The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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Watched a very good film last night - "The Siege of Jadotville (2016)" - about the incompetence of the United Nations during the peace keeping intervention in The Congo in 1961
 
Watched a very good film last night - "The Siege of Jadotville (2016)" - about the incompetence of the United Nations during the peace keeping intervention in The Congo in 1961
There have been quite a few films on satellite TV here about the Congo. Unfortunately they are usually on a French/French Canadian/French anywhere else channel. Even the one British film they showed had been dubbed into French. Fortunately I can still remember enough to understand it, even if I can no longer read, write or speak it.
 
Oh dear, oh dear! I just went out into the kitchen to make some yoghurt. The washing machine had finished, so I decided to deal with that but I had to take the dried washing off the line first. The mutt's outdoor winter coat was on there, so I took it off and put it with all his other clothes. Big mistake at 4 a.m. You can never tell whether greyhounds are asleep or not.....:whistling:
 
There have been quite a few films on satellite TV here about the Congo. Unfortunately they are usually on a French/French Canadian/French anywhere else channel. Even the one British film they showed had been dubbed into French. Fortunately I can still remember enough to understand it, even if I can no longer read, write or speak it.

The version that I watched had subtitles available (English, French, German, Italian). The audio was in English but I always find the subtitles handy as my hearing is not brilliant anymore and the passing traffic confuses the audio dialog.
 
I took my washing out of the washing machine this morning. Whilst it is not forecast to be warm today, it is forecast to be sunny all day (and unlike yesterday with the same forecast) it is sunny today. So I thought I would get a loads of woollens in especially as I had chicken crap over my nice Arran cardigan which I have had for years, and has been washed many times before (hazard of having cold mornings, no heating and a chick that needs special attention because she's blind in one eye and I need to ensure she gets fed, so she has her own bowl and sits on my lap...)... anyhow, I knew the moment I saw the cardigan that it had not survived. It might fit a 10 year old child now, but.... what I don't understand is why it hasn't survived and the other woollen items in the wash have! I put it on a delicates program with the standard septic tank friendly, environmentally friendly woollens and silk washing liquid, lowered the spin cycle to 400rpm from 1,200rpm and it was on a 30C wash (the cold wash was around 5C at that time in the morning)... and it has been washed under those conditions many many times before, but not in Australia however the washing machine is still the same make even if it is a different model... and its dead. absolutely no chance of saving it. Up the creek without a paddle. I may as well make a pair of slippers from it now (which I need).... so much for my merino wool Arran Cardigan from Kilarney, Ireland... bought whilst we were over there many years ago.
 
I can't do subtitles if there are more than a few words across 2 lines. I can't read fast enough which is really odd because I can type really fast, I just can't read anywhere near as fast. But I can follow a number of other languages (mostly European because I have a Latin, French, German & Russian background of languages and like many others here I can read many languages, follow quite a few even though I have never learnt them, but can't speak or write them at all!). What I really hate though are dubbed films where it is a single speaker throughout the entire film because I use the voice to ID people visually (I can't do names for the life of me) and when there is a single speaker, I simply can't follow a film!

right a medication alarm is going off and since I am having a really bad day (evening meal is cancelled we are eating out of the fridge/freezer and its a whatever happens when he gets home job) I'm going to go and take my meds and get something to eat. I have even forgotten to get my soup out to defrost and my attempt at defrosting my summer berries for my yoghurt this morning resulted in the microwave needing a wash on every surface, so I am not going to try to defrost it. Perhaps I'll stick with something like eggs. How far wrong can I go? provided I don't try microwaving them that is.... and my rooster is trying to convince my girls to nest on the veranda again which is most amusing because they simply don't think its a good place to nest, and they are correct! it isn't
 
The version that I watched had subtitles available (English, French, German, Italian). The audio was in English but I always find the subtitles handy as my hearing is not brilliant anymore and the passing traffic confuses the audio dialog.
Yes, I usually rely on sub-titles too. I've got a loop system fitted up but it is not infallible. In fact I find a decent set of ordinary headphones can be far better, providing of course that you have somewhere on the TV to plug them into.
 
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Watched a very good film last night - "The Siege of Jadotville (2016)" - about the incompetence of the United Nations during the peace keeping intervention in The Congo in 1961

I saw that on Netflix last week. It was very good. If it weren't a true story, I'd have thought it a little unbelievable.
 
I saw that on Netflix last week. It was very good. If it weren't a true story, I'd have thought it a little unbelievable.
When my TV finally gets repaired or replaced I'll have to look out for it.

BTW, have you seen Kajaki? That is about some British soldiers in Afghanistan. I can thoroughly recommend that.
 
Yes, I usually reply on sub-titles too. I've got a loop system fitted up but it is not infallible. In fact I find a decent set of ordinary headphones can be far better, providing of course that you have somewhere on the TV to plug them into.

I use headphones also when I am on the stoep. They are Bluetooth so they only work with my computers. The problem is that they are not expensive ones and the bass is a bit overdone. I've not yet found a way to alter the tone controls.
 
I took my washing out of the washing machine this morning. Whilst it is not forecast to be warm today, it is forecast to be sunny all day (and unlike yesterday with the same forecast) it is sunny today. So I thought I would get a loads of woollens in especially as I had chicken crap over my nice Arran cardigan which I have had for years, and has been washed many times before (hazard of having cold mornings, no heating and a chick that needs special attention because she's blind in one eye and I need to ensure she gets fed, so she has her own bowl and sits on my lap...)... anyhow, I knew the moment I saw the cardigan that it had not survived. It might fit a 10 year old child now, but.... what I don't understand is why it hasn't survived and the other woollen items in the wash have! I put it on a delicates program with the standard septic tank friendly, environmentally friendly woollens and silk washing liquid, lowered the spin cycle to 400rpm from 1,200rpm and it was on a 30C wash (the cold wash was around 5C at that time in the morning)... and it has been washed under those conditions many many times before, but not in Australia however the washing machine is still the same make even if it is a different model... and its dead. absolutely no chance of saving it. Up the creek without a paddle. I may as well make a pair of slippers from it now (which I need).... so much for my merino wool Arran Cardigan from Kilarney, Ireland... bought whilst we were over there many years ago.
No idea on your sweater. Sorry for your loss.
 
No idea on your sweater. Sorry for your loss.
thanks - no amount of stretching will recover it. It has shrunk and matted itself. Its 100% merino wool, a lovely cream colour. Typical Irish one that costs £££s and I do mean 3 figures. Replacing it is not an option financially anymore sadly especially as this month has been a very bad month what with having to fit full 'roo bars (not the smaller nudge bars) and lights that light up to 1km away to the SUV. There's only one company that makes them for our model of SUV and when the garage tried to fit the lights they had recommended they found that they couldn't so we ended up with the more expensive LED strip version (which thankfully they did not charge us extra for, exceptionally good of them because they were already not charging us for fitting the lights in the first place). But we can now see in the dark and I do mean see (AUD just under $2,000) .... however it didn't stop my husband using a live kangaroo as a car wash just 5 days after they were fitted. He didn't see the roo, and the roo decided it was going to cross the dirt road and well, just ran into the side of the vehicle! It hit the wheel arch, at the strongest point and brushed its way down every panel of the car on the passenger side (guess who was there and had seen the roo!) and polished the dirt off the paint work quite nicely! It did run away immediately so we know it was OK, and there was no blood so there is nothing you can do about it. Luckily because of where it hit there was no damage either because it is getting to be beyond a joke! They just disappear and their eyes do not light up in lights at all (which is why every aussie outback film you see has vehicles with massive amounts of lights on the front - you darn well need them!)... still it gave him a wake up call - my husband that is. His commuting times are now falling with dawn and dusk and that means halving or less your speed on the dirt roads. You can't safely do this on tarmac roads..... And then there was the flue for the wood burner (over AUD $750) plus the wood for the winter (AUD $650 for 4 tonnes split, delivered and stacked for me).

It's just been one thing after another, but at least in the medical insurance company have finally given in and started to pay us some of my medical bills (they messed up and paid our money into someone else's bank account and refused to give us any until they had it back! We have now resorted to them paying us by cheque which we have to wait for it to arrive from Ireland of all places, and lose out on the exchange rates but at least we are getting something back!)

And another medication alarm is going off and I have managed to do nothing, eat nothing and make one cup of black tea and not yet drink it plus my back is hurting because its cold.... but its always hurting or cold.... and I have run out of maple syrup and have had to put honey in the tea and I don't like it as much.... bad day as you can tell.. and the chooks are being insert swear word awkward... mostly because I have changed their feed and they are not happy about it and are refusing to eat from the auto feeder which actually has their preferred feed in it, but I am fed up of feeding the native birds as well....because the birds have figured out how to eat from the hanging chook feeders (which they shouldn't be able to do) so no grain in there anymore! so they are whingeing, the native birds are whinge-ing and I have no idea on how ot spell that word! :laugh:
 
.....and its dead. absolutely no chance of saving it. Up the creek without a paddle. I may as well make a pair of slippers from it now (which I need).....
I can never understand that either. Why is it always your decent clothes, never the crappy stuff you keep for gardening or for walking the dog through muddy fields?
 
When my TV finally gets repaired or replaced I'll have to look out for it.

BTW, have you seen Kajaki? That is about some British soldiers in Afghanistan. I can thoroughly recommend that.

I have not, will look for it.
 
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