choffer

My parents:

7* (* The number of times I had to read Ingram's post to get a vague notion of what it meant.)

I had a similar thing recently. My sister parked her car next to mine and the wind caught the door, slamming it into the side of my car. Small dent, quickly sorted by her insurance company. I've had so many calls since trying to convince me to make a claim for my injuries. I generally try to keep them on the line as long as possible as I guess if they're busy with me, they won't be giving someone else the opportunity to con someone else into making a fraudulent claim. I kept telling the guy that I wasn't hurt but he kept telling me to say that I was for and that I could get £8,000 if I did. He was outright telling me to lie about it even though I'd told him I was sat in a restaurant when it happened. In answer to my question why would I lie to make a claim, his response was "for £8,000, obviously. Who doesn't want £8,000?". Surely if this is their tactic, they must get the occasional bite or they wouldn't bother. This world is going to hell.

Japanese fans are generally nutters. This bloke spent the whole day like this:

haha, yeah I thought the same thing. They are all into The Smiths but have no idea who Bowie is? Errr...what? The writer got a hard time for that on release. I'm sure he was asked the question dozens of times but here is the response (Taken from here)

Similarly nomadic existence for me. Western Isles (of Scotland), London (on four occasions), Birmingham, Paris, Cardiff, Newport, East Kilbride and Glasgow. Despite saying I'd only come back down to London for a year, I've now been here 16 years. Not many places in the UK that I think I'd want to live now, if I had to move. Brighton would be on the list (I came close to getting a job there earlier this year and compared to London, it wasn't too expensive. From what I've seen of the rest of the country, I think Cardiff, Bristol or Manchester would be places I'd consider moving to. Ideally I'd be in Edinburgh but I don't think I could cope with the weather.

Fantastic atmosphere at the Scotland Japan game yesterday. Easily as many Japanese fans as Scotland in the main stand where I was. Japan were absolutely on it in the first half and we genuinely feared they'd do to Scotland, what they did to SAfr. Much more relaxed in the second half once Mafi (who was an absolute beast) went off and we were able to enjoy the last half an hour or so. Major congrats to the Japanese though. Their fans were immense and the team really engaged with the occasion. The players all stayed around after the final whistle to have photos taken with fans and sign autographs. We left 25 minutes after the final whistle and they were still going - all smiles and obviously really enjoying themselves. Might have to think about going over there for the next RWC.

In the window of Oxford Audio:

I was born in '73 so all the books I've read have been since 1970.

Like this, you mean?

Great opening line: First impressions are overwhelmingly favourable – but then nearly anything would have been an improvement

It was either set in Grimsby or it wasn't so definitely 50/50 [/useless]

There was there was a time you'd be deported from Wales for such heresy.

You can feel the darkness coming. I think Flip and Higgy are a bit of a mis-step and I don't think they really fit. They are obviously the comic relief but they feel a bit too charicatured. Other than that, I love the way it's building.

Just catching up on the opening ceremony now. Did prince Harry really get introduced as Prince Henry of Wales? not often he gets called that, I'd imagine. I'm already feeling sorry for the French. Bumped into them this evening at their team hotel. They must be wondering what they did to deserve being put in some soulless big hotel in Slough.

Aye, you're probably right. Even as I was writing it, I did suspect my anti-English bias might be coming into play I think in general, most rugby supporters are a decent bunch but I know I would steer clear of Twickenham High St on the evening of a match.

Further investigations (you piqued my interest) would indicate that the early closing of Twickenham pubs was a test that failed. No early closures planned from what I can see but I am sure the police will be keen to enforce occupancy limits on pubs in the area. Not sure why you'd want to be in Twickenham though - surrounded by ruggerbuggers in red jeans, singing swing low every three minutes and generally being rather yobbish (whilst maintaining the superior view that they're not football hooligans).

From what I could gather during the warm-up matches, pubs were "encouraged" by old bill to close by 10pm. I've no idea how forcefully they were encouraged but I know publicans were not happy. I would imagine that organisers will be doing everything within their powers to shepherd punters to the fan zone on Old Deer Park (which, for uninitiated, is not a field full of geriatrics) where they can fleece you further with overpriced beers and novelties.

Liability

Can't argue with that to be fair.

Scotland vs Japan next week in Gloucester for me. That'll be my one positive experience of the event, I fear. Living within half a mile of Twickenham Stadium, I'm expecting the next month to be a whole world of hurt.

Agreed. Oxfam do proper good work. occasionally hamstrung by their size by they pass muster by any test of accountability in my book.

Having worked for a number of charities over the years, I'd wager to suggest that there's a very large chance your donations are being spent poorly. Staff salaries and bloated operational costs or unnecessary day trips and lunches? Or am I way wide? Charities reflect the class system perfectly. The plebs get to stand in the rain rattling tins, while the admin get to eat five-quid cupcakes at events and told what good people they are. I made a mistake of doing quite a lot of work for free for a charity, the work took time, but it also cost money with a good few trips to London. When the work finished, the guy running the charity came to our office and rolled up in a convertible E Class Merc with a private plate that was the name of the charity. It felt like I'd been had. Ah now that wasn't my experience at all. I've spent a good 8 or 10 years of my career working with and for a variety of charities (but I don't like to talk about it). To answer Pongo's original question, I'd say very wide of the mark. In all such places I worked, frugality was the order of the day. Salaries were less than market for comparable roles, no great perks and everything done on a shoestring. The real problem with charities is the people who work for them (and I appreciate the irony of me saying this as I was in their employ for so long). There's two types of people who work for charities (sweeping generalisations coming up...); those who can afford to and those who would struggle in the real world. The former are often trustafarians with sufficient money to not have to worry about their salary being lower than it could, the latter are people who aren't really cut out for "real" jobs who charities are prepared to carry out of a sense of moral obligation. There are of course, a percentage that don't fit neatly into either bracket who through circumstance or choice, ended up wanting to work for a charity. Ultimately though, the problem charities have is one of effectiveness. I saw so many examples of wastefulness through ineptitude that I eventually had to get out for the sake of my own sanity. Charities are staffed with generally well-meaning people but more often than not, people who aren't the best at managing things properly and efficiently. As for Chris' example of the E-Class-driving berk, I'd imagine he didn't get rich working in the not-for-profit sector. There's an odd implied expectation that if you work for a charity, you should live the life of a cistercian monk and not have materialistic possessions in your life or your somehow cheating. Bit like refugees having smartphones, I guess.

I got a letter from Oxfam yesterday saying that for £2 a month, they could provide enough clean water for a family of 4 for a year. Seriously considering changing my supplier.

We had one of our systems down for the day over the weekend for scheduled maintenance. All staff told well in advance that this was the case and to make contingency arrangements if they needed to access it over the weekend. Plenty of warning given and lots of opportunity to download any info they needed ahead of time. Everyone understood apart from one member of staff who thought the best course of action was to email me every hour, on the hour to complain that they couldn't access that system and that it was incredibly frustrating for them. Both barrels were administered in the office on Monday so she made a complaint to HR about my attitude. They told her not to be an idiot. So, it annoyed me at the time but it ended up being quite enjoyable In short - people are unreasonable clearings in various woods. Every once in a while, they get what they deserve.