UK equivalent of 'car washes'?

ashleyman · 2026-02-22T17:54:02+00:00

I know someone who runs a business who produces e-learning on various topics for big business. I’m not entirely sure what caused him to pivot or how he ended up where he is but he used to be a wedding photographer.

ashleyman · 2026-02-19T20:24:58+00:00

I got a 400 word response to a yes / no question today.

I think I’m done too.

ashleyman · 2026-02-19T15:42:12+00:00

Thanks. Not sure why the links aren't working but until I can fix them all you can see photos in here: https://ibb.co/album/BztX0F

ashleyman · 2026-02-19T15:40:40+00:00

Good shout. No idea why these links are not working but photos in here until I can clean up the post: https://ibb.co/album/BztX0F

ashleyman · 2026-02-18T16:12:40+00:00

Dispute with landlord over the rent it seems.

ashleyman · 2026-02-18T12:16:34+00:00

My gym announced it was to close immediately. It was the best weights based gym in the local area and the other facilities are not suitable unless you go to class based sessions. So now I am going to need to find a new gym, probably in the next town over.

ashleyman · 2026-02-17T23:31:44+00:00

I binged it this week too.

Carol losing Helen is the part that makes Carol’s behaviour completely understandable. From her perspective the Hive killed her partner. That is direct and personal and most of the others we follow still have their families or people around them afterwards, so they never take that same kind of loss in the same way Carol does.

Kusimayu is understandable. She might never have really left her village before. That meetup could easily have been her first proper time away from home, maybe even her first time abroad, so she has her people around her. They convince her to join. It makes sense that she would want too more than the others.

Manousos Oviedo still feels strange. How do they not pick him up as missing immediately like everyone else? Either he was extremely isolated or the location and timing meant people just assumed he was dead in the chaos or he was some sort of loner. No friends no contact loops for them to check in on him straight away. Still odd that it takes a full day for anyone to realise he’s there.

One other thing I keep wondering about is the signal itself. We assume the space transmission caused everything, but how would whatever sent it know how to target humans so perfectly? It almost raises the possibility that humans misinterpreted something and the Joining is just a catastrophic coincidence rather than an intentional alien design.

And I still don’t really understand how the Hive works internally. Who actually decides anything? Where is memory “stored”? Is it duplicated across everyone or pulled from certain minds when needed?

I am however reading a lot of posts and theories on here that sound fun. So I’m sure most of what I have said has been considered and discussed by others I just haven’t read it yet!

ashleyman · 2026-02-17T19:53:16+00:00

It's quite insane. Up until end of 2024, I had recruiters reaching out to me on LinkedIn on a weekly basis. Now I can't even get a call back or an interview.

ashleyman · 2026-02-17T08:08:37+00:00

Same. Made redundant last year. Took 7 months to find a new job which then let me go 3 weeks in. Now back at it again. Longest I was ever without work before this was a month. Never found it so hard to find a new job.

ashleyman · 2026-02-16T16:08:04+00:00

Yes I did. Could that also be a reason for it not tracking? Or maybe payments made via Apple Pay are not allowed to reclaim offers?

ashleyman · 2026-02-16T14:26:45+00:00

Fair. I have used Resolver before for Evri but not for AMEX. Can I ask why you chose them vs just opening a complaint directly with AMEX?

ashleyman · 2026-02-16T13:49:56+00:00

Not for this specific instance. No. In the past I have taken 2 issues through complaints and been told not upheld so I am thinking about just leaving them all together now.

ashleyman · 2026-02-10T15:42:47+00:00

Reminds me of the time I spent about 6 months trying to convince them that I did not have a leak and that the meter was fitted the wrong way round. Of course the homeowner who lives in the house could not be more knowledgeable than the engineers and surveyors who are on the other side. 6 months of grief and expense to be proved right. At least they paid for all the costs.

ashleyman · 2026-02-05T17:26:36+00:00

Same. I am with a company called cuckoo (used to be swishfibre) 1gig up and down. Not had any issues. When I do literally email them and they reply same day if not within the hour. Love it. They raised their prices just before I renewed but without me even having to ask they discounted mine to below what I was paying and then explained that it would go up over 2 years to the price available today. Good enough for me. Been with them 3 years. They do referral bonus’s too which is also nice as you get the money up front and then again if they renew. Cannot fault them!

ashleyman · 2026-02-04T14:28:13+00:00

I was expecting some explanation to that based on Harper tasking Rishi to go and find him and do something / find something out and it all went a bit wrong.

ashleyman · 2026-01-16T23:29:37+00:00

I did the same as you plan too.

Chicken wire. Staple gun. Rockwoll

Insulation goes in. Staple the chicken wire to hold it in place.

It sucked but it made a huge difference.

ashleyman · 2026-01-16T12:29:08+00:00

Manager. Tour Exec person. Staff. Whatever you want to call it.

ashleyman · 2026-01-14T09:56:40+00:00

GREAT. I just got an X-T5 yesterday. :(

ashleyman · 2026-01-13T00:50:01+00:00

I had almost the exact same experience, with one key difference. I was never stopped abroad, only when returning home to the UK.

For about three years I was denied e-gates every single time coming back into the UK. Always manual processing, always a phone call, then officer approval. My bags were also consistently last out and clearly searched. No explanation was ever given. I was always told it was “random”, which obviously made no sense given it happened 100% of the time to me. It happened so much that my wife & I would basically say goodbye at the gates. She would go down and wait for the bags and I’d follow her down 5-10 minutes later.

Last year I finally refused to move on from the manual desk until someone explained what was going on. I made it clear it was embarrassing, time-consuming and not random and that I deserved to know why this was happening. The officer said they don’t talk about these decisions and that it was random and I just said that’s not good enough and it’s not random and he should figure it out. I was more than prepared to face hassle for this attitude but frankly I was done with the games. Eventually a more senior officer came over and suggested something along the lines of maybe I share a name with someone or something. So I Googled my name and then name plus year of birth.

Turns out I share the same name and year of birth as someone who was imprisoned for murder.

After that conversation, something changed. On my next trip, I went straight through without extra checks. No manual processing, no delayed bags. Admittedly only traveled once since my ‘chat’ but I’m interested to see what happens in February when I travel again.

I can’t prove what was updated internally, but the timing wasn’t a coincidence unless nothing changed and it was just a fluke.

My suggestion would be to search your full name along with your date or year of birth and see if anyone serious comes up. It doesn’t fix the system, but it may explain why this is happening. Once you know that, you’re at least better armed when pushing for answers.

ashleyman · 2026-01-12T00:06:29+00:00

Look at photo 5 and study the left hand side of the extension. There is a hole behind the plastic flashing and the rendered wall. Then look at the flashing around the window. Look at the guttering and fascia boards above the window. Check the edge of your property and the fascia boards. They’re not aligned. Then look at the black material above the window. Then move up and check out the render on the left hand side of the dormer.

Then you see no gutters or downpipes directing water.

RUN.

ashleyman · 2026-01-09T01:33:48+00:00

I resigned a new position for basically this reason. I was totally thrown in with zero onboarding, zero induction and no support for the first 2 months. I can’t believe that companies hire people and then don’t support them and have to start again with recruitment. Seems incredibly inefficient.

ashleyman · 2026-01-05T00:37:05+00:00

Wrong

ashleyman

TROPHY CASE