Awake and up all night

I live in a place where the trees are not maintained in any way, including those lining the lanes where electricity and telephone/internet cables are above ground on telegraph poles. A lot are pretty rotten. This is why we all have backup modems and generators ...

Deputy, it must seem a bit like living off the grid sometimes. That's what I'd love to do, be self sufficient and not have to rely on the big guns. Sadly, it won't happen as OH needs his neb...candlelight wouldn't cut it  xxx

Dinghy, if you're still here lovey.

Totally agree with you about animals. I love 'em all and prefer them above a lot of humans tbh. They never let you down and remain loyal which is more than can be said of some folk.

We absolutely adored our little rescue rabbit and he loved us back. We still miss him every day  xxx

Yes, not quite off the grid but no public transport within 1.5 miles, only a few buses a day, rubbish collection doesn't hsppen as the lorries won't come down the lane and in any case, it's very expensive. Much cheaper to bag everything up and take a trip to the recycling centre every couple of months.

But today I was entertained by a buzzard shrieking away outside my office window, there's every kind of birdlife imaginable, plus foxes, mink, hares, and the farm stock. It's like living on a wildlife reserve. I love it.

Gill ATW (across the water), in my teens in Germany I bought three softback books on automobiles. I think they were published by one of the popular German automotive magazine houses. I became quite fluent with reading the technical terms but hadn't a clue how to pronounce them. The only ones I can still remember are Höchstgeschwindigkeit (maximum speed) and ein blatt federn (single leaf spring). I bought a moped in the Dutch town of Roermond just across the border from us and still have a solitary book, in Dutch, about mopeds. It has bromfiets in the title. 3 years of being in Germany did not result in me picking up much of the Dutch or German languages. They were nearly all superb English speakers.

Thank you!

Gill H said:

Did you ever give Brian Millibob a moniker?

I was called "Millibob" by one on my "Brummie" mates when I was "playing trains" sorry driving preserved steam engines. Another mate called me "The amiable mollusc" after Brian the snail in The Magic Roundabout.

All my grandkids call me Grumpy - and I am not!! I have Mrs Mllibob to thank for that.

Yes - a lot of Europeans speak excellent English. I tried to speak Dutch many years ago when I was competing in a sports event over there, and they begged me to go back to English!

You should have tried harder, Ray hon. The last time I was in Austria I tried to speak only their lingo and it was getting easier all the time, helped along by my cousins. 

Then, after 3 weeks we had to come home which was a real bummer. I can still understand a lot if there's a German film on but can't speak it much. I sound the part as i mimic how my mam sounded xxx

The amiable mollusc

That's what I'll be thinking every time you post now xxx

Gill you may have already seen it but if not there's a slice DPD'd to you on page 2007 if that makes sense on a phone.  xxx