Hedgecutter

That was covered in some iPlayer Scottish fitba documentary presented by Dougray Scott, which was on the other night and showed the room. A decent enough watch. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001wdny

We have an enormous Bassett Hound across the road from us. My other half tells me the horrible winding tar marks along the middle of the pavement are the result of broadband cable installations, but I'm convinced it's the council infilling the trough caused by this lump of canine flab* getting taken out for a walk. *not a hate crime

"They also burned the letters 'YLT', 'VT' and 'YT' into their bodies with a blowtorch" That's a bit much.

How 'day tickets' on buses in the UK are only valid up to midnight, not 24hrs from the time of purchase, as it is in other European countries.

This has only just sunk in. There are couples that would expect you to buy them two drinks for every one you receive from them?! FWIW (and call this tightfisted if you will), if out with a group containing women then I'll actively attempt to get the first round in as they seem to have a habit of starting 'cheap'* and then gradually get more expensive as the night progresses. That or you start with pub prices then progress into bar prices. Get the wines in before somebody opens the £11 cocktail floodgates I say. Not really stingey if my drinks fluctuate by 50p rather than a fiver imo. There's bound to be loads of folk who try to dodge those first few rounds, only for it to bite them on the arse. Pleasing. *they're never cheap. ETA: or does the first person just also end up buying in the second cycle and getting sod all in return?! It's a tightrope.

You never see him in a cup winner's photo right enough. Very modest.

I once went down to see my mum where I was offered a handful of beers (probably Budweiser or MGD) from the fridge and my stepdad eventually asked if I was going to contribute anything towards them before I fired back up the road. That's only half of it though; rewind about a fortnight before the above, and I had managed to buy this Burnley-supporting stepdad a ticket for the Aberdeen V Burnley game (albeit in the home end as Burnley allocation had long gone). Probably not quite the European away fan adventure he dreamed of watching his team scrape a draw on the night in the back corner of the Dick Donald, but a chance to follow his team in Europe nonetheless. Ticket was probably in the region of £30 and he never offered to give me anything towards it. A fivers worth of beer gone from the fridge though? All over it.

A colleague of mine (Aberdonian) takes his dirty washing out to the rigs to save him running a wash at home. I'd say "spare a thought for the security bag searchers at the heliport", but that would only encourage him (and many others).

I wish Was just easier to ask that way than a far more complex, more realistic option that has no promise of happening years down the line. I'll be lucky to get a box of milky bars off my parents at present. Cheers Fullerene.

The 40% inheritance tax: Does the £325k exemption threshold apply to each estate transfer, or is it a personal limit for everything over the years? I.e. Hypothetically speaking for simplicity, if both a parent and an unmarried partner left me 325k in their will, would my inheritance tax bill be £0, or £130k (40% of one of those 325k transfers)?

My dad worked as a safety rep for 3M at the time and sourced me a fancy welders mask for the big event. My mum wouldn't let me use it though and never let me look at it properly. Still raging about that tbh.

Little did I realise this would be the pressing issue. The company in question is an operator who puts a daily allowance on the employees lanyard which can be redeemed at their canteen. Anything above that amount has to be paid for by the person, and if you're a scummy outsider then you'll probably have to pay using your own card. The great crime apparently is that it doesn't work on the office vending machine, almost as if they're incentivising the healthier guff.

The richest aren't necessarily those who earn the most, but very often those who build up a decent amount over the years because of their frugality. On the flip side, those who live in the biggest house with the flashiest car don't necessarily have the biggest disposable income. The latter are the perennial misery guts who are constantly under stress to keep up with the Jones'. The under-the-radar ones who don't give a f*** about driving a Skoda rather than a Jaguar even though they can afford one, far less so. As a gross generalisation, the wealthier in society generally appreciate how 'wealth builds wealth' more than the not-so-wealthy who are more likely to piss it away on overinflated consumerist garbage. Not that I'm saying that everyone will do this, as there will always be greedy bas*ards in the world, but many will have their own charities and opt to give money to them in the future after giving today's money time to grow. Why give £X now when you can give £X+Y later sort of thing.

Are we assuming that every kid in a Scottish school was born in Scotland? That database deals with the official legal registration details, as opposed to unofficial ones written in a book at some sky fairy hut.

Whilst up at the bar yesterday, I took a fairly large sip out of my pint in order to reduce the spillage risk when carrying the round over to the table. Barmaid saw the pint was missing an inch and topped it up before I could say anything (had I wanted to), probably assuming that the head had settled too low. Small wins. Forgot that Tennents Ember existed anyway. A glorious blast from the past.

My other half has a new colleague who has recently moved into a house across the road from the office on the edge of Kingswells (a relatively affluent area of Aberdeen). One of the company perks is a free lunch in their canteen. This one guy has gone there for lunch every day last week. Normally there wouldn't be anything odd about this behaviour, except he's been on leave for the Easter Holidays all week. This current status is best evidenced by him wandering in wearing his lanyard and jammies at 11am (canteen opening time) this past Friday. Top marks for brazenness.

Can we please just get Price out now, even if it means paying him to stay at home. Sometimes one needs to put their hands up and admit when they've made a right royal f*** up of a decision rather than dig the heels in, and now is one of those times. Not next week, not the last game of the season, not when Fraserburgh or Buckie are playing EK, but now. Still doesn't have a scooby about his starting 11, and evidently has no clue how to manage a game when it's needed. "Either he goes or I go" would be a tad thermonuclear, but that's not far off from where I'm at just now tbh. Today just reinforced how weak the team are when required to win second balls. Fraserburgh were all over us from that point of view, and they spent more time in the final third in the first 5 mins of the 2nd half than we did in the entirety of the first, with the same conditions.

Eta: I genuinely searched "the dog has to die Alan Partridge" to find that. In my head it was from AP rather than RM.

Broch V Brechin ON.

For the sweet love of Christ please tell me that 'Mahon' isn't pronounced as 'Man': It is, isn't it.

FWIW, I've got a Dons-supporting friend who likes telling folk with an element of pride that he was born exactly 9 months after Gothenburg.

96 variations of Jax/Jaxx/Jaxxon registered in Scotland this year alone (and it's barely April!). I blame the parents. Good to see Kaiden/Caiden on a sharp downward trend after its ~2010 explosion though. Unlucky for those reaching working age. ETA: shout out to my parents for their ability to pick 'Aberdeen' names (big in the 80s but completely irrelevant for a while now) :

Shed load of rain predicted tomorrow on top of already saturated ground, so not particularly hopeful for a game this coming Saturday. At least I get a Wimpy if the Broch V Brechin game is somehow called off at 2:15.

Not another B team FFS.

Price to be both the Messiah and an unpopular figure ("ach, it was mere luck in the playoffs") next season. Can seriously see it happening.