Marty

Fingers crossed things improve.

I can't help but wonder what he plans to with whatever he's holding in his left hand... Whatever it is, I think he's planning to video it with the phone he's holding in the other hand. (And I'm not even going to ask just which door he is thinking of knocking on. )

Keeping my fingers crossed she makes a full recovery, Val. ❤️

Four people in Norway developed blood clots after receiving it. It's precautionary. The European Medicines Authority are meeting tomorrow to discuss it, and will probably declare it safe. Four clots in millions of doses given is probably just a coincidence. People get blood clots all the time.

Ah sure, dughlas would probably decide the back and white check at the bottom of the high vis vest is close enough to plaid. And it's not as though our dug would expect him to stay in his clothes, anyway....

I assume you mean (in the text I emboldened) to have a pre-test garage check. Which I did. The mechanic noted two things that might have caused it to fail, the worn ball joint and a worn drop link, aka: anti-roll bar link. It failed the test just on the worn ball joint but, just to be on the safe side, I asked the mechanic to also replace the drop link when he was doing the repairs. I deliberately put the word "legal" in italics in my original message, as I actually was legal between failing the test and presenting it for a retest within 30 days of failing the initial test. Had the fault been considered extremely serious by the test centre, I would not have been allowed to drive away, but arrange it to be lifted (not driven) to a repair centre, or else just decide to scrap the car. I trust my mechanic, having dealt with him (and his father before him) for over 20 years now. Had the faults been serious he would have insisted on repairing them before the test. His thoughts were to let them fail it on one or both of the faults as the car is now twelve years old, so the chances were that if he had repaired them beforehand, they would just have found something else to fail it on. I was prepared to trade it in for a newer model had he (or the test centre) found faults that were going to cost too much to put right.

Same thing's happened here in Ireland. Apparently four people in Norway developed blood clots after receiving it. But the suspicion is that they probably weren't as a result of the vaccination. Fingers crossed that the data will prove it to be safe, and it gets reinstated quickly.

It's obviously making the news here, as well. Not really good news, though. They live on the pack ice in the Arctic Circle, which suggests climate change is melting the ice. A biologist speaking o the radio earlier was suggesting that it would be unable to return north the way it came, because the north-to-south flowing Faroes sea current would be too strong for it. It would have to travel westwards towards America first to pick up a south-to-north current. He reckoned that won't happen, because they're not really a migratory animal. I was driving at the time, so not paying full attention to the radio, but I think the same biologist said something about another walrus having been spotted in the past day or so well south of their usual habitat in Denmark, or somewhere like that. Perhaps @Timothy M. has heard something?

Greetings, young Albert!

Happy Monday, everyone! Heading out soon to get the car retested, after it failed its NCT (National Car Test) a few weeks back. They'll only be testing what it failed on, a ball joint on the front suspension, which has been replaced. So it will pass, and I'll be legal again for twelve months.

Sure, they think they are immortal.

I was expecting some sort of reply like that from dugh.

Oh! And I forgot to congratulate you on that supersensitive thermometer of yours, with its ability to measure down to a hundredth of a Celsius degree...

Is that good, or bad? I think it got slightly below that here overnight...

Believe it or not, but I had to Google "toque" as I'd never come across the word before. We call that a beanie this side of the Pond. Mam used to knit them for us when we were kids. Usually with reclaimed wool from old knitted clothes. She'd usually include a bobble of wool in the top centre, and we just called them bobble hats.

A hat with a wide brim can help keep the sun off your face, and out of your eyes. But of course you knew that already didn't you, cowboy?

Greetings, Gary! Wrap up well, if you're doing outdoors stuff.

Greetings, young Albert!

5... 4.... 3.... 2.... 1.... This is the 54321st reply in this forum. [Edit to add image]

Today, being the fourth Sunday in Lent, is "Mothering Sunday" here in Ireland and the UK. It's our version of Mother's Day, that is celebrated in May in many parts of the world (indeed, many people here simply refer to today as Mother's Day). In a normal year, I would be in England now, getting ready to meet up with my six siblings at my mother's grave on Wednesday. This year would have marked her 99th birthday on Wednesday. Unfortunately, due to Covid travel restrictions, I'm not able to make the journey.

Happy Sunday, all! Another cool, overcast, rainy day here, today. But the forecast is for the rain to move away eastwards in the afternoon, with drier and somewhat sunnier weather to come in from the west. Even better is that the forecast is also promising that the weather will turn drier, brighter, and sunnier over the next few days. With temperatures rising into the mid teens Celsius (around 60 Fahrenheit).

Greetings, young Drew!

So sorry to hear that news, Val. I'm keeping my fingers, and everything else, crossed for her and for you, and hoping she makes a speedy and full recovery.

So Albert was the friend you were asking for, Mr B?

Erm.... Possibly.... But then again...