Be nice to you, your not petrified! Your a teacher?
Teacher!? Well, more of an instructor really. Although technically retired, I work for a training companies dispensing my knowledge (they are very short courses!!!). Back from the UK now and I’m just picking up the blog again. I was AWOL for a a while but back firing on all cylinders (well, most of them) again. Trust all is well in Nevada. R
All is well here in the bloody hot desert! The southwest US is baking this summer with higher than normal temperatures. Had 116 the other day, was 109 yesterday which is loser to normal. 100+ is actually normal here in summer but not 116 degrees.
Not that hot here. 19C (or 67F in your system of temperature measurement – which I think you also inherited from us). Cloudy with cooling breeze. No telling what the weather is going to do in Europe which is why we’re obsessed with the weather over here. Water management a big thing here in Holland where some parts below sea level. The Dutch are highly skilled water management people. No shortage of water over here!
I’ve seen TV programs about Holland and the way they control the sea, very cool! The States seem to be the last place on the planet that still uses the Imperial system I think it’s called? Celsius is here but not nearly as much. Some Britons still use miles instead of kilometers.
Oddly, we still use miles in the UK and we drive on the left hand side – and nobody else in Europe does that. We buy our fuel and milk in litres however but drink pints of beer. The best fun was to be had before our money went all decimal. In those days we had 12 pennies in the shilling, 20 shillings in the pound sterling but we also had things called thru’penny bits (three old pennies or thrupence), tanners (six old pennies), Two and Sixpenny bits (two shillings and six pence), florins (two shillings or 24 old pennies). We had farthings, quarter of a penny and ha’pennies (half a penny). Then we had the guinea which was a coin of approximately one quarter ounce of gold that was minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814 – but we kept it and it was one pound and one shilling. You would always buy your horse using guineas. And, as children, we were expected to be able to add up pounds, shillings and pence. We got rid of the old system in 1971. Confused? You will have been pre-1971!
Yeah, I am confused! How does the system work now? I suppose our American system is confusing to you?
Our system is much the same as yours now. 100 pence to the pound. But our pound has taken quite a bashing on the international markets recently due to Brexit, whacky elections and goodness knows what else. It seems if one our politicians so much as sneezes, then the pound takes a nosedive. I first went to the US (Houston) when I was a young man and there was something like US$4 to the £1. Today a battered British pound will buy you $1.27. I think we would do much better if your politicians would stop bickering amongst themselves and concentrated on sorting out the mess we find ourselves in.
I watch British news every day via my BBC News app on the iPad and iPhone. Had a recent election again I see.
I totally agree on the political bickering. What a bunch of morons! Frankly, I prefer to get my news from the BBC as it’s just better quality and presentation.
The only outlet I’ll view here is Fox.
Your not not on Instagram or Twitter are you?
Ha ha. You’re American and you watch British TV. We’re British and we watch French TV (France 24 (in English)). I am on Instagram and Twitter but I can’t remember where my accounts are. I will do some research and see if I can find myself and send you the details. I am up here: https://info5428.myportfolio.com
Ha, find yourself! I’m right where I left me! Yeah, I loooove the BBC but wish they would broadcast other programs I see around the web. Doctor Who and Star Trek are the best but they have other good stuff.
The best BBC TV channel (not sure if you get it over there) is BBC Four. They have all sorts of science, history, technical and other programmes on most evenings. They gather together some of the world’s foremost historians, scientists, experts and make the most excellent factual and documentary programmes. The BBC Radio equivalent is BBC Radio 4. Again, some excellent programmes. As for the other channels – I think I would have to reserve comment on those! Some of the commercial channels push out wall-to-wall bilge (there speaks an Old Fart!).
See, those are the channels I’d love to see here but all we have to best of my knowledge is BBC America. Grrrr
One day we’ll be able to watch all the world’s TV channels on demand. You can buy stuff from the BBC shop: https://shop.bbc.com (I think that’s the US site). Not sure if you have to buy the DVDs or download but you could probably empty your bank balance buying stuff!!
Wow, I agree, that site would destroy one’s bank account!
Agree! I’m not sure why the BBC in full doesn’t broadcast into the US. I’m sure it’s all to do with money!
I bet your right Richard, maybe I’ll try to find a contact email and ask them. The BBC seems like it’s a huge company/corporation. Is it run by the government, and tax funded?
The BBC is a corporation technically (I think) ‘owned’ by the licence payers but operates under a Royal Charter and our parliament sets the licence fee. So, if you have a TV in the UK you would be expected to pay an annual licence fee to watch BBC programmes. The HUGE upside to this is that there are no commercials whatsoever on the BBC so you can watch any programme (program!) or film front to back without having to endure commercial breaks. This is perhaps one of the best things about the BBC. The commercials on the commercial channels we have drive me NUTS!! I normally record programmes on the commercial channels so I can fast forward through the commercial breaks on replay. The quality of most BBC programmes is very high (although some of the programmes don’t do it for me). The BBC has been a very progressive organisation in the past and were very fast to adopt and integrate Internet technology. My feelings is now that the BBC (along with all other government run organisations) has suffered cutbacks and political interference and they’re losing their way. This is symptomatic of government of all flavours. They just can’t resist fiddling with things that are working well. And, as you know, I now see politicians and an expensive meddlers who shouldn’t be let anywhere near anything that is important (health, education and the BBC!). The BBC is headed up by a chap who, I think, it weak. We need a big hitter at the BBC to both protect it and move it forward. And, most of all, we should send our BBC channels over to you!
Thanks for the information! politicians on either side of the Atlantic just can’t leave well enough alone. If it works, don’t fix it! I’m going to go look for a contact BBC link. They are so much better than so much of our regular stations, but the BBC does have commercials here and they shouldn’t get away with this. One good thing though is that the time of the break in-between programmes is far shorter than every one of the other broadcasters here. Bleh!!
I couldn’t agree more. Politicians? Pah! A greed, self-interested bunch of lickspittles!
Looks petrified. 👍🏻
I have the same effect on my students!
Be nice to you, your not petrified! Your a teacher?
Teacher!? Well, more of an instructor really. Although technically retired, I work for a training companies dispensing my knowledge (they are very short courses!!!). Back from the UK now and I’m just picking up the blog again. I was AWOL for a a while but back firing on all cylinders (well, most of them) again. Trust all is well in Nevada. R
All is well here in the bloody hot desert! The southwest US is baking this summer with higher than normal temperatures. Had 116 the other day, was 109 yesterday which is loser to normal. 100+ is actually normal here in summer but not 116 degrees.
Not that hot here. 19C (or 67F in your system of temperature measurement – which I think you also inherited from us). Cloudy with cooling breeze. No telling what the weather is going to do in Europe which is why we’re obsessed with the weather over here. Water management a big thing here in Holland where some parts below sea level. The Dutch are highly skilled water management people. No shortage of water over here!
I’ve seen TV programs about Holland and the way they control the sea, very cool! The States seem to be the last place on the planet that still uses the Imperial system I think it’s called? Celsius is here but not nearly as much. Some Britons still use miles instead of kilometers.
Oddly, we still use miles in the UK and we drive on the left hand side – and nobody else in Europe does that. We buy our fuel and milk in litres however but drink pints of beer. The best fun was to be had before our money went all decimal. In those days we had 12 pennies in the shilling, 20 shillings in the pound sterling but we also had things called thru’penny bits (three old pennies or thrupence), tanners (six old pennies), Two and Sixpenny bits (two shillings and six pence), florins (two shillings or 24 old pennies). We had farthings, quarter of a penny and ha’pennies (half a penny). Then we had the guinea which was a coin of approximately one quarter ounce of gold that was minted in Great Britain between 1663 and 1814 – but we kept it and it was one pound and one shilling. You would always buy your horse using guineas. And, as children, we were expected to be able to add up pounds, shillings and pence. We got rid of the old system in 1971. Confused? You will have been pre-1971!
Yeah, I am confused! How does the system work now? I suppose our American system is confusing to you?
Our system is much the same as yours now. 100 pence to the pound. But our pound has taken quite a bashing on the international markets recently due to Brexit, whacky elections and goodness knows what else. It seems if one our politicians so much as sneezes, then the pound takes a nosedive. I first went to the US (Houston) when I was a young man and there was something like US$4 to the £1. Today a battered British pound will buy you $1.27. I think we would do much better if your politicians would stop bickering amongst themselves and concentrated on sorting out the mess we find ourselves in.
I watch British news every day via my BBC News app on the iPad and iPhone. Had a recent election again I see.
I totally agree on the political bickering. What a bunch of morons! Frankly, I prefer to get my news from the BBC as it’s just better quality and presentation.
The only outlet I’ll view here is Fox.
Your not not on Instagram or Twitter are you?
Ha ha. You’re American and you watch British TV. We’re British and we watch French TV (France 24 (in English)). I am on Instagram and Twitter but I can’t remember where my accounts are. I will do some research and see if I can find myself and send you the details. I am up here: https://info5428.myportfolio.com
Ha, find yourself! I’m right where I left me! Yeah, I loooove the BBC but wish they would broadcast other programs I see around the web. Doctor Who and Star Trek are the best but they have other good stuff.
The best BBC TV channel (not sure if you get it over there) is BBC Four. They have all sorts of science, history, technical and other programmes on most evenings. They gather together some of the world’s foremost historians, scientists, experts and make the most excellent factual and documentary programmes. The BBC Radio equivalent is BBC Radio 4. Again, some excellent programmes. As for the other channels – I think I would have to reserve comment on those! Some of the commercial channels push out wall-to-wall bilge (there speaks an Old Fart!).
See, those are the channels I’d love to see here but all we have to best of my knowledge is BBC America. Grrrr
One day we’ll be able to watch all the world’s TV channels on demand. You can buy stuff from the BBC shop: https://shop.bbc.com (I think that’s the US site). Not sure if you have to buy the DVDs or download but you could probably empty your bank balance buying stuff!!
Wow, I agree, that site would destroy one’s bank account!
Agree! I’m not sure why the BBC in full doesn’t broadcast into the US. I’m sure it’s all to do with money!
I bet your right Richard, maybe I’ll try to find a contact email and ask them. The BBC seems like it’s a huge company/corporation. Is it run by the government, and tax funded?
The BBC is a corporation technically (I think) ‘owned’ by the licence payers but operates under a Royal Charter and our parliament sets the licence fee. So, if you have a TV in the UK you would be expected to pay an annual licence fee to watch BBC programmes. The HUGE upside to this is that there are no commercials whatsoever on the BBC so you can watch any programme (program!) or film front to back without having to endure commercial breaks. This is perhaps one of the best things about the BBC. The commercials on the commercial channels we have drive me NUTS!! I normally record programmes on the commercial channels so I can fast forward through the commercial breaks on replay. The quality of most BBC programmes is very high (although some of the programmes don’t do it for me). The BBC has been a very progressive organisation in the past and were very fast to adopt and integrate Internet technology. My feelings is now that the BBC (along with all other government run organisations) has suffered cutbacks and political interference and they’re losing their way. This is symptomatic of government of all flavours. They just can’t resist fiddling with things that are working well. And, as you know, I now see politicians and an expensive meddlers who shouldn’t be let anywhere near anything that is important (health, education and the BBC!). The BBC is headed up by a chap who, I think, it weak. We need a big hitter at the BBC to both protect it and move it forward. And, most of all, we should send our BBC channels over to you!
Thanks for the information! politicians on either side of the Atlantic just can’t leave well enough alone. If it works, don’t fix it! I’m going to go look for a contact BBC link. They are so much better than so much of our regular stations, but the BBC does have commercials here and they shouldn’t get away with this. One good thing though is that the time of the break in-between programmes is far shorter than every one of the other broadcasters here. Bleh!!
I couldn’t agree more. Politicians? Pah! A greed, self-interested bunch of lickspittles!