Frankly depressing. I thought that these things happened only here. The hatred towards teachers and educators is a phenomenon that should be studied - and taken care of.
Thanks. I am too, indeed.
@seakayaker
Thanks. I don’t give a sh*t for the car, I insist it’s a miracle nobody was killed by my wheel and I wasn’t by the speeding cars in my lane. What remains is a squalid, overwhelming sensation that life strikes whenever, wherever it wants.
3 Likes
The consequence of having no consequences 
8 Likes
On the positive side of things - it really was perfect out at Stourhead this afternoon. With that, listening to vintage jazz and watching bits of the Olympics, life is not at all bad at the moment.
18 Likes
Drove up to Lake Louise. It started to rain. They wanted CA$ 36 for parking, even for a short period. Turned round and left. There were far too many tourists anyway. Would have preferred to go to Moraine Lake but access is no longer possible for personal traffic.
Checked into cosy log cabin. Ordered a beer and took a seat by the fire in the main lodge. Last day in Alberta.
14 Likes
Are these the famous Images From the Beyond? Are you dead and you don’t know it? Is that Paradise?
3 Likes
It’s always good at that place but yesterday was particularly good. Icing on the cake was that it wasn’t even particularly busy and with temperature of 26/7C, just perfect. I didn’t even see that lady on the right when I took the upper shot - almost like a ghost fleeting in !
‘Henry the Magnificent’ of the Hoare family got his landscaping pretty well spot on back in the 1740s. Now available for National Trust visitors to enjoy, all year round.
1 Like
$36 for parking? Jeez - talk about rip off the tourists !
My best deal ever at Lake Louise was a week in an upper floor luxury lake view suite in the Chateau shared between 3 for about Cdn $80 a night. The suite had been specially upgraded for the Queen of Denmark the year before, done up in lovely maple panelling. It was in the middle of a major Canadian recession (90s) with Easterners staying away and Albertans filling their boots. Those were the days !
Skiing was about $30-35 a day too.
4 Likes
Went to the opticians and picked up my new glasses . The cataracts are getting worse and my optometrist is correcting them .
I was so used to taking them off to read that it came as a real shock to be writing this email whilst wearing spectacles. A trip to the macular clinic awaits as a result of the visit to the optometrist , highlighting that a remote country village is not a very practical place to live
3 Likes
It certainly it’s but the advantages can often be a plus. How far are you from a major centre
1 Like
The nearest food shop is a mile away, there are no buses, no pub and the nearest small and large town are each ten miles away.
The village is about five square miles and has around 120 houses . The nearest house in front of me is about 500 metres and behind me about a thousand metres
The nearest shop that sells non-food items is about two miles away .
It is the sort of village that Miss Marple or Inspector Barnaby would be at home in
3 Likes
Blddy eck, thats a metropolis. Here we have 12 properties of which 8 are occupied full time. In the summer we sometimes get two cars together come through on the main road. Three and we all come out and clap. 
7 Likes
We have 2 pubs a supermarket a main street plus a medical clinic and small but good local hospital (where I am now). A train to Sydney 3 times a day but a major centre is just over an hour by car away.
3 Likes
Art gallery and painter……in the new year👍
4 Likes
Here here. 
1 Like
That’s a traffic jam
1 Like
The joys of retirement no 425b - watching other people work. In this case a tree surgeon taking down a 60 ft eucalyptus a couple of houses up the road - no wind but it still sways, mad bastards. Lovely smell too
4 Likes
Spent most of my working career watching people work and getting paid for it.
DG…
1 Like
My speakers have a eucalyptus veneer , having driven up to the Mozambique border from Durban I am assured that this is one tropical hardwood that is in no danger of over-exploitation
I was pulling out of our local Sports Centre yesterday and I was let out into the traffic by Pikachu on a motorcycle. Quite surprising.
I believe it is a bit of a craze worldwide, Pikachu on motorbikes.
1 Like