malumbu

I'm sure he has compared himself to all action American heroes. I couldn't find any links but found this interesting article on films that predicted the rise of the machines, sorry Trump, starting off with Citizen Kane and Duck Soup. https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-lists/idiocracy-2016-20-movies-that-predicted-trumps-rise-251803/

Here it is

Supposed to be a fun thread ladies, gents and others, there is a separate one for all other things Trump

Looking at Trump yesterday on the news in Wisconsin he seemed to be more CGI than human. It wasn't like many older people in the states where the cosmetic surgery is obvious. But it reminded me of Max Headroom - younger readers may not be aware that this was an early and very entertaining CGI talking head. And also Kryten out of red dwarf. This thread is purely for entertainment as it is not really appropriate to criticise a politician, let alone anyone else, for their strange looks. https://acrossthepondtv.wordpress.com/2015/07/29/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-red-dwarf/

Administrator can you merge these two posts into the back to work thread - hadn't seen that this was already being discussed. Ta

Didn't realise that the BEEB was showing live cricket. Went looking for the highlights and found the whole match on i-player. Meant to flick through it but ended up watching the whole of the Pakistan innings. It was an amazing pleasure and hadn't realised how much I'd missed it on terrestrial. Will watch the England innings tomorrow - I do know the result sadly. Cricket is so much more watchable in empty grounds than footy

Funny that. I hadn't had a nuisance call for months until last week and so was caught off guard. "when you get home tonight have a long hard think about why you are encouraging people to commit fraud". I think that was one of my better answers. In the office once I said I'd put it on speaker phone so we could all here, but they hung up immediately.

Thanks Sally. Sadly there are numerous people, perhaps in the majority (and even on this website). who are happy to exploit any excuse to have a go at 'sanctimonious' cyclists (and anyone else who doesn't fit in with their agendas such as tree huggers). Perhaps they would like to share some views on this thread!

A fine line between supporting your community and vigilantism, Got a mate who takes pictures of people driving on their phones and sends them into the met. He has had some convictions and even attended court once. But part of me is saying get a life. Personally average speed cameras would sort this out in a relatively short time. Why is HMG relying on us to take risks? And of the roads you list the only one that particularly bothers me is Sydenham Hill; my personal bugbears are Forest Hill Road, Perry Vale (LBL), Cator Road and some of the other places I cycle in Bromley. I'm not necessarily anti us doing our bit but feel that there needs to be greater political will. And personally I'd happily crush some of the cars where the drivers don't give a fig about other road users and pedestrians. PS I was looking for the black chap who cycles round telling off bad drivers. He featured in a documentary about cycling a few years ago - I'm sure the Daily Hate did a feature on him and called him something like the enforcer. I've seen him out and about and it makes you cycle even more sensibly (he criticises cyclists too) PPS you should also clock the speeds of electric scooters.

Ministers are encouraging employers to get people back into the office. The damage to those local economies dependent on office workers in clear - in London and I expect in many towns and cities. I don't give too much of atuff about the chain coffee shops, but cafes, pubs, dry cleaners, hardware shops that is a different issue. I've yet to hear government say they can't lead by example. Hot desking, and flexible working mean that government departments have downsized accommodation, releasing significant central London space, giving smaller personal working space. I expect that many can only accommodate 10 - 20 % or staff whilst observing social distancing. Are private organisations in a similar situation? I've found flexible (ie home) working great but a day a week is fine. Doing everything remotely has made me less productive and I miss bouncing ideas of others, collective problem solving, general chat etc. There is a limit on how much this can be replicated remotely. I'm surprised the media hasn't explored this further. Oh and another good thing is not needing to wear office clothing (but please don't hang around in your pj's all day). Hope that when people to get back into their offices there will a lightening of dress code, if such thing still exists.

Was it you who tried to mow me down on an electric scooter Clutter Queen? I'm gently cycling down Rye Lane, getting a good feeling about how the pedestrianisation is going, noting the need to turn the traffic light crossings lights off, when I almost get taken out by a speeding scooter. Now there is a topic for a new thread. I'd clocked a couple of coppers on bikes who were totally unaware of the scooter. No fear there for speeding and illegal scooter riders.

Take it up with both Sainsbury's and appeal. I've been arguing with Lewisham for years that they focus on shoppers who are a soft target but ignore those parking on double yellows at night, particularly by the banqueting hall. People who know what they are doing but don't care, particularly as they wont get caught. Incidentally this is a Lewisham thing, Sainsburys are an innocent party.

Oh my word, I've been using the wrong spelling of kerb. I must curb my enthusiasm. Perhaps you might not have noticed that there has been a big decline of the use of public transport since March. In the early days it was great when the roads were empty, not so great now with cars back on the road. So you have got a difficult dynamic of closing roads when car use is rising and capacity/use of public transport has fallen. I'm confused about your general point on normality. I shouldn't have used the term, which is relative rather than absolute. But I do look forward to a new normality when there is less use of, and dependence on, cars. I hope my syntax is correct this time but by all means do correct me again.

Not sure why this is hidden in the Covid section - closing roads was happening in any case and I almost missed on this thread aka "we hate cyclists". I've never been fond of the pedestrians walking across the cycle path, buses driving on it and taking down the curb, the poor sequencing of the lights and the way that many motorists ignored that Rye Lane was supposed to be bus only and would compound matters by parking in the double yellows. Well we have one of those out of the way. Really enjoying the road closures and look forward to the time when public transport returns to some sort of normality and we have less cars on the road. Well done Southwark, and some of the other inner boroughs.

Rat trap worked although I had to finish him off with a broom. It was a him so no babies which is a good thing. I'm quite surprised that I could do the deed. No noise so I can sleep sound that I hadn't left it half dead suffering, rather it was stunned perhaps mortally injured. I'm not doing a postmortem as I haven't dissected a rat since A level biology. Continuing on the subject of pests there was a repeat of Alison's Steadman's radio programme about parakeets today. I'm not going to cull them and as as they thrive in urban areas the programme suggested that a cull would attract too much negative attention. Looks like they are here to stay. The series on alien birds is here (blackbirds??) https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/b01m42gz

I had great success the first year of next boxes, but feel that building activity in the area has put them off and this spring so many out in their gardens strimming and mowing their lands sown to the last mm. I cleaned out and refurbed the bozes and did get one pair of blue tits, didn't see that much activity but when I thought a long enough time found it empty with two unhatched eggs, two dead fledglings, which as blue tits usually have clutches of ten or more thought a good result. There are also too many cats round here but not sure how much this puts of nesting. On other subject a cheeky squirel raids our hazel tree and then mocks you by cracking the nuts in a nearby tree. I'd crack its nuts if I had half a chance. Also had a rat in the shed (what am I going to do).... but think it fled after we had a clear out, loads of poo and wee and knawed some of the woodwork. Rat trap down (I've caught mouse humanely in the house but rats a different thing. Neighbourhood cats not helpful. Saw our first bats recently at sundown; get them in the nearby Horniman museum. And some wrens, which whilst very common don't tend to be seen in the garden. Eating something on the trees, I expect small invertebrates.

Worked on a government project aimed at reducing car theft many years ago. This was high end stuff, where they cloned vin numbers so essentially when the RHD BM/Jag/Land/Range Rover was shipped to the Gulf it was not reported as stolen as it went with plates and VIN number from a car not reported as stolen. Not sure if this is still the MO of upmarket crims.

With the lightening of employees protection as a result of Brexit you will soon be able to employ young boys to clean your chimneys and ovens. Making Britain great again sadly will not mean recolonising much of the world but we can return to some good Victorian values.

I donate a fair amount of stuff to charity shops, this forum is useful for finding homes for eclectic odds and sods that may be less suitable for St Christophers etc. I understand that with lockdown domestic spring cleans the charity shops are rather inundated at the moment.

Thanks all. I suppose I will be less naive in future when I get three quick offers at the asking price. I wouldn't have been bothered if the item had been taken but had already done my homework to get a rough idea of price and that whilst beautiful and eclectic the item was not collectable. It went to a car boot sale the following weekend at a few quid less which is fine. All my previous selling and donating activity had been with locals who were happy/grateful for the item (and similarly when I have bought or had things given to me). Nothing to stop dealers activity but this seemed to be a scatter-gun approach. Before I posted the thread I was concerned that this would be a red rag to a bull in that the three people who contacted me could get into the discussion, but they don't have time for this as they are scouring the community forum looking for items to make a profit on. On a slight tangent - I see from time to time those who make 10,000s on a one pound jumble sale purchase. I doubt whether any of these people feel obliged to give some of the profit to the charity or community group running the jumble sale. I sense that Oxfam and the like are much more savvy nowadays in running their shops.

I understand that Britain has often been seen to be a great country by others around the world. Would fit in to some of the little England views across our nation (obviously not wanting mass immigration). 100 odd years ago Churchill (as a Liberal was among most politicians in that we didn't need immigration control as we were the best place in the world and it was only right that we should let people in who wanted to be part of this. Of course many would have been wealthy professionals. I think in more recent years Germany became more favoured due to open door policy but now that has changed perhaps we are #1 again. May be talking out of my backside but I picked that up from various documentaries.

I've given stuff away, sold stuff at a modest price and occasionally used this forum to buy stuff or pick it up for free. I think it is a useful community service. I give stuff away to charity and occasionally sell on ebay too. Generally a good experience, some interest is speculative and not followed up but that is the nature of some of our communications nowadays. But I was recently selling something eclectic, and had three offers almost immediately. Two went dead as I looked to arrange a pick up and the third sort of lost the plot. When I checked the history all three were prolific in buying and selling on this site. So it this 'community site' akin to a car boot sale where traders are trying to pick up bargains to resell? Do they try to block others by immediately saying 'I'll have that' then lose interest when they find an article wont make much on resale. Or am I being disingenuous? Just curious.

In my naturist club women do all the barbecuing as it is less hazardous. Too many blokes had been rushed to A&E in earlier years with bags of frozen peas covering their pain and embarrassment.

Ah my favourite posts, those that > requote Earlier >>> posts so it looks like > a dogs ... dinner. So what do you reckon to the current situation Uncle. I'm disappointed with some of the thoughts of the ED Guardianistas so would appreciate your more frank views. Did BJ Bollox the whole thing up Was it right to have an Independence Day yet a month later warn that we would go back to more severe lockdown Is it all a conspiracy >>>>

It all went horribly wrong when I at last took on a work Blackberry. I'd resisted for years. But once it was in my hands I was then expected to be on call 24/7. It was wonderful for a few years in terms of flexible working until they became all but obsolete. A move to a state of the art smart phone transformed work in terms of synchronizing with the desk top, I fortunately did not have to suck Apple Corporate cock but can't get away from Microsoft. But back to the original theme, there is still this feeling you should be checking and responding to e-mails at all times of day (Whatsapp just makes it worse) and at times a long hours culture of colleagues competing to be the most accessible. Apologies for my crudeness - a mate coined the term years ago when they were forced into taking out a package (may have even been dial up) with AOL.