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• Newbie topic - February 2012
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• Merry Christmas everybody :)
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• Everyone ok in the riots?
• Newbie topic - July 2011
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• Newbie topic - May 2011
• FORK.
• Hippie Colony
• Boobs
• I made this :)
• Apologies
• Lets play 47 Answers.
• .....

.... be watching Johnny Vegas in 'Ideal' on Seesaw.com during my luncheon break, until I get caught and severely punished.

... be grumpy because I dont want to be back at work

... be sitting on my arse collecting unemployment. And baking bread and stuff.

... be somewhere in a field in Somerset, possibly watching all the colours blend together.

be sitting on my arse collecting unemployment. And baking bread and stuff.

Wait - what? What happened?
Are you still in the USA?

...be looking forward to home time each day, so that I can spend time with my son and make tasty dinners for him to try. :)

Wait - what? What happened?
Are you still in the USA?

Deary me, no, he's in Canada, innit.

... be watching this video at almost every opportunity and not just because Charlotte James is hawt.

...turning 40.

Congrats, emp.

... Studying, I am sure uni was not this difficult back when all of the coursework was just making programs and websites work, I have to learn this new language, its called English, anyone know it?

I love Hybrid.

english doesn't compile

Grim: Yep, still in Canada. Team I was working for has 'run out of things to do' at present, so am sitting waiting to see what happens and trying to decide which way to jump (US or stay in Canada). If something comes up, I am fine and can go back to work, if not then it's all change on the job (and maybe domestic) front.

I managed 4 years in Canada and then came back to the UK. Where abouts in Canada are you?

...training people.

English does not compile? then why am I doing this?

Your English rarely compiles, BG =]

Posted by Grim..., 4 days ago:
I love Hybrid.

I know, and it's you I have to thank for arousing my interest in them; you posted a link to 'If I Survive' aeons ago and I played it to death, then when I started using Spotify/WE7 I began to delve into their back catalogue. It's great music to work to, too.

So, thanks Grimothy.

... be really really hot

...be handing in my notice at work. I can smell the freedom!

wauw really? what are you going to do instead?

He's going to be a mother!

...I'm going to have some time off with Emma and Darwin and spend a year or so building a portfolio of illustrations (mainly for children's books).

Scary but also exciting :D

Plus my brain will explode if I stay where I am working at the moment!

How can you afford to have a year off?

good for you! I heard/red the hours you had to do at this job and that was insane so I can fully understand you wanted to leave there. I hope it works out!

Yeah, good luck with that.

On a similar note, Mrs WH left her job this week, to embark on a career as a child minder. She'll be looking after our grand daughter (for free) which will allow my son and his wife to go back to work full time and save money on child care fees. She has a couple of clients lined up, but no definite bookings yet, so it might be bread and dripping for tea in the Warhead household for a while.

it's a good idea, I hope she finds some more clients
katie is with a child minder rather then a creche type place and we're very happy with that

>bread and dripping

i discovered a couple of years ago in the south of germany that "schmaltz", despite its modern yiddish/jewish/american meaning, is actually: chicken fat/dripping.

at a xmas fair there was a charity stall selling "bread and schmaltz". i thought "you have GOT to be kidding". and then i thought "what the hell". 1 euro and 1 bite later, i was in love. it's DELICIOUS. and incredibly filling. took me an hour to finish the slice and i wasn't hungry even the next morning.

.. be waiting for confirmation that our new, shiny government is going to close all our offices and hoping they're going to offer me an early retirement package so I can fulfil my ambition to become a gentleman of leisure ... or more likely, a supermarket night shelf filler.

You could go to uni and study for your remaining years

Like a ninja living off very little, hiding in the shadows to take people down, but never a pirate!

That sounds quite appealing.

… saying happy birthday to the doc

I second that.

Happy birthday Doc!

happy birthday doc!

interesting how close appealing and appalling are....

tru dat. i appalled to tha judge just last week, innit.

happy bidet, doc!

Happy belated doc day!

..... be thinking about my escape route now that the government have decided in principle to close down our offices. I will also be feeling agrieved that I won't actually get a redundancy payment of 6 years salary or a hugely inflated, gold-plated pension (as is often wrongly stated in the press).

Oh no :(

That sucks warhead :(((((((

I hope you find something else.

that's sucky warhead, I think you should definitely win the redundancy lottery

There's a long way to go before we know how it's going to work. The spending review won't be complete until Sept/Oct and then they'll have to begin the gradual wind down of the office and 'repatriate' us to our original departments. They will have to try to find work for us or help us look for work with other departments before they start offering redundancy or retirement packages, so it could be spring next year before we finally hit the buffers.

...Spying on the German Nazi party, making sure that young Hitler fellow is doing everything legally!

.. be pondering my future again, now that we now know that our office will cease operating on 31 March 2010, which is pretty much what we expected. The unions are now in dispute with the government over their plans to reduce contracted redundancy and pension payments.

I have an offer of a job which is being held for me until leave The Department, partly because they can't afford to pay me a manager's salary yet as they've only just started up. And also because I'm doing some work for them in my own time, setting up back office functions, which the partners would not have time to do themselves. Actually, I'm doing some work for them in the Department's time as our workload gradually reduces.

How many years have you worked there, warhead?

38 years and 4 days

Is your pension money protected?

cease operating on 31 March 2010

?! and no-one told you sooner?
I hope the new job works out to be fun and pay enough :)

Ooops, that should have been 2011.

The pension issue is interesting as the government is trying to reduce the amount it pays to civil servants who retire early or who are made redundant. However, we have contracts that can't be changed easily and the union is fighting to retain our current terms and conditions. The labour government tried to screw us twice in the year before they lost the election and each time the union took them to court and won. But whatever the outcome, my pension contributions are protected.

That is good to hear. At least you will have a buffer while you look for something else. How is Mrs WH's childminding thing going? I must admit I would also prefer to leave my child (if I had any) with a minder and not at a creche. But first prize is being able to stay home with them.

I think we should all help Warhead find a new job
how would you feel about becoming a spy?
or a balloon animal man?
or a swimming instructor?

are you looking to recruit any of those people then Miki?
I think someone who could spy on people whilst creating balloon animals in a swimming pool could possibly collect all three pay cheques.

I could collect any number of pay cheques, it's doing the jobs that's the tricky bit.

Syl, you don't seem to have read my previous post in which I said,'I have an offer of a job which is being held for me until leave The Department, partly because they can't afford to pay me a manager's salary yet as they've only just started up. And also because I'm doing some work for them in my own time, setting up back office functions, which the partners would not have time to do themselves. Actually, I'm doing some work for them in the Department's time as our workload gradually reduces.

I did read it.

How is Mrs WH's childminding thing going?

It's erratic. Kids are going to nursery school at 3 years old these days, so most enquiries she's been getting have been for up to that age. She is only allowed to have one under 12 months of age and a couple more under 5, but what she's actually ended up with is one just over a year old for mornings only and one three year old pick-up from a local school in the afternoon. These are OK ,but not big money spinners so our expenditure has exceeded our income for the last 3 or 4 months. This is why I want to retire now; the lump sum should pay off the mortgage and a couple of other things, then I won't need to earn nearly as much as I do now.

I hope it works out for you.

I must say the fees for childminding are very low as an hourly wage
Its strange because I cant imagine how anyone would live of it as an income and I find it rediculous if you look at the hourly wage of a gardener for instance
but because of the number og hours its still quite a big expense for the parents! interesting how that works

che unfortunately I'm not hiring any of those, I'm just trying to be an inspiration for good Mr Warhead to expand his horizon for his future endeavors
Katie is currently contemplating:
dentist (ie ripping teeth out of your mouth with her hands)
jewel thief
paper shredder

darwin is a big fan of teeth ripping too.
perhaps the pair of them could form a partnership?

You're right about the hourly rate, Miki, particularly with all the paperwork you have to do as a childminder these days. We had an OFSTED inspection on Wednesday and they want lots more documentation on everything Mrs W does. She's already working a 10 hour day so she's not really in the mood to spend another hour after dinner filling progress reports and planning the next day's activities, particularly when both the kids she has in the mornings are toddlers and don't seem to want to fall in with structured learning plans.

In other news, my application for early retirement in January has been approved at the first stage, so I just have to wait now to hear whether it gets final approval, which should be before the end of November, I think.

God I am jealous. I would love to retire.

sounds good Warhead! I hope you get the approval so you have some financial freedom to choose what you want to do next :)
our childminder does not make plans etc, as far as I know the only ongoing admin she has is writing down the hours. but she did have to get vetted and have baby first aid and some courses and they came to look at her house to check its safe there.

I would love to retire too, but I won't be doing so just yet. I'll be retiring from the civil service but I can't afford to laze around, I need to get another job. Fortunately, I have one lined up, as mentioned previously.

Ja I know, but you get to do something different. That's great :)

This week I shall mostly ...

...be trying my best not to be spaced out. On Saturday I went to a birthday party for my eight-year-old great-niece and I kept staring off into space. I couldn't stop it. Don't know what's wrong. Oh my God I am a great-Aunt, and have been, for eleven years. :(

This week I shall mostly ...

... try not to throw up :(
that sort of thing really ruins your weekend

oh no miki, what's wrong?

Syl, if it's any consolation, you can be an aunt/great aunt or whatever at almost any age depending on family members and if they have kids early or late or if they are very different in age from you, so being a great aunt hardly makes you an oldie!

A friend of mine was an Uncle at 8 years old!

:O

Thanks for the consolation :)

Oh my, maybe Miki is pregorius maximus again :D

Syl, che's right just blame them not yourself
though i was tempted to tease and say your maths is off as it was her 8th birthday party ;-)

unfortunately I'm not pregnant just ill. not nice I will spare you all further details

Alas, no, she has a cousin who is 11! :(

Aw no, you got a tummy bug? For nausea make a tea with browned apple in it. It helps. I hope you feel better soon, Miki.

thank you :)

Got the confirmation that my early retirement application has been successful. Now just waiting for the formal offer letter with the precise financial details and have until 26 November to accept or reject it. Assuming I accept, I'll be away by the middle of January.

that's moving pretty quickly then :)
what's the new job like?

Yes, it's moving quickly because they need to spend the money set aside for this scheme before the end of the financial year, or they'll lose it.

The job is ... interesting. It's a brand new company, so we're finding our way as we go. We have recruited an administrator to do routine work for the two partners. My job is setting up back room functions (IT, office procedures, quality management, etc.) and dog's body doing anything that's not directly associated with clients.

I'm also acting as mediator between the partners, as they are really operating two entirely different businesses and the guy who provided the start-up funding gets a bit twitchy about spending money, even on essentials like a shredder. But we've already covered his initial funding, so the company is paying for itself already and we haven't had to borrow from the bank for anything, so the guy really needs to relax and let the others get on with their jobs. My role there is to keep them calm when we have management meetings and to smooth out any potential disagreements or frustrations.

That sounds like a great job warhead :) Well done!

sounds interesting WH, in charge of IT and mediation :D
but surely a shredder is not essential? I say get everyone chewing!

...be trying to get a root canal treatment for a reasonable price

ugh

Bummer. It's years since I last had root canal work, but it was better than NOT having it.

I am so scared. But the toothache was horrible. Got antibiotics last week to clear up the infection. The cavity is at the gum line and below goes down the side and back of an upper back molar, so I had no idea it was there until it started aching.

… be wishing monsieur chien derriere une bonne anniversaire! He's gonna be 30 on 2nd december, which also happens to be my 29 1/2th birthday - because I can't let him have all the attention.

well happy birthday in advance to AP!



syl, not fun, and even less fun if you have to pay for it!
but to ease your mind, I am terrified of the dentist and I have had several root canals and it is very doable. it does take a very long time and the dentist tries to have a conversation with you even though you so obviously cant talk

Thanks Miki, that makes me feel better! I think I may be able to squeeze out a "SHADDAP" with a mouth full of instruments. :)

Happy Birthday for the 2nd, AP!

Nice to see you here, Jess. How are you?

"A friend of mine was an Uncle at 8 years old!"

I was an uncle at 1 year and 6 days of age. One of my nieces has a 5-year-old kid. *That's* weird ;)

Oh yeah, dirty thirties tomorrow. Eek!

Hello AP :)

Happy Birthday AP!

Thanks!

Any plans for your birthday?

This week I am mostly rethinking my future, as the company I was going to start work with next week imploded last week and went out of business. It's a long story, but basically one of the partners (the solicitor/guy who provided the start-up funding)freaked out and sacked the other partner (my future son-in-law [FSIL]) for gross misconduct, even though no misconduct had taken place.

I am now planning to start a new company with my FSIL doing the same thing as the old company, but without a mad solicitor screwing things up.

blimey, good luck :)

Aw no, warhead. I hope your new venture will be a success and you will make loads of money. What kind of company is it? What do you do?

I hope your new venture will be a success and you enjoy working on a new project and gain a great deal of professional and personal satisfaction from it. :)

Thanks, guys.

My FSIL is a litigation executive, which is a fancy way of describing someone who handles compensation claims for people who've been involved in an accident (industrial, road traffic, etc.) or contracted an industrial disease. In the past he had to work with a supervising solicitor, but the law is changing and now he can run his own business and deal with claims that don't have to go to court. So, he'll be dealing with the claims and I'll be dealing with back office functions to begin with, but will probably learn the claims-handling side of things as well. Once we build up a big enough case load we'll take on one or more other claim handlers, but we don't aim to become a huge company, we want to keep is small and personal. We already did this with the other company, but as the solicitor threw a wobbler and pulled out, we have to start again from scratch. But we've done it once, so we know we can do it again.

Warhead, you seem to rival my unerring ability to pick projects that shit out from under you. Maybe if we call a truce we'll relax and actually pick something that is stable for a few years?

That sounds good, Warhead!
Also : what che said.

I converted to veganism last year (Dec 25) so this year I am going to quit my job and start a company that makes vegan products.

Brock, I take your point, but although I had a few job changes in the last 5 years, I was continuously employed by the establishment for just over 38 years. If they hadn't kept on restructuring and faffing about I'd have still been working in I.T. As it is, I am still employed by Her Majesty's Government until 31 January and haven't actually been an employee of the company that went tits-up. It's a good thing that it did so before I became and employee as we can make a fresh start and do it right this time.

Good for you, wh

sorry I missed your news wh, I hope you and FSIL have great succes and I think generally everyone is better of without a mad solicitor screwing things up :)

wh: if you need funding, look to angel investors. give us a yell on sblah@fastmial.fm if you need any tips.

(there may have been some anti-spam fudging in that email eddress)

Thanks for the tip, Salti, but we haven't needed to take out any loans to get this thing started and if past experience is anything to go by, we should be covering our costs within 6 months and the initial investment within 12.

Went to surgeon to discuss removal of gallbladder. Having surgery next week Tuesday. Do I really not need a gallbladder? Salti?

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