Cut the garden lawns last Wednesday looked lovely for a few days needs another cut now. Years ago after bonfire night the mower was not used until March ?

World Shopping Day Date in the current year: November 11, 2020

World Shopping DayUnofficial World Shopping Day is observed on November 11. As a matter of fact, it is not an international holiday, but rather a Chinese counterpart of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in America. On this day, Chinese online shops offer significant discounts and sales.
November 11 is observed in China as Singles’ Day. Such a date was chosen because the number “1” in 11/11 resembles an individual who is alone. As the observance grew in popularity, Alibaba Group, one of China’s leading e-commerce conglomerates, found a way to monetize it.

In 2009, Alibaba’s sites (Taobao, Tmall, and others) offered discounts up to 50% on the occasion of Singles’ Day. The experiment turned out to be successful, and since then, Singles’ Day has become the largest online shopping day in the world, outgrowing America’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday. That’s why it is sometimes referred to as World Shopping Day.

In 2017, Alibaba’s retail sites set a world record for most payment transactions during November 11. Its mobile and online payment platform Alipay processed 256,000 payment transactions per second and a total of 1.48 billion transactions. That day, shoppers spent over 168.2 billion yuan ($25.4 billion).

Hi All .......There is a Private Group 'Group Prive' available to Anything! members who find certain elements are disrupting their posting pleasure !!!
Anything! will continue to run as an open Group, to most people everything will carry on as normal but those not members of All Aboard! will no longer be able to read posts and comments as Brian has taken it Private.

We will never forget those lost lives

we would like to remind everyone Scooploop encourages a positive, upbeat and helpful community.

Lately we've been observing a lot of negativity towards other members of the website, esp. within groups.

This is something we cannot allow to happen.

We want Scooploop to become a platform where users can feel comfortable and not threatened by anyone.

We want to send nothing but positive message towards newcomers, as well.

Therefore, we will be imposing stricter rules and monitoring the situation more actively, especially in OPEN groups.

There will be introduced a 3-strike system for violating Scooploop policies, including expelling users for good.

More on this to come in upcoming weeks.

We want also to bring up the matter of users creating multiple accounts (so called aliases).

Although aliases can be harmless at times, it is obviously not a good practice - we will be looking more closely on how

to deal with this problem. Nonetheless, any obvious aliases with be removed instantly, with no warning.

Moderators are reminded they are in charge to dealing with negative comments more actively.

In case the issue persists, they will face loosing their moderator status, the group might be taken over by us

or by a respected member of our community or the group might be downgraded from open to closed.

Have a good day!

Scooploop Team

Please read fully and then carefully consider what you intend to Post and Comment in the future !
As always every member is responsible for what post/comment they make in this and other Groups.
How this will effect the running of this Group we will see, but if we all follow the guidelines I have laid down we should not have a problem.

Thank you, Good Luck and happy Posting !!
CliveF

Needs no explaining.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/uknews/13145230/office-covid-sign-blunder-pee-two-metres-urinals/

Very interesting Guardian article you posted in the Esperanto All Aboard. I like that name change by the way. But I am no longer sexist.

Edward salutes on Remembrance Sunday....

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How to change the cover on a duvet
https://youtu.be/DRPfudNNd8Y

“Once when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus.

Finally, there was only one other family between us and the ticket counter. This family made a big impression on me.

There were eight children, all probably under the age of 12. The way they were dressed, you could tell they didn't have a lot of money, but their clothes were neat and clean.

The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line, two-by-two behind their parents, holding hands. They were excitedly jabbering about the clowns, animals, and all the acts they would be seeing that night. By their excitement you could sense they had never been to the circus before. It would be a highlight of their lives.

The father and mother were at the head of the pack standing proud as could be. The mother was holding her husband's hand, looking up at him as if to say, "You're my knight in shining armor." He was smiling and enjoying seeing his family happy.

The ticket lady asked the man how many tickets he wanted? He proudly responded, "I'd like to buy eight children's tickets and two adult tickets, so I can take my family to the circus." The ticket lady stated the price.

The man's wife let go of his hand, her head dropped, the man's lip began to quiver. Then he leaned a little closer and asked, "How much did you say?" The ticket lady again stated the price.

The man didn't have enough money. How was he supposed to turn and tell his eight kids that he didn't have enough money to take them to the circus?

Seeing what was going on, my dad reached into his pocket, pulled out a $20 bill, and then dropped it on the ground. (We were not wealthy in any sense of the word!) My father bent down, picked up the $20 bill, tapped the man on the shoulder and said, "Excuse me, sir, this fell out of your pocket."

The man understood what was going on. He wasn't begging for a handout but certainly appreciated the help in a desperate, heartbreaking and embarrassing situation.

He looked straight into my dad's eyes, took my dad's hand in both of his, squeezed tightly onto the $20 bill, and with his lip quivering and a tear streaming down his cheek, he replied; "Thank you, thank you, sir. This really means a lot to me and my family."

My father and I went back to our car and drove home. The $20 that my dad gave away is what we were going to buy our own tickets with.

Although we didn't get to see the circus that night, we both felt a joy inside us that was far greater than seeing the circus could ever provide.

That day I learnt the value to Give.

The Giver is bigger than the Receiver. If you want to be large, larger than life, learn to Give. Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get - only with what you are expecting to give - which is everything.

The importance of giving, blessing others can never be over emphasized because there's always joy in giving. Learn to make someone happy by acts of giving.”

~ Katharine Hepburn

I've heard of several people who are planning to put up their decs already. Are you thinking of doing yours early or sticking to the usual time?

Tonight at the White House

Many of us are unable to attend services this weekend.

If you wish, please share the names of those who gave their lives, and we should honour and remember.

Have a look at this:
http://bit.ly/2xK9BVB

Jeremy Hunt’s floating plans that could mean people are turned away from A&E. Under the proposals being explored, people could be sent home unless they had called an NHS helpline or seen their GP first. Imagine racing to A&E in the middle of the night with a sick child, only to be sent away until you have permission to go in.

Right now, the idea’s just being floated. But unless Jeremy Hunt sees a public backlash it could soon be a grim reality. That’s where we come in! A huge petition could force Jeremy Hunt to publicly rule out the plans which would get them off the table completely.

Will you join me and sign the petition telling Jeremy Hunt to rule out plans to stop us going to A&Es without permission?

http://bit.ly/2xK9BVB

Ready to toast their marshmallows and jacket spuds, stand by to call the fire engine, lol

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Affectionately remember the "Reader's Digest" used to feature these.

Please contribute a favourite one-liner, or longer joke, or funny situation you can share to lighten these locked-down or is it locked-up days?

Any positive happy thoughts please, and no biting no fighting!

This is turning into a great film plot

Why has my Waitrose store allowed shoppers to clear their shelves of toilet rolls again! Supermarkets must be able to control this silly panic buying again. There are some very selfish shoppers at it again!

I have now got a new icon for Local - that's better

I'm getting confused and annoyed. First of all we are not supposed to leave home except for food shopping, hospital apps, support for vulnerable people etc but then it says you can carry on with your support bubble. So, does that mean I can visit my sister who is stuck in on her own and needs help but I can't bring her here to have a cup of tea/cake or can I just carry on with my bubble as I've been doing recently???

This comment was hidden by a moderator

are staying open during lockdown 😀

Hi all .......don't suppose anyone noticed but I have not been around much in the last week due to my aging computer deciding to 'pop it's clogs' and running repairs failed to save it !!! necessitating me to purchase a replacement......smaller, faster and newer etc. and then to rebuild my systems into it !!!! .......not as straightforward as one might think as the new hardware invalidated all my Microsoft licence keys (real fun sorting that out !) but now I think I've managed to get everything back up and running and things will be back to normal.......

Already seen videos of supermarkets and people buying dozens of big packs of toilet rolls, what the hell is wrong with people ?
The food shops and supermarkets are not closing so no need for all this.

The latest betting information, based on very detailed data, is Biden + Harris will win.
This rating has varied between 79-84% in the last week.

Currently, [an hour ago ] the Democratic ticket has an 81.8% chance of winning the election

.

Electoral vote predictions:

301 Biden-Harris

237 Trump-Pence

Reload for current forecast from The Virtual Tout® (updated hourly)

Do you care? If so why?

Construction works can continue but what does that mean exactly? Is it just large developments or can small builders doing house/loft extensions continue to work?

World Vegan Day Date in the current year: November 1, 2020

World Vegan DayWorld Vegan Day is celebrated by vegans around the world on November 1. This annual observance was established in 1994 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of The Vegan Society based in the United Kingdom.
The Vegan Society was established in November 1994 by the animal rights activist Donald Watson. Watson coined the term “vegan” to stand for vegetarians who ate no diary products and eggs. In a broader sense, veganism is a way of living that excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals.

World Vegan Day was created by Louise Wallis, president of the Society, in 1994. The date of November 1 was chosen for its symbolism. Wallis knew that the Society had been founded in November 1944, but she did not know the exact date. She decided to choose November 1 because it coincided with Halloween/Samhain and the Day of the Dead, holidays that traditionally involve feasting.

World Vegan Day aims at promoting animal rights and raising awareness of the exploitation of animals for food, clothing, entertainment, and other purposes. Events held on the occasion include, but are not limited to, awareness campaigns, educational events, vegan friendly potluck events, giving away vegan foods, etc. Every year, more cities across the world join the campaign.

A programme on Sky called The Chop has got the chop before the series started because one of the contributors had a tatoo of the number 88.
A viewer complained that 88 is code for Heil Hitler, and Sky have panicked and cancelled the whole series. Even after the man explained why he had 88 tattooed on him.

Tonight

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Edward and Pip trying to get a treat out of me from their own front door!!

World Savings Day Date in the current year: October 31, 2020

World Savings DayWorld Savings Day is observed in many countries around the world on October 31. This observance was introduced in 1924 to promote the importance of bank savings and restore people's confidence in banks.
World Savings Day was established during the 1st International Savings Bank Congress held in Milan, Italy. The last day of the congress was declared as World Thrift Day, that later was renamed, as the holiday gained enormous popularity.

The idea of World Savings Day was born by the banks of Spain and the United States, that wanted to promote the higher living standards for the nation. They introduced the first celebration of alike holiday in 1921. The idea was supported by the banks in other countries, but it wasn't easy to implement everywhere, for instance in Germany, where people didn't trust banks since many had lost their savings in the monetary reform in 1923.

Modern World Savings Day mostly focuses on the banks in developing countries, where many people are unbanked.

PLEASE DO NOT FEED PUMPKIN TO HEDGEHOGS. Whilst hedgehogs will happily eat pumpkin as they have a sweet tooth, Pumpkins act as a laxative and will cause the hedgehog to have a very squirty bottom.
If you're putting your pumpkin outside for squirrels, keep them high up and out of hedgehogs' way!

Have you seen this?
https://tinyurl.com/y3bgq8au

It's hard to believe. In the midst of a pandemic that's already killed tens of thousands of people in this country, the government is about to increase taxes on face masks. Yes, you read that right.

When the pandemic began, Boris Johnson's government decided people would not have to pay VAT for face masks and other types of personal protective equipment (or PPE). But now, they're set to bring back VAT on masks and similar equipment at the end of this week. It could cost families almost a hundred pounds more over the coming months.

It isn’t too late to force them to change their minds. But with everything else going on, the government will be hoping the change slips under the radar. That’s where you come in friend.

If you don’t think the government should be increasing taxes on face masks and other types of PPE, sign the petition to demand they drop the hike now:
https://tinyurl.com/y3bgq8au

Mischief Night Date in the current year: October 30, 2020

Mischief NightOctober 30 is Mischief Night in Northern America and Great Britain. Tonight teenagers and children are engaged in pranks and minor vandalism.
Mischief Night has got different names. Only in the USA it is known under the names Mischief Night, Cabbage Night and Gate Night. In Canada and some other parts of the USA this night is called Mat Night and in Great Britain it's Miggy Night, Mischievous Night, Corn Night, Trick Night, Micky Night. The most interesting that Mischief Night is celebrated in Great Britain on November 4 on the eve of Bonfire Night.

As far as Mischief Night is mostly celebrated on October 30, it's tightly associated with Halloween. Trick-or-treating is a traditional activity for children.

Contemporary pranks include different tricks with toilet paper, powder-bombs, eggs, soap, fireworks, rotten fruits and pumpkins. Local grocery stores even refuse selling eggs to teenagers and pre-teens around the time of Halloween! Although the tricks during Mischief Night should be more or less harmless, sometimes children can damage homes and gardens.

Two of my fave things on the same day!! Just as well I had my Oatiflakes for breakfast then! I better treat the cat to fish tonight!
Rainforest Action Networks says.."From the playful house cat to the beautiful tiger, we’re celebrating all cats today, big and small." But it was actually only created in 2005 to highlight adoption.
On National Oatmeal Day, celebrate with a bowl of the good stuff, or even a batch of oatmeal cookies. And if you’ve got a horse, feel free to share the love. Can`t find when that was created and some websites seem to think we`ve missed it and it was 5th October but hey-ho-I don`t mind when I have an Oat cookie or a Flapjack! I`ll celebrate both days.

World Stroke Day Date in the current year: October 29, 2020

World Stroke DayWorld Stroke Day is an annual awareness day observed on October 29. It was established to raise awareness of the high rates and serious nature of stroke and educate people about the treatment and prevention of this condition.
Stroke, also known as cerebrovascular accident, occurs when poor blood flow to the brain results in cell death. It is a very widespread disease worldwide. Every year, over 15 million people have a stroke. About 6 million of them die, and approximately 5 million survivors are left permanently disabled.

In 2004, the World Stroke Congress was held in Vancouver, Canada. During the congress, the idea to create an awareness day dedicated to stroke was voiced. On October 29, 2006, the World Stroke Federation and the International Stroke Society merged into the World Stroke Organization, which became the main organizer of World Stroke Day.

Events and activities held on the occasion of World Stroke Day focus on raising awareness of the main risk factors for stroke, such as high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, obesity, tobacco smoking, previous transient ischemic attacks etc. Prevention of stroke includes decreasing risk factors. It is also important to know how help stroke survivors in order to accelerate their recovery.

I have not been out shopping for months and wondered if they have still the boxes to put items in for homeless, day centres a.s.o.
As lot of us now shop on line and deliveries it would be a lovely idea to introduce to hand some items back to driver for this purpose.
What do you think?

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Rashford faces BBC award snub.
Daily Mail are trying to make an issue over Marcus Rashford not even in the shortlist for the Sports Personality of the Year title.
He hasn't won anything this year, so why should he even be considered?

https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/27/slum-london-apartment-bought-for-1000-is-now-worth-3-7-million-13482974/

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage Date in the current year: October 27, 2020

World Day for Audiovisual HeritageWorld Day for Audiovisual Heritage is annually celebrated on October 27. This holiday was initiated by UNESCO in 2005 in order to raise public awareness of the significance and of preservation risks of recorded audiovisual and sound documents.
World audiovisual heritage consists of films, radio and TV programs, audio and video records, that have ever been made. Audiovisual documents are the most common carriers of primary information of the 20th and 21st centuries. They have become an important addition to the traditional written documents.

Unfortunately, much of audiovisual heritage is in danger, especially in developing countries, because of its nature. Currently many professionals work on preservation of audiovisual heritage and make everything possible to keep it for our future generations.

Celebration of World Day for Audiovisual Heritage raises public awareness of the need of preservation of audiovisual heritage and attract attention to the unique local, national and international aspects of heritage.

Does any one use a heat pump?

EDF is offering Future Heat system subsidised through Renewable Heat Incentive which works alongside your existing heating system.

Terms sound too good to be true.

Are these heat pumps very noisy?

Any comment would be appreciated.

Still regret not taking advantage of Government subsidised Solar system.

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Have not changed for a while and have not kept up what contents would cost now.

Which firms are you using and if you had a claim how satisfied were you?

Are you using a comparison site or one which does all the hard work for you. Forgot the name of the site which appeared on Dragon's Den and has been mentioned on here in the past.
Thanks

Without getting political in any way, I am really struggling to understand what's going on at the moment. On the one hand I read of people having trouble feeding their children and themselves, jobs are going left, right and centre and on the other hand, everywhere I go there are 'Sold' signs, skips and scaffolding. I'm getting very confused by it all.

Today's thought.....

Today I picked up my post from the mat and after sieving through the junk I found a small flat grey plastic bag delivered via Royal Mail. It was an order for some Duracell batteries, 2 packs, that I had ordered from Amazon. The bag had been cut open and it's contents stolen but they had posted the empty bag through my letter box!!! Cheek or what?

Intersex Awareness Day Date in the current year: October 26, 2020

Intersex Awareness DayIntersex Awareness Day is an international observance designated to raise public awareness of intersex people and to highlight the problems they face every day. It's observed every year on October 26.
Intersex is a term applied to people whose biological sex can't be easily determined as female or male due to presence of biological attributes of both sexes or lack of some attributes necessary for identification of one or another sex. It's a congenital condition caused by hormonal, genetic of chromosomal variations. And sometimes it's even a combination of all three variants.

It is hard to estimate how many babies might be born intersex because some forms of sex anatomy variations may not become apparent until later in life, but intersex people are believed to represent a significant amount of global population (according to different estimations, from 1.7% to 4%).

The idea of inaugurating Intersex Awareness Day arose during the 1990s. On October 26, 1996, intersex activists from the Intersex Society of North America and their allies from The Transexual Menace organized a demonstration in Boston outside the venue where the American Academy of Pediatrics was holding its annual conference. The anniversary of this demonstration became an international awareness day for intersex people.

The main objective of Intersex Awareness Day is to end shame, secrecy and unwanted genital cosmetic surgeries on intersex children.

Guy Mowbray was the commentator for the Man Utd v Chelsea match yesterday.
Just after Marcus Rashford had a shot he commented, "he didn't win in parliament this week but did win in Paris. Whether you agree with Marcus Rashford's cause or not, surely you have to admire his commitment".
For some reason the twitterati have got so angry and abusive about the comment that Guy has decided to leave social media.
I can't see what wrong with the comment.