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Please be Advised;
DECEMBER BLOGS
fbb will be adding his traditional "Advent Calendar" each day from 1st to 26th December.
Question : What have asymmetric, amorphous, agnostic and apathetic got in common? Answer tomorrow. (and its more than their initial letter)
As your increasingly ancient blogger is in need of a bit of a break, the Public Transport content of December postings will be somewhat reduced in amount, but, hopefully not reduced in stimulation and excitement.
Hmmm?
Then, again, in a hectic weekend, the external Christmas decorations at fbb mansion have been installed and were formally due to be switched on by the property owner, namely Mr Tubbles ...
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ComfortDelGro
The company is based in Singaapore and is the result of a merger of two big big operators called, surprisingly 'Comfort' and 'Delgro'. The history of the constituent companies is long and complex and just a step to far for a full fbb investigation.
There were Comfort taxis, including the iconic and much loved Singapore "yellow top" cars.
Readers may wonder how this subsidiary got its name!
The Delgro bit included Singapore Bus Services ...
Even that is complicated now, with smart green buses operated by a variety of companies.
ComfortDepGro ...
... Tower Transit (whom we have met before) ...
... GoAhead (we've heard of them) ...
... and a fourth company that looks a bit different!
ComfortDelGro have wider interests in Singaopore ...
... including taxis which are now either yellow with 'ComfortDelGro' branding ...
... or they might be blue!
But the company's interests are world wide. There are operations in China, in New Zealand ...
... and in Stockholm.
More to come tomorrow.
Some activity is joint with other companies (as it is in Stockholm).
But nearer to home is a long distance coach service in the Republic of Ireland.
The name may be familiar.
So here is a challenge for our readers with time to spare (?). Can you identify the UK companies from this list of ComfotDelGro subsidiaries?
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'A' is, of course, for Advent which is the pre Christmas preparation season. In the "official" Church Calendar, Christmas starts at midnight on Christmas Eve. How different things are in the commercial secular world!
But his blog snippet is about:-
A ssorted A ttitudes
The Greek word "A" (or maybe it is a syllable) means something like "there is no ...". So for ...
A symmetric Bars ...
... there is no symmetry. For A morphous carbon (soot) ...
Also there should be an "A" word for those who do accept the vital nature of a true Christian faith.
... there is no "morph", i.e. shape.
So an A theist opines that there is no God, a standpoint that needs as much Faith as a believer!
An A gnostic usually uses the word to imply a lack of interest in God, but that is simply not what the word really means. Gnosis was a Greek "religion" which is difficult to understand; but the idea is that your faith was based on a philosophical "knowledge" (whatever that meant). So a true agnostic has no "philosophical knowledge" of God,
A better word is A pathetic. In the past "pathos" meant simply "emotion". So someone who is apathetic has no emotion; i.e simply doesn't care.
Why do the Atheist, the Agnostic, the Apathetic bother to celebrate Christmas?
Of course many millions world-wide celebrate the birth of the Saviour of the world, he who forgives our godlessness and gives us a fresh start. And why do we actually need forgiveness?
That is part 2 of the season which started on Sunday ...
... A dvent. This month is not just about preparing for Christmas, the coming if Jesus to earth; Advent is also about His return at the end of time. For some that might not be as much fun as for Christmas.
How about A dubitable? There is no doubt?
Quirky Question : How many 'books" (chunks with separate titles) are there in the Bible; and how many of those "books" tell us about the First Christmas?
Answer tomorrow
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Next Comfort blog : Tuesday 2nd December