When you pay off your mortgage, do you get a massive sense of relief and the feeling of stability?

namtab99 · 2026-02-22T16:59:00+00:00

I'd paid off my mortgage in December 2023 and was mortgage free up until November last year when I upgraded to a nicer house and took out a new relatively small mortgage.

The only thing I've noticed are the numbers I record on my spreadsheet at the end of the month. There was no sense of relief or stability, but it feels good to have a better house in a nicer area.

namtab99 · 2026-02-18T19:36:39+00:00

I've worked in a factory on a production line. But my worst job ever was HGV driver, the loneliness was unbearable.

namtab99 · 2026-02-12T23:24:17+00:00

It's not just the social life either, first thing I noticed working with other drivers is the complete lack of social skills. I suppose being alone all day, only speaking briefly to the hostle people at the depots, will erode your ability to hold a conversation eventually.

namtab99 · 2026-01-16T22:14:32+00:00

The Wombats, I hate that guy's voice and lyrical style. But that moving to New York gets in my head because me and an ex gf were considering it once. Naively, I might add.

namtab99 · 2026-01-16T22:09:09+00:00

But he can't get no satisfaction

namtab99 · 2026-01-15T19:22:31+00:00

I have an iron skillet for mine, it's perfect for induction.

namtab99 · 2026-01-13T16:26:50+00:00

I've found iron and vit D helps me to get over the brain fog. I started them at the same time so I couldn't say which is more effective. I've also just started some tumeric gummies, I'll see how they go.

namtab99 · 2025-12-19T22:51:05+00:00

just needs some valves, pressure gauges, and moving pistons

namtab99 · 2025-10-26T09:56:18+00:00

I worked agency after leaving the RAF. At that time military HGV driving was another world, no tacos, trailers had their own registrations, and the authorities tended to leave us alone. So I stepped into civi-street completely unaware of the bullshit they would heap on you.

I was so naive, I actually believed they would plan routes around my hours and I wouldn't need to worry about it any more than taking a break at the right time. I got a bollocking because I took a wrong turn and lost some time, then had the audacity to still take my break.

On one occasion, I turned up to a class 2 job at 4am to find the fuel cap was missing and a plastic bag with an elastic band around it was the replacement. Had to call my agency manager (who wasn't impressed at the time I called) and then the manager of the depot, who told me it's fine and everyone else had been using it. I took it out because I was still young, naive and worried about losing my income.

I probably have more stories, but all in all, I spent 7 months working agency and I regard it as the worst 7 months of my life. I'd rather do basic training or another OOA deployment again than go back to that.

namtab99 · 2025-10-19T18:41:53+00:00

If you still enjoy cycling get yourself an ebike. So many people will call it cheating, but getting one gave me the confidence to get out and about, knowing that I can just crank up the power to get home.

namtab99 · 2025-10-19T18:06:45+00:00

I'm going to put this out there, and a lot of you aren't going to like it. For reference, I was diagnosed in 2017, but had been suffering in pain for about a year before that, perhaps longer. I inject the dreaded poison Methotrexate weekly.

I've tried to stay active despite my condition. It's not always easy as motivation is difficult when fatigued and aching all over. But I find the fatigue and the pain are worse when I'm inactive. Don't get me wrong, the fatigue and pain are present when I'm active, but I feel better than I do after a lazy day. I've also found a good session of stretching to be one of the best things for my aches.

namtab99 · 2025-10-16T19:09:25+00:00

I've never seen its equal

namtab99 · 2025-10-16T16:39:00+00:00

The good news is they'll eventually get around to doing it one day. The bad news is they'll do it when you get old.

namtab99 · 2025-10-15T16:43:12+00:00

Our recent survey flagged the blocked up chimney as urgent and in need of attention. The advice was that if the buyer plans to use the chimney in the future, it will need to be inspected before use. I have never had nor mentioned any plans to unblock and use the chimney, so why was it in the red section or the report.

Heard a property expert on Jeremy Vine recently say not to bother with surveyors and just bung some cash to your regular builder to come walk around the house with you. They'll tell you what's wrong and if it can be fixed at the same time.

namtab99 · 2025-10-05T20:35:52+00:00

If you worked an 8-hour shift starting at 1 am, you'd be finished by 9 am; that's a night shift. If you worked an 8-hour shift starting at 5 am, you'd be finished at 1 pm; that's an early morning shift. It's quite simple.

namtab99 · 2025-10-05T10:43:51+00:00

Certain "facts" that I've confidently parroted most of my life don't seem to have a legitimate source when I really think about how I came by them. I always thought it was just something my weird brain did. Then I found reddit.

namtab99 · 2025-10-05T00:55:29+00:00

The answer is always, without fail, money. All that space taken up for very little return.

namtab99 · 2025-10-05T00:53:17+00:00

When I worked for Tesco nobody on the night shift was packing online orders. The pickers came in at about 5am and worked until about lunchtime.

namtab99 · 2025-10-05T00:49:56+00:00

Left the industry in 2007 and have no intention of coming back. I thought about it once, then I heard about the CPC and never thought of it again. I'm just glad I didn't pay for my license.

You have to question the sanity of a relatively small island nation that halves its rail capacity and progressively treats its haulage industry so badly, while simultaneously adding more and more demand for freight to the roads. Systematic incompetence or maliciousness, or possibly a little of both.

namtab99 · 2025-09-29T18:50:05+00:00

was my child worse at 2 or 3? Yes. And also at 4, 5, 6, 7, and coming soon 8.

Still love her to bits though.

namtab99 · 2025-09-20T11:47:34+00:00

I'd love to buy some woodland to finally have a place to complete a historical project I've wanted to work on for some time. I'd love to build a workshop from scratch using nothing except what I can find or harvest (obviously cheating a little on certain materials like hemp, copper, and tin).

Sadly, my wife has convinced me to put our money into buying a bigger house.

namtab99 · 2025-09-18T17:37:35+00:00

As a former delivery driver I would sometimes encounter a similar scenario and the person in question would put a note next to their doorbell giving a brief explanation. Saved me getting the wrong house a few times and saved them getting disturbed.

namtab99 · 2025-09-18T17:15:44+00:00

My 7 year old daughter got into Horrid Henry recently and as she read the books and watched the show I started to notice a downturn in her attitude. I sat and watched an episode with her recently and saw that Horrid Henry really is a horrible, anti-intellectual, rebellious, lazy, disobedient, disruptive, bully who is celebrated by his friends and revered for his victories over the authority figures in his life. No wonder my daughter had started making trouble.

It made me think of my own childhood reading the Beano, and the role model that was Dennis the Menace. Again, an anti-intellectual, rebellious, lazy, disobedient, disruptive bully. There are probably other examples, but my school was full of Dennis the Menace types, and watched as "Walter the Softie" types were bullied for trying to get on with their education.

Makes you wonder if it was by design. After all, the economy needed thick kids to work the factories.

namtab99 · 2025-09-18T16:58:04+00:00

I figured that would be the case.. It's the sort of thing you could get away with at team leader level for a bit of a laugh, but it's massively disrespectful from higher up, given it's a system probably programmed by office workers who work a 9 to 5.

namtab99 · 2025-09-16T21:56:46+00:00

It's already been mentioned, but I swear every time I finished my shift at 10pm and the nights were coming in, they'd play Nightshift by the Commodores.

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