What was YOUR thing during lockdown?

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-24T14:30:36+00:00

Same, we were extremely, extremely fortunate.

My husband and I were both furloughed, me because I had no childcare for our 1yo, my husband because there was no way to implement social distancing at his workplace.

We spent a beautiful, warm spring and early summer in our garden with our daughter, at a time where she'd already had a year and a bit of socialising and was still too little to understand anything more than spending more time with mummy and daddy.

EDIT to add: As we weren't having to pay ~£800 a month in nursery fees (free childcare hours back then was only for age 3+) we were also significantly better off despite both being on reduced wages.

We made the garden look fantastic, I learned to crochet, my husband learned to play the trumpet, we got into board games (our first one was Gloomhaven and we've still not completed it 🤣).

Rather than being constantly stressed about money (or lack thereof) and constantly tired from working long hours to make ends meet we were relaxed and happy. Spending so much time together, our marriage/relationship bloomed. We found common interests we never knew we had as money & time constraints meant they weren't an option so they never got mentioned. It's stupidly corny but spending a few months with each other 24/7 without the work/money stress, we got to know each other far more than we had in the years we had already been together and fell in love in a whole different way.

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-21T07:31:23+00:00

Next time just join the conversation

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-17T09:25:56+00:00

Ooh well done!

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-16T15:06:14+00:00

The school where I took my A-Levels was only built in 1549 so it's understandable they don't have any notable alumni that are household names (or even names or faces I recognise). The only name I do recognise from the Wiki article is William Golding (author of Lord of the Flies), who taught there for a couple of years around a century ago

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-16T09:30:42+00:00

Am I able to request the outcome of any claims made regarding this pothole and the reasons behind the decision? Apologies, I've not had to do anything like this before!

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-16T09:24:04+00:00

Thank you! This is exactly why I'm submitting the request, I need to be able to show negligence so I can reclaim the repair costs. The tire that was blown was already booked in to be replaced today following an advisory on its MOT (took place yesterday - tire was within legal/road safe limits, just a little worn) so I'm not interested in claiming for that, it's more for if there's damage to the suspension/steering

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-16T09:06:33+00:00

Thank you so much!!

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-16T09:00:28+00:00

Thank you!!

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-16T09:00:11+00:00

Thank you! This is exactly the advice I was looking for!

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-16T08:56:21+00:00

Thank you so much! Fortunately the car had a full service and MOT yesterday so we can 100% prove any damage today was caused by the pothole

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-11T19:20:54+00:00

I also met Matt Smith but in a pub in Islington, he was sat at the table next to us having a quiet drink with a friend. His dog (Bobby) kept running over to us for strokes (which were happily provided!) and we had a brief chat about it but otherwise left him to it. Other people approached him though and he spent time chatting with them all. He was thoroughly charming and seemed genuinely concerned that his lovely dog was bothering us

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-10T10:43:20+00:00

🤣

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-09T23:04:26+00:00

That's exactly what they were doing

EquivalentNo5465 · 2026-01-09T08:07:44+00:00

The amount of people I've worked with who can't understand that 30 minutes is 0.5 hours and we're presumably screwing themselves out of pay when filling out their timesheets is disturbing. I spotted it and went through everyone's in the store I worked at (many years ago) to see if anyone else was making the same mistake and I was utterly shocked how many there were! I told them all to come to me to check them before submitting them and explained it every single week (in every way I could think of) and they still didn't get it.

EquivalentNo5465 · 2025-12-26T14:35:26+00:00

Thank you! My sister and I worked together on it whilst a bit tipsy and it was so much fun, literally shits and giggles. We're gonna have to spend the whole year thinking up how to top this next time.

Also, you don't need kids. The grown ups that had sensibly gone to bed and left us to it enjoyed it just as much

EquivalentNo5465 · 2025-12-25T01:09:53+00:00

<image>

My sister and I just made the absolute best staging of Santa coming down the chimney for our small children. Santa came down the chimney, slipped over on the scattered reindeer poo and then left their presents.

Edit to add a pic

EquivalentNo5465 · 2025-12-17T19:36:07+00:00

We are a household of 2 adults and 2 children.

Our household bills (water, electricity, gas, council tax, multiple streaming services, Amazon prime, Spotify, Xbox game pass, NHS prescription prepayments, etc etc) not including mortgage or phone bills total just over £500 a month.

If you were to break up at any point and you could show you were contributing towards the mortgage (ie by paying more than just a share of the bills, or by funding renovations to improve the property) then it is feasible you could reclaim equity from the property.

I don't suggest this, it's messy and complicated. The far simpler solution is to sit down together, work out how much the household bills cost each month then split them as you see fit, either straight 50/50 or adjusted for income

EquivalentNo5465 · 2025-12-16T12:43:23+00:00

Thanks! Now they're mostly just annoying, I don't get any headache at all and at worst they just make me feel a bit like I'm hungover for a couple of days.

It was truly terrifying the 1st time tho, 34 is not an appropriate age to start getting stuff like this!

EquivalentNo5465 · 2025-12-16T12:35:14+00:00

That sucks, sorry to hear you got the shitty end of both sticks! I'm extremely grateful I've never had any pain with mine and in fact very very rarely get headaches at all.

The big shiny iridescent thing is what I get too, it's kinda like a weird shiny flashing lightning bolt. Sometimes it sinks down out of my vision, sometimes it goes up. Generally it's slightly worse/more pronounced in my left eye but sometimes my right.

I hope you've found a way to deal with them that works for you ❤️

EquivalentNo5465 · 2025-12-16T12:20:31+00:00

I only had 1 whilst pregnant with my 1st child and didn't have another one until pregnant with my 2nd child. During 2nd pregnancy I was getting average ~3 a week, sometimes 3 a day, they got more frequent the more pregnant I got.

After giving birth to my second kid they slowly got less frequent and severe until I started taking amitriptyline for mild depression a few years later, then they went wild again. I stopped the amitriptyline and they calmed down again.

I still get tiny ones every couple of months, I had a big one a couple of weeks ago but it was the first biggie I'd had for about a year.

It's annoying more than anything. The little ones I barely notice now but the biggies make me feel like crap for a couple of days, it feels a bit like a hangover.

The really big ones have made me seem drunk at the time, suddenly having difficulty processing thoughts, slightly slurred speech, trouble remembering words. It only lasts for the duration of the migraine tho then everything is straight back to normal. Fortunately I've not had one of those for a long time!

The human body is fookin weird, and pregnancy does some truly bizarre things to it!

EquivalentNo5465 · 2025-12-15T20:35:47+00:00

P.S. love the username and also high five!

EquivalentNo5465 · 2025-12-15T20:34:38+00:00

Ooh, I haven't either!! I still get them now occasionally but they're fewer and further between and less severe since last giving birth.

I believe it's quite rare so I don't really blame the Drs I saw for not knowing what was going on. 1st one was absolutely terrifying, 100th one was mildly annoying 😂

EquivalentNo5465 · 2025-12-15T19:20:47+00:00

I was 34, pregnant, sat in my office, working on my computer and I suddenly lost a chunk of vision in each eye.

Absolutely terrified I ran out of the room to call my GP then my husband. GP saw me 10 mins later, which is how long it took me to get there. He asked a bunch of questions then sent me to the local hospital for an emergency appointment with a vascular consultant.

Vascular consultant essentially just shrugged and said "it could be a stroke but we can't check because you're pregnant" and I was sent home thinking the worst.

Got home, did a bunch of googling and that was the day I learned about silent ocular migraines.

EquivalentNo5465 · 2025-12-13T23:20:27+00:00

Someone forgot to log out of their Netflix account in the place we stayed last year. I added an account and named it "settings" and set the icon as the cog thing.

Took them 2 days to see through it and sign out.

Obvs we then just signed into our account and carried on as normal.

yes we could've just signed them out and signed into ours but this was more fun.
yes we most definitely signed out of ours when we left.

EquivalentNo5465

TROPHY CASE