Non-Amazon UK online bookseller

In my search for vendors other than Amazon emperor helpfully suggested Hive who support an independent bookshop with every single sale we make. Over the past couple of weeks I have been trying them out: their website is tolerable, their shipping prompt and their packaging free of that strange tape Amazon use, and for some books I have found them to be cheaper to Amazon. I have not yet had reason to test their returns process but first impressions are good.

Vacation time policy

At work the default is that none of one's annual leave may be carried over from one calendar year to the next, except perhaps just a little under exceptional personal circumstances. I find this strange and inconvenient having never encountered the issue during my employment in the US, hardly the kindest country in regard to leave policies. It makes sense to limit the amount of leave that can be carried over but I see only benefits to allowing at least a week or two's leave to be kept in hand just in case. Losing every leave day for which one could not get approval seems like a cheap money grab that fosters resentment more than it gains useful free labor.

Are such restrictive leave policies a British thing, or maybe a British university or public sector thing? I would rather like to avoid such employers in future and I doubt that asking about leave gives the best first impression in application interviews. Perhaps it is just an unexpected and minor example of culture shock for me. It is this kind of issue that makes me consider joining the University and College Union but their membership fee would uncomfortably dent our current household budget.

A small informal survey suggests that at least in England it is indeed usual at the end of the calendar year to lose any unused leave which I would guess often causes needless trouble as everybody tries to fit in their remaining days off, especially if there is any administrative question over how much they still have. Fortunately, despite having had unusually fluid plans, I am again able to use all mine so today was my last workday of the year. I shall still check in with the office a little, informally.

A milky surprise

We have the milkman bring our milk in the traditional glass bottles that one rinses and returns. A foil cap on the top seals the milk inside. I mentioned how in the recent cold weather the milk froze on the doorstep and lifted the lid: it was clean up and away from the bottle. Curiously, once the milk thawed, down came the lid back into place and I found it sealed once again quite tightly around the rim of the bottle as if time had simply reversed.

Update: On rinsing the bottle I notice milk encrusted in the groove around the outside of the rim. Perhaps the foil lid did not so much miraculously reseal itself as glue itself back on by means of spilled milk.