scottsdad

I went through a phase of that in my mid-30s. Lasted quite a while. No clue what it was but my wife certainly said I seemed withdrawn. Wish I could offer some advice here, but I have no clue what it was for me. it just seemed to fade with time.

Hope things are looking up for you this week.

But you do have to admire this banner

When I worked for Stirling Council in the 90s (summer job in the roads department), the vans were always set to Radio 1. Someone was a fan of Mark and Lard and always set the vans to listen to them. If you're too young to know who they were, they were shite DJ's who said "right" every third or fourth word. So when I got the van, at the end of the day I switched and set every station to Radio 3. Takes less than a minute.

Couldn't agree more. But if we move towards folk getting jobs based on competence, I'm fucked.

I don't get the point in dishing out personal abuse. Even when someone does it to me, why respond in kind? Where is the fun in that? That said, when a thread does start to implode it makes for good viewing...

In my field of research, most folk I know are women. Of all the researchers and PhD students I have recruited as part of my team, only one has been a male. Quite often I only ever get applications from women. Never gave it a second thought until now. Just hire the best people, regardless.

8 for Wednesday

My youngest started secondary school today. Feels strange to say the least - first time on many years I haven't had a kid in primary school. She was nervous yesterday - checking and re-checking her bag. Hope it goes well for her today.

About a decode ago, in the civil service they changed application forms to be anonymised. We didn't get to see candidate names, or what school they went to, to try to eliminate any bias. In my field it just didn't work. Hiring scientists you need to see their track record of publications, so right away we knew who had applied (in a fairly specialised field, you know just about everyone anyway). Totally different in academia. I went through a recruitment round last month. People sent everything - full CV's, copies of certificates, even photos (which were not asked for).

I get what you are saying, but sometimes it's best if a disinterested parent isn't on the scene. My step-daughter's father didn't want anything to do with her. So she had just me and it was really simple. He paid some child support and it all went on her.

It would be more boring without him. Like American politics without Trump.

Same time as they replace council tax with a local income tax.

Yep, my bad in some ways. Just leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Last Tuesday I found some homebrew beer I made maybe 2 or 3 years ago. Drank it, it was very nice. Next morning...

I hated planning, anticipation and all that. Once it was done, it was great. Quick advice: she will never accept any excuse for forgetting the anniversary. I have tried them all.

Picked up the new car yesterday. It is great. However, when I collected it, there was no fuel in it. Not a single bar on the gauge. As soon as I turned the key I got a low fuel warning. Having just spent a decent amount of money on the car, you'd think the dealership would stick even a fiver in. But no. Coincidentally there was a petrol station attached to the garage I had just enough petrol to get to. Twice now I have bought cars west of Harthill services, both times ended up with wee annoyances. Never again.

6 for Tuesday. 6 for the cup.

9 for Monday

Most of my knowledge of this comes from Curb Your Enthusiasm. Rushdie was great in that. Telling Larry about the Fatwa Sex had me in stitches.

The Range in Falkirk is all decked out in Halloween stuff.

Quite right. Effing I can handle but jeffing is crossing a line.

One for the ladies. Yesterday my wife got stung by a wasp - on the boob. Quite how it got into her bra is a mystery. She didn't half go on about it.

I was watching a news bulletin about this, but I just switched off. What happened?