IrishBhoy

Aye that’s a scene that’s solely there to highlight the thinly veiled incompetence of both Gareth and David. David literally stops another employee from carrying the wheelchair down the stairs so that he can take the credit for it, but when he weighs up the potential plaudits he’s going to receive against the actual physical exertion he will need to expend, he decides it’s not worth it. The Office UK is such a mad programme that I could go into genuinely lengthy detail around the character of David Brent, and how that example you gave along with numerous others, paint Brent as a man craving social validity over career success. There was only 2 seasons of the UK Office, as well a couple of Christmas specials, but the depth of character and profundity of the relationships makes the US version look like Mrs Browns Boys. The amount of people I encounter who have only ever watched the US version and think it’s an original comedy makes me almost physically sick. Although it does make it easy to spot a person of simple mind when they say something like ‘I tried to watch the UK Office but it’s not as funny’. Yes it’s not as funny because you have the IQ of a cat, and the jokes aren’t signposted for you 2 weeks in advance like they are in Scranton.

One of the best scenes from the full catalogue of The Office is from the episode where Slough welcomes the Swindon lot. It’s quite literally a 2 second scene and it’s easy to miss….but it’s when David is standing in the background with Neil just infront, and Jennifer makes her way through the crowd and kisses a random employee before kissing Neil on the cheek. It’s not very loud, but David mutters from the background ‘Kissing everyone? Means less’. The absolute pettiness of that line along with the way it’s delivered is so far up my street it lives in my house. It’s such an undervalued quote from The Office but it’s one that can be used in a multitude of scenarios. ‘Whats that? You’ve went and bought a pint for yourself but not for me? Means less.’ ‘You had a 6 team accumulator on and only one team let you down? Means less’.

When Jennifer comes to discuss redundancies and Karen Roper is standing at the reception desk… ’Who is that?’ ‘Dunno’.

Think I posted this story on here a few years ago, but in a previous employment we had this IT whizzkid from London join our team up in Scotland to basically show us all how we had been too stupid to use a new system for booking man hours against the contracts we were working on, and needed this guy to come and walk us through it. He sat directly across from me, and whilst he sat and sort of shouted out the particular process we had to follow to everyone in the office, I said out loud ‘First sensible thing you’ve said all day’. I already knew from looking at him that he had never seen The Office (UK), although I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was a fan of the US version, but he glared at me across the desk as I sat remembering to myself that that particular line can be quite offensive to people who are unaware of the context. I actually didn’t mind offending this guy because he was an absolute humour vacuum who I’m 99.9% sure was a Conservative voter, who acted like he was on some sort of U.N. Humanitarian mission to Somalia even though he was actually getting put up in the Premier Inn in the Gorbals Monday to Friday, and his only job was to explain to us that we had to click slightly different buttons to ones we had been clicking before.

What sort of people actually sit and come with this sort of stuff? Genuinely. Kim Jong-Un would be embarrassed to put his name to this. The full proposal is completely overreaching and should be rejected by anyone who values a society free from government interference. If the Police could point to evidence of supporters buses being the cause of disorder or criminal behaviour then wire in, but a bus load of Aberdeen fans stopping outside a local Paisley pub and going in for a few pints without having a steak dinner first is extremely low down the list of priorities in this country. Needing police permission to stop a bus in order to pick up or drop off passengers? Can only imagine the hard on Police Scotland would have with that sort of power. It’s also completely needless, is there any evidence of disorder happening when a Dundee supporters bus coming back from Kilmarnock stops to drop a couple of guys off in Perth? Can’t stop at a pub for a pint unless sold with a substantial meal? Yeah that sounds easily enforceable. That’s if you are even allowed to stop at a local pub because that requires police permission as well. The last thing Police Scotland need is more ways to make fans have a terrible day out at the football in Scotland, especially when 99% of them have never committed an offence at the football in their life. There is recent examples of them telling referees what side penalty shootouts should happen at, and they demand a police presence at certain games then charge the clubs for the privilege. They should treat the majority of football games in Scotland in the same way they treat most potential crimes i.e. if something happens we will phone and let yous know. The authorities in Scotland love to treat every football fan as a potential criminal, and to be fair it’s probably in their best interests when 30 odd police officers can turn up and collect an overtime shift to stand with their finger up their arse at the corner of Easter Road during a Hibs v St Johnstone game.

‘But why is it only black people who should be offended by racism?’ ‘Good point, first sensible thing you’ve said all day’.

Realise this is an old post but the average cameras are back up on the same stretch of road, and I know exactly what you’re saying. Last week I was heading to pick my friend up from the city centre, sitting just about bang on 40 between the Braehead and Cardonald junctions, when a big Range Rover came flying past doing 70mph+. It got me talking to my dad and a couple of guys in work and we were saying how you never seem to hear about anyone getting fined with average speed cameras; none of us knew of a single person who had received a speeding fine because of them. When I worked up in Aberdeen and travelled the A9 between Stirling and Perth I would regularly see cars flying past me when I had my cruise control set to 70, and I always thought some of the locals knew something I didn’t that the cameras weren’t functional, but I never tested that out for myself. I also wonder if the tolerance they allow is quite generous and that’s why you rarely/never hear of anyone getting fined. Car speedometers usually overestimate your actual speed and you could go through the average speed cameras at 46mph and your genuine speed would only be a fraction over 40. I must admit I don’t hate them on that stretch of M8 tbh, the traffic seems to flow much better in the morning when everyone gets down to 40, rather than what it’s usually like with people flying past the Airport then slamming on the brakes when the traffic gets heavier at Braehead and everyone sitting nose to bumper.

Climbed Cruachan and Stob Diamh on a foggy Monday morning about 6 years ago, never seen another person all day. Had about 10 feet of visibility as we walked from the summit of Cruachan along to Stob Diamh, and stopped at the summit cairn for 20 minutes or so for a sandwich and headed off into the thick clag thinking we were completing the horseshoe and descending back to the dam. After about an hour of walking the wind got up and the fog cleared, giving us fine views of the Cruachan dam to our left hand side, which should have been to our right if we followed the correct route. It was only after seeing that we realised we had become disoriented in the clag and walked back to the summit of Cruachan. Took us about 10 hours in total and we were knee deep in bog at points as we came down the section after the dam wall, which was basically just walking through a stream. Very interesting place though, I believe you can take a tour inside the hydro station and under the mountain.

Yes mate that was us. That downhill section heading back towards the car was the dodgiest I’ve encountered so far, even in the dry. I’m usually fine going back down but I had about 3 near misses nearly going over on my ankle and once where I slipped and just managed to stop myself snapping my groin. Wouldn’t even attempt that route in winter conditions. We were talking to the blonde guy at the top of the first Munro he seemed to know his stuff, looked fit as a fiddle as well you done well to keep pace with them.

Never even seen this before I posted, you couldn’t have been far away from me today. We set off at 6.20 and got back to the car just after 2pm. What a place it is, did you see the stags just below the summit of Stob Dearg? That view over the Rannoch Moor with the sun splintering through the clouds was almost the exact same as what we saw so you couldn’t have been far away. You weren’t the guy with the red t-shirt walking with the blonde haired couple were you? Because if you were you were absolutely flying, you passed us on the way up the second peak if your the same guy?

Climbed the 4 peaks of Buachaille Etive Mor this morning (2 Munros), by far the hardest climb I’ve ever tackled but by far the most enjoyable day out I’ve had on the hills. Pulled into the lay-by at 6.20am as the sun peeped its head over the Rannoch Moor, draping the mountains of Glencoe in a deep red which was amazing to see. The path up the bealach, which you can see scarred onto the mountain in that picture above, was genuinely torturous. I thought I was quite a fit guy before I headed up there today, but after 90 minutes of steep ascent over loose scree and boulders, where every step felt like it was about to induce cramp and a glance at the Garmin showed my heart rate consistently in the 190’s, I realised I have a long way to go. I know I probably sound like a little girl to some of the more experienced mountaineers on here but I genuinely wasn’t prepared for how hard that was going to be today. Even the descents required proper concentration, and I lost count of the amount of times I almost sprained my ankle on the way down. Even on the walk back along the A82, I took a misstep on the grass and nearly snapped my groin. A real eye opener for me with regards to the fitness required for some of these hills. Genuinely thought we would be up and down today in 5 hours, and we had a chuckle at the Walkhighlands page that said 7-9 hours in summer conditions. 8 hours later we got back to the car, scared to bend our legs in case they cramped up, and both completely drained mentally and physically. With my current fitness I would sooner run a marathon than complete that route again, the return from Stob Na Broige to the path that descends back down to the car park was never ending, and it felt cruel for us to be able to see the car from there, knowing that there was at least 2 hours between us and the drive home. A day I will remember for a long time, a proper sense of accomplishment today.

I don’t know if the referee done it before this fight, but usually when the ref brings the 2 fighters together before the first bell he will say ‘no punches below this line’ and put his hand out to show where he’s going to penalise low blows. That line is not always at the top of the fighters shorts. In my opinion the punch landed cleanly on the stomach, it was thrown upward towards the belly button area and after looking at it a good few times slowed down I personally wouldn’t class it as a low blow. It seems to have split opinion though so maybe I could have reined in my original post a bit. I didn’t know the referee prevented Usyk from re-starting the fight, I was watching it in a friends house and only noticed the length of time he had to recover so fair enough on that one.

If Olusanya could improve his composure in the final third even a little, I would have him starting against the teams that are going to come and attack us. His pace is frightening and there almost certainly isn't a defender in the league he couldn’t outrun. Unfortunately for us, when you put a ball at his feet he doesn’t have the quality to pick that killer pass or get a well struck shot at goal away. I was hoping after the tidy finish at Hibs he would be more confident in front of goal, but he came on and missed a few chances Vs Dundee and fluffed a couple of counter attacks against Motherwell that would have put the game to bed. Against better opponents those chances really need to hit the net more often than not, and will be the difference between 3 points and 1. On a slightly different note, does anyone know when we are expecting Ayunga back in and around the first team? He really is going to be like a new signing for us and I’m looking forward to seeing him back on the pitch.

Not read the full thread so someone might have mentioned it, but the Dutch league is played over 34 games and they have no League Cup to fit in so it might be a bit easier for their FA to postpone games between European qualifiers and reschedule them later in the season. With us playing 38 games, having a League Cup, National Cup and International weekends to contend with there’s not much room for manoeuvre. I actually wouldn’t be against seeing games like this one and Dundee v Hearts postponed until a later time in the season if the clubs competing in Europe thought it would give them an advantage, but that has to be weighed up against the lost revenue of having the rearranged game played on a weekday, possibly in to 2024 if the Scottish teams are playing Group Stage football. I really hope Aberdeen can do the business on Thursday but I’m not even sure having the players knocking the ball around in training for a week would be the best preparation for what is most likely going to be a tough game.

Usyk has definitely took full advantage of the referees naivety by taking almost the entire time available to recover from a low blow, which most definitely wasn’t low. The upper most part of his shorts were sitting an inch above his belly button at the time of the punch, and the ‘belt’ area of his shorts can’t have been more than 4 inches in height from top to bottom and that’s being generous. I would give him the benefit of the doubt if I thought that Dubois’ punch had even skiffed his testicular area, as any man will be able to tell you that it’s sometimes the ones that only graze the balls that cause the most pain, but you could clearly see the glove of Dubois finding a home right into the lower belly of Usyk.

Not surprised seeing Small back at Saints, I think if he cuts out the brain farts he could be one of the best young players in this league. At 19 years old he still has a ton of learning to do, and it’s good to see that a loan player who probably had other options this season has decided to come back for a second spell. Young guys like Baccus, Taylor, Olusanya and Small will thrive amongst this group I have no doubt, I can’t remember a St Mirren team with as much togetherness as this one and that’s including Jack Ross’ Championship teams.

Maybe best you head off to your bed mate.

I remember when we came back from 2-nil down to win 3-2 at Fir Park, avoiding relegation on the last game of the season. That game was also the scene of the most pointless and pathetic fan protest ever, when the Motherwell fans en masse started throwing their season tickets onto the pitch (after the last game of the season ). That must have really showed the board yous meant business, I don’t know how they ever financially recovered from that.

He’s an absolute warrior. I know some fans prefer him in midfield rather than defence but he hasn’t really put a foot wrong when he’s been back there. At around 80 minutes into the Dundee game when we were looking a bit ropy, Robinson brought Bolton on at CB and pushed Gogic into the middle to try and shut down the Dundee midfield and see the game out, and he done it brilliantly. He won the ball back high up the pitch a couple of times and it was only down to poor decision making by the forwards that we didn’t end up getting another goal on the counter attack. Puts his body on the line and never shirks out a challenge, I can’t imagine many opposing players look forward to coming up against him and he’s a player I would much rather have playing for my team rather than against them.

It’s hard to even imagine what their lives must have been like during that time, or if they were aware what sort of impact they would have on the game. It sounds like they made a good earning from it anyway, but I wonder if they realised at the time just how long lasting and influential their designs would be to the game of golf in 2023. Obviously it’s a complete non starter due to all of them being dead, but how fascinating would it be if you could show them what the game has become…and as you say all stemming from the natural environment that they found before them on the Scottish coastlines. It makes you wonder just how far detached the game could become from what we know it as now. In the year 2300 will people be watching clips of Tiger Woods in the same way we look at Old Tom Morris. It’s a fascinating thought.

It’s a very interesting subject. I didn’t realise that a lot of the design was done on maps and not actually at the location, I would have thought that would have been pretty critical to the success of the course but obviously not. Did these Scottish course architects you mention, Braid included, make a good living from what they done? I know Braid was involved in manufacturing balls and I assume other equipment too, but were they well compensated for their work?

Yeah I know that, but having access to Google maps or a similar app would have been a godsend for someone landing in New York in 1928.

That’s class from him. Working from home before it became fashionable. What a life he must have led, completely unimaginable to this current generation. Even though it was only 100 odd years ago, the speed in which technology has advanced since then means the game of golf is now something that Braid could never have possibly fathomed. I would have loved to have been around when the British Open was in its infancy, or around the time when the Americans first started coming over to compete. I think it was 1920 before the Open was won by an American, but I can barely get my head around what that tournament must have looked like compared to the current day Open. I wonder if some of them playing back then were absolutely rotten, but the romance of history leads us to believe they were all spanking baby draws down the fairway with their hickory shaft 1 irons.

Had a wee read through the history of the course on that page there and it says Braid was commissioned to redesign holes 15-18 in 1928, which immediately made me think about the hassle he must have had getting from St. Andrews, Fife to New York in 1928 Even getting himself to Glasgow Airport would have been a nightmare in the 1920s, and he would have had to navigate his way across the Atlantic Ocean landing somewhere in NY state without even having something like Google Maps to rely on.