Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

Morning, rather grey and windy, inside and out.  15c to start but it looks and feels a lot colder.

 

Washing today, I think - pah. 

 

Awaiting parts for both the workbench jobs currently, so stuck on both with bits everywhere, both bike (for me) and steam locomotive (job for a pal).

[leopardml2341]

Mornin' (again) from a bright and sunny South Derbyshire.

 

Yesterday's covid jab has left me feeling a bit meh, so any F@@kwits and C'@ckwombles better watch out  starting with the attendees of the meeting which I must now attend......

 

There could be a bloodbath

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Another hot day in prospect and the pollen count is through the roof according to the forecast. The forecast for the weekend locally is el scorchio, high twenties no less. Time for breakfast, be back later.

[leopardml2341]

47 minutes ago, leopardml2341 said:

.......so any F@@kwits and C'@ckwombles better watch out  starting with the attendees of the meeting which I must now attend......

 

There could be a bloodbath

There was  due to one Covidiot pushing the wrong buttons.

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by leopardml2341

[Coombe Barton]

Bright, sunny, windows and doors open.

And the bum on the sofa

[The Lurker]

15 hours ago, TheQ said:

Mergers and buyouts are never nice, the penny pinching accountants appear, get rid of all knowledge and skills under the guise of economies of scale leaving a shell of what was bought..

 

 

It can get pretty bad when it is the accountancy firms themselves that are merging. There are tales of some quite nasty goings on from the mergers of the early 90s in the UK. 

 

When the first merger happened and another one was rumoured, the chairman of our firm said "you can't make a Mike Tyson out of two middleweights". A couple of weeks later, we found out from the press that we had agreed a merger with one of our rival firms. We then had to be told about it officially. Fortunately for our office, the others did not have an operation anywhere near where we were (Northampton) so there was no immediate threat of redundancy. That came later in the early 90s recession.

 

I then joined the Birmingham office of the "Mike Tyson" firm and even 3 years after their merger, there were clear fault lines; one side dominated the audit department, the other tax department and they did not get on too well. Incomers like me who were from neither side fared no better; we weren't from either side and were therefore fair game to all. It's a long time ago and I left after a couple of years.

[tigerburnie]

Morning, glad to say it's cooler up here, 18 degrees is plenty hot enough thankyou, cut the grass yesterday without breaking into a sweat and the Old Summer House was the right temperature for an hours running of wheels on parallel bits of metal, might go fishing later on. Stay safe all.

[PhilJ W]

57 minutes ago, leopardml2341 said:

There was  due to one Covidiot pushing the wrong buttons.

 

Details please (if your not revealing any secrets).

[The Lurker]

Greetings all from Sidcup which is sizzling gently in the increasingly warm sun. The advantage of wfh is that I don't need to don a suit; t shirt and shorts is fine thank you very much!

 

Last night saw a return to the Hackney Carriage for a few beers followed by a curry at Curry Mahal. Neither were particularly busy. The pub has plastic screens between tables which were flimsy but presumably did the trick. It was all table service.

 

Today seems to be a reasonably busy one; someone has put a meeting in at the time I like to go for a walk, so I will have to go a bit later when it will no doubt be hotter. I imagine the woods at the edge of Foots Cray Meadows will still be fairly cool.

[PhilJ W]

Hello again from Estuary-Land. Just emptied the washing machine and just as I'd finished Si Attica jumped in. A brace of Nurofen has been deployed but a stretch on the bed will get rid of it.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Up late today, as I had a rather disturbed sleep! 

 

The plans for today are to spend it in the garden, the back garden needs a few weeds removing and there are some to remove from the block paving of the drive. At least it doesn’t take much thinking about. 

 

Stay safe, stay sane, enjoy whatever you have planned for the day, back later. 

 

Brian

[New Haven Neil]

Just finally managed to catch up with ChrisF's  presentation, really informative and well delivered - it's not easy to do these things if you're not practiced and familiar with doing so.  I once had to be trained to do such things as part of my HR qualifications, and the first time is terrifying.

 

Cracking photo of the GW railcar towing no less than four wagons as tail traffic, hopefully the route didn't have any notable gradients.

 

Nice to see Tim too.

[polybear]

2 hours ago, leopardml2341 said:

There could be a bloodbath

 

Pictures please.....

 

53 minutes ago, The Lurker said:

I then joined the Birmingham office of the "Mike Tyson" firm and even 3 years after their merger, there were clear fault lines; one side dominated the audit department, the other tax department and they did not get on too well. Incomers like me who were from neither side fared no better; we weren't from either side and were therefore fair game to all. It's a long time ago and I left after a couple of years.

 

Bear has experienced a site closure in the late 80's (they closed the wrong site ) and moved many of us ten miles up the road; both sites had significant job losses as a result.  Many employees (the older ones with long service in particular) were very happy to go out the door (up to 2 years salary as redundancy money) - though many younger ones were dropped right in it.  We were treated by the remaining site as though we'd stolen their mate's jobs.....

In later years there were numerous mergers with European companies - a french one in particular.  Those who'd been with the company for a lot of years know we got the sh1tty end of that stick

 

Charity stuff done - now for plants....

[AndrewC]

Moaning all from the tropical climes of the boring borough. Little news on the job front. The boss is still off after his second jab. I have a feeling he will be coming back to at least 2 resignation letters. 

 

Been out and back for my spinal origami today. Makes a hell of a difference.

SWMBO's company merged with a larger one nearly 2 years ago, that one in turn had just been swallowed by an even larger corporation. So far no redundancies from her lot but most of her job functions are subsumed into other departments so her workload is a fraction of what it was. Stay tuned. The original company, its 30 year history, and name all vanish on July 1. All of the original directors & partners have now shaken off the golden handcuffs and run away with pots of ££ leaving just the client base and minions. 

She is actually hoping for redundancy as with their new policy of 90 day notice plus being there for 17 years means she'd see around 7 months of take home pay. From that we could afford for her to find something part time and not worry about the increasingly toxic work environment she finds herself in. 

 

Enjoy the day. 

[leopardml2341]

3 hours ago, leopardml2341 said:

There was  due to one Covidiot pushing the wrong buttons.

 

 

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Details please (if your not revealing any secrets).

 

It was regards office accommodation and social distancing.

 

One covidiot who is not going to accept the vaccines out of choice, was complaining (incorrectly) that the company's guidelines for working in that office meant that in the course of his job he would have to work in close proximity to others.

 

My response was that he should wear a mask and use other protective measures, again as required by company procedures. His (smart arse) response was that a mask won't protect him, only others; my response - "As you have chosen not to be vaccinated you should take steps to protect others when working in close proximity - in that way you will comply with company guidelines and do your bit for humanity to protect others despite refusing vaccination"

 

Another colleague chimed in at that point and my response was in no uncertain terms JFDI - end of and if I catch you not doing you will be reported.

 

Perhaps not exactly the bloodbath you might've anticipated, but certainly an indication of my vulnerability to losing it due to being under the weather

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by leopardml2341

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon  from a sunny Charente. Salad lunch has just been had and the cherry clafutée has been finished with cream.  It's a hard life.  This morning we were off reasonably .early  for Beth to see her Diabetolugue in St Jean  of the Danglies.  That was not brilliant as somethi g that had been ordered has not yet got to the pharmacy. That means a return trip to zthe Danglies when the gizmo arrives.  On return we found evidence of Mr Fox on the lawn. That has been disposed of.  

 

This afternoon I need to load the trailer ready for the tip tomorrow.  Not a lot else to report so I will wish you all good day.

 

Jamie

 

PS, it was good to see that one of our numbers return to work day consisted, in part of reading my American  photos thread. I will keep their ID anonymouse to protevt the innocent. However  I'm glad to be of service.

 

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by jamie92208

[Coombe Barton]

A colleague had just invented a new very appropriate phrase that I'm desperately trying to incorporate into my feedback on dissertations.

The phrase - word salad.

[PupCam]

1 hour ago, leopardml2341 said:

"As you have chosen not to be vaccinated you should take steps to protect others when working in close proximity - in that way you will comply with company guidelines and do your bit for humanity to protect others despite refusing vaccination"

 

Another colleague chimed in at that point and my response was in no uncertain terms JFDI - end of and if I catch you not doing you will be reported.

 

Excellent!

 

I may have mentioned before that I support a persons rights to choose but if they so choose then I believe that they should automatically be enrolled on the Totally Withdraw All Treatments Scheme and that they should be rounded up, deposited in a secure, unserviced encampment via a one-way access point and left until such a time that the materials from which they are composed are released and allowed to return to the surrounding environment in order to support another future form of life.

 

Or is that a bit harsh?

 

Edited June 9, 2021 by PupCam
Typo

[PupCam]

5 minutes ago, Coombe Barton said:

A colleague had just invented a new very appropriate phrase that I'm desperately trying to incorporate into my feedback on dissertations.

 

Oh, that's such an amusing game!    

 

I remember many years ago (i.e. when it was particularly topical) a number of colleagues trying to incorporate Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease into a number of technical reports.   Given those technical reports related to "functional testing of some aerospace equipment" you'll appreciate that that was no mean feat!   

[simontaylor484]

At uni we tried to put horse racing results in a law essay that caused much amusement 

[tigerburnie]

42 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Good afternoon  from a sunny Charente. Salad lunch has just been had and the cherry clafutée has been finished with cream.  It's a hard life.  This morning we were off reasonably .early  for Beth to see her Diabetolugue in St Jean  of the Danglies.  That was not brilliant as somethi g that had been ordered has not yet got to the pharmacy. That means a return trip to zthe Danglies when the gizmo arrives.  On return we found evidence of Mr Fox on the lawn. That has been disposed of.  

 

This afternoon I need to load the trailer ready for the tip tomorrow.  Not a lot else to report so I will wish you all good day.

 

Jamie

 

PS, it was good to see that one of our numbers return to work day consisted, in part of reading my American  photos thread. I will keep their ID anonymouse to protevt the innocent. However  I'm glad to be of service.

 

 

You don't happen to know who gave Macron a slap do you? get them to give him one from me if the chance arises again lol.

[jamie92208]

3 minutes ago, tigerburnie said:

You don't happen to know who gave Macron a slap do you? get them to give him one from me if the chance arises again lol.

Unfortunately not, I do know someone who shook his hand one though. She thought he was quite dishy.

 

Jamie

[jamie92208]

32 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

Oh, that's such an amusing game!    

 

I remember many years ago (i.e. when it was particularly topical) a number of colleagues trying to incorporate Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease into a number of technical reports.   Given those technical reports related to "functional testing of some aerospace equipment" you'll appreciate that that was no mean feat!   

We once had our minister up for a BBQ and the subject of of PAT testing at church was mentioned. I told her that the phrase was tautological and then challenged her to use the  word in her next sermon.  Fair play to her she did.  I got a mention as well.

 

Jamie

 

 

[polybear]

1 hour ago, leopardml2341 said:

Another colleague chimed in at that point and my response was in no uncertain terms JFDI - end of and if I catch you not doing you will be reported.

 

 

Mean, Moody, Magnificent......

 

34 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

Excellent!

 

I may have mentioned before that I support a persons rights to choose but if they so choose that I believe that they should automatically be enrolled on the Totally Withdraw All Treatments Scheme and that they should be rounded up, deposited in a secure, unserviced encampment via a one-way access point and left until such a time that the materials from which they are composed are released and allowed to return to the surrounding environment in order to support another future form of life.

 

Or is that a bit harsh?

 

Seems fine to this Bear....

 

25 minutes ago, PupCam said:

 

Oh, that's such an amusing game!    

 

I remember many years ago (i.e. when it was particularly topical) a number of colleagues trying to incorporate Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease into a number of technical reports.   Given those technical reports related to "functional testing of some aerospace equipment" you'll appreciate that that was no mean feat!   

 

Mickey Baldwin (RIP) incorporated the following into such a report:

"Mickey and Minnie went to the Fun Fair; on the way home they had Candy Floss".

At a subsequent meeting he asked how many had read the report - all had, apparently.....

"Anyone got any questions?"  All except one said no; the last asked what colour was the candy floss.  All the others were totally confused - Mickey B took great pleasure in going round the table saying "You haven't read it, you haven't read it, you haven't read it, you've read it....."

 

 

[polybear]

11 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Unfortunately not, I do know someone who shook his hand one though.

 

 

Hmmm....doing so whilst having something "distasteful" on your hand might be considered somewhat subversive - and very difficult to detect or take subsequent action against miscreants......

Cunning, or what?