h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Morning all

My blathering gland is off to a slow start today (along with the rest of me). But thank you for posting something easy to understand.

Ta!

I'm a little low on blathering too. And what's left is rusty

So true of me as well.

You'd think I would have the gift of blath by now, but it needs to be wound up first before it can be used.

Is blathering the same has blath-winding?

I feel more like blithering today than blathering.

Tell me all about it

I have had two engineer appointments to put in a new bathroom radiator cancelled due to various reasons. Hopefully they won't cancel their next appointment.

It's a universal truth that *no one* really wants to refurbish bathrooms. If necessary, you will need to use subterfuge of some sort. Good luck!

we say up north we're just prattling/or stop prattling and get on with it... etc
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prattle

talk at length in a foolish or inconsequential way.
"she began to prattle on about her visit to the dentist"

Meanwhile, her dentist was prattling to his hygienist about the sorry state of her gums.

When the hygienist got home, she prattled to her husband about what a bore the dentist was.

Her husband went to work the next morning and prattled to the receptionist about his wife's bad work environment.

The receptionist prattled to her aunt about the silly things people said t her at work. Her aunt, by the way, was the one who went to the dentist in the first place.

I live in a council (local authority) housing and I just received a telephone cal from the Gas maintance repair company (which is in a different borough) and works for Thurrock Council has telephoned to see that the engineer cannot make it which is the third time. Another appointment has been made for tomorrow and hopefully the engineer will come. My Tivo digital box is not working and an engineer will be coming tomorrow.

if the engineer can't make it, will that be a dis-appointment?

local authority excuses are longer than the longest toilet roll and some

And about as valuable as if they were written on toilet paper.

Still waiting for the engineer to arrive, so I phoned the office and found out that the engineer is stuck on another job and is running late. This has happened before and I will probably get a call saying that they will have to cancel my appointment. I was told that I would be the first appointment that the engineer sees to. If there is another cancellation, I will make a formal complaint. It sounds like they are trying to find a reason not to install my radiator as they want to save the council money.

Does the council care that much about saving money?

ALL our local councils in the country are cash-strappedTHIS conservative lot, will NOT allocate decent finances to them so cuts in ALL departments are inevitable
social/welfare/roads/schools the list is endless

Including - NHS/Police/fire-brigade/prisons and the rest

Fat-cats still prosper though

One of the big news items in the States today was that Trump's education secretary has proposed an across the board 18% budget cut yet is specifically cutting the ENTIRE budget for the Special Olympics program. Oh, and in that same budget is a 15% INCREASE to the department's executive budget (ie, her and other administrators pay checks).