Cycling Related

I don't know about anyone else, but I didn't do the Thursday clapping for the keyworkers thing; it seemed a weird idea to me and I always wondered how many of the people out there applauding had voted in ways that have undermined the NHS over recent years.

This project, on the other hand, is a fantastic tribute to those amazing keyworkers, and resulted in 500 or so profound works of art. I found some of them almost unbearably moving.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... -tom-croft

I have a little news.
We are still to go live, but it's edging ever closer (yeah I know, I've been saying it for months, but I've got to get it right one of these days surely?), but, I've got a new job.
Basically when I started I noticed that there was no buffer, no lieutenant. I felt that there were things that the boss needed to deal with, needed to know had been dealt with and didn't need to know had been dealt with at all it just needed doing, and there wasn't that person. Everything, no matter how trivial in my opinion, was going all the way up the line. So I started doing it myself.
Anyway, there's been a position created which is, according to the job description, basically what I've been doing for the last 6 months, plus a few extra bits, I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to suggest that the position was created for me, however it you wrote down what I've been doing and compared it to the job description there's about 90% overlap. I didn't know anything about it until the boss thrust a bundle of papers into my hand last Wednesday, and told me I needed to have my application in by 12pm on Thursday, ready for an interview on Friday.
I did all that and got told today that I'd got it. I don't know when I'll start yet as it needs to be sorted through HR etc, but I would have thought it'd be by the start of December. It's a 6 month contract.

Excellent news and good for you.

Towards the end of my time working for a large company, we had quite a debate. The younger engineers would increasingly refuse to take on responsibilities unless the company recognised that and paid them more. I maintained to the day I left that my philosophy at that stage in my career had been to take on every opportunity for responsibility that came my way, trusting that if I showed what I could do, the reward - the promotion to the level corresponding to what I was doing - would come, but if I never showed people what I could do, how did I expect them to know? Sound like you have been in roughly the same camp as me and sounds as if it has worked for you.

JohnToo wrote: ↑

3 years ago

Excellent news and good for you.

Towards the end of my time working for a large company, we had quite a debate. The younger engineers would increasingly refuse to take on responsibilities unless the company recognised that and paid them more. I maintained to the day I left that my philosophy at that stage in my career had been to take on every opportunity for responsibility that came my way, trusting that if I showed what I could do, the reward - the promotion to the level corresponding to what I was doing - would come, but if I never showed people what I could do, how did I expect them to know? Sound like you have been in roughly the same camp as me and sounds as if it has worked for you.

Thank you

Yes, basically that, although I wasn't expecting a promotion, to the best of my knowledge there wasn't one. Possibly senior porter on site, but they're using the domestic supervisors in that role, so that never existed anyway. I was just doing what needed doing and was more than happy to do so, I was employed to help and that was the help required. As you've said, I've been rewarded for doing so.
Nothing's been officially announced as yet, first order of business when it is will be to deal with all the noses that have been put out of joint.

Excellent news! I’m sure you’ll do well.


Do you get scrambled egg on your cap?

Congrats @Sonic Budgie, very well deserved I'm sure.

Rutabaga wrote: ↑

3 years ago

Congrats @Sonic Budgie, very well deserved I'm sure.

Regulator wrote: ↑

3 years ago

Excellent news! I’m sure you’ll do well.


Do you get scrambled egg on your cap?

Thank you both, that's very kind of you

Cream rises.

Also scum.

Sorry!

Well done, @Sonic Budgie

Yes well done

In Sainsbury's, a Sainsbury's employee (in uniform and clearly on duty) was chatting quite loudly to a customer. Nothing wrong with that. But it became apparent that he was holding forth an anti-vaccine conspiracy theory.

I crossed to the other side and walked on by.

I will take whatever vaccine I am offered as soon as I am offered it, but I do sympathise with the suspicion in this case. Putin won't take the Russian vaccine, and the approval in the USA comes not from scientists but from President "inject bleach" Trump.

Report: The White House Threatens to Fire FDA Chief If He Doesn’t Approve the Pfizer Vaccine Today

From my (obviously) nerdy cousin on FB.

So, how are we all getting on, in the - um - old normal?

It hasn't changed my life,but the feeling of dread from March is back.

And today, as an NHS responder, I spoke for the first time to someone who told me they had coronavirus. And 20 minutes later, the second one. Then there are the ambulances parked outside the hospitals.

This is what I dreaded in March, I think.

Hopefully you guys are holding it together better than me.

Addenbrookes has something like 5 times the number of cases in beds as they had in the first wave last year. Locally, our cases have increased 200% in a week.

Hospitals are struggling with staff shortages and infrastructure issues (e.g. oxygen capacity).

The ambulance services are overwhelmed

Test & Trace still isn’t working properly in England.

The NHS is on a knife edge.

From my GP's website:
"We will be administering the first COVID-19 vaccinations (Pfizer BioNTech) to 975 of our most vulnerable patients from Weds 6th January, at Chesham Town Hall.

NHS England has advised that our initial priority is to vaccinate those who are aged 80 years old and older. However, the vaccination supply for next week is limited stock (975 doses) and this will not be enough to vaccinate all our patients aged over 80 in the first instance.

Therefore each practice will contact their most vulnerable patients within this group, and directly book them an appointment. Please be reassured ALL eligible patients, who wish to receive a COVID-19 vaccination will receive one in due course.

As soon as further supplies become available, you will be duly contacted."

That's 975 doses for two affluent towns and several surrounding villages with an over-80s population of somewhere around 5,000. I don't believe any of the government's promises.