Posted: Tue 22 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Domestic, Health, News, Thoughts |
On first read, the news that cookery lessons are to become part of the compulsory school schedule is great news. I did cookery lessons way back when I was in school, and it was a useful grounding. (Admittedly, I don’t do a great deal of cooking, but at least I can cook, and can do enough to mean I’m OK without needing to go to a takeaway for meals.)
But then you take a look at the fine print. One hour a week, for one term? Not really a comprehensive course then. (Or a grammar one – ha, education joke. I slay me.) If it were one hour a week for the full school year, you’d have pupils with a decent knowledge of cooking, basic recipes, and general nutritional knowledge that might actually go some way towards the end goal.
Once a week for one term? It’s hardly worth the effort. Of course, even a tiny bit of effort is better than none at all, but still, there’s so much more that could be done with this.
Posted: Fri 18 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts, Work-related |
As I’ve said in previous years, I watch Masterchef when it’s on. (I tend to avoid the ‘Celebrity’ version, but I quite like the normal version)
Now, while I understand that the competitors are non-professional (The Masterchef site says “If you’re over 18, have no formal chef training, and think you’ve got the culinary potential and determination to be the next Gordon Ramsay or Jamie Oliver, then this is the competition for you!“) I do think that a lot of the competitors in the first wave are also truly delusional.
When they do their little interviews at the start, so many of them say “I want to be a chef, I want to feed people” and all that guff, believe they’ve got the potential to win the competition, but they’re still working as merchant bankers, solicitors or whatever. Even more amusing, when you see the ones who bang on about how great they are, and how they’re going to win the entire thing, you can predict that they’re the ones who will sod it up in the first round, and be off before we’re halfway through the heat.
But if they’re so great, and so convinced of their greatness, I don’t understand why they don’t make the effort for themselves, and do some work in a pub or hotel kitchen.
If it were me, and I wanted to aim for being a Masterchef (or even being on it) I would start off by taking on part-time work in a local (or near-local) pub or restaurant, so I could learn about cooking professionally, and know whether I could actually do what I wanted to or not.
But maybe I’m just more realistic and practically-minded, rather than just assuming I’m going to win a competition on TV.
Posted: Wed 16 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Animals, Customer Services, Cynicism, Health |
OK, so it doesn’t have quite the same ring as Chicken Out!, but apparently Bernard Matthews has decided to make more of their turkeys free-range, mainly in light of the public reaction to documentaries (talked about before on here) by Hugh Fearnley-Bellend et al.
Of course, if the birds had been free-range he might not have been hit quite so hard by the bird flu scare at one of the Bernard Matthews farms back in February 2007. But that’d just be me being cynical, of course.
Posted: Tue 15 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Own Business, Work-related |
So, today I’m off to see a second (and hopefully final) accountant. This one’s come with a recommendation, so it’ll be interesting to see what they’re like.
By lunchtime today I should have costs for both of them, and can balance that against the cost of continuing to use Parasol. So far, I have to say, Parasol is a poor second out of two options – and I suspect is going to come in a very poor last in the great scheme of things.
There’s a lot I could say about Parasol , but none of it would be in any way nice – and it’d make for deathly dull reading on here, so I doubt I’ll bother. Maybe one day I will, but for the moment I’m just going to leave it at “Shysters”, and “More hassle than benefits”. I think that’s fair comment.
So yes, I think it’s likely I’ll end up going back to having my own company and using an accountant to manage the bills, payroll, and paperwork. Now I’ve just got to decide which one I’m going to use, and/or whether I need to see another one.
Posted: Mon 7 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Thoughts |
When you’re looking at a ‘news’ site for the town you grew up in, how pedantic is it to email the editor and suggest that they use a spell checker?
In the case I’m thinking of, they’d managed to mis-spell “Helicopter”, which is fairly impressive in the first place.
And if, when you’ve sent in that suggestion and they respond saying thanks, but with the first two words being “Quiet right”, would it be really snarky to point that out too?
After all, this is a site that is trying to make out it’s a news site, and the epitome of local journalism for that town, yet they manage to get at least one spelling error per day…
Or should I just leave well alone?
Posted: Sat 5 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Work-related |
Today, I had an interview with a prospective contract. Yes, it’s Saturday – this had been planned for next week, but the company is apparently in need of someone on short notice, and one other person was being interviewed today, so they asked if I could come today instead.
As it is, it was a two hour drive each way to get to the company, for an interview thing that lasted less than an hour. It could’ve been worse, and distances/times like that is just one of the knock-on things of living in Norfolk (Also known as “The county motorways forgot”) that I’ll have to get used to.
The work itself is certainly doable – it’s nothing long-term, but at least it brings the money in. I can think of better techie things to be doing, but we’ll see what they say.
Still, it’s one hell of a way to kill a Saturday – but hey ho, I’ll find out what the results are on Monday or Tuesday.
Posted: Sat 5 January, 2008 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Cynicism, Depression |
On a highly cynical note, now that she’s lost custody of her sons as well how long do you reckon it’ll be before Britney Spears
- Has a(nother) breakdown?
- Attempts suicide?
- Announces her ‘retirement’?