I've never understood why pet dogs get old so young. It's really upsetting. My mum's lab is on chemo now, probably not for long but she seems happy enough for now.

The vet called with an update this morning. Jack still isn't eating and is only being fed through the stomach tube. Tomorrow will be day three, so I think we will have to make the decision then, if he isn't responding to treatment.

It doesn't make any sense to keep the stomach tube in, if he won't start eating again for himself.

Alexander Armstrong is singing a Spandex Ballot number on This Morning, complete with band

IMG_0011.jpg von wright_is auf Flickr

Jack was put down last night. He was laying in the back of my fiances car as I got back home from work. We then buried him under his favorite tree.

Sorry to hear that. I hope that you are all coping with it as best you can.


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Sorry to hear about that.

Pets are definitely part of the family.

+1, sorry to hear about him.

Thanks everybody. Really missing the little guy.

Some good news:
After 5 months of slogging away searching for a new job after I was made redundant in May, and after lots of interviews and knock-backs, I've finally been offered a job today. Went for the interview yesterday and they rang to offer me it verbally - just received it in writing so I've confirmed that I'll take the job.

Some not-so-good news:
The downer is it's £5k a year less than I was on - so a backward step really. Still, a job's a job these days so I can't really complain. It's got to be better than sat at home sifting through job adverts, and although it's less money, it's infinitely better than Job Seekers' Allowance. They did say I'll get a bonus at the end of the year, providing they reach their sales targets, and a pay review in December for next year. Plus, I still have a decent wedge of cash from my redundancy to play with.

Any ideas how I can fairly accurately work out what my take-home salary will be, assuming I'm still on the same tax code? An online tax calculater, perhaps? Am I right in thinking the first £10k you aren't taxed on, it's only anything over around £10k, yes?

http://www.listentotaxman.com/

That's what I use.

If your tax code hasn't changed you'll get standard allowances I'd have thought. I think the first 30K of any redundancy money doesn't count, but any more than that is effectively considered as income for the tax year you're made redundant in, which would be this one, so you'll need to make sure it's counted (if you got a BIG sum of redundancy) or you might get hit with a bill at the end of the tax year.

As the company went into liquidation, and was therefore broke, the redundancy money came through the government National Insurance Fund and wasn't eligible for tax (only the Notice Pay and Holiday Pay was and had that deducted before we got it). It was just the standard amount we were entitled to based on the amount of years we'd worked there - in my case, 18 years and far less than £30k. So, I wouldn't have thought that would affect my tax bill. I'll be annoyed if it does!!

No, I was really just after a tax calculator to roughly work out how much my new job will take home - think it'll be about £350 to £400 per month lower, which isn't too back I suppose. I'll try the link above for a more accurate calculation, cheers!

As long as it covers the rent and bills, I'll be reasonably happy for now - on Job Seekers Allowance only, I was £500 down every month as it didn't even cover the rent, let alone the bills!

Unfortunately the lower pay is becoming the norm for any one who gets a new job.

Congratulations as well.

In-depth and surprisingly circumspect analysis of MIllband's conference speech from The Guardian. Less about the speech itself more about the theory of political campaigning, the different effect of pushing 'ideas' vs 'policies' in politics, the death of party politics in the 21st century and other such 'meta' stuff. Worth a read if you're interested in political speech writing as an art and science, rather than if you particularly care what Ed was talking about.