Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

chewmylegoff

silvercar wrote: »

A classic male trick IME. My solution after suffering this for years:

me: "I can't bare to watch" and walk out the room.
male (1 of 3 possibles): "now you've said that, you need to offer guidance."
me: "I wouldn't be starting from the position you are in now."


A few days/weeks later:

male: Please guide me because last time you criticised
me: ends up taking over. Grrr!

the boot is often on the other foot in chez chewy.

typically:

female (there is only 1): can you help with this?
me: i think you're doing this wrong, you should do x, y, z.
female: [throws stuff across room, storms off]
me: finishes cooking dinner (95% still left to do), serves dinner

next day:

female: it is your turn to cook dinner, i did it yesterday

chewmylegoff

our central heating has been down for a month. the landlady has failed to fix it, which wasn't much bother as we were in australia for most of that time. however, i have now taken the control panel apart and found a [literally] exploded 1A fuse. i replaced it with a 1A fuse and it blew again within 20 minutes. i have replaced it with an 8A fuse.

place your bets on whether the circuit board will melt (a) today or (b) tomorrow.

zagubov

I know that in the US the annual leave is really short until you've been working somewhere for decades. They get round it by having at least one bank holiday every month and usually on a monday so you can get away for a long weekend.

I often wondered if we'd be better off having Thursday off nstead of Saturday, like they do in France. Actually now I'm wondering if they still do that or if weekends are standard across the EU?

lostinrates

zagubov wrote: »

I know that in the US the annual leave is really short until you've been working somewhere for decades. They get round it by having at least one bank holiday every month and usually on a monday so you can get away for a long weekend.

I often wondered if we'd be better off having Thursday off nstead of Saturday, like they do in France. Actually now I'm wondering if they still do that or if weekends are standard across the EU?

Dunno about France now, but Milan at least was mainly moving to ' american hours' but not wholly. I.e. they would close earlier often, but when we moved to a burb we found they still held trad hours, much better for commuters, who need shops open after work, not in the afternoon. Sunday opening had well and truely taken hold in centre but not outside. The big hypermarket outside not opening surprised me. Of course, almost everything closed for ferragosto in August. Very I conveniant and not compatible wit 'American hours'

Generali

Happy New Year all. We took the kids to see the 9pm fireworks then a 10 minute bus ride later we were home! The whole thing was great but it was bloody hot today and my daughter insisted on taking me for a bush walk/adventure round all the edges of the park we went to.

A lot of places really cash in on NYE over here. A local restaurant by the harbour wants $250/head. A hotel by the Harbour Bridge wants $900 a head for grub as long as you don't want a table by the window.

A room is a snip at $725. You have to stay 4 nights though:eek:.

I'm starting to think that buying a boat and selling seats for the evening would be the best way to see the fireworks here.

LydiaJ wrote: »

My version of falling apart doesn't stop me making good decisions and doing whatever's necessary to deal with the situation. It just means I need to find people to tell all about it (including both what happened and what action I have had to take as a result) before my brain can calm down and return to being able to give attention to the rest of life.

It turns out my version of falling apart seems to involve a lot of sitting down and doing nothing in the day and then drinking a lot in the evenings. I can't say that I'm anxious to revisit the experience to get a statistically valid sample of ways that my life caves in.

LydiaJ wrote: »

Not working today. Will go into school on Thursday to get stuff ready, and start teaching again on Monday. Kids go back on Monday too.

I took today off but am back in for my final 3 days Wed-Fri. Then I've got a week off before New Job starts.

Have any of the Nice People used MIT's Scratch, a programing language for kids? If so is there any advice about a good way to get started with it? It looks awesome but getting going is tough.

PasturesNew

In the States, it's typical to have "Sick Leave" on top of annual leave. It's yours to take off sick and be paid .... which can, of course, be used as a sort of annual leave when you're just not in the mood for work

I worked with an American 15 years ago who was gobsmacked that he couldn't just "phone in sick and get paid sick leave" when his child was ill.... as that was the system he was used to - using his sick leave days like that.

So each year you get 2 weeks' annual leave and 2 weeks' sick leave.

They do have lots of days off though, national holidays of various sorts. I'd Google for them if I could get Google to load

misskool

my car insurance is due for renewal

I can't bear to type in the details. Will they be better than my directline renewal? Also, I may need to switch cars as I doubt the lil' miss will pass the MOT in May.....

PasturesNew

I'm now convinced the telly issue is solely the inability of the scart lead to stay in.... you can put it in, but it's touch and go if it makes a connection, then it's own weight makes it drop out .... as does moving the telly an inch .... I think the telly is pre-scart lead and the socket was some cheap afterthought round the back that nobody really expected to ever be used.

silvercar

misskool wrote: »

my car insurance is due for renewal

I can't bear to type in the details. Will they be better than my directline renewal? Also, I may need to switch cars as I doubt the lil' miss will pass the MOT in May.....

If nothing else, you must, must, MUST do a quote as a new customer with directline. Mine came out £100 cheaper. Save the quote. Then one phonecall to them and they helpfully match themselves, pull the saved quote over to your policy and give you the cheaper price.

silvercar

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'm now convinced the telly issue is solely the inability of the scart lead to stay in.... you can put it in, but it's touch and go if it makes a connection, then it's own weight makes it drop out .... as does moving the telly an inch .... I think the telly is pre-scart lead and the socket was some cheap afterthought round the back that nobody really expected to ever be used.

We have that problem with a Sky TV eye attachment. Its weight is too great for it to remain in situ. We have a stack of random objects supporting its great weight.