Messymascot's faith in humanity and ginger safe haven

Sassy Colombian said:
Hello friends.

I finally have the energy physically and mentally to come visit you. The past week has been very tough, I have felt pain in my heart and soul so deeply that I have not desired to communicate much. The isolation of Covid also made me withdraw to focus on the pain that I'm feeling for those parents who once again have lost their kids to the non-sense that it is gun violence. It may be hard for some people to comprehend my devastation, after all, this keeps happening over and over in the US. But that sense of reality feels even more real as my daughter gets older and becomes aware of this violence that she thinks she is immune to it. It hit me the hardest a few days ago when my daughter found me crying outside and came ask why I was so sad, so I told her that I was still hurting for those families that have lost their children. Then I went off to tell her how is important for her to be aware of her surroundings (it really is a sickening feeling having to tell your child how to act if she has to deal with a mass shooting at her school), how to react if she were to encounter such situation, then Sofia gives me a big hug and tells me not to worry because such a thing would never happen in Asheville. That was my breaking point because the truth is that it could happen, she is not invulnerable to this country's epidemic, but I didn't want to break her heart too, so I didn't say anything and just hug her tightly against me, hoping she never has to deal with such terrifying situation. So the past few days have been too dark for me to express myself, and I ended up getting Covid. I had a few rough days running fever, but I think we are finally on the mend.

I have missed you all and I hope everyone is doing well. xxx
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Sass, stay strong my friend. Very apt that your daughter is named Sofia/Sophia - Greek for Wisdom.

In the Book of Wisdom, the spirit of Wisdom is clearly a female.

If we live in fear, then the gun toting terrorists are winning.

My thoughts and my prayers are with you and your family. Personally, I have had a crappy five years for a number of reasons. Really low from Christmas to about a month ago - it was the first Christmas without my dear Mum. I also had terrible physical pin with sciatica and back problems, and spent long hours lying in bed - not even interested in listening to the radio.

I find prayer is comforting but sometimes we just can't pray because we are so down. At these times St Paul says:

"We live with aspects of the age to come, even as we struggle with aspects of the old age.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. God knows our limitations and frustrations. S/He knows that our flesh is weak even when our spirit is willing, so his Spirit intercedes for us, even for needs that cannot be put into words.

God’s Spirit does not remove our weakness, but helps us in our weakness. S/He bridges the gap between old and new, between what we see and what he has declared us to be."

Rom 8:26-27

God Bless amiga mia.
 
Barnfred 55 said:
Were you driving a lorry? lol
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No and that amazed me I had a trailer and they never asked why if I hadn't intended taking so much back home . It was amusing because I had filled the car because the trailer would only take one layer of boxes and I thoughtfully put a pallet on top of the sheet ,so when I went over the bump they have as a check in the terminal it crashed over and the policeman with a gun spun around but musy have thought that I had bricks .
I was sure they would stop me whilst I was still in Dover but I got as far as Birmingham before I stopped for a pee and fell asleep.
We used to do about 1600 miles round trip on a one day cheap return ferry for a tenner including the car and two of us .
 
Barnfred 55 said:
If you were coming from the EC and had paid duty within the EC then in theory there was no restriction. But any duty free purchases, wherever you purchased them, were restricted. In the case of spirits it was 1 litre per person.
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Correct, although Customs could still seize alcohol and tobacco if they were not satisfied it was for your own use. Thus if they believed it was going to be sold on to others they had the right to seize.

I used to buy up 10-15 50g packs of pipe tobacco when I went to Brussels on Government business over 14 years. I was never stopped, but it was genuinely all for my own use. €9 compared with €27 for 50g in today's prices!!!
 
Bluerover said:
Correct, although Customs could still seize alcohol and tobacco if they were not satisfied it was for your own use. Thus if they believed it was going to be sold on to others they had the right to seize.

I used to buy up 10-15 50g packs of pipe tobacco when I went to Brussels on Government business over 14 years. I was never stopped, but it was genuinely all for my own use. €9 compared with €27 for 50g in today's prices!!!
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Hence the "in theory" BR. ;)

We went to France a few times and would bring back a fair bit. But we couldn't bring back too much as we also had our suitcases and Cal's makeup. lol You had to make sure you kept your receipts too so you could show you'd paid duty.
 
Barnfred 55 said:
Hence the "in theory" BR. ;)

We went to France a few times and would bring back a fair bit. But we couldn't bring back too much as we also had our suitcases and Cal's makeup. lol You had to make sure you kept your receipts too so you could show you'd paid duty.
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I made a few booze cruise trips back in the 00's with a mate who had a van as well as family holidays in France. Always stocked up well - I remember my poor daughter was barely visible in her child seat in the back - although I made sure all glassware - bottles were in the boot. We never sold to others, but it was useful if visiting to grab a bottle.

Never had any hassle at customs.
 
Barnfred 55 said:
Hence the "in theory" BR. ;)

We went to France a few times and would bring back a fair bit. But we couldn't bring back too much as we also had our suitcases and Cal's makeup. lol You had to make sure you kept your receipts too so you could show you'd paid duty.
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When we had our house in France ( just outside Bordeaux) we used to bring back 150 bottles each time , kept us going for a couple of weeks lol
 
anjelikaferrett said:
Just watching the lunchtime tribute to Shane Warne. Very touching. He's a huge loss.
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There seem to have been a lot of people I admire who have passed away over the last 6 months or so, but his death hit me like a bolt. I'm not sure why.

I do think he was arguably the greatest cricketer of all time. He was a genuine magician withe the ball with absolutely no question marks over his action unlike some I could mention. But he was also an absolutely brilliant fielder and handy with the bat too. He was also a winner. But most of all he was just a very likeable person. He was the Aussies version of Ian Botham, just better.
 
jazzy said:
When we had our house in France ( just outside Bordeaux) we used to bring back 150 bottles each time , kept us going for a couple of weeks lol
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Did you ever get to St Emillion Jazz? Beautiful village. The backdrop to the main square was this amazing ancient stone wall that dated back to Roman times. We met Lee Dixon in a bodega there one time. Another time we visited late afternoon/early evening once all the crowds had gone and had a terrific meal in one of the restaurants in the Square. The cheapest wine (which we bought) was the equivalent of about £25, and we'd earlier seen it on sale for about a fiver in one of the local bodegas. This was over 20 years ago too. Just showed how much the mark up was in restaurants over there. You'd have been pretty close to Bergerac too presumably. That was a nice town too.
 
Barnfred 55 said:
There seem to have been a lot of people I admire who have passed away over the last 6 months or so, but his death hit me like a bolt. I'm not sure why.

I do think he was arguably the greatest cricketer of all time. He was a genuine magician withe the ball with absolutely no question marks over his action unlike some I could mention. But he was also an absolutely brilliant fielder and handy with the bat too. He was also a winner. But most of all he was just a very likeable person. He was the Aussies version of Ian Botham, just better.
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Yes.it seems like the 50s age group has had a hammering recently. A bloke who was in school with me died suddenly last week, just a week after his mother's funeral. He smoked heavily and didn't exercise, but very scrawny build as he wasn't one for eating healthy food.

Warne was absolutely superb on and off the cricket field.
 
Barnfred 55 said:
Did you ever get to St Emillion Jazz? Beautiful village. The backdrop to the main square was this amazing ancient stone wall that dated back to Roman times. We met Lee Dixon in a bodega there one time. Another time we visited late afternoon/early evening once all the crowds had gone and had a terrific meal in one of the restaurants in the Square. The cheapest wine (which we bought) was the equivalent of about £25, and we'd earlier seen it on sale for about a fiver in one of the local bodegas. This was over 20 years ago too. Just showed how much the mark up was in restaurants over there. You'd have been pretty close to Bergerac too presumably. That was a nice town too.
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Beautiful area but prices even in the caveux in the town were a bit mad, Slap "Grand Cru" on the label and they charged what they liked.

We were flying on that trip so we were very limited in what we could bring back. Probably ended up buying Irish whiskey much cheaper at the airport than in retail here!!
 
Barnfred 55 said:
Did you ever get to St Emillion Jazz? Beautiful village. The backdrop to the main square was this amazing ancient stone wall that dated back to Roman times. We met Lee Dixon in a bodega there one time. Another time we visited late afternoon/early evening once all the crowds had gone and had a terrific meal in one of the restaurants in the Square. The cheapest wine (which we bought) was the equivalent of about £25, and we'd earlier seen it on sale for about a fiver in one of the local bodegas. This was over 20 years ago too. Just showed how much the mark up was in restaurants over there. You'd have been pretty close to Bergerac too presumably. That was a nice town too.
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I absolutely love St Emillion. Gorgeous medieval town with a beautiful town square. I've had many a glass of SE red there.
A very good friend was a sommelier and owned a wine shop in SE.
He in turn was very friendly with Jean Luc Thenevin , one of the great winemakers and I was privileged to be invited to his vineyard for some tastings. I can't tell you how good his wine was , retal price of some of his wine was over 300 euros a bottle - madness!
JLT also rented out a gorgeous house on his estate and Mick Jagger was staying there at the time , sadly I didn't get to meet him . But , yeah St Emillion great place. Have a glass of Cheval Blanc if you can Fred.
 

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