@Jolenealaska @Stephie hello?

@ElendilTheTall hello stranger!

hello :)

how goes it

How’s the Brexit madness going on?

hey @ElendilTheTall!

the tea party is in full swing

what an epic clusterfuck

We were watching a live stream from Parliament.

@rumtscho hi Rumi, how you doing?

@Stephie it's certainly cheaper than visiting the monkey house at the zoo

@ElendilTheTall getting accustomed to work again, after a long vacation. The first week was somewhat overwhelming, today starts the second.

@rumtscho ah

and how are you? Children growing, I suppose - which year do they start now in school?

a nice vacation?

@ElendilTheTall absolutely. Bulgaria for 4 months, the first two of them work from home, the second two pure vacation.

@rumtscho much the same as always thanks. Isildurette is now in P4, Anarion has just started school proper (p1)

@rumtscho wow, that's a vacay and a half

@ElendilTheTall It is something between a vacation and a sabbatical, yes.

hard-earned I'm sure

was it nice being back in Bulgaria?

It was so great, yes.

Beside everything else, the country is going upwards economically, and it shows.

nice

i remember living in a country like that :|

Tons of cute small shops offering interesting stuff. The public areas start looking cared for, the streets are driveable.

>.<

have we spoken since you visited @Stephie?

@ElendilTheTall to be fair, it is much harder going upwards after you have hit a certain level of wellbeing.

@rumtscho true... apparently the Conservatives are intent on going downwards for a bit so we can see what that's like

@ElendilTheTall uh.... not sure?

did you have a good trip?

@ElendilTheTall Maybe they hope it'll be like feudalism, with a few people on top growing fat by exploiting everybody else.

Absolutely! I’m very glad we went.

@rumtscho that's exactly what they hope

and indeed what has been going on pretty much forever

@Stephie favourite bit?

where did you end up going in the end, south west?

@ElendilTheTall uh... that’s tough.

To be fair, I think the current Bulgarian powerful people want the same, they just noticed that the citizens grumble less when they build good highways, and that they can pocket good money when they start caring for parks, stadiums and similar infrastructure.

and of course, their companies get the government contracts to build the roads etc, so they get their money either way

and the government gets the kickback for giving the contract in the first place

the whole thing is rigged

there's good reason to surmise that Brexit as a whole has been initiated purely to avoid incoming European tax avoidance legislation

@ElendilTheTall I sometimes have the feeling they're basically letting the brexit fans rise to the top so they can get rid of them

like scum on a tasty stock

Its a useful way to get rid of the... politically inconvenient.

the good economic mood among the not-powerful is probably fueled by 1) ending the broken-windows-effect (see the new highways and parks above) and 2) us being the winners of the current outsourcing cycle, with foreign firms having shut down their production states in the Czech republic and similar areas and having opened it on our territory

@Stephie did you do Bath?

@ElendilTheTall yep. London - Bath - (slept in Bristol) - Devon (near Totnes) - Cornwall (near Padstow) - London.

has hubby finally got the west country out of his system then?

you can finally visit a proper country?

:D

@ElendilTheTall I even posted the lead curse thingy here.

@Stephie yes, that dings a dong

the celtic one

Yup.

we now have ABB, Liebherr, VMWare, Coca Cola and whatnot having large factories/centers in Bulgaria.

i speak to so many Germans in so many chatrooms

they all blend in to one ;)

@ElendilTheTall Got Jojo confused

easily done :D

I don't know if they realize that the McKinseys of the world are already drafting the plans for dismantling those and moving them to Albania in 7-10 years.

:D

I have seen a few BG number plates here in scotland this summer

my thoughts always turn to you whenever I see Bulgaria mentioned

@ElendilTheTall hah, interesting!

ain't i sweet? :D

@rumtscho something between economic nomadism and migrating locusts?

I see lots of foreign plates in Bulgaria, but 90% of them are of Bulgarians who return to visit relatives.

@Stephie A little bit, yes. But luckily, the aftermath is a bit more pleasant.

The factories may move on, but they do leave a lot of better-educated workforce in their wake, plus more capital has flown locally which can be used for domestic undertakings.

@rumtscho that means better educated folks with less jobs ;p

@JourneymanGeek not necessarily. It is not education in the sense of formal education, we would have gotten that anyway.

Industry moving out is always painful and our government's reaction is to suggest people get on a self improvement treadmill and work into their 70s

@rumtscho oh we were that poor third world country that rapidly industrialised

well not really third world

It is more that now people see how a well-run business can function, as opposed to a socialist institution.

ah

first, it stops the emmigration process, when young people can find sensible jobs. And ten years from now, they would be much less inclined to go away, when they have settled with children etc.

@rumtscho that's roughly the process for immegration for us ;p

Second, this way of running things spreads over to locally run businesses,

@JourneymanGeek in what sense? You are the place where the young people run to, before they have settled?

@rumtscho oh we were

that's how my parents ended up here

"Oh we'll go back in 10 years"

"Oh we have kids, they can't adapt to the old country"

"We're used to the life here, we can't adapt to the old country"

and how do you feel abou it? Would you have preferred to be in the old country?

@Stephie a bit of the coastal path?

Nope, but in a lot of ways, we're no longer the place that was

"we" - the new country or the old country?

the new country

The old country is growing ;p

Actually kinda the state bulgaria is I guess

@ElendilTheTall Plymouth.

did you go into Plymouth itself?

@ElendilTheTall of course. First the aquarium (minor 2’s pick), then the harbour. Costal path was then on the way back to the B&B.

oh

not the most salubrious of places

unless you're into Brutalist post war architecture

did you have a scone in the Pump Room in Bath?

we're going camping in the Lakes at the end of the month

fingers crossed for an Indian Summer

cross them

@ElendilTheTall Unfortunately not. But we did the late night event at the baths, complete with torches and actors.

ah, that also dings a dong

And an idiot who decided to swim through the main pool while filming himself. The guards were not amused.

🙄

there's always one

any interesting cooking done lately?

I have perfected my reverse-seared steak

@ElendilTheTall ohhhh!

that's the usual reaction yes

@ElendilTheTall do scones and the ongoing quest for “the perfect” flapjacks count?

of course

a good scone is a joy forever

i trust you sampled some while you were here?

clotted cream is a must

I think I have them pretty much down pat now.

looking good

they need fruit though

what is this, the dark ages?

^ not mine. At the Bedruthian Steps

is clotted cream available in Germany?

Mine are better, if a bit of bragging is permitted.

of course

@ElendilTheTall via Amazon UK.

the best I've had were at a hotel in Northumberland

they had just enough flour in them to make them definitely a scone, otherwise they were butter

@Stephie you can make it yourself with raw milk :)

oh, you like board games right?

@ElendilTheTall I know. For some reason I never bothered.

@ElendilTheTall got a new one?

@Stephie pure unadulterated laziness I reckon

@Stephie well, kinda - are you aware of boardgamearena.com?

lots of board game playable online, free

I think you mentioned it before?

and I do have a couple of new ones yes

also I have been making homebrew versions to save money

i found a place that does laser cut MDF shapes that are perfect for making tokens etc

so I've made Catan and Hive

with Azul on the way

Lol

Have to go. I am expected for lunch.

It was so nice to have you back here!

oh, pshaw

have a good one o/

@ElendilTheTall do you soak the raisins or whatever fruit you’re using?