marc2j

1 hour ago, SuperBacon said:

The most middle class post I'll ever make I reckon.

A half baked confession, but my karate club for a little while used the hall of the local bowls club and I got quite friendly with the bloke who ran it. He offered me to come along and play, an idea which I genuinely love but I'm mid thirties and I'm not sure I can get away with it. I even thought about kidnapping my 73 year old father in law. Still considering it to be honest. Bowls is awesome. 

I work for a global asset manager. They've been stringing us along for months about what the plan is in terms of wfh going forward. They are playing chicken with other companies, not wanting to be the first to commit. That's completely fair enough.

Global town hall held the other day (they are awful) and a slide got thrown up saying 'we expect people to be working 2-3 days a week in the office.'

Quality. So naturally, I and all my chums said 'two days in the office please'. 

Now we are being told 'oh no, its two TO three'. Some of the Directors in our wider team have already said 'we're doing two'. Yet when the low end staff try to say the same, there's a ton of resistance to it.

Need to get an achievement, so jumped into GTA5. Am now completely addicted again and playing through the main story on Series X. The quick resume is making it really easy to a bit here a bit there. 8 years old this game but still world class. I was going to put down the controller and wait for the 'upgrade' but thats November apparently, so that can wait. I cant even fathom how big a launch would be for a GTA6 at this point.

1 hour ago, chokeout said:

Went to fix my parents roof and while I'm there they said they'd be clearing some stuff out and found 'some of your old games' I'm now giddy with excitement at firing these up. 

The n64 with No Mercy in it is clearly the winner.

Slightly unsettled by the Danish focus on the 'soft penalty' when we practically outplayed them from the minute the second half started. Danish manager played his cards with 5 subs in normal time and paid the price for it. Whilst last night I sat watching through my hands and on the edge of the seat, we were comfortably the better team by the time the game was winding down and that was before they went to 10 men through injury. 

Didn't have a clue how to deal with the final whistle though. I have a load of friends in Italy who blew up my Whatsapp the minute that rebound went inn though. Quality.

I and a workchum have conversed many times about the awfulness of Dancing on Ice commentator Matterface being chosen over Tyldesley. It frustrates because ITV’s coverage is certainly better than it was, but Lee Dixon often waffles senseless bollocks. Danny Murphy is no better on the other side . It’s like the Beeb thought ‘people aren’t enjoying Mark Lawrenson, let’s get a cheaper younger version of him.’

3 minutes ago, Hannibal Scorch said:

Who doesn't have gravy in the UK. Ok, down south you can't get a pint of it in the pub, but we have gravy here. Scraps, now there is something not common before the Watford Gap.

I believe its more the use of the gravy - down south, its largely segregated to its correct use - smothering a roast dinner.

Watford and above and they are drinking it, putting it on chips and washing with it probably.,.

I came back from New York the week the news started giving it how bad COVID was going to be. I recall me and my wife spotting a row of people wearing masks on the plane and saying how stupid and weird it was.

How naive we were.

This was at the same time as the Picard release roughly so some time last year. From what I can piece together though, Brooks is pretty much done with Trek right? 

1 hour ago, Merzbow said:

Picard read trash while Benny wrote sci-fi classics, more proof that Sisko is the best captain.

I'd happily debate anyone that Sisko is the best Star Trek captain by far. There was a very small rumour that they were trying to get Avery Brooks back to do ST: Sisko, but never saw anything about it again

I think the travel thing is a valid comment, but when players like Gunter come out and slag off the tournament format when Wales got played off the park, I think that's a bit rum. That was sod all to do with travel and everything to do with Denmark being the better team. 

Thank god it goes back to one country for the next one though (Germany 24) - for a country with all the stadiums built already must lap up the financial benefits of a tournament like this. Whereas this format only seems to benefit UEFA.

On a different note, looked at semi-final and final tickets - EUR595 being the most expensive, going down to EUR195. (Incidentally, the semi that England could be in is sold out anyway).  Thats just craziness.

Absolute madness if this is true, but then, if you are Rockstar and GTA Online is still making you billions a year, theres no huge rush to make the next game I guess?

I took my son to the Croatia game in the Nations League the other year. We sat in the family end, primarily to take advantage of the cheap tickets and it was a cracking experience to be fair. I will note that we were relatively close to the small amount of Croatia fans who were absolutely RABID. Which if anything, only made me enjoy it more. 

Whilst on the subject, it does annoy me massively that the England tickets for Euros are gated by the 'supporters club' process, which involves a £75 sign up, then the ticket price themselves. 

Second jab today. Did a reverse UKFF by having McDs breakfast first, then trotting down to the vaccination centre. The lovely volunteers there were amazing, as completely expected, and then Vaccination Viv read me the risks etc she said 'well, its AstraZeneca, so theres something like a one in a million chance that there will be blood clots'.

I deadpanned, 'oh thats a problem love, because I'm one in a million'.

She then jabbed me with the needle. It didnt hurt and my arm hasn't felt heavy today which is a bonus as off to Yarmouth for the weekend.

In summary, McDs, Vaccine, pseudo-Banter with nurse.

Have utilised the superb information here to move my 2nd jab forward to Thursday. 9.45am. McDs breakfast it is…

27 minutes ago, Tommy! said:

Couldn't disagree more, I don't care what the burger offering is I'm still going for 20 on the side.  I used to go there for lunch and have 20 to eat on the drive back to the office, with everything else being "lunch".

I guess this explains me being a big ol' fatty boom boom.

No shaming here, I'm also a bunter. Maybe I've been getting it wrong all these years. I'm intrigued by your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

I think it completely depends on what the 'main event' of your McDs is. If your having nuggets as the main bit, then yes, 20, of course. If nuggets is a side, then 6 is fine if the burger yiu are having is one of their larger offerings - say, a Double Quarter pounder A Big Mac, whilst having the word 'big' in its title, is relatively small in comparison to say the Big Tasty, which does both things its says its supposed to do.

Also, as this post is almost exclusively about McDs - let me get back on topic by saying my second jab is booked for 10th July, but I'll probably have it moved forward as apparently there are loads of AZ ones going spare...

I genuinely enjoyed Emma Hayes, but it took me a good few minutes to adjust to hearing a female voice, but superb analysis and very refreshing. Then turned over to hear Danny Murphy, who was utterly devoid of any enthusiasm. Eugh.

At 0-0, Scotland looked every bit the equal to the Czechs. At 1-0, they started to get more and more desperate and after THAT second goal, they seemed to just make poor choice after poor choice. The thing is, if luck had gone their way, it would have been a very different result I feel as the Czechs were very vulnerable at times.

I was really hoping for a score draw, as now England face a wounded Scotland. Never ideal.

25 minutes ago, David said:

I know this may (will) come back to bite me on the arse, but Scotland are looking pretty decent in the build up to this tournament. Can we make it through the group stage, Garth? I believe we can, Ken.

Wouldn't surprise me, especially considering the new format allows certain third placed teams getting through. I actually see Scotland as the banana skin for England actually. Czech Republic at the end shouldnt pose too much of a problem based on what I've seen, Croatia the toughest game in terms of quality, but the Scots are stubborn and wont want England taking anything from them.

Surprised by the news of Ben White being the replacement for Trent, especially as Ward-Prowse had a great game yesterday. But perhaps it lends itself to the fact that Maguire is worse and less ready than anyone imagined. Either way, buzzing for Friday. Looking forward to a month of constant football.

Got a text from the local surgery offering the vaccines to any over 18s, so sent my eldest two down today (even writing that makes me feel old AF). They also both took their boyfriend/girlfriend down there. What a lovely date.

No chance I'm buying them a takeaway. Freeloading bastards.

I always found it amusing how my Dad was the dinosaur in the family and would openly chastise anyone different on the telly and was the stereotypical neanderthal about everything. As time has gone on,  he has softened his stance on almost all things, which has been nice in a way. This came to a head recently when one of his martial arts mates told him that he was gay. I had no clue he was to be fair, as he comes across as well,  not. My dad was really good friends with this guy and I assumed he'd come to me and be all 'oh well, he's gay and whatnot'.

To my surprise (and genuine happiness), he didnt do that at all and embraced it in a way that I never, ever expected he would.

The downside to this is he now talks about having 'gay friends' and asks how 'my gay friends' are. Yeah they're good Dad. Cheers. I'll them them you said hi.

Timing the second to last bowl of cornflakes so you dont get all the dreggy shit at the bottom of the box, but the last full bowl of brilliance.

To counter with the best one we had, one bloke said 'makes good tea'.

We are onboarding him as we speak...

I got promoted in March after being at my firm for seven years. I work in asset management and I'm now a manager. I will have an intern start reporting into me from next month, which is great. But its proper shone a light on our process for me. We are a global firm and 3/5 of the applicants were relatives of people who already work here, with some pretty pushy calls from some senior people asking me to see their particular relative etc. The thing we do, that is really good, is we are forced to give feedback on every interview we do which is available to provide back to our candidates who dont get through to the next stage. So, Ive spent some time writing that up, which hopefully will help.

Which brings me to my favourite interview bits.

One of our scripted questions was to ask 'describe yourself in three words'. Not ONE of the youngsters could do it. Not one. Every one of them gives it 'I'm a very dependable person'. Or my favourite one was  'I'm a great listener'. No. No you aren't.

But my very favourite was a youngster who clearly had no business being in my interview process as he didnt really have relevant experience and it didn't make sense but HR pushed him through anyways.

'How have you improved efficiencies and processes in your current role?'

'Well, when I first joined I noticed how full up the filing cabinet was. So I went out of my way to ask the boss if we could buy a SECOND filing cabinet',

Oh. I see. He didnt get the job. Bless him.