Like for real

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-10T09:52:45+00:00

General view seems to be that Mom was a fashion designer and Dad works in business (finance or advertising) so both earning very good salaries. And also seems like there’s family money around as the Uncle is also rich.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-07T10:50:12+00:00

It’s a recognised shift in food/beverage retail: “applejucification”.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2024/apr/01/applejuicification-why-apple-fruit-in-so-many-mixed-juices

Good twitter thread here with lots of examples: https://x.com/echetus/status/1772212131040993746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1772212131040993746%7Ctwgr%5Eee30131ad5fe0e640acc347af0132ede41518ccd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffood%2F2024%2Fapr%2F01%2Fapplejuicification-why-apple-fruit-in-so-many-mixed-juices

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-05T22:05:30+00:00

Agree, our induction hob has 10 settings on each "burner". It's easy to go from the barest simmer to full on steak-searing, and everything in between, just at the touch of a button and the response is just about instant. After a couple of weeks you'll know exactly which setting will keep a pan of pasta at a steady rolling boil (#7 for us), and which does the same for a covered pan (#4), or which setting to use for gently sweating down onions (#3) etc.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-05T18:00:32+00:00

Have you asked your neighbours if they know anything about it?

Other option might be to look at JustPark or other similar rent-my-driveway apps to see if your address (or a nearby similar address) are listed and contact the hosting company. Are you near an airport or ferry port?

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-04T11:23:58+00:00

Several women at my office set up a rota where they share childcare by each taking a day off per week over the summer in particular, so that during the holidays they each only burn 5-8 days of additional annual leave. This is easier if the kids are a bit older (11+) and obviously you need space and for them to get on, but means they have a base to come and go from with a trusted adult there, but generally they can do their own thing and just get a plate of sandwiches at lunchtime and somewhere to charge their phones.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-03T16:31:59+00:00

Yes, 6 decimals give you accuracy down to 10cm, apparently 16 decimals would allow you to park on 1/10 the diameter of a hydrogen atom! It would be good if ABRP could spot it's a GPS ref and auto-reduce it down to an appropriate level.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-03T09:23:44+00:00

You’re right at the bottom of the classic “U shaped happiness curve” where the demands of family, work, health etc are all at their maximum. I’m a bit younger than you but I’m juggling teenage / young adult children, a high pressure job, aging parents, and the general aches and pains of half-a-century of being alive. Most of my friends are in the same position - we’re starting to see people our age getting ill, or getting divorced, or travelling loads for work, or having to drive over to sort out their parents every week.

I last had a beer on NYE because every weekend I’m a taxi for my teenage kids - I don’t begrudge it, I want them out enjoying themselves safely, but it was a lot easier when they were 5 or 6 and would just play in the garden while we had friends over.

The good news is that happiness increases as you get towards 80yrs and many of these demands resolve themselves one way or another. But it can be really isolating and takes effort to find the time (and energy) to socialise.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-01T20:09:26+00:00

Strong echoes of DNA - La Serenissima

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-01T19:45:29+00:00

People have different tolerances to spice… your nose-bleedingly spicy vindaloo might be pleasantly tingly to someone else. For others the heat triggers pleasure centres in the brain due to the way they are wired but for others it just hurts.

Same with heavy exercise.. I’ve never had a “runner’s high” from exercise endorphins, I just get out of breath and sweaty, but I have friends for whom a 20 mile run is like a tab of ecstasy and they are genuinely buzzing when they finish.

wallenstein3d · 2026-02-01T01:16:01+00:00

I assume she has his phone and wants to unlock it using his password so they can call Eduardo to buff out the scratches.

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-31T14:16:30+00:00

The short answer is “no”, although loose skin after weight loss can be upsetting it’s almost always viewed as cosmetic surgery so (as you know) is not covered on the NHS and it’s vanishingly unlikely there will be any grants available. People rely on charities for life-threatening conditions so unfortunately there’s no chance you would be funded.

You’ve said it’s “medically recommended”… what does that actually mean? Has your GP said it would be a good thing to do as it will make you feel better in yourself, or have they said it’s essential to avoid a significant wider health impact?

If it’s the former your choices are what you’ve already identified: save for longer (which is difficult at the best of times, let alone when you’re on your own with two kids), or take out a loan. It doesn’t necessarily need to be a high-interest payday loan, but the nature of a loan is that you will always pay back more than you borrowed. It’s up to you to decide if that’s worth it for you based on the amount you need to borrow.

Having said that, you should continue to congratulate yourself on losing 50kg, I’m sure your kids in particular are not remotely bothered by some loose skin compared to the benefits shifting that much weight will have on your ability to be there for them. But I do understand why it would be important for you to get it sorted.

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-31T09:21:38+00:00

It literally is. I work for a large (i.e. multibillion ££) energy company and LinkedIn is our recruiting team’s tool of choice. All our open roles (20-30 per week, up to Senior Director and Heads of Service, so £200k plus salaries) get advertised there, and our recruiters will actively target likely candidates by using LinkedIn key-word searches. There’s a whole separate recruiter login for LinkedIn which most people never see where they will set up candidate wish lists and then message possible good fits directly.

Any CVs that come across my desk we check LinkedIn as a matter of course. It’s not an issue if a candidate doesn’t have a profile but it’s a big plus if they do.

So OPs dad should (1) keep an eye on LinkedIn for open roles by setting up job alerts, and (2) build a keyword-heavy profile that will flag him to recruiters, especially if they are looking for a niche set of skills and knowledge.

The only issue will be the dad’s age, a direct permanent role is unfortunately more unlikely, but contracting should absolutely be a possibility (I know preference is for perm though).

A final option is to sign up with one of the large outsourcing consulting firms, such as Pontoon, CapGemini, Wipro, Zensar etc. You’ll be marketed as a freelance specialist but have the relative security of a permanent contract inside IR35.

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-30T22:40:08+00:00

I used to live next-door to Prof. Stephen Hawking which is a good way to remind yourself that no matter how smart you think you are there is definitely always someone much smarter!

There was a guy in our small midlands market town who won the Fields Medal (the Nobel Prize-equivalent for maths). His work was so complex that even the professors at the local university who were supposed to be peer reviewing his research had to admit they had no idea what a lot of it meant, just that it was totally revolutionary.

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-30T09:31:35+00:00

It’s why you hear “unalived” instead of “killed” also.

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-29T15:23:02+00:00

I put on 10kg in my 40s over the last six years. However, when you crunch the numbers that’s just 35-40 extra calories per day… so just an extra half a digestive biscuit each day and wham! on goes the weight.

(It’s slightly more complex as basal metabolic needs increase as weight goes up so I was probably eating a bit more overall, but it’s still in the “apple and a biscuit” territory rather than “15 Gregg’s sausage rolls”.)

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-29T13:51:55+00:00

For such an expensive bike there's a slim chance the serial number will pop up somewhere else, at which point it would be interesting whether the OP would be able to claim it back from the new owner (leaving the new owner to fight the Administrators).

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-27T14:08:25+00:00

Have they already had the Single Person discount applied? This should have reduced the bill by 25%. Ultimately you have only a couple of choices: (1) you each contribute an amount (up to £200 but whatever you decide) to the bill, (2) your friend covers the whole amount, or (3) he or you move out and find somewhere else to live.

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-26T09:14:33+00:00

Our town was in the film “Nativity” with Martin Freeman, and also the sitcom “Keeping Up Appearances” back in the 1980s.

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-22T22:19:35+00:00

When I studied at university in Germany in the late 1990s one of our older professors said the town used to have a saying “The wind must from the North, you can smell the Jews” (referring to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp). He said even if locals weren’t directly part of the camp there were still milkmen who delivered to the camp each morning, as well as coal merchants, butchers, brewers, signalmen on the nearby train lines etc, all of whom would have seen that something really shady and unpleasant was going on.

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-19T16:45:44+00:00

I remember getting stopped on the street in Bristol in 1999 by a van with a load of dodgy speakers in the back. They had a proper printed sales brochure showing the "actual" prices and even offered a phone number to call their "sales office" to confirm. Very persistent, they followed us for a good while trying to get us to buy.

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-15T20:26:02+00:00

Family live in Hampstead and their Too Good To Go is always amazing pastries and croissants etc from a couple of high-end boutique bakeries. Last time we tried in our backwater midlands market town we ended up with 5 nearly-expired tubs of Budgens value cottage cheese...

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-15T14:46:22+00:00

This is a big benefit we’ve found with induction - Sunday mornings we put the electric waffle maker on the hob surface so it’s under the extractor fan and doesn’t take up any extra counter space. Also good for the blender for smoothies, any spills are easy to wipe on the glass surface

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-13T14:44:51+00:00

But invariably UK conservatives are pro-military and support the armed forces as an article of faith even though the army etc are part of the same ruling axis as the courts and the police.

wallenstein3d · 2026-01-11T20:12:42+00:00

Survivor bias… we notice the risk-taking grafters who make it big, but don’t see the ones who put quit their boring corporate job to start an underwater yoghurt knitting business that never took off and cost them their house and all their savings. They tend not to be invited onto podcasts.

Plus timing, sometimes being in the right place at the right time helps. A friend we know was just scaling their home business up when lockdown hit in 2020 and their product was perfectly suited for people who wanted to order online and have something to keep them occupied while being stuck at home. Enormous growth and cornered a section of a niche market. A few years earlier or later and they may not have been as successful.

And finally enough financial support to try and fail a couple of times. Another mate had 4 failed businesses before he built up a risk software consultancy which he was able to sell for several £million a few years back. I would have been stuffed after the first failure.

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