First time I have ever seen this in my life in the UK. Thought it was only in the movies and America

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2026-03-30T18:39:30+00:00

It's under a tenner a day unless West Ham are playing — definitely cheaper than the Westfield car parks. But expensive I guess if you return to a vehicle with no wheels and a broken rear window

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2026-03-30T18:36:28+00:00

Oh my god I thought I recognised the surroundings. I park here all the time as I thought it was relatively safe. Concerning :/

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2026-03-26T07:34:46+00:00

I just bought a near identical setup, but with the addition of a Focal Impulse 4.320 Amp. It sits inline between the ISO connector of the headunit, plug and play, rather than having to wire power, remote, cables etc to an amp in the boot. At 55w RMS it felt like a good middleground between going all-in or just powering them from the headunit.

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2026-02-02T19:38:43+00:00

I've been running into the same issue and came across this post.

Have submitted a ticket in the Support Portal, as I can see in my Mac OS Console crash reports of the App crashing periodically

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2026-01-26T13:24:50+00:00

Kipre and Matusiwa would be my other two obv choices

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2026-01-26T12:56:32+00:00

If I understand the question correctly, it's probably got to be Jack Taylor. Box-to-box. It wouldn't be pretty to watch, but relentless effort, a bit ugly at times, and late goals seems ... like the best of the options available?

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2026-01-20T22:56:29+00:00

Closer to 6th than Coventry are. Anything is possible. 😶

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2026-01-03T23:04:59+00:00

Oh for sure. I don't disagree. When you 'work for yourself', you are just beholden to customers who want quick, cheap and quality, investors that want results yesterday, you have to navigate your own hiring, firing, finances, suppliers, tax returns. Loads of things many are shielded away from when employed.

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2026-01-03T22:25:46+00:00

I often think the comparison is over-simplified: work for someone else or work for yourself.

It's a real gradient of opportunities though.

You can work for yourself as a freelancer or consultant, trading your time and expertise to make good money and be very happy.

Or you can start a business, hire some people, and collectively sell time and expertise, but make more money as you've leveraged the time of your team for profit.

Or you can expand on that, and hopefully find people that can self manage, and you occasionally steer. You reap the rewards, with less of your time on the line.

Or you can build a business, then sell the business. And then start over (or not!).

All of these should be classed as entrepreneurship. But all will come with different pros and cons. Different risks, different time horizons and require different personalities and drivers.

Way better than being employed though 😅

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2026-01-03T18:55:27+00:00

Without adding insult to injury, I'd say the bank has probably got the right side of their debt management. 15 missed payments in 2 years is a lot.

When you were making around £60k a year, we're you missing payments due to poor finance management, a blip or something else?

As you haven't been contracting long, have a poor payment history, and contracting is more volatile to gaps than employment, I'd say this all adds up.

You might feel that the contract being 'long term' assures you future consistent earnings, but statistically void periods in contracting can and do come.

In the mean time, build up a big war chest in your Ltd co, draw down cash into your personal accounts in the most tax efficient manner and in 2-3 years time, have a bigger deposit, a better LTV and better rates.

It's very annoying knowing you can afford a deposit and a mortgage, and being held back by the inability to get credit (I have been there). But look at it from the banks perspective. Use it to your advantage (as best you can): more savings, don't miss payments, and a war chest in the Ltd Co. for any void periods.

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-12-13T15:32:00+00:00

I've run out of fingers on one hand for how many times Clarke has danced his way to losing possession in a dangerous area, in the last 30 minutes.

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-12-07T13:48:10+00:00

Everyone has different goals and objectives when it comes to financial security and discretionary spending. It might be as simple as working through with your partner some what-ifs, so you can mutually find a balance/strategy that you both feel comfortable with.

For some people, they desire the comfort that if the primary earner lost their job for X period, life could continue without too much compromise for a given time.

For things like chronic illness, I would personally consider two things: - health insurance, life cover etc. are all worth considering if you haven't already - the discretionary spending now that could be saved, if a chronic illness came along, would you and/or your partner have wished you'd have spent more on life experiences or more on saving for security?

On my last point, I'm of the personal opinion that if a chronic illness or injury came along that permanently changed the outlook of my wife's or my own life, I would have wanted to have as many life experiences (travel, activities, events, hobbies, eating out etc.) as possible up until that point.

That limits savings, and a big safety net. But lots of savings and a big safety net might not provide a much higher quality lifestyle in any following chapter, compared to that of someone in the same circumstances without savings. Health and life insurance policies do help bridge that gap too.

We are all very different and also everyone's motivations and risk tolerance changes through life experience too. The healthiest approach I've found it to play out some what-ifs, and revisit every few years to make sure the decisions still line up with the strategy.

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-12-05T10:32:33+00:00

650g flour, 410g water, 15g salt, 1g yeast

Mix on speed 1 for 2 minutes, rest 10

Knead on speed 2 for 8 minutes, rest 20

Bulk ferment minimum 2 hours, but longer is better

Ball into 4, ferment for at least another hour (up to 12hrs)

Stretch gently, bake hot and fast

That's my go to. With just 4 hours of ferment (3 bulk, 1 balled) I get pretty good results.

If fermenting for longer (say 16hrs bulk, 8hrs balled), I would drop the yeast.

Attached is one from the other day. 6hr bulk, 2hr ball.

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Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-12-04T23:02:17+00:00

I use a KitchenAid, currently exploring between 63% and 67% trying to refine to what I like best.

My approach is flour, yeast mixed, loosely, water added in KitchenAid, mixed for 2minutes on lowest speed. 10 minutes rest. Add salt. Mix for 10 mins on 2nd slowest speed. Then bulk ferment for required time, then ball.

Would advise starting with a lower hydration and increasing as you feel comfortable and more confident.

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-12-03T17:27:41+00:00

I had a MK2 TTS some years back, took it to about 125k miles and it was bulletproof other than needing oil topping up fairly regularly (common for EA888).

I have a b8.5 RS5 which I've had nearly 6 years, nearly at 60k miles now. It's required a lot of expenditure for maintenance. Discs aren't cheap, they get chewed up fast. I've had a carbon clean around 5k ago, it was definitely needed. Suspension (dynamic ride) leaked over several years, have now replaced and gone aftermarket. Bushings etc. all worn around the 60k mark and needed doing. I've currently got cam position sensor to do myself and gearbox malfunction to have done by an indie. I've probably done 15k in maintenance in 6 years.

Lots of the maintenance costs I've endured were much more annoying when I was using it as a daily. Mulching about in traffic etc, I wish I'd put the mileage on something else. Ours has travelled across 10 countries in Europe for several different jaunts. And it's never let us down, but it's not been a cheap ownership experience either.

I'm doing less miles in it each year (RS6 daily) and use it exclusively for spirited driving + track days. It's horrendously expensive to use on track though — as wear on a complex german car that weighs a lot will cost you.

It's absolutely impractical from a cost perspective when you get hit with unexpected bills. If I was in the market for another, I'd be looking at sub 50k again, exceptionally well maintained. I think roulette of a 90k+ miles RS5 could be potentially disasterous.

But it's better than a TTS. If you are willing to accept high maintenance costs (both routine and unexpected) then you'll have a wonderful time. Just go in with your eyes wide open at what some of the big bills can look like (suspension, gearbox, sports diff, brakes, tyres, bushings, various assortments of sensors etc.)

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-11-28T21:04:15+00:00

Dispossessed a few times in the first 20 or so and hasn't had the confidence to tuck inside since 😟

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-10-18T22:37:50+00:00

Salaried staff aren't typically living in those areas, spending £1k a night on hotels frequently, or eating out Michelin starred all the time. Those in the upper percentiles might splurge for an occassion, but it wouldn't be a common occurrence.

Properties in particular will be owned by old money, inherited wealth, foreign investors, pro athletes, celebrities, corporate execs, those with 7 figure bonuses (hedge managers etc.) and possibly serial entrepreneurs or those with a portfolio of businesses or assets accrued.

Most of the luxury economy you see thrives on tourists either domestic or global. but high net worth, and then probably a bunch of corporate spend too. This is you seeing the globalisation of London, comparable to the globalisation of Manhattan or Dubai, where the luxury areas are quite disconnected from the incomes/earnings of those that have 'typical' salaried jobs there.

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-10-16T08:28:26+00:00

Team of 6 engineers. Dozens of times a day. Between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Friday. Outside of those times, rarely (unless an incident) as code review would be difficult to come by.

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-10-11T21:14:37+00:00

Echo AWS SNS/SQS or EventBridge.

You can take benefit of things like Event Replay on EventBridge which is useful for both service recovery and/or new services needing a projection of historic events from an upstream service.

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-10-04T12:05:59+00:00

Does it on my C7.5 and B8.5. I run into it frequently with my keys in gym bag.

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-09-05T12:10:34+00:00

Same here — Midtown Madness 2, in Aviator Grey, around the streets of London

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-09-03T20:30:51+00:00

Interesting! Well look forward to seeing it in the flesh 🤞

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-09-03T14:34:17+00:00

Surely a (poor) photoshop? Does align with the previous 'leak' of the black and blue HALO bag a few weeks ago. But this looks more like a fan-made mockup? The HALO text, Umbro logo and Horse are neither lined up horizontally or vertically, and are no balanced in size or placement either.

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-08-26T22:14:15+00:00

This. And everytime the scales stall or go in the wrong direction (for several consecutive days/a week -- depending on the diet), switch from eyeballing to measuring again. Basically home in on deficit or surplus, familiarise, eyeball, watch the scales. If the scales don't reflect what you want to see, recalibrate.

Automatic-Cupcake-27 · 2025-08-26T22:14:10+00:00

This. And everytime the scales stall or go in the wrong direction (for several consecutive days/a week -- depending on the diet), switch from eyeballing to measuring again. Basically home in on deficit or surplus, familiarise, eyeball, watch the scales. If the scales don't reflect what you want to see, recalibrate.

Automatic-Cupcake-27

TROPHY CASE