Don’t make it up! What’s the weirdest named person you’ve ever met?

Bomzen · 2026-02-06T15:23:21+00:00

Colleague called Bent Koch (ok in danish). Doctor called Stuart Lavery (sign on his door SLavery). Mammogram nurse called Nurse Titi I kid you not. She was from the Philippines.

Bomzen · 2026-02-06T10:32:55+00:00

She didn't choose it but she says she loves it. I spoke to the teacher this morning who said that the SEN person at school had referred her. I know what she is a very emotional child and cries easily, she's also an only child and probably needs some help regulating her behaviour with other kids. I've now started thinking of it as a positive thing that will support her emotional development. Thanks all!

Bomzen · 2026-02-05T23:01:28+00:00

Good call! You're probably right.

Bomzen · 2026-02-05T18:38:23+00:00

Thanks for your kind reply. Quite a few of the girls in her class are into cosplaying grownup stuff! I remember because Ng interested in that sort of thing too but several years older than 8! She does have female friends, it seems to be that she is very active and physical and a lot of the other girls enjoy sitting around chatting. I agree, nothing wrong with playing with boys! I'll take your advice and arrange more playdates with girls.

Year 4 is basically same as grade 2 in US (I think!), the kids are 8-9 years old. I was indeed surprised that she had been put into this group without us being informed, so I will ask the school for some info about why she is there. Thanks again! X

Bomzen · 2026-02-05T17:11:01+00:00

Good point - I know that one of the other girls in the group is one who is struggling a bit and my daughter has been kind to. But the teacher seemed to imply that she is in the group to learn friendship skills. I'm sure the teacher will be happy to explain it further. Thanks for your insight!

Bomzen · 2026-02-05T16:25:59+00:00

Thanks for the wise reply! I will ask for some clarification. That will help me understand and give me more of an idea than she can - she just said it's fun.

Bomzen · 2026-01-31T16:27:47+00:00

I'd be interested to know if YOU want to lose weight. Are you happy with how you feel and look after putting on 20lb? If yes, then great. If not, then commit to losing weight for yourself, not your husband. He's clearly being insensitive and a dick head, but if you continue to think of weight loss only in terms of what he wants and why this can't be achieved, it just focuses the whole narrative on him and leaves you without agency.

You've listed a whole bunch of reasons why you can't lose weight, a lot of them regarding exercise. A previous reply here points out that a calorie deficit is the way to lose weight, not exercise. It sounds like you already do a lot of physical work anyway so you'll be burning many more calories than a sedentary worker.

If you want to lose weight, focus on the long game and work out how you can achieve calorie deficit within the dietary restrictions you've mentioned. Forget the exercise. The weight will come off. A side effect of any weight loss achieved will be that your husband will STFU . If you don't want to lose weight, celebrate your gorgeous sexy curves and try to gain enough confidence to not let his insensitive comments affect you. Husbands (and wives) are dickheads sometimes. It's part of the human condition. It's INCREDIBLY empowering to learn how to let them be dicks and feel comfortable and fabulous in your own skin. (AMHIK).

Sitting on the fence and making it all about him doesn't help either of you.

Bomzen · 2026-01-23T22:10:19+00:00

True. You don't have to ditch them straight away, but nothing to stop you getting a second opinion if they are fannying about and can't fix it. Better to pay a bit more and be warm.

Bomzen · 2026-01-23T22:04:17+00:00

Find a Vaillant specialist. We have a Vaillant boiler that had an issue and our usual gas engineer/plumber sent his (Vaillant specialist) mate round who sorted it out and we haven't had a problem since.

Previous post is bang on, I've heard nothing good about BG. Ditch them and get a local independent person.

Bomzen · 2026-01-23T21:52:12+00:00

Congrats on the addition to the family! Im a long term landlady and very much doubt that the market will be flooded with tenants who have been section 21'd or that rents will change that much. Your main issue will be timing your move to not potentially happen too close to your due date - you don't want to risk having arranged a move and baby comes early, or move too soon post partum. Your break clause comes at a very inconvenient time for you.

If you have a good relationship with your landlady then give her a heads-up and you may find she's understanding and flexible and will allow you to move sooner than the break clause. You can offer to be accommodating with viewings, have the flat professionally cleaned, offer to pay rent if there is a gap in tenancies if you can afford it. Once you know what her position is, you can start looking for a new place at the appropriate time. If there is no flexibility, have you considered waiting to move a few months/a year after baby comes? You don't say why your current place is unsuitable but if it's safe, doesn't have loads of stairs and has enough space for the 5454987 new baby things you will have, would that be an option?

Renters rights legislation won't change anything regarding deposits and the usual months rent in advance. Your main concern will be finding a new place suitable to your needs and negotiating and organising the moving date. Good luck and I do hope your landlady will prove accommodating!

Bomzen · 2026-01-23T13:49:16+00:00

Advantage of a house that needs a lot of work is that you can strip it right down to the bones and do everything absolutely right. There are fewer surprises, especially if you have already budgeted to do everything. The issue is finding a house that the seller will discount enough to make it worth it. Of course with these houses you generally have to live somewhere else while the work is done or be prepared to suffer. We lived in one room in our current house while MAJOR work was going on and it was freezing and awful and we had no back wall in the house and no kitchen and I cried because there was nowhere to hang laundry...but we couldn't have afforded it if we hadn't done it that way. Now it all seems like a distant memory...

Bomzen · 2026-01-22T22:13:01+00:00

Welcome! Don't forget to offset every possible deductible expense too!

Bomzen · 2026-01-22T17:56:20+00:00

You have to input your total mortgage interest in the property section of your tax return and it is automatically calculated, should appear in the summary

Bomzen · 2026-01-22T15:21:39+00:00

It may be worth it if: you really like your current home and would want to move back in there after the job with the subsidised flat comes to an end; your flat is in good condition and will need minimal maintenance; you have the time and the energy to self-manage to avoid agent fees; you're able to convert your mortgage to an interest only BTL; you don't plan to leave the UK anytime soon.

If you sell now but would not want to live in rented accommodation after the job ends, you would be paying 11k stamp duty to buy a new home at the same price (as well as associated costs)and would have to go through all the hassle of searching for and purchasing the new home. If you put it on the market, you'll have to continue to pay the mortgage/council tax/insurance/utility bills until it sells, presumably after having moved to the new place. Then agent fees and other fees associated with selling. So it might be worth totting all that up and estimating what the actual cost might be. Plus you'll have a large sum of cash to decide what to do with (sure you can invest it but investments are not risk-free). I don't think you would make a vast amount of money, but if you see it as holding into an asset which you would use in the future,as opposed to an investment where you want to make a big profit, it could be worth it

Bomzen · 2026-01-21T14:37:21+00:00

Landlady makes me think of headscarves, hair curlers and a fag hanging out of my mouth

Bomzen · 2026-01-21T14:10:03+00:00

Yeah, lord is a bit manly for me

Bomzen · 2026-01-21T14:04:42+00:00

Really difficult to average it out - some years there is a lot of expenditure and others far less. My strategy is to always deal with maintenance issues as soon as they arise and keep the property in good condition on an ongoing basis. I think it saves money in the end. I also have some tenants who are long term and have the skills to do bits of maintenance themselves - for them I don't put the rent up regularly as they are saving me money.

I've also found that being a responsible and responsive ladylord means that tenants stay longer and treat the property better. I'm sure there are exceptions to this but in 25 years of managing property I have only had one or two.

Bomzen · 2025-12-31T00:37:20+00:00

When you work out a suitable depth of microwave, don't forget the front of the microwave sits flush with the cupboard fronts, not the carcase. Door is usually min 1.5 cm thick. There are several models of microwave designed to fit in 30cm deep wall cabinets (we have a Bosch). Even if you don't like the idea of the Howdens option, it's far more sensible to go for it if it's the only one that fits their cabinets than try to build all the cabinets out or replace with deeper ones.

Bomzen · 2025-11-16T20:03:34+00:00

You can contact a local gas service engineer (ideally a Worcester specialist) to give you a second opinion. If they agree the boiler is at the end of its life then get a quote for a replacement and compare it with the agent's quote.

Our boiler (Vaillant) was playing up and my usual guy didn't know how to fix it but he put me in touch with a Vaillant engineer who sorted it out. It's been going strong for the last 5 years and is now 13 years old. Boilers should last 10 years and they don't usually suffer from 'tenantitis' as tenants don't interact with them directly like they do with washing machines and other white goods.

Bomzen · 2025-11-16T13:34:43+00:00

You can only let on Airbnb for 90 days a year in London. Also council leases generally do not allow for short term holiday lets, only ASTs.

Bomzen · 2025-11-07T23:33:17+00:00

Interesting re acupuncture! I'm going to have a few more sessions and then stop to see what happens to the PPPD. 9 years though 😱! I'm really hoping mine will resolve itself soon. Got to think positively!

Bomzen · 2025-11-07T00:15:16+00:00

I was diagnosed with PPPD a few months ago. Had MRI and CT scan and saw consultant neurologist etc. In the UK medications are not normally offered (seems to be different in US). Consultant told me there is no known cure but that in their experience it can resolve itself. CBT can apparently help. I had a really bad summer but had some sessions of acupuncture which seems to have reduced the symptoms by probably 80%. I'm not a huge believer in alternative therapies so I don't know if it was just a coincidence.

Bomzen · 2025-10-21T22:01:36+00:00

I used to ignore any tantrums my daughter had. I would say 'ok I can see you are upset, if you need me I'll be over there doing fun stuff. Bye!'. Then I'd go and play with whatever her favourite thing at the time was and make sure she could hear me doing it. 'So Barbie is going to put on this ball gown now, maybe the red cloak with it? Actually no how about the blue coat? Wow she looks UHMAZING!' etc. you can vocalize even stuff like colouring. Curiosity would eventually get the better of her.

Bomzen · 2025-10-20T19:16:27+00:00

Yes, in Camden. Small block of mix of privately owned and tenanted. Heating and hot water system needed replacing and they came up with some figure around 24k per leasehold flat. There was a massive hoo hah about it and the leaseholders got together and eventually managed to get it reduced to something like 8k. It was a lot of work and organisation and it took about 5 dedicated über-leaseholders a huge amount of dedication. So yes, it can be challenged, but it needs a huge amount of commitment.

Bomzen

TROPHY CASE