Early Risers.

[polybear]

10 hours ago, PupCam said:

 

What?  This one?  

 

Go on you know you want to.     

 

 

 

That's the one....it just so happens that A Certain Bear had a TS50ER in yellow....

You're a bad Pup......

 

9 hours ago, New Haven Neil said:

 

I think he was relieving himself.......

 

Number 1 or 2?

 

9 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

I wasn't aware of any whining, pleading, wangling, dealing or other means by which to obtain the accolade by those who didn't make it.  

 

Ah yes, but that was back when Teachers were still allowed to chuck Board Rubbers at you.  It all started to go downhill when some do-gooders decided that wasn't allowed anymore.

[polybear]

8 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Has  your previous  "I'm not going to stick anything in the  clouds because people will do something or other with it" attitude been modified somewhat now?🤨

 

Bitch.....

[polybear]

Apparently the England Team won't be voting today.  They can't even find the box, let alone put a cross in it.

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Blue sky and sunshine here.  A fine and dry but windy day is forecast.  13°C rising to 22°C.

It's bin day, only one lorry due today along with Ocado who have notified us of one acceptable substitution.

Last night's meal out was very enjoyable and my only  criticism would be that my Steak and Ale "Pie" was not a proper pie!   However the meat was very tasty and tender and there was a lot of it.  I followed that with Apple Strudel and Custard which seemed to be a portion for two people but I persevered and ate the other person's portion as well.  😁 It's a good job I didn't have a starter, I'd never have managed to finish.  I normally only have two courses these days as I find that too many places put far too much on the plate for me which is quite off putting and I hate leaving food.  The gift voucher we had covered about 85% of the bill so it was a cheap night out.

Today after breakfast a walk will be undertaken to put a cross on a piece of paper. At one stage a few weeks ago I did feel like not bothering but have never missed doing so in the past so will make the effort.

After that I may visit The Shed for a while until the T de F starts.  It's another sprint stage today,  could Cav possibly do it again?  As several people said after yesterday's race you can never write him off.

The Boss is here so it's time togettamoveon.

Have a good one,

Bob.

 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

I hope said politicians remember their photo ids....

Boris forgot his at the local elections.

[iL Dottore]

All these whiny, entitled, I've-paid-for-it-so-you'll-give-me-a-pass (ahem) "students" are going to get a VERY rude (and possibly painful) awakening when they get out into the real world.

 

Ignoring for the moment the fact that I would never hire such whinging muppets, were any such foisted on me, they wouldn't make it past elevenses on the first day.

 

One of the joys of a) being my own boss and b) working past retirement age is that I don't have to be NICE any longer. With no HR to worry about and with the benefit of being a curmudgeonly, cynical, very experienced old git, I can be as blunt and forthright as I wish and, (as I am not a complete monster*) I can do so diplomatically (if I deem it appropriate).

 

There is also the added bonus of being (somewhat), erudite and very well read - which means I have a facility with language so that I can tell someone that they are complete ********** and have them nod in agreement

 

* some, like PB, may beg to differ.

[DaveF]

A fine bright morning, about 12°C, it will become more cloudy with showers later.  The wind is from the west, about Force 5 gusting to 7 or 8.  I think it is a good day not to go far.

 

I will go to church, then I will either see if the barber is working today or may have a quick look at the beach.  Later I shall probably watch the Tour de France.

 

I was looking at the BBC web site earlier, their news page doesn't have the box to click for local news today - presumably there isn't any.

 

David

[DaveF]

I sometimes wonder how today's students would have coped with the course at Manchester I did in 1968-71.  It was Joint Honours in Botany and Zoology which meant that we 2/3 of the Botany degree lectures plus 2/3 of all the Zoology lectures.  That meant 3  lectures every morning.  Four afternoons a week had practicals from 2-5 (or when you finished, it was sometimes around 9p.m. or later).  Then you added in seminars and tutorials.  We also had to do a Chemistry course in the first year, 3 lectures and one practical a week.

 

Once or twice a month there would be a field trip on a Saturday plus two residential field trips a year in the vacations.

 

The good bit was we had exams at the end of the first year, then finals at the end of the third year, nothing in Year 2.   We had to do essays for tutorials and write up practicals but they did not count towards the final degree.  There was no continuous asessment at all.

 

It did mean we actually learnt stuff.

 

There was still plenty of time to do all the other usual student activities of the time - sailing, church stuff, discos, etc etc.

 

David

Edited July 4 by DaveF

[TheQ]

23 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

 

 

There is also the added bonus of being (somewhat), erudite and very well read - which means I have a facility with language so that I can tell someone that they are complete ********** in several languages and have them nod in agreement

 

* some, like PB, may beg to differ.

I suspect I have corrected it for you.

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, iL Dottore said:

There’s something rather pathetic (as in pathos) about an empty, uninhabited and perfectly preserved house. Such lovely buildings should be lived in, not turned into sterile dolls houses.

 

Of course, invidious taxation combined with a rather badly thought through rush to “modernise” in the 50s, 60s and 70s has meant that the UK has lost far too many beautiful public and private buildings - despite the best efforts of people like Sir John Betjeman. And what’s left is at the mercy of the conflicting interests (and conflicting ignorances) of council planning departments, “heritage” organisations, wide-boy developers and egotistical architects.

It's interesting to see different countries approach to old buildings. In Germany for instance when I visited the Black Forest there were several castles that had been rebuilt and some are even lived in whereas here in the UK they are left as ruins. Italy has the best approach where you can buy a property for one Euro and as long as you rebuild it and restore some features you can add modern features. The UK approach is to preserve it in aspic, even if the house is lived in you can't fit modern features.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

A very windy, but bright day here in England’s northwest corner, the current temperature is only 12C, not what you’d expect for July! There is no Zumba today as Sheila teacher is on holiday, however, Sheila is going to meet up with some of her Zumba friends for a coffee, so my chauffeuring services are still required. There is also a change to the routine today, as the boiler is being serviced tomorrow morning, so I’m going to the Trafford Centre after I’ve dropped Sheila off at the cafe. The butchers will be visited tomorrow, after the service engineer has finished and left. Hopefully, Charlie will be calling round this afternoon, so that’s something to look forward to. 
 

Back later.
 

Brian. 

[jjb1970]

The UK has dug itself into a bit of a hole with education and training, two completely separate and distinct things which somehow get conflated thanks to a 1990's decision that most young people should go to university. I don't dispute the value of a university education where it is appropriate to the individual and their aspirations and where it has some value to someone, but the rather predictable consequence was a growth of further and higher education to accommodate people who would once have gone to do vocational training and apprenticeships, a collapse in both perceived value of and access to vocational pathways and an employment market that now seems to think receptionists and gardeners should have a degree in something. Degrees have been devalued, young people are running up silly amounts of debt to take courses which they later discover are neither wanted nor valued outside the institutions offering them and we're reliant on migrant workers for skilled craftspeople.

 

I have been on both sides of the fence, I did a merchant navy cadetship which involved studying for an HND in marine engineering. I went to university in later life then again to do my MSc. I still say (and I am not being facetious) that my original cadetship was the best education and training I received, mixing both practical skills training and theoretical education. Some of the maths I had to master for my HND took me through BEng and MSc and overall I found it a more rigorous course.

 

I am sure I have shared this before but when I was at Lloyd's Register I had a desk next to a guy who was a thoroughly nice fellow but a complete snob who looked down on peons with less than degree level education. I know he resented me because I was two grades higher despite having started life as a lowly spanner monkey and I used to find him up (prior to LR he was an aerodynamicist for an F1 team working on their car designs). He was horrified when I told him I'd signed a PO to pay a welder £50,000 to do a single weld on a turbine blade when I worked for E.ON. He genuinely couldn't grasp the basic math and business logic that every hour a big 660MW turbine is not working is costing telephone number sums, only a handful of welders in the country had the certification to do the weld and of those if one had a good record with the company and we had confidence he'd do the weld quickly, manage the pre and post weld heat management and pass all the NDE then it was worth paying them whatever they demanded. When I told him if he was only interested in money and thought it was an easy way to riches he should go and weld for a living he was apoplectic with rage.

[Tony_S]

3 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

so that’s something to look forward to. 

I think the only event here is a delivery of food items, any time now. Perhaps afterwards we will go for a walk somewhere as it is a very pleasant day. It is really quiet her this morning. The men working on next doors new block paving have finished with diggers, cutters and compactors and are laying pavers by hand now. They seem to be perfectionists, no just chucking  them down!

[PhilJ W]

RMweb is really playing up this morning. I've made two posts this morning on ER's, both quoting a post from a previous page. Each time when I finished I pressed the return button but all that happened is the page faded out and the arrow just went round in circles. To get back to the page I wanted I had to open a new tab and delete the old one, twice.

[Tony_S]

2 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

the arrow just went round in circles.

Perhaps the Basildon version of the Bermuda Triangle!

[Hroth]

Cloudy with sunny spells.  When I went out to collect my prescription for the next 8 weeks, it was 15c.  The roads were relatively quiet, no lemmings in evidence, I think the local school must be posing as a polling station today!

 

More worrying is that there is an ambulance outside a house on the opposite side of the road.

 

Edited July 4 by Hroth
typo correction

[polybear]

58 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

With no HR to worry about and with the benefit of being a curmudgeonly, cynical, very experienced old git, I can be as blunt and forthright as I wish and, (as I am not a complete monster*) I can do so diplomatically (if I deem it appropriate).

 

* some, like PB, may beg to differ.

 

As if Bear would......😁

[Hroth]

14 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

RMweb is really playing up this morning. I've made two posts this morning on ER's, both quoting a post from a previous page. Each time when I finished I pressed the return button but all that happened is the page faded out and the arrow just went round in circles. To get back to the page I wanted I had to open a new tab and delete the old one, twice.

 

Not just ER, TNM has started occasionally doing the page-hiccup thing too.

 

Edited July 4 by Hroth
qualifier

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Slept like a log last night with no interuptions. Just the stiff joints locking up overnight made it slow progress getting up. It must have been quite chilly last night as the towel-rail/radiator was warm to the touch this morning. Now to put the washing on, be back later.

[iL Dottore]

44 minutes ago, DaveF said:

There was still plenty of time to do all the other usual student activities of the time - sailing, church stuff, discos, etc etc.

 

David

Wot! No boozin' or "getting acquainted with the ladies"?

[polybear]

Amongst fellow ER'ers who did the University/Degree thingummy It'd be interesting to know just how many actually went into careers that required/used that qualification, or went into something completely different instead?

[grandadbob]

'ello again from Much Complaining In The Hip And Knees.  We've walked about a mile and a quarter to make our marks on paper and that was far enough.   It was downhill part of the way, the only problem with that is that it was uphill coming back.  En route met a couple of neighbours doing the same thing so stopped for a chat but have made it back for a muggatea.   Once I've had that I'll hobble down to The Shed and power up the toys for a while.

[Hroth]

52 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

More worrying is that there is an ambulance outside a house on the opposite side of the road.

 

 

And its still there...

I know that one of the occupants has some sort of illness and is probably bed-ridden, but the emergency ambulance has been there for over an hour.

 

39 minutes ago, polybear said:

Amongst fellow ER'ers who did the University/Degree thingummy It'd be interesting to know just how many actually went into careers that required/used that qualification, or went into something completely different instead?

 

I worked for a while in an occupation that required my BSc(Hons) degree. Later I did an MSc*, but that had no appreciable affect on my subsequent career trajectory (No names, no pack drill).

 

* I always mentally translate that as MSC (Manchester Ship Canal), a long muddy ditch with little purpose nowadays...

 

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, Hroth said:

Hurrah!

The polling stations have opened!

 

 

 

 

Its Thursday night here, so  I know who won. If you are connected with the conservative party I can sell you the result if you want to get a bet on.

[Tony_S]

1 hour ago, polybear said:

Amongst fellow ER'ers who did the University/Degree thingummy It'd be interesting to know just how many actually went into careers that required/used that qualification, or went into something completely different instead?

For my career an appropriate degree was a vocational requirememt to become a teacher. Though I did change from teaching science subjects to computing and IT. I did end up teaching on technical and vocational courses. 
Tony