Just bragging.
Came down the R27 - dual carriageway - from home to town today. Cruising at 80km/h.
Sun was shining, the road is brand new tarmac as amooth as baby's bottom, and twenty helicopters were off 200m to my right forming up to do a fly-past at the airshow.
MY GOD, it is good to be alive!
later they had a Globemaster and Grippen strutting their stuff.
oooooh! Yes!
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I've just finished hi-lighting my wife's hair, I'm going to work for a few hours then get drunk with some Yummy Mummys on the street.
It is good to be alive.
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The washing machine's working fine (famous last words?) and daughter's boyfriend's coming to take me to a restaurant of my choice tonight for prepping and flogging his car.
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Well, I've spent most of this morning mucking out my elderly mother's house. Doing her shopping, taking my son to his swimming lesson and am now about to mow my lawns before going back to my mother's to see to her garden. After that I've got about four dozen work related emails to field which I didn't get to yesterday and which won't wait. Sometime tonight I might just squeeze in a swim. Only place the damn phone doesn't ring !
Yeah, what a day...
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...four dozen emails...only place the damn phone doesn't ring !...
On a Saturday?
I'm no nine to fiver, but I'd want my working life better organised than that.
Just reading Humph's post is enough to make me feel stressed. :)
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>> I'm no nine to fiver, but I'd want my working life better organised than that.
>>
Sometimes it's just not possible iffy. I got an email at 17:51 yesterday, a response to a SoW I wrote three weeks ago which kicks in next Friday. I thought about leaving it until Monday but it ate away at me yesterday evening so spent a couple of hours composing my response this morning.
That's a Saturday morning my kids won't get back.
I spent the rest of the day running around the block chasing my son on his electric Rory the Racing Car and my daughter on her pushbike, punctuated with taking the roof box and bars off the car and washing it, the car, after returning from the UK Thursday morning. Roof box and bars will have to wait to be cleaned off.
Loads of boxed up junk relocated down to the cellar too.
Last edited by: gmac on Sat 25 Sep 10 at 17:26
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>> Just reading Humph's post is enough to make me feel stressed. :)
I wish it were organised better too Iffy. Trouble is, our customers include some of the "big" retailers. They are 7 day a week businesses now and many of their admin offices work Saturdays too. They are now all infested with a "just in time" culture where tomorrow is too late and potential suppliers are clamouring for a piece of their pie so devil take the hindmost so to speak.
Couple that with some of our manufacturing suppliers almost inevitably now being in China where they work pretty much 24/7 and they need accurate and more or less daily information from us ( because the retailers wamt everything on short order and as cheap as possible )
It never stops. My wife caught me emailing a Chinese supplier on Christmas morning last year. Didn't go down well !
Modern businesses are pared to the bone. Once upon a time certain jobs would have had assistants, PAs and a layer of middle managers to fend off the trivia but that culture in the private sector anyway, is long gone.
One can of course choose to ignore the inbox or switch off the phone but that in itself creates a backlog which doesn't go away and has to be dealt with sometime.
I still try to take most of Sunday off but even then I probably always spend an hour or so after everyone else in the house has gone to bed getting stuff in shape for Monday mornings.
It's all a function of the "We want it now and we want it cheap" mindset of today's culture.
Can't see it getting any better anytime soon.
It has a massive effect on people's lives. I hardly drink at all now, I watch what I eat and try to grab some excercise once a day to fend off the stress and other health threats. Even messing about on internet forums helps a bit as a mind relaxer . Perhaps it explains if not exactly justifies some of my more tangential ramblings on here.
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^^^
Gotta love Globalisation.
Similar story for me. Headoffice California, farthest East dev centre in China. Everywhere covered in-between. Email never stops.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sun 26 Sep 10 at 02:51
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...Sometimes it's just not possible iffy...I wish it were organised better too Iffy...
Humph and gmac,
Thanks for taking the trouble to expand on your working lives a little bit.
The international side of business and the impact of time zones is not something I'd considered.
I've always believed in 'look after the job, and the job will look after you'.
So were I in your positions, I'd probably work in a similar way, pausing frequently to grumble about it.
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>> I've always believed in 'look after the job, and the job will look after you'.
>>
And that's a good work ethic, if all employers in the industrial sector only felt the same.
Unfortunately incompetent managerial staff fail to recognise good staff and allow poor supervisors or their equivalents to treat good staff unfairly whilst pussy footing around those who are lazy greedy whingers.
Seen it so many times, and that's not raising the red flag as i do appreciate there are other views and reasons.
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...incompetent managerial staff...poor supervisors...
Happily, I've never had what I would call a really bad manager.
I've seen people who have and their working life - which effectively means their whole life - becomes very miserable.
As an employee I think there is a balance to be struck between being too willing and being put upon, and being awkward and difficult, which always ends in tears one way or another.
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Grumbling does help. But I musn't grumble. If you see what I mean. Anyway, it's Sunday... Yippee !
:-)
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gmac and Humph (re your posts at 17.25 and 18.30 yeterday).
No disrespect, and certainly no suggestion that your cluttered business lives are anything other than stressful, working virtually 24/7,but it seems strange that you are both fairly heavy posters on this site. I thought that these sort of forums were invented to keep those of us who have too much time on our hands and too little to fill that time from going mental.
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Can't spike for gmac bot I've leaned to mutty tusk no porblem.......
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Most of my posts are done when on the move (no, not driving) these days.
Didn't think an average of two posts/day was particularly heavy usage.
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>> I've just finished hi-lighting my wife's hair, .........
My wife's just finished hi-lighting my hair!
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I'm growing my own hi-lights now,
Question is - do I go for "just for men"?
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...Question is - do I go for "just for men"?...
Grecian 2000.
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Please don't go for either fellow greying ones.
Make up, dyes, alluring clothes etc are for the fair sex and long may they be bothered to make themselves so lovely, make it known it's appreciated.
Chaps on the other hand should do their best to look decent for their ladies, but show the lady a gentleman of kindness honour and loyalty that's what the best ones want in my humble.
Mature fellows look like mature fellows should, grey hair part of their experience, of course one should always make light of the fact one is getting older, it's charming.
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Leave it Z...you'll look distinguished when it's white' My bonce is almost pure white now and I would love to grow a white beard and 'tache, but the facial stuff always comes out dark and patchy.......why ?
I had a full set for years when I was on the road......couldn't be doing with a shave at 4 in the morning !
SWMBO went to the market with Mrs Next door today....blessed relief ! So, I catalogued my socks and made a mental note to complain to Mrs T 'cos there was a spoon in the knife compartment of the cutlery drawer.......she'd better shift it pronto when she gets back ! Talk about poor household management !
Spent rest of the day at the parts washer cleaning some castings then did a bit of measuring journals of various crankshafts wot I 'ave got. I can order some bearing shells and gaskets on Monday evening.
Apart from that, the newspapers, and several good filter coffees, I've not been off the homestaed today.
ted
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>>Make up, dyes, alluring clothes etc are for the fair sex<<
Rubbish! Some of us find it easy to be the fair sex without all that faffing about just as you blokes should too.
We love the tousled, just got out of bed, slightly forgetful look in a man.
It's what's inside that matters to those of us who are worth their salt, anyway.
Pat
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>>We love the tousled, just got out of bed, slightly forgetful look in a man.
Oh dear Pat. Does that mean you fancy Boris?
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No tubby tom, he's got nothing inside I want:)
Pat
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>> Is this rough enough ~ www.flickr.com/photos/43576259@N04/5022794109
>>
>> :-}
>>
Your hair is longer, and you don't have glasses.
Apart from that, could be me.
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Prefer Milo.......not so much of a shock !
Ted
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Had a funny day, realising I am getting too quick and removing rootkits, so I need to be charging per job and not per hour in these situations. Why should I only get paid £30 for the hour when the only reason its took an hour is because I am getting better? Its a tricky one.
Going out tonight to yet the same club if I am not bared after a fall out with one of my mates last week over his behaviour with girls. Would otherwise be seeing another mate but at the other side of Manchester but I can't because the mate I am going to town with is staying at mine.
Why does everybody go out on Saturday and only Saturday?
I really do feel like just moving out of Manchester sometimes. My parents dire situation is sucking me in too. Its jsut ther same old saturday :(
Get drunk
mate pulls all the girls
I get annoyed as I want to go home
We have an argument
Go home by 5:00am
Be ill all day Sunday.
Monday think what have I just wasted £40 for.
Tuesday realise I am getting fatter and fatter and looking more like 40 than 28.
Wednesday look foward to Saturday..
Saturday same old routine.
For a motoring link.... I will aslo be told I talk about cars too much again, even though I am never the one to bring the subject up!
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Sat 25 Sep 10 at 17:38
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Rattle you look about 20, so stop worrying:)
It must be getting cold here, we've winterised the caravan today and put bubble wrap up in the greenhouse:)
Pat
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>>Get drunk
mate pulls all the girls
I get annoyed as I want to go home
We have an argument
Go home by 5:00am
Be ill all day Sunday<<
It sounds to me fella that you are ready to move on to the next stage in your life,
but only you can decide what that is to be,
A lot of people have a couple of kiddies and a mortgage by your age, would you prefer that?
Just remember that there were billions of years before you were born and there will be billions of years after your demise,
so while you're here, briefly I might add - enjoy the ride :)
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>> Is this rough enough ~ www.flickr.com/photos/43576259@N04/5022794109
>>
>> :-}
>>
Damn, that's torn it! I like to have a picture in my mind of how people look on this forum, like reading about the characters from a book. Actually, Dog, that's not far from my imagination. Can't beat the rugged look :-)
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...Is this rough enough?...
Rough?
Looks 'permed antiques dealer' to me.
I bet the guy has an overcoat with a black velvet collar and drives a Volvo estate.
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>> I bet the guy has an overcoat with a black velvet collar and drives a
>> Volvo estate.
Nothing wrong with that. A battered 850 estate with a towbar.
No, I reckon if they did another series of Wycliffe, he could quite easily put himself down as one of those extras lurking in the background. Or maybe I've already seen him, and just not realised :o}
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>>Damn, that's torn it! I like to have a picture in my mind of how people look on this forum<<
S'funny how we, as social beings, try to conjure up a 'mental' picture of how someone looks from various clues given out, or not as the case may be,
But its even funnier when that someone turns out to be totally different from your mental image of them.
That photo isn't me btw, its a local vagrant I met who lives in a barrel and calls himself Diogenes.
;-)
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OK back now. I should be sleeping downstairs my mate should be in my bed but he copped of with a girl so I am in my own bed. Now got to explain the situation to my parents who won't be happy when they find out he has been using me. I ended up having to pay the taxi yet again where as if I was with other people I would have left earlier and got the much cheaper bus back home.
I am not happy but I learnt my lesson from last week and didn't kick off, I made the mistake of apologising to the bouncer who had no clue what I was on about so I explained I ki cked of with my mate last week. I too honest some times.
I am annoyed because he has the confidence he gets all the girls. The problem is my parents don't know I went out with that asian girl for nearly three years so they may be getting the wrong idea. They think I have never had a girl friend.
Due to my lies to people that matter and my honestly to people who don't matter at all everything is in a mess. I did love the music tonight but I ignored all the music the young people were dancing to but enjoyed all the classic punk. Got talking to the older crows I always dance with who all thought I was in my mid 30's and was around in the 80's. They were quite surprised when I told them at the Hacienda closed down three years before I was legal.
I am now in a confusion because I love going clubbing because its the only time I let myself go but at the same time I am not rich and spending as much money on going out than I do on my car.
I seem to be stuck in the middle between all my mates, because the mate who I keep going out with (who is older than me) is a real party animal but my best mate doesn't come out as much but know my party animal mate only because he used to work with my best mate so there is some jealously with the party animal mate on his part. I am known in the club and with my mates to be a punk who says "'''' to the system" hence I self employed and unemployable but at the same time I am so uptight and legit.
I am just sick of being in the middle all the time :(.
Sorry for the rant but one thing university taught me is why say it in 100 words when you can say it in 10,0000!
i
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You haven't got a bad life effendi IMHO.
;-D
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I think the clue is here
>> The problem is my parents don't know I went out with that asian girl for nearly three years <<
Why didn't you tell them?
Pat
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...I didn't tell them I went out with that asian girl for nearly three years...
No home visits or lipstick on your collar, Rattle?
Was this proper or pretendy going out?
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Huh?, and I thought I got legless last night.
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Was proper. We kept it quiet from both our parents as it just seemed easier at the time. It was more like two years than three but she is still a good friend. When we split up she is the on that pushed me into having driving lessons and she also pushed me to believe I could pass my test. So if it wasn't for her I would still be using public transport.
Although to be fair I used to have a car long before I passed because my dad was too injured to drive and I needed access to a car so I used it on L plates. My dad then took over the car when he got better until the engine became so worn it no longer had any compression. Still it was a cheap motor, £350, cost £90 to get through the MOT and sold it for £60 as a none runner.
Still not happy about last night, I had to explain my mate was of with a girl and it didn't go down too well!
Either way as somebody else mentioned above I need to move on, I will still go out but I really need to get studying done. If I can get qualified enough I might travel round the country doing contract work.
My next focus though for the next few weeks will be to learn to drive on real roads, my two years is nearly up now which means I will be a proper driver at last.
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IMO Uni misguided you a bit Rattle!
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>> But its even funnier when that someone turns out to be totally different from your
>> mental image of them.
Thats very true of Radio DJ's. I have a picture of them, then see them on telly and I'm quite taken aback by the difference.
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>>Thats very true of Radio DJ's. I have a picture of them<<
Bit like Peter Allen on radio 5 dead - in my minds eye he looked like Mick Dickin ~
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mikedickin.jpg
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Well last weel I paid a guy to take some deep scratches out my car that had been there almost since new so today after my son's football, and a visit to the Dog's Trust I set about the car.
Washed it in Fairy Liquid to try and strip the wax off, clayed the car and then polished it with Autoglym SRP and EGP , did the black stuff, tyres etc and the car is gleaming now, Tomorrow is a local bank holiday here, I am off and plan to tackle the inside of the car.
Oh and meant to say, car was covered in frost this morning!!
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I was is sitting at the bar staring at my drink when a large, trouble-making biker steps up next to me, grabs my drink and gulps it down in one swig.
"Well, whatcha gonna do about it?" he says, menacingly, as I burst into tears.
"Come on, man," the biker says, "I didn't think you'd CRY. I can`t stand to see a man crying."
"This is the worst day of my life," I say. "I'm a complete failure. I was late to a meeting and my boss fired me.
When I went to the parking lot, I found my car had been stolen and I don't have any insurance.
I left my wallet in the cab I took home. I found my old lady in bed with the gardener, and then my dog bit me."
"So I came to this bar to work up the courage to put an end to it all, I buy a drink, I drop a capsule in and sit here watching the poison dissolve. Then you, you jack-ass, show up and drink the whole thing!
But enough about me, how's your day going?"
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What a day! - BiggerBadderDave
