Mike's P&W is actually a load of old cobblers..

Mike's Pith & Wind - Cobblers
People don’t go in much for shoe repairs these days. If the soles wear out on your favourite shoes, just turf ‘em and get a new pair is the philosophy of this disposable world. It might surprise you to learn that I had toe plates put on the last pair of leather-soled shoes I owned. Mind you, that was a while ago now – the new-ish boots that I haven’t worn in yet won’t have toe plates. That’s because I’ve never liked the darn things; they wear out and get caught in carpets and scratch polished floors, and as a schoolboy I managed to cut myself on them more than once
I think it’s fair to say that cobbling is a dying art, but I have a premonition it might make a comeback in the not too distant future, along with a few other conservation-type crafts and professions that have all but disappeared.
You can’t repair spent corduroy trousers. It’s a constant source of wonder to me that when my corduroy trousers start showing signs of wear on the knees, (not as a result of sitting at my computer on my ergonomic stool as you might imagine, the bare patches are too high for that, but apparently from just walking around), the tread starts to go bald on the outside, despite the fact that the friction originates from the inside. Which sounds exactly the sort of trivial detail that Karl Crucialnitpicker should be addressing.
My favourite pair of khaki cords are being held together by a complex arrangement of judiciously placed strips of, you’ve guessed it, gaffer tape. They’re clearly not going to survive another wash, and when I.. read more

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Dick's Toolbox - Team building
“Who, who are you?” Pete Townshend 1978
One of the ways that the corporate state keeps its drones entertained is by periodic departmental off-sites, where people, who normally see each other every day, are confined for a time in an inadequately ventilated room without the distraction of work. Very occasionally this occurs in a quite salubrious environment - an elegant hotel or resort - which you never appreciate because everybody feels so guiltly about having spent a bucket of money that you spend even more time inside. Working.
I believe that I once went to a northern New South Wales resort, but I could only tell from the bus ride and the hotel brochure, as I don’t recollect even there being an outside. Apparently it had a golf course and seven swimming pools.
These ‘love-ins’ are a result of the Human Resources Department, a superfluous read more