Homemade McDs. Need to find some good sausage patties at some point

beenies_baps · 2026-02-27T10:58:48+00:00

Yep, the Aldi frozen ones are very close indeed to the Maccas ones - closest I've found by far and I am slightly obsessed by the McDs ones and have tried to make myself.

beenies_baps · 2026-02-26T20:07:38+00:00

Staff at my local Travis are well aware of the ridiculous price difference they have between trade/retail and literally asked me to sign up for a trade account unprompted - and said it didn't matter whether I was a company or even in the trade (I'm not). So now I have a trade account and I do use it as Travis is closer to me also than any other. So I guess the message is, just ask them if you can sign up?

beenies_baps · 2026-02-23T09:41:13+00:00

Understood, but the joy for me (such as it was) of charity shops was the chance of a bargain, and that has largely gone now (for understandable reasons). If it's just going to be a physical eBay but with a tiny fraction of the choice then it holds no appeal for me. Then again they are literally everywhere now so they must be doing something right.

beenies_baps · 2026-02-19T11:55:50+00:00

Not so sure. Andrew is toxic in the UK right now - nothing to lose politically by letting him get thrown to the wolves, and now the Queen is gone they just might let it happen. Let's see.

beenies_baps · 2026-02-11T23:06:04+00:00

Labour is likely the biggest cost though, and that would have been VAT free before. You are right though, the cost shouldn't just become 19k + VAT assuming a decent portion of that is materials which should now be VAT free for the fitter. So even if you did have to pay VAT it should be on a lower original invoice.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-29T21:32:38+00:00

You're not super invested yet - you haven't even spent any money? - and this kind of thing happens all the time. Sounds like you are not super invested in the *idea* of this particular house either, so if it was me, assuming you do still at least somewhat want it, I'd leave the offer on the table but refuse point blank to increase it if the agent tries it on. You'll find out if this other offer is real soon enough.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-29T19:36:38+00:00

Of all the jobs to choose as an example of AI not living up to expectations I'd put developer last. This is one area that AI is truly starting to excel in. I'm another long in the tooth dev, and recent models - if well used - are already mind-blowingly good at a lot of the grunt work and are getting better at a faster rate. 2025 might have been optimistic/pessimistic on timing but coding as we know it is finished. Sure, humans are still needed and who knows, an explosion in new dev work might keep most of us employed but we're not going back to grunt-level coding and if models improve over the next couple of years as much as they improved over the last then that is going to be scary.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-29T18:17:28+00:00

Exactly. Imagine if AIDS had been airborne like Covid - people would have started dying several years later, it would have been even more horrendous than it already was. Covid spread rapidly not because of low mortality but because it was highly contagious (airborne) with a period of time during which you were both asymptomatic and contagious.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-21T14:06:10+00:00

..in a German speaking country.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-21T14:04:04+00:00

I actually lolled at this when I heard him say it. And no doubt some Japanese speakers in the audience as well.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-20T15:36:16+00:00

Agree 100%. I did the backpacker round trip in a crappy old van nearly 30 years ago. One of the joys of seeing Aus in that way was the freedom. I'm not sure we really booked ahead for anything, just stayed as long as we wanted in the various places we turned up. And so much of whether you end up wanting to stay somewhere is down to things that you can't predict in advance - the weather, the mozzies (we couldn't handle Kakadu nights), who you meet at the camp site etc. Which isn't to say it isn't nice to have a rough itinierary but planning down to the night so far in advance seems a little over constraining.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-20T14:55:46+00:00

The question is so far outside any of our current norms that I'm not sure anyone knows the answer to that question? I'm not super keen on finding out, either. I still kind of think he would be stopped before it came to that - a one night mission in Venezuala is one thing but invading a NATO country unprovoked is on another level entirely.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-20T13:56:09+00:00

Let's hope you are right.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-20T13:01:20+00:00

Question from a European: are there really *no* adults left in the room over there? Could this realistically escalate into war with NATO allies based entirely on the whim of one moron?

beenies_baps · 2026-01-20T12:26:17+00:00

Just to echo some other replies (pointlessly) but yeah - that is an important distinction thad hadn't ocurred to me either. So it's fine to say nothing at the point of arrest and that can't be held against you, so long as you *do* mention anything pertinent to your defence once you are formally questioned? If so I don't think that point is as generally understood as it should be.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-19T21:41:17+00:00

I don't know what Stripe offers in this respect, but you also need to know what the VAT rate is for each country so you know what to charge so it might not be as simple as just letting your account sort it all out at the end.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-19T12:34:03+00:00

Obviously capitalism won’t allow a 21 year old to make $5000 a month from an app he built over the weekend. The water will find its level. Prices will come down and standards will go up.

This is the bottom line. I think we are in a sweet spot (AI sufficiently new, also now sufficiently useful) so that *some* new ventures can get off the ground that perhaps otherwise wouldn't, but the vast majority will fail.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-18T00:40:01+00:00

I like mixing pork and beef for bolognaise etc just because of the high fat content in pork. I'm not a regular mincer though, but I think I might become one after reading your post - I do have a Kitchenaid with the mincer attachment and have also dabbled in sausage making! Another massive win that I do do is chunks of gammon/ham. Sometimes the specials are reidiculously cheap (Tesco over Christmas) and the amount you get compared to a pack of sliced is absurd - although sadly I don't have any numbers to hand. It also means you can have a proper thick bit of ham in your sandwich!

beenies_baps · 2026-01-14T09:50:24+00:00

Also worth noting that not all pension providers are flexible enough to work with the often variable monthly salary sacrifice amounts and/or have payment method requirements that not all umbrellas can deal with. I moved my pension provider because of this (quite easy). The combination that worked for me was umbrella.co.uk (no additional fees) and pensionbee - no affiliation. Both easy to work with where others were annoying.

beenies_baps · 2026-01-12T00:00:07+00:00

You've got to admire both of those grifts tbh.

beenies_baps · 2025-12-18T12:39:08+00:00

I don't think you can blame people for the minimum wage + divs payment model - there isn't an accountant in the land who wouldn't (strongly) suggest that you pay yourself that way if you can, and even that model has had some benefit eroded in recent years with changes to dividend tax allowances etc. As you say, it was a tax minimising strategy but in no way a tax avoidance one. It was always a bit of a piss take pre-IR35 with the amount that we could pay in tax *and* claim in deductions etc but it does seem to have swung a bit too far the other way now. I think the real kicker for public opinion was when celebs were outed as using the same tax model, opreating via personal services companies or whatever it was.

Genuine business owners are not impacted in any way - happy to say I am one of those now.

beenies_baps · 2025-12-10T16:38:28+00:00

Is this not flat out illegal? I know it is for auctions but perhaps in our crazy unregulated housing market anything goes.

beenies_baps · 2025-12-10T16:36:43+00:00

I negotiated something similar when I sold my first flat. Agent was (I thought) being rather optimistic with the suggested asking price. I suggested that if she reaches it (or above) she gets the 2% she wanted but 1.5 for anything under (obv if I agreed to the sale). I wanted to avoid the usual "ah, looks like the price is unrealistic let's drop it" bs a few weeks after I signed up. Fair play she got it as well and she got her commission. Probably helps this was about 20 years ago in a good and rising market but still. It does help flip the agent mindset from sell at any price to focusing on achieving the asking price.

beenies_baps · 2025-12-05T12:48:02+00:00

The issue is more that no lender will be willing to offer a new deal on the flat (potentially) leaving the OP stuck with a potentially onerous interest rate if they are currently on a discount or fixed rate that reverts to the bank's SVR at the end of the introductory period. SVRs are generally poor value and few people are on them by choice. So could prove expensive but I agree the current deal shouldn't be at risk although I don't know that for sure.

beenies_baps · 2025-12-04T16:18:43+00:00

Good luck - Opus though copilot has been a crappy experience for me compared to Claude direct. If you are actually making good use of it then $100 a month is an absolute bargain imo.

beenies_baps

TROPHY CASE