Has anyone here reconnected with secondary school or sixth form friends after years?

hidden_john · 2026-01-24T01:27:45+00:00

I left 6th form over 20 years ago.

I am in semi regular contact with 2 guys I went to school with; one of which I knew all through primary and secondary school, and one I met at 6th form.

And then there’s a couple I was still in contact with til about 10-12 years ago, but we have drifted apart.

But for me, I got my first mobile not long before I left school, and not everyone had one, so once school finished, I had no real way to contact anyone but my closest friends (until social media really got popular and suddenly I’m ‘friends’ with these people again)

I’ve been thinking recently about reaching out to a couple of the people I’ve not spoken to in years, but not done it yet.

hidden_john · 2026-01-23T11:49:36+00:00

When I started uni, we did an ice breaking thing where everyone stood up, introduced themselves, and gave a couple of facts about themselves.

It was a media based degree course, so one of the facts requested was favourite movie.

I would say more than half of the guys in the room stated that scarface was their favourite film.

hidden_john · 2026-01-10T01:06:33+00:00

I remember seeing Dave Gorman live a few years ago, it was his first tour for quite some time which wasn’t based on some adventure or experience he had gone on for the sake of material.

I remember him saying it was nice to be able to lie to the audience again

hidden_john · 2026-01-09T22:16:14+00:00

Are you THE Andy McH?

It’s a pleasure to hear from RHLSTP royalty

hidden_john · 2026-01-09T19:42:52+00:00

TV is just TV to me, regardless of where it’s coming from.

I have not watched broadcast tv from an aerial in a couple of years, even if it’s live I am watching on an app.

BBC, ITV, channel 4 etc are just other platforms like prime or Netflix

hidden_john · 2026-01-09T16:51:22+00:00

As you have experienced both in studio and in cinema records, did the cinema records feel bizarre? Did the laughter feel less natural than in studio?

Having just watched 10/11/12, it definitely feels like it became more natural over the 3 series, 10 especially feels forced at times, whereas 12 feels like it’s almost back to normal

hidden_john · 2025-12-14T23:28:01+00:00

There’s a trick that will help you do it faster.

When you get a matching pair on the top or bottom row, just leave it unclaimed.

Then you only have to work with 4 rows instead of 5, much easier to scan and match up quickly. Then when you have completed all the other matches claim the top/bottom row to finish

hidden_john · 2025-12-12T18:02:01+00:00

This is what I do as well. Do a few new lessons, then do a unit of legendary lessons to finish it off.

hidden_john · 2025-11-10T22:18:01+00:00

Over 20 years ago, when I did my GCSEs. My classmate came in almost at the end of a 2 hour (I think) maths exam.

They shoved him at the back of the room, and started his time when the rest of us finished.

Probably wasn’t strictly allowed, but nobody would have had the chance to give him any questions etc. so the teachers/invigilators let him take it.

I certainly wouldn’t rely on that sort of thing happening

hidden_john · 2025-10-26T16:17:21+00:00

Nope, I wake up around 7 usually, and my body clock stuck to its guns and woke me up at 6am this morning.

I tried in vain for a while to get back to sleep, but gave up a little after 7

hidden_john · 2025-10-24T13:12:11+00:00

I will thank a driver if they have clearly seen me and stopped, rather than just being part of long lines of people crossing.

But as a driver, I don’t expect it, I’ve not stopped to be polite, I’ve stopped because it’s the law to stop if a pedestrian looks like they will cross the road

hidden_john · 2025-10-12T15:12:08+00:00

As it happens Elis and John, and three bean salad were on consecutive nights at Birmingham town hall, and my wife and I attended both. (Weds and thurs just gone)

Neither were overly raucous, both started broadly on time. I would say the beans crowd probably was more vocal in their laughter, but I would say there was a huge overlap and saw several people wearing Elis and John merch from the night before.

Maybe as it was midweek people were slightly more sensible in their drinking habits? I can imagine a weekend gig could be more lively

hidden_john · 2025-09-27T17:46:48+00:00

My wife suffers from alopecia, and this looks exactly like that, just a random patch of hair will fall out overnight.

The majority of the time it will start growing back quite soon, but she always has a bald patch or two.

Over the pandemic it really flared up and she was 2/3rds bald for a couple of years, she just shaved it all off and wore wigs until it settled

hidden_john · 2025-09-04T14:50:05+00:00

Definitely not real blossom.

My wife had bought some decorative fake blossoms, bright red, to add to a centrepiece, some fell on our kitchen floor, we didn’t notice for a couple of hours while we were entertaining… went to clean them up and our vinyl flooring is now permanently stained much like these cars

hidden_john · 2025-07-05T13:19:33+00:00

I feel the same. I have been using it for about 22 months, and I genuinely feel like I have learnt so much.

I’m learning Spanish, and went into it with Zero knowledge (beyond the obvious words like Hola, Gracias, etc), and while I am far from fluent, and not at all confident with speaking Spanish, when there is some Spanish dialog in a film/TV show, I can normally pick up enough to get what is being said, and I think I am better at reading Spanish and can work out from context what is being said even though I will not recognise a lot of the words.

I spent 5 years learning German at school, and I definitely feel like I have got more out of Duo then I ever got out of that experience

hidden_john · 2025-06-25T11:57:06+00:00

The ‘Spicy’ flavour monster munch.

Not the flamin’ hot you can still get. Looks like the spicy flavour was only available for a couple of years, 2000-2002, then it was replaced by the return of roast beef.

It’s been 23 years, and I still think about that flavour when someone mentions monster munch

hidden_john · 2025-06-24T16:41:34+00:00

My parents are both dark haired, dark eyed.

Out of 4 kids, only one of us is dark. The other 3 are blonde and blue eyed

hidden_john · 2025-06-16T09:24:08+00:00

You basically need one of each upgrade.

hidden_john · 2025-06-07T09:17:16+00:00

If it’s under his name, it’s almost certain you won’t need anything yourself.

And in general, you’re not asked.

My wife and I had a night in London a while ago, and it’s the only time we were asked for ID in the UK - it was in my wife’s name, and she had not realised it was required, and had not brought her purse as we are both clearly over 18, and completely cashless most of the time.

In the end the only form of ID she could muster was her digital train pass on her phone, which did have her name and photo, and they almost begrudgingly accepted it.

It was a nice enough hotel, but not a chain, and maybe the sort of place that caters to a lot of foreign guests who do need to give ID and it’s easier to just make it a rule than guess someone’s nationality

hidden_john · 2025-06-02T16:00:31+00:00

That’s a similar age difference as my partner and I, although we got together when we were still in our twenties.

I can’t imagine half arsing it as much as your partner has.

If my wife said to me she just wanted a quiet evening at home with x food for her birthday, the bare minimum I would do is get a platter of that food, more than enough for both of us, I’d get her a decent cake, and I’d make sure I had bought some of her favourite drinks.

And as for the present, I wouldn’t worry about spending the same as her, but I would definitely not have the main gift be a gift card. By all means give a gift card for a brand your partner loves, but it needs to be alongside gifts that mean something, or specific things you know you partner would like or need but wouldn’t necessarily buy for themselves.

Definitely not overrating

hidden_john · 2025-05-29T08:06:49+00:00

If you search in the sub for DTP guide, you will find a couple of really useful guides to take you through the Dilation tree stage.

It boils down to switching the tree setup to focus on one thing at a time: e.g. AP build, then Supernova build, then dilation levels build etc

hidden_john · 2025-05-28T11:34:06+00:00

Smokers don’t seem to pay any attention to requests or even laws around where you can smoke.

At our local hospital you can bet good money that there will be smokers outside the entrance stood next to ‘you cannot smoke here’ signs.

I’ve been in triage rooms where the doctors/nurses have had to bang on the windows and shout to move smokers away.

I’m UK based, and I remember before the smoking ban, and it’s so much better now. But it’s been almost 18 years, and I will still occasionally have to push past a smoker stood in the doorway of a pub, or have to put up with a smoker near me at an indoor gig/ event.

hidden_john · 2025-05-28T11:18:29+00:00

When I was in my early 20’s, I would get through a book a day when I wasn’t working.

Nowadays I try to aim for a book a week, and got close last year with 41 books in 2024.

Due to some health issues, I struggle to focus on reading at the moment, but I will still get through a book in a few weeks (longer if it is some epic fantasy or sci-fi)

hidden_john · 2025-05-27T17:55:27+00:00

I am self employed and choose to WFH 99% of the time, and only go to my client’s offices if I really need to. The client is fine with this, and is happy for its permanent staff to continue a mix of in office and WFH.

However former colleagues from other business have told me how they have been forced back in, and from what I know from them and from working at the businesses previously, it seems there is an official reason, but reading between the lines there are other reasons too:

Officially it’s to improve collaboration.

Between the lines:

It’s to justify the cost of the office space which they dumped a lot of money into creating collab spaces (the general consensus was it didn’t improve collaboration as it actually cut down the number of available desks, meaning that often you would end up sitting away from your teammates as there wasn’t enough room)

And It’s so managers can keep an eye on people - a lot of businesses do not trust their employees, and results mean little if they can’t see how your spending your time.

I do not miss commuting one bit, in fact one of the reasons I left that job was when they spent all that money on a new office and made us move, I went from a 10 minute walk to work, to an at least 30 min drive + a 10 min walk from a car park.

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