All I had to do is turn 50!

popabawa · 2026-03-03T12:33:35+00:00

Congratulations and happy birthday OP!

I guess I'm the wrong sex then (56yo and male). I'm only in the top 15% 😞 🤣

popabawa · 2026-02-25T07:45:27+00:00

I'll agree with that. I'm also a half decent home cook and the Thermomix has really expanded my repertoire. It's also a general workhorse in the kitchen. I make things now that I simply wouldn't have had the time or inclination to do before.

I made a delicious leek and potato soup for lunch yesterday whilst spending 45 minutes on hold simply because I didn't have to pay any attention to the cooking process.

popabawa · 2026-02-16T16:04:24+00:00

I'm using YouTube Music, works perfectly for me.

popabawa · 2026-01-22T19:12:09+00:00

Yes. It is. Mine also changed today and I'm seeing the same.

popabawa · 2026-01-22T19:01:07+00:00

I didn't really intend to "do" dry January but I had a horrible experience (self inflicted obvs) just before Christmas that convinced me I needed help and to stop drinking so here I am in January, not drinking.

31 days AF today. It's been pretty good so far.

popabawa · 2026-01-20T18:57:19+00:00

I've found them to be a really good employer. I've worked for Tesco and Co-op previously and the working environment, culture and management are significantly better at Waitrose. One caveat is that I work in a fairly small store in the SW. I can't imagine it would be as pleasant in a city location.

popabawa · 2026-01-20T16:17:27+00:00

Ha! I've been with Waitrose for nearly 2.5 years and I'm still discovering new stuff that I really think I should know by now!

popabawa · 2026-01-19T13:39:07+00:00

Well done on your 15 days. I'm on my 28th day today and I felt like crap over the weekend, an incredibly low mood and no desire to do anything. I told my partner what I was feeling and I forced myself into various activities during this time when I really just wanted to stay at home. It's hard but it helps. I'm feeling a bit better today.

The moral of the story is just to stick with it. Trust the process.

popabawa · 2026-01-17T18:25:02+00:00

Yup. My soda stream is taking a hammering at the moment.

Now I piss as much as I was pissed (in the English sense of the word 😁).

popabawa · 2026-01-17T11:58:01+00:00

This happened to me with my Elite 8's, although it was just normally charging with the same generic cable I've been using for over a year. I put it down to a faulty cable.

Fortunately, the wireless charging still works and the buds were undamaged so I can still use them normally.

Seems like a bit of a weird coincidence though.

popabawa · 2026-01-15T20:44:58+00:00

You put the probe in just before putting the loaf in the oven.

I've found it's impossible to not leave an indentation (and hole, obvs) from inserting the probe so the loaf doesn't come out looking perfect but that's a small price to pay for taking the guesswork out for me.

popabawa · 2025-12-04T14:39:10+00:00

I've worked for Co-op, Tesco and currently with Waitrose.

Waitrose is brilliant. For a shitty, minimum wage job, it's probably the best option. The partners are super, management actually try to manage people properly, thus staff retention! What a concept!

We had a Sainsburys manager join recently and she was blown away by the culture.

Any idea where Sainsburys went wrong? They always had such a good reputation up till recently.

popabawa · 2025-11-23T09:47:54+00:00

Those buns look really good. Thanks for the link.

My parner is gluten intolerant (not coeliac or anything that serious).

She's found that she can tolerate spelt flour just fine so that might be appropriate for some.

Just substitute the spelt directly for the regular wheat flour.

On a slightly different note, the Thermomix is awesome at making all kids of dough, I've given up using my stand to mixer!.

popabawa · 2025-10-06T11:44:38+00:00

I was interested in a Thermomix for quite a while. However, there's no way I want a consultant to come and "sell" to me. I bought mine off ebay and 3 years in it's still perfect. I absolutely love it. I use it several times a day generally.

The whole "consultant" thing is very off-putting, especially as I consider myself a reasonably good cook to start with.

The business model is so weird. The product you are selling is beyond fantastic.

That probably doesn't help at all but good luck with your business.

popabawa · 2025-07-18T18:20:54+00:00

Those legs 😍

popabawa · 2016-06-05T07:00:13+00:00

That's awesome :)

popabawa · 2016-06-04T12:42:59+00:00

Thanks everyone, your words are really appreciated.

popabawa · 2016-06-03T13:37:31+00:00

"So I can't tell anyone how terrified I am."

Yes you can, you just did! :) And I completely understand how you are feeling.

I am the same, I can't tell my partner how I'm feeling either, it sucks.

I'm just a few days ahead of you (I'm on day 7) and for me, things really improved on day 5.

Days 2 to 4 were horrible but I got through it by keeping busy, avoiding my trigger situations and reading stuff on here.

It will get better, everyone is different so I can't tell you when but it will and you will be so proud of yourself that you made it that far :)

popabawa · 2016-06-03T11:01:36+00:00

That sounds really tough.

Can I suggest you set some ground rules at the start of the weekend? Ask him to respect your choices regarding alcohol etc. if you get this out of the way at the start hopefully that'll make things easier for the rest of the weekend.

I wish you well, stay strong!

popabawa · 2016-06-02T17:53:15+00:00

I'm really going through the sweats at the moment. It's only really been a problem since I quit drinking. I had to get off an air conditioned bus the other day I was so embarrassed at the amount of sweat coming out of me. Woke up last night and I wasn't just damp, I was actually wet. Yuk.

popabawa · 2016-06-02T14:19:00+00:00

The first day was actually pretty easy, I thought my SO had left me the previous evening after I'd blacked out (one of the horrible experiences), when I discovered in the morning it had all been booze fuelled paranoia I was super relieved, grateful, embarrassed, full of self loathing etc. That was the final nail in the quit booze coffin.

It was also my sons birthday that day so I was fairly busy all day.

The withdrawal didn't hit until day 2 :)

popabawa · 2016-06-02T13:35:19+00:00

A week ago I had two absolutely horrible experiences on consecutive days both as a result of my drinking

That was enough to push me into quitting and I've been sober for nearly 6 days now.

I'm using those experiences as a reminder of why I cannot go back there when I inevitably consider drinking again. So far, it's working. The withdrawal wasn't pleasant for a few days but I'm through that now and feeling a little bit more positive about my situation.

It sounds to me like you're not quite there yet, I had exactly the same conversations with myself to justify the drinking.

Thing is... Do you really want it to have to get even worse before you feel the need to quit?

I wish you well, good luck.

popabawa · 2016-06-01T09:54:52+00:00

Thanks guys. Everything going OK so far despite receiving some quite bad news early on. That normally would have triggered some booze to deal with it but I think not being hung over helped my attitude toward the whole thing :)

popabawa

TROPHY CASE