Early Risers.

[Jock67B]

Good morning all from sunny Clacton yet again; have to learn to wear a hat as the remaining grey stuff on top of my head is wearing a bit thin and the 'bonce' was a trifle tender last night! Hope it turns out to be good practice for our time in Somerset and Cornwall : 15 days to go although it still seems like ages! Sad as you get older - the realisation that you have to make a packing priority of your various medications! I shall need a separate case for mine this year.

Apparently I've got Tesco and Morrisons on the roster for today, otherwise I guess it's back to painting the rest of the patio set and swing. Oops, add Q&B to that list ; need some paint!

Have a good hump day one and all,

Kind regards,

Jock.

[AndyB]

 

I take you will all be good while I'm away and I won't return to find more secret romances have come to light,...

 

 

Don always said that his godson Tim was under instruction to inform us of any bad news, that he hasn't done so, hopefully, is a positive.

 

 

On recent ER form, my bet is that Don has eloped. Just trying to figure out who else is missing.....   

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, and a bright sunny and breezy one it is on Fraggle Rock.  It feels like summer....at last.  Temperatures about the same as Motters thinks are cold!

 

Not much else to report.  Awaiting PM paperwork for the sad business, so duties are just to entertain Jayne and Susan for lunch and await phone calls.  Thankfully my car (which had developed a death rattle) is OK after a day in dock, it was the alternator belt tensioner - the one that was supposedly replaced a couple of months ago with the timing belt etc - being knackered.  Somewhat ill tempered letter sent to original garage. 'Flawed Focus'  Harrumph.

[AndyB]

Morning all,

Starting to cloud over here.

Yesterday I was running round doing errands for various family members, including purchasing a tent for this weekend's camping trip with my youngest.

The instructions said it takes 10 minutes to pitch. I'm thinking that referred to the 2nd time you do it - after you've made all the mistakes on the first go. 

One clever innovation seems to be that a bright spark decided to make the guy ropes out of luminous cord - no excuse for tripping over them no, except possibly one two many glasses of wine / beer at the camp fire! 

 

Today I have management approval to spend time in the garage working on the layout. I think it may be time to stop the armchair-based thinking / planning and start making some real progress, albeit potentially making some mistakes along the way.

 

Fingers crossed for Aditi that she gets the result she would like.  As others have said it seems outrageous that taking sick leave results in being targeted. A while back my brother's retirement was announced in the press - technically whilst he was on sick leave for a couple of days, and the first he knew of it was when my mum told him.This turned out to be not the case, but can't leave one with much confidence in the system. Or perhaps you shouldn't believe what you read in the press! 

 

Anyway, have a nice day everyone. Andy

[DDolfelin]

Best wishes to Mike & Co for a happy holiday!

[station cat]

On recent ER form, my bet is that Don has eloped. Just trying to figure out who else is missing.....   

 

Well he may have found himself a nice young lady but it isn't me.

 

Stationmaster and Ms Stationmaster duly dispatched to the station, luckily minus Sammy who had attempted to occupy one of their suitcases.

[The Lurker]

morning from Borough Market Junction. Another day of digging around for old information I've previoulsy provided by which someone has lost beckons!

 

One point to note with all the talk of £30k tax free redundancy etc is "not necessarily"

 

Even if the payment is less than £30k, anything you are contractually entitled to is still subject to PAYE. So paid up holiday leave, redundancy pay which you are entitled to by way of your contract (eg if it says in your contract that you are entitled to one weeks pay for each year of service in the event of redundancy, then it's taxable). HMRC even try sometimes to insist that an implied contractual term exists if there has been a stream of redundancies paid out on similar terms where those terms are common knowledge, though that can be defeated. Pay in lieu of notice is not taxable; that's effectively compensation for breach of contract - unless you are entitled to Pay in Lieu of Notice in your contract.

 

On the upside, if the employer gives tax free pay, HMRC will go after them if it was incorrect, and almost never the employee (one man bands excepted)

[Happy Hippo]

Currently in Edinburgh for a few days.

 

Great trip up on the Virgin Pundulumeeno thingy, however typical fares madness!

 

It was cheaper to get an open return from Wellington(Salop) to BNS and then get the train from BNS to Edinburgh than to get a direct ticket.

 

However, we now know that we can get off at Wolverhampton on the return leg and get a much earlier train back to Wellington than first planned. I must get more up to date with dealing with multiple TOCs, and their non integrating timetables.

 

Now off to the Botanical Gardens.

[Tony_S]

 

 

Tony: best of luck to Aditi and her meeting with the gormless ones. Also, what are you doing sniffing around the South East area group? stay on your side of the Thames.

 

Aditi's meeting is postponed to Monday. HR dept didn't give enough notice apparently.

If I go to the exhibition I shall disguise myself and not look like an Essex resident.

[station cat]

Aditi's meeting is postponed to Monday. HR dept didn't give enough notice apparently.

If I go to the exhibition I shall disguise myself and not look like an Essex resident.

 

But you look great in white stilettos.

[Tony_S]

But you look great in white stilettos.

A friend of mine (an Essex resident too) has very large feet and she always had great difficulty getting shoes that didn't look like hiking boots, until she was recommended to try a "specialist" establishment for gentlemen who liked such things. I think it was somewhere south of the river!

[Danemouth]

Had an interesting start to the day!

 

Burglar Alarm Engineer came by appointment to do the annual service at 08:30

 

So he goes and within half an hour Western Power Distribution man knocks the door - can he check our main fuses please? He has a look and says that they need to be changed. We have a supply main fuse (their fuse) on the live and another in the neutral which under new regulations is no longer permitted. It appears that they went to change a meter a few doors down and discovered the problem; this obliges them to check five properties either side and put those right.

 

They did it there and then, very quick  - we were without power for less then ten minutes.

 

However, the meter is under the stairs which is something of a glory hole and I had to empty it first ........

 

Dave

 

p.s. I asked why the regulations changed - it seems in the unlikely event of the neutral fuse blowing and the live not blowing any appliance plugged in would receive 400+ volts!

[Shedman5]

Morning and its sunny, but then with 15mm of rain in 15 mins yesterday (which made the national news apparently) it has to be cos the rain clouds must be empty.

 

Off on airport run in an hour, youngest son and girlfriend off to Turkey for 10 days, means the house will be tidy!

 

Enjoy the day

[Debs.]

...........the unlikely event of the neutral fuse blowing and the live not blowing any appliance plugged in would receive 400+ volts!

 

I believe such an {unlikely} event has actually happened to our own DDolfelin..........I recall, it was another property`s fault which caused untold problems for our 'DD' and the surrounding village too.

Edited June 11, 2014 by Debs.

[Barry O]

Hells teeth Motters.. if you aren't busy send me some of that nice buttered chicken and some of you home made coleslaw.... :-))

 

Still sunny here .. lummy no rain for over 12 hours .. new record for June!

 

Baz

[beast66606]

Morning all,

 

Lovely sunny day today, the birds have been fed and several young starlings are squabbling over the spoils.

 

AndyR - make a note of the full error message - it will be UNHANDLED_KERNEL_EXCEPTION or something similar, this should help diagnosis. It could be network related - adapter or software - but it could also be that the network is putting more load on the system and the error appears quicker - open minded until more information available. Is there anything you do when on the network that's specific - for example are you accessing documents over the network that you don't when offline ?

 

On the HR front.

 

Many years ago when I was a nuke, the HR manager of the company decided that anyone who was off sick would be interviewed by their manager on their return.

 

This is how the union played it

 

"Dave, you were off for two days this week, why ?"

"Because I was ill and not fit for work"

"What were your symptoms ?"

"You are not medically qualified and I refuse to discuss clinical information with you"

 

The company got wise and the works doctor was brought along for the interview

 

"Dave, you were off for two days this week, why ?"

"Because I was ill and not fit for work"

<doctor> "What were your symptoms ?"

"You are not my GP, you do not have all the relevant information, I am not qualified to decide what was or wasn't relevant and as such I refuse to discuss this any further"

 

The company gave up on the interviews and went back to trusting people - and those they didn't they targeted in other ways (one guy was caught repairing his car whilst off sick with a bad back) rather than assuming everyone was up to something.

[AndrewC]

Aditi's meeting is postponed to Monday. HR dept didn't give enough notice apparently.

If I go to the exhibition I shall disguise myself and not look like an Essex resident.

Shame about the meeting. Just more days of anxiety beforehand. Bunch of douchecanoes.  

 

If you do go to the exhibition, let me know and we can attempt to meet up. Parking around there is pants so you may want to consider parking @ Blackheath or Lee and taking the train the rest of the way.

[DDolfelin]

Had an interesting start to the day!

 

Burglar Alarm Engineer came by appointment to do the annual service at 08:30

 

So he goes and within half an hour Western Power Distribution man knocks the door - can he check our main fuses please? He has a look and says that they need to be changed. We have a supply main fuse (their fuse) on the live and another in the neutral which under new regulations is no longer permitted. It appears that they went to change a meter a few doors down and discovered the problem; this obliges them to check five properties either side and put those right.

 

They did it there and then, very quick  - we were without power for less then ten minutes.

 

However, the meter is under the stairs which is something of a glory hole and I had to empty it first ........

 

Dave

 

p.s. I asked why the regulations changed - it seems in the unlikely event of the neutral fuse blowing and the live not blowing any appliance plugged in would receive 400+ volts!

 

 

I believe such an {unlikely} event has actually happened to our own DDolfelin..........I recall, it was another property`s fault which caused untold problems for our 'DD' and the surrounding village too.

 

Quite right!

It's called a Neutral Live fault and turned out to be a major to put right (and expensive for the supplier).

[Danemouth]

I believe such an {unlikely} event has actually happened to our own DDolfelin..........I recall, it was another property`s fault which caused untold problems for our 'DD' and the surrounding village too.

Debs,

 

When I worked in the computer department of a small bank they used to test the backup generator and uninterruptable power supply (UPS) on a monthly basis. One month coming off the test the three live phases reconnected to the mains - the neutral did not. The result was 440 volts - luckily the UPS protected the computer room but the rest of the department lost all electrical equipment except the fridge - cost to the insurance company came out at almost six figures!

 

Dave 

[laurenceb]

Had an interesting start to the day!

 

Burglar Alarm Engineer came by appointment to do the annual service at 08:30

 

So he goes and within half an hour Western Power Distribution man knocks the door - can he check our main fuses please? He has a look and says that they need to be changed. We have a supply main fuse (their fuse) on the live and another in the neutral which under new regulations is no longer permitted. It appears that they went to change a meter a few doors down and discovered the problem; this obliges them to check five properties either side and put those right.

 

They did it there and then, very quick  - we were without power for less then ten minutes.

 

However, the meter is under the stairs which is something of a glory hole and I had to empty it first ........

 

Dave

 

p.s. I asked why the regulations changed - it seems in the unlikely event of the neutral fuse blowing and the live not blowing any appliance plugged in would receive 400+ volts!

At least they didnt wait ,till you put everything back! Morning all from sunny Newhall

Laurence and I noticed the spelling mistake before posting!

[Robert]

Robert: interesting you should suggest Linux. Just reviewed a costing and design document for a potential client who was considering going that route for their estate.

 

That makes interesting reading - I am very much an advocate of using whichever Operating System is right for the application that you need it for.  If you have a lot of "end users" then usually Windows will be a better option.  It is cheaper to support, and maintain.  As you quite rightly said, just because Linux is "free" doesn't necessarily mean that it is going to be cheaper.

 

I wouldn't advocate Linux in a large company environment unless you have a good reason for using it - as we do.  However, on a home machine which is used for the odd bit of word processing, or web surfing, Linux is often a good way of squeezing a bit more life out of an old machine.

[bbishop]

If you do go to the exhibition, let me know and we can attempt to meet up. Parking around there is pants so you may want to consider parking @ Blackheath or Lee and taking the train the rest of the way.

Parking is high impossible at most stations. Blackheath is possible but the car park will cost an arm and both legs (so Tony won't need his stilettos). Lee is about the only station with safe street parking but, of course, it's not on the Bexleyheath line. If you decide on Lee, park in Woodyates Road.

 

Bill

[Tony_S]

Andrew and Bill. Thanks for the parking advice. However, If I am able to go (nothing on calendar, but the date has been mentioned for something I think, can't remember what though) I would probably park at Upminster or even Benfleet Station assuming there are no weekend engineering closures. Or even get Aditi to deposit me at the station. 

[Oldddudders]

Morning all

 

One of the intriguing things about RMweb at present is that if I click on Reply to this topic, or on Reply quoting this post, then, probably because my connection is a bit slow, when I start typing in the reply box I almost always get the "benefit" of bold, underscore, italics or strike-through, so my first couple of words are "wrong". Or it could just be another Win 7 manifestation. It is seldom fatal, whatever.

 

I felt much better yesterday, so have no idea what ailed me on Monday. It may be the Lemsip really did the trick. This morning Alison has been finishing planters, and then started attacking the overgrown laurel. The cuttings from this - quite a lot, and there will be many more - she shoved in the back of her MPV (she hates the thing) and has taken them home for her goats to eat. Apparently laurel can be fatal for goats, but hers have been happily noshing the stuff for 5 years. QED. The "Sweet Pea" man came Monday, she tells me, and she seems to have agreed that she will supply sweet pea seeds to him in the UK. Apparently he has a large production facility for them (we might call it a nursery, I suppose) on Malta, and has been getting seeds from New Zealand, but needs new points of origin. Industrial flower production is not new, anyway.

 

S'afternoon I shall head for the circuit and see what I see. Practice is from 1600, quali starts at 2200, goes on until midnight. A couple more quali sessions tomorrow night. While you and I probably drive more slowly in the dark, the best times tend to be set late in the evening, as that's when the air is cooler and thicker, enabling more fuel to be burnt efficiently and producing more power.

 

Hope midweek finds you well and progressing.

[bbishop]

Andrew and Bill. Thanks for the parking advice. However, If I am able to go (nothing on calendar, but the date has been mentioned for something I think, can't remember what though) I would probably park at Upminster or even Benfleet Station assuming there are no weekend engineering closures. Or even get Aditi to deposit me at the station.

If we are talking the Chatham show, check timetables closely because the line through Woolwich Arsenal is closed. I thought about Benfleet to Limehouse, DLR to Lewisham, NSE to Gillingham. This will keep you out of zone 1. Not particularly quick, however.

 

Bill