Greetings, @winston @blenkinsopthebrave @janetteb and all! Yes, hubby and I are fine. I had my first jab last Tuesday, and hubby (who is nine years younger) gets his first one tomorrow. So we are finally getting past that hurdle.

The timing between first and second doses in Canada is somewhat controversial. Mainly this came about because Canada…[Read more]

@winston @janetteb @blenkinsopthebrave    Well, I met Mrs D 42 years ago, give or take a year (she’d know the exact date, and could probably reel off the entire guest list – she has a memory like an FBI database when it comes to people.   She has been known to remind me of old acquaintances of mine that I’ve forgotten and she met just once, deca…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave  @janetteb and @dentarthurdent   Happy Mothers Day to Janette and Mrs Blenkinsop  and Mrs Dentarthurdent and all the other mothers on the site! I wish I could give you all big beautiful bouquets of flowers. I picked a small bunch of violets, primroses and lambia for my table and baked myself a cake (hubby says its good!) sin…[Read more]

@janetteb   Well, our press isn’t marvellous, but it’s certainly better than the worst of the British or US gutter press (i.e. Murdoch).   There used to be a paper called ‘NZ Truth’ that was notorious for its sensationalist headlines, but now that anyone can get free Internet porn, there’s no longer any mileage in ‘Gay priest alleged father of str…[Read more]

@janetteb    To be fair to docnerd, it was me who first mentioned that some of us are ‘pretty old’.   (Bearing in mind that I think docnerd is quite young, and to a teenager, thirty is ‘old’).   As Macca rightly said, age doesn’t matter when we’re discussing Doctor Who.   But I think it may just affect our style of communication.

@winston so great to hear that you are surviving (albeit with crazy neighbours). I was just corresponding with a friend back in Australia who did not realise we were still in lockdown in Canada. Happily, Australia has coped quite well (in part because of their policy of absolutely rigorous lockdowns when needed). I had to explain to her that,…[Read more]

@blenkinsopthebrave  and @janetteb  I am still here in lock down in Ontario. We have had our first jab but it will be 4 months before the 2nd shot. I keep busy gardening and puttering around the place. Spring also means so many birds are back and there have even been 6 little goslings (of the Canada variety) in the yard so the binoculars, bird g…[Read more]

@janetteb    Two months – that’s serious. I’d start getting restive after a couple of weeks.

I was in a one-bed ward (i.e. private room). I could have had the operation for free on the NHS, I ‘went private’ because (a) I had my own health insurance which would pay $35k of the $42k total cost, the remaining $7k was just affordable for me, (b) I di…[Read more]

@janetteb You summed up the Covid situation well, for us in NZ too. In normal times, the couple of lockdowns we’ve had would count as exceptional circumstances, but compared with the rest of the world they’re trivial. So long as our quarantine holds…     Mrs D and I, being old like, will probably be due for vaccination in a month or so, app…[Read more]

@janetteb Yes, Covid is still running (ruining?) our lives here. At the end of our street is a large park. By this time of the year on the weekends  it would normally be full of people playing some form of sport, with others watching on the sidelines. These days, there is just the occasional dog chasing a stick. And it is not going to change…[Read more]

@janetteb   I agree with all of that.   And that World Enough and Time / The Doctor Falls are the darkest episodes.    (Heaven Sent was possibly even darker but it had a triumphant ending).   I got the exact same feeling from the episodes, of trapped helplessness.   That’s why I prefer Hell Bent as my favourite finale, even though Clara was dead,…[Read more]

@janetteb Kill the Moon probably started as a high-concept musing – ‘what if the Moon were an egg?’. Unfortunately, while many such postulates result in extraordinary episodes, sometimes the practical difficulties are insurmountable. But in KTM they just blandly ignored them all, a list a mile long. I think every practical detail was wrong. For…[Read more]

@janetteb @oochillyo

There are some interesting points in this conversation you’re having.

@janetteb I thought Mickey was a bit of a drip, though he did improve a bit as time went on. But the companion’s boyfriend never had an easy ride in Nu Who – Mickey, Rory, Danny Pink. Hint to guys – if your girlfriend starts travelling with the doctor,…[Read more]

I agree with you @janetteB that Series 2 compared with others isn’t that good, today I ranked the Series though not definitive I put Series 2 in the good section with 1,7,9 and 11, maybe good isnt the right word cause I really like Series 11 and Series 1 isnt terrible they just miss the great spot in that ranking list from Fantastic to Bad so…[Read more]

hey @janetteB

I apologies for going to much into the story, I tend to do that as I watched lots of reviews of things (still do) where they say all the good and bad which I am used to but I guess its different there cause you know the topic they are going to talk about and they warn you of spoilers beforehand.

As I said today I found a section…[Read more]

@janetteb and @dentarthurdent   I get how people are protective of their favourite characters, I feel that way about Sherlock Holmes who I think should be a British man as should Watson. James Bond can be a man just let the women in the films be kick ass instead of eye candy. But the Doctor is different, heshe regenerates into totally new p…[Read more]

@janetteb Well, as to James Bond, I guess you’re right and continuity of the main character is a lost cause (though Mrs D still refers to Sean Connery as ‘James Bond’). Talking of actors who didn’t ‘fit’, (I know you were talking about the Doctor but I’m applying it here), Sean Connery fitted perfectly, George Lazenby (who only did one) for some…[Read more]

@janetteB wow it feels like a big shock to hear Peter Davison is 70 today I was surprised to hear recently he was in his 60’s so he must have been in his late 60’s when I heard this.

I always think of him being in his early 20’s or late teens in Doctor Who since he looks soo young and till Matt Smith he was the youngest actor to play the Doctor…[Read more]

@janetteb The Piano was at Karekare, which is the next significant beach south of Piha. Hercules and Xena and most other productions use Bethells Beach, 5 miles north of Piha. Piha tends to not be used so much because it’s the busiest settlement, however I have come across filming activity at The Gap and also at the far north end of Piha Beach. In…[Read more]

Hi @janetteb

The black sand at Piha is a mixture of iron-rich black sand (titanomagnetite), and ordinary yellow-brown sand. The black sand apparently comes all the way up the coast from Mt Taranaki (Mt Egmont), 200 miles away, by wave action (okay, so I had to Google that). The yellow sand is probably of local origin, and that would be volcanic,…[Read more]