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Is there a word for..
Posted Dec 14, 2014
a later combination meal of lunch and tea like brunch is a breakfast/lunch combo? Anyway, I went to a very nice one yesterday from 2-4pm where I was stunned by a 23 year old telling me all cows give milk......
....even the male ones. We live in a VERY rural area and there are cows at the bottom of her garden.
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Latest reply: Dec 14, 2014
"We're going shopping"
Posted Nov 28, 2014
The Chinese hierarchy has learnt nothing about communication technology in 25 years. The demonstrators' tents have finally been cleared from the area round the government buildings in Admiralty and the Chief Executive has told the citizenry to support local trade by going shopping in Mong Kok (which means busy place!) So, literally thousands of protesters are marching up and down with their yellow umbrellas chanting "We're going shopping. We're going shopping."
Hong Kong is a place where most citizens have at least 2 mobile phones, ideal for a flash mob.
Twenty five years ago the mayor of Shanghai smugly said that he'd managed to keep troops out of Shanghai and told the citizenry to go home and behave themselves. They promptly changed into white shirts and black armbands and held a funeral - about 10,000 of them in rows of 10.
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Latest reply: Nov 28, 2014
Bleepin' doctors' receptionist
Posted Nov 28, 2014
I am stuck in the house at present waiting for a phone call (yes I know, but it's the only time in 6 years that I've actually NEEDED a mobile). So I phoned surgery to ask what time they close so that I could drop off a prescription; they don't work weekends and I can't get down there on Monday. "Oh," said the good lady when she found out what I wanted, "I'll take that down over the phone if you like." And she did. I asked for the number of blood test strips to be doubled so that they would last me over my holiday. "We've already done that as we know you use at least four a day." 
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Latest reply: Nov 28, 2014
Teufen Appenzell
Posted Nov 20, 2014
Nearly 50 years ago my life fell apart(it has done it on subsequent occasions, which has made it "interesting" but this collapse was responsible for my sticking a pin in the back page of the Times Educational Supplement and thus beginning my illustrious TEFL career at a sort of girls' finishing school in this small village)
A week or so ago I heard from a very good friend that she is going to a clinic there in an attempt to postpone her death from cancer. Her partner and close relatives will be renting a flat over the village bakery, which in my day made the most beautiful handmade chocs. I still have fond memories of the blown eggs filled with dark chocolate and painted with Appenzeller patterns which in some cases were thrown away months later because they were too pretty to eat
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Latest reply: Nov 20, 2014
Never before
Posted Oct 25, 2014
Last week when putting my tracksuit top on as I left the cathedral I realised my bum was going to be freezing in the cold and wet."You need a warm coat," tutted one of my colleagues. So the following day I went to get one and came home with a full length Dannimac as well.
I find it totally fascinating as I've never had a waterproof coat before.
"What never?" "No never". I've always been an umbrella person; there are still a dozen in the Chinese pot by my front door.
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Latest reply: Oct 25, 2014
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