Amazon exiles discussion
Don't Kill Snails with Salt ... Creme Eggs & Toasted Teacakes ... Biscuits & Bench Stories, Life, the Universe, & Everything!
Thanks for all the birthday wishes friends! I'm having a lovely day here.Some of the benefits of turning 75. No more smear tests, no more bowel cancer test kits in the mail, no more mammograms (though my specialist advises having one a year so I'm booked in for one in a couple of weeks). The message is: once you're 75, you're expendable! Now, where's that cake......
Val wrote: "Thanks for all the birthday wishes friends! I'm having a lovely day here.Some of the benefits of turning 75. No more smear tests, no more bowel cancer test kits in the mail, no more mammograms (t..."
Welcome to the club for the redundant, Val! Although, how child care, charity shops, other volunteer organisations etc. would be able to function without the silver army, I can't imagine ... if we were to strike, a goodly part of society would grind to a halt. But of course, there's still a fair section of that society that views our contribution as being outweighed by our drain on resources, resources that should be supporting their lifestyle. No more, or I'll start a rant that will bore everyone silly. 😉
On the subject of vacuum cleaners, how can they not design something that will at least be fit for purpose for most people? Weight is a huge issue for a lot of women, who are still the main users, however fit they may be. Quick, and above all easy, assembly without needing a body builder's strength, whether for modifying the function or emptying. Simple charging, neat storage, efficient cleaning (by and of the vacuum), easy reach in the tight places ... you all know what we need. Why don't they? I've said it before but it bears repeating, test before you sell! And not with the designer, with a panel of potential users, extra tall, extra short, arthritic, technically challenged...
Sorry folks, It seems I'm a bit full of frustration today. Silly little things going wrong in succession. All first world problems but when they follow in a trail, it gets a bit much! However, it's a lovely day and I'm off into the garden in minute, so unless anything else has been dug up or eaten by the creatures out there, I shall enjoy myself and hope you all shall, too. 🙂
Val wrote: "Thanks for all the birthday wishes friends! I'm having a lovely day here.Some of the benefits of turning 75. No more smear tests, no more bowel cancer test kits in the mail, no more mammograms (t..."
I gather from what I see on TV and read online that everyone is considered pretty much ancient and past it by the time they hit their 30s these days?! ... LOL!!! ;o>
Have an absolutely fabulous day, Val, in not giving a damn about anything except just being your wonderful and unique self and having the best of times in good company on your birthday ... x x x
Isabella wrote: "On the subject of vacuum cleaners, how can they not design something that will at least be fit for purpose for most people? Weight is a huge issue for a lot of women, who are still the main users, ..."I think the creators/designers always try far too hard to develop the game-changing ultimate in machines that will do absolutely everything and anything ... except for precisely what you actually want and need from them! ;o>
I simply want a decent upright and a handheld Vac ... conveniently lightweight enough to push or carry around, with powerful suction, and the same great quality of moveable brush attachment that you used to get on an old upright ... but it seems that this is all somehow asking far too much of any brand?
These days most Vacs tend to pull apart like an un-necessary 3D jigsaw puzzle just so that they can then be put back together in a wide (and sometimes quite bizarre and incredibly heavy) re-assortment of clickable and slotting sections and parts ... and I really have no time, energy levels, or any interest in needing to be doing this every day.
This newest kind of Vac design is supposed to be the ultimate achievement in the latest of modern day technological breakthroughs. Yet, despite most of them costing several hundreds of pounds, they still don't seem to manage to do the job effectively enough and so you end up buying another one in a different kind of design to try to get the entire house clean! ;o>
Collette wrote: "Happy Birthday Val. Hope it's a good one. 🥂🍰Just saw the hoover discussion. I'm a hoover queen. Been through more than some people have had hot dinners. Always fancied an Air Ram if it wasn't for..."
A Supernatural Hoover Queen ;o>
I briefly considered and liked the idea of buying a Rechargeable Cordless but unfortunately I can't stop my Dad obsessively either under or overcharging everything around the house.
If something is ever unplugged he simply has to plug it back in ... and if something is ever plugged in he just has to unplug it ... despite all of the endless gentle 'reminder' discussions and also the rather sad and upsetting full-on arguments this incredibly frustrating and unhelpful behaviour can cause.
I think we may stop just considering and actively start looking around for a Cleaner ... so all of the extra time, energy levels and effort becomes someone else's job instead of becoming an increasingly challenging problem for Mum and myself. It feels very much like an alien concept to me having someone else come into our house to clean for us ... but I know I will get more used to it given enough time and it being the right kind of person for the job.
Suzy, I understand your concern about having someone in to clean, I feel like that myself. My mum had to have help when she was less able to do things herself and Anna was a star, kind, conscientious and became more a friend. A friend in Penarth has a cleaner for the same reason and she’s always happy with her experience. Gez helps me with the garden, doing what I find too much. Go for it, you’ll have more time and less worry and, let’s face it, there will still be plenty to do in between the cleaner’s visits!
I never feel entirely comfortable about letting go of any activities and delegating anything that, in my Head at least, I still feel I can do by myself. But the reality is the inside of all the Windows and the Bathroom Shower Screen have barely been cleaned more than just a couple of times in over a year now and I would greatly appreciate having someone come to do a through deep clean of the Kitchen and Bathroom at least once a month.
The biggest issue would probably be keeping my Dad occupied in another room without him being aware of us doing this ... as he can't resist initiating any endless conversations that include lots of really random details about growing up in Stockport and acting as a supervisor by offering up his own (often confused and wrong) 'advice' on how best to go about doing things.
It is quite a frustrating challenge, and even more especially when you are paying by the hour(!) for someone to come and do any kind of DIY or maintenance work in the house, to stop my Dad from spending several hours repeatedly following them around and trying to help out while actively getting into long random conversations about the few things that he still just about remembers.
suzysunshine7 wrote: "Collette wrote: "Happy Birthday Val. Hope it's a good one. 🥂🍰Just saw the hoover discussion. I'm a hoover queen. Been through more than some people have had hot dinners. Always fancied an Air Ram..."
The one that D replaced with the cordless Dyson was probably one of the best ones I had. A wee £30 odd Argos pull along one. Only problem was when you pushed the button to bring the cord back in the plug had a habit of whacking you on the ankle. Bloody sore.
Oooooooh nasty! ... I bet that really hurt, Collette ;o<I gave up on using the Vax we have as anything else but as an upright as they simply fall over with the very slightest of movements and it is no fun at all having that happen on the stairs or when you are crouched in a tight corner. They really do hurt like Hell when they topple over and hit you! ;o<
Henry Hoover here, a right tough beast he is.
Ahhh, the H. Hoover family tree ;o> ...
suzysunshine7 wrote: "Ahhh, the H. Hoover family tree ;o> ..."
I had no idea.
Don't let Farage see that photo, he'll be banning Henrys and insinuating Henrys family will all be moving over and clogging up the UK.
LOL
Serial wrote: "suzysunshine7 wrote: "Ahhh, the H. Hoover family tree ;o> ..."
I had no idea.
Don't let Farage see that photo, he'll be banning Henrys and insinuating Henrys family will all be moving over and ..."
Yes, I can hear it now, “coming over here, using our electricity, filling up our bins, leaving the place tidy … oh, forget that last one.”
LOL!!! ... who knew Henry Hoover had so many cobwebs in his closet?!! ;o>
suzysunshine7 wrote: "Ahhh, the H. Hoover family tree ;o> ..."
Where's Henry Wash, i dare ask? I got one of those!
Continuing with the vac chat... I saw an advert in a magazine the other day for a Halo Capsule, a cordless lightweight vacuum. Never heard of it before but it apparently gets v good reviews/ratings from The Good Housekeeping Institute and Which?https://www.capsuleclean.com/shop/
Anyone on here know anything about these?
Helen The Melon wrote: "Continuing with the vac chat... I saw an advert in a magazine the other day for a Halo Capsule, a cordless lightweight vacuum. Never heard of it before but it apparently gets v good reviews/ratings..."Yes, I've also suddenly been seeing a few adverts on the TV over the last week for these Halo Vacs and been wondering how good they are as well, Helen.
I read somewhere that July was on average the hottest month of the year in the UK.But, as we are having a typical British Summer, I am currently sat here with the Central Heating on and warming myself with a mug of Oxtail Soup! ... LOL!!! ;o>
Our neighbours have very kindly invited us to their BBQ on Saturday so I've just been checking the Weather Forecast to see what we will need to bring ... Sun Cream or Umbrella? ... and it looks like we will be needing the Umbrella! ...
Last evening, we went to the conference dinner (G has been at a conference this week). We had a good time, chatting with people we hadn’t seen in ages but one thing made me smile. It was a big room with a couple of hundred people seated at tables of ten. By the time we got our main course, people near the front had finished and were wandering around looking for friends. Someone came to chat to us and we turned from eating to speak to him. When I turned back, my half eaten dinner was gone, cleared by an enthusiastic waiter. Fortunately, it wasn’t the best meal ever. I was taught that when you finished eating, knife and fork should be placed parallel on the plate, which mine weren’t. Shouldn’t waiters be aware of this? Or am I just old and out of touch?
Never let go of your knife and fork, Isabella! ... and don't forget to chase the Waiter! ... LOL!!! ;o>
Eating Etiquette Knife & Fork Language ...
suzysunshine7 wrote: "Eating Etiquette Knife & Fork Language ..."
😊 🍽️
Does anyone have bird feeders? We recently got one of the stick on type for the window and the birds use it reasonably often. I've noticed that at night, in damp weather, slugs and snails climb up the glass and look very much as if they're eating from the feeder. It's dry food but not tiny seeds. I had no idea that it would attract molluscs. There's never a sign of them in the morning and they don't eat much, it's only that I've seen them that gives me any idea they've been there. Something new every day!
Hmmm, I've heard of it happening but we don't have those kinds of feeders so I've no personal experience of it. If you want to stop them from climbing up your windows then I've heard that positioning strips of copper tape around your window frames is an effective way of doing this?
They apparently feel a kind of electric shock sensation when they come into contact with the copper which then deters them from crossing over it.
Might be worth a try. Thanks, Suzy!
Isabella wrote: "Does anyone have bird feeders? We recently got one of the stick on type for the window and the birds use it reasonably often. I've noticed that at night, in damp weather, slugs and snails climb up ..."We used to have one attached to conservatory/garden room window in our previous house. It was very very popular with the birds (& as cat entertainment) but we didn't have any slugs or snails dining in it!!
I second Suzy's proposal of using that copper tape stuff to try and stop them. The slugs and snails obviously don't realise they are at high risk of adding themselves to the dining menu. Are the birds not eating the one's that end up in the feeder?
Helen The Melon wrote: "Isabella wrote: "Does anyone have bird feeders? We recently got one of the stick on type for the window and the birds use it reasonably often. I've noticed that at night, in damp weather, slugs and..."Possibly, we don’t see any slugs on the feeder when we get up but the birds are usually up and about well before us in the morning!
Isabella wrote: "Might be worth a try. Thanks, Suzy!"I hope it worked, Isabella ... x
Sorry Suzy, haven’t got round to it yet, been doing other things, like making shopping bags out of leftover fabric for the charity shop. We went to Penarth at the weekend and are going again on Sunday for G’s work and the car needs a small repair. Ridiculously expensive as it’s just a broken switch but they insist the unit has to be replaced!
Oh that's okay, I was just wondering if it had worked or if the Snails and Slugs had now taken up abseiling to try to get past it ... LOL!!! ;o>
Yeah, cars! ... the tiniest of faults can cost a bomb these days, can't they? As modern day cars tend to come with more complete and enclosed parts that runs using software and so if one little light or wire develops a fault it can fritz the whole system and need a huge section replacing. My Dad's car had a fault a few weeks ago when our neighbour was using it to go away for a mini break. Luckily it was not something that meant the car was unusable and spoilt their weekend but it turned out to be a loose wire that needed a huge plastic section that encased it to be replaced.
In my Dad's day he would have simply fixed it by himself with a length of new wire and some blobs of solder for mere pence but the new part alone cost us almost £70 and it took over an hour to fix into position.
https://formandreform.com/golden-mean/ ..."The Golden Mean Snail Car is a giant hot rod art car built by a group of artists in West Oakland’s Kraftworks building. Conceived of in a dream in 2008 by artist Kyrsten Mate, blacksmith Jon Sarriugarte, who fabricates custom home furnishings, worked with his wife, Kyrsten Mate to build this extraordinary vehicle with the help of the artist members of Empire of Dirt.
This surprising vehicle takes its name from the golden ratio, a mathematical proportion that is said to produce aesthetically pleasing art and architecture. Built on a 1967 VW bug chassis, the Golden Mean Snail Car features seating for six, rein-triggered fire shooting eye stalks, and a signature antiqued patina finish.
Other inspirations for the project include the Giant Pink Sea Snail from Doctor Dolittle, giant mechanical elephant puppets by Royal de Luxe and Jules Verne’s imaginative creations" ...
I really needed something to raise a smile today and, to my delight, Facebook gave me this ...Caption: "our Branch Manager and Assistant Branch Manager" ...
x x x ... ! Happy International Friendship Day ! ... x x x
suzysunshine7 wrote: "https://formandreform.com/golden-mean/ ..."The Golden Mean Snail Car is a giant hot rod art car built by a group of artists in West Oakland’s Kraftworks building. Conceived of in a dream in 2008 ..."
I never realised before seeing this picture just how much I want a gold snail car with "rein-triggered fire shooting eye stalks, and a signature antiqued patina finish." How cool would it be to have flames coming out of snail eye stalks?
Btw, I am not getting the "new" comments thingy showing up for a couple of the threads (definitely this one and also What Are You Hearing..?) but I am for most of the other threads that I frequent. Is anyone else having issues with this function?
Not currently, Helen. Law to itself, though.
Me too Helen - only the two threads you've mentioned though (I think).
I rarely get any Email notifications and, when I log in, I find I tend to get most of my notifications about threads that I never use ... LOL!!! ;o>I've tried playing around with Account Settings but nothing much seems to change when I do this.
I still have sad memories of how Amazon started to increase doing these kinds of things for a couple of years before they finally came clean on their real intentions to close down their Forums.
I think the difference with Goodreads is that the Book Forums on here seem to be far too essential and valuable to the website to want to jettison them ... but I still find quite un-nerving whenever previously useful functions seem to be becoming limited or disabled.
suzysunshine7 wrote: "I rarely get any Email notifications and, when I log in, I find I tend to get most of my notifications about threads that I never use ... LOL!!! ;o>"I have my email notifications turned off cos that would just be supremely annoying. And I have most other notifications turned off too. This is just the little red "new" thing that shows up on the main Amazon Exiles homepage after each thread title, telling you how many new posts their are since you last read a particular thread. It's still not working for the two threads I mentioned above, but is working for most others, I think. V annoying.
Hello everyone, I’m hoping ‘Snails ‘ is the best channel to reach the most people. I’m here to issue an invitation to all of you to join The Sunshine Club’ on Facebook. The Sunshine Club was set up back in the days of the Amazon music forums by some members who could no longer tolerate the trolls such as ‘meses’.
Over the years others such as myself have joined, while still keeping in touch with the old gang here on Exiles.
On Sunshine we mostly talk about music. Over recent years we’ve been in the habit of posting tracks on a given theme on a daily basis for the delight or otherwise of the group.
Old friends include Schiz , Cornish, Peter, Tommo, Smitty, Ben,
and Deano, as well Anita, Sussex and myself. Sadly, over the past while we have lost Mark Kibble, Toffeeman, Bof and most recently Greysuit.
I can be found on Facebook under my real name, Margo MacLellan. I’d love to add you to the Sunshiners. Just get in touch.
nocheese wrote: "Hello everyone, I’m hoping ‘Snails ‘ is the best channel to reach the most people. I’m here to issue an invitation to all of you to join The Sunshine Club’ on Facebook. The Sunshine Club was set u..."
Thank you for the kind invitation but I don't have/use Facebook!
Fair enough Helen. Thanks for letting me know.
Also thanks from me but same as Helen with Facebook and also l’m not enough into music to be an asset to a group of enthusiasts. Sorry!
Hi nc, I'd like to join but can you post a URL. I've searched for the Sunshine Club and get heaps of varied hits from kindergartens to cricket clubs and pop psychology.
Hi Val.The full title is The Sunshine Music Club. I’ve sent you a friend request on Facebook, so if you respond I can then invite you to join.
Amazon exiles
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Authors mentioned in this topic
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Just saw the hoover discussion. I'm a hoover queen. Been through more than some people have had hot dinners. Always fancied an Air Ram if it wasn't for the price. Could have bought it a good couple of times over with the amount that I've broke, ha ha. I'm currently using a cordless Shark one (have a corded sat in the hall as well) but even it struggles with Miss Snowdrop's hair. The one before it looked cool and cost over £160 but wouldn't lift said hair either. A few years back I was using my wee Argos pull along one on Xmas Eve. Conked out and D went to Argos and bought me a cordless Dyson pet hoover. Lucky if a full charge lasted 20 mins... and it turned out there was nothing wrong with the pull along... apart from a blocked filter.
Bloody hell. Just bored myself there. 😬