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1 minute ago, swe62 said:

Why do we have belly buttons? is it for somewhere to put the salt if eating crisps in the bath?

If you pull on your belly button your bum falls to the floor, so its used to hold your bum in place.

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My sister lives in Spain. Recently, she broke her arm and shoulder. She can't speak Spanish and no one at the hospital spoke English. Result, confusion. In my opinion, if you want to live abroad, the

The cost of interpreters is a huge factor both inside and outside the NHS.   As I said, my sister doesn't speak Spanish and, after her initial visit to the hospital, she had to book the serv

On the subject of why, I wonder if the people of Gloccamorra ever wonder how things are with us?

??????? just a thought , A dozen eggs is not a metric 

we still sometimes use 12" 1 foot  12 pennies in a shilling 

maybe we are still in the old measurement 

12 eggs one doz

we must update our system

make it 10 eggs = 1 doz

Food for thought  How many fridges do we make in the UK? This is proberly the answer

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Missed Appointments  Maybe all appointments missed, names can be kept aside and just have one day when a doctor will see them. Then if its not a genuine missed appointment the doctor can note it on his computer so staff can see who missed appointment. Its no good sending them to A&E as these are not A&E cases and hospital's just don't have resource's these people who miss appointments are just idle.

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On the dozen vs ten problems, a dozen is divisible 2, 3, 4 and 6 whereas ten is only divisible by 2 and 5. A mathematical base of 12 (duodecimal) is much more useful in practical applications than a base of ten. Conversely, a base of 10 (decimal) is more of use in mathematics. It is all 'old hat' nowadays, I suppose, with binary becoming the system of choice

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3 hours ago, jonab said:

On the dozen vs ten problems, a dozen is divisible 2, 3, 4 and 6 whereas ten is only divisible by 2 and 5. A mathematical base of 12 (duodecimal) is much more useful in practical applications than a base of ten. Conversely, a base of 10 (decimal) is more of use in mathematics. It is all 'old hat' nowadays, I suppose, with binary becoming the system of choice

 

As with so many things in life, the correct answer is 'Well.. err.. yes.. and ..no..'  :)

 

Despite my fundamental weakness at Mathematics, I never had much trouble with pounds and ounces, or hundredweights, rods, poles, perches, pecks etc. I even managed to cope with what we called 'Practice', which was a way of laying out and calculating numerous additions, subtractions etc, in £.s.d.

 

However, there is something very satisfying about the metric system, in the way that it easily integrates, weight/mass, temperature, volume and so on.

 

So, for example.  1 Cubic Centimetre of water weighs one gramme.  Therefore 1 litre of water weighs 1 Kilogramme.  Also, one calorie of heat energy will raise one cubic centimetre of water through one degree centigrade.. and so on (with exceptions in the case of evaporation/condensation etc., involving 'latent heat' and so on..)  The same principle extends throughout, including things like the make up of 'standard' or 'molar' solutions of chemicals etc by using 'gram molecular weight, per litre, etc, and also calculating out chemical equations.
 

Compare the above with the situation in Britain before decimalisation, where instead of the neat base ten integration, you had something which I used to only part jokingly describe as "One British Thermal Unit is equivalent to the amount of heat generated by  one Stone or 14 Pounds of Nutty Slack burned in a British Standard Fireplace" :blink:

 

You can also extend this to things such as booze. These days you know that any alcoholic drink contains a certain percentage of alcohol, which is stated on the container.  This makes more sense than the earlier British system of 'Original Gravity' for beers etc, which was effectively an assumption of alcohol content based on the amount of sugar present at the start of the brewing process. and the 'proof' system for spirits, originally I believe based on some test or other involving gunpowder and in which 70 degrees of proof spirit actually represented 40% alcohol and caused endless confusion because high proof could go over 100, leading some people to conclude that they had spirits containing more than 100% alcohol.. which is is course incorrect as that would be impossible.  More like 56% or so I think.

 

Oddly enough. there was a sort of British Standard Fireplace, used by the NCB to check out such things as radiant heat from coal fires etc, though I only ever saw it in books and never used it myself.

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On 9 gennaio 2019 at 4:40 PM, Jill Sparrow said:

My sister lives in Spain. Recently, she broke her arm and shoulder. She can't speak Spanish and no one at the hospital spoke English. Result, confusion. In my opinion, if you want to live abroad, the least you can do is learn to speak the lingo.

I agree Jill when I first came here to meet my inlaws all I could say was Ciao, and piacere. ( hello and pleased to meet you) After we were married I started to learn from my husband . But then when I made mistakes he laughed so I vowed I would never learn. However over the years I increased my vocabularly and I surprised him by carrying on a conversation with my bil.  I did attend italian school run by the nuns for children of italian parents living in uk. My children both attended and had to take an exam at the end of term. I asked the tutor if I could stay in the background as these classes were held inSherwood and we lived in ROT too far to go and return in an hour. At the end of term I too passed the exam.

But living here if you don't speak Italian you don't get anywhere especially for a woman as she has to shop. In uk we had an assistant chef who was from Calabria , she could neither speak english or Calabrase. It was very difficult to understand her. There are at least 6 people who are English living here and we are not a large community. Many do speak English but unfortunately many uk citizens dont speak a foreign language. 

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On the subject of language.  My French is limited to what I learned in school up to 1965. Vocabulary has no doubt suffered over the intervening years, but I can still make an effort when required. I find that thinking through what you are going to try to say, before speaking is a big help. Most people appreciate it if you smile and try to speak their language and will forgive errors.

 

I was in the Cavern Pub a while ago . They sell tickets from there for the 'Magical Mystery Tour.' around the places of 'Beatle Interest'  ( Strawberry Field, Penny Lane etc..)  A couple who were clearly not English came in and asked, in reasonable English, for two tickets for the tour.  Since tours leave at various times, the Cavern 'staffer' asked 'when for?', which I thought was not the best way to put it.  The girl clearly misunderstood so he said slowly and more loudly 'WHEN FOR?'

She now 'got it' and said 2:00 pm.  Thereafter the 'staffer' was very helpful , giving them a map and pointing out the route from the Cavern, to the departure point for the tour.

 

But, it seems to me it would be far better to enquire 'for what time?'..

 

UK people often seem incapable of, or reluctant to move out of the 'vernacular' and into something closer to the 'Queen's English' which is what 'foreigners' tend to learn.  They try and I think it's only polite that we should try too.

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I don't keep eggs in the fridge.  I find that it makes them too cold and they tend to spit when fried 'as is', or in omelettes.  Also the yolk can end up still cold or underdone, even in boiled or pached eggs. I just keep them in a cupboard and use them well within date.

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Any language if you are learning and feel you're using the wrong phrase or word, just dive in. The person you're talking to probably doesn't speak your language anyway and I'm sure they will correct you and it can cause a lot of laughter. On a ferry to Sardinia years ago I was disgusted by the state of the loos on the ferry. I mentioned it to my sil who burst out laughing. I thought I had used the correct word but no I'd called the state of the loo was like a crostata ( a large jam tart type of cake) instead of incrostata. ( full of lime scale). We still laugh about it now. My son when he was small told his aunt that his " colla" was hurting instead of saying his "collo" was hurting. ( his neck) but he just used to dive in with english words and putting an "o" or "a" on the end. Invariably it worked.

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7 hours ago, DJ360 said:

I don't keep eggs in the fridge.  I find that it makes them too cold and they tend to spit when fried 'as is', or in omelettes.  Also the yolk can end up still cold or underdone, even in boiled or pached eggs. I just keep them in a cupboard and use them well within date.

 

One of the nurses where my mum is, made me a basket out of twisted paper in the shape of a hen where I keep my eggs.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Back from a long weekend in South Wales, and during the journey, something struck me that I've suspected for a long time.

I'm referring to the lack of indicating by BMW drivers. It could be one or more of several things.

BMW don't fit them.

If they do, then there's a continuing fault.

They need to change the brand of bulbs, as the current ones don't work.

The indicator switch is hard for the driver to find.

Most likely I reckon is that the arrogant twerps think that they own the roads, and that everyone else must get out of their way immediately. Tossers !

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Same out here with most car drivers Fly, they don't indicate which way they want to go until their brake lights have been on for some time and they are just a couple of feet away from the turn,as you say Tossers (although that is being very polite)

 

Rog

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24 minutes ago, philmayfield said:

‘defensive driving’.

 

We have a thread somewhere about good advice we have been given and remembered. I wrote about some advice my dad gave me after passing my test in 1972ish. He said, 'Drive as if everyone are idiots', that way you are always ready for the unexpected. I always have that in mind when I drive. It has been proved true many times over the years.

I feel very sorry for passengers when I see some of the stupid risks drivers take. Those passengers must be petrified and can't do a thing about it!

 

 

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I was told that too Carni, by my dad over 55 years ago.

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One thing I was told about defensive driving is " when driving down a lane for example, would you like to meet yourself coming the other way??"

If your speeding, do you want to meet a speeder coming towards you, don't think so. B.

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1 hour ago, FLY2 said:

Back from a long weekend in South Wales, and during the journey, something struck me that I've suspected for a long time.

I'm referring to the lack of indicating by BMW drivers. It could be one or more of several things.

BMW don't fit them.

If they do, then there's a continuing fault.

They need to change the brand of bulbs, as the current ones don't work.

The indicator switch is hard for the driver to find.

Most likely I reckon is that the arrogant twerps think that they own the roads, and that everyone else must get out of their way immediately. Tossers !

I’ve had a few BMW’s. As far as I’m aware they were all fitted with indicators. A 528i I had many years ago was one of the first to be fitted with a computer. I played games with this on the 12 mile drive home from work. I compared the time taken by driving for maximum economy with the time taken for driving quickly. Interestingly driving economically made very little difference to the journey time!

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We spend a lot of time riding around the lanes of West Mids, Staffs, Shropshire. Beautiful scenery in this Glorious Island of ours.

 

Within the next quarter hour we are picking daughter up and will just head out into the country, no idea of destination, we will just travel the lanes and see what turns up. Years of experience have taught us not to speed round the lanes. Every single time we go out there will be at least one lunatic suddenly appear on a bend, they and us have to slam breaks on. We won't be speeding, just the opposite, but it is necessary to do so.

 

Also, then, one has to reverse to the last passing place, and to save confrontation, my husband just gets on with it and reverses. It is made quite obvious most often that the speeder isn't going to reverse anyway. Bad attitudes just add to the awkward situation, but that shows anyway in the fact that they are speeding on the lanes in the first place.

 

Must go, daughter waiting!

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I had a G/F in Australia who used to say Never trust a male driver wearing a hat, she was right too!!

There's some exceptional videos on Youtube of idiot drivers, I love to watch those with death wishes "Brake testing" 80,000lb semi trucks then get out their wrecked cars as if it's the truckers fault. Then there's the idiots who get in a truckers blind spot and wonder why they get run over and their car wiped out.

I see Russian drivers are exceptionally aggressive, if you're ever over there, don't cut one off!!

 

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Over the weekend, I saw trucks from Belarusse and Montenegro. Just what in Gods name do we need from there ?

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