Thread 14 - TalkLair: “What The Hell Are We Supposed To Use, Man? Harsh Language?”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 13).

Summer should be well under way, but the chilly wind, grey clouds and pouring rain beg to differ. Looks like 2024 continues to be a washout - on the bright side, the Tories got washed out too! In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

We're on the new series of Vienna Blood. I agree, very enjoyable.

We had an earlier series on Masterpiece Theatre so that will probably crop up over here next year.

@duc748 that sounds worth watching, thanks for the information.

I bloody love Vienna Blood, I was so excited when I heard a new series was coming. I've watched the first two episodes and I bought the first book in the series of books it's based on because I can't remember everything that went on in the first series so it should be good reading the book. And if it's not a great book it only cost me a couple of quid on the Kindle!

Ooh! I hadn't heard of it but I see all four series are available on the BBC iPlayer! I have recently finished the last of all 13 series of David Suchet's Poirot on ITVX and need something new to use as a Tasks-I-Must-Do-Avoidance-Strategy.

I have just started watching through the whole 12 series of The Walking Dead, as my go-to show when I'm watching without DH. He laughs too much when he sees it, which detracts from my enjoyment.

@Gonners I think you'll love Vienna Blood.

I love that so many of us are rewatching stuff we've watched before. I was speaking to a friend today who is doing the same. Hers is Prime Suspect. I'd say it's because there's nothing good on but there is so much to choose from that sometimes I think it's just easier to watch something you know you liked because the amount of choice is a bit overwhelming.

The thing I most want to rewatch is The Jewel in the Crown. I have it on DVD, but neither of our computers has a CD/DVD slot, presumably because nobody uses them any more. The plug-in player I tried didn't work with Linux, despite claiming that it did, and (shock, horror!) we don't have a TV.

(I do have The Raj Quartet in hardback, but I mainly read in bed and have just put it on the kitchen scales ... well, seriously ... 3.5 kilos?)

I watch everything on DVD, my Netflix sub died when my credit card expired and I didn't bother to renew it - will probably get round to it eventually, but at the moment am happily plodding through all the JAG and NCIS spinoffs. Luckily my laptop plays them happily - I used to play solitaire at the same time but have recently started knitting instead so I have whole screen visible at all times - oddly this is quite helpful.

What I'd like to get, but they're a bit expensive, is all the original Jack Lord Hawaii 5-O.

We don't have a DVD player any more and DH's computer is the only one with a CD slot, so we don't tend to watch on the computer (unless I'm using my VPN to illicitly tune into iPlayer). We watch everything on streaming, which still costs less than a cable TV subscription used to cost and enables us to choose what we'd actually like. We also have PBS Passport, so we can watch PBS news and other shows live as well as on streaming, so we do still have that small amount of live TV.

Ha! @DeanElderberry - Thank you! We have an ancient laptop lurking unused in a cupboard - MrG used to update it religiously once a week, but gave up a couple of years ago on the grounds that it only ever saw the light of day in order to be updated. I've just plugged it in and yes! It has a DVD slot! The cursed machine is currently busy updating itself, with my consent, so I shall let it finish before I test it. This may take some time ...

What you need is a highly competent computer man with a little unit in town who will do it all while you're diverting yourself elsewhere, dust out its innards, and charge you buttons.

Oh, in a business unit close enough to the town centre that if you leave the car there while you do a walk-round you save the price of street parking.

Yes, mine needed minor tweaks and cleaning out last week - €10 the lot.

The other consideration using a laptop is how loud it is - my last one mumbled a bit, my 'new' (reconditioned, another thing the man in the unit is good for) one is splendidly audible even from some distance away - though I was advised that if it wasn't a sound bar would have worked..

Congratulations on getting home and potential custard @MouseMinge!

Just catching up, have been on holiday with some friends from ThatLondon, in The North this week (mostly fabulous weather, which was a surprise for our friends!). Had a wonderful time, and we could take it as a bonus that there was patchy 4G phone signal in many of our destinations, so the teenagers were forced to fully interact with the real-life humans.

In less salubrious news, this morning whilst drinking my tea at my kitchen table and browsing MN, I idly touched my leg and felt a weird little irregularity like a overgrown hair. Looked at it, initially thought it was a loose scab - thought, I don't remember getting an injury that would cause a scab. Peered closer - it's a FUCKING TICK.

I haven't been bitten by a tick since I left Malaysia (had a lot of tick-based issues back then, as we owned a dog). We always just used to yank them out. But now the internet tells me I mustn't, except with special tweezers. Plus, a whole load of websites telling me to suffocate the bugger with Vaseline/nail polish, and a whole lot of websites telling me that this doesn't work and may cause it to burrow deeper!

Ugh, sympathy.

I used to turn them round as if unscrewing them to break their grip - it didn't always work, and the head would get left behind. They advise drawing a line round any reddened area, watching out for any sign of a bulls-eye rash, and photographing it if it changes. As I'm sure you already know from all those websites.

Maybe advise the rest of the humans to check themselves over since you've clearly been in tick country.

Because I have a lot of faith in colloidal silver I'd be applying that locally, too.

Vienna Blood looks interesting and it's on BBC player. I recently watched Those About to Die and last night, started to watch Empire, which is about the aftermath of Caesar's assassination. It might be a bit gory for some.

Found a handlens to examine the critter. Also found my trusty fine-tipped tweezers for handling glass coverslips - I got poor DH to extract it (he's of a delicately squeamish disposition) as I couldn't quite get the correct angle myself. DC exhibited appropriately teenage responses of "ewww" followed by ennui; nevertheless I treated them to a lecture on the taxonomy of ticks.

Weirdly, it seems that it was already dead for a while. Live enough to climb up my leg and get firmly situated, presumably yesterday while we were walking about outdoors (else I'd have noticed when getting dressed in the morning). But then dead before it really collected any blood. Maybe I have arachnid-toxic blood!

Oh no! I loathe ticks! Keep an eye on the wound site, for a bullseye pattern - that's a sure sign of Lyme's Disease and insist on antibiotics.

Gosh!

We've also recently been watching The Durrells, having missed it completely when it came out. Glorious escapism IMHO, with some excellent performances, and Corfu looks so lovely. Less gore than Vienna Blood, too

And even without the bullseye rash, get antibiotics if you start feeling fluey. When I had a bite I had both reactions and DH immediately took me to the ER room to get antibiotics started straight away. Here they give you doxycycline and a friend with more experience than me advised me to take it for 30 days because the standard course isn't quite enough.

We were on Corfu for a week a couple of years ago and thought it was beautiful.

I'd forgotten that each series of Vienna Blood is only three episodes. I realised today when I heard that Sherwood was back next Sunday and I went and checked to see that three episodes is always the number. Boo. Hopefully next time I'll remember that and not get disappointed again. It really is one of my favourite things on TV.

And I am bloody loving watching Ugly Betty.

@Gonners, the whole of TJITC is available on ITVx! My RLBF was waxing lyrical about how wonderful it is when we spent Thursday together lolling around.

Oh my goodness, THANK YOU @SqueakyDinosaur - I've found it and it's now bookmarked for many happy hours of important-task-avoidance.

@DeanElderberry I did get the laptop to work, but it steadfastly refuses to play that particular DVD. It's probably some sort of codec problem which I could perhaps fix if I could be arsed, which I can't. But it cheerfully plays CDs which is nice. We had a cheery dance around earlier to Mundo Afrika, including this

I play my DVDs using a free player (checked - VCL media player) that I downloaded.

VLC? I use that too, though on Linux, but it said No. I haven't tried another DVD, though, so it may be an ITV DVD thing. Or a Linux thing. Or a me-being-incompetent-thing. It doesn't much matter as thanks to Saint Squeaky, all is well.