Insignificant Things That Make You Happy.

[gremlin]

Gremlinette's middle name is Verona, after the city in northern Italy, so I bought her the local team shirt a while ago (Hellas Verona) as it has 'Verona' embroidered on the back and is quite stylish for a footy top. She wore it for a night out last night and said she was complimented on it several times and was declared an honorary bloke and allowed to use the gents as the queue in the ladies was long.

[.....]

Insurance renewals......for once!
Moho due in November, renewal is.... drumroll please, £70 less than last year.
Both me and the van another year older, only difference possibly is a 'non-fault' claim has now elapsed!

[Taipan]

Sitting in the sunshine on the patio, eating a very unhealthy salad, and listening to the nature at play in the fields around.

At all times it's good just to enjoy life and appreciate what you have.

FTFY!

[Sunny]

My line manager has recommended putting me on garden leave to the rest of the board (after a week of handover).

I'm so bloody excited - the best part of three months paid leave sounds amazing (regardless of it being the wrong time of year).

(OTOH if it doesn't get signed off I'm going to be well pissed.)

[Horse]

My line manager has recommended putting me on garden leave to the rest of the board (after a week of handover).

I'm so bloody excited - the best part of three months paid leave sounds amazing (regardless of it being the wrong time of year).

(OTOH if it doesn't get signed off I'm going to be well pissed.)

Hope it works out.

I had three months GL. First dossing about, bit of work on the house. Then two months working as a contractor until they took me on full time.

Extra dosh paid for block paving for the driveway, a cheap car, and a couple of other things. Redundancy money (government bare minimum) paid for a downstairs loo to be installed.

[KungFooBob]

Three months garden leave aligning with the launch of Borderlands 4 seems like an omen to me.

[ZRX61]

This made me smile...

[Sunny]

Three months garden leave aligning with the launch of Borderlands 4 seems like an omen to me.

I don't game

But I might learn to juggle, inbetween bouts of renovation

[ChrisW]

Gremlinette's middle name is Verona, after the city in northern Italy, so I bought her the local team shirt a while ago (Hellas Verona) as it has 'Verona' embroidered on the back and is quite stylish for a footy top. She wore it for a night out last night and said she was complimented on it several times and was declared an honorary bloke and allowed to use the gents as the queue in the ladies was long.

My daughter sneaked me into the ladies' in a restaurant we went to last week - notable loo, well worth seeing etc. etc.

It was only once I was 'safely' inside and looking around that it occurred to me that new users might come in at any moment... Doh!

[Lutin]

Having a negative electricity bill. Had a solar PV system installed earlier in the summer and our latest 2 monthly bill shows that we've fed back into the grid enough to more than cover our bill. That includes the standing charge, PSO levy (an Irish thing) and all VAT.

Quite happy about this.

[Yorick]

I've got a new admirer

Some pals came over from Fuerteventura and brought a couple of lads early 30s.

They all loved the 5 hour enduro ride, and even more the cold beers by our pool

Young lad showed me a photo of his 69 year old dad racing a GSXR1000.

So I took him to my garage and showed him my identical bike.

He loved it. He sent his dad pics of my rear tyre ripped up from Portimao.
His dad sent back picks of his rear tyre from Spa.

Was surreal and funny.

And got me a couple of beers here in town

[Yorick]

We've had some pals over here from Fuerteventura riding enduro over the weekend.

They have all had road bikes before but only enduro now.

They told me they are flying to Northern Spain next September and hiring road bikes.
They invited me

Today they said they're flying to Tenerife in February
Invited me on that as well. But I can get the ferry and take the GSXR.

Gonna have several Euro trackdays next year.

Gonna be busy

[Sunny]

Garden Leave agreed!

Got to do another couple of weeks of 'handover' apparently (I've already given them a succession plan and written everything up, so not entirely sure what I'll be doing other than skiving, but...), so final date TBC, but likely from the 27th, which would give me a good couple of months off

[Taipan]

The speed of an online passport application!

Application history
Passport printed 5:23pm on 13 October 2025
Application approved 1:40pm on 10 October 2025
Documents received 7:49pm on 7 October 2025
Application received 3:12pm on 4 October 2025
Application submitted 3:11pm on 4 October 2025

[Taipan]

Had soem maintenance guys looking at the fire alarm sensors in my studio, one of the guys is Scottish, and he just said "Hoots mon"! I didn't think they really said that!

*edit* His name is Hamish!

[Skub]

Walking early this morning.

Windless,sea like glass and oh so quiet and soft.

Bliss.

[Taipan]

Another eBay result! I bought a new Alpinestar jacket a couple of years back. It was discounted as it had no thermal liner. Didn't bother me as I'd just wear a fleece, but it ended up annoying me having to put a fleece on every time I rode the bike in winter. I checked eBay from time to time, not really expecting to ever find one on there, but yesterday I did! The exact right one in the right size and only £25.18 delivered!

[KungFooBob]

I've just been told to disable our dickhead sales directors accounts, yay!

[Ditchfinder]

Since lockdown the wife and I had been sharing a bottle of wine most nights, well pretty much all of them TBH.

The last 3 weeks we've cut down to just Fri/Sat drinking and the results have been quite noticeable.

We're both sleeping at least 1 hour more every night, my resting heart rate has dropped from 65 down to 56 and i'm losing weight at around 1lb / wk with no other changes to diet or excercise.

The weekly shop has been a minimum of £60/wk less too

[Taipan]

My wife just told me she was successful at her interview at the local hospital and will be leaving her current job of 20+ years at the school she currently works as an LA at! I reckon she'll miss the school holidays, but I wont miss the cost of only being able to holiday in the most expensive times!