Early Risers.

[KeithMacdonald]

2 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Having one employee report to work at the office on a Friday (solo in a workplace floor/wing)  while everyone else is working-from-home is not unusual. That it took until Tuesday (when presumably some hybrid employees showed up at the office) to discover her is not a surprise.

 

Curiously, something similar was a topic of conversation with my work colleagues. One of our "benefits" is a "death in service" insurance bonus, whereby your beneficiaries get 4X your annual salary. No problem, except we used to work in the main office, where a death would (we hope) be obvious. But we're nearly all on Work From Home contracts now. So, we're wondering how we would prove we had "died in service", not just died while idly sitting at home. The only way we can think of is, while in the middle of a online team video call, to suddenly and spectacularly die onscreen during the meeting. But it might need a few rehearsals to look convincing?

 

[Ozexpatriate]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Could you imagine 10,000 Australians turn up to hear a polly speak? Even if it was at a beach, with a sausage sizzle!

Aussies turn out for royal personages when they visit.

 

I'm thinking of one Duke in particular - Duke Kahanamoku - who visited in 1914 and gave a surfing demonstration at Freshwater Beach to a large* crowd (based on the newsreel footage) - on a board he built using timber from a local hardware shop. Changed Australia forever.

 

It was hard finding the number, but at least 2,000.

[Ozexpatriate]

3 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

One of our "benefits" is a "death in service" insurance bonus, whereby your beneficiaries get 4X your annual salary.

That sounds generous. The life insurance policies for employees that I am aware of are less than that - $100,000 for most employees but are not dependent on dying 'on the job' - just while employed. One I saw had a rider for an extra $100,000 for a death while travelling on business

 

I can imagine insurers not wanting to payout on a policy for an employee who died while working from home.

[monkeysarefun]

4 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Aussies turn out for royal personages when they visit.

 

I'm thinking of one Duke in particular - Duke Kahanamoku - who visited in 1914 and gave a surfing demonstration at Freshwater Beach to a large* crowd (based on the newsreel footage) - on a board he built using timber from a local hardware shop. Changed Australia forever.

 

It was hard finding the number, but at least 2,000.

 

 

They  arent really politicians though, more celebrities.

 

The only polly here I can think of that could draw a crowd of cheers was probably Bob Hawke, especially that time at the cricket when he downed a beer in front of all those Richie Benauds.

 

 

[The Lurker]

17 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Curiously, something similar was a topic of conversation with my work colleagues. One of our "benefits" is a "death in service" insurance bonus, whereby your beneficiaries get 4X your annual salary. No problem, except we used to work in the main office, where a death would (we hope) be obvious. But we're nearly all on Work From Home contracts now. So, we're wondering how we would prove we had "died in service", not just died while idly sitting at home. The only way we can think of is, while in the middle of a online team video call, to suddenly and spectacularly die onscreen during the meeting. But it might need a few rehearsals to look convincing?

 

I remember my Dad, towards the end of his working career, telling me that he’d said to my Mum that if he died in bed to drag him out and push him down the stairs so that she could collect on the 4x Death in Service. 
 

Luckily it never happened and luckily she didn’t get fed up enough to ignore the bit about him dying first….

[The Lurker]

13 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

That sounds generous. The life insurance policies for employees that I am aware of are less than that - $100,000 for most employees but are not dependent on dying 'on the job' - just while employed. One I saw had a rider for an extra $100,000 for a death while travelling on business

 

I can imagine insurers not wanting to payout on a policy for an employee who died while working from home.

It’s not uncommon here - I had it at my last employer and something similar at the current one which I have paid to enhance to 10x salary subject to £1m cap. (Chance’d be a fine thing!)

[Andy Hayter]

20 minutes ago, KeithMacdonald said:

 

Curiously, something similar was a topic of conversation with my work colleagues. One of our "benefits" is a "death in service" insurance bonus, whereby your beneficiaries get 4X your annual salary. No problem, except we used to work in the main office, where a death would (we hope) be obvious. But we're nearly all on Work From Home contracts now. So, we're wondering how we would prove we had "died in service", not just died while idly sitting at home. The only way we can think of is, while in the middle of a online team video call, to suddenly and spectacularly die onscreen during the meeting. But it might need a few rehearsals to look convincing?

 

 

"Death in Service" usually means death while still employed by the company offering this insurance - not actually death while at work.  I too thought as you did, but when a friend and colleague was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer, the actual meaning was explained.   His widow collected a hansom payout that I am certain she would have rather not had.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[skipepsi]

5 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

... Wonder if getting students to write in Geordie for their assessments would get over the misuse of AI? ...

https://johncolby.wordpress.com/2024/08/31/postcards-from-home-2024-11/

John you have retired it is no longer your problem it is now a SEP.

[TheQ]

Yes death in service doesn't mean you have to be at work. You  only have to be still in employment with the company.

 

Whilst not as generous as the above I knew someone who's wife got the death in service benefits.

He finished his last working day, went home and died that night.

However that wasn't his last official day as he was using up the last of his leave, and was still officially on the company books till the following week. 

In that case she qualified for a higher proportion of his pension scheme.

Edited September 1 by TheQ

[jjb1970]

I am in the happy position of ignoring politics other than those I need to monitor as part of my job (my job is highly political,  but it's very narrow and specific, international shipping regulation and policy).

 

I ignore 90% of UK news and scan headlines to see if there's anything I should take a deeper interest in. I ignore local politics here, the government tells me how much tax I have to pay and I pay it, that's that. I ignore probably a lot more than 90% of news from the rest of the world. 

 

I find the news media awful. A combination of fear porn, incestuous political talking heads spouting nonsense and gleeful miserabilism with a few empty 'human interest' stories thrown in. They're all awful, the last one I read was the Economist but I ended up hating that too. In their own way the broad sheets are no better than the tabloids (and the Torygraph seemed to morph into a tabloid in broad sheet form), if anything they're worse as their readers tend to consider themselves better informed than the riff raff.

 

I ignored the last UK election other than sending in my postal vote, ignore European elections and am ignoring the US election. I always had a low opinion of politicians, but now I look at the complete clown show which is politics in Britain, the EU and North America and can't help wondering how the (naughty word) did we end up being governed by these morons, with the alternatives being another bunch of morons repackaging the same core policies with different window dressing?

 

Is this a rant?

[Barry O]

WHITE RABBITS!

 

Baz

[jamie92208]

7 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

 dying 'on the job' - 

 

That phrase had a whole different meaning in our job.  Beth once had to explain to a widow how she had found the husband dead on top of a lady of easy virtue in the part of Leeds that she worked in. 

 

Jamie

Edited September 1 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Charente.  A good evening was had at a neighbours last night,  curry was consumed.  The market and then a form of car boot sale in a nearby village. 

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Another £30 and  a free go from last nights Lottery.. now what can I do with that?

 

Waiting for my mugatea.TTFN

 

Baz

Edited September 1 by Barry O
Spullung

[BoD]

8 hours ago, Coombe Barton said:

I had to ask Google to translate that

Then perhaps you are not ready to venture this far north yet.

Seriously though, the Northumberland accent is something different again.  
A thing of beauty and character (in my humble opinion, as they say).

[iL Dottore]

18 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Did someone mention Hunny??

 

🐻🥳

You like honey?

 

I am surprised!

 

You do know it’s an all natural foodstuff without emulsifiers, anti-caking agents, stabilisers, flavour-enhancers….

 

Don’t let the long shelf life (as much as 2000 years according to archeologists) fool you, it’s about as far from UPF as you can get!

[iL Dottore]

11 hours ago, polybear said:

…all I know was I’d had a skinful of being told what to do by the EU.  I very much suspect that many others adopted a similar approach.

The problem with that perception is that most of the cobblers claimed to be the work of the EU actually came from that finest of British Institutions: Whitehall.

 

Just as Health and Safety has been/is being used to mask laziness and jobsworth incompetence, so the EU was used to cover up all manner of incompetence, government interference and jobsworth “not my fault” attitudes.

 

Take railway privatisation, the EU itself states that EU didn’t (and doesn’t) require member states to privatise any aspect of their rail networks. Neither did (do) they require any member to break up its national operator.

 

Nope, the current mess that is the current state of British Railways is down to bad governmental legislation (UK), incompetently managed by Whitehall (UK), with the dead hand of the Treasury , during the set-up phase, killing anything that might have worked (UK again).

 

Edited September 1 by iL Dottore
Tenses

[Barry O]

58 minutes ago, BoD said:

Then perhaps you are not ready to venture this far north yet.

Seriously though, the Northumberland accent is something different again.  
A thing of beauty and character (in my humble opinion, as they say).

You have to learn how to "roll your "Rs"" to getbit right..

 

Baz

[BoD]

1 hour ago, Barry O said:

You have to learn how to "roll your "Rs"" to getbit right..

 

Baz

A friend at uni was literally born and lived beneath The Cheviot.  He tried to teach us ‘Southerners’ to roll our R’s with no success whatsoever.  It is something you are born to.

Edited September 1 by BoD

[polybear]

 

2 hours ago, Barry O said:

Ey up!

Another £30 and  a free go from last nights Lottery.. now what can I do with that?

 

Eight and a bit LDC’s?

 

2 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

You like honey?

 

I am surprised!

 

You do know it’s an all natural foodstuff without emulsifiers, anti-caking agents, stabilisers, flavour-enhancers….

 

Don’t let the long shelf life (as much as 2000 years according to archeologists) fool you, it’s about as far from UPF as you can get!

 

 

But what if the flowers had been treated with chemicals, insecticides, acid rain….?

[jjb1970]

5 minutes ago, polybear said:

 

But what if the flowers had been treated with chemicals, insecticides, acid rain….?

 

Surely in that case the price would be increased to pay for all the e tra goodness? Avoid the cheap stuff that doesn't get all those extras. 

[DaveF]

I've lived in Northumberland for 44 years and find that some people are stll very difficult to understand.  Funnily enough Newcastle Geordie can be easier.  In Northumberland there a lot of very local words which you only hear from time to time in some places.  In my town there are a lot of people who are like me, speaking English from other parts of the UK but the Northumbrian dialect is still spoken a lot.  I think I could almost say the Northumbrian language.

 

Yesterday evening I felt weary so ended up watching some German TV music programmes on You Tube.

 

It's a very dull morning, there were a few spots of rain when I got up at 07.00.  The sun might get out for an hour or so around lunchtime.

 

I've made a start on e mails and phone calls and hope to have them finished by coffee time.  I'm not going to church today, I still don't feel quite back to normal and am very tired - whatever the bug was that caused the waterworks problem it has taken away all  my energy.

 

I'll cook something for lunch, there appears to be a readay to cook pulled pork with sauce in the fridge which could do with eating.  I am gradually regaining an interest in what I eat.

 

The rest of the day will hopefully be spent quietly and enjoyably - at least that is the plan.

 

David

Edited September 1 by DaveF

[iL Dottore]

41 minutes ago, polybear said:

 Eight and a bit three or four all natural ingredient LDC’s from a local baker?

There.

Fixed it for you! 

[skipepsi]

4 hours ago, jjb1970 said:

I am in the happy position of ignoring politics other than those I need to monitor as part of my job (my job is highly political,  but it's very narrow and specific, international shipping regulation and policy).

 

I ignore 90% of UK news and scan headlines to see if there's anything I should take a deeper interest in. I ignore local politics here, the government tells me how much tax I have to pay and I pay it, that's that. I ignore probably a lot more than 90% of news from the rest of the world. 

 

I find the news media awful. A combination of fear porn, incestuous political talking heads spouting nonsense and gleeful miserabilism with a few empty 'human interest' stories thrown in. They're all awful, the last one I read was the Economist but I ended up hating that too. In their own way the broad sheets are no better than the tabloids (and the Torygraph seemed to morph into a tabloid in broad sheet form), if anything they're worse as their readers tend to consider themselves better informed than the riff raff.

 

I ignored the last UK election other than sending in my postal vote, ignore European elections and am ignoring the US election. I always had a low opinion of politicians, but now I look at the complete clown show which is politics in Britain, the EU and North America and can't help wondering how the (naughty word) did we end up being governed by these morons, with the alternatives being another bunch of morons repackaging the same core policies with different window dressing?

 

Is this a rant?

Yes but I agree.