HossC

Yesterday afternoon, along with some friends, I attended a vigil for a young teacher, 23-year-old Ashling Murphy, who was murdered last week. Her death seems to have united not only Ireland, but also Irish communities around the world, with vigils being held in far away places such as New York. It was a moving occasion with a short circular walk led by local politicians and council members followed by a couple of brief speeches and a song from a local choir. Luckily, we had a beautiful, crisp winter's day with hardly a cloud in the sky. I haven't seen any official figures for attendance, but I'd says that a few hundred people turned up.

Skipper, you seem to have missed a few lines and combined two scenes. The first scene is when Carrie is changing out of her wedding dress: Bandit: Last time I saw legs like that they had a message tied to 'em. Carrie: What do you mean? These are great little legs. I'm a professional. Bandit: Well, in that case, you shouldn't be dressed in white. Carrie: Dancer. Bandit: Oh. Well, cowboys love fat calves. Carrie: They're not fat. Bandit: They're bigger than mine. Carrie: Do we really wanna talk about legs? Bandit: Well, one of us does. The second scene is about 30 minutes later, just after Carrie meets Snowman. Carrie: You know, I was on Broadway once. Bandit: Really? Carrie: For almost 12 minutes. Bandit: Oh. Carrie: The show closed the first night.

Thanks for asking, Roger. The incision scars have nearly healed and the shoulder pain finally seems to have gone. I guess that means that the worst is over.

I finished 9 days of isolation yesterday. I got a positive antigen test on New Year's Day and so did a friend who I was with the day before. Unfortunately, probably partly due to the holidays, it took just over a week to get a PCR test (my friend somehow got theirs a couple of days earlier). The negative result came back last night, so I've finally started 2022 a week late! The most annoying thing is that halfway through last week the brand of antigen test that gave me a positive result was withdrawn from shops amid reports of false positives. In the end, I probably never had Covid, but you can't be too careful.

desert

I don't think they know yet. The article I read said "The sheriff’s office confirmed that no cause of death had been determined, saying in a statement there were no signs of foul play or drug use."

Over here, NRA means the National Roads Authority. I believe it means something different to you.

Tractor Lamborghini had a successful tractor business when he bought two Ferraris (circa early '60s). Soon afterwards he went back to Ferrari to suggest improvements, and was basically told to get lost, so he decided to build his own sports cars. I occasionally see new Lamborghini tractors, but they're far from the most popular make over here.

Ferrari

In the UK they generally use a procedure called TPAC (Tactical Pursuit And Containment) where the police cars surround the target vehicle and then gradually slow down. I used to see foxes regularly when I lived in London, even sometimes during the day. I can't remember seeing any in Ireland.

Navy I know - in 'Daisy's Song' Bo even calls him "hoss"

Undercover (There was a character called Jo Jo in 'Undercover Dukes') I'd never heard of JoJo Potatoes either, but according to Wikipedia, they are a variant of potato wedges which are popular in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northern Utah, Northeast Ohio, Wisconsin and Upstate New York (their words, not mine).

wings

It's a shame you're retired, Roger. I'd have love to have seen your colleagues' faces when you turned up to work with your lunch in that.

Over here, we're normally asked if we're vaccinated or have had Covid in the last X months (the X seems to vary from 3 to 6). Recovering from Covid does seem to provide some sort of immunity, but as I've so far avoided catching it, I went down the vaccination route.

We've being doing antigen tests at work on a weekly basis for the last month, but so far they've all been negative. Pubs and restaurants here now have to close by 8pm. We've been wearing masks in stores and other indoor spaces from the beginning. A friend only got her negative test back yesterday, so at least she'll be able to enjoy Christmas. I got my booster shot on Monday, and other than a slightly sore arm on Tuesday night, I've had no adverse side effects.

It's time to revive an old thread and wish HazzardNet's Supreme Superior Commander, MeadowMufn, a very happy birthday.

Happy Christmas everyone. No sign of snow here. It's been raining the last two mornings, and there's more forecast for next week. At least it cleared up by lunchtime yesterday, giving me a chance to meet some friends and exchange my last few cards and gifts.

As far as I remember, Hobie was only in 'Bye, Bye Boss' in season 3 and 'Goodbye, General Lee' in season 4. I've only just noticed that they both have farewells in their titles - there's a coincidence.

Bunny

I got to see some live music tonight for the first time in ages. As part of the local Christmas events there are various acts playing on a temporary bandstand in town. Tonight it was a local family where the father sings, the mother plays piano and the son is an international award winning violinist. Funnily enough, they were the main act when I sang in the cathedral a couple of years back (we joined them on stage for 'Nessun Dorma'), and I've since found out that the mother is the cousin of friends of mine (well, this is Ireland after all!). To top it off, the mother had made Christmas cake for afterwards.

A friend of mine was talking about seeing a comet or something similar earlier in the week. Five out of 10 Premier League soccer matches have been postponed due to Covid, as have several international rugby matches.

I was going to post the news that Mercedes have decided not to pursue an appeal against the outcome of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but when I looked for the article again, I found a newer article where Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said that Hamilton felt "disillusioned" by the events in Abu Dhabi and he could not guarantee if Hamilton would continue to race in F1.

Lewis Hamilton may have lost the F1 world championship on Sunday, but he received his knighthood for services to motorsport from Prince Charles during a ceremony at Windsor Castle earlier today. I wonder if his name will come up as "Sir Lewis Hamilton" on the captions next year.

Your references to Ghosts sounded familiar, so I looked it up. It's a UK TV show made by the BBC, and I now remember watching a couple of episodes when it started in 2019. There have currently been three seasons of the original. By your character references, I'm guessing that you're watching the US remake. The Viking in your version is a caveman in the original, and other characters have apparently been Americanized. Here's a short trailer for the UK version.