The General Chat Thread (2024)

Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone! ā¤ļø
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Merry Christmas to one and all!
We're just starting the day here as we arrived home around 3am from a wonderful Xmas party.
Still have to open presents but that will depend on when the missus wakes up (which could be in about 3 hours time :hyper: )
Never mind; time for another cuppa of delicious Assam tea with a touch of lapsang souchong.
 
Every year on the 27th we try to get to the coast for our wedding anniversary. But it looks like this year might have to be an exception (there have been others, so it's not the first time). There's a severe weather warning, high winds or gales and the temperature will be over 32Ā°C and humidity will under 30%.

In Australia there's a 30/30/30 rule. Over 30Ā°C, under 30% humidity and over 30kph wind speed and life stops for the severe fire warning. Its a combination where you can't escape from a fire if there is one. There's only 1 road to and from the coast without a massive detour. The kind of detour that requires you staying some where overnight or driving most of the day and night just to get home (if you can refuel somewhere).

So we're having second thoughts regarding going. It seems unnecessary given we've got 2-3 month old chicks to deal with at this end as well. Not to mention needing to pack extra stuff just incase we can't get home (medications, nebuliser and so on). And with a large portion of Victoria (state) on fire at the moment (55,000 hectares on one of the 4 fires so far), we're kind of wondering what we'll do because we're due dry lightning here tomorrow. :(
 
Did the turkey crown, the dauphinois potatoes and the sausagemeat stuffing in the pizza oven outside yesterday and it did a brilliant job of it all, such a brilliant job that late last night I found myself whilst putting the cover on it saying out loud ā€œThankyou for your help today, I couldnā€™t have done it without youā€ šŸ¤Ŗ šŸ˜‚
 
I haven't had much time of Christmas to post up our presents to each other, so thought I'd take 10 minutes now whilst I'm nebulising.

So this is my stocking (hubby has a Christmas wombat themed one).

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Not everything fitted into the stocking but that's OK.

I had requested new batteries for my cameras. I've still got my figures crossed for my big camera getting a new battery or two for my birthday.

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the new phone came as a complete surprise to me. Apparently I had mentioned it more than once šŸ¤·ā€ā™€ļø I think he may have missed what I was suggesting at the time (he had a new oboe back in June because the 3G network was being turned off to make way for the 5G network and his old phone didn't have 4G voice, only 4G data and you needed 4G voice to make calls once 3G was disabled. ) anyhow his had a better camera, so I was booking that he needed to learn to take better photos... so he bought new a new phone! (I've dropped the hint for next year, that my tablet is what needs replacing, šŸ˜† in all seriousness it is 5 years old now. )

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I have also treated myself to some new sandals to wear in the house. I needed arch support and a non-flexible sole, so these net the requirements.

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Mod.edit. This post and following replies moved from another thread (MG)

SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Itā€™s lovely. Mr SSOAP without fail everytime says ā€œare you sure?ā€ šŸ˜‚
Why donā€™t they know? Surprise?
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We need to get a few things together, and planned, plus last time we were both really ill after it, coming home stressful and tbh, from what I'm hearing and being told and picking up on little things here and there, I'm not actually certain my mum is going to last that long. But that's another subject for another day. We're still planning, working out finance, working out the route via Helsinki, and trying to get it around my exams and week off, then first week or two of term without actually knowing if I can fit it all in. Those sorts of problems. Hubby asked me if I had any idea on my exam timetable for them (end of trimester 2 in 2025. I don't even know my exam timetable for February 2025, let alone June/July 2025 or end of October 2025!)
 
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SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
We need to get a few things together, and planned, plus last time we were both really ill after it, coming home stressful and tbh, from what I'm hearing and being told and picking up on little things here and there, I'm not actually certain my mum is going to last that long. But that's another subject for another day. We're still planning, working out finance, working out the route via Helsinki, and trying to get it around my exams and week off, then first week or two of term without actually knowing if I can fit it all in. Those sorts of problems. Hubby asked me if I had any idea on my exam timetable for them (end of trimester 2 in 2025. I don't even know my exam timetable for February 2025, let alone June/July 2025 or end of October 2025!)
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Warning minor rant ahead, maybe skip it if you havenā€™t endured academic disorganisation šŸ˜‚

Why are academic institutions so bl**dy inept when it comes to letting people know the timetable?
Drives me nuts, stresses students out.
You have a life to run and it doesnā€™t all revolve around waiting on airy fairy wafty disorganised people to tell you what your commitments are at the last minute.
They do the same flippin thing every term of every year and yet the logistics seem to evade them until the very last minute everytime.
Itā€™s just wrong, they are being paid to organise this stuff, paid to optimise their students chances of success and yet they turn it into a stress filled obstacle course.
Always seems shameful shambles! Rant over.

Seems most wise to not say anything. Hope it pans out ok. Getting to n fro from Australia is certainly expensive.
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Warning minor rant ahead, maybe skip it if you havenā€™t endured academic disorganisation šŸ˜‚

Why are academic institutions so bl**dy inept when it comes to letting people know the timetable?
Drives me nuts, stresses students out.
You have a life to run and it doesnā€™t all revolve around waiting to airy fairy wafty disorganised people to tell you what your commitments are at the last minute.
They do the same flippin thing every term of every year and yet the logistics seem to evade them until the very last minute everytime.
Itā€™s just wrong, they are being paid to organise this stuff, paid to optimise their students chances of success and yet they turn it into a stress filled obstacle course.
Always seems shameful shambles! Rant over.

Seems most wise to not say anything. Hope it pans out ok. Getting to n fro from Australia is certainly expensive.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing there are third party issues with online exam proctoring and such issues, plus I know that the school of IT want to move away from proctored exams online. I know when the exams will be within a 10 days time period. I just don't know exactly which day and at what time they are which is what he wants to know. My only exam experience so far has both exams at the start of the 10 day period which meant I had almost 2 weeks off but less revision time... he wants to know if that will happen again so he can book a mid week flight. The flights alone will set us back about Ā£5,000 (AU$9,000-10,000).
 
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