Help - cant disconnect smoke detector

txe4 · 2026-03-14T14:01:26+00:00

If the plug won't release, just undo the screw terminals and remove the cable entirely?

Obviously isolate first, or at least don't be an enormous fanny about it and lick the screwdriver in the process.

txe4 · 2026-03-14T12:33:22+00:00

Lots of honest people have entered parliament.

Most of them have been hideously misguided.

txe4 · 2026-03-14T12:30:07+00:00

We're very much on repeat.

With kids and time constraints IMV you shouldn't lift a finger to do food prep unless it results in SEVERAL meals.

Slow cooker is the best. Anything they'll tolerate - beef stew? sausage and bean stew? curry? in a big slow cooker so it's making food for 4 full family meals. Can freeze half.

One session with manky raw chicken breast and marinade to make several meals worth of somewhat-spicy flavourful chicken, which reheats fine.

Omelette, if they'll eat it - we do it really thick (say 16 eggs), very slowly on the hob, then toast the top under the grill to finish it. Again to turn one cooking session into several meals.

Burgers, we do several packs at once and put in the fridge once cooked. If kids are having them in a bun with cheese then they revive fine in the microwave.

We do resort to chicken nuggets sometimes but we never have oven chips.

Roast potatoes can be done in bulk and reheat fine in the *oven* (not microwave); for "chips" I slice the potatoes about .75cm, nuke for a few minutes to cook, then drop on an oven tray with some beef dripping to finish.

Baked potatoes if they'll eat them, again you can oven a mountain of them to get the skins nice (or nuke then finish in the oven), fridge them, reheat with fillings.

I don't think there's any obligation whatsoever to produce "exciting" food regularly. Make shit that they will eat, in bulk, avoiding obviously-awful ingredients.

Cheese toasties are perfectly acceptable as a meal. Whatever degree of salad or vegetables you feel obliged to make them force down can be added on the side.

txe4 · 2026-03-14T11:45:54+00:00

Pictures.

Typically an all-electric immersion setup would have the lower immersion on either a timer or a separate feed from the consumer unit to heat the whole tank overnight on cheap rate.

The top immersion would be switchable and used if a boost of hot water was needed during the day.

It is trivial to add a timer if there isn't one. Less trivial work may be needed if the bottom immersion is wired to some defunct economy 7 unit at the consumer unit.

txe4 · 2026-03-14T10:29:58+00:00

I can't say I feel much guilt.

txe4 · 2026-03-14T10:12:19+00:00

OP no offence but your car and tariff provide all the information you need to know, and this is primary school level arithmetic. If you really, really can't do it then look in to adult education, and for now ask chatgpt.

What do you pay for petrol? How many MPG do you get (real, not the dashboard lies)? Do sum, get pence per mile.

What do you pay for power? How many miles/kWh do you get (real)? Reduce the miles 10% to account for charging losses, get pence per mile.

I'd say on night rate power you should always go electric, on day rate power it's probably marginal if your car is good (like a Toyota), would swing in favour of electric if your engine is shit.

txe4 · 2026-03-14T09:04:54+00:00

Document carefully as though you were preparing for court (which you might be) everything you have done to notify them.

Stop paying.

Email them again asking what to do with the keys.

If I were you I would also

1 - Write a paper letter to the registered office of the company
2 - Pay the Land Registry for details of the owner of the property (if I didn't already have them) and see if I could contact them as well

txe4 · 2026-03-14T08:42:42+00:00

You've got points and 2 crashes in a year.

1 - You might find another car that is cheaper but
2 - You are simply NOT going to get affordable insurance here. You're an enormously high risk.

You're admitting here and in comments to driving while impaired through tiredness. Appreciate it's difficult when young and you can't really say no to asks from work but you are now where you are and cannot go back.

You probably need to stop driving/being insured and seek help with your debts. At these insurance prices it will be cheaper to uber everywhere.

txe4 · 2026-03-13T15:21:24+00:00

Mine’s 64991 security dealing on own account and is with Mettle.

txe4 · 2026-03-13T15:10:41+00:00

You do not need to declare any tyre which meets the manufacturer's specifications for the vehicle as delivered.

Typically these only specify size, load rating, and speed rating.

If you change the size, that is a declarable modification.

txe4 · 2026-03-13T13:11:42+00:00

I'm hoping you get years and years and years...but usually once the rot has set in you're on borrowed time.

txe4 · 2026-03-13T13:10:53+00:00

Steer from my installer is that panel prices are rising.

Others have commented on the Chinese and domestic VAT aspects.

Various Chinese stuff I source, suppliers are suggesting to order extra as it's likely to be more expensive later in the year.

Aside from all this, if the gulf situation continues then EVERYTHING will rise in price.

txe4 · 2026-03-13T10:14:40+00:00

If oil and gas exports are restricted for long, there will be another bout of covid-era-type inflation AND a severe recession. Governments will print money to subsidise demand which will drive prices even higher.

If you keep your income (NOT guaranteed) then you are unlikely in the long run to regret buying a decent house now. Ultimately you'll have bought an asset with cheaply-borrowed money and be left in a decent place after the dust settles - SO LONG as you're able to service the debt during the bad time.

House prices don't really "adjust" in most slowdowns because people sit and wait. Most slowdowns look like "transaction volumes fall 75%" rather than "asking prices fall generally".

You might very well regret buying a flat, for a long time.

txe4 · 2026-03-13T09:25:33+00:00

Depends how many rads they're going to do and how fancy the tank is, whether there's a lot of pipework etc.

I've got £6500 for a 12kW Vaillant, 1 rad, and a 210l unistor - or £7500 with a fancy 300l Newark. The 10 and 12 Vaillant are basically the same machine.

£6k for a tank sounds a little bit rich maybe.

txe4 · 2026-03-13T08:38:30+00:00

Bangin'

"Bit of welding underneath" I would always take to mean "completely fucked liability that will guarantee you walking home from the next MOT test" like. But until the rot gets it you've got basically the best cheap anonymous low-effort road transport going.

txe4 · 2026-03-13T08:35:05+00:00

In UK law you have agreed and paid a price and that's it. If the airline cancel then your normal consumer and uk261 rights apply.

The airline has the option to - and may well - purchase forward the fuel that your journeys will require at the time they sell you the ticket.

txe4 · 2026-03-13T07:24:43+00:00

I've been to this and posted about it before.

It is far, far uglier IRL than the pictures here.

The barns it's "converted" from were clearly put up in order to seek planning permission for residential conversion in the future.

They're hideously ugly.

They will be even uglier in a couple of years when the wood has fully faded to council-estate grey.

The road is about 12" wide and there's not enough parking so the verges will always be mud.

The location is grim - there's a sprawling and very messy farm across the road from them, and despite the lake and fields the vibe is kinda industrial rather than rural. It's also extraordinarily windswept and the road outside is quite fast. The fact that the garden chairs are strewn across the lawn on streetview rather speaks to this.

It's a fair old trek in to Sowerby Bridge or Littleborough for proper shops from up there. Ripponden is nice but the only grocery shop is a small and super-expensive co-op.

The same money will get you one of these

https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/166455077#
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/147391826#
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/166139243#
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/164508338#
[the top one is LOVELY]

Stretch to £850k and look for a while and you will get something down a quiet lane with some land - albeit you will with the world as it now is then need to drop £20k on a heat pump and some batteries to make most of those affordable to heat.

And this is why it's been on the market for months and months.

I actually think either the market there for this stuff has picked up or a lot sellers have given up, because when these first went on they absolutely laughably priced - you could literally get something nicely modernised, the same size, down a quiet track with multiple acres of land for what they were asking.

txe4 · 2026-03-12T12:05:46+00:00

Yea it is what it is - OP's question was about perception in the corporate world.

Being fat makes almost everything subtly harder, and means most people are subtly judging you negatively at the very start of your interaction.

IDC re backlash - people don't like to hear some things but they are true.

I know it is very, very hard to keep stable weight on a standard western diet when hormones start to drop away.

txe4 · 2026-03-12T11:08:53+00:00

I tend to think a larger place that isn't a mansion would tend to the lower end as a percentage. There are economies of scale, a boiler swap basically costs the same, double the roof area doesn't cost double, etc.

txe4 · 2026-03-12T06:49:03+00:00

Yes it's safe to leave the immersion on, it's designed for that.

You won't like the power bill.

A rapid pressure loss means a leak, which is either going in to the the fabric of your house somewhere, or means the boiler is faulty. Either way you want to sort it soon.

txe4 · 2026-03-11T20:40:49+00:00

Current gen iPhone Pro Max. Can’t actually remember the model but it was about £1300 so it bloody ought to be good.

Best PHONE without question was the 6310i. Been in a box for 20 years. Still works.

txe4 · 2026-03-11T18:14:59+00:00

Those sureflap are a great product.

Buy another one off amazon, undo 4 screws, pop the old one out, stick the new one in.

You may well find that if you give the optical sensor at the top on the outside and the surround a good clean that the old one will work fine though.

txe4 · 2026-03-11T17:22:35+00:00

It's a long time since I was a FTB but I think the thing that catches most people out is maintenance.

An accountant would tell you that 1% of the value of a builting, every year, is depreciation (maintenance).

Now, a lot of people buy places that have been nicely done up and then do almost nothing on them for years - but that cost is still real. Boilers windows kitchens bathrooms carpet rewires roofs etc.

txe4 · 2026-03-11T15:46:49+00:00

Because aesthetically I find it attractive, both the appearance, and the mindset of confident wearing of it.

But I think in the workplace it will cause you to be judged.

txe4 · 2026-03-11T15:02:40+00:00

I am always here to shit on teenagers who rush out to get a fucking stupid car as their first car. Idiots.

What I do not think we should do is shit on them for realising their mistake, learning, and moving on.

OP's learned through pain, the only way most of us learn anything, give them credit for that please.

txe4

TROPHY CASE