Bellend Sebastian

They're never going to admit it made a grab for the controls

Binned it off in the end as planned, thought I might wobble as the deadline approached but felt pretty much f-all so probably the right thing. After 28 seasons only seems fair to let someone who's actually bothered to give it a go. How the club is being run wasn't really on my radar. Your club being a basket case at least some of the time is part of being a football fan, but I swear that people used to be able to put on a braver face when things weren't going well. The masochistic part of me can find the entitlement and hysteria highly entertaining (perhaps I'm part Colin Robinson type energy vampire) but you can have too much of a good thing and Christ me it's been becoming hard work in recent seasons. I should probably have jacked it in last summer, I thought last season was just weird, the amount of moaning when we were top of the table, and the managerial appointment and player recruitment just seemed a recipe for toxicity unless things went really, unrealistically well from the get -go. I've had some amazing experiences though across those 28 seasons, many of which probably can never be topped, which only makes it easier to let it go

Not yet! Maybe this Friday. The courtesy car is admittedly a crap one (but at least they got it for me) but bloody hell it feels like hard work. Going to be without the car for a fortnight, basically for a battery change like you'd have on any car, which feels like something has gone wrong with the system, somewhere. I'd hate to have to go back to an ICE car now. That's done, like my LCFC season ticket

Easy. Do exactly the same pace as you did at the weekend (9 minute miles) and you're there. Your half marathon pace was 9:45 a mile, put like that it doesn't sound that much, does it? Certainly doable over the time period with a bit of training. If I do as well in my 10k on Sunday as you did I'll be made up. Not trained much at all, lame

Who do they blame, out of interest, if anybody? Other than me, of course

It's a golden age of just believing any old shite. No Bellend, I don't care much for curiosity or even knowing things, anything really. I still like to get a bit cross though and getting theatrically irate at the very mention of insert name of largely unremarkable politician/organisation/institution/idea/concept/accepted scientific fact is pretty much my main reason to live now, keeps me going it does. And yes, I don't know when this began or why because as already noted I have effectively no sense of curiosity

My mum blamed me for the market turbulence as I'd voted Labour which was a take I hadn't mentally prepared myself for

Don't take my use of "understanding" to mean "able to predict". I like to think I've got a pretty good understanding of what my wife is about after 16 years but I'm f***ed if I know what she's going to do from one minute to the next

In fairness I have claimed at various points that it is my actual name

Nice lady: Who told you this? Nice lady's partner: A bloke on the internet called Bellend Sebastian Nice lady: Well at least it's a vaguely clever play on words but surely that joke wore thin at least 20 years ago

If you're not prepared to take a five year view then you shouldn't be investing unless you are willing to look at it as very much a punt. I refuse to repost myself but I posted a link a couple of days ago about a guide to managing investment volatility and for anyone unsure of what they're doing/what to do that's well worth a read. I agree with Lako42, don't try and time the market, try and understand it and be in it and accept what that entails

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I used to have a colleague that would do a brilliant puffin impersonation (of the sound they make anyway) which involved her concentrating VERY hard and going slightly boss eyed and it's a shame that we had both got ourselves life partners by that point as I really valued that

Perfectly sensible advice if you're planning on buying an annuity or want to take your tax free cash in full, for both of which you're banking on the value being at its highest on one particular day. It's a bit more complicated now that a lot of folk choose to phase their retirement and even take their lump sum gradually, and so are remaining invested, often until they die

Two managed portfolio services, both highest risk, one fully active, one fully passive. Quilter Wealth Select Responsible Passive and Tatton Ethical Global Equity Managed if you're REALLY interested

My pension is down 13% which does equate to quite a lot as I'm old and started it not long after I got my first proper job. Given I've got the highest risk version of what I'm invested in and the mind blowing idiocy of what's going on at the minute it's not that bad really. I've probably got at least another 10 years of work so the tricky thing is to decide when to start being a bit more careful with it

I doubt it will even take that long, but who knows. My pension is 50% tracker and that's done loads better than the active part. My dilemma is whether I should change anything to take advantage of the upside, which may include hypocritically temporarily abandoning my ethical preferences

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Those seeking reassurance could do a lot worse than read Liontrust's Guide to Managing Volatility (found relatively easily with a Google search), especially pages 10 and 11

"Getting things done" though, isn't he, old Donald. "Getting things done" indeed

Update. Disappointingly uneventful. They were expecting me, were polite, helpful, and the car was ready and is fine. Bit of a letdown really

I wouldn't be posting about it in this way if I couldn't see the comedy in the situation. Also, I've been around a long time now and have yet to see much evidence that getting furious about things gets you what you want. I'm off to the dealership now, so let's see if that goes smoothly or there are more hijinks to report

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Managed to get a courtesy car arranged for today, so have been waiting in for it to be delivered. Just had call to say that it's now not coming as it won't start, sending the irony meter off the scale. The silver lining is that there's now a car available locally, albeit a shitter one

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