Marty

Well, here in Ireland Friday's almost over, so I'll not bother with a Happy Friday image this time. I got a text to say that my monthly prescription was ready to be picked up, so I drove the twenty miles to collect it, and managed to buy some fresh provisions as well. Yay! Next Tuesday (5th May) the Irish Government were due to start lifting some of the social distancing restrictions that have been in place for over a month now, but the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) announced this evening that the decision has been made to keep them in place until Monday 18th May, when they will start to be lifted in 3 weeks phases. The only slight lifting on Tuesday will be to allow people to exercise within 5 kilometres of their home (it had previously been 3 kilometres), and to allow the over 70's to leave their homes and gardens to exercise within 5 km of home. If there is a significant increase in covid-19 cases during any of the planned phases, there will be a stepping back of the restrictions. He said school's and colleges will not reopen before the start of the new academic year starting in September (schools) or October (colleges). I'm sure that will please some of my friends' children, although I can see many of the parents not being so pleased... One thing he said will reopen on 18th May will be garden centres and hardware shops. So I know where I shall be going on that day! All in all, I think the Government are making the right choices...

I'm thinking healing thoughts for you, Gary

Hi, Albert!

And I've a plentiful supply of disposable razors and hot water...

I'm not that picky! Well, not when it comes to accepting help in the garden.

A couple of those ingredients mean absolutely nothing to me...

I haven't put any videos of it on YouTube yet, Albert. Might do sometime. Not sure, though.

Not done a lot inside, except for the treating of the floor joists I mentioned the other day. Although I am expecting a handyman to come and do some work in the bathroom in the next day or so. I need a handrail to help me exit the bath (not as young as I once was...) The weather's staying reasonably good, so managing to get more garden work done. Finally planted my onion sets today, and have continued digging my vegetable plot. Will hopefully get the seed potatoes planted next week sometime...

But has he got enough facial hair for our Gary?

Mounted? Like a stag's head?

Hi, young man! Hope all's well in Albertville.

Go, clo!!!!

From dictionary.com: yarn: noun thread made of natural or synthetic fibers and used for knitting and weaving. a continuous strand or thread made from glass, metal, plastic, etc. the thread, in the form of a loosely twisted aggregate of fibers, as of hemp, of which rope is made (rope yarn). a tale, especially a long story of adventure or incredible happenings He spun a yarn that outdid any I had ever heard. Hopefully you're going to spin us all a few incredible yarns, clo, as per definition 4 above.

Enjoy. And don't forget social distancing. Hopefully the fact that the text is part of an image means it won't trigger the "Naughty word that upsets Google" flag this time.

Hi, Page! How goes your day?

Have to say I quite like his interpretation of Aquaman... And I loved this quote from him in the article:

Hey, Gary! Hope your day's going better than the expression on that guy's face you have just shared with us suggests his day is...

I'm largely in agreement with @Valkyrie on this one, particularly when it comes to idioms and word-for-word translation. I remember in the early days of digital translation being frustrated by the fact that idioms were almost always translated wrongly. For example, the German expression "es gibt" literally means "there is" (or "there are"), but in the early days of digital translation it would always be translated to "it gives" (which is what the two words individually mean). And one only needs to read certain instruction manual for, say, self-assembly furniture to see the confusion that can result when trying to understand the word-for-word translation of them from the original Chinese into English. As for how I would feel about any of my stories being translated - if I ever finish any of my longer novels, I'll let you know.

I could be wrong, I'm suspecting that it may have been the American soldiers who came over to Europe during WWI (not WWII) who took the term French Fries back to the US... And apparently The Netherlands also lay claim to being the originators of the French Fries. In French, yes. But in UK English it is "potato chips", or simply "chips". As an aside, I read on Wikipedia that the United States supplies China with most of their French fries, while Canada supplies 22% of China's import of them.

Good night, gang! Chat yous all on the morrow.

Belgians urged to eat more chips (French fries) by lockdown-hit potato growers: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52439934 I read somewhere that chips (aka French fries across the pond) actually originate from Belgium, although France naturally disputes that. And just what is it with them there darned Americans that they try to insist that a potato crisp is actually a chip?

Only if they find out where the rooster(s) went. (Go out in camouflage after dark, Albert...)