Be Excellent To Each Other

Going home now. I tried.

home again. friends of ham is ace as is the MaliAlist.

mind = blown

wow.

I seriously doubt that economist from New York said 'shambolic'.

On a more serious note: Britain, fucking get your shit together. It's not like nobody's said it was happening.

I'm not surprised that people found Heathrow to be crap. 'Heathrow not a shit-hole' would be news.

Quite...Heathrow is to be avoided like the plague.

Heathrow Terminal 5 is actually pretty good, i've been to a fair few airports in my time and i'd put it up there as one of the best. Lots of space, fast checkin, fast through security, etc...

However, as an airport as a whole, Heathrow is pretty bad, not enough runways and ground crew that work to rule and do their best via the union to stop any technological advancement.

I have no idea where this word would be applicable.

That's horrific

Yah, muchly agree,'I flew from T5 to Denver a week ago and it was the quickest check in and security I've ever had. Shopping was okay, food nice, got a random upgrade - gets my vote!

My upgrade trick with BA that has worked a couple of times now.

Be a member of the executive club, the lowest level is fine. (I'm a Blue member with no tier points at all)
Check in online, but don't print out your ticket.
Go to the airport and print out your tickets there from the little machine about 30-60 minutes before checkin closes, hey presto, greater chance of upgrade as your seats aren't set in stone until the ticket is physically printed and you'll only ever get boosted upwards, never dropped downwards.

I've been upgraded to business class twice in a row on a New York flight by doing that. It's by no means a dead cert, and i've been lucky, but doing that gives you the best chance of it happening. If you print your tickets out at home, then your chance of upgrade is pretty much zero.

Interesting interview with Bill Gates in the Torygraph today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/b ... -work.html

I can't see why Splash! got so panned. Donna Air in a silver swim suit? Why the hell not, aye.

Today is a perfect day to drink Bovril.

I'm trying to make do with espresso and Haribo.

I've never had Bovril - what exactly is it?

Rendered cow in a glass, basically.

Oh. Erm. May pass on that one then!

Gravy.

Oh FFS, they've taken the cow out and replaced it with yeast extract (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovril) It's now basically marmite in a glass. Fuckers.

EDIT - they changed it back! yay!

Beef broth. It's fab.

Make her drink it tonight, Cras. Put an umbrella in it if necessary.

Bovril is awesome, drink it at the football whenever I go. Try dunking a MArs bar in it for extra tasty goodness!

An absolute must for winter football spectating.

Ugh. Mrs Meaty loves an 'OXO drink'. A cup of hot stock? You'll be drinking a mug of steaming hot Bisto next, with chunks of ham for dipping.

Actually, that might not be so bad.

Is this innuendo? I just can't tell.

Just like, evidently, nobody could tell the difference between marmite flavoured bovril and the version where they apparently use it as a cheap way of getting rid of unsavoury bits of dead cows.

iPhone place doesn't want my iPhone due to the stiff home button!

Research has shown that for the sum total of £12 I can get a new front glass, rear glass and home button from eBay. Instructions look tricky, but possible. Plan is to replace all the bits and make it perfect, then flog it for uber money!

ordered two new cycling jerseys. one has "DIANA" written across the chest, back and shoulders and the other is yellow and has either dutch or belgium writing over it, advertising upvc windows. one also has a full length zip which will be useful when i am swallowing butterflies on the plate before the man with the hammer goes to my guns. all in all, good for looking casually deliberate.

Team Daily Express?

Watch out for Fiat Unos.

YAY! Trains all fucked so I can work from home!

BOO! Nursery is closed so what the fuck do I do with the kid?

One school is closed one is open. Wtf council be consistent.

By all means come over here and we can both multi task baby and work, as clearly I'm not getting to the office either!!

Half the schools round here are shut, there's about one inch of snow. WTF?

I know, it drives me mad.
I'm sure there are complex, multi-faceted reasons behind this, but I can't help my suspicion that it's possibly largely down to teachers these days seemingly being useless, ineffectual, uncommitted, lazy, prima dona cunts? It's not as though they don't get enough holidays already.

It is partly the council being to inept to keep routes open. Either they leave it and we get snow chains or clear it properly. Not the half arsed thing we do.

Harsh. Nothing to do with the safety of kids or staff?

There's literally an inch of snow and the forecast is just for light snow showers until midday.

How did we manage before though?
Every time schools close, there's a huge knock-on effect on the wider economy and people in general. I'm not suggesting schools school stay open regardless, but in an inch of snow, in January? FFS.

That's not necessarily the case where the teachers commute in from though.

That's their problem.

I'd have thought that the majority would be fairly local. It does seem a litte odd. I can only assume they were working off some wonky forecast that gave two foot of snow and blizzards or something.

Well no, it isn't. Not if the result is a school full of kids and no staff.

Yeah, but how does everyone else manage, and how is that, throughout my entire childhood, my schools were NEVER closed even when we had a foot or more of snow (and most cars were then RWD)? Sure, people were late in, contingency plans had to be made in the very worst cases, but we - and they - still got in. No-one died, the kids were educated, and the parents went to work. It was, like, winter.

Fuck knows how this lot would manage in Sweden. Probably in part explains why theirs, and just about everyone else's education system now pisses all over our joke of a system and teaching profession, whereas 30 years ago we were the best in the world, and an awful lot cheaper, too.

It is when you give them the bollocking for it.

In proper snow, teachers used to walk to the nearest school and say "hello, I'm a teacher, can I help?".

That can't happen nowadays because everyone is a paedophile.

Did anyone watch that programme about the winter of 1963 that was on t'other night? Very interesting. Especially how the morris minors were skipping through the snow, and only seemed to get bogged down in 5ft snow drifts...
Light weight, small tyres see. Modern cars are awful in the snow, combine that with modern tyre technology which is great for dry roads and clearing water, but worse than useless in snowy conditions, and it's no surprise that nobody can get anywhere anymore.

Plus, we have choices. If I absolutely had to get into work today or I wouldn't get paid, i'm sure I could make it somehow. If everyone was in the same position i'm sure it would be quite easy to get into work. I don't and neither does anyone else, so I'm staying at home...

That's disgraceful. They should have been sacked for not owning Land Rovers and driving to the school where they're meant to work.

But Mark, no-one had Range Rovers in my day, in fact many didn't have a car at all and got the bus (which was also running).

Tractors are more useful (if somewhat colder to be in).