wrote: "That's no tumbleweed, it's Blastro's hair clippings! No wonder 'e wears that 'at!"😁 Hee hee. That's one hell of a hairball. I wonder if Blastro is like Samson?
Thanks Helen, I only know if posters respond to my posts by visiting the Goodreads site, I've never had notifications via e-mail.
TheFoe wrote: ..."
Just heard from Suzy, she hopes to be back in a while 🤞😊
Thanks Isabella ,good to hear all ok with Suzy.
Wouldn't that be great - if I was like Samson - my hair's cut off.... and suddenly I'm no longer a miserable basket! : )Am happy with the result (even without improvement in said sanity) tho so shan't complain. Bit more hassle tho having short hair would ya believe. Before it was just a case of tying it back; gotta use a comb now. A comb no less!!
Didn't know Sera and Duke were also AWOL. Hope it's not a permanent thing. Also didn't realize the forum as a whole was slowing. A shame for sure. I know I'm not around much meself but has always been my intention to return to regular posting. Just been a bad year is all.
What brought on the hair cut? I've always thought of you as having long, flowing locks. Are you getting used to it? Is it a keeper?
Hello Val. Reckon I got sick of seeing me forehead. Probably a mid-life crisis thing. To be fair I have had it quite long for the biggest part of twenty years (as well as the first half of the 90s) so ready for a change. Besides, I was talking to the girl at the chemist about it (ex hairdresser) and as she pointed out - might as well go for it now while I can still grow it back. : )Am quite happy with it. Dare say it's even took a couple of years off me. Seriously considering dying it blond - as I did many times before in the 80s and 90s - but hmm not totally convinced. Too old for such shenanigans possibly? I dunno.
Blastronaut wrote: "Hello Val. Reckon I got sick of seeing me forehead. Probably a mid-life crisis thing. To be fair I have had it quite long for the biggest part of twenty years (as well as the first half of the 90s)..."Go for it Blastro!
Having tried long and short styles, short hair is definitely trickier for women. I'm sticking with just below the shoulders, though many say older women should wear a short cut. I only gave up the dye job through lockdown - couldn't cope with DIY colouring ...
mine is now 5 inches longer than at the start of lockdown,
Blastronaut wrote: "Wouldn't that be great - if I was like Samson - my hair's cut off.... and suddenly I'm no longer a miserable basket! : )Am happy with the result (even without improvement in said sanity) tho so s..."
The Forum slowing and terminally declining is inevitable. With no new people, and an ageing demographic it can only go one way.
The Zon days of quickfire late night conversations are long gone, as are nearly all of the contributors.
All Things Must Pass, as my least hated member of that woeful band once said.
Anyway, I hope everyone is ok. We had heavy snowfall Thurs night, blizzards and v v v high wind all day yesterday - I didn't venture outside at all 'cos I would have been in danger of being blown away (I'm not v heavy)! Today is calmer but freezing (not got above -5°) and we have electricity, woohoo; power was down yesterday until 10pm but at least we had intermittent mobile signals. Don't know how the poor elec engineers (SSE) managed to work in those conditions yesterday.A friend had a roof slate through his car window and another friend had a tree fall on her car parked on her driveway. Don't know about any other damage in the village, just trees/branches down round me fortunately. Hope the rest of you haven't had any major problems.
Yep, we had it really bad Fri night, to the point where I was out the back with the torch checking for damage (incredibly there wasn't any, just bins blown over etc) and we woke to a covering of snow. Still mighty mighty cold; just been out with Dust and cursed the fact that I don't own a decent pair of gloves. Internet dropped out for a short while too but I don't think that was related to the storm. We're with BT after all... it's a regular thing.
Big sporting news for Val. Aussie George Kambosos produced a huge upset last night outpointing lightweight champ Teofimo Lopez, thus becoming undisputed* king of said weight division. Not yet seen the fight but do intend to as it sounds like a cracker. Really pleased for Kombosos (who to be fair, I'd not heard of) not least for bringing Lopez down a peg-or-two. Nice one George!* - Technically not undisputed but owning three of the four belts (as is the case here) is usually enough for such claims, especially as Lopez had previously beat the fighter considered the best lightweight out there... so it's a linear thing too.
Sorry, I may be getting a tad pedantic.
I don't keep up with much in the boxing world but a young friend of mine is a big fan so I did know this result. N's comments about Lopez are not suitable to reproduce here but he did post this picture
and this one
I know you're not a boxing fan as such but you like yer sport and certainly are a proud Aussie. GK did y'all proud at the weekend I reckon. Not saying that Kombosos is one of the best ever Australian fighters but that effort he put in t'other night is up there with the all-time top performances by a practitioner of the noble art from down under. Imo.Just thought it was worth a mention.
Any of you lot got a pet as awkward as mine I wonder? Our two mutts get fed a couple of times a day and on the later feed they both get the same biscuits but different meat. Dust eats tinned meat (as he always has) and Cujo has pouched meat. Cujo is getting on a bit (16) and a couple of years ago started to refuse meat from tins but positively loves the stuff from pouches. Anyways, when I put Dust's food down, he stands there looking at me. He's smacking his chops so I know he's hungry but he just stands there. When he plays this game, I have to save a little gravy in the bottom of one of Cujo's pouches and pretend to eat it with the spoon, yknow along with "Hmm" and "Yum yum" etc; then I'll add it to Dust's food and then he goes at it straight away!!And no, just adding the pouch doesn't work. I have to 'eat' it first.
Now, sometimes he'll eat without messing but on days of his choosing - could be a couple a times a week, could be every night, there's no telling - we have to go through this rigmarole. I've tried ignoring him - after five mins he'll just walk away and I've tried shutting him in kitchen with said food; he then comes and lays against the door and still doesn't touch it.
Just curious if anyone else has to go through such ridiculous routines with their pet.
Oh, and he hates German Shepherds and hi vis! So that's road/bin/post workers etc. Laugh-a-minute to take out... as I think I might have mentioned before sometime. Today's bin day for us, and tho I try to avoid em, you can't always and this morning was an example as I wrestled with him, much to binman's amusement tho I think they're getting used to Dust and his performances. It's folk who don't know him where one has to be careful. Joggers from other areas who come up silently from behind can be a problem. Especially if they have bright reflective stuff attached.
Still wun't swap him for all the tea in China.
I think Dust's smart. He thinks "Yeah, I'm hungry and this tinned stuff's okay but gee, I enjoy seeing this bloke pretend he likes dog food. Fair whets my appetite!"
My basset Bruno, now long departed, was sometimes get fussy about certain food. I used to move to put his bowl down, the snatch it back. After doing this a few times, he became desperate to get it, and would wolf it down before I took it away again.
Blastronaut wrote: "Any of you lot got a pet as awkward as mine I wonder? Our two mutts get fed a couple of times a day and on the later feed they both get the same biscuits but different meat. Dust eats tinned meat (..."Try being a cat servant. Cats + food = total nightmare
Love the image of you pretending to eat dog food gravy, Blastro. 😁
You might appreciate some of these cartoons? :-
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/how_wal...
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/dog_par...
The cats have to have Felix doubly delicious pouches, no other will do even in an emergency, but they won't eat any 'human' food, even roast chicken. The pouches were a guilt-ridden plastics nightmare but now Tesco have started recycling soft plastics. The state of the sink in the utility (where they sleep and get fed away from the dog) after rinsing is boakworthy though.Minnie is fed twice a day and I swear by any variety of Butchers due to the firmness and pickupability of of her poop (the state after she had a MacD's of all things at the kennels last Sunday was as far at the opposite end of the scale as is imaginable). She's not fussy, she loves any leftovers which I usually save and scatter on top of her dog food over several days but curiously I don't give her the veg and since I read that, while not toxic, onions and garlic are no good for dogs so things like lasagne and moussaka have to go in the food recycling. She loves nuts (only macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs) and is the epitome of daintiness when she takes them or any other treat from you, no risk of lost fingers, but she can't digest them as the next morning's poop evidences clearly. She adores apple - I bit small bits off the pieces I've bitten off and she gets the two ends so only the very mid-core is kept from her. She used to eat bits of banana and melon but shows no interest now. She's polite about her meals, looking through the doorway until it's been placed on the floor and I've moved away and then she polishes it off quickly without bolting it.
All that said she's worked out that people in the park with dogs have treats and will march right up, regardless of their dog and put her front legs up just above the knee (full stretch!). She's equally a bugger when people have brought bread for the ducks, geese, swans, etc that live on the lake and she has an outrageously sensitive nose to find bits of food, sometimes whole sarnies presumably jettisoned by an ungrateful schoolkid. If she finds one she scarpers out of reach before I can get to her. This is worrying as there have been social media reports of poisoned bread and mince being left around the park, presumably to kill foxes (for fox sake ....). She also worked out when we used to regularly walk along Cleethorpes Beach that a gathering of seagulls on the prom invariably means someone's tipping their left over fried food and then she looks at me, I say, 'No', and she bolts off at lightning speed up the nearest set of steps. On one occasion she bolted off the beach, across the prom, over the road and up to a bus stop where someone had indeed just chucked their chippy remnants on the floor. In the country park a week ago she saw seagulls gathering on the near side lake edge as someone had just dumped a load of bread but I didn't see where she went and lumbered round making clicking noises (from the mouth not the knees) to no avail until she sauntered up with wet paws and licking her chops.
As for general behaviour she loves people and charms almost everyone as she seeks attention and anyone who starts stroking her is usually treated to a full-on flop on to her back for a belly-rub, she likes most other dogs but will attempt an occasional lunge and growl, sometimes at dogs she sees regularly and has taken a dislike to, sometimes to ones I'm not aware of meeting before and she's not afraid of doing this to Dobermans and other big dogs. One house on our street just round the corner has a big black lab (she once had a very fast and close face full of an aggressive one in the paddock behind our road which she was less than impressed with) and the bloke on witnessing her antics as we walked past opined that it was 'like flying a kite in a storm' - he wasn't far wrong. These events are a minority but you do feel a plonker.
She's also reactive to motorbikes (but not cycles), clanky trailers or flat-bed trucks, ride-on mowers and tractors, both of which are occasionally encountered doing verges or the country park and she used to be highly reactive to bin lorries and their attendant employees until one day we encountered one and the female bin-person who had the sides of her head shaved, many visible tatts and piercings immediately reached into her pocket and gave her a treat - since then she pulls to get TO bin lorries. You try to keep your radar primed but sometimes they sneak up on you or you round a corner and ........
Wouldn't swap her for the world. I've lost at least a stone and a half with all the walking (she may be small, about 7kg, but she's got a good engine on her) and I've had no problem with the unusual and unplanned transition into retirement.
Dogs are great. Great for people. What else is going to successfully drag a retired person out into the lashing rain on one of those dark winter days. And no matter the weather it always feels good having got outside afterwards.Our new Pup won't be long now, so have been reading a few training books. I've done some before, but a long time back.
Think I'm going to have a go at training recall to one of those Acme whistles. You buy a certain pitch and once your Dogs trained to that pitch you can replace with the same pitch whistle, if needed. Can be heard by the Dog easily over a fair distance.
This is a great book.
Total Recall: Perfect Response Training for Puppies and Adult Dogs
I'm sure you told us a while back but what breed are you getting?
Val wrote: "I'm sure you told us a while back but what breed are you getting?"An English Pointer x Irish Setter.
Serial wrote: "An English Pointer x Irish Setter."Lovely cross!! We've had two German short haired pointers and apart from separation anxiety, they were great companions and a lot of fun.
Anita - Cujo's a Collie cross. He's a rescued dog so we're not too sure what other breeds are in there but personally I reckon one parent was a Collie and t'other was a Whippet/Whippet cross. He's mostly black with a touch of brown here n there. Polar opposite to King's St Bernard as he's a very nervous type... and, obviously, not rabid. Had a heart murmur all his life so at 16 he's done pretty well bless him. Doesn't go walks anymore because he's not up to it but he's happy to potter around the house and back yard. His hearing's all but gone, his sight's not excellent, back legs unsteady and does a lot of sleeping but (touches wood) yep, still doing ok.
When he was in his prime their wasn't many dogs could keep up with him out on walks. Ferrari-like 0-60 and he could turn on a 5 pence piece.
Will have to find out and scan a pic of him or take a new one and put it on me profile. Just a case of me remembering.
Val/Helen - Indeed it's not lost on me what a tw@ I must look when I'm going through the eating routine with Dust. Where's it gonna go from here tho, I mean what next? Here comes the aeroplane....
Not sure if I mentioned before but a little like Brass' Minnie, Dust reacts badly to trucks. Motorbikes are fine but anything large and noisy starts him off. Not sure it's the sound of the engine but more the noise really large vehicles make as they clatter over the speed bumps. If they drive their big bloody things at a decent speed through built up areas it might help. As it is, he barks and tries to get to said motorized beast. Have to be on the ball all the time (tricky for someone like me) when I'm out with him. I mean if something's coming up on us on our side of the road I have to wind the lead around my arm. If I didn't he'd pull into the road and under the damn thing. Absolutely no road sense whatsoever. I know, it's easy to think 'This doogie has more issues than a little' but like I said - wun't change him for nowt.
yeah, Lux will lunge at motorbikes (or cars with ******* exhausts), or bark like a psychobeast at them thru' the windae. we can't trust her to be off-lead unless we're way out in the country, and even then we're a bit edgy. the one thing that'll make her turn and (try to) run away is the sight or sound of ladders, yup ladders! she had an incident with one when she was a pup, and at ten, still carries a fear of them - it's a hoot when the windae cleaner comes!
Our Dust's not keen on ladders either. And absolutely terrified of ironing boards; whenever ours is set up he skidaddles... at light-speed. Won't come back until it's put away. Reckon he might've had one fall on - or near - him when he was with Mother. He's very suspicious of any large object that kinda towers over him. When we first got a stand-alone heavy bag to use in the house (we have bracket on shed but our lovely weather is not always conducive to decent outdoor workouts) he used to be very wary of its presence. He'd walk near it and then suddenly freak out, as tho he'd not seen it to start with... or not realized how close he'd got to it.An odd un is our Dust.
Our youngest's tested positive for Covid this morning. What a pisser! Hope to God it's not the Necronomicon variant or whatever they bloody call it. I mean let's face it, its probably been in the country for a while before it was noticed... and one of the 'first' cases was in Notts which borders our county. Rest of us tested neg but it's early days. He's been for follow-up test so we'll have to wait on that un. If that one confirms then I do believe we all have to isolate for ten days. Had me booster last Weds but I'm reckoning that won't figure, as it's not been long enough to take hold?And now it's ******* snowing!!
Oh Blastro! What a shit way to end the year. But it's only Dec 7th so fingers crossed you all get through the next few days without further issue. Keep us posted.
how old is your beastiel 4 of the ones I look after in 2 separate families had it but only the mum of the eldest caught it.The 6 year olds little brother and parent didn't.Does yours feel ok?
Cheers Val, will do.Anita - He's 11. Got a bit of a cough and a headache at the moment but still active - touch wood. He's had friends at school that have had it a month or two ago and they've all come through ok. I mean we were told that the young uns don't get it bad but I'm not much in the habit of believing everything the likes of Boris & Co tell me... or the WHO for that matter, but maybe that's just paranoia.
How were those kids? And mother??
Ok, I got a tad mixed up with the isolation rules - I mean don't get me wrong I'm not the sharpest, but they don't make things easy to follow. One of J's colleagues told her we'd all have to self-isolate but it's not that straight-forward. Blastromite, as expected, tested positive with the PCR test so the Test-n-Trace got in touch with us to set us straight on the dos and don'ts. J and meself who are both double-jabbed (another week or so and we'll be tripled) can go out the house and do general stuff but J still can't go to work for ten days because that's hospital policy. Our eldest can't go in to work - even tho it's outdoor work - for ten days but also must do a lat flow test daily and if he tests positive, he must then reset isolation back to day zero. Our other lad's work don't seem to have a clue, or even care so he's self isolating. Thing is with our oldest two lads, they're not vaccinated (long story) so I guess ya can see why they're expected to be more careful. Daughter is double jabbed but not in the same household in any case.
I shall now turn up the pressure even higher on them getting sorted but can't put a gun to their heads. They are adults after all, even if their decision making would suggest otherwise. Now the latest variant is on the prowl, I think they might be coming round.
Talking of new variants, we are told that our youngest does not have the Necronomicon.... so that's something. He's just incredibly bored presently, and who can blame him.
Blimey, that sounds complicated Blastro.
My sympathies Blastro. It's bad enough getting a positive case in the household but it would be nice if you could rely on some sort of uniform response. I'm sure it's no better here. Best wishes to you all.
It seems there's different rules for different folk, depending on status. That's a hell of a lot of differing asks tho. I'm not sure even Boris and his cronies - like the 'Science Dude' who looks like Abraham from the Hellboy flicks - have a bloody clue themselves!They done good by us re the vaccination program but I reckon they've screwed everything else... royally. Sorry, I'll not get into that right now.
Cheers anyways m'dears.
Card on the way Val. Might wanna quarantine it for a while first tho. : )
Amazon exiles
Books mentioned in this topic
Ten Poems about Snow (other topics)And So This is Christmas: 51 Seasonally Adjusted Poems (other topics)
The Tiger Who Came to Tea (other topics)
The Quangle Wangle's Hat (other topics)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Christina Rossetti (other topics)John Keats (other topics)
Joan Aiken (other topics)
I mean Who-TF wants to know about my hairdo? : )