Gunpowder, Treason And Plot - November Chatty

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Fri Nov 11, 2022 12:31 pm

I ordered some more Royal Kanin big kibble rations for Them on Wednesday. They arrived via Yodel today. They now have 20 kg of big kibble to munch their way through which should keep them happy for the next few months. Zooplus are without the big boxes of Felix and have been for nearly a month, so I am buying them in boxes of 40 from Morrisons as and when I visit the shop.

Post by **merry** » Sat Nov 12, 2022 10:32 pm

Glad to hear you are keeping Them happy OC!

A quiet day for us today. Juliet is still in Sheffield watching the ice-skating. Sam is flying to Germany tomorrow. HHs for me

Anyone watch the Midwich Cuckoos? complete rubbish

Wyndham must be turning in his grave!

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sat Nov 12, 2022 10:45 pm

I didn't know The Midwich Cuckoos was on the telly recently; is this the TV series on Sky which I found out about just now?

The screen version I have seen, which pops up on TV from time to time, is the one with George Sanders as Gordon Zellaby called Village Of The Damned from 1960; there's a US remake dating from the 1990s that I haven't watched. I see there is no Gordon Zellaby or his wife Angela in the TV series, so it looks like the only thing this has in common with the book is its name.

The UK film is notable in that George Sanders plays a hero, and the children mostly speak the most beautiful BBC English you could wish for.

I have a lot of John Wyndham paperback books; most of them are variations of a basic theme IIRC, I haven't read any of them for years.

Post by **merry** » Sat Nov 12, 2022 11:33 pm

I love John Wyndham, and have seen that film you mention, OC. Yes, this is the Sky TV series. It's entertaining enough - just stupid in parts

They have turned it into something very formulaic.

The doctor is someone Zellaby, but she is now a woman and quite stupid for most of it. As are most of the rest of the characters.

The kids are adorable, mind. Psychopaths, but apart from that - !

Worth a watch if nothing better on.

Wildrover · Post by **Wildrover** » Sat Nov 12, 2022 11:46 pm

I have to say I quite enjoyed The Midwich Cuckoos - it was an interesting modern take on a good book that has dated quite badly. It is very different from the book though and it would be fair to say that it's based on the book rather than being a direct cinematic interpretation of it. The central Zellaby character is played by Keeley Hawes and it's noiceable that women are given much more prominent roles compared to previous adaptations. I like Daid Farr's screenwriting - The Night Manager and McMafia were both very good.

The George Sanders film made a big impression on me as a young boy. I dreamt for months about the scene at the end where he is thinking of a brick wall to keep out the probing of the alien children and then all the children turn as one to look at the briefcase just before it explodes.

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Sun Nov 13, 2022 11:18 am

I've read pretty much every John Wyndham novel over the years. The Chrysalids is my favourite. I'll check out the Sky series. Thanks for the tip.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Sun Nov 13, 2022 12:35 pm

I think The Chrysalids is a better book than The Midwich Cuckoos. I like Wyndham's short stories as well; Consider Her Ways is most instructive.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Tue Nov 15, 2022 8:22 am

A sad headline in the Hampshire Chronicle this week, for me at any rate. It looks as if the financial wheels finally are coming off for Hampshire County Council; there's quite a big article about how the Leader and his counterpart at Kent County Council have written a joint letter to the Prime Minister, Chancellor and Secretary of State (of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities) informing them that sometime within the next year or so their Councils probably will go bust. Having worked at HCC for 39 years I know that it isn't a financially profligate local authority. The Leader of HCC said:-

"Even with drastic cuts to services, we won’t be able to close our future budget gaps and based on current forecasts, our Authorities would have no option but to consider formal talks with our auditors, DLUHC and Treasury over the coming months."

These must be very unsettling times for those of my former colleagues still in post at HCC. They have been cutting budgets in real terms and finding new ways of doing things since before I retired; I'm surprised they have managed to keep the show on the road for as long as this before metaphorically hitting the buffers. I think that Hampshire and Kent won't be alone in the local government world facing this predicament.

https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/ne ... t-support/

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Tue Nov 15, 2022 9:27 am

The government will just break the manifesto pledge and let them put council taxes up a lot.

Post by **merry** » Tue Nov 15, 2022 11:13 am

Watched the end of Midwich last night. Honestly, it was rubbish. Murdered Wyndham. Every terrible cliché in the book. In one breath people striding about all 'these are aliens come to kill us all not dear little children at all!' and the next 'DON'T SHOOT SHE IS JUST A LITTLE GIRL!'

It was quite watchable though

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Tue Nov 15, 2022 4:57 pm

I had an eye appointment today at the Bristol Eye Hospital in Lower Maudlin Street. I used a tried and tested way of getting there which was to drive down the ring road to Brislington Park and Ride and catch the bus which landed me at the Horsefair. So it was a rare bus journey AND a hospital appointment with long delays in crowded waiting rooms and corridors. So wish me luck that I don't get Covid in five days' time.
After various other checks by technical staff involving eye drops and bright lights what cheered me up no end was the gorgeous optometrist who had long black hair and wore high heeled boots, black trousers and a lacy top. She wouldn't have looked out of place on a fashion catwalk. When she finished the examination she said "OK, I can let you escape now." I was tempted to ask if I could stay for a bit longer.

I will have to go back some time in the near future to have work done to clear misting of the artificial lens in one eye. It will involve lasers but they tell me it is painless and can be done as an outpatient. Regrettably, I doubt if High Heel Boots will be doing it.

Post by **merry** » Tue Nov 15, 2022 11:19 pm

She wouldn't have looked out of place on a fashion catwalk. When she finished the examination she said "OK, I can let you escape now." I was tempted to ask if I could stay for a bit longer.

No Eccles, I fear next time it will be this lady who is waiting for you

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Wed Nov 16, 2022 7:02 am

The late great Hattie Jacques, who in the days of her youth once did a song and dance routine in a film with Dandy Nichols and Old Mother Riley.

asymphototropic · Post by **asymphototropic** » Wed Nov 16, 2022 2:47 pm

Very jolly and too true! Thanks for sharing this musical interlude.

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Wed Nov 16, 2022 5:09 pm

A rocket has took off to the moon. I am making a note of this because every time rockets and space shuttles take off there is terrible horrible bad weather and storms a bit later. So when this happens and people say look see what happens if you put the heating on or drive a car a few miles or drink some milk I will know that it's the rockets fault.

We are supposed to be dealing with cost of living and world wars so they should be delaying non essential moon rockets until things are better. I do wonder how the 1969 landfill site on the moon is getting on I wonder if they will revist the same places and see how the astonauts nappies are doing.

I hope Eccles is ok. Covid or worse is a worry going anywhere now isn't it germs everywhere. Always were I suppose but we know all about them now and lockdown made us think how nice years and years of being healthy and not catching viruses every few weeks really is.

eccles · Post by **eccles** » Wed Nov 16, 2022 7:47 pm

I thought it was the fault of squirrels. Has this changed?

Post by **merry** » Wed Nov 16, 2022 9:19 pm

We are supposed to be dealing with cost of living and world wars so they should be delaying non essential moon rockets until things are better. I do wonder how the 1969 landfill site on the moon is getting on I wonder if they will revist the same places and see how the astonauts nappies are doing.

I'd really like to know that too!

and I agree it doesn't seem the right time! makes you wonder if the world is really as poor and hard up as we're being told?! I expect we would be told human progress long game big picture yadda yadda.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Thu Nov 17, 2022 8:04 pm

I had my diabetes review today with a jolly lady called Mrs Wilson. She asked me the usual qs to confirm who I was - name, DOB etc; she had already weighed me on a superb hi-tech scales hiding behind a big screen in the waiting room/reception area. I found I had lost a little more weight - down to 98.6 kg - and it also showed my BMI after guessing my height; I can't remember what it thought my BMI was. Then she took my BP - 128/80 which she thought was very good - I told her it was a tribute to her bedside manner. Then it was blood sample time; as she produced her big needle I announced that I was going to look away now because my religion is devout coward, at which she laughed merrily. When she asked about what exercise I took I told her not much but that I pushed a trolley in a care home twice a week, and had a stroll once a fortnight to and from the parking area in Winchester when I visit the old gentleman in Park Road. She replied that that was OK, the important thing was I was moving about at times and not being a couch potato 100% of the time.

At the end of one of the quickest 30 minutes I have experienced recently Mrs Wilson said she had really enjoyed our consultation. No high-heel boots or lacey tops to attract my attention unlike Eccs' consultation but maybe my heart wouldn't have been able to cope with that sort of excitement.................... :lol:

Telephone appointment to discuss the blood test results in 11 days time.

Furby · Post by **Furby** » Fri Nov 18, 2022 5:55 am

Why didn't she ask name and DOB before weighing the patient it might have been the wrong person.

I will be a taxpayer next year but one depending on how my shares do and if the EU don't cancel my shares first anyway. Liz truss was going to stop all the EU rules but this new lot will probably keep the one banning individuals having paper shares. It's not really worth having shares if you have to pay fees every year just for holding them in accounts so will be cheaper for me to just pay the tax I think. Though we will probably have had three new prime ministers and seventeen new chancellors by then and the rules will all be different anyway. So I will just see what happens.

OurCreature · Post by **OurCreature** » Fri Nov 18, 2022 7:15 am

Why didn't she ask name and DOB before weighing the patient it might have been the wrong person.

Because the weighing machine was close to hand. It produced a slip of paper showing all the details about weight, BMI etc which Mrs Wilson took into the room she was using for my diabetes review.

I noticed the hit to capital gains and dividends. It won't affect me all that much because I shall be moving the main dividend payer into my shares ISA in April or May next year depending on how much cash has built up in the ISA; I might do it in 2 stages with the first stage in March to take advantage of this year's capital gains allowance. That will leave me with 3 shares outside the ISA, 2 of which would qualify for a capital gains tax hit individually in 2024/25 because they have done very well over the years in terms of capital growth. However, their dividends are not huge, so my dividends outside the ISA in 2024/25 will be well short of Mr Hunt's £500 limit.

I told my sister about Mr Hunt's reduced allowances and increased CGT, just in case!