The General Chat Thread (2016-2022)

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caseydog said:
I can't understand how the authorities would know if you had a couple of friends over for tea, unless a neighbor narcs on you. Our rules never got that strict -- probably because those rules would have been unenforceable.

CD
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Our government considers it inhumane to ban all visitors , but they went as low as possible by allowing one visitor per household. And for a six month lockdown ( at least, as per our press conference yesterday) thats really tough enough .
 
Windigo said:
We're allowed to meet one person per household. So my friend can visit us, but we can't visit them unless one of us goes alone.
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But how would the authorities know? That's what I can't understand. Obviously if you had a party, and people were acting in a way that draws attention, such as making a lot of noise, you could get caught. But having a couple of friends stop by for a cup of tea? How would they know?

CD
 
caseydog said:
But how would the authorities know? That's what I can't understand. Obviously if you had a party, and people were acting in a way that draws attention, such as making a lot of noise, you could get caught. But having a couple of friends stop by for a cup of tea? How would they know?

CD
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I have no idea but I don't want to find out. Fact is police does patrol and check if there are reports from neighbours.
 
Windigo said:
I have no idea but I don't want to find out. Fact is police does patrol and check if there are reports from neighbours.
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What kind of neighbor would call the police and tell them two people just entered the house across the street?

CD
 
caseydog said:
What kind of neighbor would call the police and tell them two people just entered the house across the street?

CD
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Well, I have not experienced this personally. But it's quite common to read about these kind of reports in the news, so apparently plenty of neighbours.
 
Unfortunately, there are plenty of nasty and resentful people around with enough grudges to sink the QE2, so any small opportunity they get to try to stitch someone up is gleefully accepted. I spent a few years working for HMRC (the tax authority in the UK) and know from experience that an awful lot of the reports about people supposedly tax-dodging, moonlighting or whatever had little base in reality or were at least wildly exaggerated. Most of the time, it was about someone being plain nasty.

And yes, I've been on the other end of it. Someone who evidently didn't like me got the tax people onto me and I had to spend an age putting together lots of paperwork to prove I wasn't doing naughty things.
 
Windigo said:
Sounds delightful!

I'm making my first afternoon tea the weekend after Easter for a friend. You've inspired me with all your teas.
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Please do share your menu, and even pics if possible.

I'm a little annoyed because I want the tablecloths I ordered for the deck furniture to arrive before Saturday and that's not very likely.

caseydog said:
I can't understand how the authorities would know if you had a couple of friends over for tea, unless a neighbor narcs on you. Our rules never got that strict -- probably because those rules would have been unenforceable.

CD
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Until the last actual mask requirement (which put the burden on stores to enforce and did include spot-checks by the state), that's how all of our "mandates" were, just requests and recommendations. Even in a town of 14,000 people, how in the world would anything like a mask mandate be strictly enforced.

I know during the worst of the pandemic, a few of our neighbors had visitors over - typical summer cookouts, and while I didn't think it was a good idea in particular, I also didn't feel the need to call the cops, if for no other reason, the cops would likely have been much more sympathetic to the revelers than to me. :laugh:
 
Duck59 said:
Unfortunately, there are plenty of nasty and resentful people around with enough grudges to sink the QE2, so any small opportunity they get to try to stitch someone up is gleefully accepted. I spent a few years working for HMRC (the tax authority in the UK) and know from experience that an awful lot of the reports about people supposedly tax-dodging, moonlighting or whatever had little base in reality or were at least wildly exaggerated. Most of the time, it was about someone being plain nasty.

And yes, I've been on the other end of it. Someone who evidently didn't like me got the tax people onto me and I had to spend an age putting together lots of paperwork to prove I wasn't doing naughty things.
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I guess I've been lucky. My neighbors all like me -- and I like them. Same with my previous homes. It's also kind of a Texas cultural thing -- live and let live, and mind your own business.

CD
 
TastyReuben said:
Please do share your menu, and even pics if possible.

I'm a little annoyed because I want the tablecloths I ordered for the deck furniture to arrive before Saturday and that's not very likely.


Until the last actual mask requirement (which put the burden on stores to enforce and did include spot-checks by the state), that's how all of our "mandates" were, just requests and recommendations. Even in a town of 14,000 people, how in the world would anything like a mask mandate be strictly enforced.

I know during the worst of the pandemic, a few of our neighbors had visitors over - typical summer cookouts, and while I didn't think it was a good idea in particular, I also didn't feel the need to call the cops, if for no other reason, the cops would likely have been much more sympathetic to the revelers than to me. :laugh:
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There's rumors that portuguese cops are having a mandatory target of how many fines they must write out each day, probably to encourage them not to have pity on people who aren't following the restrictions. Don't know if that's true or not.
 
LissaC said:
The benefits of working from home: working while watching the military exercise on RAF Lakenheath :D
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8lX41YjQ9A
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When I was stationed at RAF Upper Heyford (and then RAF Alconbury), Lakenheath was the "big" air base, where all the good stuff was, so once every few months, we'd drive over there for the day and eat at Popeye's Chicken and stock up on American things we couldn't at our air base.

Lakenheath even hosted a decent Christmas market every year in one of the hangars. That was an annual event that people stationed at all eight bases staffed by Americans planned on the whole year. We still have several things that we bought at those.

My wife's sister also married Air Force, and about a year after we moved there, they ended up stationed at RAF Mildenhall, which was pretty much right across the road from Lakenheath, so for a couple of years, she had family in-country.
 
TastyReuben said:
When I was stationed at RAF Upper Heyford (and then RAF Alconbury), Lakenheath was the "big" air base, where all the good stuff was, so once every few months, we'd drive over there for the day and eat at Popeye's Chicken and stock up on American things we couldn't at our air base.

Lakenheath even hosted a decent Christmas market every year in one of the hangars. That was an annual event that people stationed at all eight bases staffed by Americans planned on the whole year. We still have several things that we bought at those.

My wife's sister also married Air Force, and about a year after we moved there, they ended up stationed at RAF Mildenhall, which was pretty much right across the road from Lakenheath, so for a couple of years, she had family in-country.
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Those must have been some pretty exciting times, being stationed abroad and working next to the aircrafts :D They're training
F15 and F35 today. These are beautiful machines and the technology is really interesting, but they're used for horrible things....
 
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