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Post by Eff One on Mar 20, 2021 8:49:36 GMT
How are all you 40 somethings getting your jab so early? Same question here, I'm 51 and haven't heard anything. +1. I'm 47 and haven't heard anything, but wouldn't have expected to.
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Post by Eff One on Feb 13, 2021 13:01:45 GMT
compared to you Alex at least, we have got it easy as I’m not working Same here and I feel for you, Alex. That sounds really tough. We just have the one to worry about, although the lack of siblings has its downsides. She's in reception (will be 5 in a couple of months) and although we've just about kept up with home schooling (the school has been brilliant) she's beginning to suffer now. It's becoming more difficult to get her out of bed and motivated, and there are lots of night terrors. We're very lucky that Mrs Eff is a key worker. I start my new/old job on Monday, and Mini Eff will be going back to school 3 days a week from the 22nd. Not a moment too soon.
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Post by Eff One on Feb 12, 2021 14:05:10 GMT
Anyone else finding these tempting - either in theory or in practice? In theory, absolutely. In 2004, when I got my VX220, there was very little on the market - aside from the Elise - that could match it for analogue feel and flow, especially on the road. I think that's even more true now and we won't see its like again. Picking one would be tricky. I'd probably keep it simple - Elise 240 in Daytona Blue - but for near £50k the allure and greater usability of the base Cayman would be difficult to ignore.
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Post by Eff One on Feb 10, 2021 16:08:38 GMT
Interesting comparison. He does say the A45 is decent in comfort mode . I don't understand why the A45 is in this shootout given its £20k premium over the others. Surely an A35 or Golf R would have been more suitable. I can well imagine people in the market for a GR Yaris looking at a Type R, and vice versa - I would. I love the Yaris, but for me a hot hatch has to be a daily driver. The dinky proportions which help make it so brilliant on the road might scupper it on practicality grounds.
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Wevver
Feb 9, 2021 11:07:25 GMT
Post by Eff One on Feb 9, 2021 11:07:25 GMT
We're up to the 'light dusting' phase now but it's lightening up. I went out for probably the coldest run of my life yesterday afternoon - temperature just below freezing with a strong wind - wearing ski thermals underneath my running gear. It was hard work but with the ground essentially dry and very light snow falling, actually not unpleasant. My wife went out at dusk, slightly underdressed as it turned out, and set a personal best for 7km because she was in such a hurry to get back into the warm
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Wevver
Feb 8, 2021 10:47:00 GMT
Post by Eff One on Feb 8, 2021 10:47:00 GMT
Nothing here. Continuous light flurries all morning and it's certainly cold enough to settle, but there isn't enough precipitation.
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Post by Eff One on Feb 4, 2021 11:32:23 GMT
Lots around here did, along with a lot of hooting and ringing of what sounded like cowbells. I was out running and initially had no idea what was going on.
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Post by Eff One on Jan 26, 2021 10:41:58 GMT
I was talking to one colleague yesterday who is younger than me and he mentioned that he'd spent the weekend feeling ill after having the vaccine. When I asked how, he said it was because his parents run a nursing home and had received vaccines for their residents and staff, but that a number of their staff had point-blank refused to have the vaccines meaning that they ended up with a surplus that would otherwise have needed to be binned (these being those Pfizer ones which need to be kept at Antarctic temperatures). And so, given that my colleague's wife is a doctor working in what I gather is called the red zone (who has been vaccinated), his father rang him up and suggested he take one of the surplus jabs to avoid wasting it and given the risk that his wife could bring it back from the hospital (apparently being vaccinated doesn't mean you can't be a carrier). I'd love to hear the reasoning behind a care home worker refusing the vaccine... We saw one of our friends the day after she'd had the vaccine (she's a doctor in a hospital) and she described the after-effects as a hangover without the night out. Both of my parents had the jab yesterday - as I hoped, they took the opportunity to do my Mum at the same time which is a big relief. My Dad got his appointment first as he's a year older, but she's a cancer survivor and has had respiratory problems before.
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Post by Eff One on Jan 23, 2021 19:16:10 GMT
An Amazon Fire TV stick makes streaming about as easy as you could possibly want. Plug it into an HDMI port on your TV, connect it to your WiFi and away you go.
They've recently added the Now TV app too.
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Post by Eff One on Jan 23, 2021 19:10:47 GMT
My Dad is due to have his on Monday. My Mum is taking him, and we're hoping that she'll be done at the same time. They're 75 and 74.
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Post by Eff One on Jan 21, 2021 19:25:21 GMT
I'm thinking of retraining - made redundant from Carnival UK (cruise holidays) last summer. Web content author salaries were never brilliant and are in steady decline - I was on 15% less at Carnival than a similar role 8 years previously. And that's without taking inflation into account.
No idea what I'd retrain as, though.
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Post by Eff One on Jan 4, 2021 16:34:19 GMT
Happy New Year. I was working. 2021 isn't going to be vastly different to 2020 until the summer at least, I don't think. Worse before it's better, I suspect. My daughter went back to school today (tier 4) but I'm not overly comfortable sending her in. I wouldn't be surprised if BoJo does an about turn and closes the schools in his announcement tonight, but either way it won't be long. This time next week at the latest.
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Post by Eff One on Jan 4, 2021 16:27:21 GMT
While out running today, the roaring in my ears was drowned out by something purposeful approaching from behind - and a Guards Red 996 GT3 flashed past. Nice to see one out at this time of year, sporting a level of grime which suggested it was regularly enjoyed.
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Post by Eff One on Jan 4, 2021 15:09:59 GMT
This popped up on FB a couple of months ago:
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Post by Eff One on Jan 3, 2021 10:11:07 GMT
Not even going to attempt it. In a parallel universe, I'm on my way to Champoluc for a week's skiing. There are sorrows to be drowned. Do you not have to go into quarantine for 10 days when you get there, making the skiing impossible? The travel ban and the fact that the lifts are shut would be a bit of a blocker too... I meant a pandemic-free parallel universe in which I still have a job.
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Post by Eff One on Jan 2, 2021 10:39:39 GMT
Must admit dry January is dragging a bit. Not even going to attempt it. In a parallel universe, I'm on my way to Champoluc for a week's skiing. There are sorrows to be drowned.
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Post by Eff One on Jan 1, 2021 19:45:31 GMT
Happy New Year and good riddance to 2020, which served us a final hurrah in the form of a less than vintage Christmas featuring a Covid test for Mini Eff. She tested negative but still isn't 100%. Fuck knows how she caught whatever bug it is, we haven't been anywhere or seen anyone.
But we did get thoroughly plastered on good South African bubbly with some old friends (over Zoom) last night, and blew away the cobwebs with a 7km run through winter wonderland today.
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NC500
Dec 21, 2020 14:57:30 GMT
Post by Eff One on Dec 21, 2020 14:57:30 GMT
We did a couple of cheap self catering weeks in Tenerife and Lanzarote in the early noughties, then the Canaries dropped off our radar completely until 2015, when we took advantage of a Secret Escapes offer on a lovely hotel in the hills behind Maspalomas in Gran Canaria. Then, when we couldn't go skiing because Mrs Eff was a) pregnant and b) broken, we googled 'sunniest place in Europe' and ended up in Fuerteventura in January 2016. We subsequently returned to the same resort twice more - always in Jan/Feb - until Mrs Eff was ready for the slopes again. All of the hotels we stayed in were sprawling places with multiple pools and buffet restaurants - not usually our thing (at least not since childhood) but we enjoyed ourselves.
For me, one of the harder things to accept about parenthood was that holidays as I previously knew them ceased to exist. But the sort of family friendly places I'd have previously scorned were far better than expected, and did afford some respite from the slog of keeping a small person alive in a foreign country. I do hope we'll be able to get back to Fuerteventura or Mallorca next year.
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NC500
Dec 21, 2020 13:09:19 GMT
via mobile
Post by Eff One on Dec 21, 2020 13:09:19 GMT
I wouldn't book any holiday or even a week-end away just yet. I fear that 2021 will be blighted by travel restrictions for many months Yeah, I've been idly looking at the Canaries for the Easter holidays - we have an easyJet voucher for a cancelled trip to Scotland last Easter - but wouldn't have dared booking yet even before the new restrictions. We're booked on a P&O cruise next August, which hopefully will be able to go ahead as planned.
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Post by Eff One on Dec 20, 2020 23:10:55 GMT
Support bubbles are for singles but childcare bubbles are the entire household. Ironically my dad buggered off to the Netherlands yesterday to have Christmas with my sister and her partner and arrived by car ferry this morning. Luckily he didn't fly as he wanted to take the dog with him. The childcare bubble is mildly preposterous in that case. We formed a childcare bubble with the family of one of Mini Eff's school friends, but my understanding was that it applied only to the children - ie the children can mix in either household, but not the adults.
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Post by Eff One on Dec 19, 2020 19:40:30 GMT
I very much doubt that the government set out to ruin anyone's Christmas, but they had to do something. The numbers in parts of Kent and Bucks are pretty scary. Lots of people on my social media feeds are referring to their bit of the interactive map and complaining that they're in T4 with only four cases locally - and missing the fact that the map data is five days out of date. We're also showing green up to 14 December. But in the wider Winchester area, the number of new cases has almost tripled in the last week.
My in-laws have gone into T4 so we have cancelled our plans with them, and downgraded our visit to my parents (still in T2) to a quick present swap.
This doesn't feel like the time to be taking any risks for the sake of Christmas. It's time to dig in and wait it out until the vaccine is more widely available.
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Post by Eff One on Dec 18, 2020 7:34:09 GMT
Not confirmed yet, but it looks like Red Bull are going to announce Perez imminently.
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Post by Eff One on Dec 17, 2020 13:11:31 GMT
Personally, I have no interest in this Christmas really etc. +1. I'm simultaneously depressed about my situation and guilty because so many others are worse off - but the fact is, we're all coping with fundamental changes to the lives we had, and it's bloody tough. I feel for you not seeing your daughter often enough. One of the few benefits of the pandemic and redundancy has been a lot more time with Mini Eff during a crucial period - the transition from nursery to school. Having grown up in South Africa, I have always struggled with the winters, and with the forced jollity/hysteria that surrounds Christmas in the UK. I'm cheering myself up by looking at beach holidays in the Canaries. Possibly at half term, though Easter is more likely. SAD is a real struggle. I find that vitamin supplements help, and obviously spending time outside is essential. Every day, whatever the weather.
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Post by Eff One on Dec 15, 2020 17:14:16 GMT
Suspect they'll hold firm but they're damned either way. Short of mobilising the army, a Christmas lockdown would be unenforceable.
Our plans won't change. We haven't spent time indoors with either set of parents since the summer - my mother and father-in-law are both very high risk - and will stay away until they are vaccinated aside from a brief outdoor (distanced) visit at some point over the holidays.
There will be four of us for Christmas - three Effs plus my brother in law, who lives alone and is in our bubble. We've been in self-imposed lockdown since August and that's not changing anytime soon.
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Post by Eff One on Dec 14, 2020 13:19:30 GMT
I'm just glad that we had a 2020 season. F1 has helped me keep my spirits up during a tough six months personally, and I'm not looking forward to being without it. Hats off to everyone that made it happen.
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Post by Eff One on Dec 14, 2020 13:01:41 GMT
These are great, but definitely go for the 18s. I'd consider the Fiesta as well. Mine was a joy to own - brilliant in all the ways you'd expect but also a practical and comfortable muncher of miles.
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Post by Eff One on Dec 10, 2020 17:45:59 GMT
Lewis has tested negative and will race this weekend. Presumably the Abu Dhabi authorities have waived the 48 hour quarantine for him.
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Post by Eff One on Dec 9, 2020 10:39:55 GMT
Really this is the prefect opportunity for Hamilton to give the next gen a brief chance and just say he's not going to be fit for the next race. He can return as normal next season. Racing drivers aren't wired like that. Illness notwithstanding, missing Sakhir will have been torture for him. If it's humanly possible he'll be in the car.
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Post by Eff One on Dec 8, 2020 11:25:12 GMT
Even if Hamilton is well enough, the travel restrictions might scupper him. He obviously had to miss the airlift yesterday (the entire F1 circus flew from Bahrain to Abu Dhabi on 10 charter aircraft and are now locked down in 6 hotels around the circuit, where they will stay until after the young driver test next Tuesday) and so will need special dispensation to be allowed in. He also would normally have to quarantine for 48 hours after arrival so would miss Friday's running. Even if he tests negative on Thursday it's a big ask.
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Post by Eff One on Dec 7, 2020 13:07:51 GMT
Gutting for George, but his time will come. What a sensational debut. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him in that car for 2022.
It's not much fun being Valtteri Bottas just now, is it? I feel for him. He looks absolutely drained by the relentless battering he takes as Lewis' teammate and the abuse he gets on social media - which, judging from some of his comments, he spends rather too much time looking at.
It would have been interesting to see how the last third of the race played out without the pitstop fiasco. Bottas had a tyre offset and was catching Russell quickly when the safety car was thrown. I wonder if he could have salvaged the win.
I'm delighted for Perez. He was a little lucky but even if Merc hadn't imploded, he would have been third on merit, having been 18th and last at the end of the first safety car period. Absolute monster of a drive.
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