Good morning EL (and Skylark if you pop in) a little bit chilly here but they say its going to get colder brrrrrr!  - coming up to Halloween ! ---> 

Good morning squiggle

As an adult, I'm not a great fan of Halloween, though when I was a youngster we would do innocent things like bobbing for apples (or docking for apples for our Scottish Buddies). I do not like the American import of Trick or Treat, and I know that our previous vicar tried to get the teachers at the local schools to discourage their pupils, as that can so easily get out of hand, and I have an unease about it almost amounting to low grade blackmail.

But have you looked over in The Bus Stop thread over in the Lounge. The members of that thread have been putting witches' hats on their avatars to celebrate Halloween

It's quite interesting reading this Wiki article on Halloween

El Loro your thinking and mine coincide on Halloween.  I have a friend in Canada and all of her children dress up and go trick or treating and as long as everyone is happy to answer their doors and dispense a few sweeties well and good but there is a darker side and this will appeal to those who are intrigued by this whole occult business which is, I agree, a very dangerous and slippery slope. Like you we used to do apple bobbing etc when I was a child and that sort of activity is mostly harmless.  I have heard of people (especially bigger kids) in the larger cities playing some nasty tricks though .

It doesn't have to be larger cities though. Our church property (fences and windows) are regularly vandalised by some of the bigger kids in the area. They will be the same few each time and will be well known to the police.

Joyron is in Gibraltar, I wonder if she is thinking of us?  Somehow I doubt it

This thread is a little threadbare (see what I did there? ) so here's a flower to brighten it up

I would like to think that Joyron is too caught up in her holiday to be spending time thinking of us.

But here is a little video clip clearly shot by a tourist at Gibraltar:

I thought I'd post this little gentle clip for you:

By the way, that silly weather forecast site I sometimes post absurd things from has had big problems for the past few days which makes it unusuable. There is a warning about this on their front page, so if you wonder what is going on there, they know about it.

And it would also help if they reprogramme their computers to come up with more sensible results (but it would spoil my fun at their silly mistakes)

Thank you for those great clips EL, I especially enjoyed the Monet one, the perfect music to accompany those wonderful paintings.  To think that people own those paintings just for how much money they are worth rather than their beauty.  You and I will probably share the same thought that they show parts of God's wonderful creation. 

I agree with you squiggle

Here's one, but this time the paintings are by Renoir. Although there are quite a lot of clips available I try to select those few where the music and pictures work well together. I also have to be careful not to include any with paintings of naked ladies in because of the very strict rules on this forum (not that anyone should be offended unless they have never been in an art gallery)

Again simply beautiful, thank you, I think I will say goodnight, speak to you tomorrow, the music is very calming

Good morning everyone

I hope everyone is well, and that it's not too cold for you. And squiggle, I hope you are not suffering too much today with your boiler problems and your engineer comes up trumps today

Morning everyone, its a beautiful bright crisp autumn morning, blue skies, fluffy white clouds, just a little chilly. The boiler engineer might come tomorrow EL, it depends when the part arrives, but so far the boiler has started up every morning, so I've been lucky.

I'm relieved that your boiler is working to an extent - I had thought you were without heat

EL the engineer got it working right away but he said he doubted that it would come on again once it was turned off because the fan was broken, but so far it has

When I was looking for the clips I posted yesterday, I found this. It is hauntingly beautiful, but is sad, so don't watch if you are feeling a bit down.

And this. These have to be amongst the most artistic and beautiful video clips ever created.
The two clips were created by a Roumanian called Andreaa (as spelt)

By the way, the Secret Garden clips have music by an Irish-Norwegian duo, called Secret Garden. Their most famous song is "You Raise Me Up". This is the very first public performance before it was sung by the likes of Josh Groban and Westlife.

Signing off, I'm off to get my tea as I'm peckish.See you tomorrow

Night El Loro, Joyron is on her way back so we will be able to catch up with all her news in a couple of days and I think Yogi is back then too, it will be nice to be all together again, speak to you tomorrow.

Good morning everyone

I hope everyone is well today

It will be good to hear from Joyron and Yogi when they come back.

At present I don't know to what extent I'll be here tomorrow and the weekend. The electricity board have insisted on inspecting the electric meters at my parent's house - they have the law on their side. This means that I will have to waiting for them there as from 8am, waiting, waiting and waiting until they eventually turn up which could be at any time up to 1pm, and then in the late afternoon my brother materialises for the weekend.

That's odd I posted earlier but its not showing up.  What a faff for you to have to wait around EL, hope its not too long.  Hopefully my boiler is all fixed now.  Hope your weekend goes well, have you made any plans for your weekend with your brother?

squiggle, i'm glad your boiler is fixed now as you wouldn't have wanted it breaking down in the depths of winter.

A typical weekend visit from my brother is mainly chatting and playing computer games. The type of computer games are of the point and click adventure type. Not the ones which are just finding hidden objects and not a lot else, but rhe ones which are much more story orientated. They typically come from Europe where they are more popular than in the UK (the best known UK ones being the Broken Sword series). Probably the best one we ever played was Syberia (in 2 parts). That is so well written that you get totally submerged with the story and really care about the characters. We prefer these games as they do not so much rely on sharp reflexes (I have no interest in going round shooting everything in sight), are closer to partticipating in a film when they are good, and can be done in stages. They are also more involving for 2 people. I have never gone for the empire building or role playing type of game as the time commitment for those is more than I am prepared or want to give. I must admit that I don't play that much when my brother is away.

So this leads me to the question - what sort of games (if any) do you others like to play?

We seem to think alike when it comes to computer games, I loved Syberia and wish they would make more games like that.  I don't mind the Mystery Case Files ones which are a mix of HOG and solving puzzles, but there are a lot of boring ones in that genre so you have to be careful.  Have you come across the Nick Chase games?  Fun and interesting.  The Escape the Museum ones I enjoyed too and Eden's Quest the Quest for Akua was fun as there was a multiple choice element to it.  But Syberia was one of my favourites, and being girly I love the Nancy Drew Mysteries too, some can be really difficult.

Benoit Sokal who created Syberia previosuly did Amerzone which is not bad. His later attempt Paradise was a letdown - I have tried to play it, but just can't get into it. Some of the better ones in the last couple of years are the two Secret Files (Tunguska and Puritas Cordis) and the three Runaway games. These are all point & click adventure games, so don't confuse Secret Files with the Mystery Case Files series.

My favourite adventure game of all time is Loom from 1990 (LucasArts). Obviously DOS based, and primitive graphics by modern standards, but it was probably the first mature adventure game and is still unique in that the player has to use music to solve the game.

Even now, there is talk of it being remade, and it could be that as it was the only one made out of a projected series of 3, that the complete story could be told.

You can still buy Loom through Steam for a mere £2-99.

Good morning to you all

Hope everyone is well and that our returnees have had a great time.

I have to go out now, but will be back later.

A quick good morning, hope everyone is having a good day.  Catch up later

And I have returned - Godot, the electricity meter man, eventually came to my parents old house about an hour ago, read the meter, checked visually it was OK, then left within 5 minutes. I had taken some work with me to do there whilst I was waiting as I wasn't going to just sit there waiting for Godot.

Glad that went well EL and you made the most of your time, hope the weekend goes well, I will prepare the welcome mat for our absentees

Hello everyone.I love the Welcome mat, Squiggle.
I have returned from cold and breezy Berwick. We did manage to have a nice time and enjoyed a visit to Bamburgh Castle. It is good to be home though.

Nice to hear from you again Yogi, Berwick is on the border isn't it?  Glad to hear you had a good time, hope you feel really refreshed.

Welcome back Yogi.
Did they sell Bambergers in Bamburgh Castle?

Having driven past Berwick on that monster journey I did years ago, it is a bit South of the border, squiggle.

Hi Squiggle and El Loro.
Berwick is just over the border in England. Hubby was delighted to be back in the land of his birth.
No bambergers on sale, El Loro.

I'M BACK!!!  Not had chance to read through the thread but I will tomorrow.  I can confirm I was thinking about you all while I was away.  Will tell you all about my travels but probably won't be able to do so until hubby returns to work on Monday (or on Sunday if he goes down to the marina).  Funny, we've been on a very big ship but he still missed his little boat!!  Love you all.  Catch up soon. 

It could be quite a good seller though if they did
though they would have to be a bit careful as it is a real surname.

Welcome back Joyron, its lovely to hear from you again, and we look forward to when you can tell us all of your traveller tales.

And welcome back to you Joyron as well. We looking forward to hearing from you when you have the time.
(Your post was made as I was creating my previous one so I didn't see it until now)

Good morning everyone.
Welcome back Joyron. I look forward to hearing the details of your trip. I hope you had a lovely time.

Good morning to everyone and I hope you are all well

My brother's down for the weekend. Yesterday he told me that a few days ago he had decided to replace the shaver heads on his Philishave. He noticed the difference. He had been using the same shaver heads since he purchased the shaver in 1996

I congratulated him on setting a new world record

Good morning everyone, we've had a terrific storm here, crashes and bangs and lightning bolts as far as the eye can see, but I think its safe to come out from behind the sofa now.  Hope everyone is well and keeping warm.  I had to laugh at your economical brother EL, well done him!  Bet he notices the difference now though.