This week I will be mostly...
...finishing off the fencing I started at the weekend, weather permitting. Work-wise I'll be trudging ruefully through university procurement tender documents*.
On another note**, the baritone acoustic I had a look at was a cut 'n' shut which was so badly done it was unplayable.

*Seriously, the money these penpushing exercises cost far outweighs any potential losses through fraud/preferential treatment/whatever
**See what I did there?
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Mon 29 Jul 2013, 8:26, 1 reply, 12 years ago)

Re: * ... It doesn't make any fucking difference, don't bother wasting your time writing one.
I buy whatever I want from wherever I want it without ever bothering to go out to tender because I can't be fucking arsed with tender and there's ALWAYS a loophole.

I mean, it's quite sweet that people try and write these procedures and everything, but they do tend to forget that academics might be autistic shut-ins with limited interpersonal skills but we do tend to have a modicum of intelligence.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 29 Jul 2013, 9:21, Reply)

Luckily I'm not writing it
We're supplying a very expensive piece of kit that can only come from one source, yet the purchasing dept still want us to jump through the hoops.
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Mon 29 Jul 2013, 9:47, Reply)

Oh dear
try speaking to the academic involved. "prior data"* is my go-to excuse as it's easier to bullshit than "there's only one supplier"

*as in, "I would like this quarter-of-a-million pound AFM. Other models of AFM are available, however i did some work with someone else's one of these before and generated data with I used to get the grant so I need to carry on with the same model" .. foolproof.
( the mighty badger Aphrodite, on a bar stool, by your side, Mon 29 Jul 2013, 10:15, Reply)