Success! My son has asked his parents-in-law to help, which they are kindly willing to do. A happy solution indeed!
The two hospitals in the city are linked by a Medilink bus. I don’t understand why there isn’t a linked bus from the bus/ train station to this other hospital which is fairly new, built two miles outside of a town. Plenty of parking, unlike the city hospitals.
I don’t understand why there isn’t a linked bus from the bus/ train station to this other hospital which is fairly new, built two miles outside of a town. Plenty of parking, unlike the city hospitals.
I imagine that consideration has been taken of the risk that commuters might use up that plentiful parking for their cars and take any such link bus to the railway station.
It happens.
Is it the new rehab place you're going to? I would imagine that they'll largely be expecting outpatients to use their own transport to there, particularly if they need extra support. Given the uproar there was about charging the public for the Medilink a few years ago, I don't think they could manage to afford to cover the cost of a service to that through cross subsidy, and if it's too infrequent it'd be pretty useless.
And even if they do stop, the chirpy cockney cabby may often utter a cheery “piss off, I ain’t going to f*cking Streatham at this time of night” before speeding off
Staying with the transportation theme, TICTH McGill's buses (again).
Just when I thought they were getting their act together (the one for my trip to Kirkliston this morning was only a minute or two late), they played a total doozie coming back. I'd checked their website, and there should have been a bus at 3:25. There wasn't, and the app said the next would be at 3:55. When that one didn't show either (app now saying 4:25), I thought, "sod it" and phoned for an Uber.
His sat-nav was playing silly buggers and kept taking us off the road; after the second time, I asked him to just follow the road signs, and five minutes later we went past the ******* bus.
That's over an hour of my life (and £11) I won't get back. 😡
Even if you wouldn’t feel up to taking him through the small claims court, a letter before action might prompt him to refer it to his insurers. (If he’s uninsured you might not get your money back, but also he’ll be stuffed because it’s a serious offence.)
Is it compulsory in the UK to have insurance for property damage as well as for personal injury?
Unsuitable group leaders.
Today I went for the first time to a group which has recently promoted itself locally but been running for ten years. The leader gave a short introductory talk, including telling us that nobody would be obliged to speak. We then we broke into smaller groups. The leader must have wanted to get to know the two newcomers, so she inserted herself into our group, gave another monologue, then asked individuals direct questions. I met some really nice people but not sure I want to encounter that leader again.
Thank you for that. Here, it's only compulsory to insure against liability for personal injury and not for property damage. IIRC, the UK position of claims by an injured person where the liable driver is not insured is generally similar to my State.
The Motor Insurers Bureau will compensate for injury, loss or damage proven o be the fault of an uninsured or untraced driver, but not loss or damage covered by the victim’s own comprehensive motor insurance.
In my State, there is the statutory office of the Nominal Defendant. Like the UK Bureau, the ND compensates for injury in instances where the driver is uninsured or unable to be traced (to borrow your terms). The liability of the Nominal Defendant does not extend to cover property damage. AFAIK, there has not yet been a case where the damage is to the victim's pacemaker, but there may well have been instances in the past where eg the victim's splints or hearing aids have been damaged. Certainly it does not extend to the victim's motor vehicle.
Puzzler, possibly someone who got to be a leader because they were loud, rather than because of their people skills. I hope they don't put you off something you might otherwise enjoy.
Ticth my boss, for not adjusting the official weekly schedules when I told her by email on the 7th that I was on an all day training (that she wanted me to take) today in Manhattan. Fortunately I noticed last night that the schedule had not been changed and was able to notify the branch. But somehow I'm the one who comes off badly in this.
I have been invigilating exams for a decade. Last week I invigilated a 2 hour exam, at short notice, as a favour, for which I am being paid £30.
Except, I have renewed my passport since the previous exam, and they can't pay me my £30 until I have sent a scan of my current passport, to prove I have a right to work in the UK. Fair enough. And they also need proof of my NI number. I have scanned in my August payslip from them, which has my NI number on it. I assume that will do.
BUT! Apparently the rules have been tightened, I have only one reference on file, and I now need a second reference (they've asked for an Academic reference!) before they can remit me my £30.
What is a reference supposed to say? I have known the Quine for X years and confirm that if you pay her the £30 she has earned, she will not run amok with it?
How bizarre. Are they afraid that at some point between the expiration of your previous passport and today, you might have abandoned your UK citizenship and so no longer be entitled to work in the UK?
I had a similarly stupid experience with my local county courts here in the US. They summoned me for jury service (they use the drivers license database as a source for prospective jurors, which is how they got my name). I told them I can't serve on their jury, because I'm not a US citizen. They told me to prove it.
I told them that I couldn't. I could prove that I was British, by showing them my British passport. I could prove that I was not American a few years ago, by showing them my visa, because the US government will not issue a visa to someone who is American. I can't show them anything that says that I have not, in the intervening years, acquired US citizenship. The only people who can prove that are the US government...
(Fortunately, they were content to accept "here's my British passport" as compelling enough evidence that I wasn't lying to try to get out of jury service.)
I didn't mind the passport bit, as I realise that they need current proof of right of residency, or whatever.
I've no idea why I had to provide proof of my NI number, given they have used it probably upwards of thirty times in the last decade. It's not something that changes, is it?
None of this is to check I can work - I've done the work - it's to confirm they can legally pay me.
I have another exam with an 8am start coming up which I definitely regard as "doing a favour" rather than "working" but I do want to get paid. As I understand it, I'm going to invigilate it whilst still not being entitled to receive any pay.....
I have been invigilating exams for a decade. Last week I invigilated a 2 hour exam, at short notice, as a favour, for which I am being paid £30.
Except, I have renewed my passport since the previous exam, and they can't pay me my £30 until I have sent a scan of my current passport, to prove I have a right to work in the UK. Fair enough. And they also need proof of my NI number. I have scanned in my August payslip from them, which has my NI number on it. I assume that will do.
BUT! Apparently the rules have been tightened, I have only one reference on file, and I now need a second reference (they've asked for an Academic reference!) before they can remit me my £30.
What is a reference supposed to say? I have known the Quine for X years and confirm that if you pay her the £30 she has earned, she will not run amok with it?
That's bonkers. If you've been an invigilator for all these years for the same people surely they should know you're a person of probity. Also, I wouldn't have thought you'd need an academic reference just to hand out papers or sit there watching students struggling to answer questions.
David was called for jury service in Canada, presumably on the driving licence database principle - at the time we still didn't even have permanent residence, let alone citizenship. As it happened, we were heading to St Pierre (probably to get a visa stamp, but I can't now remember) that morning, and he had to present himself at the court with proof that he was booked on a plane to leave Newfoundland - and proof that he presumably wouldn't have been eligible anyway.
I have been invigilating exams for a decade. Last week I invigilated a 2 hour exam, at short notice, as a favour, for which I am being paid £30.
Except, I have renewed my passport since the previous exam, and they can't pay me my £30 until I have sent a scan of my current passport, to prove I have a right to work in the UK. Fair enough. And they also need proof of my NI number. I have scanned in my August payslip from them, which has my NI number on it. I assume that will do.
BUT! Apparently the rules have been tightened, I have only one reference on file, and I now need a second reference (they've asked for an Academic reference!) before they can remit me my £30.
What is a reference supposed to say? I have known the Quine for X years and confirm that if you pay her the £30 she has earned, she will not run amok with it?
That's bonkers. If you've been an invigilator for all these years for the same people surely they should know you're a person of probity. Also, I wouldn't have thought you'd need an academic reference just to hand out papers or sit there watching students struggling to answer questions.
I imagine in this context they want a reference to confirm that you are not prone to cheating on exams, and therefore not likely to encourage or facilitate such behaviour in the students.
The whole idea of references is a bit nuts though. Someone you've never heard of and know nothing about recommends someone else who's usually unknown to you as a truly excellent fit for a company the referee hasn't done any research on, but is assured by the candidate that it would be an ideal place to work.
(With job interviews the candidate then presents themselves in person to be assessed for about 30 minutes or so by managers they probably won't be spending 8 hours a day with and may not be working with at all. On the strength of how they come across during that brief time, they are then offered a place to work with future colleagues they won't meet and know nothing about until the day of arrival, when they take up their post at a desk in an unknown location which probably doesn't remotely resemble the reception area or the interview room.
Agreed. I have a copy somewhere of the reference given to me under my severance Ts & Cs for leaving a well known Dark Blue educational establishment, and it says the square root of squat about me. Luckily it's far enough back now that I am unlikely to ever need to use it.
HMRC have wrongly decided that one of my pensions is to be taxed at higher rate. The widow’s pension I get from Mr Puzzler’s pension scheme got their sums and facts wrong and gave figures for three months which HMRC have assumed X 4 = annual sum. Hard for me to sort as there is no payslip so I only know how much nett income I have received, not gross.
It will get sorted out eventually but yet another stroppy phone call to the pension provider might be on the cards.
Originally posted by Pendragon: I imagine in this context they want a reference to confirm that you are not prone to cheating on exams, and therefore not likely to encourage or facilitate such behaviour in the students.
It's purely the "paying me" aspect. They don't need a reference for future invigilation.
I provided a scan of my new passport to the "employing me" section on the 9 October. It just took five minutes. The "paying me" section want me to provide not only a scan of my new passport, but various other proofs, confirmation I don't want to opt-out of the European Working Time Directive, a weird set of questions on whether I wanted to branch out from ad-hoc invigilation into full time clerical, janitorial or delivery driving work (no!), and an extra reference. I had spent 45 mins on paper work before I ground to a halt over the request for a second reference.
At the moment my outstanding pay is £30 and they can't pay me that £30 till the paperwork is complete.
I spent £5 of the £30 on the day of the exam on coffee and a chocolate twist; in my mind I was "doing a favour" rather than "earning £30." But that's not to say I don't want my £30!
As someone who works in Scottish local authority education bureaucracy I feel your pain. Have they asked you to undertake data protection training yet, given that you will have access to names, SCNs etc?
I'm casting my mind back to a myriad of training sessions (for teaching, rather than invigilating) and can't remember if data protection was amongst them or not. Maybe?
I'm casting my mind back to a myriad of training sessions (for teaching, rather than invigilating) and can't remember if data protection was amongst them or not. Maybe?
Tch, tch. I would have thought they'd have you do it annually, along with child protection, fire safety et al.
For the second time Experian have declined my ID for a background check. I now have to organise a zoom with the charity I volunteer with to wave my passport etc. at them. I am not amused and have told the charity I might have to step down from my role.
TICTH arse-covering nonsense of the following variety ...
Occ health nurse gathers various history, which evidences that I have long-standing mental-health difficulties which have often in the past been very much worse than they are at present. Occ health nurse asks about current work-related stress which is the reason I requested an Occ health referral.
Occ health nurse: Any thoughts of self-harm or suicide?
Me: Mild passive suicidal ideation for about the past 6 weeks.
Occ health nurse: Do you drive with children in the car as part of your job?
Me: Yes.
Occ health nurse: Has a health professional ever told you to make declarations to the DVLA?
Me: No. [ After the call, I re-check the DVLA guidance and email Occ Health pointing out any diagnoses I have only need to be declared **if they affect your ability to drive safely** and there is zero evidence of my ability to drive safely being affected. ]
Occ health nurse: I need to talk to the Occ health doctor.
Me: I would stress that I place a great deal of importance on the welfare of the children I work with and I can assure you that any suicidal ideation on my part absolutely does not mean I would ever put the safety of other people at risk.
Second phone call later in the day ...
Occ health nurse: We're recommending you don't do any occupational driving with passengers until we can get more information from your GP.
Me internally: FFS. 20 years of my mental health being rubbish, historically often massively worse than it is now, over 10 years of me being a children's social worker, and you seriously think some mild and passive suicidal thoughts mean I'm suddenly now going to deliberately crash my car while I've got children in it?!?!?!?!????
What's wrong with your ID? Surely if it's a passport or driving licence, it'll have an acceptable photograph on it?
Not at the US border. A couple of times when I've been through secondary inspection I've been told, "We need to see your ID". "You have my passport in your hand", I said. "But we need ID". Almost anything with a picture on it will do, and it makes them happy. They don't have many Mensa members working there.
TICTH a local pub which has now had Kaltlet#2 do *two* unpaid trial shifts and still can't tell him if he's got a job or not.
Fucksake it's a kitchen assistant job, not a new director of overseas sales for a multinational.
Is this normal? I've got proper professional jobs on the basis of a single interview in the past; thought that was how it always worked.
It may or may not be normal but it's leaning towards illegal. I'd be very wary of working for such skeevy fuckers, and I'd be strongly tempted to invoice them at NMW for the second shift at least.
TICTH a local pub which has now had Kaltlet#2 do *two* unpaid trial shifts and still can't tell him if he's got a job or not.
Fucksake it's a kitchen assistant job, not a new director of overseas sales for a multinational.
Is this normal? I've got proper professional jobs on the basis of a single interview in the past; thought that was how it always worked.
It may or may not be normal but it's leaning towards illegal. I'd be very wary of working for such skeevy fuckers, and I'd be strongly tempted to invoice them at NMW for the second shift at least.
End of today's shift he asked whether has has a job and was told the person who does hiring wasn't there... we're waiting to see what happens next. It needs to be either a rejection or an offer of paid work, whether they call it a further trial or not.
From what I read this isn't uncommon- there's a massive easily exploited grey area - which the better sort of MPs have apparently been trying to make more black and white.
What's making me a bit more "'ello ello" here is that today's shift was cut short as they weren't very busy - which smells very like they were getting genuine value from him rather than testing him - which shifts it into the darker grey of said grey area.
Comments
(Used to be the WRVS but now just the RVS)
Anyway, good luck - I hope you find a happy solution!
The two hospitals in the city are linked by a Medilink bus. I don’t understand why there isn’t a linked bus from the bus/ train station to this other hospital which is fairly new, built two miles outside of a town. Plenty of parking, unlike the city hospitals.
I imagine that consideration has been taken of the risk that commuters might use up that plentiful parking for their cars and take any such link bus to the railway station.
It happens.
I was trying to get a collapsing Mr F home and no fewer than 3 in 10 minutes ignored my frantic signals.
(Fortunately a doable bus came along).
Is Mr F OK now?
He was able to see off a cocktail and a half bottle of Lacrima de Moro, a long with steak and mushrooms, so I think he'll live.
Good!
Back home from Dunblane after a very enjoyable day singing, eating and drinking - my three favourite pursuits!
Just when I thought they were getting their act together (the one for my trip to Kirkliston this morning was only a minute or two late), they played a total doozie coming back. I'd checked their website, and there should have been a bus at 3:25. There wasn't, and the app said the next would be at 3:55. When that one didn't show either (app now saying 4:25), I thought, "sod it" and phoned for an Uber.
His sat-nav was playing silly buggers and kept taking us off the road; after the second time, I asked him to just follow the road signs, and five minutes later we went past the ******* bus.
That's over an hour of my life (and £11) I won't get back. 😡
Is it compulsory in the UK to have insurance for property damage as well as for personal injury?
Today I went for the first time to a group which has recently promoted itself locally but been running for ten years. The leader gave a short introductory talk, including telling us that nobody would be obliged to speak. We then we broke into smaller groups. The leader must have wanted to get to know the two newcomers, so she inserted herself into our group, gave another monologue, then asked individuals direct questions. I met some really nice people but not sure I want to encounter that leader again.
Thank you for that. Here, it's only compulsory to insure against liability for personal injury and not for property damage. IIRC, the UK position of claims by an injured person where the liable driver is not insured is generally similar to my State.
Except, I have renewed my passport since the previous exam, and they can't pay me my £30 until I have sent a scan of my current passport, to prove I have a right to work in the UK. Fair enough. And they also need proof of my NI number. I have scanned in my August payslip from them, which has my NI number on it. I assume that will do.
BUT! Apparently the rules have been tightened, I have only one reference on file, and I now need a second reference (they've asked for an Academic reference!) before they can remit me my £30.
What is a reference supposed to say? I have known the Quine for X years and confirm that if you pay her the £30 she has earned, she will not run amok with it?
I had a similarly stupid experience with my local county courts here in the US. They summoned me for jury service (they use the drivers license database as a source for prospective jurors, which is how they got my name). I told them I can't serve on their jury, because I'm not a US citizen. They told me to prove it.
I told them that I couldn't. I could prove that I was British, by showing them my British passport. I could prove that I was not American a few years ago, by showing them my visa, because the US government will not issue a visa to someone who is American. I can't show them anything that says that I have not, in the intervening years, acquired US citizenship. The only people who can prove that are the US government...
(Fortunately, they were content to accept "here's my British passport" as compelling enough evidence that I wasn't lying to try to get out of jury service.)
I've no idea why I had to provide proof of my NI number, given they have used it probably upwards of thirty times in the last decade. It's not something that changes, is it?
None of this is to check I can work - I've done the work - it's to confirm they can legally pay me.
I have another exam with an 8am start coming up which I definitely regard as "doing a favour" rather than "working" but I do want to get paid. As I understand it, I'm going to invigilate it whilst still not being entitled to receive any pay.....
That's bonkers. If you've been an invigilator for all these years for the same people surely they should know you're a person of probity. Also, I wouldn't have thought you'd need an academic reference just to hand out papers or sit there watching students struggling to answer questions.
Isn't bureaucracy wonderful? :rolleyes:
I imagine in this context they want a reference to confirm that you are not prone to cheating on exams, and therefore not likely to encourage or facilitate such behaviour in the students.
(With job interviews the candidate then presents themselves in person to be assessed for about 30 minutes or so by managers they probably won't be spending 8 hours a day with and may not be working with at all. On the strength of how they come across during that brief time, they are then offered a place to work with future colleagues they won't meet and know nothing about until the day of arrival, when they take up their post at a desk in an unknown location which probably doesn't remotely resemble the reception area or the interview room.
On such are careers founded.)
A lot of big organisations these days only confirm dates of employment, possibly disciplinary incidents and sickness.
It will get sorted out eventually but yet another stroppy phone call to the pension provider might be on the cards.
I imagine in this context they want a reference to confirm that you are not prone to cheating on exams, and therefore not likely to encourage or facilitate such behaviour in the students.
It's purely the "paying me" aspect. They don't need a reference for future invigilation.
I provided a scan of my new passport to the "employing me" section on the 9 October. It just took five minutes. The "paying me" section want me to provide not only a scan of my new passport, but various other proofs, confirmation I don't want to opt-out of the European Working Time Directive, a weird set of questions on whether I wanted to branch out from ad-hoc invigilation into full time clerical, janitorial or delivery driving work (no!), and an extra reference. I had spent 45 mins on paper work before I ground to a halt over the request for a second reference.
At the moment my outstanding pay is £30 and they can't pay me that £30 till the paperwork is complete.
I spent £5 of the £30 on the day of the exam on coffee and a chocolate twist; in my mind I was "doing a favour" rather than "earning £30." But that's not to say I don't want my £30!
Tch, tch. I would have thought they'd have you do it annually, along with child protection, fire safety et al.
Occ health nurse gathers various history, which evidences that I have long-standing mental-health difficulties which have often in the past been very much worse than they are at present. Occ health nurse asks about current work-related stress which is the reason I requested an Occ health referral.
Occ health nurse: Any thoughts of self-harm or suicide?
Me: Mild passive suicidal ideation for about the past 6 weeks.
Occ health nurse: Do you drive with children in the car as part of your job?
Me: Yes.
Occ health nurse: Has a health professional ever told you to make declarations to the DVLA?
Me: No. [ After the call, I re-check the DVLA guidance and email Occ Health pointing out any diagnoses I have only need to be declared **if they affect your ability to drive safely** and there is zero evidence of my ability to drive safely being affected. ]
Occ health nurse: I need to talk to the Occ health doctor.
Me: I would stress that I place a great deal of importance on the welfare of the children I work with and I can assure you that any suicidal ideation on my part absolutely does not mean I would ever put the safety of other people at risk.
Second phone call later in the day ...
Occ health nurse: We're recommending you don't do any occupational driving with passengers until we can get more information from your GP.
Me internally: FFS. 20 years of my mental health being rubbish, historically often massively worse than it is now, over 10 years of me being a children's social worker, and you seriously think some mild and passive suicidal thoughts mean I'm suddenly now going to deliberately crash my car while I've got children in it?!?!?!?!????
Not at the US border. A couple of times when I've been through secondary inspection I've been told, "We need to see your ID". "You have my passport in your hand", I said. "But we need ID". Almost anything with a picture on it will do, and it makes them happy. They don't have many Mensa members working there.
Fucksake it's a kitchen assistant job, not a new director of overseas sales for a multinational.
Is this normal? I've got proper professional jobs on the basis of a single interview in the past; thought that was how it always worked.
It may or may not be normal but it's leaning towards illegal. I'd be very wary of working for such skeevy fuckers, and I'd be strongly tempted to invoice them at NMW for the second shift at least.
End of today's shift he asked whether has has a job and was told the person who does hiring wasn't there... we're waiting to see what happens next. It needs to be either a rejection or an offer of paid work, whether they call it a further trial or not.
From what I read this isn't uncommon- there's a massive easily exploited grey area - which the better sort of MPs have apparently been trying to make more black and white.
What's making me a bit more "'ello ello" here is that today's shift was cut short as they weren't very busy - which smells very like they were getting genuine value from him rather than testing him - which shifts it into the darker grey of said grey area.