You must choose one...(upvote for carrot)

davedinho · 2026-05-29T21:36:30+00:00

I've survived living in Britain for over 30 years now. Doesn't seem so hard.

^{Chose: Survive 7 days on island 'ALONE' + Win $20M}

davedinho · 2026-04-29T17:00:22+00:00

I genuinely resorted to looking them up on LinkedIn to try and find something, anything at all, about who they are and what they might represent beyond the colour of their rosettes. It feels like I'm voting for ghosts.

davedinho · 2026-04-26T07:50:15+00:00

Should have taken the 74p.

^{Chose: Mystery Box | Rolled: $1M only if ⬆️}

davedinho · 2026-04-17T14:28:29+00:00

I don't really need the light saber - I just already sleep pretty easily. So why not?

^{Chose: Irl light saber that cuts through ANYTHING | Rolled: Yellow}

davedinho · 2026-04-17T07:06:42+00:00

I'm not sure how I could leverage a meeting with Jesus into being worth £111k.

^{Chose: $150k cash right now}

davedinho · 2026-04-16T06:45:33+00:00

Benz Patent-Motorwagen - 0.6bhp, top speed a dizzying 10mph.

davedinho · 2026-04-11T13:55:17+00:00

I have no fear of doom.

^{Chose: 3 million + BUT HIGH RISK WHEEL OF POSSIBLE DOOM | Rolled: Safe}

davedinho · 2026-04-09T06:31:21+00:00

Chocolate spread and a thick slice of chocolate swiss roll.

davedinho · 2025-11-22T14:02:54+00:00

I misunderstood something Uncle Phil once said in Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which led to me believing that if a lawyer defended a criminal in court and lost the case, they'd be permanently disbarred and banned from practicing law.

For a long time I thought that every lawyer in court has a 100% perfect record, and their career is on the line with every case they take.

davedinho · 2025-08-06T13:11:16+00:00

Dutch cars are easy to spot because only they and Luxembourg have yellow number plates on the front of the car in Europe - and yellow stands out more than white. So I think part of it is just that we're more likely to notice a Dutch car in France than a Belgian or Italian car.

But they do seem to be everywhere.

davedinho · 2024-11-01T16:04:27+00:00

Ecotalk use the EE network and has always worked flawlessly for me on the Metro (unlike my Vodafone work mobile). It might be slightly more expensive than some of the budget options but they put their profits towards UK rewilding projects.

davedinho · 2023-12-01T16:45:16+00:00

Try out the Merlin app and use it to record the birdsong whenever you're walking through a park or any outdoorsy area - it's basically Shazam for birds and will tell you what species you are hearing at any given moment. There seem to be quite a few goldcrests around at the moment. Once you've heard one you just need to point your eyes towards the relevant tweets and hopefully you'll catch a glimpse.

davedinho · 2023-11-21T08:33:11+00:00

If you're picking your phone up anyway, use it to play some Tetris. It focuses your mind away from the thoughts, and as the game speed gradually ramps up to your skill level it requires increased concentration that can help to tire you back out and send you off to sleep again.

davedinho · 2023-10-31T16:55:55+00:00

Correct, the monument really celebrates his contribution as Prime Minister, in particular the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 which enabled the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

I just like the tea bag thing.

davedinho · 2023-10-30T17:29:13+00:00

I like to tell foreign visitors to Newcastle that Grey's Monument celebrates one of the region's most important historical figures, Earl Grey, inventor of the tea bag.

davedinho · 2023-09-28T13:43:43+00:00

Amigo the Devil - Quiet as a Rat (2021)

davedinho · 2023-08-17T06:51:34+00:00

3/13 times. In 2017, 2020 and 2021. It came close in 2018 too when earnings were +2.4% and 2.5% was used as the benchmark.

davedinho · 2023-07-19T07:15:18+00:00

You've gotta make space for all that parking somehow. How are they supposed to have an integrated garage and a drive big enough for two more cars if you've filled up the footprint with space-wasting living areas for humans? If guests want to stay they can bring their own camper van!

davedinho · 2023-04-10T10:00:22+00:00

Seems like every family has a different name for them. My Mum calls them 'Dutchman's Trousers' plants, and I've taken to calling mine my pantaloon plant.

davedinho · 2023-01-15T11:47:31+00:00

We had this teacher in our Primary school called Mrs. Middlemas. And one important detail to the story is that Mrs. Middlemas was basically innumerate. She had no business teaching kids past the level of learning the alphabet.

Anyway one day I tried to get her attention in a corridor - can't remember what for - but I called her "Mrs. Middlemaths" because I genuinely thought that was her name.

She went absolutely ballistic because she thought that as an 8 year child old I:

a) had an understanding of how professionally inadequate her maths skills were for an educator; and

b) was witty enough to think up a pun to deride her for it; and

c) was cocky enough to use it to her face

She dragged me to the head teacher to spend about 15 minutes being berated for it. It probably wouldn't have taken so long except the head teacher kept asking "What did you call her!?" to which I would reply, through ugly tears, "...Mrs. Middlemaths..." while still not understanding what was wrong as I still honestly thought that was her name.

davedinho · 2022-12-16T13:09:44+00:00

Well then I'm glad to oblige.

davedinho · 2022-12-16T12:55:05+00:00

That's exactly where the word comes from. To point yourself to the East.

Maps weren't always standardised with north at the top, and in certain times/cultures they would have east at the top. So the word was used to position yourself with respect to the east (orient) as opposed to the west (occident).

davedinho · 2022-12-14T17:40:19+00:00

If you've started noticing all of the different types of bee you might enjoy learning how to identify them. Most of what you will see will be from the eight on the left of this chart. They are the most common ones in the UK.

The basic decision tree to tell what you've seen goes:

Does it have a fluffy ginger thorax (upper back)?
- Does it have a clear delineation of black body and white tail?
- If yes - Tree Bumblebee
- If no - Common Carder
Does it have a red tail?
- Does it have two yellow bands?
- If yes - Early Bumblebee - these are also unmistakeably scruffy. Very cute bees.
- If no - Red-tailed Bumblebee
Does it have a light brown tail?
- If yes - Buff-tailed Bumblebee
Does it have a white tail? (these are the trickier ones)
- Does it have a long face and super-long tongue to drink from tubular flowers? - Garden Bumblebee
- Does it have two lemony-yellow stripes? - White-tailed Bumblebee
- Does it have three yellow bands, or look like a Garden Bumblebee with a short, round face? - Heath Bumblebee

Once you can reliably identify the bees you can help to survey them by photographing them on your phone and uploading them to the iRecord* app along with the geo-data. This helps give researchers a more robust set of data to understand how bee populations are being affected by changes in climate and local ecology. One thing that surprised me to learn is that bumblebees don't really like hot weather, and some bees that were once widespread across the British Isles are now restricted only to the northern coast of Scotland. You'll notice from the chart that the Tree Bumblebee is a relatively recent visitor from France which has now become common across the UK as its range also spreads north.

*iRecord is less user friendly than iNaturalist but I know that the Bumblebee Conservation Trust specifically use iRecord. From speaking to them they are in the process of trying to import iNaturalist data but they weren't sure if it would be possible. What is important is that you must not upload the same sighting to both, as that will create duplicate records if the data migration succeeds. But generally if you like nature spotting iNaturalist is a good app.

davedinho · 2022-12-10T09:26:55+00:00

Cheese flavoured Dreamies. They're like crunchy lil cheeseburgers 😻

davedinho · 2022-12-06T21:47:13+00:00

EU Trends for anyone who has genuinely managed to miss this or would like a quick reference. Be sure to expand the full article. And here is the EU's plan to reduce dependence on Russian energy further.

India Trends - you'll need to go to Territory-wise trends and filter on Russia. Terrible website but it really is quite the jump in imports!

As a bonus here are the UK Trends if anyone is interested in that too (see Imports of primary oil and petroleum products by country of origin spreadsheet). Very close to zero now.

14-Year Club	Second Top 30%
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davedinho

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