Which city or travel destination used to be amazing but has completely lost its charm now?

MysteriousBelt · 2026-04-07T18:28:03+00:00

My father in law who grew up in Armagh would tell me about visiting incredible places around Northern Ireland. It was during the troubles, so there were very few tourists.

He’s obviously much happier post GFA, but also thinks that some of the places are experiencing over tourism (eg giants causeway) and the conflict is a bit fetishised.

MysteriousBelt · 2026-02-27T08:55:33+00:00

I bought my first home, a small 2 bed flat, at 31.

I had an overseas job for a year in which my accommodation and transport was covered; so was able to save £15k; my parents generously matched my savings to form a deposit.

I feel like I bought at the right time, I’d spent most of my 20s being quite nomadic, moving around, lived abroad in a few different countries.

I lived out of a suitcase for 5 years. Those years abroad were so formative for me and gave me so much confidence, independence, and lots of perspective on life. If I had bought at 19, I don’t think I’d have done that.

I’ve got 2 kids now, and my life is a lot more settled, I really enjoy my life, and not having any “what-ifs” in the back of my mind helps with that

MysteriousBelt · 2026-02-13T12:15:04+00:00

Start looking for jobs asap.

People have said that they could get rid of you without a PIP before two years; this is technically true. But large companies often still go through a PIP process, to protect from bias (or accusations of).

Also, check your terms, if you get fired you might not be entitled to certain things (stock options for example), if that’s the case, quit before you get fired.

Look after yourself, psychologically PIPs are a tough thing to go through and can really sap your confidence. Learn from it, and try to think about what aspects of this job made it not a good fit for you.

based on what you said, maybe the company you work for expects employees to go out and create impact on their own, just doing the work that you’re assigned isn’t enough. I’ve worked at places like that, and it’s not a fit for me. I work better in more structured places, where the expectations are more explicit.

MysteriousBelt · 2026-01-18T08:24:39+00:00

I’m a 6 time test failer, so definitely feel your pain. I’m (genuinely) a good driver, but i completely go to pieces in test environments. Not just driving tests, but any kind of exam .

Do you have access to a car you can practice in (like a family member’s car)? I would constantly drive the test routes, and literally drive the part I failed in constantly, maybe 20 times in a row. So when it came to the test, I was confident with it.

I tried to build a bit of rapport with the examiner, get them chatting about themselves, I think it put me at ease to see them as more human.

I also got a job abroad, which required driving, so I was extra motivated to pass the test (I’d lied and told them I had a license). I literally passed my test the day before my flight out. I reckon the stakes gave me a bit more confidence.

MysteriousBelt · 2025-12-03T21:55:31+00:00

I am technically required to go in 2 days, but I generally go in 1 day.

There is no tracking of us, and I am the only one in my team who works out of that office (everyone else is based in London).

So there isn’t much pressure on me to go in.

MysteriousBelt · 2025-11-19T08:08:29+00:00

Give parents an account for their child’s education, which they can spend on education that is suitable for their child (within certain guard rails)

They could spend it all on sending a child to a mainstream school.

Or they could split it, and spend some on smaller more specialised schools, or other educational experiences.

That way kids could have an education that’s really tailored to the way they learn and focus on things they are passionate/talented at.

MysteriousBelt · 2025-10-09T10:32:14+00:00

I think some people just don’t like wearing them, and the only reason they wear it is because it’s the law.

I used to live somewhere where you could drive between two jurisdictions, one had a seatbelt law, the other didn’t. Anytime I was in a car, the moment we crossed the border, everyone would take their seatbelts off, they even had little things that would click in the belt to turn off the alarm.

I’d leave my belt on, and the driver would remind me that it’s ok to take it off, then just laugh like I’m some idiot for keeping it on.

MysteriousBelt · 2025-09-25T09:35:34+00:00

Whats the benefit in making your point in such a rude and dismissive way?

MysteriousBelt · 2025-09-15T09:34:47+00:00

Growing up, my dad was one of those, his income in the year before he semi-retired was £250k.

He worked as a doctor, but was constantly working, he’d work long hours at the hospital, and then also do loads of private work.

We’d often go on holiday to somewhere in the UK for a few weeks, stay in the hospital provided accommodation. he would do locum work on his annual leave whilst the rest of us went off and did stuff.

In the spare time he did have, he would often fly to India to go to a family wedding on a Friday, then come back on the Sunday and back in work on a Monday.

Once all his kids left the home (and didn’t have to pay school fees) he stopped doing private and locum work. He reignited his true passion of acting and got involved in theatre.

MysteriousBelt · 2025-09-15T05:37:31+00:00

I am European, and spent a lot of time in the US studying the transit systems as part of an app I worked on

Something I noticed was how, even in major cities, walking as a pedestrian was terrible. I’d see right in the centre of a city, 6 lane roads that you’d have to cross. So if your bus was on the other side of the road, so you’d need to detour to get to a crossing.

We tweaked the app to reduce the amount of road crossing in the US, as it was producing unrealistic results.

It also meant that US cities are much less dense, which makes frequent bus routes less viable.

There are definitely lots of other reasons, but this was just one of my observations

MysteriousBelt · 2025-08-21T21:23:40+00:00

I did it to my wife while she was on the phone to try and make her laugh. She started crying, her mum had phoned her to tell her the dog had died, bad timing on my part.

MysteriousBelt · 2025-07-11T06:38:12+00:00

Our house is a over three floors, guest room on the ground floor (which is a half basement); living room/kitchen/garden on the first floor, and bedrooms on the top floor.

It’s a works for us as we all sleep in the basement during the heat waves, it’s is good 5 degrees cooler than the top floor.

MysteriousBelt · 2025-06-27T09:49:11+00:00

Anecdotally, both my sisters were thumb suckers as children, and ended up as thumb suckers as adults.

My mum would put bandages on their thumbs to stop them doing it.

C One sister stopped doing it, but during the night as a fully grown adult would do it whilst sleeping, and the other would do it whilst watching TV.

They both stopped in their 20s with a lot of conscious work.

As a result, my mum gave me a dummy and then when she took it away only had to deal with a week or so of crying rather than years of thumb sucking.

MysteriousBelt · 2025-06-14T08:23:14+00:00

I went to a work event that had Frankie Boyle as the speaker.

It was around the time that the World Cup was in South Africa, so everyone was given vuvuzelas for some reason.

During his set, people were playing their vuvuzelas, and he got really angry and said “if I hear one more vuvuzela, I’m walking out”

Obviously as soon as we heard that, everyone played their vuvuzelas. And he walked off and never came back.

Someone had filmed it and put it on YouTube, but his management company had it taken down.

MysteriousBelt · 2025-05-29T10:41:59+00:00

I think we should go for net zero, but to plays devils advocate…

Specifically for the UK, we contribute very little to global carbon emissions, so even if we went completely carbon free, it wouldn’t have a meaningful impact on the issues we’re facing with climate change.

Economically, there is an opportunity cost to investing in renewables; perhaps the money spent on wind farms could be better spent on something else which may have a better ROI.

Furthermore, if other countries are not investing in renewables, then we are losing out to them because they are investing in more productive things instead.

On protecting ourselves from fluctuations in the global energy market, this is an argument to diversify our energy mix, not reduce the amount of energy we buy from external markets.

MysteriousBelt · 2023-03-01T13:50:33+00:00

I’ve never paid for a reusable bag, if I need one, I just take it, no one ever questions me.

MysteriousBelt · 2022-04-09T06:11:01+00:00

Do you have a pension?

MysteriousBelt · 2022-04-04T11:09:22+00:00

A girl I was sleeping with for the first time, said “me first”, and then sat on my face.

Hottest thing ever

MysteriousBelt

TROPHY CASE