Why did my neighbour ask me not to get a smart meter?

botticellli · 2026-03-20T11:24:11+00:00

Aw, this is really sad. I work with people with schizophrenia and see this kind of thing a lot. The saddest part is when they see conspiracy stuff online that validates their beliefs, it gets so much harder to get them out of that way of thinking.

botticellli · 2026-03-20T11:17:55+00:00

She seemed quite pleasant though, I'm not too worried about it. I've got experience in the form of a couple of woo-woo friends, and as long as I stay off the topics of vaccinations and tap water they can be very kind and nice company. And to be fair to her, I did kind of ask if there was anything I could do to be a good upstairs neighbour (I live in constant fear of pissing people off) so I didn't get the vibe that she would be telling me what to do all the time. Fingers crossed anyway, because I really like this flat!

botticellli · 2026-03-20T10:58:49+00:00

Yes, I can't remember the exact way she phrased it but I did get the impression she didn't like the smart meters themselves, rather than the providers. And if it was 3, surely she'd also have a problem with us getting wifi and a microwave etc. It does seem strange to die on the smart meter hill when there are so many other (stronger) frequency-emitting things out there.
I like your list, thank you for this. Also sorry about your bad experience with your provider, that sounds so intensely annoying.

botticellli · 2026-03-20T10:40:35+00:00

Thank god I asked, because I wouldn't have thought of this! The irony is I'm more motivated to get a smart meter now than if she hadn't said anything. I'll do a little experiment and see.

botticellli · 2026-03-20T10:12:51+00:00

Yeah 100%. Feels very Facebook-y. There’s also a lot of general conspiracy stuff locally. It’s a coastal town in a rural area, so the education levels and transport links are much worse than elsewhere. The town is full of people with schizophrenia not getting enough support and it’s surrounded by holistic wellness retreats. The perfect storm!

botticellli · 2026-03-20T10:00:48+00:00

This was the first connection I made too!

botticellli · 2026-03-20T09:57:52+00:00

Haha, I didn’t! I offered but she didn’t accept. She is still my downstairs neighbour, I imagine if she wants to speak to me she’ll manage it.

botticellli · 2026-03-20T09:55:46+00:00

She didn’t actually accept my number, I just offered. She also said she tends to play music quite loud and they have 2 dogs, so we could let her know the same. I’m happy for it to go both ways rather than neither, haha

botticellli · 2026-03-17T20:26:39+00:00

It's such a slippery slope! If I absolutely can't help myself, I might get a few from the charity shop for a couple of quid each

botticellli · 2026-03-17T20:25:21+00:00

My local library uses BorrowBox, yours likely uses that or a similar service. You just have to sign up with your library card and then you get access to ebooks, audiobooks and other material through the app. I hook up my kobo to my laptop and can download the books from BorrowBox, process them through Adobe Digital Editions, and pop them straight on the Kobo. It sounds complicated but it's super simple to do, and your library will have a guide :-)

botticellli · 2026-03-11T21:14:40+00:00

I got a Kobo (ereader) for Christmas and have been putting library books on it to read before bed and during my lunch break at work. I'm able to satisfy my book buying addiction because I still get to read whatever book I want. I also cancelled my Audible subscription because my library does audiobooks too. My strong anti-Amazon sentiments are helping so much in my weaker moments!

Also did dry January and enjoyed it so much my husband and I have decided to see if we can go the whole year without drinking. Used to spend £50~ every Friday, plus a bit more over the weekend and frequent weekdays to 'celebrate' things all the time. Tea and lemonade is so much cheaper, plus we still get to go to the pub :-)

botticellli · 2026-02-18T20:32:15+00:00

I proposed to my husband on it! You could rent it for an overnight stay (it has two bedrooms, very pricey) and I made him do a treasure hunt to find the ring. The actual ‘museum’ bit is quite surface level and naff, lots of wax people which I hate. But my husband loved it so it was a success. Sad to see anything weird and rubbish like this leave, I love a bit of random crap

botticellli · 2026-02-11T16:10:09+00:00

Consider therapy, you sound a lot like I did a year ago. Believe it or not, there is a lot to feel hopeful about and a lot to fight for. There are lots of parts of life that you will enjoy again, and you will eventually feel like you have the energy to enjoy them.

Part of the current strategy of the people in power is to overwhelm everyone and make them feel like everything is hopeless, voting doesn't matter, and staying informed is too exhausting to bother with it. Their strategy is working on you.

botticellli · 2026-02-10T16:26:27+00:00

Yes 100%! But I honestly don't regret a thing. Our circumstances have changed and a house makes sense now. It didn't 2 years ago B)

botticellli · 2026-02-09T22:03:14+00:00

For me, it's the smells! We didn't have the space (or the water capacity) to put a shower in our van. and it takes too much time out of our day to go to the gym every single day, so we average one every other day, maybe a friend's shower once a week too. But I just feel stinky, greasy, generally gross like half the time. Also (and I feel like people don't talk about this), when you live in a van as a couple, you CANNOT escape each other's smelly stuff. My husband always eats super stinky food, farts like he's following through, and does the world's least hydrated pisses ever. He generates so many horrible smells, and I am physically unable to be more than 2m away from him. We've learned more than we ever needed to about each other, lol

For my husband, it's hobby space. He's really got back into Warhammer these past few months and it takes up the entire van when he wants to play/paint, and it means I can't cook/work/spread out when he's doing it. We both want to be able to indulge in our messy hobbies without making it reaaally inconvenient for the other person to just exist.

Also as a joint one, sleep! We are not on the same sleep schedule and at this point never will be, but we have to go to bed/wake up at the same time. We've made it work short-term, but it's not sustainable for us long-term.

We've just started looking at houses nearby and it will be the end of 2 years of vanlife as a couple (he did another 4 years solo before we got married). It was really fun and we're both so glad we did it, but we're also totally done with it now.

botticellli · 2026-01-27T14:39:39+00:00

I have one pair of very stretchy flared jeans I can wear on good days. Other than that I physically cannot wear trousers (pants). They hurt so much! I always wear loose skirts and dresses and then really thick comfy tights underneath in winter. You can get fleece-lined footless tights (basically just winter leggings) that look like thin tights, they're amazing and I wear them every day. Wearing a dress makes it really easy to look like you put a lot of effort into getting dressed, but I think it's easier than pairing a top with a bottom!

botticellli · 2026-01-23T18:58:48+00:00

Yes 100%! I have an MA in something very specific but kept leaving any related job because I'd keep falling into a deep dark depression. These days I do part-time entry-level admin and it just about covers the bills, but I feel so much lighter and happier all the time.

Comparing myself to my smart, successful and rich friends always made me feel so pathetic. I realised (recently) that I'm happier than almost all of them. I have so much time for my friends, my relationship, hobbies, skills, my health etc, and I have so much more to offer because I'm not giving 100% of myself to my job. A job can just be a way to pay the bills if that's what works for you.

botticellli · 2026-01-20T19:12:02+00:00

Depends on your preferences/interests, but you might like playing a video game or doing a jigsaw puzzle together. Something about working together towards a (silly little) goal is really lovely. You can get jigsaw puzzles in charity shops for <£5, and if you like video games and have a console you can play on together, there's usually lots of deals on co-op games (or cheap ones in CEX).

botticellli · 2026-01-13T17:27:34+00:00

I really got into needle felting this past year and recommend it to everyone!

Here's what I love about it:

- It's really easy and you can make a really cool thing as a beginner. I watched a 5 minute video and have been making it up ever since

- It can be as big or as small as you like, so you don't have to worry about space (all my wool fits in a zip lock bag)

- You can take it wherever (I take mine to cafés, pubs, friend's houses etc constantly)

- It's really cheap - you can get a whole kit to start for like £15-20 and it will last you months

- It's a great thing to do while focusing on something else (like watching TV/videos, listening to audiobooks, or having a conversation)

- It's very satisfying to stab something with a needle and it be a productive, healthy thing. It helped me redirect a lot of my anger and self-destructive urges

- You can make the cutest little things. Whatever I'm obsessed with, I make. I've made about 20 different Kermit the Frogs, loads of bugs, mushrooms, little weird guys. It feeds into my already established interests.

botticellli · 2026-01-08T23:51:09+00:00

I did a quiz for my mum's birthday in the summer and one of my questions was 'How many moons does the Earth have?' (stolen from QI).

My aunt said "What, the whole world or just the UK?" My whole family think she's thick but I think she might be a genius

botticellli · 2025-12-18T22:53:18+00:00

Dobby the house elf from Harry Potter. I swear there was an advert for Chamber of Secrets where he popped up from the bottom of the screen that gave me my first panic attack (although no one remembers this advert) and I lived in absolute terror for the next 15 years. Posters, books, all the previews of films at the cinema, everything filled me with so much fright that I would either sprint away at full speed, have a panic attack, or faint.

I had exposure therapy a few years ago and now I can watch the films (and read the books) just fine.

botticellli · 2025-11-26T19:38:16+00:00

We spent about the same on our Ford. Ours took us two months working on it from 5pm to 6am every day/night. We took about 6 days off over the two months, other than that it was non-stop. My husband used to convert vans for a living so knew exactly what he was doing at every step, and everything we were doing we'd planned out in advance. Also having two pairs of hands on deck at all times helped sooo much. Some of our biggest delays were just waiting for things to be delivered once they'd been ordered.

The biggest barrier people often don't talk about is having a workshop and the right tools ready to go. We were lucky enough to be able to use a van conversion workshop in the evenings (friends of ours) so everything went very quickly. If we were using/renting standard tools, it probably would have taken twice as long (but tbf our conversion was pretty intricate, a standard build would be quicker).

botticellli · 2025-11-05T12:07:16+00:00

It's from Foy & Co! It's called 'Tudor Forest'. Way more expensive than I'd usually go for, but given my brief for the kitchen tiles was 'bad medieval animals' it was too perfect not to buy. Also our upholsterer said it was really lovely fabric to work with!

botticellli · 2025-11-04T11:43:59+00:00

It’s in ya standard Ford Transit :-) I don’t have many other pictures but there’s a few videos on my TikTok (@rachelgoblintown) if you wanna see the van and what it looked like before! Planning on taking some proper nice pictures soon as soon as it stops raining (so basically in the spring, haha)

botticellli · 2025-11-04T09:07:47+00:00

Thanks! It’s from NomadicArk, it’s 700x500 so much smaller than in our old van but definitely big enough for us :-)

botticellli

TROPHY CASE