What have you done today thread?

[Tricky]

@Yambo

I think, a few days ago, you said that some of your neighbours felt that the rest of the world was unaware of the fires?

People have certainly been vocal about the lack of awareness and reporting, particularly in the UK but I don't think I've mentioned it (I may have done but there's been a bit of stress recently and I can't remember everything I've written ). There have been a couple of reports in the Times by a young lass who, I believe, is back in Turunç today preparing another piece.

That FT piece is rather political isn't it, not so much about the widespread devastation but more about Recep's response and Turkey's (the government) attitude to climate change. To be expected from the FT I guess. The stories of the firefighters trying to save villages in shorts and flip flops, helicopter crews working through every hour of daylight, women providing meals and drinks for the fire fighters, others collecting donations from people in the UK and immediately heading into town for medical supplies, to refill fire extinguishers, buy chain saws - whatever is needed, isn't the sort of stuff the FT want to print or their readers want to read.

There has been a fair bit of news on social media but that has, in a lot of cases been quite alarmist and not necessarily objective. people in the UK have been well aware of what is happening but have not seen very much reporting by the media and BBC in particular. This is/has been a huge event in a lot of peoples' lives and some would like to have seen more coverage. Personally, I'd have liked to have seen more resources and manpower. The army are supposed to get involved with things like this but all we've seen of the military has been two LCTs in the bay which did nothing except attract a bit of attention for 5 minutes.

The media will publish what they think will interest their readers so I'd suggest that wild fires in Turkey is of no interest to many people except those that have friends or relatives in the affected areas. C'est la vie.

It does seem to have dropped off the front page this week (today's FT excepted), and haven't seen it mentioned on TV news last few days.
I haven't been in this thread for a while so don't know how much else you've posted on it so apologies if you've already said, but how is it where you are/ how's your situation there?

[Taipan]

@Yambo

I think, a few days ago, you said that some of your neighbours felt that the rest of the world was unaware of the fires?

People have certainly been vocal about the lack of awareness and reporting, particularly in the UK but I don't think I've mentioned it (I may have done but there's been a bit of stress recently and I can't remember everything I've written ). There have been a couple of reports in the Times by a young lass who, I believe, is back in Turunç today preparing another piece.

That FT piece is rather political isn't it, not so much about the widespread devastation but more about Recep's response and Turkey's (the government) attitude to climate change. To be expected from the FT I guess. The stories of the firefighters trying to save villages in shorts and flip flops, helicopter crews working through every hour of daylight, women providing meals and drinks for the fire fighters, others collecting donations from people in the UK and immediately heading into town for medical supplies, to refill fire extinguishers, buy chain saws - whatever is needed, isn't the sort of stuff the FT want to print or their readers want to read.

There has been a fair bit of news on social media but that has, in a lot of cases been quite alarmist and not necessarily objective. people in the UK have been well aware of what is happening but have not seen very much reporting by the media and BBC in particular. This is/has been a huge event in a lot of peoples' lives and some would like to have seen more coverage. Personally, I'd have liked to have seen more resources and manpower. The army are supposed to get involved with things like this but all we've seen of the military has been two LCTs in the bay which did nothing except attract a bit of attention for 5 minutes.

The media will publish what they think will interest their readers so I'd suggest that wild fires in Turkey is of no interest to many people except those that have friends or relatives in the affected areas. C'est la vie.

I don't think its ever been different for the media. A bit of human tragedy, political failings and finger pointing and dead fluffy animals FTW! Next story please!
Ed.

They only tend to gather momentum if the begging bowl comes out and is fronted by Sainted Pop stars etc, then the follow ups get published.

[Yambo]

I haven't been in this thread for a while so don't know how much else you've posted on it so apologies if you've already said, but how is it where you are/ how's your situation there?

Short answer? Basically it's good Tricky.

tl;dr
I slept at home last night for the first time in a week. The big fires to the south were out with no glow of fires after it had gone dark. A brief flare up to the west around 7 pm had either been tackled - I doubt it because it was in a bad spot to get to - or burnt itself out as there wasn't much else to burn around there. The hills above my house have been fire free for 3 days.

I slept well and awoke to a sky filled with smoke. It was so unnerving that I jumped on the scooter and took a run around the village looking for fires but there were none. The smoke had come from the ongoing fire at Köyceğiz about 50 kms away to the east. Locally it's quiet. Word is that one, possibly two houses were damaged in Amos a sort of large residential site in the next bay to the south and some damage to buildings in Kumlubük a little further south. If that is all the damage to property and we've had no fatalities locally, we have been very, very lucky. Lives have been lost elsewhere and people have lost homes but we have not really suffered any serious damage.

The forests are a different matter though and there's been widespread devastation locally with, I am sure, lots of wildlife killed. The forests will recover though fairly quickly, the wildlife will take longer I guess. It has been an experience I don't want to go through again. We get a fair few earthquakes but they're nothing in comparison to being pretty much surrounded by wildfires. If it does happen again though we have learnt a lot about how the terrain can give you time to prepare, local people will be better prepared with locally held equipment ready and maybe less reliance on outside agencies. There'll still be a warm welcome for the Forestry Directorate helicopters (they're looking after their real estate of course) and firefighters from elsewhere if needed but Turks are hospitable people anyway.

Where there is concern is the coming autumn and winter. We get 4 types of rain here, rain, heavy rain, torrential rain and occasionally Biblical. Fingers are crossed that the start of the rainy season, sort of October time, will just be good old ordinary rain. What has been burning up in the hills is the undergrowth; shrubs, small trees, bushes, pine needles and cones. What there is now up in the hills is exposed rock, covered in ash. Torrential rain in the past has produced flash floods with some localised flooding mostly in the south of the village. Heavy or torrential rain now will bring another serious issue as there's nothing to soak up the rainfall. It's just going to run off the exposed rock and provide us with black, flash floods. A couple of days of nice gentle rain will be good. We certainly don't want one of the summer storms that we sort of enjoyed mid season in previous years. We are all well aware of what could come so I fully expect some work to be done soon on building up the water courses so that the deluges can head straight out to sea.

Strange to not be hoping for rain . . .

[Count Steer]

The Guardian on-line coverage has been reasonable, particularly noteworthy as the fires don't involve 2 blokes dancing together, non-binary skateboarders, Tom Daley's knitting or offer any opportunity to squeeze a gratuitous plug for Fleabag/Waller-Bridge in. They didn't suggest that the fires are simply another tool of white, heterosexual ('cis') male domination either.
They had an article or two about the fires in Greece too.

[Horse]

@Yambo

I think, a few days ago, you said that some of your neighbours felt that the rest of the world was unaware of the fires?

That FT piece is rather political isn't it, not so much about the widespread devastation but more about Recep's response and Turkey's (the government) attitude to climate change.

To be honest, I didn't actually read it, just thought that you might be interested

[Nidge]

‘Twas ever thus- the original working title for “DropThe Dead Donkey” was “Dead Belgians Don’t Count” . That said, I did see an article on the BBC news website about the fires in Turkey

[Horse]

“DropThe Dead Donkey”

Still can't watch real news without looking for the teddy bear or trainer

Watched the first programme again recently. Very good. They're on Netflix(?), now with a brief intro summarising the news of the time.

[Horse]

More on the Beeb today:

Wildfires have devastated Turkey's coastline and left at least eight people dead.
But people in Marmaris region are also mourning the loss of their bees.
This corner of Turkey produced most of the world’s pine honey, a special kind of honey that depends on a delicate ecosystem, now largely destroyed.
BBC Turkish has spoken to beekeepers, who are facing a bleak future.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58108527

[Taipan]

Front page of Reuters mentions the fires in Greece but not turkey. Same with Al Jazzeera and Sky?
https://www.reuters.com/world/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/
https://news.sky.com/

[Horse]

Local radio news today included that UK firefighters are going to Greece.

[Docca]

Swapped out the alternator to the Landy ( yes, I did)

British Gas emailed me to tell me they’ve over charged me for 3 years - £939 including interest

[Noggin]

Met with some friends I've not seen since the first shut down of resort - and met their gorgeous little (well, not so little!) baby

I am an honorary auntie to another kid that I can lead astray later in life!! LOL

For now, I made him laugh (and look at me like I'm mad) by blowing raspberries in his hand!! LOL Well, he did keep putting his hand on my mouth, so what else should I do??

[Wossname]

British Gas emailed me to tell me they’ve over charged me for 3 years - £939 including interest

Genuine, or scam looking for your bank details?

[Docca]

British Gas emailed me to tell me they’ve over charged me for 3 years - £939 including interest

Genuine, or scam looking for your bank details?

Genuine.

I’d apparently been paying for boiler cover as well as Homecare something or other. Hadn’t noticed so must have been over a number of years.

[slowsider]

British Gas emailed me to tell me they’ve over charged me for 3 years - £939 including interest

Genuine, or scam looking for your bank details?

Genuine.

I’d apparently been paying for boiler cover as well as Homecare something or other. Hadn’t noticed so must have been over a number of years.

More money than potter

[Docca]

Ha! I doubt that. It was just another subscription the type of which we all lose track of. Anyway, it was good news. Going to spend the cash on coke and hookers

[DefTrap]

Swapped out the alternator to the Landy ( yes, I did)

No mention of this in the national press either.

[DefTrap]

Keeping boss lady happy
Not as easy as it looks to tile to the middle of the loo, when you have to start at the doorway at the other end!

I tiled a similar lavvy room recently. There's no information on how massive feckers with big feet can tile floors in tiny rooms when there's nowhere to stand!

Bloody French and their tiny lavvy rooms.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Keeping boss lady happy
Not as easy as it looks to tile to the middle of the loo, when you have to start at the doorway at the other end!

I tiled a similar lavvy room recently. There's no information on how massive feckers with big feet can tile floors in tiny rooms when there's nowhere to stand!

Bloody French and their tiny lavvy rooms.

I recently paid a man to tile our (not very big) bathroom. I'm glad I did, he got through over 1200 tiles*. Fuck doing that.

**No he didn't break 1100 before anyone says it

[Noggin]

Today I took a friend's car back to him - we went to a bar last night and I drove his car, so it ended up at my place!! ~(after I drove him home!!!) LOL

Then we walked up a mountain to see the fete sort of thing up there. Not much to see, too peopley!! So I text the people we were meeting and we all met somewhere further down and less peopley for a coffee!

Then I went to the valley to meet a friend. Only because I was picking up another friend from the station. There was something of a gap inbetween, so I went to the Parapente landing site and sat in the shade reading my book or watching 'flyers' flying and landing. I do so want to learn to do that!!!

Now home and very tired. Knee hurts more than shoulder from the walking, so that's 'sort of' good!! LOL