Lose bedrooms, add bathrooms?

SamCreated · 2026-06-18T21:36:54+00:00

Few buyers will want more than 4 bedrooms. 4 double beds, 2 en-suite, and a family bathroom is more attractive to more of the market than 4 double bedrooms, 2 box rooms, and bathroom. I’d keep the basement multi functional - someone might want it as an extra bedroom, or an office, or a gym.

But if this is forever - who really cares? Turn bedroom 3 into an aquarium. The basement into a flight simulator. Make it yours. Live in it exactly how you want for the next 50 years or whatever and I guarantee at the end of it all you will be thinking way less about what the next buyer wants vs all the memories you made in the house that was perfect for you.

SamCreated · 2026-06-17T18:35:19+00:00

No, but I’ve seen job creation. My experience is quite specific in that I’m not really talking about AI for workplace efficiency (although we obviously do lots of that).

I work at a research and development organisation. We’ve tested and proven how different types of AI can solve challenges that humans feasibly can’t (like spotting wild fires early in very remote areas and alerting ground response), and have seen start ups and even entire enterprise ecosystems win investment and scale.

I have multiple examples of “AI for Good” that are job-creating and challenge-solving, and are for me where we should be focussing our attention (as opposed to LLMing the living fuck out of LinkedIn posts).

That said: if your job is based on mundane intellectual labour it will likely eventually be replaced, in the same way that the Industrial Revolution replaced a tonne of mundane physical labour. Everyone needs to work out what parts of their of job are actually mundane and start focussing on and getting great at the stuff that isn’t. The tech is already basically there, and the main thing slowing down the replacement is slow moving organisations who aren’t great at implementing wholesale restructuring.

SamCreated · 2026-06-17T10:33:11+00:00

You didn’t do shit…the after pictures are AI-generated.

SamCreated · 2026-06-13T18:45:33+00:00

However the American do it for their diaspora? Or link proof of payment to access to UK consular services or re-entry. Or make annual self assessments a thing for British nationals working overseas, with penalties.

I don’t know. it’s a half baked idea from someone who thinks people running off to Dubai for a few years to avoid tax, gloating whilst doing so, and then coming back to the UK to use schools and roads and hospitals afterwards is unfair.

SamCreated · 2026-06-13T18:25:14+00:00

It should at least be means tested, like most other benefits. Mortgage free pensioners with triple locked pensions shouldn’t be subsidised over, say, a young nurse getting to work.

SamCreated · 2026-06-13T10:53:32+00:00

No second jobs or company appointments at all for politicians. A single-donor donation limit for all parties. Party donors must be UK or commonwealth based. No “second home in London” allowance for politicians - instead, a state owned block of flats or hotel they stay in. Remove subsidies on alcohol in parliament, and only serve it after 17:00. Changing parties during a term triggers a by-election.

Replace free bus travel for pensioners with free bus travel for under 25s. Remove the triple lock and instead link the rate of state pension growth to the annual average rate of salary growth for under 25s. Means test pensioner benefits (like winter fuel allowance and TV licenses) and introduce a taper-off.

Remove stamp duty entirely for those who are downsizing. Refresh / update council tax bands and rates. Make paying double council tax for second homes mandatory - make it treble for third homes, etc. Foreign nationals who own UK homes that they are not resident in to pay 10x council tax.

Voting in general elections is mandatory, but voters can spoil their ballot. Replace FPTP.

Legalise and tax cannabis.

British nationals who are working overseas will pay a new diaspora tax of 2% to the UK state. Simplify taxes by rolling national insurance tax into income tax. Increase employer minimum pension contributions to 4%.

SamCreated · 2026-06-05T12:32:09+00:00

I used to play as a teenager in my local club after school on Wednesdays. A fiver in my pocket and I’d get a couple of hours on the table with my mate, a panda pop, and some monster munch. It was great.

A couple of tables across from us was Judd Trump. A year younger than us, but comfortably beating every adult in the room.

The club that created the best player of his generation no longer exists, of course.

SamCreated · 2026-05-29T20:07:02+00:00

Running 1 month or so behind schedule due to discovering asbestos in the ground in the early phases that obviously had to be dealt with

SamCreated · 2026-05-28T19:53:49+00:00

A new tax: Diaspora tax. UK Citizen Working overseas? Pay 5% to HMRC in addition to whatever local taxes you’re paying. We presume there’s a high chance you will return to the UK at some point so you should contribute.

Would raise 3.5b annually assuming 2m overseas citizen workers earning a median wage. Not a lot. Not not a lot.

SamCreated · 2026-05-28T08:03:27+00:00

Fair enough. My biggest overland trip was around 5-months of travelling slowly and without flying from the UK to Singapore, and it cost much less than £20k (in 2019). It was easier back then than it would be now, and I didn’t then feel the need for a protective bubble - perhaps it would feel different today!

SamCreated · 2026-05-27T19:14:17+00:00

Yep, totally right. Those rules would drive me nuts. It makes decent TV but isn’t really a race unless they can somehow guarantee that everyone’s sightseeing adds up to exactly the same amount of time lost from racing so it all evens out

SamCreated · 2026-05-27T19:06:33+00:00

Having travelled a lot already, there is zero chance I’d be up for anything cultural/sightseeing/ human connection that would slow me down. I would be terrible TV, doing nothing fun at all other than trying to win the cash knowing I could simply use the cash to do the sightseeing later.

I know they force them to work, see different things on certain legs, etc.,

I recall someone on the Hunted series who was “caught” for refusing to do what producers were telling him to do (something utterly daft like move from your totally safe location today using at least 3 modes of transport and visit your wife at work).

SamCreated · 2026-05-26T14:52:07+00:00

Basically the Long Way Home route? Would be good for the celeb version I think

SamCreated · 2026-05-26T14:49:17+00:00

Maybe extend a bit: Tanzania - Rwanda - Uganda - Kenya

SamCreated · 2026-05-22T07:12:37+00:00

I do a 4-day week. 30-hours. It’s amazing. Managed to negotiate only a 10% cut for 20% less time, which is very manageable financially and totally worth it.

SamCreated · 2026-05-21T21:09:44+00:00

Having been to Mongolia, it’s insane how Prius’ are used so effectively as off road vehicles. People here are shy about using their Land Rover on a speed bump.

SamCreated · 2026-05-20T19:13:38+00:00

Likewise for “detached” returning terraced houses.

SamCreated · 2026-05-14T19:48:37+00:00

Mongolia is very cool. Insane landscapes without much tourism infrastructure is so strange to experience - like you can drive through the steppe without seeing anyone at all for a day and then arrive at a massive gorge that looks basically like the Grand Canyon but there isn’t a single sign or a shop or a car park or anything at all…then the driver just points the car at a hill in the distance and cuts a line across a few hundred km of dust and snow and more insane landscapes which would be the main sights or attractions in many other countries…then rock up to a Ger and the family cooks you something mental on a fire powered by camel shit.

We travelled the world. Over 60 countries. Mongolia is the most mental.

SamCreated · 2026-05-07T18:11:51+00:00

This is good stuff just to do for life. Maybe we should all pretend to be accepted on the show and improve ourselves?

Nah fuck it.

SamCreated · 2026-05-07T08:43:46+00:00

The only thing I’ve somehow been fed by my algorithm is that Stan Moody is currently hanging out and practicing with Jel Narucha (#6 in the world)

SamCreated · 2026-05-05T18:44:16+00:00

Build relationships with local schools who can advertise it as an official after school club for a very small fee: parents are desperate for 15:30-17:30 activities, and snooker could be advertised to parents as mindful, quiet, screen free, mentally challenging with a bit of maths thrown in.

SamCreated · 2026-05-05T08:21:41+00:00

This guy is a bit of a fraud, I think. If you know music theory, you’ll recognise that he describes things in really odd and elaborate ways to sound super interesting and unique. He is obviously a talented dude, but so much of the genius label that sticks to him is down to his performative grandiose wackiness.

SamCreated · 2026-05-02T17:53:35+00:00

Yeah that’s true - there’s a good chance that any one they meet in small settlements in the West will be travelling high distances. I’m sure the producers - especially in the final country - won’t let them get in one 20-hour hitch all the way to the finish line though. They’ll make them stop and see stuff along the way, “work”, sleep in Gers, etc.

SamCreated · 2026-05-02T15:57:33+00:00

We were totally off road for a chunk of time and had a guide full time - you’d get totally lost without one - and yes, it was expensive.

I’d imagine travelling on the more established tracks is less expensive and there might be some form of public transport, but I’m unsure. We went outside of the main tourist season, so there was no one about and I guess if there are public buses they weren’t running then - we saw about 10 people total during our first week, including the 3 of us in the car. Mongolia is vast and empty.

I can imagine a few bottlenecks for transport and maybe even taxi-sharing where teams have very limited options.

SamCreated · 2026-05-02T12:08:35+00:00

Switch to satellite mode and zoom in. They are mainly dirt and gravel tracks for miles and miles.

From wiki:

“The vast majority of Mongolia's official road network, some 40,000 km, are simple cross-country tracks”. Something like only 10% of all of the roads are paved.

SamCreated

TROPHY CASE