deegee

I do like the Irish small towns, where they retain local shopping and as you say, there’s literally everything you would need within a small town. I find even the smallest town/ large village will have a man’s’ shop which stocks decent formal and casual clothes you struggle to find in a larger town in Scotland or England.

Looking back to the period between 1945 until 1989, it is incredible to think a land war was avoided in Europe. As a child brought up in the 70s (and military “career” was a couple years in the TA on the mid 80’s), it was thought inevitable that we’d have some sort of nuclear war. Even the Yugoslavian/ Balkan’s War was brought about by the passing of Tito and was an ethnic civil war with barely much input by the Soviets or the West from memory. This current conflict is “different gravy” and is probably the most serious threat to a full scale war and possible Armageddon since Cuba, I guess? With any luck there’s a chat going on in some African cafe between Russian and American embassy staff, to ensure Putin “stands down” one way or another!

I was saying similar yesterday, that there must be a large swell of Poles, Czechs, Hungarians itching to get involved. Wouldn’t take much more than a rogue missile/ shell going astray or a Russian fighter jet dropping a misplaced bomb to send 1/2 of these Central European nations over the trenches!

I don’t disagree with your points and Hitler had no qualms in lobbing his V1 and V2 bombs at England, the second they were functional towards the end of the war. However, even if it is clearly not lead by NATO, there must be some humanitarian army of convenience, operating under UN that at some point must look to warn Russia they will enter Ukraine as a peacekeeping force? Otherwise we allow a bully to overthrow a peaceful lawful neighbour state, and we all know how that ends, with the Baltic’s, Moldova etc next in line for Putin’s expansive policies. Ideally this would be a peace keeping force by consent of the Russians and Ukrainian governments, however I do accept this is all unlikely whilst Putin is in charge and losing his marbles on a daily basis.

Isn’t this the uncomfortable truth of an urban guerrilla campaign.... there’ll be lots of this taunting of nervous young Russian conscripts. No doubt there’ll be instances when they fire upon the civilians and conversely there will be situations where the soldiers literally walk backwards into a trap and their deaths. It’s going to be brutal and bloody. We have seen in many campaigns since WW2 there is no need to face up to a larger standing army; instead draw them into civilian territory where the resistance have no uniform nor scruples in blowing up the invaders to smithereens!

At some point there must be a red line for NATO, EU and UN, if there continues to be disregard for civilian lives, flattening of residential areas and schools etc? Obviously the risk and consequences of accelerating WW3 are unthinkable but we can’t sit back until Ukraine is literally a scorched wasteland of dead bodies. You’ ve got to hope there is a powerful enough body of dissent within the Kremlin that either gets Putin to reign in his war or else move him out, with or without his consent.

I resisted replying as I don’t bother with this thread too often now, plus I’m too busy to be bothered engaging in an Internet forum tit-for+ tat argument, however since you specifically have an issue with my previous comment I shall offer comment. Any airline will say to onboard passengers that masks may be removed during drinking and eating and if you’ve ever flown on a short haul flight, you’ll know it’s a key source of incremental revenue for the airline, especially Easyjet and the like. The are “no cruel rules being circumvented” if you decide to have a snack and drink on a short run to Luton, as was the flight the original point was based upon. Why is it “laughable” to have a coffee and a blooming kitkat, rather than sit with a manky pointless cloth rag on your face, when most science is vague and indeed many nations laws are being overturned on the need to wear one. Even since the post,Jet2 have dropped need to wear masks and it’s a fair bet others will follow in weeks as it is purely a corporate exercise in virtue signalling at the moment. There are a broad range of opinions on this very long thread and generally most folk are here to offer opinion and get advice,; boorish, tedious trolling of folk pointing out basic facts and accepted conditions of carriage on board a domestic flight seems a strange fight to pick, to be quite honest.

I don’t see St Mirren too often but I thought they well disciplined and organised in first half. Hardly a chance offered to Celtic and I was slightly concerned we might panic, commit too many men forward and tire in second half but tbh I thought Saints never gave themselves a chance or push the game up the park. Turned out relatively comfortable in the end and the points were vital tonight, regardless if it was a struggle for 45-50 mins.

Absolutely. This is not the time for even thinking about covid enquiries and detailed investigations into the past two years; actions, consequences, successes and failures on all levels but at some time that say of reckoning will come. As you say, it’s beyond belief we have a European war on our doorstep and watching bombing and killing that has put perspective on all nations’ dragged out covid measures

As said a few days ago, what a time to be alive…who would have predicted at the start of the year (when we were losing our minds with Xmas restrictions and masks etc) that World War 3 would have come along and basically kicked covid well into the long grass. At least we’ll not be getting Sturgeon and her usual cohorts gibbering on about keeping us safe etc whilst there is a real risk of Nuclear Armageddon! Silver linings and all that etc…

I was on EasyJet this weekend from Gatwick and would say there is a sizeable minority stopped wearing masks even in the terminal too, however the airline have a serious “hard on” for masks. Make sure you buy a drink, either on board or take a water/ juice on with you. Drink it slowly, have a biscuit or similar and you’ll get to Luton with a mask hardly on your face.

When I was in Estonia, their Museum of Liberation was an eye-opener, portraying as local heroes the Estonian nationals who formed an SS Division of resistance to the Russian invaders. I guess it’s all about context and self- interest. Same as the Jewish Museum in Krakow clearly shows that many of the atrocities were carried out by Ukrainian, Hungarian SS Units etc! World War 2 in many ways was an excuse for many nations in the Balkans, central and Eastern Europe to have their own little local ethnic cleansing. And that’s before we consider the Communist parties trying to seize power in many other European nations.

I have no I’ll- feelings towards the Queen and tbh respect her lifelong dedication to her service and duty to the country and commonwealth. I also fully appreciate her dedication is borne from her generation as well as her absolute privilege. It will be a total change; literally once in a century upheaval and modernisation once she passes. You already see a more streamlined “core” whilst the cousins, unpopular brothers, hangers-on and unwelcome uncles will be basically given their P45s. It’s far more of a concern to myself that I fully and clearly remember her Silver Jubilee, my parents getting us special commemorative coins (still in a box somewhere in the house), street parties on the telly etc. The last 45 years seem to have flown past!

There are several types of Missing Persons, from even reading this thread. You get the utterly bizarre cases where folk, for apparently no reason, just simply vanish and never heard of again. You get the probable suicide/ death by misadventure, where folk (like the RAF fella) are assumed to have been killed and bodies not found. The ones which are spooky and very sad are the probable murders which go unsolved and no convictions. One which I always think about is the Claudia Lawrence case. 35 years old, vanished in 2009 and despite a very middle class schooling and upbringing, had a shadowy, clandestine personal life with hints of her having several relationships with married or dodgy fellas. Reading some of the reports, journalists were warned off several times and her disappearance has never been solved. You have to think she had a horrific end by some jealous or resentful partner. A bit like quite a few of these cases, there are probably a few leads that just didn’t have the missing piece of the jigsaw for the police to get a conviction in a courtroom, allowing wrong ‘uns to walk around free.

It’s obviously stirred up a few emotions and comments from last night. As I said in my previous post last night, I genuinely don’t know much about this guy running the business, so I am 100% neutral on him and his company. I still think it was a weak documentary and a couple staff who lost their jobs (it would be interesting to see why folk in marketing etc were fired; maybe they just weren’t very good at their job?) didn’t really make many allegations other than it was a ruthless business. Not really different to 99.9% of most hard nosed businesses. The American girls who were a little weepy didn’t have much on him other than he looked at them! The claim he was snogging a customer at the rooftop bar was nothing different to what you see in any late night bar I guess? I am really not defending him; he might well be a creepy weirdo who has an eye for a pretty girl and his business drive doesn’t tolerate second best but the BBC programme didn’t really lay a glove on him or the business and came across as a journalist simply going around asking sacked staff how they felt about it.

Nice flamingo and Liz doing what Liz does best.

I’ve never had a beard or actually gone more than a day or two unshaven, I have no tattoos and don’t really wear cloth caps, checked shirts and baggy denims, so doubt I’m the target market for Brewdog or investing in their company lol.

I’m watching this BBC documentary now and I’m slightly confused about the agenda and why there is a hatchet job going on with the brewery and business owner. I’ve not really followed this thread nor have I drank too often in their bars but they seem a very successful Scottish business. Nothing wrong in them getting investment to reward the business creators as well as add capital to grow the company. The American and Scottish ex employees all seem bitter and allegations of inappropriate behaviour don’t seem to be backed up with any criminal or even witness evidence; it’s all “an overseas top CEO visiting his USA businesses and had his head turned over a couple lassies, whilst enjoying a few beers whilst on overseas business” Happy to be corrected buy it seems more of a flimsy BBC documentary to trash-talk this company?

Sturgeon was going full-on doubling down this morning on the BBC Sunday Show. Restrictions were worth it, disputing with Sophie Raworth that parallel figures of 1 in 20 in England and Scotland has COVID apparently translated to Scotland having only 4.5% versus 5.5% transmission due to restrictions. Vaccine passports do help as they ensure majority of vaccinated people in “high risk venues” are reducing pressure on the NHS. She hopes, “eventually” they will go but we are in the throes of a global pandemic etc. Masks; “good international evidence” etc...”allow the most clinically vulnerable to live a normal life”. Good grief. Maybe wrong thread but you can see why a fair number of Nationalists are growing frustrated with her deflection on an independence referendum.

Tbh I am morphing into my parents for trying to avoid using excessive electricity! I also think it is better for the clothes (longevity and avoiding holes due to deterioration) to not be spun too high or to be force dried with the tumble drier. As per my earlier note, I just don’t think there is anything better than freshly aired clothes hung on the line.

That’s how I would say an Irish (RoI) number; typically 086 or 087. I thought you were in the North and would have a UK 07… number?

In fairness, I hung out some shirts, towels and trousers the other day for a couple hours at lunchtime. There’s maybe an alternate women’s forum with a similar thread where my other half is calling me out for this behaviour. I like the freshness of the clothes being outside, even if only for an hour or so, and finishing them off indoors as I don’t like how they dry (that hard “foosty” feel) if only indoors.

Thanks for clarifying what this 4th jag is intended for. I’m 52 and due to something from 10 years ago, was offered flu jag over the past decade but I personally (tin foil hat on!) prefer not to take any non- essential medicines and tbh would have same feelings about an annual covid booster, assuming my health remains good and the risk/ consequences are low etc. I agree though that people with health issues or are elderly should be offered flu and covid booster vaccines annually, but I’m not voting for everyone getting 3-4 jags every year (for covid specifically) for very little good reason tbh

When was it decided we needed a 4th vaccination? There was plenty of trumpeting about the booster (which swiftly became “ 3rd full dose”) but I’ve genuinely not heard they a 4th jag was being offered! I definitely won’t be bothering with this, assuming it is offered as a booster, much like the annual flu jag which I took last month for the first time in a good few years. I accept as a country, the UK has most probably over- stocked in our vaccine supply, however surely the humane thing to be doing now is sending these over to unvaccinated countries in Africa, Asia etc.