All ye oul wans and oul fellas out there! Wakey wakey, rise and shine!

Rubecula wrote: »

Jody Kidd presents "Chasing Classic Cars"

And.......Jodie Kidd can really drive a car!

Unlike "Top Gear", "Chasing Classic Cars" is actually about cars (as opposed to a weekly bickering session between presenters) but, having perfected recording and fast forwarding through the tedious bits of "Top Gear", I now find this skill useful on CCC too because the other presenter on CCC, Quentin Willson, speaks so............slowly that..........I...........lose patience waiting...............for him..............to.............finish every............sentence. Perhaps he's..........flirting with.......Ms. Kidd...........or...........camera-hogging but.............it's............really annoying.

Anyway, now that I'm ready to return to the ranks of the employed, do yiz think I should apply for the job in One Direction, i.e. a fairly well-known(?) musical combo? Apparently, they're fabbalus but they don't have a ukulele player. Yet!

PS: Woof had his check-up today at the vets. All good - so good that his bonnet can come off. BEFORE bonnet removal, three lady-type people in the waiting area engaged me in conversation. AFTER bonnet removal, NONE, i.e. not any approaches. I'm keeping the bonnet - it might be useful sometime.

Rubecula wrote: »

And now I have the heartbreaking choice on whether to apply for a lower paid lower grade job or wait to be sacked, which at my age and medical history would be the end!

looksee wrote: »

Ah Rube, that's a bummer. I'm so sorry you have had that kind of treatment, its a bit of a kick in the teeth after all the stuff that has been going on!

Rubecula wrote: »

...you folks don't need to hear my problems

looksee wrote: »

If anyone can cope Rube, its you, but feel free to grouse if it helps

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

I know you'll get through somehow

Layinghen wrote: »

Rube, that is an appalling way you have been treated. Are you a member of an Union?

Treating a long term employee like this is disgraceful but you have to meet it head on and protect yourself and your income.

Rubecula, lots of support and good advice here.

I'm guessing, of course but, by any chance is your employer a large multinational with American overtones or ambitions to be one? I ask because I've worked for one and have been on both sides of the desk. The real baddie, (in my cases anyway) were HR! Apologies to any HR brethren here but I've seen many "good" people (bosses) being forced to do the "wrong" thing because some stupid, one-size-fits-nobody HR procedure says so. These procedures are often written by airheads with MBAs, from former colonies and imposed, without appropriate legal review, on their "overseas operations."

Fortunately, as mentioned above, you / we are citizens of the EU where a much more enlightened and ethical view of employee welfare is taken and backed up by powerful employment legislation.

There is little chance of me being invited back to my former (pre-cancer) position in any of its locations around the world and, you know, if I WAS, I don't know if I'd accept. Two buddies of mine both had high-power / high stress jobs and both packed them in and now both perform local, low-stress jobs. At first, the prospect of binning a career sounds scary but both buddies look, sound and feel years younger. My new heroes are those "mature" blokes in B&Q who actually know what a plumb-bob is. I want one of those orange uniforms to go with my work pants with seventeen pockets.

So, in words of few syllables, I suggest that:

1. Blaming your boss may not be fair (unless you know him to be a b@$t@rd);
2. Make use of existing UK and / or EU legislation (through a union or an employment lawyer);
3. Don't stress too much about it - it's not healthy! There is life after (insert name of employer)........and it's great!

Had a "down day" yesterday which gave me a chance to stay in bed and view some of these box sets I got from Santy. So, in laboratory conditions, I performed a scientific experiment and discovered that a long-held opinion was actually true, despite being constantly told I'm wrong by the nostalgia-mongers on British TV. To eliminate any chance of error, I performed the experiment with the entire box set and got the same result from every episode!

So, I can now reveal to yiz some categorical facts: Fawlty Towers is not and never was funny. They recorded only one series because it wasn't funny. There were no spin-off series because it wasn't funny. John Cleese simply played John Cleese being predictably shouty ......again......and it wasn't funny. It is extraordinarily popular in the USA because it wasn't funny. Any real talent involved with Fawlty Towers (Andrew Sachs, Prunella Scales, etc.) moved on, leaving Fawlty Towers as an unfortunate blip on their CVs.

I'm not in a position to perform similar experiments today but, when I have the results from a review of Month Python, I'll let you know.

You're welcome.

Ho Hum! Horizontal rain here this morning, making the sea deeper. And it's that special "wetting" rain - just a few seconds exposure and you're soaked through. Birdies are wet and too heavy to take off so they're huddled together in the shelter, chatting and ignoring the Woof's suggestions to leave immediately.

Speaking of which, what ever happened to "corner boys"? Groups of youngish men who would gather at several corners in my home town and discuss - I don't know - world affairs(?) Contributions to these debates were limited to those with fag in gob; migration from your assigned corner to another was not allowed. Also, and as if by magic, as outsiders approached, the volume of discussion reduced and, as you passed by, you could feel yourself being analysed through tobacco smoke, the only sound being your own footsteps.

I used to wonder just how the fags got lit because all hands were permanently planted in pockets.

Did your Granda ever tell yiz the secret of hands in pockets? Before being photographed for my First Holy Amunion, mine told me: "No hands in pockets" (and he made a gesture like a penguin) "is a gombeen; One hand in pocket is a gentleman; Two hands in pockets is a corner boy". I'm typing this one-handed.

He had similar advice about which and how many of your suit jacket buttons to fasten; the messages sent by badly tied ties; brown slip-on shoes and the great braces / belt controversy. The worst possible example of gombeenism would be to have both hands in pockets; all three buttons fastened; belt AND braces; brown slip-ons and the skinny part of your tie tucked into your pants. After my First Holy Amunion, getting dressed took much longer than before.

By the way, brown slip-on shoes mean you never want a girlfriend, i.e. you would make alternative arrangements.

JuliusCaesar wrote: »

They were finally able to talk about the stuff that mattered: their feelings for each other. Probably style tips too.

Just where are these pubs? Last time I frequented one, the conversation was about loike airhead celebriddies and X-Box loike.

See, I have these navy blue designer work pants with seventeen pockets but I'm not sure if the cut is quite right, specially when I put my plumb-bob in the knee pocket and my 3 lb bunch of keys on the webbing thing that looks like a car seat belt. AND, I think they might clash with my 22 year-old Dubes which stopped being blue in 1998. Really need some style advice because my confidence is soooooo loike todally shot and I can't concentrate and I still can't find the oil filter in my loike midlife crisis car and the interweb won't tell me where it is and.......and........waaaaaaaaggggggghhhhhhhh......snorrkkkk