Be Excellent To Each Other

Helped my mate move yesterday.. I agree with this 100%

It's the male equivalent of childbirth. You forget the pain after a year or so and think it's worth trying again.

When we moved from Whitley Bay I drove the van up on the afternoon, packed everything (bar the bed and a few bits) into the back that evening and left it parked outside overnight.

The next morning, packed the rest of the gear in, drove down to where we live now and unpacked it the other end. All done by about 4-5pm, pretty sweet.

Now we have lots more stuff though, and I will definitely not be doing it myself!

To be fair, if I was putting up a dart board on works time AND getting paid for it... I'd make it last the day.

fixed

Half the office have basically taken the day off to make cocktails, sandwiches and lots of noise.

Well, I mean take the day off from actually working. They're still getting paid, natch.

Have now crossed London to pick up TFF's flat keys.

Amount of things packed: 0

Everything's going swimmingly.

Superb.

I should totally be left in charge of things more often.

*passes box of grenades*

I watch it just for the theme song.

'When you're alone and life is making you lonely you can always go... Downton!'

"Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot"

"But you gotta have friends! "

"I'll be there for you!"

What's better than the view from duck and waffle?

Duck and waffle in the fog

Minus points for Louise mensch

I'm not what you'd call an expert on ladies fashions, but I would like to express my approval of the current trend of opaque tights, heavy boots and skirts. My hearty approval.

/perv

I have a pervy thing for tights with patterns on.

I would not have thought they did them in your size

You too, eh?

Proper lol.

Chloe and I are having the 'whether flies have eyes completely covering their entire bodies' conversation again.

I know a lot about the eyes on fruit flies.

I like the way you restrained yourself from saying Drosophilia

Chloe doesn't. She thinks she does, but she doesn't. I like her stories about the flies with eyes on their knees and how they get confused and bump into things. Also, that's why flies are really heavy.

I've never been in a group if two people where I'm the sensible one before.

is there more "information" about flies? I'm quite enjoying it so far.

Not on my phone, no.. D.melanogaster are my favourite.

The 360 degree eyes are why flies always go in circles.

My old boss sent me an email yesterday with a smiley.. Except he did this.

(-:

He used to do that when I worked for him years ago. You'd think someone would have told him by now wouldn't you?

There's some sense to that - it won't be autocorrected to an image or special font that doesn't work in some situations.

You've never met him, have you?

Seriously though, it's more likely that he's got it wrong then him thinking "outside the box"

I used to do backwards smilies all the time, mostly because it used to annoy people who tried to correct me.

I also liked doing this smiley.


Malc

I do =] if I'm using something that won't correct them for me (if you see what I mean).

(# ﾟДﾟ)

(Yes, my phone keyboard has a baffling array of smileys. Only some of which make sense)

Some of you might remember my career saga from a few months ago. I was working at a photocopier manufacturer 50 miles away from where I live and could no longer afford the commute. I looked at leaving and simultaneously had interviews for two separate companies, both via two separate recruitment consultants.

One was a technology company based in continental Europe, doing IT planning and installation. Globally speaking, it's a big company, especially in mainland Europe and China, but they have no UK office, so 40% of my time would be spent working from home, the rest of the time would be on the road throughout the UK. The basic salary was high twenties with a company car, office equipment supplied (laptop, printer, phone) and obviously all my travel expenses paid. I was well up for this one.

The other was working for a photocopier dealer 25 miles from where I live, doing effectively the same job I was doing already. I was less enthused with this.

The latter offered me the job first, so I made enquiries about the former, only to hear from a highly disgruntled recruitment consultant that the company had abandoned the whole process and decided not to recruit anyone. So I accepted the second job.

Just before I started there, another recruitment consultant called me about an field engineer job going at an Apple Macintosh dealer just down the road from where I live. It involved a pay cut (low-mid twenties), but full Apple training was offered and as they were branching out into AV products, I'd get full training for those too. I had two interviews and they offered me the job! I had to tell the photocopier dealer I was leaving, despite having only started with them 4 weeks previous. They were not amused.

So off I went to the local Apple dealer.

Anyway, it was a brilliant decision - I love it where I'm working now. Obviously there are some negatives, as in any job, but generally speaking I haven't been this happy in a job in years. And the training is happening - I've already passed the ACMT exams that make me a qualified Apple hardware and software technician.

Now then, yesterday I left my mobile phone at home. When I got in, I had 4 missed calls from a number I didn't recognise. I ended up getting another call later in the evening, I answered and it was the guy who would've been my line manager at the European company I mentioned before. The one with the £5 grand higher salary, the company car, the working from home, etc. He told me they abandoned the recruiting process due to a falling out with the recruitment consultant and had decided to leave it all for a while. But now they're recruiting for the position again, this time without using a consultant, so they would be prepared to possibly go higher still on the salary. I'm apparently the only person from all the previous interviews they did that they're interested in. If I say I still want the job, it's apparently mine.

So now I don't know what to do. Gut instinct is telling me to tell the guy I'm no longer interested... but you all know about my financial issues and this could make a big difference.

Passed my exam, so I've now got the CCENT qualification. One more exam and I'll have my CCNA.

@Zio Ask for more money for the inconvenience and then go for it! That's what I'd do.

That's fantastic! I bought a CCENT course off of Groupon ages ago, I really should crack on with it.

Just to add to my previous post, I was also wondering about the wisdom of actually telling my currently employer about this offer to see if maybe they'd offer anything to entice me to stay? I've only been here 6 weeks, so although I know they're happy with me, I suspect they might tell me to do one.

Apparrently, if a rhino charges you and you stand really still you disappear in front of it's eyes as they have to weave around to see you. Also, rhinos can't run in a straight line because of this, they have to zig-zag.

Also, if you stand very close to a rhino it thinks you are a tree and so won't charge you.

Obviously bored of fly facts now, we have moved on to larger creatures.

I never cease to be amazed when I see a twitter/facebook appeal for someone who's phone/tablet has been nicked or lost containing thousands of irreplaceable photos of their children. Today - Shappi Khorsandi.

Yep, I saw that too.

I looked her up and Google said:

I want that changed to

Aye, she's utterly fucking awful.

Yep go back and negotiate a better deal, the training you are doing at your current job is that going to be useful for you later in other roles?

It depends on what you want really, money or guaranteed job satisfaction.
You are happy where you are, which is great, don't play down that as a key factor. I hate large portions of my job, but i've gone too far to switch to something else and to me the money is worth the shit.

If you want to chase the money though, the IT planning and installing for a large company is likely to give you much better career prospects on top of the large wage right now, than your current job.

Whatever you do, don't tell your current employer until you have a rock solid firm offer from the other company. They dicked you around before, they will quite possibly do it again.

Very much

Also although the money is obviously something which is important right now your actual take home pay may not really be that much higher on the other job despite the higher top line number

For most people I'd generally advise to stick with the company you're happy in; but your general financial position massively factors into the 'happiness equation' so, if the difference in salaries is significant here, then it might be worth you chasing the money this time given that your happiness is being negatively affected by your general finance worries (if you see what I mean). The mitigating factor here might be the training you're getting in your current job, if that could lead to a better paid job in future then it might make it worth staying where you are...