GRIPES

[willedoo]

21 hours ago, red750 said:

I wish someone would tip a barrowload of sand on each of those Trevago guys.

Those plastic teeth look like the ones they sell on eBay.

[old man emu]

Is this a sign of the effects of Trump's excursion? Have you noticed empty shelves in tthe supermarkets? There are vacancies in all the supermarkets. I went to ALDI today to buy some Chateau de Carton. There wasn't any there a fortnight ago, and none today. If you want a good selection of Arnott's biscuits, good luck! ALDI was even out of the really good shaving cream that I have been using for ages.

[facthunter]

I even had a friend stuck at Abu Dhabi. This event is no small deal. . Trump promised not to start more never-ending wars. He's done for. Nev

[ClintonB]

if i was a family member of the deceased US soldiers being returned i would have been disgusted to have 2 non serving tossers who caused the deaths stand there and salute. It is a disgrace to anyone who has served for their country.

 

[facthunter]

HE has always referred to Service People as "Suckers and Losers". Nev

[old man emu]

Here's a literary gripe.

 

I'm reading, and enjoying, a series of fiction books set in modern Edinburgh about the lives of people living in a small, middle class area of the city. The writing is good and make for good bedtime reading. However my gripe concerns the practice of the author to have his characters include either Latin or foreign phrases in their speches. Sometimes I know the phrase, but very often I have no idea. Of course, since the characters are Scots and the setting is Scotland, some of those unique Gaelic words sometime appear, but that is what is called "atmosphere'.

 

What gripes me is that these phrases cause me to stumble, losing the otherwise free flow of the writing. I have to pause and wonder if my interpretation of the phrase makes sense. Frotunately, the words are printed in Bold, so I can see them coming and can decisde whether to pause at them, or ignore them and leap over them like a gazelle. 

[rgmwa]

I never knew they had gazelles in Scotland until now.

[Marty_d]

Can we have some video of OME leaping like a gazelle?

[pmccarthy]

He means a BUBALUS (Latin for gazelle)

[rgmwa]

1 minute ago, pmccarthy said:

He means a BUBALUS (Latin for gazelle)

Much more appropriate to the `atmosphere'.

[old man emu]

Bubba-Loo????

 

Isn't that what Ricky Ricardo sang?

[octave]

Here is a bit of red tape that is hard to understand the reasoning for.   This came to my attention in a conversation with my son when we were visiting him in NZ.   There are some either new rules or old rules now being enforced regarding passports that seem absolutely crazy to me.    

 

So my wife and I are Australian citizens, but by virtue of the fact we were both born in the UK we retain British citizenship.  This now means that if we were to travel to the UK the UK government now requires that we have British passports.

 

UK passport changes leave Australians with dual citizenship scrambling before border rules kick in

 

That is inconvenient enough, but it gets worse for my son.  My son was born in Australia, but by virtue of the fact that both his parents are British citizens, he also is considered to be a British citizen.   My son moved permanently to NZ and is a citizen of NZ.  The rules that apply to travelling into the UK also apply to travelling into Australia.  This means that if my son were to travel to the UK via a stopover in  Australia, he would need an Australian passport (because he retains Aus citizenship),  a British passport because he retains British citizenship, and to get back home to NZ he needs an NZ passport.

Here is an AI summary of the situation:

 

"Because you and his other parent were Australian citizens at the time of his birth, your son is automatically an Australian citizen by birth. Since he also holds British citizenship (from you) and New Zealand citizenship (by naturalisation), he is a triple citizen. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

This status changes the passport requirements for his travels:

Document Requirements by Destination

• Traveling to Australia: He must enter on an Australian passport. The Australian Government requires all citizens to enter and leave the country using an Australian passport. He cannot use his New Zealand passport to get a Special Category Visa anymore, as visas cannot be granted to people who already hold Australian citizenship. []
• Traveling to Britain: He must enter on a British passport. As a British citizen, he cannot use an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) or a foreign passport alone to clear UK border control. [1, 2, 3, 4]
• Traveling back to New Zealand: He must use his New Zealand passport to seamlessly re-enter his home country."

 

 

[pmccarthy]

That is crazy!

[Marty_d]

I can see customs getting a bit suss as he's shuffling his passports looking for the right one...