Board Members' Personal News Summary

Sorry to hear about your woes, chaps. I'm still working from home, which suits me fine. In fact, I might see if I can extend it if we ever go back to normal! I had no idea how much time I used to waste simply getting to work each morning. Now I have over 2 hours each morning to have breakfast and do a bit of freelance work before I arrive at the 'office' at 9am. The only real downside is that my general fitness has taken a bit of a hit since I no longer have my regular walk home from work, but I just need to get better at building some walks into my new routine. Morning walks on the beach will be more enjoyable now that Summer is over, and there are fewer twits around before the sun rises...

Sorry to hear things haven't been going so well chaps. I'm still WFH with poor Wi-Fi but I'm not springing for full broadband yet cos I'm currently going through a retention process as they're cutting jobs in my department.

I keep having to go into the office, central Manchester, so plenty of chaos there. The internet keeps going up the swanny. It happens when we get a major update, which is all the bloody time. I was almost in today, but thankfully it worked in the morning. The afternoon not so good but by then...

Oddly enough this year has been better than lest, shows how bad last year was. Not being in the office has made things easier, sadly my manager who has been really helpful has got another position. So I wonder who the new manager will be.

Hope your all well and doing OK.

Moo.

Life's not great at the moment - on my first day back at work I made a daft mistake, and after an overlong process, underwent a disciplinary and have been given a final warning, which means I'm now in danger of being fired if I transgress even slightly in the future. Entirely over the top and unnecessary IMO, as my terrible crime was... moving guests to another room, unknowing that it had been blocked off due to shower issues. I have been punished for allegedly putting guests at risk from scalding, though I was told by the manager the very next day that the problem had been fixed the week before, and the only reason it was still blocked was to "save on the housekeeping". So, in essence, after a process which was drawn out for over a month I almost got fired for slightly inconveniencing the cleaners.

My work patterns are also all over the place, which is to be expected, but at least the manager and the deputy (his wife, who was appointed whilst the rest of us were all furloughed) are off on holiday for the next week and a bit, so I won't be looking over my shoulder all the time. Most of the guests and coffee shop customers are perfectly fine with all the new restrictions, but there are always a few who give us aggro for just trying to do our jobs, not considering that they're bloody lucky that we're allowed to open at all for them! It's mostly elderlies now, with a smattering of student waiting for uni to start.

I'm back at Slimming World, trying to shift some of the four stones I put on whilst in lockdown. I'm still in a poor physical state, with arms and legs aching all the time, to the point where at its worst I was seriously considering getting a walking stick. The situation in Whitby is also causing me a lot of anxiety - I've only been into the town centre three times since July, and each time the volume of people, the lack of social distancing and the oppressive feel gave me the Fear and I fled (or rather hobbled) for home.

Apart from that everything's fantastic though...🙄

Less 'locals', more like 'locos'.

Back at work on Monday, having been off for four months and a day. Then I'm off until Sunday, when I'm on a truncated six hour shift between 4.30 - 10.30pm. The hostel's opening, with restrictions (ensuite private rooms only, no access to social spaces, takeaway food and drink only in the cafe, strategically placed sanitiser stations etc.) On reception (which has now been moved back from the cafe to its original location, thus removing the last vestiges of the previous manager's reign,) I'll have a big plastic screen between myself and the guests, so I can keep my distance from them with no messing around.

Physically, I'm in terrible shape - my arms and legs are all feeble and spindly due to lack of sustained exercise, whilst the rest of me is almost spherical due to eating a block of cheddar a day and whatnot. My unshorn hair resembles that of a member of a 1990s Britpop band... and not one of the good ones, either.

Hopefully being back at work, initially for only three days a week, will get my aching limbs going again.

Whitby is still here, though the attitude of some locals depresses me. On one FB group there were people calling for armed roadblocks on all routes into town, to stop "outsiders" getting in. More amusingly, when Colston was toppled from his plinth in Bristol, some of the local hard of thinking decided that meant that Whitby's Captain Cook statue was under threat, and decided to give it 24 hour protection against the projected horde of lefty muslim anarchist BLM terrorists who were allegedly poised to descend on the town. Behold, the brave protectors of culture:

Well, the middle one and the one on the right look as if they'd collapse before a fight really got going, and whilst matey on the left obviously fancies himself as a hard man, his I'm-right-nails-me stance leaves his bollocks vulnerable to a well-placed kick. Plus, he's got a really tiny head, so his brain can't be that big, which means he'd be easy to outwit tactically.

In any case, the above gentlemen and their mates, "guarding" the Captain in shifts, lasted about a week and a half, when the increasing unlikeliness of them getting a scrap, and more probably the weather being a bit bad, caused them all to clear off home to wait for Wetherspoons to reopen.

I'm back home after a three week sojourn in pox-ridden England (they think it's all over), where I was obliged to be by the inevitable 'shit happens' circumstances which we all have to face up to increasingly with the passing years. Happily I'm now here in Covid-free (practically) Galicia and despite an acute flare up of the recurring sciatica, I'm looking forward to getting on with building up business again, resuming social life (the necessary precautions will make for smaller and more enjoyable gatherings), getting my garden shipshape, playing with my new pool cleaning robot, and - finally- wrapping up my season of Voodoo Cinema. Plus giving full attention to the current Double Bill viewings. Oh yes!

Hello Cat. Good to see you around!

Thanks and cheers, Moodie and Graham. I'm glad to see that our Scottish guard remains on duty.

I'm quite allergic to Fakeboob too, prefering real boobs. but no more said, lets keep a proper language.

Old Cat! You've been through tough times. Condolences. It's great to have you back, even if it isn't "quite" the same as the old days. I glance at Facebook from time to time, but I don't feel comfortable there. There's a lot of info from people in the know (plus a ton-load of shite) but it's all so fast that it tires me out. I'm going to try to drop in here more often. You used to participate in the Horror Double Bills anniversaries, didn't you? Did you? Anyway, this weekend we have to watch Night of the Demon then The Ghoul (Peter's, not Boris'). Glad to have you back and hopefully you'll hang around.

I'm glad to hear you're still going strong, Cat, and sorry to hear about your recent sad news.

Hello people. Old Cat ( Alonian ) is still roaming around this crazy planet.

Many thanks to Crazy Galician Mike for directing me here.

I’ve read this thread and very sad news indeed. My condolences to James and everybody who suffered the loss of a dear one.

In my family, things weren’t cheerful either. The elder brother of my sister in law passed away last October and, two months ago, a dear lifetime friend lost her long enduring battle with cancer.

Back to merrier things, is great to find here many of the old (but young in spirit) folks from the BHF. 😀

I gather that Billy hasn’t returned yet ?. 😎

JellyHair, Marshy, where are you ?..

So sorry to read what has happened James...please take care of yourself as well as your mum...Craig.

Sorry for your loss James. I hope you can get through these incredibly difficult times and find time to grieve properly for your Dad.

So sorry to hear that, James. Thoughts are with you at these very difficult moments.

Thanks guys. I was going to come back sooner to this thread but things seemed to move so fast. Dad passed away on the 3rd of this month. I managed to work out my girlfriend coming down. Thank you for kind words and replies. Now I just want to go through the funeral and try and heal from this. Mum is the one I feel sad for the most right now so a lot of time spent looking out for for her right now.

Sorry to hear about the difficult time you've been having, James. The lockdown rules appear to be flexible, let's say! If there's a serious medical reason for travelling and visiting someone then I think it's allowed. Either way, I hope you get through it as best you can!

I've just seen your post, James. Sorry to hear about your very difficult situation. Please let us know how things go.

So sorry to hear this, James. Have you checked online to see if you can download a special travel warrant during the emergency, like they are doing in Italy?

*AKA Corpse Candle...haven't worked out how to change my username* I really wish we had a lot more of the old faces from the BHF here as the collective minds would help me figure something out. About two weeks ago my dad grew very tierd. I thought it looked like something worrying by instinct I even asked him how he was multiple times. It felt weird. Two days later he had to be rushed to hospital after turning yellow. At first we thought it was gaul stones, no. Then it was thought maybe it was a bladder infection, no. Turned out to be liver cancer. My dad told me when I visted him he thought the doctors weren't telling him everything. I thought he was just depressed and it wouldn't be so bad, I got upset but only tempoary. He was right though and when the tests results came in it turned out he only has weeks to live. I had to tell my autistic younger brother, mum has too much to deal with and fuck...that guy is a champ. He took far better than I ever hoped. Well he was still devasted but he isn't the highest function guy in many respects but that day he really made me proud of him. I'm just about coping and then again not coping. My partner had to go home a few days ago and then there was this lockdown and I desperatly need her to keep my mind togther. Does any one have ANY idea if she is allowed to travel to see me? I even asked at the BBC website as the guidelines do not cover the scenario I am in. I don't want to spread anything to anyone but I am trying to help the family and also keep sane at the same time. I know this post feels dramatic but I don't really know who to talk to.

Maybe we should have a group viewing of The Goodies' episode The End?

I'll be working from home for the foreseeable future, and El will only be going in to her work every three days. She's not able to work from home, so it will be interesting to see how she can cope with being stuck in our tiny flat with a mad illustrator for long stretches of time...

In the words of Billy Connelly "When I was a boy, nobody locked their front door. Our neighbours stole all our furniture."

Apparently one is not allowed to go outdoors, even in 'campo abierto'. However, one of the advantages of living in a rural Galician backwater is that you can slip out into the forest unobserved and walk for hours without encountering a sole in any plaice. As I did the other day and have just come back from so doing again this afternoon. After all, if the Maquis could do it...

I spent the morning hacking the creeping vines (a plant like that could take over the world) off the roof of the outhouse and now fancy spending a little time indoors watching bokors raising Jumbies in glorious duochrome.

Indeed Mike. Another thing - now that India and some African countries are seeing a sharp rise in cases, we're all momentarily sorry for them (a lot of them don't even have easy access to water) but then start seeing them as a threat, because they might get too close to us. Who cares about a few million Indians ir Africans dying in their own countries? They're barely human anyway. But now we have another excuse for rejecting refugees fleeing from war-torn countries. Get back to your own countries. You might even have the plague.

But onto more serious matters - ourselves. Mike, does the new "law" allow you to take in a 3-hour hillwalk when taking the dogs out?

And on an even brighter note, I've suddenly got no income! But I was spending it all in the bars anyway. It's much cheaper getting pished at home on Lenda Galega from the supermarket. I've hardly noticed a change in my economy.

And, globally, pollution hasn't been so low in decades. So let's all celebrate while we can, and pull together as in wartime when we could leave our front doors open with no fear of getting raped and pillaged.

The most discouraging thing about the whole business is how it reinforces once again the navel-gazing, self absorbed, wilfully blinkered, herdlike mindset of most people in 'first world countries', fuelled by irresponsible media sensationalism and hyperbole to whip up an overblown sense of impending doom.

The gravest emergency since WW2. An unprecedented crisis. A pandemic that will change the course of history. The biggest challenge we've ever faced in peacetime. Maybe so, for us in Europe and the USA.

Meanwhile, outside our bubble, the majority of the world's population are constantly suffering the real horrors of war, starvation, death and illness through preventable diseases, homelessness, exploitation, extreme criminal violence, poverty, political persecution, state terrorism.... So how about a little perspective? Of course we're worried about ourselves, but enough of the 'we will survive!' chest beating crap that's swamping social media right now, as if it were summer 1940.

It's all getting a bit scary, isn't it? I'm off work this week anyway, by coincidence, but have been told that I might be working from home starting next week. Like Mal, I'm naturally antisocial so it's no great hardship for me, but I prefer to isolate myself by choice, not by necessity. There's a definite sense of things starting to crumble. Let's see how we all weather this particular storm!

I've been told to work from home, maybe for 5 months. I'm fortunate that I'm able to do this and that I'm antisocial at the best of times.

My thoughts are with anyone whose business is affected by the current situation and, as seems inevitable, those of us who will see their own health and that of their loved ones affected in due course.

Stay strong everyone, and don't forget we've got some tasty double bills to look forward to reliving from the end of June.

Is everybody posting everything on the Movie bit, or do I have to go the the individual sub-sets? There seems to be no rules around here. I phoned the government and they didn't even answer the phone. I know who I WON'T be voting for at the next elections, which I can't even vote in and they've been cancelled anyway.

I clicked "Follow" on all bits of the bored, so now it says I'm a "Follower" of them all. What does that mean? I haphazardly get informed sometimes yes sometimes no about new posts, but how do I know when I come here what's new pussycat?

I have done my bit for civical responsableness and have decided not to go to work during the lockdown, What will I do with all my time! Books, films, music, varnishing table legs. Confined to the house for a minimum of 15 days, except for going to the garage for petrol, stopping off at the barbers for a haircut, the estanco for a packet of faggots, the kiosk for the newspaper, the supermarket for bog roll, beer and wine, the bank to withdraw cash, and then take the dog for a walk.

It's more of a rigmarole than some places, but I suppose that's the price of higher site security.

Bloody hell. Either this site is a bit hard to get into, or I'm a stupid motherhelper. Guess which!

Maybe buried under all my voodoo rabbits?

I've seen no rabbits, maybe I'm looking in the wrong warren.

Fiddling around, I found under my "Account Info" that my email account is not mine, but rather my dear wife's, but I still get/used to get "Notifications" at my own email address. And now I don't have to Log In at all.

Did you all read my Night of the Big Rabbits review? It's brilliant, but it has only had three views, all of them mine. Are you all getting notified of what I post? I've decided to click "Follow" every topic, but I don't know what that means either.

Graham, just log in with your email account, it's simple.

I was notified by email that I had posted the above, but not that I had written about Night of the Big Rabbit. Why is that?

Why is that my Bookface picture there? I didn't want you to know what I looked like. At least it's back-lit. But why is it the Bookface photo?

I pressed some wrong buttons and now I don't know where I am.

Bookface has informed me that my app has been removed. Does that mean you can't see this?

I logged in using User Login on Bookface. Now it's asking me if it was me and if I want the app removed. How do I get here otherwise? I always use the tradesman's entrance, that's through the latest email notification that someone here has posted something.

Hello, I was away. I can't remember how things work. Where's the old forum? Anyway, I had posted here at the Marmalade a few times eons ago, but now when I try to sign in using my email account, it doesn't recognise my password, because I can't remember it. Why doesn't the machine remember it automatically? So it said Do you want to sign in by Bookface and I said yes, and now I'm posting without a password but I don' know where. Can you all see me on Bookface now? And I don't know if I should buy a Blue machine. So many crap films to watch again in better quality. Which machine do you recommend? And what's the best production company for the DVDs? I watched ISLAND OF TERROR and NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT on YouTube. Good quality for free. "Vault Flicks", I think. The films are pretty bad, but I quite enjoyed them. Are they on Blue yet? Should I buy them?

I think the algorithm that defines which adverts I'm targeted with is coming on to me. I've started to get ads for gay cruises and now something called Hefty Sliders with Expandable Bottom...

Happy New Year everyone!

Hello folks - time to reconnect with BHFs I think!

Still in Whitby, still at the place next to the Abbey, though we're now onto Manager no. 7 after the previous fellow was relieved of his post with immediate effect. The newish (since May) bloke is very competent - coming from inside the organisation unlike the last three Managers helps - and we're actually on the up now. Various changes with the middle management at our national office means that for the first time in ages, we've got an area manager who's got our backs, unlike the previous one who seemed to be overly antagonistic and obstructive to the place and staff alike. We've already had half of the carpets replaced and other much-needed refurbs and replacements have taken place. For my part, I've regained the responsibilities and roles which were removed from me and given to my more attractive female colleagues - not that I'd suggest in an instant that the old Manager had any sort of sinister ulterior motives, oh no. I've been heavily involved with the planning and delivery of our activity packages for school groups, which has been hard work but fun. I mean, I sometimes spend an evening wandering around the graveyard from Dracula telling ghost stories to groups of eight year olds and their teachers... and I get paid for it! Outside of work, I'm back at Slimming World, and have shed almost a stone in just two weeks. Now I'm in my 50s, looking after myself seems a lot more important and difficult, but I don't want to end up like my mate who had a heart attack a couple of years ago, but still weighs almost 30 stones and hasn't altered his lifestyle in any major ways.

Highlight of the year for me was the Gamine Sarah's wedding in August - a lovely day which raised my spirits when I needed them raising. I felt curiously proud of her, but as she says to me sometimes, we've been through a lot together, and as her mother said on the day, I'm practically part of the family. Which made me go all gooey and tearful like a big softy! I still see her a lot (her husband's used to me now but I think may have been a bit wary of the weird old bloke who hangs out with his wife,) most recently at the local comicon, where wee Pud (who is now walking and has just started talking) wasn't too sure what to make of a patrolling Dalek:

I think he was more interested in the Jokers in the background, though I was a bit wary, due to my mild coulrophobia - I don't run screaming if I see a clown, but I don't like 'em much, and get all tensed up! Guests at the comicon were Julian Glover and Isla Blair, both of whom I had chats with, and both of whom were lovely. Ms Blair related how when Christopher Lee was biting her, his hands had a tendency to wander, the randy old sod, and Mr Glover (who greeted me with "I just saw you chatting up my wife... I don't blame you though!") spoke genuinely warmly of Hammer ("It was like a family") and the late Andrew Keir when I got my still of him as Colonel Breen signed - a tribute to the House of Horrors, I thought, given the huge amount of work he's done from Star Wars, Bond and Indiana Jones to Harry Potter and Game of Thrones.

Well, If I had known where you "all" are I would have come a knockin' earlier!

Yep, he is back! Hello everyone...anyone!?

I am wondering why YouTube thinks I might want to watch the video "How to Express Your Dog's Anal Glands at Home".

Feeling quite pleased with my performance on the golf course yesterday. I made five birdies (and a couple more which very nearly were), holed a couple with off green approaches, made few bogies, plenty of pars and a near hole-in-one eagle from 85 metres when my ball hit the pin. Well done me! :-D

Having now taught four hour-long classes for kids on the joys of storyboards for film, I now have a fresh appreciation for people who are good at teaching! It's definitely NOT something I'll be pursuing as a career option... Still, I'm quite pleased to discover that I actually know quite a lot about the subject, even though I'd never done it before!

Gad, the heat Carruthers! 33ºC in the shade today (that's over 90º in post-Brexit currency). And now at nearly 10pm it's still 28ºC! No sleep tonight, methinks. Here in Galicia we're having the summer we missed out on in July and August. Meanwhile, Mediterranean SE Spain is under water following torrential rains.

I remember Snapes and I had an idea that she was 'in politics' somehow.

I'm not a Twit and never have been and don't think it's my cup of Rosie. The only thing I'd be interested to read on there would be Chris' news about the possible BHF board revival - though I don't think there's been word of any progress.