What's Making You Happy Today?

We successfully toilet trained the kitten. It wasn’t nearly as hard as I had expected. It won’t flush when done, but that’s ok.

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I found this interesting

I like everything on here to varying degrees, with the exception of Cauliflower Cheese, Bubble & Squeak, and jellied eels. I can take or leave Sunday Roasts too.

I am however puzzled why Beef Wellington, which is lovely, is so low in the ratings.

Well, come to think of it, I'm not actually!!

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No sardines on toast or chip butty?

I love scotch eggs so I feel they're underrated.
 
Fish and chips on the beach is a wonderful Aussie summer tradition as well.
 
I found this interesting

I like everything on here to varying degrees, with the exception of Cauliflower Cheese, Bubble & Squeak, and jellied eels. I can take or leave Sunday Roasts too.

I am however puzzled why Beef Wellington, which is lovely, is so low in the ratings.

Well, come to think of it, I'm not actually!!

View attachment 36456
Kippers in the Crap Tier?!

Do people still do Sunday roasts?

Jellied eels always considered a London delicacy. Pretty off putting in looks and texture.
Fish and chips on the beach is a wonderful Aussie summer tradition as well.
The Dutch do it as well down at the seaside. Kibbeling is a variation small pieces of fish in batter, use to be a staple from the 19th century. Generally served with mayonaise or sauce to taste.
 
The Dutch are masters of the potato chip / French fry.

And ristaffel, of course.
 
I found this interesting

I like everything on here to varying degrees, with the exception of Cauliflower Cheese, Bubble & Squeak, and jellied eels. I can take or leave Sunday Roasts too.

I am however puzzled why Beef Wellington, which is lovely, is so low in the ratings.

I think that a lot of it comes down to changing traditions. Beef Wellington takes time to roast and people can't be bothered making it anymore.

Same with bubble and squeak - it's made from leftover roast vegetables (or, at least, that was how my great-aunt always made it). If you don't have a roast dinner anymore, you won't have leftover roast vegetables for bubble and squeak...

Why is black pudding so low? Isn't it the equivalent of sausage?

Blood pudding - I think that ingredient and appearance probably puts people off. Used to be very popular, though.

No sardines on toast or chip butty?

A lot of these things have faded away with time. My dad grew up in London prior to WWII and he used to fry up slices of black sausage for Sunday breakfast. He'd also make himself sardines on toast regularly.

Then again (as I think that I've mentioned previously) he used to get an ox tongue from the butcher, simmer it in a big pot of salted water, then store it on a plate in the fridge and use a tongue press to squash it down before slicing it and having it on sandwiches. He said that used to be common when he was growing up, but I can't imagine that many people would do that nowadays!
 
The British typically prefer blandness in their food and tend to avoid strong flavours.

While anglo Americans traditionally go for sickeningly sweet and add sugar to every meal.

We really are spoilt these days - having access to so much variety. I can’t imagine what it would have been like living in small town England or America 100 years ago and having such a limited menu.
 
Manx kippers are nice too. Maybe cook in boiling water rather than grill otherwise every cat in the neighbourhood will be at your front door,
 
Chicken tikka masala was invented in Glasgow - according to celebrity chef Gaggan Anand.
 
While anglo Americans traditionally go for sickeningly sweet and add sugar to every meal.

We really are spoilt these days - having access to so much variety. I can’t imagine what it would have been like living in small town England or America 100 years ago and having such a limited menu.
Historically the food in England was good. Game and the like for the aristos and for the commoners lots of stews, simple but tasty, then the Industrial Revolution happened and the need to feed people herded into the slums of the growing towns and cities due to the (E)Inclosures Act and the like led to blandness in food (Please sir, can I have more Gruel?) The Industrial Revolution brutalised the British working classes.
 
Then again (as I think that I've mentioned previously) he used to get an ox tongue from the butcher, simmer it in a big pot of salted water, then store it on a plate in the fridge and use a tongue press to squash it down before slicing it and having it on sandwiches. He said that used to be common when he was growing up, but I can't imagine that many people would do that nowadays!
Tongue is dreadful. It was still very much a staple of sandwiches in the 1970s. Couldn't stand the stuff.
Historically the food in England was good. Game and the like for the aristos and for the commoners lots of stews, simple but tasty, then the Industrial Revolution happened and the need to feed people herded into the slums of the growing towns and cities due to the (E)Inclosures Act and the like led to blandness in food (Please sir, can I have more Gruel?) The Industrial Revolution brutalised the British working classes.
The working classes were enjoying a lot of fresh fish and oysters in the 19th century. Beef not so much.

There are still elements of a brutalized underclass in the UK. As elsewhere in Europe, but the Brits have a larger in-your-face, what-are-you-looking at kind. Those are a little bit more difficult to spot in many parts of Europe.
 
Oh man I really wish oysters were still cheap working class food! We live on the gulf coast where they are meaty and plentiful ... and outrageously expensive.
 
We won the account to do insurance for one of the top financial institutions in Canada. We lost one last year, but still have 2 so we have the majority in the market again.

It comes with caveats like take the staff and the crap with it and we promised the moon but at least we can focus on executing the acquisition now.

I was part of the 3 person CxO sales pitch team. Been in 4 pitches in this company and batting .500. Although if you exclude HSBC not tendering anyone, higher.
 
We won the account to do insurance for one of the top financial institutions in Canada. We lost one last year, but still have 2 so we have the majority in the market again.

It comes with caveats like take the staff and the crap with it and we promised the moon but at least we can focus on executing the acquisition now.

I was part of the 3 person CxO sales pitch team. Been in 4 pitches in this company and batting .500. Although if you exclude HSBC not tendering anyone, higher.
Good job Fwiffs.
 
We won the account to do insurance for one of the top financial institutions in Canada. We lost one last year, but still have 2 so we have the majority in the market again.

It comes with caveats like take the staff and the crap with it and we promised the moon but at least we can focus on executing the acquisition now.

I was part of the 3 person CxO sales pitch team. Been in 4 pitches in this company and batting .500. Although if you exclude HSBC not tendering anyone, higher.
Good for you, do you take on the terms and conditions, redundancy, etc of those transferring to your organisation?

Most of my sales pitches fail. Pretty much despondent on that front. The majority of my business is repeat, or based on performance which gives an operational edge to rivals. But before that tactical delivery, I come up against the usual players. If I get a contract, I will get repeat business, unless it's bent.

My biggest rival and thorn in my side, is a Brit. He has an early career with one of the UK insurance/classification bodies and it's ideal. Then he goes to the French and now Italians. He speaks the language of upper management, extremely plausible and will lie through his teeth to get the contract. Utterly believable. And that's the problem. Our Eastern Division also think he's some kind of groovy guy that we should be poaching. Not at the expense of me, well, he won't get down in the trenches as I do. He'd last all of his first contract.
 
We won the account to do insurance for one of the top financial institutions in Canada. We lost one last year, but still have 2 so we have the majority in the market again.

It comes with caveats like take the staff and the crap with it and we promised the moon but at least we can focus on executing the acquisition now.

I was part of the 3 person CxO sales pitch team. Been in 4 pitches in this company and batting .500. Although if you exclude HSBC not tendering anyone, higher.
congrats. whats this mean for your position going forward? maybe a promotion in the cards?
 
Good for you, do you take on the terms and conditions, redundancy, etc of those transferring to your organisation?

Most of my sales pitches fail. Pretty much despondent on that front. The majority of my business is repeat, or based on performance which gives an operational edge to rivals. But before that tactical delivery, I come up against the usual players. If I get a contract, I will get repeat business, unless it's bent.

My biggest rival and thorn in my side, is a Brit. He has an early career with one of the UK insurance/classification bodies and it's ideal. Then he goes to the French and now Italians. He speaks the language of upper management, extremely plausible and will lie through his teeth to get the contract. Utterly believable. And that's the problem. Our Eastern Division also think he's some kind of groovy guy that we should be poaching. Not at the expense of me, well, he won't get down in the trenches as I do. He'd last all of his first contract.
We go through a due diligence starting next week. I reckon since they harped on the staff and them being in a whole other city (like London to Norwich distance) - they will want us to keep them for some time until we can figure out what to do with them. Remote work was talked about a lot. Systems integration will be madness. I don't even know what it means to be IFRS17 compliant.


We've lost quite a few opportunities because our digital and customer facing capabilities weren't launched or weren't proven. Now they are. Quite frankly we replaced a form that told them to use a Dropbox type solution so we're ahead when it comes to customer interactions.

My issue is we still have a reorganisation and we still have business as usual activities. It was bad enough those two were happening at the same time. Now there are three.

I work hard at my pitches and my slides. I rehearse like crazy until it's natural and I can change and adapt on the fly. Slides are minimal. 5 minutes talk to one slide.
 
congrats. whats this mean for your position going forward? maybe a promotion in the cards?

The same. I probably will be gone by the end of the first phase of integration for this deal.

Reorganisation, making my role obsolete, regular stuff and this are separate items. The expectation is everything will be executed.

My options are still:

1. Paris - to help the man who hired me pending he gets the job

2. Stay here and break off into a splinter subsidiary as CEO of a tiny tiny company...but that might take longer than my current subsidiary is willing to keep me since my role disappearing is a cost savings that needs to be realised

3. Stay here and work for my US boss as manager of no one

4. Stay(?) - and transition to the same level as my US boss but serving a line of business that is only active in Brazil and Mexico. Maybe other parts of Latin America.

5. Leave - as my role being redundant is becoming better known I have been asking friendlies in HR how iron clad my non compete clause is.
 
I work hard at my pitches and my slides. I rehearse like crazy until it's natural and I can change and adapt on the fly. Slides are minimal. 5 minutes talk to one slide.
I don't practice, but I do make sure the presentation slides are specific to the client and intended work. Bullet points to bounce-off. I run through it in my mind and that's good enough.
Reorganisation, making my role obsolete, regular stuff and this are separate items. The expectation is everything will be executed.

My options are still:

1. Paris - to help the man who hired me pending he gets the job

2. Stay here and break off into a splinter subsidiary as CEO of a tiny tiny company...but that might take longer than my current subsidiary is willing to keep me since my role disappearing is a cost savings that needs to be realised

3. Stay here and work for my US boss as manager of no one

4. Stay(?) - and transition to the same level as my US boss but serving a line of business that is only active in Brazil and Mexico. Maybe other parts of Latin America.

5. Leave - as my role being redundant is becoming better known I have been asking friendlies in HR how iron clad my non compete clause is.
Non-competition clauses can be unlawful in many jurisdictions. You can of course have a nice 3-6 months paid leave. I've been asked to help people out of them over the years and I've seen people sign some dreadful contracts, including my missus that were shocking in the intent and scope. Basically stopping you, or your family, from ever working in the industry or for any client or competitor. Totally unlawful and wouldn't stand up in court.

You want an interesting role, scope of work, authority over the mission, longevity and rewards.
 
I grew-up on my grandfather’s stories of listening to the Bodyline series on the radio and how half the country were ready to go to war with the poms.
They made Larwood the scapegoat for the aftermath. There was an Australian TV series made about it back in the 80s which the BBC showed. Hugo Weaving played Jardine. I remember watching it.
 

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