Suspect Device

A large shiraz. My 2nd tonight.

A wee question. Does every woman do the same with her partner? They might say something which on the face of it appears to be a question about the child. Something innocuous like do you think she needs a yogurt as well as the weetabix/toast/egg she just had. Do you think that she needs new shoes? What should we dress her in today? No matter what you say it doesn't make a difference. She was actually just talking aloud or wanting to hear her opinion in a slightly deeper voice. Not sure if it's just us or if it happens to everyone. I think that she's just wanting to make me feel like I have any sort of input but in reality she'll just do whatever it was in her mind to start with.

I'm an Aberdeen fan who doesn't understand how the tax system works either. My accountant understands it for me. Edit: Hopefully. I really should pay more attention to his working out of my self assessment. I just look at the bottom line and hope for the best.

£37k @ £15 per hour. You'd have to work 47 hours a week with no time off for holidays. f**k that. I struggle to do the 45 I'm contracted for. It would really piss you off to work that long and then the government grabs 40% of money earned over £35,000. And I'd disagree that the money is for drawing pictures. It's 3D solid modelling these days.

Hard to say what to do because some of the draffies that they're taking on at my work are from the civil engineering route but I'd recommend an HNC in mechanical engineering as a start, or a degree is far better but only if you really want to be the engineer and have to take the responsibility when it all goes tits up and someone dies. Companies are that desparate for anybody that you don't need that much experience to get in but don't expect to be on megabucks to start with. My path was apprenticeship - ONC - HNCs - gain experience move about - contractor but I have no idea if apprenticeships even exist anymore. Can't say that it's a great job but I've been doing it for 25 years and I might just be a bit jaded by now. The wages more than make up for the work which can be a bit same same.

Both decent companies to work for (although FMC knocked me back when I applied) and pay good money. You'd get more if you moved up to Aberdeen though. Better than average wage. I doubt that you'd get £37k by the time that you're 22. A wee bit ambitious. For instance the lead designer (staff, not contract) age 28 that I know gets just over £40k + a bonus if the company does well. No way you'd have enough experience for that by the time that you're 22. You will earn that much quite soon though. Last job I almost went for as a lead designer subsea was offering £50 an hour + VAT. Learn Solidworks, Inventor, Pro-E and PDMS and the world is your oyster. Of course you need to know about engineering shit as well.

Being a natural born cynic, I'd say coincidence, but does it matter either way. it's all good. Anyone any tips for tyaking a 2 year old on 3 flights when she's not been on a plane yet? My wife's niece is getting married in Phuket next year and we're all going apparently. Flight to Amsterdam should be easy enough and the wee flight from Bangkok to Phuket will be much the same but f**k knows how we're going to cope from Amsterdam to Bangkok. Any tips are gratefully received. Sweeties for her to sook on to equalise the pressure and plenty books toys to keep her amused is all I've got just now. Edit~; Possibly best to have a trial run and see my mates in Groningen. Flight ot Amsterdam and a 4 hour train journey.

Peroni Nastro Azzuro. E bellisima.

This Doesn't taste like I thought it would. It's OK though.

A New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Very nice it is too.

ONe of the best things about Nesta is that she tires herself out because she's always on the go. Sleeps from 7 at night until 8 or 9 in the morning every night and has done since about 3months. From the horror stories other folk have told me I know that we are very lucky. My mate's not had a proper kip for 3 years!!!

Christ on a bike! She's learning fast. It was only Sunday she was taking a few steps now it's twice round the 'circuit' of living room/kitchen. This is worrying. I'm going to be knackered running after her. First kid at 42 is not recommended.

I was going to post a question about how many steps it takes before you count it as walking. She's up to a good 10-12 steps before falling now. I'm amazed because she only turned 1 last week. I thought it wouldn't be until about 18 months. What's the average?

All the advice in the world will still leave you with times of complete and utter incomprehension of what to do next. At the moment we're struggling to get our 9 month old to eat savoury stuff. She's was fine when it was much and she'll eat as much yogurt or sweet stuff (fruit etc) that you want but trying her to eat a bit of chicken/beef/salmon etc that has been a nightmare. Even tried going back to liquidizing but she's gone right off savoury. We can't just feed her on yogurt or keep trying to sneak a spoonful of savoury with her sweet. Anyway, congratualtions and best of luck. It's the most difficult (and rewarding) thing you'll ever do.

Last night I had penne pasta with leeks, savoy cabbage, pancetta, garlic and mozzarella cheese. It was fine.

I've got TWAT 1.

Who are from Oldham which is not actually Manchester either it's greater Madchester (pedantic I know) . Very good point . Was just listening to Shall we take a trip EP on vinyl 20 minutes ago. No 808 state or James either. I seem to remember being more into the Mondays at the time but they've gone downhill in my estimation because I've seen them doing very poor gigs. The Roses produced 2 great albums then folded. Perfect way to keep the memories of them good ones. Mind you Ian Brown's vocals could be ropey as f**k so I'm glad I missed some of their dodgy gigs. I'd have to take some good MDMA and compare them all I think. Just for old time's sake.

The trouble is that people have been overgenerous. She's got enough clothes to last her until she's about 2. My mates have been slightly better at buying stuff but it's the auld aunties, grandparents that are the worst for buying frilly pink shit. Anybody know where we can find a rasta sleepsuit?

Here's a question for all parents of girls. How do you politely tell friends, relatives etc to stop buying horrible pink shit for your baby without hurting their feelings? Have they never heard of the supposed end of gender stereotyping? Do they not think that pink is just the most twee shit you can get for a baby girl? Do they not think that if you named your baby using Bob Marley's middle name you might just like her to have some red gold and green clothing, bedding, toys etc? Do other folk hate dressing their kids up in girly colours or is it just me (and the wife). Fine the odd thing which is pink and frilly but not everything.

Goo Goo Muck at the Tunnels on 31st July (Cramps tribute band apparently) Stiff Little Fingers at Velocity in Dunfermline on 7th Aug Divine Comedy in September sometime.

Just watched that on Saturday as well. Very funny but lost it's way a bit at the end with the romantic interlude. Far better when it stuck to the gorefest and violence. 8/10 Also last night I watched Twin Town again. I'd forgotten how much I liked it. 8/10 as well.

Ice cold Peroni.

SLF - Alternative Ulster on 6 music. Sincerely hope that it doesn't get canned after the review. I'm pinning my hopes that it was a cunning marketing ploy by the Beeb to get more people listening. Where else can you hear decent music on the radio?

Taken 3/10. Liam Neeson is an ex CIA agent who's daughter gets kidnapped in Paris. He tracks down the guys within 96 hours. A pile of pish. Utter drivel of a script and pish poor acting but the violence gives it a 3, particularly when he drives the nails into a guy's knees to electicute/torture him. Don't watch it if you've got half a brain because you will keep asking questions which don't have answers.

I'll never use Arnold Clark ever again after my MOT last year. I'd had my car serviced every year by them but I needed new discs after the brakes seized on and I could only get to Kwik Fit so obviously Arnold Clark didn't know that I'd have them replaced. A couple of months later I took the car for it's MOt at Arnold Clark and they said that the discs were pitted and corroded so failed. Obviosuly I took the car back to Kwik Fit because they have a replacement guaranteebut they informed me there was nothing wrong with the brakes and should not have failed. FThey alos informed me that rust is not a reason to fail the MOT, only brake function was and there was nothign wrong with that. Arnold Clark wouldn't pass my car and Kwik Fit (rightly) wouldn't replace discs which had nothing wrong with them apart from a bit of surface rust. Looking back over my MOT's an service history I'd noticed that AC had done this a few times but I'd obviously not checked it myself because I trusted them to be honest.. Never again.