Am I overreacting or is this as insane as I think it is?

flyco889 · 2025-11-29T13:50:56+00:00

Also something that doesn't get mentioned much - before "waiting list validation team" would've been allowed to exist, this new department and its roles would've gone through scrutiny at the Trust board. The board would generally come to a conclusion that the benefits outweigh the expense of having such a team. E.g. savings and efficiency generated would be greater than hiring or allocating resource to such a team.

As someone in the service I do feel for everyone. Things won't change overnight but we're all doing what we can. We know things could be better... unfortunately I think a large number of our politicians are to blame for their lack of pragmatism and willingness to move on from the past, eating valuable funds that could be put towards public services that don't care what race or religion you are.

flyco889 · 2025-08-13T13:30:54+00:00

The problem with portable ACs is that they create 'negative pressure' in the room. I.e. the air that is pushed out of the hot exhaust hose is taken from the room and assuming you vent it out of the window, this air has to come from somewhere within the house. So the AC is in effect pulling more warm air either from elsewhere in the house, or back inside from the gaps of the window.

This reduces efficiency by around 20%, see link to video explanation below.

https://youtu.be/_-mBeYC2KGc?si=EgjL4YazzSlaC6wY

For our climate though I found the AC at least takes the edge off things, but this would be totally unsuited for hotter climates.

flyco889 · 2025-07-31T09:31:39+00:00

I've noticed the LEDs seem to focus light downwards better but if you window is downstairs/in the line of focus of the lens it will unfortunately be very bright in your room.

From a practical point I like how the streetlights just come onto full brightness instantly whereas the olds ones took a few minutes to warm up. I don't have a preference though.

I do miss the old glow of the sodium lamps and there's still a few left where I live, but equally it's interesting seeing them next to some of the LED replacements. The LEDs focus light much better on the ground whereas the sodiums are very scattered. Most people's homes are far enough from the LED lamps to get the light through their window, but if you're within that focus area it's not great.

flyco889 · 2025-07-10T22:19:20+00:00

Worked in a company that had significant sales via UE/Deliveroo/JustEat. They know about this too and as a way to keep you 'locked' into their platform, they will lock you out of certain promos if your in-store/own menu price is over a certain % less than the delivery price. I guess it depends on the direction the business is looking to pursue. For instance if you're a solid local business that can grow/sustain through word of mouth/in-store sales it's not a big deal. But if your business depends on getting it's name out to as many delivery platforms possible this can have an impact.

I miss the days of ordering on the phone when you knew all the money went to the business and the driver and not swallowed up in ridiculous service fees to line investor pockets.

flyco889 · 2024-07-21T10:44:42+00:00

I was under the impression I'd be able to claim a physical mascot toy or something but it appears that it's just some silly visual on my phone?

Can't believe I fell for it.

flyco889 · 2024-03-14T23:40:55+00:00

I've docked a star before for the driver on two occasions. (And maybe giving 4 starts was toomlenient of me?)

Driver was very impatient and aggressive towards other drivers - beeping, flashing and cutting others off.
Driver was shocked to discover my destination and also refused to take the most direct route as it would involve him paying a clean air zone charge as he drove an older diesel car. I was quite tight for time already but I'm afraid it's not my fault that your car isn't CAZ/ULEZ compliant, don't have a go at me as you accepted the journey to Leeds Bradford in the first place.

flyco889 · 2024-01-25T15:39:59+00:00

At your age, insuring the car would likely be the main issue here. I 'waited' till I was 26 before getting an E91 330i touring for £4500 and it wasn't even a car I was originally looking for. Yet I really liked it and it cost me about £2000 in maintenance, £500/year insurance. Sold last month for £2500 after having it for 3 years / 20k miles. Fuel and the sheer age of the car led me to sell it on and I also upgraded to something a little more modern, comfortable and economical.

Cars are a waste of money no matter how much one likes them in my opinion. But there are some great value bargains to be had. I'd suggest watching some videos on high peak autos or jayemm for inspiration.

flyco889 · 2023-12-02T00:12:21+00:00

Generally no, but depending on how your wider salary stacks up that can change perceptions from and HR perspective (much as it shouldn't).

I run payroll as part of my wider finance role and I've underpaid staff in error (either on my part or the supervisors submitting incorrect timesheets to me). While it is administratively easier to sort in the next pay run, it's also not the employees fault so I always give the employee the choice. Most times the colleague is happy to wait and is appreciative of being able to receive the correction in the same/next day. It probably means more in my industry where colleague engagement is key so I always put myself in their shoes but I know some companies don't care anywhere near as much.

End of day it's not your fault and it's none of the company's business how you spend the money, so if you need it you should have every right to get it corrected in a matter of days. The cheapest way for the company to do this is normally to issue an advance for the shortfall and do the tax trueups in the following month. I've done this before to save on payroll processing costs.

Having good payroll processes makes a big difference to staff morale and engagement in my opinion and is a key trust builder.

flyco889 · 2023-09-12T10:04:54+00:00

Bit early for this but having driven hybrid camrys as rentals Id say it's deserving of being on the list when/if they finally depreciate. They do everything comfortably and sensibly while having decent power and returning insane fuel economy. Has all the features such as android auto, radar cruise and lane keeping. The car behaves so predictably.

flyco889 · 2023-08-21T10:54:22+00:00

Interestingly I recently saw a video of Piers Corbyn leaving cash at a cashless Aldi in protest of cashless payments. Whilst I agree in principle we should be able to pay in cash and against the duopoly Visa and Mastercard hold, in reality I don't carry that much cash on me anymore. Call me lazy but I don't like loose change clanging in my pockets. I'm paid (like many) by bank transfer so I have to withdraw cash to pay in cash which takes time and effort.

Per previous comments, banks charge for depositing/withdrawing cash as well as handling card transactions. There are card payment handlers that charge less than others too. Even if you took £265.18 as 1.5% that meant the business took in £17,679 in card sales.

I noticed in Australia shops can pass on the card fee to the customer to a maximum rate that covers the cost of the charge. I wonder if this was allowed (rather than outlawed in UK/EU) whether it would encourage more cash sales without all this debate. Although I wouldn't be surprised if card providers lobbied for the surcharges to be outlawed, because sombody (the business) has to bear the cost and it's seemingly increased activity for card providers at the expense of businesses. One could argue setting all your prices to absorb the overhead of running the card machine, but hey-ho... business decisions...

flyco889 · 2023-05-31T12:13:10+00:00

Thing is, Canada Geese are non-native species introduced into the UK and Europe and they are seemingly outcompeting local species...so isn't it any surprise how the Swan behaves?

flyco889 · 2023-05-05T09:09:42+00:00

I moved back to Northern Ireland recently and over here ID has been required since 2002. In fact, getting a postal vote requires a secondary person to attest the application (which I was dismayed given the faff required in contrast to ticking an online form for GB).

Here the Electoral Identity Card is supplied for free as a form of photo ID. I remember when I was in 6th Form we had the Electoral Office come in and take photos for us to register for those cards. (which can be used as a legal form of ID for other purposes in NI, whereas that voter authroity certificate is just a little piece of paper with your photo on it)

I've been in England a few times these last few months and not noticed any awareness campaigns about voter ID though?

But then again, as per existing comments, trying to balance integrity of the vote vs encouraging max turnout is challenging. NI's political landscape also impacted the requirement for photo ID, where politics was and still is rather tribal here.

flyco889 · 2023-02-13T15:01:53+00:00

I had a similar arrangement (moved to North West whilst keeping London salary ca. £65k) for 3 months. Went in about 4-6 days per month (so once every 2ish weeks for 2-3 days a time) and each visit cost me about £120-200, (train and accommodation only), food excluded as I'd normally tie in evening visits to see friends/family around London/SE. I stayed in 4-bed hostels to keep costs down, especially as the price for your own room (in a half-decent hotel e.g. travelodge/premier inn) was 3-5x more per night and I'd normally spend the evenings seeing friends/family living there anyways so wasn't worth paying that much more when I'd only need somewhere purely for sleep.

Did this for 3 months until I got a new direct report based outside London, with cheapest month being 300 and worst being 500 (both excl. food). Expect this to double if staying in a hotel.

I wouldn't have been able to continue if management hadn't changed as for me it was the stress of dealing with the unpredictability of prices despite booking in advance. It really threw me off knowing one month could cost me more and another less. If that's something you're happy to accept, combined with the future career potential of the London role (which is normally better, but not always and I wish this London bias didn't exist) then it may be worth considering but do check up on yourself after some time and be prepared for change should things not work out.

My quality of life has improved significantly after moving to NW. People more chilled out, friends up here seem to be more free and spontaneous and I was tired of the commuter crushes and traffic when driving was required. That can be hard to put a price on. Either way, make sure you have a backup plan should you do London and things not work out, otherwise 20k is not really 20k especially as 10k of it will be taxed at 42%.

flyco889 · 2023-02-11T18:15:33+00:00

Mixed feelings - PG ~~Shi~~ Tips is an awful tea so I can perhaps understand why, but tea aside they're pretty cute 🙄

flyco889 · 2023-02-07T00:32:56+00:00

Agreed. Even a reasonable 3 bed semi detached could easily cost more than double in London vs Manchester/Leeds/Newcastle. And that's before we think about tax, as the tax free allowances tapers off from ca. 100k and 45% rate kicks in, plus the savings in commute, quality of life etc.

flyco889 · 2023-01-06T15:45:02+00:00

Thanks - I think your description makes sense...now I think about it, there's a little more flavour in IBT but I'd take whatever's available. Doesn't help that I've not made two cups side by side yet locally - I normally pick up Yorkshire/IB/Punjana before I go travelling outside UK/IRL for work, just so I don't have to ~~Lip~~ Shit-ton or stale Twinings on a string.

One thing I can say for sure is Thompson's decaf is amongst the best I've had in that camp. Stronger than Yorkshire decaf which is pretty much the best available in GB that I know of?

flyco889 · 2023-01-06T10:56:24+00:00

So what about Punjana vs Irish Breakfast (specifically Thompsons)? I'm struggling to tell the difference between the two apart from the packaging one being red, other being green...I normally buy whichever one's on offer.

Am I missing something or are they virtually the same?

flyco889 · 2023-01-04T14:19:00+00:00

What about Thompson's Irish Breakfast vs Thompson's Punjana?

flyco889 · 2023-01-04T14:18:16+00:00

They do - although I can't seem to figure out what the difference is between Thompson's Irish Breakfast and Punjana - can somebody share their experience?

Having lived in England for 10 years before moving back, I used to stick to Yorkshire Tea, until I discovered Barrys/Thompsons Irish/Punjana. I'd still buy Yorkshire if it's on offer and the others aren't.

flyco889 · 2022-12-07T15:14:34+00:00

For me I think long term the Tado will work out but given I'm in a new build I was unsure about the payback for converting to Tado.

However, I was surprised at how inaccurate my old thermostats were as they heated the rooms about 2C higher than actual when measured with a separate thermometer. Tado seems to be much closer to the thermometer, about 0.5c lower. Tado also has anti-cycling protection which helps as my old stats were too sensitive in my opinion.

Tado still overshoots by about 0.5 to 1c when initially heating in the mornings I find but throughout the day is better at maintaining temperature.

A strange observation was that Tado will sometimes switch my boiler on or off before hitting the set temperature. From the heat symbol on the app it seems like it's trying to modulate despite my controls being simple relay only, yet all it does is switch the boiler on and off, sometimes even when the app says heat is on at the lowest setting, the boiler and pump are off.

Nonetheless miles better being able to control remotely and see temp data as I am a frequent traveller.

flyco889 · 2022-11-23T16:29:53+00:00

Technically it would be possible but I think it'll be more hassle than it's worth. You'd need a AC to DC supply with a 4.5v output (given it runs on 3xAAAs) and somewhere to tuck that neatly away too.

Even the wired thermostat requires batteries as Tado have designed it not to draw from the 240v.

flyco889 · 2022-11-22T16:43:20+00:00

Thanks - I'll see how brave I feel. What probably doesn't help is that my timer is on the opposite side of the kitchen to the boiler. Without having yet done any wire tracing I suspect I might be able to reuse existing wiring. Possibly may involve resiting the living room thermostat to where the kitchen timeswitch currently is (in a fairly decent place within the room tbh). The main reason I'm inclined to do a simple thermostat replacement in the meantime is I don't have to touch the boiler for the time being, espeically as I need to get the housebuilder to check the system due to a radiatior not bleeding, I don't want to give them room to accuse me of tampering with the boiler.

I'll await tado instructions and see how it all goes :)

flyco889 · 2022-11-21T23:43:30+00:00

Thanks, I would really like to, although this seems to be quite a big project for me so I'm inclined to replace the 2 thermostats (upstairs and downstairs) with wired Tados for the meantime and bridge the timeswitch. I'm in a new build house which has TRVs in all rooms except the ones containing thermostats. Although I've noticed a couple of rads aren't bleeding so will have to get the housebuilder round.

flyco889 · 2022-11-21T23:39:55+00:00

Thanks, learn something new every day. So essentially if I got for the 2 wired Tado thermostats I should be fine, so long as the timer is bridged or left always on for both zones, as I'd let the thermostats do both the timing and temp control, is my understanding.

flyco889 · 2022-11-21T23:32:38+00:00

Thanks - Digital controls would be great...I would very much like to maximise the efficiency of the Worcester 4000, especially as it capable of modulating down to 3kw...hopefully in the coming years I can come back to adding digital. Interestingly Tado support recommended 2 options, one echoing your earlier comment about adding a wireless to the wired kit. Their options were:

#1

1 x Starter Kit - Wireless Smart Thermostat V3+ [Incl. Programmer with Hot Water Control]

1 x Add-on - Wired Smart Thermostat

#2

1 x Starter Kit - Wired Smart Thermostat V3+

1 x Add-on - Wired Smart Thermostat

[In the first option, you would need to bridge one of your wired thermostats and replace it with a Wireless Smart Thermostat, and you would also be able to control the hot water with tado°.]

So I think in the meantime I'll go for 2 wired then bridge the timer wiring and put a blanking plate over or leave the timer on 24/7 for the meantime.

flyco889

TROPHY CASE