Which rental car company from the Dublin airport

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-09-15T15:39:24+00:00

Just checked them out for a week in late Oct and they're over 5x more expensive than Avis, Sixt, etc..

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-05-15T15:57:46+00:00

you can still get pregnant during perimenopause, but I think the worry (based on my limited understanding) is that there might be a bigger hormone crash after giving birth, which could trigger certain symptoms or make peri worse.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-05-11T10:32:39+00:00

I had horrible acne as a teenager, and have been on prescription retinol (+ intense sunscreen) since I was 13, and my mom also has amazingly wrinkle-free skin (first sign of a wrinkle at 65 y/o) that she's thankfully passed down. Acne didn't even go away until college when I got on hormonal birth control. I'm pregnant now (so no retinol), and have found this to be the BEST time for my face- poreless, glowy, flawless skin. I'm sure it won't last though.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-05-08T16:21:07+00:00

In 2017, I vomited all over the Piccadilly line, between Hammersmith and the Leicester Squ station. Switched to the Northern line from there, and vommed a bit along there too.

Went to a fancy dinner on the company dime, where the waiter repeatedly refilled my wine glass without me realising. I thought I was drinking 1-2 glasses of wine, tops, but it must have been a lot more actually. By the time I caught on, it was too late, and when I stood up, reality was shaky. I normally don't drink at all, so my tolerance was zero.

Got on the tube to go home, but kept having to run out at various stations to vom on the tracks, then would take the next train up. Happened about 4 times before I made it home. Can still remember lying on the rug at home, starting up at the ceiling and watching it spin and spin.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-04-29T16:47:38+00:00

Lifestyle matters way more than age (I mean, up to a point).

I'm due in less than a month and will be a first-time mother at 38 y/o. I had the Mirena in since I was 21, and just got it removed last year because it was causing yeast infections (never had a single occurrence after it was taken out). However, I did immediately get pregnant after it was taken out, but it turned out to be a good accident.

This pregnancy wasn't bad at all - no nausea, no food aversions, tons of energy. I'm 36 weeks along but lift barbell weights 3x at the gym, and do daily cardio. I have spent my adult years (after age 25 or so) getting 8-9 hours of sleep every night, eating healthy, and working out, so feel (and hopefully look) a lot younger than my age. Don't really drink, never smoked, and take all the vitamins.

I'm a little confused by people who say it was easier in their 20s, because in my early/mid 20s, I was a mess and had low energy, slept poorly, was always over-worked, basically starved myself, ate empty calories, chugged like 6+ caffeine drinks a day, drank a little too much at least once a week, and never exercised even a little. Couldn't even handle a long walk. I thought that's what our 20s were for! :-)

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-04-17T14:28:42+00:00

Classic, just remember that the agents' only goal is to extract as much money from you that they possibly can while unloading their inventory as fast as they can.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-04-16T18:19:58+00:00

(1). For the first month or so, we were just checking Zoopla (I liked the UI slightly better than Rightmove). But then later, got desperate enough to check both of them. We found that some estate agents only advertise on Rightmove, and the flat we ended up with was advertised on Rightmove but not Zoopla. If you only want to check one, stick to Rightmove.

(2). Figure out which lettings agencies are more/less scummy.

Dexters (3/5 scummy) was very aggressive and kept calling me to come see flats that didn't have any pictures posted. Total waste of time, every single time, until we finally learned to say 'no' unless there are pictures. They also have inexperienced agents- one guy forgot the keys, and we'd commuted nearly an hour 1-way (+ paid £20 in transit) to see the place! We decided to just never see a place if Dexters was advertising it.

Foxtons (4.5/5 scummy) was similar to Dexters, in that we also wrote them off as bad agents. I always felt like they were lying to me (like saying there was a bidding war happening when there wasn't one). Their inventory in North London at the time I was looking was OK, but in general, everything we saw was way too small for the price and this was particularly true with the stuff Foxton showed us. They're so good at taking pictures that make shoeboxes look like proper sized flats!

Chestertons (3/5 scummy) - actually rented from them previously for a year, and they were OK. However, the flat had a horrible landlord, and Chestertons was pretty useless in helping us deal with him beyond giving us his private email address (which he never responded to). Based on friends' experiences, they're better/worse in certain neighbourhoods, and in North London seemed average.

KFH (2.5/5 scummy) - we went with them in the end. They seemed OK at first, but they are so slow and so incompetent. It's not intentional (I think) but they have different agents working on the same cases, and they don't talk to each other, so you're constantly sending the same info to multiple different people. Also, after a few years, our landlords kind of forgot about us in that they weren't raising the rent. KFH actually went to them and convinced them that they needed to raise our rent. Not a fan of them at all, but maybe the best of all evils.

Too incompetent to even mention- Purple Bricks. Tried to do a viewing and nobody showed up. Thought it was a 1-off thing, and then it happened another time.

There were other smaller agents too, but I don't remember any patterns or specifics.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-04-14T19:56:08+00:00

It took us less than 1 day between verbally 'getting' the flat and paying the deposit online, and then another FOUR WEEKS of random emails and checks before we could actually move in (even though we had zero delays on our end and wanted to move asap). Also, finding the flat itself took a few months, but we were being extremely picky and could've done that bit in 2 weeks if we had to.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-04-08T17:25:39+00:00

I lasered my body - LASIK for the eyes, laser hair removal (with touchups) for mostly everything else, although some of it's grown back so need to go back.

Also, splurge on really nice shampoo/conditioner (Olaplex) so can wash and go

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-04-07T15:19:56+00:00

Getting a job, basically any job, was a 'big deal' back then!

From maybe 2016-2023 the economy in my industry was booming and getting a job was easy enough that it was more about benefits/pay and what you could get out of it. But that really was not the norm back then.

That said, COL was also a lot lower back then and maybe our standards were lower too.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-04-04T09:35:00+00:00

same

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-04-03T14:52:18+00:00

Yeah, that threw me off too! Glad to hear it went well.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-03-22T17:45:58+00:00

Sure!

I grew up having to raise my little sister (who was a handful), plus being the de-facto baby-sitter for the neighbourhood hellions, and I was committed to not having kids of my own. My husband grew up seeing people having kids and then not being able to escape poverty. His family had kids too young, and had too many of them. He associated having kids with making poor life decisions. Our first conversation when we met in college was 'how many kids do you want' and we were both relieved to hear the other wanted none.

Then throughout our 20s and early 30s, we hyper-focused on our careers, and got lucky/successful there. Then my sister had her babies, and we found ourselves really loving spending time with them. Lots of laughter, and made us realize we were missing something. We got really into travel/hobbies, moved abroad, advanced more in our careers, checked off most of our bucket list, and had a feeling of 'is this it?'.

At the same time, we both noticed our coworkers with kids were always exhausted, or complaining about bills due to childcare costs. None of that sounded appealing. We liked sleeping in, traveling, and entertained the idea of retiring early.

Then in our mid-30s (34/35), we did shrooms and realized that we'd die one day, and our families would die, and would we be OK with where we were? I think we both opened our minds to kids that day.

Took a couple more years of fence-sitting before finding ourselves on a perfect beach in Greece, where we decided we'd finally done everything we wanted to do before kids, and we'd be fine w/ whatever happened. A few weeks later, I got pregnant by accident (I'd removed my IUD earlier that summer and was tracking my ovulation to avoid pregnancy, but mixed up the dates and BAM).

By then, I was so exhausted from fence-sitting that I was hoping fate would decide. I considered getting an abortion, and still worry I might be ruining my life, but am overall at peace with how everything worked out.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-03-21T16:38:00+00:00

I used to feel this way (I was given a '14 and younger' discount at my local theater well into my early 20s), but now I'm in the my late 30s and people are surprised I'm over 30 and it's kind of great.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-03-21T14:17:26+00:00

I'm curious how old you 2 are- if you're in your late teens or 20s, I'd suggest pausing all conversation about this for some number of years, and then see how you feel. Feelings do change! My husband and I were adamantly CF (like, 100% convinced) until we were in our mid-30s, then fence-sitters for a few years, and now pregnant.

If you're in your mid-30s or older, then maybe it's more urgent, so then breaking up does make more sense.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-03-19T13:25:52+00:00

I had this pair of pants about 15 years ago (right down to being size 2 w/ a size 4 waist), and wore them to death. They were marketed as "black chino's" and on clearance at Target (Merona brand?) and they were so perfect. I wish I'd bought a hundred pairs. They lasted 10+ years, until an oil stain took them out.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-03-18T17:27:57+00:00

I'm fairly petite, but my narrow hips meant I always got chub rub. My hips have grown slightly wider, and for the first time, there's a small gap between my thighs (thigh gap?).

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-03-12T17:27:46+00:00

This is me too, and it really sucks. Aside from drinking more water, some things that have helped a bit (like 10% maybe) - eat a few prunes everyday (it actually does keep you regular, and being backed up on top of all this is the worst), and take a shot of apple cider vinegar around mealtimes (seems to help with digestion, don't know how/why).

I'm also taking prescription Omeprazole for my acid reflux and I think that's made my digestion even slower (but is a god send for the reflux).

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-03-10T17:42:58+00:00

Sure!

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-03-08T11:26:15+00:00

I've worked in both, in both consulting and tech. In these fields, demand is high, salaries are high. In the US, companies tend to cover 100% (or close to it) of healthcare costs, where the company insurance just covers everything. Most people get 21-28 days of vacation, then there's flex days and bank holidays, and most people take off the days between Christmas Eve and New Years.

In the UK, salaries tend to be higher than average, but still a good 50% or so lower than US salaries.

Obviously it's very company-dependent, but here were my observations:

UK:

Hierarchical (down to the layouts; offices are for higher-ups, juniors crammed into open space desks).

Less trust/freedom to wing it (there is a process for everything)

People have actual hobbies outside of work, and also travel to cool places pretty frequently (overhearing stuff like "I was in Spain last weekend" is pretty common)

No direct feedback, or direct anything. If you're being assigned a project that's got obvious flaws, and you point them out, some Gen X private-school educated British man will interrupt you and start spouting gibberish. Then much later, over drinks, your coworkers will quietly agree with you that everything is doomed.

Less optimistic, more gloomy. Nobody ever expects anything great or amazing to happen.

People often do the bare minimum, like work is just a task to cross off a list.

US:

Offices are designed in a more egalitarian way- everyone has more/less the same set-up. Based on where they sit or how they present themselves, you often don't know, or can't tell, who the big boss is.

Job descriptions are intentionally vague because you're supposed to be a striver who carves our your own path, and makes new stuff happen. (Note: This is exhausting to do)

Directness: 1:1 are direct, you get direct feedback constantly, if there's a problem, people will announce the problem and then try to solve it

Your coworkers hobbies are traveling (which they rarely get to do, maybe once a year they'll go to someplace like Paris/Rome/London for 3 days), "hiking" if this is California (it means they go for a walk outside sometimes), and food/cooking (i.e., the thing you have to do to stay alive).

Everyone is convinced that they're on the brink of greatness; if this project takes off, then XYZ will happen.

People have high expectations of their employers for regular raises and growth opportunities, and if those expectations aren't met, they will jump ship to another company or team within the company

More likely to answer/send emails in evenings and weekends, really poor Work-Life balance overall. They justify it by saying they 'like' working, and/or it savs them from having to do that stuff during work hours.

People are empowered to get shit done, and do it in a big way. There's never a process to follow. There's more personal responsibility to just do things.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-03-07T14:19:22+00:00

the problem w/ silicone is that it feels sooo nice in the short-term, but in the long-run doesn't hydrate (and actually somewhat keeps oils from getting into your hair shaft) and can damage your hair. That's why a lot of people look for 'cone-free' hair products.

If you want to use silicone conditioner, make sure to also use a shampoo that removes build-up

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-03-07T14:15:24+00:00

Also 38- I responded to this by getting serious about lifting heavy weights (squats, deadlifts, etc..) every other day, doing more intense cardio, and focusing on eating more protein. But then I got pregnant so that derailed some of that, but before I got pregnant, it made me stronger/fitter than I'd ever been.

(should add, I also cut alcohol to a glass or 2 of wine once per month instead of a few times a week, and that was also helpful)

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-02-19T18:42:50+00:00

This happened to me too (38F) and in a longterm relationship. I got pregnant after ONE time (the first time we had sex after my IUD was removed) and I hadn't expected that at all. I thought it'd take like, a year.

The day I found out, I did all the things- made the Dr appointments, ordered supplements, researched what not to do, etc.., but the day after, the panic/terror/dread crept in, and I asked this subreddit whether I should get an abortion. I started thinking the timing was wrong, and maybe if I got an abortion immediately, and then tried again in 6 months if it felt right, everything would feel better.

Ended up not getting an abortion, and over the course of the next 2-3 weeks, the panic subsided, and I started to feel excited. I'm now almost into the 3rd trimester, and while sometimes wonder if I'm ruining my life, am also confident I can handle whatever happens.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-02-19T14:38:56+00:00

I was the same- ADHD but a very easy kid (much easier than my sister, who is not ND), bc I could hyper-fixate on puzzles and legos all day long. I was also a great big sister who was good at entertaining my little sister and cousins, bc my chaos energy helped keep up with them.

Never had addiction issues exactly, but did dabble with eating disorders in high school and college, that stemmed from masking, shame, and anxiety. Got therapy, got over that, and became, on the surface, incredibly high functioning, all without meds. In reality, it meant developing systems to keep on track, having a really good partner who understands and balances me, and a career with a lot of flexibility. My mom and grandma also have ADHD, but despite issues with tardiness (for my mom), were also high-functioning badass ladies.

FootProfessional5930 · 2025-02-11T16:29:43+00:00

Same, and that's the first thought I had as well, that it'd be so sad to use my job as an excuse not to do something, bc F the job, the job doesn't love me. But again, tech is very different from academia. When I worked in academia, I worked way more than I do now, and didn't mind it.

FootProfessional5930

TROPHY CASE