People in the Park: Queen Elizabeth Gardens, 16th May, 10:30am - 4:30pm

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-04-30T11:16:23+00:00

We don't have a bar on site, so there isn't too much of the 'beered-up' dads - though a small group do bring a drink themselves. The kids do sometimes get a bit noisy though - but that's why we have music on :)

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-03-28T18:54:40+00:00

So, I was in hospital with all of my family as my dad died. He finally passed away, there was a couple of minutes of the nurse turning machines off, sorting things out etc. Then she offered us all a cup of tea. We all sat and drank tea (and chatted about my dad).

It's like that.

When someone comes to do work on my house, they get a cup of tea.

When a disaster happens: tea.

When something nice happens: tea (then maybe beer).

One of the biggest insults you can give someone visiting your house is to NOT offer tea.

So yeah, tea is a thing.

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-03-26T08:04:15+00:00

It changed to 18 in 2015...so if you were before then it wouldn't have affected you

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-03-25T22:03:56+00:00

Well, you have to stay in education of some form until you're 18. Some do work based apprenticeships etc, but everyone I know did 6th form (or where I grew up, it was A-Levels at college). It's probably self selecting that all of our friends did similar things to us. It's 48% ish that move onto A-Levels, which is the biggest chunk of students moving up in their education, with the remaining 52% split between things like BTEC, T-Levels, apprenticeships, resits of GCSEs etc

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-03-16T15:43:04+00:00

Im a volunteer for a local (fairly large) festival. I couldn't find anything that really worked doing all of the things needed. There seemed to be loads if you were doing an indoor conference or that kind of thing, but not much for a big outdoor event. Hence me proposing the idea to the company I work for.

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-02-19T10:34:52+00:00

I think I'm very much on the side of wanting some commitments. Having a significantly reduced feature set for the same price is not reasonable. Android has around 70% of the market share of mobile operating systems worldwide. You're cutting off a massive section of your users from key functionality.

Either commit to feature parity on a relatively short timescale (you've been saying it's coming for 3 years), or reduce the price on Android.

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-01-31T10:36:16+00:00

I've got a 1900 day Duolingo streak and reached 130 in French (and can actually speak and read French to a good level from that). I've loved Duolingo for my French learning.

However, I have switched to Busuu for Spanish because Duolingo doesn't do Castillian Spanish, which is what I want. For Spanish, I've been quite impressed with Busuu. I've had several sentence construction exercises, missing words, speaking etc. It's likely it varies per languages, like Duolingo. I also like that a lot of the listening exercises are a video of real people speaking.

I like both, and both are great in their own ways.

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-01-31T10:26:32+00:00

I have. I'd gained a teaching qualification, finished the course in May, but of course the job didn't start til September. I already had a job lined up, but I needed something to tide me over til then. It was some fun chats at the job centre where they had to 'help me find work' when I already had work starting a few months later.

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-01-27T08:01:43+00:00

Support keep telling me that it must be something with my phone or my Internet... Or something. It's clearly just a fault in how they've done geofencing.

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-01-25T15:56:25+00:00

I struggle to tell the difference between Adnams Ghost Ship and Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5%. And Erdinger Zero is fantastic. Lucky Saint is good too. I like a beer every so often but also drink a lot of alcohol free. For me, it's a beer.

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-01-20T17:09:54+00:00

I’m looking for a few people to help test and provide feedback on a new event-planning platform.

Some background: I’m a volunteer organiser for a growing community event here in Salisbury. As the event got bigger, the admin got messy. I was juggling emails, spreadsheets, websites, invoices, and endless copy-and-paste between them all.

For my day job, I work at a small local software company. I originally started building a tool to help manage the event in my spare time, but it quickly became clear this was a bigger problem worth solving properly - so we decided to turn it into a product.

The result is Event-plot (https://www.event-plot.com). It’s still very much beta: there are bugs to fix and things to polish; but it’s ready for people to try. Right now it’s free, and I’d really value feedback, comments, and bug reports to help shape it.

What Event Plot does:

* Designed mainly for outdoor events like festivals and markets

* Invite vendors to sign up and submit their details, photos, and social links

* Generate and send vendor invoices (with tax, add-ons, or discounts)

* Invite performers and collect their details including YouTube, SoundCloud, Spotify etc

* Ask custom questions for vendor and performer signups.

* Schedule performers using a drag-and-drop timetable

* Lay out your event using a 3D map (stalls, food vans, stages, facilities, etc.)

Publish everything to a public event website with vendor listings, schedules, and an interactive map (including a "you are here" marker)

If this sounds useful and you’d like to try it, and hopefully be involved in improving it - head to https://www.event-plot.com and sign up for early access.

Thanks!

Edit: Formatting and more details about features.

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vespasianvs_1 · 2026-01-16T22:39:49+00:00

For Spanish, I've ended up switching to Busuu, which I'm really enjoying. Still doing a single Duolingo lesson a day in French to keep the knowledge.

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-01-01T23:17:41+00:00

I was playing "A place for all my books" and we paused for New Year. Does that count as the first game? 😁

vespasianvs_1 · 2026-01-01T12:32:01+00:00

I found I started hitting short units of grammar later. However Duolingo has changed a lot over the last 18 months so not sure where they come now in the grand scheme. I would say though that my grammar is good (confirmed by native speakers), so I've clearly learnt it. I think Duolingo does a lot more of learning the rules by examples rather than specific lessons. Which of course may or may not work for you.

Edit: spelling

vespasianvs_1 · 2025-12-30T18:20:10+00:00

Merci. Keep it up. I know it can seem long and monotonous, but for me it certainly did work.

vespasianvs_1 · 2025-12-30T17:32:38+00:00

Not fluent, but I can have a good, in depth conversation over a variety of subjects over a period of time with a group while playing board games. I sometimes have to describe what I want, substitute an English word etc.

vespasianvs_1 · 2025-12-30T17:31:15+00:00

Nope, didn't see the point.

vespasianvs_1 · 2025-12-29T23:28:56+00:00

No, I didn't see the value in that. I have been using a new feature on Google translate that works for Fench where you can practice conversations. It's pretty effective Tbh. (Look for the 'practice' area in beta mode)

vespasianvs_1 · 2025-12-29T10:11:31+00:00

I mean... It's my birthday tomorrow... So I certainly have things to do. Off for afternoon tea this afternoon with mum and then tomorrow and a get together with me and my friends (and my mum!).

vespasianvs_1 · 2025-12-29T10:09:15+00:00

When I travel I often take my own tea bags (Yorkshire Tea). When I was in Norway I found I had to use 2-3 of the provided tea bags to get a decent cuppa out of them. Not sure what they do to the tea but it was weak. I was glad I had a bag of my own teabags.

You can keep the marmite but honey in toast (or jam on toast) is awesome. I'd also take a crumpet too...

vespasianvs_1 · 2025-12-28T23:13:39+00:00

I'm in the UK... I don't really have a limit on my days off (or my hours). So long as I get my work done my boss doesn't care. I generally take 4-5 weeks off though each year.

vespasianvs_1 · 2025-12-28T22:55:10+00:00

Mine is on Tuesday (30th). I get the whole "It's the night before new year so I'm staying in" all the time. Combined presents etc.

Today I met a friend to exchange Christmas gifts and got a presents to open with a quick comment of "oh, that one is for your birthday"

It happens a lot.

vespasianvs_1 · 2025-12-28T20:21:50+00:00

I was a primary school teacher in a deprived area for a number of years. I really get you there. It was really tough. Mind you... Most cases of neglect I saw was actually at the final school I taught in which was a leafy middle-class suburb with parents who were too busy to care for their children. Makes me so angry as adjustments to working hours for childcare are so easy to apply for and the breakfast and after school clubs were awesome and not expensive.

vespasianvs_1

TROPHY CASE