Random Irritations

Went to the Imperial War Museum this weekend.. it is a fantastic place. Some of them are really moving - esp the Holocaust exhibits. They also have the case for the 'Little Boy' that was dropped on Hiroshima. Speaking to one of the volunteer , he said there is a lot of interest in the little boy thanks to Oppenheimer movie. In the WW1 exhibit, came across this

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sparked a conversation around WW1 and how things were back then. Then he casually said... but 110 years later, are we any different from 1914 Britain. What was the point of the war?
 
Staying away from the p**tic* word, just to make everyone aware, Spain is proposing that everyone visiting from the U.K. will need an ETIAS visa. This isn't expensive and will be valid for 5?/ years. Welcome to B****t and being a 3rd world country.
This will be needed to visit all Schengen countries from 2024, not just Spain.

Do I just need to get one and that will cover me for all EU countries or do I need one for each country I'm going to visit?
 
Went to the Imperial War Museum this weekend.. it is a fantastic place. Some of them are really moving - esp the Holocaust exhibits. They also have the case for the 'Little Boy' that was dropped on Hiroshima. Speaking to one of the volunteer , he said there is a lot of interest in the little boy thanks to Oppenheimer movie. In the WW1 exhibit, came across this

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sparked a conversation around WW1 and how things were back then. Then he casually said... but 110 years later, are we any different from 1914 Britain. What was the point of the war?

In terms of living in a free democratic country then nothing has changed and the reason for that was the exact point of the war
 
Mrs Colch's friend, who is one of the nicest people that you could ever wish to meet, had been told that she had successfully fought breast cancer but has now been told that on her latest scan that the cancer has spread and there is a tumour on her lung that is manageable but untreatable. She's got 14 nd 16 year old kids whose lives are about to change in unimaginable ways. Why do bad things like this happen to good people?

Had an update this evening. Mrs Colch came back from younger son's guitar lesson in tears. My immediate thought was "Oh *dear*, what's happened"? (*that wasn't the actual word I thought). Turns out that they were happy tears. As she arrived home she received a message that her friend had received the results of the biopsy that was done on the "tumour on her lung". Doctors had made a mistake. What they thought was a tumour on her lung turned out to be scar tissue from a previous infection/pneumonia, with no sign of any cancer cells. Massive sighs of relief all round. Going to be monitored for the next two years with regular scans, but for now (fingers crossed) the news is good.

Should have posted this in the "Gladden the heart" thread but we're too busy celebrating so I couldn't be bothered to copy it across.
 
Do I just need to get one and that will cover me for all EU countries or do I need one for each country I'm going to visit?
All EU countries are covered via Schengen.. this had been already in place for anyone travelling from a third country eg India into EU (except U.K.) for the past few years. You need one to cover all of them..
very similar approach to getting an ETSA to enter US ..

This is just normal life and how people travel around the world - we were privileged not to need Schengen, now we need one. Simples
 
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