If allowed to play I can imagine the response from the Australian people

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/05/appalling-message-outrage-over-novak-djokovics-medical-exemption-to-play-australian-open

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/nov/17/pet-flea-treatments-poisoning-rivers-across-england-scientists-find

What an amazing portrayal of Anne Williams, mother of Kevin Williams who died in the Hillsborough tragedy, by Maxine Peak on ITV which concluded tonight. I wept for the 96.

Or common sense

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10367903/amp/Clothing-designer-27-says-felt-fat-shamed-12-week-pregnancy-scan-NHS-staff.html

....Sorry folks I have had to delete another Post as it degenerated into another spat about nothing to do with the original subject ( more like Cluedo ) and as I'm not going to try to work out who did what to who, with what and where .... it's gone !
Please can we try and be nice to each other (it's only the 5th Jan !!!)

Essentially, it's not the time to go for a fixed energy contract, despite the horrid prospect of the price cap going up hugely in April.
There will be a few exceptions, however, for some very low or very high consumers of household energy. It's worth checking to see if either of those covers your case, but staying on a capped rate is still the safest option for almost everyone, for now.
See https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/latesttip/?anchor=energy&utm_source=MSE_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=04-Jan-22-601f0e1500346a58738-61d4bc53452a53e583486e234472563f&source=CRM-MSETIP-601f0e1500346a58738&utm_campaign=nt-hiya&utm_content=3#energy

Seems highly vulnerable people are being sent kits for use in case they contract Covid. They they will be given anti viral drugs as a priority.

People who test positive for Covid with a home lateral flow test (LFT) will no longer need to take a PCR follow-up test to confirm they have Covid, it has been reported.

Currently, most people who have tested positive for Covid on an LFT will then order a PCR test which is more accurate to ensure the initial home test was correct.

According to The Sun, people will instead be advised to self-isolate for only a week purely based on the LFT and allowed to leave home if they are negative on day six and seven.

Tonight is the Carabao Cup semi-final 1st leg. Get your predictions in by 7pm.
Good luck

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/dec/29/climate-scientist-dont-look-up-madness

https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/27/climate-change-cost-of-extreme-weather-events-increased-in-2021-says-ngo

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8EbjHsg/

New years resolutions…In case you want to exercise more in 2022, ponder this:
• The inventor of the treadmill died at the age of 54.
• The inventor of gymnastics died at the age of 57.
• The world bodybuilding champion died at the age of 41.
• The best footballer in the world, Maradona, died at the age of 60.
• James Fuller Fixx, credited with helping start America's fitness revolution by popularising running, died of a heart attack while jogging at age 52.
However ...
• The Kentucky Fried Chicken inventor died at 94.
• Cigarette maker Charles Winston died at the age of 102.
• The inventor of opium died at the age of 116, not even of natural causes but in an earthquake.
• And, the Hennessey whiskey creator died at 98.
How did smart people come to the conclusion that exercise prolongs life?
The rabbit is always jumping up and down, but it lives for only two years, and the turtle, that doesn't exercise at all, lives for 400 years.
Oh yes of course, Hugh Hefner died at 90 on the job ( or shortly thereafter)
So in 2022 chill, stay cool, eat, drink and enjoy your life!

Not being a driver, I know practically nothing about what restrictions there may be on parking what vehicles on our streets overnight. Very occasionally, something like a caravan appears briefly but usually disappears very soon.
Some selfish person parked a huge, dirty-white van outside my house before Christmas, overflowing the parking space there at both ends and blocking the view from both my and my next-door neighbour's front windows; then another, identical van appeared on a single yellow line next to it last night. Neither shows any parking lights but the traffic wardens haven't done anything about them yet, so there they maddeningly remain.
Talking to unreliable, barely adult children at both my neighbours' homes suggests that someone in each family who doesn't live there permanently may be responsible for each of these vans but catch them removing obstacles to other people's view!
As this is a quiet residential street, not an industrial vehicle park, can anything prevent such intrusion?

The AA claims that "Parking rules in London mean that parking commercial vehicles in residential streets overnight is banned in boroughs across the city. [They cite] Rule 244 of the Highway Code" but I can't substantiate that claim by reference to the Highway Code, let alone the legislation said in it to underlie that provision or any other possibly relevant one.

Does anyone happen to know how to stop this kind of abuse in practice? I need an irrefutable way to stop the selfish tweenager next door from doing this again (such as a criminal offence which would put points on his very new HGV licence) - or from leaving this eyesore parked there any longer, this time - but I can't find anything clear enough.

https://www.firstpost.com/world/british-sikh-army-officer-preet-chandi-becomes-first-woman-of-colour-to-make-solo-trip-to-south-pole-10256251.html

With the start of our third year of Covid, the situation is worse than ever, with new cases escalating world wide. The UK is consistently many tens of thousands of cases higher than any other country in the world with almost 1.1/4 million new cases in the past 7 days and daily readings of around 150,000.

Out of control ? It certainly looks like it and our near future is very bleak indeed.
People simply do not take the necessary precautions, with a significant number of anti-vaxers present and riot at every attempt by the Government to implement lockdowns.

With this attitude by populations, the airborne and touch risks of spreading the disease are beyond control and the rapid mutations of the virus is rendering medical efforts of vaccination a fruitless pursuit.
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

This is progress, I suppose...... or a nightmare future? ....... anybody think this is a good idea?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-10329221/Swedish-startup-unveils-rice-sized-microchip-implant-stores-COVID-vaccine-passport.html

https://actions.sumofus.org/a/hands-off-our-nhs-no-to-a-tax-on-sickness-hdr-0?sp_ref=754165060.99.221036.f.677918.2&referring_source=fb_ads_23848945945460231_23848945945450231_23848945945470231&source=fb

What a random committee . It predicts which celebrity may die!

https://www.mylondon.news/news/celebs/sick-website-names-queen-eastenders-22625609

But worse still the error in Sir Captain Tom Moore’s name . In this article

Wanted to do more research?

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/covid-19-couple-with-four-children-die-on-same-day-after-contracting-coronavirus-and-family-encourages-others-to-get-vaccinated-12507593

Monday Night Football. Get your predictions in by 5pm.
Good luck

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/problem-solving/should-you-feed-wild-garden-birds-uk-autumn-winter-2021/

'What a disgusting, shameful decision': Fury as Tony Blair is given a knighthood with Britons branding him a 'war criminal' and demanding honours system is scrapped – as petition calling for him to be stripped of the award reaches 25,000 signatures

from the Mail

Hi All..... Happy New Year ! I have deleted the Post 'Misunderstandings' as members seem to be getting worked up about a matter that is being dealt with ( in the correct manner) and no doubt SL Admins will make a decision in the fullness of time, speculation is pointless, I suggest all moderators remove any reference to this matter until SL Admins make an announcement or just settle the matter behind the scenes ! We are only on the 2nd day of 2022 lets try harder to make it a better Year than 2021 !!!

An area of Chelsea's Stamford Bridge stadium has been redeveloped to allow home supporters to stand throughout the match. There are fixed metal bars in front of each row of supporters to prevent crowd surges that used to happen in the old days of open terraces.
Stadiums have been all seater since the Hillsborough disaster of 1989. This was just an excuse to introduce seating at top level stadiums, as the real reason for the disaster was the perimeter fencing preventing dispersal onto the pitch. And some blame also lies with the police and some supporters.
The real reason seating at football stadiums was introduced was purely financial. Football club owners realised they could charge a lot more for a seat than for a standing space. Back in 1990 a ticket to stand at a First Division game cost about £2, when seating was introduced that ticket rose to £20.

This is the first match where safe standing is being tried. Get your predictions in by 4pm.
Good luck

Now that the silliness of New Year is past, may I wish all members for the coming year, Good Health, Prosperity and Happiness in that order.
Good Health because it is difficult to be happy without it. Prosperity so that if you want to be un-happy you may do so in comfort, And finally Happiness because if you have the first two you don't deserve to be UN-HAPPY.
Consider that when you welcome the New Year you are actually celebrating being one year nearer your grave!!!!!???.😊😉😊😊

One day a farmer’s donkey fell down into a well.

The animal cried piteously for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, he decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway; it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey:

He invited all his neighbours to come over and help him.

They all grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well.

As soon as the donkey realized what was happening and cried horribly.

Then, to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down.

A few shovel loads later, the farmer finally looked down the well.

He was astonished at what he saw.

With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing.

He would shake it off and take a step up.

As the farmer’s neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.

Pretty soon, everyone was amazed as the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and happily trotted off!

Life is going to shovel dirt on you, all kinds of dirt. The trick to getting out of the well is to shake it off and take a step up.

Each of our troubles is a steppingstone. We can get out of the deepest wells just by not stopping, never giving up! Shake it off and take a step up…….

Now Enough Of That Crap…….

The donkey later came back and bit the sh!t out of the farmer who had tried to bury him. The gash from the bite got infected, and the farmer eventually died in agony from septic shock…

MORAL FROM TODAY’S LESSON:

When you do something wrong and try to cover your a$s, it always comes back to bite you…..

Try this approach instead and be happier for it: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jan/01/be-bad-better-from-anger-to-laziness-how-to-put-your-worst-habits-to-good-use?fbclid=IwAR0bsWcY5fn29rTjke-jnBdTsaTTaWLf-0D7N4-ZzWWtLWKkKIVc0XjUy3g

Tony Blair knighted...unbelievable!

It's appalling: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/31/uk-governments-covid-advisers-enduring-tidal-waves-of-abuse

This morning I saw an idiot on another social media site describing people who go for vaccination as 'uneducated'. The arrogance of these people who've read daft theories on the internet is extraordinary.

How do I know what CO2 emissions my car makes?

https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/cars/1543459/car-tax-changes-2022-update-petrol-diesel-fees

Happy New Year to One and All !

Strange how this was allowed to go ahead when the gathering for the fireworks wasn't.

Watched/ listened to this this morning as I do every year and they had the Lipizzaner horses this year.
Anyone else like it ?

How current events could be

The first Premier League game of 2022. Get your predictions in by 5pm.
Good luck

How lovely to hear this brilliant young lad has received special recognition for raising money for a hospice in memory of his dear neighbour

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-59829054

Smile another year gone and a new one on its way

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8KQbvCv/

Things can only get better - oh yeah that was the others 😁

Only talking about her the other day

New Year's Eve live news: London to get 'spectacular' fireworks display after all - but people urged not to turn up

Happy New Year to the UK for reaching 1,051,807 new cases of Covid over the past 7 days. An all-time world record and a grand New Years Eve total of 189,846 new cases.
That's the stuff anti-vaxers - go for gold - Rule Britannia.

Nick Knowles has commented that he is not happy with game shows like Celebrity Weakest Link where only the winner can give their prizemoney to a charity, and every other contestant goes home with nothing. He says the show is taking money away from charities.
I think the whole point of game shows is that someone wins, others don't. You can't have everyone winning.

If any of you missed this years series on viruses I would strongly recommend that you catch up on I Player, they were a very informative set of talks on viruses in general and Covid in particular, presented in an easily understood format suitable for the non scientist.
Personally I will watch these programmes for a second time to ensure that I extract the maximum amount of information from them because, what struck me very forcibly was, that many of the opinions bandied about by the media and on sites such as this, are ill informed and mistaken by authors with little understanding of the subject or the difficulties faced by the scientists that have to research the subject, and those that have to make decisions on the results that science provides. What seems to be the situation is that it's HEADS I win, TAILS you lose.

A Man goes into a Bakers and asks for 2 Bread Rolls..??
The Shop Man picks them up with the Tongs and puts them in a Paper Bag,
He then asks for 2 Cakes the Shop Man picks them up with the Tongs and puts them in the Bag.
The Man says :-
"It’s nice to see you don’t Handle the Food"..
The Shop Man says :-
"Nothing in my Shop is Handled by Human Hand"..
He then noticed a Piece of String hanging out of the Shop Man's Trousers and asks :-
"What is that Piece of String for"..???
The Shop Man says :-
"When I need a wee. I just pull on the String and it Pops Out"..
"That’s OK" Says the man.
"But how do you put it Back"..???
"That’s No Problem", says the Shop Man.
"I just Use the TONGS"..😜

Thank you to everybody who continues to help with donations to Beatrice and the Rescue Cats. It has been an exceptionally tough year. We wish you all a happy and healthy 2022.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10355731/Southern-Rail-cancels-services-London-Victoria-January-10.html