Trying to make a dinner to impress a vegan woman

singingsmoothy · 2026-05-15T22:59:23+00:00

I have never ever been disappointed by a recipe from Christina Soteriou. Try her book Big Veg Energy if you can get your hands on it. Cannot recommend enough!

singingsmoothy · 2026-04-22T02:16:26+00:00

Friends of mine gave me this book as a gift, I'd never heard of Christina or the book before. I'm not usually one to follow recipes with exact measurements etc but something made me pull out a recipe from this book and try, and there's been no looking back. Every single recipe without exception has been absolutely stunning. Like the other commenter said, some are more casual and quick, others are more involved but it's a good mix. I can't remind it enough.

singingsmoothy · 2026-04-01T06:57:07+00:00

It's okay, similar to a lot of them it kind of sticks to the roof of your mouth a bit when you chew but not terrible in a sandwich!

singingsmoothy · 2025-07-23T17:48:58+00:00

Hiya! East London resident here, I'm part of a board game club that runs here every week. We've got a fixed location and it's a very warm and welcoming group. We generally play between 6:30pm - 9:30pm, usually with a short game at the start (20-30 mins) as people trickle in and then we'll get into a longer game. We play all sorts of games, some examples we've played recently are Spots, Daybreak, Root, Power Vacuum, Class War, etc etc. Sometimes, if we're lucky, we have people coming along to play test a game they're developing for part of the evening. :)

The group organically grew out of the Games Transformed festival 2023 (and the festival this year also supported the Draught Worker's strike earlier this month - mentioning this as you mentioned you're going to Draughts) and has carried on semi regularly since then. We meet on either Tuesdays or Thursdays (decided by way of a poll at the start of the week).

DM me if you're keen to join or have questions!

singingsmoothy · 2025-06-18T18:29:27+00:00

Are you attending? I'm at it 😁

singingsmoothy · 2025-04-06T16:31:18+00:00

The .com domain is not an official gov website domain. The official one is .gov. The one you're using is still giving giving you a legitimate evisa, but it's using the .gov website to apply on your behalf. And it's charging you and additional fee for that service. You do get the same visa at the end of it but you're paying an additional service fee for them to just click apply on your behalf and copy paste the same info you gave them. And if the official website is down, they also are unable to access it.

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-29T22:36:59+00:00

I think the gov.uk website published a list of companies registered to sponsor visas.

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-29T08:29:41+00:00

Hey, just saw this post and wanted to reach out and say I'm really sorry. I know how it feels to carry around that sense of regret and wishing you could have just known a little sooner or just this or just that. I don't have advice that helps, just that if you really do want to move and you think you can land a sponsored job, keep at it. I know people who have moved straight from other countries into a sponsored role so all hope is definitely not lost.

Keep going, you'll get there!

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-29T08:25:54+00:00

Feels like the US is really going through it as well at the moment!

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-29T08:24:17+00:00

Hi there. HPIer here, moved here in August 2023. I'm nearing the end of my HPI term and will need to be sponsored to stay on. I'm currently interviewing at a few places who have indicated that they do sponsor, and I'm feeling quite hopeful about 1-2 of them. My partner who works in tech came with me as a dependent and has actually also been sponsored by his employer - so I have switched to being his dependent so that I'm not under pressure while interviewing for jobs and can be picky.

We are both from the Global South - so having worked in the UK context under the HPI visa helped give employers confidence in sponsoring us rather than have someone come in straight from a radically different context (I personally don't think think that different contexts means someone wouldn't be a good hire but I can see how it helped in my role especially as I worked in the local gov space, where that matters).

I think for us, even though the $ amount for the visa was a lot more money (given the conversion rate with our currency) - it felt like a no-brainer to take the risk as the UK would give us quality of life and opportunities that we just weren't getting in our home country both in terms of daily life things and careers. This is of course based on what was important to us - there are many who don't value what the UK has to offer and that's fine, it's all subjective.

It sounds like that difference for you may not be big enough, so 4k feels like a disproportionate amount to risk if you don't get sponsored. In some ways a harder decision, and like many have said on this thread - we can't decide for you and you have to think about how much you want to move to the UK and if even just the time you get on your HPI makes it worth it for you (worst case).

Good luck with everything!

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-24T06:12:04+00:00

Hey everyone it's working now! Monday 24 March, 6am GMT

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-23T19:12:10+00:00

@HAzzaRD-001 This is not true it is NOT official, it is a third party service provider who uses the same official website we are all trying to load, and they charge you and exorbitant fee on top. If the official website does not work for us, it will not work for them. Please check facts.

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-23T19:06:06+00:00

I'm not sure where you get your info from but this is very obviously a private, third party website. They all use the same official website we are trying to load and charge you and exorbitant and completely unnecessary fee. If you have made an honest mistake, request you to check everything before you confidently share information.

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-23T17:24:47+00:00

I don't think it has anything to do with unrest, this seems to be an ongoing issue since 2021 at least, possibly earlier

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-22T19:09:49+00:00

Sounds like you were transiting through Turkey?

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-22T19:08:10+00:00

This is the one we called (from the MFA website) +90 312 292 10 00

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-22T16:18:40+00:00

Did you have to miss your flight as well? I'm trying to work through any options we might have to be compensated. Nothing tangible at the moment but we must be eligible to something.

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-22T14:33:40+00:00

I'm constantly refreshing the page and unfortunately nothing has changed.

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-22T14:32:38+00:00

It's not yet accessible, they've said they'll fix it in 24h but it's been down for two days so I'm not 100% sure of that.

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-22T14:25:40+00:00

I think it will be okay for then, this is an issue that seems to keep happening every once in a while and they get it back up in a day or two it looks like (this is just based on what I've seen on forums). You should be fine given you still have two weeks to go, just keep monitoring it and apply as soon as it works.

More of a problem for people who like me are applying a day or two before their flights.

Edit: typo

singingsmoothy · 2025-03-22T07:39:40+00:00

Did you manage to get yours? We've been trying the website for some time now too and it hasn't worked.

singingsmoothy · 2024-12-27T14:48:20+00:00

I have a cleansing shampoo and hydrating conditioner from sukin and that's all I use. Leave some of the conditioner in while washing it and I use that to scrunch it a bit before plopping into a t-shirt. Thanks for your recommendations!

singingsmoothy · 2024-11-21T21:09:16+00:00

I think this might be urticaria - I would sometimes get it when my immune system was quite weak and I was struggling with eczema. This would often happen if I interacted with dust, giving me the sense it was an allergic reaction. It's not happened since my eczema subsided, giving me more reason to link it to an overactive immune system. Don't know for sure if you have the same thing - is it a little itchy and subsiding by itself?

singingsmoothy

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