General Chit Chat

[Montreal Wanderer]

...there guests, Monty? Demerit. (suffering seasonal stress syndrome no doubt).

I'm not sure you read the sentence correctly - I'll expand a bit
"a bit like people who live near airports never hear the plane landing, while there [in these houses near the airport] guests think there has been an earthquake."

[Worthy4England]

...there guests, Monty? Demerit. (suffering seasonal stress syndrome no doubt).

I'm not sure you read the sentence correctly - I'll expand a bit
"a bit like people who live near airports never hear the plane landing, while there [in these houses near the airport] guests think there has been an earthquake."

I reckon that it's missing a comma, then.

[TANGODANCER]

...there guests, Monty? Demerit. (suffering seasonal stress syndrome no doubt).

I'm not sure you read the sentence correctly - I'll expand a bit
"a bit like people who live near airports never hear the plane landing, while there [in these houses near the airport] guests think there has been an earthquake."

Whilst normally having the greatest respect for your command of grammar Monty, I reckon you wrapped that in a load of waffle.

[Dujon]

That's a bloody good try, Monty, but it won't wash. It is understood that one prefers to leave the personal out of postings, however it is obvious that one's ignoring of the 'i' in certain words is simply slly.

[Montreal Wanderer]

People have sometimes said I should have been a lawyer, though I doubt it was a compliment (or is it complement, Dujon?).

[Prufrock]

It was a grand effort at a save!

[Athers]

We had ASDA FM when I worked there, it was the usual pop stuff during the day but as the night wore on they used to play some other stuff which was a bit better. I suppose I mean Oasis there but well after a day of Westlife it was pleasing to hear the miserable sod Gallagher.

Just can't handle Christmas songs at all. I am a grinch when it comes to Christmas but the main problem is that they're a) almost all the same and b) almost all awful.

[Athers]

Had a quick go at some sample questions for this famous PISA exam which is in the news. According to the green box only 3% of 15 year olds in the UK can answer questions like question six, and apart from in China that's a quite common score. It doesn't seem that hard to me, so basically it means kids are idiots and the Chinese salt mines await them.

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test/form/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Gary the Enfield]

Had a quick go at some sample questions for this famous PISA exam which is in the news. According to the green box only 3% of 15 year olds in the UK can answer questions like question six, and apart from in China that's a quite common score. It doesn't seem that hard to me, so basically it means kids are idiots and the Chinese salt mines await them.

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test/form/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm going to try this with young Miss GtE later. She's 12 and I'm sure she'll do this easily.

[TANGODANCER]

Wife bought the dog a new water bowl today; shiny stainless steel thing. After tea he came in the back, looked at the new bowl and started growling at it. Wife tried to tempt him to drink, no chance. He kept on growling till she got his old plastic one back out then drank the lot. Dumb animals? Don't you believe it.

[malcd1]

Wife bought the dog a new water bowl today; shiny stainless steel thing. After tea he came in the back, looked at the new bowl and started growling at it. Wife tried to tempt him to drink, no chance. He kept on growling till she got his old plastic one back out then drank the lot. Dumb animals? Don't you believe it.

Was it shiny enough to see himself in it? I was thinking if he saw the reflection he may have thought it was another dog.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

No. Ours does the same... she'll happily drink out of a ceramic one that's so shiny white you can photograph her reflection, but just will not have the Sainsbury's stainless steel bowl which has a brushed metal finish and therefore no reflections.

[thebish]

Wife bought the dog a new water bowl today; shiny stainless steel thing. After tea he came in the back, looked at the new bowl and started growling at it. Wife tried to tempt him to drink, no chance. He kept on growling till she got his old plastic one back out then drank the lot. Dumb animals? Don't you believe it.

sounds like my dog - scared of absolutely anything new!

[Montreal Wanderer]

Had a quick go at some sample questions for this famous PISA exam which is in the news. According to the green box only 3% of 15 year olds in the UK can answer questions like question six, and apart from in China that's a quite common score. It doesn't seem that hard to me, so basically it means kids are idiots and the Chinese salt mines await them.

http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test/form/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I did them all and they seemed pretty easy. The level six one, broken down, said Helen rode 7 kms in 15 mins. What was her average speed? Granted you had to add two figures to get the 7 and another two to get the 15, but it's not rocket science. Multiplying 7 by 4 could be the tricky part. Only 4% of students generally got the answer of 28 Km/h.

[Athers]

I'd like to see a full paper because they do seem really easy. Question 3 for instance. Only 76% of the mad-for-learning Koreans and 55% of the UK students are able to answer questions such as, "Which is the lower number: 1.79 or 1.783?"

Maybe you have to get all the questions in a particular level correct to pass, and it's easy to slip up here and there in exams?

[Montreal Wanderer]

I'd like to see a full paper because they do seem really easy. Question 3 for instance. Only 76% of the mad-for-learning Koreans and 55% of the UK students are able to answer questions such as, "Which is the lower number: 1.79 or 1.783?"

Maybe you have to get all the questions in a particular level correct to pass, and it's easy to slip up here and there in exams?

The important thing may be to not rush which people are tempted to do under pressure.

[TANGODANCER]

Wife bought the dog a new water bowl today; shiny stainless steel thing. After tea he came in the back, looked at the new bowl and started growling at it. Wife tried to tempt him to drink, no chance. He kept on growling till she got his old plastic one back out then drank the lot. Dumb animals? Don't you believe it.

Was it shiny enough to see himself in it? I was thinking if he saw the reflection he may have thought it was another dog.

Dog bowl adventures, part two. In an effort to get our Alf to drink from the shiny new bowl, the wife put the two bowls side by side but filled only the new one and left his blue plastic one empty. Not long afterwards a series of growls told us it hadn't worked. He wanted none of that new-fangled stuff. Now he's back drinking happily from his old bowl and the new one's been consigned to the garage (along with other failed canine experiments). Dogs...!

[Abdoulaye's Twin]

Cats are worse. If they don't like their litter tray, or you change the type of litter, they just go down the dirty protest route.

[bwfcdan94]

My cat will not ever drink out of the water bowl we leave out for him, instead he jumps in the sink, drinks out of puddles or occasionally (as long as it is not to hot) jumps in the bath before the soap is added. Never thought at cat would be so fond of getting soaked.

[mrkint]

some cats really like water, like Turkish Vans (a breed of cat, not an Istanbul Transit)