Things that have made you happy today' 2024

To continue the theme about the citizenship ceremony and the help of computers, my biggest fear is to learn the affirmation of allegiance. I have been very poor in learning and repeating more than 3 words all my life, which is why I wouldn't dream of becoming an actress. At school, I regularly failed when we had to learn poems and know only the first line of the national anthems (3 in the meantime).
This week will be the moment of truth. I have to get the three lines of the affirmation and the national anthem in my head, and I have to speak them with English pronunciation.
I allow myself to declare that (due to my job) my understanding of worldwide spoken English is excellent and I'm able to recognise immediately where people come from. Unfortunately, even after 18 years living in the UK, my German accent is undeniable.
This morning, I discovered that Bing translation has got a UK English translation. There is a loudspeaker symbol which allows to listen to a text.
This is possible because Microsoft got a voice probe from known speakers (I recognised the German voice) and AI turns written text into spoken words. It doesn't matter what's the topic is.
This AI language program just needs a few sentences spoken in native language, and uses this for everything. But not only that, it also uses the same probe for all other languages. OH speaks 99 languages fluently including Japanese.

 

I'm afraid this is probably not a lot of use to you in December, but I was in the same boat 5 years ago with my French citizenship application. I learnt the first two verses of La Marseillaise by singing it at the top of my voice whilst swimming round and round the pool Fortunately, we've only got one fairly close neighbour so I wasn't committed to an asylum
I still use this method to get over the shock of going into the water in spring, when it's only 18C. You can sing or scream but not both at the same time.....
Seriously, @simone_in_wiltshire , the old-fashioned method of repetition usually works if you do it often enough

 

@noisette47 OH just came out of the bedroom and was wondering why I sing the national anthem at 5 o'clock in morning 3 times LOL.

 

Patriotism is a wonderful thing....

 

Remember when they played the national anthem on TV on close down at about 10.30pm? Maybe it wasn't that early, but they did.

 

Did you stand up?
I remember the Epilogue for some reason, it was always the last programme in the TV times but I never saw it.

 

I am delighted to report that all but one of the houses at my end of the street have lovely Christmas lights. I think it is a silent protest against customary Canadian holidays being erased. For me it has never been a religious thing, it has been all about a season of enjoying family and friends and celebrating with pretty lights, decorations and feasts. So seeing these cheery lights on just about every house has made me feel like we're all silent but very visible warriors for our, now secular, traditions.

 

They still have a blast of the Anthem just before Radio 4 closes down and World Service begins at 0100 hrs every night.

 

I listen to it every morning. And the shipping forecast. And “Sailing By”. How many versions of Sailing By are there? I like some much more than others. And I’m always in awe of how they can play Sailing By, read the shipping forecast (with its unpredictable complications and variable length) and manage to arrive, unflustered, with seconds to go for one o’clock on the dot.

Btw, I am reliably informed that the shipping forecast will be one hundred years old next year. What a change it has seen.

 

Like this?
Sailing By (Radio 4, Shipping Forecast theme)
I remember the shipping forecast when I was younger and listened to the BBC in East Berlin, but I had never heard of Sailing by.
I heard a lot of BBC, didn't understand a word, but I enjoyed it. Those were the days when the radios allowed to go through all the radio stations millimetre by millimetre and each of them came from a different world. Just listening gave me pleasure to find out what language that could be. There was English, Copenhagen, France, Spanish to start with the easiest ones...
I do miss these old radios. I was thinking about buying one again, but the radio stations and the quality will not be the same.

 

Thanks for the link, Simone. I prefer this version myself. Less “look at us being an orchestra” and more “just put your head down and relax”.



I like the versions where there’s a little wiffle of piccolos every now and then (sorry I’m not musical) that sound like spray being pushed off the bow of the ship.

Yes, less choice in radio stations these days. I always liked the idea of the shipping forecast being broadcast on the long wave. The pun appealed to me. I still have a tiny radio that lets you thumb through different stations with the volume turned to minimum and the speaker pressed to your ear at two in the morning.

 

The shipping forecast has changed over the years and got shorter. When I first listened it included the sea areas around Iceland and North Norway round into the Arctic sea, this was for the benefit of the deepwater fishing fleet and their families; it included the risk of icing.

 

I went to the town centre yesterday and stopped at a Polish supermarket. I bought smoked sprats. At home, I opened the package and found the best sprats I have eaten in years, if not decades. So fresh and juicy.

 

Today I saw Donald, a local man who has been a missionary for over forty years. He has been a missionary in Central America and South America. Our mothers know each other very well.

 

A man came yesterday evening to put a new tv aerial for me, so now I'll be able to watch the rubbish they relay over Christmas without getting lines all over the screen