Early Risers.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

I’m very confused at the moment, the reason is that sun is shining and the sky is blue, when the forecast was for grey skies and rain. So, I’m not sure what the plans are for today. I guess I’ll have to wait until the boss has made up her mind. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

[Hroth]

6 minutes ago, BSW01 said:

Good morning everyone 

 

I’m very confused at the moment, the reason is that sun is shining and the sky is blue, when the forecast was for grey skies and rain. So, I’m not sure what the plans are for today. I guess I’ll have to wait until the boss has made up her mind. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian

 

Watch out, an Iberian Plume is about*

SCORCHIO!!!

 

ION

A song about Primrose Hill has been written...

You have been warned!

 

* Though it may be a Daily Express weather fantasy.

 

[New Haven Neil]

17 minutes ago, Hroth said:

Watch out, an Iberian Plume is about*

SCORCHIO!!!

 

Currently an Icelandic one I think!  Chilly NW wind, 9c, grey. Ugh, when will spring sproing?

[Winslow Boy]

47 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Re. "making friends with the Boss's PA", I was reading a newspaper article about hiring people. The head hunter company expert said the first thing they ask their colleagues about a candidate immediately after the interview is "how did they interact with [treat] the <minor> employees before and after the interview"?

 

A surprising number of otherwise suitable candidates are turned down due to the way they treated the receptionist/secretary/security guard.

I did help of course that we used to ride up in the same lift together. Plus I was a likeable northern lad who didn't stare at his feet like most southerns do when wanting to avoid eye contact.

[Winslow Boy]

47 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

It's an old trick, one I always used when doing interviews. The weird one I found which threw a surprising number of candidates was the most obvious and pertinent question - why do you want the job, or why do you want to work for xyz? A lot of people really struggle to answer that. 

And of course the other question is - where do you see yourself in five years time?

[PhilJ W]

9 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

A pack of Benson and Hedges 20's here is around $52 (£27...)

How much of that is tax/excise duty? Here in the UK the same would cost about £17 to £18 all taxes and duties paid. The answer it would seem would be to pump up taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products. 

 As a thought, what if Sir Walter Raleigh had brought back cannabis instead of tobacco? 

[jjb1970]

I blotted my copybook with an HR woman, she was quite attractive and clearly looked after herself but turned up for an interview day in a skirt which couldn't have been any shorter, shoes with heels which were probably a safety hazard and a top which couldn't have shown more and then made an issue of any candidates which she clocked having a look. I commented that I didn't condone dirty old man type attitudes, but equally if you dress like you're looking for customers don't whinge if it solicits a look. She made a complaint which backfired when she was told to dress in a 'professional' manner.

[TheQ]

Sir Walter didn't need to. Hemp has been grown commercially in the UK for centuries, still is, but that variety has considerably less wacky backy about it. It is still the same plant though..

There are many places called Hempstead in England , somes name  means "home farm", but others meant "hemp farm".

 

Those hoping for legalisation of wacky backy now must realise  that ain't going to happen, as I suspect it has the same effect on the lungs as smoking tobacco. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2516340/.

 

Mooring Awl,

5 hours sleep, waterworks alarm call, due to pint of beer at the MRC AGM, held at a pub, short awake, 2 hours sleep, good.

Ben the currently snoring Collie, only got up when I did, we had a good but chilly patrol. Blue welkin with a few fluffy white things up there, a stiff north easterly earlier but that's moved round to the north west. 

A dash out to Tes and Coes was required as I forgot to divert on the way back from the MRC last night.. lack of milk is a disaster for the tea by the gallon SWMBO.

 

I've just been out working on the electric spinny thingy but have realized I need more parts,  a  huge £5.47 for 5 more parts, they are now ordered.

There is a need for other things but they won't be expensive, just need the right combination of words to find them.

I'm just going to go out to the shed again to put a second coat of paint on the mast wedge.

 

Then upstairs for MRC accounts.

 

Time to venture outside again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Just back from Wimborne to pick up a prescription. Went on the bus. The one going was an ex-London one with two sets of doors. Though down here in Dorset, we only use the front one - might be too confusing for the locals.
Also popped into the local museum where they have a secondhand book selection. Came away with three books on ----ways, as you do...

[Peter Kazmierczak]

1 hour ago, jjb1970 said:

 

It's an old trick, one I always used when doing interviews. The weird one I found which threw a surprising number of candidates was the most obvious and pertinent question - why do you want the job, or why do you want to work for xyz? A lot of people really struggle to answer that. 

I found that internal candidates were sometimes at a disadvantage. They knew all the answers but often didn't tell us during the interview in sufficient detail. We knew they knew, but if they didn't tell us, we couldn't tick the blinking box... 

[Hroth]

 

While on holiday last week, I visited an NT property that had just opened a s/h bookshop, in fact it was the bookshops first day of operation!

 

Got a book about things that run on parallel strips of metal, a book about Arthur Ransomes spying activities in Russia and a Folio edition of 1066 and All That.  I'll have to stop visiting bookshops...

 

[jjb1970]

Doing a good interview is a skill, some people are brilliant at blagging their way through any situation while others are highly intelligent but reserved or struggle in interviews.

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Not a bad night last night, only two interruptions when I turned over and woke Arthur Itis up. A bit of shopping to do today as I'm right out of bread (they had sold out on Monday). I will have to make a call to the local hospital about my endoscopy on Friday. Basildon Hospital is like an enormous rabbit warren and I can't find the place I need to get to on the plan. 

[PhilJ W]

41 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

I blotted my copybook with an HR woman, she was quite attractive and clearly looked after herself but turned up for an interview day in a skirt which couldn't have been any shorter, shoes with heels which were probably a safety hazard and a top which couldn't have shown more and then made an issue of any candidates which she clocked having a look. I commented that I didn't condone dirty old man type attitudes, but equally if you dress like you're looking for customers don't whinge if it solicits a look. She made a complaint which backfired when she was told to dress in a 'professional' manner.

I wonder what she would have done if one of the interviewees was an obviously gay man? 😁

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

And of course the other question is - where do you see yourself in five years time?

 

"In your chair"?

 

47 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Doing a good interview is a skill, some people are brilliant at blagging their way through any situation while others are highly intelligent but reserved or struggle in interviews.

 

Hence the decline in in-person interviews.

[TheQ]

Had an interview with a recruiting company where the woman doing the interview had a top that didn't cover much..

 

 

That definitely wasn't fair, I'd just come back from Saudi..

 

[iL Dottore]

1 hour ago, Winslow Boy said:

And of course the other question is - where do you see yourself in five years time?

That’s always a good one (I recently conducted a series of “mock“ interviews for people completing some degree work at UCL and I used this on every single candidate. All but one barely bumbled their way through an answer to the question).

This question teases out more than a few things, such as

1. Have they taken the time to learn a bit about the company and its structure.
2. Do they have a realistic view of their own abilities
3. Do they have a realistic view about career progression.

When I worked for The Company With Deep Pockets, I frequently interviewed candidates and mostly did the lunchtime interview (where I interviewed them over lunch in the Director’s Restaurant). As always I was genial, friendly, courteous, polite, attentive and well mannered and yet totally merciless with my questioning. People who I had interviewed and went on to be hired, later told me that my lunchtime interview was probably the most brutal and exhausting interview of the lot.

Apparently, it was incredibly unnerving when I put down my knife and fork,, stopped chewing, swallowed and gave them my full attention!

Like Terry Pratchett’s Lord Vetinari, I practiced the deadly skill of <aggressive listening>* 🤣😁

 

* I may have even raised an eyebrow once or twice… 😁

 

[woodenhead]

Nice and bright presently, can feel the warmth of the sun through the window.

 

Tooth extraction news, residual bleeding has stopped, I've cleaned my teeth much to the joy of Mrs W and after three meal replacement type drinks I am starving for some real food.  Also pleased that after a couple of doses of paracetemol through yesterday I don't feel I need them now so we are rocking and a rolling.

 

I guess I will be in London next week too for a working day trip so I might need to think about booking a red eye.

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, Compound2632 said:

 

"In your chair"?

 

 

Hence the decline in in-person interviews.

No as our medical correspondent has elucidated the correct answers are much more in-depth.

[Hroth]

53 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

Like Terry Pratchett’s Lord Vetinari, I practiced the deadly skill of <aggressive listening>* 🤣😁

 

* I may have even raised an eyebrow once or twice… 😁

 

Just so long as you didn't steeple your hands too...  🤔

 

[iL Dottore]

5 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Just so long as you didn't steeple your hands too...  🤔

 

Might've done, might've done.....

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

How much of that is tax/excise duty?

65% and rises 5% each year. 

 

Edited April 17 by monkeysarefun

[TheQ]

The card reader has arrived, in a box.... With all the packing one end and the card readers own box down the other.

It looks intact though. The reader is remarkably heavy for its size..

It will of course need charging, so later I'll go plug it in. Only comes with a USB cable, good job there's a charger. upstairs.

 

Of the 4 items identical ordered yesterday, one has missed the boat and won't be delivered till tomorrow, that doesn't matter they're not needed till Sunday.

Just realized I'm building up a collection of items that need USB charging, often at the same time, so along with the missing bit for BM a 6 port charging station will arrive tomorrow.

 

BMs tiktok is now batteried and upstairs facing out of a window awaiting a time signal.

 

Then Coleman the coal man rang up , offering 25% discount on eco coal ( you can't buy anything else these days). Trying a different type this time as the last lot got  hot and rapidly burnt out, or didn't get hot and went out.. the new one promises an 18 hour burn time.

 

Bin an expensive day all this ordering, 

 

Needed some wooden circles to make the endplates of bobbins, I could turn them myself but it's a right pain, especially on thin ply, so I've ordered them.. strangely Amazon delivery.. 31 May to 12 June , er no, eBay,  3 days... Most odd.. 

[PhilJ W]

Afternoon all from Estuary-Land. Had a parcel arrive this morning, not sure if the postie knocked as I was upstairs at the back of the house, but if they did I didn't hear it. When I came down there was a card saying it was in the black wheelie bin, just as well it's not BIN day today. Not that it matters too much as the wheelie bin is at the top of the path where the binmen don't venture. The parcel was of modelling tools including a device for magnetising and demagnetising screwdrivers.

[Tony_S]

3 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

Basildon Hospital is like an enormous rabbit warren and I can't find the place I need to get to on the plan. 

The endoscopy unit used to be on level C in between the fracture clinic and outpatients. Finding a parking place at Basildon  usually takes longer than my appointments (not endoscopy, for those I go to the Royal London in Whitechapel). 

Edited April 17 by Tony_S