bridge too far

Your point being what, exactly?

And then incur the wrath of the public if something goes wrong? Because it seems to me that Social Services are often in a lose-lose situation. I wouldn't have let any of my children cycle to school at the age of 5. 8 or 9 maybe, but not 5.

I wonder how many people will complain about the bosses of the UK top 100 companies who have seen their pay rises average 5% in spite of a downturn in their performances? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10507836.stm

I bet you wish you were as tw4tish as him, earning his tw4t money.

honest

claims

Dog's advice about Tripadvisor is sound. I wouldn't book anywhere these days without visiting that site first. There are some nice boutique hotels around Princesgracht and Kaisergracht and these sites are quite useful: http://www.amsterdam-hotels-guide.com/ http://www.hotels.nl/

I can remember (too many years ago to admit to ) that teachers in secondary / grammar schools could go into teaching straight from university without doing any teacher training. We had a very clever Latin / Greek teacher who couldn't teach to save her life. We made her life a living hell and she had a nervous breakdown. I'm not proud of this. At least these days teachers are taught HOW to teach and to manage nasty 14 year olds, but obviously, as in all walks of life, some are better than others.

dog

life

Sax

No, no, no!!!!!! Navy, jersey (style not material), slung casually around the shoulders. Only Italian or French men can do this successfully though

castle

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/8786871.stm

Thanks for your kind comments Johnny Bognor And, as I pointed out on another thread, it's not just the extra hours he works, and his own money he spends on projects. Probably the most distressing thing for him is having to work [with other professionals (doctors, nurses, social workers)] in dealing with child abuse. I see my SIL every Friday (when I look after their son). Every Friday he walks in at 6pm absolutely grey and drained. And I've seen him in tears at some of the appalling stuff he has to deal with. I've also seen the sheer joy on his face when he's talking about a milestone achieved by one of 'his' children. But again, as I said before, he's not unique. He's just doing his job. And I don't begrudge him a penny of his salary. In fact I think he should earn a lot, lot more.

I guess it would be asking too much of a local GP to swim out to your sub, wherever it might be.

Exactly what my son-in-law did. He was working for a large company that regularly undertook projects in schools. My SiL was allocated to a school with a vibrant special needs department. He so loved working with the children that he gave up his (very well paid) job, went back to university (Solent, as it happened) to do his PGCE and is now a teacher with responsibility for special needs education in his school. He is earning half of what he would have, had he stayed in his previous job but he wouldn't go back to the old job because of the sheer enjoyment and satisfaction he gets out of teaching. I don't think he's unique.

Did you mean to type 'idealistic' here? Don't the school governors have some responsibility too?

If this is the case, then I wonder why on earth it hasn't been addressed by the various governments in power during the past 40 years?

runner

'Twas an iced coffee all over keyboard moment for me

pencil sharpener

I really enjoy both Mark and Chris' programmes (I love industrial archaeology). But I didn't realise until just now that they'd both been in Red Dwarf. I don't know why, really as I'm a fan of Red Dwarf too - I just hadn't made the connection.

warm [poetic licence, doncha know ]

scratch