What's Making You Happy Today?

Monkeyface said:
The second time I agree with Rambo today. Renting ain't so bad if you're not sure what to do. You're basically paying a small premium for freedom.
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i've always found moving rentals a good way to get rid of all the useless shit i'd been hoarding in my place.
 
Rambo said:
i've always found moving rentals a good way to get rid of all the useless shit i'd been hoarding in my place.
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Oh yeah, anything I haven't used the past year goes. I came to this country with 2 suitcases and I'll be leaving with 3. Not too bad.
 
Arnathor said:
Buying, but I just told the real estate agent I'm backing out. I'm in a weird headspace right now and it is better to just hold off, Grand Potentate Grand Potentate , thanks for saying take your time.
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It's 360-370 sq ft for a bachelor/studio across the street from where I work and that building just opened up.

If it helps I rent a 450 sq ft 1 bedroom where the previous tenant was a South African couple with a toddler. My brother splits a 607 sq ft down the street (1bed,1bath,1den) with his wife down the street.

As my direct report at work always says, if you buy something, you need to take something out. But then I'm rarely there.
 
Having a short break in Vienna. Managed to cover a fair bit. The cathedral, the Hofburg palace and a trip around the ringstrasse. Had some decent scoff and a few beers as well. I have been in Austria a lot but apart from Innsbruck I have not been to the big cities because I was skiing and had paid for a six day lift pass.
 
Ms. fxh feeding her favourite magpie - autumn afternoon - cold but sunny
1.webp
2.webp
 
It is my uncle's 80th birthday today. I am getting dressed for what I assume to be a banquet style dinner. This is my father's cousin who sank half a bottle of Lagavulin with me at Christmas and we sank the other half after New Year's. I got him a 2015 limited edition Ardbeg. At 80, he still has a Norwood 2 hairline and only started greying after he retired. He smoked all his life and only cut it around 10 years ago.

In my mind I think of him as mid 50s, when I first met him and he taught me golf. My parents are 40 or so, and my aunt is in her 30s. I suppose that's when I was intellectually conscious and their ages were cemented in my mind.
 
Ha - I'm going to slash one vendor's rate from 6.4% to 3.9% percent just because I fed some account manager so much alcohol he confessed his margins including inflation.

Of course he afterwards confessed he had no idea how he went home after I pushed him into a taxi. He apparently rang his wife a half dozen times during an extended toilet break (noticed by me) but his spouse said he was unintelligible. I later found out on Uber he asked the driver to drop him off at a 7/11 to grab chips and water none of which he indulged in as he slept over them in bed.
 
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Ever since my sojourn into opera five years ago I have seen Die Fledermaus, La clemenza di Tito, La Boheme, Un ballo in maschera, La Traviata, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, Carmen, Madame Butterfly and Tosca.

Trying to figure out what I'm missing. Rigoletto? Barber of Seville (no idea how I missed that one).
 
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It's the Friday before the long weekend. Although I do have meetings till 1930, but oh well.
 
Happy Victoria Day! Her Majesty's official birthday. Long live the Queen.
 
Fwiffo said:
Are you repopulating the planet? How do people have so much time to make so many new people?

I saw a grizzled father with a slight limp, salt and pepper hair, in a grey suit, white shirt and a paisley tie with a briefcase walking on the platform alongside his bleached blonde son in a black suit, iPhone headphones in his ear going to take the train together to work. I'm guessing his son is either right out of uni or on some kind of work term. I always thought I'd be that bloke but even one kid seems daunting. Just imagine the sartorial criticism I'd have to give him...unless he's actually going to work in a funeral parlour or hotel service.
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Well, it's a ride that's for sure. One you can't readily get off once you get on, but then again plenty of chaps bale out of their responsibilities. You can get off, but it's going to cost you bigly.

I never thought I would get married or have kids. I never had the parental urge. By the time I was in my early thirties I was sure it was a home run. Then fate intervened. Either way, with kids or not, life has plenty of possibilities. Each delivers something meaningful and enjoyable.

One thing I do notice though, those couples without kids are keen on socializing and inviting you and the missus out, but the reality is, you're moving a in a different universe where those who don't have kids are somewhat alien.

Kingstonian said:
Having a short break in Vienna. Managed to cover a fair bit. The cathedral, the Hofburg palace and a trip around the ringstrasse. Had some decent scoff and a few beers as well. I have been in Austria a lot but apart from Innsbruck I have not been to the big cities because I was skiing and had paid for a six day lift pass.
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The photography museum is very good too.

Fwiffo said:
It is my uncle's 80th birthday today. I am getting dressed for what I assume to be a banquet style dinner. This is my father's cousin who sank half a bottle of Lagavulin with me at Christmas and we sank the other half after New Year's. I got him a 2015 limited edition Ardbeg. At 80, he still has a Norwood 2 hairline and only started greying after he retired. He smoked all his life and only cut it around 10 years ago.

In my mind I think of him as mid 50s, when I first met him and he taught me golf. My parents are 40 or so, and my aunt is in her 30s. I suppose that's when I was intellectually conscious and their ages were cemented in my mind.
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I fall into the same trap, I kind of think of everyone as they were in 1989-1995. Even in my dreams.

It always seem strange to me when I meet family members and friends who I still think of as kids/students who since I last saw them have careers and families of their own now.

Fwiffo said:
Ever since my sojourn into opera five years ago I have seen Die Fledermaus, La clemenza di Tito, La Boheme, Un ballo in maschera, La Traviata, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, Carmen, Madame Butterfly and Tosca.

Trying to figure out what I'm missing. Rigoletto? Barber of Seville (no idea how I missed that one).
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Opera: I like the idea of it, sitting there watching it like Al Capone, but when I try and listen to it....
 
fxh said:
The Pearl Fishers is worth a look.
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Too bad opera turned to shit post-war.

Of course I own the original recording (de facto master) of this Pearl Fishers along with a few other Russian master tenor versions.

 
Fwiffo said:
Ever since my sojourn into opera five years ago I have seen Die Fledermaus, La clemenza di Tito, La Boheme, Un ballo in maschera, La Traviata, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, Carmen, Madame Butterfly and Tosca.

Trying to figure out what I'm missing. Rigoletto? Barber of Seville (no idea how I missed that one).
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Rigoletto, yes. Il trovatore also. Barber of Seville does not appeal to me.

Nozze di Figaro. Cosi Fan Tutte.

Fidelio.

Lucia di Lammermoor. (l'elisir d'amore and la fille du regiment aren't bad either)

Norma

Cav and Pag.
 
Lord Buckley said:
Either way, with kids or not, life has plenty of possibilities. Each delivers something meaningful and enjoyable.
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I shall frame that and sell tacky souvenirs emblazoned with it. You haven't by any chance trademarked the phrase yet have you?

Lord Buckley said:
I fall into the same trap, I kind of think of everyone as they were in 1989-1995. Even in my dreams.
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I suspect some people on this forum will be zygotes or random ether in 1989.

Lord Buckley said:
Opera: I like the idea of it, sitting there watching it like Al Capone, but when I try and listen to it....
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That's where I was introduced incorrectly to opera. Opera has acting and costumes and sets. It's not the three tenors standing there singing the greatest hits in white tie.

Kingstonian said:
Rigoletto, yes. Il trovatore also. Barber of Seville does not appeal to me.

Nozze di Figaro. Cosi Fan Tutte.

Fidelio.

Lucia di Lammermoor. (l'elisir d'amore and la fille du regiment aren't bad either)

Norma

Cav and Pag.
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The problem in Toronto is every season they only have one or two canonical classics. I may not live until all of those show up in rotation.
 
Fwiffo said:
That's where I was introduced incorrectly to opera. Opera has acting and costumes and sets. It's not the three tenors standing there singing the greatest hits in white tie.

The problem in Toronto is every season they only have one or two canonical classics. I may not live until all of those show up in rotation.
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Opera also has directors who sometimes reinterpret works as it suits them. So you get kids bouncing around on spacehoppers during a big aria or military tanks on stage. Fascist uniforms is another popular choice.

You did not mention limited opportunities and I just listed what I thought worthwhile anyway. If you ever are in, say, New York there will be more on offer.
 
I met the friend who was giving me the cold shoulder a while back. She apologised without me bringing it up, and then said she loved me.

Then again that last bit could have been the mdma talking.
 
prince nez said:
I met the friend who was giving me the cold shoulder a while back. She apologised without me bringing it up, and then said she loved me.

Then again that last bit could have been the mdma talking.
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Ask her to stroke your elite cashmere jacket next time, that'll win her over.
 
prince nez said:
I met the friend who was giving me the cold shoulder a while back. She apologised without me bringing it up, and then said she loved me.

Then again that last bit could have been the mdma talking.
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Which shoulder was it?
 
Weekend in Yorkshire. Rain like stair rods in Ribblehead, as monkeyface could no doubt have told you. However, I had a cagoule and we saw the magnificent Ribblehead viaduct and the Blea Moor signal box before retiring to the pub for food and drink.

Sunday we did the Worth Valley(railway children) steam train to Haworth. A very nice pint of mild in a proper glass £3.50. Life does not get much better. More pubs in Haworth and the Brontes parish church.

Monday was York. Two pubs no sites.

I am getting to like Yorkshire.
 
Kingstonian said:
More pubs in Haworth and the Brontes parish church.

Monday was York. Two pubs no sites.

I am getting to like Yorkshire.
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I thought they said independent pubs and pub culture was dying in England. I read that somewhere recently...maybe BBC.
 
Kingstonian said:
I am getting to like Yorkshire.
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Would help if they spoke English, though.

Anyway, my latest purchase arrived today: A new (and better) whetstone for my sharpening machine.
As a tailor I'm a sucker for sharp shears, and with this new stone I can get them just insanely sharp enough to make my job a bit easier.
 
Fwiffo said:
I thought they said independent pubs and pub culture was dying in England. I read that somewhere recently...maybe BBC.
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Pubs are closing at an alarming rate. Wetherspoon chain offering cheaper drinks and food is doing well though. Pubs are being sold off to property developers. Pub companies are part of the problem. They screws their tenants with rents and restrictions and then sell on when they can make a killing on the property.
 
You want to see my home town, absolutely devastated on the pub front. If they've not been turned into retirement homes, they're Tesco Express's. The pubs that have survived have either turned into spit and sawdust places for a brawl or pretentious gastro-pubs. As Kingy states, it's been a case of the pub companies/breweries making a quick buck fix killing on selling the land. All those big car parks you see. I can't help thinking that as well, the modern brewery techniques for lagers where responsible for the decline in quality and ales tasting bland. Also to factor in the cost of drinking out and change in the home as total entertainment unit. I was in Farnborough for a couple of days the other week and I can't say I enjoyed going to the pub there, it was a case of one drink and let's eat. I have no interest in that world anymore, probably because the atmosphere is gone.

Still, the weather's making me happy today and with my new versatile Wifi solution I think I've sorted by downloading FLAC problem.
 
Kingstonian said:
Pubs are closing at an alarming rate. Wetherspoon chain offering cheaper drinks and food is doing well though.
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That's why I said independent... I don't really consider chain pubs like Wetherspoon to be a real pub, although they did snap up a lot of the nice locations.

Lord Buckley said:
I was in Farnborough for a couple of days the other week and I can't say I enjoyed going to the pub there, it was a case of one drink and let's eat. I have no interest in that world anymore, probably because the atmosphere is gone.
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I can always rely on you to channel Edward Gibbon's idea of decline and fall.

That said there's nothing worse than seeing a proper pub being converted into a sports bar with walls full of LCD televisions.
 
Also people in Muslim areas don't drink.

There is an increase in pop-up places under railway arches etc. selling craft beer to hipsters but they are not really pubs.

People can drink and entertain themselves at home. And smoke if they want to. If pubs don't offer good reasonably-priced beer and a nice atmosphere then people wasn't bother. It is a vicious circle. Pubs make money on food but I would prefer to eat in a restaurant if I am paying gastropubs prices.
 
I updated the Wifi system and then linked my laptop with a hard line to one of the Wifi receiver plugs. Worked a treat, downloads and transfer speeded up by several times. Well worth €129.
 
Kingstonian said:
Also people in Muslim areas don't drink.

There is an increase in pop-up places under railway arches etc. selling craft beer to hipsters but they are not really pubs.

People can drink and entertain themselves at home. And smoke if they want to. If pubs don't offer good reasonably-priced beer and a nice atmosphere then people wasn't bother. It is a vicious circle. Pubs make money on food but I would prefer to eat in a restaurant if I am paying gastropubs prices.
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Like anything these days, it's a case of polarisation. All the cheap decent pubs are being snapped up by the likes of Spoons and Nicholsons and turned into terrible even cheaper ones, while all the remaining independent pubs are now catering to the very high end of the market. There's very little middle ground pubs anymore. The idea of the British pub being a neighbourhood common house is long gone, so I'd rather go to an upscale cocktail bar these days. If one can't enjoy the interaction with other guests then at least one can enjoy the drinks, neither of which is possible in the contemporary pub.
 
My daughter really wasn't interested in having her latest child in hospital but her water broke and she called for me to come watch the kids so she and her husband could go in. She made it as far as the boot room.

I got there to find her standing and screaming through contractions.

911 on the speakerphone.

Giving the address for the ambulance. The head pops out.

Took a bit to make the 911 operator realize that the baby was coming right now and not soon.

One push and the baby was out.

My daughter says "for fuck's sake. I just had my baby standing in my boot room with a rabbit and a dog."

Top top 3rd world-style birth.

Healthy baby girl.
 
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