Amazon exiles discussion
Trackless wastes
>
Today, I shall mostly be...
Went for our jabs this pm at the wonderfully named Splott. Very well organised with cheerful staff.
That damn fat Strawbridge on TV yet AGAIN.......with his fat wife, and chubby kids, an endless milking of an already boring series of programs.....
ken, what a dick! him and his shat-oh!
Tech XXIII wrote: "ken, what a dick! him and his shat-oh!"Shat-oh
Ain't that the truth!
Serial wrote: "That damn fat Strawbridge on TV yet AGAIN.......with his fat wife, and chubby kids, an endless milking of an already boring series of programs....."As the late great Jon Pertwee once quipped, "It's very simple. You lean forward, put out your hand and turn the switch to the off position". 😉
Tim wrote: "Serial wrote: "That damn fat Strawbridge on TV yet AGAIN.......with his fat wife, and chubby kids, an endless milking of an already boring series of programs....."As the late great Jon Pertwee on..."
Or change channel - they DO have more than one in Ireland?
wait a meenit! a telly in ireland?wait a meenit! electricity in ireland?
Brass Neck wrote: "Or change channel - they DO have more than one in Ireland?"If Irish tv is in a similar state to the 'legacy channels' in the UK (BBC, ITV, C4, C5) they'll all be shite. 🤔🤪
Tim wrote: "Brass Neck wrote: "Or change channel - they DO have more than one in Ireland?"If Irish tv is in a similar state to the 'legacy channels' in the UK (BBC, ITV, C4, C5) they'll all be shite. 🤔🤪"
Righto. There's shite on all of 'em but to dismiss the whole output of all 4/5 seems a tad extreme. As a selective viewer I can find gems on all of 'em. What channels should I be watching, News UK TV and GB News?
Agree with BN, but it helps to have a lousy memory!
Brass Neck wrote: "Tim wrote: "Brass Neck wrote: "Or change channel - they DO have more than one in Ireland?"If Irish tv is in a similar state to the 'legacy channels' in the UK (BBC, ITV, C4, C5) they'll all be sh..."
Aye, Emmerdale, Corrie, River City, Four In A Bed and Dawson's Creek on All 4. I think gems on all of then is pushing it a wee bit.
Today's plan...clean the bath! I sure know how to Rock N Roll!!
Emmerdale, Corrie, River City, Four In A Bed and Dawson's CreekAye, weren't thinking o' none of them as gems but each to their own as the saying goes.
I enjoy all the quiz shows - 'Only Connect' etc. but I wish they were't all on the same night. ITV3 shows the 'quality' drama - 'Lewis', 'Endeavour', etc. as well as the lesser ones like 'Midsomer Murders' but I know them off by heart. I'm a sucker for property programmes and all the crafty things and there's sometimes good music on BBC 4. BBC Scotland can be good too. Then there's quite a lot of new drama but not all good of course. The new series of 'Line of Duty' is on soon!
Lez wrote: "I enjoy all the quiz shows - 'Only Connect' etc. but I wish they were't all on the same night. ITV3 shows the 'quality' drama - 'Lewis', 'Endeavour', etc. as well as the lesser ones like 'Midsomer ..."Whatever genre of TV you like you can guarantee that it's all scheduled on the same night at the same time - recorders and catchup are a must.
Tim wrote: "If Irish tv is in a similar state to the 'legacy channels' in the UK (BBC, ITV, C4, C5) they'll all be shite. 🤔🤪""BBC" isn't a channel. There's decent stuff on BBC4 (and occasionally BBC2), as well as the BBC News channel, which actually does news (unlike BBC1, which does froth), and CBeebies & CBBC. BBC1 is mostly trash, I grant you, apart from some of its sport coverage.
As I watch a total of about 6-7 hours a week I don't have any difficulty finding plenty on BBC channels. As Brass says, though, a recorder and/or iPlayer is/are essential. I can't remember the last time I watched anything other than the news channel live.
Well today and for the next five days I will be doing bugger all mostly. We don't mess around here in Oz! Victoria now has 19 cases of the UK variant (at present confined to a fairly small area just outside Melbourne) so the whole state will go into a hard lockdown from midnight tonight for 5 days - fingers crossed it works and doesn't have to be extended. Schools and all businesses except food outlets are closed. Masks are once again mandatory when outside your home; 2 hours exercise allowed within 5km of home. We have been so good for so long but now that Aussies trapped overseas are dribbling back, it is almost impossible for the hotel quarantine system to cope. There have been similar cases of the virus escaping the hotel quarantine system in South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. The Melbourne outbreak is being blamed on the use of a nebuliser. Poor bloke obviously needed the nebuliser for his severe asthma but is now fighting for his life in intensive care. All state borders are now closed again. My younger daughter just made it home from South Australia yesterday. There were spectators at the Australian Open Tennis tonight but it will continue as a spectator-free event from tomorrow. I had a text and an email from the Melbourne Theatre Company to say my show tomorrow night is cancelled (all monies refunded). I hope the play I was lucky enough to see last Friday (new musical from Tim Finn) won't be the last one for the year. And I had just booked three shows at the Melbourne Comedy Festival for March. I'll survive but I feel for the artists who have done it harder than anyone over the last 12 months.
Tech XXIII wrote: "wait a meenit! a telly in ireland?wait a meenit! electricity in ireland?"
To be sure we do already have the Wheel, you know? - okay, it's Square, but we're working on it! ... And we can even manage to make some of that very bright hot stuff that them that knows about these things call Fire ... if the Still suddenly explodes at the bottom of the Garden! ;o>
Brass Neck wrote: "Righto. There's shite on all of 'em but to dismiss the whole output of all 4/5 seems a tad extreme. As a selective viewer I can find gems on all of 'em. What channels should I be watching, News UK TV and GB News?"Dare I say that all of the aforementioned (and yes, I'm aware there are multiple BBC channels, as there are ITV, and C4) could be rolled up into one single, more or less worthwhile channel by ditching all the trash? Many of the shows and channels mentioned above make my point - the best UK dramas shown now tend more often to be repeated classics. Other good shows tend to have some age on them. The remainder just demonstrate the paucity of imagination nowadays, being a ceaseless variation on worn out ideas, or garbage 'reality' trash.
BBC4 is more or less a museum now, since the Beeb decided to mothball it in favour of chasing the youth audience who mostly don't give a fig for the corporation, preferring to watch youtube or Netflix. That was what induced Sky to place their Arts channel on Freeview late last year.
I'm probably not the best person to recommend what channels to watch, Brass, as I view very little live TV these days. I will say the last BBC drama I tuned into live was the series of Shetland that went out in early 2019! Other than that its been Chernobyl (Sky/Now), Game of Thrones (Sky/Now on blu-ray), Watchmen (Sky/Now - on blu-ray), Lovecraft Country (Sky/Now), His Dark Materials (BBC co-production with HBO, again watched on blu-ray), and Star Trek repeats on Horror. I'm about to watch Season One of The Expanse (Amazon Prime) when time allows. Talking Pictures is a good channel.
I have to fire up the Methane Digester to get a picture.
Depending on the Methane quality, sometimes it's one channel, sometimes a myriad.
i hate to miss 'this morning with phillip and holly'of the rest (of the entire history of televisual programming), some is good, some is bad!
There's 4 Irish TV channels. RTE 1, bit like a shite BBC1 with added adverts, you can enjoy Eastenders with adverts!
RTE2, Also shite, full of Australian soap bile and mediocre 'celebrities'.
TV3, ITV style shite, softcore Crime Drama, and sensible jumper wearing, gameshows for the brain damaged and senile.
TG4, Irish Language channel, actually has some good stuff, but obviously you need to either speak Gaelic or read subtitles.
Most Irish people watch lots of UK channels, and I guess the youngsters probably watch no live TV atall anymore.
Tech XXIII wrote: "i hate to miss 'this morning with phillip and holly'I'm not sure Pornography first thing in the morning is a good idea.
Very Happy Belated Birthday Wishes, Serial ... x ;o>
suzysunshine7 wrote: "Very Happy Belated Birthday Wishes, Serial ... x ;o>"Ahh, thanks, Suzy. x
Serial wrote: "There's 4 Irish TV channels. RTE 1, bit like a shite BBC1 with added adverts, you can enjoy Eastenders with adverts!
The idea of 'enjoy' and 'Eastenders' in the same sentence really doesn't work for me :o)
I rarely ever watch any Soaps by choice - but, the few times that I have unexpectedly found myself watching the tail-end of any episodes of Eastenders, I couldn't believe that such an utterly horrible fifteen minutes could ever be classed as being 'entertainment'?! - LOL!!! ;oOI think, along with such shows as Casualty, it ought to come with a Health Warning first and then maybe a short session of Post Traumatic Therapy Treatment afterwards!!! ;o>
The clue is in the name BROADcasters - whatever the main channels and especially the Beeb they are duty bound to serve up programming to appeal to a wide audience of vast age range hence most of us will only occasionally find something that fully satisfies our personal tastes and much to scoff sneeringly at. Tim mentions Sky Arts becoming free to air and there are some good progs on there but many consist of showing old live material and docs off DVD/Blu-ray releases and these are endlessly repeated in a way that is NOT done by the Beeb. Their output only selectively appeals. Netflix is great but they don't publish listings you an plan what to record so you only watch stuff you're certain is on the platform I find - it's not easy to search it. This has meant, chez Brass, that once we are aware of something good on there we binge watch it since we'll forget and the recorder won't remember for us!
With the massive explosion in channels and streaming TV channels are chasing an ever-dwindling audience and if easily-digested pap pulls in more punters than heavy drama then that's what will fill up the listings inevitably. It is still a very good and necessary thing that the BBC is funded by the licence so it can take chances on original drama occasionally and resist selling the rights to streaming channels who don't develop new formats but just buy up successes from the mainstream like many of those listed by Tim.
I just switch my Telly on, fiddle about with the Aerial, and then watch Freeview ;o>
How much is the UK TV Licence?The Irish one is 160 Euro , a complete rip off.
Though I've never seen a TV Licence Inspector.
I remember when they tried to bring in water charges.
ROFLMAO
People barricaded the estates and their homes to stop them installing the meters. And then next to no one paid up.
So they cancelled water charges and refunded the people who'd paid, and left all the meters they'd fitted in situ.
Water is still free, and good luck to any future government changing that.
Serial wrote: "How much is the UK TV Licence?" ...£157.50 at the moment and going up on April the 1st to £159.
So Serial's got a bargain!!!That's £13.33 a month or 44p a day - what can you buy for that? I pay God knows how much for a Guardian subscription, weekday cover price £2.20, and still watch the Beeb evening news (and then ITV whose style seems more sensationalist and tabloid like and then often quite a chunk of C4's too). I dare say there's a poor pensioner somewhere or other people living on or below the poverty line for whom any reduction in outlay would be welcome but for the vast majority it's an absolute bargain. It is however a regressive tax since everyone pays the same regardless of income - making the licence free for over-70s didn't solve that since older people aren't all poor by any means. It was a completely political stunt by the Tories to 'rein in' the Beeb by cutting its income IMO. Not as if you can't spread the payment at no extra cost.
The clue is in the name BROADcasters - whatever the main channels and especially the Beeb they are duty bound to serve up programming to appeal to a wide audience of vast age range hence most of us will only occasionally find something that fully satisfies our personal tastes and much to scoff sneeringly at.That's always been the case, but those of us old enough to recall will know that even the trash was of a generally higher quality than it is today.
The BBC recently tried to claim that if the licence was changed to a subscription model the price would be in excess of £400 a year, a ludicrous sum they appear to have arrived at by totting up the cost of subs to Netflix, Amazon, and sundry other streaming services, and then I presume multiplying by whatever figure popped into their head. It also fails to take into account that streaming services are on a rolling monthly basis (I'm not including Sky, Virgin, Talk Talk etc here, but am including Now TV), so people can sub for a month or two, cancel, then resubscribe if something takes their fancy.
They're desperate to avoid such a change, yet at the same time state they bring the nation together. If that's true, why the fear? Wouldn't the great British public be happy to subscribe if it was so (and not at the ridiculous £400 figure). The BBC must realise they have lost the trust of a huge swathe of the public, and would face a massive income collapse if they could no longer force people to cough up under the threat of jail or fines. It doesn't matter if it's 'only' 44p a day. To say it's a bargain makes me wonder if, in order to buy the Guardian you were asked to also cough up the price of a Daily Mail as well, you'd be such a happy bunny.
In the past, when there were only three (later four) channels, and the BBC did make good shows, people accepted the licence fee, but in the modern age, when there is so much choice available, a growing number of the public see no good reason why they should be forced to pay the BBC for permission to watch channels which are either funded through advertising (and other commercial activities), ie ITV, C4, C5, etc etc, or are forced to pay the BBC for permission to watch Sky or another 'cable' provider (eg, Virgin, Talk Talk, etc) even if they never watch any BBC content at all. Smart TVs and apps allow people to watch most non-BBC content on catch-up without the need for 'live telly', and it would seem an increasing number are doing so - nearly half a million have so far cancelled their licence in the last year or two, and it's claimed around 750,000 over-75s are refusing to pay.
It was a completely political stunt by the Tories to 'rein in' the Beeb by cutting its income IMO.
And it wasn't equally a political stunt by Labour when they introduced it? I'm sure the idea of 'buying' some pensioner votes by doing it never crossed their mind.
You can claim that many streaming services add up to as much as the BBC licence over a year, and that's true. The critical difference is that people pay for what they want, not at the barrel of a gun. My blu-ray player can stream Netflix, but I'm not forced to pay the subscription for the service unless I choose to have it.
"And it wasn't equally a political stunt by Labour when they introduced it? I'm sure the idea of 'buying' some pensioner votes by doing it never crossed their mind." - everything done by any government is by definition political and, usually to some degree, self-serving. While it was funded out of general taxation it didn't harm the Beeb financially which was surely the main if not the whole intention of the Tory decision that the BBC should fund the freebies.
Yawn.....what a shocker, getting awoken by the alarm at 7.30amI usually get up 8/8.30
Those days are over, at least for the next 2 months anyway.
Plenty Calves to bucket feed, and cleaning the milk feeding machine everyday.....
I'll get the rest of the house extension done on the money though, and lets face it, there's plenty of miserable jobs people do and hate everyday.
"there's plenty of miserable jobs people do and hate everyday." - and there's plenty of jobless people who are misrable (...... but then there's also the newly-retired).
Today I shall mostly be ... believing in almost anything! ;oOWhat a year, hey? ... an international Pandemic of epic proportions comes out of seemingly nowhere and the 45th President of the United States of America actually openly incites a Riot via Social Media (amongst SO many other Crimes) against Democracy and the American Government, as well as against the American people, and then just gets away with it all completely scot-free?!! ;oO
I'm just waiting on the fly-over of Pigs that are surely on their way?! ... although I'm not quite sure now if it will be happening before or after the Earth gets invaded and taken over by Alien Life-forms from the Planet Zog?!! ...
Meanwhile the little Lads across the Road from us have finally managed to save up enough Pocket Money between them to buy themselves three Mice that they picked up from the Pet Shop yesterday. Their Mum very kindly came over today to see if we wanted anything as she was just about to head off to Tesco - and she told us that they have been named ... Splodge, Spot ... and Sarah!
I've decided to take it as a huge compliment to our ongoing friendship ... ;o> ... ;o> ... ;o>
Trying to get out of jury duty. Ripping the letter I recieved a fortnight ago up didn't help, as I recieved a 2nd one yesterday. Grrr. Bloody bad enough at the best of times but I really don't want to go when we're still in the middle of a pandemic. 😡😡😡Apart from that, I've been designing my own JBJ tee on a cool website I found. Bornrocker has probably the best band tees on the net, but after the bad experience I had trying to order a Europe one before Christmas, this is much better. And it works out about £15 cheaper.
I think if you respond by saying to them that you are ... "the main Carer of an elderly Parent who is continuing to shield during an ongoing Pandemic" ... then that should be more than sufficient grounds for them letting you off from having to take part, Collette?
suzysunshine7 wrote: "I think if you respond by saying to them that you are ... "the main Carer of an elderly Parent who is continuing to shield during an ongoing Pandemic" ... then that should be more than sufficient g..."I emailed them saying I was caring for my Mum and that she'd been shielding since last March, so hopefully, Suzy. 🙂 It's not that, the place I'm supposed to go to is a cinema over the other side of the city, and the same place where we had a load of trouble re parking there previously.
I know from what I've heard from someone who was a JP for many years that no-one wants to force unwilling members of the public to do Jury Service because they will obviously be coming along with closed Minds and a negative attitude to everyone - which will then be of no use or benefit to the Prosecution or the Defence.I don't know about Scotland but I've just Googled ... 'jury service during covid' ... and found this ...
"Ask to be excused from jury service
If it’s not possible for you to do jury service in the next 12 months, you can ask to be excused. You’ll need a good reason, for example:
•you have a serious illness or disability that prevents you from doing jury service
•you’re a full time carer of someone with an illness or disability
If you cannot do jury service because of coronavirus (COVID-19), you should ask to change the date.
You can also ask to be excused from jury service if you’ve done it in the last 2 years.
If you do not do jury service this time, you could still receive a summons in the future.
To ask to be excused, reply to your jury summons giving your reason. You might need to give proof, for example, if you’re ill you might be asked for a letter from your doctor.
If your request is turned down, you can still ask to change the date of your jury service"
... https://www.gov.uk/jury-service
If all else fails? ... just get yourself another Tee-shirt made up! ;o>One with ... "Chris De Blergggh's Greatest Fan" ... on the front.
If that doesn't immediately convince them all that you must be completely crackers and totally unfit for Jury Service then I don't know what else will? ... !!!
Just tell 'em you've got Hetty Wainthrop (or some such) videos to watch, should be valid reason.
Appearing on CBS’s Face The Nation, Boris Johnson was asked what signal the acquittal of a President who stoked violence while casting doubt on a free election would send to the rest of the World.“The clear message that we get from the proceedings in America,” the Prime Minister said, “is that after all the toings and froings and all the kerfuffle, American democracy is strong and the American constitution is strong and robust.”
... Sorry?!! - all the what? ... "all the kerfuffle" ... ?!!
It has me wondering now as to just what word Boris would choose to use to describe something like a Battle in a War Zone? ... ! ;oO
Amazon exiles
Books mentioned in this topic
Time of the Child (other topics)This Is Happiness (other topics)
Time of the Child (other topics)
Mog's Christmas (other topics)
We're Going on a Bear Hunt (other topics)
More...
Superfluous.
What a marvellous word.