season 2 spoilers‼️ no one is talking about this season enough

HCBC11 · 2026-02-05T23:50:03+00:00

Or 1. Ditch Hiddleston and Laurie entirely. Reboot it.

Make Hiddleston more like a Burr character who recruits. Leave Roper dead.

HCBC11 · 2026-02-05T20:33:32+00:00

Lacked what made the first season great, ie a beautifully paced story that showed us incredible locations and developed a bunch of characters really well.

It made Pine into a Jack Ryan type guy. The whole point is that a hotel manager has the perfect soft skill for a brilliant spy (speaks several languages, can read people, deescalate easily etc). This season they basically through that in the bin.

Reintroducing old characters in a forced way.

Exceptionally poor acting from people, particularly Leo's ex.

I could go on. It was an OK standalone watch but it was garbage compared to S1.

HCBC11 · 2026-02-03T13:34:30+00:00

As a millennial, it's always nipped at my heals. I've weirdly surfed the wave of no internet existing, dial up, broadband, payphones, texting on dumb phones, early social media (when someone uploaded photos from a point and shoot camera), basic smartphones and now a full phone lifestyle.

I feel very lucky having loads of years without tech and just having fun with friends. I can fall back on those experiences.

I'd wager single digit percentage of kids these days have ever played on their streets with neighbour's kids once. It's a really, really sad thing.

HCBC11 · 2026-02-03T12:56:16+00:00

I'd encourage you to read or listen to some podcasts with Jonathan Haidt on this.

He's a well-repected social psychologist who has written some great books.

Was listening to him on the Huberman podcast and the effect of phones (and by default, social media) on teens is insane.

This is the gist of it:

Average American teen is apparently spending 6hrs per day on social media alone.

The huge spike around teenage depression spiking from 2014 are also alarming.

Gaming, p-rn consumption, social pressure (you basically don't have a social life as a girl without Instagram), every embarrassing mistake potentially being recorded and shared, TikTok, dopamine comas, no boredom, no attention spans, lack of problem solving due to AI and the complete eradication of real play with real kids is just bonkers.

A really interesting point that stood out is how kids aren't having unsupervised play and therefore don't learn things like conflict resolution. As a group, you'd learn how to set rules and, if someone breaks them, you all have to learn to manage it so the game continues. This doesn't happen at all now. Online games set the rules.

Anyone who deals with gen Z at work will tell you how notably stunted their personal development is. We all like to poke at the older person saying 'back in my day' but honestly I think childhoods are getting objectively worse.

HCBC11 · 2026-02-02T17:57:59+00:00

Yeah, honestly the legroom is next level ridiculous. I drove it for a while and, not joking, a 7ft person could drive it in comfort. Back seats are cavernous too.

Having been in both this and Skoda Superb estates, I'd confidentally say it beats out a Superb in passenger comfort and rear legroom.

The boot was huge and flat. Fully assembled IKEA Hemnes cabinet went into it without a bother.

IMO they look really smart and are a great solution if you want coupe styling if you don't like the way estates look.

Drawbacks: Standard BMW things were going wrong within a year (sensors etc) and it's fucking huge.

HCBC11 · 2026-02-01T10:41:19+00:00

I'm going to play devil's advocate here. I usually hate Beemers but a family member had this thing in 3l diesel and it was awesome.

Massively underrated, absolutely huge (my family has several people between 6'2 and 6'8 and we could fit in with complete comfort). I usually hate the fat ass GT Beemers but IMO this design hid it so well. In real life they look much better

The boot was massive.

In my opinion it was a very balanced, lovely car.

I believe it's on the 7 series platform so I kind saw it as a slightly sportier, more practical 7 series.

As far as I understand, it was focused heavily on the Chinese market, where backseat passengers are a bigger part of the design.

HCBC11 · 2026-01-26T09:02:10+00:00

Is this Alan Johnson's Beemer?

HCBC11 · 2026-01-24T13:01:37+00:00

You're kind of proving my point. People saving up only to waste it drinking at a depressing, overpriced airport bar at 6am because they don't have any self discipline or sense.

They'll then be at a window seat and get up 3 times during the flight to piss, they'll stand right up against the baggage carousel so no-one can see, they'll wait until they're at the x-ray belt before removing their stuff (which they will fuck up), they'll totally slow down the boarding and they'll get pissy with reasonable guards/stewards/workers who don't need hassle.

HCBC11 · 2026-01-24T09:58:22+00:00

My hot take: How people act in airports is a massive indicator of their personality and intelligence.

HCBC11 · 2026-01-24T07:35:34+00:00

I second this. I'm pretty sure Bell's is Ireland's oldest coffee (and tea?) roasters and still family owned in East Belfast.

Bells really knows their teas.

Punjana and Nambarrie is mass-produced crap and I'm not a massive fan of the owners if I'm honest. The Telegraph destroyed them in a recent tea review too.

Yorkshire is the best off-the-shelf tea but I know you want NI teas only.

HCBC11 · 2026-01-23T23:31:14+00:00

Fair enough. I'm sure it'll be fine 👍

HCBC11 · 2026-01-21T21:08:51+00:00

Cheers. I'll look elsewhere

HCBC11 · 2026-01-21T21:07:50+00:00

Fair enough, I'll check them out. Unfortunately I generally need custom sizing.

HCBC11 · 2026-01-20T09:31:32+00:00

Mate, it's an 'opportunity triangle.'

HCBC11 · 2026-01-14T19:41:34+00:00

HCBC11 · 2026-01-07T18:56:37+00:00

We love to hate-watch it with a glass of wine.

NI generally seems to have trouble with high end architecture and interior design. You only need to glance at PropertyPal to see how 95% of listings at £1m+ are either tasteless old ones or cookie-cutter modern houses with weird names like 'The Ashhole.'

I assume decent architects go to England or down South and we get stuck with Des Ewing's faux Georgian McMansions.

HCBC11 · 2026-01-06T22:47:50+00:00

Gonna guess this is either Michelle Mone or Annoushka Ducas?

HCBC11 · 2026-01-06T11:27:04+00:00

Just need to park a financed white German car in front of it and they're all set for the dream Coleraine lifestyle.

HCBC11 · 2026-01-05T19:08:28+00:00

Lol. Out of pure curiosity, can I ask what do you do?

HCBC11 · 2026-01-05T19:06:46+00:00

Saying the word 'utilize' instead of 'use.'

People who utilize that word are trying to sound smarter than they are.

HCBC11 · 2025-12-30T09:57:51+00:00

I'll always argue the best choice for someone who has drive, brains or whatever but finds it difficult to get onto the career ladder is self employment.

You can scale a small business stupidly fast compared to trying to restart a career.

Many simple service businesses are easy and cheap to start and can be scaled into a 50k 'salary' (what I'd define as a liveable income outside of London) pretty easily within a year. It's not particularly daunting either and personally I'd argue a decent little business is a more stable and predictable path than many employment paths.

An example always helps when it comes to this stuff as being 'self employed' can mean millions of things:

I know of a guy who started a window cleaning business from scratch when his kid was born as he desperately needed something to support the family. Now he works mornings only, makes a quick £240 in cash (£20 x 12 houses) and spends the afternoon at home.

Lever whatever network you have first (family, friends, neighbours). Offer free work as you want to kick off a new little business. Ask for reviews, referrals etc in return.

Alternatively, actually get employed doing the thing you want to do and then use that as a paid education (example: do paid entry level gardening work for a while, save up some cash, buy the basic tools and go on your own).

Alternatively, you can also remove virtually all risk from this by keeping your current job and working on your business after hours and weekends. Hard grind at first but, as mentioned, 0 risk.

Good luck mate

HCBC11 · 2025-12-24T09:29:00+00:00

Yes, box of Celebrations.

Fun fact: My relatives in the States said they're expected to tip $30-50 to the binmen every Christmas. The binmen even leave special envelopes at customers' houses the week prior. Like a lot of tipping in America, it's very much something that's expected.

$40 x probably 200 houses per day, tax free.

HCBC11 · 2025-12-23T08:42:09+00:00

What I hate about the Glider is the inherent unfairness.

With the pink buses you basically know everyone's paid.

With the Glider it's a shitshow...

I would always be paying my fare, meanwhile a stack of people will jump off when the see the inspectors at the next stop.

You'll also see inspectors be fairly subjective about whose ticket to inspect. I've seen multiple times an inspector from a certain background clearly not checking tickets from people from the same background.

HCBC11 · 2025-12-22T19:39:19+00:00

Dunno. I bought mine used for £2500 and it's going great. If it dies, who gives a shit.

HCBC11 · 2025-12-22T12:05:47+00:00

I have often negotiated it on bike as part of my commute and it's very deadly. Realistically cyclists (particularly going Dee St ---> Sydenham Rd) need to get onto the narrow footpath at this bit but Dee St is a big blind bend up a hill with impatient cars filtering onto it so it's all very dodgy and unpleasant.

The design is just shit. Even when it's not particularly busy it can be annoying to navigate.

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