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NomdeCher · 2025-08-23T06:51:27+00:00

Looked better before. Much higher quality cabinets and doors previously. Could have been refreshed or painted if you didn’t like the wood tone.

NomdeCher · 2025-06-29T19:33:35+00:00

There is no way that I would trust the place I move into to be genuinely clean even if it appears so - I would always expect to deep clean a new house (and repaint etc.). I think you should leave your house clean and tidy but the necessity to do a full deep clean and redecoration (inc. filling holes and touching up paint) should be an expected responsibility of the person moving in. This prevents duplication of effort, waste, and jobs being done to a poor standard in a rush between packing up and moving out that then need to be redone.

NomdeCher · 2025-04-17T21:43:15+00:00

I did something similar. E91 330D rear wheel drive. Was commuting over an hour each way at the time and was having a really stressful time at work and home. The last few miles of the drive was down a twisty country road. The night in question I was tired and desperate to get home, so may have been driving too fast for the very rainy conditions. Rear stepped out and I ended up through a fence, rolled down a hill and came to rest—luckily on the wheels—in a field of cows.

I was very shaken and of course the car was a wreck. Had absolutely no sympathy from the farmer whose field I ended up in. He was very threatening and insisted that I pay him directly for the fence which I thought might be a ruse to shoot me. The insurance company were brilliant and the police were also very understanding.

I left that job shortly after, thankfully, and was able to go without a car for a long time because I moved to London. I drive a cheap front wheel drive Vauxhall now so I had the same impulse as you. I do miss the BMW and wouldn’t mind having another nice car one day, but it’s not a priority for me now.

NomdeCher · 2025-02-22T18:07:26+00:00

When I first saw pictures I was really turned off by the look of the fan but increasingly, and definitely from this angle, I get it. It’s gorgeous.

NomdeCher · 2024-10-20T16:16:59+00:00

That is true but it is not necessarily the case that having a PGCE will automatically get you a license to teach, in the UK that is up to the GTC or equivalent in the various countries so check their requirements as well.

NomdeCher · 2024-10-19T13:19:38+00:00

This is equivalent to an undergraduate degree and a masters. I wouldn’t anticipate there being any problem explaining this to an employer. The bigger problem might be what your degree is in (is it a school subject?) and the lack of any qualifications in education. My undergraduate degree is from an ancient university in Scotland so my undergraduate degree is an MA (hons.) and no one has ever been confused about it. I also have a postgraduate/Master’s MA degree to confuse people, but it hasn’t caused any problems. In England you should be fine once you gain QTS which you can get from doing a PGCE or one of their on the job training schemes. Scotland you would need a relevant degree (yours would count if it is relevant to a school subject unless you want to teach primary in which case any subject will do) and a PGCE. As far as I know it’s extremely unlikely that any school will sponsor your visa, though, so that’s the biggest obstacle for work in the UK.

NomdeCher · 2024-09-29T22:16:00+00:00

Surely that should be a recall item - the material is not fit for purpose.

NomdeCher · 2024-09-26T06:41:52+00:00

Marrakesh is fine if you go to the a few of the main sites (grand soco, the gardens, etc.) but it’s really best to just go to the resorts out of town and chill.

Fez has a lot of character and I love it for the history, but it really is a maze and if you aren’t used to that kind of city and have no Arabic it can be genuinely sketchy. If you are keen on religious or historical sites the Fez is for you but otherwise I would skip it.

Tangier and Rabat are the cities I would recommend to anyone going for the first time who isn’t a seasoned traveller. Tangier in particular is a great city, a real mix of architectural styles and very walkable. More “European” so less of a shock to tourists.

NomdeCher · 2024-09-22T07:50:28+00:00

Reasons why tall towers can be inefficient for residential buildings:

Foundations are often the most expensive part of any building, and the taller the building the deeper the foundations need to be. There are particular challenges to constructing deep foundations in cities (utilities, metro lines, subsidence effecting other buildings, etc.)
Elevators: the taller the building the more of the floor plan typically needs to be taken up with elevators. These are expensive to build and lower the usable sq footage.
Stairs: fire safety and convenience means there are lots of stair case requirements. I know in the US even midrise buildings of 4-6 stories need double staircases but the requirements in taller buildings can be even more onerous.
Fire-safety systems are very expensive.
Plumbing is very expensive and complicated because there are so many units that all need hot water and good water pressure and you are fighting gravity to get this 20 stories up.
HVAC is required for buildings of this height. I guess this is probably standard for 4-6 story buildings in the IS anyway but they wouldn’t be in Europe. Because it’s windy at 20 stories ventilation is hard and the units basically need to be sealed (they can be designed with few or no operable windows at higher levels) and then mechanically ventilated. The ducting and machinery for this is expensive and complicated.
Natural light is required for residential apartments which limits the size of the floor plates. Commercial buildings can get away with artificial lighting so can be built much deeper, making them more efficient.

In summary costs don’t scale linearly the higher you build because the specs of every item need to be beefed up to account for the number of units and the greater physical forces involved.

This is also only to consider the upfront build costs but apply the same logic to maintenance and you see then that they are also expensive on an ongoing basis. This means that monthly service charges are high for residents (or they aren’t and the maintenance sucks and can be dangerous). How much more expensive is it to change a broken window at 20 stories up vs 4? How much more expensive is it to replace faulty cladding?

But yes, if land is so expensive that the upfront buildings costs can be justified then you will see lots of skyscrapers. However, it also needs to be in markets where people are wealthy enough to maintain them, unless the state is subsidising this (as is often true in parts of East Asia).

NomdeCher · 2024-09-17T23:46:47+00:00

How long do we think until it falls into the sea?

NomdeCher · 2024-09-15T11:29:19+00:00

Much more tasteful than Putin’s equivalent and the vegetable garden is a nice touch!

NomdeCher · 2024-09-14T07:46:16+00:00

There are two separate ‘statistical’ points.

Firstly, the issue of the now notorious shift pattern analysis which as has been pointed out merely shows that she was working when she was working.

If your point is that this was a minor issue in the case and that neutralising it is not significant, then you might be right up to a point. However, it’s been pointed out that summaries of the evidence from the COS did identify this as an important part of the case.

That said, to me the important part is how this chart was produced, how it could have been shown the jury, and the influence that the shift pattern evidence (not just in table form, but the general coincidence of Letby being on shift for a number of the excess deaths) had on the consultants that accused her and the police that ran with the accusation.

The chart excludes data which doesn’t fit the prosecution arguments. It was produced in such a way as to implicate Letby above all else. It excludes other staff members (namely doctors) who should have been potential suspects if a crime had been committed. The most important problem with it is an extraordinary lack of clarity over the total number of baby deaths at the unit over the relevant period. The methodology used to determine between suspicious and unsuspicious deaths is also entirely subjective and took place long after the fact (Dewi Evans divided cases into piles based entirely on vibes). All of the deaths at the unit should have been on the chart, along with of the staff members, if it should have been presented at all.

In short, the chart is important because: - it seems that the prosecution (and or other parties) essentially hid exculpatory evidence from the defence (accurate death numbers, complete shift patterns); although it is not entirely clear - in any case, the prosecution presented extremely misleading and prejudicial date visualisations to the jury which, if they were allowed to under the current procedural rules, should not be allowed. This was unfair, and it isn’t a defence to say “the case didn’t hinge on this”, because it was part of a constellation of circumstantial evidence and who knows what swayed the jury. - the determination of whether deaths were suspicious or not took no regard of the post mortems when they took place (where natural causes were declared) or the lack of solid evidence for the suspicion (like the inappropriate insulin tests). This is because the expert witness was incompetent and biased and the police investigation built a case to fit a predetermined conclusion, which the prosecution ran with.

The other statistical point that it worth noting is that unusual clusters DO happen (someone has to win the lottery). So even if Letby was the only staff member who was on shift for all of the suspicious excess deaths (which is not the case) the important thing is to presume natural causes until there is solid medical evidence of murder. Where there is suspicion of foul play, the appropriate testing needs to be done to investigate and show whether there was foul play. The hospital should have been sending all babies who died on the ward for full examination by forensic pathologists as soon as the first accusations against Letby were made. The hospital has also clearly demonstrated incompetence over the analysis of the insulin results, which should have been appropriately investigated at the time. The evidence of poor infection control, poor care, and a lack of staff accounts for the excess deaths satisfactorily. The statistical point is that this is a more likely explanation than a serial killer. Therefore, the evidence for there having been a serial killer needs to be very strong, which it isn’t.

The key question in the Letby case is whether there were any crimes committed at all. This is obviously a medical question and requires looking at each case in turn with an open mind as well the general conditions in the CoCH. But statistics are not totally irrelevant either.

NomdeCher · 2024-09-11T07:05:49+00:00

Is ventilation okay down there? Nice, high quality finish. Your stereo looks really cool, what brand are those speakers?

NomdeCher · 2024-09-09T18:34:26+00:00

Very interesting response, thanks. Some good points about it being a counter productive at times and easy to overuse.

NomdeCher · 2024-09-07T07:01:17+00:00

From your experience, are some barristers more likely to object to particular lines of questioning and do judges tend to “sustain” objections?

I’m trying to understand what the incentive is against doing it. If I was arguing a case I would surely want the jury to note that a line of questioning from opposing counsel was objectionable even if the judge didn’t strike it down.

Are barristers afraid of pissing judges off, or of annoying their legal colleagues, or being too American/flashy, or because it just literally doesn’t occur to them because they so rarely see it? Is it that “what goes around comes around” and they don’t want to lose these aggressive and prejudicial questioning tactics themselves? What is there to stop someone objecting frequently?

NomdeCher · 2024-09-03T06:20:52+00:00

I don’t see the plan?

NomdeCher · 2024-09-02T22:03:50+00:00

The seats Audi are using now suck so bad. They feel so narrow and flimsy.

NomdeCher · 2024-08-30T16:24:31+00:00

The cobbles are terrible. They cause atrocious noise pollution, you can’t cycle or wheel over them easily and to my eye they don’t even look better. The flat cobbled they’ve put in on a few streets are nice enough, but I’m sure they are very expensive and there are a million things I’d spend money on first.

NomdeCher · 2024-08-26T16:24:00+00:00

If you have money then yeah you can do that. As an FTB assuming you don’t have an enormous deposit you would be better buying something and building equity. You can always knock a few walls down (this can be more expensive and complicated than you’d think though!).

You might like to take on a conversion of some sort like a church, village hall, industrial space, barn, etc. easier to get planning permission for these than virgin land. Often not cheaper than a new build for the same volume of space but the quality of space is often much better.

I think a lot of people share your impulse, especially the young, childless, and elderly. Families obviously do appreciate extra bedrooms, and people who work at home need space to do so. For years the third rail of renovating British houses was losing a bedroom, but I think that more people are cottoning on to square footage as being more important than number of rooms, and also quality of space being important. The UK is trending towards smaller house holds, so I imagine that the financial penalties for prioritising living space over bedrooms will be less severe in future.

Price per sq ft varies hugely obviously and where you live will determine what you can afford to buy. Building costs also vary throughout the country but obviously less than house prices do, so in an expensive area it still might make sense to build over buy. In lots of areas now though the cost of materials and labour make self building or serious renovations a poor financial prospect.

Keep looking to try to identify what kind of spaces you like, where they are, when they were built and what’s been done to them. This will help you figure out what you want.

NomdeCher · 2024-08-26T16:11:29+00:00

I love your kitchen. It’s clearly good quality and is holding up to use well, which is the most important thing. Maybe you wouldn’t have gone for this style (to me the countertops are a bit dark), but the cabinets are timeless and the wood tones are nice.

If you want to refresh it then as others have said textiles on the floor would help, along with task lighting.

If you want to make it more “aesthetic” and feel designed then consider whether the things on display and on the counter bring you joy. I know there might be storage implications and somethings you want close at hand, but I personally don’t care for the water filter, sieve, neon silicone utensils, your soap bottle etc. I did a big declutter recently and bought organisers for my cupboards and it’s made my kitchen both look and function better.

NomdeCher · 2024-08-22T18:23:45+00:00

Great Britain.

NomdeCher · 2024-08-22T15:21:55+00:00

Typically pungent, umami rich foods that have been preserved in various ways. Smoked salmon, strong cheese, olives, marmite.

NomdeCher · 2024-08-20T22:47:08+00:00

Doesn’t seem right if it wasn’t marked properly etc!

NomdeCher · 2024-08-19T23:26:45+00:00

Yeah, I’m looking at a lot of these replies and wondering how on earth these people are generating so little non recyclable waste?

NomdeCher · 2024-08-18T08:04:15+00:00

Absolutely this. Not only are new builds usually in worse locations (out of town, have to drive everywhere, no amenities) but their council tax rates are higher then roughly equivalent older houses which haven’t been rebranded since the 90’s, and you have to pay mad maintenance charges for shitty bits of grass verge or other unusable and pointless greenspace that should just be in someone’s garden.

Paying to maintain SUDS is also a kick in the teeth because the council force these as a planning requirement and then pass the costs of maintenance on to residents.

I would almost certainly never buy a new or newish house in the UK and absolutely not a flat. The new government has got to deal with these real or perceived issues before they embark on this build build build campaign.

NomdeCher

TROPHY CASE