clarky666

Yeah thats true mate. Another problem is people can retire and then still come back to do supply days to fill in for absences so even that is working against younger teachers. My parents were both teachers and retired in the summer and have been phoned countless times to go back in as cover and decline out of principal.

On a bit of a bummer here today as my girlfriend has just been told that she's losing her job as of Christmas and won't be kept on at the school after the holidays. She graduated in 2007 with a first class hons degree in primary teaching from Glasgow Uni and since then has not been able to get one single bit of full-time work; teachers up here are guaranteed one year in a school which is called their 'probation' and then after they are punted. Last job(s) that she applied for she was in the region of 450-600 going for a SINGLE position which is f'n ludicrous. She's been lucky enough to get on the interview shortlist of six on a couple of occassions but more often than not you get an 'application unsuccessful' at the first stage of the process; if you do get through this then it's an absolute shoe-in that there is an internal candidate who has already been covering the post in the short term whilst it was advertised by the local education authority and such is life "jobs for the boys girls mentality" prevails and they it regardless of the quality of interview the other applicants give. Folks know that their will be an internal candidate and, inevitably, they are going into interviews knowing it'll all be in vain anyway. What makes it worse is the fact that the government have buried their head in the sand and are still allowing uni's to roll out a full compliment of teaching courses each year meaning that the amount of people they are training up is still going to outweigh the amount of jobs on offer. There was an alleged figure going around that 6,000+ teachers were due to retire this past summer in Scotland but that doesn't seem to have made any difference - Glasgow local authority haven't advertised a position in over 18 months according to another teacher i was speaking to. She has applied for jobs all around the country but it's the same situation everywhere and one of the first filters they are doing when sizing down the amount of applications is binning people who didn't train or do their degree in that authority so for example her applying for jobs in Alloa / Stirling are pointless as she server her time in North Lanarkshire and East Dunbartonshire authorities. Pretty gutting for her with all that work put in to get a cracking degree and something she is both good at and enjoys and now little, if any, chance of getting a job in the imediate future Is anyone else in the same position ? Not sure if it's just in Scotland ? I know nobody has a divine right to a job just because they went to Uni but you'd think an area whey you are training for such a specific area would get a job especially in the public sector.

What is wrong with reverse and fog lights mate ?

Yep so by default it allows 0 feedback scammers to hijack the auctions still. I wrote a constructive letter to Ebay about this and got the usual, generic, spineless reply in form of a standard format letter.

Crikey

Yeah i can see your point on that hagmaw as i know people sometimes felt like they were held at ranson by sellers and bullied into leaving positives for fear of a 'you negative me and i'll give you one back' retaliation. There are that many dishonest i've made a general rule that no matter how trivial the item is, i'll only send by recorded delivery. That is then offset by people who will moan about postage being 23p less than what i charged. I know it's just chancers and scammers but it really runs you down especially when you're trying to do things legitimately and people try and pick holes in the slightest of things.

Sadly Ebay now has itself racked to the hilt to protect and help the buyers and does little in comparison for the seller. As soon as they took away the ability for sellers to leave negative feedback then this sort of stuff has snowballed. I can relate to a lot of what marbleapple said too; buyers have you by the balls and are holding all the aces. I was selling a second hand pair of football boots a few months ago. Took four good quality pictures and the boots were minted for being 7+ years old. The buyer emailed me to acknowledge receiving them and saying how happy he was only for me to log in and seemy 100% positive feedback has been smoked with "No original box included"........FFS I know the general saying in life is that there are idiots everywhere and it's only a small minority but in Ebay's cases you start to think it's the majority especially reading similar stories to this.

This might sound a bit obvious but conflicting advice from various sources. Basically the car i had from before buying the Supra has had it's insurance expire. Which is fine as i won't be driving it and planning to sell. It's currently parked on the designated bays space outside my flat. Now i re-taxed it last month and it's also got MOT till well into next year however i want to double check this is OK ? I know there is a grey area in regards to "public highway" in terms of the car being on the road or not; i would obviously say it's not but not sure if there are any technicalities with it being in a private parking bay if that is still classed as on the road ?

Looking for some advice. Absolutely scunnered for Christmas present idea but as my parents have both semi-retired this past summer and have more time and thus traveling more i was going to get them a Sat Nav as part of their Christmas. I've only really used them personally as loan when i've been going on football trips or away with work so probably only experienced them 3 or 4 times myself. Looking at prices there is a big scope from £50 all the way up beyond £400. I was hoping between £90 - £120 bracket and looking for recommendations on what would be suited to that budget? Would only be for UK based driving and whilst my dad is very technical savvy and good with gadgets my mum is the opposite so it would have to take that into account. Have seen a new model of Garmin for £89.99 in some of the shops which looks decent ?

I waited 2+ years and had to go to Ireland to get mine in the end though i was a fussy bugger! Just keep an open mind and you'll find one you want eventually.

Didn't realise there were two plants mate! Probably Inchinnan in that case.

Do you work beside a Chris Aitken, Scott ?

Welcome. I'm also a noob(ish) owning since June this year - if the folks are even half as helpful to you as they were to me then your laughing :-)

Thanks for responses guys. Tigra~~~~111 power it is for the time being then!

Aye friends' just back from traveling and teaching English over there - lovely place and not too expensive - North Korea is the nasty one.

Is that the place under the M8 next to Nevada Bob's golf outlet ? Know a lad from back near my parents who was running a gunmetal P reg N/A last time i saw him who regularly did his shop up there for his family's restaurant.

Hi guys, Was doing my fortnightly check last night and noticed my front left tyre had a bulge about the side of a 50p piece on the outside sidewall when i was checking the pressure. No cracks or other obvious signs of where it had been hit and no damage on the alloy so it hasn't clipped a kerb or anything. Just wondering is there anything else that could cause this in terms of the alloy itself? Assuming i've hit a pot hole which has caused it and have driven her home straight from the garage and parked her up untill i can get another replacement sorted (Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3) as i know it's potential suicide driving around with it especially in current winter conditions. Right bugger as well as the tyres are only about 1500 miles run in Secondly with the age of the tyres in mind i take it it's fine just to replace the one and not worry about swapping them out as a pair. Wouldn't be ideal at £110+ a pop but don't want to take any chances in my first winter owning a Sup. Thanks. Steven.

These jokes are a little rough

Just spent time reading this at work, a good read. I came from owning a few MR2's before this and as some others have mentioned even the most moderate of speeds and seemingly good driving conditions can see the back end go and give you a wee kick up the back side and bring you down a peg or two when you think you're the boss and know it all. Stay safe :-)

Kozma10 Not been on much recently as a lot going on and didn't want to risk renewing for the year if i wasn't going to used it.......however they are going a free gold period from 25/11/09 - 01/12/09 so i will jump on it this week and then probably renew :-)

Is valid tax and MOT the only requirement for qualifying for the scrappage or does it have to be functional ?

Nasty - hope he/she is ok.

As above folks, let me know what you got.

Well almost four months later i got word that the car is almost back together and have been invited down to the coachworks later in the week to see what i think. Sligthly worried at the same time as excited.

Someone hit me in works car park. Garage had it for 3 weeks now but i got a jag as a courtesy car (!!) so told them i was in no rush to get it back lol