MORE random stuff about your day

[Lord Rother]

Cheers!

[C]

Doesn’t seem to be a “bairns” thread anymore.... Friday was Grad Day at Bournemouth. Me and my youngest.

Nice photo Lord, congratulations to your daughter.


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Yes seconded!

A lovely photo and congrats!

[what did your daughter read?]




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[ChrisB]

What did she read? "The history of prog 1969/1975", with her dissertation on "Supper's Ready" versus "Close to the edge". Obviously.

[Lord Rother]

Sports Physiotherapy.

A tough field to get going in when you come out of course - unexpectedly she’s now working at my office, initially as my assistant (accounts and financial analysis). With retirement looming, although largely when is my choosing, we needed to have some succession planning in place. As the Director said when he asked if she would be interested in joining us - “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”.

I have always been seen as The Excel King at work, she hadn’t used it much at all, but within 2 weeks she was better than me. I know the pick-up is likely to be quicker for younger minds, but I’m absolutely gobsmacked how quickly she does things. I no longer have to work out complicated formulae or best way of setting up Excel / PowerPoint / Power BI stuff. I just tell her what I need and BOOM, she knocks it out in a fraction of the time it would take me. (It’s the training of course!)

She thoroughly enjoys the work, has a great work ethic, wants to be challenged all the time, is ambitious, and is going to start accountancy qualifications next year.

She is now working in other departments (as well as with me - I can’t give her 5 days pw work, she’s too bloody quick) so is getting great experience of how all aspects of the business works which clearly is going to be great for her future development.

She has already been identified within as a “potential leader”. My little girl is growing up!

We are migrating to a new accounting system in the New Year which is vital, but a somewhat daunting prospect for our ageing staff - we’ve got her involved in that project already and with only 4 months experience I am confident she will quickly become the go-to person for the answers, and building the internal processes and reporting to fit the new system, which is great.

She is now taking driving lessons so I should have a work chauffeur soon which is an added benefit for me!

It helps that she’s my daughter of course, but I totally embrace the prospect of new blood taking over and usurping me (it’s natural evolution baby!) - others struggle with that somewhat but will quickly learn!

Sports physio is still there in her locker but I doubt she will ever get hands-on in her future working life.

[ChrisB]

Our son graduated with M.A. in ancient history and classical archaeology but works for the largest housing authority in Glasgow/Edinburgh where he lives. He could become the new Indiana in the future, but, at present, is doing VERY well, thankyou. I think it's something like 80% of uni students end up in a job which has nothing to do with the degrees they studied. Some people are born with that undefinable "it" ( I think it's more than intelligence), and have that inborn ability to succeed in anything they do. Our son and your daughter both seem to have "it".

[Lord Rother]

When I worked in an accountancy practice I would be involved in training the new intake of graduates.

I remember geology, engineering and all sorts of other unrelated degrees.... probably the one with the least aptitude was the one with an accountancy degree!

But tbf, that may be because his head was filled with all sorts of good stuff completely irrelevant to real-life preparation of accounts and audits for normal small / medium sized enterprises, and struggled to get to grips with the fact that all his knowledge was of very little use in a practical sense. He may well have thrived in a bigger practice environment where you don't actually have to understand double-entry bookkeeping and incomplete records!

(I am going back 40+ years here though - so many things have changed!)

[Minnie the Minx]

Heading back to Austin after a long weekend on the east coast. Visited a childhood best friend and spent most of the weekend laughing like a drain. Ate the best slice of pizza I’ve ever had - from Luigi’s in Brooklyn. It was so good, I felt high eating it. Me and Baron went to Pennsylvania to see Kurt Vile and Sun Ra Arkestra - we had ridiculous box seats and looked like the old fellas from The Muppets. Can’t express how amazing SRA were - they should be prescribed to those experiencing melancholy.

We had to drive through Manhattan on the way back to the airport. I don’t know how anyone drives in this city. I was beyond terrified. Baron just drove through it like it was no bother at all. Absolutely bloody mental.

[souphound]

I know exactly what you mean about driving in NYC. Mental. I did it on quite a few occasions 23-30 years ago. But you can get used to it pretty quickly as long as you keep your eyes, ears and mind open. I wonder if it's all that different than it was back then. I doubt it would have gotten any better.

Out of curiosity, which airport were you going to?

[BARON CORNY DOG]

We were going to La Guardia. From East Pennsylvania. I should’ve disregarded the phone’s directions that told me to go through Manhattan. But hey, it was supposedly the fastest option! Ive driven in Manhattan a handful of times in the past and it was always kinda fun. Not today.

[Six String]

We have a bobcat in our neighborhood. I saw a large brown animal run across our front yard a few days ago. By size I thought it was a dog but it’s gate made me think cat but this was much larger than a domestic cat. It happened so fast that I didn’t get a solid look. Well yesterday it came from the corner of our backyard on our wooden privacy fence as I was looking out the sliding glass door and there was no doubt it was the same animal. I ran out to scare him off and got about three feet from him before he ran off. Our cat is ndoor/outdoor and he was somewhere “out there.” We were leaving the house in about thirty minutes for a few hours so I was anxious to get Gohan in the house but he did not respond to my calls. We got home in the early evening and Gohan came in with no issues. The bobcat was the size of a medium size dog, much bigger than any domestic cat outside of Maine Koon cats that I’ve seen.

[Minnie the Minx]

Bobcats are pretty beautiful though aren’t they!

[Minnie the Minx]

Covid booster this morning and in seconds I had spotted Waldo on the ‘Where’s Waldo’ poster that was in the vaccination booth for the benefit of people about 50 years younger than me. I saw him though immediately and let my vaccinator know! I mean I THINK she was impressed. She smiled kindly anyway!

[Minnie the Minx]

Also I just put the scorpion that was running round my office outside. He or she is probably very annoyed as it’s cold.

[Six String]

Bobcats are pretty beautiful though aren’t they!

Yes! Afterwards I felt a little bad chasing it away but it was my gut instinct in a feeble way to protect Gohan. Haven’t seen him/her since then. I wish zi had had the presence of mind to photograph as I had ample time.

[Six String]

No additional sightings of the bobcat since Sunday. Might have been a male hungry or otherwise stretching his territory. Apparently they really like squirrels and we have plenty of those around here.

[Minnie the Minx]

No additional sightings of the bobcat since Sunday. Might have been a male hungry or otherwise stretching his territory. Apparently they really like squirrels and we have plenty of those around here.

I really like squirrels too!!

[Mike Boom]

Today is my last day at work, terminated with severance, couldn't be happier, retirement here I come, finally!

FREEDOM !!

[Minnie the Minx]

Today is my last day at work, terminated with severance, couldn't be happier, retirement here I come, finally!

FREEDOM !!

Fucking hell! Really? Splendid!

[Six String]

Today is my last day at work, terminated with severance, couldn't be happier, retirement here I come, finally!

FREEDOM !!

Congratulations!