Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

You're over-thinking life, Doc. In my humble opinion of course.

In the winter you just need to worry about whether it will snow on the hills overnight and whether The Wall will be open tomorrow.

And in the summer, you just need to worry what colour to paint your nails for the beach tomorrow.

Strewth. Some folks.

:o)

Just watching a couple of architects on TV viewing some very up-scale, very modern Swiss properties (in between hiding a canvas cartridge for our cockapoo to hunt for round the house (eg. under the duvet in a spare bedroom, inside a walking boot in the cloaks cupboard, in the wine rack, in a coat pocket, etc, etc)).

The programme is called:

"The world's most extraordinary homes" with Piers Taylor and Caroline Quentin

By 'eck, Hils. They aren't half alright, these ultra modern chalets! Fabulous views, minimalistic side-of-the-hill-living-with-massive-picture-windows, pine walls and ceilings, loads of light. Wow! Wow! Wow!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09vjws7

Got a picture of your Swiss pad to share with us?

Some nice houses, and all for the price of a one bed flat in londonistan.

If you can stand all that yodeling.

Hilary,

Exec is worrying about the future of " getting all dressed up and nowhere to go"!

8-(

Doc,

Our Swiss home is just a typical alpine chalet. Mostly traditional construction, using local stone and timber, and, because we're very close to the French border, its architecture is probably as much Savoyarde as anything else. It's built on a slope, so there's 4 storeys on one face, and only 2 round the other side, which means that the pool, gym and sauna are half underground. The only thing you might find interesting is that it's not organised in a conventional manner, insofar as our kitchen/dining/living area is total open plan on the top floor, and the bedrooms are on the lower floors. Heat rises up through the house, so the room where we spend most of our time is always warm.

You won't find it on any grand designs programme, I'm afraid.

Fred,

I'm sure Doc's got a passport. Once they've changed the law to make it compulsory to show photo ID at polling stations, he'll need to show it to vote in the second referendum.

:o)

h/t to pineapple across the road.



Monster raving labour party news..






More: https://www.rt.com/uk/420739-transgender-labour-feminist-walkout/

What caption could you put to JC ? What do his eyes tell you? Is he comfortable?

Left is Best!

Thanks for that, Hils

Good for the legs too, eh? I also like a kitchen/dining/living area to be open plan.

We downsized about 15 years ago and so my home is now a quite easy to manage 2-storey detached. I do suppose it's a bit 'lock up and go'. It's on a golf course and overlooks a lake and this morning we've just had a lone swan land on it - which is a very nice thing to have in your back garden.

When we first moved here and had swans visit, I made the stupid mistake of feeding them bread. Next thing they started drooling all over our conservatory doors and we had to hide from the bloody things because as soon as they saw us they would rush over to be fed. Like all the best lessons, you learn the hard way.

Twice now, I've been visited by a big dragon fly, who came and hovered between my face and the monitor screen. That was in the days of the older type of monitor, pre-flat screens. A magical experience, indeed!

and for the first time in many years, i saw a kingfisher this morning

They are coming back before we close the border.

haha! it was on the avon at bradford-on-avon ..... perched on a bush and then flew off

Trump imposes controversial tariffs
Countries had warned a trade war could be triggered by the new US tariffs on steel and aluminium.

39 minutes ago
From the section US & Canada
Related content
Trade wars aren't easy to win
Why Trump is hanging tough
Peanut butter could be hit
Too late for US steel?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-43337951

The idea is to look after American jobs, whats wrong with that? (Him being the American President?)

True to his word ,he promised to bring back jobs to the USA ,good for him.

except that in the longer run, it is likely to lose jobs

That's a very complicated theory that would take up a lot of words and your time to write !

No Jimbo, it's a no-brainer theory that protectionism leads to inflation, a smaller economy, and the firms that the government are trying to protect end up going out of business.

Economists disagree on many things, but they agree universally that free trade is a good thing.

Is dumping free trade? Is manipulating your currency to lower your exports costs a valid component of free trade? A level playing field is not easy to achieve when you are up against command economies where profit is not the primary aim of production.
Does the EU practice free trade???