trekka

This is going to be a tasty 2nd half .

Just now, MrBlack said:

5th before half time would be nice

I want 7 .

We're back, baby! 

Honda did great adverts it has to be said (other epic ones posted previously too).  Garrison Keillor fully on board as well and they even got him singing. 

1 minute ago, Spoony said:

Woke up feeling like I’d smoked a thousand cigarettes. Took a covid test as had one knocking about out of intrigue more than anything and what do you know Ive got it again. What do people actually do these days if you’ve got it??

Sorry to hear that.  Basically stay in and try not to interact with others.  Get plenty of rest and drink lots of fluids too.  If work try to force you in then tell them to do one.  

I hope you're clear of it soon. 

10 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Inspiring. Thank you for that and your words are so kind too. 

No worries.  I still remember his first game in charge vs Spain at VP (winning 3-0), a big lift after the dross of Keegan.  Then he engineered the 1-5 against Germany (I was in Spain in a bar, remember it well ). He always spoke well (and still does) of us after learning English and it is obvious he still has a passion for our National game.  May he live his life (without too much pain and with enjoyment) for a good while yet. 

On 11/01/2024 at 10:26, The_Steve said:

Sven Goran Eriksson has terminal cancer - described only having a year to live. How terribly sad. 

I was quite saddened to hear the news.  He won't see / hear my message but I'm wishing him all of the very best in his tough journey ahead.  He still speaks fondly of his time managing England and hopefully he will be there for the England v Brasil game. 

29 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

It says alot about people who feel they work better and prefer working from home. Personally I would much rather go out a few times a week, than sit in my house everyday on my own working, how sad is that. Its like sitting in the corner of the pub on your own sipping your pint.

 

You haven't considered the type of work or personal circumstance.  I have people in my team who absolutely cannot work from home and we had to put in special measures for them even during Covid.  Others, similar to me I guess, are more productive and generally feel as though they get a lot more done at home.  I'm not a hermit working from home, I'm on video calls and chatting away to people all day (as is my team).  When I do go in (2 days a week for now), I just don't get an awful lot done and my hours are constrained due to commuting time etc.  So yes, I feel as though I work better and prefer to work from home.  I'm a friendly person and quite sociable with others - what does it say about me?

Also, (sorry, edit) don't knock the people who sit in the corner of a pub sipping a pint by themselves.  They have their reasons and again, you haven't considered personal circumstance (personally I quite enjoy a quiet pint to myself on occasion just relaxing and watching the world go by). 

As discussed in other threads, expect energy prices to fall in April.

The boss of Octopus Energy says bills will fall this April as providers have already paid for the gas.

Speaking to the BBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, chief executive Greg Jackson said the new energy price cap will be "hundreds of pounds lower" than current levels.

He added that gas supplies had been secured in advance of the winter months.

This has led to lower wholesale prices, Mr Jackson said.

BBC

1 hour ago, Genie said:

I noticed a few months ago the “idle” setting in MS Teams seemed to be set dramatically shorter than it was for us. Only a couple of minutes of inactivity (making a drink or taking a quick shit) and the icon goes amber.

That seemed like a small adjustment to catch out some of the shirkers.

On a day to day basis though I have to say I don’t really see any evidence of my colleagues going AWOL. In the office it was pretty much impossible to find people, nowadays it’s much easier.

Agreed and I don't think any measures to track productivity (well for most of us) based on mouse movement or keyboard typing can be properly enforced.  Those measures (e.g. the status going amber on MS Teams) are meaningless and for me, only serve to show others that you may be momentarily away so don't expect an immediate response to messages.  I've even manually set my status as an amber "away" to put off people messaging me when I'm attempting to complete something important*.  Other times, I'm working but I'm sat here scribbling things out in my notepad to gather my thoughts for the next big meeting.  I'm not actively working on the work laptop, but I'm working.  I've missed calls on occasion when working from home and "aaaah, on Netflix was you?" is an example of a smarmy comment I've had in the past from colleagues.  No, I set my status as "Do Not Disturb" for half an hour for a reason as I wanted to get some space away from the laptop to jot a few things down and properly think about things ready for that meeting they called for on the afternoon.  I've been tempted to say "yes I was!" as we work flexible working hours and my boss is always off away for walks (and tells us to do the same if we would like to).  I've also pointed out to others that I was logged on at 7AM doing things (and please action the things I've talked about in the emails I've sent) whilst they didn't appear until gone 9AM (sometimes 10AM).  

It has to be said too that if I was in the office, I wouldn't be chained to a desk and would be meeting people to discuss things over a coffee etc.  Inevitably things would take a lot longer and I never got the "aaaah, down the pub was you?" (or similar) when working in the office full time but away from my desk.  For what it's worth, today is a day off . 

*It's not worthy of a kw.gif

Letters of no confidence gone in against the PM.  Just call the election! 

20 hours ago, limpid said:

You should celebrate with a gold lion under your avatar....

This.  I don't contribute much but I do so knowing that you lovely lot will always have my back and I'd be in bits if this place went due to cost. 

1 minute ago, LxYoungAVFC said:

Be careful.  It has now worked out your weakness. 

I've been feeling nasty all week.  Blowing out green gunk, waking up coughing up green gunk, and having coughing fits that made me puke up on a few occasions .  I also had people at work tell me (through virtual calls) "Jesus, you sound terrible!".  "Yes, I know!".  I carried on and now I feel I'm back, feeling great and I think this is the tune I've been longing to play throughout.

2 hours ago, VILLAMARV said:

Renewing the passport so I just visited a photo me booth for the first time in a long time. The fact that it gives me a code to use on my online application that the dotgov site had the photo in question within seconds of it being taken in a post office in Mid Wales is both amazing and terrifying at the same time to me.

No Wrexham for us.  The media circus can stand down from Villa Park.

1 hour ago, VillaAlex said:

Don't mind Wrexham but would love to avoid the media circus around drawing them. 

Ah, it'll be fine.  We can have our future King alongside Carew (and maybe Tom Hanks) attending.

Whilst they can have their royal connection with Paul Burrell attending (he's a Wrexham fan apparently).

#awkward*.





*None of this is going to happen. 

Well it's about bloody time. 

We just need one goal and the floodgates should hopefully open.  Opening the floodgates might prove a bit difficult mind with the amount of water around and then whoosh!

So, white and black striped shirts with red player numbers, red and white striped shirts with black player numbers.  Madness. 

Yep, I've found Virgin to be good (insert kw gif).  Miles better than BA in my experience.  I also once did Air India to New York - they were long flights there and back (even though they served curry on the way).  I think Birmingham was a stop-off and I took one step up to the toilet and the stink from it half way down the plane put me right off - cue me running to the nearest toilet when I could upon landing.