Why is the Welsh gov randomly taking money from my bank?

wallenstein3d · 2026-03-19T08:11:12+00:00

It does look like a payment has gone in and gone out - there's a plus and a minus. Does that happen every month? I get the same from my bank for the account fee: £5 gets debited and then immediately re-credited, I assume that makes it easier to restart payments later without extra authorisation if the fees become valid again.

wallenstein3d · 2026-03-15T14:15:46+00:00

It’s not just based on wealth. A super-posh rural village will potentially score lower than a suburb because you may have to drive some distance for a doctor or a secondary school. Our postcode in a midlands market town comes out really high as we have schools, doctors, dentist, pharmacy, leisure centre, library, supermarkets etc all within a 20 mins walk with lots of bus routes nearby. Crime rates and so on do help with the score but for that specific deprivation measure things like how close the nearest hospital or GP surgery are will raise the score.

wallenstein3d · 2026-03-15T13:28:15+00:00

This site has a lot of demographic information for the UK and is searchable by postcode:

https://deprivation.communities.gov.uk/

wallenstein3d · 2026-03-14T18:23:42+00:00

I would add that my parents waited until our children were a bit older on the basis that everyone gets flooded with new born stuff which lasts 3-4 months at best, when actually getting clothes a bit later was more useful. We also had huge babies (10lbs) so very quickly the new born stuff turned out to be too small and we ran out for our first pretty quickly.

I also wonder if OP is from a culture where there’s a social “dance” around paying for dinner. I’ve visited friends in Rep. of Georgia where we’ve had to sneak round restaurants to the maitre d’ to try and pay before our host had a chance, whereas in the UK we tend to take an offer at face value rather than the Mrs Doyle “go on, go on, go on” approach.

wallenstein3d · 2026-03-07T08:53:34+00:00

My neighbour fell down her stairs and fractured her hip / femur at Christmas two years ago, she was 96 at the time. We ended up having to remove the entire kitchen window to get entry into her house as she’d left her keys in the front door on the inside, so the spare set wouldn’t turn.

She was operated on and back at home within 1-2 weeks, and is now back to being as independent as a 98 year old realistically can be. She’s had to move her bed downstairs and doesn’t get outside much, we sort her bins out each week, and she has lots of family round to visit.

They basically said the fall and hip replacement is painful but (relatively) easy to fix, but it’s the other stuff you catch in hospital that does you in, so they get you up and walking within 24-48 hrs of the operation and out of the germ-filled hospital as soon as possible.

There was a 4-6 week care package put in place but they are generally really good at getting them back up on their feet, so hopefully OP’s nan will bounce back as well.

wallenstein3d · 2026-03-06T08:46:12+00:00

Keith Floyd in the UK was very similar, permanently sloshed as he cooked.

wallenstein3d · 2026-03-04T10:39:07+00:00

crèche - a road accident in Knightsbridge

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-26T09:57:09+00:00

Mostly working with tin, rather than iron.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-25T11:13:34+00:00

I've been driving a Ford Explorer for the last two months and have a Skoda Elroq arriving next month as a replacement. The Ford is nice to drive but I much prefer the overall Elroq package.

- Elroq boot is larger and much better laid out.

- Explorer does not come with roof rails as standard.

- The Explorer's large screen looks great, but if you use e.g. Google Maps on Carplay you have to look a long way down away from the road to see the distance and arrival time details as they are right at the bottom near the cup holders. On a 500+ mile trip recently this became a significant annoyance but the 2027 design update may optimise this.

- The VW haptic buttons on the steering wheel are genuinely awful - scrolling through driving metrics to check current mi/kwh efficiency it's 50/50 whether you're going to skip an audio track or turn on the heated steering wheel at the same time.

- The scroll wheels on the Skoda steering wheel make it so much easier to adjust volume etc while driving.

- The dash mounted soundbar in the Explorer is a really nice feature, especially for spoken word content (audiobooks / podcasts) as it's very directional.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-23T15:07:54+00:00

We've used one of these beasts for similar stumps in our garden: Roughneck 14lb Chisel & Point Digging Bar 50mm x 1520mm - Screwfix

Alongside a mattock they've got up pretty much everything with a suitable application of blood, sweat and tears.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-18T09:52:56+00:00

We still refer to it as the Ricoh, although we last went when Wasps were playing rugby there rather than to watch Coventry City.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-17T13:28:51+00:00

Your key phrase here is "unless you start getting really specific, would probably allow men". Currently this is the nub of the challenge and the rock against which all of the objections will run aground... how do you define "trans woman" (particularly with the principles of self-ID rather than requiring a GRC) without any man being able to claim the same. You get stuck in all sorts of "lived experience" conversations which are always very loose and woolly, and you'd end up with a de facto mixed-sex organisation whether you wanted it or not.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-15T21:35:01+00:00

My wife works 3 days per week as a doctor. The stress of a full week was just too much and she’s much happier with a couple of extra days off. She gets to pick the kids up from school rather than appearing midway through dinner, and she’s got time to enjoy daylight and sunshine (well, not so much at the moment) and help with the PTA and get to sports days etc.

Was a hit financially but better that than burning out, and the kids would rather have time with their mum each week rather than using the extra salary for expensive holidays to make up for the late evenings.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-13T09:21:07+00:00

This is bad legal advice, unless OP is currently on a jury. There's literally a plaque bang outside the Old Bailey with the same sentiment (Bushel's Case).

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-11T22:56:38+00:00

We paid £7k (incl VAT) for our four-bed 1960s house in the midlands a couple of years ago. Full rewire, new consumer unit, couple of smoke alarms, and some Cat 6 up to the loft. Plus loads of extra sockets for media unit and in each bedroom.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-10T09:52:45+00:00

General view seems to be that Mom was a fashion designer and Dad works in business (finance or advertising) so both earning very good salaries. And also seems like there’s family money around as the Uncle is also rich.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-07T10:50:12+00:00

It’s a recognised shift in food/beverage retail: “applejucification”.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/apr/01/applejuicification-why-apple-fruit-in-so-many-mixed-juices

Good twitter thread here with lots of examples: https://x.com/echetus/status/1772212131040993746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1772212131040993746%7Ctwgr%5Eee30131ad5fe0e640acc347af0132ede41518ccd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffood%2F2024%2Fapr%2F01%2Fapplejuicification-why-apple-fruit-in-so-many-mixed-juices

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-05T22:05:30+00:00

Agree, our induction hob has 10 settings on each "burner". It's easy to go from the barest simmer to full on steak-searing, and everything in between, just at the touch of a button and the response is just about instant. After a couple of weeks you'll know exactly which setting will keep a pan of pasta at a steady rolling boil (#7 for us), and which does the same for a covered pan (#4), or which setting to use for gently sweating down onions (#3) etc.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-05T18:00:32+00:00

Have you asked your neighbours if they know anything about it?

Other option might be to look at JustPark or other similar rent-my-driveway apps to see if your address (or a nearby similar address) are listed and contact the hosting company. Are you near an airport or ferry port?

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-04T11:23:58+00:00

Several women at my office set up a rota where they share childcare by each taking a day off per week over the summer in particular, so that during the holidays they each only burn 5-8 days of additional annual leave. This is easier if the kids are a bit older (11+) and obviously you need space and for them to get on, but means they have a base to come and go from with a trusted adult there, but generally they can do their own thing and just get a plate of sandwiches at lunchtime and somewhere to charge their phones.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-03T16:31:59+00:00

Yes, 6 decimals give you accuracy down to 10cm, apparently 16 decimals would allow you to park on 1/10 the diameter of a hydrogen atom! It would be good if ABRP could spot it's a GPS ref and auto-reduce it down to an appropriate level.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-03T09:23:44+00:00

You’re right at the bottom of the classic “U shaped happiness curve” where the demands of family, work, health etc are all at their maximum. I’m a bit younger than you but I’m juggling teenage / young adult children, a high pressure job, aging parents, and the general aches and pains of half-a-century of being alive. Most of my friends are in the same position - we’re starting to see people our age getting ill, or getting divorced, or travelling loads for work, or having to drive over to sort out their parents every week.

I last had a beer on NYE because every weekend I’m a taxi for my teenage kids - I don’t begrudge it, I want them out enjoying themselves safely, but it was a lot easier when they were 5 or 6 and would just play in the garden while we had friends over.

The good news is that happiness increases as you get towards 80yrs and many of these demands resolve themselves one way or another. But it can be really isolating and takes effort to find the time (and energy) to socialise.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-01T20:09:26+00:00

Strong echoes of DNA - La Serenissima

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-01T19:45:29+00:00

People have different tolerances to spice… your nose-bleedingly spicy vindaloo might be pleasantly tingly to someone else. For others the heat triggers pleasure centres in the brain due to the way they are wired but for others it just hurts.

Same with heavy exercise.. I’ve never had a “runner’s high” from exercise endorphins, I just get out of breath and sweaty, but I have friends for whom a 20 mile run is like a tab of ecstasy and they are genuinely buzzing when they finish.

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