yeh there was a bit of this when my two lads went through the schools, but only for a minority, it does seem more common now. Not my cup of tea personally, but I kind of get it, in these modern touchy feely days it’s a lot more acceptable to let go of ones emotions, I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but it’s definitely a new thing in some situations.
Wait till someone tells them they probably have to sit in an office for the rest of their useful lives, proper tears then :lol:

wow good shout. Bought! They sold another 40 in the time it took me to pay!

I lived in Germany for 8 years with the forces, although I can’t really say I ‘knew’ Germans at all, as we obviously lived in pretty isolated communities. Although I regret that to a degree.

Now though I work with Germans a lot in my work and I love it. The work cultures are quite different and it’s the source of a lot of humour and friendly banter between me and various IT engineers I work with. I have German technical people delivering solutions for UK clients, so see both sides. Can be crudely summed up as follows;

UK – A general disregard for a considered diligent approach and process. An unhealthy and inefficient attitude towards structuring the working day/week. A very strong ‘can-do’ attitude which can be both good and bad. People are pre-occupied by status and office politics. Bogged down by health and safety. General disinterest in tried and tested methodologies, preferring a ‘wing-it’ approach. A little bit insular and, dare I say, arrogant.

Germany – A very careful patient and diligent approach to tasks, thoughtful planners, never over commit or promise. However, the pay off is slow to actually produce but end product is likely to be of higher quality. Clearly defined roles (few ‘jack of all trades’), and a very strong adherence to the day/week structure (I won’t get anybody into a meeting for two hours over lunchtime). Great organisational structure with minimal influence from politics. Fondness of good practice.

My biggest challenge of all is aligning the expectations of the typical UK ‘want it yesterday’ client, with the ‘we’ll take a month create a detailed plan before beginning production’ German production team. And it is purely down to these working culture differences.

if I had a choice, I’d work in Germany :)

oh and another thing if it matters – I have found all Germans I have worked with a lot happier in their work than their UK counterparts.

ITV coverage is un-watchable for me, would cost a fortune in new TV’s.
Paid a months subs for the Eurosport player and it has been superb so far.

I feel wracked with paranoia if I leave my laptop for long enough that my Lync status changes from “available” to “away”

Yeh I have that problem too. Signing in to Lync in the morning is like clocking in, I think the ‘away’ threshold is set by corporate and cannot be changed (for obvious reasons I guess), but I’ve found tolerances for showing ‘away’ as a known home worker are basically zero.

I think most of our work force is mobile now, I’m what’s called ‘site based’, so I have no base office location, just work where I need to (client sites or home). In reality this means 90% of my time at home. The cynic in me suggests this is a neat workaround for my employer to avoid the costs associated with me being an actual home worker, as I apparently am not entitled to anything other than my laptop and phone.

Worked like this for years now. Biggest advantage to me is flexibility. But it isn’t all long lunchtime rides in the sunshine and commute avoidance. The winters are long, dull and really quite lonely as a home worker. School holidays are an issue if you have kids, and I have to continually remind people I do actually have a job, so will not be able to collect/deliver their shit. I prefer to work with people when I can, so make excuses to visit HQ at least once a week to try and stay sane.

I don’t get the ‘hate’ for Metallica (and there is plenty of it about it seems), when did they become so divisive? And more bizarrely, when did metal fans turn into such metal snobs? :-)

Was very impressed with Metallica, and their reception.
I’ve seen them a few times over the years but not for a long long time, and to be honest I expected the worst.

Opening with Creeping Death a clear statement of intent and they carried the energy right the way through to Seek and Destroy. With the exception of Cyanide I loved every minute.

seeing canoes and canoe related stuff everywhere at the moment, small businesses popping up, canoes on cars etc. Is there a bit of canoeing renaissance going on?
I’ve just finished Ray Mears ‘My Outdoor Life’ and he does a wonderful job of extolling the virtues of a gentle paddle in the wilderness. I’m very tempted by one of the self build kits as a result!

yeh likewise had similar, but you can now report unfair negative feedback which I did and it was removed by ebay. You can also ask the buyer to reconsider, but if it has been left out of spite (which most are let’s face it) it’s a waste of time.

That said in another case ebay completely unfairly sided with the buyer, I lost £400, the negative remained, the buyer got a free smartphone.
I now just stick to selling worthless junk that would otherwise go in the bin.

Just gone back to my old 4s after a year using an Xperia Z1. Just couldn’t get on with it at all, laden with annoyances. It has been my only Android phone experience. Although I really like my nexus7.
The 4s/IOS is stunningly good by comparison just a massive relief.
The Xperia went on ebay.

I thought the big screen would be worthwhile, but not really.

surprised how common this is, been shifting old junk on ebay, about 4/5 items a week for a month now, and almost all have had offers or requests for a BIN price.
I’ve never agreed to it, simply because generally I have no idea what something is worth and can’t be done with the hassle. I’m also in no rush.

it was ok I thought, I wasn’t really gripped the story seem to lack shocks and played out like a very dramatic episode of Juliet Bravo :)
Enjoyed it though. I’ve never been a Sarah Lancashire fan, and this was virtually the Sarah Lancashire show, so that may be affecting my opinion.

Was hoping for a twist, but it ran a fairly predictable course. And I disliked the overt social commentary re. Drugs.

Experimenting with this having put on half a stone in May thanks to the carnage of 3 40th birthday parties.
First day was Monday. It was remarkably easy, and bizarrely I have rarely felt so focused, energised and generally ‘on it’. Seriously productive day, and generally felt awesome.
Genuinely quite excited for my next day, in fact I’ve brought it forward to today.
Whether it’s effective for losing weight remains to be seen, but if the buzz remains I’m happy with that.
Very curious, may read up on that.

I have 2 post offices within 2 miles of me but they are both awful, staffed by possibly the most obnoxious sour faced jobsworths I have ever had the displeasure of encountering. Without fail they will find some issue with anything I ‘ask nicely’ to post. ON one occasion this resulted in me going back home, getting a tape measure, to show them they were wrong. Expensive, slow, and shut for two hours at lunchtimes.

Collect+ by contrast – awesome. Purchase and print off at home, drop off at local garage, collected, tracked, delivered for a fair price without ridiculous over complication and analysis of size/weight etc.

With any luck, the Post Office will be forced to up their game.

astonishingly prophetic book, and depressingly seems to be increasingly so with every passing year!

Although no-one could have predicted we would readily surrender so much personal information with such gleeful abandon. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear though, right? ;)

Watched a Porcupine Tree gig several years ago almost by chance and was kind of hooked. Went to see Steven Wilson at the Albert Hall last year and it was sublime. Big fan.
Wilson bit of an odd fish mind, but love his music.

decided to pick this up given the positive reviews. done ep2, struggling with it. Over-acting just seems to be a thing with Brit dramas, and this is laden with it. Well put together though, but drawn out in places.
Steve Pemberton is outstanding though.

Looks about £30 on here http://www.interparcel.com/

Edit: hmm maybe not. I use them regularly though, no issues.

Always thought this a bit of a made up nonsense, truth is when you fall you will automatically and naturally just let go of whatever you are holding. But yes charging around with the stabby bit first isn’t wise.

On the subject of things teachers say, my garden backs onto a High School playing field, and I work from home, hence it’s an endless source of intrigue listening to the various goings on.
One day a PE teacher on a particularly hot day was chastising a group of girls for complaining that they were too hot. They were actually fortunate, the teacher asserted, that their uniform was black, as this would help keep them cool. Hence why you see Black Hijabs.

Most amusing. But it did remind me of some of the duff info I received at school.

E: Chilli heatwave Doritos
D: Greene King IPA (£1 a bottle from Sainsburys)
L: War of the Worlds – TNG on Spotify (because I’ve just bought tickets for the tour for someone’s birthday, and, well, it’s brilliant)

I thought this had changed?
I was also expecting the forms to be sent out after I filled them in online (as I knew that was what used to happen). But instead for a new adult (my 16 year old son) I had to print out the countersignature forms after I had filled in the online bit and paid, get them countersigned, return with photo. Only thing I’m expecting in the post is a passport.

Edit: to OP, yes I was also confused by the apparent premature request for payment, you used to pay on submission of the completed form.

lost a couple of hours on that ourhouseboat.co.uk blog, very interesting story.

Always been curious about this kind of living. However, could it really be considered a realistic alternative to house ownership, what happens when you get old or have unexpected mobility problems, going back to bricks& mortar could be an issue couldn’t it?

I guess you sell up and rent.

We had similar issues at junior school. I simply politely declined and asked them to make alternate arrangements for my son. The school made various huffing noises about having to provide staff to look after my boy whilst the rest of the school went to church, but it was done.

To be honest we’re the indifferent type of atheists as a family and we’ve raised both our boys to be objective and open minded and come to their own conclusions in good time. But I was pretty upset at the time about the general assumption that all the school children were by default Christian and that it would be ok to spend a morning in church, rather than at school. If the school had approached it differently, it probably would not have raised my ire quite so much.

To its credit,the school goes to great lengths to accommodate other religions, not so much those without a faith.

dull (and completely predictable) ending to a dull season I thought.

how soon do you want to go?
I renewed recently, took less than 2 weeks. It has a stated turnaround of 3.

It’s a step in the right direction of reverting a now deeply ingrained culture of entitlement to a perceived minimum standard of living that is unrealistic compared to actual household incomes.
Debt fills the gap of course, which has been willingly encouraged by lenders over the last decade or so.
On a personal level it depresses me greatly that I live in an age where one of the most basic needs of life is rapidly moving beyond the reach of large sections of society.

We have a lot of pain to go through yet if we’re serious about living within our means. Doubtful in my lifetime.

Got the 5 day foundation/practitioner and exam course booked for June. Was pretty alarmed when it said 5 days. I’m sure these used to be longer. I guess it’s a cost reduction thing.

Also ‘required’ to do APMP this year. :cry:

Was very surprised to hear her theory on why we’re all depressed (lack of fat) being re-played on radio earlier.
To para-phrase, we should be prescribing cream cakes, not prozac it seems.

Bizarre.

Any death is sad, I never really knew her, but she obviously had the kind of presence which will be missed by many.

guntrader.co.uk

This was a passing fad of mine from many years ago when I lived out in the sticks, consequently, I have a BSA Lightning XL Tactical sat in the garage gathering dust.
Would love to get rid of it, but ‘getting rid’ is apparently a massive pain, unless I accept derisory offer form local shop.

fwiw I bought mine from an air rifle forum classifieds section (can’t remember which)

home, office, customer site, company has no real interest, as long as job is done and its entirely down to me where I work. We’ve long since moved to an almost completely dispersed workforce, working from anywhere.
Although I’ve become very used to the flexibility (which is fantastic), I don’t consider working from home in the long term a good thing, or particularly healthy, based on my own experiences.
The biggest benefit to me is autonomy to make my own decisions based on various circumstances, and avoidance of commuting insanity.

(IT project manager for large multinational)

impossible for anyone to multi-task, that’s a well established fact. What actually happens is all those things you’re trying to do at once are done less well. eg. Driving AND applying make-up at the same time.

But don’t spoil their fun. Just smile..and do various man-tasks all at the same time.

follow your gut instinct, what’s the worst that can happen?..I’ll tell you. You wake up the wrong side of 40 without the luxury of time to ponder over such decisions as the opportunity has gone, you’re just left living with the regret :(

I had 10 amazing years in the Army, left at 28. I was too stupid then to realise how much of an opportunity I had. Regretted it ever since.

Good luck!

peoples idea of what it is to be active or sedentary has been misaligned by a society built on making things physically easier, essentially because we’ve evolved to do so (conserving energy is something we once had to do to survive).
This way of life is now so normalised we don’t even consider it in these discussions.

Therefore surveys are of little value. The once or twice a week gym go’er will consider themselves active, fit even. But in actual terms can still be sedentary; they’ll spend 14 hours a day sat on their backside in the car, in the office or at home.

I work from home. I’m a 15 stone, 5′ 8″ male, on the bmi scale I’m obese. To just prevent weight gain I eat 1500 calories a day (except on Saturdays), walk the dog and do 10 mins of callisthenics twice a day, and run 2-3 miles on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. I’m neither gaining or losing at that activity level, why? Because pretty much the rest of the time I’m sat in front of a computer or in bed.

In my opinion the shift required to arrest the growing number of obese people is unrealistic without a much more fundamental look, and ultimately change, in the way we live, work, and think.

I also looked seriously into this a few years ago (was 37 then), but decided against at the last moment.
The reasons were I had a nightmarish premonition of being on the brink of retirement and looking back at what I had achieved in my working years. Near enough destroyed my soul (I’m an IT PM). I have a strong urge to do some good, rather than working for a faceless corporation for all of my life.

The route for me then was access diploma (2 years part-time), together with volunteering, and then joining a normal Nursing degree course. At the time I wanted to do mental health nursing.

I’m taking a different route now into hopefully a different but nevertheless equally worthwhile career. I do volunteer for Mind though, which has made me feel better about things generally.

‘scaring’ people is only likely to increase risk of a serious accident.

Can’t be many people who live on similar roads who don’t have this problem. We do. 20 mph helps, but only lowers top speeds a bit, so you’re still looking at 40ish. You’re unlikely to be considered a special case by the council as the problem is so ingrained and everywhere.

Traffic calming does quite the opposite in my experience, and causes continuous repetitive heavy acceleration, bad for the environment, and noise and from what I can see doesn’t calm traffic, only makes it worse.

Really the only way is actual enforcement. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an actively enforced 20mph speed limit.

I would have suggested not buying GTD, but guess I’m too late :-)
Reasons are the basic principles can be learned in minutes, like most other ‘self help’ things it’s padded out to fit a book so it can be sold.
The irony being reading a book about defeating procrastination is just…procrastinating.

As has already been mentioned, mtf’upping, self discipline are key, everything else is just trying to avoid the pain.

I use trello for everything, with application of some gtd techniques, and if I’m really busy, use a task timer app in chrome.
Temptation is to run off making task lists, this is often self defeating as it’ll depress you and you’ll be back to procrastinating.
Keep the lists small! And list the things you have completed, this will give you that warm fuzzy at the end of the day.

Saying no is a great skill to learn, and one I’m still struggling with.
As is rolling back the insidious email culture. As has been said already, I dump CC’s, and directly addressed emails I deal with the next day (they don’t leap to the top of my to’do list ever). If it’s urgent, speak to me.

with respect, the template is really poorly written, far too wordy, and nobody will read it.

Simply walk in or call the GP practice and instruct the receptionist accordingly. If you need an audit trail, write to them.
To be fair, it does actually say that on the leaflet we have been sent.

Agree Renault FT (or the American copy), they did see ww1 action though, late war.

We were new dog owners (only had him a month), when he broke a leg running round the garden. First question from vets was who we were insured by, basically if it wasn’t PetPlan we would have to pay for it ourselves and claim back from insurance unless we could get pre-approval (in writing) from the insurer. They had a lot of issues with ‘supermarket’ insurance schemes. If we had a PetPlan policy or pre-approval then the vets would admin the whole thing without us having to pay anything.
We were with Direct Line, who were brilliant throughout, provided pre-approval within a day and we’d only had the policy a week.