My post-lockdown commute back to work

[Stumpy]

I think it's good that someone knows what gender you are just by looking at your legs.

Are you nuts. I have seen more women in the US sporting hairy tree trunks like you have. Hairy legs and Cankles with fat sandals are the thing and I bet now with Covid it's even more prevalent...

[strigils]

Dan's over 14 now, her eyesight is poor and she's going deaf, but once she realises that it's me I think she will go mental,

I think as soon as you ease her into your wifes knickers she'll know daddies home.

[Edmond]

it's good that someone knows what gender you are just by looking at your legs.

Well, that's the case on here. The J in JPPR2 stand for Jenny.

[bsnub]

It's a Tuesday at about 4:30 and it's going to take 2 or 5 more.

Taco Tuesday always a good excuse to down a few extras.

Are you nuts. I have seen more women in the US sporting hairy tree trunks like you have.

Especially the closer you get to Berkley.

[OhOh]

The smell of 100% fresh maple syrup and the taste of real butter...to die for.

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[Stumpy]

Especially the closer you get to Berkley

No shit Snubs. Good Lord. And let's not forget the shaved armpits. Always sexy when they wear a tank top and reach past you to get the sugar at the coffee shop.

[armstrong]

How do you manage to get veins over your shin? Is that healthy?

[Stumpy]

How do you manage to get veins over your shin? Is that healthy?

I assume that was directed at me since you can't see anything veind in Mendys Legs, I wouldn't know how veins are supposed to travel across the body. All I can say is I am healthy, active, take no meds and do not walk around naked with sandals on.

Sorry Mendy. I am 6 drinks in now and the image is still there. My wife saw me earlier and said I looked a little pale like I was sick..I didn't want to tell her about your naked on the balcony dove story...

[Neverna]

It looks like a male zebra dove to me, Mendip.

Don't shoot the messenger!

I seem to have bonded with a zebra dove. She won't leave me alone... she chatted away and then jumped down and was walking around cooing. I've never known anything like this before.

[Mendip]

I think as soon as you ease her into your wifes knickers she'll know daddies home.

You seem to know an awful lot about my habits at home!

Just be careful , the bird may have spotted something resembling one of his snacks

It's a girl... and I think Zebra doves are vegetarian so I should be OK!


One thing I miss at home is a view. We're surrounded by a 2.5m high wall and that's all you can look at. I really love a good view.

We watched the sunset tonight across the train station and it was a lovely evening.



All that was missing was a glass of whisky... that would have made it idyllic.



As I was reflecting this I had a Skype call. It was my gorgeous young daughter and she sang me the song 'Perfect' while accompanying herself on the ukulele. I must admit that it brought a tear to my eye and hopefully without sounding too wanky this is all now getting quite emotional.

After thinking about it constantly since I left, I'm now so close to getting back home after six months away that it's a really strange feeling... it's finally becoming real. It's not only the dogs I'll have to be careful handling my return with. My daughter has had six months of growing up... she'll be an older, more mature girl now and I have to accept that. The song she sang had quite adult lyrics... she's not my little baby any more.

Four more sleeps and I'm outta here! What a strange feeling it is.

But I'm still going to have three days on the piss in Bangkok before I go home. I think that's for the best.

[nidhogg]

But I'm still going to have three days on the piss in Bangkok before I go home. I think that's for the best.

A mental health necessity I would have thought.

[Stumpy]

All the kidding aside Mendy. You are almost home. Long trek indeed.

[Mendip]

It looks like a male zebra dove to me, Mendip.

Don't shoot the messenger!

Oh shit... that's embarrassing.

I thought she'd brought one of her friends round to meet me tonight as well. Maybe he was showing off his wife?

They all look the same to me.

When I said 'bond', I meant in a male, blokey kind of way!

[Neverna]

See if you can get a photo tomorrow of the front of the bird - the breast. That's the best way to tell the males from the females, though sometimes it's not easy to tell. But they are more often than not paired up, so one of them above will be a male and the other a female. The male has a wider pink section in the centre of the breast, and the female has less pink and more of the zebra stripes going towards the centre of the breast.

[Joe 90]

I'm still going to have three days on the piss in Bangkok

These are the pics I'm looking forward too!

Go Mendip!

Go Mendip!

[strigils]

The male has a wider pink section in the centre of the breast, and the female has less pink and more of the zebra stripes going towards the centre of the breast.

Mmm, in that case it looks like the fat bird with no table manners could be the lady.

Mendip, not long to go, are you going to liberate some goodies for your daughter to replace the ones lost in erm er transit.

[ootai]

Mendip
You said earlier that you have gotten back into reading but by the look of the book in one of your pictures you must be a slow reader as you don't appear to have got very far in.
If you want to finish it before you move out you better move and hurry up.

[nidhogg]

See if you can get a photo tomorrow of the front of the bird - the breast. That's the best way to tell the males from the females, though sometimes it's not easy to tell.

Good advice if mendy goes on a nightlife prowl.

[Saint Willy]

Those sandals?

[Saint Willy]

Ok Mendy.

Challenge for you.

Quarantine meets creativity as people make their own versions of the famous complicated contraptions (© Lancelotlachartre - Dreamstime.com)


These days, the coronavirus has upended a lot of what we do with our lives. But one thing that quarantine and isolation is perfect for is the planning, building, and running of ridiculously complicated devices designed to complete very simple tasks.
Rube Goldberg machines!
All over the continent, people have been making their own unbelieveable versions of these mega-gadgets, and we want to share some of our favourites with you. In each case, these people spent days and even weeks perfecting their expansive, esoteric apparatuses. And they had to be prepared to fail more than a few times, too. But we think they were all worth it in the end!
Sporting life

The first is a San Diego family that was determined to score the winning goal in foosball ... in the most difficult way possible, of course. (We love how they start getting more excited as the machine gets closer to the end!)

Next up is YouTuber Creezy, whose Swish Machine is easily the most mind-boggling two pointer ever scored in the history of basketball.

Open for business!

At Exploration Place, a science museum in Wichita, Kansas, staff members built an enormous Rube Goldberg machine to celebrate reopening after being under COVID shutdown. It takes them a few tries, but they get there!

Don't forget to wash up!

Since 1987, there has been a national contest in the United States to build Rube Goldberg machines. Each year, a task is chosen—such as building a hamburger, turning on a radio, or opening an umbrella—and people try to make the best version of the machine to win.
COVID initially cancelled the 2020 contest. But then the organizers decided to let people submit their machines on YouTube and open up the contest to the whole world. The theme? A very timely, virus-fighting one: Fetch a bar of soap!
Ryan's submission was pretty great ... though he just missed catching the bar of soap at the end (which makes for a very funny blooper!).

In "Soap Delivery", Brayden and his family combine fun sound effects and a phone call to wash his hands.

But the winner out of all of the submissions was a family from Toronto. Their Rube Goldberg machine took over two floors of their house ... and even included a soundtrack!

Who was Rube Goldberg?


Rube Goldberg's Self-Operating Napkin. (Wikimedia Commons)
American cartoonist Rube Goldberg (1883-1970) was a revolutionary artist. Starting in the early 1900s, his newspaper cartoons became some of the most popular in the country. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartoons, founded the National Cartoonist Society in 1946, and the annual prize for the best cartoonist in the U.S.—the Reuben Award—is named after him.
Goldberg was also famous for his cartoons that showed outrageously complex machines that were designed to complete a very simple task—like turning on a light switch or, in the cartoon above, wiping someone's face with a napkin.
Eventually, people tried to replicate these kinds of bizarro contraptions in real life. And the name for them was obvious: Rube Goldberg machines!
So are you inspired to trying building one with your family? No time like the present!

We love these COVID Rube Goldberg machines - Owl Connected


And here is the ultimate.

Family built incredible Rube Goldberg machine during quarantine Video - ABC News

[Stumpy]

Morning Mendy. Just a few more days.

Cheers.

[Mendip]

Morning JP... yeah, I can almost taste the freedom now.

Only 3 more sleeps!

[Stumpy]

Yeah. At least the weather has been nice and not rainy or gloomy. That's a huge upside.

Any tests today or just another balcony day with your feathered visitors

[Mendip]

^ No tests but should get the results from yesterday's PCR.

Should finish up my admin stuff this morning.

The only big thing happening is I've been told the cleaners are coming at 1pm. So it's shorts, t-shirt, the lot... which is a bit of a pain.

Other than that I'm just going to kick back today.



... gotta go... it's washing hanging out time!

[Saint Willy]

Threw some lamb on the barbie yesterday for Strayia Day...

and some other stuff...