Absolutely Anything Else

Its all happening on our road for the next 4 months. They have been saying this for the last 5 odd years.

SimCityAT wrote:

[img align=C]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ACtC-3cN_qtHexoNTN_9Pz9zEoAhFVcODqCmEIzjXl5MjEe_sLcA6YIv6mQm3iA6ixz_x4ofdfw-FSqFwr319trM9ckc7YTX3rIWQQe_RxVPdVfsDsEfIso0h8C35jCdpfdZc9VskSWEo5JHDz8D-BmsgriS=w569-h758-no?authuser=0[/url]

I was thinking up silly answers to that tube picture before you added the text:

It's someone's pipe dream

No thanks I've got some already.

Russian COVID19 vaccine containers.

Minions being used to block tubes.

Donald enema preparations

Or counter with....





Those pipes look like gas pipes or possibly water or sewage pipes.  It looks to me like they are far too close to the surface.  Could be cable ducts.  They should be at least 70cm underground to me.  Traffic thundering over the top is not going to help them survive.

So what do have planned?

1) A new Heating system (Thats what the Black pipes are)

2) 2 companies are installing Fibre optic telephone cables down and 1 is a cable company as well.

3) New street Led lighting on the ground and the regular ones on posts.

and finally.....
4) Redesigning the whole road. Which has been long overdue. In 112 years or I've lived here the road has been dug up so many times the road felt more like a dirt track.

Good news, some local law has been passed, the road can not be dug up in a minimum of 10 years unless of course (gas or burst water mains) But as everything has been replaced I can see no reason why this would happen.

Our road is the main road through the town and has a lot of traffic going through it. Some people in the town are not happy.
I lived in the town for 40 years and the road has been resurfaced  7 times, which is not true because you can see the state of the road.

There always has to be someone who isn't happy with something or other. We just need to ban the lorries that use the road as a shortcut.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Those pipes look like gas pipes or possibly water or sewage pipes.  It looks to me like they are far too close to the surface.  Could be cable ducts.  They should be at least 70cm underground to me.  Traffic thundering over the top is not going to help them survive.

They are some form of community heating system which I have never heard of. They want to €1400 just to install it into the house. I think we will pass on that as they haven't even bothered to inform us of the rates.

Fernwärme (In German)

District heating (English), heat supply for supplying buildings with heating and hot water is called. The thermal energy is transported in a thermally insulated pipe system, which is mainly buried in the ground, but overhead lines are also used in some cases.

SimCityAT wrote:

Fernwärme (In German)

District heating (English), heat supply for supplying buildings with heating and hot water is called. The thermal energy is transported in a thermally insulated pipe system, which is mainly buried in the ground, but overhead lines are also used in some cases.

Oh no, not that stuff.  I can see they might want to do that but it makes no sense to me.  If the district heating is out of action, you're stuffed. 

I was working on a job once in Bucharest, Romania and it was a February or March and we had a short term apartment in a block of flats. Mrs Fluffy and a very small Fluffyette were with me.  In the middle of our stay the heating and hot water stopped for "revision".  It was freezing!  I called the owner and started complaining.  He came around and shrugged his shoulders.  I then said, if you don't do something, we're leaving to a place that has heat and hot water.  Within a day he'd installed a heater and a hot water cylinder. 

I vowed never to have that kind of system in my house. I did learn in Austria that it's necessary to have two types of heating.  We went one further here - we have gas central heating, air based heat exchangers (electrical airco units that can run in reverse) and in an absolute emergency with no gas or power,  a wood burner.   We specified the house to have places for solar panels, so we have all the conduits in place for it and a place for a battery system and inverters.   I've calculated that we'll be net generators overall if we use the battery system overnight. 

All I need is a well for drinking water and we'd be independent of the grid.

SimCityAT wrote:

Fernwärme (In German)

District heating (English), heat supply for supplying buildings with heating and hot water is called. The thermal energy is transported in a thermally insulated pipe system, which is mainly buried in the ground, but overhead lines are also used in some cases.

Quite common the Netherlands; my wife's parents had a house heated by it; they had indicators on the face of the radiators and some old fella used to come around and take the reading for each room, then add in how much water you had used from the hot water meter - eh voila, la bill.  All changed now, they still have stadsverwarming, 8,500 houses in the town where they lived, but all wired into the Internet, you can look at your phone and work out which room cost more, from that they do heating surveys to see what can be done to reduce the heating, but still maintain 20 degrees.

Friday, they lay down tools at 12 - 2pm instead of 4 - 6pm. I have never seen them work on a Saturday so hearing them drilling at 7am was a surprise. Not complaining as we live well back from the road and I am on autopilot with misses being on earlier.

Maybe they will work a half-day today?

We will see if they work tomorrow Sunday?

I received a letter from my dad yesterday (I guess it was) I don't check the mailbox daily as don't get that much mail. Any Bills are on standing order and we have a sticker saying no junk mail.  Well, we are on good terms with the postie and she knows better

Well back to Dad, he put Esq behind my name. I am wondering what he will put next letters title Sir? Bless him he is 80 and fit as fiddle. Just never put that before.

SimCityAT wrote:

Friday, they lay down tools at 12 - 2pm instead of 4 - 6pm. I have never seen them work on a Saturday so hearing them drilling at 7am was a surprise. Not complaining as we live well back from the road and I am on autopilot with missus being on earlier.

Maybe they will work a half-day today?

We will see if they work tomorrow Sunday?

We always used to be surprised how little things progress in both Germany and Austria at the weekends.  I've never seen anyone doing anything on public works during the weekend there.  It must be labour laws.  We see them here doing stuff but not much recently. 

The only people who work on stuff at weekends there are house builders working on their own property and even then they are few and far between on Sundays.  Might be a religious angle to that.

We used to find it weird no-one was working on roadworks during the weekends or nights.  They cause huge traffic jams during the busy period and they could do a lot during the night if they are far enough out of town.

Working out of hours here can get very strange - we even had a rubbish collection on Christmas Day last year.  Friday is rubbish day and yup, 2020 Christmas was a Friday so that's what was going to happen regardless of public holidays.

BTW, public holiday here, Monday 15th March - National Day and from Wikipedia memorial day of the 1848 Revolution (which aimed at the independence of the Hungarian Kingdom from the Austrian Empire). There are usually speeches and music such as the "Nemzeti dal" (a poem); many people wear a cockade with the national colours red, white, and green.   We should be putting out our HU flags.

I live in a town that has no restrictions at all. If I want to cut a tree down at 3am in the morning with a chain saw. I am allowed!! If I want to cut my lawn on a Sunday, the same. Now travel 5 miles to next town and you'd.

SimCityAT wrote:

I received a letter from my dad yesterday (I guess it was) I don't check the mailbox daily as don't get that much mail. Any Bills are on standing order and we have a sticker saying no junk mail.  Well, we are on good terms with the postie and she knows better

Well back to Dad, he put Esq behind my name. I am wondering what he will put next letters title Sir? Bless him he is 80 and fit as fiddle. Just never put that before.

Maybe just being "old school".

I'm trying to stop people sending us letters - they should send us e-mail instead but they don't all get it and official letters have to be signed for.   

Our garden is still a building site and we have  problems of people misunderstanding where the letter box is due to the building work and temporary arrangements.  So they shove the letters behind a sign we put up rather than walk 5m to the post box.  We've got a big arrow that says "Post Box this way" but they still don't read it.  Our normal postie knows the score and it's mutual admiration between him and our dog. 

As for addressing people, you think you've got something odd going on. It can get a bit weird.   And I say this being a liberal person and all up for inclusiveness,

I've been used to using the usual styles like Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, Master etc.  Now there's Mx for when gender is not clear but that's not so mainstream but works in letters but could offend someone who is adamantly a Mr or a Ms.  Bit of a sensitive subject to try and guess the gender of the person you are addressing.   People I get connected with workwise and have non-obvious gender based names (or non-cultural or foreign type names) are not actually including the honorific now. 

So I might get an official type e-mail from  Kim Smith for example.  How do I know what to write back?  Either Dear Ms/Mx/Mrs/Mr Smith perhaps.  Dear Kim is just too familiar.  So I'd tend to write Dear Kim Smith as that's the name they used.

At one point I took using Mme (Madame) for some older female non-native English speaking people.  It was in a work situations which didn't work that great when there's an age disparity (me being the older one by a wide margin).

One of them laughed at me so we ended up using first names which is common enough in Western countries regardless of your hierarchical position.   In some countries, they use surnames without the honorific a lot which I find incredibly rude.   It's easier when say there's a chairperson - Chairperson Kim Smith.

I think I'm going to have to always start by saying, let's dispense with titles and use first names. I'm not sure that would go down well everywhere, especially on a first encounter.

Tricky business.

Can Wales do 4 wins? A step closer to the Grand Slam?

Rugby for those that don't know. A game North America robbed.

SimCityAT wrote:

...

Rugby for those that don't know. A game North America robbed.

Not only that, they culturally appropriated the word "football".  But US sports is always tricky.  Things like World Series baseball - what parallel universe world is that in then? Superbowl to me would mean expensive sanitary ware.

But they are getting the faith.  They did well in the last World Cup and some of the US female football players are doing wonders for the beautiful game.

Sorry to our American friends. Superbowl is so tiresome to watch. How long does it go on for?

As per suggestion of SimCityAT, my experience with Americans (US citizens). my experience is largely (business but also privately) positive.
For both I have to say in general I like them (quite a bit), of course US is US and the profile is bigger then for example citizens of the Netherlands, still from the people I knew personally respect, politeness and interesting discussions on life.

In my experience they do recognize area of expertise (society but also business), on balance I like Americans more then British (British are more arrogant (from my personal experience)).
Still we have to recognize that many people in this world are ignorant on the rest of the world. Many Americans can not point out the Netherlands on the map let alone countries like Kyrgyzstan (then again I have always been good in geography). Know how on geography is however much better in the Netherlands than it is in the US.

Other topics like who is prime minister, what is the political system, .. understandably is going quite far. Personally I also like to care of my wife animals and personal health and finances only, still I can not control myself and am curious (a bit) on what is happening in the world.

Quite a neutral post I am afraid, bottom line I like Americans, Russians, Indians and Chinese alike. All of them with their own pluses and minuses.
Respect is a pre-requisite unless not proven worthy. (personality rather then nationality I would say)

SimCityAT wrote:

Sorry to our American friends. Superbowl is so tiresome to watch. How long does it go on for?

That's easy to answer.  Too long.

I do like the half-time shows.  Some of them are real works of art. I could watch them in succession and have done on YouTube.  The rest, meaning the game, meh.

I think the best half-time show I've seen of late was Lady Gaga's one in 2017.  Forget the first bit but the main part is pretty cool.  I guess it shows her talent that she can carry that 15 minutes from her own material.  Madonna was pretty good in 2012.

cdw057 wrote:

... on balance I like Americans more then British (British are more arrogant (from my personal experience)).
Still we have to recognize that many people in this world are ignorant on the rest of the world. Many Americans can not point out the Netherlands on the map let alone countries like Kyrgyzstan (then again I have always been good in geography). Know how on geography is however much better in the Netherlands than it is in the US.

....

Rocky ground.  Shame we don't have a downvote button like on Quora.   

We've all got strengths and weaknesses. I prefer to not cast entire countries on the basis of limited  interactions.   We can characterise the anyone by such means and it will mean nothing.  It might be idealistic to think people first, culture and nationality second or third. 

I'm watching a TV show called Stateless on Netflix. It's based on a true story.   It shows how a "system" characterises and demonises people of different nationality, culture and mental illness in the Australian immigration system in the early 2000s.  Quite shocking really.  I don't see how people could fail to empathise with the victims of such a system.

I as an American am proud to say I've never watched or carred to watch a Superbowl game or baseball, any of those boring games.
I do enjoy a nice sumo event.
Maybe one day my dream of seeing on live in Japan may happen.
When I worked as a Vegas games dealer they would set up tv sets at each end of every pit so palyers could gamble and not miss the Superbowl.
The bosses always placed me by the tv set on whatever game was going on that table.
Many dealers would start looking at the tv sets and not their tables.
I couldn't care less about what was on tv. I forced my palyers to keep the game moving along . Didn't give them time to watch the game and play at the same time.

Back in 1975 my husband got the urge to see S. Africa. His friends living there told him how great it was, how easy it was to have a nice life , god paying job, servants, drivers, cooks and buy a house with swimming pool and bring children up in private schools.
Well, he went alone for 6 weeks and I stayed in NY.
He went to check it out before we blew our last penny. I was 20 at the time and we had been on the road living in several states for over 6 months and we were getting low on funds, so one ticket was our limit.
Tickets were super expensive for 1975 standards. Cost $1,700 round trip from NY to Jo Berg.
I was going to come over after the 6 weeks if he liked it there otherwise he was to return to the states.
My only issue was at the time S. Africa required you to state what your heritige was and your relgion before excepting you.
Even if they excpeted you, they kept a record on your case and it would effect not only your future but that of your family.
I was torn between telling them where to go by stating I was 1/8th native American or just forgetting to add that part on my file. ( Actually you must be at least 1/4th to be a Mohawk)
I've never been ashamed to be part native, think it's cool really but seeing it in black and white written down was really bothering my moral ideas.
My husband said , don't tell anyone, what for what have the natives ever done for you. That sort of upset me because I never asked anyone to do anything for me just because I was born.
In the end he returned to the states and I never had to face what I would or wouldn't have done.
He told me one reason he returned is because he knew I'd be in jail the first 5 min.s in S. Africa, me and my big mouth.
He had a black American women on his flight over from NY.
At the airport she was sent off like a movie star. People kissing her giving her flowers.
When they landed in S. Africa she was not allowed to enter the building with everyone else.
She had a different door to enter the airport.
My husband's mind was blwn over there. He said it wasn't right at all how people were being treated but he couldn't buck the system either.

Superbowl is an all day family event and it goes on not only in the host stadium, many events are held around the country in celebration.  The actual game of Pro-Football itself, if you just count the playing time, is about an hour (4 15 minute quarters), but if you then throw in the offense and defense teams and the time-outs and official break, it can go on for up to 4 hours.  Families will leave their seats and go out to their car for a BBQ in the breaks.

Cynic wrote:

Superbowl is an all day family event and it goes on not only in the host stadium, many events are held around the country in celebration.  The actual game of Pro-Football itself, if you just count the playing time, is about an hour (4 15 minute quarters), but if you then throw in the offense and defense teams and the time-outs and official break, it can go on for up to 4 hours.  Families will leave their seats and go out to their car for a BBQ in the breaks.

I must of grown up in the most,"UnAmerican" family in my town.
Whenever a game came on tv my mom would shout,"Shut that s*** off".
She did however buy us a regulation size fotball to toss around in our backyard.
I was one of the few girls that could toss one.
Embarrassed to admit, this past summer some Hungarians were tossing a US football around lake Velence.The ball landed next to me in the water so I stood up and tossed it back. Total flop! Guess my old should injury is real after all.
I swam away feeling like a loser...I guess my "glory days" are gone.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Cynic wrote:

Superbowl is an all day family event and it goes on not only in the host stadium, many events are held around the country in celebration.  The actual game of Pro-Football itself, if you just count the playing time, is about an hour (4 15 minute quarters), but if you then throw in the offense and defense teams and the time-outs and official break, it can go on for up to 4 hours.  Families will leave their seats and go out to their car for a BBQ in the breaks.

I must of grown up in the most,"UnAmerican" family in my town.
Whenever a game came on tv my mom would shout,"Shut that s*** off".
She did however buy us a regulation size fotball to toss around in our backyard.
I was one of the few girls that could toss one.
Embarrassed to admit, this past summer some Hungarians were tossing a US football around lake Velence.The ball landed next to me in the water so I stood up and tossed it back. Total flop! Guess my old should injury is real after all.
I swam away feeling like a loser...I guess my "glory days" are gone.

I grew up in Maysville until we moved back to the UK and have a massive extended American family

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I as an American am proud to say I've never watched or carred to watch a Superbowl game or baseball, any of those boring games.
I do enjoy a nice sumo event.
Maybe one day my dream of seeing on live in Japan may happen.
When I worked as a Vegas games dealer they would set up tv sets at each end of every pit so palyers could gamble and not miss the Superbowl.
....
Back in 1975 my husband got the urge to see S. Africa. His friends living there told him how great it was, how easy it was to have a nice life , god paying job, servants, drivers, cooks and buy a house with swimming pool and bring children up in private schools.
....
I was going to come over after the 6 weeks if he liked it there otherwise he was to return to the states.
My only issue was at the time S. Africa required you to state what your heritige was and your relgion before excepting you.
Even if they excpeted you, they kept a record on your case and it would effect not only your future but that of your family.
I was torn between telling them where to go by stating I was 1/8th native American or just forgetting to add that part on my file. ( Actually you must be at least 1/4th to be a Mohawk)
I've never been ashamed to be part native, think it's cool really but seeing it in black and white written down was really bothering my moral ideas......

He had a black American women on his flight over from NY.
At the airport she was sent off like a movie star. People kissing her giving her flowers.
When they landed in S. Africa she was not allowed to enter the building with everyone else.
She had a different door to enter the airport.
My husband's mind was blown over there. He said it wasn't right at all how people were being treated but he couldn't buck the system either.

Superbowl is such hype.  Just goes on and on and on like an sozzled old bore at a party.  Gimme a break.

At least in real football it's all clear - 2 sessions of 45 minutes with one interval and no adverts (except in the interval).  I seem to remember that when the World Cup was in the USA, they wanted more ad breaks which the football authorities rejected (good for them).  It would have ruined the entire thing. 

BTW, I've been the white victim of black racism in a predominately black country.  It really is an eye opener and a total shock to someone who likes to think of themselves as liberal.  Against such accusations, there's no way to defend yourself.  It was injustice (and a case of mistaken identity).   Rationalising, I decided in the end it was a learning experience.

Most of us white folk in white countries swan around without the slightest thought about it but our black brethren know it all too well.  It's their lived experience.   But I'd say there's quite a bit of black on black discrimination going on in Africa but my main thought from trips there is that this more tribal based than overtly physical.

Cynic wrote:

Superbowl is an all day family event and it goes on not only in the host stadium, many events are held around the country in celebration.  The actual game of Pro-Football itself, if you just count the playing time, is about an hour (4 15 minute quarters), but if you then throw in the offense and defense teams and the time-outs and official break, it can go on for up to 4 hours.  Families will leave their seats and go out to their car for a BBQ in the breaks.

I was at a Superbowl party once.   It was on AFN TV (American Forces Network) and the only entertainment were the infomercials like "don't walk under a ladder" or "be careful when lifting heavy objects".  The amount of derision from the audience was one of the highlights of the whole evening. I went into a trance during the actual playing. It was the only way to survive.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Cynic wrote:

Superbowl is an all day family event and it goes on not only in the host stadium, many events are held around the country in celebration.  The actual game of Pro-Football itself, if you just count the playing time, is about an hour (4 15 minute quarters), but if you then throw in the offense and defense teams and the time-outs and official break, it can go on for up to 4 hours.  Families will leave their seats and go out to their car for a BBQ in the breaks.

I was at a Superbowl party once.   It was on AFN TV (American Forces Network) and the only entertainment were the infomercials like "don't walk under a ladder" or "be careful when lifting heavy objects".  The amount of derision from the audience was one of the highlights of the whole evening. I went into a trance during the actual playing. It was the only way to survive.

When we lived in Berlin, we were exposed to the wonders of AFN (it was the only English language TV) and my German at the time was non-existent.  I agree the infomercials were weird; almost as bad as Belizean state TV when Dewars whisky had a promo on.

Cynic wrote:

...
When we lived in Berlin, we were exposed to the wonders of AFN (it was the only English language TV) and my German at the time was non-existent.  I agree the infomercials were weird; almost as bad as Belizean state TV when Dewars whisky had a promo on.

That's interesting.  Never been to Belize although I know others who have. 

I used to live in various places in The Netherlands.  Just outside Amsterdam we didn't have any English channels but in Den Haag we had BBC1 and BBC2. 

And to keep on theme, when I lived in Southern NL we had SSVC although we used to watch Dutch TV quite a lot. The subtitling was a marvellous help in learning Dutch.  Radio was good too - liked Veronika and AVRO.

Then again when I was working in Bonn, we had BFBS. It fizzled out about 5km south of Bonn and worked up to about Dusseldorf.  Going South US Forces station started to come in mainly on AM (who uses AM radio now?).  They were terrible all the way down to Munich if you could stand it.  Some of the German stations  were far better for music.

On today's holiday, as it was sunny if a little windy,  we took a trip to the Turul in Tatabanya.  It was absolutely heaving. 

Everyone had the same idea!  Hundreds of cars, thousands of cars.   Should have waited until tomorrow.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Cynic wrote:

...
When we lived in Berlin, we were exposed to the wonders of AFN (it was the only English language TV) and my German at the time was non-existent.  I agree the infomercials were weird; almost as bad as Belizean state TV when Dewars whisky had a promo on.

That's interesting.  Never been to Belize although I know others who have. 

I used to live in various places in The Netherlands.  Just outside Amsterdam we didn't have any English channels but in Den Haag we had BBC1 and BBC2. 

And to keep on theme, when I lived in Southern NL we had SSVC although we used to watch Dutch TV quite a lot. The subtitling was a marvellous help in learning Dutch.  Radio was good too - liked Veronika and AVRO.

Then again when I was working in Bonn, we had BFBS. It fizzled out about 5km south of Bonn and worked up to about Dusseldorf.  Going South US Forces station started to come in mainly on AM (who uses AM radio now?).  They were terrible all the way down to Munich if you could stand it.  Some of the German stations  were far better for music.

Belize's national sport is Basketball; they have an open-air national stadium that also has a roof (when it rains there, it's like nothing you've seen anywhere else; like someones got a bucket full of water, the size and shape of the nation and turned it over in one go).  Anyway, I think I said I previously worked for Forces Radio, well it was in Belize; one night I was manning the tape machines while it broadcasted some UK content and at the same time was monitoring other radio stations for potential items of interest to us.  I stumbled across a national basketball game being broadcast, so thought I'd listen with one ear so I could add the result to the local news.  Dewar Whiskey sponsor the Belizean national Team and it seems like every 3 minutes, they would interrupt the broadcast and some guy in a very heavy Caribean accent would say "Mmmmmm, Dewar White Label Whiskey", they did this regardless of who was winning/losing/fighting, it was hilarious.  I taped a small portion and made a jingle out of it to use in my show; if you want some BFBS nostalgia, some guy in the Netherlands has put together a website with some clips he made on-air (link).

The Dutch quite blatantly used to rip off SSVC transmissions from the transmitters close to the Dutch border and would rebroadcast both TV and Radio on their cable TV channels.  My wife and I quite often reminisce about listening to Rodigans Rockers on Sunday nights in bed.  When the military got fed up with being ignored, they turned off the transmitters, which cut Holland off from Eastenders and Corrie, there was an uproar.  Don't know when you lived there, but in the early 80's, Dutch TV was dire, practically the entire country watched SSVC.  Nowadays, they broadcast a package from the BBC that they pay for (BBC Europe, BBC1 and 2 and the World Service). Dutch TV is still crap.

BFBS Radio in Germany was in Koln when I first moved there in 1979, they had local broadcast units in Berlin and Celle (kind of where the BBC got the idea for local radio from); the local transmitters (think there were 5) had differing frequencies, but if you knew them, you could navigate across the whole country and not lose coverage.  Got a bit ropy in East Germany though.

Our travel adventures never go as planned.
Our trip to Belize was back in 1990.
The travel agent told us NOT to stay in Belize City, no tourst ever did that.
Well, my husband wanted to see the "real deal".
We had considered Belize as a future retirement place.
Sometimes it is best to listen to the experts.
The hotel wasn't exactly cheap but it was so run down with the bed pillows coming apart, no screens on the windows and a million mosquitos flying in and having their fill on us. We had to lay under the covers in the dark because as soon as the light was switched on they came a callin'.
3 nights in the city, Firday nights is pay day there, we were warned not to go our at night no matter what happened. At least the hotel had a nice swimming pool.
Party in the st. all night long, in the morning we ventured out and saw passed out people literally laying in the st. with rum bottles all over the ground.
Had a "self appointed tour guide" show up. Some local dude who showed us around, well really he was following us and kept on talking. After about 10 mins of this my husband wisely told him thank you and gave him about $10. for his time... More like a get lost pay out.
Saw him the next morning but told him we were good and off for the day, noo time to tour the city.
No "normal" restaurants were available in the city,There was a sort of fancy British country club but we didn't try ging inside.
Sat in a place for breakfast with flies buzzing all around our heads. The server came around and slapped a fly swatter all around us, even hitting the table as we ate. We tipped her good, I mean it was "full service" and beyond.
Went for dinner, found a place near the water.Asked for a menu card. The guy said, "Menu" Fish or chicken, bean and rice". Ordered the chicken, guess we were not the first ones t have chewed on the bne. I mean it was just a chicken bone with sauce on it! Talk about recycling!
Took a boat ride out to one of the Islands. The Islands were the travel agent had told us t stay . It was beautiful but getting there alive was also interesting.
A open old boat with no life jackets and a tiny motor in the back. Held about 10 people but just as we were about to set off a women , all 400 plus lbs. of her got in. The boat rocked and swayed. I was waiting for tehm to tell her to get her own boat but no, we set off across the bay.
God only know why we didn't tip over.
Then we went inland for the secon half of our stay.
Only way to get there was to ride the bus. We had wished to rent a car but at that time there was no such service. You could buy a run down old jalopy from a local for at least $750. and never see your money again and it was questionable if the car would make the 3 hour ride.
Got on a old US school bus, tiny little seats made for children.
We were ready to go when another large women got on and tried to sit on the edge of the seat with us.
What 3 hours of sweating and her big bttom squeezed n the edge?
My husband got up gave her his seat and stood all the way through the long hot winding road. Had a stop half way to San Ignacio for a cold drink.
Children selling coke, you buy the coke and they empty it in front of you into a plastic bag with a straw. Bottles are a hot commadaty there!
( We ate another time in Belize City and witnessed a bottle fight, someone ran into the restaurant and tried to steal some empty bottles!)
Finally arrived in San Ignacio and had reservations at a nice old hunting lodge, UK style from the old times.
We being silly travelers had suitcases, Belize is a back packer s haven, not for city slickers.
No way to get to the lodge from the bus drop off.
We considered walking up the hill to the lodge when out popped a dude from a bar. No shirt on, a wet towel drapped on his head and a screw driver in one hand and a glass of rum and coke in the other!
He said he would drive us with our luggage. Had little choice but to say OK.
He said the beat up old station wagon wasn't his but he knew the guy who owned it, he used the screw driver to start the car and we were off. He stopped half way there and picked up some friends of his, they sait in the back with the luggage and the broken bits of wood that were all over the rear of the wagon.
Checked in , was happy with the room and the view. The pool was nice, the drinks were good and the food was top notch.
Finally a good time.
We walked around and met up with a local guy. My husband chatted with him and asked what there was to see in town. We only had 3 days so didn't want to go far off from the nice lodge.
He got us a metal boat the next moring for only a $10. fee for the whole day. We rowed down stream and cooled off in the water. The sucker fish were eating us though.
It was beaautiful and we pulled off the river for lunch. People would wave at yu frm the shore if you wnated to stop and eat with them , for a fee of course.
We stopped after a spell and had cheese, bread and sole cabbage salad and a coke, coke is the drink over there!
Paid the housewife for the meal and returned back up stream before dark in that heavy metal boat.
I thought it was ver with, we were going to die out there. The wind was against us and my arms were tired from rowing all day long.
My husband just chanted row row,row. We were dying out there all alone.
Funny side story, the dude that got the boat for us was a rasta guy. We met them when were were swimming in the river near the lodge. He had one of his friends join us as the guys talked. My husband is rather good with locals, he knew they were short of cash s befre they had t ask, he offered to buy beers for them, the ne guy said he lives in jail but was out for the day to visit family and have his rasta smoke. The allow peple out of jail during the day but they must return at night to sleep in jail.
I wondered if the bat we rented was even his friends boat or not.
Needless too say it is not on our retirement list.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Our travel adventures never go as planned.
Our trip to Belize was back in 1990.
The travel agent told us NOT to stay in Belize City, no tourst ever did that.
Well, my husband wanted to see the "real deal".
We had considered Belize as a future retirement place.
Sometimes it is best to listen to the experts.
The hotel wasn't exactly cheap but it was so run down with the bed pillows coming apart, no screens on the windows and a million mosquitos flying in and having their fill on us. We had to lay under the covers in the dark because as soon as the light was switched on they came a callin'.
3 nights in the city, Firday nights is pay day there, we were warned not to go our at night no matter what happened. At least the hotel had a nice swimming pool.
Party in the st. all night long, in the morning we ventured out and saw passed out people literally laying in the st. with rum bottles all over the ground.
Had a "self appointed tour guide" show up. Some local dude who showed us around, well really he was following us and kept on talking. After about 10 mins of this my husband wisely told him thank you and gave him about $10. for his time... More like a get lost pay out.
Saw him the next morning but told him we were good and off for the day, noo time to tour the city.
No "normal" restaurants were available in the city,There was a sort of fancy British country club but we didn't try ging inside.
Sat in a place for breakfast with flies buzzing all around our heads. The server came around and slapped a fly swatter all around us, even hitting the table as we ate. We tipped her good, I mean it was "full service" and beyond.
Went for dinner, found a place near the water.Asked for a menu card. The guy said, "Menu" Fish or chicken, bean and rice". Ordered the chicken, guess we were not the first ones t have chewed on the bne. I mean it was just a chicken bone with sauce on it! Talk about recycling!
Took a boat ride out to one of the Islands. The Islands were the travel agent had told us t stay . It was beautiful but getting there alive was also interesting.
A open old boat with no life jackets and a tiny motor in the back. Held about 10 people but just as we were about to set off a women , all 400 plus lbs. of her got in. The boat rocked and swayed. I was waiting for tehm to tell her to get her own boat but no, we set off across the bay.
God only know why we didn't tip over.
Then we went inland for the secon half of our stay.
Only way to get there was to ride the bus. We had wished to rent a car but at that time there was no such service. You could buy a run down old jalopy from a local for at least $750. and never see your money again and it was questionable if the car would make the 3 hour ride.
Got on a old US school bus, tiny little seats made for children.
We were ready to go when another large women got on and tried to sit on the edge of the seat with us.
What 3 hours of sweating and her big bttom squeezed n the edge?
My husband got up gave her his seat and stood all the way through the long hot winding road. Had a stop half way to San Ignacio for a cold drink.
Children selling coke, you buy the coke and they empty it in front of you into a plastic bag with a straw. Bottles are a hot commadaty there!
( We ate another time in Belize City and witnessed a bottle fight, someone ran into the restaurant and tried to steal some empty bottles!)
Finally arrived in San Ignacio and had reservations at a nice old hunting lodge, UK style from the old times.
We being silly travelers had suitcases, Belize is a back packer s haven, not for city slickers.
No way to get to the lodge from the bus drop off.
We considered walking up the hill to the lodge when out popped a dude from a bar. No shirt on, a wet towel drapped on his head and a screw driver in one hand and a glass of rum and coke in the other!
He said he would drive us with our luggage. Had little choice but to say OK.
He said the beat up old station wagon wasn't his but he knew the guy who owned it, he used the screw driver to start the car and we were off. He stopped half way there and picked up some friends of his, they sait in the back with the luggage and the broken bits of wood that were all over the rear of the wagon.
Checked in , was happy with the room and the view. The pool was nice, the drinks were good and the food was top notch.
Finally a good time.
We walked around and met up with a local guy. My husband chatted with him and asked what there was to see in town. We only had 3 days so didn't want to go far off from the nice lodge.
He got us a metal boat the next moring for only a $10. fee for the whole day. We rowed down stream and cooled off in the water. The sucker fish were eating us though.
It was beaautiful and we pulled off the river for lunch. People would wave at yu frm the shore if you wnated to stop and eat with them , for a fee of course.
We stopped after a spell and had cheese, bread and sole cabbage salad and a coke, coke is the drink over there!
Paid the housewife for the meal and returned back up stream before dark in that heavy metal boat.
I thought it was ver with, we were going to die out there. The wind was against us and my arms were tired from rowing all day long.
My husband just chanted row row,row. We were dying out there all alone.
Funny side story, the dude that got the boat for us was a rasta guy. We met them when were were swimming in the river near the lodge. He had one of his friends join us as the guys talked. My husband is rather good with locals, he knew they were short of cash s befre they had t ask, he offered to buy beers for them, the ne guy said he lives in jail but was out for the day to visit family and have his rasta smoke. The allow peple out of jail during the day but they must return at night to sleep in jail.
I wondered if the bat we rented was even his friends boat or not.
Needless too say it is not on our retirement list.

lol - I see Belize hadn't changed much in between me leaving and your arrival.  The Belize Cayes were the place to go to avoid the dreadful humidity and the bugs (and some of the locals).  The military used to run its own aviation and shipping, so we would use that to run out to San Pedro.  Quite funny watching 25 guys in their speedo's leap from a helicopter into the sea by the beach, then the chopper would head back for another load, then the landing craft would arrive with our beer and bbq stuff, park up on the beach until it was time to go back.  Belize was fun until we had to go into the jungle and practice being nasty to the Guats should they try to invade again.

I understand why you crossed it off your list; I would never pay to go back there.  A former colleague of mine married a local and stayed there when he left the military; he loves the place.

I worked in Vegas with a guy from Belize who was saving up to retire there.
Guess things are different if you have family t back you up.
The Cayes were beautiful, we should of stayed there.
I alsoo strangely enough worked with a women in Vegas from China who grew up in Belize, in San Ignacio. She spoke fluent Spanish, it was odd.

A very flamboyant, "gay" man from Belize was on the same flight there with us from Miami.
He hadn't been home in 15 years.
As we approached the landing strip in Belize a person was standing on the tarmack and waving at our plane.
This guy screamed out, "Da plane, Da plane" just like the guy on the old tv shw Fantasy Island used to say at the start of the show each week. Cracked us up so much, I still laugh when I remember it.

One of those unknown facts; the International airport in Belize is out near a village called Ladyville; it's also where the main barracks for the British Army was (now taken over by the Belizean Defence Force and the Brits have all but left - small training team).  Anyway, the runway has been built on top of a swamp and every time something heavy lands there, so the story goes, the runway moves a little bit.  Apparently, someone somewhere had done the maths and they know when they need to build an extension, but ultimately, Belize will have the worlds longest runway.  Must have been a bit disconcerting for the passengers on board arriving aircraft to see a bunch of people hold up enormous scorecards to let the pilot know how he did when landing.

Cynic wrote:

One of those unknown facts; the International airport in Belize is out near a village called Ladyville; it's also where the main barracks for the British Army was (now taken over by the Belizean Defence Force and the Brits have all but left - small training team).  Anyway, the runway has been built on top of a swamp and every time something heavy lands there, so the story goes, the runway moves a little bit.  Apparently, someone somewhere had done the maths and they know when they need to build an extension, but ultimately, Belize will have the worlds longest runway.  Must have been a bit disconcerting for the passengers on board arriving aircraft to see a bunch of people hold up enormous scorecards to let the pilot know how he did when landing.

Oh airports. 

Over here in HU, there are several ex-Russian airport runways which are rumoured to have a concrete depth of metres so that X tonnes of heavy bomber slamming into it at high speed doesn't move it.   Doubt a bomb would move them either.  Makes for interesting demolition. 

I flew out of Tokol ex-military airfield here once and it's huge.  In a small plane you  are airborne in just a few hundred metres and the rest of the runway stretches some way into the distance.    When landing one has to fly down the runway by some distance so one doesn't have a 20 minute taxy/drive to the hangers.

Where are the Army doing the majority of the jungle training now?  Brunei?

I am not surprised about the airpost being unstable in Belize.
I remember the open sewers in the city!
So nasty.
I thought, wow Belize City with the beach right there, what a blast that is going to be.
Well...Might be fun if you don't mind swimming in poo!
I was so darn mad that we stayed in the city.
It was rare that my husband and I took vacations together and spending all that money to stay in a swampy dirty city was a disappointment. Thank goodness it was only 3 days but still...
Not sure what was the weirdest thing there, ordering a chicken dinner and getting only a bone with no meat on it or being eaten alive by mosquitos.
All of our vacations ended in a disastor one way or the other.
Came to Hungary in 1986, money to spare, credit cards with high limits  everything perfect, rent a car and 6 weeks to have fun and see some more of Europe.
Well... 3 weeks in my husband took a fall in a castle and broke his ribs. Had to spend 2 weeks in bed in ERD!! Living hell on earth.
Had one week to see Italy and all the sights.
Talk about rushing things.
Well if C-19 ever allows for it we plan on going to SE Asia this fall and meeting up with our boy over there...
i'm sure something will go wrong. Why stop now?

fluffy2560 wrote:

Cynic wrote:

One of those unknown facts; the International airport in Belize is out near a village called Ladyville; it's also where the main barracks for the British Army was (now taken over by the Belizean Defence Force and the Brits have all but left - small training team).  Anyway, the runway has been built on top of a swamp and every time something heavy lands there, so the story goes, the runway moves a little bit.  Apparently, someone somewhere had done the maths and they know when they need to build an extension, but ultimately, Belize will have the worlds longest runway.  Must have been a bit disconcerting for the passengers on board arriving aircraft to see a bunch of people hold up enormous scorecards to let the pilot know how he did when landing.

Oh airports. 

Over here in HU, there are several ex-Russian airport runways which are rumoured to have a concrete depth of metres so that X tonnes of heavy bomber slamming into it at high speed doesn't move it.   Doubt a bomb would move them either.  Makes for interesting demolition. 

I flew out of Tokol ex-military airfield here once and it's huge.  In a small plane you  are airborne in just a few hundred metres and the rest of the runway stretches some way into the distance.    When landing one has to fly down the runway by some distance so one doesn't have a 20 minute taxy/drive to the hangers.

Where are the Army doing the majority of the jungle training now?  Brunei?

I think Brunei has always been the official jungle training base for the Brits.  Belize was mainly a result of the Guats threatening to invade a former British colony and Commonwealth member.  We just put a Battle Group in there with some RAF Harriers and they quietened down.  There was some training going on, but nothing to discuss on a public forum.

Brunei is probably more as a result of the Gurkha connection (they provide manpower for much of the Brunei military, including the personal guard for the Sultan); they are all ex British Army Gurkhas (you may or may not be aware that the Indian Army also has a significant amount of Gurkhas).  So there is a jungle warfare training camp out there primarily used by the British Infantry types, I think enough said about that.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

I am not surprised about the airpost being unstable in Belize.
I remember the open sewers in the city!
So nasty.
I thought, wow Belize City with the beach right there, what a blast that is going to be.
Well...Might be fun if you don't mind swimming in poo!
I was so darn mad that we stayed in the city.
It was rare that my husband and I took vacations together and spending all that money to stay in a swampy dirty city was a disappointment. Thank goodness it was only 3 days but still...
Not sure what was the weirdest thing there, ordering a chicken dinner and getting only a bone with no meat on it or being eaten alive by mosquitos.
All of our vacations ended in a disastor one way or the other.
Came to Hungary in 1986, money to spare, credit cards with high limits  everything perfect, rent a car and 6 weeks to have fun and see some more of Europe.
Well... 3 weeks in my husband took a fall in a castle and broke his ribs. Had to spend 2 weeks in bed in ERD!! Living hell on earth.
Had one week to see Italy and all the sights.
Talk about rushing things.
Well if C-19 ever allows for it we plan on going to SE Asia this fall and meeting up with our boy over there...
i'm sure something will go wrong. Why stop now?

It sounds like you had the same induction to Belize City as I did.  I had contractors who worked for me, so was going around introducing myself and shaking hands with the locals.  One of the first things I noticed was money being paid out for stuff that we shouldn't have paid for; so I stopped paying.  Boy did that not go down well.  Then I discovered some German sensitivity in the local port and when I said something in German and quite a few ears pricked up, thought, mmm, probably overstaying my welcome, so next time I sent one of my guys down.

Somebody mentioned the Prison; it was right next door to our Maritime camp in the city.  We had a couple of guys in there doing life for murdering a prostitute.  In Belize prisons, you don't get fed, your family bring you food and you get what's left after the guards have stolen the best parts.  Anyway, we had to bring our guys food, so every day, my driver would drop off a couple of 24-hour ration packs for them.  The first day we did it, the guards did their usual trick of stealing most of it, but nobody told them the 2 Brits were both special forces guys, who after they "trained" the guards on the correct way to deliver their rations, then went about sorting out the gangs in the prison.

Cynic wrote:

.....

Brunei is probably more as a result of the Gurkha connection (they provide manpower for much of the Brunei military, including the personal guard for the Sultan); they are all ex British Army Gurkhas (you may or may not be aware that the Indian Army also has a significant amount of Gurkhas).  So there is a jungle warfare training camp out there primarily used by the British Infantry types, I think enough said about that.

Yes, I did know about the Indian Ghurka connection.  Brunei might be really a boring place as I believe it's quite restrictive. 

I used to work with some ex-Ghurka chaps further south in the Balkans.  Really nice smiling fellas but you wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of them.  They were all employed as armed security guards and supervised by ex-South African police and special forces.   I could never quite get over all these guys tooled up and hanging around in the office.

I used to know some blokes who were out in Oman as well.  Guaranteeing the ruler's authority there. It used to be quite a desirable job to working in that part of the Omani government doing support work.  There are entire businesses set up in London just for servicing the Omani leaders needs.

I worked with the Gurkha's a lot when I was with 5 AB Bde, I found them OK for the most part.  Funniest part was when we were doing a Low-level insertion exercise into Keevil airfield (in the middle of Salisbury Plain).  We took off from Lyneham flew up north, along the low-flying routes in Scotland and the Lake district then down the North Sea coast, along the south coast to Lands-end, then up the Bristol channel to pop up to 250 ft at Portishead across to Salisbury Plain, drop the parachute element, they took the airfield, we landed behind them, the war was won, back home in time for tea and medals.  The Gurkha that I was sat next to was not well; I gave him 2 sick bags that I could grab, he filled those, then proceeded to fill his combat helmet.  Not sure if you've ever flown in a C-130 with a lot of sick Gurkhas, but the smell was dreadful, bad enough to be coming from both ends, bad enough to reach the nostrils of the Loadmaster, who came to investigate.  He asked me what I was going to do about it, we had one of those "not me chief, I'm airframes" (plus, you Sgt, me Warrant Officer, go and bore somebody else conversations, while pointing to one of the Gurkha officers), we then get the lights for low-level insertion.  We landed, we left the aircraft; I believe the loadie bundled all the sick bags in the back of a landrover we had in the middle of the aircraft.  I next flew in that C-130 when I went to Canada a few months later, it still stunk.

Cynic wrote:

I worked with the Gurkha's a lot when I was with 5 AB Bde, I found them OK for the most part.  Funniest part was when we were doing a Low-level insertion exercise into Keevil airfield (in the middle of Salisbury Plain).  We took off from Lyneham flew up north, along the low-flying routes in Scotland and the Lake district then down the North Sea coast, along the south coast to Lands-end, then up the Bristol channel to pop up to 250 ft at Portishead across to Salisbury Plain, drop the parachute element, they took the airfield, we landed behind them, the war was won, back home in time for tea and medals.  The Gurkha that I was sat next to was not well; I gave him 2 sick bags that I could grab, he filled those, then proceeded to fill his combat helmet.  Not sure if you've ever flown in a C-130 with a lot of sick Gurkhas, but the smell was dreadful, bad enough to be coming from both ends, bad enough to reach the nostrils of the Loadmaster, who came to investigate.  He asked me what I was going to do about it, we had one of those "not me chief, I'm airframes" (plus, you Sgt, me Warrant Officer, go and bore somebody else conversations, while pointing to one of the Gurkha officers), we then get the lights for low-level insertion.  We landed, we left the aircraft; I believe the loadie bundled all the sick bags in the back of a landrover we had in the middle of the aircraft.  I next flew in that C-130 when I went to Canada a few months later, it still stunk.

I'm stunned into silence (for once).  Being a lowly grunt I never saw any  real shenanigans.