Marty

A friend of mine's 16-year-old is currently having to use Zoom for classes, as the schools are closed due to Covid-19 restrictions. He was telling me one day last week that he sat up binge watching some TV series the night before, and hadn't gone to bed until after 4:00am. Apparently his maths teacher wasn't happy when he didn't log into that class (the first of the day) until it was almost over. Next class was history (actually his favourite subject), where the teacher doesn't actually insist the students turn on their cameras or microphones. So he logged in, turned off his camera and muted himself, lay on the bed to listen to the class, and promptly went back to sleep...

Greetings, young Albert!

Sometimes I just don't know when to shut up.

On this day exactly fifty years ago, 15th February 1971, Britain finally got rid of its archaic monetary system of pounds, shillings, and pence, and decimalised its coinage. Previously there were twelve pennies to a shilling, and twenty shillings to a pound (or 240 pennies to a pound, if you like). New coins (initially called new pennies, but quickly known in the vernacular simply as pees) were introduced, with 100 new pence making up the pound. The pound itself didn't change in value, as each new pence was worth 2.4 old pennies. It was obviously well flagged beforehand, with the term D-Day being used in TV, radio, and newspaper public service advertisements, more than a year in advance. Many, particularly of the older generation, were completely opposed to the change. But, within weeks of the changeover, just about everyone had got used to the new coinage, and life went on as normal (with the exception that children at school found adding and subtracting currency a whole lot easier). Apparently they choose a day in February for the changeover, as that month was traditionally a quiet month financially. And they chose the 15th, as a number of years earlier both South Africa and Australia had decimalised their currencies on Valentines Day, and the Brits didn't want to be seen to be totally following in the footsteps of its former colonies. Because of the close links between the British Pound and the then Irish Punt, Ireland also decimalised its currency on the same day.

If it's genuinely worrying you, get it checked out, bro. (Maybe get it checked out anyway...)

Happy Monday, everyone!

I dunno... But maybe that's why I had porridge instead.

Midnight! Goodnight, everybody. I'll leave you with this bit of Tomfoolery, which is not at all political, even though some people might not realise that fact...

I had steamed potatoes and vegetables, with melted grilled cheese on top.

It's all just a money making exercise.

Greetings, Master Drew!

Why feel guilty about it? It's not as though you caused this weather. Or did you cause it???

Happy Sunday to you, as well, Gary. It's now stopped raining here, so I might manage to get an hour or so's work in the garden before it gets dark.

Welcome to GA, @Rhythminthemind. When you say you have read the author's guide, I assume you are talking about this: https://gayauthors.org/faq/authors/ If you haven't already read the "What types of stories are not allowed on GA?" as well, it might be a good idea to also check that out. Other than that, as @Talo Segura has already said, just start posting your story. I look forward to seeing what you have to offer.

If I'm not mistaken, you're talking about Ian McLagan, the keyboard player In the Small Faces. I agree, he was rather adorable. Sadly, he died of a stroke on 3 December 2014 aged 69.

Sounds much like over here in Ireland. Hope it's nothing too serious. And don't feel guilty about having a lazy Sunday. Even the Almighty Cod in the Sea rested on the seventh day.

Happy Sunday, everyone! Not sure if I'll get any garden work done today, as it's raining and very windy. So it looks like it may be a bit of a Lazy Sunday for me today...

Greetings to a new day, Drew! It's currently 12°C/54°F here, and expected to drop to 8°C/46°F overnight. It's quite windy, though, with gusts up to around 100km/h (60mph), making it feel more like 7°C/45°F. It's also raining.

Just turned midnight, so I'm off to bed. Goodnight, all! If you don't see me tomorrow, it may be that the spider man visited me overnight...

I did no work in the garden today, because of the snow. It's promised to get much milder tomorrow, so hopefully the snow will all melt. Here's a photo I took this afternoon, which shows the progress on clearing the hedge quite well:

And I'm reading that halvfems is actually a shortened form of the older word halvfemsindstyve, which apparently comes from halvfemte (“four and a half”) +‎ sinde (“times”) +‎ tyve (“twenty”).

Surely you should have had Steveo salad with your Alfredo chicken? (Oh, sorry - I read that as Alberto chicken at first) It was steamed potatoes & other root vegetables for me, along with sardines, and mushrooms & garlic fried in butter.

Well I made myself a dinner, and I ate it.