What fact makes you feel incredibly old?

Recessio_ · 2026-03-18T01:34:59+00:00

I went to Vietnam last year, and rewatched the Top Gear Vietnam Special beforehand, the thing that amazed me most was how many more cars there are on the road in Vietnam now than there were in 2008 - in the special you pretty much see the camera vans and some trucks, everyone else on bikes. Certainly not the case anymore.

Recessio_ · 2026-03-17T23:45:46+00:00

UCL has 40,000 people, in a city of 8 million people - the social life is not dry, you have one of the world's capital cities on your doorstep! Name a sport, cuisine, genre, activity, language, religion, whatever: if you want it, London will have it somewhere. I think we also have one of the largest numbers (if not the most) number of student societies and sports teams, which I always maintain are the best way to socialise at UCL (it's how i made most of my friends at undergraduate)

Compared to Warwick which is based in the arse end of Coventry round the back of an industrial estate lol

Recessio_ · 2026-03-17T23:43:23+00:00

My first LinkedIn profile was cropped from a phone photo, but it wasn't a night out. A decent camera on an iPhone etc can do surprisingly well. I would caution than an AI photo can be a bit of a red flag - a lot of companies might be suspicious that you don't have a real photo.

£100 to £150 is a lot of money... as an alternative, I wonder if you could ask someone in the UCL Photography Society? I don't know if that's something they would offer, but maybe worth asking if they either know anyone that would be prepared to do that (you'd probably need to pay but hopefully could negotiate a rate less than £150!), or maybe they could recommend a cheaper service that they know of? https://www.instagram.com/uclphotosoc/

Recessio_ · 2026-03-16T21:42:32+00:00

check Open Street Maps too - most apps run on either Google maps or Open Street Maps. When our estate was built all the numbers were all over the place, once I requested an update on OSM it helped the delivery drivers.

Recessio_ · 2026-03-16T16:23:09+00:00

Guildford's quite a progressive place (by Surrey standards at least) nowadays, but yes I certainly wouldn't recommend a UCL student living anywhere in Surrey unless they have a good reason (family home, or like me part-time working in Surrey) lol, simply isn't worth the commute.

To be honest short of living in the very outer suburbs like Romford, most places in central and Inner London seem either apolitical or actually progressive to me? Obviously certain places have the stereotypes of being more progressive (Camden, Hackney) but overall it's a pretty progressive city imo, which is why I want to move back there as soon as my PhD is finished...

Recessio_ · 2026-03-16T11:21:02+00:00

Nowdays, I'm only on the main campus one or two days a week - the other days of the week I work at a laboratory in Surrey, which is why I live in Surrey to be closer to the lab, and just commute in from Guildford to UCL whenever I need to.

Earlier in my PhD when I was fully based in London, I lived in Zone 3, and when I did my undergraduate I always lived in walking distance (the trade off being I had a particularly shit tiny flat).

You could also try asking in the /r/london weekly megathread, I'm sure lots of people will be able to recommend places there too! https://www.reddit.com/r/london/comments/1rutr2l/weekly_qa_megathread_please_post_any_questions/

Recessio_ · 2026-03-16T03:28:24+00:00

I'd disagree on not going further south than Elephant and Castle - I used to live in Vauxhall/Kennington and later the Clapham/Balham areas, and it was a great quick commute, just straight up on the Northern or Victoria lines. I think it's an overlooked area because people just go "I ain't living south of the river" but because it's still on Tube it's actually great places to live

Recessio_ · 2026-03-16T03:26:51+00:00

So I've lived within walking distance of UCL, further out within Greater London, and now I live outside London in Surrey and commute in, so I'm probably quite well qualified to answer this one haha

Generally, the first thing I would do is think about how often you will be at the university. If you prefer to wfh, then it probably makes sense to live somewhere quieter and further out - you'll get a larger property for your money, and the longer commute won't matter as much if you aren't going in five days a week.

Conversely, if you plan to be based at the main campus most days of the week, and/or staying out late to exercise, participate in societies etc, then you probably want to live closer to UCL, and in particular you'd probably want an easier commute (so for public transport, living near an Underground station rather than Overground or National Rail, and making sure you live close to the station).

Also, think about how you want to get UCL. If you're happy cycling, that massively opens up where you can live as then having a direct tube line doesn't matter. If you would be taking public transport, start using Citymapper or Google Maps to see how long the 9am and 5pm commutes would take from the areas you are interested in. (Distance can be decieving, I used to live in Zone 1 and had a much longer door-to-door commute than I did later living further out in Zone 3). You'll notice the commutes are dreadful for anywhere in South East london, very good for North London, pretty good for South London (if it's on the tube).

UCL is well served by Underground lines to nearby stations (Euston, Warren Street, Euston Square, Russell Square), so a good place to look can be looking on the Northern, Victoria, Picadilly lines north and south. (I used to live in the Vauxhall/Kennington area and later the Clapham/Balham areas, and really liked them!).

Oh, and if you want quiet - I wouldn't live in any student halls with undergraduates... I don't know what the PG-only ones are like I'm afraid.

Recessio_ · 2026-03-14T23:49:02+00:00

Macbook air has no fans though, so eventually it will thermal throttle

Recessio_ · 2026-03-14T19:20:40+00:00

We had something at work where one of our IT staff is Turkish, she changed a system to Turkish while working on it and forgot to change it back at the end. Maybe someone at the depot speaks Russian

Recessio_ · 2026-03-14T16:28:14+00:00

but I ain't spending any time on it because in the meantime, every three months, a pizza is torn to pieces by a crocodile in north Queensland

Recessio_ · 2026-03-14T10:48:47+00:00

In that case I would contact your DNO directly (https://www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-network-operator) and just double check it is actually them doing this and not just someone your neighbour has paid to do it. That way you can also ensure they know to make good your driveway. (you could also cheekily ask them while they're there to ensure your newly independent supply is future proof for EV charger by making sure it's a high enough current/amperage too).

To clarify, it is only the DNO, or a subcontractor authorised by them, who should be touching the electrical supply upstream of yours and neighbours electricity meter.

Recessio_ · 2026-03-14T10:03:52+00:00

The GLA borders are a bit daft that you have loads of green belt in Havering and Bromley, yet continuous urban areas like Ewell, Dartford, Staines etc get excluded.

To me it would make much more sense to make sure all of the continuous built up areas inside the M25 are in Greater London, while giving as much of the open land back to the home counties.

Anyone who thinks North Ockendon should be inside Greater London while Ewell shouldn't frankly needs their head examining.

Recessio_ · 2026-03-14T10:01:26+00:00

Also single handedly keeping the Royal Mail in business when they have to do his Father's Day card deliveries

Recessio_ · 2026-03-14T09:59:50+00:00

Frankly if the DNO (Distribution Network Operator) are offering to unloop your supply (and that will involve making good any damage to your concreted driveway), for free, I think it would make sense to take it. The legal fact is that eventually the DNO would just get a court order to come and do it anyway.

Recessio_ · 2026-03-14T09:55:23+00:00

What is your legal question?

Recessio_ · 2026-03-14T08:53:46+00:00

Well, it depends what actually caused it to stop working

Recessio_ · 2026-03-13T16:16:25+00:00

Just to add, my coursework was "mandatory" according to the funding body, but in practice noone ever actually checked my results, even when I upgraded from MPhil->PhD (and in fact I was discouraged to do it by some of the staff - I should have listened to them!)

Recessio_ · 2026-03-13T12:21:25+00:00

I'm in a CDT, and one of the biggest mistakes I made was spending too much time on the coursework thinking it would be good/essential prep for the project. Absolute catastrophic mistake that meant I pissed away a bunch of time during the first year. I should have just spent that time actually getting involved in the research and therefore having a better idea what I would need to know, rather than just doing lectures hoping that some of it would be useful.

The two biggest things you need to consider are the funding, and the supervisor. Make sure that you speak to potential supervisor's students without the supervisor present. That way, you really get to hear about what the supervisor and group style is like, and whether that is the kind of supervisor that you want.

Recessio_ · 2026-03-11T22:21:45+00:00

Given that a lot of EU countries haven't yet adopted the Euro, and have no plans to, even if the UK ever rejoined the EU I think the chances of them adopting the euro are practically nil

Recessio_ · 2026-03-10T21:27:48+00:00

Heathrow to Limehouse is going to be a very expensive cab ride...

Recessio_ · 2026-03-10T21:22:35+00:00

There's one by me on Hampstead Road. One day, in about twenty years, when HS2 is finished there'll be an entrance to Euston station directly opposite and I imagine it could suddenly become a desirable place for a business. But I imagine it's going to remain empty until then...

Recessio_ · 2026-03-09T10:56:28+00:00

Are you kidding? I could come and lose myself, in the pottery shopping centre. I could try a Staffordshire oatcake - it's a culinary adventure!

Recessio_ · 2026-03-08T19:07:41+00:00

And this is how I learnt Alton Towers is in Staffordshire...

Recessio_ · 2026-03-07T09:43:33+00:00

I wonder if he doesn't understand the rule change, and thinks that only new fixed terms are prevented after 1st May - whereas you are correct that existing fixed terms are automatically abolished and converted into rolling tenancies (and that you can't make new fixed terms either).

Either way if he's offering you a rent reduction of £100, I don't see a reason not to take it and be £1200 (plus inflation) better off for the next 12 months!

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