update on restructuring (Mar 10, 2011)
Yes, after the grammatical nightmare that was the 'how to write your CV' presentation, we've been messed around, given the mushroom treatment (still going on) and generally been treated like the worthless that we are.

Anyway, the upshot is that I, your beloved navigator, will be back on't spanners. I wont be seeing you all nearly as much, and my laptop at home seems to keep arguing with hootoo so I cant guarantee I'll be in on there too much though I will make the effort. I'm not going to have the ongoing access to you all I've had for the last few years and the backlogs may drown me.

I guess what I'm trying to say is... So long and thanks for all the fish. I will be bobbing around but with all the adjusting, I have no idea if I'll be seeing you more or less or lots less. I hope it's about the same but you never know.
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(8 replies, Latest reply: Mar 12, 2011)

Things that make you go 'Hrmmm...' (Oct 1, 2010)
So... We're being 'restructured'.

As part of the support for us through the process is a powerpoint presentation on how to create and present your CV.

So, you should observe tho following:

"Keep it brief and simple (no more then 3 pages)" (honestly. Word for word!)

(I'd just like to ask here... Even bullet pointed sentences should have a full stop at the end, shouldn't they? There's only one or two throughout the intire document.)

also:

"# Free of spelling mistakes
# Consistent format & grammar"

Hm. How do you think my new applicaion would go if I started off by sending them an original and a corrected version of their own literature?
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(7 replies, Latest reply: Oct 4, 2010)

TEN PERCENT!?!? (Sep 22, 2010)
Does he think we're all stupid?

Oh wait, we probably are.

I hope to Bob the wheels fall off this handcart before we get all the way to hell.

~Robyn Hoode. Possibly being made redundant anyway by witless idiots who dont know what they are doing. As bleedin per!~
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(20 replies, Latest reply: Sep 24, 2010)

business talk V. 3.7 (Jun 15, 2010)
Hee hee, I just received this little beauty.

Just so you know, a TSB is a technical service bulletin.

"This TSB is regarding the need for a more clear and consistent approach to communicating the message contained in future TSBs.
At present TSBs are not being consistently actioned or understood by the recipient resulting in vehicles not having the necessary repair actions made to the required standard or timetable.
To eliminate misunderstanding and confusion a new standard layout for
future TSBs has now been designed incorporating a clear 3 key point
process to follow:
Issue - Root cause - Fix

All future TSBs will follow this new format ensuring the content clearly spells out what the issue is, why it exists and the relevant steps how to fix it."

Well. I got there in the end. Clear as mud aint it. It concerns me that in explaining how they've simplified it they've made it almost unreadable and certainly hard to understand!
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(5 replies, Latest reply: Jun 16, 2010)

Why? (May 19, 2010)
Just.

Why?


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(202 replies, Latest reply: Feb 4, 2011)

Just in case... (Apr 12, 2010)
any of you are wondering where I've been at, I'll be back, dont you worry. It's all been a bit horrid lately and I'm picking myself back up and getting on with things, but I'm having to do that thing where getting the basics done takes longer so you have to drop some other bits...

Anyway, sorry if you've been trying to chat to me or around me and I've been ignoring you or anything like that. You're a pretty well behaved bunch really, but sometimes people feel hurt and I dont want you all to feel like I've just left without so much as a goodbye! I'm just having a partial holiday from anything that doesn't involve keeping my job, staying fed and distracting myself (which is tricky without my own computer and so involves a lot of visiting and not a lot of internetting!)
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(43 replies, Latest reply: Apr 25, 2010)

How NOT to behave! (Jan 6, 2010)
Cor, I'm ing! I had to pick someone up from the main road near their home this afternoon as they couldn't get their car off their sloping driveway and out of their small side street which has rather a steep gradient... That's fine, all the main roads are clear here anyway.

Except for the large family group (adults pushing small children in pushchairs and accompanying youngish children of around six to eleven years of age I'd say) walking up the side of the road (a dual carriageway with a speed limit of 40mph which is pretty much clear but with heavy snow and slush at the edges. But more to the point, lots of drivers are rather nervous about driving with snow in the general vicinity even though the road surface itself is pretty grippy and is equivalent to a road that has been rained on. Anyway. The children were throwing snowballs at EVERY car that went past. A barrage of snowballs went across my windscreen and down the side of the van I was driving.

The adults/parents did NOTHING. I watched them pelt the car ahead of me and me and the car behind and the adults didn't seem to care in the slightest. What the hell has happened to being just a tiny bit sensible? I was always taught not to interfere with moving vehicles, it is surely a basic thing. I know snowballs seem harmless, but you simply dont throw things at moving vehicles for Bob's sake! It's pretty scary, even though I saw it coming a mile off, and if there was anything in the snowballs (stones etc) you can cause damage to the vehicles. Gawd people annoy me!
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(148 replies, Latest reply: Jun 24, 2010)

Self control is killing me... (Oct 7, 2009)
So if you're feeling the same way, post here...

(More specifically regarding the Kea thread).

Anyway, I REALLY hope no-one breaks the 100
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(20 replies, Latest reply: Oct 7, 2009)

Bristol mini meet (Sep 30, 2009)
Hello happy campers.

My birthday's falling on a weekend this year (february 2010 actually) so I'm throwing the following suggestion out there...

Somewhere, at some point, probably in the evening, on the 13th feb 2010, does anyone fancy a mini meet in the Bristol area? Ideas, suggestions and 'meeee!'s to this address

This'd be my first meet as well... What a way to celebrate becoming nearly thirty...
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(201 replies, Latest reply: Mar 2, 2010)

HAHAHA! (Sep 8, 2009)
Boris Johnson on Dr. Johnson on Radio four just now:

By way of introduction, the presenter made it clear that the two were not related by saying of Boris: "This Johnson is his own Johnson"

I couldn't have said it better myself.

Anyway, that is all...
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(2 replies, Latest reply: Sep 8, 2009)

Lookit! Lookit! (Aug 18, 2009)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8206280.stm

Scientists with ? in their surnames are modelling zombie attack strategies!!
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(25 replies, Latest reply: Aug 18, 2009)

Bomb scares (Aug 6, 2009)
Yep. I'm at work in the middle of a bomb scare. It's quite strange being overrun by people I've never seen before. Who'd have thought so many people could be hidden in one building!?

Ah well, we're waiting for someone to come and clear it all up. I'm guessing some poor sod has just left his laptop in a bag somewhere and forgotten to tell anyone.

*sigh*

I wont put too much info up, I dont want to get into trouble with anyone, but it's fairly interesting. Rumours of army units being scrambled from Exeter are doing the rounds. Good old Scuttlebutt!
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(16 replies, Latest reply: Nov 18, 2009)

for rev jack russel... (Jul 24, 2009)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/8166782.stm
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(11 replies, Latest reply: Jul 29, 2009)

an experiment. (Jul 22, 2009)
Hold on...


... Wait for it...


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(7 replies, Latest reply: Jul 23, 2009)

note to self... (Jul 7, 2009)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alaba...ad=6735841&show=20&skip=0#p82549951
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(23 replies, Latest reply: Jul 9, 2009)

bad forecasting: (Jul 2, 2009)
Just a quick moan: The weather station in Bristol is in Filton. This is where I am.

As of right now (14:10) the weather forecast says that at 13:00hrs, we should have been experiencing heavy showers, carrying on through 15:00hrs.

I've not felt so much as a spot of rain, and it's only just become a little bit overcast, the blue skies were still very visible at around 13:40!

So whoever is on duty isn't checking out the window!!!
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(9 replies, Latest reply: Jul 3, 2009)

A strange day... (Jun 9, 2009)
Mum's birthday so, I take the day off, meet up with mum and we decide to go and see some springs and wells out in the cotswolds.

Anyway, while wandering, our footpath crosses a field full of Highland ponies of varying ages and colours. Gorgeous though, a pair of Mouse duns who look like twins (yearlings i think) but there's every solid colour and some beautiful dappled greys, too... From a butterscotch-and-cream coloured foal to a black mare, a blue roan and a true dun with zebra stripes at the top of the darker markings on her legs,

Anyway, I was admiring these ponies, taking some pictures and watching them interacting, trying to figure out who's who etc. when I spot a couple of dogs...

And a small woman with grey hair...

And across she comes and we offer each other a good afternoon and she asks if i'm enjoying the ponies and I say i am and ask if they are, indeed Highlands. Oh yes, apparently they are famous pedigree ponies, serviced by the Queen's Highland stallions. She told me the background of the owners (the lady of the area died after treating her farm manager and his wife like slaves all her life and left a 200acre estate, properties and the highland herd to them in her will...)

Anyway, this was all lovely, we chatted for a bit longer and wished each other a lovely day.

And as she was walking away, all I was thinking over and over and over again was *THAT WAS JILLY COOPER OR I'M AN ILLITERATE TROGLODYTE!*

I still cant quite figure it out in my head. Firstly, why do I care, and secondly. OH MY GOD! Jilly Cooper and I just had an intelligent chat about Highland ponies and I managed to not be a complete idiot! I'm not normally the star-struck type, but I think the sheer randomness of me being in that field when she was walking across it is freaking me out! It's not like I live that close by!
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(37 replies, Latest reply: Jun 13, 2009)

My legs hurt... (May 28, 2009)
But I dont care cos I've been riding a horse!!!

mmm... Nothing beats it, you know. It's funny, I dont realise just how much I miss it until I get lots of it! Now I dont want to stop!!!
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(9 replies, Latest reply: Jun 1, 2009)

Well well well... (May 19, 2009)
Life does have it's ups and downs, doesn't it?

Is there some sort of mathematical formula for the inverse proportions of decent breaks to the quality and pleasantness of a person?

Cos it seems like there should be.

Not that being able to calculate it would solve it, but it'd be nice to measure it.
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(12 replies, Latest reply: Jun 4, 2009)

WEATHER! (Apr 15, 2009)
Hailstones, rain, misty, hazy days...

I really enjoyed our warm lovely spring, but was worried it was a touch on the dry side...



and now we've got thunder and hail! YAY!

The growing things will be happy
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(25 replies, Latest reply: Apr 22, 2009)

judgement, goodness, the hereafter... (Apr 14, 2009)
Wouldn't it be great if every living thing you come into contact with is actually you living another life...

That'd be pretty much getting what you give, wouldn't it?

Especially if there was some sort of celestial staging area where you go and see all of the different lives being lived simultaneously, feel your actions and the consequences... Every kindness, every cruelty... I cant imagine a nicer and fairer way for it all to pan out (well apart from the ashes to ashes, dust to dust and nothing more thing...).

I just think that all of those violent, cruel people, from the cat-kickers and bitches to the bullies, murderers and people who abuse and neglect children, animals and each other would be exquisitely repaid if they were, actually, only hurting themselves .

And every kind word, touch, act and thought would be an act of kindness and respite to oneself, too...

there's a sort of balance to it that I like, is all.

Of course it means that there's only about two people in the world, ever
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(13 replies, Latest reply: Apr 16, 2009)

WHAT!? (Apr 7, 2009)
A ten year old and an eleven year old. Attempted murder.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/south_yorkshire/7987950.stm



I dont want to get into throwing blame around, but what scares me is that this happening will enrage and upset people, but nothing will change. The people who are living in a world where this is unfortunate but not that far from likely wont notice. That's just life

It always scares me when people too young to understand their actions act like adults whther it's through force or an extremety of a culture gone stale. Or even for any other reason.

I feel for the parents of the injured boys and for the boys themselves, of course I do, but I also feel for the parents of the boys who did this. Their family will have been ripped apart just as much. How can you forgive yourself for letting your young child do something like this? When your entire community will, justifiably, condemn you, then what do you do? I cant help but feel like the impact of this on both families should be being covered. That's as important if not more so than the trial. That's what might, maybe, make people realise these are people getting hurt and families, too.

And what the hell are ten year olds doing? When I was ten I was reading comics and buying penny sweets. Riding my bike up and down the road with friends who lived down the road and generally being a kid. It never involved violence or robbery, except when me and my brother occasionally had a rough and tumble, but even that stopped before any damage was done. We rarely even bruised one another!

Agh, I sometimes, just for a minute, wonder what is the point and wonder whether I'd ever want to have children if this is the world they'd be growing up into...
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(10 replies, Latest reply: Apr 9, 2009)

Is it sunny outside? (Apr 2, 2009)
Cos there's no-one in here
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(15 replies, Latest reply: Apr 6, 2009)

GRRRR! (Mar 24, 2009)
Packet of crisps, well-known brand name...

'Made with *real* ingredients' printed across the packet!

I mean, please, correct me if I'm wrong, but I dont think I am... Surely them existing means they are made of real stuff? Hardly made of non-existent ingredients are they?

IT MEANS NOTHING! I mean, it appears to say a lot. Unless you have an inkling of sense.

It just irritates me, to be talked down to like that by corporations.


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(33 replies, Latest reply: Nov 20, 2011)

erm.. (Feb 24, 2009)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7783563.stm

The church is worried that someone other than them is trying to control people's morals?

Sorry, I just found that slightly funny. There's a much wider debate here, but this whoel article came across as being a little desperate and petulant. If people dont feel the need for organised religion, or for specific denominations, so be it. There's meant to be a free choice, surely? And if religious groups can advertise, so can atheist groups. Personally I'd have the whole lot go the way of tobacco adverts. Ban the lot. Personaly I believe that spiritual decisions should not be cases for marketing strategies. It makes a mockery of any vestiges of genuine faith and shows religion up for what it is to most people in this day and age. A club to belong to, a business to profit from.
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(66 replies, Latest reply: Feb 27, 2009)