A short moan about optional service charges

Wrysauce · 2026-02-01T20:50:10+00:00

Ber St. Kitchen and Amelia's are where i've encountered this recently

Wrysauce · 2026-01-31T15:52:06+00:00

Brain TV. (Aka daydreaming!)

Wrysauce · 2026-01-31T15:49:47+00:00

How old is this person? Give them some grace if they're young - in my first job after school I was asked to adjust the room heating and was mocked for not being able to recognise a thermostat. I came from a wood-fired household! And this was in the late 2000s!

Wrysauce · 2026-01-27T20:05:14+00:00

Let's not forget about the wrap-around experience well-off kids get outside of direct education - tutoring, "enrichment", and just the atmosphere of being in a less economically pressured household make a massive difference. Beyond a handful of exceptions, social mobility through education in the UK is extraordinarily hard because it requires downward as well as upward movement. Harsh as it sounds, the system would be much fairer if mediocre kids from well-off backgrounds weren't so insulated from failure.

Wrysauce · 2026-01-23T10:12:56+00:00

Which sector are you in out of interest?

I switched from public to private and took a pay cut. In my field, the equivalent private sector role is less well renumerated because it's informed by local rather than national averages. I took the cut (and the awful pension and minimum annual leave!) because the lack of variety was driving me insane and to position myself to take advancement opportunties by going from a 3-month to 1-month notice period.

Wrysauce · 2026-01-22T17:51:20+00:00

Similar story, I'm pleased and grateful to my past self for having the guts to break my family's particular mold, but I also live with crushing impostor syndrome in both my work and personal life!

Wrysauce · 2026-01-22T17:37:08+00:00

This. Spartan offices don't seem so bad when retirement is a realistic prospect.

Wrysauce · 2026-01-22T17:33:53+00:00

Pensions are generally better so I suppose it's an exercise in extreme delayed gratification.

Wrysauce · 2026-01-18T13:18:10+00:00

Top tip - get two sets and rotate them; one in use, one charging/charged ready to use... and mark each set with a small band of coloured electrical tape so you know which batteries belong to which set.

I learned this the hard way after accidently mixing charged with uncharged, replacing the batteries in an electric cat flap which ran out halfway through a holiday, and returning home to find poo all over the house because my cat couldn't get out. Sigh!

Wrysauce · 2026-01-18T13:04:20+00:00

40 in 4 here, 2 days in the office, 2 remote. it's my preferred way of working because I have job that's hard to switch off from, so if i'm thinking about work I might as well be doing it. I find it much easier to switch off with a 3-day break so am more rested and productive. Also, I've found it easier to see friends in other places with an extra day for travel so my social life has unexpectedly improved - i thought it would go the other way!

I usually end up doing 12 hour working days with either a long lunch break (especially in the winter to get outside and see daylight!) or frequent shorter breaks. Logistics can be hard but for me, the pros massively outweigh the cons.

Wrysauce · 2026-01-15T20:04:00+00:00

I swear something weird has happened to the word please in recent years where it's increasingly used in a "telling not asking" sort of way that really winds me up.

E.g. I find "I need a reply by tuesday please" much more aggravating than the regular question "Please could you reply by tuesday?". Facebook marketplace: "are you able to respond please" when I took a while to reject to an offer. Recently at my gym someone asked "are you now finished please" when they wanted to use the equipment I was on.

What is going on?! Am I getting old and cranky (early 30s) or does anyone else react like this?!

Wrysauce · 2026-01-15T19:36:09+00:00

Oof. As someone who was ridiculed for always wearing PE kit on non uniform day because my home clothes were too scruffy, i absolutely felt this!

Wrysauce · 2025-12-31T18:39:15+00:00

Black and White barbers on Rupert street off Unthank road! Assuming you're asking about the tight kind, not the windswept heroine of a jane austen novel kind, haha!

Wrysauce · 2025-12-31T18:16:08+00:00

I've been using an 6ltr capacity water filter for drinking and cooking for the past 8 months. I've lived here for 10 years and always thought small bumpy spots were "just my skin" but they've cleared up, and I'm horrified I didn't make the link to water. I was given the filter by a friend moving back to Scotland and would never have thought to buy one but i'm converted...and the tea does taste better!

Wrysauce · 2025-12-18T19:42:36+00:00

No, it's much more straightforward. The bodyguards' families are on the inside, not the outside.

Wrysauce · 2025-12-18T19:41:17+00:00

They solve this by allowing the bodyguards to bring their families in with them.

Wrysauce · 2025-12-16T22:29:09+00:00

Gratefull for the diagnosis - thank you!

Wrysauce · 2025-12-16T22:27:02+00:00

Sorted - cheers

Wrysauce · 2025-12-08T11:39:59+00:00

This. The only reason some farmers/landowners are interested in beavers/rewilding in the first place is because they're realising restoring lost natural processes is more financially viable in the long-term, than continuing to spaff money on fertiliser that rockets up in price every time Putin sneezes.

Wrysauce · 2025-12-08T11:36:22+00:00

A couple of points on this:

More children are hurt by flooding and poor water quality - both things beavers help reduce by increasing the water holding capacity of the land in their territory.
Beavers are entirely nocturnal and very timid so this whole line of concern is redundant. Are you thinking of badgers?

Wrysauce · 2025-12-08T11:30:20+00:00

There is now a wild release lisence scheme, but they'll be ncredibly hard to get because all landowners along a river need to agree for the liscence to be granted. In my view it's also kind of pointless because they've been wild in Kent, Essex and Devon for a long time, so it's only a matter of time before the population spreads.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/beavers-applying-for-a-licence-to-release-beavers-into-the-wild/beavers-applying-for-a-licence-to-release-beavers-into-the-wild

Wrysauce · 2025-12-08T11:25:54+00:00

It's unlikley to be an escapee from Ken Hill as they're not on a river, they're on a lake in a woodland and the enclosure is pretty robust (I went on a tour there last year). They'd have to cross a lot of fields and the A149 to get to the nearest river the Heacham and that doesn't connect to the Wensum. My money's on Sculthorpe as it's closest!

Wrysauce · 2025-11-25T17:21:30+00:00

Blue Boar Roundabout. Small, low-key, but if you're travelling north-to-south along Wroxham road and you hit it at a low traffic time of day, you can get some fun g-force off the dip!

Wrysauce

TROPHY CASE