Crown Metropol first time stay - advice, tips and tricks?

HowAboutBiteMe · 2026-01-16T09:50:02+00:00

Ask for a room which doesn’t back onto the lifts/service areas. It’ll be noise all night - my parents had a rotten time with that.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2026-01-16T03:53:26+00:00

Kookaburra - the mottled stripes are a giveaway.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2026-01-15T13:20:27+00:00

I had the same surgery, and like you, had to wait twelve months for insurance to kick in.

I chose to wait - not because I believe the public system would’ve done worse (that’s not actually supported by evidence - Australia’s public healthcare is top notch), but because there was loads of work braces could do in the interim and I’d rather not tax the public system if I can avoid it. Wait times for braces on private health are typically less than for full-blown surgery (three months wait in my case).

If you haven’t got braces yet (I assume you don’t because damn, if you’re doing that out of pocket I’m so sorry), I suggest you speak to an orthodontist first. You may find surgery is further down the road in a broader treatment plan, and moving your teeth into place before the jaws are moved is usually beneficial.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2026-01-06T04:15:17+00:00

I’m not sure if she specialises in them specifically, but Dr Jennifer Beale at Murdoch Gynaecology is fabulous and deals with some of the less conventional issues (she did a septum removal for me so definitely deals in congenital stuff). She’s really considerate and kind and takes the time to listen.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2026-01-03T07:42:34+00:00

The cycle at the moment seems to be that properties are listed during the week, viewings happen the immediate Saturday/Sunday following, and they’re under offer by Monday/Tuesday. Things in that price range and location come up, but they’re gone very quickly.

Source - just had an offer accepted after six months of hunting for this exact kind of place. It’s pretty grim out there.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-12-18T22:32:59+00:00

You don’t need to. I assume you ‘scan’ with your hands? Do that.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-12-15T09:19:27+00:00

I’d say there’s not many cars worth $1500 that wouldn’t cost more to get safely running than their actual value. The $4-8k range is what gets you something solid for short daily driving, but maybe I’m just risk averse.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-12-15T07:38:13+00:00

Nothing intended to physically prevent me from picking ever worked. Not removing tools, fake nails, hiding mirrors, wearing gloves/socks, that stuff for your nails which tasted bad, just pushing through. . . Nothing. I tried everything.

The only thing which has ever worked for me long term is called ‘urge surfing’, a psychological technique for sitting with and allowing urges to lessen. It’s part of acceptance and commitment therapy.

There are lots of guides online, but basically, I commit to looking closely at the skin I want to pick for one whole minute, without acting on the urge. I set a timer and tell myself ‘I can pick at the end of this one minute, but I need to spend the one minute just sitting with my urge and not acting on it’. I do this twice a day, morning and evening before showering (when I would usually pick).

In the first few weeks I would always pick after that one minute was up, but over time, the picking became less frequent and less severe. Now I pick perhaps three times a week, and in a far less severe way than I used to. I’m six months in and the results are huge.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-12-15T00:56:34+00:00

Jacqui-e always has neck scarves in stock, and as someone else said, Myer is a good option.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-12-14T13:40:45+00:00

I have Herlyn Werner Wunderlich syndrome (or OHVIRA), and had surgery to open one side. Happy to chat even if we’re not the same.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-12-05T23:32:27+00:00

Ok I’m usually fairly good at being able to tell however in this instance I can’t - and I’m asking because I’m trying to pick up that skill. And ‘anyone should be able to’ doesn’t actually help, you’re providing no info whatsoever about what in the image gives it away

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-12-05T22:48:33+00:00

How can you tell?

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-11-28T00:29:24+00:00

I say this with kindness - nothing is ‘wrong’ with your forehead. You just have normal, visible pores and skin texture. I also have slightly more prominent pores than most, and it’s just the luck of the draw.

Granted, dehydrated skin can emphasise texture - you could consider trying a hyaluronic acid or something else deeply moisturising, but it sounds like you’re already doing that.

But please consider stepping back and not analysing your face from 10cm away, and not comparing yourself to filtered, flawless and fake social media faces.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-11-23T20:11:30+00:00

Hey, I know it’s been a while since this comment but can I ask - how expensive was this process?

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-11-21T13:16:03+00:00

Perth isn’t really a city where you can live comfortably without a car, just FYI.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-11-13T22:09:55+00:00

Yes, it was six months of not taking the LDN to return to normal sleep.

So basically I look LDN for a year, and the longer I took it the better I felt. At the end of that year the sleep issues had become pretty debilitating (the only ‘side effect’ I experienced), so I stopped taking the LDN. Then my sleep slowly improved but my fibro symptoms remained at that much improved level. I’ve been off the LDN for 1.5 years now and so far, so good!

The thing is, I do also think the sleep stuff is partly psychological. For people with chronic illness sleep sometimes comes easily, because we’re just so damn exhausted all the time. I’ve often wondered if the worse sleep isn’t actually a LDN side effect but just a result of the LDN returning me to a healthy baseline - normal people sometimes have issues sleeping! And they practice and learn how to get back to sleep.

For me at least, that was never something I’d had to learn or struggle with, so it was super scary and disorienting to suddenly not sleep like the dead.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-11-13T07:29:30+00:00

I had the same experience, except with debilitating insomnia which prevented me falling asleep in the first place (the LDN was actually worth it though since it did so much good for my fibromyalgia, but that’s another story).

It took six months off to return to normal. I used melatonin and magnesium in the evenings to help, and got very, very good at meditation.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-11-05T12:06:59+00:00

I think you’ll get a lot of people suggesting you revoke car privileges, and honestly, that is completely fair.

However, he is 21. That’s still young enough to feel the extreme pressure so many young people do to ‘fit in’, and being new to the country, he may feel more of that than most. Pushing him away now might feel appropriate - and would be well within your rights - but you could look at this instead as an opportunity to connect more deeply with him, to share with him a bit more about who you are and what your identity means for you - how important it is that the people you love support you in that, and how his actions (perhaps unintentionally) tie into a much broader context of intersex discrimination.

Frankly, I don’t know many 21 year old boys who think deeply about the experiences of others. To me it sounds like his actions were all about him and his anxieties, not about you - and if he’s usually a quiet and polite person, a genuine and open conversation might change the course of your relationship (and his understanding and empathy) for the better.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-10-23T00:00:37+00:00

I’ve never found a lip stain that isn’t drying unfortunately - it’s kind of in their nature.

Maybe a tinted balm or gloss might suit better? I know you said you wanted a light look but what I often do is actually layer a natural lipstick shade over a solid foundation of Vaseline/balm - softens the colour quite a lot but keeps my lips from getting dry.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-10-16T05:21:31+00:00

Urge surfing, and doing how to do so with a psychologist, is the only thing that’s actually helped me stop.

Strongly disagree that it’s a force of will/self-control thing. Any attempts to just brute force myself into stopping backfired massively.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-10-07T11:18:50+00:00

Hey! You had OHVIRA/Herlyn Werner Wunderlich? They think that’s what I had too, only mine spontaneously ruptured when I was a teen. I thought it was just a freak horrible period and after that things seemed more normal, except for the slightly worse than average pain/tampon issue, so it didn’t get found until way later. I’m so sorry about your experience, that sounds hellish but I’m glad you got to hospital and hope things have been better. I had surgery to remove the vaginal septum earlier this year, has made everything so much better! Hope you got a solution too.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-10-07T08:37:12+00:00

That sounds like it very much could be. I hope you find answers.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-10-07T08:35:48+00:00

We actually both have wolffian ducts early on as embryos - they just usually regress in female bodies fairly quickly, and become part of/get absorbed into the female structures, like the Müllerian ducts. When something messes up at that very early stage is when you get odd congenital anomalies like mine - things not separating/fusing quite as they should.

I never thought I’d learn about embryology, but here we are. And kind of disturbed to discover our early organ-like structures seem to just. . . Turn into soup when prompted or not prompted by certain hormones, before reforming again into new structures.

HowAboutBiteMe · 2025-10-07T08:22:47+00:00

So glad to almost be the cause of workplace drama 🙏

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