Isolated Blurt Thread

[oggbashan]

I have been sorting my collection of Ballet DVDs. I had just completed listing them when I found a dozen more.

I was about to start on the Opera DVDs. I thought I had assembled them in two places and was about to start merging the two into one alphabetical heap - when I found 50 more in another box.

Time for a coffee break.

Oh no it isn't! The wife wants to go to the supermarket.

Maybe it will be a takeaway meal tonight. We have a wide choice even while the local Big M is being refitted. The last count was thirty within two miles - Chinese, Indian, Thai, Turkish, Pizza (including genuine Napoli), Chicken, Kebab, and multiple Fish and Chips and one place I always avoid.

Why do I avoid it? It does Fish and Chips, Kebab, Pizza, Hot Dogs, Chinese and Indian and is incompetent at all of them. The last time the food safety audit was done they scored 1 - the lowest on the scale of 1 - 5 except for zero which means instant closure for multiple food safety failures. 3 or above means the food preparation is hygenic and safe. 4 and 5 mean safe plus good paperwork which is difficult to achieve if their English is not up to meeting Council gobbledegook.

 

[trysail]

http://cdnak1.psbin.com/logos/id/6ulbcqdtbndum84c.png 4

http://cdnak1.psbin.com/logos/id/h9og02h0y9s9ag7s.png 2


​

 

[OliviaM]

Why do I avoid it? It does Fish and Chips, Kebab, Pizza, Hot Dogs, Chinese and Indian and is incompetent at all of them. The last time the food safety audit was done they scored 1 - the lowest on the scale of 1 - 5 except for zero which means instant closure for multiple food safety failures. 3 or above means the food preparation is hygenic and safe. 4 and 5 mean safe plus good paperwork which is difficult to achieve if their English is not up to meeting Council gobbledegook.

I'm reminded of Gordon Ramsay's rants about "DO ONE THING AND DO IT RIGHT". When we sit down to eat somewhere and we're handed 24 page menus with 7 different cuisines, we always laugh about how Ramsay would not approve. Although, there was one restaurant we used to frequent in the last town we lived in that did Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Thai, and Indian. I have no idea what kind of magical box existed back in that kitchen because the food always came out hot, perfectly prepared, and AT THE SAME TIME. Whatever they were paying their chefs was not enough.

 

[oggbashan]

Two Blurts:

1. Son in law has been told he is still employed by the new company created on Monday. He still doesn't know whether they can afford to actually pay him.

2. Today's local auction was in chaos. They usually use number stickers printed in black on white but the suppliers have run out of the white stickers. They supplied an alternative of black print on gold. But the gold stickers don't stick! Numbers kept falling off the lots.

I had left bids on several items before the auction started but the numbers had changed. I didn't win one item because my earlier bid was marked against the original lot number - now for an item I didn't want. I stopped the auctioneer until the mess was sorted out. But 100 lots later the same thing happened again. There was a reserve on the lot I wanted and I had left a bid lower than the reserve - so my bid should have been invalid. But the numbers had changed again so my bid won a renumbered heap of handbags I didn't want. This time I didn't stop the auction because there were only five more lots to the end of the auction.

After the auction ended I sorted out the mess but several other buyers had similar problems. Unlike oggbashan they didn't have the chutspah to stop the auctioneer in full flow.

Now, when the rain stops and the grandchildren have gone I have a large number of items in my car. I didn't spend much but most of my bids were on mixed lots and I only want one or two items out of each box. The local charity shop will get the rest and sell them for far more than I paid for them.

Next week? They will have gold stickers again.

Edited to add Blurt 3:

As I was loading my car one of the dealers who comes down from London for the auction gave me two glass items. He had bought more glass than he wanted and was worried about transporting the better items. He said that they were two early 19th Century Wine Glass Rinsers. I accepted them but thought they looked like 20th Century Pyrex. I could always add them to the heap going to the charity shop.

But I looked them up on the internet. They ARE two 1820 (Georgian) wine glass rinsers, not a pair but close enough to look like a pair when displayed.

Now what do I do with them?

https://scottishantiques.com/image/cache/catalog/A-A-ALEX4/DSCF3841-236x321.JPG

 

[Handley_Page]

Two Blurts:

1. Son in law has been told he is still employed by the new company created on Monday. He still doesn't know whether they can afford to actually pay him.


As I was loading my car one of the dealers who comes down from London for the auction gave me two glass items. He had bought more glass than he wanted and was worried about transporting the better items. He said that they were two early 19th Century Wine Glass Rinsers. I accepted them but thought they looked like 20th Century Pyrex. I could always add them to the heap going to the charity shop.

But I looked them up on the internet. They ARE two 1820 (Georgian) wine glass rinsers, not a pair but close enough to look like a pair when displayed.

Now what do I do with them?

1. Some reasonable news, at least.

Put them in the Auction as a pair ?

 

[oggbashan]

1. Some reasonable news, at least.

Put them in the Auction as a pair ?

I have, with a printout showing what they are.

Update on post #3650 above.

Son-in-law might be paid arrears next week.

Daighter's health is improving with warmer weather. She was told she would go on to half-sick pay on 1st March. She contacted her Union representatives who tackled the personnel department who had made several serious errors on my daughter's pay. They had miscalculated the number of years she had been a teacher; not recorded some of her qualifications that affect her pay rate; and they were months wrong about the date on which she should go on half pay.

The personnel department were also insisting, despite my daughter's disability, that she must only return to work when she can work five days a week and must climb stairs frequently.

She's only contracted to work FOUR days a week including overtime. The school has lifts for disabled students. The way the school had organised her timetable she normally goes up and down stairs (or uses the lift) a total of four times a day. The personnel department were insisting she must be able to go up and down stairs at a reasonable speed between each lesson i.e. about fourteen times. Even at her best she could never do that.

The union's representations have resulted in reprimands for some of the staff in the personnel department for breaching their own rules and flagrantly ignoring national legislation about employment of disabled people.

My daughter's colleagues aren't surprised. Almost all of them have arguments with the personnel department a couple of times a year.

 

[loquere]

I have, with a printout showing what they are.

Update on post #3650 above.

Son-in-law might be paid arrears next week.

Daighter's health is improving with warmer weather. She was told she would go on to half-sick pay on 1st March. She contacted her Union representatives who tackled the personnel department who had made several serious errors on my daughter's pay. They had miscalculated the number of years she had been a teacher; not recorded some of her qualifications that affect her pay rate; and they were months wrong about the date on which she should go on half pay.

The personnel department were also insisting, despite my daughter's disability, that she must only return to work when she can work five days a week and must climb stairs frequently.

She's only contracted to work FOUR days a week including overtime. The school has lifts for disabled students. The way the school had organised her timetable she normally goes up and down stairs (or uses the lift) a total of four times a day. The personnel department were insisting she must be able to go up and down stairs at a reasonable speed between each lesson i.e. about fourteen times. Even at her best she could never do that.

The union's representations have resulted in reprimands for some of the staff in the personnel department for breaching their own rules and flagrantly ignoring national legislation about employment of disabled people.

My daughter's colleagues aren't surprised. Almost all of them have arguments with the personnel department a couple of times a year.

I hope it works out in your daughters favour.

 

[oggbashan]

I hope it works out in your daughters favour.

It already has but her health still needs to improve more. She should be back at work shortly, starting on two days a week.

But in the longer term? What she has will get worse with age. She might be able to work another ten years at most.

 

[MagicaPractica]

It already has but her health still needs to improve more. She should be back at work shortly, starting on two days a week.

But in the longer term? What she has will get worse with age. She might be able to work another ten years at most.

Where there is life, there is hope for improved treatments. I know they are extraordinary examples, but look how treatments have improved for HIV. Hep C was a death sentence when Naomi Judd contracted it, and she beat it. Neil Hawking should not still be alive. Stem cell research treatments are improving for a wide variety of ailments. I hope something is coming along that will help your daughter too.

 

[Handley_Page]

All this talk of illness makes my cold seem really minor.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I'm beginning to suspect I'm procrastinating. I have a novel to write but I just agreed to edit for someone and, recently, to co-write with someone else... hmmm.

 

[oggbashan]

No writing done this weekend. All three grandchildren and twin four-year-old friends visited.

We're now recovering after putting the house back to rights. Granddad was needed as transport to and from a play centre, to replace the chain on a bicycle and pump up two sets of bicycle tyres. Granny was helping to make and decorate a five-year-old's birthday cake.

The cats are recovering too. While they appreciate attention, five small people give too much attention.

 

[sr71plt]

Happily, I just finished drafting the sixteenth (and last) story for my Grab Bag 13 anthology (the 13th anthology in that series).

 

[legerdemer]

Happily, I just finished drafting the sixteenth (and last) story for my Grab Bag 13 anthology (the 13th anthology in that series).

Seems like that one should have a baker's dozen..

 

[sr71plt]

Seems like that one should have a baker's dozen..

Seems that way, but I wanted them all to be over 80,000 words each. It's an extrapolation of that. The pattern is fifteen, and this one is one extra, sixteen.

 

[Handley_Page]

Is it assumed by all delivery firms, official 'inspectors' and the like that one is automatically going to be IN when they call ?

"Yes", said the idiot Clerk on the 'phone, "the Service Engineer will be there tomorrow afternoon - between twelve and six pm."
Apart from the sheer gall of assuming that anyone in the house is available when they deign to appear, I fell asleep with the excitement. No bells disturbed my afternoon.
Prompt phone calls on Monday, I think. . . .

 

[_Lynn_]

So I needed to do a little rearranging today. I thought it would be simple. Move a nightstand and fill the spot with a small bookcase. That was four hours ago. Nothing I decide to rearrange turns out simple. I should know that by now.

 

[Handley_Page]

And it has stopped raining.
Oh, goody

 

[YoursSINSerely]

So nice to catch up a little bit.

 

[MagicaPractica]

Just love it when I dream the phone rings. And by love, I mean hate. Hard enough getting to sleep the first time.

 

[_Lynn_]

I worked in senior facilities for over thirteen years in the past. They're necessary places and I enjoyed the work I did there. I never thought I would have to stay in one though.

 

[MagicaPractica]

I worked in senior facilities for over thirteen years in the past. They're necessary places and I enjoyed the work I did there. I never thought I would have to stay in one though.

*hugs*

 

[Handley_Page]

So nice to catch up a little bit.

Babs !
Howe nice to see you.

I worked in senior facilities for over thirteen years in the past. They're necessary places and I enjoyed the work I did there. I never thought I would have to stay in one though.

OK, Madam, do tell please.
" senior facilities " means - what ?
Sorry, but I don't do 'management speak'.

 

[MagicaPractica]

Told myself to just answer the damn phone in my dream if it rang at midnight again. 12:15 the munchkin wakes me up. *sigh*

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

Why do I have to live with two fucking smokers?