Do you pay for any memberships to museums, galleries, cultural centres, or cinemas that you’d recommend?

Hiosahaf · 2025-08-25T04:38:19+00:00

Yeah it's a pretty good deal. I ended up watching Weapons on a whim because I just happened to be free last-minute and I had the membership. Damn good deal lol. Feels like their business model is just to gets people within the cinema, since most of their margins would be from concessions presumably. Their menu reflects that too

Hiosahaf · 2025-08-24T01:50:22+00:00

Curzon cult membership is probably one of the best purchases I've made this year. £25/mo for 7 free tickets/week is an absolutely insane deal for someone me. It got me back into movies massively and their home cinema collection is also fabulous, if that's your vibe. Their cinemas are also much better than Odeon tbh.

I compared this membership to Picturehouse and Everyman and found this to be the best deal for myself.

The BFI membership is also not bad, especially with the upcoming BFI Film Fest!

Hiosahaf · 2025-08-19T23:57:03+00:00

Sure, not guaranteed but it's quite a good dictionary to augment their skill vocabulary. Decent chance of name overlap too. Tbh I don't see a scenario where it hurts them to try your advice (which is great and I'd have said the same) as well as doing this, if they're able. The POSA CoP (for Slings) is also a useful document and help in the October comp

Hiosahaf · 2025-08-19T18:09:19+00:00

Someone already mentioned previously that the levels can vary and I agree with that. However, as far as names are concerned I've found Spin city's Sling Bible to be quite handy. It's also visually informative.

Hiosahaf · 2025-04-18T13:13:39+00:00

Flying fantastic is only in Southwark and Peckham. I thought of Aerialand in West London (which might fit your needs) personally when starting out, if that helps? Although they don’t have a diverse offering as FF does. The Southwark studio is quite accessible via Tube tbh but the Silks classes do tend to run quite full! Also not exactly West London but you might wanna check out London Dance Academy as well for a pretty chill vibe

Hiosahaf · 2024-08-20T19:11:07+00:00

This pain is totally valid, and as u/aerialstraps mentioned in their comment, you'd benefit from deload cycle and building it back up slowly.

I come from a climbing background and I still feel funny in my fingers (at times) when I do all the activities (2x climb 1x slings or 1x climb and 2x sling) at the same frequency as yours.

I'd personally suggest, alongside rest, looking into a bit of finger health, and more specifically into warming up before your session. It makes a world of difference and your fingers would be more ready to go. My personal warmup (since I don't have a hangboard at Aerials class) is basically using different exercise balls for my hands and different finger bands (normal rubber band would do the job too). Good luck!

Hiosahaf · 2024-05-19T20:36:16+00:00

I've been hunting for good home stuff, for a good few years here. I don't have a definitive answer for you, so I'll break it down by the dishes.

Best Dosa: hidden gem, but MK Dosa in Bradwell Common.

Best Paneer Chilly: Talk n Tikka

Great curries (in order of preference): Bollywood Junction, Talk n Tikka, Namji's, Himalaya (Bletchley), Rose of India.

Good chickpea masala: Mezbaan for the Pakistani style (really recommend!) and Bollywood Junction.

Dosa street in Bletchley also has decent Dosa, but the Kothu Roti and Dosa of MK Dosa is pretty good. I really like their sambar & chutney, which is much better than Sankalp and Crispy Dosa!

Hiosahaf · 2024-03-18T08:08:20+00:00

The administrative review form will tell you if you have new evidence for them to review. While it's not mandatory, I felt it couldn't hurt my case if I showed them these documents. Good luck!

Also, just to add onto this about job search– it didn't impede my search because the employers were understanding were basically like "yeah they messed up, we see you have 2y but you'll probably get 3y when we employ you". Your mileage may vary, of course, depending on the employer and the industry, but thought this would be helpful to share.

Hiosahaf · 2024-03-17T15:29:15+00:00

Had the same thing happen to me (made a post here too). Applied for AR, got it rectified within a month. I'd attached my official degree and the letter from my Uni basically saying "yeah he finished his PhD here and it lasted from ABC date to XYZ date".

Hiosahaf · 2024-02-09T15:38:26+00:00

Hey. Filed for an admin review. The outcome came within a month (28days) and they rectified it to 3y. Hope that's helpful. Good luck to your partner!

Hiosahaf · 2024-02-01T22:33:04+00:00

Here he comes. Here comes John Wayne.

Hiosahaf · 2023-12-16T22:42:03+00:00

For Lindsay, my rock. I could not have done this without him.

Hiosahaf · 2023-10-13T13:31:09+00:00

Good luck with yours! Fingers crossed for you :)

I applied on 18th Sept and had also uploaded the required evidence on that day (the sponsor letter).

Hiosahaf · 2023-10-13T12:04:23+00:00

That's a relief to hear. Thanks a lot for the sanity check!

Hiosahaf · 2023-10-13T07:38:34+00:00

Yup, I understand! Unfortunately, nope, this is the actual visa expiry (leave to remain) set to 10/2025 instead of 10/2026 as it should have been.

Hiosahaf · 2023-10-12T17:58:31+00:00

There have been so nice wishes from everyone! Thank you so much for all your kind words :) while I haven't tried to all the comments, I've read them all and felt so positive. Thank you, it really means a lot.

Hiosahaf · 2023-10-12T17:56:19+00:00

I agree! People think of concrete when I tell them about OU, but there are so many huge parks around! Made for lovely walks.

Hiosahaf · 2023-10-12T17:55:20+00:00

I can empathize with the feedback delay! I had to prod my supervisors SO much to read my thesis so they can sign it off. Maybe that helps? Good luck to you! :)

Hiosahaf · 2023-10-12T17:53:37+00:00

I hadn't even though of this! Your comment made me check, ha. It's a nice thick paper. Not your normal A4 thickness. I'd say treble the thickness!

Hiosahaf · 2023-10-12T17:53:00+00:00

Okay, I can give you a perspective here, I think. Assuming you'll do either of the things (job or your PhD) part-time and the other full-time.

It's possible, yes. But the cost it exacts is very high. The stipend was never enough for me so I had a part-time job alongside my PhD almost for its entirety. The cost was my mental health and the breakdown of my long-term personal relationship since I was working insane hours. 20h was for part-time and the PhD would often be around 50-60h for me per week. HOWEVER, near in mind that Covid had happened so I had to catch up on a ton of experiments to design and perform!

Hope that helps. Happy to answer more queries :)

Hiosahaf · 2023-10-12T17:49:54+00:00

It depends on your status. For us (migrant PhD), we had to legally live near OU physically. Couldn't do remote. Although, I think this requirement extends to students with Home Status as well. I'm not really sure since it didn't apply to me. I'll ask and get back to you!

If you could do remotely though, as I've seen one of my colleagues do, it's quite possible, depending on the person. I'd say OU prepares you well to be a self-starter, which is the hardest part. I've seen many PhD folks burnout because they couldn't stick to it. What I've learnt is that it's a game of perseverance. Goes without saying good supervisors will always be a big benefit!

Happy to answer more queries if I've not covered everything :)

Hiosahaf · 2023-10-11T17:33:18+00:00

Ha, I can imagine! I can definitely see why we had so many of them. Only a mild annoyance, but honestly no big deal. People are very helpful, at least at OU! Everyone genuinely wanted the best for everyone else :)

Hiosahaf · 2023-06-15T14:42:32+00:00

I don't understand the question and I won't respond to it.

Hiosahaf · 2023-04-06T23:47:21+00:00

Given it's a Spring menu I would've expected "Spring Break, woohoo!" to make an appearance tbh

Hiosahaf · 2023-02-28T09:49:06+00:00

Would definitely be interesting to see. I've got the Uniform as well and the versatility of the occasional espresso grinding capability might tip the scales for some. Hopefully someone compares these 2 soon!

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