herfiehandbag

I've eaten MREs. They are quite vile, always a sort of beige paste in a plastic sachet - a bit like baby food. Biggest disadvantage is that there appeared to be no real provision for heating them up. Compo came with little solid fuel (hexamine) stoves. Vehicle crews had cookers, and of course the boiling vessels on armoured vehicles.

Bear in mind, we might be living ( outdoors) on "Compo", for several weeks, in a North West European Winter. It came in 10 man, 4 man and 1 man packs, each with a breakfast, lunch and main meal, a bar of chocolate and sweets, even down to toilet paper! 10 man pack fed 10 men for 1 day, 4 man pack 4 for 1 day and so on. 6 menus. Occasional supplement of "fresh" - usually eggs and bread. Even, if it got really cold, a rum ration! It was good stuff, good quality too!

Both - enough to make two pints of tea and one of coffee per day, plus a sachet of hot chocolate and one of screech (orange juice drink). Powdered tinned milk and a tin of sugar.

We used to get cheese in a can in army field "Compo" rations. Tins marked " cheese processed, universally known as "cheese possessed"! It was quite good actually, sliced and on top of the tinned beefburgers, gently fried in your mess tin, gave you the carbs and energy to take you all the way to Moscow! Also very good for fishing, shine a light on the surface of the lake, whistle gently, the fish would come up to see what was what, and you bash em on the head with the tin!

Next door keeps ducks. Boss duck sounds reveille at 4 am. Bastard! I must confess that I don't like those Nazi style crash helmets. Used to be a fellow in Chiang Rai with one, complete with all the eagles clutching swastikas decals. Pulled up next to him at some lights once, snapped a picture on my phone. He got all Teutonic and started swearing at me in German, before the lights changed and he roared off to invade Poland!

I am a great believer in looking for the upside in all these sort of situations. This may well result in a lot of redundant, barely used razor wire becoming available in the southern part of the United States. Imaginatively used, this could simplify the logistics and reduce the costs ( in the event of Mexico and Latin America proving to be reluctant to pay) of setting up the camps which Mr Trump intends to build in the event that he wins the election. There you are, see, a right little Pollyanna me!

It might be regarded as a bit of a Pyrrhic victory, since the allegations and court case were central to frustrating the outcome of the election!

But how would the Karens (and whatever their male equivalents are) have been able to travel?

Well apart from children dying, and being left blind from measles...

Come to think of it, I don't recall a " hub" announcement for a couple of weeks!

£33.4 million in 2022/2023, due to rise to £57 million in 2024/2025. British government figures. Buddy.

I should imagine that he will resume his seat in Parliament. He may even return to leading his party. If at anytime it looks at all like he could end up as Prime Minister; and I don't think that there is any chance of that without a landslide victory in 3 years time (and even then...)the established powers will move to block him. The only way for him or the progressive movement to gain power is through a general election victory so emphatic and clear that it is unable to be blocked, legislated against, and with the numbers to overcome whatever arrangements succeed the present senate.

Teachers are " exploited" in many such ways. They are supposedly limited to 20 ( I think) teaching hours per week, but these and many other duties are laid on top. A six day 7.00am to 5.00pm week " in school" is by no means uncommon, in term or school holidays. They put up with it because, as a teacher in a Government School they have huge security of tenure, a regular salary, access to favourable car and housing loans, medical care and a pensionable retirement, after, I think, 25 years service. Also of course, when "in school" they are relatively unsupervised and able to devote time to their own activities and businesses.

Aha, the daily chuckle at buying a submarine without an engine!

Well of course there is a much more " internationally orientated figure" hovering just over the horizon, and popping in from time to time to buy a bowl of noodles! It may just be felt appropriate to mend a few fences with international opinion, in the long term as it were...

Visited yes, does not imply worship.

😂

And inherited as such!

I wonder if they have thought it through - after all, in whose name has the pardon/parole been granted?

Which makes Savannahket Visas rather pointless! Unless, of course Mukdahan and Savannahket now have a community, a hub perhaps, of agents whose purpose is to "assist" applicants for such Visas?

Sounds like a sound basis for a two state solution, and as such no doubt will be welcomed by the UN, no doubt leading to absolution for all Hamas' actions by Antonio Gutteres!

Punching someone until they are dizzy, then putting the boot in? Hmm!

Whilst that would make a sense were this a "conventional candidate" pursuing conventional strategies, Trump is not. His strategy is whatever he thinks will serve him, at 1 AM, on "Truth Social"! If there is one it can probably be summarised as: 1) get back in the White House. 2) get all indictments and or convictions and sanctions dismissed because I am in the White House. 3) get a suitable dynasty established to follow me into the White House. 4) term limits, what are they? I've been elected!

Careful observation of the front runner, and his policies which are essentially based on racism, hatred of "liberals", and slightly off the wall evangelicism suggest to me that the "old Republican guard of yesteryear" and "warmed-over corporatism" may not be such a bad thing. Personally I am disturbed, amongst many things, by proposals to put people of a particular ethnic grouping (Latino immigrants, and their families) in camps behind barbed wire. Bit of a slippery slope I think, there...

What have you got against penguins?