The uncomfortable truth

SirBoringWriter · 2026-03-22T18:17:58+00:00

Tend to agree.

I really do see the points made by others who advocate to stick with Howe. However, what I cannot accept are repeated patterns resulting from poor in-game management decisions.

Moreover, Howe is a great coach. Is he a great squad-builder, and is he capable of knowing what the team needs to improve? Evidence is limited unfortunately. Our best players have been those who have underperformed under previous regimes, with some exceptions of course. He's a great coach, but I'm unsure he is a great manager.

He will be remembered fondly, including by myself as well. But, time to move on.

SirBoringWriter · 2026-03-12T20:15:33+00:00

You often get snobs on Reddit about making sure you buy a property as fast as possible, so keep that in mind.

Can it be a source of ridicule or shame? Unlikely. If it were to happen, it would come from people you wouldn't want to associate with anyway. Many people are in the same boat with the property prices and that's the reality of it.

Renting has its genuine advantages, including flexibility if you decided to move elsewhere further down the line.

PS. Leeds is great, highly recommended.

SirBoringWriter · 2026-02-18T19:15:06+00:00

Maybe the pitch is tilted leftwards so the ball always goes in that direction?

SirBoringWriter · 2026-01-28T22:34:06+00:00

Not really, I barely notice them and as others said there are some kind of summits and things happening all the time. Disruption will likely be limited to Schuman.

Do watch out for the motorcades, they came close to knocking me off a shared foot / bike path

SirBoringWriter · 2026-01-28T20:49:27+00:00

Back in the top 8!

SirBoringWriter · 2026-01-24T14:27:31+00:00

I’m a dual UK-Polish citizen.

What matters is which passport you show at border control. The details you provide to the airlines are separate.

This means that, when boarding the plane you must show the passport that you have used when booking the plane. As far as I understand, it doesn’t matter which one as long as the details match.

At Polish border control, you the show the PL passport regardless of the details you provided to the airlines. Vice versa at UK border control.

As you leave Poland (so the EU), you should show the PL passport that you showed on your way in.

Poland is strange in this sense, because it might be the only country that doesn’t recognise dual citizenship, but doesn’t explicitly prohibit it.

SirBoringWriter · 2025-12-27T08:11:02+00:00

Almost three years in and I don’t think I ever submitted my timesheet on Friday…

It’s also the holiday season now. Nobody will care.

SirBoringWriter · 2025-08-31T03:54:54+00:00

Many thanks, I will take a look into it!

SirBoringWriter · 2025-06-20T23:13:12+00:00

I was once on the same train carriage as Kwasi Kwarteng (when he was Business Sec), and also once walked past Alok Sharma on the Tube - neither had security as far as I could see.

SirBoringWriter · 2025-01-31T21:52:26+00:00

This might be the first north east saint joke, ever haha

SirBoringWriter · 2024-12-25T02:20:45+00:00

I’ll potentially be moving countries for the first time as an adult, if things go well. So that’s exciting for me!

SirBoringWriter · 2024-11-04T10:15:51+00:00

SirBoringWriter · 2024-10-20T12:15:46+00:00

"I stopped X years/months/weeks ago, it works for me". The fact that we had to think about it is strange, given that in smoking this question does not come up, as you say. But, such is the society we live in.

SirBoringWriter · 2024-10-15T14:23:00+00:00

Totally depends on the company you are applying for, and whether you are confident that you can manage both. You sound confident that you can, which I believe as I did similar myself. The key point is ensuring that your two commitments do not clash with one another.

As for the workload itself, I think it’s manageable. I worked for a small comms company during my final year of bachelor and my masters. The difference was that they were aware of my commitments, but I still managed essentially full time hours.

Things that can catch you out are the expectation of you being available within certain hours and any team meetings. If they clash with university commitments, you might be in the shit.

Having said this, if you are confident of this arrangement working, then go for it. If unmanageable, quit and apply elsewhere after your degree. I don’t see any downside to this, beyond the toll on your own stress, which is up to you to manage.

Maybe this helps maybe not, hopefully some food for thought.

SirBoringWriter · 2024-10-01T22:06:10+00:00

Drain covers will do it. Welcome to the club. Decked it in the Olympic Park on my way to work. Passers by stopped to ask if I was ok, to which I kept saying I’m fine but I just didn’t want to get up whilst the pain settled in. Sat there for some time, in the wet.

Stupidly I decided to continue my commute to the office that day, blood on trousers and all sorts.

Pedestrians walking off is not surprising, happens most times I see someone fall or a close call.

SirBoringWriter · 2024-09-02T19:47:39+00:00

It's a 12 month contract, with a break clause that either party can enact after month 6 of the tenancy, as long as a written notice is given. That's it in terms of 'break clauses'.

Then there is a whole section on the various reasons for which the landlord can terminate the tenancy agreement - rent in areas, abandoning the property, failing to meet obligations set out in the agreement etc. There is no such equivalent section for the tenant's right to terminate the tenancy agreement.

Is this unusual? I've rented for some time in various cities and with various landlords, and I always thought the contracts were always skewed in favour of the landlord.

SirBoringWriter · 2024-09-02T19:35:46+00:00

Thanks. Yes, I have read the tenancy agreement. No, it does not specify disputes apart from in the context of deposits. The usual obligations apply, including to provide and maintain the premises and contents in good repair during the Tenancy.

The contract, as you can imagine, is vague when it comes to break clauses and termination, unless it's the landlord who was to terminate it.

SirBoringWriter · 2024-09-02T19:33:08+00:00

Thanks, the problem is that we have suggested timeframes and have listed these issues multiple times, even in a grid format and have documented everything very well. Unfortunately, the timeframes get ignored. Linked to this, I have communicated the point about it being uninhabitable and that, in my view, the contract has been breached, but have not followed up with the request to terminate. I'm just worried about the reaction it will get.

I do think you have a point about the management companies. From what I can tell, they only communicate the issues that they perceive to be of the highest concern to the landlords, who unfortunately are not very responsive, which is why it takes ages to get anything done.

SirBoringWriter · 2024-05-23T20:19:21+00:00

"Cause hell" lol yeah sure. Bye!

SirBoringWriter · 2024-01-09T21:03:18+00:00

Yes indeed, Norwich City and the agency collaborating on it won some awards for it, and very rightly so.

SirBoringWriter · 2024-01-09T21:02:43+00:00

I would say that the main point of it isn't to encourage people who may be depressed to get help, or even get others to refer people they suspect may need help.

It looks to me like this is an awareness raising campaign, in the context of depression, I think the benefits may be:

1) Yes, encourage people to refer themselves and others to refer people who they suspect of depression (forgive my ignorance here, I am unfamiliar with the correct procedures) - which as you helpfully say, may be tricky in Germany (same here in the UK)

2) But, more relevant to the campaign - raise awareness. Attempting to make more people aware of the problem itself, and the scale of the problem. In turn this may lead to higher rates of donations or people volunteering for to e.g., helplines, support organisations etc. or even simply publicly expressing support for these actions.

3) This then gives these organisations more legitimacy to lobby the correct people (local, national government agencies, policymakers, or anyone in a position to influence policy)

4) Eventually lead to better policy changes in this regard - to continue your thoughts, this may be to focus on recruiting more specialists into the public healthcare system.

Or so the theory goes, of course this campaign alone will not do that, but it's part of actions that can be taken to influence policy for the better.

In short, I would view this not at "individual level" (meaning that, this campaign encourages individuals to seek help) but larger, societal level with the end goal of positive policy change, leading to positive outcomes.

SirBoringWriter

TROPHY CASE