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Post by Voy on Feb 21, 2023 15:28:01 GMT 2
he really was a varied kinda guy - fighter pilot, spy, etc - but I love this bit from his public school days: "During his years at Repton, the Cadbury chocolate company occasionally sent boxes of new chocolates to the school to be tested by the pupils.[43] Dahl dreamt of inventing a new chocolate bar that would win the praise of Mr Cadbury himself; this inspired him in writing his third children's book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), and to refer to chocolate in other children's books."
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Post by Netsuke on Feb 21, 2023 16:43:42 GMT 2
Tzarine, when I try to click on the links you post, 90% of the time I get a blank page with 404 Bad Gateway.
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Post by slowcoach on Feb 22, 2023 14:00:03 GMT 2
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 23, 2023 11:12:53 GMT 2
Some of my friends point out the situation would not be so dire if people were eating seasonal vegetables
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Post by tzarine on Feb 24, 2023 6:33:33 GMT 2
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Post by slowcoach on Feb 24, 2023 10:50:26 GMT 2
Oh Dear! Oh Dear!
Gnawing on raw turnips in the cold and dark, coz the emergency credit on the prepayment meter ran out on Boxing Day.
Let them eat mangels!
Tip of the Day!
When you go out, take a spoon!
You never now your luck!
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Post by tzarine on Feb 24, 2023 21:33:01 GMT 2
If Wishes Were Horses
If wishes were horses, Beggars would ride. If turnips were watches, I’d wear one by my side. And if “ifs” and “ands” Were pots and pans, There’d be no work for tinkers!
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Post by tzarine on Feb 25, 2023 6:11:56 GMT 2
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 27, 2023 16:04:57 GMT 2
What kind of a mess is the UK in right now?!
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Post by slowcoach on Mar 5, 2023 9:46:05 GMT 2
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Post by Netsuke on Mar 5, 2023 11:58:21 GMT 2
For want of a nail a kingdom was lost…
For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the message was lost. For want of a message the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Battle of Bosworth Field (Richard III vs Herry VII), 1485.
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Post by slowcoach on Mar 20, 2023 13:24:09 GMT 2
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Post by auntieannie on May 25, 2023 22:22:06 GMT 2
earlier this month, I was offered a position working for the NHS. After studying the proposition at hand, I refused. My salary would not cover paying the most basic of bills. Look at these hourly rates! link
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Post by slowcoach on May 26, 2023 12:02:44 GMT 2
There is a huge difference between the lower and upper bands. From PissPoor to many times that.
The UK seems to be suffering from state sponsored somnambulism. Take for instance the inflation rate. It is dire and it shows little sign of improving resulting in mixed messaging and things getting worse when they are promised to be getting better. Here is the UK CPI all of it not just the year on year inflation rate figure. If it did anything in the last month it was that it continues to tick up above trend. Now if the inflation rate was displayed on the News like that, wouldn't you be frightened. People might even wake up. It isn't gettng better things are getting worse.
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Post by slowcoach on May 26, 2023 14:40:17 GMT 2
From the Beeb: One would be excused for thinking that if people learned one thing about maternity care it would have been the pioneering work of Ignaz Semmelweis in founding anticeptic procedures (hand washing in antiseptics) to prevent maternal fatalities from puerperal fever on Obstetric wards.
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Post by auntieannie on May 26, 2023 14:54:53 GMT 2
completely mind boggling, slow.
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Post by Voy on May 26, 2023 18:01:28 GMT 2
Slow - I hope you can open this - it's from yesterday's NYT - and has a chart....
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Post by sophie on May 26, 2023 18:12:47 GMT 2
Public health procedures are under attack all around with distrust being a hangover from the Covid misinformation being thrown around by the anti whatever crowd. It’ll take us (those living in developed countries) into some ugly times with disease and infections from which we have been largely spared for many decades.
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Post by auntieannie on May 26, 2023 20:24:12 GMT 2
agreed, Sophie. with a very heavy heart. I found an excuse not to attend a lunch yesterday because all the attendees believe in conspiracy theories. I usually enjoy talking to these ladies about other things, but it's getting worse and I'm less able to keep my cool about the misinformation discussed.
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Post by slowcoach on May 27, 2023 10:01:00 GMT 2
Slow - I hope you can open this - it's from yesterday's NYT - and has a chart.... I can't see your "this", was it a link?
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Post by auntieannie on May 27, 2023 10:35:34 GMT 2
can't see the link either, Voy.
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Post by Voy on May 27, 2023 20:15:02 GMT 2
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Post by slowcoach on May 28, 2023 9:21:31 GMT 2
Yes, that is precisely the point, their reporting the first graph (the index) tells me more than the second (year on year % change) ever could.
The first contains more information viewed against less noise.
If I had set my graph above to Spring 2021 = 100, it would be clear that the CPI measurement of prices has risen by 19% since then and the pace of the rise is not diminishing and there was no apparent reason to expect otherwise.
Thanks
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Post by slowcoach on May 28, 2023 9:36:20 GMT 2
FWIW I doubt that the UK is far off re-issuing ration books. Rationing is not just about managing a shortage it also constrains demand permitting the artificial reduction of prices to a level affordable by the many.
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Post by slowcoach on Jun 2, 2023 10:45:35 GMT 2
I checked last months EU (Eurostat) Inflation figures. For the whole of the EU year on year inflation was 6.1%.
Where it gets interesting is at the country level. In Spain that year on year rate is 2.9%, and the index dropped slightly from April to May.
That is not the rate if inflation dropping, but the index. Things just got cheaper in Spain. Some of this is clear like the continuing drop in the regulated price for bottled gas for domestic supply, also the falling cost of motor vehicle fuels, and that the regulated price for electricity averaged over the last 4 weeks being down to below €0.14/kWh.
And importantly the cost of dry dog food in bulk (35Kg) is back down to around €0.60/Kg.
Prices as a whole are highly unlikely to return to BC levels but a return to trend would be most
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Post by auntieannie on Jun 9, 2023 23:04:13 GMT 2
BoJo throwing his toys out of his pram. prolly his child's toys...
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Post by Voy on Jun 10, 2023 1:21:55 GMT 2
^ - oh good grief. Now he gets to "write his own epitaph" instead of losing an election or being booted out... yuck
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Post by slowcoach on Jun 28, 2023 13:12:36 GMT 2
I guess we are all familiar with the suggestion that inflation is a global problem, caused by Covid or Russia or whatever. But if it is a global problem, we have a question for auntieannie : What planet are you on? Inflation for EU Eurozone and Switzerland
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Post by Netsuke on Jun 29, 2023 1:14:35 GMT 2
Politics aside, I’m tired, cold, my hair is a mess, I’m in need of a shower, my feet need a good scrubbing to get rid of all that dead skin, my toe nails need cutting and my face needs a rejuvenating - that’s the state I’m in at the moment.
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Post by auntieannie on Jun 29, 2023 16:28:30 GMT 2
hugs, netsuke.
Slow... I had to chuckle. We're doing good, true. but everything is expensive here. When my friends visited in May, they said that prices are similar to what they experience in the UK now. Shame salaries have to followed...
edited : Shame salaries have yet to follow. or .. Shame salaries have not followed.
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