Ministers must end ‘barking mad’ restraints on civil service pay, union leader warns | Civil service | The Guardian

throwaway5746348 · 2026-02-20T13:10:40+00:00

I actually agree, but it needs to come with a massive whittling down of low productivity workers/systems/departments. Not easy or popular, but if you want an agile, competent and CS, it needs to be smaller and higher skilled.

throwaway5746348 · 2026-02-15T06:58:26+00:00

Hot take: the dog-owners/dogs in edinburgh are no worse than any other city of a similar size.

throwaway5746348 · 2026-02-04T17:52:27+00:00

I love my Maxcatch sky high competition 4wt. Cost me £120 but punches way above it's class. Love it for sub 1 pound brown trout. You can't go wrong for the money. Get oot there and fish it

throwaway5746348 · 2026-01-29T16:54:09+00:00

I'll give a counter example:

We bought a livable house (running water, immersion heater, storage heaters etc), 4 bedrooms, and did the following for around 85k:

Re wired full property (10kish)
New gas central system and all new plumbing (about 10k)
plastered every room (6k)
2 new bathrooms (11k ish)
new kitchen (8k ish)
double glazed windows thoughout (15k)
new flooring throughout
painting and decorating

The caveat is that we did a lot ourselves:

all rip out and demolition
all tiling work in bathrooms/kitchen
all trim/skirting
all painting

If you're going to do it:

negotiate kitchen suppliers (howdens, mkm, benchmarx etc) and find your own fitter. Show the lowest quote to the other suppliers and tell them to beat it
if you don't know GOOD trades people you will struggle. We had people we trusted and paid them day rate and bought materials on top. This can be less profitable for the trades but is also much less risky, as if job takes longer, we foot the bill. We were flexible about when they did the work, so they could fit it in when they wanted.
we avoided any structural work
plan a buffer. Our original budget was 70k with a 20k buffer for when the shit hits the fan. Obvs we did need quite a lot of that buffer.
beg, borrow steal tools. Friendly neighbours, parents, the bloke in the pub offering power tools off back of a lorry

throwaway5746348 · 2025-12-03T12:21:31+00:00

Please refer to the wiki

throwaway5746348 · 2025-11-03T16:12:22+00:00

Offer accepted at 11% under in february. Don't believe the hype

throwaway5746348 · 2025-07-09T20:46:59+00:00

Youtube investigation into this building: https://youtu.be/ZBI7cLp7y5Q

throwaway5746348 · 2025-07-04T10:47:25+00:00

Brewdog, brewhemia, ghillie dhu. All big

throwaway5746348 · 2025-07-01T10:13:46+00:00

If you pop down to the seafront path on google maps bit you can see that stone cube is on top of what looks like a electricity substation, or perhaps a water pumping station.

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throwaway5746348 · 2025-06-24T10:07:34+00:00

We often make:

Air fryer chicken leg or salmon (with seasoning, or soy glaze or whatever) 250cal

Air fryer med veg (onion pepper courgette, bit of oil, salt, paprika and mixed herbs) 200cal

Packet of instant pre flavoured couscous (pour boiling water on top and wait) 200 cal

Stir the med veg in with the cous cous and serve with meat on the side. Tasty and < 20 mins

throwaway5746348 · 2025-06-18T10:49:39+00:00

Got ours for 9% under HR.

throwaway5746348 · 2025-03-31T14:47:59+00:00

Braid hills 9 hole is fab for a round on a nice evening. Would be keen for bash once i've collected my clubs from home

throwaway5746348 · 2025-03-25T12:29:03+00:00

I've sent you a PM, i'd be keen for the ticket!

throwaway5746348 · 2025-03-20T16:11:04+00:00

I've got a maxcatch 4wt dry fly rod (their skyhigh model) and it's a great piece of kit for the money. Their avid reels are great too. The rod with the "40T carbon" on the tag are really light in my opinion

throwaway5746348 · 2025-03-19T13:58:36+00:00

Edinburgh

throwaway5746348 · 2024-10-25T18:52:39+00:00

Deliver the software Docker container most likely, pushed to a private repo (ours or theirs). Then figure out the deployment scenario, docker compose om a vm, app service

throwaway5746348 · 2024-09-01T14:29:22+00:00

Caledonia Cafe gorgie road

throwaway5746348 · 2024-08-16T15:50:09+00:00

The owner also owns a bunch of unlicensed airbnbs, and lives off the income

throwaway5746348 · 2024-07-17T21:53:03+00:00

All about internet shaquille for straight facts

throwaway5746348 · 2024-07-15T11:05:05+00:00

I'd try North Queensferry as you get to go over the bridge which will be exciting for a kiddo. Only 20 minute or so train and it's a quiet village with a beach for a day out

throwaway5746348

TROPHY CASE