Saturday 31 December: The Church needs to reassure worshippers that their donations will be spent wisely

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

713 thoughts on “Saturday 31 December: The Church needs to reassure worshippers that their donations will be spent wisely”

  2. Morning folks.

    To save you the bother I’ve skimmed read the New Year’s Messages to us plebs from the ‘Leaders’ of the three main political parties in Westminster as reported on the beeb’s website. In the three carefully crafted statements, the message is: ‘the same old, same old…’
    In the circumstances may I suggest you simply lay back and think of England (or whatever home nation you subscribe to)…
    It behoves me to wish you all the happiest of New Years …..

    PS: I keep thinking things can only get better….can’t they?

    3. Why do these tossers think we care what they think?

      I don’t recall Winston or C Lemen Tattlee publishing “messages” at any time of the year.

  4. UK’s problems will not ‘go away’, admits Sunak after ‘tough’ 2022. 31 December 2022.

    Rishi Sunak has blamed Covid and the Ukraine war for what he acknowledged had been a “tough” 12 months, and warned in a prime ministerial new year message that the country’s problems will not disappear in 2023.

    Often taking an openly party political stance, Sunak praised his government’s record and made no mention of the chaos within the Conservative party that contributed to 2022’s difficulties.

    The year now ending had been tough, the prime minister said in a video address. “Just as we recovered from an unprecedented global pandemic, Russia launched a barbaric and illegal invasion across Ukraine. This has had a profound economic impact around the world, which the UK is not immune to.

    It Woz Vlad! Of course. Just when things were going swimmingly. In reality of course Covid itself was an economic catastrophe. It’s impossible to envisage a more incompetent and stupid response to what was in effect a quite minor illness. The response to Ukraine has followed a similar path. A massively overblown sanctions regime that has done more damage than a dozen invasions could have achieved. It is no exaggeration to say that these measures are destroying Europe!

    This man is here mouthing these cheap excuses as the country he purportedly rules disintegrates around him! The Tory Party is certainly dying and good riddance; it’s just that it is taking the rest of us with them!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/dec/31/uks-problems-will-not-go-away-admits-sunak-after-tough-2022

      1. Morning Korky. Nothing! We are up the creek without a paddle. There is more than a little resemblance here to the Fuhrerbunker in 1945. They are all hunkered down telling themselves stories as a catastrophe unfolds. They are just hoping that it will all somehow come right!

        1. I agree we’re up the creek and I would agree with you if you had qualified your “Nothing” with ‘positive’. I do not trust any of the charlatans in Westminster and especially those who maintain the global pandemic trope.
          For starters, how many more £Billions will this government pour into Zelenskyy’s gaping maw under the pretext of supporting democracy?

          1. The only thing that could save them is a full scale war with Russia! Not a reassuring thought!

          2. You could very well be correct.
            First, they dug themselves into a financial hole with the non-pandemic; deepened the hole with the non-vaccine; are planning to go deeper with food shortages e.g. aggressively in the Netherlands and more subtly here, and the initial attempts in Oxford and Canterbury to close down people’s movement.
            These clowns have been led by the globalists in to creating a range of disasters, any one of which would defeat these political pygmies’ abilities to solve. War, the ultimate distraction, may be the only way out for them.

    3. “…and made no mention of the chaos within the Conservative party that contributed to 2022’s difficulties.”

      Not to mention his own stupidity when he was Chancelloring under Boris.

  5. UK’s problems will not ‘go away’, admits Sunak after ‘tough’ 2022. 31 December 2022.

    Rishi Sunak has blamed Covid and the Ukraine war for what he acknowledged had been a “tough” 12 months, and warned in a prime ministerial new year message that the country’s problems will not disappear in 2023.

    Often taking an openly party political stance, Sunak praised his government’s record and made no mention of the chaos within the Conservative party that contributed to 2022’s difficulties.

    The year now ending had been tough, the prime minister said in a video address. “Just as we recovered from an unprecedented global pandemic, Russia launched a barbaric and illegal invasion across Ukraine. This has had a profound economic impact around the world, which the UK is not immune to.

    It Woz Vlad! Of course. Just when things were going swimmingly. In reality of course Covid itself was an economic catastrophe. It’s impossible to envisage a more incompetent and stupid response to what was in effect a a quite minor illness. The response to Ukraine has followed a similar path. A massively overblown sanctions regime that has done more damage than a dozen invasions could have achieved. It is no exaggeration to say that these measures are destroying Europe!

    This man is here mouthing these cheap excuses as the country he purportedly rules disintegrates around him! The Tory Party is certainly dying and good riddance; it’s just that it is taking the rest of us with them!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/dec/31/uks-problems-will-not-go-away-admits-sunak-after-tough-2022

      1. 369539+ up ticks,

        Morning S,

        It is the charmers that continue to support him & party that are also extending the treacherous suffering.

  7. 369539+ up ticks,

    The road seemingly being taken,

    The Church needs to reassure worshippers that their donations will be spent wisely in building mosque, via the polling booth a great deal of appeasement is going to be, in the future, the order of the day.

  8. Ambassador who stayed in Ukraine as Russian bombs fell made a dame in New Year Honours. 31 December 2022.

    Melinda Simmons stayed in the country as Vladimir Putin’s troops began their onslaught, later returning to continue British embassy’s work

    Melinda Simmons only left Ukraine on March 7 this year due to the worsening security situation, having left Kyiv on Feb 19 shortly before Vladimir Putin’s troops began their onslaught.

    She then returned to her office in Kyiv at the end of April to carry on the work of the British embassy.

    She stayed but she left? Departed but remained?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/30/ambassador-who-stayed-ukraine-russian-bombs-fell-made-dame-new/

    1. A reward for arranging all those visits to ‘war-torn’ Kiev from the multitude of politicians and pop stars. The same ‘war-torn’ Kiev where Boris wandered around in a lounge suit as opposed to his visit to Liverpool where he felt the need to wear a stabvest/flak jacket.

  10. Well done, Chuck.
    This gong is a personal award from the Monarch.

    “Royal aide who raised complaints of bullying against Duchess of Sussex given New Year Honour

    Jason Knauf, who emailed concerns about Meghan to Prince William’s secretary, has been made a Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order”

  11. Good Morrow, Gentlefolk. Here is today’s story:

    Note On The Fridge

    I awoke this morning to find that my wife had left a note on the refrigerator.

    “It’s not working! I can’t take it anymore! I’ve gone to stay at my mother’s house!”

    So, I opened the fridge, the light came on, and the beer was still cold.

    I don’t have a clue what she is talking about!

  12. WHITTY: “”Increasingly worried” about excess deaths than normal this year from preventable conditions fearing that Britain is starting to see the after-effects of people staying away from GP surgeries.

    People’s reluctance to bother the NHS with apparently routine conditions after pleas to stay at home except for emergencies during 2020 and last year is thought to be contributing to a surge in excess deaths since the spring. At present about 800 more people a week are dying than normal, only half of which is because of Covid.”

    The utter hypocrisy of the man. It was HE who told us to stay and home and not bother hospitals, doctors etc….

          1. She does have to ask questions about such matters before she begins treatment.
            It’s a whole new world to me.

    4. My local surgery recently sent me a letter asking me to arrange a blood test with them. No reason given, the last time I had a blood test was about 4 years ago and everything was normal.

      However, before I rushed to the phone to make arrangements the surgery put out an email asking that, due to staff illness, people avoid using the surgery unless it was absolutely necessary.

      I’ll hurry up and wait.

  13. Re last night’s thread about the word “Scotch”. I have (of course) my copy of The Concise Scots Dictionary which says that “Scotch” (the contracted English form of prevailing use from 1700 onwards..) was adopted into Scots and was the prevailing Scots form from late 18th and 19th centuries.

    I hope this scotches any doubts.

    1. Oxford Languages defines thus:

      scotch
      /skɒtʃ/

      Origin
      early 17th century (as a noun): of unknown origin. The sense ‘put an end to’ (mid 17th century) results from the influence on this of the notion of wedging or blocking something so as to render it inoperative.

      Also:

      late Middle English (in Scotchman ): contraction of Scottish.
      Translate scotch to
      Choose language
      Use over time for: scotch
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/83954c178e8573f4546dce53ec6c868447dd044c5ee47086e339483faf144885.png

  14. Morning all 😉 😊
    The end of another year approaches, where are we? Still in a self-made crisis and still expecting more of it. And how many politicians have graciously admitted defeat and resigned from their comfortable gold plated bomb proof positions and waved rights to their equally gold plated bomb proof pensions, in order to protect the public against more and more tyranny? NONE.

    2. Such a nice chap, can’t think why she turned him down. He even dusted her down afterwards

    3. This man needs to be flogged in public: a) for what he did to that young woman, and b) to deter others who might be tempted to do something similar in the future.

      1. 369539+ up ticks,

        Morning M,

        Sad to say on witnessing such actions from afar the only way to approach it rhetorically is via black humour ( no puns) but it is reality.

        Far worse has happened and is still happening in the United Kingdom
        ongoing daily, as in rotherham,mass rape & abuse of children / London the decapitation of fusilier Rigby RIP
        etc,etc,etc.

        1. I used to work part time for our local GP back in the mid to late 80s. One of the jobs was “dead filing” i.e. pulling all the patients’ notes from the live filing system if they had not been to the surgery in the last 5 years. We always had a lot of Kaurs to take out and the doctor intimidated once that he was sure not all of them had moved or married. It was quite a shock when i realised what he meant. But, multi-culturalism and all that. Ain’t it wonderful.

        2. I used to work part time for our local GP back in the mid to late 80s. One of the jobs was “dead filing” i.e. pulling all the patients’ notes from the live filing system if they had not been to the surgery in the last 5 years. We always had a lot of Kaurs to take out and the doctor intimidated once that he was sure not all of them had moved or married. It was quite a shock when i realised what he meant. But, multi-culturalism and all that. Ain’t it wonderful.

  18. ‘Morning, Peeps.  Wet and wild here.

    Not a very inspiring group of letters today, but this one caught my eye:

    SIR – We caught a thief on our shop’s extremely good CCTV, and reported it to the police.

    Four weeks later a community support officer came and looked at the film. When nothing happened, we posted a photo of the man’s face and asked if anyone knew who he was. We didn’t say anything about the theft. Some weeks later, a customer came in and gave us his name (and even told us where he lived).

    Result, we thought. However, the police told us that, as it was only a £300 necklace that had been stolen, they would not be following up on it. So even after all our help, nothing was done, though we were presented with a crime reference number.

    I have heard similar stories from other shop owners.

    Jim Broomfield
    MD, Brackley Antique Cellar
    Mollington, Cheshire

    This really is pitiful but, apparently, not unusual.  Quite obviously this type of relatively minor crime doesn’t attract the same headlines as for instance rapes and murders.  However, it surely remains the case that tackling the minor stuff, especially when served up on a plate by the victim, signals that if you start with the minor stuff you will deter some of the larger crimes.

    I searched the website of Cheshire Police for their overall clear-up rate for theft, but was unable to find it.  Instead it is a vague and rather smug summary of the situation.  Even the P&CC shows no sign of holding them to account (no surprise there).  This paragraph from the P&C C epitomises the problem:

    ” I want people to have improved confidence in policing. The fact that we have the lowest murder rate in the country, alongside fewer burglaries and drug offences, means people can have confidence that the police are focusing on the issues that matter to them.”

    So that’s alright then.  In the meantime I trust that Mr Bloomfield will take his complaint higher up the chain and cause as much embarrassment as he can.

        1. But the restorative bit is – go in through the broken window and take back the necklace. The thief won’t dare to complain to the police.

    3. I’ve copied and Tw@ted that letter a couple of times:-
      https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1609126977495076871

      https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1609128898452652032

      Apologies for the language, but I can not understand how the police can fail to get their heads round the simple principle of “Look after the petty crime and much of the more serious crimes will look after themselves” as postulated in Bill Bratton’s “Broken Window Theory”.

          4. I sent mine this year when the Post Office announced that the many stamps I had purchased in advance just before a recent price rise would no longer be valid after December the 31st. From now on the only ones I shall send will be the half a dozen or so to overseas relatives.

          5. We gave our stamps away to family when we discovered we could not exchange them even at the main Post Office.

          6. I make mine, using PowerPoint and send them, as an attachment, to my e-mail recipients (including several NoTTLers) with a little ditty that runs thus:

            Your DIY Birthday/Christmas/New Year Card
            Download attachment, clickety-click,
            Where did you save it? No idea.
            Ah, there it is, you’d best be quick
            ‘Cos the printer maybe playing queer.
            Now, the hardest part for you
            Is print, and fold in four along the crease
            On thickest paper, white or blue.
            And pop it on your mantelpiece!

            All done and sent at once with no outlay.

          10. As Christmas approaches, I usually say “Happy Christmas – when it comes” to all and sundry.

          15. I have to admit that I am defending the indefensible here.

            I normally send the Christmas e-cards to arrive before the day itself, because I assume many people do not use email etc on the Christmas day. I foolishly sent my New Year ecards to leave on 31st, forgetting that they arrive the same day not the following day.

          16. I have had, on one occasion, to WRITE and post a letter to a grandchild to tell him that I had texted him to inform him of my e-mail!!

          1. Indeed – there is a piece in the DMcT this very morning from a Scotchman (!!):

            “Rule One: Do not wish me, or any other Scot, “Happy Hogmanay”. We do not celebrate Hogmanay. Yes, it may look as if we’re enjoying ourselves, but that’s probably because someone else has bought the drink.

            Let me clarify: Hogmanay can be a jolly occasion but it serves only as an entree to New Year’s Day, with the objective of managing to ‘see in’ the New Year – that is whilst remaining in charge of all faculties. Too many ‘refreshments’ will mean that you may miss the great moment altogether.

            Rule Two: Do not wish me, or any other Scot, “Happy New Year” unless it is past midnight on December 31st/ January 1st without adding the words “when it comes.” And it doesn’t “come” until after midnight.

            Rule Three: The celebration of New Year begins with the first ‘bong’ of midnight (I always wait for Big Ben’s chimes) – not before – and may be accompanied by a dram, preferably from someone else’s bottle.

            Rule Four: First-Foots. Greeting often perfect strangers on your doorstep after midnight after they’ve had a few is, sadly, one ages-old New Year custom not much observed these days. But a tall dark man who is the “first-foot” over your threshold in the New Year traditionally brought luck, as well as a lump of coal (for heat) a bit of shortbread (to eat) and a dram. It’s a real shame that it’s gone.

            There we are: my unwritten rules to get you through this weekend. A Happy New Year to everyone….when it comes, of course.”

          6. Lots of love, lots of love? It means Laugh Out Loud, you Babbling Poltroon. I only started using Lol, because people seemed to miss the :-)) at the end of my posts, and didn’t realise that I was only joking. But at least I now understand your earlier “obsessive” post.

          9. Morning, Elsie. I refuse to write things like sarc or put smiles and things at the end of my posts. If people can’t see humour or irony then tough luck.

          13. I have vague memories of going First Footing on my 1st leave home from Chepstow round Wooler.

        3. Maybe he wanted to get his greetings in first. So, here goes: Happy New Year, everyone! (Second.) Lol.

          2. I think The Master (Mr Lime) has infiltrated my computer, Bill (Good morning to you, btw). I shall pass your message on to him. PS – Are you suggesting that wishing everyone a “Happy New Year” is an obsession? Should everyone refrain from writing “A pinch and a punch” and “white rabbits” tomorrow?

          8. No, but I always enjoy a Hot Cross Bun with my morning elevenses these cold winter mornings. Lol.

      1. And all the photos show is that he pushed some chairs and tables over, and threw some leaflets and one Christmas decoration over the carpeted floor. This describes “anger” not “trashing”.

        1. Yup. It gave the Practice staff an opportunity to practice ‘Anger Management”.
          If things continue to deteriorate such practice will become invaluable in the future!

        2. Good morning Elsie.
          My BTL comment appears to have vanished off into the ether but this is what it said:-

          Shocking and unacceptable, yes, but is it, perhaps, an understandable reaction to the collapse of the GP Service over recent years? As with the rest of the NHS, the GP service is, in many parts of the country, unfit for purpose and is in need of major reorganisation. A reorganisation it will never receive as long as the REMFs in the upper echelons of the service along with their Health Union fellow travellers immediately greet the slightest hint of reform with the same, orchestrated, hysteric knee-jerk reaction and demented screams of “SAVE OUR NHS” and “THEY WANT TO PRIVATISE OUR NHS!” And note that when they scream “Our NHS” they mean exactly that, THEIR NHS, not ours. We, the poor bloody taxpayer, are just an inconvenience who are expected to stump up ever increasing sums of money to pay for the burgeoning number of Diversity non-jobs they keep recruiting for.

          1. The only thing that remains is your answer to ‘Dannybruff’

            “Or a reaction to NOT getting an appointment?“

    3. While unnecesary, there’s no real damage. Right the chairs, put the leaflets back, sigh in frustration.

      What? Do you think you’re the only group that deals with difficult people? How about having someone threaten to sue you because they’ve ‘paid for 10 gig and aren’t getting ten gig!’ Or one of my most exciting ‘I’ll deck you if you don’t get that to work in the next ten minutes’.

      The last bloke apologised. They had no backups, no redeployment strategy, no disaster recovery, no spare kit. We put in an emergency half way house solution from my own collection of gumph.. They also didn’t pay the bill. Their next contractors on site contacted me (as the chap saw our tags on the kit) and I told him the tale. He left the customer high and dry as well.

  21. It is now daylight. Apart from some “spits and spots” (© beeboid wevver forecasters) we may miss the rain all day. Which is nice.

        2. Don’t care about his sexuality. His life, his choice as long as he doesn’t lecture other people about it and demand obeisance. On the upside, he won’t be procreating.

    2. The only positive thing I can say is that Koko the gorilla had a crush on him. I rate Koko above Cumberbatch but even she had lapses of taste.

    3. I did wonder that. Will he actually give up a big slug of cash or will he, like most Lefties – fight and squeal that what’s his is his?

    4. Tell Barbados that we want reparations for all the costs, in both lives and money, involved in our suppression of the African slave trade!

  24. OT. The MR is very fond of “musicals”. I can’t stand them. She wished to see the new one about Randy Andy from Woking, so we watched it last night. The good news was that it was over in less than an hour. There were one or two funny lines. However, what puzzled me was that the Prince of Wales (as he then was) was played by a brown man (OK =diversity) but with a goatee beard. Now, I recall that Charlie boy did have a beard when he returned from “commanding” a small RN vessel yonks ago – but NEVER have I see him with a goatee beard. Was there a hidden meaning???

    2. Search me, Bill. Was the actress/actor playing Camilla white? And did they go into a furniture shop holding hands and accompanied by some chocolate-coloured children?

    3. The meaning is to take ear plugs and a blindfold next time you are forced to watch such a thing..

  25. A rather late Good morning to all. A bit of a disturbed night with the DT tossing & turning.

    4°C with a light rain at the moment. Not particularly pleasant!

          1. Unfamiliar with that particular term I had to look it up. Here’s what I found:
            ‘Scotch Dyke railway station was a railway station in Cumberland close to the Scots’ Dike, the traditional border with Scotland’.
            Also: Scotch Dyke Residential Care Home in Sussex caters for a different set of boarders…..

          2. Tut tut – is an earthwork built in late 16th century along part of the Scottish-English border.

            Pity it isn’t still there to keep Mrs Murrell away.

  28. SIR – When I phoned British Gas to query a reminder for a bill that had been paid, I discovered that I was classed as a “vulnerable” customer.

    Now, I concede that I’m no spring chicken, but I’m still dealing from a full deck. However, it seems that anybody over the age of 60 is considered vulnerable.

    I was tempted to mention my black belt in karate – but my master, a Buddhist, was a great believer in modesty and humility, and so am I.

    William Smith
    St Helens, Lancashire

    “I was tempted to mention my black belt in karate – but my master, a Buddhist, was a great believer in modesty and humility, and so am I.”  And such admirable qualities drove you to write to a national newspaper and tell us??

    1. It is the “Terry Waite Syndrome”. Modestly, and regretfully, forcing oneself to the front…!!

  29. Good morning from a Saxon Queen with longbow and blooded axe in handbag with marmalade sandwich. A dull merky damp miserable day , but at least not cold .

  30. I understand that Pope Benedict has just died ‘ humble worker in the vineyards of the Lord”
    the real Pope unlike Communist Francis .

    1. Aged 95. Possibly of old age. Possibly illness. Possibly he was going to blow the whistle on Bergoglio’s corruption. I trust no public announcement these days. Sad.

    2. Benedict upset the usual suspects (the perpetually-offended) when he quoted a 14th-century Byzantine emperor as calling Islam “evil and inhuman.”

  32. Advice wanted.

    I have a jacket with a zip. The zip works but the bar at the bottom has broken so the zip won’t stop. To colour match/replace the zip would be too difficult. Does anyone have any ideas on what could be done to save the jacket?

    2. As Bill below says find a dressmaker. I have had jackets altered. They would probably only charge £10 for a zip.

    3. Don’t use the zip.

      I’ve 4 pairs of trousers. On one, the drawstring is frayed to nothing. Another the zip doesn’t do up. A third has no button.

      I’ll be damned if I’m faffing about with them.

    5. Use a needle and thread to overstitch a bar at the bottom. If you stitch over and over the zip bit won’t go past it! Otherwise a bit of blu tack! It’s my go-to solution!

      1. Thanks all. I was verging down on the overstitching as a solution but will consider the bluetack. It doesn’t have to be elegant – it’s a dog walking/tatting jacket.

    7. My skiing jacket has a similar problem. I have “solved” it by sewing the bottom of the zip together and putting the jacket on and off over my head.
      Makes for interesting contortions in the loo when wearing ski trousers with braces.

    2. I like the Chinese: they, as a generality are intelligent and hard working. I am one of those who subscribe to the unfashionable theory that we white northern Europeans came over what is now the pole, in aeons past, from primitive roots in China and not from the other lot in Africa and the middle east.

      2. “… as a generality are intelligent and hard working.”

        I found that when working with them in Singapore and Malaysia.

      3. My manager is Chinese. Top bloke: Hard-working, intelligent, including, listens to opinions other than his, gets things done.

  34. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/pensions-retirement/news/why-need-605000-want-retire-early-2023/

    Right, all well and good. At the end of the month we have about £500 left over from my salary. That goes into a savings account – and wiped out when a big bill comes in for the motor/home/a school trip/MiL’s flat. Let’s say that we’re really saving £4000 a year. To save £350,000 – just for one of us – would take us 87 odd years. Assuming we start work at 21 (which we didn’t) that means I have to work until I was 100 before i could retire.

    With the state pursuing inflation as policy, having robbed our pensions for tax, suppressing interest rates to ensure private wealth doesn’t accrue and making fuel, food and energy ever more expensive such savings are impossible while the state consumes 70% of our income in tax.

    Now, we’ve a decent income. What if you’re a family that doesn’t have the same resources?

      1. Whitty is the Chief Medical Officer and he should have been aware of the dangers of a rushed new technology inoculation. Did he ever have any reservations about the deployment of these potions?

    6. Barrel scraping in reality lying through their teeth is a growth industry within the medical profession. Looking and sounding a complete prat doesn’t appear to shame them.

  36. How to deal with stress and anxiety.

    Read through

    this technique several times first and practise the whole sequence as

    many times as you wish until you know you have memorised it well enough

    that it is almost automatic when you actually need to use it.

    First of all, check how your anxiety level is on a scale of one to ten, one being the lowest and ten being the highest.

    1 Become aware that you are experiencing a stressful feeling in your body or that your mind is racing.

    2Put your hand on your heart and focus your energy into this area. Take

    at least three slow and gentle breaths into your heart, maintaining your

    focus on the feeling of your hand in the centre of your chest.

    3Now, recall a time when you felt really good — a time you felt love,

    joy or real happiness. Return to that memory as if you are back there

    again right now. See what you saw, hear what you heard, and feel how

    good you felt.

    4As you feel this good feeling in your body, imagine your heart could

    speak to you. Ask your heart how you could take better care of yourself

    in this moment and situation.

    5Listen to what your heart says in answer to your question and act on it

    as soon as you can. Now, consider your anxiety level again on that

    scale of one to ten. You should now find that it’s lower. If it’s not

    yet as low as you want, then repeat the technique until it is.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11586489/PAUL-MCKENNA-reveals-wake-New-Year-no-worries.html

    1. There’s an even shorter technique – Don’t read or listen to anything purporting to be news…..

        1. I know that my message was posted here early Bill, and I make no apology for that.

          It is an attempt to preserve the integrity of my intended new year resolution of not being a “grumpy old bas***d” for at least the first day of 2023?

  38. Cumberbatch faces prospect of legal action over ancestors’ slaves

    Barbados wants reparation from the descendants of plantation owners, which includes the actor’s family.

    ‘Any descendants who have benefited from the slave trade should be asked to pay reparations’. ‘This is at the earliest stages. We are just beginning’

    IN THE Oscar-winning movie 12 Years a Slave, Benny-the-Dick Cucumber-patch played a plantation owner to great critical acclaim. It was also close to the bone, his ancestors having run a slave plantation on Barbados in the 18th and 19th centuries.

    Now, the Cumberbatch clan faces the prospect of a legal battle with the island state after it declared that it was seeking reparations from the families of past slave owners.

    The seventh great-grandfather of the Oscar-nominated star bought the Cleland plantation in the north of the island in 1728. It was home to 250 slaves until the abolition of slavery more than 100 years later. The slave plantation is reported to have made the Cumberbatch family a small fortune.

    Now the government of Barbados is stepping up its fight for reparations from the descendants of slave-owning families.

    Richard Drax, a Conservative MP who has inherited his family’s ancestral sugar plantation, is under huge pressure to hand back hundreds of acres of prime real estate on the holiday island so that it can be turned into a monument to slavery.

    If Mr Drax refuses, Barbados will seek to apply for compensation from an international arbitration court. Any ruling in Barbados’s favour could see the island pursue the wealthy descendants of other slave-owning families.

    David Denny, general secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, said: “Any descendants of white plantation owners who have benefited from the slave trade should be asked to pay reparations, including the Cumberbatch family.”

    Mr Denny, who has been campaigning for Mr Drax to pay reparations, said: ”The money should be used to turn the local clinic into a hospital, support local schools, and improve infrastructure and housing.”

    David Comissiong, a cousin to Barbados’s prime minister and an adviser on slavery reparations, is also agitating for Mr Drax and other slave-owning families to pay damages. The question of how to deal with Drax Hall, owned by the Dorset MP, has been discussed by the Barbados cabinet. Mr Drax has met with Mia Mottley, the island’s prime minister.

    Mr Comissiong, Barbados’s ambassador to the Caribbean community and deputy chairman of the island’s national commission on reparations, was asked if descendants of the Cumberbatch estate would be pursued.

    “This is at the earliest stages. We are just beginning. A lot of this history is only really now coming to light,” he said.

    Cumberbatch’s ancestors were paid thousands of pounds in compensation when slavery was abolished in the 1830s, a sum now worth in the region of £1 million. The British government at the time took out a loan to pay off slave owners across the Empire, a sum that was only finally paid off in 2015.

    It is unclear if the family money helped Cumberbatch, who was educated at Harrow School.

    He is the son of actress Wanda Ventham, whom, he said, had advised him not to use his real name in his professional career because she was concerned that he could face claims for reparations for his ancestors’ slaveowning.

    The 2013 film, 12 Years a Slave, is based on the 1853 memoir of the same name by the former slave Solomon

    Northup, who was at one time owned by the plantation owner William Ford, a figure represented on screen by Cumberbatch.

    The British star portrayed the plantation owner as a relatively benign but weak man. This depiction was contested by Ford’s descendants, who said he was described favourably in Northup’s memoir, which states: “There never was a more kind, noble, candid, Christian man than William Ford.”

    I am going to sue the Danish government because I am still suffering from the repercussions after my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandmother was raped by their Viking invaders.

    1. And let’s go after the Barbary Pirates too, and the Romans and ….

      Note the sentence ” The British government at the time took out a loan to pay off slave owners across the Empire, a sum that was only finally paid off in 2015.” Let’s not forget that the British also suppressed the African slave trade at further cost, not only in money but in the lives of the Royal Navy personnel who died while on this dangerous duty. Perhaps we should ask Barbados to compensate us for all that effort, which seems to be largely ignored and unappreciated.

    2. My DNA is 48% Jewish. If I were to go after every race that at some tine or another has given the Ashkenazim a hard time, that would pretty well accomplish the primary aim of Agenda 21, wouldn’t it? Except the creed of intersectionality says I can’t be a victim on those grounds because it decrees that white+Ashkenazi=power.

      1. How 48%? With your surname you might even be linked to Pele.
        Incidentally I read ‘Konin a Quest’ a few months ago, having left it on the shelf for years.

    3. Barbados, get thee to Africa and Arabia with your claims.

      That’s where the buck starts and stops.

    4. “David Denny, general secretary of the Caribbean Movement for Peace and Integration, said: “Any descendants of white plantation owners who have benefited from the slave trade should be asked to pay reparations, including the Cumberbatch family.”

      Be careful what you wish for. If your enslaved ancestors had been dragged across the Sahara instead of the Atlantic, Mr Denny, you would never have been born because the men were all castrated.
      If your ancestors had never been enslaved, you would have been born in that First-World paradise that is err.. West Africa!
      As it happens, you have benifitted greatly, though unintentionally, from your ancestors being dragged across the Atlantic. You now live in an independent free nation in charge of its own destiny. That’s your Slave Privilige, Mr Denny.

      1. Well said, John. I doubt though that rational thinking and common sense are on Mr Denny’s agenda.

  39. Despite drawing a complete blank with my first attempt and only getting one consonant and one vowel (both out of position) with my second attempt, I achieved a birdie on my third go at today’s Wordle.

      1. Not as good as an Eagle but not bad either!
        Quordle (4 Wordles completed simultaneous) allows an extra three attempts ….

          5. A likely story, Bill, we all know that you deliberately installed a carp keybrod for your pooter.

        3. Par 4 again but not complaining. Was tempted to look for clues and found a claim that today’s word ends with an r. It doesn’t.
          Wordle 560 4/6

          🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
          ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
          ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
          🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      2. It is very good. Although I think they missed a trick at not calling it wordie. Then you could get a birdie at wordie.

        I personally do the Times crossword. I don’t know any of the answers, so I make the words up that fit together. To date the Warqueen hasn’t noticed.

        1. I remember Ron and Eff in Take It From Here. Eff (played by June Whitfield) thought that Ron (Dick Bentley) was very clever at crosswords until she discovered he filled in the letters at random.

      1. Par Four for me.

        Wordle 560 4/6
        🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
        🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
        🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  41. The coming year is the time for the BBC to make a date with impartial history. 30 December 2022.

    It takes six case studies of recent BBC programmes – four related to slavery, one about the Irish potato famine in the 1840s and one about the Bengal famine.

    In all cases, the main villains the BBC unearthed were white, British and male. Such men imprisoned slaves for trading purposes on Bunce Island, Sierra Leone; they robbed the Kingdom of Benin of its works of art; one of their prime ministers, Robert Peel, refused handouts to the starving Irish; another, Winston Churchill, denied food for the people of Bengal; and so on.

    The case of History Reclaimed is not that these episodes are glorious chapters in Our Island Story, but that all the BBC stories were significantly, factually wrong – citing false evidence and/or omitting relevant, accessible evidence that complicates the broadcasters’ morality tale.

    The only solution to the BBC, and I say this as a supporter of the idea of a Publicly Owned Television Channel, catering for minority intellectual interests, is to shut it down. The defunding and abolition of the Licence Fee is a Red Herring. All that will happen is that it will be financed out of general taxation.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/30/coming-year-time-bbc-make-date-impartial-history/

    2. The BBC lies by omission. It has an agenda, and it does not deviate from that agenda.

      You won’t hear it saying that it was blacks who sold the slaves in the first place.

      What the BBC would love is a tax on internet connections. If it can tax data, it gets a guaranteed, ever hiking revenue stream. No, the solution is to force it to a subscription model but I assume the BBC has a hold over government in some form to ensure that never happens, or the civil service would simply stymie it.

      I don’t understand, why when Home Office staff openly balloted to hinder the Rwanda plan that those individuals were not sacked immediately.

  42. Our accountant has put her fees up some 20%. She set out why. Not only to cover the 6% hike, but also increased administration. However, the biggest costs are *her* suppliers putting up their prices, compounding through the channel. That means our prices have to rise similarly to cover the cost of each of our suppliers.

    We have to pass that on, which means we cannot hire another person (creating unemployment), cannot invest (as we cannot save as much), do less training (less income all round). Government is staffed by morons. As the hike in corporation tax is demanded by the EU, why are we not going the other way and reducing ours by the same amount they’re hiking theirs? A corp tax of 13% would be very sensible and force competition, which we would win.

    Again, with feeling – government is malicious.

    2. Hi wibbling. Makes me furious, it’s all being done intentionally, so that HMG (spit) can “come to our rescue” with CBDC, universal income coz we’re all being impoverished intentionally, 15 minute cities (global warming), potholes rather than roads, tax rises (J rhyming slang – spit), hike in all costs … I loathe them. They are stealing our standard of living to enrich themselves. All the while the rest of the world is busy going in the other direction.

    4. Apparently that misconsonanted Mr Hunt said he was in favour of reducing Corporation Tax to 15 % . Can anybody still think he is not under instructions from Schwab to hasten the great Rest by destroying the British economy?

  43. 800 middle aged people a week dying. With all the pension and health care money saved it can be spent on the 800 fighting age men arriving weekly.
    Coincidence?

    Of course they forget that those middle age people are mostly net contributors to the system, the majority of the incomers won’t be.
    Ever.

      1. 369539+ up ticks,

        Afternoon A,
        Sad to say people mimicking sheep, the sheep are completely innocent.

    2. Comment: “It’s all the fault of social media ‘influencers’.”

      Oh? How is that then? No one is capable of ‘influencing’ me (or, indeed, anyone with a functioning brain).

  45. It’s still pouring down with rain.

    I shall get on with preparing my venison sausages for tonight and prepare my guinea fowl for tomorrow’s lunch . I shall also read a book .

      1. Thanks Phizzee. Got another letter saying I will be operated on the 10 January. It will be the 5th attempt. I’m not making any bets!

        3. Here’s to wishing, Pal.

          You know that you have all the NoTTLers behind you – looking for the best.

      1. Hope so Araminta. And may the right side win in the Ukrainian/Russian war in 2023! I see that Zelenskyy is now persecuting the Orthodox Church as well as Orthodox monks and nuns. Fine American style Democrat!

  47. Afternoon All

    Here’s to 2023………..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/215c53150c241cbdff5e1493779cc0e06e9bbbcf1ae70616a8b0fb204d7bb802.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/46d15528e0929588a4a62d9e2678f7fd868df4009dde0fd2bca17a07a860acab.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/94742c4ccc233600e3c4412f62ea7257d1ec27e8b0f247d0294b02275322198c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cfed06b34cfd309351e7bae755e057f0585c0dd2b473c559db74cf2af4b0eaa1.jpg

  48. Ditching shots of Baileys in sink can also clog up drains. Craig Simpson.

    For every million turkeys cooked at Christmas, 250 tonnes of fat can enter the nation’s sewage systems.

    DO NOT pour unwanted nightcaps down the sink, sewage experts have advised, as creamy drinks such as Baileys can clog drains and sewage systems.

    Southern Water has asked its customers to help prevent pipes being blocked by “fatbergs”, or build-ups of waste, and cautions that Christmas and New Year bring greater risks because rich food is consumed and washed off plates.

    Southern has warned that creamy tipples, such as Baileys, can contribute to blocking sewers. It said: “Something like Baileys, which has cream content, could add to problems”, as the water authority seeks to avoid “a post-christmas and New Year’s catastrophe”.

    Alex Saunders, head of the utility company’s wastewater network, said: “No one likes a nasty surprise over the festive season and our sewers are no different.

    “This is the time of year where we do see an increase in blockages, and so many of these can be easily avoided.

    “Blocked sewers can cause flooding to homes and businesses and unclogging them can take a lot of time, effort and cause disruption for communities.” Southern said it was wary of “challenging” New Year habits, but was concerned about the number of people who may order a takeaway curry for the occasion, potentially sending oily leftover sauce down drains when washing up. Experts have advised that fat, oil and grease should be gathered in containers, cooled and recycled with food waste or put in the dustbin. Dairy products, such as yoghurt should also be scraped into waste bins, Southern has advised. The company said that 250 tonnes of fat can enter sewage systems for every million turkeys cooked at Christmas – and other festive indulgences make the period a very challenging one.

    Southern has further warned that nappies, baby wipes, tampons, sanitary towels, panty liners, colostomy bags and condoms should never be flushed down lavatories.

    Cleansing wipes, earbuds, dental floss, plastic razors and cotton pads are among other items that should always end up in a dustbin.

    Please educate Craig Simpson and tell the clown that there is no such thing as a ‘sewage system’. Where does the DT get these idiots from? Sewage is carried away in a SEWERAGE system.

    In any case, Bailey’s vile liquid is best chucked away. It is a disgusting potion.

        2. Can’t abide Jock juice Grizz, I’ve got bottles of the stuff given as presents but won’t drink. Why people assume because I live in Scotland I drink scotch is beyond me.

        3. Both are good, Grizzly, but in moderation. A week dram will be consumed by me at midnight tonight, and again on Robbie Burns’ birthday (January the 25th) with a plate of neeps and tatties.

          1. I wish I could get hold of a wee haggis, here in yer Sverige, Auntie Elsie. They don’t even have wild ones that I could hunt!

          3. They obviously cannot swim, Paul & George. You’ll have to make your own.

            NO, I DON’T have a recipe. Google may be your fiend!

      1. The only decent ones that keep on coming out of the packet, are the kids one with silly names, from Tesco – and they ain’t flushable!

        Believe you me, my bum knows.

    4. They should do what i do and pour washing soda down all the drains evey few weeks. keeps them clear, as prevention is better than cure.

      3. In the modern world, blaming someone else wins hands down though.
        I try to avoid pouring fat down the drain – and would never pour away delicious turkey dripping anyway! The very idea!

    5. Ask peopleif they like Bailey’s and if they say yes you know to have nothing to do with them, or ask them if they stood outside and clapped for the NHS.

      1. Well, I am in two minds about your post, Johnny. I certainly didn’t clap outside (or even inside) for the NHS, but I do enjoy an occasional tot of Baileys. (Sorry about that, Grizzly.)

          1. My mother used to take us occasionally to drink that at a hotel in Oxford on shopping days when we were teenagers!
            I loved it!

          2. Why do people sprinkle chocolate over coffee, Phizzee? I enjoy a cup of coffee and also one of chocolate. Why mix the two?

    6. Isn’t it time, George, that ALL water-boards recognised that it is THEIR responsibility to maintain the free-flow of the water systems; they are PAID to be responsible for the maintenance thereof.

      Send their CEOs, on enormous salaries grifted from the public (and their poor little Baileys) down the pipes to clear out the fat-bergs. They are, after all, the fat-cats in the industry. Go and EARN your bluddy salary.

      1. Indeed, Tom. I can remember a time when every intrinsic part of the country — every industry, every service — worked like clockwork. Those days are long gone, forsooth.

        1. We – the great unwashed – can only work hard to remove the current core of thickos and ensure that we have a Gov’t that works FOR the country and not against it – as is the current trend.

    2. Is that the same Minsk agreement that Zelensky tore up on day 2?

      And with 14,000 Russian speakers killed in Donbass and surrounds by Zelelensky’s Azov brigade, small wonder Putin wished to give him a hard clip around the ear.

      But the MSM doesn’t want to hear or know about that. Keep on giving Ukraine US Dollars and Equipment and EU €uros and equipment and the left will (not) win.

        1. ‘Left’ and ‘Stupid’ are synonymous.

          I have a married Pinko couple (UK expats) as friends/acquaintances. They are well-off; have a number of lucrative pensions and investments; have a traditional middle-class lifestyle; own one house here in Sweden and another in the UK, which they rent out through an agency; own and run a car; and enjoy all the finer things in life.

          Yet, they love Russia; denounce capitalism as an ‘evil’ at every opportunity; sing the praises of socialism ad nauseam; spend hours each week on the telephone and internet chatting to a ‘personal friend’ in the USA (Levi Sanders, idiot failed senator son of idiot failed Democratic presidential candidate, ‘Bernie’ Sanders); and spend every opportunity decrying the Republican party and all things on the Right.

          They moved to Sweden in their late 60s, despite having no Swedish contacts, whatsoever, and have not learnt the language. They did so because they thought that Sweden was a ‘socialist country’ [Sweden dallied with the concept, 40 years ago, but then decided that a free market economy was the best way to go (this couple must have missed out on that bit of history!).].

          They were devastated when Brexit happened and were terrified of being locked out of their new ‘socialist haven’.

          Attempting to explain the facts of life to them is like endeavouring to get the wall to concur with you. You simply cannot educate pork scratchings.

          1. They will be really at home in Sweden with all the soft communism that I’ve experienced, working here, getting pissed here (my card on the bar) and eventually marrying a Swede – lasted 13 years before she (and her daughter) pulled out and ran for home.

          3. I agree with what you say, however, I deplore the current trend of insulting people by calling them “pork.”
            It fosters the idea that pork is something bad and unclean, and also subtly normalises cannibalism by equating humans with food.

    2. When the music stops and Charlie flips at the final insult, she’ll bug off, use the children as hostages to cash (probably using them as leverage for yet more victimhood) and Harry will be left very, very alone.

      1. King Charles is easily stupid enough to agree to pay reparations for the slave trade, climate change and the industrial revolution so he will probably bankrupt both the UK and the royal family.

    1. Flip the omelette.
      The woman and child will gain a husband and provider whom they can mistreat at leisure; it will grant legitimacy to the child and avoids the immediate threat of the woman having to be stoned for adultery.

      1. The usual BS, Tim, as Bill says, he immediately divorces the woman after the ceremony.

        I wouldn’t give you tuppence for Islam. All shysters.

    2. Who is angry? Pakistan is not the UK. It is governed by corrupt officials, the dominant religion is muslim and they’re barbaric savages. The law is not one sane people would recognise precisely because it is run by muslims. It is a lawless, toxic place filled with violence, bigotry and nonsense.

      Ah, ok, so it is like the UK.

  55. If you put Holy Water in a humidifier it turns the room into a gas chamber for vampires.

    Follow me for more tips…

  56. There comes a time in every man’s life when you know it’s time to give up.

    For a Andrew Tate that time was when he got owned by an autistic cabbage patch doll.

        1. Funny you should say that. I have often wondered how literate she actually is. She can read, obviously, because she spouts the scripts that the zealots have provided. But writing? Hmmm..

    2. But he didn’t get owned! It was the lamest, stupidest response ever.
      If that’s Gen Z’s idea of repartee, the human race is doomed.

        1. He landed in the water, surely?

          Just don’t get the point of this clip…. Apart from the madness of wanting to do this…{:¬))

          1. I can’t imagine ever wanting to do something like this, the whole thing, the very idea of being lobbed off into space to land in the river 8,000 ft below terrifies me. It is completely alien to my cautious nature.

          3. If you look again you will see that his parachute opens and its shadow moves across the water, had it not opened in time he would be dead, hence the potential for a Darwin award.

        2. From that height, falling into (onto) water is like hitting cement. Good (or bad) luck to the approver of the Darwin Awards.

          1. If you watch closely, he deployed a parachute just before landing. Watch his shadow as he drops.

  58. Funny thing – one can talk about Catholic and Protestant kiddy-fiddlers as much as one wants – but NEVER another so-called “religion”.

    Can’t think why…..(ponders…)

  59. Here’s one to ponder. When the trannie artist, Grayson Perry, visits the palace for his/her/its knighthood; will it wear a suit or its wig and frock.

    If it’s the latter, will HM the King tell it that he will award it a damehood instead?

          2. Nah, I’m not as old as Bill, Anne. Now Suspenders and stocking tops – that’s a different story

    3. Been there: done that (1979–1981). I looked after a team of four civvies in my little “radio room” (Comms office).

      1. Whoop de ay. Looked after 13 Javelins FAW8 and a trainer, all at the end of the runway on telescramble. – during the Cuba crisis. October 1962. You probably weren’t even awake.

    2. Double whammy for desert brats: such buns are made with yeast and marked with the Cross. I suppose the raisins must be a reference to raising the dead, which the copycat never achieved.

  63. Can’t remember who put the recommendation on last evening but we watched The Watchmaker’s Apprentice and what a gem of a programme it is. All about George Daniels. This link shows the quality of his work when you touch the pictures and see the estimated selling prices. https://www.sothebys.com/en/brands/george-daniels
    Well worth watching, available on Prime Video.

      1. Fine chance, Ann, if I had any coal.

        I cannot remember the last time I even saw any coal.

        I guess it’s just a buried memory.

        Along with the other 300 years of buried memory

        1. Went to a party many years ago and the husband of the house went outside to first foot. We indoors were having a great time and forgot about him. Was some time before his wife remembered and let him in. He was frozen;-)

          4. Nor I, Annie. I think we may be able to celebrate the New Year already. I have just heard someone in my street letting off a firework.

          9. So you’re saying (© Cathy Newman), Ann, that you went to the freezer for some more ice for the G&T and you found him in there?

  66. That’s me gone for this year. Perhaps the next one will be an improvement, though I doubt it.

    To those of you who stay awake until midnight, and to those who (like me) don’t, I’ll say: A Happy New Year WHEN IT COMES!!

    A demain et à la nouvelle année.

          1. Not if one of them lives in Australia, where they have already celebrated welcomed in the New Year of 2023.

  67. It’s a 5 minute walk from my house to the pub, but it’s a 45 minute walk from the pub to my House.
    The difference is staggering!

    1. Drop that Scotch off, Spikey, and I’ll give you a taste of the finest Belgian Beer. Provided Beerwulf deliver on time.

    1. I was going to go to my local, they have a half decent band on. The reason I’m not going to go is that it’s fancy dress. Not compulsory of course, but for some reason I feel uncomfortable seeing people in (to my mind) silly costumes.

      1. I went to a fancy dress do once. I went as a grumpy old man. Surprisingly, I didn’t have to try very hard.

      2. There’s plenty of time for a sea dweller such as you, pretend you’re an octopus and grope 8 women.

    6. I might have a drink in January if I feel like it.
      As for Veganuary, *sigh* I’ll have to eat double the amount of meat to make up for all those vegans.

      Both campaigns are just a blatant attempt by the satanists to hijack Lent and try to make a functioning religion out of their creepy movement.

      2. I am in the Pop Larkin camp- if I want a drink I will have one. Wonderful books The Darling Buds of May.

    8. We are going to a concert at a winery next week, they serve vegan food. I am not sure if we should count that or not.

    10. We have been dry for years , and people keep giving us bottles of wine .

      I am not being smug, our social life is dead now , because everyone drinks .

      Son, older lad , living at home gave up drink in August , has lost nearly 4 stone , nearly 6ft , eats like a rabbit and runs in the Weymouth 5k Saturday park run .. he had a mid life crisis and decided to omit all alcohol , and junk building site food .. the usual takeaways etc
      5k run in just over 22minutes .. he will be 54yrs in a couple of months .

      1. Can’t you socialise and simply ask for a juice or glass of tonic water? I have friends who don’t drink booze but it doesn’t stop us from getting together with them.

        1. Moh sleeps so badly, and is often asleep early evening , on and off, he doesn’t really ‘do ‘ people , apart from rare occassions and of course golf do’s.

          Oxygen makes me happy, and I will stick to a J2, or whatever // I think the B/P tabs we are on have crashed the desire for a drink .

          1. Oh, heavens, Maggie, there is a definite need for you to “Get a life,”

            Do not descend into that slough of despond. We are all NotTTLers and will hit life ‘full on’ if needs must.

            We don’t give up easily – as I know when you guys pulled me out of that same Slough of Despond when I wanted to kill myself.

            There is so much more to life. Wake up that dozy bugger and tell him how much he is ruining your life, have a hearty slug of alcohol and kick him up the arse to enjoy life with you – I’m sure you are delightful.

      2. We still like our glass of wine – though OH has not really got his taste buds working properly yet. I needed a bit of anaesthetic after the day I’ve had. I opened a bottle of Black Stump as it’s New Year’ Eve.

      3. We still like our glass of wine – though OH has not really got his taste buds working properly yet. I needed a bit of anaesthetic after the day I’ve had. I opened a bottle of Black Stump as it’s New Year’ Eve.

      4. Sorry, Maggie but that sounds like a miserable life – one I would have no wish to put myself through.

        I’m a great believer in eat, drink and be merry. Devil take the hindmost and that, just after I’ve just broken up with the love of my life, I’m lonely and isolated but,,,

        ,,, fcuck the world, at 78, rising 79, why should I worry. Who cares if I make a complete arse of myself. I’ve only me to answer to and the big guy upstairs. Somehow I know he’ll understand and I shall be forgiven my hedonism. I cannot say more, Maggie, other than wish you well

    12. Thanks but no thanks. I enjoy several wines but actually rarely drink a single glass of it. I’m certainly not going vegan – why help TPTB in their efforts!

    13. Dry January is easy as I dn’t really drink anyway. Veganuary just sounds idiotic.

      What I will do is what I’ve started doing and just cut down on what I eat. 1500 calories is more than enough.

      1. Cut down on the carbs – no need to go full keto, but it does work. I eat very little bread these days and lost weight without hardly trying to. Didn’t cut down on wine or other food.

        1. Life’s too short to cut down on wine. I will be 69 soon and am not in the bestest of health- if I am going, I am going out with a bang!

          2. No pub tonight. We are snug at home with the little lights on the tree and mantel. Plus it has been pissing it down all day. I have enough problems, I don’t need to add mildew to them.

          3. 74 here – about the age my Grandma was when she came to live with us. She was an old lady then – much older than I feel.

        2. Yup, bread only 2 toasted slices of homemade sourdough a day. One just does not need as much food as the younger generation. A bit of exercise walking the dog, rowing machine sessions and fishing (not sitting and watching a float fishing). I think it’s genetics that get us in the end though.

          Edit: Oh, and I drink like a fish.

        3. Yup, bread only 2 toasted slices of homemade sourdough a day. One just does not need as much food as the younger generation. A bit of exercise walking the dog, rowing machine sessions and fishing (not sitting and watching a float fishing). I think it’s genetics that get us in the end though.

          Edit: Oh, and I drink like a fish.

    1. I wouldn’t believe all that Mum, you and I will just cruise along until we find the rest we seek.

      So much the better, if you have someone to share that journey with.

      We do not need the Andrew Tates and other idiots of this world, to understand our course in life.

      1. I didn’t listen to it…. I had just never heard of him before but he seems to have crossed swords with the elitist parasites at the WEF which explains why he is being knobbled. He seems to have his own band of followers, like Brand and Oliver. There is a pied paper for every age grouping at the moment.

          1. I look straight ahead, looking neither right nor left. I have a path to follow and I will not be gain-swayed.

  71. Give yourself or a loved one this fabulous new year’s present, and do your bit for the LBGT movement
    https://my-store-d4d8e9.creator-spring.com/listing/l-g-b-t-2022?product=2&variation=2397&size=3557&utm_term=UCfDcxQbCSGqaBYuwNzzM4Sw&utm_medium=product_shelf&utm_source=youtube&utm_content=YT-ACV0V000Ag2j5Ypi5Iusi37ch6iW7kxQY7kc6cqyyhZxkvTYrDEgrIvtcI3OCY-_TwjLoxDHeTYL09b_3eWaHJbYzJf-kNkbfsCQaa1RXHsbs6qi-DJY_5TXlXIAtRi5vQtulr62x1hvT_u5q7IWhsCGEdH6BomESLglGrUauP9oaMZwx7ijyO8y

  72. The time has come…

    I’m off to bed, again, to sleep and forget the disappointments of 2022.

    Hopefully something better may turn up in 2023 but I ain’t holding my breath

  73. Hello everyone , it has taken me hours trying to access disqus .

    Our coal arrived yesterday.. the weather is so mild , no need for c/h nor a fire in the grate .

    Younger son will be having his bones mended on Wednesday .. his surgeon eplained to him that there is a newish technique for fixing ankle and foot bones , using not plates but a mesh .

    4. Might be mild but we had torrential rain here….. hardly gone 100yards when ‘clunk’ and off flew my windscreen wiper: the car only passed its MOT on 19th December. The blade looks ok but it’s completely detached from the arm and it appears to have a rivet or a screw missing. I drove down to the shops (three miles) only able to see out of the passenger side.

      Will have to get someone to do a temporary repair in the morning before I take son to the station for his train to Bristol airport.

      Glad you got your coal and hope son gets a good repair for his bones.

      Meanwhile I’ve been suffering today with sciatica. Had plenty of anaesthetic in a glass with the lasagne. I usually make a veggy one but this one had meat in.

      1. Gasp! You had meat? Well done and also the nerve tonic. Pinot is about the only thing that eases my arthritic knee. It has been very sore today as it’s so wet. Bon voyage to your son.
        Hope your OH is still on the mend.

          2. OH has now gone from zero medication to a bagful of different packets of pills. He’s hoping they won’t all be permanent.

          3. Oh, I have half a dozen daily pills to take, it’s just the painkillers I’m loathe to take.

          4. If it’s statins, bisoprolol, chlopridogrel, et al, they probably will be permanent I’m afraid

          5. His discharge letter says he can stop clopidogrel after one year, but doesn’t mention any timescale for the others.

          6. That’s good, the letter from my cardiologist stated “clopidogrel for life” on his letter to my GP more than 12 years ago.

          7. What does it do? It’s the only familiar name on the list apart from he statin. Not sure what any of the others do. Did you have a similar op?

          8. 8 stents were inserted. Clopidogrel helps stop platelets clumping together into clots. Mine was a heart attack caused by blocked arteries. Apparently I have a natural very high cholesterol which is what the 80mg Statin is for. The cardiologist did want to do a bypass but I begged him to use stents. A nice Indian guy who kept saying ‘I knew I should made a bypass, Mr Max.’ as he called for stent after stent. Hubby will be fine I’m sure. He should take it easy to start but slowly build up with gentle exercise increasing to where he feels he can increase it. Walking is good. Just gentle walks to start.
            He’ll have all this in pamphlets, what to eat, what to avoid etc.

          9. Yes – he has, but finds it all a bit overwhelming at the moment. So far, we’ve only been on one very short walk, but it’s still early days yet.
            He was shocked when the surgeon told him he would need a by-pass as he was expecting a TAVI. Not the preferred way to celebrate turning 80!

          10. No rush. Very, very slow build up to a bit longer ones. At 80 years old a nice gentle walk.

        2. He’s doing well, I thnk – gets tired very quickly though. I think that’s probably to be expected. He’s doing more normal things now, like making the tea in the mornings.

          I prefer the nerve tonic to chemical painkillers

      2. Sciatica?

        Were you lifting something thing heavy . Are you sure it isn’t a hip problem ?

        The rain has been relentless and the garden is like a quagmire . Too slippery to top up the bird feeders.

        Sorry about your wiper blade , blooming nuisance, ana palavar to order a new one to get fitted .

        We received another couple of late Christmas cards… both unfranked but with first class stamps ..from the other side off the country .. I wonder whether the franking machines were knobbled?

        1. I don’t think it’s a hip problem – I’ve had this before and bloody painful it is, but it eventually eases off and there’s no loss of mobility in my hip.

          No post today, though I did see the van outside.

          I was very concerned when I received the annual card and letter from my old schoolfriend in Denmark two days ago – her husband has been having tests for Alzheimers, and she has had a third bout of breast cancer. Old age doesn’t come alone, does it?

      3. For sciatica, Tramadol and diclofenac work, Jules but you’ll need a script from your local witch doctor.

        1. Will see how it goes before I go down that route. I prefer to keep away from the surgery, although I did call in yesterday on OH’s behalf. Diclofenac must be strong stuff – it killed off half the world’s population of vultures.

          2. Maybe I too am a vulture – but I’ve survived.

            Be careful with Tramadol, it may be addictive.

          3. I’ve never taken anything like that. I prefer to avoid painkillers or opiates at all. Occasionally I succumb to a Lemsip if I feel a cold coming on.
            I’ve been lucky I suppose to have never needed anything too strong.

          5. Sure – but I’ve been lucky to have had a healthy life on the whole, apart from a double dose of breast cancer.

        2. Both can be problematic. I know from personal experience that diclofenec sends up your blood pressure. Elder son has inherited the trait.

      4. Ow! Not fun… fixing things is always easier in daylight and without having to stand in the weather.

        1. I’m hoping we can do a temporary job with a bit of wire in the morning as the rain seems set to continue.

        1. There’s one in Stroud – do they do repairs or just sell the parts? I think it’s just a missing screw or rivet.

          1. I know they fit new parts. It’s worth a try. Opens 10 am tomorrow 01453 761590 if you want to call them first. Good luck and Happy New Year to you and all you family.

          3. No – not yet! It wasn’t urgent today as it’s been dry here. My son had a look at it before I took him to the station and it does seem to have a small bit missing.

  74. A Happy New Year to everyone, especially for those that go to bed at their normal time only to be woken up by fireworks at 12 and then again by the kids coming home in the early hours and start cooking

    2. Thank you for the thought, Bob but…

      Living alone, there is no chance of either early hours discombobulation nor fireworks.

      So I shall just wish you a peaceful and joyeause new Year

  75. Good night, and may you all be even luckier than Vesna Vulović for 2023 and survive whatever the year throws at you!

    2. I buy a potted stilton most Christmas times. They’re handy for teaspoons, pens and odds and ends. They’re not from Fortnums though.

          1. I love cheese- have eaten some wonderful Stilton and other blue cheeses, plus too much Gouda. Damn, I might have to go and get some more Stilton….

      1. Two things that badly need redoing….the NHS and the Honours system. Both right now are a total disgrace.

        1. Our recent experience of the NHS was that they are thorough and get there in the end, even if it seems to take for ever. Two hospitals, many diagnostic tests, various cardiologists and surgeons and eventually a major operation. The nurses looked after him well, and he was quite happy with the food. I was just glad to get him home.

    2. It’s NOT FAILURE! It’s GOVERNMENT POLICY!
      or it would be stopped.
      Now they show approval of how successful it is and how pleased they are by knighting this bastard.

    3. A Prime Minister of integrity would never permit a Royal honour for colossal failure by a senior mandarin.

      Unfortunately, we don’t have a Prime Minister of integrity.

      Edit

      ADDENDUM:

      No senor mandarin should ever accept a Royal honour for colossal departmental failure.

      1. Not failure, but successful execution of government ploicy.
        If Border Force are participating, it’s policy.

  79. It’s been a disappointing Christmas. New Year not much better
    All our family traditions missed out – not at home, presents at weird times and locations, no mince pies and no icing on the cake, MiL didn’t serve wine at Xmas Din, no Xmas pud, far too much effing travelling and huge money spent on it, even the Christmas tree at home was pining (joke?) and has withered in a way I never saw before. Not even a real or recorded Christmas carol on the 25th.
    Visit to Mother in her prison, somewhat bleak (and wipe clean) bedroom, and no bastard other than us seems to have sent a card – there was our one in solitary splendour. So much for brother & Mother’s “friend” – the latter probably fears catching Covid if she sent a card to Mother.
    Firstborn collected his cat from the Cat Hotel, and went back to his place yesterday to let the cat (Perkins) out and run about. First New Year without him. Now there’s fireworks, we haven’t bought any for the first time in 25 years, and TBH, I’m fit to go to bed at 23:00.
    Grr! At home next year.
    Oh, yes, and a “Check Engine” light on the car this morning. That looks expensive.

    1. Have a splendid new year’s day to make up for it. It wasn’t perfect at Lake Lodge but was OK. Be thankful you are safely home and you are back with your kitkats.

    3. Fcuk ’em all, Paul. you have your own life. Live it to the full and be happy.

      That’s my philosophy and boy, have I been down but I kicked myself (with the help of you and NoTTLEers) into looking at life from a different perspective.

      It’s helped. Off to bed soon.

    4. It sounds a bit like our Christmas – no mince pies, no cake, no Christmas pudding. Only half the usual amount of cards we get have turned up, and five of those have arrived in the days after Christmas. Part of the problem is that I have had a fluey type bug over Christmas and I can’t shake it off, I seem to be entering Phase 3 so I just couldn’t be bothered to make mince pies. The other part of the problem is that we were invited to younger son and his wife’s home for Christmas dinner with the inlaws. They follow an odd non-dairy vegan-style diet, so no Christmas pudding but a vegan dessert which wasn’t to our taste. His turkey (I know, I know…vegan and all that) roast veg were delicious. There was plenty of wine, we took a couple of bottles and our son provided plenty as well. Father-in-law returned home ‘oop north’ just before we arrived, he had been ill during the night, his son drove him home.

      We shall be having our ‘Christmas day’ at home tomorrow, by ourselves, a turkey crown with my homemade two year old Christmas pudding and rum sauce. There is nothing like being at home.

        1. Did you ever see the Everyone Loves Raymond episode where the mother makes a tofu turkey? It’s hilarious and the tofu turkey looks horrendous.

        2. No, it was a proper real turkey this time. They are just part-time vegans….! (Bless their hearts…). Suet for some reason is out, even though a vegetarian type is available. So that means mince pies and Christmas pud is out. It is possible the veg suet is made from palm oil, so that be a definite no-no.

    5. Not being religious, I’ve never been one for the over-hyped celebrations at Christmas and I aspire to get away on holiday one day instead of sitting at home in bad weather eating. Looking forward to this rotten weather breaking into sunshine and the days lengthening. As for the next year, Its not going to be good with economies teetering on the edge, imho, and it certainly become very interesting if China goes into Taiwan. On that note, Best wishes to all!

    6. ” even the Christmas tree at home was pining”‘
      getting lonesome perhaps?
      “MiL didn’t serve wine at Xmas Din,,
      Beyond the pale, mate, I always take a couple of bottles, at least, to dinners and parties.

    7. Those institutional bedrooms are depressing aren’t they? a bit of carpet and some pictures would really help but that wouldn’t be wipe clean.

      I think that I prefer the unexpected kind of Christmas that people in our area had.
      Thanks to the weather, people could not travel on Christmas eve or christmas day so they ended up celebrating alone or in some cases with stranded travellers as unexpected guests. If you bought an ostrich sized turkey to feed twenty family members? Tough, it’s you and hubby eating turkey sandwiches until easter.

      But no wine with Christmas dinner, that’s cruel.

  80. That’s me Guys and Gals, Goodnight and God bless you, every one. Until it’s story time again in the morn’s morn.

      2. What do you mean by “kick him out”, Sue? Wherever we kick him out to (as if we could!) it would be to a country where – like all countries – there are children. The only way to deal with these perverts is to remove their private parts.

    4. I just noticed an article in a Canadian newspaper where some local has been jailed for foutprteen years because of two assaults on a young girl.

      Different jurisdictions and all that but it definitely shows how u acceptably lenient this sentence is. It couldn’t be anything to do with race or colour could it?

  84. Watching Jesse Stone on 5USA+1. Such good films with an incredible acting dog. Great dialog, no screeching tyres an shoot outs. All very gentle.

    1. Try the ‘SpenSer” books. also by Robert B Parker….Fantastic, well I think so

      Looking at IMDb, they have been also been TVised

      2. Robert B Parker also completed Raymond Chandler’s final (unfinished) Philip Marlowe novel, POODLE SPRINGS. And he then went on to write one more Marlowe novel called PERCHANCE TO DREAM, a sequel to THE BIG SLEEP which was the very first Philip Marlowe novel written by Raymond Chandler. Although Raymond Chandler’s Estate authorised/commissioned Parker to write both novels, he (Parker) said that there would be no more since he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life writing another man’s novels.

  85. That’s me about to log off and got for a hot bath!
    Just got back home after my 4 pub circular and I’m knackered, but in a good way!
    A damp walk, rather than soaking, and quite warm too.

  86. Happy New Year, all Y’all. Wishing all Y’all a better new year than 2022!
    And that’s me signing off for 2022.

  87. Logged in so that I can wish you all a Very Happy New Year.

    Best wishes and may the gods look after you in 2023. They’ve been asleep for the last 2 1/2 !

    Ps. will the rain ever stop? 🙏

    1. And the same to you Andrew. It has been dreadful down here today.
      A very happy new year to you and yours! X

  88. 369539+ up ticks,

    I don’t think so BO BO.

    MPs fear ‘slippery slope’ to lockdown after latest travel curbs
    Concerns raised after new rules for China, but Government denies trying to ‘ban’ the virus

    2. Happy New Year, ogga. I don’t think they will be so lucky with their viral lockdowns in future, more of us have awoken from slumber than they thought, but they may achieve success with the 15 minute climate change scam lockdowns.

  89. Well, fellow NoTTLers, there are just 5 minutes to midnight and the fireworks (big bangs) are in full swing. I have poured myself a wee dram and will drink it as the clock strikes 12 to see in the New Year. Then straight to bed, so sleep well and see you all next year.

  90. Hi Nottlers
    Alf and I have a drink ready and waiting for midnight to have a quick snog and wish each other a Happy New Year. And a Happy New Year to everybody on here and a healthy one too.

    2. Good to know, vw, that you and Alf are happy together.

      ’tis what I’ve spent my life searching for.

      Good health and cheers to you both.

      1. Thanks for all your morning funnies Tom, I look for them each day (though it may not be first thing in the morning!). Happy and Healthy New Year to you. God bless you.

  92. Happy new year to all of you. We are having a glass of fizz and watching the fireworks on TV and hearing them outside.
    May you all have a very happy new year.
    X

    3. Why can’t you say that in English?
      Appreciated, but why do I have to go to a translation service to receive your greetings,?

      I lived in Wales for many years but the locals always spoke to me in English – a language we both understood..

  94. I didnt realise you could politicise a fire works show. Uke colours projected, pride propaganda. “We are here, queer and not going away” went the spoken message. Charlie with his green blurb… Aargghh

  95. I didnt realise you could politicise a fire works show. Uke colours projected, pride propaganda. “We are here, queer and not going away” went the spoken message. Charlie with his green blurb… Aargghh

    3. It’ll be what we make it not what others tell us it will be.
      Happy New Year and better health this year.

  97. From across the pond, a happy new year to all Nottlers! Keep looking on the bright side of life….

Comments are closed.