Community for asking and answering any question related to the life, the people or anything related to the UK.
Was relatively mellow. Staying at my mum's catsitting and work was pretty chill with it being half term allowing me to catch up on a lot of the busy work that doesn't get done in the usual hustle and bustle.
Topped off with a 30K run as ongoing marathon training that went really well. Always feels great to get one of those in.
Yeah alright cheers bruv, how was yours?
I say that, two thirds of it was alright. The other eight hours of a day gets taken up by toothache. Apparently there's a hole in a filling that needs cleaned, filled (giggity), and a crown on top. The bill is going to come in at three ton too which will be absolutely delightful.
Honestly, I'm thinking of paying Anthony Joshua to spark me out by landing a very specific punch on my chops to save me waiting.
Other than that, yeah I'm off work on a few weeks off this time next week, so my head's already checked out. I'm going to turn up, do the bare minimum, fuck off any new projects, and enjoy the run down I think.
Mate, I have really good pliers, so I can save you couple of tons. DM me.
You have no idea how tempting that is. Is the medicinal whiskey included?
Would it make more enticing if I was to say my wife is a retired dentist?
Forgot to mention, I will offer Ardbeg Uigeadail as a preparatory sedative. The only condition is you need to take it neat.
Hot tip: get your tooth dry so it'll stick and do a temp filling with a bit of beeswax. Obv can't eat on it or anything, but helps a lot with the constant background ache
brill, thank you for the advice!
Was thinking about this, how're you going?
When will the wet weather stop. I have a lawn that needs moving and few other things to do in the garden that aren’t happening at the moment.
Getting the complaint out of the way, I’m off this week. I was looking forward to Friday whole of last week. Alter Bridge to look forward to and wife’s birthday too. (In that priority order, mind)
We have clay soil here, honestly I could put koi carp out in the lawn and they'd be quite happy out there.
I was thinking, maybe I could grow rice or something instead as a 2nd income...
Have you had a lot of rain by your way? It was absolutetly glorious on Saturday morning and afternoon; I decided to take the kids out on their bikes, get on the train into town, grab some food and go swimming. As we got to the train station it had clouded over, then as we were on the train, it started to spit. It was pouring down as we go off the train and made our way to get some food! Seeing as it was clear and quite mild when we left the house and the forecast said it was going to be dry, I didn't bring any coats with us!
I’ve been intending to cut the grass, but I’m worried the lawnmower will sink if I try. It’s been raining that much.
Do you cut your grass in winter? I haven't cut ours since October, it barely grows enough to warrant cutting it!
Had a weird week...
We had a load of work done on the house years ago due to nextdoor's house burning down and almost taking ours with it, but, our insurance sorted out a load of stuff... however... years later it turns out, if you try to put fresh paint on the walls, the previous paint just bubbles up and peels off.
So... after screaming at the walls in 1 room last year, I got a pro in to finish off the rest of the house...
This week he had to strip large chunks of paint back to bare plaster, let it all dry out and then basically build it all back up again.
We now have another fresh magnolia room instead of a grubby, slightly mouldy room.
But, seeing what the poor guy has to go through (when I drop off his coffee) to get each of these rooms done, man, hats off to skilled professionals.
Oh, and one of my best engineers told me he's applied for another job... no gripes with anyone wanting to improve their career, but man, I'm in trouble if he goes as the rest can't do what he does.
I hope you went for a zero VOC anti mould paint. They're expensive as hell but worth it from what I understand.
I'm currently fighting mould in the bedroom. I have no idea where it's coming from, but I suspect it's to do with the chimney stack ventillator, and my neighbours dodgy ensuite-shower
If it's the same as us, you might have contract paint which is moisture absorbant... (I'm an expert now because a professsional told me a few things)
So, it might be just a wipe down and need "proper" paint
But, yeah, get the good stuff.
Oh, and don't bother with odourless paint, it's worse because of the chemicals added to remove the smell. So you breathe in more of it...
I'm setting up the ceiling trapdoor with lots of Pistachios and beans for when the time comes when I need to hide my family up there.
Don't forget water. And a bucket!
And loo roll!
Ah, yes, I see I'm talking to professional peepers!. I once did a picnic at a lake and we had a popup changing room with a bucket! I get you!
It's been a long road back to daily routines and normalcy in general. Heavy mental and emotional loads, and that finicky heated moment where you're almost but not quite out of the woods. Still getting situated after my company was bought out. They kept me and I got a bump, but it's very different from what I'm used to.
Kind of lucky that my wife hasn't started her new job yet, she took the kiddo to the Nothe Fort in Weymouth four times last week. He seems really fond of WWII-era stuff.
Now that we have a projector that's worth a damn, I've gotten back into Armored Core 6. Still stuck on the same level as before (CEL 240), but I'm showing some improvement. Playing this in 4K at 120" is almost unbearably immersive. The sensory payload is like nothing I've ever experienced, I was actually a little bit shaken afterwards. Good fun, but need to be in the right frame of mind for it.
We also went to a cute cheese and curd shop in town this weekend; Cherry Tree is a strong recommend. We got three types of interesting curd (key lime pie, lemon meringue, and carrot cake flavour) as well as a truffle gouda to go on a pizza I'm making, mushroom and sausage.
The pad thai and peanut satay from last week was good enough, but nothing to write home about. I don't have a recipe worth submitting, but I do recommend W2Kitchen's video about pad thai from scratch.
Glad you survived the purge, I'm sensing one going on at a company I'm currently contracting for and everyone, bosses included, look tired and shell-shocked.
On the cheese front, I had a go at making my own halloumi and it was surprisingly quick and easy, and even looked and tasted like the the real stuff! I don't know what rennet actually is, but it seems to be the secret ingredient to everything
Halloumi is easy peasy, cheddar cheesy... Mergers are another story... When they brought me on they said "we really wanted to buy the engine of your team's output, and we're not looking to change anything about that."
Two months later and practically no aspect of my workflow has been left untouched. I'm rebuilding everything I do from scratch, almost eight years of experience calmly cast aside. Do things our way, end of story.
Hope yours goes more smoothly. 2026 seems to have an infinite appetite for chaos.
Hey if it's any consolation I'm sure they'll make encouraging comments like "An AI would have done this already by now", or "please use an LLM to speed up the transition, have you heard of co-pilot?"
Nothing like lighting a fire under your talent to make them mentally check out of a job they previously somewhat enjoyed
Nothing yet, but I have my response pre-selected
I saw The Black Hole at the cinema when it came out and loved it. To the extent that I can still recall VINCENT stood for ‘Vital Information Necessary CENTralised’.
I had a secret holiday this week. No one knows except work and one family member. I'm slowly coming out of my brainfog despite doing nothing but sleeping more and catching up with TV series. Health-wise it's a downturn; there's only so much beef jerky and marmite crumpets a man should eat, but it's been glorious.
I plan to take more secret holidays this year. I love my family very much, but people make plans on your time and sometimes you just need a buffer.
Good luck with clearing up the brainfog... I'm in there too. Somewhere.
Broke my foot and embarrassed myself while drunk, woke up in a police cell and missed a day of work last week, so this week I feel I can't complain but I will anyway, due to the broken foot, I am currently wearing a medical boot, a large chunk of plastic, the foot is fine but this thing has made walking a living hell. Then to top it off I'm moving house tomorrow 😬😬 And the drunken embarrassment thing, that's been haunting my dreams (literally)
Oh dear! What a nightmare week! Have you got any help with the moving?
Is the broken foot and ending up in a prison cell related?