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Just for fun: the random, useless announcements thread!
Hey @Bunks, that'll be great for your children (and I guess for both you and your wife who are children at heart ) ...
Believe it or not but it snow here on the island a couple of years ago...I was at work and looking out the window ( as one normally does when one is suppose to be working) and saw what I thought at first were tiny leaves being blown by the wind, then all of a sudden I heard this young girl screaming outside, so I ventured out to see what the commotion was about and felt the tiny snow flakes melting as they touched my skin...it only lasted for a few minutes ....But it was snowing on the subtropical island... be it once in a blue moon snow...
I can remember hearing about young children ( 7 year olds) living in the Northern Territory who had never seen or felt rain, let alone snow ...
I was looking at one of our local newspapers this morning and had a little chuckle when I saw this ...It's a very serious issue... but done in a humorous way...
BTW The bird in the background is a Pukeko AKA Australasian Swamphen
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
On a more serious note, a young girl was toppled over a Quay wall when she was swooped on by a gull; and others have experienced nasty head wounds and badly bitten fingers. Additionally, two family pets were attacked and killed by gulls...
Squirrels are cute and cuddly but they are also wild animals and children should not be encouraged to feed them by hand....I think it was a case of Where does the food end and the fingers begin
Gallipoli the Turkish seagull told me there was an attempted coup in his homeland last night, and he is worried that the Corbynistas will rise up here in Britain and impose a socialist regime, nationalising his beloved kebab shops. I reassured him that Comrade Corbyn is suffering from exhaustion after a hard week on his allotment.
In other news there are worrying reports of a cat-orchestrated conspiracy in the animal world, aimed at over-throwing human domination. Massed attacks by seagulls and squirrels are just the initial phase. There are reports of a squirrel battalion being surrounded by Police Community Service Officers, the PCSOs demanded that the squirrels surrender, to which the squirrel commander retorted: "Nuts!".
@SpinyNorman said:
There are reports of a squirrel battalion being surrounded by Police Community Service Officers, the PCSOs demanded that the squirrels surrender, to which the squirrel commander retorted: "Nuts!".
Saw two seagull chicks floating around near the shore, with mother gull watching from the rocks, I'm guessing it was their first time on the water. The chicks looked rather confused and fed up, like "We're wet and seasick, mum, can we go home for chips now, please?"
1
silverIn the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded.USA, Left coast.Veteran
Poor little moochers. I can't tell you how many times I've seen gulls checking out the picnic baskets as soon as the humans turn their backs.
The gulls here will take chips and ice-creams right out of your mouth, it's a sort of "aggressive begging", or sometimes just a mugging.
I once encountered an aggressive-begging sheep while walking on the Penine Way in northern England, it ran over and pinched a sandwich out of my hand, cheeky bugger!
Photofit done by the Police for wanted poster:
Last Tuesday I sorted out my book cases and took two boxes of books (on Buddhism and philosophy) to the Op shops....On Wednesday I go Op shopping and find around half a dozen books on Zen Buddhism that someone had just dropped off, Susuki, Sekiguchi, Watts, Aitken, to name just a few...50 cents a book....Well they are now sitting in my bookcase...Out with the old and in with the new...More Buddhist junk treasures
The UK parliament voted yesterday to retain Trident, it's independent nuclear deterrent. Four new submarines will be built. £200 billion over 30 years, gawd! Scary stuff though.
0
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
There go my Tax Credits. Not that I am entitled to them, but others succeed in making claims they have no right to.... Wonder who else will lose out....?
(Actually, how much is that per year... about 5.5billion...? yeah, that's cheap....my non-existent Tax Credits aren't quite that much....)
@Shoshin said:
Last Tuesday I sorted out my book cases and took two boxes of books (on Buddhism and philosophy) to the Op shops....On Wednesday I go Op shopping and find around half a dozen books on Zen Buddhism that someone had just dropped off, Susuki, Sekiguchi, Watts, Aitken, to name just a few...50 cents a book....Well they are now sitting in my bookcase...Out with the old and in with the new...More Buddhist junk treasures
Aaahh, book finds. I found The Diary of a Young Girl and The Name of a Rose today FOR FREE. (Perhaps not light summer reading but nevertheless..)
@Shim I enjoy op shopping, you never know what you will find...
One person's junk is another person's treasure
It turns out the books I picked up, were donated to the Op shop by the friend who runs our Monday evening Buddhist group, he too had been sorting out his bookcase...
On the Monday evening before I took my books to the Op shop I brought them along to group to give them the opportunity of first pick, so it's possible this was what motivated my friend to do likewise ....
@SpinyNorman said:
The UK parliament voted yesterday to retain Trident, it's independent nuclear deterrent. Four new submarines will be built. £200 billion over 30 years, gawd! Scary stuff though.
It's winter and I'm still seeing quite a few Monarch butterflies in all stages of their life cycle...I was walking past some Swan plants when I spotted these...
While my relatives are growing old disgracefully and being barbecued, boiled and trapped in seaweed, I just joined this new crowd funded social/political movement MoreUnited.uk - oh I feel so much like an engaged Buddhist ...
I finally understand the difference between basic Norwegian pronouns and sin/si/sitt/sinne. Whoa. It's so easy. Bam. Whispers "yay"
2
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
Congrats! Language should be the easiest form of communication, given that apparently (according to some) we are the highest of creatures in the animal kingdom. Somehow, we have managed to complicate things to an unintelligible extreme....
Well wish me luck....This afternoon I'm off to the new high tech supermarket that opened its doors on the island today...
If you don't hear from me for a while . please send out a search party...I might have become lost in thought wandering through its many aisles looking for the new vegetarian and vegan food section they are meant to have...Or I you might find me trying to start a fight/argument with one of the new auto electronic self serving devices that they have installed ...
You can call off the search party..I made it back safely and unharmed...a little shook up but unharmed
I drove into the new underground carpark, picked up a trolley and made my way to the entrance. where I was greeted by a couple of young smiling staff members, one gave me a map (yes you need a map to find your way around the store)...
Boy it's big, it's about three times the size of the old one...Heaps of people there, but not many old faces around-it seemed to be full of lots of so called locals whom I have never seen before.....
But on the bright side, I did get two 'free' reusable shopping bags when at the check out, and as I was leaving the store a young man who works there gave me, a free shopping list pad fridge magnet and a carton of coconut water...
I like my local supermarket. They have self check-outs as well as real-people cashiers. The self check-outs are quick and easy for a few items, when I do a big shop, then I go through the regular lines, which are never very long except on the first Tuesday of the month which is 15% off all purchases.
It's very hot here at the moment so after my morning walk I linger in the Tesco's freezer compartment to cool down, studiously ignoring all the ice-cream.
Sometimes the Dairy Lama is there and will give me a teaching.
1
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
@Walker said:
I like my local supermarket. They have self check-outs as well as real-people cashiers. The self check-outs are quick and easy for a few items, when I do a big shop, then I go through the regular lines, which are never very long except on the first Tuesday of the month which is 15% off all purchases.
I refuse to use the self-check-out on the premise that eventually it is ultimately designed to make people redundant....
The system seems to work well where I shop. Some stores don't have the self-checkouts, and have huge queues. I don't feel like waiting in line for 20 minutes to buy a litre of milk and a dozen eggs, and most people are probably the same. Like I said, there are regular lines for when you have a cartful of groceries, with real people working the tills. I like having the option, and it really seems to keep the lines from growing too long. If they went fully automated, then I'd be probably have issues, but they seem to have struck the best balance I've seen in any of the stores around me. Technology changes, not always for the best, and you're right, some people lose their jobs because of it.
0
silverIn the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded.USA, Left coast.Veteran
I was skeptical at first when they started having self-serve checkouts at Walmart and grocery stores, but it's a big help when there's too few people at the registers so, it's okay with me. I also didn't like going to what is now my favorite produce market where you bag your own items. After you get the hang of it, you learn how to do it well.
@Shoshin said:
You can call off the search party..I made it back safely and unharmed...a little shook up but unharmed
I drove into the new underground carpark, picked up a trolley and made my way to the entrance. where I was greeted by a couple of young smiling staff members, one gave me a map (yes you need a map to find your way around the store)...
Boy it's big, it's about three times the size of the old one...Heaps of people there, but not many old faces around-it seemed to be full of lots of so called locals whom I have never seen before.....
But on the bright side, I did get two 'free' reusable shopping bags when at the check out, and as I was leaving the store a young man who works there gave me, a free shopping list pad fridge magnet and a carton of coconut water...
You're right @Bunks When I first arrived on the island the supermarket was called Foodtown, and for the last few years it's been "Countdown" which is a subsidiary of Progressive Enterprises, itself a subsidiary of Australia's Woolworths Limited...
You have "Woolworths" in Australia?! Sheer luxury! All our Woolworths got closed down.
I have fond childhood memories of the self-service sweet counter at Woolworths, "pick and mix", or as we called it, "pick and nick".
For the past couple of months the poor weather man on TV has been saying "The winter has arrived " then we might get a day or two cold snap, then it's back to reasonably warm sunny weather...Well this evening he said it again "The winter is finally upon us!" this is due to the heavy snow forecast for tonight in the central Nth Island and many parts of the Sth Island...We'll just have to wait and see ..Mind you on the island we have already had our Once in a blue moon snow a couple of years back, so we are not due for any in the near future.... https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/brace-yourselves-winter-hit-hard
I visited the dream world last night (well early morning actually) it was lucid...My dream body was in a Bazaar of sorts, in a narrow covered section where I met one of my Tibetan teachers who was standing with a friend from the Monday evening group I attend, there were other monks there that I knew by sight but not by name...
I greeted Geshe-la and the others and carried on walking deeper into the Bazaar where I came upon a very dark passage, at first I was somewhat hesitant about entering, fortunately my bladder was full and I woke up,( back into the physical body) to make a toilet stop...
Back in bed I slotted back into the dream body that awaited me, and found it was standing in an office building, there were people milling around none were familiar to me, so I walk over to the desk and started to speak with one of the guys who was sitting there (I remember he had a light blue long sleeved shirt on), I mentioned something about 'this is just a dream' he looked surprised and I said here I'll prove it, and I grabbed hold of both his arms and started to pull them over the top of the desk and they began to stretch, as if they were made of elastic....Then I was bundled back into my physical body and woke up...Bummer...
The mind was the producer and director of the dream and "I" played the many parts...
How bizarre that I found my dream body in a Bazaar...It reminded me of Morocco....
1
federicaSeeker of the clear blue sky...Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubtModerator
Comments
Hey @Bunks, that'll be great for your children (and I guess for both you and your wife who are children at heart
) ...
Believe it or not but it snow here on the island a couple of years ago...I was at work and looking out the window ( as one normally does when one is suppose to be working) and saw what I thought at first were tiny leaves being blown by the wind, then all of a sudden I heard this young girl screaming outside, so I ventured out to see what the commotion was about and felt the tiny snow flakes melting as they touched my skin...it only lasted for a few minutes ....But it was snowing on the subtropical island... be it once in a blue moon snow...
I can remember hearing about young children ( 7 year olds) living in the Northern Territory who had never seen or felt rain, let alone snow ...
My wife met a few people (adults) in Denver CO who had never seen the sea @shoshin!! Imagine that....
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
I was looking at one of our local newspapers this morning and had a little chuckle when I saw this ...It's a very serious issue... but done in a humorous way...
BTW The bird in the background is a Pukeko AKA Australasian Swamphen
Love the Pukeko! The variety in Australia don't seem to be as purple as their NZ cousins though.
It could have something to do with their diet @Bunks ...
This TV ad about saving power, featuring a mother Pukeko and a couple of chicks was a big hit back in the day...
Fish and chips could be banned in British seaside towns due to rampaging sea-gulls!
Deleted, technical issues blamed on sea-gulls!
And it's not just seagulls mugging people for chips, a 3-year old was attacked by a vicious gang of squirrels! What is happening to our wildlife?!
http://metro.co.uk/2016/07/14/boy-3-attacked-by-aggressive-gang-of-squirrels-6006943/
On a more serious note, a young girl was toppled over a Quay wall when she was swooped on by a gull; and others have experienced nasty head wounds and badly bitten fingers. Additionally, two family pets were attacked and killed by gulls...
They're a menace, actually....
Squirrels are cute and cuddly but they are also wild animals and children should not be encouraged to feed them by hand....I think it was a case of Where does the food end and the fingers begin
Gallipoli the Turkish seagull told me there was an attempted coup in his homeland last night, and he is worried that the Corbynistas will rise up here in Britain and impose a socialist regime, nationalising his beloved kebab shops. I reassured him that Comrade Corbyn is suffering from exhaustion after a hard week on his allotment.
In other news there are worrying reports of a cat-orchestrated conspiracy in the animal world, aimed at over-throwing human domination. Massed attacks by seagulls and squirrels are just the initial phase. There are reports of a squirrel battalion being surrounded by Police Community Service Officers, the PCSOs demanded that the squirrels surrender, to which the squirrel commander retorted: "Nuts!".
That was a corny joke @SpinyNorman
Saw two seagull chicks floating around near the shore, with mother gull watching from the rocks, I'm guessing it was their first time on the water. The chicks looked rather confused and fed up, like "We're wet and seasick, mum, can we go home for chips now, please?"
Poor little moochers. I can't tell you how many times I've seen gulls checking out the picnic baskets as soon as the humans turn their backs.
The gulls here will take chips and ice-creams right out of your mouth, it's a sort of "aggressive begging", or sometimes just a mugging.
I once encountered an aggressive-begging sheep while walking on the Penine Way in northern England, it ran over and pinched a sandwich out of my hand, cheeky bugger!
![](https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.Md42adff53c40921d74db60fc727a56beo0&pid=15.1&P=0&w=254&h=170"")
Photofit done by the Police for wanted poster:
Last Tuesday I sorted out my book cases and took two boxes of books (on Buddhism and philosophy) to the Op shops....On Wednesday I go Op shopping and find around half a dozen books on Zen Buddhism that someone had just dropped off, Susuki, Sekiguchi, Watts, Aitken, to name just a few...50 cents a book....Well they are now sitting in my bookcase...Out with the old and in with the new...More Buddhist junk treasures
The UK parliament voted yesterday to retain Trident, it's independent nuclear deterrent. Four new submarines will be built. £200 billion over 30 years, gawd! Scary stuff though.
There go my Tax Credits. Not that I am entitled to them, but others succeed in making claims they have no right to.... Wonder who else will lose out....?
(Actually, how much is that per year... about 5.5billion...? yeah, that's cheap....my non-existent Tax Credits aren't quite that much....)
Aaahh, book finds. I found The Diary of a Young Girl and The Name of a Rose today FOR FREE. (Perhaps not light summer reading but nevertheless..)
@Shim I enjoy op shopping, you never know what you will find...
One person's junk is another person's treasure
It turns out the books I picked up, were donated to the Op shop by the friend who runs our Monday evening Buddhist group, he too had been sorting out his bookcase...
On the Monday evening before I took my books to the Op shop I brought them along to group to give them the opportunity of first pick, so it's possible this was what motivated my friend to do likewise ....
Saw an African Skimmer, which is a sort of gull, quite rare in these parts. I offered him some cous-cous but he said he preferred chips.
Good thing they are highly trained ... probably by the Monty Python team ... and the usual contract lobbyists (no relation)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/21/theresa-may-lobbyists-trident-heathrow-business
UK nuclear submarine collides with merchant vessel off Gibraltar
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36852365
On my 'mindful' walk after work I was greeted with this...The sun playing peekaboo ...
and yesterday walking home from the SPCA op shop I spied this break in the cloud over "Little Barrier Island"
It's winter and I'm still seeing quite a few Monarch butterflies in all stages of their life cycle...I was walking past some Swan plants when I spotted these...
Larry the 110 year old lobster is now enjoying his retirement!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3703903/110-year-old-Larry-lobster-saved-dinner-table-sent-live-aquarium-Maine.html
Saved from a fate worse than death...
"It's your last chance....How old are you Larry ???"
While my relatives are growing old disgracefully and being barbecued, boiled and trapped in seaweed, I just joined this new crowd funded social/political movement MoreUnited.uk - oh I feel so much like an engaged Buddhist ...
This message sponsored by Dump the Trump Chump
The farting Trumpet also wants to keep out Mexican lobsters, but they just say "Hasta, la vista" and "I'll be back".
I finally understand the difference between basic Norwegian pronouns and sin/si/sitt/sinne. Whoa. It's so easy. Bam. Whispers "yay"
Congrats! Language should be the easiest form of communication, given that apparently (according to some) we are the highest of creatures in the animal kingdom. Somehow, we have managed to complicate things to an unintelligible extreme....
Well wish me luck....This afternoon I'm off to the new high tech supermarket that opened its doors on the island today...
If you don't hear from me for a while . please send out a search party...I might have become lost in thought wandering through its many aisles looking for the new vegetarian and vegan food section they are meant to have...Or I you might find me trying to start a fight/argument with one of the new auto electronic self serving devices that they have installed ...
So wish me luck...I'm gonna need it....
You can call off the search party..I made it back safely and unharmed...a little shook up but unharmed
I drove into the new underground carpark, picked up a trolley and made my way to the entrance. where I was greeted by a couple of young smiling staff members, one gave me a map (yes you need a map to find your way around the store)...
Boy it's big, it's about three times the size of the old one...Heaps of people there, but not many old faces around-it seemed to be full of lots of so called locals whom I have never seen before.....
But on the bright side, I did get two 'free' reusable shopping bags when at the check out, and as I was leaving the store a young man who works there gave me, a free shopping list pad fridge magnet and a carton of coconut water...
Welcome to the hedonistic world of Commerce and capitalism.
I like my local supermarket. They have self check-outs as well as real-people cashiers. The self check-outs are quick and easy for a few items, when I do a big shop, then I go through the regular lines, which are never very long except on the first Tuesday of the month which is 15% off all purchases.
It's very hot here at the moment so after my morning walk I linger in the Tesco's freezer compartment to cool down, studiously ignoring all the ice-cream.
Sometimes the Dairy Lama is there and will give me a teaching.
I refuse to use the self-check-out on the premise that eventually it is ultimately designed to make people redundant....
The system seems to work well where I shop. Some stores don't have the self-checkouts, and have huge queues. I don't feel like waiting in line for 20 minutes to buy a litre of milk and a dozen eggs, and most people are probably the same. Like I said, there are regular lines for when you have a cartful of groceries, with real people working the tills. I like having the option, and it really seems to keep the lines from growing too long. If they went fully automated, then I'd be probably have issues, but they seem to have struck the best balance I've seen in any of the stores around me. Technology changes, not always for the best, and you're right, some people lose their jobs because of it.
I was skeptical at first when they started having self-serve checkouts at Walmart and grocery stores, but it's a big help when there's too few people at the registers so, it's okay with me. I also didn't like going to what is now my favorite produce market where you bag your own items. After you get the hang of it, you learn how to do it well.
Countdown? Looks like Woolworths rebranded to me!
You're right @Bunks When I first arrived on the island the supermarket was called Foodtown, and for the last few years it's been "Countdown" which is a subsidiary of Progressive Enterprises, itself a subsidiary of Australia's Woolworths Limited...
You have "Woolworths" in Australia?! Sheer luxury! All our Woolworths got closed down.
I have fond childhood memories of the self-service sweet counter at Woolworths, "pick and mix", or as we called it, "pick and nick".
For the past couple of months the poor weather man on TV has been saying "The winter has arrived " then we might get a day or two cold snap, then it's back to reasonably warm sunny weather...Well this evening he said it again "The winter is finally upon us!" this is due to the heavy snow forecast for tonight in the central Nth Island and many parts of the Sth Island...We'll just have to wait and see
..Mind you on the island we have already had our Once in a blue moon snow a couple of years back, so we are not due for any in the near future....
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/brace-yourselves-winter-hit-hard
I visited the dream world last night (well early morning actually) it was lucid...My dream body was in a Bazaar of sorts, in a narrow covered section where I met one of my Tibetan teachers who was standing with a friend from the Monday evening group I attend, there were other monks there that I knew by sight but not by name...
I greeted Geshe-la and the others and carried on walking deeper into the Bazaar where I came upon a very dark passage, at first I was somewhat hesitant about entering, fortunately my bladder was full and I woke up,( back into the physical body) to make a toilet stop...
Back in bed I slotted back into the dream body that awaited me, and found it was standing in an office building, there were people milling around none were familiar to me, so I walk over to the desk and started to speak with one of the guys who was sitting there (I remember he had a light blue long sleeved shirt on), I mentioned something about 'this is just a dream' he looked surprised and I said here I'll prove it, and I grabbed hold of both his arms and started to pull them over the top of the desk and they began to stretch, as if they were made of elastic....Then I was bundled back into my physical body and woke up...Bummer...
The mind was the producer and director of the dream and "I" played the many parts...
How bizarre that I found my dream body in a Bazaar...It reminded me of Morocco....
You need to up your meditation medication.....
No.... I tend to steer well clear of barbiturates barbitchurates...I've seen what they do to some people
I love that - 'barbitchurates' - I intend taking these three times x day!
Tell me about it.....
Good one, USA... and we think we got problems...
https://www.facebook.com/ian.convery/posts/10153952812708893?pnref=story