Absolutely Anything Else

I have b een painting my gate the last couple of days, it is looking very nice, b ut painting iz with good red paint gloss. My hands are all stained  with it like Lady Macbeth was it, so stained of blood that to go o'er is as easy as to pass to the other side, i I remember my Shakespeare wrongly. So everyone seems to assume I am a murderer with this red paint on my hands,. that will take about three days to come off. of course I have had a bath etc etc but it will take about three days to get that off my fingers, Used a bit of higito and stuff but it has to wear out,.

I made the simple mistake of painting my gate letters four feet high one number on one side of the gate and one on the other, Each  is about four feet/2 metres high,. Postman never misses it any more, but a right bugger to flick in the numerals with a fine paintbrush. Just second coat on the white to go now and it will look the bee's knees, done the red and black. The black hammerite was the really sticky stuff and that will take a few days to get out of my fingernails.  The aim is generally to get the stuff on where you want it to be rather than on yourself, I think that is the general aim with paint, but it never quite seems to work that way except in TV adverts I have paint,on my keyboard here from last week's job, that is a green emulsion

I was just wondering why Marilyn Tassy wants her to cut her husband's hair like Elvis.

I mean, Elvis was quite a good singer but his sideline as a couffeur never made the headlines. Actually he never even sang barbershop.... so what is he doing cutting hair? Elvis Lives-- in a fodraszsat

SimonTrew wrote:

I was just wondering why Marilyn Tassy wants her to cut her husband's hair like Elvis.

I mean, Elvis was quite a good singer but his sideline as a couffeur never made the headlines. Actually he never even sang barbershop.... so what is he doing cutting hair? Elvis Lives-- in a fodraszsat

Obviously her husband is "the King" for her.

I really liked Elvis.  He made some really atrocious movies which actually are so bad, they're good. 

He made one called Roustabout with Barbara Stanwyck - a weird actress with a kind of sneering look to her.  And I really like the one in Hawaii where Elvis is a helicopter pilot - Paradise Hawaiian Style.

We didn't come for his acting skills, we wanted his singing skills.
Even bank robbers like Elvis.  How cool is that?!

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

I was just wondering why Marilyn Tassy wants her to cut her husband's hair like Elvis.

I mean, Elvis was quite a good singer but his sideline as a couffeur never made the headlines. Actually he never even sang barbershop.... so what is he doing cutting hair? Elvis Lives-- in a fodraszsat

Obviously her husband is "the King" for her.

I really liked Elvis.  He made some really atrocious movies which actually are so bad, they're good. 

He made one called Roustabout with Barbara Stanwyck - a weird actress with a kind of sneering look to her.  And I really like the one in Hawaii where Elvis is a helicopter pilot - Paradise Hawaiian Style.

We didn't come for his acting skills, we wanted his singing skills.
Even bank robbers like Elvis.  How cool is that?!

Yes but all these impersonators, they play the King always  with one eye that someone else will play the Ace.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I really liked Elvis.  He made some really atrocious movies which actually are so bad, they're good.  (....).

Orwell I think says the same about, I think in his words, "Good Bad Books", books that are just so bad that they are good. I think at the Hamburg Book Festival, if there is one but somewhere in Germany, they award each year a prize for worst book of the year (and this of course would be books already in printm, not book wot I wrote. I have bought one, Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America ( a cunningly specific title) which is amazingly dull in its survey of how people discard their carts/trolleys, and why limit it to Eastern North America why not expand your survey? It is a classic, I urge you to get a copy to keep in the WC.

Killing for animals is in their blood.
In Hilo our spoiled Doberman who never missed a meal decided to start hunting field mice.
We lived next to a huge field that had belonged to C&H sugar.
Were on the land for their very last harvest, sad to see that industry leave Hilo.
On several mornings when we walked outside to say good morning to him ( he was not allowed on the lease to enter the house) he would greet us with a big white mouse in his mouth, it was gross...
he did look so proud of himself however.
Never knew Dobbies were hunters thought they were for guarding.
He tried to catch himself a mongoose once, his poor nose was all bloody and cut, not sure about the mongoose, looks like it had won that round.

SimonTrew wrote:

.....ts survey of how people discard their carts/trolleys, and why limit it to Eastern North America why not expand your survey? It is a classic, I urge you to get a copy to keep in the WC.

You don't want dull material in the loo.   

So I'm keeping a copy of the Brexit negotiations there just in case I need further inspiration.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

Killing for animals is in their blood.
In Hilo our spoiled Doberman who never missed a meal decided to start hunting field mice.
We lived next to a huge field that had belonged to C&H sugar.
Were on the land for their very last harvest, sad to see that industry leave Hilo.
On several mornings when we walked outside to say good morning to him ( he was not allowed on the lease to enter the house) he would greet us with a big white mouse in his mouth, it was gross...
he did look so proud of himself however.
Never knew Dobbies were hunters thought they were for guarding.
He tried to catch himself a mongoose once, his poor nose was all bloody and cut, not sure about the mongoose, looks like it had won that round.

All doggies are hunters and mice are easy to catch relatively speaking.   I've got a humane mouse trap here - doesn't kill the mouse.  We capture any mice we might have (we've had one so far) and we put them outside.  We don't know where they go - hopefully to our not very friendly neighbours.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

.....ts survey of how people discard their carts/trolleys, and why limit it to Eastern North America why not expand your survey? It is a classic, I urge you to get a copy to keep in the WC.

You don't want dull material in the loo.   

So I'm keeping a copy of the Brexit negotiations there just in case I need further inspiration.

And that is not dull? In any case presumably you can get the official record in all European official languages, so you shall never have to buy bog roll ever again.... Hansard is I think still printed on vellum so that might be a bit posh for the khasi.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

.....ts survey of how people discard their carts/trolleys, and why limit it to Eastern North America why not expand your survey? It is a classic, I urge you to get a copy to keep in the WC.

You don't want dull material in the loo.   

So I'm keeping a copy of the Brexit negotiations there just in case I need further inspiration.

And that is not dull? In any case presumably you can get the official record in all European official languages, so you shall never have to buy bog roll ever again.... Hansard is I think still printed on vellum so that might be a bit posh for the khasi.

Vellum lasts forever, unlike an EU treaty.  I think it doesn't fade but could be washed out and re-used like a chamois leather. It's the green option.

I don't really want the OJEC (Official Journal of the European Community) as I'd have to print it to flush it.  That's not green at all.

I'm trying to think of a witticism for these musings involving the green saying  “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down” but I'm having a bit of a slow day getting myself kick started this morning.  I probably need a cold shower and strong coffee.

Anyway, the Brexit agreement is likely to be a shocker for many.  So probably not dull but could be exciting enough to precipitate action once we immigrants to Hungary know what we're going to be subject to.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

You don't want dull material in the loo.   

So I'm keeping a copy of the Brexit negotiations there just in case I need further inspiration.

And that is not dull? In any case presumably you can get the official record in all European official languages, so you shall never have to buy bog roll ever again.... Hansard is I think still printed on vellum so that might be a bit posh for the khasi.

Vellum lasts forever, unlike an EU treaty.  I think it doesn't fade but could be washed out and re-used like a chamois leather. It's the green option.

I don't really want the OJEC (Official Journal of the European Community) as I'd have to print it to flush it.  That's not green at all.

I'm trying to think of a witticism for these musings involving the green saying  “If it’s yellow, let it mellow; if it’s brown, flush it down” but I'm having a bit of a slow day getting myself kick started this morning.  I probably need a cold shower and strong coffee.

Anyway, the Brexit agreement is likely to be a shocker for many.  So probably not dull but could be exciting enough to precipitate action once we immigrants to Hungary know what we're going to be subject to.

Well it is why I don't use R. Murdoch's newspapers in my smallest room ..  because the crap they print  wipes onto my clean bum.

fluffy2560 wrote:

once we immigrants to Hungary know what we're going to be subject to.

Subjects to HM the Queen, obviously, as you always have been.... but yes, I agree with you that the uncertainty is the hardest thing. Just by coincidence I would be here in Hungary five years on 5 April next (I have been a bit longer but that is when I registered for an address card etc) and you decide to set it on 29 March, so I have seven days to span SOMEHOW between those dates. Now I doubt very much that, being married to a Hungarian, paying all my Hungarian taxes, registered and working here etc etc thay are suddenly going to throw me out of the country. But it puts me in a queer position legally if on 29 March I am no longer an EU citizen, staying here illegally, only for me to have to then somehow come back on the 5 April when I am a Hungarian citizen. The uncertainty is the bit that is worrying, I agree. I can easily get a flight oda-vissza that is NOT the problem, stay in a hotel for a few days and so on, but what am I SUPPOSED to do? My name is on the title deed here, paid up in full, I have used the HUngarian health service (not that I think much of it) and so what and so forth, I am known here to all the authorities legally. Now what am I going to do? I have a UK passport valid until 2020 that says EUROPEAN CITIZEN on the front, does that suddenly become invalid? Do I need a work visa to work here in Hungary? Just TELL ME and I will get it done but you (the politicians) are not telling me anything...

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

once we immigrants to Hungary know what we're going to be subject to.

Subjects to HM the Queen, obviously, as you always have been.... but yes, I agree with you that the uncertainty is the hardest thing. Just by coincidence I would be here in Hungary five years on 5 April next (I have been a bit longer but that is when I registered for an address card etc) and you decide to set it on 29 March, so I have seven days to span SOMEHOW between those dates. Now I doubt very much that, being married to a Hungarian, paying all my Hungarian taxes, registered and working here etc etc thay are suddenly going to throw me out of the country. But it puts me in a queer position legally if on 29 March I am no longer an EU citizen, staying here illegally, only for me to have to then somehow come back on the 5 April when I am a Hungarian citizen. The uncertainty is the bit that is worrying, I agree. I can easily get a flight oda-vissza that is NOT the problem, stay in a hotel for a few days and so on, but what am I SUPPOSED to do? My name is on the title deed here, paid up in full, I have used the HUngarian health service (not that I think much of it) and so what and so forth, I am known here to all the authorities legally. Now what am I going to do? I have a UK passport valid until 2020 that says EUROPEAN CITIZEN on the front, does that suddenly become invalid? Do I need a work visa to work here in Hungary? Just TELL ME and I will get it done but you (the politicians) are not telling me anything...

Ditto!  I mean, WTF?  What happens next?  Who knows!  I believe there are about 1.5M UK citizens living in the EU and with all the others, 3M in total. 

My impression is that we're going to be sold down the river, cast adrift and left to sort it out ourselves.  They screwed us over the referendum as well - I've been away more than 15 years so I wasn't allowed to vote.  How many others like that? Millions.

I don't know what will happen and no-one else does.  UK visitors might only have 30 days instead of 180 days.  I am not hearing any decently informative noises that give me confidence it won't be a fcuk-up.

I am wondering if it'll be like some kind of hybrid Hong Kong kind of solution.  How that would work, no idea.

I had a thought that if there was a no deal,  anyone EU had been in the UK more then say, 3 years, HMG might just make them all British citizens.  Then it's job done and up yours Barnier!

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

.....ts survey of how people discard their carts/trolleys, and why limit it to Eastern North America why not expand your survey? It is a classic, I urge you to get a copy to keep in the WC.

You don't want dull material in the loo.   

So I'm keeping a copy of the Brexit negotiations there just in case I need further inspiration.

If anyone has enough time to read in the WC then they seriously need more fiber!!
It was just wonderful outside today.
My long walk was great and my haircut even better!
Once when I was very young, say around age 7, I used the "loo" at my next door neighbors house.
I played with the 2 girls that lived there. Still remember their names too,. Jackie and Wanda, had a German surname which I still remember as well.
OK, so they had a mag rack in their WC.
I couldn't help but notice the top mag was a Playboy!!
Freaked me out so much as a little girl that I never used their WC again.
Thought their dad was a pervo after that.
At the time though in his defense, their single uncle was staying with them, things that make you say, hmmmm.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

.....ts survey of how people discard their carts/trolleys, and why limit it to Eastern North America why not expand your survey? It is a classic, I urge you to get a copy to keep in the WC.

You don't want dull material in the loo.   

So I'm keeping a copy of the Brexit negotiations there just in case I need further inspiration.

If anyone has enough time to read in the WC then they seriously need more fiber!!
It was just wonderful outside today.
My long walk was great and my haircut even better!
Once when I was very young, say around age 7, I used the "loo" at my next door neighbors house.
I played with the 2 girls that lived there. Still remember their names too,. Jackie and Wanda, had a German surname which I still remember as well.
OK, so they had a mag rack in their WC.
I couldn't help but notice the top mag was a Playboy!!
Freaked me out so much as a little girl that I never used their WC again.
Thought their dad was a pervo after that.
At the time though in his defense, their single uncle was staying with them, things that make you say, hmmmm.

Good point, more fibre but on the other hand, there's the magic of the moment, the solitude, communing with nature, a weight off your mind (and elsewhere) and of course it's a partial and healthy lingering detox. 

Mrs Fluffy says that if something comes out of a human body, the subject always feels better afterwards.  I think it's true. I never thought of it like that before I met her.

If your neighbours were Germans, they were probably culturally not very fussy about the human body notwithstanding the objectification of female bodies in Playboy.  No-one worries about that stuff much back at the Deutsche Mothership.  We see au naturale Germans down at Balaton all the time.  I cannot say I find it nice to see but a 80 year old lady in the flesh. Certainly doesn't charm me.  Bit meh anyway, whoever it is. Some people look better with clothes on.

Just to throw in a further 2 Eurocents.....we're quite open here in Hungarian Hippyland (Budakeszi).  If the kids ask anything about themselves or others and the functioning of their bodies, we just tell them directly but cautiously what it's all about.  Not useful for them to be modest and better they get it straight and truthful. 

You must have even seen the classical German WC (and here sometimes), where there's the inspection platform?  They seem to have this obsession in checking the result.  I suppose nothing wrong with that if that floats their ....errr....boats (or Richard the Thirds).

I'm finding it very warm today - Indian summer.  Says 23 C outside and no rain.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I am wondering if it'll be like some kind of hybrid Hong Kong kind of solution.  How that would work, no idea.

I had a thought that if there was a no deal,  anyone EU had been in the UK more then say, 3 years, HMG might just make them all British citizens.  Then it's job done and up yours Barnier!

For others: HMG is abbreviation for Her Majesty's Government.

I don't think the Hong Kong solution is any kind of solution at all. The British gave the HongKongese if I can call them that for short, passports that were not passports and were not allowed to travel to the UK. They are either British Overseas Territories or British Occupied or something but not British Citizens - The British sold THEM down the river, that they should have by right have had British Citizenship. The richest were allowed to come to the UK, rest had to go off to China... that is how well the British treated their old Empire. Disgusting. Should have just given all of them British passports, every single man jack of them, woman and child. If they choose not to use them, they can CHOOSE, but give them a choice. We, the British, sold them down the river. Yes, we only rented Hong Kong for 150 years but they had no choice, we had a CHOICE. Prince Charles on Royal Yacht Brittania sailing away into the night when it was handed back to China, which was a far worse regime than it is now. Not particularly a brilliant episode or gallant thing for someone to do. Nobody got shot, so I suppose it is in that sense a gallant thing, but we could have just given them all passports. Can you imagine, a hundred thousand hardworking hongkongese working in britain adding to our economy, how much good they would do, and they would pay their taxes and work hard and teach us Cantonese and what good that would do to Britain or England whichever way you want to say it? But it is OK for Prince Charles because all he has to do is wave as he sails off from the Royal Yaucht Brittania which we don't even have any more because they scrapped it... as if you couldn't repair a boat. Everyone else manages.

If anyone has enough time to read in the WC then they seriously need more fiber!!
It was just wonderful outside today.

FIBRE obviously. Damyank spelling. Well what do you think I use the fibre they put into toilet paper, what do you think I use it for? Am I putting it at the wrong end or what? I thought it then went through your thirty two feet of intestinal tubing and kinda flushed through the system that way. Have I been doing it wrong all of these years?

SimonTrew wrote:

If anyone has enough time to read in the WC then they seriously need more fiber!!
It was just wonderful outside today.

FIBRE obviously. Damyank spelling. Well what do you think I use the fibre they put into toilet paper, what do you think I use it for? Am I putting it at the wrong end or what? I thought it then went through your thirty two feet of intestinal tubing and kinda flushed through the system that way. Have I been doing it wrong all of these years?

ANd so with this new nonsense of fibre optic cable, am i supposed to eat a lot of that too? I have a stack of it sitting here, but it doesn't have a Recommended Daily Allowance....

SimonTrew wrote:

If anyone has enough time to read in the WC then they seriously need more fiber!!
It was just wonderful outside today.

FIBRE obviously. Damyank spelling. Well what do you think I use the fibre they put into toilet paper, what do you think I use it for? Am I putting it at the wrong end or what? I thought it then went through your thirty two feet of intestinal tubing and kinda flushed through the system that way. Have I been doing it wrong all of these years?

The problem with FIBER is that it's a bit close to FIBBER and we don't want any of that.

SimonTrew wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

I am wondering if it'll be like some kind of hybrid Hong Kong kind of solution.  How that would work, no idea.

I had a thought that if there was a no deal,  anyone EU had been in the UK more then say, 3 years, HMG might just make them all British citizens.  Then it's job done and up yours Barnier!

For others: HMG is abbreviation for Her Majesty's Government.

I don't think the Hong Kong solution is any kind of solution at all. The British gave the HongKongese if I can call them that for short, passports that were not passports and were not allowed to travel to the UK. They are either British Overseas Territories or British Occupied or something but not British Citizens - The British sold THEM down the river, that they should have by right have had British Citizenship. The richest were allowed to come to the UK, rest had to go off to China... that is how well the British treated their old Empire. Disgusting. ...

I think they had 50K full passports for key individuals (Hong Kongers) who were civil servants and of those, there were like another 200K passports for dependents.  Most of them were not used.  I agree, they need to stop messing, convert all of those funny British passports to full passports.  I have heard that British Subject passports will fizzle out as no new ones will be issued.   I don't like the way HMG has double standards on this - Falklanders all have the full passports as do Gibraltarians  and St Helenians and all those others (not IOM or CI).   But yes, the Hong Kongers were stabbed in the back by HMG.

But anyway,  I was thinking those buggers in Whitehall could dream up a two-tier passport situation where permanent residents get this quasi-citizenship now on application, then get invited for voluntary or apply for quick conversion after say, 5-7 years or some number like that.   It's only the same as OV dishing out HU passports in Ukraine.

I'd like to see an audacious scheme like that  in place.  If we're going to get screwed by the EU, then screw them all back.   Do something interesting Teresa!

SimonTrew wrote:

....upposed to eat a lot of that too? I have a stack of it sitting here, but it doesn't have a Recommended Daily Allowance....

Different kind of fibre.

I think you're referring to colonoscopy which are quite popular investigations these days.

That's where they shove a fibre optic cable and camera up your derrière post enema.  The fibre provides the illumination and the camera shows the rest of the business so to speak.

it's an interesting experience to say the least.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

....upposed to eat a lot of that too? I have a stack of it sitting here, but it doesn't have a Recommended Daily Allowance....

Different kind of fibre.

I think you're referring to colonoscopy which are quite popular investigations these days.

That's where they shove a fibre optic cable and camera up your derrière post enema.  The fibre provides the illumination and the camera shows the rest of the business so to speak.

it's an interesting experience to say the least.

Actually I worked for a cable manufacturer who made fibre optic cable (as well as copper cable) and it is a somewhat fascinating process, I don't know how others make it but the basically drew it out of a vat of molten glass just as you would with nylon for stockings, made in continuous process, then cool it and spool it etc etc. One thing about a cable factory is that it is BIG - that you want a good distance to get it out of the vat, cooled, tinned, coated, printed, etc etc and spooled/loomed all in one process so you need a bit of room to do it. For tricky things like submarine telecoms cable, the front end is going like billy-ho and the back after you have done all the spooling and twining, added in the year threads (complex cable has a year thread which is just a colour coded cotton thread to tell you its year of manufacture), printed it up, etc etc, all in one continuous process, it is rather more complicated than you would think at first sight.

It is also why cable tends always to have a right hand kink to it, clockwise kink, because the machines go clockwise. Leave a bit of cable to itself and it will always tend to spool itself right handed.

Mind you, leaving a bit of cable to itself is never a good idea - i have a nest at the back of my telly because I left them to themselves for a couple of weeks and I think they have been having sex or something as it is a right jumble behind there now.

I also fired an experimental missile on the edge of Essex which used fibre optic for communication to base, instead of radio . it is incredibly strong stuff, the thing went off at about 28G but with a bit of how's your father the stuff would not break, and that was unsheathed FO of a spool at the back of something travelling at twice the speed of sound. It is a bit like paper in that sense . you can tear  a piece of paper really easily in one direction (along the warp or weft) but you try PULLING it apart, you try or let the MiniFluffsters try PULLING a piece of paper from both sides and you won't pull it apart. I don't know if that is technically tensile strength or what, but you can't do it that way, it won't pull apart. Yet you can tear it very easily.

I bought a bottle of vodka from Spar Express the other night, or rather I didn't. It was mostly water. I thought perhaps this is just me and I have kinda lost my taste (I have a bit of a cold) so I tried it on my missus who is non drinker, you know said don't have to swallow it but just taste that. It was definitely watered down.

Now, the seal etc is all on the bottle and the people in Spar Express are not going to go around siphoning vodka out of vodka bottles, of course. So, somewhere along the line a shipment of Royal Vodka has been substituted by water. Now someone has twenty thousand bottles of Royal Vodka that they can sell underhand no doubt. I don't need to buy water I have taps full of the stuff.

It is not the retailer's fault, it is well before them in the supply chain, but someone is on the con. I am not joking about this, because next time it won't be water in it, or clean water, they will put something else in it and start killing people.

There is a reason you only buy manufactured alcohol (or pálinka etc made by your family) where you know the source, because sooner or later someone will get killed by it being infected.

Sure, alcohol is itself a disinfectant and a very good one, I have a 70% w/w alcohol (ethanol) that I use as a cleaner for small parts, vodka will do in a hurry if it is JUST vodka (ie ethanol and water), you don't want gin or something with any kind of sugar in it as whatever you are cleaning just gets sticky with the sugar. The point I am making is there will not be just ONE bottle adulterated like that but no doubt thousands. No big deal that it was adulterated with water, apart from me having to buy another bottle to put with my tonic no harm done. But next time it could be something a lot worse.

I thought about taking the bottle back - not for a refund as such as I have broken the seal etc and how are they going to know I didn't water it down myself but to inform them that this has been adulterated. But they are not going to care very much.

Almost impossible to get a refund or exchange for anything in Hungary anyway, I have managed it once by going straight to the manufacturer (for a wireless keyboard) but then had to go to their showroom in Budapest to hand it over, get the new one - which was a hassle in itself. Was no point going to Media Markt to ask for an exchange, it would have been some excuse as it always is with them. I suppose I am used to the very strong consumer laws we have in UK where the store will almost always replace or refund something if the complaint is genuine, and if they don't you go on the telly and bitch about it and THEN they will. In Hungary, no chance, sure, caveat emptor, but with everything now being in packaging how can I possibly test a product before I get it home and open it? It is not as if you give me samples in the shop.

Am I the only one in this country who picks up litter and puts it in a bin (or brings it home and puts it in my own bin?)

This Hungarian habit of just dropping litter is very annoying. Usually outside my front door each day are a couple of beer cans and a couple of energy drinks cans, and I live on a quiet street and nobody is deliberately trying to make my place a mess, just oh I have finished with my can, drop it out of my car window or if I am walking drop it wherever it is left. There is a school, gymnasium, at the end of the street and opposite there is a park of sorts, I am not sure what they are doing with it but a group of volunteers razed it all down this year, levelled the ground, it is still an empty plot but I imagine they have some intentions, anyway every day there are about twenty energy drinks cans stuck into the wire fencing, and there is a bin RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER, one actually about ten feet away, and a proper kiddie park opposite (good thing about Budapest, kiddie parks everywhere, I haven't kids myself but I think that is wonderful) with about five or six litter bins/trash cans by the benches outside the park. You are not short of a litter bin/trashcan in Budapest, so PUT YOUR LITTER IN IT, or TAKE IT WITH YOU AND PUT IT IN YOUR OWN BIN.

Is it just me? I just actually shook the hand well knocked elbows with the bin man yesterday to say thank you for cleaning our streets. I think to everyone else they are looked down on. As it happens FKF that is the company that cleans the streets in Budapest and takes away all your litter, are looking for staff. I have half a mind to apply and I have the stamina but not sure I would have the strength. Maybe I should apply, I have no problem being a binman, make a nice change from software engineering and get to see around a bit (when you are not looking in a bin).

I just really don't understand it - Hungary needs a campaign like we had in UK "Keep Britain Tidy" or in Texas "Don't Mess with Texas" (brilliant slogan that) and just TEACH people that dropping litter is not acceptable.

Also will people please stop chucking their chewing gum on the pavement where it is almost impossible to get off and makes a right muck of it. I smoke cigarettes, I dispose of my cigarette butt appropriately. I do not litter the street with it. Chewing gummers think it is fine to just whack it on the stgreet where it makes it really ugly, is a disgusting mess if it gets on my boots and I have to scrape it off with a knife and probably some higito (white spirit), it is just a disgusting habit. So STOP DOING IT. Put it in your chewing gum wrapper, or put it in a bin. THANK YOU.

SimonTrew wrote:

.....
Almost impossible to get a refund or exchange for anything in Hungary anyway, I have managed it once by going straight to the manufacturer (for a wireless keyboard) but then had to go to their showroom in Budapest to hand it over, get the new one - which was a hassle in itself. Was no point going to Media Markt to ask for an exchange, it would have been some excuse as it always is with them. I suppose I am used to the very strong consumer laws we have in UK where the store will almost always replace or refund something if the complaint is genuine, and if they don't you go on the telly and bitch about it and THEN they will. In Hungary, no chance, sure, caveat emptor, but with everything now being in packaging how can I possibly test a product before I get it home and open it? It is not as if you give me samples in the shop.

Get stuff mail order and use the shop as a showroom.

Then it's EU distance selling directive as your backup on dodgy goods.  Wouldn't apply to vodka I am sure. 

The UK did have strong laws but that's fallen by the wayside since they reformed the Sale of Goods Act and watered it all down.

A lot of that UK stuff on refunds etc is now just customer service rather than the law.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I'd like to see an audacious scheme like that  in place.  If we're going to get screwed by the EU, then screw them all back.   Do something interesting Teresa!

Well it is like if you come in on a tourist visa you are not entitled to work (I think the stamp says "gainful employment"), or "resort to public funds". I can understand the latter, but why bother with the former? What is wrong with hard work? Someone wants to work, let them work... it is not as if we have an unemployment problem. The unemployment problems, over history, have usually been caused by governments restricting or preventing people from working. Come, work hard, pay your taxes, what's the problem?

I have mentioned this before that the front of my passport says that Her Majesty's secretary of state requests and requires in the name of Her Majesty that the bearer can pass through without let or hindrance. In fact the let and hindrance is the biggest bloody nuisance of the whole lot of it. Why not let me back into my own country? A passport is there to show other people's countries that I am who I say I am, I do not have to show it in my own. One day when I am very idle I am going to just refuse to show my passport at border control, what are they going to do? They patently will know that I am British, people lose their passports all the time on planes etc, and they only have to ask a few questions about who was on the Morecambe and Wise show or who killed Cock Robin (the sparrow dunnit, not the dunnet - he dunnit with a bit of archery) to establish fairly quickly that I am English/British without needing to check my passport. It is not British ports that my passport is designed to pass. I also notice that it now says it remains the property of HMG... which it never used to. Why did I pay for it then? And why doesn't she look after it and so if I lose it I have to pay for another one, when it was never my property in the first place? If she is careless enough to hand out passports to people willy-nilly then surely she can pick up the tab when people lose them....

fluffy2560 wrote:

The UK did have strong laws but that's fallen by the wayside since they reformed the Sale of Goods Act and watered it all down.

A lot of that UK stuff on refunds etc is now just customer service rather than the law.

THe UK watered my vodka down? you are right to an extent, that they weakened the Sale of Goods Act, possibly one of the best pieces of legislation, that and the Health and Safety at Work Act (HASAWA) as ORIGINALLY enacted, not all the bits and pieces to CYA (cover your arse) that people think of as actually being in the act.... you are right that it is mostly customer service, and Hungary hasn't really got the hang of it, small shops genuinely have, independent traders have because they want your business, but large shops might as well hang a sign up saying "EFF OFF, WE DON'T CARE". So of course they don't get repeat business... at least not my repeat business. I can just go somewhere else instead.

I am not a great fan of doing mail order because of the packaging and recycling waste, and again you then can't get to see or try the product so I am back in the same position as having it from the physical shop. What I find bizarre is like what things they put in those protective boxes. I can understand in the supermarket they put razor blades in them, as razor blades are easily pocketable and very expensive (unless like me you shave with a cut-throat) but they put all kinds of things, I went to OBI the do-it-yourself store and the plumbing fittings, just bits of like some 1/4" BSA screw fitting, was in one of those protective boxes, and of course I had my other end and wanted to check if I needed 1/4" or 3/8" (one of the slightly bizarre things in Hungary is that plumbing is all in Imperial) and I have this protective box in the way so I can't screw one bit into the other to check which one I need, as it is an old part I haven't markings on it and haven't anything else at home to check it against, yes I have feeler gauges etc but they are not going to work for that. Just let me try it out in the shop.... not tricky is it?

SimonTrew wrote:

.....

One thing you also do is LOSE your vocabulary. You can't think of the word for something in your native language, and have to kinda struggle around to find it somehow or ask someone else what is this called. You end up looking like someone with senile dementia because you are constantly asking people WHAT IS THIS?....

Dementia is a hot topic at the moment with my relatives.

People with dementia tend to insert the wrong word for things rather than forget the word completely.

So they might say "call" instead of "e-mail" or "fridge" instead of "table".

In the early days they also have lost their short term memory and get muddled with locations, time and dates.

Dementia is about feelings - so someone with dementia might ask about their long dead parents because at that moment in time, the feeling they experience is the same as one they felt when they were with their parents many years before.

They also have hallucinations which can be just weird.  Best thing is to play along and in doing so reduce stress and agitation.

In some ways there are funny things they do which appear strange or even amusing to us people not afflicted but it's really a nightmare for them and their carers.

SimonTrew wrote:

....I went to OBI the do-it-yourself store and the plumbing fittings, just bits of like some 1/4" BSA screw fitting, was in one of those protective boxes, and of course I had my other end and wanted to check if I needed 1/4" or 3/8" (one of the slightly bizarre things in Hungary is that plumbing is all in Imperial) and I have this protective box in the way so I can't screw one bit into the other to check which one I need, as it is an old part I haven't markings on it and haven't anything else at home to check it against, yes I have feeler gauges etc but they are not going to work for that. Just let me try it out in the shop.... not tricky is it?

In Aldi they usually unbox one of the items so you can have a look at it. 

If I can I try and and open the boxes to see the actual item and if it has labels or something in the way I try and get the label out of the way or off so I can see it all matches up.   Then if I like the item, I'll take one of the labelled ones.  OK, so I've inconvenienced them by removing the label.  But hey, do I care?   No, not a bit.

I need some air line fittings for my compressor but these are proving difficult as it's an awkward size - 1/8" vs the normal 1/4".   These are all in the little boxes as well which makes it hard to test.  I think with those I'm just going to order online as it's too complicated for the likes of OBI.

fluffy2560 wrote:

SimonTrew wrote:

....I went to OBI the do-it-yourself store and the plumbing fittings, just bits of like some 1/4" BSA screw fitting, was in one of those protective boxes, and of course I had my other end and wanted to check if I needed 1/4" or 3/8" (one of the slightly bizarre things in Hungary is that plumbing is all in Imperial) and I have this protective box in the way so I can't screw one bit into the other to check which one I need, as it is an old part I haven't markings on it and haven't anything else at home to check it against, yes I have feeler gauges etc but they are not going to work for that. Just let me try it out in the shop.... not tricky is it?

In Aldi they usually unbox one of the items so you can have a look at it. 

If I can I try and and open the boxes to see the actual item and if it has labels or something in the way I try and get the label out of the way or off so I can see it all matches up.   Then if I like the item, I'll take one of the labelled ones.  OK, so I've inconvenienced them by removing the label.  But hey, do I care?   No, not a bit.

I need some air line fittings for my compressor but these are proving difficult as it's an awkward size - 1/8" vs the normal 1/4".   These are all in the little boxes as well which makes it hard to test.  I think with those I'm just going to order online as it's too complicated for the likes of OBI.

Well perhaps it is just me, then, that I seem to get treated rather suspiciously... perhaps I somehow look like a criminal, what with the black and white stripey t shirt and a big bag marked SWAG with huge $$$$ signs on it I am not sure what would give them that impression.... when I am with my wife it is all fine and they are nice, but when you are on your own as a man I think you are regarded with a bit more suspicion. I am the least harmful man in the world, except when riled or wound up about someting, but even then will not hit or lie or cheat, but I do get followed around shops a lot and I notice that I do.

On the other hand, there is nothing quicker in the world than a man in a lingerie shop. Wife asks can you get me a bra and some knickers, in and out in two seconds flat... they should make it an Olympic sport, "man in lingerie shop sprint"....

fluffy2560 wrote:

No, I don't feel guilty about contracting out my killing.  .

I do. 

Vegetarian, but use leather in my work boots. Because.... it is simply a superior material. Yes... <cough>minor hypocrite<cough>.

I dated a Hindu for a while. A Sri Lankan Tamil and vegetarian ("like me" (dietary, not religion)). Yet she was shocked I wore cow leather shoes.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

No, I don't feel guilty about contracting out my killing.  .

I do. 

Vegetarian, but use leather in my work boots. Because.... it is simply a superior material. Yes... <cough>minor hypocrite<cough>.

I dated a Hindu for a while. A Sri Lankan Tamil and vegetarian ("like me" (dietary, not religion)). Yet she was shocked I wore cow leather shoes.

At first glance I was agreeing with contracting out my killing, then I realized the topic was meat and not humans that need a helping hand meeting their maker.
Just kidding but then again... One never knows what the future may hold.
I was off all red meat and for over 30 years, had  fish and only because at first I was a nursing mom and thought one of us needed some real protein, plus we lived in hawaii and fish was aplenty. I considered chicken and poultry as red meat.Fish was only consumed once or twice a week and small portions only, couldn't afford to go insane and eat it often at the time.
for about 10 years then ate some but not often.
Must be around 7  years now when my bother a big steak eater came to visit us.
For several nights I was dreaming of a grilled slice of beef with garlic all over it.
Got a tiny piece just to see what was up with this strange craving out of the blue.
Never looked back, been eating red meat again.
At least I gave it a good 30 plus year try.
I learned I should listen to my body when a craving other then sweets tells me to eat something.
I just about gave up the ghost at 40 by not listening to my body, found myself super anemic and needing surgery because I didn't listen and see a doctor before it got serious.
Instead of seeing a doctor I stopped my severe craving for fluids by eating ice, crushed ice with nothing but club soda.
It was a strong craving like for a cig, drugs, no control over it, went everywhere with a huge glass of crushed ice with club soda.
Ruined all my nice back teeth with the ice, now have crowns on my back teeth.
Even when I wasn't eating red meat I did wear leather shoes and jackets and handbags.
Hate fake stuff.
Breast feed my son for 13 months, my mom sort of forced me to stop when she enrolled me in beauty college. Said he was old enough to stop. Really though, how would she know, she had 6 kids but never breast feed any of us, made us all anal in many ways.
A good age to stop nursing is probably around 2 yeas old but many people stop after just a few months.
My son was a veggie baby until my mom started to baby-sit him, found out years later she was sneaking him meat when she watched him, thought he would get ill without it.
When he was 3 months old I tried giving him a bit of cereal with milk, he hated it was fat and super healthy with only breast milk, had no solid food until he was 6 months old and it was all veggies and grains, used to buy a nice cereal with almond mix for infants that was made in Switzerland.
Not sure I did my best for him because he developed a rare bone condition in his arm.
The orthopedic doctor at UCLA said it usually develops in children around age 2.
By age 12 it was so bad his arm snapped like a twig, 3 times in one year.
Not sure how he got that a cyst that grows in the bones Not sure if no meat was a good thing for him or not after all.
In my case I was off red meat for at least half my life, don't feel any different now since eating meat, but still don't eat much and not daily.

Marilyn Tassy wrote:

For several nights I was dreaming of a grilled slice of beef with garlic all over it.

I love the entire hamburger experience.

The bun. The patty. The condiments.... It is all wonderful. Drooling......



I use a vegeburger now for the patty. But won't otherwise give up my "Burger".

And when my wife... non-vegetarian... cooks bacon.... well that smells seems to trigger a genetic response.... yummy...     But I don't partake.

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

No, I don't feel guilty about contracting out my killing.  .

I do. 

Vegetarian, but use leather in my work boots. Because.... it is simply a superior material. Yes... <cough>minor hypocrite<cough>.

I dated a Hindu for a while. A Sri Lankan Tamil and vegetarian ("like me" (dietary, not religion)). Yet she was shocked I wore cow leather shoes.

Leather is indeed superior.  I'm not that bothered about using these materials at all - leather seats in cars, leather shoes, leather jackets etc, all fine by me.   It's going to happen anyway and the durability is excellent.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Leather is indeed superior.  I'm not that bothered about using these materials at all

No problem.

I guess I am just a bunny hugger at heart now. Don't like killing anything*. (After hunting the little bastards at first --- grew up around guns and as a hunter).

Oops! I have to go. See a spider on the wall. Have to catch it in a glass and release it outside.

Hmm. Or maybe I should leave it inside and contract out the inside mosquito killing to the spider....

Decisions..... decisions..... 

* Except vegetables, which have no chance to escape -- except maybe tomatoes on an incline......

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

Leather is indeed superior.  I'm not that bothered about using these materials at all

No problem.

I guess I am just a bunny hugger at heart now. Don't like killing anything*. (After hunting the little bastards at first --- grew up around guns and as a hunter).

Oops! I have to go. See a spider on the wall. Have to catch it in a glass and release it outside.

Hmm. Or maybe I should leave it inside and contract out the inside mosquito killing to the spider....

Decisions..... decisions..... 

* Except vegetables, which have no chance to escape -- except maybe tomatoes on an incline......

Have you heard a tomato scream? 

Or is it actually already dead immediately after you picked it or alive and dead at the same time?

I am of course referring to Heisenberg's Tomato.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Have you heard a tomato scream?

Yes.

As it slides into that acid bath..... AKA.... The human stomach.

Have you not heard it?  It is a terrible, terrible sound......  Will give you nightmares.

fluffy2560 wrote:

I could make a joke about dementia,

I saw many places to make a joke in the discussion about dementia.

Such as, mistaking words. I never car that was possible.....

But dementia is not something to joke about.   

klsallee wrote:

fluffy2560 wrote:

I could make a joke about dementia,

I saw many places to make a joke in the discussion about dementia.

Such as, mistaking words. I never car that was possible.....

But dementia is not something to joke about.   

Car and knew isn't really right as a comparison.  It's objects not verbs as  far as I've seen.  Might work to say "But joke is not something to dementia about".

My bro's MIL  (90) just asked (apparently) if her ghetto blaster was a kettle. My bro said she was not to use it until it had been descaled. Sort of funny but sad all at the same time.  Apparently she asked the same question several times in the past month.  Always a danger she'd try and put water in it.  Might be because of the colour - chromed plastic look same as a metal kettle.

I'm in my late 50s and I get mixed up sometimes when I have to think fast. I might say building instead of house or office block.  It's probably just "senior moments".  I've always likened it to the index being missing.  The link between the object and the word is getting muddled or the search takes longer than it used to.  Not sure that model really works. 

I sometimes have to look up stuff which I've always known but for some reason escapes me for that instant.   I think possibly these older memories are lost if we don't use them.  Quite strange.

fluffy2560 wrote:

Car and knew isn't really right as a comparison.  It's objects not verbs as  far as I've seen.

Okay. Fine. Whatever. You may be correct. Mea culpa. I honestly did not know such details. But to be quite frank, I honestly really don't care about the details. Because it misses my point, which was not about diagnosis, and was and still is:

Dementia is not something to joke about.

I hope, trust and expect we can agree.