General Natter Room

[Bertie]

I don't like to carp, but some of these comments seem a little out of plaice...

[Jack400]

He should be able to test the pump for earth leakage, etc and find the fault. If he's no good as an electrician then he's had his chips.

[Boatbuilder]

I love this.

Isle of Wight cow 'faking sleep' attracts global sympathy

[Boodi 2]

I understand what he means when he says she is more person than cow, as one of my horses was like that and used to try to hide in her box (not easy for a large horse) and pretend to be sleeping when she realised that the vet or the blacksmith had arrived!

[Jack400]

I'm in the pizza place that I committed about previously, apparently the phone ringing is more important than me - even though I started ordering before it rang. They'll get an extra free order next time because of a problem - not aware of it's details.

[Fiona1986]

I struggle with the phone at work. I'm supposed to answer it asap - but I refuse to interrupt customers that are already standing in front of me.

[Boatbuilder]

Well in view of the meaning of ASAP, surely that is when you have finished dealing with the existing customer?

[Jack400]

I'm in favour of Fiona's thoughts in this.
Editid because I really can spell "Fiona" - without, two n's - honest.

[Boatbuilder]

I'm in favour of Fiona's thoughts in this.
Editid because I really can spell "Fiona" - without, two n's - honest.

Now you just need to learn to spell ‘edited’, Jack.

[Boatbuilder]

I've just been watching a live stream of them lifting a span of a new river crossing being built here in Lowestoft. This image was was taken about 40 minutes ago.



There are a number of videos on Youtube and this is one of this span arriving a few days ago, along with another due to be lifted into place - probably over the weekend.

https://youtu.be/jybQg6UK9ow

[Jack400]

I'm in favour of Fiona's thoughts in this.
Editid because I really can spell "Fiona" - without, two n's - honest.

Now you just need to learn to spell ‘edited’, Jack.

Yes!

[Fiona1986]

Well in view of the meaning of ASAP, surely that is when you have finished dealing with the existing customer?

If the guidance was along the lines of what you'd said I wouldn't be mentioning it as a potential problem, now would I?

I can't remember the precise wording as I started 7 years ago and read it as part of my induction but the there was something about the phone ideally being answered within a certain number of rings regardless of what else was going on at the time.

[Boatbuilder]

I can't remember the precise wording as I started 7 years ago and read it as part of my induction but the there was something about the phone ideally being answered within a certain number of rings regardless of what else was going on at the time.

If that approach is/was used by all companies then I think its effectiveness disappeared almost everywhere when Covid came in and has still not been re-instated. I remember last year trying to keep track of all the time I had spent holding on for somebody to answer the phone, or, waiting in queues to get through to somebody after initially being dealt with by a 'robot'. I remember saying to my daughter at one stage that I must have been in phone queues over the past so many weeks for something like 24 hours, and I can assure you that is no exaggeration.

[Machupicchu14]

I'm feeling quite upset these days, it being Holy Week, with the recent violence going on in Palestine, during Ramadan. My heart truly bleeds for all Palestinians, I just can't imagine the trauma and fear they have to live through every day. And though not surprising, it continues to be disappointing to see Western media so silent about the whole situation Had this happened in Ukraine, with Russia as the agressor instead of Israel, there would have been mayhem, and a bout of new sanctions against the country. It's a pity seeing those double standards, while witnessing the plight of thousands of Palestinians.

[Courtenay]

I'm feeling quite upset these days, it being Holy Week, with the recent violence going on in Palestine, during Ramadan. My heart truly bleeds for all Palestinians, I just can't imagine the trauma and fear they have to live through every day. And though not surprising, it continues to be disappointing to see Western media so silent about the whole situation Had this happened in Ukraine, with Russia as the agressor instead of Israel, there would have been mayhem, and a bout of new sanctions against the country. It's a pity seeing those double standards, while witnessing the plight of thousands of Palestinians.

Ummm... the violence in Palestine is being covered quite a lot on the BBC, as well as on the ABC (Australia), so I'm not sure which "Western media" are being "so silent about the whole situation". But considering you stopped a forum discussion about Ukraine in its tracks last year by blaming the conflict on "the West" — I'm guessing the rest of us here were all too stunned and appalled to say anything in response to that — well, I'm not quite sure where you get your information from, María Esther. But if one chooses to read / watch only heavily biased and propaganda-laden news sources, one gets a heavily distorted picture (whether far left-wing or far right-wing). That's a temptation that probably a lot of us have and it's a problem all over the world, really, as we've seen in recent years.

Have you ever been to the Holy Land? I have — to parts of both Israel and the Palestinian territories. There are actually a lot of people there, on both sides of the conflict, who ardently want peace and reconciliation and are doing everything they can to work together towards it. That's something that unfortunately almost never gets covered in the mainstream media. But sadly, it's the relative minority of extremists on both sides who just will not negotiate and will not compromise, which leads to any attempts at peace deals repeatedly falling through, year after year and decade after decade. It's an extremely complicated and long-standing conflict and it won't ever be resolved while there are people on either side essentially wishing that the other side — the Israelis or the Palestinians — would just pack up and leave, which naturally neither will do.

I don't enjoy having political discussions on these forums (I'm pretty sure it's not what most of us are here for) and I don't want to get caught up in a debate, but just wanted to say that much.