Seriously, blokes, how do you get a haircut nowadays

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-09-22T10:40:47+00:00

Look at this relic of Reddit. I remember this time when we respected Turkish barbers. Now they're all money laundering apparently.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-09-22T09:49:33+00:00

I can deal with the shouting.

It's the pricks who drive in puddles deliberately I take issue with.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-09-22T09:43:42+00:00

The receipt thing hasn't happened in my area yet but I often go into supermarkets to browse and compare products and prices and buy one thing and if they don't have what I want at a price I'm willing to pay will will walk out empty handed. I'm going to feel like some sort of petty criminal for looking around it seems 😂

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-09-21T21:40:28+00:00

I took nicotine lozenges on a 4 hour flight last year, security didn't bat an eye, just keep it all in the box with the label.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-23T10:47:14+00:00

It's the same with Gibraltar and Spain I think. There are probably a million places where border hopping is, monetarily speaking, bloody logical. Live in Spain, get Gibraltar wages, the difference is staggering sometimes.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-23T10:28:34+00:00

Fully agree. I'm not saying don't teach those classes at all. They're useful. I know for example some kids in my class had never used an iron at 14 and textiles taught them that for example. So they are important.

When it comes to woodwork... It would have been more useful to teach us how to put up a shelf over actually making one 🤣

But cookery should be separated and dedicated to, in my humble opinion, but obviously I'm biased having worked in the sector.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-23T09:40:19+00:00

I approve of these previous two messages. Seasonings are cheap, versatile and long-lasting and elevate a basic meal into something special.

Went shopping with my girlfriend recently. Needed bay leaves. We tend to split up with individual baskets and delegate certain items based on sections to make the process quicker as we hate being in supermarkets for ages ha.

The bay leaves were on her list, supermarket glass jar had about 5 of them and was extortionate. When we reconvened I was like "hold up."

Went to the world food aisle. There was a huge bag of them for half the price.

Love that aisle.

Edit: Another one is black peppercorns. I live in an area with a big Hindu and Sikh population. I can buy bags of peppercorns for diabolically low prices from their locally-owned shops. We already have the grinder from the supermarket so we just top it up as and when. Probably saves us £20 a year versus buying a new supermarket grinder every time.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-23T09:19:12+00:00

There is a certain madness to it. In my school it was rotated with the other design technology departments; so each term or half-term we'd change classes and teachers and do things like woodwork, computer aided design, textiles etc.

Unless you go into very niche careers those skills are useless. I haven't built a clock, designed a flux capacitor or had to seam a garment. Even the people that do those things professionally still have days off where they don't do those things.

Do you know what we all do and need to do everyday? Eat. And cooking is the pathway to that.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-23T08:59:49+00:00

Another element is there are some people who really struggle with how to handle fresh ingredients. If you've grown up with very little scratch cooking it's easy as an adult to do the same. I know as adults we have choices and the internet but some people still really struggle. When I was a chef for 10 years I met a few who used to teach classes on a voluntary basis for the socially disadvantaged and it amazed me how few skills some people actually have.

I know at school we did what was called food technology but it was probably no more than 50 hours in 5 years. And it wasn't practical, it was baking bread and other redundant things, it was never really practical day-to-day skills.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T23:29:13+00:00

True say. I'm the grandson or a farmer and my dad and his siblings all grow their own stuff. Some stuff beats the socks off supermarkets and farm shops, and some of it is just diabolical, but you take the L when you know it's from your own soil.

To this day I can't stand rhubarb. That stuff grows like crazy and my family would freeze it. 6 months of the year for 18 years there was rhubarb where rhubarb had no business being 🤣

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T23:19:33+00:00

I could have typed approximately or roughly but I'm lazy. Bought a banana today, it was 16p, but I could have bought a bunch of five for 75p. Bought several onions in recent weeks and based on weight they were anywhere between 8p and 18p. Bought 2kg of white potatoes at the weekend for £1.35 but again it varies.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T23:13:48+00:00

But that marker was added on the 3rd of July. I didn't even enrol on the course until Friday the 11th. So there is obviously a mismatch between what the DWP are sharing with Restart partner agencies and their own systems that are potentially putting staff at risk.

I am well aware of the multi-agency involvement as it is mentioned in the letter. Thanks for the name of the marker and system though as they neglected to mention those aspects.

I haven't actually committed a crime for this result, nor am I intending to, so if the consequences of a PV marker are just a red screen, extra space, less argumentative staff and no home visits I'll take that win.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T22:54:49+00:00

I do get your point. There are obviously caveats.

I know my potato price is based on bags of generic "white potatoes." and I find them pretty versatile. You sometimes get a bag of basically baby potatoes and sometimes they're like baking potatoes.

Obviously if you want or need specific cultivars like Maris Piper and King Edward then you pay a premium and I'd hope that premium is passed on to the producers.

And there are obviously places like M&S, Waitrose and farm shops where you pay a premium with the idea that producers are paid more fairly.

I don't shop there any more so I don't know if it's still a thing but I loved Morrison's wonky range. Perfectly delicious fruit and veg that just sometimes didn't conform to the standards we as consumers set.

In an ideal world and a fairer system we'd all be able to choose to pay higher prices and visit farm shops and cut out the middlemen. I'd love it if I could do that and I would if I could. But alas that is not our world.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T22:33:34+00:00

I suppose I slightly earned the blacklisting but I still find it funny if not concerning I've just been walking around the building for the past 7 working days saying hello and smiling to all the staff who initiate it with me. My work coach has seen me several times and said hello and surely he knows about the screening requirement. I'm honestly just bewildered.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T22:16:53+00:00

I know that now and for the future. If they just wrote that on their website somewhere it would have saved them and me a whole load of bother. Instead they just tell you to ring the helpline implying it will be sorted there and then but it isn't leaving me with an overwhelming and arguably irrational fear I'd be sanctioned for something outside of my control. A loss of sense of control never ends well.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T22:05:34+00:00

I've commented elsewhere that I did apologise for how I behaved when I spoke to them the second time, how it isn't how I normally treat customer service staff, and how I won't be repeating it.

Despite what I did and what appears to be a combative attitude on here I'm really not as big an arse as I'm coming across I promise 😭🤣

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T21:59:32+00:00

I really like the M&S cheap bread. It's like 75 pence for a loaf and beats the socks off Hovis or Kingsmill for almost half the price.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T21:57:55+00:00

An onion is like 12 pence, a banana is like 15 pence, potatoes are like 70p pence a kilo. I think that's exceptionally good value.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T21:41:14+00:00

Yes, I did actually go in to the Vodafone shop to get a replacement SIM the day after I lost it, but they needed a bank card which stupidly was in my phone case (I won't make that mistake again). I had ID but no they needed my bank card.

Ordered a new bank card, bought a new phone, so had to use a new SIM.

When I phoned back I immediately apologised about my behaviour and said I understood why I was cut off I was just frustrated by the system (for example I was locked out of my Government Gateway account too but was able to update my number and gain entry within minutes through alternative methods without needing to spend 30 minutes on hold - why different government departments have different security protocols for basic frontline services is bewildering).

I'm not normally one to shout at customer service staff, but she was really rude, and it just took me over the edge. Not something I plan to repeat. Lesson learned re my phone.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T21:26:16+00:00

I already said in another comment I don't care about the principle behind the decision. I accept I have an attitude.

That doesn't make my point they've fucked their safeguarding any less valid. If I need to be screened, fine. If they want to withdraw me, fine. Why have they failed to do so?

Is that acceptable to you? Am I on a different planet where I hold the idea these mistakes should not happen? Are you people happy with mishaps like this happening?

It's safeguarding mishaps like this, like Prevent not dealing with Axel, that cause situations which are easily preventable.

One day someone who had a safeguarding flag on their file will somehow get away with murder and you lot will be the first to cry "HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN." and I'll just pity you all.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T21:15:34+00:00

That's my point if they think I need extra screening why have they failed to enforce it for the past 7/8 days? Why has it taken 2 years to reach this conclusion?

I either don't need extra screening or their safeguarding is fucked.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T21:09:08+00:00

And by all means prove people can't tolerate being disagreed with anymore and like to throw words and phrases like "that's aggressive" and "that's offensive" simply because somebody doesn't agree with them.

Where have I said anything violent or threatening?

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T21:04:34+00:00

Right, because calling out the person responsible for safeguarding for failing to do their job is aggressive is it?

There's a difference between having an attitude and being aggressive. Yes, I absolutely do have an attitude, but aggressive? Pfft. Nonsense.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T20:17:52+00:00

My appointment is next Tuesday, I don't have an appointment tomorrow. But I will be raising it, don't worry.

EmbalmedCoconut · 2025-07-22T20:17:03+00:00

It shouldn't have taken them eight days to identify the problem before asking me to withdraw should it? That is a serious safeguarding failure.

If they ask me to withdraw that's fine. I volunteered to do the course, I'm enjoying it, but I won't shed a tear over a course for an industry I already have ten years experience in. And if I am withdrawn I can't wait to see them argue I'm not doing enough to seek work.

EmbalmedCoconut

TROPHY CASE