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Rob
Member
Posts: 2043
Registered: Sep 2007 |
 Posted October 31st, 2010 08:30 PM IP    
Quote:
alan wrote:
Funny how Halloween has now become an event in the UK. It meant nothng when i was young and Guy Fawkes night was the big thing. Now even the likes of Tesco's have an aisle full of costumes for all and everyone seems to partake. It still doesn't feel right though, the English seem to apologise for iit, whereas in american films it seems to be natural.
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We celebrated it but it was nothing like the industry it is now. We'd make lanterns but using hollowed out turnips, not pumpkins. That's a wholly American thing. We used to play bob apple (trying to eat an apple dangling from a string with your hands behind your back) and duck apple (trying to eat apples floating in water with your hands behind your back). And we'd roast our chestnuts over an open fire. Trick or treat is an abomination. I never heard of it until John Carpenter's movie Halloween. And it seems to me that film was the beginning of the Americanistaion of Halloween in the UK, the abominable practice of trick or treating in particular.
Have YOU been Con-Demed yet?
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The Grand Fromage
Member
Posts: 2732
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted October 31st, 2010 09:00 PM IP
I remember having Pumpkins back in the early 70s. We'd celebrate it at my grandparents'. A deserted mechanical/office complex at night can be a scary place -always good fun. One night we took a lantern to the local woods and ran around the trees with it. Sometimes we bobbed for apples, and dressed up as witches etc, other times my grandfather would imperceptibly tug the electrical flex going into the electric fire - causing it to move ... and denying it was ever possible lol.
Tonight's pumpkin is an effigy of one of my mates - and I've created some newspaper hair for it too.
Agree about trick or treat being a load of needless crap though!
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted November 11th, 2010 02:19 AM IP
What a weird and very expensive week.
First the amp on my hifi starts cutting out in a major way - its 24 years old and i had it fixed not long ago, but it is part of matching Technics components and i'm used to it, so i've managed to find a similar ((slightly more powerful) amp on ebay for £75. Also managed to find a replacement for my Sony DVD/SACD player that will run my 5.1 system on my existing speakers and means i can play SACD's again (though maybe not my 5.1 copy of Another SIde Of Bob Dylan - the mono will do quite nicely for that) - also £75.
Having paid for those my fridge then starts heating up and refusing to cool down again. Result, a trip to the local Curry's electrical store and £600 spent on a new fridge. They had cheaper but they weren't great quality. Arrives tomorrow (hopefully with everything else as i have taken the day off work!). Its amazing how much a non functioning fridge affects you though. Everything is so warm! Thank heavens for the cold snap which has meant i can leave milk outside the back door!
Next thing we need to do is take the cat to the vet (blood in his stools) and god knows how much that might cost!
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The Grand Fromage
Member
Posts: 2732
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted November 28th, 2010 03:22 PM IP
If anyone watches the All Ireland Talent Show on RTE tonight -check out the t-shirts worn by the band "The Myth" - they might just have been designed by yours truly 
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zelilgirlI1ncenu
Administrator
Posts: 2437
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted November 28th, 2010 11:47 PM IP
Sorry watche X factor, after listening to the horrendous news about the IMF and EU plan.
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The Grand Fromage
Member
Posts: 2732
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted November 29th, 2010 08:27 AM IP
Quote:
zelilgirlI1ncenu wrote:
Sorry watche X factor, after listening to the horrendous news about the IMF and EU plan.
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Yeah, that's not very good news for us either 8 billion is a lot to have to write off (me not convinced it will ever be paid back), especially as all the tory run councils here are using the whole recession as an excuse to dismantle as many public services as they can.
Apparently The Myth are up live in Jan and that's when they want the designs for.
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zelilgirlI1ncenu
Administrator
Posts: 2437
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted November 29th, 2010 08:48 AM IP
Tried to find the programme on youtube, maybe too early?
My next blog will be about weather conditions and the big march last Saturday (cops figures 50 000, trade unions figure 150000 attendee, so probly a medium between the two). But here are a picture of the start of the demo, which was under the arch at Christ Church.
Next morning in Dublin, view from back window
(Edited by zelilgirlI1ncenu)
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted November 29th, 2010 02:12 PM IP
Lovely!
Still hasn't snowed here but it should do at some time today or tomorrow.
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Rob
Member
Posts: 2043
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted November 29th, 2010 05:55 PM IP
British Tory Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, on the Irish economic 'miracle' (writing in 2006).
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/co...ticle733821.ece
Choice bits:
"A GENERATION ago, the very idea that a British politician would go to Ireland to see how to run an economy would have been laughable. The Irish Republic was seen as Britain’s poor and troubled country cousin, a rural backwater on the edge of Europe. Today things are different. Ireland stands as a shining example of the art of the possible in long-term economic policymaking, and that is why I am in Dublin: to listen and to learn."
and
"The new global economy poses real long-term challenges to Britain, but also real opportunities for us to prosper and succeed. In Ireland they understand this. They have freed their markets, developed the skills of their workforce, encouraged enterprise and innovation and created a dynamic economy. They have much to teach us, if only we are willing to learn."
So what happened? Did Gordon Brown wreck the Irish economy too? Of course, Ireland have been on the same 'deficit cutting' strategy for the last couple of years which Osborne and the British ConDem coalition government are now embarking on. As a result, they're even deeper in the shit and are having to be bailed out!
Have YOU been Con-Demed yet?
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted November 29th, 2010 07:19 PM IP
Yes that was mentioned at some length on Have I Got News For You recently!
We clearly have much to learn indeed!
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The Grand Fromage
Member
Posts: 2732
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted November 29th, 2010 07:43 PM IP
Quote:
alan wrote:
We clearly have much to learn indeed!
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IS learning and an agenda, mutually exclusive - me thinks they are?
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The Grand Fromage
Member
Posts: 2732
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 1st, 2010 04:31 PM IP
Just won a £100 Roberts DAB from World Rally Radio. Don't know whether to keep it or wrap it up for someone. Still, takes my mind off waiting for prostate blood results and Christmas and NY to be over and done with lol.
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zelilgirlI1ncenu
Administrator
Posts: 2437
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 1st, 2010 05:25 PM IP
Congrats Mat on the winning and than you for the birthday card I got on the post today! Birthday cards are nearly a thing of the past, aren't they?
About Ireland, its got to the stage that people dont even want to listen to the news again. It is sickening. Anyway I'll be out aprotestin' again on the night of the budget, 7th December for all the good it will do, sigh.
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The Grand Fromage
Member
Posts: 2732
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 1st, 2010 07:21 PM IP
Quote:
zelilgirlI1ncenu wrote:
Congrats Mat on the winning and than you for the birthday card I got |
Drat! A day late! I hope they never go out of fashion x
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zelilgirlI1ncenu
Administrator
Posts: 2437
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 2nd, 2010 08:27 AM IP
Well I think they gather letters for a couple days before venturing on the icy roads, so your card may just have been on time but in Rathmines undelivered :-)
And yeah I hope they dont go ut of fashion either. There is nothing quite like opening an enveloppe, and looking at the stamp and trying to giure out who wrote etc... :-) So thanks for keeping up goods traditions!
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zelilgirlI1ncenu
Administrator
Posts: 2437
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 6th, 2010 09:06 AM IP
Wikileaks topic anyone?
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted December 6th, 2010 02:21 PM IP
Thing is none of it is surprising. Its the sort of thing everyone says about others when they aren't in the room. Prince Andrew is rude about the press? Well who would have guessed? I dread to think what a UK leaked set of documents would reveal!
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The Grand Fromage
Member
Posts: 2732
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 6th, 2010 02:27 PM IP
Today's is much more serious -all US strategic buildings and vital supply links outside the US -including lots of factories and and civilian suppliers in the UK. This benefits noone except extremists and terrorists now -time it was silenced methinks.
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alan
Administrator
Posts: 7455
Registered: Aug 2007 |
Posted December 6th, 2010 07:12 PM IP
Quote:
The Grand Fromage wrote:
Today's is much more serious -all US strategic buildings and vital supply links outside the US -including lots of factories and and civilian suppliers in the UK. This benefits noone except extremists and terrorists now -time it was silenced methinks.
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True. That stuff is dangerous, though you would expect anyone with decent resources to have put much of it together themselves, but it certainly helps the do it yourself version.
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The Grand Fromage
Member
Posts: 2732
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 10th, 2010 11:17 AM IP
Hmmm, my parcel to London has not been delivered - 10 days and waiting, I'm in the middle of trying to clear the house yet again, and my ALDI Cola Bottles don't have any acetic acid on them 
On a weirder note - in a controlled experiment, my Cognitive Behavioral Therapy practitioner managed to teach me how to have a FULLY BLOWN panic attack in less than 30 seconds. Then followed it up with a second, and a scientific description of why and how. Still pretty affected by it a day later -a truly mind bending experience 
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zelilgirlI1ncenu
Administrator
Posts: 2437
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 10th, 2010 06:09 PM IP
WHAT???? I think you are either saying too much or too little. But this sound like a nightmare.
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The Grand Fromage
Member
Posts: 2732
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 10th, 2010 06:59 PM IP
Quote:
zelilgirlI1ncenu wrote:
WHAT???? I think you are either saying too much or too little. But this sound like a nightmare.
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Well I'm not giving any secrets away! Actually, it's a unique chance to explore the fight or flight mechanism and learn how to tame it!
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zelilgirlI1ncenu
Administrator
Posts: 2437
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 10th, 2010 09:56 PM IP
Yeah I am sure but can you objectify yourself for the purpose of the experiment????
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The Grand Fromage
Member
Posts: 2732
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 10th, 2010 10:24 PM IP
Quote:
zelilgirlI1ncenu wrote:
Yeah I am sure but can you objectify yourself for the purpose of the experiment????
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Absolutely. That's the beauty of the system -it leaves no doubt that what ocurs is anything other than a very normal physiological mechanism. Not enjoying the homework version very much though lol
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The Grand Fromage
Member
Posts: 2732
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 11th, 2010 07:25 PM IP
Someone wanted to buy me an iPad for Christmas (they really are fantastic). I had to decline as I'd need £800 in software updates on my Mac to even be compatible
So, what's the best price for the Neil Young Archive (DVD) at the moment?
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zelilgirlI1ncenu
Administrator
Posts: 2437
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 12th, 2010 10:38 AM IP
Cheaper than an iPad!
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The Grand Fromage
Member
Posts: 2732
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 12th, 2010 11:27 AM IP
Looks like I'll have to come buy that myself in Dublin lol as my Dad doesn't even know how to switch on a computer much less buy anything online!
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zelilgirlI1ncenu
Administrator
Posts: 2437
Registered: Sep 2007 |
Posted December 12th, 2010 11:50 AM IP
Yes why dont you make a quick trip!
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