Excerpt the p is kind of silent. Obviously the Americans say it in their centuries-long, doomed attempt to make English a phonetic language.
Excerpt the p is kind of silent. Obviously the Americans say it in their centuries-long, doomed attempt to make English a phonetic language.
It’s like Jimmy said, it’s there and it’s not quite silent but you don’t put any emphasis on it. Very close to being silent.
I still refuse to acknowledge the r in February.
You've just acknowledged it.
A colleague of mine got her identity stolen. Someone called her and left a message saying that blood was found on a car she had rented, and that she needed to call back the detective so that he could clear her. So she decided to call back, and admits that she found it suspicious that the detective, who had a very American name, had a thick Indian accent, but since she didn't want to make any assumptions, she proceeded to give him all her information: social security number, address, credit card(s) info, the works. Only after she was transferred to another detective, also with an Indian accent, did she decide that maybe something fishy was going on.
Let's not forget, this is someone with a PhD, who has been working as a professor for over ten years.
If the original message was left by someone with a thick accent too then she's a fucking balloon.
It was and she is.
Wow lol
When was the last time she rented a car too?
She did rent a car a month or so ago, after crashing and totaling hers.
Career suicide today.
Told the VP of HR that their “target To have x% of senior positions held by women/minority” was causing external and internal people to believe there’s positive discrimination occurring within the company.
Told him that his message of “we need to make bold decisions” to get there is clumsy wording that absolutely suggests they’re going to hire a candidate based on gender rather than merit.
Apparently the solution to years of positively discriminating against women will be solved by a short term positive discrimination against men to get a better balance to meet a metric that someone has set.
Good one. And now you’ve undermined the white male population and women/diverse applicants will/do doubt whether they got the job on merit.
Well at least you wont have to use any more helicopters.
"Can't believe they're now discriminating in a way that doesn't benefit me. "
Positive discrimination is a fact of life now in any kind of organisation with a public profile. This isn't 1998. It's worth far more to them to have agreeable statistics than it is to have the marginally 'best' person in junior and middling jobs.
I'm stuck on the phones for two weeks because somebody's cat has died and they're taking the full bereavement leave for it.
That sort of thing is absolute nonsense.
Two weeks bereavement for a fucking cat?
Came home from work to a letter about my tax code and it had car allowance on. I’ve not had a company car since I quit my last job in September 2018. Rang up and I’ve been overpaying. Hello “at least” £1000 rebate! The man was like “I dinnay nae how ye no noticed”
I'm a twit
What’s a typical annual pay rise these days?
Got my pay review letter today and it’s a c. 5% rise which seems pretty good.
Bonus this year is pretty
Baz you going to use that rebate money to collect stickers with sincere?
Unfortunately blurted it out to the missus without thinking so will probably drop most (read: all) of it on paying off our holiday. Tbf I don’t mind that cos it’s not like I’ve missed it but it should mean from now on my monthly pay packet will be a little bit fatter. What this also means is I’ll probably get back into the horses
I'm a twit
Just tell her it wasn’t as much as you originally thought.
I've invested into Garden Soccer, love.
Finished the week on a high. My last call was a claimant going, "I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE!" refusing to take the call. This is after someone else in the household passed her over to speak to me. After I told her who I was, where I was calling from and what it was about.
I had to spend all yesterday looking after some French people. God, French people are a nightmare. I'm the only French speaker at the company, including both my age 65+ managers who run the show and try to tempt them into a relationship, so I have to spend all day translating the awful jokes and the anecdotes that go nowhere, line by line. It starts badly as the boss asks them 'So, how much do you think you will do with us in 2020?' We're thinking 30,000 would be a good start. 50 maybe if they really get going.
'Six cent mille euros,' he says, without blinking. Six hundred thousand. Yeah, sure, Jean-Baptiste, fucking sure. We don't do that with the fucking Saudis, and you're saying your tinpot shed venture in Picardie is going to do half a million in the first year? Definitely believe you, mate.
We take them for lunch to this nice Italian place. One of them orders carbonara and doesn't eat it. The other one orders lasagne and barely touches it. What do you want, for God's sake?
Then the guy buys some stuff and I have to get him to sign the paperwork. I go out back to put the stuff in his car, come back to the office with the paperwork and he's nowhere to be seen. 'Where would a Frenchman run off to?' I ask myself, and sure enough he's outside having a fag, and has also grown a mysterious leather jacket that he hadn't had all day. I ask him to sign the paperwork and he says 'why?'. Turns out he was hoping to pay cash and then just take his pistons and gaskets and pumps back through the tunnel hidden under some blankets. Yeah, mate, great plan. How many Citroen C5s will you need to do half a million Euros on the year doing that.
Sounds like a pretty slick businessman.
A rarely spotted work anecdote from Jim there. A sad decline since the Korean days.
Nowhere near as much material in this racket, even though on the face of it there should be. The difference is that Koreans are mental and Europeans are pretty boring.
I fly on Monday to Inverness (overnight), Dounreay, Thurso (overnight), Wick, and then fly back from Inverness. I've had a look at the takeaways in Thurso to see where does a pizza crunch, but I might have to settle on some fried chocolate if I want to sample the local culture.
You'll be able to get a pizza crunch in Inverness no problem.
The real prize will be getting a munchy box, then if you really want to immerse yourself getting a fried breakfast munchy box the next morning.
I was working on that assumption, but our Inverness hotel is miles on the edge of town so that sinks that. It didn't occur to me until I sat looking at the map that Inverness itself is the middle of nowhere and that the Kessock Bridge is basically the end of civilisation.
Stick the postcode of your hotel into JustEat and you'll find at least one place you can get to. Thurso is big enough to have at least a few decent takeaways too. There's no group of ten thousand Scottish people anywhere who exist without a chippy.
I think Thurso is just hotels and takeaways.
My mate's wife is from Thurso. Prepare yourself for the accent.
https://youtu.be/Ein57OSrqoA
I'm sure there's one round me that does a munchy box with a half pizza crunch in it, Lewis, so you may hit the jackpot.
I've been to Thurso. It is AMAZING. There is also a great account of it in Bill Bryson's 'Notes from a Small Island' which holds very true to when I visited years later.
"Pizza crunch" sounds fun.
Yeah, can someone explain it?
I'm a twit
It's a pizza dipped in batter and deep fried. Usually sold in quarters.
Going to visit a school with a view to apply for a position as second in department there; the current deputy used to be one of the assistant heads at my current school and after emailing the head's PA about the visit, the deputy emailed me back to arrange it all, so will be nice to have a familiar face there.
For now though, half term, and I sure as shit need it.
Well, it may have taken nearly three weeks but tomorrow I start my new job and I couldn't have hoped for much better. Hours are 9.30am til 6.30pm so not far off a 9to5, daily specials, relatively easy menu and only around 50 covers a day which should be easy enough. Nothing frozen, everything made on site as it's predominantly home made and other than the two days off when someone covers me, I'll be the only chef in the kitchen.
I don't have to move away from home and whilst I'll have extra responsibilities in the way of health and safety paperwork type stuff, it's way more than I could have asked for as I only applied as the advert asked for a minimum of two years experience, passionate chef, being creative with daily specials and what not. Slightly nervous as I wasn't aware of what I was getting into prior to the interview which ended up being close to an hour of non-stop conversation before being let loose in the kitchen so I did a pan-fried sea bass with lemon sauce and crushed potato then to my surprise the lass doing my interview said she wasn't expecting that then explained what sort of food they usually had under the last chef so I said I'd bring it down a touch if needed, more home cooked type foods than anything which is probably going to be easier, things like lasagne, pastas, a few vegan/veggie options etc. I have a month working with the reduced menu that is already on and then from April it's down to me. I explained I had very little experience as far as costing etc goes but she's willing to help. I thanked her not expecting to hear back but then they got back in touch and finished off the conversation with "sometimes it's about getting the right person and attitude and willingness to learn which is more important."
Buzzing.
I've been called up for jury service. The maximum allowances for loss of earnings are about half of my wage. I know some employers will pay you something but there's more chance of Double Gloucester pyramids falling from the sky than of my lot paying me a single penny for two weeks.
To think people moan about the BBC licence fee. At least you're getting something for that.
My Mrs got the letter for service the other day too but she can probably get out of it.