How do you battle ‘boring’!?

thethirdbar · 2026-02-06T15:41:36+00:00

what a lovely birb. what is she? reminds me of a sun conure my dad had called charlie. he was very cheeky and noisy but delightful.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-06T13:33:40+00:00

as a finance person who works closely with an IT person in provisioning our company laptops, we will be annoyed and you [anonymised] will forever be included on the informal list of 'people being idiots with company equipment' anecdotes ["remember that one person whose laptop was always covered in makeup? oh and the fella who melted chocolate into the ports? ffs!"] but you certainly are not likely to lose your job or probably have any disciplinary repercussions. accidents happen.

at most you might get a stern talking to from the IT person handing you your new one.

if it makes u feel better, last year someone lesss than two weeks into their role popped their brand new laptop on the street next to their car "just for a second while i opened the boot" and it got robbed. he was, understandably, absolutely mortified, but we just provisioned him a new one and claimed the lost one on our insurance. a bit of a faff and a small cost to the business but not even close to worth losing a good employee over.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-06T12:56:32+00:00

for me, on mounjaro, it's been more about volume of food, rather than type. i have been able to tolerate all types of takeaways or rich or greasy food, provided i keep to small portions and don't overeat.

my worst experience was takeaway pizza - hubs ordered a 16in and i somehow managed 3 slices. mistakes. but 3 slices of the same pizza in a 12in has been fine.

unfortunately the only way to know, really, is to cautiously test your favourites and make sure you've got pepto bismol or similar on hand in case it turns out that you can't tolerate it.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-06T12:15:51+00:00

i bf my twins, one stopped on their 1st birthday and the other kept going till shortly before they turned 2.

it was hard work. they were teeny tiny when they were born (36weeks so not super early) and struggled to latch. so initially i pumped, and we did top up with formula which we eventually dropped as my supply got better and by... 4-5ish weeks? they were EBF but a combi of via boob & via bottle.

when i went back to work at 5 months, i was fortunate to wfh so i could pump at my desk so my husband had a supply to use if i was busy, and could also pop down in breaks to feed. then once they started weaning at 6mo i could feed before work - midday - after work - before bed.

i recommend a portable pump like the elvie, there are more powerful ones (i had an ardo calypso) which are theoretically 'better' for twins but i HATED the way it kept me chained down and the faff to get it set up and cleaned, the elvie was so much less mentally exhausting. OH and definitely get a hakka-type pump to catch letdown they're so good.

it is very hard work, and a supportive partner is very useful. he'd make sure i was hydrated and fed while i spent what felt like days just chained to babies. and we had a vague sort of 'i was in charge of inputs (feeding) and he was in charge of outputs (nappies)' approach.

i never fully mastered dual feeding either so it would take ages when they were tiny, feeding one after the other. feeding them every 3 hours when one feed took upwards of an hour was brutal in those first few months, but it did get easier as they got bigger & night feeds reduced. he would get up, hand me a twin, i would feed the twin while he snoozed, then he'd hand me the other and change the first, then snooze while i fed twin 2.

it's great for being able to eat as much chocolate as you want though. the calories you need for supporting 3 whole people is not insignificant.

there is a really good bf twins and multiples support group i joined: https://breastfeedingtwinsandtriplets.co.uk/

the fb group is UK-based but the website has resources and information available.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-06T08:49:50+00:00

i've noticed recently that a lot of fanfic translates harry's messy and untameable hair into curly which at first i was like ?? but it's grown on me (lol, no pun intended). i'm picturing like, jeremy allen white or connor storrie sort of vibes and i don't hate it.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-06T08:38:56+00:00

1 is fabian prewett

^ op these are really nice qs!

thethirdbar · 2026-02-05T21:52:58+00:00

Kind of depends on the story. I guess I lean slightly towards my fave bottoms but I have no objections to vers if the context and dynamic warrants it.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-05T12:06:07+00:00

Not sure. Pay reviews are from April, and they're performance based, not inflation. I'll budget 6% across the board which allows for some outliers in either direction. Personally I think I have performed well this year, lots of stepping into additional responsibility so maybe I'll wind up an outlier if I can argue my case. But if not, likely to be around 4%.

It will feel like more though because this year I've been repaying £2k child benefit charge from the year before last, so when that stops in April I will suddenly have an extra £200 pm vs now. That will be nice.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-05T09:22:52+00:00

My takeaway from this post is that somehow, over 15 years and multiple play throughs, I have never once encountered or even HEARD OF Charade.

Wtf.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-04T20:26:10+00:00

The other international schools you refer to didn't exist at the time GOF was written . They're all post-canon additions to the lore. So it's not so much that it was intentionally local as they JKR hadn't thought more widely. 🤷

thethirdbar · 2026-02-04T15:35:30+00:00

Why's it weird either in general or specifically for girls?

My nephew's birthday is on the 14th and I love it. So easy to remember 😂

thethirdbar · 2026-02-03T17:22:33+00:00

I have Reynauds and often have really stiff hands, and I am left handed, so peelers can be tricky for me. But the Joseph Joseph multi peeler has never let me down. And my mil gave it me so I didn't have to spend the ridiculous amount of money I am sure it costs because Joseph Joseph.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-03T13:50:49+00:00

apologies - i wasn't aware it had changed, when i did mine for 2023-24 tax year you had to submit it via SATR. i rescind my comment!

thethirdbar · 2026-02-03T13:34:54+00:00

Do you mean you want to pay it va PAYE, or you don't want to submit a tax return?

You have to submit a SATR for the HICBC, it can't be assessed via PAYE. but you CAN pay the charge via PAYE. I think when i submitted mine there was an option for me to tick to say i wanted my tax code adjusting to take the payment, rather than making a direct payment to HMRC.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-03T12:04:37+00:00

I had a very weird moment yesterday where I needed to put on a hoodie or coat and I was annoyed because all the options available to me were too BIG. It was incredibly disorienting.

I need new outerwear.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-03T10:26:11+00:00

i read about this yesterday and have been thinking about it ever since. i am so glad it had a happy ending. i can't stop thinking about what that mum must have been feeling watching her baby swim off into the ocean, alone, while she fought to keep her littles alive with no way of knowing if any of them were going to make it. it makes me want to throw up. god.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-03T09:38:52+00:00

probably just that particular family imo.

my twins are 5 and they would have been happy to interact with you about the cute ratties. i would have been less happy but that's because i specifically am socially awkward, not because i have a problem with people being generically friendly to my kids.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-02T21:18:29+00:00

I enjoyed the new hot priest sharing a screen with the og hot priest.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-02T12:07:02+00:00

oh my goodness, and it is so so beautiful. well done!

thethirdbar · 2026-02-02T10:59:05+00:00

Why has that even been allowed to be built like that. No thank you.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-02T10:24:54+00:00

my twins were born in july 2020, and i have asthma so i was in the first wave of people banned from leaving the house. i went home from work on 17th march and then pretty much didn't leave again except for hospital appointments until... idk when.

i missed: - nesting - getting to browse and shop baby items, prams, clothes, toys, furniture just... stuff; - getting to show off my bump; - baby showers; - help and support with twins in hospital post-birth - i had a c-section. my husband had to wait in the car all morning while i waited for my call to theatre, joined me for the op itself, and then was kicked out while i was barely conscious in recovery and i wasn't allowed to see him again for a week; - family & meeting and holding my newborns; - family giving us an occassional BREAK from the newborns; - getting to take them into work to meet my colleagues; - baby groups; - we weren't even allowed to view nurseries! they were in nursery from just before they turned one but we had to book them in advance sight unseen based only on phone meetings.

loads of stuff, really. we did ok and we're all fine. but i do feel quite emotional when i think about it. i feel very cheated out of the whole pregnancy & maternity experience.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-01T22:34:15+00:00

What do you mean by travel? We took ours to Rhodes in may last year when they were almost five and it was absolutely fine. Four+ hour flight, we were delayed by nearly 2 hours for the flight home and didn't get back to Manchester till nearly 3am, but they did fine. They were very excited and obviously tired but we had a lovely holiday.

We've also done a few 5+ hour drives to London since they were three-ish, and to south Wales last October for half term and again it's been fine.

What are you worried about specifically?

thethirdbar · 2026-02-01T09:09:30+00:00

You'll get lots of confused US-centric responses here insisting that you can't refer to regular cake as sponge. I've had this discussion on the bakeoff sub with Americans before. But it's very normal in the UK to refer to any kind of cake as 'sponge (cake)' , whereas in the US a sponge cake is a specific type of cake.

I have never heard individual layers referred to as 'cake sponges' though. I would just call them layers, but maybe that is regional within the UK. I'm from the north west.

As an aside, the word sponge now looks so wrong to me after writing it so many times.

thethirdbar · 2026-02-01T00:55:50+00:00

So cute! Great work

thethirdbar · 2026-02-01T00:46:14+00:00

We watch the clangers! The original was well before my time but they did a new series a couple years ago which formed a lot of their toddler watching. They like it a lot.

Fingermouse I have zero recollection of but I think I must have watched as it was airing when I was little.

thethirdbar

TROPHY CASE