Born today: A.E. Housman (1859-1936), Robert Frost (1874-1963), Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), Leonard Nimoy (1931), Alan Arkin (1934), James Caan (1940), Richard Dawkins (1941), Diana Ross (1944), Steven Tyler (1948), Baz Warne (1964), Keira Knightley (1985).
It is Independence Day in Bangladesh.
Hey everybody, afk, for the weekend. Lidl is cool, I got garden gloves for £1.49, and a cycle multi tool for £1.99.
ReplyDeleteMy entry for the AB name.. Friar WTF
Hehe - Paul, sorry, I managed to miss your post yesterday somehow. Shame, cos it was a good one!
ReplyDeleteI think Turminder wins.
I see Medve is lurking again....
ReplyDeleteI've had great value walking boots from Lidl but the hand-grips on the walking poles were too small for my hands. Made in the East and modelled on an Eastern person's sized hand I thought.
ReplyDeleteBest buy is Christmas Stolen - packed with fruit and yummy almond paste and at about a third the price of weak UK imitations.
thauma my lovely young miss I know that you too are an anti-shop freak that's why I feel comfortable with you.
The idle chat about value at Lidl reminds me that I think there is something inherently suspect in the Brit character. The absurd passion for goods with a branded 'name' and the sad decline of the Co-op, for much the same reason, marks out a people who fear making their own minds up and trusting their own judgement................contributes to some sort of an explanation of the shit political position we find ourselves in...
elementary watson I would be interested to hear of the volks perception of Lidl in Germany??
I missed the Hungarian flag but saw the German one for a while and see now what is most probably PB
ReplyDeleteaye, morning! no lidl here, but there is an aldi, which is one of the oddest shopping experiences...they have what they have, in vast quantities, and shrug if you query whether beetroot juice is in fact more worth stocking than orange juice.
ReplyDeletehello? yes, is me. where's earlier post gone?
ReplyDeleteah, there it is...
ReplyDeletePB yea you have the measure of the stocking/stock control philosophy of the discounters.
ReplyDeleteQustion: "Why so much beetroot juice?
Answer: You never know when a coachload of Poles might call by..."
Still it seems to work for them. I think I read that it was one of Germany's super rich who was behind Lidl or was that Aldi - they are both very similar in trading ideas
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFuck it's not Good Friday is it? I ain't got me potatoes planted. I've had a disgracefully idle week and have lost track of time.(not a new thing I know)
ReplyDeleteMy complete lack of work experience for more than a decade meant that when I started work on my brewhouse my soft hands dried out and the skin at finger ends cracked. That's my excuse.
They raw finger ends have just about healed now so I don't have an excuse any more. Have fun everybody I really must get on - the Furnivall centenary crawls closer by the day.
pen - if you call by,I was glad to see you got through the night and finished up as a voluntary/unwilling guest.
Best wishes I hope you are able to do all that you wish, and is good, for yourself as soon as possible
morning all.
ReplyDeletePierre Boulez's birthday today too:
'Every Tchaikovsky lover at a Tchaikovsky concert is celebrating the cult of himself'
Morning all
ReplyDeletedeano
Stop panicking - Good Friday is next week, 2nd April. You have a whole seven days to continue in glorious idleness and look after those finger ends.
@deano30, nope, a week to go!
ReplyDeleteA classic spot by Unexceptional, seen at the Times.
ReplyDeleteCheck out the byline.
So, as you are discussing German discount supermarkets, I guess it just doesn't do for me not to comment (especially when being asked directly by deano to comment).
ReplyDeleteLidl has quite a bad image in Germany, hiring detective agencies to observe your employees (e.g. recording when and how often an employee goes to the toilet) does have that effect; fairly recently, Guenther Wallraff worked undercover in a firm producing bread rolls for Lidl and published an account of the bad working conditions there, not helping Lidl's popularity either.
In short, "Lidl" is seen as an exemplar of all that is bad about capitalism.
Aldi is more popular, I think. I've heard rumors that the employees are quite content to work there, and it is not as stigmatized as "evil" as Lidl is. Aldi was founded by Brothers Albrecht (Aldi being short for Albrecht Discount), who are among the richest people in Germany (okay, strike "among", they are *the* two richest people in Germany); was it them you were thinking of, deano?
I have never tried Lidl - will have to give it a go now. I tried Aldi and like Philippa found it a surreal experience.
ReplyDeleteDeano - I love shopping. I even like going to the supermarket. I am a strange one I admit but I really like buying things. Due to being skint and not wanting to perpetuate a consumer society I now often go and have a rummage around second hand shops at the weekend and buy an oddity or two to satisfy my shopping urges. It dismays me that I love it so but I do.
In my defence though I do shop at the co-op a lot. I also shop at another local wholefood cooperative called Beanies - brilliant shop.
If mschin pops by - I was just wondering if you went to that meeting?
elementary
ReplyDeleteI'd heard that about Lidl. Glad to hear that Guenther Wallraff is still keeping busy. I'll never forget that excellent undercover film he made about gastarbeiter way back in the 80's. I've still got it on video somewhere.
Princess
ReplyDeleteDo you know if Beanies are still doing their veg boxes? I used to get them years ago and was thinking of starting up again.
Pen is posting on Cif this morning so is alive
ReplyDeleteif not well!
Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteThat Times article made me laugh.
That's a pretty unfortunate name anyway, but getting the guy to write on abuse scandals just seems cruel!!
This is so weird - I put up a post. Saw it go up but when I checked by a bit later it is gone! How bizarre.
ReplyDeleteHey all,
ReplyDeleteMy Aunt shops at Lidl, her food is amazing but I suspect that has more to do with the cook than the source of the raw ingredients!
Trying to work out whether to shout at my housemate, running it past you guys since I don't want to share her personal life with any of our mutual friends: she went on a first date last night, got home very late, I stayed awake to make sure she got in ok but went to sleep as soon as I heard her come in. She's a grown woman and that's all no problem (I was just being the concerned friend and I hope she'd do the same for me). However, in the morning she'd left me a note, just saying her date had jumped her in waitrose car park and it was nothing to do with her. She has a history of consensual sex outside on first dates but I still wondered if she was trying to tell me she'd been attacked, she was asleep though so I hoped all was ok and went to work (where I still am). I still spent the morning wondering and worrying about it though. I've just got a text from her saying she had a great night. Now I'm p*ssed off that she let me worry all morning.
Obviously the question is "am I just jealous?" possibly, but not of her, or her date, just that her love life is going well, mine is probably best described as "complicated"!
So, do I tell her off for making me worry, or just let it lie?
Tee Hee, I can UT frm work! See how long that lasts!
ReplyDeleteSeem to be having some trouble posting here. Some posts appearing then disappearing then appearing again etc. So if I disappear for a while you know why.
ReplyDeleteSheff - yes Beanies still do their boxes. We just pop down there as we are near but they do still do their deliveries. We used to get them when we lived over at Woodseats as it was a way to go.
Thanks Sheff/Lavartis/elementary.
ReplyDeletePanic over.
I'll give Lidl a miss in future - toilet timers are the pits in management philosophers as far as I'm concerned. These bastards have flourished too much and have much to answer for in the decline of the quality of working life for many. May they suffer leaking piles and hot curried diarrhoea with their own toilet...
No great problem since an Aldi is closer for me. But how come the co-op struggled and yet two of the richest families in the world (Waltons/Walmart in USA & Albrechts) are into grocery shop ownership. The Sainsbury clan didn't do too bad come to think of it and that cow of a woman (Thatcherite) at Westminster Council ?? was the Tesco/Cohen heiress.
Retailing is so often where decent folk are unconscionably separated from their cash.
PCC - you are forgiven. Whilst I hate shopping I do like looking at the lady assistants (and some of the punters) when I'm forced to shop.
I wouldn't wish to come across as a hypocrite either. Fact is there is no finer sight in the world than ladies shapely ankles, encased in elegant shoes, at the end of fine legs thrashing about in the air - I guess you can't have that without a little shopping somewhere along the line....
Dott - tell her....no problem with the sex, the 'tax, nor the sin. But the syntax of the sex left a little to be desired.
ReplyDeleteGroan....................
Dot
ReplyDeleteOh the joys of house sharing! I'd tread carefully if I were you. But there's no harm in tactfully pointing out that by saying she was jumped in Waitrose car park (how romantic!!) caused you to worry about her and could she please be a bit clearer with her messages.
And wait until you've got over feeling pissed off about it, otherwise it might come out more crossly than you want.
Sorry to hear your love life is 'complicated', but then they often are, are they not? I hope things get more straightforward for you.
Princess
I noticed something weird going on with the posts earlier but it seems to be ok now.
deano
ReplyDeleteCow is too kind a word for that hag, Lady Porter - who skipped off to Israel before she could be sequestered to the tune of 12 million for gerrymandering in favour of the Tories when she was leader of Westminster council.
She was eventually forced to stump up a risible sum but the council tenants of westminster were well and truly rogered.
The beginnings of a radical idea
ReplyDelete"..It was during this time that Spedan Lewis became aware that he, his brother and his father between them were enjoying earnings equivalent to those of the entire workforce in both shops. But it wasn't until a riding accident forced him to convalesce that he was able to spend time developing his ideas for the future of the business, ideas that would radically change its foundation.
With the happiness of his employees firmly at the centre of his mind, he began to instigate new systems and practices as soon as he returned to work. Intent on bettering the working conditions and spirit of the company, he offered shortened working days, the setting up of a staff committee, a third week's holiday paid holiday was an innovation for the retail trade at this time and eventually, a house magazine, the Gazette, which is still published today
Trying it out at Peter Jones
By 1914, a conflict with his father, who was alarmed by some of these bold practices, meant Spedan withdrew any active involvement with the Oxford Street shop in exchange for total control of Peter Jones. And although it had been unhealthy financially, Spedan's bravery paid off as within five years it converted an annual deficit of £8,000 to a profit of £20,000.
Founding the John Lewis Partnership
In 1920, the first profit-sharing scheme was introduced along with a representative staff council. A reconciliation with his father after his mothers death meant the cooperation between the two stores resumed, then his father's eventual death in 1928 gave Spedan sole ownership. He created the first Constitution and the following year the John Lewis Partnership Limited and signed the First Trust Settlement. This gave him practical control of the business, but allowed the profits to be distributed among the employees. Twenty-one years later, he signed the irrevocable Second Trust Settlement, and the Partnership became the property of the people employed within it." (from the John Lewis website)
Paternalism or idealism....?
"... But it wasn't until a riding accident forced him to convalesce that he was able to ...
ReplyDeleteLot to be said for dragging the rich from their horses......
You are right Sheff 'twas Shirley Porter.
Cheers for the practical advice Sheff, and for the laugh Deano (actually it was a groan but in the context of that conversation that just sounds wrong!)
ReplyDeleteJay and Swifty are going great guns on winthorpes thread - to hilarious effect. But where is Mr Selfmade? I miss him at times like this.
ReplyDeleteWasn't selfmade the alter-ego of someone who posts/posted here? I forget.
ReplyDeleteBeen away from here and CiF the last couple of days (bloody w*rk: got an interesting PD group running now, which has been a bit of a handful...not so much the clients/punters/users as trying to get in place the things to help 'em when not at the group).
Re: supermarkets, what about Netto? Where do you fit them in among the ethicicity (made that up)of discount supermarkets. Can't help but think that if you want ethics, a supermarket's not the best place to be looking,mind.
Alisdair
ReplyDeleteI think Mr Selfmade is mf - if I recall, but could be wrong.
Oh pen, you said situation was rainbow. I've tried all afternoon to find out any information I can, but they won't even tell me if you are in any hospital. I've left my phone numbers and e-mail address to pass on to you, but I have no confidence in them doing so. Have also sent a letter to the address that Turminder provided yesterday:
ReplyDeleteJonathan Chase
c/o
Oxleas House
Queen Elizabeth Hospital,
Stadium Road,
London,
Greater London,
SE18 4QH
You said you can't access e-mail, if that changes, let it be known and I'll post my e-mail address here.
Dr Chase, I hope we can get in touch, so that we can discuss a plan of action. Failing that, I can only offer my support through thoughts for you.
Love, Habib.
AlisdairDon't know about Netto - my local one is a a kind of half way house. A mix of branded goods and the obscure and pile em high/sell it cheap on non foods.
ReplyDeleteI had tended to think of it as a UK imitator (based in Yorks) but I see from its website that it also operates in Germany/Denmark/Sweden/Poland so I don't know - I'll ask the lady at the checkout next time I'm in.
I always liked the Co-op's values/ethics - that said it did sponsor some odd MP's over the years and it was/is affiliated to the Labour Party which might go against it these days.
It's the behavioural patterns of folk that I have associated with particular organisations that's interested me. I've always found the rank and file UK CP member to be really decent folk and I have an affection for Quakers......both types (the few I have known) have incorporated admirable values in their daily lives. Both, in my experience had a tendency to 'live' their values. Sadly the Quakers don't go a bundle on booze....
You could never accuse Blair of living his values (until recently that is). Although uber creep Mandelson might get away with it - one suspects he wouldn't waste his time pleading innocence when the rope was put around his neck...
It's the old rhetoric and reality argument I suppose. Now I don't have the old clause IV to help me think my way through political dilemmas I'm look for something akin....
I was amazed to read that the John Lewis partners refused, almost to man/woman to de-mutalise the organisation when it was suggested a few years ago - even though it was estimated that all partners stood to make about £100k from their bit of the organisation.
? selfmade ? - Montana's the ace here on the evolution/ownership of monikers?
A day of small, but worthwhile, progress for me. I have silenced the wind noise in the awning which has driven me mad of late. I love the wind in my face, and I'm fond of it on my bum, but I hate it constantly in my head.
Dog walking calls.
Good on you habib.
ReplyDeleteEvening all!
ReplyDeleteMy lad has just downloaded Fruity Loops onto his puter. I am seriously considering switching the electricity off at the mains as a result, so if I suddenly disappear you will know why...
Soz, forgot the link - http://flstudio.image-line.com/
ReplyDeleteI say, Jay and Swifty are indeed doing a bang-up job on Winthorpe's thread.
ReplyDeleteHello folks.
ReplyDeleteJust signed in & since reloading page, BWs post has disappeared?
And hugs to (((Montana)))
I think it's been a tough couple of weeks for many people. I hope they'll forgive me for trying to find an escape for a night. Grab a smile when you can.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I need to smile, I listen to 8 Ball by Underworld.
ReplyDeleteTotally daft song, with totally daft lyrics, but something so cheerful about it.
"Today, I saw a man
Using an empty whisky flask
As a walkie-talkie..."
Habib - your song reminded me (lyrically) of this one.
ReplyDelete*tumbleweed*
ReplyDelete*wind whistles*
WHERE IS EVERYBODY?!
Now that's weird, thaum, cos your post wasn't there when I refreshed a minute ago
ReplyDelete*kicks blogger*
Hi BB - I'm here, really!
ReplyDeleteExcellent!
ReplyDeleteI am watching French tv - serial about an advocates practice, seeing as the old man is out this evening. Keeping my froggy hand in, as it were. Off to frogland at the end of May for a week. Sooooo looking forward to it :o)
BB, great music, Thauma, I know that song too well.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have to get my hair cut tomorrow - it's nearly a foot long now, but it's not a good look when you're bald on top.
I'm gonna miss those flowing locks, but age withers us and should make us more sensible.
Habib
ReplyDeleteYou are Michael Bolton and I claim my £5
Cheers, BB. Makes the getting rid of it so much better!
ReplyDeleteHabib, you should let your freak flag fly!
ReplyDeleteI had my hair cut in the week - first time I have had my hair shorter than shoulder length for years and years. Doesn't half make washing it a hell of a lot easier though.
ReplyDeleteOne last head banging sesh before I go to work, sleep, wake up and say goodbye to what I wanted to be.
ReplyDeleteAll the chat of shops, shopping, and shoes got me thinking of a shop I frequented as newly married man.
ReplyDeleteMost interesting shop I went in was a chemist in Leeds, near the Uni, from which we used to buy the things needed for our new baby. I was much amazed and delighted when some thirty odd years later I visited a museum in Hull and found that they had transported the complete contents of the very shop lock stock and barrel to Hull museums.
Oldest Chemist in Yorkshire
As you can see the gentleman who kept the shop was to his dying day an Edwardian, he looked just like his photo in 1970 when I shopped there. He was truly fucking amazing and it was a magical experience being in his shop.
PCC - I spoke earlier of the delights of a fine ladies ankle in an elegant shoe .... Old man Castelow the Chemist lived with his sister who from time to time served in the shop.
She was a very beautiful 80+ years old Edwardian spinster who, like her brother, continued to dress as an Edwardian. She had the most beautiful tiny tiny ankles encased in fantastic dainty little boots. She was a delight with a tiny waist and immaculate coiffured hair worn in a bun. I would have loved to have known her when she was a young woman.
If you/Sheff/Chin are ever Hull way for the day the museum is worth a visit and if I remember correctly there is a photo of her in there too.
Montana young miss a quite day here but we did have 4 Canadians (simultaneously) and an Austrian call by today. Your wonderful site sure attracts the curious. Hope you are not low and have a good weekend.
BB - I like daft lyrics...
I had my hair cut on Weds, as fringe was so long I was having difficulty seeing. Had some rather nifty layers too, courtesy of a work colleague who is an ex-hairdresser. Off to Birmingham tomorrow v early to pick up no. 1 child from uni - she wants to introduce me to the 12th biggest shopping centre in the UK, so could turn out expensive as well as early...
ReplyDeleteStrictly speaking he was a Victorian but he time warped as an Edwardian....
ReplyDeleteNice eye candy there thauma not usually into athletic young women...
I lost half my beard a couple of weeks ago courtesy of bastard Mungo........a tale I must get round to telling one day.
ReplyDeletedeano
ReplyDeleteYou keep tantalising us with intriguing Mungo snippets and promising us stories but so far no show. Come on deano, tell us, what happened to your beard?
I like Mr Castelow btw.
Deano - er, I do hope you're not referring to David Crosby!
ReplyDeleteOn the hair subject - went looking for glorious men's hair (Robert Plant) and found the the beginning of The Song Remains the Same - brill self send-up!
On to watch Part II now....
deano - one of my earliest museum memories was Wilberforce House. My dad took the kids to the Streetlife museum shortly before he died. Next time I visit my mum, will try to visit your chemist!
ReplyDeleteShaz
ReplyDeleteHow is No 1 child doing? Birmingham is a far nicer city than most people think it is. We have friends in Moseley - although we havent been up there for a coupla years - but I really like it up there.
Seconded re Mungo and the beard... we need to hear this story!
Thaum
ReplyDeleteGot the dvd of TSRTS.. superb! Havent watched it in a while
I need to go to the barber's too - my hair is thick and curly and I am starting to resemble a mushroom, or at least a time-traveller from the 70's.
ReplyDeleteI was actually tempted to arrange my curls artfully to disguise my (slightly) receding temples, but it was too like a Scargill-type combover. I'm taking imminent decrepitude like a man.
BB - she loves Birmingham. She's had possible glandular fever so she's been doing some work rather than drinking & partying. It'll be really good to see her!
ReplyDeleteSorry to read about your hassles with the EWO, I really hope you manage to get past her and do what you think is right - fingers crossed for you.
Best Led Zep choon evah
ReplyDeleteOh let the sun beat down upon my face...
thauma nah I may have failing eyesight but the lass with the javelin on the album cover is a lass - them is tits I can see.
ReplyDeleteshaz You'll love it. Well worth the visit. Is it the new Bull Ring you are to visit?
Sheff as you know my tales of Mungo are really intended for my yet to be born grandkids that I hope to have one day so I tend not be in a great hurry.
It is my intention that the next one on Mungo's blog will have a photo of him - he was touchy when I posted Miss Diesel's... but I cant find the cable to download his pic so things are delayed.
the draft of yarn currently starts as follows.....
Mungo and the Furnivall Beard
When Mungo came from the animal sanctuary they studiously failed to advise me that metamorphism was a special talent of his. I may have told you before that on a good day Mungo can be a sod, and on a not so good one he can be a double sod. Every so often he surpasses himself; and transforms into a super, gold plated, complete with knobs, bells, and whistles sod.
Not to put too finer point on it, Mungo can be a right bastard. But of course the animal mad ladies at the Dog’s home had kept this awful truth to themselves. Talk about buyer beware
Quite how Mungo came to have such an inappropriate sense of humour is beyond my ken. Most of the time he is a loving, amiable and considerate companion, a real delight to be with. What you would call a proper and civil dog. Then there are these other dark occasions when he just looses it – usually big time. Shocking to tell but Mungo can mock the afflicted…..
It happened thus - we had been out walking happily for a good half hour......
Actually I must write up the Poppy yarn first.
Lavartis
ReplyDeleteYou could do it in a Roman Emperor kind of way... I am sure that would suit you!
Shaz - we are already home educating our lad, through Oxford Home Learning, who provide superb materials and support. We want to do the same with the foster lad who has real trouble going to school and has missed out on so much education as a result, despite being a really bright cookie. His mum and dad are in agreement too, and we could use the same GCSE materials that we have paid for for our lad, but the EWO is putting up hurdles. Hell, the SS are even in agreement, too!
I have bumped into a lot of parents who have removed their kids from that school though and I wonder if all this isn't rather because they are beginning to look mighty bad lately and are clutching at straws to try and stop parents deregistering their children.
All I want is for both boys to have at least a good stab at getting their GCSE's, which they never will at that school. It is a bloody zoo. :(
That should read "The SS are even in agreement with us too".
ReplyDeleteDeano, you are a tease!
ReplyDeleteyes, we want the poppy yarn as well, not instead of!
deano, you tease - yep, new Bull Ring. Lucky it's just been pay day, as I'm sure there are *loads* of things she can't live without...
ReplyDeleteBB - sounds like you have right - and all the right people - on your side. Also sounds as though you're right about the school trying to protect its reputation. I'm also sure that most EWOs are used to parents rolling over before them, and don't like it when they don't.
On a total tangent - why is it, the moment you put on a clean sweatshirt, you drop dinner down it? Or is it just me?
BB - while that is a very good song (and with a particularly Plantilicious vid), I refute "best Led Zep choon evah" with this one: Said I been cryin'.
ReplyDeleteshaz
ReplyDeleteI have certain items of clothing which I know without a shadow of a doubt that I will end up spilling something down as soon as I put them on. Usually the ones that are the most difficult to get stains out of.
Sod's Law. :o)
Yeah - I am sure that the EWO is used to having single mums on benefit with unruly teenage truants quivering at the mere projection of her gaze. She is not used to someone who stands up to her. I suppose to an extent I haven't done myself any favours by being a law smart-arse because she seems to be digging in her heels almost as a matter of personal pride now. I should have been more submissive.
Hey a visitor from Mexico!
ReplyDeleteBB - actually I don't think you should have been more submissive. I think people who have the attitude that they can push people around like that need to learn that they're not necessarily always right, and that other people also have valid opinions; maybe your experience might make her more likely to listen to other parents?
ReplyDeleteDeano - ah yes, I was struggling to work out which lass I might have linked to! Didnae think about the album cover....
ReplyDeleteMungo sounds like some horses I have known. Horses have a very definite sense of humour.
BB: from a couple of the home schooling threads I've read, I'm under the impression that the school cannot object to you removing a child for home schooling - or does that not apply to children for which you are only guardian and not parent?
BB- I may now be out of date, but most LEA's used to have an Education professional (in the old days typically an Adviser/Inspector) assigned to evaluating the quality of home education........if they still do (enquire at the town hall maybe?) you might find it easier to get them on your side. They have much more status than EWO's.
ReplyDeleteshaz - funnily enough my husband said the exact same thing. I always come away from the meetings feeling slightly queasy at the sheer authoritarianism of her behaviour. There is no reasoning with them. They have their mission, which has nothing to do with welfare and everything to do with enforcement, and they couldn't give a shit about the individual child at all, frankly.
ReplyDeleteWe pulled our lad out for different reasons - bullying being one - whereas foster-lad is just a serial truant, well before we took him in. And the first time we had contact with the EWO, it was to tell us that if foster-lad didn't attend school we could be prosecuted. As my hubby said at the time, no good turn goes unpunished. But I saw red, as you can imagine.
thaum
ReplyDeleteThis was the argument they tried to use on Monday, except that we have subsequently got the mum and dad to put it in writing too. The EWO said she wanted to talk to the mum and would oppose the deregistration until she did - which was complete bollocks, because we had all attended a Family Group Conference with Social Services a week or two earlier, including mum, where it was agreed that if he didn't go to school we would home educate him. But yes, they cannot refuse without a bloody good reason.
Deano
The next step is going to be a letter of complaint to her boss, frankly. It is bonkers that home education is considered fine and dandy for our boy, but not for the foster boy, in the same house, with the same "parents" and the same coursework materials, with the consent of the natural parents and the social services. Eejits.
BB - gah! I can feel your frustration. (((hugs))))
ReplyDeleteWrite to the Director of Education with a copy to the Chief EWO.....
ReplyDeleteDeano
ReplyDeleteShocking to tell but Mungo can mock the afflicted…..
This is most unfair of you...downright cruel infact. No more cliff hangers if you don't mind or I might have to come up there and give you Thauma's thousand yard stare.
BB - jesus wept..that EWO sounds like a real monster in jackboots!
Hahahah!
ReplyDeleteThauma's thousand yard stare sounds evil. I could do with that for future meetings.
Sheff
ReplyDeleteThauma's thousand yard stare
Hehe, I'm in trouble over that one at the mo ... well no, actually not in trouble at all, but in benefit!
BB
ReplyDeleteIt is, and yes, you really could!
Ms Wildehack:
ReplyDeleteOK....
this....
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983), Leonard Nimoy (1931), Alan Arkin (1934), James Caan (1940), Richard Dawkins (1941),
Is what I'd call that inspirational..... btw... I hate, more than Margaret Thatcher, the Pet Shop Boys... they are the embodiment of M (dot) Fatcher..... :-)
OMG, I don't remember using "the stare" during the meet-up! Apparently I must have used a tame version. ;-)
ReplyDeleteBB - the really crap thing is that you as a 'law smart-arse' feel queasy after a session with her. Goodness only knows how someone with no self-confidence and possibly little education and experience of arguing with authority would get on.
ReplyDeleteWe have something of the same enforcement rather than welfare situation with our FLO - I've had one of our yr 6 parents in tears because she received a threatening letter re her daughter's absence - until yr 6 her daughter had a 99% attendance record; at the beginning of yr 6 she started her periods very painfully and has had on average a day off per month since Sept.
I found it extremely difficult to be diplomatic about the bloody woman - we've got kids with appalling attendance records, but she won't touch them because it's too much like hard work.
Shaz
ReplyDeleteBB - the really crap thing is that you as a 'law smart-arse' feel queasy after a session with her. Goodness only knows how someone with no self-confidence and possibly little education and experience of arguing with authority would get on.
Well said. If our BB is having trouble, I imagine most ordinary mortals would give up at the first hurdle.
LaRit
ReplyDeletePetShopBoys were a joke band that actually managed to make it in spite of themselves. I think two of them - certainly Neil Tennant was one - were journos with Smash Hits who thought that the music scene was so crap at the time that they actually might manage to do better, and they did to a certain extent. I don't think they were Thatcherite, though, so much as being part of the Thatcher era, which is not quite the same thing.
Shaz - the teaching staff have been fine with us. I think they realise we are doing the best we can in the circumstances.
Shaz - one day off a month?! Jeez, they are gits aren't they. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteWinthorpe's thread is getting interesting ..
ReplyDeletethauma
Absolutely, otherwise the pub car park would have acquired a nice statue or four.
evening all - have been out bein' culchural (due to an odd series of events involving one of ex-flatmates' english students and an unplanned emergency dash to see a relative, so got tickets for free) at a classical music bash. Very good fun.
ReplyDeleteBB - sorry to head of the soddishness of the ewok (have I got that right?) - where are you going in france?
deano - we want stories. don't tease...
BB - utter fuckwits. Makes me incredibly angry.
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side, I've just uploaded my first photo to the gallery.
Hi guys in quickly then out. BB did you see the Times piece on home education about the German family that got asylum status in the US because Germany won't allow it!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article7073125.ece
Home education is getting more popular in Glasgow - and quite well organised - we're happy with our youngest's school (the gaelic school) but anywhere else it would have ben an option.
On the great Lidl debate I once bought a pair of trek shoes from the buggers and they began to fall to pieces after one day on the hill.
Damn off bye.
MsChin - oh deary me! I must not know my own strength. But I like it. *cackle*
ReplyDeleteOff upstairs now to refurbish my evil powers. Will have to catch up with the latest Winthorpe developments tomorrow.
NN Untrusteds!
thauma
ReplyDeleteOh we liked it, definitely, didn't scare us one bit ..
Philippa
ReplyDeleteSadly, I am at almost the other end of the country from you - Marais Poitevin, inland from La Rochelle on the West Coast. Would have been wonderful to have had our own Untrusted French Meet - unless of course you fancy a holiday round l'Acension and can come over our way...
Right - off to bed now due to stupid o'clock start tomorrow - night UT.
ReplyDeleteAscension has two s's, doesn't it.
ReplyDeleteD'oh!
All like this round where I used to live.
ReplyDeleteNight night thaum and shaz x
ReplyDeleteAlso off to bed. I already did stupid o'clock start several days this week.
ReplyDeleteNight.
MsChin
ReplyDeleteRe Winthorpe's thread, sounds like one of our mates. Hugs to him in any event x
If people are going to bed already, it must be chillout time...
ReplyDelete(one of the choons I am having at my funeral, btw...)
BB - ah well, worth a thought - still a bit bewildered by how big france is... and yes, i know that's weird...
ReplyDeleteSerious about coming West if you want to - there's a sofa bed, if you can put up with two 14 yr old geeks too for a day or two.
ReplyDeleteOh, are we doing funeral tunes? This will be one of mine Christmas card from a hooker in Minneapolis
ReplyDeleteYou have to get past the Christmas carol at the beginning.
That one's fab too, Sheff. Love Tom Waits. :o)
ReplyDeleteIsn't it also Nancy Pelosi's birthday today as well? Her 70th as well.
ReplyDeleteBB - Bloody hell sounds like you are having a nightmare with these bastards. You sound like you are handling a horrible situation very well.
ReplyDeleteDeano - I would love that chemists museum! I love chemists. They are my favourite type of shop, which is a bit odd I know but I love them. My first ever job was in Boots - hated it at first after being put on the tills but then I was put on perfume and make up - oh the joys! Fifteen years old and being able to play around with the lipsticks and the Channel etc, etc. It started a life long love affair with the old maquillage.
But my favourite chemist is one near me. it reminds me of the chemist in Grimey in the seventies. Full of old fashioned brands. It doesnt sell anything glam but I love going in there, it has some strange items in it. My husband reckons it is like a Chemists from Soviet Russia. He also finds my attachment to the place frankly strange.
I once found this old fashioned apothecary cabinet in an antique shop. I would have loved it. But it was about five thousand pounds!
Thanks for that link it has made my night.
''In fact, I have decided that my funeral is going to be one fuck off big illegal rave in some local farmer's field :o)''
ReplyDeleteNow THAT would be going out in style BB :)
Good plan BB! I'm thinking John Gielgud in the Mankiewicz 'Julius Caesar'... Ages til the next Ides of March too.
ReplyDeleteIf I can - having achieved the global fame that is no less than my deserts - swing both a funeral and a memorial service, I'm having 'Praise to the holiest in the height' (JH Newman is very important to me) and 'All my hope on God is founded' at the f. (then cremation, ashes to be scattered in Trinity paddock. Ta.) Cooler stuff, like the Internationale in German and some Stravinsky, at the m.s.
BB - oh, bless you - May is my month for hosting visiting parents and nipping back to blighty (ATP is on) so will be living frugally in the extreme after that...
ReplyDeleteHaving this at mine (plus hymns) - unfortunately takes some time to buffer...
...living frugally in the extreme so will have to decline kind offer, meant.
ReplyDeleteand this hymn, although hopefully without the screw up at the beginning...
Evening all
ReplyDeleteBB-Love the new avatar on Cif.Just to warn you
though-some men of a certain age find Nora Batty
a huge turn-on!
When i die i want to be cremated,my ashes put in
an urn and then dropped in the middle of the
Atlantic.And then i want my family and friends
to have a bloody good piss-up.Plus no Black
and no tears!
PCC - if you like Chemists look at what you will find if you visit the museum..
ReplyDelete"Mr Walter Thomas Castelow's shop at 159 Woodhouse Lane was the oldest surviving chemist shop in Leeds when it was demolished for the redevelopment of the University in 1976.
Opening in 1841 under the name Bentley's, the shop had a long history and operated under the names Dearden's and Brown's, before finally coming into the hands of Walter Thomas Castelow in 1907. Over the course of the twentieth century the world outside was to undergo a great deal of change; however the little shop was to retain its Victorian character and atmosphere throughout.
Many of the original 1840s fittings remained, the sturdy mahogany counter, the drug run, the glass fronted cabinets, showcases and shelves, gilt labelled jars, coloured bottles, and huge glass rounds which contained liquids, powders, tablets and pills, continued to be used by Castelow until his death in 1974.
Like his shop Mr Castelow's own appearance was unique; throughout his life he continued to wear the smart, professional dress of his Edwardian youth, he refused to wear the white lab coat and instead opted for a waistcoat, jacket, cravat and stiffly starched two inch collar. He struck an imposing figure but his warm smile quickly put people at ease."
You'll love it.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletedouble post @ 23:56!
ReplyDeleteLOL paul - you must be kidding!
ReplyDeleteRe cremation, I used to take the piss out of my mum, who was a manic housekeeper, always hoovering, that when I died I wanted to be cremated and have my ashes spread all over her living room rug...
Night friends.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping the Hindus will effect a change in UK law and we can have public open cremations then my departure can be assured by leaving me in my van and torching it..............a kind of contemporary Viking exit.
ReplyDeleteFailing a change in the law I've explained to my sons how to set an electrical fault fire...whilst I'm laying in state.
I'm undecided about the music but think it will have to include the Benedictus from Karl Jenkins Armed Man
This will scare the shit out of my kids
If you don't know Karl he's the guy who composed the de beers diamonds advert music. The armed man was a piece composed for a commission from the Armouries museum in Leeds
Come to think of it I wouldn't mind this lass playing at my gig:
ReplyDeleteLass on a Harp
If they had have had some decent shoes I might have gone for this version ...
ReplyDeleteSpoilt for want of suitable footwear
evening all who remain
ReplyDeletetwas my 'pouter who was lurking honest!
but now i am here in the flesh so to speak.
@Montana
ReplyDeleteDidn,t want to say anything on Cif but hope
all is well with you given the stuff you,ve
had to deal with over the last week.Take care.
Ah Deano it is a tempting prospect that museum it has to be said. Right all am off to bedski. Nite all.
ReplyDelete