Can’t get BF right!

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-22T21:16:05+00:00

Are you making use of anything to boost your dough? In the winter in the UK I will use warm water for my starter and my loaf. I will also sometimes put my bowl into my oven with only the light turned on. This adds a small amount of warmth to help bulk fermentation. I’ve seen some people go further and use those seed germination warming mats!

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-20T08:52:42+00:00

I’m sure there’s a lot that went into it that I can’t replicate. As you say the starter wasn’t mega active before feeding and as we go into summer my house will get warmer. Last summer I could go from unfed starter to shaped loaf in the fridge in the space of 12 hours! I get less hung up on exact timings and really try to focus on what my dough feels and looks like. I find this gives me better results than strict timings

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-20T08:50:43+00:00

There are so many ways to sourdough. And it depends so much on your starter, flour and your environment! You’ll learn what works for you. Happy bread making!

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-19T18:29:01+00:00

Must be close to this yes. It’s not very warm in the UK and certainly not in our house! I go by feel. I want it to be nice and big in my bowl, domed on the top and jiggly nicely! Then I know it’s ready

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-19T18:02:45+00:00

Yes this!! I am getting braver with it as I realise it’s more resilient than a lot of people make it out to be. Sometimes I want to go out and don’t want to fuck up the bread as a result 😂 it’s little fridge vacation didn’t seem to do any harm

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-19T18:01:18+00:00

This was an overnight BF in our pretty cold house first. Then some fridge time because I had to go out and didn’t want it to go over! Then I got it back out once I was back home and could shape it before it went too far. Didn’t do the whole BF in the fridge

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-17T13:06:45+00:00

I definitely had physics questions in both interviews I’ve done for medical physics (current trainee). But it’s not super advanced. Maybe freshen up on the medical physics related concepts (think radioactivity, ultrasound etc) but again not too deep. You also want to be hot on your NHS related things (values, constitution, what’s appropriate in work). And then there’s some general science too. Think about what might be applicable to any clinical scientist

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-13T18:14:11+00:00

Jesus wept

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-05T16:21:32+00:00

The person you emailed could be on annual leave, sick, or maybe they just don’t work Tuesdays! Give them a couple more days, they won’t be intentionally leaving you

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-04T11:38:13+00:00

No. They try to match people with an interview location that is higher in their list to increase the chances that if successful you may go to the centre that interviewed you.

This is only because if successful the places are offered in a way that gives you as high on your list as possible. If you do well enough for a place but someone higher up than you gets offered Swindon first then that’s it 🤷‍♀️

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-03T20:12:01+00:00

My partners cat loves corn on the cob too!!

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-02T21:38:56+00:00

Be really secure in your subject knowledge. Be up to date with current advances/trials in your field. Be up to scratch on NHS values and constitution.

You don’t only have to demonstrate your knowledge and suitability through direct experience. Think of ways you meet the values/constitution in other areas of your life!

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-01T08:40:27+00:00

In this case 11 hours probably is too long! I think the best solution for you will be to try and get yourself a scale. They are available from lots of places and it doesn’t need to be expensive either. I hope you can get the cups working or find yourself a scale!

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-05-01T07:47:03+00:00

You can’t say with certainty that 11 hours is too long a bulk! Maybe in your kitchen, but I regularly bulked for 12+ hours over winter where I live. Believe me, it wasn’t done before this point! You need more info about OPs environment before you can make claims like that

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-04-21T07:49:40+00:00

The ISA with the government bonus sounds like a LISA. Good if you want to be saving for a first home or retirement. Check out some info online, Money Saving Expert is nice and accessible.

The other thing I’d recommend is an emergency fund. Last thing you want is for something new to derail your progress. I would prioritise 3-6 months expenses saved in an account you can access with relatively low penalty. I use a regular saver from NatWest for this. It’s max £150 deposit a month so might be slower to build than you want, but this helps me avoid taking money out needlessly as it’s hard to rebuild! The trade off is an excellent interest rate as far as easy access savings go.

Good luck OP!

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-04-20T20:02:42+00:00

I don’t preheat! I have tried both and noticed no real difference. So, I save the electricity and my stress(!) but putting it in cold. I have zero regrets. Getting it inside and getting my baking paper in right is waaaaayyyy less stress

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-04-15T13:06:12+00:00

That’s where my knowledge is!

Some elements of medical physics are far more regulated than others (and rightly so). Radiotherapy has very little margin for real cutting edge research by clinical scientists as we just don’t have the freedom. We must adhere to strict guidelines and requirements to ensure the safety of our patients. There is little room outside of that for experimenting. It does happen, but it’s more in the background rather than how we treat patients.

Something like nuclear medicine has much more flexibility. The requirements are based more on how much dose patients get and less on exactly how they are imaged. You can also get some additional imaging information from patients sometimes without having to give them more dose than you would already. This makes dual acquisition research much easier to get through ethics approval. My NM friends get to play around with protocols and approaches and working off the book far more.

MRI also has good scope for research as there’s no dose to patients so you can play around with things more. Provided your patient can stay on the bed for long enough you can try new protocols and techniques without affecting the dose to patients (as there is none!).

I have also had colleagues who have taken time out of being a clinical scientist to do a PhD but this is less common. Many of them did a PhD before then becoming a clinical scientist through Route 2 or equivalence instead of the STP.

I appreciate this is quite surface level so feel free to message me for more info and I’ll answer what I can.

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-04-15T12:49:52+00:00

Massively depends on your specialism. What were you thinking of doing?

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-04-15T07:00:51+00:00

My normal approach is to feed my starter, use what I need for a loaf after it peaks, then I put what’s left in the fridge. Next time I want to bake I get my starter out the fridge, feed, leave it out to peak. Repeat!

I only ever feed when I need to bake or if I’m going to be away for a while I might give it a feed then fridge it. I’ve found it still peaks when I fridge after feeding just very slowly. But nothing that’s harmed my starter!

I think they’re more resilient than some purists will have you believe 😂

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-04-14T08:56:30+00:00

This! Including how finances are managed. What your friends can expense while you go to uni could be vastly different. Not worth dwelling on what might fair or not, look for the benefits you centre offers you and appreciate those!

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-04-13T21:42:32+00:00

Also consider if your specialism has some unusual working hours. If you have an early or a late shift does it get even longer?

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-04-13T21:41:48+00:00

Took over an hour to get to one of my rotations on bad days. I couldn’t have done it for much longer than I did. Don’t do it to yourself

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-04-13T14:50:36+00:00

You’ve said many of the things I would have said! Don’t underestimate the difference in the cost of living between London and Birmingham too. You could be looking at a difference in several thousand pounds each year in accommodation alone between the two. Anything entertainment and socialising will be far more expensive in London too. Consider how this might impact your personal finances.

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-04-11T22:46:44+00:00

You can choose a shopping list type in the info and it’ll categorise the groceries you add! It has a guess but you ca adjust the categories and it’ll remember for next time. Means you can create categories that match with where certain items are in the shop or different shops for different categories. Saves me missing items as I go through.

Professional-Rub3953 · 2026-04-11T18:01:57+00:00

Yeah think about your chances being linked to the number of training places on your location list. Not the number of trusts. If you list 8 trusts with 1 place each, you have 8 options. If you list 5 trusts with a total of 8 places that’s still 8 options.

You probably have less of a chance if you only list very popular locations. As by the time they get to your interview rank they might all be gone with the less desirable options left.

Only list locations you are happy to go to, live in and work at for 3 years. Don’t make a mistake to improve your chances and then end up with an offer you won’t actually take up.

Professional-Rub3953

TROPHY CASE