I Hate Dialysis Message Board

Off-Topic => Off-Topic: Talk about anything you want. => Topic started by: Paul on September 13, 2018, 11:50:59 AM

Title: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Paul on September 13, 2018, 11:50:59 AM
Carshalton Ponds is a couple of miles from the hospital where I had a morning appointment today (new fistula work up). There is a local museum on one bank, free to get in, and in the gift shop they sell bags full of millet, corn, etc. to feed the ducks. Only 30 pence
(about 45 cents), so spent a peaceful time throwing seeds into the water for the ducks, moorhens, and Canadian geese, plus sprinkling a little on the bank for the unavoidable rock doves who congregate whenever they see a human with food.

Sometimes the simple things are the best way to unwind.

Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: cassandra on September 13, 2018, 01:19:24 PM



    :thumbup;
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: MooseMom on September 13, 2018, 02:38:39 PM
The UK is blessed to have so many such hidden gems like this.

Paul, since you live in the Croydon area, do you know Riddlesdown at all?
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Charlie B53 on September 13, 2018, 04:49:35 PM

Looking for a few laughs?

Pack your lunch, take a cooler of your favorite beverages, for the other viewers that are NOT on Dialysis.

And a comfy enough lawn chair,

And go to your nearest busy public boat ramp.

Watch the show of all the boaters that cannot back up a trailer, much less know anything about handling a boat.

It's a riot.

End of the day you get to see the whole show again as they try to get the trailer in and park the boat on it.

Some other great places are the river launch ramps IN the current, no breakwater wall or anything to slow the water across the ramp sideways.

Yeah, I still have two boats.  And I still make the occasional mistake.  Usually not so bad anyone wold notice me.
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Riki on September 13, 2018, 07:26:26 PM
Charlottetown is a big tourist area.  Downtown, there is a street that is closed to traffic in the summer and they set up picnic tables and a stage for local artists to play.  My mom works on this street, so I spend a lot of time there in the summer.  I have found a spot that is higher up and out of the way, where I can sit and people watch.  There is a ledging around the base of the Confederation Centre of the Arts building, and a lot of people sit on it, but this particular ledge that I sit on is out of the way, and I can also connect to the Centre's free wifi
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Paul on September 13, 2018, 07:50:17 PM
Paul, since you live in the Croydon area, do you know Riddlesdown at all?

I am aware of its existence and roughly where it is, I may even have passed through it, but I know little about it and cannot remember ever actually stopping there.
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: lulu836 on September 14, 2018, 07:57:32 AM

And go to your nearest busy public boat ramp.

Watch the show of all the boaters that cannot back up a trailer, much less know anything about handling a boat.

I have gone on "rookie watch" ever since I was a rookie!  I have owned multiple boats in my life and paid my dues so I felt I was entitled to that type of entertainment every Spring.  Usually by mid-summer they have made most of the epic errors except for launching the car AND the boat.  I never launched my car but I did launch a stern drive without the drain plug.  I jumped in and took off at full throttle across the lake to drain it.  Thanks for the memories.
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: PrimeTimer on September 14, 2018, 06:40:21 PM
We live in a "dog friendly" apartment complex. I love watching people walk their dogs. I swear, I've seen nearly every breed here and some I don't even know what they are. I call it the "dog parade". And I guess now for added entertainment I am working on a sort of puzzle. I've been looking across to another building and a new neighbor who piles up furniture in their window during the day and tears it all down at nite. They leave the blinds up 24/7 and just cover/uncover the window with stacks of furniture. Even if you don't mean to really look over there you can't help but notice it. Never have seen this kind of behavior before. Gee, should I be concerned? lol
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Rerun on September 14, 2018, 08:25:11 PM
We humans are banned from feeding the birds and ducks at the ponds.  They say it is not good for them and they shit too much.  Sad.  They look so hungry!
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Paul on September 14, 2018, 11:16:23 PM
We live in a "dog friendly" apartment complex. I love watching people walk their dogs.

A couple of years ago I spent several months in hospital. The thing I missed most was dogs. I had my boss at the time email me photos of his dogs. Also, when I was transferred between hospitals I spent the entire journey looking out of the ambulance window, looking for people walking dogs.
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Paul on September 14, 2018, 11:22:15 PM
We humans are banned from feeding the birds and ducks at the ponds.

And people obey this rule? At the ponds I talked about we are allowed to feed the waterfowl with seeds, but not with bread (apparently bread is bad for them). But if you walk round the ponds and river on a sunny day you will almost always see someone feeding them bread. If they banned seeds too, there would probably be a revolution.

Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: kristina on September 15, 2018, 06:18:17 AM
We live in a "dog friendly" apartment complex. I love watching people walk their dogs. I swear, I've seen nearly every breed here and some I don't even know what they are. I call it the "dog parade". And I guess now for added entertainment I am working on a sort of puzzle. I've been looking across to another building and a new neighbor who piles up furniture in their window during the day and tears it all down at nite. They leave the blinds up 24/7 and just cover/uncover the window with stacks of furniture. Even if you don't mean to really look over there you can't help but notice it. Never have seen this kind of behavior before. Gee, should I be concerned? lol
Hello PrimeTimer,
that looks like a very strange behaviour indeed ... but ... could it be that the flat is being used for another purpose during the day, i.e restaurant purposes, or cooking for a restaurant etc and keeping the furniture out of the way for whatever reason during the day etc and putting it all back again at night?
This repeated action every evening surely would make me a bit curious as well and, if the neighbour might look reasonable enough and not "run down", I might even ask them, but that could be dangerous if they are slowly "losing it" or if there is some "better not to be noticed" activity taking place ?
Please take care and I send you my best wishes and good luck from Kristina. :grouphug;
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Cupcake on September 15, 2018, 08:16:13 AM
I think they are doing yoga! Need floor space for that.
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: iolaire on September 15, 2018, 12:34:10 PM
I think they are doing yoga! Need floor space for that.

Your probably right.  Maybe baby goat yoga and they Need the furniture gone so the goats don’t climb it.
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: PrimeTimer on September 15, 2018, 04:07:44 PM
I think they are doing yoga! Need floor space for that.

Unless they do yoga ALL day, I don't think so. And they seem to be up all nite after taking down the furniture. They are up with the light on and the window shade drawn all the way so that you can see inside. Most people want privacy at nite. I was almost wondering if they are extremely afraid of someone breaking in but I think if that were the case, they'd stack and block the window with furniture during the nite and not during the day. I'm talking a sofa and several chairs and tables. Very odd.
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Riki on September 28, 2018, 06:10:51 AM
I read an article in our local paper last night that said they are putting in a "funny walk" crosswalk
 The street that it's crossing is closed to vehicle traffic from May to October, so that's the only time the funny walk sign will be up, but i think I know of a new place to people watch
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Michael Murphy on September 28, 2018, 01:18:27 PM
Charlie B53
I own a house in the Adirondacks on a flood control lake called Sacandaga. Every Memorial Day and Labor Day I go to the tow beach which is next to the state boat ramp.  I bring a sandwich and a drink and watch the activities.  Since the day after Labor they start emptying the lake the amount of people trying to remove boats is incredible. My favorite stunt is loosing your boat by not securing it to the trailer.  That is only topped by the rare but funny driving you car to deep into the lake and getting stuck.
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Charlie B53 on September 30, 2018, 06:41:10 PM

LOL

The 'activities' are nearly the same at every boat ramp, large or small, freshwater and salt water.

youtube has scads and scads of videos.  Thanks to cell phone camera'.
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: KatieV on October 22, 2018, 02:29:53 PM

LOL

The 'activities' are nearly the same at every boat ramp, large or small, freshwater and salt water.

youtube has scads and scads of videos.  Thanks to cell phone camera'.

I watched a YouTube video last night that had me laughing SO hard!  A Payloader was righting a flipped car.  Got it on its tires, car started rolling backwards, and the straps let loose!  Car rolled faster and faster down a VERY LONG hill! 
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: kristina on January 11, 2019, 11:56:41 AM
We humans are banned from feeding the birds and ducks at the ponds.  They say it is not good for them and they shit too much.  Sad.  They look so hungry!

I always give them a little bite, because, after all, they happen to be also hungry, just like us ... Fortunately, people are very understanding here and extremely kind ...
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Michael Murphy on January 11, 2019, 02:20:18 PM
My new favorite bird feeding story happened this fall.  My wife and I were up in the Adirondacks and despite my request that she stop feeding the birds my wife insists on it.  Well one week end my wife saw a bear cub sniffing around a feeder and grabbed a broom and began going out to chase the cub,  I grabbed her and stopped her since if there is a cub there is a moms bear.  So I opened the door and slammed it as hard as I could the cub took of like a shot.  I went through bear rules with my wife and showed her the 3 cans of bear spray placed by the main doors going out of the house.  I figure the birds can forage on their own but I draw the line at a angry mama bear turning my wife into a snack.
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Charlie B53 on January 12, 2019, 03:29:51 AM

Mama Bear is no joke.  I am surprised she hadn't heard/thought of it.  Very glad you were there and paying attention or that could have gone very bad quickly.
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Simon Dog on January 12, 2019, 07:16:34 AM
Quote
I've seen nearly every breed here and some I don't even know what they are.
Get DogScanner for your phone.   It lets you scan a dog and it takes a pretty good guess at the breed.  The better the picture of the dog, the better the guess.   It correctly identified my MiniSchnauzer.
Quote
The 'activities' are nearly the same at every boat ramp, large or small, freshwater and salt water.
The local cops in my last town of residence told me the boat ramp on a local pond was a hotbed of drug activity.  Is this pretty much standard?
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: kristina on January 12, 2019, 07:18:14 AM
My new favorite bird feeding story happened this fall.  My wife and I were up in the Adirondacks and despite my request that she stop feeding the birds my wife insists on it.  Well one week end my wife saw a bear cub sniffing around a feeder and grabbed a broom and began going out to chase the cub,  I grabbed her and stopped her since if there is a cub there is a moms bear.  So I opened the door and slammed it as hard as I could the cub took of like a shot.  I went through bear rules with my wife and showed her the 3 cans of bear spray placed by the main doors going out of the house.  I figure the birds can forage on their own but I draw the line at a angry mama bear turning my wife into a snack.

That reminds me : I made once a terrible mistake with a tiny, very sweet looking little rat, who seemed lost and helpless. I never saw a rat before, so I became interested in the little one and walked slowly toward it to observe better. It did not occur to me at that moment that there must be a mother near by, until I saw the very huge mother-rat who had observed me. When I saw the mother-rat I could see, that this clearly was not a mouse, as the little one suggested when I saw it and this huge "thing" came slowly toward me and because of this behaviour, I slowly walked very carefully backward, always with one eye on the mother-rat and I I daresay, that was a very lucky escape...
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: Charlie B53 on January 12, 2019, 09:41:32 AM

Quote
The 'activities' are nearly the same at every boat ramp, large or small, freshwater and salt water.
The local cops in my last town of residence told me the boat ramp on a local pond was a hotbed of drug activity.  Is this pretty much standard?
[/quote]

Sadly, druggies will congregate anywhere they think they won't draw too much attention.

Once the local LEO's start making regular appearances the Druggies will move elsewhere.

Our little small town they can be found during the bight in the bathrooms of the 24 hour laundromat.   Cops are finally starting to get out of their cars and walk through.
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: PrimeTimer on January 13, 2019, 03:07:41 PM
Quote
I've seen nearly every breed here and some I don't even know what they are.
Get DogScanner for your phone.   It lets you scan a dog and it takes a pretty good guess at the breed.  The better the picture of the dog, the better the guess.   It correctly identified my MiniSchnauzer.

Quote from PrimeTimer:

Hubby got me a good dog book. A dog scanner would be great! So would a phone! lol  I love watching all the dogs here. I have changed my mind about pit bulls. The ones we see here have very responsible owners and are cute, cuddly and well-behaved. In fact, the only dogs I see "out of control" are dachshunds. Their owners don't seem to understand that a dog thrives best with a human who knows to be the alpha. We are hoping to adopt a dog before long. Hubby needs a cuddler and I need to walk. Slowly. And not far. We need an old fat cuddler! But we are at the perfect place. Lots of grass, a fenced in bark-park equipped with an agility course and large outdoor jogging track surrounded by even more grass. Cheap entertainment all within the confines of the apartment complex. I'm sure all the dogs around here would love to see me try to go for a walk.  :rofl;
Title: Re: Cheapest Paid For Entertainment
Post by: kristina on February 05, 2019, 01:24:18 AM
Some more ideas for easy available entertainment ...
The students in every Music-Academy/higher education etc. often give concerts costing nothing (only the transport) or very little.
Museums cost little (mainly transport) and in every town/village there are some entertainments taking place and they cost usually only a little entrance fee etc.
To read books from the library cost nothing...
Good luck from Kristina. :grouphug;