mike carey

Ok, I'll throw a left-field suggestion. The reason I thought of it and considered posting it is that the company in the past has offered Amazon River cruises. I looked at their site and it appears that they don't at the moment, but what the heck! https://www.auroraexpeditions.com.au/ They are an Australian company and run Arctic and Antarctic (that's what I did) cruises, and others as their site indicates. They are more adventure cruises than 'classic cruises' and have staff on board who are expert in the areas to which they travel. My trip to the Antarctic Peninsula (14 days from Ushuaia) was on the Polar Pioneer, an ice-hardened Russian ship (with Russian ship's crew). It carried about 60 passengers in double and triple cabins and you could book as a single and they would try to put you with another single passenger if they could. We had the run of the main areas of the ship, including the bridge. The expedition staff were mainly Australians and New Zealanders. The food was excellent and plentiful, but it was served on large platters at shared tables, not at individual tables. There was a reasonably priced bar (no drinks included in the price) that ran a bar tab for each passenger or couple etc that you paid at the end. My credit card was billed in Cypriot pounds. On my trip we were out on zodiacs two or three time a day when we were near land, and you needed to be fit enough to scramble on and off them; higher levels of fitness were helpful but not essential. (They provided detailed advice on that and what you needed to take, and required you to have your doctor complete a health form.) I know this doesn't answer the OP's question, but it's a type of small group cruising.

It is the country that invented pilsiner. I can remember when I was a kid checking the Britannica yearbook list of beer drinking countries to see where we were and always seeing Czechoslovakia right up at the top.

'Are' is plural and 'a stud' is singular. My point was that the language has shifted so the second person plural is also used as the singular, so there is no reason why the third person plural could not similarly migrate.

Thank you so much. Frankly, I'm stunned that you should say this. I have done nothing more than compliment you on the sensitive way you have posted your story and in doing so enchanted so many of us. That said, I very much appreciate your kind comments.

Thanks everyone for the wonderful wishes. I had a lovely day, and a nice bottle of red in the evening. Successfully renewed my driver's licence for another five years. I can still read the eye chart, Yay! Actually eight hours at the moment (daylight saving time, we're GMT +11), and that's exactly how I calculate it too, 16 hours ahead (or behind when I'm calculating the other way) is too hard to work out. And, @Keith30309, no they wouldn't do that. (Actually if the Coriolis effect worked on them they would flush clockwise here and anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere, but I digress.) Australian toilets are designed differently and they don't form a vortex when they are flushed, the water just goes straight down.

I've never had a problem with them, and in general my experiences have been good. I was stuck in a Hilton property in Alexandria during the Jan 2016 snow storm in DC. The staff were great, putting on refreshments, food and other services for guests. When I was due to depart, they arranged a Uber to the airport when the local taxis didn't arrive. I suspect this was down to an individual staff member rather than the chain, but often our impressions of corporate entities are down to individuals not the company.

I admit I was switching back and forward between the cricket and the tennis tonight, but what an amazing final tonight. To have a hard-fought men's final after an equally hard-fought women's final was amazing. And yes it was 38 degrees in Melbourne today, but cooler in the evening (it's 31 there at 11.30pm) and the roof was closed for the final. Special moment in the presentation, when Rod Laver took a photo of him in the arena. In the TV scenes leading up to the host broadcaster interview, there was a shot of Roger with the presidents of Tennis Australia and Tennis USA, and the chairman of the All England Tennis Club.

(Source) Rare photo of a shark stepping on a Lego. [ATTACH=full]15047[/ATTACH]

Interesting, it doesn't for me in Firefox, Microsoft Edge or on my phone. Perhaps your browser or computer can create a link of something that looks like a URL. Dunno. One of life's mysteries! (Returns to scheduled programs: no info in the guy.)

... If you copy and paste it. If you had pasted it in the text rather the title it would have worked as an actual link. That was what the others were saying, not that it wasn't a valid URL.

(Source) Just my luck, 250 million year old salt and it expires next year. [ATTACH=full]15046[/ATTACH]

They are a drama queen works for me. Just as 'You are a stud' defies grammar but works.

It's not new, if you read back through the thread, this has already been discussed. The singular they has been used by good writers for hundreds of years.

There is still a Welsh speaking community in Chubut province. I can remember seeing a BBC program (Songs of Praise) in which they reported on an Argentine doctor working in a hospital in Wales. He spoke Spanish and Welsh, but not English.

Completely unrelated to Buenos Aires, there are remnants of Australian agricultural practices and people called Kennedy (and other Anglo names) in rural Paraguay. They are the traces of an 1890s socialist experiment of a new society (New Australia) set up in that country. To illustrate LatBear's point about the influence of the original people, the remaining descendants of the settlers mainly speak Guaraní now.

Consider demands that people might make, but decide for yourself and post the details. If people really want to meet up, the venue will be of secondary importance.

Indeed, and industrialised or not the two richest countries (per capita) in 1900 were Argentina and Australia. Argentine won the close race to be the first to send refrigerated beef to Europe (we might have been aiming for lamb, I'm not sure). As I recall, the British response to the Argentine seizure of the Falkland Islands stunned the Argentine middle class for just that reason.

It's a statue of Pilate's fwiend!

That's the message that comes up if you're blocked, although I don't know if it appears in any other circumstances. Try logging out of your RM account and checking the ad. If you can see the ad at rentmen.eu and not at rent.men that could be because you are logged on at the latter and not the former. Logons to the two versions of the site are separate. although it's the same account and password.

There's several of us here! Lol, of course we have learnt to use the same calendar as you, you're just behind the times. I see this anytime I fly to LA, I arrive there before I'd left Sydney. As for flying back, a whole day vanishes somewhere! As @Bertster noted, the characterisation of the day as Invasion Day and therefore a day of at least reflection, if not mourning, is becoming increasingly prevalent. I doubt it will happen soon. I have no doubt that something needs to change, but I'd prefer to see the day be made more inclusive and address that sensitivity. Solemn reflective and commemorative ceremonies in the morning, with the happy celebrations (including naturalisation ceremonies) held over until the afternoon and evening. The day itself is a perfect way to mark the end of the summer holidays, and for the country to shift back into 'serious' mode. I agree that in some ways it's a peripheral issue, but to me part of the government's job is to identify such issues that have the potential to be deeply divisive and nip them in the bud. This is an issue that has the potential, like equal marriage, to become a big issue if it's ignored or dismissed. Anyway, I went to the supermarket and bought a lump of roast lamb to mark the day, and watched Australia (finally) beat England in a one-day cricket match.

Interesting how something that was the watchword for something that is polite and demur became the name for something so different.

It's a fox (I added that to my post just now) but not a small one. These eagles can be over a metre long and have a wing-span of almost 3m.)

Hmmm.

I've posted this before (not sure if it was here). [ATTACH=full]15045[/ATTACH] This is a wedge-tailed eagle (ed: taking a fox) in the WA wheatbelt in 2013. http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2013-12-05/flying-foxes-in-the-wheatbelt/5138450

It seems like a pointless bureaucratic imposition. I can see that the state wants to capture a record of prescription for auditing of individual and collective health care, and for statistical purposes. I don't have a regular pharmacist, and I suspect I'm not alone. Luckily doctors here can issue paper scripts (and all do) but they are printed from the doctors' computers not hand written. Surely the reasons for the NY regulations would be satisfied if doctors gave their patients a printed script that their pharmacist could use to access the computer version? (My cynical side suspects that there is no data basing or collective use of the data, rather they have mandated a point to point electronic dissemination method that has more in common with pigeon post than a modern digital system.)