The Good News Thread

[Nuncio]

My boy's flight from Tel Aviv landed safely in Luton a couple of hours ago and he's on his way home. He was at the university there for a month to learn Hebrew. I know Tel Aviv in the last 3 weeks is far from Gaza in the last 3 weeks, but nevertheless we're pleased to have him back.  And he breezed his Hebrew exam. Arabic next, probably. 

[hellymedic]

Hebrew's pretty logical and there are only 22 letters to learn so that once you master reading right to left, it's not to hard for a linguist IMO. Glad he's back in one piece! My parents are currently in Jerusalem.

[interzen]

My boy's flight from Tel Aviv landed safely in Luton a couple of hours ago and he's on his way home. He was at the university there for a month to learn Hebrew. I know Tel Aviv in the last 3 weeks is far from Gaza in the last 3 weeks, but nevertheless we're pleased to have him back.  And he breezed his Hebrew exam. Arabic next, probably.

That'll be fun for him.
I tried to learn Arabic when I was younger, mainly because my Dad spent much of my childhood working in the Middle East and the 'squiggly writing' appealed to me, but the whole initial/medial/terminal letter forms thing just turned my brain into cheese (and I re-encountered it in my last job which involved wrangling multi-lingual websites - Arabic was one of the 'supported' languages although oddly Hebrew wasn't; pity, 'cos Hebrew would have been much, *much* easier)

One of the side effects of having scientific training is the ability to read Greek and Cyrillic

[Ruth]

I got that bloody bathroom window shut. And shut it shall stay.

[Vince]

I wrote to filled in an on-line form for Trust to find out if a replacement pen was available for my graphics tablet. Filling in the reason for loss as "Not been seen since my son borrowed it".

I just had an email to say a replacement is in the post. 

[Quint]

after an accident our Volvo V40 was written off, the good news ? Tesco insurance moved with incredible speed and coughed up so we could get another, we use it to take our trikes up to The Dales and holibob time is getting close

[Wowbagger]

I'm not on Bacefook but Dez is. He just drew my attention to a post from my youngest:-

Just cycled 22km. On a bike, of all things! Face intact; teeth where they should be! Woo!

This is especially good news as this particular daughter, currently coming to the end of her 2-month stay in Melbourne, knocked her front teeth out some 18 years ago an hour after I had bought her a bike for her 10th birthday. She has hardly been on a bike since, and is currently part-way through a course of implant surgery to give her some new incisors. It must have been a huge effort for her.

[PaulF]

The post Thursday night ride pub just gave us two massive bowls of chips

[Butterfly]

I got an unexpected parcel in the post today. It contained a kindle fire hd and a letter explaining that I'd been entered in a prize draw for nominating my favourite campsite and this was the prize! It's the first time in my life that I've won something worth more than £10! Now to understand the thing.

[nikki]

I got an unexpected parcel in the post today. It contained a kindle fire hd and a letter explaining that I'd been entered in a prize draw for nominating my favourite campsite and this was the prize! It's the first time in my life that I've won something worth more than £10! Now to understand the thing.

Nice! Congratualtions!

So, which was the campsite that you nominated?

[Butterfly]

White Mark Farm in Watlington.

[nikki]

...would have been my first guess   

[Kim]

Pah!  I nominated them too and didn't get a prize.  It was clearly the correct answer.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I'm not on Bacefook but Dez is. He just drew my attention to a post from my youngest:-

Just cycled 22km. On a bike, of all things! Face intact; teeth where they should be! Woo!

This is especially good news as this particular daughter, currently coming to the end of her 2-month stay in Melbourne, knocked her front teeth out some 18 years ago an hour after I had bought her a bike for her 10th birthday. She has hardly been on a bike since, and is currently part-way through a course of implant surgery to give her some new incisors. It must have been a huge effort for her.

This immediately made me think:


Don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before, honestly!

[David Martin]

Daughter appears to be settling in to Uni rather well. Been out onthe bike and managed to get lost heading home so did a few extra miles. All very cheerful so far.

[barakta]

Glad daughter is settling into uni, it's nice when people have a good early start as some people do take a while to get their head around it all.

[Nuncio]

The boy is being interviewed in Edinburgh tomorrow for Radio Cymru for his views on Scottish Independence.  We spotted him in the audience of Pawb a'i Farn (S4C Question Time) live from Glasgow on Monday, which was a bit of a surprise because he hadn't told us he was going.

[Nuncio]

Oops - that was meant to be on the 'random thread ... too small ...don't warrant...' etc

[fuzzy]

Thats m' boy!

[peliroja]

His head adornment has a natty extension!

Oh, and many congratulations.

[Wowbagger]

Splendid, Fuzzy!

I asked my son about a graduation ceremony for his PhD, but he can't be bothered to go to it. I'm slightly sad about that as it gives us old buggers a focal point for our pride in their achievements.

[Cudzoziemiec]

He won't set a good time unless he sorts out some more aerodynamic clothing!

[Tim Hall]

HMRC have written me a nice letter in which they tell me they're going to send me some money. Not a fortune but about a Mercian respray's worth, which is handy, as that's the next thing on The List.

[Wowbagger]

He won't set a good time unless he sorts out some more aerodynamic clothing!

Unless he has a tailwind...

[Mr Larrington]

a Mercian respray

What colour