Comhrá - the general chat thread

[JaneJeffer]

Hi Craicnetters!

I was looking for the other thread and see it's fallen way down the list so I decided to make a new one for all our daily musings ☘️

Good luck with Storm Ashley @JaneJeffer 💨💨💨

@FuzzyCaoraDhubh thanks I hadn't realised the forecast was so bad. Bit worried because both DS will be driving in different directions 😕

@LadyEloise1 just saw your post. It was a thread about the Irish peace keepers which resulted in some nasty comments about Irish people in general. MN took it down "for a look" so it will never be seen again!

Royal weddings in Ireland -

😂

I sent a contribution to unicef earlier. I'm not convinced about charities in general but what else can you do.
I sent a cheque. I sent one in February . It just gets worse, all the news everywhere.

It's hard to watch what's happening @eggandonion and feeling so useless and not knowing if the Palestinian people will get any aid anyway. Israel won't even allow medics in now.

It's more a cross fingers situation.
My daughter works for a charity which set up the service but is paid by hse. I wonder how many important board members of charities are still earning high salaries and claiming expenses. And how much the hse is paying the charity for admin to provide a necessary service.

How are you bearing up @JaneJeffer It's really wild down south and I think ye have it worse. Power cuts in my locality.

We had no power for a few hours. Very strong gusts. DS1 got home ok but a lot of debris on the roads. DS2 heading back to college later - hopefully it will have calmed down by then. It's easing off now.

Hope everyone is ok.

Good to hear from you! Glad the power is back on.

Would anyone like to clean my windows? Ashley has left them in a bit of a state.

Can imagine! 😄

Anyone else utterly appalled by Simon Harris and his entourage racking up a bill of almost €500,000 in 6 months for trips by private jet to meetings.
Nine flights were chartered between April11th and September 5th 2024 at a cost of €498,617.69.

Are you disgusted that a bike shelter in the Dáil cost €335,000 and a security hut at the Dáil cost €1,400,000.
The huge cost (overun) of the Children's Hospital.......

This is while we have children with scoliosis waiting for hospital appointments, children with special needs needing school places, parents of special needs children ( including adult children ) in desperate need of respite.
A&E wards not fit for purpose with people dying for lack of care in them.
All because there isn't enough money.

Simon Harris, you who went into politics because you were disgusted with the services offered to people with autism and the people caring for them, how can you possibly stand over this ?

My windows and car windscreen has a layer of dust from the storm.

I'm actually abroad with dh...he is at three education meetings this week. (I'm paying for myself, every cup of coffee is on its own bill! His accounts people are strict on expenses)
But before any storm arrived Lufthansa cancelled our flights. Then the storm arrived and klm cancelled our flights. Rebooked for Tuesday...which would have meant two missed meetings. My dh sounds like Gerry Adams which is handy at times...so we got here yesterday.
The moral of all this is I can see the point of having control over travel, especially if there aren't direct flights.
And scoliosis surgery waiting list is a disgrace . As are all similar waiting lists.

Glad everyone survived the storm in one piece, it is very worrying when you know someone is driving through high winds.

I usually defend Ryanair as I have flown with them regularly for years but the story about them making passengers pay for water when they'd been on the plane for 15 HOURS because of aborted landings and then not being able to disembark at their rerouted airport due to Brexit is just horrifying and there is nothing they can say to excuse or defend it. Shocking.

Can anyone remember who the poster was that got stopped by the Gardai during Covid for bringing their child to some religious practice ( First Holy Communion or Confirmation ) as the priest had insisted on it.
I wonder what was the outcome.
Was she fined?

I'm scared to even look for the covid threads. What a strange existence.
There was also a poster with a no contact son. I hope everyone from back then is well.

I vaguely remember the details but not the outcome, sorry. Maybe I've blocked out all my covid related memories! It seems like a bad dream doesn't it.

Hope everyone survived the clock change! It was definitely noticeably darker in the evening yesterday. I like it at home, lots of candles and lamps around but I hate driving in the dark.

I finish work at 5.30...it is dark now until the end of January. I hate it.
Ds has a new car and took me for a short spin last night. There were loads of teenagers out dressed completely in black. They seem to have zero road sense.

Covid times seem like a bad dream, I agree.
I just said it to my teenager to not wear all black anymore in the dark. All she had on that was bright were her white socks and runners!
A teenager got knocked down locally two weeks ago. She dashed across the road. She had concussion and bruising.

If you live anywhere near a Garda station, they usually have a box of free hi-viz vests in the lobby.

I live near a garda station which opens at occasional random times. Unless the hi vis is north face or similar I suspect teenagers wouldn't wear it!
It is actually difficult to get winter coats that aren't dark. I'm not a fan of winter.

I was just going to say the bargaining I'd have to do to get my teens to wear a hi-viz would probably cost me me house!! We have several in a drawer but that's where they stay 🙄

Does anybody else remember the campaign in the 70s to get kids and pedestrians to wear reflective armbands (and to walk on the side of the road facing traffic) when walking in the dark? I remember being given one of the armbands at school. It was a part of the Safe Cross Code promotion - by the way I can still remember every word of that song, it’ll be lodged in my brain for all time 😂:

🎵 Remember One: look for a safe place..🎵

I'm extremely old. In the 1960s there was an experiment with not changing the clocks, I was at primary school in the north. It was really dark going to school. Daylight didn't appear until after religion and mental arithmetic were finished. It was all very miserable, especially old testament religion.
But we did have reflective armbands 😀