Bump

One of the reasons we are all feeling hard done to is the change from RPI to CPI as the measure of inflation by the UK government in 2003. CPI/ RPI are different measures of inflation, and are used to calculate ‘cost of living’ wage increases in both the public and private sectors. CPI generally runs at around 1% less than RPI, and has been doing so since 2003 (this is a huge generalisation mind).

Since 2003 we’ve been getting steadily ‘poorer’ in relative terms. This manifests itself in a general underwhelming feeling of not being properly remunerated.

I’m not surprised to see established staff suprisingly (to some!) leaving companies and teams, to take advantage of zero hours contracts, or moving companies to ratchet up their pay.

Road biking: I was doing some very long distance stuff a couple of years back. My carbon bike was U/S, so I rode my steel 631/ carbon forks winter bike instead. At the end of 140 miles I was astonished how less knackered I felt after riding the steel bike

MTB: I’ve recently got a Cotic Rocket Max (29, or 27.5 plus. Both boost). What a bike! It just puts a smile on your face & makes you want to have some fun. (I was riding a Whyte before, a hugely capable magic carpet ride. Little character, few smiles).

XL for sure

Where do you live?

Anywhere in range of the Jaeger factory shop Nr Nottingham – it’s hard to beat.

I run on the road most lunchtimes; I run ‘against’ the traffic as there is no pavement.

Women drivers generally don’t leave me much room at all – uncomfortably close to being clipped by their wing mirrors actually.

Men generally pull over onto the opposite carriageway and give me 1200mm/ 4′ or so.

Maybe it’s because men are risk takers, and women try to squeeze through in ‘their’ lane.

Think of this as your opportunity to interview him/ her/ the company.

Are you they right for you?

I’ve not used them myself, but Centre for sight[/url] is apparently the place where people take themselves, when a lazer treatment has had complications.

In my world (construction) a day rate for a PM would be around 600 euros charge-out, and salary cost would be around 250 euros + CTC.

A longer term gig would be 10k euros per month charge out.

As it is, I only have about twelve years before retirement age, so fingers crossed!

Good luck mate

If you were a horse, we’d shoot you! 😉

Slow everything down (which I think you’re doing anyway) and keep relationships on an even keel. I think your employer has probably made a pragmatic offer, be courteous in your dealings with them.

I work with investment bankers a bit – they are always really well dressed (certainly in public facing meetings anyway).

Most of them are bright you things from around the EU, only around 1/3rd brits; the public schoolboy thing doesn’t apply I think. There is also a good proportion of women 40 – 50% I’d say. (That goes for senior psots too – Credit Committee members etc)

I also deal with underwriters and brokers in the city. In 15 years have only once met your archetypal public schoolboy knob.

I don’t recognise the (sometimes) public perception of people who work in the City as coming from highly privileged public school back-grounds. In my experience they are not, they are well above average intelligence and extremely motivated and hard working. The ones I have dealt with do all seem to have been to good Universities – maybe that represent ‘privilege’.

by the by

I’m reminded of the apocryphal tale of a Guards adjutant giving advice to a newly joined subaltern:

Always remember, it’s The Underground, not ‘the tube’, never carry a parcel, and never brown-in-town old boy.

When people abandon their shopping trolley in the middle on an isle, i like to give it a punt with my trolley ( if I’m using one ) or walk it up and away from them ( freaks them out when they’ve left their bag in it )

When I was a student, living in a scabby part of Nottingham, I got in the habit of stealing other peoples shopping trollies in supermarkets. I’d have a quick look, to see if it had roughly the right amount & sort of stuff I wanted, and then just walk off with it to the check-outs.

Oh what a whacky wee lad I was

Moneysavingexpert will always point you in the direction of whoever gives them the biggest kick-back (Martin Lewis got bought out by an insurance comparison site a while back).

Find out what your annual consumption is, and feed the result into a couple of different comparison sites.

Personally I use Sainsburys – who were slightly cheaper in my case and have good customer service (easy to get hold of a real person to talk stuff through)

I am a builder. In my experience, any dealings with Network rail are protracted and their requirements can seem onerous – until one thinks through the potential consequences of a problem caused by adjacent landowner.

It may be worth contacting a surveyor or engineer with the relevant experience for advice.

(In the old days I once dealt with ‘BR Networks’ – the forerunners of Railtrack/ Network rail. They were an utter shower of sh!t. Things are miles better these days)

I though this was going to be one of those ‘so, I was shagging the bride’s mother under the top table when …..’ sort of threads

It must be love
Killers
Kings of Leon
Chelsea dagger
It’s raining men
A bit of Abba

Power Director is good. Like Windows movie maker but with more features

It is imperative that you rest immediately, you have Hurty Knee.

My Mum & Dad charged me an on-market amount in the 80s (can’t remember how much, but it was around 1/3rd of what I earned).

When I bought a flat they gave it all back to me, I used it to pay a chunk off the mortgage and buy some stuff to set the house up.

I plan to do the same with mine, if the circumstances arise.

I work for a Dutch multi-national construction outfit. Developers have cancelled £150 million worth of UK projects so far this week.

a dent in our plans for sure, no job losses yet, but we need to make the turn-over.

Thorpe Cloud and the stepping stones at Dovedale – Tea and medals at Ilam Hall tea rooms (The grounds of Ilam hall are super nice too – plenty of paths to explore, nice lawns for footy, etc)

In the 70s the problems of condensation in insulation were not well understood. (At a given point, warm moist air from inside will reach a ‘dew point’ and condense, as it crosses insulation – today this is avoided by using a type of goretex vapour barrier).

70s timber framed houses are likely using a design from the USA, as noted in a reply above. NB the design life of the frame may well only be 50 years. I.e only 10yrs to go before major renovation can be expected to be necessary.

Get it surveyed carefully by someone who knows about timber framed construction

Surely it must be House-Maid’s knee

😉

Also interested…

And in CTW comments (though since my employer uses H*lfords vouchers it’s unlikely)

Halfords will get you ‘any’ complete bike that is sold in the UK.
(I got them to get me a non-Halfords bike no problem).

Why not give their C2W team a call?

The world’s most expensive big top.

Not really, the build cost was £43million, or around £5000/ m2. Quite a lot of money admittedly, but not off-the-scale for that type of project.

God alone knows what the other £700 million was spent on.

A serious gravy train I think.

I had a brief go on one around their car park.

Compact back end, long front. Despite that it was very poppy, the bikes was easy to manual. Turned really well – compact radius

My son has ordered one – I’m looking forward to borrowing it.

software4students – if you have a handy student/ schoolchild

Peak Designs[/url] stuff works really nicely

This place is good http://www.campingsanbiagio.net/en/ Try to get a pitch out on the peninsular. Hardly any Brits, so not necessarily ‘Eurocamp’ style

Sirmione is worth a visit; you can get a water bus across from near the campsite.

Is that a milk churn!!

Didn’t he get out to see how you were?!

Its been said by many that cycling couldnt have been the only sport where doping had/has been rife. Its about time the IAAF, IOC and others had their blinkers removed. It will be interesting to hear which high profile athletes get investigated and are proven to be cheats. I bet there are a few out there bricking themselves.

Operación Puerto had Spanish football teams and some individual tennis players in its sights, before the investigation was killed by the Powers That Be.

(Nadal, FC Barcelona, Madrid)

Sounds like what the teacher did was a good lesson. I’d be surprised if it will go down well with the management though.

I’ve done several of these courses over the years. The benefits are I think:

* It gets you noticed within your company
* You will develop a tool-box of techniques to deal with problem situations
* Presentation skills are important, so you can perform well at Company events etc
* You build up a network of people who are also on the way up
* Senior management courses (I.e. the strategic stuff) is better taught to you in structured manner, than learnt on the job (Unless you are Alan Sugar – a natural)
* It’s interesting! It’s great to learn new things

I’ve always opted for any courses going and it’s stood me in good stead.

I’ve done some general courses like The Industrial Society’s ‘Fiveways’ course & a couple of residential courses at Roffey Park + loads of specific stuff (Negotiation, delivering bad news, coaching, leadership, etc etc).

Does your company have a scheme to follow, or a budget you could tap into? Or are you thinking of funding this yourself?

It’s 80+ for me, including the commute.

Always amuses me what constitutes “sophisticated” in the property world.

I take your point!

Would ‘Sophisticated when compared with general construction companies’ be OK for you?

Big-time developers will model the cash-flows of the development in quite a sophisticated way, looking at when cost will be incurred, and when receipts (sales) can reasonably be expected. They will price the cost of capital at around 10 – 15% and may also price risk.

E.g If a developer has to put an average of £7.5m into a 1 acre deal for say an average of one year, the cost of that capital will be £1.125m.

A risk allowance might be 5 – 10% of construction cost say 25 houses @ £100k each @ 10% = £250k

The developer will want to make a profit on the scheme: say 5% of the cost of 25 houses x £350k @ 5% = £440k

The point I’m making is that folk often can’t differentiate between ‘Profit’ and the cost of capital/ risk allowances etc

Have you considered dropping them a line ahead of the meeting?

1) I’m doing an excellent job for you. I don’t moan, I work well beyond my brief. I am a bright prospect for the future.
2) I am doing more than you took me on for, this has been a great opportunity to build my skills thanks. (Sub-text, you’ll need to employ two people to fill my position?)
3) I see from job adverts/ approaches from head-hunters etc that what you’re paying me at the moment isn’t really on-market, I absolutely don’t want you to think I am a retention risk, but I do feel a bit under-whelmed

4) I would like you to consider giving me an increase please. I am looking for a salary in the late 30s/40s/50s etc and a (increase in car allowance/ pension contribution etc)

This has worked for me a couple of times. I generally ask for what I want rather than ask for a higher figure, as a bargaining position. It has worked in my situation.

Just a suggestion

Good luck.

Slate is circa 100kg/m2 and concrete inter-locking tiles are 75kg/ m2

this can vary with different laps etc, but you shouldn’t have a problem