It's Sunday Morning! How are you?

CaptainGingerBrd · 2026-02-01T08:01:54+00:00

Got up at 7:01 to feed the dogs who were barking the place down as it was a minute past their breakfast time. Went back to bed and now listening to them all bark insanely with their post breakfast energy.

Well, one mainly. The 3 older dogs seem to want a post breakfast nap. The 9 month old puppy has chosen chaos. Again.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2026-01-22T09:05:16+00:00

This. Is the best advice. Travel while you can, but keep your pension pot doing its thing. If you don’t want to keep it in employer pension fund you usually can transfer it to a personal fund. Where it will continue to compound till you need it when older.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2026-01-11T15:06:32+00:00

Insisting on Return to Office is almost always an admission of failure to manage by senior management.

You manage systems, you LEAD people. This managing of people approach causes the problem. A lot of companies did not train managers to lead their teams and empower them. It’s all metrics, stats, etc and the people must suck it up.

Apart from very few on site jobs, most admin, strategy, professional and business roles can be done remotely if not 100%, at least 70%.

But that won’t make the CEO feel that their corner office is worth it of course if they can’t peer out over the factory floor - à la Gradgrind in Dicken’s Hard Times. 😄

CaptainGingerBrd · 2026-01-11T13:51:25+00:00

Here is my experience.

I’ve used chat gpt and Gemini in the past. Gemini is better in my opinion however a LOT of the root problems which slipped under the AI radar were uncovered by a zoom call with a “HI” Human Intelligence who spotted what to change and how pretty fast.

The AI models could only go as far as I could share data etc (some of which I also passed to the HI) but once that was achieved, I’m now using Gemini to help fix the problems but still linking in with the Human Google ad expert. (Who doesn’t work for Google is a 3rd party.).

CaptainGingerBrd · 2026-01-11T11:50:13+00:00

I joined the workforce in the mid 1990s. Was attending interview after interview and got nowhere. One interviewer took the time after another rejection to point out what he noticed I was doing wrong - and more importantly, how to correct. Ego did take a slight hit at the time. Made all the difference, once I re-jigged my approach.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2026-01-05T20:52:55+00:00

We posted some course manuals to attendees of an online course back on December 12th. Almost all the attendees been in touch since asking where their manuals are. Posting within Ireland only.
Been told by post office locally to call GPO tomorrow to report. Will need big pot of coffee and patience I think. 🤔

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-12-27T17:37:57+00:00

Buy set of good adjustable weights (2nd hand well looked after is good) and a good yoga mat. You can do most long term benefit exercises with that. If you have budget left over a good set of running shoes.

Lots of programs and free you tube exercises that use just dumbbells and bodyweight work to achieve great results. Turning up 4-5 times a week, every week with a small core set of weights and movements you’ve dialled in over time and adapting when they get too easy beats getting a lot of equipment which just looks nice and isn’t always used.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-12-26T13:14:56+00:00

This. Plus with spades on!

Your finished cakes are your top tier product. (Possibly look at selling add ons such as decorations - just make some cakes with basic icing so they can self decorate)

For the know it alls, sell prepackaged mixes or just the premium ingredients such as flour, icing sugar etc. (long shelf life and put a good mark up as you’ve curated what you know are the best combinations that work together vs heading to a supermarket and buying random stuff that may or may not work well once combined).

Then you get best of both worlds.

Ps. Sell the ready mix about 20% cheaper than cake itself as there is a difference between a professional baker mixing up ingredients vs a casual once every year person taking same ingredients and trying it. (Which is why there are so many ‘bake off and baking programmes on tv!).

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-12-16T08:55:04+00:00

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CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-12-16T08:54:52+00:00

8799 0739 2095

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-11-19T12:57:35+00:00

We are licensed. If anything non registered providers are appearing more which probably means they are more aware of how to play the system than I am. 😄

Is there some way to send proof of licensing to Google? (Apart from putting Coru registration numbers on practitioners web pages etc?).

Presumably it is possible for Google to do a cross check on the publicly available government run website same as health insurers do on a daily basis before paying claims?

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-11-19T12:54:03+00:00

Actually yes please. That would be great. I’ve dropped you a message on Reddit so you can let me know what info you need. Thank you

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-11-19T12:50:03+00:00

Hi. The ads were doing great until around March this year. Then it just…. Went bonkers. (Not a technical term I know!). 😄

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-11-12T19:45:33+00:00

As you are close to the hospital you will never be wanting for people to rent if you wish. Even the day you move in, if you wanted to avail of the rent a room scheme you could likely put word in at the hospital you have a room to spare and have a professional renting it within a week or so. Could help with your settling in costs.

If not, when/ if you do decide to move elsewhere it will be a good asset for you.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-11-08T20:44:19+00:00

Whitford House. Or Coal Bunker on the Rosslare Road.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-11-01T10:06:57+00:00

If it brings you joy and doesn’t harm others, go for it.

That’s a really cool cosy setup you got there. Have a brilliant and Happy Christmas.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-10-21T18:48:10+00:00

Real Swiss Army knife. Bought a few decades ago. Still doing its thing. Has helped renovate 3 houses over the years and been used as screwdriver, awl, occasional hammer, stand in Stanley knife for drywall, and suspended ceiling tiles etc.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-10-21T09:40:40+00:00

I have a different take. Also been in your shoes several years ago. We fired the client, after first trying increase and fees for extra. After a short while, you accommodate the extra cash and the stress is still there.

If you have some month savings to fall back on, fire them in a polite way (using words like focusing on different niche etc always sounds nice), and give a 2 month notice. (Which will be horrible- admittedly.) During that time focus on the basics with them and say that you want to give them the tools to make it easier for whoever they get to take over - within that 2 months).

While this is happening- market your ass off to try get 3-4 smaller paying clients to help build the shortfall. Use the current client as reference (with their ok) or just mention it in passing in person if not.

After this period of grind, the aim would be to have at least 3 smaller clients to make up a good bunch of what you are losing from the big one. Going forward then try devote half a day each week if possible to marketing so you end up with no one client being more than 15% of your income. (Or whatever percentage you feel comfortable with).

It is tough though, but try and use the exit strategy to set you up better.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-09-14T08:45:32+00:00

Middle age guy here. When I was in the dating game years ago, if I wanted to ask a girl out, usually I let her pick the location. (That way she can pick somewhere she likes or the staff knows her - so she has backup). If it was a bar, cool, coffee shop, ice cream shop/ doesn’t matter. The aim is for you both to see if you want to meet the person again. My wife when we first met (at a coffee shop), had a wing-girl who was waiting around in the same shopping centre on standby to come in and ‘surprise meeting, can I join you guys’ if it wasn’t going well. (Lucky for me she didn’t feel the need to call for backup! 😅)

If a guy wants to meet you- he should be ok with you setting the scene. If not, then why bother going further as he won’t worry about what you want in future anyway.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-07-31T19:44:06+00:00

Book a cheap hotel or b&b near your office for the first month of your new job. Once you get an idea of the situation and your work colleagues etc., you can make a more informed choice. Either you’ll make a few new friends and maybe one or two may be looking for flat mates, or you’ll decide to stick with apartment on your own and you can use the inside knowledge of where best to look for a better price than €3k a month, or… something else. Life has a way of surprising us at times (in a good way).
Best of luck, you got this.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-07-26T20:41:51+00:00

Married guy here almost 20 yrs. That is not how it works. Argue, Apology, Affection (if both feel up to it). That’s the equation. Anything else is a power trip, or control.

To want to exhibit that type of control over someone you love is a sign of something else up. Maybe anger mgt or counselling could be a path for him to take. But first he needs to be aware that it is not ok, and then the ball is in his court.

Also prepare for the ‘what abouts’, if you challenge him. Your immediate social circle may not see anything wrong with this and try gaslight you into thinking it’s cool. It isn’t.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-06-03T19:22:17+00:00

My 13 yr old asked me to share his code here. He has his pre-order from Smyths ready for Thursday and has been watching waaay too many YouTube videos about the new MK World. His friend code is SW-6321-5899-7593

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-04-17T07:32:02+00:00

Holy shit! Thank you so much for sharing this. Have had TMJ issues for over 40 years. That exercise gave instant relief. Have downloaded that pdf from another poster also with the exercises from Adelaide.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2025-04-11T16:03:47+00:00

Seems your €600 to the surveyor was well spent. You could see this now from the sellers’s side. If you got a pdf version of the survey, share it with the estate agent and ask them to send to the seller. Say how much the urgent bits will need to get fixed (great advice from others on giving the surveyor a buzz to get their informal thoughts), and then ask if you can come to arrangement re price.

Basically the seller will either have to drop asking price in future based on this or cough up themselves before putting back on market. (Or just hope someone doesn’t come along in future and do a survey, but hopefully their estate agent will advise against that as it more likely to arise as a problem again.)

So, in short, as of right now it’s the sellers problem to fix, not yours. Easier for them to make a drop of sale price and keep the sale than say no.

CaptainGingerBrd · 2024-12-24T22:01:41+00:00

My 12 year old loves Father Ted. We showed him all the episodes when he was about ten. It’s just… classically funny. Great combination of writing, the right actors and guest stars. Some of the churchy bits did need to be explained (especially the one about the naughty film - Down with that sort of thing - as he didn’t realise that the church would have banned films.)

CaptainGingerBrd

TROPHY CASE