The Daily for Monday Jan 25, 2021

[bennybear]

3 minutes ago, Copper10-8 said:

So, the actual stop at the Great Wall of China, the Huangyaguan portion, on this crew tour was pretty incredible. The Huangyaguan aka "yellow cliff pass" section of the Great Wall is situated in the mountainous area of Ji County in Tianjin City, which is 80 miles east of Beijing. Originally constructed in the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-557 AD), it was repaired by General Qi Jiguang in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD). The Huangyaguan Great Wall connects the Malanguan Pass in Hebei Province in the west with the Jiangjunguan Pass in Beijing City in the east, with an overall length of 33 miles. 52 watch towers and 14 beacon towers were built along this section. The rocks and cliffs to the east of the pass give a yellowish appearance at dusk, hence the name. This section of the wall was restored again between 1984-1986, and opened to the public in 1987. 

 

While still in the bus we passed, and could see, the 27-foot high statue of General Qi Jiguang who is guarding the "Peaceful Fort," the controlling point for further entry into the Huangyaguan Great Wall. Next up, now off the bus, was a ride in a 8-person Mitsubishi "electromobile" which took us to Taiping Village from where we were able to actually enter the big wall

 

Now, Huangyaguan is usually not as crowded as other sections of the wall but be prepared, it will be a "climbing workout," due to its steepness, depending on how far, and how high, you want to climb this incredible complex. It is well worth a visit however! Great, once in a lifetime, stop! After departure, Amsterdam would head south to her next port of call, Qingdao, still in the PRC  

 

 

 

Wow!  Thanks for sharing these incredible photos,  a different spot than most are taken from.

[TheKingD]

I learn something new here almost every day.  @XBGuycaused me to look up what I have always called punch cards - thanks for the lesson!

[lvhh]

AKA Tab cards. For the tabulating equipment they were used in. And AKA punch cards. 

[rafinmd]

It's been a while since I posted a photo from my 2019 Prinsendam Grand South America cruise.  On January 25 we were at sea from Robinson Crusoe Island to Castro, Chile:

 

 

Roy

[Copper10-8]

51 minutes ago, bennybear said:

Good morning and thanks all!  Especially @ger_77who noted that it is Robbie Burns day.  DH was a drummer in a pipe band, so we’ve attended many a dinner!  Oooh, the haggis 🤢

 

stay safe and warm everyone!

 

 

My sister-in-law married a Scotsman so we had a Scot/Cuban/Dutch reception! 🙂 Great time was had by all, Love the Scottish/wearers of the kilt! 

[cat shepard]

2 hours ago, Horizon chaser 1957 said:

 

 

@cat shepardis this an Uruguayan relative of someone you know?

 

Laura, could definitely be a member of the Southern branch of Bindi’s family.

[NextOne]

1 hour ago, lvhh said:

AKA Tab cards. For the tabulating equipment they were used in. And AKA punch cards. 

I always called them "the box of cards that better not be dropped!!" LOL

[highscar]

Oh yeah. Punch cards.  Mom worked for the weather office in Toronto now called environment Canada. The weather and forecasts were installed on IBM COMPUTER PUNCH CARDS. BACK IN THE ‘50s. 

[highscar]

Also the little punches made great confetti at weddings. Don’t tell moms boss. 

[Marmot@Sea]

Happy Robbie Burns Day.

 

Some hae meat and canna eat,

And some wad eat that want it,

But wae hae meat and we can eat,

Sae let the Lord be Thankit!

 

Val

 

 

[Marmot@Sea]

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the link works.

 

 

[Horizon chaser 1957]

@Erehwon BTW, thank you for asking me about quarantine when we get back from Africa in December. I never thought to count the days until then. This morning I managed to change the booking by a week on the last day we could still,do that without a price change. The original dates put our first day out of quarantine on December 27. Now we are free as birds and ready to go on December 20.

 

Remember - You can only call it quarantine if it’s in the Quarantine region of France. Otherwise, it’s just sparkling isolation.

[Vict0riann]

Coral Princess still in Fort Lauderdale...  is she staying overnight?

[cat shepard]

57 minutes ago, Marmot@Sea said:

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the link works.

 

 

Gosh, I need a translation.

[Marmot@Sea]

1 hour ago, cat shepard said:

Gosh, I need a translation.

https://inews.co.uk/culture/address-to-a-haggis-robert-burns-poem-night-supper-words-translation-lyrics-english-250079

[cat shepard]

3 minutes ago, Marmot@Sea said:

https://inews.co.uk/culture/address-to-a-haggis-robert-burns-poem-night-supper-words-translation-lyrics-english-250079

Why thank you!

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

What a day here, rain - .22 inches - and high winds.  Saw a report the wind was 22 mph, and it did some damage in town.  Saw pictures of some of the damage including the big tent which was torn and a couple of vendors’ tents were completely collapsed on their wares.  On our ride into town, we saw other vendors with similar damage.  With the clouds and wind, our 53 F seems a lot colder.  More rain and wind are predicted for tomorrow.

 

One person posted pictures of some of the “mountains” on the east side of the valley with a light dusting of snow on top.  Yes we do get snow every few years on in the higher elevations.  Never know what the desert weather will bring.

 

While we have both iPads, iPhones, android tablets and android phones, our computers are windows based.  Our first computer in 1981, was  Radio Shack model Ii.  DH used it to write his computer program, which was written in basic.  In 1984, we graduated to an IBM computer, and DH switched to Fortran. We’ve had many computers 🖥 over the years, but only one Apple.  We got it in the 1990s because one customer used Apples.  After years of dos machines, the Apple was definitely a different experience.

 

Lenda

 

 

 

[TiogaCruiser]

34 minutes ago, cat shepard said:

Gosh, I need a translation.

Hew, I’m not the only one. I even looked for closed captions.

[rafinmd]

Well, I missed Caribbean Princess leaving.  It looks like a night-time departure   When I checked about a half hour ago it was still daylight there, although at home it was already dark with sleet falling.

 

Roy

[Happily@Sea]

5 hours ago, TheKingD said:

Good morning, and thanks for the birthday wishes and to Roy for putting me on the celebrations list.

 

I agree with @TiogaCruiserthat other than the i-phone and i-pad, I'm a Windows gal.  I started with IBM punch cards when I took computer science in college, and went from there through lots of antiquated computer systems and programs and I loved DOS back in the '80's.  My father was a systems analyst in the '50's, and I inherited that binary brain which has come in handy through most of my career.  Luckily my mother was creative and loved pretty things, so I got a nice gene pool from both of them, keeping me from being a total nerd!

 

I'm hoping everyone is successful at getting on the vaccination lists sooner rather than later.  It is a relief to have an appointment, even though mine is a month away.

 

Stay safe and kind. 

 

I hated DOS - I am not an accurate typist. All those long lines of characters just to try to do anything like a program on the computer. Thank goodness for Windows - or I probably still wouldn't be using a computer.  I hated typing in school too, always getting my fingers caught between the keys. 😄

[1ANGELCAT]

54 minutes ago, Vict0riann said:

Coral Princess still in Fort Lauderdale...  is she staying overnight?

Listed on port schedule for 9pm departure. Not confirmed 

[Quartzsite Cruiser]

@TheKingD  Happy Birthday!  🎂🎈

[erewhon]

1 hour ago, Horizon chaser 1957 said:

@Erehwon BTW, thank you for asking me about quarantine when we get back from Africa in December. I never thought to count the days until then. This morning I managed to change the booking by a week on the last day we could still,do that without a price change. The original dates put our first day out of quarantine on December 27. Now we are free as birds and ready to go on December 20.

 

Remember - You can only call it quarantine if it’s in the Quarantine region of France. Otherwise, it’s just sparkling isolation.

 

Am  pleased that you have been able to alter the dates and be out of quarantine in time for Christmas.

[erewhon]

Thanks to Rich and Roy for the daily lists.

Expecting 30 degress C today, ......summer!

One case of Covid-19 in the community,  the South African strain. Two months since the last community case.  This person had completed 14 days in border hotel isolation on returning to the country, had 2 negative tests, but developed the virus after leaving the hotel, Contact tracing occurring.

She lives in Northland, huge lines of people waiting to be tested. 

Stay safe and well everyone.

[AV8rix]

1 hour ago, Quartzsite Cruiser said:

Our first computer in 1981, was  Radio Shack model Ii.  DH used it to write his computer program, which was written in basic.  In 1984, we graduated to an IBM computer, and DH switched to Fortran.

 

 

 

I still have my 1979 Radio Shack Model I.  I figure it'll be worth something some day.  My next one was a Radio Shack Model III in 1983.  Except for laptops, that was the last computer that I ever bought.  Because after that there was open architecture so I've been building my own from scratch ever since.  Still do.  My friends know that the ones I build are better than any that can be bought so whenever I build a new one (about every 2 years) friends are eager to take the one the new one replaces.  I do remember Basic, assembler, Fortran, APL, etc.  And I was perhaps the last one in the USA to give up DOS.  Didn't cave into acceptance of Windows 'til 1996, and that was because developers weren't supporting the DOS programs any more.