A good book 'n a brew 📚 ☕

@TheSpookyOne1 It's not that different really. I think because it was listed they were mindful of keeping the original design. The diving boards have gone. If you google it there's a link to quite a long article that detailed all the work involved in the refurbishment.

@NatterBlog Wow! I took the photo from the X, and the steps I pointed out must have been something else. You couldn’t see the Tinside Lido from where I was standing. I bet the refurb was a lot different to the 1935 build. I will make a point of seeing it next time I visit.

Photos from yesterday.. #Plymouth

@TheSpookyOne1 It's still there, I had a look. Tinside Lido. Opened in 1935, closed in 1992 and refurbished it reopened in 2003. It's Grade 2 listed. No wonder it was cold it was replenished with fresh sea water every 4 hours.

@NatterBlog Possibility, you can see the steps in the photo. Not for the faint hearted. 😅

@Diamond_Eyes88 @vixfar I don't think that's true. Some may be bought but the majority of book reviews, at least on Amazon are mostly genuine. I have over 200 reviews on my book blog. All transferred over to Amazon, quite a few to Waterstones. It takes up a lot of time and effort.

@vixfar Reader here. I do try to leave reviews for books but honestly, everyone and every place asks for them now and it makes me not want to anymore. A lot of reviews we see online are either bought or bots. I used to rely on reviews for purchases but no longer do that.

A Far-flung Life by M L Stedman abooknbrew2.wordpress.com/2026/03/05/a-f… @NatterBlog

@JillsBookCafe Thank you for sharing Jill. This book is a wonderful story. I don't venture on X much any more so I will share again. 😊

Paper Sisters by Rachel Canwell | #bookreview #historicalfiction | @bookbound2019 @northodoxpress portobellobookblog.com/2026/03/05/pap…

@kateiswell We've got the Meadow pattern. A wedding present back in 1982. I still use those things. Only got the tea plates and cereal dishes left. They don't get used much because they're in our motorhome, even so...😱 They can get in the bin. Bit after the event tho' 😬

@Samanth16993742 @Mr_Husky1 Which ones did you have?

I'm absolutely devastated! I've been saving my families 100 yr old China for my girls. Well, I'll be, after all these years she wants it! *Here's the devastating part-ALL of the China tests positive for LEAD! I can't even use it in the garden, the lead can leech into the soil. Anyone have any ideas besides throwing it all away? I can't in good conscience even donate it.

@Jonathan_K_Cook An absolute carbon copy of the plot of the fictional novel written back in the early 80's A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin which I read during the 2015 leadership campaign. We're going to suffer at the hands of the greedy for ever.

The political and media class that once venerated Peter Mandelson – and now rushes to disown him – is the same class that spent five years destroying Jeremy Corbyn. In fact, Mandelson and Corbyn served as the two axes in Labour around which different visions of Britain's future coalesced. Under Blair, Mandelson set about remaking Labour’s MPs and party bureaucracy in his own image: as a managerial party for the emerging class of tech overlords. But he failed to bring Labour’s third power centre – its members – along with him, which is why Corbyn slipped past institutional safeguards in 2015 and found himself elected as leader. By then, Labour had long been a soulless, technocratic party competing with the Conservatives to do the bidding of the wealthy – while holding out the fragile hope that, by miraculous osmosis, a little of their riches would trickle down to the rest of us. Corbyn’s political priorities were the antithesis of everything Mandelson stood for - and the opposite of what the billionaires who for decades were allowed to ransack Britain’s public services wanted. He called for rebuilding a fairer redistributive economy based on democratic socialist principles. He wanted to take back control of national utilities and expand public services. His emphasis was on building community and class solidarity – “For the many, not the few”. In 2017, Mandelson revealed that getting rid of Corbyn as Labour leader was his political mission: “I work every single day in some small way to bring forward the end of his tenure in office. Something, however small it may be – an email, a phone call or a meeting I convene – every day, I try to do something to save the Labour Party from his leadership.” The billionaire-owned media, of course, were only too willing to help. Corbyn was deemed too “scruffy“ to be prime minister. He was sexist. He was either not patriotic enough or a threat to national security. He was either too dim-witted to lead the country or a Russian spy. And finally, of course, he and the hundreds of thousands of new members attracted to Labour by his message of change and hope were antisemites for being critical of Israel’s permanent and illegal occupation of the Palestinians. In the shadows, contingency plans were readied in the event of a Corbyn victory. An army general told The Sunday Times that the officer class would mutiny to overthrow any Corbyn-led government. Leaked images showed soldiers in Afghanistan using his face as target practice. Behind all this lay the might of the United States – the imperial core whose politics is even more thoroughly captured by the billionaire class. In a leaked 2019 recording, US Secretary of State and former CIA director Mike Pompeo warned that it was vital to stop the Labour leader from reaching power, suggesting that an organised campaign to discredit Corbyn was already underway. “It could be that Mr Corbyn manages to run the gauntlet and get elected. It’s possible,” Pompeo said. “You should know, we won’t wait for him to do those things to begin to push back. It’s too risky and too important and too hard once it’s already happened.” Why were the US and British establishments so determined to stop Corbyn’s advance, even if it meant openly sabotaging the UK’s democratic political process? Precisely because Corbyn was the only major British politician who had not been captured. This is an extract from my latest article Starmer is toast. But the dark forces that brought him to power are as strong as ever. Read the rest here: middleeasteye.net/opinion/starme…

@TheSpookyOne1 I'm fine thank you, but do spend most of my time over where the sky is blue now.

@NatterBlog Hope you’re well. 🥂

Do you remember when you joined X? I do! #MyXAnniversary Well I actually joined Twitter but let's not argue over it.

@adamtaggart Wish you'd tell my husband that. Every night 10.00pm, cannot possibly miss it, except he does because he sleeps through most of it. Leaving me to suffer the misery despair of it. I wouldn't care if I never saw it ever again.

I often see old people who get really fixated on the news, frequently expressing frustration where things are headed And I wonder: Why? You don't have many years left. You can't control any of this & much of it likely won't impact you. Instead, why not focus your final years on things like: - helping others - time w/family & friends - enjoying nature (sunrises, etc) - good food - volunteering/philanthropy - self-care - passing on your wisdom Why waste your last years yelling at the TV, spun up about the wider world? Why not instead make the most of the community you live in, while you're still able to do so? After a certain age, put all the distraction & negativity behind & focus on leaving this Earth knowing you gave & enjoyed all you could of what was around you Just my 2 cents on a beautiful Saturday morning just begging to be well-seized

@AmazonHelp none of these are helpful. I need to speak to someone really. The box where the legal name is entered (automatically entered by Amazon and uneditible) has taken first initial off payment card for first name, then put second initial and surname together

@NatterBlog Hello! We're sorry about the issue with making a purchase. Please contact us here: amzn.to/UKContactUS. You can also find more information about Age-restricted items here: amzn.to/4rdPXHL. Let us know if you have any other questions. -Leigh

@AmazonHelp struggling with age verification to purchase an electric carving knife. You asked that I remove the Mr on my payment card details and now its filled in the name completely wrong and won't allow me to complete the transaction.

@Fox_Claire As someone pointed out this is digital ID by the back door. They've just got what they wanted all along. Very clever. 🤨 Children's welfare was not the intention.

A bit of a lone voice against cross-party fervour of Lords baying to ban social media for the under 16s. It really won't keep kids safe and could create a range of unintended consequences. But also it makes ADULT age-gating ID checks compulsory, for all user to user services. Such was the 'ban it' mood that, when I spoke, there were lots of groaning around me. Let me know what you think.

Am I the only person who has absolutely no interest in ever watching even 2 minutes of ‘Traitors’ and can’t stand the constant pushing of it?

@fireworkreform You know what makes me smile, the absolute drama, the national outcry at the felling of a tree and yet that same moralistic take doesn't seem to extend to wildlife and animals with quite the same passion. 🤷‍♀️

A very interesting read about the sometimes fatal, of injurious consequences of #fireworks on wild birds. In this article: “What is a burst of thrill for some, feels like an explosion for feathered inhabitants of the sky. As they fly off in fear and panic, there can be devastating results. Often they crash into walls, windows and even each other.” Imagine what it’s like for birds flying from their roosting places in panic! Why should a weird human explosive fetish cause that? @EmmaforWycombe @MayorofLondon @domdyer70 @ChrisGPackham @MeganMcCubbin #fireworklawchange swlondoner.co.uk/life/07012026-…

@nabeelqu You're quite right, we're too soft. I've put up with next door's house renovations for 4 months now every single weekend. Hammering, banging, plaster mixing, rubble clattering I can cope with but I am sick and tired of their radio infiltrating my house.

On a train in UK (was visiting for the holidays). Quiet car. Woman sitting behind me starts playing loud videos on her phone, no headphones. No one says anything. Goes on for ten minutes. Eventually I ask her to stop bc it’s the quiet car and I was trying to work. She looks confused, loudly demands to know what “quiet car” means (English isn’t her first language), I point to a sign which has a clear picture of a mobile phone. Disgruntled, she grabs her bag and leaves. People around me shoot me grateful looks. Car is quiet again. Literally 10 mins later a guy walks in and starts conducting a loud phone conversation, also not in English. Nobody says anything. There’s the usual passive-aggressive Anglo routine from people around him — loud sighs, rolled eyes, etc. Eventually I walk over to him (I was trying to do something complicated, and random noise blaring makes this hard… which is why I picked the quiet car) and point at the “no phones” sign, luckily he says sorry and stops. More grateful looks. I’ll probably get killed for saying this, but I think people in the UK are far too nice for their own good. If you want people to obey social norms you have to be willing to call out antisocial behavior, or it all falls apart and you don’t have nice things anymore. This goes for many things, not just quiet cars on trains. Anyway, the snow looked lovely on the countryside fields. Back home to NYC I go.

Yep. It's only 7.15pm and our dog is already a nervous wreck thanks to some prat letting blasting fireworks off in the street outside. Been dreading tonight all day. I used to like NYE years ago. It's no fun anymore.

@BladeoftheS This was on the news tonight, but none of what she said here was mentioned or broadcast. She's absolutely right and very gracious to have accepted it, I'd have told them to shove it where the sun don't shine. A lovely, brave lady.

"You shouldn't be getting a medal for being robbed by your own government." Betty Brown 92, the oldest surviving victim of the Post Office Scam was outraged about being in the New Year Honours List. We want compensation and prison sentences not worthless medals.