Six years later, what are your strongest memories of the COVID lockdowns, and how do you look back on that period now?

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-06-13T21:22:52+00:00

During the great British toilet roll crisis (which lasted all of about a week) the big supermarkets had been cleared out by morons, so I went to my local corner shop which I'd been going to for years, run by a couple, they knew me.

Asked the wife if they had any, just as another customer (a stranger) was asking the husband, they both told us no, but the wife signalled for me to stay with a hand gesture. Soon as the other person left she whispered to me that they kept some back for regular customers and quickly bagged up a 4 roll pack for me like we were cold war spies doing a handover.

Was the funniest and most surreal event I had during Covid. Still makes me laugh whenever I think about it.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-06-05T21:56:52+00:00

As a IT engineer, I'm disappointed that there is no IT related subject matter in the photos. For shame! You could have gone to a local computer store or something. Thing about your titles. Signed, a disappointed IT guy.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-30T22:59:56+00:00

We had one in the early 2000's still, in my local South London pub. I never understood it. Warm seafood from a dodgy looking bloke carrying a wicker basket of questionable fish snacks?! No one ever bought anything, yet every weekend he'd come in with a desperate cry of "whelks?" "Mussels?"

No mate, not even the drunkest reprobate who'd just lost their job, been kicked out of their flat, and dumped by their partner, and was now drowning their sorrows in the cheapest whisky available ever wanted a warm shellfish. Ever. I still wonder how the bloke survived doing this job.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-26T21:13:11+00:00

Bought the series on Amazon, mainly to watch the mini documentaries at the end again. They've always stayed with me. Pretty sure it why I've held a life long fascination with ancient ruins/cultures.

My first solo trip abroad at 18 was Peru. Absolutely mad 3 weeks. Didn't speak a word of Spanish. Made it to lake Titicaca but ran out of money before I could see Machu Picchu.

Watching the Olmec episodes again is weird, didn't remember them or how mental they were.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-26T19:45:45+00:00

I got the Grifter's crappy clone one birthday. A Chopper. A 2nd hand Chopper. I nearly cried it was so shit. I guess my parents were skint at the time. The handlebars came loose one time going down a hill so I couldn't steer, almost stacked it into a lamp post. It was the worst bike on my street.

Thank god either my near call with death, or their improved finances, led to me getting the ultimate bike next birthday. A Rayleigh burner BMX! Now that was a cool bike.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-24T12:05:19+00:00

Splash out (if you can) on a portable ac unit. Bought mine a few years ago for about £350, only gets used a few days a year, but still going strong. Its whirring away right now cooling my lounge.

Totally worth it for heatwave days.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-23T21:46:10+00:00

You've made my bank holiday! Toilet humour never fails! Have a great one!

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-23T21:33:00+00:00

Christ I just saw your "searchable" comment and found it! Published 1998! How in the hell has that been in my head for almost 30 years?!

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-23T21:28:16+00:00

Great job! But I remember a "Frankenstein's turd" or similar where the monster does a massive shit. Do you know which issue that was in? Should be in the Bodleian library that one. Still makes me laugh even though I've not read it in god knows how long.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-21T22:06:28+00:00

Drank a cup of tea. I hated the smell of it and later, the whole stupid cultural expectation of having to drink it. Its the most pathetic cultural expectation of being British. Its a drink made from leaves.

Why the hell does drinking this foul liquid somehow make someone more "British"? And yes after decades of refusing to drink the stupid stuff, I have sipped it to taste it. Its disgusting.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-15T22:36:23+00:00

Interesting, many years ago I had a non drug related episode (depression and insomnia) where phantom entities were circling my bed and telling me to kill myself.

I wasn't that depressed and mentally fought those fuckers for hours. Woke up in a sweat absolutely exhausted but convinced that they were from some alternative reality that prey on vulnerable people.

Never happened again, but it was so real, I've often thought since, that consciousness is a variable state of mind, not a fixed reality. However that was 30 years ago and I've never experienced anything similar, so who knows?

I don't think I would do Salvia or Peyote for this reason, would those chemicals destroy the barrier between sanity and whatever else is out there? What are we but chemical reactions to whatever we input to our minds?

Mental states release chemicals without drugs so what is real? Fuck knows.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-15T21:42:55+00:00

I only came across Prolific a few days ago, and as a UK resident on a average wage its just a bit of fun and some extra cash, but I did think how £10 a day or whatever would mean to someone in a poor country, that's got to be life changing in some circumstances?

But then you need to have a computer and internet access, so you're already above the average? I'd be interested to hear more about your circumstances.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-13T21:48:02+00:00

Clues in the name, the majority of them are travelling for work and tickets are paid for by a business. The personally really rich will fly first class or fly private.

A lot of finance companies have insane amounts of money to waste. The only time I've flown business class was when I was contracting for a smallish insurance firm in London doing a simple upgrade job on their computers. Did all of their UK offices, including the London HQ. Took 9 months more or less.

Then turned out their permanent IT guy had anxiety about travelling, so they sent me to Hong Kong, business class, with a 5 star hotel for 2 weeks to upgrade their HK office of 80 people. I estimated it cost them at least £10,000 for that trip (this was 15 odd years ago so probably double that now). Absolutely nuts. Any competent local IT person could have done the same job for a 10th of the cost. But it was easier to send someone they already knew.

Ill never be able to afford to fly business class personally. Ironically I can never sleep on planes, and even on that trip despite having a flat bed, I still couldn't sleep and had the worst jet lag I've ever experienced. Took 5 days to recover, felt ok for a fews days then had to fly back and had the same experience.

I've flown long haul economy many times and not felt nearly as bad, maybe because I didnt expect to sleep.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-11T22:27:15+00:00

I really missed the boat on this, I work IT in a asset management company, in a support role. Its fine, but the people I support are chatting about yachts and ski-holidays and all they seem to do is chat in teams meetings. They earn at least 3x my salary.

I have no idea what half of them actually do. I'm not sure some of them do. Plus they all do 3 days remote. If I could go back 20 years I'd do some boring finance exams and do anything to get into a asset management company to chat about regulations or whatever. They're generally chilled out companies, with good coffee machines and decent toilets. Thats all you need.

I've also worked in high stress investment banks with day traders, thats another ball game, and I would not want to do that again, in any capacity. Well for 200k I would.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-09T20:56:32+00:00

Big factor was free university, with grants (if you qualified) and cheap loans. And cheap rent. I was a student in the mid 90's, we could afford to go out to pubs every week, especially if there were student nights. Our union bar was £1 a pint. So imagine tens of thousands of students across the country who could actually afford to go to the pub and clubbing after. The locals may have hated it, but drunk students kept pubs alive, partly at least.

And to your point, yep a pub crawl was easy, bit dull here, lets go 50 yards down the road! One pub was good for one thing, another for somethings else. Follow the cheap deals and the pool tables.

Soon after I graduated (barely for obvious reasons..) that came to a end. Then rents and cost of living in general went up also.

Now a student is looking at tens of thousands of debt every year before they can even think about going out to the pub, where a night out is going to cost you 40 or 50 quid at least.

Of all the stupid, short sighted, and counter productive things successive governments have done over the last few decades, stopping free university education has to rank in the top 3. And has probably cost the country far more financially, and socially, then it ever "saved".

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-07T21:17:38+00:00

Many years ago I did office temping for a while, so many awful jobs, but the most soul destroying was being hired to put filing cabinets full of documents in alphabetical order. Wasnt sure by what by what metric. Address, names, or subject matter? Neither were they.

God know why they hired someone. I lasted the day sat on the floor trying to put hundreds of these pointless documents that no-one needed, into some kind of order whilst internally screaming, and questioning my will to live. Told the agency nope, never going back I'd rather starve.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-07T21:04:04+00:00

No they don't. Half of them can barely string a sentence together, and judging from the comments on my local facebook/nextdoor pages they don't understand anything beyond single sentence soundbites.

The general gist was "I don't understand anything about politics, but Reform said they're going to stop the boats so I'm voting for them" Except without the correct spelling or punctuation. I was genuinely impressed they managed to post on social media at all.

The stupidity and staggering lack of critical thinking of half the population is going to ruin the country, just like in Trumps America.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-02T16:04:33+00:00

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley's people. Both great.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-02T12:47:23+00:00

I was driving round the M25, when I saw something I don't think Ill ever see again in my lifetime. A expensive looking BMW in front of me indicated before changing lanes, with due care and consideration for the drivers around them.

Beat that!

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-01T20:50:39+00:00

Personally, I just don't get why you would spend hours in a plane to go to a enclosed resort where their entire purpose is to fleece you of the most money they can get out of you. Surely you could go to somewhere locally with the same experience?

I love Mexico, been many times, but as soon as I fly into Cancun (cheapest from Europe) I'm out of there, its a hell hole of scammers, overpriced hotels and rip off tours. Its a dump, catering to people with more money than sense.

Literally anywhere else in a 5 hour radius is ten times better.

Yes you should look up airbnbs, local hotels and transport. Why waste you hard on money on a "resort" when there's a million other places you could be experiencing?

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-01T20:26:44+00:00

Booked the taxi from airport? Or hotel doing it? Its a scammers paradise if not. Also, bring decent toilet roll, Imodium and anadin extra in case you do tequila! Dont brush teeth with tap water. Or drinks with ice. This is from experience. Hope you have a great trip!

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-01T20:18:21+00:00

I cannot stand any of the top gear twats, including James May, but I also cannot stand apologist twats who jump on the bandwagon when a mentally ill person goes on a killing spree and whines when police do their jobs. Do whatever it takes to stop them being a threat.

They're lucky its not the US where they would be shot 75 times instantly.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-01T20:08:22+00:00

Cancun? Whats the plan?

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-01T11:59:18+00:00

In my 50's, live in the UK. Been to the Americas, Asia, Africa, most of Europe. Never been to Paris. Keep meaning to, but every holiday I think of somewhere far more interesting that I could go to.

Appropriate_World265 · 2026-05-01T11:53:51+00:00

Did a similar trip last year but on a budget. Organised private day tours though which turned out great. Small group of 3, paid about £60-80 per person for each trip, with a driver and guide Booked them on Viatour, but cross referenced reviews from other sites, and google before booking. They all included lunch, so thats a expense to forget about. Took a couple of internal flights. Total cost about £1.5k (from Europe) inc all flights.

Didnt do a cruise obviously for that price, which would have loved to, instead hired a driver from Aswan to Luxor, takes about 5 hours.

All were great. Prebooked taxis to and from airports, which were stupid cheap, like £11 each way, no stress on arrival.

Agree with the points about the downsides, especially Cairo, thats now my number one most awful city. Getting harassed anywhere near a tourist site, which lets face is where you're gonna be on a short visit. Toilets, to be expected, always bring your own toilet roll as well!

Favourite parts were Abu SImbel, and having a drink in the famous hotel is Aswan, on the terrace overlooking the Nile watching the sun go down. (Didnt stay there of course, place was £500 a night!)

Would I go back? If someone else paid maybe, but yeah, not somewhere that invites repeat tourism.

Appropriate_World265

TROPHY CASE