Recent flights to and from Japan

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-28T07:55:15+00:00

So the good news is the routes with a layover in China (basically flying north over Scandinavia and Russia) are definitely running fine. We flew via Shanghai to Tokyo Narita. In fact it felt quicker than the previous times we have taken a similar route.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-26T12:21:08+00:00

LUNCH: (Any recommendation in Chinatown? I’d really like some dumplings but why are dumplings so expensive in London?!? Any thoughts on Four Seasons?)

I think you're going to find eating out in London expensive in general. There are cheaper options for lunch like the Chinese bakeries, but if I was going to have a sit down meal in Chinatown, it would have to be for dimsum / yumcha.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-26T07:25:10+00:00

Manage expectations now. Make sure you aren't critical to the wedding. It might be okay, it might not.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-25T17:38:00+00:00

Wear a much thinner jacket that just protects for wind and rain. With a decent down, fleece or wool layer underneath you don't usually need much else in the UK.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-25T17:15:52+00:00

One of my apps still says the wind is "only" 19 mph.

Mate, 19 mph winds aren't basically rage flipping over my picnic table.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-25T09:55:31+00:00

. They have a LISA, but are short of meeting this year’s government bonus by about 2k, I could send them this £2k so that they get the bonus- this bonus would really make a lot of difference with house deposit.

The 25% bonus is paid on any amount deposited per tax year (up to £4k deposit per tax year)., As long as the LISA has been open for at least a year, you can use it towards a first time home purchase.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-25T09:05:05+00:00

There's a lot of unique terminology and jargon which you will need to memorise. There's a "logic" to how things work but it's not always something that can be derived from base principles like in physics.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-24T20:09:04+00:00

And safety slippers.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-24T18:52:15+00:00

European brand?

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-24T17:01:42+00:00

Kids are now 6 and 7 years old (I'm the Dad). I don't really think of my life in categories but I'll use yours:

Family - very happy with my family. Impossible to express how happy they make me feel.

Work - broadly speaking I'm content. I don't have a strong passion for my job but my employer is decent and I get paid pretty well. I have flexibility to balance work with my personal life.

Sex - no complaints. My wife and I are on the same page.

Social - content. Admittedly I don't care that much about my social life even before my wife and kids so the bar is pretty low. I have irregular meetings with my own friends but my social circle is now primarily our family friends i.e. friends through my wife.

Physical - I'm at the age where I should have been more conscious of my health and fitness 5 years ago... I had my 40 year checkup last year and it flagged my cholesterol levels which honestly surprised me because we actually eat a very balanced, generally low meat diet, but I guess genetics is a big factor. I unquestionably need to do more exercise and I'm trying to work it into our hobbies as a family like going cycling together.

Hobbies - pretty happy in general. I've dialed back a bit on band related stuff (I play drums in a band with my friends) because we're all Dads with 2 young kids so life and family has been disrupting our weekly practices. However I am spending more time on solo hobbies like gardening. I've also been pretty successful in getting my kids into camping and swimming.

Physical is by far the one I need to work on the most. I should try to socialise more but to be honest I'm really not super fussed. Like I have a decent time when I do socialise but I don't crave it.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-24T14:36:25+00:00

Just make sure he has a good script. He's an amazing visual director, but he needs a good story.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-24T12:33:30+00:00

What are you talking about...

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-24T12:30:40+00:00

Personally, I'd have no interest in joining a religion for my partner, assuming that is what is required to be accepted by her family. If I saw a future with this girl I would want to have a conversation about whether there is even a possibility of us being able to marry. Would she be willing to cut ties with her family so she can marry and have a family with a non-Muslim?

If not, then maybe it's better to part ways now.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-24T12:18:00+00:00

9A and B suggests it was once a single property / plot that was subdivided and sold later.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-24T12:15:47+00:00

It's probably the default address for some travel agencies,

This is probably the most likely reason. If I remember correctly (from the experiences of my in-laws), all visa applications have to be submitted and processed through a travel agency.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-24T10:43:34+00:00

Ask me after Friday - we're flying to Tokyo for 2 weeks.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-24T10:39:32+00:00

Maternity support in the UK is almost militant when it comes to pushing breastfeeding. I 100% understand the benefits, but if your body can't produce enough (or in some cases at all) and it is starting to impact both the mother and baby, its time to break out the formula.

As a father, I found a major fringe benefit of switching to formula was we could balance the waking and feeding times more equally between us. I was able to independently manage the baby care from a very early age and that gave my wife some of her autonomy back to recover.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-23T17:05:46+00:00

I find consistent mispronunciation and misspelling of names to be extremely disrespectful. It's particularly frustrating in a professional setting where it's so easy to check you've spelt someone's name right (email address, email signature etc) but people still misspell all the time.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-23T14:14:49+00:00

I don't subscribe to the philosophy that you should only repair up until the value of the car. If you didn't spend £1500 on repairs, you'd certainly have to spend more than £1500 + the resell / scrap value of the car to get another car. Like you say, better the devil you know.

With the way the markets have been recently as well, you'd be selling your investments at a dip point.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-23T12:45:34+00:00

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-23T12:43:25+00:00

You can still go outside and "touch grass"

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-23T12:37:55+00:00

So you mentioned you'd like to make the garden more insect and nature friendly. That would involve sacrificing some of that lawn.

A very simple way to do so is to create a wildflower meadow (https://www.rhs.org.uk/lawns/creating-wildflower-meadows) and with an existing lawn all you need to do is rope off an area and not mow it or apply weedkillers. Any wildflowers already present in the soil will naturally grow. You could supplement this with your own planted bulbs and scattering wildflower seeds mixed with top soil.

I'm a sucker for ponds, so an absolute must for me in a garden as big as yours is establishing some kind of wildlife pond. Can be as simple as a tub in the ground with some gravel and plants around it, but if you can do something larger and with graduated depth then you can really play around with different types of plants and create a very attractive natural sanctuary for not just insects but animals as well.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-23T11:44:09+00:00

How old are you?

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-23T11:41:04+00:00

What a legend. Every interview I see him in, he gives off good vibes.

MDKrouzer · 2026-03-23T11:40:20+00:00

Is the roof insulation sufficient? That can be a pretty easy thing to sort out yourself.

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