Secre

Always a good day to have skipped then! And yep, the big positive days and the single positive days are always the most risky. The big positive days because there are so many balls in the court that you can't catch all the upsets and the single positives because to have any chance of making a profit you usually have to ten bet the single positive.

I took an almost complete break over Christmas, so this was a little bit of a culture shock. But all in all... it's not bad. It's clearly set up to be a mobile site on desktop, rather than a desktop site which isn't awesome. I spent 99% of my time on neo on a desktop, so I'd have liked something that plays to it's strengths. But, they seem to be having enough issues converting the site as a whole let alone creating a whole desktop and mobile version, so I'll take what I've got. It's strange, I'm not normally good with change, but I'm really not too fussed... despite having used the old version all the way up to December as standard. Things I dislike: - No easy SDB access. I still haven't found a way there that doesn't involve putting something from my inventory in my SDB and then following the link, or heading to a non-converted page with the links at the top of the page. - No quickstock. It works if you use the old quickstock link though so it's not the end of the world - http://www.neopets.com/quickstock.phtml?r= - SW doesn't repeat searches. That will be more annoying if it's not fixed, but I've only pinged on and off today so can use the SSW.

This was one of the reasons I had a break - I had a series of tanks and lost the will to play!! Particularly after I tanked on the 80:10 day as I flipped the four bet thinking the other pirate was a better bet... Hopefully, I can get back in the groove. Looking at Boochi today, he tanked yesterday so I'm glad I didn't start again then! I've gone a little more risky for my first day back

It doesn't really matter, it just depends on how quickly you want to blow through them. I've used 7-9 and still haven't got my Garlic Kiko. Doh!

Wow! Well done! That's huge!! I'm a long long way off that if ever!

Thanks! Awwww, such a cute custom!! I just discovered the Stocking Stfftacular robe and now can't decide if my Peophin looks better in her dress or in the robe!

I have to admit, whilst I love Christmas, I'm not so much a fan of the cold, wet weather and dark mornings! I have however finally amassed enough items to put together some wintery customs. So show me your winter customs!

My lab zaps have been wholly disappointing but I did get a Clay Scamander from the petpet lab. It's a pity I'm after a picnic petpet on that pet really...

I've had issues on mobile more recently but desktop is the same as before!

Oh yeah, I missed that one. And 5G causes it. But seriously, the government has your NI number. With that they can access almost everything about you except your NHS records. And most people post their entire life on Facebook anyway. Who needs chips in a vaccine!?? I recently read 'The Pandemic Century' - I don't recommend it by the way, there are far better books on the subject apparently and the author doesn't frame things well and is higly US centric. But yes, it touched on various pandemics of the last century... and humanity never changes. I particularly liked the chapter on Parrot Fever - not really a pandemic mind you. But this was a disease spread solely by bird droppings and handling disaeased birds. Easy solution? Stop buying the darn birds! But noooooo.... Mrs Bucket down the street really needs a new set of singing bloody birds!! That sounds similar to our Tier 3 restrictions in terms of restaurants. Tier 2 are allowed to be open for sit in. And we are not closing schools again. Nope, definitely not, despite headteachers coming together to say they won't be opening their schools!! I believe we can have up to three households for Christmas, but there's no 'person' limit. Oh, tell me about it. I'm watching the state of my own country and then become appalled at myself when I think, 'hey, we're not as bad as the USA!' That's very, very slim praise unfortunately.

Nearly there! It's incredible just how frustrating inching a score up can be!! My top score on the Ummagine game was 215 previously. I'm now on level 8 and getting incredibly annoyed!! There are so many steps! EDIT: Well, I beat the level, but I got caught after the bonus section so I'm not at full points. I think I'll try and beat all the levels and then start again!!

I played for hours originally, I then got bored and was putting in one to two goes a day at most. And then got lucky in my petpet placements on my second go yesterday. It took me a long time to boost my score from the low 120's to 160-180 and then in honesty it was more about luck than anything else!! But yes, I put in a few hours on it in total I fear. Good luck with Chia Bomber... my score on that is hopeless (288!), so it's rather low on my avatar list! I'm now looking at either Assignment 53 or Grand Theft Ummagine... but I may see if I can get a trophy on Korbat's Lab first!

Yep, I got it!! Success!! I'm now at 248 avatars. I don't think I'm ever going to get an avatar high score, but I'm slowly creeping the number up!! And yeah, I don't tend to read game guides unless I'm frustrated in my avatar hunting!!

If nobody beats me down by tomorrow I'll have gotten the Korbats Lab avatar. I might try for a trophy. Once I learned the whole 'skip a level' trick it was quite relaxing to play!

Except it's hardly due diligence when they've spent weeks telling people they can meet up! In fairness, I suspect they knew they'd be roundly ignored from the start and that was a part of the decision making!! But people don't take well to 'flip-flopping', particularly when - as you said - they've now made plans around it. I mean between this and Brexit the Tory goverment are up ... creek without a paddle between them. But Starmer hardly fills me with vast confidence in honesty. Most likely!! Admittedly, my husband does try it occasionally, but he gets sick of my whining quickly enough and the heating goes on!! We have a smart meter but my father doesn't - his is a very basic turn the heating on at the boiler... or don't as the case might be. He has a small wood burner in the dining room... that is far too small for the room because the larger ones were expensive!! I always make sure I take jumpers and coats when we go down to my parents... and not to wear outside!! It's strange as my husband's parents are the opposite - their heating is ALWAYS on, to the point that you actively bake to death!! But there are too many people with a doctorate from Google who think the virus is a hoax or less dangerous than the flu. Or who don't want to be 'controlled' by the government. Or think that masks reduce oxygen levels despite doctors wearing them all day. Or that their freedom to go to the pub is more important than someone's grandad's life. There's a whole host of people who won't take the vaccine because they think it's been rushed through, with no understanding of how clinical research normally works. It normally takes us 2-3 years just to get a trial open to recruitment - protocol development, funding applications, regulatory and ethical approvals, data collection tools, site set-up (made more difficult if you are recruiting internationally). It takes forever and most of it is waiting. My unit has three COVID trials set up in the last year that from initialisation to first patient recruited took seven WEEKS. Simply because the funding and the approval red tape has been cut hugely. It isn’t that the testing is rushed, it’s that with the red tape being cut trials are opening in a fraction of the time it normally takes.

I think part of the government's problem is that they likely fully recognise that even if they try to tighten up the relaxations now, the majority of the public are just going to ignore them. So it will do little good - and (perhaps most importantly sadly) harm their election chances as a lot of people are already firmly fed up with them! I don't think there has been any guidance on a Christmas bubbles in terms of isolation - it just seemed the most common sense approach for us. If I'd been commuting for two hours twice a day in the lead up to Christmas, it would be far more risky for me to then see my (relatively) elderly parents. Likewise, my husband works at a university in a student facing role. Thankfully, I've been working from home - I was last in work last Tuesday so won't have been in contact with anyone for 15 days by 23rd December - and my husband has this entire week off work. My parents barely go out anyway, so they are a nicely self-isolated bubble even without coronavirus restrictions. My foster parents are a little more tricky but the girls will have been off school for a couple of weeks and my foster father has to get semi-regular tests as he works in the healthcare profession in a patient facing role. But yes, I hadn't thought about how many people simply won't have made that connection in their heads and will have been working/shopping as normal and then go and form a three family bubble immediately afterwards... People can usually be trusted to conform to the lowest denominator as a group... It's a good job that we have been self-isolating though. There's no way we're keeping the windows open at my parent's. My father has a ... unique... view on heating the house. And it largely involves not doing it!!! I hadn't realised the USA numbers were so appallingly high. Although, when you consider who they have in charge, it is perhaps not that surprising in honesty... In fairness, other than closing non-essential businesses, I'm not sure they could make our lockdown restrictions stricter. Nearly the entire country has been in Tier 3 for months - so no gatherings indoors or outdoors, work from home if at all possible, don't leave the house unless it is for essential purposes (which directly conflicts with non-essential shops being open, but hey ho!), restaurants and bars closed etc. I think worship is currently permitted which is wasn't in the original lockdown, but that seems like a recipe for disaster to me - stick a heap of immuno-compromised elderly parishioners in a group and hope for the best!! Enjoy your rare Christmas off work though!!

Avatar: The Last Airbender - she's the Princess of the Fire Nation.

Just got Extreme Herder after so many failed attempts!! Even if I never get another gaming avatar I think I can quit Flash happy now!

Hahahahahahahaha!! I got it on my second try today!!! With a score of 260! Success!!!!! I'm not sure what's next... perhaps Korbat's Lab?!

I didn't know I could check the zones like that!! Thank you!! I love using foregrounds and background's together, so I always get really disappointed when one or the other disappears so that's really helpful!

I've entered in the hopes of getting a Burlap Meerca as I still haven't managed to zap my Kiko garlic after months of trying!!

I like both the outfit and the colour - I agree with @aleu1986 that the milky white eyes make it stand out a bit from the crowd, although yes, some wisps of pink floating away from it would look pretty awesome. It's like the friendly ghost... just a friendly wraith instead! And yes, that hat is wonderful! I wish it wasn't species specific!! I really like the staff as well, there's a lot of fine detail on it!

So what are everyone's plans and has the dreaded virus disrupted them too badly? In the UK our government has announced a period where lockdown measures are lifted for the five days or so around Christmas. Well, providing the scientific advisory groups don't talk them out of it at the last minute. So our current plan is that as we are lucky enough to be able to self-isolate for ten days prior to 23rd December, we will be going down to my parents and foster parents from 23rd-25th December and then heading back on home on 26th to spend some time with my husband's parents before the lockdown comes back into force before New Year. All our present's are wrapped, so it's all a matter of waiting to see whether the govenment moves the goal posts or not!! Regardless, I'm looking forward to two weeks off work to just read, play games and eat good food!!

I've taken the Podcast advice on board more recently - I've started very simple with Coffee Break German just to back up my current knowledge and learn a few new words in the process. I suspect as the Podcast goes on it will get more complex and hopefully I'll be getting further in my Duolingo so be able to understand it relatively easily. Once I get a little bit more confident I will look at Slow German mit Annik Rubens, Warum nicht? and Easy German which are more of an intermediate level I think. It's also really good that I can listen to them whilst doing basic data entry at work and not feel guilty like I do if I'm watching something on NetFlix at the same time... or playing neopets of course.

I was with Garet yesterday. Unlike the day before where I dropped the wrong safety and tanked when Garet did quite well!