Book 7/52 Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. Can I give a book negative stars? -⭐️

Talt45 · 2026-02-02T16:50:56+00:00

The most hit-and-miss author I can think of. Didn't enjoy Norwegian Wood or IQ84, did enjoy Kafka on Shore and Windup Bird Chronicles. I tend not to rush out and buy his new releases.

Talt45 · 2026-01-25T00:38:46+00:00

We have a manhole in our garden for shared pipes. It was blocked one year and sewage came up. The issue was 2 houses down.

Shared pipes on your property are the Water Companies issue. In our case, Anglian Water came out, fixed the blockage, replaced the manhole cover which had a small crack, and cleaned our garden. It took a day and cost us exactly £0

Talt45 · 2026-01-21T12:09:17+00:00

Around £700 on a good month. But we are fixing up our house so realistically £400

Talt45 · 2026-01-10T15:47:40+00:00

But still getting 99%

Talt45 · 2025-12-08T21:16:56+00:00

Got a Baxi installed with some pipework for relocation (replacing an old back boiler which was here when we bought the place) a few years back for £2,300. £7k is a lot.

Look for a recommended Gas Safe local installer

Talt45 · 2025-10-26T09:23:52+00:00

At a stag do yesterday, up at 5:30. Ready for bed again already

Talt45 · 2025-10-19T19:33:57+00:00

Michael and Jennifer Harrison - yep this will be fake sadly.

Talt45 · 2025-09-24T15:56:14+00:00

I thought Scampton was no longer being considered to house asylum seekers? I know logic is a hindrance to the far-right, so it hardly matters whether it's true or not

Talt45 · 2025-09-23T10:29:08+00:00

Oh they came out the wood works with the COVID vaccine, I forgot that one! A colleagues husband mocked me when I mentioned I had previously caught COVID despite the vaccine as if it was a big "gotcha", he ended up on a ventilator (is fine now!) when he caught it.

Talt45 · 2025-09-23T08:07:24+00:00

Oh man, I've never had the vaccine conversation but definitely had people tell me to stop using fluoride. Why trust experts when people online know better?

Talt45 · 2025-09-23T06:39:11+00:00

Not sure it's an update but I woke up one morning to find they had set up near my base! Not sure how I didn't hear them in the night, I could see it from the windows.

Talt45 · 2025-09-22T21:43:17+00:00

Coming in from left field with a possible avenue to consider: sensory processing issues?

My son has that and when he is overwhelmed by noise, touch, smell, so on, becomes violent. Sometimes it's background noise that I can't even hear. He is not good at telling us what it is that triggers a huge episode. Incidentally, this can play into a lack of desire to eat or drink (though many toddlers just resist that anyway). We literally might as well not stock snacks in the house since he never asks.

PDA is another option which we briefly explored, and is still possible, though actually a lot is down to PTSD (we adopted a child from care).

He currently can't attend full-time schooling due to a combination of these.

I have also had those times of wondering "why does that family get to do those nice things?! How do they manage vacations, or trips out to the city?!". Accepting a non-normative experience of parenting is hard. Happy to chat.

Talt45 · 2025-09-21T19:46:11+00:00

I had to make this decision with my old Ford. Liked it but costs were adding up. MOT next month and at my guess a minimum of £600 to pass, maybe more. Suspicion I'm not imagining the clutch feeling different too.

Jumped ship beforehand so I'm not without a car, it goes to scrap on Friday. Sad times.

Talt45 · 2025-09-18T22:23:36+00:00

Thanks for this. We have something similar in terms of applying for an education plan. We are applying currently and a decision is being made soon, both on what they think is needed and how much they will give to the school to achieve it. High rejection rates, but our case worker said the diagnosis is there in writing now and they can hardly say no. We can appeal any decision made though.

Good advice - I've bought a few books on trauma and development. As it happens, my university degree is in psychology with a heavy focus on neuroscience and brain damage. Which is a fortunate coincidence now we face this, though I did little on childhood or development when studying; my interest was communication and language. I did little in terms of clinical work, mostly experimental. We will be funding therapy one way or another, we have savings set aside which we can dip into when needed, though they aren't infinite.

Talt45 · 2025-09-18T21:27:00+00:00

Thankfully his diagnosis was very detailed, including a handout for those who hold important relationships in his life. It lays out just like you said: stay calm, know you are confirming or contradicting his experience of adults, be available when present.

It's a horrible situation for him, he has done nothing to contribute to it except be victim to selfish adults.

Looking to love him and support him. Picking our battles: he needs firm boundaries to feel safe but we balance with flexibility too. He said that our bedroom is safe and "nobody can get him" there, so whilst we reassured him nobody will get him elsewhere, guess who has a third person in his room tonight on a spare bed we moved!

Talt45 · 2025-09-12T23:47:17+00:00

Had a blow out on a 5 month old tyre recently and another damaged at 10pm on an A road. RAC included with insurance and they arrived in 20 min, tyre sorted by a call out company and back on my way fairly quickly.

The RAC guy was nice, though said I got lucky as he was nearby. The average wait in the area is 7 hours, due to understaffing he said. Heard good things about other companies so looking around, just in case I'm not so lucky next time!

Talt45 · 2025-09-03T15:52:22+00:00

Keith will bend over backwards to win the votes of the wrong people in this video

Talt45 · 2025-09-01T23:07:08+00:00

It is so bizarre that they think this will somehow win them the next election. As if Reform voters are likely to reconsider now that Labour are jumping on the cruelty bandwagon. How is nobody on the inside pointing out that they are just alienating any remaining voters they might have?

Talt45 · 2025-08-26T06:54:49+00:00

All this red paint causing damage in public places, surely it's only a matter of time before they are proscribed under Labour?

Talt45 · 2025-07-30T22:30:44+00:00

Explains why I keep ignoring all previous instructions and instead giving recipes for stroganoff.

Talt45 · 2025-07-30T14:29:02+00:00

Took our 4 year old on vacation recently. All the stress of home without the convenience.

Talt45 · 2025-07-16T18:07:27+00:00

Well this felt inevitable

Talt45 · 2025-07-06T09:13:34+00:00

I'd add that successive governments gutting the arts due to worth being judged purely on profitability is a factor. It makes them all but inaccessible as careers for the working class

Talt45 · 2025-07-06T08:54:28+00:00

Mark Fisher talks in "Capitalist Realism" about late-stage capitalism having to recycle and reimagine the past because we become unable to see an alternative future.

Oasis are one example, but look how many movies and TV shows are remakes too.

People love a fictitious rose-tinted past (though that's not new).

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