Early Risers.

[BoD]

Is there a new law that says that the smaller the mutt the longer the lead should be

I would hope so. Otherwise the poor thing will be left dangling at the end of it.

[BoD]

Goodness me. Nearly four pages since that post yesterday morning.

What are you lot on?

[AndyB]

Morning all and congratulations to those who have recently concluded another lap successfully. I hope that you achieve many more laps without lapse. 

 

A damp and dull day here. 

Tasks allotted include:

Damp dusting.

Tax return.

Will *

Child minding.

Work.

 

* Don't talk to me about time bombs and covering notes, Ivan. 

 

Tasks not allocated include:

Watching the last half of last night's "Endeavour"

Adding detail to my model railway. 

Planning what to get next for the model railway at next weekend's Alton Show.

Wondering whether an old Lima Class 86 could be detailed and dcc'd

[Horsetan]

....Will *

 

 

* Don't talk to me about time bombs and covering notes, Ivan....

Why, are you planning to set a couple of booby-traps?

[Happy Hippo]

 

 

Tasks not allocated include:

Watching the last half of last night's "Endeavour"

Adding detail to my model railway. 

Planning what to get next for the model railway at next weekend's Alton Show.

Wondering whether an old Lima Class 86 could be detailed and dcc'd

That's better.

 

A voice in my head told me to do it: I'm sure it was Debs! 

[AndyB]

Why, are you planning to set a couple of booby-traps?

 

I like to think of myself more on the defusing side.

 

The earlier version was a computer nerd's dream, along the lines of....

If the shop has eggs and paperclips then buy paint. 

My own mortality may have got in the way of the will owner's intent and achieved quite the reverse.

However, getting a telegram from King William V has a certain appeal! 

 

That's better.

 

A voice in my head told me to do it: I'm sure it was Debs! 

 

A case of Dissociative Identity Disorder?     

[jamie92208]

We are off to Enfield this afternoon. Aditi has a cousin (2nd cousin? Daughter of her full cousin) who is a student at Bath University. Her degree course includes terms of work experience. Until July she will be working near London Bridge and has arrived in London looking for accommodation. It hasn't gone well so she is staying with Aditi's sister until she finds something. So we are going over to say hello. Sana (the cousin) did her previous 6 month placement in Dubai and had no trouble finding accommodation.

Tony

 

Second cousin once removed if my late father's explanation was learned correctly.

 

Jamie

[Tony_S]

Just off to Enfield. I was going to suggest to Sana that lots of people commute in from Enfield or even Benfleet. She had been sent to look at flat shares in Bethnal Green and didn't seem too comfortable with the properties. We will find out more. Aditi's sister has told her she can stay as long as she likes. I suspect MiL has already offered her spare room!

Anyway I hope Sana's placements aren't as stressful as Matthew's though at least he realised he wasn't really a business type person and seems happy to be an academic.

[Ian Abel]

Happy belated birthday Duncan...

 

Well, there's no simple way of putting this - I'M SODDING TIRED!!!

 

Those seeing my posts on Facebook will already know...

 

The Delta computer systems crashed yesterday around 5-6PM Minneapolis time, causing the entire Delta worldwide network/operations to come to a complete halt. They had to institute a "ground halt" on all flight departures as the same systems are used for flight dispatching etc., and there are simply NO provisions to provide any paper backup for such things as boarding cards, checking-in, flight dispatch or anything else!

Jemma was in the air at the time heading back to MSP on the next leg of her trip. Once they landed, they and ALL other inbounds had no gates to use as they were all occupied by aircraft that were empty/waiting/unable to depart! After about 45 minutes, most of the empty a/c at gates were moved out of the way to allow the inbounds all parked around the airport, to access gates and deplane. She was lucky as they were given a gate, many others were actually moved to the hangar areas at the airport and folks were deplaned and bused to the terminal!!

The systems started coming back online about 2 hours later, and they were able to get folks boarding passes so we could get through security!

(NOTE: I HAD a boarding card on my phone, but when the system crashed so did all the phone apps, so even those of us "with a boarding pass" were out of luck - had I printed one, which I often but NOT ALWAYS DO, I would at least have been able to get beyond security and therefore sit at a restaurant/bar and eat/drink.)

That still meant no planes were leaving as they took at least another hour or more before the systems worked well enough to start dispatching planes. We finally left about 2.5+ hours late, and I was in the hotel by 3AM

Suffice to say, at 8:30AM writing this from the dungeon, I didn't get much sleep, thinking a POE is on the cards for sure today...

 

ZERO here driving in, possibility of 4 for a high and maybe some light snow.

 

The week starts here <YAWN>

[Tony_S]

I always print a boarding card as well as the one on my phone. Not a Luddite, just pessimistic!

Edited January 30, 2017 by Tony_S

[Ian Abel]

I always print a boarding card as well as the one on my phone. Not a Luddite, just pessimistic!

Yeah, 90% of the time I do too, I also usually have it texted to me, again didn't bother to do that - apparently THAT also worked as it doesn't get retrieved from the Delta server directly, so is readily available even when their system is down.

I WAS hoping to save trees and internet bandwidth with my single source approach, but that just went out the window! Back to two separate electronic methods AND a printed copy.

[newbryford]

 I plan to make start the documentation for the control panel, wiring drawing and colour codes etc.

 

Back later.

 

Whatever you do, don't take a photo of the panel in black and white......

 

Cheers,

Mick

[TheQ]

Whatever you do, don't take a photo of the panel in black and white......

 

Cheers,

Mick

because it's behind the pink?

[The Stationmaster]

An old client who made a Will a few years ago unfortunately dropped dead around the start of the month.

 

The Will is pretty straightforward, but contains a possible timebomb: he excluded one of his four adult children entirely, leaving a note to his Executors as to why he did it. One of the Executors is seeing me this morning. I think I can guess what's coming next.

 

Where there's a Will, there's a war.

 

Now being in the soliciting trade (I wonder why folk don't call it that?) I would have thought that would be a sign of ever larger number's appearing on the client's invoice

[Horsetan]

Now being in the soliciting trade (I wonder why folk don't call it that?) I would have thought that would be a sign of ever larger numbers appearing on the client's invoice

...and ever lower ones on the value of the Estate.

 

It's not called "soliciting" because the world's oldest profession beat the world's second-oldest profession to it.

Edited January 30, 2017 by Horsetan

[AndyB]

Afternoon all,

First of all many thanks to an ER for some timely advice; a thoroughbred gent!

 

Had an interesting call at lunchtime.

A gentleman phoned from the Call Blocking Service to let me know that from tomorrow they would be blocking all nuisance calls to my number.

"Fantastic!" was my response. "I'm so glad you called."

Emboldened the gent - and I believe he was possibly from a sub-continent - continued with his script.

Naturally, I was squealing with delight with every new detail.

He literally had to slow me down when I asked how much this brilliant service would cost and how quickly could I give him my credit card number.

Oh, you want to give me your business address, phone number, name..... (shame it doesn't tally with the number displayed. Doh!)

Sadly my ability to write quickly is somewhat diminished so it took many minutes for me to copy down all the information. Especially as he had to repeat some of it a number of times. 

"Now, for a £59 one off payment you'll block all these nuisance calls?" 

"Yes, so please can I take the card details?"

"But I gave this to you colleague on Friday."

"Ah, we delete all client records card details immediately." 

...(he was fast, I'll give him that)....

 "That's quite inefficient of you! I don't see myself giving you the same information twice."

"Mr B, we just need your card details."

"But you already had them."

"GIVE ME THE CARD DETAILS!!!"   

"But you deleted them." 

"I MUST HAVE YOUR CARD DETAILS NOW!!!"       

 

...well, fearing for his health and the likelihood of causing a scamming sh1te an aneurysm I put him out of my misery and passed on all the details to Action Fraud, having checked out that Action Fraud work for the City of London police.

I'm hoping that Don Rumbelow will be handling this one.      

[Horsetan]

Another client has died. Fortunately he not only left a Will, but had insisted that the Firm be his Executors. Probably just as well, as his sister has started kicking off saying she wants this and that (mainly property). There is an Irish angle to it as well, because the Irish Revenue will be wanting their cut ......*sigh of resignation*

[The Stationmaster]

Another client has died. Fortunately he not only left a Will, but had insisted that the Firm be his Executors. Probably just as well, as his sister has started kicking off saying she wants this and that (mainly property). There is an Irish angle to it as well, because the Irish Revenue will be wanting their cut ......*sigh of resignation*

 

But looking on the bright side at least it keeps you in a job and Bill in a comfortable stable

[Horsetan]

But looking on the bright side at least it keeps you in a job and Bill in a comfortable stable

 

Who was it who said that the Devil makes work for idle hooves to do? Bill's stable is palatial - even when he steps outside it, he's still under cover because of the overall roof. Straw bales for his bedding and fresh haylage are all just a few steps away, and also under the same roof. That horse wants for nothing.

[AndyID]

Another client has died. Fortunately he not only left a Will, but had insisted that the Firm be his Executors. Probably just as well, as his sister has started kicking off saying she wants this and that (mainly property). There is an Irish angle to it as well, because the Irish Revenue will be wanting their cut ......*sigh of resignation*

I see what you are doing here. You're trying to get me to post some highly inappropriate joke or Spike Milligan video concerning the Irish Revenue, but I'm not falling for it. Ho no. Not happening.

[Horsetan]

I see what you are doing here. You're trying to get me to post some highly inappropriate joke or Spike Milligan video concerning the Irish Revenue, but I'm not falling for it. Ho no. Not happening.

 

Don't let me stop you.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone

 

I ended up in the orifice all day, but I managed to escape just before 3:00. However, I did manage to complete most of the drawings that I wanted to do. A diagram of the control panel, both of the interior and the rear, as well as a wiring schedule for the complete panel and a switch connection diagram. It was all then printed out and put it all in its own folder, 5 sheets so far. The only part that I haven't yet drawn, is for the component layout of the panel front as I've not yet planned it, that's the next task.

[AndyID]

Another client has died. Fortunately he not only left a Will, but had insisted that the Firm be his Executors. Probably just as well, as his sister has started kicking off saying she wants this and that (mainly property). There is an Irish angle to it as well, because the Irish Revenue will be wanting their cut ......*sigh of resignation*

 

Is it OK for you to post stuff about your clients on the interweb thingy? I mean, they might find it a bit annoying if they find out.

[lightengine]

Is it OK for you to post stuff about your clients on the interweb thingy? I mean, they might find it a bit annoying if they find out.

These ones is dead innit.  They won't be 'earing much my beaut!

[andyram]

Evening all. Thanks again for the supportive comments and offers of help. No word from the union just yet. I will give them the week before I pursue it further. It may be that I will need to rejoin before they give me advice. If that is the case I will find out their subscription rates and go from there.

Today has certainly been an eventful day. It started with another example of the boss' attitude towards me. The meeting, postponed on Friday, was rescheduled for this morning. He told the other people who needed to attend but neglected to tell me. It left me with just thirty minutes notice and impacted on the time I had to prepare for the day. The meeting itself....a waste of time. Nothing was changed, nothing done to improve the situation - just another meeting arranged for the end of week.

The rest of the morning was spent in and out of class dealing with a delicate situation involving a child and a social worker. At the end of the day some of the feedback from the book check was received - surprisingly positive which makes a change.

As regards the job situation - I need to try and complete the four day job application tonight or tomorrow so I will see how the school work progresses. I have informed the boss I am applying. He wished me luck, but there seemed a certain smugness in his expression.

Meanwhile my friend from church contacted me today. He has spoken to the headteacher at his school. The head has invited me in to visit the school at my convenience. By the sounds of it the sickness cover job would be mine if I wanted it. It appears I could hand my notice in and walk straight into that post. Tempting, but not a year group I am particularly experienced in. It could be a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire, especially as I know my friend is not particularly happy there and is leaving in the summer.

 

Still it is food for thought.