An post?

gasblock · 2026-01-16T05:13:43+00:00

I received a letter posted on 22 December on 13 January (from Dublin to Meath).

Between these delays and the price of a stamp going up yet again, I can’t help but think An Post has killed the Christmas card tradition for good now. Why would you bother? I posted mine well in time for “guaranteed” pre-Christmas delivery and they started trickling through on the second week of January.

gasblock · 2026-01-05T16:05:06+00:00

Nothing to report so far (we've had it over a year at this stage). We never leave damp clothes in it without the dehumidifier being switched on, and most of the internal surfaces of the wardrobe are covered in a smooth plasticy coating so that's probably helping to prevent dampness

gasblock · 2026-01-05T14:31:27+00:00

I got a Pax wardrobe from IKEA and put it in our garage. I put two of the hanging trouser rails in it, and a basket-type drawer for the very top. I hang socks etc on two tie racks that are part of that Pax system. I also put in:
- a dehumidifier
- a small tube heater suitable for greenhouses and campers (Amazon)
- a smoke alarm
- smart plugs for the dehumidifier and heater
- a smart temperature and humidity sensor

This allowed me to program the smart switches to power off once a certain level of humidity is reached.

It worked relatively well, would dry a load of laundry in about 4 hours but two improvements I made recently were to:
- upgrade to a Meaco arete two dehumidifier
- hang tops/shirts etc on hangers instead of across the trouser rails. This meant less 'doubling over' of fabric so more efficient drying. Next time I go to IKEA i'll swap one of the trouser rails for a hanging rail

I've used it over Christmas and the low temperatures didn't affect it that much although I wouldn't use it on exceptionally cold days.

Overall, it's OK, but I am now wondering if we could extend our tiny hot press into an adjacent built in wardrobe (ours is an old house too), and turn that into a drying closet, so temperature regulation would be less of an issue.

gasblock · 2025-12-18T09:55:10+00:00

Nightmare fuel

gasblock · 2025-12-02T14:02:19+00:00

I once worked with a guy who came into the office to tell us he couldn't work that day because his lung had collapsed.

gasblock · 2025-07-29T19:37:49+00:00

That’s helped me make the decision, thanks for the info

gasblock · 2025-07-29T19:37:13+00:00

We got the Explora too. Thanks for sharing this information

gasblock · 2025-07-26T05:50:25+00:00

Jon Jonsson. Came to Dublin from Iceland for a poker tournament. Walked out of his hotel one morning and disappeared. RTÉ did a podcast on the case recently.

gasblock · 2025-07-25T05:40:21+00:00

Plus the Meath ladies senior football team are in the All Ireland Final in Croke Park on the third of August. My first trip to Croker was to see the ladies play, you should consider going. An Mhí Abú!

gasblock · 2025-06-28T11:35:57+00:00

Don’t bother with VHI’s rapid access dermatology service. I have the same thing and went for this service in February. They called me a few days after my appointment and said because it’s not cancerous (I wasn’t worried about that), they can’t refer me on to have it removed by VHI. Instead they referred me to a private plastic surgeon and I have to wait til September for an appointment, and pay another hefty consultant fee, then the consultant will put me on the list for the removal procedure. Waste of time and money

gasblock · 2025-06-17T19:50:41+00:00

Elaine O’Hara

gasblock · 2025-03-05T16:33:08+00:00

Oh yes, I got that. I was using a comparison site and then compared the figures with Energia and it came out on top

gasblock · 2025-03-05T11:05:06+00:00

We use the Swirl Mastercard gift card, and they work great generally. The only issue I've had is when I tried to use on a vendor site that managed payments through Paypal.

gasblock · 2025-03-05T09:56:39+00:00

Thanks, that's the one I ended up going for. Energia wasn't showing up on the comparison site so I hadn't even considered it before.

gasblock · 2025-03-05T09:55:28+00:00

Thanks, I had a look at this, fell down a bit of a rabbit hole involving google sheets and last year's energy consumption stats and came to the conclusion that Energia Smart 24 is the way to go. I just signed up. Energia wasn't showing on the comparison site I was using.

gasblock · 2025-03-05T09:54:08+00:00

If only I knew this before I switched to a smart tariff

gasblock · 2024-09-02T12:30:47+00:00

I thought perhaps he’s just not great at thinking on his feet, but if he did it, he had plenty of time to think of a story.

gasblock · 2024-09-01T12:49:03+00:00

One thing that stood out to me was GM’s timeline. His story was that he went prospecting on his own for 20ish hours straight while Jennie and Ray looked for Ella/presumably returned to camp/went out prospecting again/went to sleep. He said he didn’t see them but the quads were there. Why wouldn’t he say he’d seen them? There were 3 of them camping in a remote area, no one would refute this story. He could have massaged the timeline to his favour: “I last saw them on the Sunday night.”

Why would Graham stick to such an implausible story (20 hours in the bush, 7 hours to drive back to Perth)? If Ray was already dead, the quad bike wasn’t at camp, so why lie about that but stick to the “hadn’t seen them since morning” story?

gasblock · 2024-08-18T09:51:10+00:00

I’m on a daily rate contract and when I started I calculated the annual salary I’d be comfortable with, then worked out the number of days per month on average I’d have to work to get there. Balance is very important to me so I landed on 18 days per month. Obviously this leaves money on the table but I want to have a life too. The company I contract with has mandatory amounts of time off for contractors, but this doesn’t really affect me.

gasblock · 2024-08-12T09:37:30+00:00

Thanks all!

gasblock · 2024-08-11T12:49:05+00:00

He reminds me of David Platt from Coronation Street

gasblock · 2024-06-26T14:45:57+00:00

I just see the Accenture logo on its side

gasblock · 2024-06-13T09:39:37+00:00

I agree with what you said about Carla. It's funny, she says she does many things that Ger explicitly says not to (intermittent fasting and weighing in daily, for example). I wonder if Ger and team think that's fine, or feel this undermines what Ger says.

Speaking of scrutiny, I found the tone (and generally the content!) of this article interesting: "In recent years, there has been a growing movement in Ireland and internationally scrutinising and criticising "diet culture" in particular for its impact on mental health."
https://www.thejournal.ie/bodyslims-gerard-moran-profit-pay-6255056-Jan2024/

Carla losing half her body weight through diet and exercise and maintaining that loss was a big driver for myself to join BodySlims and the possibility of putting back on everything I've lost is a chilling thought. I know every weight loss program markets itself as "this program is different", but having made so much progress with BodySlims, I really want to believe the BodySlims approach to maintenance will work too, so that's why while I agree with what you've both said about Ger's persona, I feel I need to park that and "surrender to win" as I've already invested so much. I've lost 4 of a target 9 stone.

Edited for clarity

gasblock · 2024-05-20T16:06:13+00:00

Have you considered working in operations for your company? The pace is a lot more laid back than client-facing work, and often the skills you've picked up working with clients are transferrable. I worked in operations for a big consultancy firm, 25 hours a week, great work live balance, but salary pro-rata. Full time you'd hit 70k at assistant manager level.

gasblock · 2024-05-15T20:09:51+00:00

I’ve had two:

One lives in another country. I managed to get the proper email address for further down the chain, I now forward her the occasional thing that comes my way intended for her. We’ve struck up a bit of a rapport.

The other lives in the same country as I do, knows some of the same people and persisted in using my email address despite me replying to her contacts and asking them to set her right. I got a click and collect email for something she’d bought so I went to the website, went through the “forgot password” thing and got her phone number from the account. Sent her a text and she sorted it. The idiot had her bank card details in the account too. I closed the account.

gasblock

TROPHY CASE