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1

General Discussion / Replacing the Guest Book

« on: 15 May, 2023, 02:22:31 PM »

Greetings all!
This post follows the email just sent to all registered former users of Pam's 208 Sigs website Message Board, inviting suggestions, comments, etc to replace the now inoperable Guest Book. All responses will be assessed at end-May to help decide how (or "if") to replace the GB. Please feel free to make any comments etc that you wish - but try to keep them usable and positive (ie, no expensive replacements, nor suggestions for something that could test the technical understanding of the average website visitor).
Cheers
Martin "Scouse" Ratia (on behalf of website owner Pam, admin Lee, and fellow moderators Ken and Pam)

2

General Discussion / Margot Burgess - RIP

« on: 19 January, 2023, 12:08:28 PM »

208 Sigs website reconstruction expert Lynn "Lee" Burgess has granted permission for the following sad news about his wife, Margot ("Meg"), to be posted to the 208 Sigs community. In an earlier email, Lee wrote "Meg has been in hospital for the vast majority of the last 6 months (cancer, specifically lymphoma, renal failure, et al). She is fighting like a tiger, but is being kept 'under' to ease the pain, she now receiving end of life care at our local hospital."

----- Forwarded message -----
From: Lynn Burgess
Sent: Thursday, 19 January 2023 at 09:22:13 am AEDT

Sadly, I have to inform that we lost Margot about 1630 18 Jan 2023. Her passing, while medicated, was peaceful.

Pain is only for those who remain. RIP

With profound regret

Lee

3

General Discussion / Merry Xmas, Happy New Year!

« on: 10 December, 2022, 07:45:42 AM »

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year 2023 to all ex-208'ers. Fingers crossed for peace, financial stability, no more covid and an end to political bullies and authoritarianism in all its forms!
Cheers
Scouse/MR/Martin, Linh & our niece/ward Sunny

4

General Discussion / Kylie and Jason - the truth at last!

« on: 03 August, 2022, 11:59:08 AM »

Dunno how many Neighbours fans are on this MB (apart from Pam!), but this link answers the question about Kylie and Jason having such small speaking parts in the recently screened final episode: https://au.yahoo.com/lifestyle/truth-behind-baffling-neighbours-moment-revealed-232746870.html - I'm not sure, but the link didn't turn blue with underline, so you might have to copy and paste it into your browser...

5

General Discussion / Just gotta share this one!

« on: 23 June, 2022, 01:29:30 PM »

The last couple of years have been pretty tough for everyone, I think - we've all had our challenges. And that's why I was delighted to discover the great news today that my superannuation scheme will cover Linh and Sunny if I die before them (I've just never checked before, but the VN gov't wants our full financial circumstances as they assess our application for 'expat adoption', so I checked with the super scheme and now it's all confirmed!). I had always thought it might be the case with Linh because I remember being invited to name a beneficiary. But Sunny was an unexpected surprise - she'll qualify for 'dependent child' allowance (nearly 80% of full pension) after she's lived with us for five years, regardless of whether the adoption process goes ahead or not.
We're just passing the four years mark now, so I've only gotta stay alive one more year and she'll be covered until she's 18 (or 25 if studying full time) as long as we can prove she's been living with us for at least five years - which is easy in Vietnam because every household has a 'family book' listing the occupants with dates in, dates out, etc signed by the local People's Committee (they love to know where everyone is from one day to the next - and in this particular case it will be very useful!).
I've gotta say I've had unexpectedly good news before, but today's confirmation that Linh and Sunny will be looked after if (when?) I go before them just absolutely takes first place in my book - YEEEHAAAAA!

6

General Discussion / NEW MSG FOR STEVE ICETON

« on: 31 May, 2022, 02:19:32 PM »

G'day Steve - did you make it onto this General Discussion page yet? If so, just press reply and post your response. Cheers, Scouse.

7

General Discussion / A ray of sunshine - plus flying to Oz

« on: 20 April, 2022, 03:27:12 AM »

There's not much for anyone to be happy about these days - anything from Russia attacking Ukraine to Covid lockdowns or even the weather! But LFC giving Man U a 4-0 shellacking to follow the season's earlier 5-0 hammering is truly a bright spot in all the murk! Also flying back to Oz today for a quick 3 weeks to fix a few things that have fallen apart while we've been away for more than 2 years on what was supposed to be a 4 months trip! It was made possible because the VN visa rules changed and I was gonna have to do a renewal run to the border anyway, but VNA suddenly dropped their airfares to below pre-Covid levels so why not go a bit further? Mind you, I could write a book about the bureaucracy involved at both ends - I've got enough soft and hard copies of various health declarations and associated QR codes to fill a library! Happy days...............

8

General Discussion / Looting in Goodna

« on: 03 March, 2022, 01:09:38 AM »

Sad (disgusting) news that people in boats and even towing trailers are looting houses that have been abandoned in Goodna because of the flooding from that horrific "once in 100 years" rain bomb. Police have arrested 5 so far - let's hope they get what they deserve in the local watch house! Does JD still live in Goodna - or am I thinking of someone else?

9

General Discussion / Happy Twosday!

« on: 22 February, 2022, 01:24:42 PM »

No, that's not a mistake - today is Tuesday ("Twos-day") the 22nd day of the 2nd month of 2022 (, ie Twos-day 22.2.22). Hands up anyone who hadn't noticed!!

10

General Discussion / MESSAGE FOR STEVE ICETON

« on: 11 January, 2022, 01:05:19 AM »

Apologies for the 'shouting' headline but just wanted to catch the attention of Steve Iceton or anyone who may be in contact with him to encourage him to contribute any of those "mainly J troop" photos he mentioned on the GB for posting in the galleries on this site. He can make initial contact via the email links under the Guest Book or Message Board buttons on the Home page if he's having problems navigating into the MB. If anyone is in contact with Steve, please relay this message to him - many thanks!

11

General Discussion / More photos (Lee? Pam?)

« on: 04 January, 2022, 03:02:05 AM »

Lee and/or Pam: I just noticed Steve Iceton, J troop 63-65, has posted on the GB and reckons he's got an album "full of photos". It might be worth trying to contact him to see if he'd like to contribute any photos not already in the 208 gallery?

12

General Discussion / MERRY XMAS, HAPPY NEW YEAR (2022)

« on: 25 December, 2021, 07:32:17 AM »

Best wishes to everyone on the new MB for a very merry Christmas and (hopefully) an even happier new year!

13

General Discussion / Emailing MB members?

« on: 22 December, 2021, 03:16:38 AM »

Don't know about anyone else, and it's maybe an indication of my being a "boomer", but I like email for the ability to directly target those people you specifically want to talk to with a particular message. Wouldn't it be great if we could do the same thing from this MB, ie chat away on this forum but, if the situation arose (as it sometimes does when we get 'sidetracked'), just send an email to a smaller, more relevant and interested audience for the newly-introduced subject matter. Or even to just email specific members about something we just thought of while browsing the MB, but don't think it will interest everyone. Or maybe the Zuck et al have already invented something like that but I just don't know about it yet?

14

General Discussion / Covid capers!

« on: 17 December, 2021, 07:48:24 AM »

I shouldn't make a joke about Covid because it's devastated so many families around the world, but I used "capers" in the heading for this post to try and lighten things up a little so I can tell the story of how they're treating Covid in downtown Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam's Covid epicentre.
We live in the coastal resort town of Vung Tau, about 2 hours by road or hydrofoil from Saigon (no longer the city's official name but still widely used by Vietnamese, especially in the south). The highway Vung Tau-Saigon has been closed for the past 6 months to stop people bringing the virus into our town and infecting us all - but it was finally re-opened a couple of days ago, despite infection rates still being much higher than last year (like other places in the world influenced by 'Big Business' - in VN's case that's foreign investors wanting everything done their way "or we'll take our money elsewhere" - we're being told that after locking ourselves away for more than a year (literally - only allowed to open the front door to collect the day's meals that have been left outside!), we're now suddenly having to learn to "live with Covid"! Amazing...
But the best bit is in Saigon. If you leave home, best take plenty of money and spare clothes because you will be rapid antigen tested before entry to any gov't agency, business, shopping centre or other venue where large crowds gather, and anyone who shows positive is immediately carted off by ambulance to one of the "field hospitals" (tent cities) with siren blaring - and never seen again until they test negative (follow-up tests every 7 days!). So you might "pop down to the shops" but not be seen or heard from again for weeks - or ever!
I can't help wondering how such treatment would go down in western countries where the snowflakes complain about 'infringement of civil liberties', 'loss of freedom', etc even when just being told to wear a facemask!!!

15

General Discussion / Out of Comms - question

« on: 18 November, 2021, 03:49:31 AM »

Just browsing around and noticed the last six entries in "Out of Comms" seem to be wearing light-coloured "SAS" berets. Or did the blue colour of our berets get changed after I left?

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