My banana palm that had the flower is rotting inside. I've had to cut it down to almost ground level to get a core that is solid. Hopefully it can now regrow from there as the other pup did.
On a positive note there are still three others growing away now, one about 10 ft tall, then 3ft and finally 2ft. At least I have some stems despite the beast from the East.
If he'd tried that in the States he would have been. Shot that is.
It's available for view for the next 29 days on ITV hub. You'll need to register.
He's off to Helsinki later for his tryst with Putin. 
Thought this might be worth a look. We spent half an hour with our sides splitting. It's SO funny. 6:30 on Saturday evening. ITV1.
Bringing you the funniest moments from Japanese TV and game shows.
They should junk the rest of the Saturday schedules and just show this.
Printed stuff he might get away with but not a video of the interview. Unless he's claiming it was CGI or something.
are allowed to be clothed now
Perhaps he's a Ferengi in disguise.
Oh, and he walked in front of the Queen.
Orf with his head.
Trump just has a problem with women, or maybe vice versa 
Glad to hear him put in words what so many of us think.
Interestingly on R4 Today programme their correspondant noted that Trump's press secretary wanted to stop the interview with the Sun's correspondant Ton Newton Dunn after the alotted 10 minutes but Trump overruled her and continued for another 20 odd minutes in which he made the Boris comment.
Time to give this thread a bump. Here's a start to something I was toying with but have yet to develop. It's a cross-over. For those not familiar with this genre it's taking the characters from one situation and throwing them down in another.
I've taken the Gundam Wing characters and dumped them in the Prince Peter chronicles space. This is all there is at the moment but I'm very happy with the opening:
QuoteDisplay MoreFinal Conflict.
Genre: Shounen ai
Rating: R (16+)
Warning: Lime (and how!)
Setting: AU. Cross-over with “Extracts from the chronicles of the pure city” (Unpublished)
Prologue.
Duo knelt at the grave and laid the white lilies that he had bought gently on the stone. The inscription read “Here lies Heero Yuy, pilot of Wing and beloved partner of Duo Maxwell, Born AC180, died AC311 aged 131. RIP”
Poor Heero, they’d only diagnosed the cancer a month ago but it had spread so fast that he had been reduced to a cripple in less than three weeks. The diagnosis was that the genetic modifications that had given them both time and health beyond their years had finally turned on him. Duo remembered holding his hand as his soul mate passed away, a frail shadow of his former self.
Duo lifted his rheumy eyes now more grey than purple to look at the graveyard: A thin November wind carrying a fine drizzle made him pull the heavy greatcoat around his still thin frame. Even in the Sanc Kingdom, autumn was a dreary season. He was in the railed off section devoted to war veterans.
Next to Heero was an empty space for him and then Trowa and Quatre. Quatre cruelly taken in his twenty-ninth year by an assassin’s bullet and Trowa shortly after of a broken heart. Beyond them Wufei and Sally Po. They had had a long life with many children and grandchildren to which he and Heero had been godparents.
Near the boundary railings were Zechs and Noin. They had moved to Mars during the terrestrialisation project and had lived there until the accident that had killed them both. Nobody seemed to know quite what happened. Why the fusion reactor had leaked dangerous undetected radiation. Relena had made sure that their bodies were bought back to rest here. Next to them was a memorial stone to Trieze Kushrenada, there was no body after his suit had detonated when he lost the battle with Wufei. With him was Commander Une who had atoned for her role in the conflict by running the Preventers. A career that she seemed destined to perform.
And then in the prime position was Relena. She had finally shaken off her infatuation with Heero and thrown herself into her role as foreign secretary and monarch. Dorathy Catalonia had become her close confident through those years and Duo suspected something more but nothing had ever been said, Yet there they lay both together.
Duo Slowly pulled himself to his feet, the braid, now more silver than cinnamon almost reached to the ground. He slowly trudged along the gravel path to the boundary railing where the nurse waited in the electric buggy. He climbed into the passenger seat and lifted his braid into his lap.
“Come on Mr Maxwell, you must be frozen. Let’s get you back into the warm”
“Thank you Silvia. I needed to see Heero again”
“It’s difficult to realise that he’s gone?”
“Yes, I’ve now lost all the people that I knew”
Silvia didn’t know what she could say to that, she had only been looking after Mr Maxwell for the last few days since Heero died and she was worried that he might pine away. She drove them back to the apartment were Duo lived.
Duo made himself a cup of cocoa and settled down on the sofa that he had shared so many times with Heero. He idly flicked through the TV channels but as usual there was nothing on. He had never felt so alone. Then suddenly a sharp pain hit him in the chest and he felt his consciousness fading then suddenly he was snatched away.
CH1. A new war.
“Come on Duo, wake up you sleepy head!”
Heero? Impossible! Duo tried to shake of the sleep. He opened his eyes. Eyes that were now vibrant purple and young! He looked into the Prussian blue eyes of Heero who promptly kissed him. Now he was really awake.
“Nani?”
“Duo, it’s really me and look”
Duo realised that the other pilots were there, Trowa with Quatre in his arms, Wufei and all of them only fifteen or sixteen years old.
“What’s going on?”
“Duo I can’t explain, I was dying and suddenly I’m here. It’s the same for all of us, though we died years apart we’re all here together, wherever ‘here’ is”
Duo raised himself up and looked about. The room was sparsely furnished with simple blinds at the windows keeping the bright sunlight out and a polished marble floor.
“The door seems to be locked” Said Heero “But I’ve looked out of the windows, we seem to be in a city but nothing like that on Earth or the colonies. It’s beautifully built with streets of polished marble and tall palms lining them.
“How long have you and the others been here?”
“Only a few minutes, we tried to wake you but you wouldn’t stir until now”
Suddenly the door opened and two figures entered the room. Duo looked at them, they were dressed strangely, the first had waist length blond hair held back by a small gold circlet, a white sleeveless shirt and a blue miniskirt. He(!) wore no shoes. The second had waist length black hair that shone like a raven’s feathers and was wearing a purple robe that reached to his feet and similarly had no shoes. Both men had large eyes, small noses, ears and mouths and their faces tapered to a narrow chin.
The blond man spoke “Friends, I bid you welcome to my Principality, I am Prince Peter the nineth and here “ He indicated the dark haired man “is Garant, chief of the guild of sorcerers who is responsible for you being here”
Heero spoke, brief and to the point “Why?”
Peter looked slightly taken aback. “Heero, and yes, we know all your names. I will mention one other name and then you might understand: Trieze Kushrenada.”
Wufei stiffened. “What, I thought I killed that man?”
“You did, but OUR enemies bought him back here to help them as they have done with Lady Une, Tubarov, Dekim and many others. To counter them we thought that you would be willing to help us. Even if you won’t you may re-live your lives in our city as you wish”
“Do you have our Gundams?” Said Heero.
“Unfortunately no, we cannot move machines between the planes, neither can our enemies. That privilege belongs to the white lord, but your battle skills and planning we can use if you are willing? I know that some of you are skilled with the sword. I have had rapiers, our weapon of choice, made for Heero and Quatre and for you Wufei a special katana with its saya, the finest that our friends the dwarves of the black mountain can produce.”
Wufei’s dark eyes glinted “Fight Trieze hand to hand with the katana, that would be a cause worth dying again for. I lost the last time. That will not happen again!”
I don't have the time to wade through these papers so I have to rely on political pundits to do the analysis for me. I can comment further once I've seen the commentary(s) in the red tops tomorrow.
Been a lot cooler down here as well, positively chilly first thing. I can finish planting my perennials as hot sun is not the best for new plants to establish themselves.
but over the issue of tax. More firmer ground there.
The only tax they might apply is some kind of sales tax. This has been mooted for the likes of ebay and Amazon as their profits are posted in a foreign country and thus not subject to UK Corporation tax
"Strangely", when things have gone wrong in her government thus far, she's despatched her loyal cabinet colleagues, rather than accepting any blame herself
A wise general leads from the rear.
Some of their income is derived from the UK, so our law should apply to them.
IANAL but I don't think that making money in a foreign country necessarilly makes you subject to their laws.
There's also the subject of enforcement, unless facebook have some tangible assets in the UK there's no lever than can be applied. Even then they could decide to forfeit them to maintain their independence.
I also remeber a recent case where an English court placed an injuction on English newspapers not to print a scandal story, yet Scottish and international newspapers were free to run the story and also on their websites and the English court had no power to stop them.
Our only hope is that the EU tell her to get "mated" .
She'll just water it down further until she has her piece of paper to wave, Chamberlain type, as she steps off the plane.
17.4 million people betrayed.
Probably in my spam folder.
I would't be at all surprised if Facebook refuses to pay the fine. Give regulators an inch and they'll take a yard
Facebook is outside the regulators jurisdiction so it has no need to pay the fine and can thumb it's nose at the UK regulator.
An analogy would be like the UK courts trying to fine the New York Times for a defamatory article on the UK.
It's a different world to when we had one black and white TV channel, one state radio broadcaster and most news was in papers in the cornershops.
Then the government could control what you knew, now they can't. The genie is out of the bottle but some people refuse to accept it.
She says the 1st referendum was 'too complicated' for us peasants, but we should have a referendum on the final deal!
If the first one was too complicated the second one will be even more so as May's plans have never been tried before whereas we already trade under WTO rules with many other countries.
Article 50 has been invoked so remaining in the EU is not an option, therefore the only question that could be put in a second referendum would be May's plan, potentially watered down by the EU, or leave and trade under WTO rules or any special agreement(s) that can be made with theird parties which is the much simpler option IMHO
I've finally got the temperature controller correctly configured to run the fridge. I went to the manufacturers web site and downloaded the concise comissioning manual for the product. I designed large chunks of it: Most of the hardware and chunks of the firmware a few years ago but funnily I've never comissioned one and the only manuals I have are for it's predecessor and the set-up screens were changed on the revised product as extra features were added and some setups automated.
I have the controller set for on/off operation with +/-0.4C hysteresis around a set point of 5.0C with the sensor on the middle shelf of the fridge. Seems to be working a treat.
I've got a load of stuff to cut up, bag and get down the dump. My composters are full to overflowing. Penalty of not doing much over the last couple of years as other things have been needed doing.
4 big sacks to go this morning plus some larger branches. We have to empty the sacks at the dump as no plastic is allowed in the garden waste dumpsters. Still I've reduced one pile to some small dregs. One other pile to chop up and some order maight be achieved.
they don't come much worse than being a vassal state.
Plenty of spikes in traitors cloister just begging for a head.
Looks like you mullered that.
Now, lets see what's been happening in the news...
Plenty.
Yay! Sea breeze (at last) this afternoon has pulled the temperature back to 23C. Very pleasant.
It's nice watching the solar lights coming on. So nice and cool. Aircon is on in the bedroom for later.
Cabbage Whites?
We're out on the patio tonight watching episodes of GOT, series 5, on the lappy. So much cooler than in the house.
Found a new use for my bug gun: Shooting cabbage whites that are intent on laying eggs on my nasturtiums. They're pests anyway so I don't feel that guilty about shooting a butterfly.
Going to be a scorcher today, already 24C. BBQ will be out later after a session in the local's beer garden in the shade.
Been running a while now and the inside is down to about 6C. Compressor body has settled around 58C which is no great temperature.
Fishing about to get the bits together for a jury rig.
My small chest freezer struggles in this sort of weather and I have added a small fan that helps keep the compressor cool. It doesn't have an external radiator but uses the whole body to get the heat away so the outside is quite hot at the moment. It's just holding -18C inside but I don't think the compressor is getting much slack.
I've sussed the fridge: I tried cleaning up the starter relay and shorting out the thermal switch but it still only ran a short while. I've now bridged the thermostat connection and it run continuously and is getting nice and cold inside.
I've got a 1/16th DIN size (48x48mm bezel) digital temperature controller that can be configured as a simple thermostat so I'll press that into service for the moment. I need to find the manual for it though. There's a lot of settings.
I doubt that I can get an exact replacement for the thermostat so it'll probably have to be either a generic part or something that can be persuaded to fit.
