Early Risers.

[BlackRat]

Evening one and all.....l see the latest thing now is......potato 'milk'. Definitely one for the no meat brigade.

 

Now I wonder if some marketing bod, working in a mashed spud warehouse said Hey we've loads of this watery crap leftover, we have to pay to get rid, how about we market is as the latest greatest foodstuff...... the woke brigade will lap it up.

 

Lets call it... potato milk.....

 

Dear ofd FiL farmed teddies ( spuds) can imagine him asking how you milk a spud that has no t@ts lol.

[JohnDMJ]

Good Evening (again?) Awl, for this evening has been interesting with much telephoning and texting.

 

Elsewhere, child-hood memories have been stirred:

 

1 hour ago, brianusa said:

PC killed off the source.  Can't tell religious jokes any more nor anything remotely discriminating.  No naughty jokes about the clergy nuns or choir persons.  Nothing that could be considered personal.  Even Benny Hill would have a problem in this day and age; the Venerable Beeb was happy to run his show, girls and all though and everybody laughed.  So how does one turn off humour and what do you laugh at these days?

    Brian.

 

A quick google suggests: https://www.google.com/search?channel=fs&client=ubuntu&q=robertson+jam+golliwog

 

[tigerburnie]

G'night all

[Barry O]

I was reasonably well paid then I moved into sales.. doubled my salary.. then moved into Building service.. 45% bonus payment. Yippeeeddoo.! My last job .. I was asked to set my own salary.. so I retired at 60... Engineers are never paid enough....until you get wise on how to sort the "system"

 

In other news excellent day at the test. Not sure what really happened but looking forward to tomorrow's day at Headingley. 

 

Sleep well all!

Baz

Edited August 26, 2021 by Barry O
Spellung

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[laurenceb]

Night awl

[J. S. Bach]

Night Owl from the Piedmont.

[iL Dottore]

7 hours ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Standard pejorative word filter. It is a simple string match for the whole word and has no AI for context….

It is at least better than one internet forum I once saw where the naughty word filter would match fragments in words and replace the whole word….

I really wonder what the purpose of such filters are. If they are to protect the sensibilities of young forum members, then whoever has decided to put this filter in place has not been around young people as of late.

If my experiences of such “young folk“ is anything to go by, then a more foul mouthed bunch is hard to think of.

6 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

I've had a couple of well paid jobs in the past, but boy did they get their monies worth…..

I certainly agree that, in my field, you are required to perform in order to get the good salary. And this meant often giving up weekends - either for travel or to attend congresses and other meetings.

But you know, being paid well and working hard in a fun job where travel was done to a very high standard (long-haul flights in business, 4 star hotels, no penny pinching on meals) and recognition freely given (my work has resulted in me being an author on a number of published papers in well respected professional journals), was a pretty fair exchange in my view. But there again, I don’t have children and the idea of a domesticated suburban life fills me with horror!

6 hours ago, tigerburnie said:

…. they wanted me to keep my work mobile so they could call me if needed, when I told them the standard fee was £1000 per day or part thereof I have noticed in just over 5 years the phone hasn't rang once.

Hmm. Cheapskates your last employers were they?
In many highly specialised professions consulting fees frequently start at £1000 per day. An oncologist with 25 years of drug development experience and a track record of successful NDAs (new drug applications) and a nice library of published papers could easily make £2000 or more a day consulting for small biotechs (I know a few who are easily, I estimate, in that consulting fee bracket). Whilst it may seem like a lot of money there are two things to consider: firstly, such work is usually short term (sometimes very short term) and secondly, although it does seem like a lot of money for a company to pay when the alternative to paying for such consultancy is risking quite a few millions of investor money by running trials with inexperienced (and cheap) personnel, £2000+ a day is a bargain.

5 hours ago, BlackRat said:

Evening one and all.....l see the latest thing now is......potato 'milk'. Definitely one for the no meat brigade.

 

Now I wonder if some marketing bod, working in a mashed spud warehouse said Hey we've loads of this watery crap leftover, we have to pay to get rid, how about we market is as the latest greatest foodstuff...... the woke brigade will lap it up.

 

Lets call it... potato milk.....

 

Dear ofd FiL farmed teddies ( spuds) can imagine him asking how you milk a spud that has no t@ts lol.

Your contention has more than a ring of truth to it.
What I find disturbing is how to many vegans and vegetarians are unable to give up animal products in their diet from a psychological perspective. Whilst it is true that they don’t actually eat meat or animal product substances, by consuming vegan “sausages”, soy “milk” and bean “burgers” they are psychologically continuing to eat meat. When you look to the far east and the communities there that are vegetarian, you will note they have no pseudo-meat substitutes, Only in the west is it felt necessary to have vegan “sausages” and the like. Proving, I think, that what you eat has deep cultural roots which are hard to break away from.

[iL Dottore]

 Morning Again.

6 hours ago, brianusa said:

PC killed off the source.  Can't tell religious jokes any more nor anything remotely discriminating.  No naughty jokes about the clergy nuns or choir persons.  Nothing that could be considered personal.  Even Benny Hill would have a problem in this day and age; the Venerable Beeb was happy to run his show, girls and all though and everybody laughed.  So how does one turn off humour and what do you laugh at these days?

    Brian.

 

6 hours ago, zarniwhoop said:

….I was sorely tempted to reply -

 

Please allow me to introduce myself,

I'm a man of wealth and taste.'

 

and end it 'pp Lucifer'.

 

But I fear that writing that here may now offend certain people….

Well, I’m certainly not offended.

 

Unfortunately with the pervasiveness of social meejia (twitface and the like) you have a number of what I term “the professionally offended“ whose influence far exceeds their value to society. It seems that they purposely seek out things to be offended by and then deliberately set out to cause all kinds of mayhem (up to and including the destruction of an individuals’s reputation and livelihood) after they have been “offended”.

 

Dr David Starkey, in one episode of BBC Question Time, made the point that this new “morality” is every bit as inflexible, intolerant, rigid, vindictive and destructive as the mediaeval moralities that gave rise to the Spanish Inquisition and heretic trials. Even more unfortunately, according to other commentators, this new morality is worse than what it replaces because unlike the morality it supplants, this new credo does not allow for repentance and redemption.  Once you have “sinned”, you are forever cast out into the outer darkness, your reputation besmirched and your name banned from ever being mentioned again.

5 hours ago, polybear said:

 

Amongst the source for "Bear's Sunday Funnies" there are some absolutely cracking ones; sadly I just know that they'll get Bear into trouble with the Mods/upset someone, somewhere so I filter accordingly.

However, even now I do note that the odd successful posting subsequently disappears with no warning or reason....

Sadly, I think what you are describing is now almost a given in any hobby forum, inasmuch as many online forums (correctly, that should be fora)  are now heavily dependent on advertising to keep the site afloat and the online advertisers are terrified that they may be targeted because one of their ads has appeared next to content that might offend, upset and distress someone, somewhere.

 

To be incredibly cynical about this whole situation (and would you expect Captain Cynical to be anything else but), it is interesting to note that only certain groups are allowed to be “offended“ and have to be “protected”. If you are an old, white, Christian male you are pretty much stuffed. So much for this being a way to ensure that all people are nice to each other…..

[leopardml2341]

8 hours ago, polybear said:

 

......... then once you're fifty-odd then the chances of a fair pay rise is diddly squat.......

 

As for the fifty-somethings, the great empire know there's little danger of them leaving cos' chances are they are still members of the Final Salary Pension Scheme maintained for older employees.....

 

This 'ere leopard bucks the trend then. Took me until. I was 55 to find the best job I've ever had, including my first in job promotion (last year with 11% pay rise) in the last 20!

 

Now, anyone that knows me will know that I never have been either a 'yes' or 'company' man but can honestly say that 99%+ of my time with my current employer has been fantastic. 4 years ago I was so p!ssed off I wanted to give up a professional gineering job and go drive vans ( see earlier posts) but that wasn't to be; serendipity - as I also said before.

 

No final salary scheme   but the company does match pension contributions to a max of 10% so my pension pot with this employer grows by 20% annually.

 

Mornin' btw, been awake since 04:00 (90 mins since) which is not good.

Edited August 26, 2021 by leopardml2341

[monkeysarefun]

Due to lockdown a  farmer out in western NSW couldn't travel to the funeral of his aunt, luckily he had a mob of Australian performing sheep on hand to create a tribute.

 

 

[TheQ]

Mooring Awl, inner temple Hare,

Six hour solid sleep which was good , summoned by Ben the alarm clock Collie..Pity I've got today off.

 

I've just turned down a free dinner at a meeting of one of my sailing associations, which has a local meeting, sadly I'm at work, and I can't get the time off at such short notice. 

 

Saw an interesting piece on TV yesterday on one of the reasons for driver shortages. Many from the continent were coming in, setting up companies to have their wages to be paid into, so avoiding PAYE. Then at 11 months going home for a months holiday, closing down the company so paying no tax, returning the following month setting up a different company and repeat.

HMRC finally noticed and changed the tax rules on this and quite a few now have huge tax liabilities so daren't come back.

 

Back in the 1980s my employer was charging MOD over £600 a day for my use, I didn't see 1/10 of that...

 

Today we're heading to the metropolis of Great Yarmouth as shopping is required, for me that's muddling supplies, as in disposable knives,  £1 glasses , and a visit to a second hand book shop which has books on an unmentionable subject..

 

GY it's reported now has 20% of its houses being bought by Londoners wanting second homes or escaping permanently. These are people who want to leave a big city but still have local amenities.

 

The wing has just come up dramatically, the gate is rattling.

 

Ben's snoring at the moment, when that ceases, we'll go for his morning patrol. Then breakfast.

 

Time to      rest

 

[polybear]

25 minutes ago, TheQ said:

Back in the 1980s my employer was charging MOD over £600 a day for my use, I didn't see 1/10 of that...

 

 

Same here - though I don't know what the actual rate was.  Of course on top of that cost are all the added costs on the bill for those who "arrange" for you to be available to the MoD....

 

In other news:

Bear has a very important mission today.....

 

And finally:

A new development:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58335109

Edited August 26, 2021 by polybear

[chrisf]

Greetings one and all

 

I booked a holiday yesterday.  Unless anything else goes wrong I will be spending just under a week on Mallorca in April.  There is an electric narrow gauge railway for me to explore as well as the tourist-y stuff.  Simply booking a holiday and paying the deposit should not have taken me over two hours though.  I reckoned without the rather inappropriately named Co-operative Bank.  Using one of their cretin cards to pay the deposit was much, much more of a rigmarole than I could possibly have imagined.  They wanted a pass code for this and that and the process of obtaining it made the Spanish Inquisition feel like a cosy chat over a cuppa.  I suspect that the process has doubled my phone bill.  On top of that the travel company’s webshite allowed me to enter my particulars and then kicked me out three times.  Somewhere in the midst of all that I sent an e-mail to the travel company requesting help.  Eventually the booking was made, and the deposit taken, over the phone.  When I was reading the confirmation I found that the flight will now go from Stansted instead of Gatwick.  Another e-mail to the travel company revealed that this was a mistake! What next, I wonder?

 

Best wishes to all

 

Chris   

[leopardml2341]

Mi alarm has just sounded; I really could do with sleep

[Barry O]

Ey up!

Will be a lot cooler today at the Test Match. Still can't believe what happened yesterday.

 

We are sat by the "Barmy Army" who can drink for England, Ireland, Scotland and most of Wales. Trumpet player was on top form. 

 

My charge out to MoD(PE) was a stupid rate.. overhead charge was 333%. My hourly rate was a small percentage of my charge out rate.

 

The SAP consultants at Barrow charged £1000 per day. In the end I had to explain to some of them how bits of it "worked"...

Have a great day whatever you do!

Baz

 

@chrisfcongratulations on booking your holiday. It should be very enjoyable.

[Robert]

Morning All,

 

Thought I would pop in and say hello - Not that there is all that much to report.

 

I've actually spent two days in the office this week!

 

The weather is somewhat autumnal today, although it is supposed to brighten up later on.

 

Have a good day everyone...

[leopardml2341]

On 23/08/2021 at 21:35, leopardml2341 said:

In that case, the purchase I mentioned the other day was delivered today and I can (safely ?) reveal that it is an EFE rail Hymek, brand new and weathered by TMC for just £113.

 

There yer go, awl, take that! 

Update:

 

Sound chip for the loco cost more than the loco 

[Erichill16]

 Morning All, 

Just a quick one to wish Jamie a safe journey home.

Id better get a move on with the gang coming round.

Robert

[Andrew P]

Golly gosh, that was a good sleep, but its looking a bit stormy here this morning, and although warm, (we already have the windows open) its looking damp outside.

 

Have a good day one and all, stay safe and keep well.

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a grey and cool city of Lindum.  We gotbhere OK, slept well and plan to have a leisurely trip to Portsmouth for our ferry to St Malo.  Not a lot else to report but will try and keep up with the test matchbat various points.

 

Chrisf,  the holiday sounds good.  Don't just do the Soller line, the other lines are well worth it and the stations are adjacent.

 

Jamie

Edited August 26, 2021 by jamie92208

[polybear]

29 minutes ago, leopardml2341 said:

Update:

 

Sound chip for the loco cost more than the loco 

 

Bear likes the idea of DCC - primarily for the sound aspect.  But the cost is off-putting, so I've concluded that DC plus Bear going "Chuff Chuff Chuff Chuff Woo Woooooo Pssst....." is an acceptable alternative - though a fellow paw-equipped ER'er may attempt to persuade Bear otherwise....

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Mystery, I put the bin bags out late last night, pink sack and black bag. This morning the black bag had disappeared long before the arrival of the bin men. Either it was blown away by the wind or the foxes have had it away. With so much separated for recycling it was very light despite being triple wrapped (swing bin liner/plastic bag/black sack). There is no evidence of the contents being spread so I doubt it is the foxes. The bin wagons dawn chorus has just now started.

2 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

Due to lockdown a  farmer out in western NSW couldn't travel to the funeral of his aunt, luckily he had a mob of Australian performing sheep on hand to create a tribute.

 

 

You can see how it was done by laying a line of feed in the required shape.

[Andrew P]

35 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Good moaning from a grey and cool city of Lindum.  We gotbhere OK, slept well and plan to have a leisurely trip to Portsmouth for our ferry to St Malo.  Not a lot else to report but will try and keep up with the test matchbat various points.

 

Chrisf,  the holiday sounds good.  Don't just do the Soller line, the other lines are well worth it and the stations are adjacent.

 

Jamie

I'll be the Guy standing on top of Portsdown Hill waving like a lunatic. Have a good trip.

 

[Andrew P]

And now the Sun has come out and it looks like its going to be HOTUN.