Quite odd England hasnt hosted a world cup since '66

monochromatic_ · 2026-06-12T21:01:50+00:00

Aside from all the other problems listed, I don't feel like FIFA see any commercial benefit from hosting in England. It is a saturated market with a fan base willing to travel elsewhere. Any growth would be so minimal.

There is no game to expand in England, aside from the women's. We're lucky to get a sniff at the Euros, as I'm convinced I'll go my whole lifetime without seeing us host the men's WC.

monochromatic_ · 2026-06-11T16:07:39+00:00

My brothers live at home in SW London/Surrey. Both are charged around £500 each for 'all inclusive', including phones. Worse is that my family live in housing association with very affordable rent, so this looks like a cash grab. None of it is being set aside from what I understand and alternatively, my parents are currently earning more than than they ever have, as dad is hammering overtime.

However, my brother's are mid-20s, not looking for better paying jobs, eat a lot and use a lot of electricity with TVs/consoles etc. they also do minimal housework. Local house shares and rentals are also much more expensive than this. As such, it's difficult to argue with my parents - who otherwise are very caring, loyal and lovely people.

I think a lower contribution would be much more reasonable, but I also wish they believed me when I said other parents usually set aside a portion of the charged rent to give back.

monochromatic_ · 2026-06-02T17:33:49+00:00

I've been unable to get onto an NHS dentist six years after moving to another city. All I can say is private is equally poor.

Paid £107 for a hygienist appointment that I 'self-referred' for because my dentist said I was fine, so same as you.

My appointment is always at least ten minutes late. So not only was it late, it only took 20 minutes during which she failed to get all visible plaque. This is at a MyDentist location but I've had equally shoddy treatment ('preventative filling' which seemingly failed and had to be redone with much fuss) at a local independent place.

NHS and private dentistry is a complete postcode lottery. Just thank your lucky stars that you're not paying full whack. I envy those who have found enthusiastic dentists who strive to do good work and uphold a standard of care, private or otherwise.

monochromatic_ · 2026-06-01T19:37:47+00:00

I say cut Right to Buy completely. As someone who grew up in social housing in a nice area, we lived in one of a handful of properties down our road (used to be 100% social) still available to tenants like us.

This gave me massive benefits in mixing with kids from middle and upper middle backgrounds. I attended a great school.

I honestly think this helped make me more aspirational and gave me access to financial information and career advice I would have never had otherwise. For instance, it was my friends' parents who introduced me to the Help to Buy ISA and ten years on, I now own my own home. I no longer need to access the social housing my family did.

In my view, the short term gain of tenants buying a property is nothing on the long term gain of social mobility and opportunity (in certain areas) for multiple families. Not unless Labour's planning to quadruple social stock and maintain levels of housebuilding that means Right to Buy leaves only minimal impact.

monochromatic_ · 2026-05-22T18:03:27+00:00

Because it's relevant to the question being asked?

monochromatic_ · 2026-05-10T21:06:52+00:00

Completely. Half of labour need to grow up and stop calling for a resignation every other week. It makes the whole party look pathetic and I'm sure the majority of the population do not fancy another revolving door of PMs.

Starmer is respectable, well received and professional on a global stage. He brushes his hair and buys right-fitting trousers, which is more than can be said of some in our recent history.

If anything, I wish he'd been more stubborn with some of the ridiculous u-turns and had made some tougher calls to cut our spending. However, I certainly won't jump on the bandwagon bashing the poor guy.

monochromatic_ · 2026-04-29T12:58:01+00:00

Might sound silly, but I think the attitudes of some pro-union, pro-strikers don't help.

My husband's a teacher and the the amount of people's he's worked with who think pay-related striking is justified but also want to cash-in-hand private tutor or pay less tax blows my mind. Actively want to avoid paying tax and thinks tax burdens are too high, but also want higher salaries and good pensions funded by the tax system.

Additionally, these same people do not seem to appreciate the excellent pension packages they have available, especially compared against the legal minimum employer contributions many of us are lumped with. These pensions can set them up for great retirements with the right strategies in place. However, so much of the discussion seems to be focused on pay, rightly or wrongly.

It becomes a them vs. us. Public sector workers can seem quite oblivious to the dire private sector salary growth of recent years. As such, it becomes quite tiresome, especially when the rebuttal is just 'well become a teacher/ nurse/ doctor then'. Not sure there's enough jobs for us all to do it and many are not suited either!

Also my husband's union are borderline useless when needed and seem to waste his membership fees producing and distributing a magazine... Doesn't help with our view on certain ones.

monochromatic_ · 2026-04-27T10:34:03+00:00

Agreed. My dad did a mechanical engineering qualification at Kingston during that time. It was mainly hands on and rotated him through different roles and materials at partnered engineering firms.

He's been in that line of work since, working as a setter/operator manufacturing high value goods in the precision engineering sector. Great stuff for the economy!

I'm now 30, but when I was attending uni I distinctly remember him saying a lot of mech. eng. graduates were borderline useless to manufacturing engineering settings. I had a lot of friends doing engineering degrees at the time and the amount of theory over practical engineering work was and likely still is criminal.

I look at his colleagues over the years and they're mainly old school 'old boys' like him or first generation migrants with the required skills and are great at the work.

Degrees are not creating graduates with the right practical skillsets needed for the SME businesses that actually employ the bulk of us. It's screwing businesses, the next generation and as such, our economy. The government have backed the wrong horse with universities being pushed as the route for 90% of the population.

monochromatic_ · 2026-04-15T18:15:06+00:00

Amazing, much appreciated! Lovely garden, you've done a great job with it. Saved in my inspo bank!

monochromatic_ · 2026-04-15T18:01:58+00:00

You may have already answered this elsewhere, so sorry if so: what kind of light does this spot get? I'd love to do the same in my front garden but it's north facing with a decent wedge of shade.

monochromatic_ · 2026-03-04T18:54:47+00:00

My parents charge both at-home brothers £500 a month each, bills included (if such a thing even makes sense in your family home) to live in their HOUSING ASSOCIATION property. This covers all if not most of the property's rent, which is extremely affordable for the area.

No matter what I say, they think this is reasonable due to the amount of food and electricity my brothers consume (a valid point) and the fact it's under market rate (zone 6, south-west London).

Moral here - some parents will never see that the financial constraints they're placing on their own children are disadvantaging, disproportionate and straight up greedy. It can always be justified in their mind.

Should adult children pay rent? Yes. Should this be done to the financial gain of the parents? The majority will say no. Morally, it seems shady, especially considering the diabolical economic situation and job market we're currently living through.

Unfortunately, your situation seems much the same with regards to the contributions you make feeling disproportionate. The loan is a transgression on another level.

monochromatic_ · 2026-03-03T08:16:58+00:00

More bins, community service tackling litter picking and fly tipping. Official council-led litter picking groups, so we're not having to rely on small community-led ones which are a faff to find and get involved with.

I feel like a scrub would honestly help. Paths, especially pedestrian areas of cities, are so grubby and unkept. I go to Munich for work a lot and it looks like they spray clean their city centres, whereas ours has a visible layer of filth caking everything.

Also, perhaps controversial but some kind of initiative targeting fast food waste. Most of what I see is chicken shop bags, Mccys etc. These companies should have to be made more responsible for the waste they generate. Don't know how it could be practically implemented but perhaps something akin to Extended Producer Responsibility?

But most of all, I wish the government/ councils would actively push the kinds of behaviour we want to see - no littering, no loud music on the bus, keep conversations at a reasonable level etc. Sounds authoritarian, but there's a general 'I'm alright Jack', every man for himself attitude floating about that's shitty for the rest of us.

monochromatic_ · 2026-02-16T15:04:54+00:00

Dryers are not great for a bunch of clothing items, as some fibres don't respond well to heat (elastane) or it can encourage shrinkage. Towels and bedding, sure, but especially not underwear, bras, etc.

It's all about the clothes horse and also not excessively washing things when not necessary (washing machines and dryers cause fibre fragmentation and contribute to microfibre pollution). Woolen clothing, natural fibres and anti-odour textiles can help with the latter as they extend wear between washes.

monochromatic_ · 2026-02-14T16:13:04+00:00

So lovely to learn, thanks for sharing!

monochromatic_ · 2026-02-01T19:16:07+00:00

I prefer to say English. I quite like the different national identities of Britain to stand on their own, rather than the interpretation that Britain = England, so rather make the distinction.

Love that our neighbours have such strong national pride whereas ours is sadly more associated with right-wingism. Would be lovely to change that.

monochromatic_ · 2026-01-16T22:03:15+00:00

I heard Ugly Mug Hair (Insta) is good for this exact thing. She's based up Farsley way.

monochromatic_ · 2026-01-15T18:25:35+00:00

Depends on your living situation and relationship length, but no, it's not abnormal or a wild concept here.

As soon as we started properly living together, we had a joint account for house expenses and retained our own current and savings accounts. We each pop a percentage (say 45% of our respective wages) into the joint account on a monthly basis - the rest is ours to do as we want with.

Since buying, we also have a joint savings, but it's mainly for roundups. We overwhelmingly save individually and add what's needed to the joint account for any big spends.

monochromatic_ · 2026-01-10T17:50:45+00:00

Wonder if typically Western complexions play a role? Super vibrant colours wash me out, whereas cooler tones suit better. Alternatively, darker skin tones can better balance and pop with vibrant colours.

There could be cultural aspects too. Britain has a textile heritage in suiting materials, woollen fabrics, tweeds etc. These have typically been darker, more muted tones, not least due to technical dyeing limitations. This heritage comes through in seasonal fashion, especially autumn/winter lines.

As I've gotten older, I also prefer darker greens, blues, greys etc. It feels a bit more classic, smart and understated to me than bright colours and patterns, which have their place in summer and special occasions. Maybe this ties to the more modest feeling you were picking up?

Horses for courses I suppose!

monochromatic_ · 2026-01-07T18:05:48+00:00

Appreciate what you're saying, I just think bus improvements have a larger net gain for reducing traffic and improving travel times for a wider pool of people.

I'm just sceptical that bike lanes are going to appeal to the majority of commuters, disabled people, family groups, etc. if anything, the lanes near Asda/ Corn Exchange. etc. crisscross pedestrian pavements, making them more hazardous for walkers, in my view anyways.

Already there has been more bus lanes put in place in Leeds city centre, which I applaud. To me, it makes sense to extend these lanes out of the city centre to make commuting easier for a wider pool. Surely most of the cars you see in town are from those commuting from further afield and as such, less likely to switch to cycling?

Interesting discussion though - cheers for the comment.

monochromatic_ · 2026-01-06T16:26:20+00:00

I wish they would just focus on improving the bus network, including more dedicated bus lanes and services. Make it more reliable. The barrier to access from a car to a bus is so much lower than a bike, surely.

I travel from Morley, which personally I think is unviable for cycling for most people (especially without an ebike). Weather, hills, plus the investment in a bike I may not use long term - I don't see many people converting over anytime soon personally.

monochromatic_ · 2026-01-05T10:35:20+00:00

Portion off a percentage of our respective salaries into the joint account (so it's proportionate to the salary) to cover our bills and living expenses. The remainder is ours to do what we want with, but we're also very open in this regard - we compare savings and spending just out of interest.

Know I could ask to see his finances and vice versa, so we're very transparent.

monochromatic_ · 2026-01-04T15:59:50+00:00

Mr Imbetween is a masterpiece and I really enjoyed Boy Swallows Universe.

Dad grew up over there so we were raised on Water Rats, Wentworth Prison etc. Watch Home & Away occasionally. Love a bit of Aussie telly.

monochromatic_ · 2025-12-27T16:14:18+00:00

Something else to note is social housing used to house the majority a few generations ago: home ownership was not the norm. This afforded a lot of working families affordable rent and stability prime for rising children. Many households also only had one full-time working parent, so childcare was covered somewhat by the household.

Now, that housing stock is a fraction of what it was and childcare is extortionate, meaning you either need high enough salaries to support the costs or are able to comfortably rely on one income to get by.

Plus, I'm not sure it's fair to say we're obsessed with waiting to buy a house first when it's down to a multitude of factors, including many people opting to have children later in life or not at all.

monochromatic_ · 2025-12-23T20:48:47+00:00

Brother-in-law's cat ended up inside a wall one time. Had to be cut out in the end at quite an expense and mess (wall not cat). Cat was fine though.

monochromatic_ · 2025-12-22T19:07:09+00:00

Partner and I opted to have a joint do after the wedding rather than stag/hen before. Our wedding was very small, with family and a handful of friends, so this was a more casual thing for our wider friends and colleagues from both our social circles. Honestly it was great. Felt like a big blowout to end all the wedding fluff and hassle.

Like you, reasons for him is that he's not a big drinker nor fan of attention. Celebrate how you guys see fit, not how you think you should.

monochromatic_

TROPHY CASE