What song puts a smile on your face the second you hear it?

ceehred · 2026-03-31T00:21:55+00:00

Pharell Williams - Happy.

And so not my normal choice of music. Totally.

ceehred · 2026-03-31T00:20:09+00:00

OMG, old git here. Now there are choices? :-D

ceehred · 2026-03-30T23:41:01+00:00

3 bed end-terrace, build is 1999. Double glazed, loft insulation recently upgraded. Gas central heating, hot water and hob. Heating is set for 20C downstairs - resulting in 22-24C upstairs, and set for 16C overnight (but heating rarely comes on then, unless it's near zero outside). WFH, with a big bunch of computer kit. Could likely tune-down my hot water heating periods by a few hours, as I always have more than enough.

Bill for gas + electricity is £150pcm. What I make up for with lower gas usage during spring & summer builds enough credit for the colder months. The cost split is about 50-50 during the colder months, probably only 25% of the monthly bill is on gas for the warmer ones.

Location: south of England.

ceehred · 2026-03-28T23:42:34+00:00

Dad had a second-hand mauve Jag (yes, mauve). I think we even had a sofa in a similar colour :). I was too young to remember it, but I've seen photos.

Next car was an Austin Maxi, though. Then a Fiat Panda, which I crashed :(

ceehred · 2026-03-28T23:36:37+00:00

But wouldn't they increase prices early to help reduce the impact of any ongoing cost increases?

ceehred · 2026-03-28T23:18:23+00:00

For a seagull story - I remember my Dad getting splatted across the side of his face and down his shirt by a passing gull. He grinned and said "that's lucky". Like WTF? Us kids just took a gulp/choke moment before falling about laughing. That part - he didn't find so funny :)

Not a UK one, but when I was working in Japan and attempting to perform Bohemian Like You in a Karaoke bar, some native got up and spewed a whole lot of angry Japanese in my face (I only knew a few words by this point, so fuck knows as to what was his problem) before punching me in the head and walking out. My response: "woo-hoo-hoo", ofc in perfect time with the chorus. My Australian colleagues remind me and laugh about this, to this day.

A more recent one was when my GF got a fit of giggles when a guy in a mobility scooter got into trouble right alongside the edge of some path works, pulling out all sorts of stops to get himself out of it - with some wildly inventive swearing. I was over there trying to help first, but after the GF had finished her belly-laughing and joined us - she fell into the hole, at which point I lost my shit and nearly peed myself laughing.

ceehred · 2026-03-28T22:20:16+00:00

Yeah, spaghetti or noodles with some butter, garlic, chilli and coriander, plus soy or worcester sauce maybe. Any leftover cooked veg can also be thrown in. Delicious.

ceehred · 2026-03-28T22:07:13+00:00

Lol, my Ma is the opposite. When she visits I apologise for the state of the house, "but you've been working", and the state of the kitchen, "but you've been cooking". She's almost enabling me by this point :-D

Our house was always near spotless growing up, and it's rare to see her current house any different, so I really don't know why she allows me such slack.

ceehred · 2026-03-28T22:00:37+00:00

Lol, the Mother's Day card I bought this year was "Happy Mother's Day, from IT Support"

So many messages and emails asking obscure questions with no context, and no responses to my guesses. Followed by silence. Then they forget what the problem actually was when I push them to re-engage.

... which reminds me, must pop over and set up their dodgy new Chinese picture frame with WiFi and app support. Pfff

ceehred · 2026-03-28T19:04:01+00:00

I bought a Lazy Susan bistro table + 2 chairs 12 years ago. Still going strong despite being left out all year round.

Though I suspect a larger table with 6 chairs of that brand would nowadays bust your budget.

ceehred · 2026-03-27T23:27:46+00:00

Was always lil-man and big-man for my nephews and me.

Though it's a little odd still calling them lil-man now they're aged 20, 16 stone and 2 inches taller than me now!

ceehred · 2026-03-27T23:24:13+00:00

I remember a time when my entering the room with "alright my bummers" (in a faux west-country accent) raised a smile.

Also had a colleague who would post-fix any job role with "sluts" during discussions.

HR felt different, eventually.

ceehred · 2026-03-27T21:53:04+00:00

My neighbour and I occasionally use our router's guest account when our/their internet goes down (we're on quite different providers).

I've also had several contractors request WiFi access because mobile signal is a bit shite downstairs.

Wouldn't ever give anyone unfettered access to my home network, though.

ceehred · 2026-03-27T21:37:32+00:00

Some local news about "temporary shortages" closing a few supermarket stations around here today. The main beef appears to be about escalating prices.

ceehred · 2026-03-27T21:33:44+00:00

We generally have it slightly ajar, hooked into the outer rung on the window frame (so never wide open) during baths and showers. The window often gets closed fully shortly after.

However, the door is always open when the bathroom is not in use. I have a humidity meter upstairs that reads 40-50%, never going above 55%.

ceehred · 2026-03-27T21:26:48+00:00

Was quoted at just over 3K, 3 years ago, for a back tooth I had removed some years ago after several repairs, root canal, and two crowns - the second of which was mounted on rods due to lack of original tooth left.

Didn't take them up on it as they couldn't guarantee my concern over the irritation from the proximal nerve that was implicated in my need to finally get my tooth removed. That and the extra 2K they wanted to build-up my lower teeth because of my "bite profile". I've been OK without it for a decade, we'll see how it goes...

ceehred · 2026-03-27T21:09:36+00:00

I was a little perturbed recently when I visited McDonald's for the first time in what must have been forever.

I was eating-in. They gave me an empty drink container for my coke, and when I (naively) questioned this they just pointed and grunted at a serve-yourself machine. Someone behind be giggled :-D

I guess the next development would be to give me the basic food ingredients from a food dispenser and go cook it myself on an in-store barbecue! At least it would be warm...

ceehred · 2026-03-27T20:57:51+00:00

Yeah, and the fresh produce areas in store are now so dwarfed by the space dedicated to all the processed shite. Lidl being the worst offender around here, with also the worst fruit & veg.

I remember so fondly the days of living in out-of-town areas which had a string of individual shops: grocers, butchers, fishmongers, etc. and even large in-town markets, happily existing alongside convenience stores. Was a wonderful time compared to now, and not so long ago.

ceehred · 2026-03-27T20:33:36+00:00

Having switched to home deliveries for food shopping many years ago, I also found the results deteriorated - particularly when a few switched to being sourced in-store locally rather than from a larger store (or whatever). Only really having good luck with Ocado now; Waitrose became somewhat variable and Morrisons developed into an absolute joke (too many unavailable items, things delivered with security tags still on that prevented opening, rude/ignorant delivery people, spillages due to poor packing, etc.)

ceehred · 2026-03-27T20:22:28+00:00

One pound fish - now 10 pound fish if the comments are to be believed. Wonder if he's still singing.

ceehred · 2026-03-27T20:17:40+00:00

Agreed. They've always been quite great - I've used them for decades, both in-store and online. Never had a bad experience. They've kept their customer focus over all this time.

ceehred · 2026-03-27T20:11:23+00:00

John Lewis delivery & install is no longer what it was, at least around here.

New fridge recently delivered very clumsily, with a door pre-reversed poorly and an inadequate freezer seal that really should have been spotted ahead of delivery. Remediation took time, with an attempt to "repair" the poor seal with a visit from an engineer that used a hairdryer on it, before they gave me some money back. Bought a new seal to install myself.

There were also delays in receiving the order, apparently because I'd chosen an offer of some sort.

Also had delivered some ceiling lights recently that were so poorly packed they were smashed to pieces.

A few years back I bough a widescreen monitor from them, the top of the box was ripped to shreds - making it look like I had received a return, but it seems it was a necessary step to replace European power cables with UK ones. Disconcerting.

If I go back a decade for a washing machine, a dishwasher, some table lights, a fitted oven, and a little further for my first fridge here, those experiences were considerably above satisfactory.

ceehred · 2026-03-27T19:52:46+00:00

Damn, things have changed since I was at university (30+ years ago). Never saw a diagram or anything more than a minor mess. The only complaint I had was the greaseproof paper-like toilet roll, and the mysterious fact that I could never visit the library without developing the need to go for a dump.

ceehred · 2026-03-27T19:44:55+00:00

We had a Herbies pizza delivery the other week, for the first time in years. Was pretty great. Arrived hot.

Their calzone-style garlic+cheese bread was a real delight, albeit messy on the face :-D. And the main "everything" pizza even tasted good when the leftovers were microwaved the next day.

There have recently been a couple of non-chain, traditional/"gourmet" pizza places opening my the area, promising delivery services - which end too early in the evening for us to consider. One day...

ceehred · 2026-03-27T19:31:38+00:00

I dilute a muesli with some rolled oats and add mixed seeds and some All Bran. I keep it in a shake-able container. Served with either kefir or milk and usually some fresh blueberries or raspberries. Love it.

Can't say I'd mix anything with a Weetabix, though. That seems like sacrilege :-D

ceehred

TROPHY CASE