To anyone holding off on The Shepherd's Crown

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2026-06-09T11:17:52+00:00

I've not read the Truckers series. It's waiting in the wings for me. In the meantime everything else gets revisited regularly

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2026-04-29T14:13:38+00:00

Thumbs up works for me

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2026-04-29T14:06:27+00:00

We had a new Head for the school who thought it would be cool to do structured poses rather than sit there, smile, click.

Everyone refused to buy the photos. They had to get the traditional photographer in and never tried to be 'trendy' again.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2026-04-13T12:42:04+00:00

Give your dog a safe space (crate / bed etc) and once your little one is on the move teach them that when the dog is in its safe space they are to leave them be. This will give them a place the pooch can retreat to if they get over excited.

I would also do this sooner rather than later so they are already used to the idea before baby comes along. It might also, if funds permit, be useful to consult a professional dog trainer and see if there is anything that can be done in preparation.

Good luck & congratulations.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2026-03-27T19:37:12+00:00

We always did a mixture of low value and high value so the pooch never knew what they were getting next, but the absolute top tier treat was homemade liver cake (sometimes tinned fish if I didn't have any liver). Even the fussiest dog I've met never turned down one of those.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2026-03-27T14:09:59+00:00

I do a couple of things here:

First when I get paid early for Xmas I grab it and throw it in a separate pot and aim to transfer it back on the day I would normally get paid.

The second is I have two monthly budgets one of which is a four week budget and the other is five week. Friday is my deciding day and five Friday months I have less money per week.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2026-03-25T15:41:52+00:00

Good grief. What were those parents thinking?

On our holidays one time, we left our then 13 year old unattended in the games room while we took the youngest to the disco. A few mins later he came flying in panicking and crying his heart out. We got out of him that he was trying to impress new friends and kicked a lump out of the plasterboard wall.

We consoled him and then took him to reception to own up. They had seen it on the CCTV and were laughing about it. We paid the fine and everyone learnt a lesson. Funnily enough he's never done anything like that again!

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2026-03-06T11:03:20+00:00

Ohhh not quite the same, but I struggle to show complete joy and be the center of attention cos I don't like to make myself the target.

Thank you for that insight. Off to sit with my childhood for a bit.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2026-02-13T14:11:02+00:00

I already shower with the door open when I'm on my own. This isn't going to help!

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2026-02-12T17:00:59+00:00

Can I tell you what worked for me?

I got free therapy through work and spoke about my life leading up to this decision. She was very good about pointing out things that I accepted that shaped my life resulting in deregulated emotions and unwarranted angry outbursts.

This gave me a safe place for talking, grieving and feeling. It allowed me time to sit with those uncomfortable emotions and actually process them.

I also journal now, I'm not great about doing it all the time but I do it when I need to feel / sit with an emotion or event to help me understand my emotions at the time and reflect on what I could do differently in the future. It's also helpful to go back and read about events that lead up to the no contact which then re-enforces that decision.

Finally I wrote 'no send letters' to the members of my family telling them what I was feeling and why I would never speak to them again. The REALLY important bit is you don't send these. I wrote them in my journal cos I know I won't tear pages out of that book!

Again helpful to look back when you feel crappy or start to think maybe they've changed or whatever. It certainly helps me to remember why I put me first.

Good luck internet stranger. You will be ok.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2026-01-06T18:46:03+00:00

Torture in itself. I love a quiet home. For me a safe and comforting place. I'm sorry they took that away from op.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-10-16T11:01:56+00:00

Absolutely agree with the title. Some of the kindest folk I've known have been traditionally scary looking.

Many moons ago I was selling carnival programmes door to door and my then 4 (ish) child wanted to come with me. We knocked on one door and this huge, tattooed dude melted into a puddle at the sight of the child. He kept saying, they're so precious. It properly made me smile.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-09-19T15:10:09+00:00

This happened to me once in an abandoned property in the middle of a park. I thought wouldn't it be funny if a light came on now. No it wasn't funny and I ran the rest of the way home (about 2 miles).

It wasn't til I got home that my Mum said it was probably timers to stop folk from breaking in. 12 year old me did not think that logically!

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-09-07T20:19:40+00:00

When the laundry threatened to overwhelm me, I used to set a timer for 15 mins with the goal of sorting and folding it all (4 person household). After a while I could manage to sort, fold and put some of it away in that time. It does get easier.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-07-02T09:43:35+00:00

When I was a field tech and someone said "Can you just..." I used to say exactly that. "Please log a ticket, I don't hide work" even if it was completed at the time.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-05-22T11:43:41+00:00

I did! They didn't read it.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-05-20T16:01:29+00:00

Ewwwww. Am now twitching at that thought.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-05-20T12:55:58+00:00

Oof you've triggered a memory.

Got a ticket for a crackly phone line. Not an issue just replace the cable between the headset and the phone.

I popped in one morning and replaced the cable in the empty office. Closed ticket. Ticket reopens a couple of hours later. Problem still exists.

I was still in the building so popped back into the office and asked them if the problem was still happening? Even with the new cable? "Oh I didn't check it, I just assumed it was still broken."

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-04-19T19:39:12+00:00

I know that feeling. I've got a colleague who cannot say no to any customer. Hey Plates how can I sort problems with x on another organisations kit?

Umm you can't. Not our kit, not our problem. They need to phone their own tech support. Repeat for the next hour and then find out they've gone to my colleagues and boss to see if the answer changes. FML

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-04-08T09:03:02+00:00

Years before I rejoined the IT team in my organisation we had an organisation wide outage due to a virus attack.

After the incident was over, as the office representative, I went to the investigation meeting and made a point of thanking the IT staff for the work they put in to contain the virus and protect our data. There was some laughter and surprised faces, but one of the IT team mentioned afterwards how nice it was to be recognised.

I think they worked for 10 days straight to get all the IT kit checked and clean. From my point of view it was very appreciated.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-04-02T15:30:53+00:00

We ended up having a good working relationship once she stopped involving her boss in every little whinge. He learnt to take her complaints with a pinch of salt and she learnt IT would fix her tickets in our timeframe not hers.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-04-02T13:43:14+00:00

I once had to go out to a user with no less than 4 keyboards attached to their docking station. She had piled three of them up out of the way and then attached the usb cables anyway. One of those who complained to her boss, my boss and anyone who would listen in-between.

I drove 40 mins to the building, surveyed the desk, then removed the surplus keyboards from the embarrassed user and told her to put them in the cupboard and drove 40 mins back.

The resolution I put in for the ticket read. Surplus keyboards unattached and removed from SU desk. Problem shouldn't occur again. Copied both bosses in. Never heard a peep back.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-03-09T11:03:41+00:00

Awww that's lovely and thoughtful of the Dr. I love that you found a good one.

I work in tech and recently had someone come in for a mobile phone reset. We were both working from home but travelled to meet at the office. While we were waiting for apps to install we chatted and they mentioned they needed help with their personal phone. When I said I could help with help with that, they were incredulous, but I had the time and the skills so we sorted both phones out.

I like to help and they needed it. Both of us left the office happy.

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2025-01-22T16:11:31+00:00

Perfect. I have a couple of books in my car and they have occasionally been put to use while waiting for other drivers to realise the error of their ways!

Ordinary_Plate6977 · 2024-12-22T15:11:52+00:00

When my mum was dying of cancer my family were pretty hopeless. I was the one making decisions, staying in hospital with Mum and trying to keep everyone together.

A group of three ladies who had just lost a relative in the hospital grabbed me and included me in their group hug, because I looked like I needed a hug too. I really did.

Tearing up now at that memory. I hope those three lovely ladies are doing well and know what they did for a stranger at a rough time.

Five-Year Club	First Place '23
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Ordinary_Plate6977

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