Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

I'd hate to think that you thought I meant that, Andy.  What I wouldn't want you to do is to jump from the frying pan into the fire.  Business is cut-throat, make no mistake, margins are tiny and it takes a lot of hard work - I know you're no stranger to that, I have  very good friend who teaches - and certainly has its own stresses.

 

The educational officer roles sound like a good thing, and of course you are playing your cards close to your chest about what the business opportunity at be, but please don't go into something unless you have a deep understanding of whatever the business area is. There are no gentlemen competitors!

 

I wish you well, and do think you are taking the right steps to improve your lives - we both did this 16 years ago after both our jobs reached unbearable stress levels (I was a manager in the NHS) - we even moved away from the UK to here, to ensure the change worked.  It did.

 

Fingers crossed you succeed.

[andyram]

NHN I was not neccessarily meaning you and I thank you for your advice. I just want everyone to have full information on why I am looking at all options, including opportunities away from teaching. I would hate for people to think that I want an easy life.

[The Lurker]

But may be more rewarding.

Agreed. I was pointing out that far from looking at a career change that would allow you more free time you were looking at something that would allow you to control the time that you spend on it; but that if you want to make s success of it, as the boss you might have spend as much time on it. But and this a key but it is for your benefit.

[TheQ]

Evening Awl,

Ben the Border Collie Appreciation Society, attended, where Ben was most appreciated, since he missed last week.

 

Layout cleared of stuff into new drawers, work on layout much easier.

Discussions tonight,

who's attending tomorrows show,

Where is our next club open day to be. Descision to be made at AGM on Tuesday.

 

Harry's widow gave me a huge wooden, barrel head mallet for hammering in stakes / fence posts ( know any vampires?)

And a dydle, although it's a modern steel headed one not the old cavas type.

Harry's widow has bought a new house( much smaller Single garage) and sold her old one (triple garage full of Harry's tools), so she's clearing Harry's old work tools to those who would like / have use for them. Having sold off his shotguns, quad bike, big power tools etc.

 

A small amount of viaduct pier stone work done.

Last week's thatching was successful, minor haircut required, and some heavy weathering.

 

Minor attempt at a GDB, new scalpel inserted into finger, huge hole, 0.5 mm in diameter, blood seen with the help of very strong glasses..

Must take plastic jar next week to put broken blades in.

 

Time to drink my choccy good night...

Edited April 6, 2018 by TheQ

[JohnDMJ]

I just want everyone to have full information on why I am looking at all options, including opportunities away from teaching. I would hate for people to think that I want an easy life.

 

In what area lays your expertise?

 

I started my career as a Test Engineer, followed by progressing to a Systems Engineer and then into Control Systems.

 

Due to an enforced absence from engineering (during which time I became a carer for late parents) I then resorted to my hobby and now find myself with some 90 trade accounts selling (Debs, you'll chastise me for this but...) model railway products, both to trade and retail. Pig in the proverbial??

 

My advice: think hard about where you want to go (career-wise) and where you will find fulfilment. Forget any boundaries; chalk and cheese may provide the right formula

Edited April 6, 2018 by JohnDMJ

[bbishop]

Evening all.

 

I don't know how many of you know about the "last great project".  It involves eight scenic boards and six fiddle yard(*) boards - a total of 56 foot.  The baseboards are built and today's job was to fit the pattern maker's dowels.  Tomorrow is work out track centres and glue down cork tiles. (*) one fiddle yard will have a "pastiche" terminus in front.

 

I worked silly hours towards the end of my BT career, so in the end did not mind redundancy, but in 1998 the 24/7 e-mail and mobile phone regime hadn't taken off.  The housing association expected the work to be done within the set hours.  A good supervisor allowed me to flex peaks and troughs, a crap one precipitated my decision to take my second redundancy.

 

Best wishes to Aditi, Tony, Debs, Mal, Simon etc.

 

Bill

[Tony_S]

Evening all.

Back home.

Plane left 15minutes late, arrived 5 minutes late. Our neighbours collected us and we went in for a cup of tea and a chat. They had left a meal for us in our fridge too.

We had breakfast and a light lunch at the hotel. We were able

to keep our room past the usual check out time. We got a cab to the airport, arriving just as bag drop opened. So we went straight through security and spent the time until boarding drinking cola, cups of tea and eating snacks.

From the way I was lurching slightly today, any observer may have wondered if I were intoxicated. I had a slight tumble yesterday that left my left knee rather sore. As this occurred during the scattering of ashes I am lucky that I didn't end up wet instead of just muddy and sore.

MiL is coming tomorrow. I think she needs to see us. Aditi's sister and her husband will bring her.

Thank you all for your kind thoughts.

Tony

[The Stationmaster]

It does seem to be a trend that the staff are unable to notice the order in which customers arrive at the bar!

 

 

Even ATM withdrawals can be attributed! Hope sufficient tokens were acquired to avoid additional trips thereto! However, replacing any unspent tokens into the sourcing account could give an indication of the exact spend and so be counter-productive.

 

Once you've taken it out hang on to it if you don't spend it - that is how to create a 'slush fund'.  'Slush funds' are useful and used in the correct manner can make an amazing difference in the answer to the question 'that's nice, how much did it cost?'

[BSW01]

Evening everyone

 

We’ve had a duller start to the day and all the plans I’d made yesterday to continue working on the radiator covers went up in smoke. Sheila wanted to go to the Trafford Centre so that meant I was required to act as chauffeur! However, whilst I was there I did look at the magazine section of WHS to see what was new in and came away with the latest edition of MRJ.

 

This afternoon we then went to Waitrose to pick up one or two things that we can’t get locally, but as always we ended up buying a lot of stuff that we hadn’t planned for.

 

This evening James and Amelia came round for tea. It’s the first time they’ve been for 4 weeks and it was nice to see them both. They stayed quite a bit longer than usual, we had a lot of catching up to do and when they’d gone home we opened a bottle of red enjoyed the rest of the evening relaxing.

 

Andyram. Whatever you decide is the future for you, I hope it will be less stressful than your current employment.

 

Tony and Aditi. Glad you both got home safely and what thoughtful neighbours you have.

 

Goodnight all.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[The Stationmaster]

G'night all

[Ozexpatriate]

Ahh POETS

Will POE for my flight home, however total travel time means I don't really achieve POETS, though a couple of hours or more will be in the comfort of a plane home (FIRST CLASS )

My flight home from Boston was on United Airlines via O'Hare. (Duly noted that this was a late afternoon on a Thursday.) (I never could get the hang of ...)

 

I have Premier Silver status on United, which means I was 53^rd out of 63 on the first class upgrade list for 12 seats, pretty much all of which were booked anyway. There were 156 seats in this A320 configuration - so at least 48% of passengers were frequent flyers with "status". The "Group 2" queue (all people with some kind of Premier status) was quite astonishingly long. It really defeats the purpose of the whole thing.

 

To have obtained a better seat (still in economy) what I needed to do was respond to the automatic check-in email I received for my return flight from Boston. That I received it while sitting at Dulles on my outbound leg heading toward Boston is another matter entirely.

 

I could complain for a long time about United, (and won't because there's no point) but was really struck by something I think ERs will find more interesting which is the equipment set up in their A320s. Firstly, the oxygen masks were set up to drop directly on passengers heads. Forward of the oxygen masks were the air valves and then forward of that the (fixed) reading lamps.  All this meant that the reading lamps were located forward of the seat backs in the row ahead and were directed at an angle that:

• Shone in your eyes if you looked up
• Illuminated the top of the seat in front 
• Did not illuminate a book on the tray table (assuming you had room to comfortably open the tray table)

I don't recall this being so noticeable in other Airbus equipment, so I'm wondering if it is a result of the seat pitch chosen by UAL to inflict the maximum possible passenger discomfort. The overhead equipment is all mounted on rails and is adjustable (at installation) so it seemed like a really weird configuration.

 

It's a detail that I will look at the next time I am on a 737, but I'm pretty sure the O₂ mask configuration is reversed (to fall in front of passengers heads) and I know for a fact that the adjustable reading lamps (even though they can get grungy and wedged in place) are directed to shine over the shoulder.

 

In the overhead bin above (around about) 35F there is an aluminum shelf that restricts bin capacity by a couple of inches of vertical height. I had seen these before but never knew what they were for, but apparently it's a fire suppression bin in case someone's laptop, tablet or mobile phone battery catches fire. Flight attendants can chuck the inflammatory device in the slot where it will be deprived of oxygen. I thought that was a good idea.

 

I also learned this trip that United boarding group 5 is actually prohibited from carrying aboard any hand luggage (except for a "personal item", meaning a briefcase or purse).

 

For my birthday my lovely wife got us tickets for a Twins baseball first home series game , she couldn't get Home Opener (last night) so opted for tomorrow, Saturday, second home game of the year.

Looking forward to it initially/originally, BUT, Minnesota SPRING continues with a vengeance, game time (1:10PM) it's supposed to be about -1C (31F/local money) and since we're NOW in an outdoor stadium, it won't be the usual baseball season attire, or level of comfort!!!

Just a wild arse guess, but I'm expecting more HOT coffee will be consumed than COLD beer, and I'm also expecting attendance to be down.

Thursday was the home opener at Fenway in Boston. Sunny but very chilly. The Red Sox homestand continues over the weekend and they are expecting snow. (And no, I didn't fly all the way to Boston to watch baseball.)

 

Living in Chicago, I attended many Cubs and (White) Sox games. I attended one late April game at Wrigley. It was a sunny Spring day in the suburbs so I brought a light jacket. It wasn't nearly enough. A cold wind off the lake made the 3rd base upper deck miserable and the hot chocolate wasn't sufficient.

 

Properly dressed it would still be enjoyable, but it's not the same as a warm summer's day which is baseball's natural habitat.

Edited April 6, 2018 by Ozexpatriate

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[chrisf]

At the dawning of another day, greetings.  Welcome home to Tony and Aditi.

 

Yesterday mid-morning, after I had done the ironing, I felt the need to sit in a darkened room for a few hours.  Fear not, gentle reader, the darkened room was Screen 5 at the multiplex and "Love, Simon" was showing.  The story of teenage angst relating to the coming-out process is seldom told and it's a well constructed tale.  The situation where everyone knows that a girl is in love with you except you is one that I recall from my office life and on which I will not be drawn!

 

It would have been a good day to tackle the triffids but I didn't feel like it.  A little bit of m*d*ll*ng did get done without too much damage.  The fodder run again failed to yield unsalted butter so I might just make the most of my bus pass this morning to track it down and have breakfast out while I'm about it.  One job that needs doing soonest is to sort out my travel insurance for Christmas and New Year in Switzerland, for the tour prospectus arrived yesterday.  The proposal to stay in Mainz on the way home is a curious one but it's worth a punt, by which I do not mean superseded Irish currency.

 

Andyram, I wish I knew how to advise you for you are clearly in distress.  No job is worth making yourself ill and I know this because I've done it, in the civil service from which I escaped 12 years ago.  It strikes me, from the outside, that teaching is less and less of a good place to be and the malaise is down to management, at least in part.  Is it a good idea to become part of management and therefore part of the problem?  Bear in mind as you read this that my own head [bonce, not boss] is far from together right now and I will not be drawn on that either.

 

Finally for now, warm thoughts and best wishes to Debs, Simon, Mal, Tony and Aditi and anyone else who is in need of them.

 

Chris 

[TheQ]

Mooring awl inner temple here.

No less than seven hours solid sleep

 

We each have our own bank accounts and pay into a central third account for automatic house bills, my muddling tokens come from my account which she rarely sees, the ear bending may occur when I have to use a credit card, because she often takes the physical bill to the bank for payment even if it's my cheque paying it. I almost never use my bank debit card outside of a bank to protect my bank account.

 

I randomly take an amount out of my account to cover items that cash is required for, normally £100 sometimes £200. This may last for a couple of months or more, So taking an extra lump of cash is untraceable, if it doesn't get spent than it just gets used for normal expenses it's never replaced.

 

The next known credit card big bill will be for Maude, totally out of place on my layout, but as I'm a member of SRPS, and years ago assisted with work on her, rule 1 will apply.

 

Two hours-ish till I depart for the Norwich show, a light breakfast will be had as no doubt a bacon butty or two will somehow land in my hands.

My procedure is trade stands especially secondhand ones on the first lap,

second lap layouts,

third lap demos and anything i wish to revisit.

My back requires a sit down between laps, occasionally with bacon butty.

 

Time to go, there is a pair of big brown eyes staring at me.

[roundhouse]

Morning all from a comfy Southern train. Yes they are compared to the Thameslink great white worms.

 

We are heading to Bognor for haircut as booked some time ago but as my other halfs mum is busy today we are then heading to Portsmouth to visit a few breweries and pubs.

[jamie92208]

Morning all from across the channel. Yesterday was lovely and sunny. Les Abres de prune were pruned along with the cherry and apple trees. Our retired farmer friend is proving to be a fount of advice to a dedicated non gardener (me. The brash was all cleared away and the garden is starting to look nice. In the afternoon we did a lot of cleaning of the pool. The pool is being partially refilled now so that I can use the hoover to get the last of the Algae out. All in all a good day. Then another walk round the village which ended up in another neighbours house being plied with glasses of wine.

 

Today it is due to rain this afternoon so the plan is pool cleaning this morning then other domestic duties this afternoon before some friends come round for a meal tonight. I will have to check the wine supplies.

 

On another note entirely I rang up for the results of my first ever PSA test last night and was told it was 0.65, apparently a good result.

 

Andyram I hope that you resolve your work situation. I would have been tempted to delete all the emails then sort things out in paid time when term restarted.

 

Tony and Aditi, I'm glad that the journey home went well and hope that the knee sorts itself out.

 

Regards to all and hope to hear some positive news from Debs.

 

Jamie

[BlackRat]

Andy.....and to other youngsters.......If you want to work, earn a good living AND spend time with your family, I think the UK in 2018 isn't the place to be able to do it.

 

Certainly not in the public services, be it plod, health or education, my own experience confirms this.

 

Private industry ain't the way to go either, my wife having just taken early retirement ( and a massive pension hit) because 14 hour days just aren't on anymore. She hasn't had a lunch break in over 2 years.....genuinely.

 

Setting up a small consulting business ( as she is) is also a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare.

 

I'd encourage you to look abroad, other countries such as Oz etc may still have difficulties.....but at least the sun shines.

 

I'm encouraging my two,to move overseas, I'd be devastated to see them and the grandson go, but for my own selfish reasons, because I would miss them.

 

Unless you are lucky, extremely lucky.....the Job you seek,is rarer than hens teeth.

 

They are there, but just you try finding them.

 

I can't see it getting any better either over the next 5 years or so.

[Tony_S]

Morning all.

We both slept well.

We don't need to go shopping. Aditi arranged a delivery online from Waitrose before we left Dublin.

MiL is coming over today with the other relatives. Nephew Josh is as well. He is supposed to be revising for some exams but wants to be with us. His brother Paul returned to Germany after attending Matthew's funeral. He moved flat yesterday.

MiL will get some rest being here too. She has been taking calls for days as the (very) extended family in India contact her.

Tony

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Weather forecast is only for a few odd showers so off out shortly. Not having a SWMBO I can spend what I like on modelling, fortunately I can afford it. Thats it for now, be back later.

[Andrew P]

NHN I was not neccessarily meaning you and I thank you for your advice. I just want everyone to have full information on why I am looking at all options, including opportunities away from teaching. I would hate for people to think that I want an easy life.

What ever you decide to do Andy, I'm sure the ER Dept will be supportive, suggestive and adviseive when needed. (not sure if advisive is a word)

 

The point I was making was that as has been said, Bureaucracy is a nightmare, and was very costly to me.

 

What ever you do, think hard, I agree with some good points from Black Rat, but I feel GB will do well / get stronger over the coming years, but that's NOT for debate on here.  

 

I have been many things, Mechanic, Factory Worker, Car salesman, Double Glazing Salesman, Insurance Salesman, Finance Manager, and Transport Manager, as well as owning two Video  / Record Shops and 2 Car Sales Sites, and I've enjoyed them all to start with, but if I had to do any again it would be Finance Manager or Car Salesman.

 

All the best my friend.

P.S. Glad I'm retired.  

Edited April 7, 2018 by Andrew P

[Gwiwer]

Morning all from a grey Hill of Strawberries.

 

Sleep was almost continuous for around seven hours but I woke feeling like a large vehicle had passed over me several times. There were also vivid dreams which included the entire cast of Lord of the Rings enjoying a curry feast on their way back home from the adventure while watching tornados threaten the distant Melbourne skyline! Get yer teeth into that one, Mr. Freud.

 

Exchanged messages at an early hour with sister cancelling today’s extended and diverted-via-Horsham trip on a Southern train to continue sorting through the house. I need more rest.

 

Andy I really don’t envy you your position. I don’t think I can offer anything by way of advice other than to note that there is a shortage of teachers in Australia. For good reasons. The conditions are said to be driving good people out of the career and the expectations are unrealistic in terms of life:work balance and income:need. If you were to consider that then do check how little of your UK pension might be transferable. I was advised mine would lose over half its value.

 

Sometimes a step into the (almost) unknown pays rewards. Sometimes not. It is a risk and as such we have no real idea how it might go until we have taken the step. But please be assured of friendship and support here what ever happens.

 

In other news it is goid to have Tony and Aditi back home and thoughts remain with Debs for a recovery. I’m off to mine some toast and marmalade before taking a muggertee back to bed for a while.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

A bit dull here and there was a brief shower earlier (I had a longer one) and there is more to come, possibly heavy and thundery.

 

Andy, on the job debate all I will say is that many years ago I was in a senior position which originally I loved but eventually it drove me over the top and I had a breakdown. I was off sick for 9 months. My immediate boss, who everyone considered a b#stard, was in fact very supportive. I thought that I would have to leave but he wanted me to stay on,even going back to my old job but that would have been a step too far. I chose to go back in a lesser position but by doing so took a 25% hit in salary (which affected my pension) and lost the company car. However, the main thing is I was fine for the next 4 years but then there were changes afoot that I didn't like so I took early retirement. (Not an option for you I know) My pension isn't as great as it could have been but I am still (almost) sane and I am HAPPY! My point is that it's no good continuing in a job that is likely to make you ill, trust me , it's not worth it  but I think that you know that. At your age and with a young family obviously you've got to find something else and I wish you well in your search.

 

In other news a pretty little green thing with wheels from Shildon was delivered yesterday. It was put on the programming track and everything seemed to be OK. It was then put on the proper track and power applied and......nothing happened except a buzzing noise. "Oh Hollyhocks" said I.           It hadn't come with any dcc instructions or function codes but I eventually got some info from Coastal DCC who emailed a list. After checking some CVs and doing a bit of tweaking as if by magic it worked! Very slowly and gingerly at first but gradually with some running in is moving a lot better. Still needs some more running yet though......

..I may be gone some time.    

 

Have a good one,

Bob.

Edited April 7, 2018 by grandadbob

[Coombe Barton]

Andy

 

Thought about using your experience in Higher Education?

 

jobs.ac.uk

[The Stationmaster]

Morning all,

 

Well we have our joining instructions for our trip upon the briny - and the Port of Blyth will be a new one to tick in the Big Boys' Book of Where I Joined Ship; last time I went to Blyth was to 'do' the shed (or rather one of them, the south one) so it was well over 50 years back, I'nm sure the place has changed a bit.  Next stage is to ascertain the diary situation of my pal who happens to live on the right (north) side of the big river to the south of the River Blyth who might offer more reliable transport than a taxi from Cramlington station - cor, real adventurous stuff!

 

Nice that Tony and Aditi will have family around them today, family support can be very important in times like this.

 

I'm not sure what we have planned about the cleaning of nothing has been mentioned so will no doubt be further referred to today, probably more as an instruction than a request.  Incidentally for Andy(ram) I found consultancy work quite nice but it doesn't necessarily offer a steady income, will (should in a decent outfit) still involve all the career bureaucracy and personal development stuff, and can get extremely intensive requiring massive commitment and forgetting things like Bank Holidays.  Like so many things it all depends if you have the rights skills to sell and can find the right buyer and the money can be good but you have to work for it and put up with fickle clients who swear blind that black is white and completely deny what they told us last week.  But then I was already on a pension when I went into consulting so income was not a concern.  And noting Black Rat's comment working in Aus can be just as bad for bureaucracy and a lot of their H&S law etc is little different from ours - it's great place if you like it (and allegedly not far removed from hell on earth if you don't) but no doubt great if you're into sport or like very hot weather.

 

Have a good day one and all