Today I've mostly bin...

[clvrlad]

I think most maths is useful in the real world, but I've never needed to use calculus to calculate the area under a curve! Not even for solving a puzzle

stop giving "him" ideas

[Bunnylump]

Love that last coment!!
You're lucky LAT, my cat likes to bring mice and shrews in at 3am (alive) and then miows loudly at them on the stairs until we get up and catch them to throw them out. Then he challenge is apparently to go out and catch THE SAME mouse and bring it back in...

[LAT]

I hope, in keeping with the current issue, you tamed it

That made me giggle out loud MBH!

And Bunny, we've had that issue too. It was in searching for a live mouse that had escaped that I found the dead shrew. Never did find the mouse, we hope it escaped through the back door which we left open for a couple of hours.

[Biscuit]

What a day:( I have spent it trying to avoid having a row with my brother at work who is spoiling for a row. My luck hit as the phone rang mid discussion and he had to answer it so i wizzed off to the kitchen to make a quick cup of tea only to have him stalk me into the kitchen, then i tried to disappear to the loo but he waited and caught me on the way out. I feel like i am being stalked by a time share salesman - talk about pressure to agree with what he wants.

thank goodness for pb when i can get it off my chest.

Biscuit

[eirian]

That sounds frustrating! At least you spotted he's spoiling for an argument - I never spot until I'm in the middle of one...

Today, I've mostly bin... playing with my new laptop! I was going to need to get one in the next few months anyway, so after it gave up a couple of weeks ago, we ordered a new one. It arrived this morning so I just had to take this afternoon off work and come home to play! Whee!!!

[Bunnylump]

Oh, Biscuit! I know what that's like (having someone who spoils for a row and just won't give up). Mind you, just think HOW MUCH you can really P him off by remaining cool calm and collected and refusing to be baited...

Hope you have a better day tomorrow!

and Eirian - I am SO jealous. I have to put up with a main computer which takes 20 minutes to start up and a laptop from work which won't run things.

I WAS supposed to be going to Cornwall to see my son today. But it's all got kaiboshed (sp?) because of him having to come back for a funeral in the interim. So now I'm like a spare part looking at all the gardening I SHOULD be doing. I currently have an entire garden COVERED* in logs, sticks, leaves (we are talking an entire 40 foot eucalyptus tree here). Anyone got any spare koalas?

*And that's no mean feat in a 180 foot garden...

So what did I do instead? Got my friend round and sat in the garden drinking tea and eating strawberries amongst the logs.

[Laura]

Sounds like the best plan of attack to me. You always need to build your strength up before tackling a job like that. And if the building-your-strength-up bit lasts longer than anticipated, and you run out of time, well, that's not your fault, is it?

[LAT]

Oh, can I come and drink tea and eat strawberries in your garden with you bunnylump? I might even give you a bit of help afterwards. It would have been better than my day which was spent almost entirely updating a massive spreadsheet. But I did teach myself the shortcut to move from page to page within the file which I'm sure shaved off a bit of time. Are you proud of me MBH?

Best of luck Biscuit, hope you can sort things out with your brother. And hope you're having lots of fun with your new toy eirian.

[giraffe]

........getting frustrated.
Fernando invited friends over the weekend after his birthday, we were going to take 3 friends for a bite to eat and then they would stay for a sleepover. The first two he invited couldn't come, so he rearranged it for today, having checked with the three friends which day was best for them. On Tuesday one of them decided he couldn't come because his Mum said he had to go somewhere else. (How come his mum didn't get asked if it was ok to come here? ) So he invited another friend to replace that one, but he couldn't come at short notice. They were due here at 3pm and one of them arrived promptly, the other still isn't here. We are supposed to be eating at 7pm and the mum of the missing one has just phoned to say he's at his cousins in Birmingham, but she can probably get him here for ten to 7, but she can't pick him up tomorrow as she is working. I get the impression that he didn't ask his mum before today if he could come either.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I just feel really sorry for F.

No sign of OH either yet. (Although he was in London today, so has some excuse for being late.)

[LAT]

That is so annoying, poor Fernando. Hope he has a great celebration when it actually happens.

[Bunnylump]

Aw, poor Fernando, that's a shame. Still, it'll all be OK eventually, I expect he'll have a great time, just a bit later than you'd hoped!!

I must say, that is very much a BOY thing. My son's hopeless at organising things, and telling people who need to know what they need to know (like his girlfriend's mum and dad are coming down on the 11th to pick up stuff as well ) My daughter is constantly on the phone / internet giving friends a blow by blow account of everything she ever does...

[giraffe]

He's gone to such trouble to organise it all himself. He even did invitations so that the dopey lads would know what time etc. Oh has just arrived, no sign of the other friend yet though.

[Biscuit]

best laid plans - i think a lot of teenagers leave everything to the last minute - wont mention it till they need a lift - thats the problem - we have ended up picking ours up from various subways when they didnt quite get the idea of connecting trains,. - still they now give us lifts so thats better.

thanks for everyones support re work - i dont know if i am talking to my 16 year old son or my 50 year old brother at times - v similar
I am still fighting the fact that last time i was on hols he called my colleague a F****** w***** - but i was told this was ok as he actually meant me - and my parents have said i should not make a fuss as a say a swear word is just a word (which i agree with) but i think it is the sentiment behind the words and I would rather he didnt call me this (esp in front of staff i have to work with) as I have a number of words I would call him but would not dream of doing this to him as he would hit the roof.

Biscuit

[Bunnylump]

Charming!!

But then that's no reflection on you, is it? It's just a poor reflection on HIM and his lack of self control. Take the higher ground here, Biscuit. You know you're the one who's in the right here!! Let's face it, if you were one of the employees, and heard someone in authority letting rip like that inappropriately, WHATEVER it was about, you'd have no respect for them, would you? My boss spends half her life in tears at work. Consequently the staff tend to speak to me first because they never know what reaction they'll get from her... BUT they are ALSO always more willing to go out of their way for me because I don't blow a fuse every 3 minutes. I do that on here instead...

[Biscuit]

i get the same thing - rather than speak to my brother they speak to me which is really awkward coz i have to sort things out and then he thinks i am taking control - and i am just trying to sort the best out for work bearing in mind he just shouts(and swears at people if they come up with a problem rather than give them the support they need to sort the problem out for themselves. and then he says i am undermining him. it is an impossible situation but i do believe that people think i am more approachable, and hopefully not an easy touch - i do try to set it up so they can be independant and sort a problem for themselves. my brother and dad both micro manage which doesnt work. I have noticed they either have to have individual knowledge of a problem and then because of the pain they will sort it or they let someone else try to deal with it and then it doesnt exist so they will not let any changes be made to procedure in reaction to the current problems and for future improvement. My brother has only ever worked for my dad and my dad has spent only limited time in office situation and loves his son as the first and only born son.

Mum laughs and says he always wanted to be an only child and doesn't want my sister or me around - that helps too !!!!

my dad only stays with me because he knows i will NOT cheat him whereas other family members may not be so black and white and that i come up with what we need financially. (v difficult at times).

[LAT]

That sounds a very difficult situation for you biscuit. If they weren't family I bet you'd be tempted to look for another job. I hope that your Dad does really appreciate you and your value to the business.
It's always hard to work with relatives. I married my audit manager (!) but we haven't worked together since getting married. I have also worked for a married couple and you could see the tension between them at times.

For the last half an hour, or possibly more, a helicopter has been circling overhead. It's driving me round the bend. I don't know if it is the army on some sort of manoeuvres or if someone has escaped from Broadmoor and they are searching for him Not a lot of chance of any sleep until it gives up.

[Bunnylump]

That's odd, LAT. We had a helicopter circling here for about an hour earlier on!! It's usually a sign that ANOTHER prisoner has escaped from Bovingdon Prison. Which is rather alarming because despite the fact that it was built and designed as a lower risk category prison, they are now housing high risk dangerous criminals. I only know that because a woman I know who was a prison officer (absolutely the scariest woman you could imagine) got herself transferred after she witnessed the second murder...

[Biscuit]

the helicopter business must be pretty scary.

[Scurra]

the helicopter business must be pretty scary.

Well it has its ups and downs, but mostly goes round in circles. (I'll stop doing my MBH impression now. )

I get helicopters a lot round here, but usually only when there is a big football match on (they sometimes have big internationals at the Arsenal stadium too) so it's more of a nuisance than anything to seriously worry about...

[Bunnylump]

They do sometimes send helicopters out if children go missing or wander off too.