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The Banter Page
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If you're wanting to get something off your chest, make general comments about the server, or post lonely hearts ads, then this is the place for you.
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[Chalky] I remember reading Wuthering Heights and being struck by the fact that young Catherine doesn't celebrate her birthday because it's also the anniversary of her mother's death. This must have happened a lot in the days when childbirth was far more dangerous to the mother than it is today. Makes you think, doesn't it... Of course, Origen said that no Christian would ever celebrate their birthday, but then he had no private parts so we can ignore that.
(Cross-posting)
Wahey! New Doctor Who is Christopher Ecclestone!
what?
[BM]What? [UK]Yay!
Dr Who?
[UK] :) I'd read that earlier too! I've always thought CE was hideously underrated and I'm pretty fond of Dr Who...so I was much the joyous one today!
Okay, I'm better now. There was just a hell of a lot of bad things happening last Friday that just got me way down. Thanks to Nik & rab for accepting my apologies and I promise not to be as much of a w@nker from now on.
DrQ
Well, good! I was worried you were going off to hide in cyberspace and we might never see you again! ***big hugs**
[snorgle] *accepts and returns hugs* Thanks. Actually, upon further review, I notice that rab never said he accepted my apology....sorry for presuming as such.
Groan
I have ants in my kitchen. I suppose it was the Spring Equinox yesterday ... *grumble grumble grumble* (my fault really, I went away for the weekend and didn't clean up well enough before going)
ants
[Brendan] Put a wipe of neat lemon juice in several places across their route. It destroys the formic acid scent trail they've left for themselves and they won't find their way in to your pantry any more.
Ogre
[DrQ] I seem to have assumed ogre status. My comment entitled "me too" was supposed to have acted as an apology acceptance measure. Apologies for the lack of clarity on my part, and possibly for being slightly more grumpy than I needed to be... Group hug?
[penelope] But what about the ones that are in the kitchen when he does that? They won't be able to find their way back! They'll be lost! Do you want that on your conscience?
ants in pants
[pen]They may decide to build their own state - in the kitchen cupboard (or the underwear drawer) - the horror!

***hugs everyone***
I'm not usually this demonstrative, you know, but as we're online.. ;)

Giant ants are walking the earth
[Breadmaster] They're already dead. Very dead. And yet my concscience is clear. [pen] Cheers for the advice; unfortunately I didn't manage to work out where they were getting in (I did wait to kill them until I'd watched them running around for a while, but there wasn't an obvious entrance/exit, and then my insecticidal urges overtook me and I bludgeoned them all to death), but wiping the kitchen down with lemon juice doesn't seem as extreme as putting powder down everywhere.
more ants
[Bm]I'd rather have ants on my wipe-clean conscience than in my pants or my biscuit tin :o)
Thos were the days, my friend
Can I just say a very belated "Hello Thos" as well? Ta.
of nothing
hello. I have been in Chamonix Mont Blanc and it was loverley. Drove back to geneva airport on an uncrowded 2 lane autoroute yesterday am at 160kmh and it was a pleasure to pay the tolls (5 euros in total). The most pleasurable drive of my life - or high up there. Mont Blanc and it's sister's and brothers lit up by alpinr sun certainly beat anything the M4 has to offer. ***deeply contented sigh***
sister's
ahem. ha ha.
envious
[st d] Wow - autorouting in and around mountains ... lucky you.
Tonite
Just to let you know I won't be gracing the Chat Room tonight but only for the reason that I shall be out with my colleagues. I'm sure this announcement won't stop people assuming anyone who arrives in costume is me :)
oh yeah?
[rab] you DO tell porkies sometimes
europe
I'm off to Bella Roma on Wednesday! Yippee!!!!!
*fume*
*seethe* [zk] Lucky you. I neeeeeeed a holiday.
hunting
I had to search high and low for my post today.
Trappings
Bit quiet the mo.
Yah.
On the bright side, I just chatted with me mum in Aus. And the webcam works. woo.
hogging the space
So, not quite as hideous a day as was first thought. Still not the best.
Settling in
[flerdle] Great to see you posting from your new domicile ... that didn't take long! ... ;-) I trust all is well and Mr f is as organised as yourself.
Knackerd
1 hour to go then I bugger off home and forget all about the NHS for 13 hours.............
[widey] I hear you. After spending all night in a three-person team doing the work of a five-person team, I am about to put myself in the bed and remain there, if possible, for the next ten hours. Nasty working conditions do have an up-side, even if it's only when they end.
Greetings!
Allow me to break up the routine with a message from Rome!(Its not that boring here its just weve only just found the internet)If its any comfort to you, pen, the weather here is pretty rubbish anyway...
The rain in Rome
[ZK-o] S'ok... I have plans for a trip to Reykjavik next month (current temp: 0 degrees). I know it's getting close because I've started throwing socks into a backpack and enquiring about buying foreign currency. :o)
not *exactly*
[Dujon] Not quite in the new flat yet, so will probably still be a bit intermittent since we have no idea how long it will take to get a phone there. Until then, I'm making good use of what I have access to :-)
holidays
well, i am hoping my bruises will go down and am currently thinking of a long weekend maybe in Les 2 Alpes in late April for a bit of a glacier ski, then an unlikely but very tempting week or two in Chile in the summer for some S Hemisphere skiing and then a race camp in Austria in October. :o) All unlikely but fun to imagine....
noffink
No-one has said anything today. So I thought I might as well mention that the BIG DIET starts on Monday, and there should be a difference in me by the time we get to the Rugby pilg in May. :o)
[pen] Difference? You're not having the sex-change operation are you?
vive la difference
[pen] Woo. I hope you'll feed back your technique to me.
die(t)ing
I have a great diet! Just eat less. (Please ignore the mars bar in my mouth.)
nil by mouth
[Projoy] 'Feeding' is a word that is henceforth banished from my vocabulary. I will be existing on a series of meal replacements, (courtesy of that nice man at herbalife), caffeine tablets and cigarettes in a desperate attempt to prevent myself looking like a fat, shelf-bound spinster older sister at my younger sister's wedding in October, to be able to find something to wear for aforementioned wedding that doesn't have to come from the 'plus sizes' department, and hopefully to be able to fit into the £170-worth of linen trousers I have bought for the summer. (That's three pairs, by the way - I'm not into the huge-spending league just yet). I don't care that it relies on caffeine and soya. I just want to be smaller.
hello
[pen and all reducers] I've just finished a 60-hour week [I know it's not a lot by some standards but it was very intensive sort of work] so it's great to have time to catch up with the Morniverse. It's also quite exciting to see a reference to Rugbypilging in May. I'm going to cut out butter for the next six weeks in an attempt to rid myself of this blubbery lump around my middle. Oh yes - I'm also aiming to drink a couple of litres of water a day.
As it happens, I'm also on a diet, and so far I've lost a little over a stone.
die
Although I am drinking a remarkable amount of water, I am not on a diet, and you really do NOT want to know how much oil there is in a biryani, as taught to me by a nice Iraqi woman. Further investigations of regional cuisine will be undertaken soon.
Dieting
Here's a cheering thought: when the Allied forces liberated the concentration camps, they found no fat people. Therefore, it is possible.
You know when...
As symptoms of too much online MC go, I think starting a page of notes with the title "Slap this jammy factor" must count as one of them.
Concentrate...
[Raak] Yes, I guess it's all a matter of concentration. Where do you find a Japanese or Nazi prison guard when you need one? (And if I might say so, you speak like the enviably skinny person you are... :op)
diggings
I just found The Encyclopaedia Morningtonia here: http://www.satiche.org.uk/satiche/sat-0207.htm. Have I not been following the chat, or did anyone know?
[pen] It was mentioned in the Morniverse a while ago. It seems to have added an acknowledgement of its source since then, but the URL of course doesn't work.
unmarried ladies
I was looking at an old marriage certificate (circa 1942) at work today, and noticed that the the bride (aged 18) was described as a "spinster"! I never realised that applied to any unmarried woman (unless she was thought old to be unmarried at 18).
the spin
All first time brides were known as 'spinsters' [and possibly may still be so - but I haven't got married for a while so I don't know] and their age had nowt to do with it. It's interesting how the word now [to those aged 30 and younger]conjures up an image of a a lady past her prime.
... whereas batchelor, the gender opposite, conjures up an image of the footloose and fancy-free young blade. Life's a b*gger really, for us girlies.
Shelves
Surely not! A spinster, just like a bachleor, is someone of marriagable age (definition liberal) who isn't? I have never thought of it as otherwise.
Spinsters etc
(Chalky) You don't need to be under 30 to think of a spinster as unmarried and no chicken. The word was a bit old-fashioned even in my childhood (40's - 50's), and mildly derogatory. Its original meaning was "female spinner" (of yarn). This was presumably thought a proper way for unmarried ladies of a certain age to occupy their time, in the absence of vibrators, though who knows.
Yippppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...........
Home in 55 minutes and 5 nights off......Will the NHS survive without me, probably. Do I care if it doesn't, no!!!!!
As Rosie says, a spinster is just an unmarried woman, but it has acquired unofficial overtones of left-on-the-shelfness. If you have banns read in church before your marriage, the woman is always described as "spinster of this (or another) parish".
Spinsters
It's all part of the gender bias inherent in the English language. Get a thesaurus and look up 'manly' and 'womanly'.
bias schmias
Hmmph. It works both ways... Being left on the shelf means you sometimes get mixed up with the rejects and the returns, which sometimes ain't so bad. This weekend is an interesting one, for complicated (and unexpected) reasons. I just hope I've got enough lipstick to last me until tomorrow. BTW (and to start another subject) I bought a petrol-engined lawn mower on the web last night. It's going to be delivered to my office on a day when I'm out at meetings all day. Am I completely nuts? (On second thoughts, don't answer that)
*doesn't answer, but...*
*sends in the white-coated squirrels*

mmmm, machinery. Is that just for your patch of lawn, or are you thinking of going into business? And has the back corner managed to reassert itself, or is the forest properly under control now?
Mind you, I can't talk, I'm still slightly in love with my new fridge. It purrs...

Manly vs womanly
[Tuj] Womanly means to exude femininity or lady-like qualities, whereas Manly is a suburb of Sydney, Australia. ;)

I don't believe I've heard the term "spinster" used in America for...well...ever.
digital camera
Yay! I finally got one, that can be used to take short videos and act as a webcam, for the princely sum of £17.95, including postage! I can now use the internet for its true purpose - putting up pictures of my cats (once I get some webspace sorted - I get some free from NTL). I'm looking forward to selling shiny objects on E-bay, as well. ;)
digital knobs and dials
[Snorgle] Don't be ridiculous. The internet's true purpose is so men can chat you up by sending you pics of their tattoos and knobs and you can pretend to be impressed. (And £17.95??? Did you get the decimal point in the wrong place?)
Clocking off
Just to let you know I'm stepping into the Slovak Republic for a few days, so if you don't hear from me, that's why. Oh, and not impressed with myself at booking an 8.15am flight on the morning the clocks go forward...
[pen] For a fine selection of knobs you could do worse than look here.
knobbing it large
[rab] Thanks, sweetie. It even gave me the option of 'knobs - small, medium, large' :oD
wrong places
Nope, it was that cheap. I really didn't want anything fancy, just something to try out. It was discounted too. I actually got some nice photos today! Here it is.
go pen, GO!
[pen] Good luck on your mission to shrink. Sounds tough, but I'm sure you'll cope. I'm on a exercise mission to minimise my waistline to fit better into my bridesmaid corset and skirt, will be going to the gym later for multiple sit-ups. But only when i can prise myself out of my pyjamas!
[widey] Which bit of the evil NHS do you suffer in? I'm quite content at the moment as its my third weekend off in a row! But next week I'll be back to miserable, downtrodden Lib!
The value of the penny
pen] I'm on my 10th week of weight loss - so far I've managed about 1.5 stone. I’ve found that if I substitute my normal meals with low-fat options, I just crave the high-fat version. Low-cal stuff is often (not always) crap - so I've taken to eating really high quality stuff so that when I do eat, I've really got something to look forward to. Plus I've discovered Lebanese cooking - fabulous couscous and fresh onion salads, houmus, pitta bread, fresh mint leaf tea...
[Btd] Sounds delicious... I'll have to find a book. I'm still waiting for the diet stuff to arrive, but now I have a lurgy which isn't going to make it much fun...
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