The Mighty Prawn

To be fair Nath you have rather monopolised the emergency services over the last few years albeit mostly the medics so maybe the police were just jealous? How are you getting on with the fire brigade?

I got some for free off the chimney sweep, they burnt way too quickly to be used as a heat source without bankrupting me

It’s certainly nothing to do with Amazon having their own card as a Mastercard and their profit stream increasing if they push everyone over to Mastercard with their shares in it………

Congrats Nath, hope you can put that behind you and concentrate on avoiding workplace accidents!

This! honestly you lot are worse than a lynch mob sometimes - all they’re saying is they won’t have separate male and female categories, it’s just the same as not needing to call the police PC and WPC as their gender is irrelevant, they are Police Constables. also Actor has been the long accepted term in our industry for the same reasons, it isn’t necessary to associate a gender as we wouldn’t with any other roles, there is no such thing as a Directoress or an Electricianess. The real danger is that all the awards will go to the men as they are much more numerous and tend to be more leading roles.

I think it’s more nuanced than that with the idea that the cost of the scheme is offset by the savings on medical treatment for those that continue to smoke, as vaping is deemed lower risk (I know some will take issue with that statement) personally I tried several methods to give up the fags and vaping was the only thing that worked so I’m all for it if it helps others quit

I’ve worked on quite a few films and tv shows with armorers in the UK and they are so tightly controlled, the gun is kept by the armorers in a case until the moment before the cameras roll, and as soon as cut is called they take it away again. You can’t fire a blank aiming at someone without a ballistic screen between them, wherever possible an inert replica is used, often swapping it once any necessary firing is complete. Sounds to me like an unhappy shoot and unsafe too which is how these accidents happen.

What a horrible thing this new card is, I had to cut it out with scissors as it was delaminating trying to punch it out

thanks guys, a kind bunch you all are

My job is always pretty stressful but during COVID it’s really gone up several degrees of stress, which has left me struggling to switch off or sleep and I have developed anxiety which has become a bit overwhelming. Reluctant to go to the GP for fear of impact on my tickets I’ve let it go on until this weekend when I was at a family barbecue and just couldn’t cope with the anxiety and had my wife take me home. Contacted the GP today and I’ve been put on anti anxiety meds, which are also anti depressants. Realising this will get to my FEO and I need to get ahead of it I contacted him and to my very happy surprise he has confirmed I did the right thing seeking help and that by notifying him straight away he’s happy there’s no reason to limit or remove my access to my guns. I know there’s probably people with different stories but if you are struggling with mental health and not getting help because of ticket worries you might be pleasantly surprised by the reaction of your FEO. I was certainly expecting to at least have to rehome my guns for a while but looks like I’ll be able to carry on shooting while I sort myself out. thanks West Mercia

Definitely hawk moth, we get loads of the caterpillar in our garden but I’m yet to see the actual moth which is a shame as they’re gorgeous

I'm not saying you're cursed Nath but in a shootout I'm definitely not standing near you!! Hope you get well soon

Enjoyed reading that, nice to see some well reasoned and emotive arguments carrying the issue

If it weren’t for the crocs on their feet that photo could have been fifty years old! Lovely images, well done

It's such an emotive subject, so many factors at play with terminations including failures of sex education, failures with contraception etc. As much as there is the argument of protecting the rights of an unborn child, there's the counter argument that what quality of life can an unwanted child expect? It's still very contentious but there is evidence that Roe V Wade in the US was the main driving factor in the reducing crime rate, kids that would have been born into poverty or unwanted were terminated and therefore not born - these kids were likely to be the ones turning to crime and without their presence the crime rate dropped. I'm no expert but I don't believe many people are routinely using abortion as birth control, the few people I know that have had them have wrestled with the decision and have to live with the consequences of their actions the rest of their life.

It will never come to anything, language and spelling do evolve but ever so slowly and over time, to say "we're all spelling it like this now" and get global consensus would involve multi party agreement on a level never previously seen in world history - we can't even get the USA to spell Aluminium properly and that's just one word

I'm planning on going, sadly the wife wants to come too so I won't be getting away with a sneaky new gun purchase

thanks all, I concur with your knowledge that the mystery is solved - annoyingly it means the wife was right as she thought it might be a Hellebore

Evening all this has self seeded in my garden and has just started to flower, it’s a bit tatty thanks to the dogs but can anyone tell me what it is? Different angle

Signed

Get one of those ex-mod Harley off roaders and so long as your gun is exactly the same shape as an SA80 they have a built in lock box!!

Michael Caine missed out on picking up his Oscar because he was away filming this pile of proverbial. He has a legendary quote about it which is something like “I haven’t seen the film, but I have seen the house it paid for and it’s lovely”

Had one at my work, too nervous to come back when we returned full time in June, constantly on social media at farmers markets etc selling her homemade gin! She just gone on maternity now so another year without her. Everyone else had to pick up her work while the bosses shrugged.

It's no different to lots of jobs, there's a load of people making not much and a few making loads - musicians, actors, writers A lot of it is luck of the draw, few will have longevity so grab it while you can

Agreed and exactly my point, shooting birds just for the fun of it will turn the public against us in a heartbeat, our only real justification is the birds are put to use