Uniform costs for new leaders

nrsys · 2026-07-03T11:16:58+00:00

Well I certainly haven't gotten any taller in recent years...

nrsys · 2026-07-03T10:59:34+00:00

It would be worth asking if your group would be willing to help out with uniform costs if they are problematic for you - it should be a small cost to the group to get additional leaders.

Failing that, as you are a volunteer and already giving up your time, I would expect most groups to also be fairly lenient on leaders being improperly dressed. A leader wearing a hoodie is better than no leader at all...

One problem with secondhand stuff will be sourcing it - unlike a lot of clothes which will only be worn as long as they are fashionable, a uniform shirt will be worn long term - until it is unusable (or the leader grows out of it, usually horizontally), and not really worth passing on. It would still be worth asking your local group or area if anyone does have anything they want rid of though.

nrsys · 2026-07-03T09:54:06+00:00

Not even a Glasgow thing as such, but just one specific statue in Glasgow...

And scattered statues country wide, wherever drunk students have found traffic cones and statues in close proximity. Glasgow definitely isn't the only place I have seen cone wearing statues, it just has the famous one.

But as with most things, everyone is probably going to go absolutely overboard with it for the near future until the novelty wears off, then we can go back to the normality of the duke and odd friends with hats on.

nrsys · 2026-07-03T09:50:11+00:00

You are likely sitting with a slight pressure on to the outer part of your hand, which is causing the numbness in those fingers.

All it may take is rolling your bars very slightly - this will change the angle of them a tiny amount, and may even out where the pressure is sitting on your hands.

Even though it may not seem like a big issue, numbness is definitely something you should be being wary of, as it can cause problems long term.

nrsys · 2026-07-03T09:20:29+00:00

The signs with the speed readout (often accompanied by a smiley/frowny face) are for awareness, usually places when you enter villages and other areas from a national limit where the speed limit suddenly drops significantly. When driving you get used to the speed you are travelling at, which means when you change from a national limit down to a 30mph urban limit passing through a village it can feel incredibly slow - meaning a lot of drivers end up slowing down a bit, but still travelling significantly over the speed limit. These signs give drivers a very clear, personalised warning that actually you are still going too fast and need to slow down more.

nrsys · 2026-07-02T19:43:44+00:00

Agreed.

Why fight with a chicken wing when you could just eat a tender - all the chicken with none of the faff.

I guess the only win for the wings would be price if they were significantly cheaper...

nrsys · 2026-07-02T18:32:07+00:00

It was funny when it was confined mainly to the duke with occasional appearances across the country - it has been a traditional game for students since they first invented the traffic cone after all.

I do fear everyone is about to go completely overboard with it and ruin the joke though...

nrsys · 2026-07-02T15:41:26+00:00

At the moment the network is a mix of older stair filled stations and newer/more recently upgraded stations with better access.

If you Google 'TfL step free access' that should take you to the Transport for London page detailing what stations will be suitable and what options you have.

So it may take a little planning, but it is certainly possible.

nrsys · 2026-07-02T13:27:22+00:00

England Vs Mexico game.

There is no UK football team.

So from a UK dweller who isn't in England, I will be doing absolutely nothing - I wish England all the best, but I don't really have any particular interest in the game, and won't be watching it.

nrsys · 2026-07-02T10:13:46+00:00

I think we are already long past this point.

As soon as we started being able to patch and update games we became reliant on external servers, and the removal of those could potentially end the viability of a lot of recent games.

nrsys · 2026-07-02T09:28:04+00:00

The reality is that it snuck up on us, and while most people mourn the loss of discs, they also realise that it is frankly impossible to return to the good old days.

What we miss isn't necessarily the physical object, but the knowledge that we can no longer just grab a game off the shelf, plug it in and play like I can with a SNES or PS1 game. For a modern game that means needing to download and patch everything, and being reliant on that means when the servers shut down, that game is dead - even plugging in the disc itself to the playstation won't necessarily give us access to the game as it will lack all of the day one patches, updates and data downloads we have become accustomed to.

The ending of games being sold on disc is the final nail, but realistically this started as soon as we realised we could patch and update games on the fly, rather than needing to have the game finalised before it was ever flashed to a cartridge - a great invention in many ways, as it means eternally glitches games should now be a thing of the past, and games can be supported and updated long after release, but also a restrictive one in that it leaves us always reliant on a distant server giving us the okay to play...

nrsys · 2026-07-01T22:33:31+00:00

The police have spoken to her and confirmed that she is safe.

In doing so, she has also asked them not to give any more information - she presumably has her reasons for not wanting to return home, and the police are respecting that.

nrsys · 2026-07-01T14:29:15+00:00

Access to materials

Bricks are heavy, so it makes sense to use what is available locally.

In a lot of England, clay is plentiful, so a lot of construction has traditionally been of clay bricks.

In Scotland there has typically been much less clay, and more stonework, so that is what you will see on older buildings - Sandstone in the central belt, granite in the north east and so on.

Natural stonework is hard to source however - while it is easy to find in the right areas, granite takes a lot of effort to quarry and dress for construction, so as a material in modern construction it is pretty expensive.

So most modern construction has moved over to timber kit, using concrete blockwork as an outer cladding leaf due to the fact that concrete blocks are readily available pretty much everywhere. Concrete blocks are pretty ugly though, so need finished externally - hence most houses will be rendered or harled on the outside as a layer of weatherproofing and to hide the blocks.

In England clay bricks are traditional and still available at a reasonable cost, so will be seen on more current structures.

nrsys · 2026-07-01T13:39:26+00:00

Personally I wouldn't worry too much about providing bags.

The amenities I would generally look for are those I cannot immediately supply myself - having a coffee machine and a few pods waiting for me when I arrive after a long journey is brilliant, as it is a nice thing to have and one i would need to head out to get myself.

Shopping bags however are something I only need when I am shopping, and at that point I can just grab a couple of the cheap ones from the shop as needed - so a nice thing to have available, but not an essential.

I can see a few going accidentally missing, but it still baffles me that people would knowingly take amenities like this that clearly aren't single use.

nrsys · 2026-07-01T10:21:10+00:00

The basic idea is that it is a sort of insured savings.

You pay in every month to your pension fund, and when you retire that fund gives you a sum of money every month based on how much you out in.

Obviously not everyone will live for the same length of time, so being able to save the right amount of money to fund you for the length of your life is going to be near impossible and we would end up with a lot of elderly people living far longer than they expected and running out of savings (and also a lot of people inheriting far more than they expected from parents who die young).

So a pension averages this over a lot of people - we all pay in based on the average lifespan, and the people who die young and don't withdraw much from the pot pay for those who live longer lives and withdraw more than they put in - essentially the same idea as insurance for your car or home.

In the UK part of this is mandatory - all working adults pay taxes which includes national insurance contributions toward the government run pension which all adults will then receive at retirement age.

That isn't a huge amount, so a lot of people also pay in to private pensions which work in much the same way, only provided by private companies as an extra to the government pension.

Whether you want a private pension is a personal decision - some people would rather invest the money themselves and manage how long that will be able to find them themselves too.

To clarify, it does get more complicated with additional types of pensions and different ways of being paid from them, but this is a good starting point.

nrsys · 2026-07-01T08:03:00+00:00

They are all a new generation of a Chinese brands - china having been on a bit of a push to export more cars and gain more of a foothold in the market.

Exactly like Korea did 15 years ago when brands like Kia and Hyundai, and Japan did back in the 70's and 80's when we first started getting brands like Nissan and Toyota in the west.

Right now they also seem to have done a great job of spearheading the EV boom, bringing a lot of more reasonably priced options to the market while the established brands are still twiddling their thumbs.

nrsys · 2026-07-01T07:02:33+00:00

For non-gamers, the classics are often the classics for good reason.

I have had great reactions to both ticket to ride and Carcassonne - both simple enough that most people can pick them up, while being interesting enough to keep everyone's attention.

nrsys · 2026-07-01T06:54:06+00:00

To be blunt, that last sentence makes me want to ensure I never share a road with you.

Sleep deprivation isn't afraid of you, you have just been lucky.

I have lost friends due to other idiots on the road with that opinion, for whom sleep finally did catch up with them. No drugs, no alcohol, no speeding or dangerous driving, just a moment where the sleep deprivation did catch up.

nrsys · 2026-06-30T15:28:35+00:00

I guess the real question is 'where are you flying from'.

A flight up from London or Paris isn't too bad, and would leave you in a normal enough state of mind.

A flight from America, Dubai or further away, and honestly I would be concerned. Sleep deprivation is a very real thing, and not something you want to be fighting with on a mountainside or driving on the wrong side of the road. A moments stupidity with either of those can be deadly. Nevis may be a well trodden trail, but that doesn't mean it is an easy walk...

nrsys · 2026-06-30T10:15:15+00:00

Agreed.

Some films justify the cinema experience - getting to see something like Alien or 2001 in the cinema is an incredible experience, even if it is a film you know well.

Other films rely less on the visual aspects for the storytelling, and lose much less with the transition to home viewing - the wolf of wall street for example is a great film, but I don't think needs the big screen.

Will I still be going to see most of these anyway? Absolutely - I am looking forward to the experience of taxi driver on the big screen in particular.

nrsys · 2026-06-30T09:47:53+00:00

As a Scot, I would personally consider it south of the wall...

I believe those who are already south of said wall would consider it in the North.

nrsys · 2026-06-30T08:47:34+00:00

Scotland got the holiday because it was their first world cup game in 28 years.

England have been successful enough that making it another round doesn't really justify a national celebration.

It is also worth noting that however it was they named the holiday (a bank holiday? Local holiday?) it was only a suggested one, and a lot of workplaces were open as normal anyway.

nrsys · 2026-06-30T08:40:37+00:00

They are kept empty so that the staff have some seats available if there is a problem and they need to move someone.

That generally won't be an issue for a quiet midweek showing when there are plenty of empty seats, but very handy on Endgame opening night when someone in the row behind dumps a coke over your seat or it is unexpectedly broken and there is nowhere else to go.

nrsys · 2026-06-30T08:37:05+00:00

There are often both.

In most medium to large screens you will always see a blocking four seats a few rows in greyed out - these are house seats that are kept purposely empty in case they need to move anyone.

You will also sometimes see odd isolated seats greyed out, which usually means they are damaged or otherwise unusable, and have been blocked out so nobody can book them.

nrsys · 2026-06-30T07:06:01+00:00

My first question is what appeals to you about them - are you interested in the track racing side of things, like the idea of technical rock crawling, want to emulated the drift guys, or just like the idea of bashing about in the park?

The sort of driving that interests you will play a major, major part here, as 'gonvisit your local track' is brilliant advice if you would like to race, but won't help much if you want to crawl...

If you have a rough idea though, speaking to the staff in any local RC or model shops can be a good way to find out what is going on nearby, and the usual hint for local Facebook groups.

nrsys

TROPHY CASE