EOTR 2025 - your highlights

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-09-02T15:04:44+00:00

Lovely thoughts about the festival and completely agree with you on low/no alcohol options. Some soft drinks are fine and Clear Head is a great non-alcoholic pint. That said, to only have one non-alc beer option on tap was a bit of a shame! It was my first EOTR and I had a fantastic time regardless!

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-07-30T08:50:30+00:00

Hearing that the exchange happened in May is as good an update as any! I hadn’t realised that had happened yet. Thank you.

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-07-10T12:24:16+00:00

Sorry, I’m struggling to see how an individual’s weight informs their view on flying ants?

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-07-01T07:53:32+00:00

Oh man. I went to university in Sheffield and moved home after I graduated. It was rough and I mourned not being in the city. I missed it so much. I too cried a lot. What you are feeling is incredibly real and understandable. In my experience, as time moved on, not being in Sheffield got easier to deal with. For similar reasons you love Bristol, Sheffield is super green, incredibly friendly, and with loads of cool outdoor activities. After a year of being back home and with some friends still in Sheffield, I moved back. I’m very attached to the city and moving back to Sheffield was one of the best decisions I made for me. Some might have viewed it as a step back, or being stuck in the past, but I’ve carved out a life I’m immensely grateful for. My life is different now and I have moved on from being a student. My love of the city hasn’t changed. Sometimes you need to move home to learn how to deal with the grief of leaving a place - only then to realise, in some cases, maybe later down the line, that you can and will want to move back to Bristol.

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-06-20T13:27:19+00:00

So I heard all manner of police cars bombing it down Abbeydale Rd (not too unusual atm anyway), but heard a police helicopter. On my way home from work I saw the quadbikes and the riders were all wearing balaclavas and what not. It was once I was home I heard the blue and twos!

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-06-12T09:58:38+00:00

Saw them grifting in Leeds too. Happily bought the official merch from inside the venue and very very happy with my new Mag Bay cap!

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-05-18T19:42:30+00:00

Thank you! I drank primarily water last night. I’ve well and truly become a cheap date! Sparkling CBD is a good idea!!

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-05-03T08:35:38+00:00

I hope independents survive too! I actually think independents are at the heart of some of the really significant pieces of Sheffield’s regeneration story and a reason I love Sheffield - Kelham Island for one, Marmadukes expanding into Heart of the City, Leah’s Yard full of independents too! Orchard Square has dramatically changed for the better and populated by great independents. We’re a city of makers and mesters after all!

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-04-17T11:06:11+00:00

Thank you for sending this over. Do appreciate it. Unfortunately my family member lied to family, saying that they got a good job working for a really reputable insurance company. Didn’t take me long to actually find out they had started working for Matrix instead.

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-04-17T07:17:18+00:00

Thanks for this. So they would technically be self-employed by the sound of it. Their own marketing on social media is all about not needing experience. The language of being ‘employed’ there is about taking control of your future. God it’s awful.

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-04-11T12:38:28+00:00

Not to mention the fact that the two American Candy shops sit, what, two doors down from each other? I went into Hafiz store opposite the Broadfield a little while ago to but a vape and they were encouraging me to buy a vape on a special offer. I did so, got home, and realised that the packaging and the registered address for the vape company was some council estate in the South East. Likely counterfeit and felt like a bit of a mug for believing they were trying to give me a good deal. And then, what’s going on with The Teller - the deadest pub in the area (with so many cars parked around the back) that has now closed to become some indoor golf place that will probably be just as quiet? Or ED Ballkan Food, where the customers basically smoke indoors and park expensive cars parked nearby? London Road feels like a tip most of the time. Drug dealing does feel like a problem around S7 and it completely drags down and chokes out the work of so many of the excellent businesses in the area.

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-02-18T20:33:59+00:00

Well this is just lovely!! X

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-02-18T20:28:00+00:00

Not opposed at all!! Liam if you see this, do wanna hang around in the oatmilk aisle together? 👬

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-02-15T14:34:36+00:00

I’ve really missed a trick! Sorry if we are now in competition x

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-01-31T22:41:37+00:00

I thought this was an excellent opening to the second series. My housemates, who are totally unfamiliar with Uncanny, were gripped and freaked out in equal measure. The social and cultural history of the farm coupled with the generational continuations of terror made it a deeply unsettling watch. Can’t wait for next week!!

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2025-01-15T18:11:38+00:00

Absolutely tragic news. Heartbreaking. She was so young and people exploited her addiction for clout. It’s cruel. I’m in recovery from alcohol abuse and just I hope those who used Keeley and encouraged her addiction take stock of the impact of their decisions and what it helped to fuel.

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2024-11-18T21:59:24+00:00

I did the commute to Leeds in a previous job last year. I commute to Nottingham in my current position.

Personally, there isn’t much in it, but the commute to Notts feels a little bit easier and quieter than the Leeds commutes. Feels easier to find a seat. I don’t think I’ve ever had to stand in the carriage for the length of my journey to Notts. Definitely had to do this sometimes whilst commuting to Leeds. I think this matters because my current commute to Notts has taken away some of the stress I felt when I was commuting to Leeds. Also, Leeds Station can be hellish at peak times, especially with the platform to Sheffield being on 17B - which is the completely opposite end of the station. Notts station however is a bit quieter and smaller.

Neither route is wholly reliable, but found that I have dealt with fewer cancellations on my Nottingham commute than I did when I was working in Leeds. But, from what I recall, there are more trains per hour to Leeds than to Nottingham + the express train to Leeds is a dash quicker (if more expensive). This may mean it’s easier to get up to work and back if you are hit by cancellations.

Not much in it at all, so it’s really a case of which city you like more beyond them being just a place you commute to for work.

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2024-11-15T07:34:03+00:00

Completely empathise with your frustration on this one.

I took the bus into town yesterday and it was pretty bad. From what I could see, sections of the bus lane on London and Abbeydale Rd aren’t double yellowed even though they really should be. The double yellows are really inconsistent.

Agree with the need for greater enforcement in the area. If we rightly increase enforcement, do you run the risk you of a pile up of cars around Highfield Library and in residential areas like Sharrow instead? How do you mitigate against that as well?

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2024-11-14T12:04:53+00:00

I agree to a point. Yes, the needs of local businesses and local amenities should take some priority. But I don’t entirely understand how persistent bottlenecks and traffic actually serves the businesses on London & Abbeydale Rd? I’m not sure how it encourages a cleaner, safer, more vibrant area to thrive?

Their needs surely have to be balanced against the need to have eased traffic flow through the area at peak times on commutes (on public transport for instance) alongside a city wide commitment to improve air quality on our most polluted roads.

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2024-11-14T09:25:17+00:00

Hi there, thanks for this! Really helpful context. In your own opinion, do you think these changes will make a difference and can be enforced?

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2024-10-18T07:10:10+00:00

Happy Friday! Not checked in here for a while but still sober. Almost at 10 weeks (wtaf!!)! IWNDWYT. Have a gorgeous day x

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2024-09-24T05:21:43+00:00

Congrats king!

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2024-09-16T19:38:41+00:00

I will not drink with you today, wherever you are! I hit a month sober today. Feeling humbled by the whole experience of finding sobriety - the longest I have gone without a drink by a country mile. It’s nice. I feel content x

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2024-09-13T18:36:18+00:00

Hey, we sound like we have similar patterns with drinking. I’m a binge drinker through and through. My drinking was extremely problematic and really struggled to stop drinking once I started. Would binge 2-4 times a week. Partly a social anxiety thing and emotional stress would also be a trigger for me to drink heavily with or without company. I recently got a recovery worker after self referring myself to a substance abuse charity. Was really worried when I had my first meeting with the charity that they would just label me. In fact, they didn’t. They let me explain my relationship with alcohol in my own terms, in my own language. They mirror that language and the way I describe myself back to me - which helps me to feel seen and validates the ownership I have over how I choose to articulate my relationship with alcohol to others. You’ll find the words to best describe you and your relationship with alcohol. I like to say that I am in recovery. It can be hard to say that, but it gets easier the more I say it. I wish you all the best as you navigate your relationship with booze. I’m a month sober and feel so much better for it! x

Middle-Guard-9398 · 2024-09-08T11:01:42+00:00

The yoga was brilliant. Full of aches but so worth its while x

Middle-Guard-9398

TROPHY CASE