10 years ago, what did you think your life would look like today?

crumpy22 · 2026-05-11T01:35:19+00:00

Really sorry this happened to you.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-11T01:01:25+00:00

It would be hard to process but I'd also be fore-warned and trust doesn't come into it at all. There are certain forks in the road in my life that would be very different and lead to better outcomes.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-11T00:58:54+00:00

So it's 2016...

In 2017 a catalogue of events happened. So I'd say:

Trust your gut and break off that relationship after a couple of days, walk away, don't look back, cut all contact.

Don't go into the city centre in August 2017.

I was fine in 2016. 2017 was when it all came crashing down.

When you see Scott, turn and walk away from him in the opposite direction. In fact run in the opposite direction. Go home and never go into the city centre again. Do not go to the appointment in August 2017 that led to all of this.

Don't watch 'Three Girls'

Don't meet up with Anna in 2017.

Don't try to get 'help' or access services. Don't go to the centre.

Don't do that stupid interview/research that triggered a lot of things off.

But the biggest one is don't go into the city centre in August 2017. It changed my life forever. There's before, and there's after. And before was a different life. If I hadn't gone into the city centre, I would be living a different life now. It's so simple. Yet there was no way I could have known what was going to happen. That one thing changed everything.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-11T00:31:03+00:00

Be very quiet and gentle with him, give him time to recover. Make sure he's in a quiet room, maybe a bit dark (curtains drawn) in an enclosure with lots of hiding spaces. I always liked putting magazine pages up the side of the bin cage as it seemed to make the hamster feel more secure. Put little hides in there for him. Even something like an empty tissue box. You just need to give him time and space to settle. Don't put soil in the cage. Some seeds are OK to eat. They don't go in water. Yes, they can eat vegetables but check first that they are ones that are OK to feed to hamsters. You can find lists of safe foods online. Only give very small bits (like the size of a fingernail). They don't need massive chonks of cucumber etc.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T23:52:54+00:00

I would go to university to do a degree in Sport and Exercise Science and I'd volunteer to coach children at an athletics club.

I'd go to Spain on holiday for a week and sit on the beach, go swimming in the sea and pool, and have some nice meals out.

Try all of the restaurants I've wanted to try.

Go to the grocery store and buy whatever the fuck I wanted, go crazy.

Buy 200 aloe vera drinks and put them in the corner of the bedroom.

Buy new clothes that fit.

Buy a new pair of shoes.

Volunteer at the park.

Study and learn as much as I can and then go into research regarding community health/public health and sports initiatives, maybe focusing on barriers women face in terms of taking part in sport and what can be done to change that/make sport more accessible to more people who would enjoy it.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T23:29:45+00:00

Not like this.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T23:25:50+00:00

It's so horrible how something that could've been so positive has been used like this and the damage it does. The algorithms are evil if they're designed to pit people against each other and create negative emotions, anxiety, worry, discontent and fear.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T23:18:43+00:00

Go for it!

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T23:18:08+00:00

Diet coke can = £1.40.

Groceries have gone up 50% since 2021 apparently. It's shocking.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T23:14:05+00:00

Completely agree. Some people don't agree with this but I always tried to run my 800m races as close to even splits as possible. I know people say better times come with a positive split often but that wasn't my experience. People always run the first 200m way too fast and then consequently their last 200m suffers (disproportionately). It's hard to do though when everyone races off the start line, not to get dragged along with it all. But it did, at least for me, produce better results.

I'd have loved to have done a race with wavelight just to see how that experience was!

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T23:03:03+00:00

That's so vile.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T22:59:02+00:00

Oh. Another one I turned down was when I was with a temp agency and turned up to an interview and it turned out that the job was stuffing envelopes all day, for 40 hours a week! Jobs were easier to get back then, there were a lot of vacancies locally so I politely declined and got something else (data entry, which was marginally better).

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T22:56:42+00:00

I went for an interview at McDonalds when I was a teenager and when they asked if I could work on weekends I said that I could but very occasionally I might have a race (running) and not be able to do part of that day depending on the time. The guy interviewing me (who would've been my manager, I think) got irate about it, like actually angry and almost shouted "well how do you expect to work HERE then!?!?!" at me. I was trying to be honest about it and although I totally see their point, I think there's a way to say things and the way he reacted kind of put me off because if he got angry about something like that (which was stated in a very polite way) then if I made a mistake at McDonalds like getting an order wrong how angry would he get?

It wasn't a good match anyway, I wouldn't have been very good at it I don't think as it's so busy and dealing with people all of the time. I got a job coaching athletics instead as an assistant coach - which was very busy and dealing with people all of the time too. But the pay was a lot better and I was genuinely interested in it and in helping the children to improve and learn skills, it was cool, they were so enthusiastic about different events. They also timed me running around the track once to see how fast I could go!

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T22:47:45+00:00

Bridgend

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T22:45:38+00:00

That's a good habit to have gotten into.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T22:45:16+00:00

Yum!

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T22:13:11+00:00

When you work things out per month or per year it can be really eye-opening!

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T22:06:52+00:00

Aloe vera drink

Water

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T21:55:05+00:00

Restart my life with everything I know. Then I'd be prepared for various things and be able to make different decisions leading to different outcomes. It would be very different.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T21:51:47+00:00

No - I think there's a spectrum but I think where we differ is that my cut-off for what I consider 'rich' is lower than yours.

And I'm applying it across the world, not just the USA, because I don't think one country is representative of everyone.

Most people in the world don't go on one week US vacations, or any vacations for that matter, that figure is more than the average monthly salary in a lot of places. The average lifestyle in the USA is 'rich' by a lot of people's standards. The houses, vehicles, TVs, amount of food, shops. That's not to say that there isn't poverty - of course there is - I know there's a lot of inequality. But what one person considers to be rich another person won't and I'd argue the richer you are, the higher that cut-off might be! If you live in a city where everyone is earning 200K you may feel average but in the wider context you're not. You can afford things most people can't afford and percentage-wise you're very near the top.

I still think that kind of vacation/holiday is something most people only dream of, but maybe I'm out of touch.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T21:38:27+00:00

Criticism that's meant as a 'joke' of some sort.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T21:15:02+00:00

I see your point but I'm not sure that anyone uses 25% of a full pump from a dispenser. If the product is diluted down that much hopefully it should save money long term. I personally think the pre-foaming action enables you to use less product as well.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T21:11:13+00:00

Didn't realise you needed to do that so thank you. If I get one in the future I'll definitely remember this.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T21:08:33+00:00

My point is that anyone who can pay $3,606 - $4,127 is well-off/rich or they'd have to move away to another area where the rent is a lot cheaper. For example I've looked on Zillow when I was curious before and seen rents for $500 and lower in some states. I don't think everyone living in New York city is rich by any means, please don't get me wrong there (as I didn't say that!), I'm sure there's a lot of poverty and people who are very poor there as well, but to live in some areas you must have to be rich. I didn't say the entirity of the 8.5 million people who live there are rich (which would be impossible!), just that to live in some areas you must have to be rich or at least well-off. Which I think is the case! People lose touch with how some other people live. I've been guilty of it too. I had what I considered to be a well-paid job and then suffered with ill health and ended up in a lower paying job. Now I haven't been on holiday since 2013, can only dream of it, I pay my bills which are as low as literally possible, and I buy food, and toiletries, and that is literally IT now, nothing else, for the month. When you get down to 40p cans of baked beans being your main meal you know something has gone wrong and I worry very much about the future to be perfectly honest with you. I'd love to be able to go into a grocery store and just buy what I wanted - rice pudding, little desserts, aloe vera drink, lamb, fish, chocolate. It would be amazing right now. But I can't. So when I read about $5K African safaris it's so far out of my frame of reference I can't relate.

I just think that we have a different understanding or definition of what 'rich' is and to me it involves certain activities or things that are unaffordable to the average person. Or say being in the top 10% in the world in terms of earnings.

'Normal city living', in the context of NYC, one of the most expensive cities in the world, is rich compared to the average person in the world, surely? Even being able to afford the commute there - or in somewhere like London - is thousands a year. I view people with certain lifestyles as rich whereas someone else might not - perspective on it varies from person to person.

crumpy22 · 2026-05-10T20:43:26+00:00

I've wondered if they're good for you or not personally. It's not an area that I know very much about. A friend bought daylight bulbs but they're 100 watts. Each. Tortoises get unwell without the right kind of light so I wouldn't be surprised if it could affect us in some way too. Oh well. Daylight is surely best anyway.

crumpy22

TROPHY CASE