planetf1.com

Argentum wrote:Have just watched Muppet Christmas Carol with my son.

He's 28!

We both still love it. The only difference between now, and when he was 9, is that we can both have a few drinks while watching it. Rather than just him.

Christmas has now officially started.

Muppet Christmas Carol is the finest version of that story I have ever seen. I saw it when I was a kid and loved it. I watched it last year and loved it. Fantastic retelling.

mac_d wrote:

Argentum wrote:Have just watched Muppet Christmas Carol with my son.

He's 28!

We both still love it. The only difference between now, and when he was 9, is that we can both have a few drinks while watching it. Rather than just him.

Christmas has now officially started.

Muppet Christmas Carol is the finest version of that story I have ever seen. I saw it when I was a kid and loved it. I watched it last year and loved it. Fantastic retelling.

Everyone loves the Muppet Christmas Carol! I first saw it came out when I was 13 and still love it now.

Argentum wrote:Have just watched Muppet Christmas Carol with my son.

He's 28!

We both still love it. The only difference between now, and when he was 9, is that we can both have a few drinks while watching it. Rather than just him.

Christmas has now officially started.

I am assuming that the bolded bit was meant to say "Rather than just me" otherwise your son was a rather privileged 9 year old, being able to drink & all that . But seriously, being the youngest of 6 children, my Mum's & my tradition was always me getting up early & having breakfast with her on my own on Christmas Day & that was still special even when I was an adult & I ended up being the only one of her children at home on Christmas morning

Ha, I never noticed that when I read and responded to the post.


My brother and I, along with his missus will be having our annual Curry and a movie night at some point soon. We started this accidentally but proved to be an amusing tradition I think. We've had Jingle All the Way, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and Lethal Weapon 2 over the last few years.


I also started the excellent tradition of the Christmas lunch Jaegerbomb a few years ago. That gets the party started pretty quickly.

DrG wrote:

Argentum wrote:Have just watched Muppet Christmas Carol with my son.

He's 28!

We both still love it. The only difference between now, and when he was 9, is that we can both have a few drinks while watching it. Rather than just him.

Christmas has now officially started.

I am assuming that the bolded bit was meant to say "Rather than just me" otherwise your son was a rather privileged 9 year old, being able to drink & all that . But seriously, being the youngest of 6 children, my Mum's & my tradition was always me getting up early & having breakfast with her on my own on Christmas Day & that was still special even when I was an adult & I ended up being the only one of her children at home on Christmas morning

I was just being facetious. He drinks to forget his parents.

Argentum wrote:

DrG wrote:

Argentum wrote:Have just watched Muppet Christmas Carol with my son.

He's 28!

We both still love it. The only difference between now, and when he was 9, is that we can both have a few drinks while watching it. Rather than just him.

Christmas has now officially started.

I am assuming that the bolded bit was meant to say "Rather than just me" otherwise your son was a rather privileged 9 year old, being able to drink & all that . But seriously, being the youngest of 6 children, my Mum's & my tradition was always me getting up early & having breakfast with her on my own on Christmas Day & that was still special even when I was an adult & I ended up being the only one of her children at home on Christmas morning

I was just being facetious. He drinks to forget his parents.

I'm so sorry, I didn't get that meaning reading it. Just thought it was a typo

DrG wrote:

Argentum wrote:

DrG wrote:

Argentum wrote:Have just watched Muppet Christmas Carol with my son.

He's 28!

We both still love it. The only difference between now, and when he was 9, is that we can both have a few drinks while watching it. Rather than just him.

Christmas has now officially started.

I am assuming that the bolded bit was meant to say "Rather than just me" otherwise your son was a rather privileged 9 year old, being able to drink & all that . But seriously, being the youngest of 6 children, my Mum's & my tradition was always me getting up early & having breakfast with her on my own on Christmas Day & that was still special even when I was an adult & I ended up being the only one of her children at home on Christmas morning

I was just being facetious. He drinks to forget his parents.

I'm so sorry, I didn't get that meaning reading it. Just thought it was a typo

No worries. It's my fault, I should use smileys more, so that people know that I wasn't being serious. (Sometimes difficult to get that across with plain text).

I've posted a few times on the Annoyances thread but, thus far, not on this one. This brings home some thoughts I have on British and American (US) attitudes.

As a Brit, it makes sense to me that I have contributed to the Annoyances thread, venting out something I would be far too polite (or, more accuratey, reserved) to vent at the time. Awesomeness, to me, is rather American - the British equivalent night be Rather Good Actually.

I work for an American-owned company and have visited the Eastern / New England area on several occassions. A couple of experiences bring home my perception as stated above:

Firstly, one morning - in Cape Cod - I was leaving my room to walk to the conference centre we were meeting at (an internal get-together) when I passed a man walking his dog.
'Morning' I said. Nice and polite.
'Good morning' he replied, 'How are you today?' Very pleasant.
'Fine, thank you. How are you?' OK, normally I'd expect a 'Morning,' 'Morning,' exchange with a stranger and we'd be on our way. But I'm happy to do this.
'I'm excellent!' was his response. That has truly left me with nothing on the table...
I don't tend to do 'excellent.' And, as it was early morning, I feel that I may not wish to peak too soon, but save excellent for later on. But that is an American enthusiasm that we Brits do not typically carry in our armoury.

Secondly, our CTO (I work in R&D) was giving a presentation in which we were asked to contribute by standing up, when he asked 'Can we innovate?' and shouting, 'Yes, we can!' Very Barack Obama. We had a quick rehersal and it was painfully obvious which of those in this exercise were British. Again, in my view, we Brits do tend to adopt an attitude which is less Yes-we-can and more Well-I-suppose-so-if-you-really-insist.

To finish, I am not knocking Americans or British. We have our differences. I love being British but I also love mixing with Americans. To me, the American ethos is summed up by the word Awesomeness.

That is my contribution to this thread.

AC/DC are playing select UK dates next year. Often, it seems like big bands either play all the major cities or just London. Thankfully, AC/DC are playing Glasgow and London so I'm going to get to see them (assuming I can get tickets).

Pretty awesome they'll be playing Glasgow. I know the tickets are going to sting me a fair bit of cash but it should be worth it.

Last night was the first time in ages I didn't wake up at least twice during the night. I feel like I've actually slept for the first time in about a year.

I have just started four weeks holiday, the sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky & Sydney harbour is looking beautiful. Oh, & I am off to Vietnam for 10 days in early January. Life is feeling good

DrG wrote:I have just started four weeks holiday, the sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky & Sydney harbour is looking beautiful. Oh, & I am off to Vietnam for 10 days in early January. Life is feeling good

I've wanted to go to Vietnam for years, ever since the Top Gear special (the single best thing they've ever done, imo). It looks like a beautiful place.

AngusWolfe wrote:

DrG wrote:I have just started four weeks holiday, the sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky & Sydney harbour is looking beautiful. Oh, & I am off to Vietnam for 10 days in early January. Life is feeling good

I've wanted to go to Vietnam for years, ever since the Top Gear special (the single best thing they've ever done, imo). It looks like a beautiful place.

I know a couple of guys who have been over that way and they thought it was pretty spectacular. Not a place I particularly fancy but it does look like a pretty amazing place to visit (just maybe not on a motorbike. Definitely not on a scooter!)

mac_d wrote:

AngusWolfe wrote:

DrG wrote:I have just started four weeks holiday, the sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky & Sydney harbour is looking beautiful. Oh, & I am off to Vietnam for 10 days in early January. Life is feeling good

I've wanted to go to Vietnam for years, ever since the Top Gear special (the single best thing they've ever done, imo). It looks like a beautiful place.

I know a couple of guys who have been over that way and they thought it was pretty spectacular. Not a place I particularly fancy but it does look like a pretty amazing place to visit (just maybe not on a motorbike. Definitely not on a scooter!)

I am going with my eldest sister & my brother-in-law who have been to Vietnam twice before & really love it. My sister & I have birthdays just 4 days apart in early January so we take a trip away every year to celebrate our birthdays. And there definitely won’t be any travelling by motorbike or scooter. With three of us we find it pretty cost effective to hire a car & driver for any trips we want to take plus my brother-in-law is 92 so it’s better for him as he can stay in the car if he doesn’t feel like traipsing around with us

DrG wrote:ho have been to Vietnam twice before & really love it. My sister & I have birthdays just 4 days apart in early January so we take a trip away every year to celebrate our birthdays. And there definitely won’t be any travelling by motorbike or scooter. With three of us we find it pretty cost effective to hire a car & driver for any trips we want to take plus my brother-in-law is 92 so it’s better for him as he can stay in the car if he doesn’t feel like traipsing around with us

I really like what you do for your birthdays. That's pretty cool and I guess more memorable than just having a party. Hope you all have fun on the trip!




The extractor fan in my bathroom blew this morning and is on the same circuit as my lights. Thankfully, my father knows his way around an electrical circuit and managed to disconnect it all and get my lights back on. Need to get an electrician to sort the bathroom stuff but I'll happily take having no light in the bathroom over having no light everywhere.


Oh, and my family does a secret Santa thing each year. My brother's kids get a gift from everyone but the "grown ups" we do £100 target rather than having to buy 8 or so gifts at like £40 or so. I prefer this as we all end up with something a bit more substantial and it's quite fun to see what things have been bought to pad out the gift. Last year I had my Gran and she got Breaking Bad anf The Shield on DVD, 4 multipacks of boost bars and 2 of the tiny wee cadbury bars making the total spent £100 exactly. This year, my big brother got me. I don't know what he has gotten me but I'm guessing it is going to be pretty odd. He started by saying he had considered buying me a gimp mask but thought that was embarrassing enough. I do look forward to seeing how he explains anything dodgy to his two young sons.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, what a film! Never gets boring no matter how many times I see it and always makes me happy

minchy wrote:Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, what a film! Never gets boring no matter how many times I see it and always makes me happy

I was surprised to recently find out that the book it was based on was written by Ian Fleming.

Argentum wrote:Have just watched Muppet Christmas Carol with my son.

He's 28!

We both still love it. The only difference between now, and when he was 9, is that we can both have a few drinks while watching it. Rather than just him.

Christmas has now officially started.

Great story, I remember loving having a drink with my father.

Earlier today I watched the Home Alone film with my mother, my daughter & my grandson. They are respectively 93, 43 & 22 & yes we all had a drink.
My mother had a pina colada, my daughter a bacardi & coke my granson had a few pints of Bulmers & I had several of these.

Forget the Guinness..... Cider!

I've had a pretty bad and depressing year, but just finished off a 4 pack and festive bottle one of oldest friends and colleagues gave me for Christmas whilst watching some Star Trek and for a few seconds I totally forgot everything about everything that had happened and what was going on in my life. And for some reason, when I realised, I had a sudden moment of pure happiness with life

So thank you cider, you're awesome (and Star Trek!)

The hospital confirmed that I don't have a hereditary heart condition. Which is nice. They don't know why I collapsed at work on Monday yet, but they do know what it isn't, which I'm counting as a win.

Hearing you don't have a heart condition is always a good thing. Nice one geezer! Hope they find out why you did collapse soon!

Got my question answered by Pastor Maldonado on a twitter Q&A today.

Well sort of. Pastor does indeed like pasta but he didn't reveal what his favourite type was!

I really, really, really want to see the use of the bullsh*t button during all politicians interviews and debates.....

Edit: Vid not on youtube anymore, UK people can see it on Last Leg on 4oD or it may come onto Last Leg's youtube channel some time.

Here's me in my work suit (as drawn by a genuine Marvel artist).... p.s. my teeth aren't that big in real life although my chin is!

I do hope those bubbles in the air behind you aren't coming from your... er... behind?

minchy wrote:Here's me in my work suit (as drawn by a genuine Marvel artist)....

Spoiler (click to show)

p.s. my teeth aren't that big in real life although my chin is!

Jeez, Desperate Dan is real person.

ob1kenobi.23 wrote:

minchy wrote:Here's me in my work suit (as drawn by a genuine Marvel artist)....

Spoiler (click to show)

p.s. my teeth aren't that big in real life although my chin is!

Jeez, Desperate Dan is real person.

You don't get a chin like mine without eating cow pies my friend

I taught a class of kids by myself for the first time today. It ended with me teaching them about electrical conductivity by getting them to play Pacman with half the class being the controller and the other half playing it using one of these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfQqh7iCcOU

huggybear wrote:I taught a class of kids by myself for the first time today. It ended with me teaching them about electrical conductivity by getting them to play Pacman with half the class being the controller and the other half playing it using one of these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfQqh7iCcOU

Awesome!!!

If you'd been my science teacher I might not have given up on science before I completed mandatory education!

minchy wrote:

ob1kenobi.23 wrote:

minchy wrote:Here's me in my work suit (as drawn by a genuine Marvel artist)....

Spoiler (click to show)

p.s. my teeth aren't that big in real life although my chin is!

Jeez, Desperate Dan is real person.

You don't get a chin like mine without eating cow pies my friend

Dan was an awesome dude, tough as nails. He made his sandwich with a cow jammed between 2 bread delivery vans.

Pointless sidenote to the above here, but I always preferred the Beano to the Dandy. Though I do reference cow pies fairly commonly.

I remember my mother would buy a Beano every Friday and my two brothers and I would alternate who got the "free" gift. Often with convoluted trades. 35p when I started getting them. 42 (I think) when she stopped getting them. It's over £1 now I think.

I just paid less than £1/litre for petrol!

Admittedly it was 99.9p bit still, it's the first time in about 10 years.

Beer. Pizza. Match on TV.

A small victory, but my alarm goes off at 7:14am. This morning, I woke up at 7:13 and was filled with an odd smugness. Something brilliant about somehow "beating the clock" or whatever.

Plus, Friday. And I actually have some plans on the 14th of Feb this year, and it's been a while since that has happened.

A bit of puffing out my chest but...
I did my first full marathon on Sunday. I wasn't planning on doing this race because I missed a lot of training in December and January due to a knee issue. After a few solid runs lately I decided to say screw it and just run it conservatively for experience sake.

I was planning on a pace that would bring me in around or maybe just under 4 hours, but got a little carried away early and hit the half way mark 5 minutes ahead of schedule. I managed to slow it down and only have a small fade at the end and came in at 3:53:31!

Epic spelling error from the BBC.....

tootsie323 wrote: ...
Secondly, our CTO (I work in R&D) was giving a presentation in which we were asked to contribute by standing up, when he asked 'Can we innovate?' and shouting, 'Yes, we can!' Very Barack Obama. We had a quick rehersal and it was painfully obvious which of those in this exercise were British. Again, in my view, we Brits do tend to adopt an attitude which is less Yes-we-can and more Well-I-suppose-so-if-you-really-insist.
...

How about
"Can we innovate?"

(Yanks) "F**k Yeah!"
(Brits) "Well er, we can certainly give it a jolly good try"

DOLOMITE wrote:

tootsie323 wrote: ...
Secondly, our CTO (I work in R&D) was giving a presentation in which we were asked to contribute by standing up, when he asked 'Can we innovate?' and shouting, 'Yes, we can!' Very Barack Obama. We had a quick rehersal and it was painfully obvious which of those in this exercise were British. Again, in my view, we Brits do tend to adopt an attitude which is less Yes-we-can and more Well-I-suppose-so-if-you-really-insist.
...

How about
"Can we innovate?"

(Yanks) "F**k Yeah!"
(Brits) "Well er, we can certainly give it a jolly good try"

Or maybe the Americans simply hadn't seen this..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO_PL3V1c4Y .... so they didn't know why the Brits thought it was a bit childish

But Brits just don't do pep talks, I remember one time, at band camp (sad but true!), we always had some instructors from the big band corps in the states come over and they tried pep talks but everyone just looked at them emotionlessly not responding.