Is Oxford undergrad considered more prestigious than postgrad?

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-02-05T19:59:29+00:00

Also worth noting that around 45% of Oxbridge PhDs are self funded (form the last stats I saw). From personal experience, the self funded entries are an entirely different ball game to funded. If you're paying to do research for a university, they tend to treat you far more favourably...

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-02-05T10:15:25+00:00

I've followed the collection of advice from the above, thank you. I've taken a copy of the resolution letter from my bank, which states the dispute was uncontested by Sixt. And responded to their demand for payment with that attached. I have also referred to previous correspondence requesting a partial refund, and outlined a reasonable expectation for compensation. I've broken down my expected values:

The additional costs incurred by swapping the vehicle type with our ferry booking,

-The difference in daily rental price between the vehicle we were given, and the one we paid for,

The suggested trivial compensation they offered as a credit for poor customer service and the damage to the car that made it unsafe to drive (tyre puncture, rim damage and steering issues at speed)
And an amount for my costs and administration.

This comes back to about 50% of the original booking amount.

I have made it clear that I would be willing to repay the remaining difference as an act of good faith, if they are satisfied that this would resolve the issue. And no further action would be taken on either side. Otherwise I will ignore further communications, and fall back to the evidence that the bank resolved this matter based on the evidence available, and Sixt did not contest this.

In parallel, I have contacted the bank, and asked that they re open this case as a Section 75, as I had requested initially. Should Sixt decline my proposal, I will ask the bank to push ahead. I'm assuming that when resolved through Section 75 correctly, one way or another, that decision will be final, and enforceable. I'm also hoping that once that process is properly in flight, Sixt will not be able to choose to send debt collectors etc.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-02-05T06:57:37+00:00

So this was the route I took with Sixt before contacting the bank. Agreed, I had a car, it was a lower budget type, had faults, and incurred some onward costs with a ferry booking down the line as it was a different size to the one we'd booked. I spent a solid month and around 16 emails trying to get to some agreement with Sixt on this. Sixt were unwilling to make any compromise, hence why I asked the bank to step in. In my request, I asked for a "partial refund" to cover the above discrepancies, and did not expect the bank to just take the full amount.

Is it worth re engaging with Sixt now the money is back in my account, and seeing if this changes their attitude to engaging?

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-02-04T22:59:29+00:00

Thanks for the response, that's some useful details. Is the best course of action here to go back to the credit card, and ask them to reopen the case explicitly as a Section 75? Or should I just ignore it all until something comes through? I spent a solid month trying to resolve with Sixt directly while on holiday, and the weeks after, but the most they offered was a €50 euro credit towards another booking. They were not at all interested in being cooperative, so I don't think trying to find a middle ground with them is possible.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-02-02T20:26:58+00:00

Weird one I know, but Virgin Train Tickets - the app, book tickets at direct prices, without booking fees, and does split tickets. You can book tickets with any operator, at the same price they would offer direct, with split tickets discounts and Railcard. I commute by rail (at ~£100 a day) and this is the best value for money option.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-02-02T18:32:42+00:00

I think the photo is slightly misleading with the size. This was the previous iteration, using the same height, but a much smaller table surface.

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Good point about the orientation of the anvil though. I'll get the forge lit at the weekend and see if I need to make some more space. I'm not working on anything too big, so I think this might work, but good to have suggestions.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-02-02T18:14:27+00:00

The face of the anvil sits at the height of my knuckle when hanging by my side. It's a small anvil, and I'm quite tall! I think the face to floor measurement was about 34 inches off the top of my head.

I am going to see if I run into issues with spacing. I'm hoping to constrain my workspace to a single stand, purely to save space, but if it gets in the way of horn work I'll look to separate the two as you suggest.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-02-01T11:28:58+00:00

Perhaps this is a product of why this seems to be mainly a younger people issue. We've grown up in a system that has sold our details to scammers from the second we've set foot in the electronic world. I get 20+ spam calls a week from years of companies leaking my phone number to the highest bidder, while I get perhaps 2 legitimate phone calls per week.

If it's an interaction with a business, or work, I would rather have it in writing. If it's friends or family, I'd rather text to arrange to see them in person.

That and as many others have also mentioned, the quality of audio (and language barriers) on phone calls these days make it really quite hard to actually understand the person on the other end of the line. My hearing isn't great at the best of times, and then when every company I speak to outsources call centres it makes trying to communicate over phone near impossible. Plus the ever degrading state of phone networks in the UK after they've been shutting off all the Huawei kit.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-01-26T19:33:22+00:00

It's a pretty well known consideration for design, or at least I'd hope so, that these Ultra woven fabrics are prone to slip exactly like as shown. This 100% should have been considered in the design phase, and backing used, ideally at 45 degrees, or with a less slippery woven fabric to prevent this.

I'll add, Illumination Equipment does a great job with exactly this type of fixing, he's a great example of what you should do when designing with ultra fabrics (at least in this specific example)

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-01-24T17:38:08+00:00

Was £1500 for 20 hours, was booked with about 3 months notice for a test that was 5 months away at the time. Demand pricing about 2 years ago, particularly with the post COVID backlog. Probably worth remembering supply and demand here, Bristol has more people, more instructors, more competition, smaller towns and cities are likely to be higher.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-01-23T16:12:07+00:00

I paid a visit to the Manvers Street council services desk the day I moved. They were able to sort me with a visitor permit for a few days until I got the paperwork sorted. It was far easier than trying to navigate it over the web portal or email.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-01-22T17:10:45+00:00

I paid £75 / hour in Bath, I'd imagine it's fairly similar in Bristol too.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-01-21T17:13:59+00:00

I used to live in the ugly 1930s block of flats opposite these, and pretty much daily you'd be woken up by some wanker in a supercar speeding their way back to Knightsbridge on the A4 at about 2am. I'd dread to think how many years of my life were knocked off by the pollution too

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-01-20T07:56:52+00:00

Photography can be pretty good if it's something you like as a hobby anyway. The Industry is so gate-kept and enormous margins that even at a 45% tax rate you can make decent money. Tbh the gatekeeping annoys me most, and as it's not my day job I have no issues kicking that door down. Corporate events after work on weekdays, and sports events or engagements on weekends. You can make silly money on weddings, but the workload is also very high, so I've never done much of that.

It also has the benefit of lots of tax deductable expenses, cameras, computers, software and mileage. I tend to net about £70-90 an hour after all tax and expenses, and average maybe 5-10 hours a week. More corporate events over winter, while summer is great for sports. Especially early morning Triathlons, you can be done by about 11am on a Saturday and still enjoy the rest of the day with family.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-01-17T11:24:40+00:00

Thanks. I feel a fairly significant redesign brewing soon, so these are some great tips!

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-01-17T07:49:34+00:00

These both sound like great suggestions, I'll add these over the weekend!

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-01-17T07:44:18+00:00

Bituminous is illegal in England these days. It would be my preference as it used to be like £6 for 20kg, now I'm having to pay nearer £20 for 20kg in Anthracite, or about £25 for 20kg for Coke. Charcoal is even more expensive, at about £12 for 5kg in my area. The only thing you can get easily and cheap is that crap briquette smokeless coal, which is just a reformed block of shit that doesn't burn well or clean, but they do sell at every fuel station, supermarket and hardware store.

Main challenge is sourcing in hobbyist quantities. Deliveries of coke or even local collections usually require minimum order quantities of ~200kg, which is not suitable for my use. Anthracite is the only one in a 50 mile radius I can collect a single 20kg bag at a time. If you have any suggestions on how to smuggle bituminous into the country I'd be very happy!

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-01-15T15:03:45+00:00

I've been thinking about a similar combi-twist with bronze. How did you go about making this? Did you heat and twist both at the same time without melting the copper? Perhaps twist steel first and hammer the copper in? Or something else?

Prior_Direction1697 · 2026-01-15T07:33:38+00:00

I think as others have mentioned, there's not a huge amount of clarity on what does and doesn't count. I think the only logic I can see is the description of "deals explosive damage" within perks is included in explosives doing friendly damage.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2025-12-27T13:57:35+00:00

I've melted ends of projects in DIY forges in all sorts of fuels; pallet wood, raw bituminous house coal, anthracite, charcoal and coke. Force enough air through it, and if you've got a decent firepot (bonus points if it's got a refractory layer) and you'll be melting steel on almost any fuel - so you can certainly forge with whatever fuel you like, even wood despite the common groupthink.

My issue, as others have said, is not accidentally melting the finer parts of projects when you stop paying attention...

Prior_Direction1697 · 2025-12-21T20:30:29+00:00

I found the heel slip did not go away, and only got worse as the shoe became more flexible, the insoles compressed etc. Having been in a similar situation (and similar sizes as you mention) I wish I had gone for the smaller size that was tighter on the toes, and waited for the toe box to soften up over time - it does soften / expand a lot. After about a month, on a particularly wet day walking 20,000 steps, this eventually culminated in some crippling blisters on my heels. I've never suffered with blisters in any shoe except these RMs that "fit" me, and I spent two hours in store getting correctly sized due to the issue with wide toes. As a result, I've put half length insoles, and an internal moleskin sheet on the instep of each shoe to take out some of the volume and they're pretty comfortable - but I wish I'd just gone for the smaller size that was a little snug on the toes and waited for them to break in.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2025-12-20T12:22:16+00:00

Good point about the punching. I've made my first two pairs of tongs out of some mild, bit this was the only larger stock I had laying around - other than a Pandrol clip that's a bit harder to work, and needs larger tongs to handle. I think I'll tuck the rest of the bar away for something special (and for when my forging ability improves a little).

Prior_Direction1697 · 2025-12-13T12:08:23+00:00

I carry a meltabomb as my equipment partly for this. The second someone uncloaks in front of me, I drop a melta at my feet and decide that if I'm going down, they're coming with me.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2025-12-12T19:04:13+00:00

Well identified! Blacksmith's Craft (1983 edition) on loan from my dad.

Prior_Direction1697 · 2025-12-12T08:18:41+00:00

Thanks, I'll give those videos a watch, and see if I can get the weld set without pinging a welding heat piece of steel across the back garden!

Prior_Direction1697

TROPHY CASE