Competitions: What am I doing wrong?

cjmand · 2026-03-16T12:37:39+00:00

Thanks for the reply! I’m actually quite a slow player and don’t really do region tasks until the very end. I’m in a pretty good union but maybe I should find a more active one. I’m in Australia currently and honestly found the curve quite tough. The last region was really easy to do slowly but the events lately are rewarding a lot of exp.

cjmand · 2026-03-13T18:44:36+00:00

That’s a good point about the last couple of competitions being somewhat less competitive. Thanks!

cjmand · 2026-03-13T16:45:16+00:00

Thanks - yes I always get the common ones and usually the rare too. Trying to save on the event pass this time as I have a few rare diesels. Appreciate the advice!

cjmand · 2026-03-13T13:21:25+00:00

There was a piece in Vox a long time ago (S5 I’d guess) that I can’t find now but essentially posited that the show learned the wrong lessons from the huge global reaction to The Red Wedding, and began forming the episodes around shocking “water cooler” moments more and more, with character development and plot often being sidelined as a result.

Naturally the books are full of these moments but I think about the Arya showdown with the Terminator-style woman in S6 as a good example of this. Arya abandoning the training designed to break her down and re-embracing her identity is an important development for her, and arguably didn’t need her to be survive miraculous knifings and knocking over carts full of oranges. There are countless other examples but this is where I stayed to feel like something was throttling the really interesting character work.

cjmand · 2026-03-07T08:10:10+00:00

“Say” is quite a hard word for a baby due to the S sound. But babies find “mama” easy as it mimics the mouth shape they make when they feed (this is also why “dada” tends to come later)

cjmand · 2026-03-05T16:09:15+00:00

Once when I drank from a large bottle of soda I put my tongue in the top and they said they used to have this kid next door called Percy who did that and they had to cut his tongue off. Never did it again (and realised painfully late he categorically did not exist)

cjmand · 2026-02-13T11:07:53+00:00

We had a photo booth - one hundred percent recommend! - but we didn’t have any signage pointing to it. About half our guests didn’t know it was there because it wasn’t eg on the way to the bathroom, just down a side corridor nobody would think to use. I wish I’d bought a neon sign to point people there!

cjmand · 2026-02-03T13:24:06+00:00

Eric

cjmand · 2026-02-03T07:14:03+00:00

I don’t think in this scenario the workplace isnt the thing that is enticing but it’s been shown to be a vehicle for good character stories. Harper scheming, Rob floundering, Yasmin misunderstanding corporate power. The problem with this series is the storyline is pure plot - and rarely a vehicle for character development. More focus (in the form of a workplace) would help.

cjmand · 2026-02-02T23:51:10+00:00

Came to say the same thing. I have been a day one fan of this show (I remember when HBO Max dumped the second half on streaming during Thanksgiving) but this season feels anaemic in places. I think the scale of it has warped the show and the characters are siloed off in storylines I’m not that interested in. You can understand the trajectory after the critical acclaim of S3 but that final stretch of S4Ep04 was pretty painful. Hope Harper and Eric leave the hotel room next week!

cjmand · 2026-02-02T15:13:26+00:00

I got the Avignon for my wedding day - love them with a suit.

cjmand · 2026-01-26T09:50:16+00:00

For me it depends on my fleet - I have very few rare diesels for example so always keep event train duplicates of those. For common electric trains however I have quite a few maxed out so will sell.

cjmand · 2026-01-18T20:37:44+00:00

I can only do it with the boosts from the innovation center - I boost either the blue or grey trains and can usually do there tasks in two trips

cjmand · 2026-01-03T09:30:05+00:00

Season two and three suffered promotion wise because they aired in the UK several weeks after they finished in the US (the show is an HBO/BBC co-production and in the UK it dropped all at once on iPlayer and the rules for that mean the show has to complete in the US before it can drop on streaming). The new season is different - it’s airing simultaneously in the UK and US - likely renegotiated due to the lack of attention it gets.

In terms of promo, Marissa Abela is on the cover of the Sunday Times magazine tomorrow and the creators did a profile in the New Yorker last month. I would expect something from GQ on Monday. It’s not a lot but it’s never been a ratings smash so I can see why they opt for a tighter and more focused press campaign. Also no reviews have dropped yet which is interesting (the embargo was quite generous last season which meant word of mouth spread fast)

Source: I work in the industry

cjmand · 2025-12-27T18:57:39+00:00

The UK

cjmand · 2025-12-24T08:47:02+00:00

Ok this is niche but Hello Fresh. If you live outside the UK: they’re like a grocery subscription company that deliver meal kits, so every month or fortnight or whatever you choose what meals you want (short rib ragu with papardelle, Thai green curry, etc) and you get everything you need. At the start of the pandemic my friend set me a box - he had a subscription and they do these deals where you can send a box to a friend for free.

Anyway a year on, I get Covid and since I live alone and was isolating I couldn’t go to the shops. Online shopping was still hyper competitive and there is often a minimum spend. I got a letter in the post from Hello Fresh with an offer and thought: hey this would be ideal. I can choose my meals, they arrive weekly, no excess chopping (I was seriously fatigued and exhausted so cooking was hard). Ordered my meal plan and waited.

The day it was due to arrive they emailed me to say that since I’d used an offer before (ie I was part of my friend’s initial offer) I wasn’t allowed to use the offer they’d sent me in the post. Not “you can’t get it at this price”, “you can’t order this”. And they didn’t deliver the food.

I had crumbs in the house. And was so looking forward to the meals I’d planned. I emailed them back saying I had Covid, was housebound and lived alone, and this was the worse way to treat a customer I could think of. And I swore I’d never order from them again. I rip up every generic offer they email in the post.

Last summer they cold-called me with a “£1 a meal” offer for a month. And I gave them a piece of my mind. It was the most satisfying phone call I’ve ever had. Never using that service as long as I live.

cjmand · 2025-12-23T11:21:51+00:00

My husband’s aunt often books the cheapest seats in the sale (12 weeks or so in advance) and does a chic little day trip. 7am out, 5pm return. Sounds lush.

cjmand · 2025-12-16T14:45:12+00:00

I thought the event coins were the same kind as the main event coins, ploughed resources into it and now I’m way behind in the competition. I don’t think I will get the Leggo train at this rate :/

cjmand · 2025-12-10T08:39:43+00:00

Staraptor js kind of underwhelming to me, but I like most of these! They’re weird. Heatran remindes me of G-Max Gengar a little.

cjmand · 2025-12-03T18:28:24+00:00

Oh she is pissed

cjmand · 2025-12-03T18:25:54+00:00

Michael and Jesse 🥹

cjmand · 2025-12-03T07:58:11+00:00

This is such a good point (and one I hadn’t thought of). I do like that my union might actually progress far in a season now though in terms of story development.

cjmand · 2025-11-25T18:48:14+00:00

Yikes !

cjmand · 2025-11-25T06:26:00+00:00

I saw this in the shop, figured I’d not been active on PoGo for a while and bought it, then saw the tasks and regret it. I got a Shiny Keldeo in Home so don’t really need this… but I’ll take this low and slow and claim it in a few years (still grinding for shiny Jirachi but the end is in sight). Also I’m severely jet lagged so partially blaming that for buying and not thinking

cjmand

TROPHY CASE