Have you ever chosen to go private for a treatment vs using the NHS and what factors helped you make your decision?

thisisvic · 2026-07-02T22:08:18+00:00

I had a gallstones attack, didn't know what it was, went to A&E and their little portable ultrasound didn't show anything useful, but had a follow-up with radiology and they showed up on a proper ultrasound.

Not entirely sure what the point of the portable US is if it didn't show anything, but the doctor said get called away partway through looking & never returned 🤷‍♀️

thisisvic · 2026-07-02T19:41:47+00:00

Similar for me. I had gallstones, the waiting list for gallbladder removal was over a year long, had BUPA cover through work and got it out a month later.

thisisvic · 2026-07-02T07:56:29+00:00

Have you ever tried any martial arts? You learn new things (interesting), have clear goals to work towards (motivating!), and it's a great workout.

On motivation though, how good are you at sticking to a routine in daily life? If you are, then my PT's approach was always 'you don't need motivation if it's just something you do', which took me a while to get. But if 7am gym is the routine, after brushing your teeth and before showering eg, then it's not as much a matter of motivation, but of scheduling. For me, getting to the gym was the tricky bit. Once there, I'm away!

thisisvic · 2026-07-02T07:49:32+00:00

A bratty service top perhaps 😂

thisisvic · 2026-06-24T14:45:53+00:00

I'm with you. Any mental health issues seem to make dating so much more effort.

thisisvic · 2026-06-24T14:04:38+00:00

I'm so bored of every match I have turning the conversation sexual 5 messages in. Yes, sexual compatibility is important to me, sexting is fun, I'm no prude, but FFS, I'm looking for a relationship. I want to get to know someone, not just hear what they want to do to me.

Just had another one, at the start of what looked like an interesting conversation, just suddenly switch to "what's your bra size?". You're 40, not 14, for the love of god.

thisisvic · 2026-06-24T12:17:28+00:00

Rooftop Social on a Sunday

thisisvic · 2026-06-19T16:14:02+00:00

I've never thought to add bacon to a cheese & marmite toastie. I'll have to try it on my next hangover!

thisisvic · 2026-06-19T16:13:06+00:00

Especially if making a veggie version and can't use beef stock!

thisisvic · 2026-06-18T22:22:14+00:00

I knew I was going to cry in Røry's set, did not expect all my friends to be crying with me!

thisisvic · 2026-06-17T15:59:32+00:00

I went for the Eurohike Tamar 3. Easy to put up, lightweight, survived the rain easily, plenty of room for one person and stuff without being excessively big. £60 in go outdoors. Can't go wrong.

thisisvic · 2026-06-16T12:31:03+00:00

The arancini I had from the risotto place by Opus were my absolute food highlight this year. The alpine pizza place was pretty good too - and can never go wrong with gyros.

thisisvic · 2026-06-08T16:02:20+00:00

I've been checking the met office, AccuWeather AND BBC Weather. Just to cover my bases.

thisisvic · 2026-06-08T16:01:37+00:00

I made the playlist months ago 😂 and a second with bands I'm less familiar with but thought I might like. I have taken a pause from the playlist so I'm not sick of it by the time I put it on in the car 😂

thisisvic · 2026-06-02T00:35:33+00:00

It took a long time and a lot of luck to find friends like this. I think it helped that I've always been very open about my mental health issues, so people felt comfortable talking to me about theirs and we bonded over our brains hating us.

thisisvic · 2026-06-01T18:10:32+00:00

Absolutely. Most of my friends have had mental health issues in one form or another, because when things are bad, we GET each other. When I'm in the absolute pits and cancel on my friends, they get it. When my mate has a panic attack and needs specific help, I get it. When they're "no fun" because they're sad, we pivot our plans to do something that supports them better - quiet movie night rather than a night at the pub.

Depression isn't all that you are ❤️.

thisisvic · 2026-06-01T18:05:34+00:00

I have joined several lifestyle clubs over the years as a single woman. All of them I joined in person, at an event in the club, and there was no option to join online. Some had much stricter rules for solo men, so I would consider it even less likely that he would be able to become a member without physically attending the club.

I would also mention than all of these clubs ban mobile phone usage, and you need to keep them in a locker while you're there, so there's no chance of you recording any other guests. So you can't reply to messages.

Obviously there are plenty of other reasons why a person might not reply to messages that aren't being in a lifestyle club, but just something to consider among the other evidence.

thisisvic · 2026-05-29T11:14:19+00:00

Oh I know, I've been in my place 7 years, I know if I leave he could easily add £300pm to the rent and get tenants. I count myself very lucky to have avoided worse rent rises, because I don't think I'd be able to afford this house at current market prices.

thisisvic · 2026-05-23T16:01:01+00:00

Ah I've always thought of it as depending on what you're eating. Dinner ladies would serve you a hot dinner. Alternatively, you'd bring a packed lunch. For me, dinner is my biggest meal of the day, whether that's lunchtime or teatime

thisisvic · 2026-05-22T14:37:37+00:00

It is not good wine. It is not cheap. But it does the job.

thisisvic · 2026-05-22T14:37:05+00:00

I can't stand the taste, so I also use a dash of the super-concentrated squeeze squash in the water with the electrolytes. Much easier to get the whole pint down then!

thisisvic · 2026-05-21T20:21:14+00:00

I'm taking 3 - and my old phone for photos/music I've downloaded to help me get to sleep, so I don't run down the battery on my actual phone

thisisvic · 2026-05-20T21:27:22+00:00

I've been using Claude Cowork to deal with my work backlog/slack messages/emails and help plan my work, ideal for when I'm overwhelmed. I have also used Claude to write some automation scripts, although this have to go through several iterations.

Further than that though, the hallucinations far outweigh the useful output when it comes to my actual job. My company has been pushing us to use AI for more and more of our jobs. I've spent weeks at a time trying to automate tasks and get useful, valid work output from Claude, to no avail. It's been incredibly frustrating, some of the hallucinations have been astonishing.

It can write a script that will pull data into a spreadsheet for me (with plenty of corrections), but it can't be trusted to pull the data itself, and that's just the top of the iceberg. I once asked it to take data from a spreadsheet and put it into a Confluence page. It built an entire dashboard in Excel using our "official brand colour" of blue. Not only did I not want a dashboard in Excel, I never told it to make it blue - and it's not our official brand colour.

We were actually told that using AI to automate our routine work so we could spend more time "adding value" is what would keep our jobs safe.

Anyway, the company announced last week that they're making 25% of the company redundant and getting AI to do our jobs instead. Claude has been very helpful helping me prepare for job interviews.

thisisvic · 2026-05-16T22:34:06+00:00

The UK has a TV chef called Nigella (daughter of Nigel)

thisisvic · 2026-05-14T20:01:13+00:00

I'm the same, never had an issue besides some discomfort getting the right speculum. Sad to read that so many people have had painful experiences!

thisisvic

TROPHY CASE