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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 26, 2019 15:01:29 GMT
So, the European parliament has voted for the end of seasonal time changes starting in 2021. Now the various countries have to agree on which ones prefer summer time and which ones prefer winter time because having a patchwork of time zones is out of the question. During the consultation in France, the majority of people said that they prefer summer time, but it is far from certain that it will be adopted. Frankly it is too far off the clock. Most people have not thought this through, particularly the fact that at GMT+2, the sun would not rise until 10am in parts of France in the middle of the winter. The debate will be interesting. Naturally, the UK will do whatever it wants, having excluded itself.
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Post by bjd on Mar 26, 2019 16:10:12 GMT
We were talking about the time change this morning. I would prefer winter hours. It's light for ages in the evening in summer anyway. And in winter it would be dark too long with summer hours.
I was told the question asked was badly expressed: people "preferred" summer time indeed, but probably because it makes them think of being on vacation.
Yesterday around 3 pm, we saw a sundial on a house. It was showing IV, so two hours off would indeed be too much. I guess it will also depend on what neighbouring countries choose.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 26, 2019 17:53:21 GMT
Spain needs to sort itself out as regards time.
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Post by mossie on Mar 26, 2019 21:04:07 GMT
UK runs 1 hour behind Europe time because we lie roughly on the zero meridian, i.e. our time is the same as sun time. The earth travels round the sun at 15 degrees longitude per hour, so for each 15 degrees east the sun rises an hour earlier than it does here. Europe time is Berlin time, as the 15 degree line lies roughly on the German Polish border not far from Berlin. This time was set by the Germans when they overran continental Europe in 1940 and Germany still has the major say in the EU which was a small factor in the Brexit vote. A large part of France is in the UK region and Spain lies west of both so the time difference there will be even more noticeable. Time and tide wait for no man, as the old saying has it.
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Post by Kimby on Mar 26, 2019 22:41:39 GMT
We in Montana don’t like daylight savings time as it means getting up in the dark for another month, just when it was starting to be light in the mornings, and we have more than enough daylight during the summer months, at BOTH ends of the day.
But we are far west in the Mountain time zone. Others at the eastern edge of our time zone would prefer just the opposite. But I hate the changing back and forth.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 26, 2019 23:03:36 GMT
Well, the whole point of the change in the old days was that it saved something like 8% in energy costs. But in recent years, it is down to 1% so it just isn't worth it anymore.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 30, 2019 18:08:54 GMT
The sun was so dazzling today, even at the end of the afternoon, that if tomorrow is sunny, too, it will seem incredible when it lasts an hour longer.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 9, 2019 16:53:18 GMT
What a lovely vignette you created, Whatagain! There is something timeless about such shops and the way they exist to serve those hoping to engage in the timeless art of music. I took these pictures late one evening this past summer as I was wandering around Ghent. It was rather special to come across someone on a deserted business street, quietly going about his 500 year old craft.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 16, 2019 19:43:56 GMT
Lovely place....must take my camera with me next time I go into town...there are lots of little businesses and shops around about. Not as many as there used to be. Got another commission request today for a doll today but turned it down...that's the third one. My doll making is a hobby, and I make what I want to make...if the gallery takes them its lovely, but tbh I have plenty of family members waiting for their own dolly I don't make them to make money.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 17, 2019 5:55:26 GMT
I just put away my winter jacket and my windbreaker as though I will feel no need to use either for the next six months. Famous last words!
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 17, 2019 16:33:20 GMT
Good for you, Cheery! It definitely makes sense that you wouldn't want to make one of your very artistic dolls unless you were feeling inspired. You had better be right about putting away those items, Kerouac! I'm heading to your side of the Atlantic in less than two weeks & I don't want any of that cold foolishness.
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Post by kerouac2 on Apr 17, 2019 16:52:46 GMT
Cheery, once you have hired 5 Bangladeshi workers to do all of the little boring bits, you will be able to accept more orders even when they are less interesting.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Apr 17, 2019 18:10:18 GMT
Nooooooooo....I like just making a few. In my own time. The Vyvyan I'm making at the moment is awful. *sigh*
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Post by kerouac2 on May 1, 2019 14:37:09 GMT
Another two or three hours and Bixa will be landing in Rome!
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Post by mickthecactus on May 1, 2019 15:50:23 GMT
Will the Pope be greeting her?
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Post by mich64 on May 1, 2019 19:19:01 GMT
Very excited for Bixa, what a marvellous holiday she has planned! Have a fabulous time Bixa, I hope you had a good flight.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 1, 2019 19:36:57 GMT
Will the Pope be greeting her? Be sure to look for me next to him on the balcony during his regularly scheduled appearance. Have a fabulous time Bixa, I hope you had a good flight. Aw, thank you sweet Mich! Flights were fine, the Madrid airport is one of the levels of hell.
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Post by bjd on May 2, 2019 5:47:50 GMT
Glad to hear you made it safely, Bixa. All airports are awful: the small ones are boring and the big ones were designed by sadists.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 3, 2019 13:08:22 GMT
That's pretty outrageous. Do you know in what condition the rest of the group was?
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Post by whatagain on May 3, 2019 13:20:46 GMT
more than a third had severe problems - some went back home, some skipped one day (walked day one and day 3)
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Post by kerouac2 on May 3, 2019 14:14:42 GMT
That seems quite adequate to file an official complaint with the school. Even if the teacher only deserves a severe warning, the school authorities need to know.
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Post by kerouac2 on May 3, 2019 14:38:53 GMT
I always use postal mail for major complaints. It leaves much more of a trace and receives more serious attention. They can't just click on the "transfer" button like they do with email.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 4, 2019 8:00:43 GMT
Belated thanks to Bjd and to Huckle! I am in Florence right now gathering the strength to go out. I had a slight cough before I left home which morphed into helpless hacking and a killer sore throat. I finally got a solid night's sleep last night in this gorgeous, really gorgeous apartment. My chest is still full of chopped fiberglass and asbestos, but I'm in Florence! I got here a little after noon yesterday. Even though it was raining with a little weak sunlight, the city absolutely glowed in its mellow yellow splendor. Whatagain, that teacher needs to be fired. And the principal of the school really fell down on the job by simply passing your letter on to the teacher to be answered. It's as though he's saying that whatever the teacher claims is true, meaning that your daughter's poor treatment is being completely dismissed.
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Post by bjd on May 4, 2019 8:40:37 GMT
Well, the girl was given the option of turning back, as some of her classmates did. And they were told to have good shoes and to carry light packs. 85 km in 3 days is about 8 hours of walking daily. A lot if you aren't used to it, but done by hikers regularly.
I realize that Whatagain is upset for his daughter, but it would be good to have more information. Did the kids know how long the hike would be before they signed up?
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Post by whatagain on May 5, 2019 13:42:13 GMT
On a différent subject we are at a garden fair and I realise I am offended by a stand/booth/shop that has translated its ad from flemish into English. Skipping it feeling they don't care about unilingual poor walloons. I went to buy waffles from a Flemish who was unilingual too. Westcoekjes.
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Post by bjd on May 5, 2019 18:01:51 GMT
Are more Flemish able to speak French than there are Walloons who can speak Flemish? Are the two languages taught as second languages in schools in Belgium or do they just learn English or German?
Years ago we were in Antwerp and stopped to get a sandwich in a shop where you chose what to put on the sandwich. Since we didn't speak Flemish, we spoke French and the clerk said, "Speak English, I won't speak French".
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Post by kerouac2 on May 7, 2019 18:30:32 GMT
On the news tonight, there was a report about people who experienced May 8, 1945 first hand. Most of them are in their 90's now except for the ones who were very young children. One woman talked about her 3rd birthday with American soldiers who gave her peanut butter. "That fat salty thing was the best thing I had ever tasted."
For some reason, I find it painful to watch people who lived the greatest moment of their life more than 70 years ago. I thought about it, but I am unable to decide what has been the greatest moment of my life so far, and I prefer it that way. It means that I am still alive and can still expect something even better than what has gone before.
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Post by whatagain on May 8, 2019 19:49:01 GMT
Maman used to speak fondly if papy. A black US soldier who gave her and other kids chocolate. He was the first black that she ever saw. And probably first chocolate she remembers.
As for bilinguisme in Belgium the Flemish used to speak more french than us the other way round but they learn less now and we increased a bit. However young ones from both sides choose more and more English.
Yet the remark of the guy from Antwerpen is crazy - typical from flamingants. I hear it more lately yet. I can't comment as I always speak Flemish in Flanders. Maybe I should try in french and see what happens. Maybe I don't want to know.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 8, 2019 20:47:20 GMT
I think you are taking the "greatest moment of life" thing too literally. What I got out of what you related was a lady reaching back and managing to re-inhabit her three-year-old self. At three, the pleasure and surprise of peanut butter after what was probably all privation before, added to being around soldiers she didn't have to be afraid of must have indeed seemed like the greatest moment to someone who'd only lived 1100 days or so at that time.
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Post by whatagain on May 16, 2019 18:42:55 GMT
Our former king Albert 2 must take a DNA test to ascertain orbit whether he is the biological father of Delphine boel. Not that many care but well there was a justice decision. Since he refused up to know he will have to pay a penalty of 5000 euros per day that he refused to take the test. Dura lex sed lex.
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