scottsdad

British papers referring to Madonna as "Madge"

Which direction of travel was this?

9 for Thursday

Quick question for the ex-sales people. In my old job we were told of one salesman who made so much money he drove about in a sports car and had a lovely big house. Every training session they spoke about him. I'm just not sure if he was ever real. Has such a line been trotted out elsewhere?

It was a bounce game. It means nothing. You can read absolutely nothing into it. It gives you zero indication one way or another as to how the season will go.

I was just chatting with him at lunchtime! He's got the workload model from his old university, and put his current workload through it. He's working 114% of a job, apparently. We put mine through and I'm on 152%. That doesn't even include my P&B time. Anyway, we have a new head of school starting in September and he's here meeting the senior staff today. The Prof was meeting him at 2, so I will find out soon if he raised this or if he'll wait for the guy to start before pestering him.

Finished the latest binge of this show. Will be back again in 3-4 years. In summary: Season 1 and miniseries - very good. Really grabs you and sucks you in. Season 2 - the very best. The best storylines, the best drama, everything. Season 3 - the wheels come off. Between the New Caprica opener and the Baltar trial, we have about 10 episodes of utter dross. Adama reminiscing about his dead ex-wife for an episode. A doctor killing patients because he doesn't like 'em. Dull. The finaly was a genuine WTF moment though, with the four cylons revealed and Starbuck back. Season 4 - a bit better. Finding Earth and it turning out to be a bomb site was a nice twist. The mutiny was excellent. The cylon civil war was a bit meh. And the show rally dug itself in a hole with the resurrected Starbuck and angels pish.

I'm in the same boat, just about.

What damage could a jogger possibly do to a car?

It's the same story as before. Deaths in Scotland have gone up since MUP was introduced. But they've gone up a little less than they have in northern England (aka the control group). As such, this is being explained as MUP reducing deaths.

The wife started her new job last month. On Monday her replacement started in her old job. He started at 9 am and quit the job at 3.45 pm. Apparently he got an email saying he was being offered a better job elsewhere, but nobody is sure if it was true or not. So...what's the least amount of time any P&Ber has lasted in a job?

Generally speaking, this is always a bugbear. My brother was a trialist at Alloa and at Falkirk, and they're reading the team names out over the tannoy. "McBawsack, Gubbins, Trialist..." Why not say their name? He was playing for Falkirk reserves against Clydebank and got stretchered off. The crowd were clapping him but nobody knew his name.

I never really got into Troughton all that much. He seemed to be quite panicky, saying "Oh dear" a lot of the time. I liked him a lot in Enemy of the World, though.

I so wish this one was a Proclaimers song. You scare me a bitBut that's alrightYou know when I want youMost every nightAnd I've been meaning to tell you babyThat it makes no senseStill I'm finally convincedYeah... yeahI believe we can chug all night

Just spotted a news article with a photo of Lukashenko. Fucking hell, he's a dead ringer for Scotty from Star Trek.

If you're going for a ruined anniversary, do it right. Scots couple's dream cruise for 25th wedding anniversary ruined after suitcases lost Suitcases lost, and a compo face from hospital? That's right! The stress of it caused an IBS flare up, apparently.

10 for Wednesday - there will be a few of these today.

Not yet seen Colin Baker or Sylvester McCoy. So my order to date is: 1. Tom Baker 2. Jon Pertwee 3. Matt Smith 4. William Hartnell 5. David Tennant 6. Christopher Ecclestone 7. Peter Capaldi 8. Patrick Troughton 9. Jodie Whittaker 10. Peter Davison.

I imagine something like this, but on the knob.

The company I worked for was Gill Sales Development in Glasgow. It really was the worst job ever. Start at noon, work until 9pm going door to door. Then drive home, phone the boss with the day's numbers, get a roasting over the phone that ran to about 11 pm, then off to bed. And if you didn't hit your targets during the week, they expected you out there at the weekends. They initially paid (if I remember right) £30 for signing someone up to the electricity and £8 for the phones. Then they changed it to £300 a week, but they deducted money off you if you missed your targets. Strangely, for someone like me who was pish, I made more money this way. I lasted 4 weeks.

Given his recent troubles, surprised they've not cut him out of the film by now!

The originals were fantastic up to Tom Baker's last series, then it went really boring and dull. The new ones started to go downhill during Peter Capaldi's time but the Jodie ones were mostly terrible. Not her fault, I thought she was fine, but the writing was dross. Funny seeing the similarity.

It really varied! I remember one nice couple offering me dinner with them. I was 19, starving and said yes. Over a pleasant dinner I asked if they were going on holiday. They said yes - off to Belfast for the 12th of July. "I don't know about you, but for me they're the Queen's roads, son". Another guy about half a mile away had an IRA calendar on his fridge, complete with balaclava-clad guy for the month of July. Most folk slammed the door in my face. Utterly no bored housewives looking for an afternoon with a stranger, sadly.

I had a summer job in 1999 where I was cold calling people in person. The most soul destroying job in the world, door to door sales. Trudging through scum dens in Glasgow, Eaglesham, Kilsyth and so on trying to sign people up to Scottish Power for their gas and electricity bills, and Scottish Telecom for their phone calls.

Surely there are cheaper ways for celebrities to get tickets to the races than investing in Alpine.