“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. … But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6:5-6

My siblings and I often marvel that we survived growing up in the 1950s and 60s. DDT, leaded petrol, lead paint, asbestos fake snow, most adults smoking like chimneys, coal fires… My brother recently got through a type of leukaemia linked to the glue he used to make model planes.

On the other hand, plastic was rare back then. Containers were metal, glass, wood, ceramic. Shopping was carried in string bags or wicker baskets. The butcher wrapped meat in paper, lined with a sheet of waxed paper if it was bleeding. When plastic arrived big style it was cool, convenient, modern. In the 70s everyone had Tupperware - argh, those parties…

This was all in New Zealand btw, something of a conservative backwater. The Australian time zone joke ran: “If it’s 7pm in Sydney, it’s 1956 in Auckland.”

Thanks for putting a positive spin on it. sniffle I appreciate it.

I’ve eaten a lot of Tony’s chocolate, and one day I was strolling around Amsterdam on Street View and noticed a whole shop devoted to it. Wow! And I thought, huh, in Holland they call it ChocoLONELY, not ChocoLONEY.

Fast forward and there I was, scouring UK grocery sites and discovering the horrible truth: it had always been lonely. Why? WHY, TONY? What are you trying to say?

My own little Berenstain Bears moment.

Aww, I’ve enjoyed seeing your armour evolve, it looks fantastic. I don’t do other socials, so this really is goodbye. Fare thee well, sirrah!

Ps: Jerboa is pretty nice.

Good bot.

https://youtu.be/limwsUnH4iQ?feature=shared

Regular teabags are sometimes made using non-biodegradable plastic - be sure to buy those made with this starch based plastic. When I first saw biodegradable teabags I was surprised, I thought teabags were made of paper. Not so, it turns out.

Fantastic photo.

So, is the control thingie actually a remote, or is it wired to the blanket? I can see how that would be a problem when it comes to just repairing the cord. Time for a new blanket I guess.

My own electric blanket is the kind you lie on and the controls are on the cord. I’m never getting a puppy.

You haven’t met the man from Strabane, have you? https://youtu.be/XhGbpatmplQ?feature=shared

Oh that reminded me of one time I was in hospital really sick & an Indian doctor was examining me. She said, “Do you have any wessicles?” Ummm what is that? “Wessicles… I can’t remember the English word…” She tried describing wessicles and it hit me - blisters. “Yes, yes! Blisters!” She had actually been saying vesicles, which to be fair I would have to have looked up if I came across it in a book. We had a good laugh, she diagnosed me correctly, I got the right meds, and I recovered.

https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ten_thousand.png

“The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”

I had a SparQ drive - I did the sums, and it was the most cost-effective. A whole gigabyte per cartridge! Room for everything! I still have it in a box somewhere. It has some weird old connection… ah, parallel port according to Wikipedia.

The mad thing about it was that the drive malfunctioned a few months after I bought it. I took it back to the retailer and discovered it had been discontinued. But they still had one out the back, so the assistant swapped it for my defective one. Phew! In hindsight I should have asked for a refund. But hey, with two 1Gb cartridges I had enough storage for a lifetime!

Thumbs up for Shaman. I got the strong impression that KSR ran around in the woods at night naked to research that book. Some really interesting speculation on Neanderthals too.

You should be ok if you stay focused and alert. When you’re in the driver’s seat you will always be in the middle of the road next to the white line, whatever country you’re in.

The trickiest part is making turns. Driving in Europe, the US and Canada I used to say to myself “loooong left and tight right”. In Ireland, you’ll be turning right across the oncoming traffic. It’s tricky because if you don’t focus, habit will take you on to the wrong side of the road. After a couple of days you’ll get used to it.

Hire an automatic, they’re more common these days anyway. Having said that, I never had a problem changing gears withe the “wrong” hand.

Enjoy! The Irish countryside is lovely.

There’s something written on the toes, maybe it’s a story!

Yes, kind of, though I don’t follow a recipe. It’s what veg I have kicking around, flavoured with garlic, paprika and Hungarian sweet red pepper paste. Sometimes a bit of chicken or chorizo.

I set out tonight to make a delicious chicken paprika kind of stewish thing I’ve done before. As is my usual habit I took the jar of paprika from the cupboard and sprinkled a generous amount in the pan. Tasted after half an hour and fuck me, it was HOT.

It was cayenne pepper, not paprika.

My stomach actually hurts a bit.

This feels like an episode of The Apprentice. Lord Sugar (appropriate!): “Willy Wonka? More like Willy Wanker.” Cut to sweaty Project Manager about to be fired.