Friday Five!

Actually, I did finish grade 12, I just did it in 11.33 years.   But in any event, if an employer is going to give me static over high school when I have three (two verified by Naric) additional degrees, it's not an employer I'd want to work for anyway!

Ah, okay - maybe that's what they were clarifying then... that you did the whole of grade 12, but maybe on paper it looks like you didn't?

Ultimately, it shouldn't really matter though, since employers don't usually care about GCSEs once you have higher qualifications. They just need to know you got the GCSE's (or equivalent) and that they included Maths and English.

Which, unfortunately, it doesn't say anywhere on the comparability report. Just the muddy wording about grade 12....sigh. 

Fortunately, I have the actual results report back from when I did the GRE, and perhaps the employer will accept that instead. It rates verbal, quantitative, and analytical skills.

Happy Friday

1.) I'm on holiday after today for a week and a bit. Family coming from USA.
 All exciting!

2.) So much to do with work before I go on holiday.

3.) Playing a fun gig in Caithness on Sunday.

4.) Waiting on a delivery of empty swing top beer bottles so I can do some bottling. I've run out.

5.) Feeling hungry today.  Fancying something really nice for lunch (already!)

1.  I got two calls about jobs near home that I would be great in (one more than the other).  Fingers crossed that my luck is turning!!!

2.  The baby DOES. NOT. SLEEP.  I have no ideas anymore.  My husband has been pitching in a lot at night this week and I'm still exhausted.  Now we're both exhausted. 

3.  My husband was neutered this week so has been home from work.  I've enjoyed having him home each day and he hasn't been anywhere near as whiney as I thought he would be.

4.  The three year olds BFF is coming over tomorrow.  While it will be VERY noisy I expect it'll be a bit of a break!

5.  We booked to go to Bruges for two nights after Christmas.  I'm looking forward to it!

Happy Friday

1.) I'm on holiday after today for a week and a bit. Family coming from USA.
 All exciting!

...

4.) Waiting on a delivery of empty swing top beer bottles so I can do some bottling. I've run out.

5.) Feeling hungry today.  Fancying something really nice for lunch (already!)

Isn't that last day before a holiday the greatest?  All the anticipation of free time... all the potential is still there.  Enjoy your family visit!

Swing top... are those the ones with the metal latches?  Very old-fashioned in appearance?  If so, I approve.  I assume you reuse beer bottles.  How do you clean them?

Hungry days!  Man... they're great if you have food in the house.   They're the wirst when you realize you have a specific craving and can't satisfy it.

1.  I got two calls about jobs near home that I would be great in (one more than the other).  Fingers crossed that my luck is turning!!!

2.  The baby DOES. NOT. SLEEP.  I have no ideas anymore.  My husband has been pitching in a lot at night this week and I'm still exhausted.  Now we're both exhausted. 

3.  My husband was neutered this week so has been home from work.  I've enjoyed having him home each day and he hasn't been anywhere near as whiney as I thought he would be.

4.  The three year olds BFF is coming over tomorrow.  While it will be VERY noisy I expect it'll be a bit of a break!

5.  We booked to go to Bruges for two nights after Christmas.  I'm looking forward to it!

Good luck with the jobs!  I hope you're put in an awkward position of having to choose between them!

And just give up on the baby sleeping.  Accept that you gave up sleep for a year.  The sooner you accept that, the happier (yet more exhausted) you'll be.

Ooh!  Bruges!  I would go to there.  Are you taking the kids, or are they staying with family?


1.  My husband is home tonight!  Eeeee!

2.  Our desks.  Still basking in the glow of having that behind us.  We're celebrating this weekend.  I bought more liquor.  Now my bar station has Frangelico, Disaronno, Cointreau, Cuervo (gold), and Basil Hayden (a Kentucky bourbon gifted from my sister because it's her favourite and she wanted my husband to try it).  Anyway, margaritas with our Mexican platter tomorrow night.  Yay!

3.  My husband has an interview for a job he wouldn't hate, close to home, and when you factor in the lack of commute would be a net increase in funds (technically a pay cut of about £2k, though).  We are extremely anxious and hopeful.

4.  The parcel is due here today!  I'm stupudly excited about this.  Jimbo, if you're reading this thread, thanks for starting Pass-the-Parcel!  And thanks, again for timing your shipment, KF.  If I'd got it any sooner, I would've felt so overwhelmed with wanting to move it along for everybody else, but needing to finish those bloody desks.

5.  I had a fitful start to my sleep last night and was awoken at one point to the sound of screendoor-rattling doir pounding.  It took me far too long to convince myself that the sound HAD to be just part of my dream because we don't have a screen door.  I even had to check our security cameras to reassure myself that there weren't scary people outside trying to be let in.  I have no idea where this dream came from, but I wish it would go back.

But I haven’t slept in well over a year!  Lord knows pregnancy is not a restful time.   

Everyone is going to Bruges, including my parents who are coming for Christmas.  We don’t have family who babysits.  My in laws have decided to not spend Christmas OR Boxing Day with the family this year (announced before my parents decided to come).

JF kimberley, thanks for the shout.  I'm glad everyone is enjoying themselves. 
We drove to Bruge last Christmas and stayed in Zebrugge.  Beer and Chocolate, how could it be bad?  We toured this Russian submarine that was insane, even down to the instruction plaques  on each door on how to do morse code.  With raised lettering for the dark so that if you were trapped down there in the dark and all you could do was bang...,

No time for a proper Friday 5 but it is Star Trek night tonight and I have a pass to go buggying sometime this weekend.  The Gower is possible if the forecast improves. 

Here's a giant RORO ferry that was blocking the way in Bruge.  Respect for the first person to know what RORO is.

Roll On, Roll Off?

But I haven’t slept in well over a year!  Lord knows pregnancy is not a restful time.   

Everyone is going to Bruges, including my parents who are coming for Christmas.  We don’t have family who babysits.  My in laws have decided to not spend Christmas OR Boxing Day with the family this year (announced before my parents decided to come).

Did I say a year?  My mistake... you gave up sleep for 19 years.  Add in the staggered kids, and I'd estimate you're facing a sentence of 21 years.  Sorry.  I wish I had better news.

Aww!  That trip just got even better!  It sounds wonderful!  I do hope your parents keep the offspring at least for a few hours one evening so you can have a date night.

JF kimberley, thanks for the shout.  I'm glad everyone is enjoying themselves. 
We drove to Bruge last Christmas and stayed in Zebrugge.  Beer and Chocolate, how could it be bad?  We toured this Russian submarine that was insane, even down to the instruction plaques  on each door on how to do morse code.  With raised lettering for the dark so that if you were trapped down there in the dark and all you could do was bang...,

No time for a proper Friday 5 but it is Star Trek night tonight and I have a pass to go buggying sometime this weekend.  The Gower is possible if the forecast improves. 

The forecast here is... well, I don't even trust it.  It's very still out right now.  Not even a bit of rustling in the leaves.  But yesterday we had monsoon followed by sunshine and clear blue skies.  It's been very changeable weather lately.  We even had a hail storm last week.  I'd say come out and you'll probably find a window of weather that suits.

Here's a giant RORO ferry that was blocking the way in Bruge.  Respect for the first person to know what RORO is.

That looks like the size of ferry my family crossed in back in 1989.

Roll On, Roll Off?

We have a winner! 

jfkimberly, yeah the ones with the metal latches. Sometimes people call them grolsch bottles bottles (I think grolsch is bogging, so I buy empty brown ones  )
I definitely reuse beer bottles. I have a capper too so I can cap other ones, but I much prefer the swing top kind of bottle.  Cleaning is easy, I just use soap and water and a bottle brush. Before you bottle,I sanitise them with something called Star-San, which is a mixture of phosphoric acid and dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid. It kills off wee-beasts which want to make beer go bad. 

Good luck for your husband and the job! KFdancer, good luck to you on the job front too!

Good luck for your husband and the job! KFdancer, good luck to you on the job front too!

Thanks!  He just emailed me to let me know he got a haircut (this is significant and I receive the news with mixed emotions because I love his devil-may-care hair, but job interview...).  He also got a pair of reading glasses from Poundland.  I receive with news with mirth. He is "old".  (I'm 5 years older than him...)

The forecast here is... well, I don't even trust it.  It's very still out right now.  Not even a bit of rustling in the leaves.  But yesterday we had monsoon followed by sunshine and clear blue skies.  It's been very changeable weather lately.  We even had a hail storm last week.  I'd say come out and you'll probably find a window of weather that suits.

Careful what you say there - I’m a UK weather forecaster .

It’s ‘still’ outside right now because there’s a great big high pressure system sitting over the UK, which moved in behind a cold front last night.

It was that cold front that brought your ‘monsoon’ yesterday... also known as ‘sunshine and showers’ (though it was actually ‘line convection’ on the front) It was sunny and blue skies afterwards because the cold front had moved away and the high pressure was building in behind it.

The hailstorm last week would have been due to unstable air, either associated with a cold front or a trough, which had enough energy to produce thunderstorms (you can only get hail from a thunderstorm cloud).

Of course, it’s not possible to forecast what will happen in your exact location... a sunshine and showers day will mean some areas get showers and others don’t... we can do our best to forecast where the showers will be, but they may not follow the exact predicted path because the physics of the atmosphere is complicated.

Having said that, our forecasting model here in the UK predicted the path of Hurriance Harvey much more accurately than the new US Hurricane Prediction model did (which was out by about 150 miles, I think)!



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I'm a huge fan of your prediction model Ksand.  I'm upset because on the Gower it's supposed to rain all day Saturday and blow from the South all day Sunday.  That's no good as the beach faces West. 

At Camber Sands, the tide is in during daylight hours except for Sunday afternoon when it is blowing North West, which is off shore. 
In France, the tides are covering the beach all day.