What have you been doing today?

[Mottie]

Over the allotment for watering. Had my first tomato ripen.

My prized pumpkin had put on another couple of inches and there must still be more to come, I’m sure they keep growing right up to the end of August. I have 8 in total and two of them are nearly as big as 'Big Boi'.
Had my phone with me tonight so here's a pic of it with a watering can for scale.

Closed the loop in the snare that one of my neighbours had set to catch a badger that was chomping on his sweetcorn. Dunno whether to report him to the allotment manager who is a friend of his - bloody allotment politics, you wouldn’t believe it! My sweetcorn is the only crop as yet untouched by the badger - I only have a dozen plants in my trademarked Mottie sweetcorn cage. Nearly ready to be picked.

 

[Mottie]

Retired today. Properly retired. Had little freelance job overseeing the quality assurance at a couple of centres for a training company. They recently had a new manager come in who is a bit of an arsehole. I never really had much to do with him apart from telling him things that need doing to comply with their centre approval. TBH I was getting a bit bored with it and I only took on the position as a favour to the main External verifier at C&G who was also the Verifier for my centre when I had one. He recently retired so I was looking to finish up but I wouldn’t have left them in the lurch and would have given them notice and helped train my replacement up. Today the manager made the mistake of trying to treat me like an employee. Tgat was all I needed. I told him exactly where to stick his centres. Also notified the owner and the City & Guilds that I am no longer IQA for that company so that will put them on a certificate block until they find a replacement. Fúck 'em!

 

[MNW67]

Retired today. Properly retired. Had little freelance job overseeing the quality assurance at a couple of centres for a training company. They recently had a new manager come in who is a bit of an arsehole. I never really had much to do with him apart from telling him things that need doing to comply with their centre approval. TBH I was getting a bit bored with it and I only took on the position as a favour to the main External verifier at C&G who was also the Verifier for my centre when I had one. He recently retired so I was looking to finish up but I wouldn’t have left them in the lurch and would have given them notice and helped train my replacement up. Today the manager made the mistake of trying to treat me like an employee. Tgat was all I needed. I told him exactly where to stick his centres. Also notified the owner and the City & Guilds that I am no longer IQA for that company so that will put them on a certificate block until they find a replacement. Fúck 'em!

How did you get into training mechanics in the first place. I don't know much of your history except that you used to do MOTs.

 

[Mottie]

How did you get into training mechanics in the first place. I don't know much of your history except that you used to do MOTs.

Always been a mechanic from school. Mot tester from about 20 years old. Bought a house with a workshop and yard in 1984 and worked for myself until 1995. Dabbled in car security, house security and mobile phones at the same time. I rented that out and started working for a charity in 1995 training the excluded school bad boys and girls, made a success of it, moved to bigger premises and the charity opened up its own garage, MOT centre and charity training centre to give the kids real cars to train on. In 2010 our co-tenant went bust leaving the charity liable for their rent which was well into the thousands, the charity didn’t pay up so the premises were repossessed. One week before that, the charity picked a row with me and tried to change my contract of employment (they knew what was coming), I told them to stick their job and left. Missed out on 15 years redundancy but…..many students were halfway through a 2 year course with others due to start in September (I left in July). The LA had no confidence in the charity but got in touch with me, asked if I’d be interested in taking over the contracts if they found me premises. I said yes, They set me up in a schools disused car workshops, fitted it out for me, I formed a company and employed all my previous work colleagues and was up and running in time for the school start of term. In 2014, the entire school was knocked down and rebuilt (without the workshops) but I still owned my own workshop (somewhat smaller though) so they basically paid me handsomely to move out which I did and worked back in my own workshop until I retired in about 2023. We sold the workshop earlier this year. That’s about it. Oh, the charity eventually settled on paying the landlord £50k to avoid a court case. Sweet justice.

 

[Mottie]

Just went to go out and noticed a flat tyre on the back of the A3. Pumped it up and found a split in the sidewall. Mrs Mottie was the last to use it but of course, she can’t remember hitting any kerbs.

I can get one of the same make (Pirelli) fitted tomorrow for £107 from KwikFit but when I fitted 4 new tyres a couple of years ago, I kept a nearly new one although not the same make so I’m half tempted to just have that fitted. We're thinking of changing the car soon anyway. I’ll see how I feel in the morning.

 

[MNW67]

Always been a mechanic from school. Mot tester from about 20 years old. Bought a house with a workshop and yard in 1984 and worked for myself until 1995. Dabbled in car security, house security and mobile phones at the same time. I rented that out and started working for a charity in 1995 training the excluded school bad boys and girls, made a success of it, moved to bigger premises and the charity opened up its own garage, MOT centre and charity training centre to give the kids real cars to train on. In 2010 our co-tenant went bust leaving the charity liable for their rent which was well into the thousands, the charity didn’t pay up so the premises were repossessed. One week before that, the charity picked a row with me and tried to change my contract of employment (they knew what was coming), I told them to stick their job and left. Missed out on 15 years redundancy but…..many students were halfway through a 2 year course with others due to start in September (I left in July). The LA had no confidence in the charity but got in touch with me, asked if I’d be interested in taking over the contracts if they found me premises. I said yes, They set me up in a schools disused car workshops, fitted it out for me, I formed a company and employed all my previous work colleagues and was up and running in time for the school start of term. In 2014, the entire school was knocked down and rebuilt (without the workshops) but I still owned my own workshop (somewhat smaller though) so they basically paid me handsomely to move out which I did and worked back in my own workshop until I retired in about 2023. We sold the workshop earlier this year. That’s about it. Oh, the charity eventually settled on paying the landlord £50k to avoid a court case. Sweet justice.

Thanks for the details. Very interesting.

 

[Mottie]

I can get one of the same make (Pirelli) fitted tomorrow for £107 from KwikFit but when I fitted 4 new tyres a couple of years ago, I kept a nearly new one although not the same make so I’m half tempted to just have that fitted. We're thinking of changing the car soon anyway. I’ll see how I feel in the morning.

Decided to fit the tyre I had. It was about the same condition as the one it was replacing.

Picked up a baby seat from Halfords and was going to get the tyre fitted, took a short cut through a trading estate, noticed the garage where my mate works was open when I went past as he was in there doing a private job. They have tire changing equipment there so I anchored up, slung it in reverse and…..crunch! Some muppet in a Q8 was on his way to the Gym next door had gone right into me. He was calling me all the ****s, I was calling him all the ****s and I thought it was going to kick off. He shouldn’t have been going so fast but I did anchor up a bit sharp and go into reverse and he said I reversed into him. I could probably win this through the insurance but morally I suppose it was 50/50. A few scratches and hairline cracks on my bumper but as my mate said, if I had that happened while parked, I probably wouldn’t even notice it. I think I’ll leave it but if he tries it on, I’ll go through the insurance.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Was he going to do 'leg day'?

Andy

 

[Brigadier]

Half a mile swim, openwater

 

[Mottie]

Baby sitting and chauffeuring! Our son and daughter in law plus our grandchildren went to one of their friends wedding. We’vevhad to drive over to the venue, pick up the grandkids and our son’s car and take them to their house. Fed and then put the baby to bed, attempted to play Fortnite with my grandson. He’s still up and going strong. Later on, much later on, I’ve got to go back to the wedding venue and bring them back to their house. We can then go home. I thought running kids about finished when they left home!

 

[securespark]

Retired today. Properly retired. Had little freelance job overseeing the quality assurance at a couple of centres for a training company. They recently had a new manager come in who is a bit of an arsehole. I never really had much to do with him apart from telling him things that need doing to comply with their centre approval. TBH I was getting a bit bored with it and I only took on the position as a favour to the main External verifier at C&G who was also the Verifier for my centre when I had one. He recently retired so I was looking to finish up but I wouldn’t have left them in the lurch and would have given them notice and helped train my replacement up. Today the manager made the mistake of trying to treat me like an employee. Tgat was all I needed. I told him exactly where to stick his centres. Also notified the owner and the City & Guilds that I am no longer IQA for that company so that will put them on a certificate block until they find a replacement. Fúck 'em!

Some managers are utter arzols and cannot help themselves or don't even realise what they are doing.

My Dad, a bookworm from a child, an English lecturer, a teacher of English as a foreign language all round the world with a PhD and many publications under his belt, used to volunteer in his local Oxfam bookshop in retirement. Really enjoyed it, until a hotshot "Manager" came in and tried to tell him he was doing it all wrong.

My Dad had a blazing row with him, reminded him that he was a retired volunteer not a paid employee and told him to stuff it up his arz.

Dad later rang Head Office and the Manager had a rocket put up him.

 

[Mottie]

I put more surplus allotment produce - courgettes and cucumbers - out on the front wall for neighbours to help themselves.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I put more surplus allotment produce - courgettes and cucumbers - out on the front wall for neighbours to help themselves.

I recently bought a couple of replacement radios, one for the workshop, one for the summerhouse deck. Of the old FM/DAB two, one had button volume controls, which did nothing, so it was on a fixed level. The other had an intermittent dc power plug, you had hold it a certain way, to get it to work. I'd tried to find a way into the case to fix it, but couldn't get in without breaking the case, so I gave up.

Both replaced, so the old one's put out, at the gate, to see if anyone else might want them. I didn't see them go, but they were gone 30 minutes later.

 

[HERTS P&D]

I put more surplus allotment produce - courgettes and cucumbers - out on the front wall for neighbours to help themselves.

View attachment 386910

Be careful Mottie, this could be a sign that this is a sex house!



Andy



fa

 

[securespark]

Isn't that when he puts aubergines, peaches, bananas, cherries or chillies out?