The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[Jurek]

Metropolitan Police, please do be fucking off and not circling overhead at this time of day in your noisy helicopter thing. Kthxbai.

[Jurek]

And finally you've decided to foxtrot Oscar just as the first of the  incoming redeye to LHR commence. Lovely start to my day.

[Polar Bear]

I texted our usual plumber today but got no reply.

Our preferred plumber is like that.
Monday, phone twice.  No pickup.
Tuesday, phone twice.  No pickup.  Txt. No response
Wednesday.  See Tuesday.
Thursday.  Start asking around for other recommendations.
Friday.  He just turns up unannounced.

if I was you I'd go straight to Thursday next time.  Clearly the grapevine kicks into action with some urgency in your neck of the woods.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Getting a bit fed up with washing in cold water.

But you're a rufty-tufty biking and camping woman! Or something. (Heat water on the hob and pour it over yourself in the bath?)

[Cudzoziemiec]

Metropolitan Police, please do be fucking off and not circling overhead at this time of day in your noisy helicopter thing. Kthxbai.

We have a hospital with helipad five minutes walk away and the "notorious" St Pauls and Stapleton Rd areas the same in the other direction...

[Cudzoziemiec]

As a tie-in with the "pretending you're not old" thread https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=87402.1225 I was suprised to discover recently that printed A level certificates are still a thing. And a thing that has to be collected in person by the student. In the week from Monday 12th to Friday 16th September. When said student has, guess what, already gone off to university in a far-away town.

[Mr Larrington]

Metropolitan Police, please do be fucking off and not circling overhead at this time of day in your noisy helicopter thing. Kthxbai.

Had the buggers at least three times last night

[T42]

As a tie-in with the "pretending you're not old" thread https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=87402.1225 I was suprised to discover recently that printed A level certificates are still a thing. And a thing that has to be collected in person by the student. In the week from Monday 12th to Friday 16th September. When said student has, guess what, already gone off to university in a far-away town.

Have they shifted the terms around?  I suppose they would, the shifty bastards. Anyway, my first term in Edinburgh started on 12th October.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I think not so much shifted as expanded the university terms so they're as long as school terms.

[rafletcher]

I think not so much shifted as expanded the university terms so they're as long as school terms.

Or they're an ex-Poly, which already had longer terms.

[Jasmine]

As a tie-in with the "pretending you're not old" thread https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=87402.1225 I was suprised to discover recently that printed A level certificates are still a thing. And a thing that has to be collected in person by the student. In the week from Monday 12th to Friday 16th September. When said student has, guess what, already gone off to university in a far-away town.

Does anyone ever ask to see the actual certificates? I've never needed to produce them to anyone. Mind you, I discovered when applying for professional chartership a few years ago that I didn't have any of my degree certificates and realised that no one had ever asked me to prove I was actually qualified for anything.

[rafletcher]

Ive been asked for copies in the past, yes.

Anyway, my grumble: We don't have any (formal) flexible / hybrid working agreement. We can, once a year, ask to vary our hours, and then we have to stick with that for the year. So, I recently put in a request to shift my day 1/2hr earlier - I work 10 minutes from home, so no hardship, and already get in at the time I want to formally start. And yet... our HR manager (who didn't speak directly to me, instead having her assistant talk to my boss) is worried I might not like the new hours and I'd be stuck with them.  so has asked that I refrain from making the request until after her holiday (ok, that's next week), when apparently a new procedure for flex/hybrid working will be rolled out. Meantime, I'm told by the assistant "well, work the times you want to, as long as no-one complains it'll be fine". Bah.

[Kim]

Getting a bit fed up with washing in cold water.

But you're a rufty-tufty biking and camping woman! Or something. (Heat water on the hob and pour it over yourself in the bath?)

Yes, but my hands still disintegrate after a few days of camping.  And there's less to clean when you're living in a tent.  Our kitchen is currently a ming-pit pending the restoration of hot water.

Anyway, gasman arrived this morning, and I dragged myself out of bed^[1] to watch him remove an accumulation of schmoo from the condensate trap thinger, restoring the boiler to life, and complain that the radio thermostat wossname was crap (which it is, even before I switched the supply off at the mains overnight and it didn't come back).

I think we're getting a new thermostat with Honeywell written on it, and a quote for a less shit boiler.  Landlord will then get some more quotes, and give the job to the cheapest cowboy.


_{[1] Covid vaccine's given me full-on flu symptoms this time.}

[ian]

As a tie-in with the "pretending you're not old" thread https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=87402.1225 I was suprised to discover recently that printed A level certificates are still a thing. And a thing that has to be collected in person by the student. In the week from Monday 12th to Friday 16th September. When said student has, guess what, already gone off to university in a far-away town.

Does anyone ever ask to see the actual certificates? I've never needed to produce them to anyone. Mind you, I discovered when applying for professional chartership a few years ago that I didn't have any of my degree certificates and realised that no one had ever asked me to prove I was actually qualified for anything.

No one has ever asked to see any of my qualifications, so I could be completely bluffing my entire career based on a CSE grade 4 in metalwork. Probably a good thing, since I have little clue where those certificates might be. Inside my PhD thesis, probably. Where that is, who knows.

I just had to validate that I do indeed have a PhD, and at least I could find it online, a gripping 228 page read. I just downloaded a copy. I probably have it on floppy disk somewhere. I'd think these days, that if it were important, they'd check with the source, rather than rely on an easily fakeable certificate.

The only people who I thought might want to see the PhD certificate were the the US immigration authorities and my employer over there, but neither of them asked either.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I think I have twice been asked for sight of my degree certificate. Never As and Os. Oh and I've definitely had to show my CELTA (a TEFL qualification).

[Mrs Pingu]

Plumber got back to me today so hopefully we will have a working shower next week.

[ElyDave]

As a tie-in with the "pretending you're not old" thread https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=87402.1225 I was suprised to discover recently that printed A level certificates are still a thing. And a thing that has to be collected in person by the student. In the week from Monday 12th to Friday 16th September. When said student has, guess what, already gone off to university in a far-away town.

Have they shifted the terms around?  I suppose they would, the shifty bastards. Anyway, my first term in Edinburgh started on 12th October.

I think they must have, MrsED seemed very skeptikal when I suggested term started in the first week of October, similar to No 1 daughter (Cambridge has shorter terms).  One of our nephews went back to Warwick this week or last.

[Jurek]

Metropolitan Police, please do be fucking off and not circling overhead at this time of day in your noisy helicopter thing. Kthxbai.

Had the buggers at least three times last night

It parks up somewhere in Essex, not too far from your's.(ETA North Weald apparently)
So whenever it flies into Londres, it is likely to fly past Larrington Towers.

[Cudzoziemiec]

A friend had it directly over her roof when she discovered thieves stripping the lead off (she literally lives under a church roof!) several years ago. Though that was only because it happened to be on its way back from some other call.

[Pingu]

No one has ever asked to see any of my qualifications, so I could be completely bluffing my entire career based on a CSE grade 4 in metalwork...

You could get a job with Douglas Ross (the wee fanny).

[TheLurker]

I think not so much shifted as expanded the university terms so they're as long as school terms.

Or they're an ex-Poly, which already had longer terms.

Norwegian Blue?

[The Family Cyclist]

Metropolitan Police, please do be fucking off and not circling overhead at this time of day in your noisy helicopter thing. Kthxbai.

Had the buggers at least three times last night

It parks up somewhere in Essex, not too far from your's.(ETA North Weald apparently)
So whenever it flies into Londres, it is likely to fly past Larrington Towers.

Well thats news, thought they were at Boreham but apparently moved out

[phantasmagoriana]

As a tie-in with the "pretending you're not old" thread https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=87402.1225 I was suprised to discover recently that printed A level certificates are still a thing. And a thing that has to be collected in person by the student. In the week from Monday 12th to Friday 16th September. When said student has, guess what, already gone off to university in a far-away town.

Have they shifted the terms around?  I suppose they would, the shifty bastards. Anyway, my first term in Edinburgh started on 12th October.

Term at Edinburgh this year started this week (last week was freshers' week) - I think they rejigged their academic year a while back.

[Pickled Onion]

As a tie-in with the "pretending you're not old" thread https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=87402.1225 I was suprised to discover recently that printed A level certificates are still a thing. And a thing that has to be collected in person by the student. In the week from Monday 12th to Friday 16th September. When said student has, guess what, already gone off to university in a far-away town.

Does anyone ever ask to see the actual certificates? I've never needed to produce them to anyone. Mind you, I discovered when applying for professional chartership a few years ago that I didn't have any of my degree certificates and realised that no one had ever asked me to prove I was actually qualified for anything.

No one has ever asked to see any of my qualifications, so I could be completely bluffing my entire career based on a CSE grade 4 in metalwork. Probably a good thing, since I have little clue where those certificates might be. Inside my PhD thesis, probably. Where that is, who knows.

I just had to validate that I do indeed have a PhD, and at least I could find it online, a gripping 228 page read. I just downloaded a copy. I probably have it on floppy disk somewhere. I'd think these days, that if it were important, they'd check with the source, rather than rely on an easily fakeable certificate.

The only people who I thought might want to see the PhD certificate were the the US immigration authorities and my employer over there, but neither of them asked either.

A few years ago there was a sudden interest amongst City employers to give the appearance of not hiring anyone who might be regarded as less than honest. New hires would be declined if the credit check showed a missed credit card repayment. One place I was at did a retrospective check of certificates and a guy who'd been there a couple of years couldn't produce 'A' Level certs and was marched from the building (the offence being lying on his CV rather than a lack of qualifications as he had a degree).

I don't know if there were any actual regulatory rules or if it was just the agencies trying to make extra money, but the next contract I took they insisted on seeing certs for everything stated on the CV. One I couldn't find was a professional exam and the company that issued it no longer existed which was a complete pain.

My thesis is on a magnetic tape - a 12" reel - it wouldn't fit on floppies on account of all the illustrations being in some weird Tektronix format that means they will never be seen again even if I tracked down a museum with a VAX tape reader.

[ian]

I was impressed the nice people at the University of Edinburgh have scanned my thesis and put it online. It's like the future, man. Well, it was in 2015 when they evidently scanned all the hard copies. They singularly failed to make it any more interesting though. It was onwards and upwards after that into the genetics of stereochemistry. Always in demand at parties, was I.