Is a Virtual ‘Thon a possibility?

[Satchmo Distel]

Great session. Thanks to all attendees for your contributions. I will host again on Saturday August 1st.

[Sporting]

Thanks for setting it up. I was a bit distracted during the session by stuff happening at home and at one point the seat of an old swivel chair I was sat on came loose and caused me to fall off and knocking down a pile of books and breaking the bulb of a small lamp I was using. Don't think anyone noticed.

Enjoyable craic including water usage in Africa, fireworks, pub-going, mask-wearing, outside toilets, amateurism in Irish sport, live pigeon killing at early Olympic Games, and Cyril Fletcher.

[Femme Folle]

It was nice to see some new faces.

[Duncan Gardner]

Thanks to all and esp Satch for hosting

[Femme Folle]

Teddy said that he's sorry that he slept the whole time.

[Satchmo Distel]

Enjoyable craic including water usage in Africa, fireworks, pub-going, mask-wearing, outside toilets, amateurism in Irish sport, live pigeon killing at early Olympic Games, and Cyril Fletcher.

Yes! These are examples of why these chats are working so well; there's a relaxed vibe and the conversation can flow in all directions.

I missed Teddy. My cat* also slept through it but he's 17 to be fair: 102 in cat years.

*The one of my 5 cats who has decided the office is his domain.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

My IT Department says I should be okay to host on July 18th.

[Sporting]

Thanks!

By the way, more or less when is your cruise again?

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

If it sails as planned from Palma I think our day in Valencia would be Thursday 1st October.

[Sporting]

Great. No idea what I'll be doing that day but I'm sure I can set some time aside. Some grub if you want? Let me know nearer the time what sort of tourism you're most interested in.

How do these day stops normally work? Off the ship around 8, back on board by 6 in the evening, is something I've heard.

[Capybara]

at one point the seat of an old swivel chair I was sat on came loose and caused me to fall off and knocking down a pile of books and breaking the bulb of a small lamp I was using. Don't think anyone noticed.

I wondered what was going on. You should have made the most of it for comic effect.

[Jah Womble]

Good luck on the date

Thank you. I’ve seen her a few times now, actually.

The evening was fun. And expensive.

[Sporting]

For anyone still puzzled by my apparent memories of pre-decimal pub prices here's what I was trying to explain (edited from an old post):

Our port of call was the Douglas Arms, run by a family who had a Rhodesian flag behind the bar and who would have been absolutely positively pro-Brexit and all that…but at the same time they were tolerant of everything and everyone. Hard to explain, really. There were things you talked about, stuff you didn’t. The boundaries were understood. They did a superb pint of Marstons and had a snooker plus table. They used to quote prices in pre-decimal currency for quite some years after 1971. Visiting Americans (for example) would be completely flummoxed by being asked for 6 shillings and 8 pence for a pint.

[Gangster Octopus]

The Bluebell in York used to have a ?:s:d till into the eighties.

[pebblethefish]

I think it was on 60th anniversary of D Day that a pub in the New Forest offered beer at 1945 prices, but only if you paid in the old currency. He thought he was being cheeky, bordering on smug, but didn't realise quite how many old boys from miles around would descend on his bar carrying their old jar of thrupenny bits etc. He lost a packet.

[Capybara]

The Bluebell in York used to have a ?:s:d till into the eighties.

The Blue Bell in York still has an electric pump.

[ursus arctos]

A number of the shops we frequented in Milan still include Lire prices on receipts

[The Mighty Trin]

When I became single a couple of years ago my Mum offloaded a load of old tea towels on me. They were presumably my Grandma's and there's an excellent one about the village of Horbury, where Sabine Baring-Gould wrote Onward, Christian Soldiers, but there's also this topical one...

[S. aureus]

My uncle still talks about prices in l:s:d, unfortunately that's the least of his problems.

[Gangster Octopus]

I can't remember the last time I used a coin...

[The Mighty Trin]

My Dad said that something in Asda cost a 'tanner' the last time I saw him. Which was a few weeks ago and not in 1964.

I'm seeing him again on Friday so his concept of money may have regressed to groats...

[ad hoc]

When I was a paper boy, i had to collect the money every week. there was one old lady who just used to get her purse and pour all the coins into my hands and say, "can you take what you need, I don't understand this modern money". This will have been in the early 80s. At the time I was baffled, as the ten+ years that had passed since decimalisation was almost literally a lifetime away for me.

(Luckily i was an honest lad)

About a year after I first arrived in Romania the currency was revalued. A one million lei note became 100 (new) lei. This was in 2005. I still hear older people talk about "millions" (when they mean hundreds). Sometimes I'll be at the market and be asked for "fifty" for something which should not be that price at all (50 would be about 10 euros, which is a lot more than i should be paying for a kilo of tomatoes). In this case "fifty" is short for 50,000, which in turn is really 5 in actual money

[Gangster Octopus]

I found out how much a groat was the other day...

[Nocturnal Submission]

I can't remember the last time I used a coin...

I can. About three hours ago when I paid the window cleaner, (12 quid, with a cost-free update on the current status of his prostate).

[Gangster Octopus]

I've haven't paid cash for anything since the beginning of lockdown. Mainly because I haven't been to the pub...