What's made you smile today?

[jimboy]

The one best thing you can do for your children is give them your own time, simple. My wife, an expert in such matters says too many parents these days have child minders. Obviously for financial benefits to enable them to live their lives. Not easy these days I know. We all have a story and we all try to handle things the best we can, but modern day living seems to be so much difficult for various reasons from my era as a parent with young children.

Money being up there, the lack of it these days. In my day this wasn’t a problem, not because we had it, it was a case of help came free from friends and neighbours, and things were simple. Sigh, I loved being a dad to youngsters, I still have it now I believe, still acting the goat and playing with young kids. To me it’s a very special once in a lifetime chance to prove yourself to these youngsters.

 

[StevenRB45]

The pandemic has been good and bad for us in this respect. He's not seen his cousins since March which is sad we are hoping to arrange something outside for Christmas.

He's seen his my dad twice since March outside of waving at him from his front lawn. Seen her parents a few times but we've been in and out of tier 3 and lockdown since October so no baby groups or anything for a long time (just as well given we caught Covid at one of them!).

But I feel lucky because I've been working from my kitchen while he learns to walk to and talk which in a normal year, I'd have been in the office. As it is by the time I get back to the office he'll be most of the way to nursery so I'll have been paid to watch him grow up a for a year or so.

 

[AndyRKett]

Picked up a David Clark Aviation head set today for just £50. Considerably better than the £300 they normally cost.

 

[dave]

These christmas songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmO722zHQI4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDXNmNljtiM

 

[StevenRB45]

Article on my old school closing...

Famous Alumni...Chris Ryan of "the one that got away fame". To be fair after that school the idea of going hundreds of miles behind enemy lines with the possibility of being killed at any moment probably did rather lose it's sting.

Oh and the bloke from the Viz who invented "Kappa Slappers"..well not invented drew what he saw round the school on a daily basis.

 

[varesecrazy]

Article on my old school closing...

Famous Alumni...Chris Ryan of "the one that got away fame". To be fair after that school the idea of going hundreds of miles behind enemy lines with the possibility of being killed at any moment probably did rather lose it's sting.

Oh and the bloke from the Viz who invented "Kappa Slappers"..well not invented drew what he saw round the school on a daily basis.

Did Mr. Ryan own an HGT.. ?

A 5 Pot one..

 

[SB1500]

I had to laugh at Macron's statement about the EU being 'too generous' to the UK... Does he not realise if we leave without a deal he gets zero access to UK waters?! I think CV19 is messing with his head!

 

[puntofan01]

I had to laugh at Macron's statement about the EU being 'too generous' to the UK... Does he not realise if we leave without a deal he gets zero access to UK waters?! I think CV19 is messing with his head!

I get the impression that it's looking more and more likely that we'll leave without a deal.

 

[StevenRB45]

That was always the plan...that way Farage, Mogg and other disaster capitalists can make the most money before buggering off into the sunset.

Has been quite amusing watching various EU member States taking back control of their borders over night without needing to leave the EU, who do they think they are?? Sovereign countries in a trading organisation??

 

[The Panda Nut]

New coil pack and leads arrived for Daffo our169 Panda. £51 for proper Magnetti Marelli parts I feel its a bit of a bargain even with delivery and safe parcel whatever that equates to. Surprise dhow heavy and well engineered the coil pack is.

 

[SB1500]

That was always the plan...that way Farage, Mogg and other disaster capitalists can make the most money before buggering off into the sunset.

Has been quite amusing watching various EU member States taking back control of their borders over night without needing to leave the EU, who do they think they are?? Sovereign countries in a trading organisation??

I totally get that France wants to protect itself from the new strain and all that, don't get me wrong. But I don't see why freight needs to stop, if it didn't stop back in March when we all feared the virus would be even worse than we now know it is, it didn't stop then?

I understand the travel bans, but I don't understand why we didn't do this back in March also when it spread across Europe? Surely that was the time for us all to stop it when it could have made an even bigger difference for the better.

It's any wonder this has gotten so bad all around the world when we all did nothing to stop it like this back before it all blew up.

Don't get me wrong, at the back of my mind I think this could well be France trying to dig it's heels in since it's fairly powerless over the fishing thing in all seriousness. But that's besides the point, either way people in this country won't starve, despite the news reports best efforts to have us all run to the supermarket and clear the shelves.

Just my take on it

 

[StevenRB45]

I would imagine freight stops because drivers who are human and therefore susceptible to catching and transmitting the virus tend to travel with freight.

We could have done this back in March and closed our borders and airports to Europe. But unfortunately Boris is incompetent, always was...always will be. So instead what's happened is while the North of the country has been under mixture of lockdown and tier 3 since March pretty much London has been left open to be happily breed mega covid and now we end up in the situation we are in.

Where the area closest to the ports is in the highest possible lockdown where you aren't allowed to leave your house for anything other than essential activities..so why would another country battling with it's own covid epidemic want the chance of importing a new more virulent strain?

 

[SB1500]

I would imagine freight stops because drivers who are human and therefore susceptible to catching and transmitting the virus tend to travel with freight.

We could have done this back in March and closed our borders and airports to Europe. But unfortunately Boris is incompetent, always was...always will be. So instead what's happened is while the North of the country has been under mixture of lockdown and tier 3 since March pretty much London has been left open to be happily breed mega covid and now we end up in the situation we are in.

Where the area closest to the ports is in the highest possible lockdown where you aren't allowed to leave your house for anything other than essential activities..so why would another country battling with it's own covid epidemic want the chance of importing a new more virulent strain?

I think he's doing a good job to be honest, I mean in hindsight we can always say what should have been done. And in failing to close things earlier in March, he's not alone there, but to me that's definitely a valid criticism of him and other world leaders.

I'm not sure about the effectiveness of different lockdowns and all the tiers, but I can tell you one thing, if the rest of the country is like the community where I live, we can't exactly blame the leaders.. for example, here every day you'll see family of neighbours and friends walking in and out of houses, cars from people travelling to visit. People my age are the worst of it though, checking snapchat you see them still having their house parties, stumbling drunk and falling over each other.. just no concept whatsoever of the risk / spreading. I think regardless of the (good or bad) lockdowns it's a lot of people in our population letting the rest of us down and keeping the spread going sadly.

I see in a statement there that only 20% of the freight is affected, other essential supplies still moving through so no need to panic. But it'll hurt businesses, sadly.

I think Macron is playing a dangerous game here though, he's totally within his right given the new strain to protect his country - no issues with that. But his input to the negotiations is going to backfire big time and doesn't set him or his country in favourable terms with the UK. It'll be interesting to watch it all unfold .... come on, after this year, you'd all rather hear about Brexit than Covid, am I right?! Lol

 

[StevenRB45]

Well you could look it at like that and blame Macron and the population.

Or could look at it like if the Conservatives had not been systematically sabotaging the NHS we would have been better prepared for a pandemic.

If they'd tendered for covid related contracts properly rather than handing them out to their mates like it's a banana republic we might have had a functioning track and trace system and PPE.

If they'd not undermined the credibility of the lockdown with the Dominic Cummings debacle and changing the rules every 10 minutes then perhaps people would have followed the damn rules.

If they'd not systematically defunded the police force then perhaps lockdown might have had a chance of being enforceable.

If they had not ignored scientific advice on a regular basis we wouldn't be having the problems we are having now...

There is a reasonable chance the current border problems would have occurred on the 1st of January regardless given the current progress re. Brexit.

So no I don't believe Boris or the Conservative party have done a good job...as to quote Bomber Harris a man not known for his love of Europe..."They sowed the wind and now they shall reap the whirlwind" Basically they find themselves in a S*** storm of their own creation.

Unfortunately I also have to occupy the same storm, but hey it's Christmas..except I can't celebrate it properly as my wife is working for the NHS that day and we're not allowed to visit anyone on boxing day.

 

[portland_bill]

This is turning into the coronavirus thread.

To steer this back to the smile thread, this popped up on YouTube earlier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc0x4sQkxxM
45 seconds of pure joy.

 

[The Panda Nut]

This is turning into the coronavirus thread.

To steer this back to the smile thread, this popped up on YouTube earlier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc0x4sQkxxM
45 seconds of pure joy.

Yep I agree. In the nicest possible way... Please people go discuss this in that thread where those who don't wish to share the discussion dont need to join in. This is supposed to be a little light hearted relief.

I NEED THAT LITTLE LIGHT HEARTED REJLIEF! I'm miserable enough as it is!

 

[The Panda Nut]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbXIyipHyio

That was mildy amusing. This is seriously funny. Copy is winging its way to my brother who has a pair of Range Rovers.

Yes they are both smooth quiet and powerful and would crack continents and tow a house, but....

ha ha ha ha ha I intend to send him a tow rope for Christmas just to rub it in.

 

[jimboy]

Shopping trip today was a bit amusing. Son in law and I went together, he drove and I sat back. ALDI, Lidl and Asda was the order of the day. No queues and just was after last minute bits and pieces. Bit of excitement at the Lidl check out, geezer in front of me was trying to take outside a wheeled basket, the alarm was going off, I just couldn’t resist and control my sense of humour, I shouted out, stop that man, he’s trying to escape with a basket, you’re not allowed that outside. The cashier was trying to stop him, some shoppers around me saw my humour and were laughing, others however did not see the funny side at all, this actually made it more humorous.

The tramadol painkiller tablets were kicking in that I took first thing. Sometimes they can make me a bit high, all added to the mix A bit of welcomed humour helped the morning go past.

 

[AndyRKett]

The tramadol painkiller tablets were kicking in that I took first thing. Sometimes they can make me a bit high, all added to the mix A bit of welcomed humour helped the morning go past.

It’s when your family later tell you, you’ve been home all day and you hallucinated the whole thing lmao

 

[SB1500]

Okay, okay, back to lightheartedness - my bad for mentioning political crap here!

This was interesting to watch, some of the stories about the VAG boss at the end were amusing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gRihdelgfY&ab_channel=BigCar


They seem to have the problem Fiat has when it tries to make a bigger or more expensive car, in the sense that people don't want to pay that money for that badge. Except in this case, people didn't want to spend Bentley money for a VW despite its positioning. (and of course, I think it's the same with DS, people see straight through it and know it's a Citroen lol)


And to all on here, Merry Christmas and stay safe!