No, is the answer. Moving to another ISP when my plan runs out. I’m paying extra for a VoIP line and want to move to WiFi calling.

I do a lot of water sports in the UK and we use VHF radios. Certain frequencies are used by marinas and the like, and nearby boats will be tuned into them. Then there is a frequency used for emergency calls - the coastguard listens on that and answers, and will move your call to another frequency for more details, leaving the mayday one open again.

We mainly use VHF for boat-to-boat comms, or boat-to-shore. The local range is decent - a few miles from our base, depending on atmospheric conditions, obstacles etc. I honestly have no idea if you could use VHF radios between cars though. It’s not private for a start - everyone can hear you - and once someone is yammering on the marina frequency no-one else can transmit. So it’s just brief messages with protocols.

I hate the SMS ones, because I don’t have a good phone signal in my home, so I have to ruin around trying to get a couple of bars so I can get the effing code. My banking app just uses a fingerprint.

Swimming works for me. I joined a gym at a hotel that has a pool, reasonable price and usually fairly few people. I like to swim lengths, thinking of nothing at all, for half an hour to an hour. Good for general fitness, stamina.

The best thing about digital photography is that you can keep trying your shot with different settings for exposure, aperture etc. it’s a great way to learn what works best in what situation.

It’s my understanding that everyone has sleep paralysis - the brain “switches off” the body (apart from essentials: breathing, heart beat etc) so you don’t come to grief acting out your dreams. What we call sleep paralysis is when you wake, but your body hasn’t been switched back on.

I used to have horrible sleep paralysis nightmares quite often. But then I read about what it really is, and I stopped having them. It was like my brain realised it was out of sync and corrected itself.

I think it may be dawning on them. I’m on an international holiday & didn’t get time to faff about installing Linux before I left. But I discovered the day before my flight that Microsoft has extended its offer of security updates for another year to individuals as well as businesses free of charge, and signed up. Last time I’d looked I’m sure ESU was for businesses only.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/extended-security-updates

The bit that made me laugh was: “ESU enrollment does not provide other types of fixes, feature improvements, or product enhancements.” Phew!

I’ll crack on with upgrading to Linux when I get home, nice little winter project.

It happened in the UK too, in the 60s. Some of the lines have been reinstated in recent years, but most were gone for good. Cars were the future! Really dumb.

In Belgium we hired bicycles at the railway station at Ypres, biked around the countryside all day, then dropped them off and got the train back to Brussels.

As for the Netherlands… this is a typical railway station bike park.

Taps aff!

Three, down to two now. One’s 70, the other’s 82.

Ha ha, that’s my one too - tell us what these bloody things are for!!

I once asked a Dutch friend what would be a good phrase to learn before visiting Amsterdam. He thought for a minute and said “sneeuwklokjes”. Snowdrops. It was his kindly way of saying don’t bother, lol. I did learn a few things - hello, please, thanks - and they did go down well.

A live hedgehog. He was obsessed with them. They would roll up tight to protect themselves and he’d grab them, prickles and all. To get them off him was a real pain, literally. What worked best was holding his head so tight he couldn’t move, and repeatedly pinching his nose until he dropped the poor creature. We both caught ringworm, a variety unique to hedgehogs.

My old greyhound was not very bright at all, but he often had a Cunning Plan.

Example: On a walk near home he found a forbidden item. He knew I’d take it off him but he wanted to keep it. Cunning Plan time. He ran home, knowing I would never keep up. In your face, slow poke! I strolled back and there he was, waiting to be let in the gate. The look on his face was priceless, lol.

I’d never heard of him, but I’m not American. I saw a headline something like, “panic after Kirk shooting” and wondered if someone had shot up a church service in Scotland.

My old dog went through the same thing - turned out his teeth were bad. Prior to that discovery one thing that worked for keeping his weight up was to cook his food myself. He liked chicken (necks are cheap and the bones aren’t dangerous) stewed up with pasta, rice or potatoes, and veg like peas and carrots; mincemeat ditto, with a bit of liver; ox heart and/or tongue also good but a bit gross. Offal is offally cheap, usually.

Important: Don’t use onion or garlic! They’re toxic for dogs.

Cramond Island, Edinburgh