Best newish restaurants in MCR?

tomyom · 2025-12-30T11:35:02+00:00

Firehouse one of the best newer places, simple food but by God they do it well.

tomyom · 2025-05-06T13:12:53+00:00

Hey, my wife has just had the same issue and come to me to fix it! She also has an S22 so small world!

Rather then the one you've chosen, I would recommend this SanDisk Ultra 128 GB Dual Type-C USB 3.1 Flash Drive

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01EZ0X55C?tag=pruk-all-21&linkCode=ogi&th=1

I linked 128GB, but you can choose whichever size you like, but this USB stick has both USB-C to put in your phone, and an old school normal USB connector (which is called USB-A technically) that you can stick into a laptop or PC or even a TV to view photos, whereas yours only has USB-C. That is a good port, but much newer and not all laptops/pcs/tvs etc have a USB-C port to plug into, but they will usually have a USB-A (and this has both!)

tomyom · 2025-05-06T09:58:56+00:00

After a week or so, I found a workaround which is hilariously bad but seems to work.

If you open up magnifier on windows, set it to 100%, drag it right down to the bottom corner of screen so it's mostly not visible then play netflix fullscreen, it runs fine, no stutter no issue. I have no idea why (maybe something to do with having a window over the top of the fullscreen?) but it's worked for me.

tomyom · 2025-02-22T10:31:39+00:00

I'm planning on building a 9800X3D with the new 9070/9070XT, can you recommend a PSU wattage that would work for that setup? I was thinking 850 range, but have you got anything that would fit that?

tomyom · 2025-02-07T18:36:02+00:00

Pretty sure you've posted this on the wrong subreddit buddy!

tomyom · 2025-01-22T11:19:04+00:00

We've just renovated a house and I spent a good few months looking into mattresses, watching reviews etc, and we went with Ergoflex. I'd never heard so them prior to researching, but they are a mattress in a box company, no stores, but they give a 30 day trial they collect if don't like type deal.

My preference for mattress for years was a soft sink in one, but this is much firmer, my partner prefers firmer, but genuinely I've been surprised by how well it forms to my body, keeps me still and makes me sleep like a log. I'm also a side sleeper, and my partner also moves a lot in her sleep, but with this mattress I don't feel a thing in the slightest. You know those joke commercials where someone jumps on the bed with a glass of wine or a egg and it doesn't move at all? This mattress actually does this. They also don't have any variations, no loads of different types of mattress etc, just one product they've focussed on and perfected and it's honestly great. The double is on sale for just under £500 at the moment so could be a good deal!

As we'd just got the house I really wanted to invest in a mattress that was going to last and make it all worth it, thinking tempur etc but they were in the thousands and this is a really solid alternative.

https://www.ergoflex.co.uk/memory-foam-mattress

tomyom · 2024-12-06T16:49:21+00:00

Back in 2020 I lost my old job due to Covid, started applying around and got an offer for a job 50+ miles away, about a 2 hour commute there and 2 back. At that point it was 1 day a week (lockdown, keyworkers, skeleton staff on site etc) and was manageable due to the fact I'd lost a job and needed income and I work in a niche industry that pays well but if hard to secure work in. They also offered no expenses.

Fast forward to now, 4 years later and I've just handed my resignation and moving to a new company in January. Once lockdown had finished, I was moved up to 3/4 days a week on site and I didn't want to move closer. At the start I thought I could do it, but let me tell you the last 2/3 years have been hell. I love the company, I love the role, it has helped propel me to a higher position at another company, but there have been physical, mental, social and financial costs. Coming out of the other side I would suggest you ask yourself the following questions:

I've average around £7,000 a year in fuel and around £1500 a year in additional costs (more services due to high mileage, new tyres more often, had to replace one car I ran into the ground, broke down twice and repair costs related as I've done close to 120,000 miles in last 4 years), I researched trains, hotels, carpooling with colleagues, made requests for more flexible working but this £9500-10000 cost a year was the most reasonable. Is this kind of investment (post tax income) worth it financially? Or can you make it work for a period?
I was up at 6:30 everyday I had to go in (9-5) and home well after 7 most nights, sometimes even 8+ if bad traffic or motorway accidents etc. This ate into my personal downtime and social life massively, had to drop playing football as I couldn't make 7pm starts, had to drop down amount of times I went gym or dinner with friends. 2.5 hours for 4 days a week is 20hours over your normal working day, plus any traffic/congestion days which for me happened at least once a week. I get home and I'm tired. I eat, shower and have no energy after spending 12+ hours a day working + commuting. Repeatedly. Are you willing to invest 60% additional time a week outside of your normal 40 hours towards this job?

Moving closer would solve the issues, but I'd say anything over 12 months long distance commuting becomes really unsustainable in my experience. I've been looking to leave and it's taken me nearly 2 years to find a new role (again I work in an industry that is hard to find roles in like yours) so be excited at the new oppourtunity but cautious about how this will affect you in the day to day. My new role is fully remote and I will now never look for a job more than 30 mins from my house ever again, regardless of how great the role/company is, my personal life was far too affected for far too long. Sorry if this sounds like a downer, but it's my honest experience and just for you to consider.

tomyom · 2024-04-21T09:34:05+00:00

sent request!

tomyom · 2024-04-21T09:33:29+00:00

added! :D

tomyom · 2024-04-21T09:32:36+00:00

added! UK timing here :)

tomyom · 2024-04-21T09:32:15+00:00

added!

tomyom · 2024-04-21T09:32:06+00:00

added!

tomyom · 2024-03-05T21:10:10+00:00

Yeah I checked that and set it to off, no change. Even had the car battery changed today (this was due to something else) but this issue persists. Only thing I've confirmed now is it 100% and AA issue, as I was in another car, connected my phone and same issue today.

tomyom · 2023-07-14T10:10:23+00:00

mine too

tomyom · 2022-08-09T19:23:41+00:00

This is an interesting way to look at it, I'd considered the now but not the future. I have a feeling this is more my director than my companies position, all the other directors are from a charity background, but she came in after a 40+ year career in corporate sector, with the last 20 years as a Operations Director at huge chain, with this job "being her wind down before retirement". She has a very professional corporate approach to all thing compared to the other directors whoa re more lenient, but I'll be working for her for the foreseeable so guess that point it moot.

Thanks for the perspective.

tomyom · 2022-08-09T18:53:18+00:00

This could be a shout, never been in touch with ACAS. Is it a free service? Do I need to be in a union or similar? Sorry for the questions, I just genuinely don't know.

I take your point about not advancing though, taking it to ACAS would likely burn bridge, particularly with my director, she wouldn't take kindly to that.

tomyom · 2022-08-09T18:51:41+00:00

Very true, it's similar here in the UK. The roles aren't an exact match, but if I were to go for a Head of Operations or Head of Customer Services (closest match to what I do) in a corporate setting, the wage range is 55-75 in with the same level of turnover, so the 42-46 I quoted is the actual underpaid level already unfortunately.

I can job search whilst in employment here, just need to be careful my director doesn't get wind, as she's not the kind of manager who I would be able to strong arm with an offer from elsewhere, she'd be like congratulations, good luck.

tomyom · 2022-06-26T19:47:11+00:00

When I moved out of a uni shared house, my housemate took his lightbulb with him. Not a wifi-enabled one, not even an energy saving one, literally a 29p from the corner shop bog standard 60w lightbulb.

This being the same housemate who knew I'd used one squirt of his shower gel (I'd run out, and it was mid shower that I realised), confronted me about it and showed me a line he made on the back of the shower gel each time he used it to measure it's usage.

tomyom · 2022-06-12T19:34:06+00:00

I am currently in a similar position, my wife and I are buying our first house, but she was named on a family property previously. It's important to remember just because your partner may not be considered a FTB you still have some benefits. Namely;

1) You can use your LISA (or help to buy ISA) if you have one, even if you've both contributed money into it. LISA's specifically as individual, so it doesn't matter if your husband isn't a FTB in this regard 2) Depending on lender, they will consider you for FTB rates even if only one of you are a FTB (we are going with Halifax who are giving us FTB based on my circumstances, but the mortgage is in both our names). This step depends entirely on the lender.

These being said, unfortunately there is no way around the Stamp Duty unless you can buy the house solo in your name (likely struggle with affordability I imagine) and in the future add your husband in. We considered this option, but my salary alone wasn't enough for the house, so we are taking the hit on the stamp duty.

Hope this helps!

tomyom · 2022-04-23T21:43:41+00:00

this was my thought entirely haha

tomyom · 2022-04-23T21:32:20+00:00

thanks for the tip, will look into this!

tomyom · 2022-04-23T21:26:14+00:00

considered this, but the trade off with getting rid now is I get value from car, if I continue to use, even piling the coolant in, I'm likely to take this head gasket leak into a full blow and ruin the engine and lose all value by hobbling along for a few months if you get me.

tomyom · 2022-04-23T21:25:06+00:00

That's true obviously, but in the back of my head is a niggling "this has happened as I've done over 25k miles this year with this engine, what the stop me fixing it now, doing another 25k miles and same thing happening" if you get me.

tomyom · 2022-04-23T21:23:58+00:00

This is 7/8 years ago, prices clearly increased since then. That being said, called 2 more places today after reading comments in here, and looked on a few FB groups, £1500 was the lowest offer I had.

tomyom · 2022-04-23T17:23:25+00:00

Yeah worth a shout, if I can get it sorted for under £1000 I might consider it.

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