General Chat

A woman drove out of the carpark recently, she was wearing the full Moslem monty, black from head to foot, and barely a slit for her to see through. It must surely have interfered with her vision. This is not an anti-Moslem rant by the way, I have Moslem friends and the best worker I ever employed was a Lebanese Moslem. His mother used to cook me Lebanese meals and send them over.

Saudi women became eligible just the other day to vote in certain elections. It won't be long now till they are allowed to drive too. ;-)

Women getting the vote? When did that happen then?

But deeply flawed.

Guinevere - 'The Good; The Bad & The Ugly'.

Nonetheless, he was an adroit individual.

This would be the Winston Churchill who voted against women getting the vote? :-P

:-D :-D :-D

Invest in a SatNav and enjoy winding up 'the lady' when you ignore her ;-)

+++DetEcTive+++ - I was just quoting a 2002 Poll result. Never had the chance or inclination to meet the man himself.

Anyway, the news item yesterday that upset me tremendously was the loss of 'One Direction'. I get lost easily in the absence of signposts. :-S

'The greatest Briton'? Some people may disagree with you on that Dermot.

According to JustJohn, he is still reviled in the Welsh Valleys because he was involved in closing coal mines before WW2.

There is more emphasis on the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, rather than the Prime Minister in power. Bread and Circuses??

Winston Churchill (1874-1965).

Was I asleep all year having had a touch of Rip Van Winkle’s disease because I cannot recollect much ado on the 50th anniversary of the passing of the ‘Greatest Briton of all time’.

to be clear ..............


most of the comments I made applied to constant complaining that I have seen on other sites AND in person, and the reactions towards expats that t I have seen here and in other countries

but I have indeed seen complaining here on GR

..for it's Tommy this, and Tommy that, and chuck him out, the brute
But it's "saviour of 'is country", when the guns begin to shoot.

I spent nine years as a soldier, and don't get a penny in pension for my service.

you're right AnnGlos - I did think Sylvia was referring to Brits over here - not over "there" :-D

Hospital Visitors.

One of the corporal works of mercy, the Church teaches, is to visit the sick. But I have my doubts. After a short visit to our local hospital some years ago, I'm more convinced than ever that there should be a protocol to observe when visiting someone on their sick bed.

So I'm in hospital because of an illness. While there, I really don't want to hear of others who are also sick & I certainly never need to know of anyone who has just died especially if they were suffering from something even distantly related to my incapacity. I have an illness all of my own to worry about.

Talk to me about things that might actually take my mind off my incapacity for a few minutes – sport, music, gossip or whatever - but not the X-Factor please or anything related to ex-Lord Jenner nor anything mildly surrounding Pippa Middleton's supposedly superior posterior - as if nobody else has one! I sit on mine much of the time these days.

Bear in mind that there is no consolation for me in the realisation that things could be worse and that down the corridor there are others who are worse off than I am. Deploying that sort of logic is like encouraging a young child to eat broccoli because there are starving children in Africa.

And on the subject of food – unless I'm in a very private and posh hospital which is highly unlikely – there is every chance that the food I'm given is of the boarding school variety; so a big Cornish Pasty (hot or cold) or snack box would be as welcome to me as stolen cheese & wine to a celebrity chef.

Speaking of drink, unless specifically requested, do not bring me Lucozade. A glucose drink is usually very refreshing when its newly opened and ice cold, but it tends to lose its lustre when it becomes tepid in the warm hospital ward and flat a Shrove Tuesday pancake.

Skip on grapes and fruit – it shows a shocking lack of imagination when you could be bringing me a Kindle or a quality newspaper. I would even settle for a get-well card if you want to go down that route.

Most of all, do not outstay your welcome; thirty minutes are more than adequate. And if others come in while you’re there, then withdraw gracefully to allow them to chat a while. It's just not possible for everyone to sit on the side of my hospital bed especially while I'm still in it. The saline drip cannot be unplugged to make more room.

I know I’m extremely fortunate that the few times I’ve ever spent a night in hospital in my life, as far as I know, have been for my own birth and one other minor ailment not worth going on about here.

But I do know that if I was in hospital again, nothing would make me more ill than having to divulge the personal details of what caused me to be there in the first place. Yep - I know you'd like to know the full gory story, but not from me!

Worst of all is when visitors come out in empathy, simulating chest pains or a touch of the Ebola virus as though this gives them a greater understanding of my condition. I don’t need to know about their aches and pains any more than I want them to know about mine.

After all, one presumes that the purpose of the visit is to cheer me up – not make me long for a spell in solitary confinement or isolation just so I can have a little of peace and quiet away from the likes of you lot.

Away with ye now!

(Victor Meldrew's understudy.)

Do they still have debating societies in Universities?


Sylvia, I think Ann may have taken your remark to mean that people here were complaining not that expats complain about the things they can't get there that they can get at home. Which is a different thing completely.

I am no good at debating because by the time I have collected my thoughts somebody else who thinks faster and types faster has got in before me. But I do enjoy reading a good balanced non confrontational debate.

"research, presentation and persuasion"

Vital ingredients in debate. Sadly many so-called debates in the past on GR have had participants who don't bother with the first element and present opinion as fact.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but don't expect others to respect that opinion if it's based on lies and prejudice.

Absolutely.
Really hones those research, presentation and persuasion skills.

Errol

we had similar .......

..... it was very difficult to have to prepare and debate for something with which you did not agree ......... but good practice for real life :-)

Maybe we should have a debate on

Do you think that people who emigrate to another country should conform to the mores and customs of that country, or expect to get everyhting there that they would get "back home"?


I'm thinking of the Asians who come here, and expect to get service everywhere in their language, and never learn English or French (our 2 official languages)

or the Brits who go to Spain, Portugal, France, etc and never learn the language, but just patronise the British shops that have opened to serve them

or the ones who immigrate into the UK


it happens in every country of the world

SylviaInCanada we often had inter-school competitions and they could get pretty heated.
We also had balloon debates which can be tremendous fun and an absolute hoot.
The biggest benefit was that you had to carry out proper research on the subject matter or, if a balloon debate, the actual person.
For one, I had to debate in favour of Adolf Hitler and that one was a real eye opener but nevertheless educational and enlightening.