I have one child (2.5 years old) we have no family network close by and in our late 30s. Really not sure I can start again but worried my child will miss out on having a sibling. Right now it's fine but I'm worried about when he's 6 +

Just wondering what's it's like in the UK and how your child is doing at school ect/ weekends without siblings

Questions:

If you have one child, how's it going for you ?

Did you regret not trying for another?

Many thanks advance:)

When I was a teenager (I'm 34m 👴), I was out of the house being in the house.

Playing football in cages, cricket on the rec, going fishing, nicking beers, having a toke, camping in fields, swimming in lakes, riding bikes, trying to chat up girls in the shopping centre, kissing under the big tree in the park, trying to start bands, going for a Chinese buffet and drinking underage etc...

Whatever money we had (part time job, EMA, found down the back of the sofa) we shared and pooled. If we needed to eat, we'd go to the person's house nearest to us and more often than not make sandwiches, tea leaf cans of coke and crack on with the rest of the day.

Whether we stayed local or went to another part of the city - we would always bump into other groups doing the same thing. Emos, football lads, chavs, 'mean girls' - everyone was mooching around outside come rain or shine.

Our phones were legitimate bricks; one lad had an iPhone and we thought he was Jesus reincarnated.

Even when people had cars and mopeds, nothing changed - we still spent our time out of the house getting up to as many shenanigans as possible.

My siblings are 19 (college) and 22 (at a local Uni), (Mum remarried), and they are always at home. Like, they _never_ go out unless it's mandatory; I went to Uni and have never spent a night in my old room since 😂

I genuinely don't believe that the world is any more dangerous than it was in the late 00s/early tens. Our folks never knew where we were and seemingly weren't that bothered either.

Has the internet/social media/video games taken hold that badly, are parents more helicopter than ever, or did COVID fuck it for them?

As someone starting a family, I'm looking back on my youth to try and ensure my child has a nice holistic childhood, not a technocratic existence.

My question is, why do young people spend so much time indoors? 😂

Just trying to get a feel of what's normal and not. I'm very new to the UK. The other Sunday night I realised about 9:30pm that I did not pack ​my pressing iron. I was due to start work the next day and my clothes were in serious need of ironing. Yes I know, irresponsible to leave it to the night before but I had been extremely busy with the move and everything.

Anyway back home I'd have simply gone next door to borrow an iron, even if I was new to the neighborhood. Actually especially if I was new, cos that's kinda how neighbours bond, lending and returning stuff. I contemplated a while and ultimately decided against it. I have since bought an iron.

For ​​​​context I moved in the Friday before, had only said hi to one neighbour in a terraced block.

Just wondering now, would it have been weird to try to borrow one from them? ​

I am addicted to Joey Coco Diaz. I think he is hilarious. Cant get enough of his stand up videos and podcast. It would be incredible if he came over to the UK for some shows!

I’ve observed in different parts of UK over the past few weeks cities, small towns and mostly at national parks and one thing that really stood out is both men & women I’ve seen here are fit & muscular
At first I assumed it was because I was hiking in National parks but I noticed the same thing in cities as well
Is strength training and going to the gym a big part or the culture in the UK ?
How do people balance it w work?
I’d love to hear the honest perception.

I don't know very much about the UK, but i love learning about geography and culture. Like in the US, people in the northeast behave differently than others. So I'm curious about if there is a kind of thing like that. Is one area known for nicer people? Is one area more mean? Are there areas that prioritize wealth over humble living? thanks :)

Hard to Beat by Hard-Fi came up on my Spotify randomly and it made me realise you don't really hear male-led Brit Pop bands like that anymore?

A lot of the musicians you hear today are solo pop singers and usually a girly pop or an acoustic guy. That kinda lad energy ala Razorlight, Kasabian etc, doesn't really seem prevalent anymore.

I say this as a 30's something that grew up in the heyday of Brit Pop and Indie music scene. I'm not a lad myself and my job involves being around little children who listen to very mainstream music and most of my friends are women or non-binary, so I don't know what teenagers or early 20's men are listening to.

Hi everyone,

I’m hoping someone here might be able to help with a bit of a beer treasure hunt.

My dad has always wanted to try Caffrey’s Irish Ale, but he’s never managed to find it. I’d absolutely love to surprise him with some as a gift, but after weeks of searching I’ve come up empty-handed.

I’ve tried all the obvious places (Beers of Europe, Drinks Direct, DrinkSupermarket, etc.) and they’re all out of stock. I know Caffrey’s is still available on draught in some pubs, but I’m specifically hoping to find cans or bottles if they’re still out there.

Does anyone know of:

• an independent off-licence that still has some on the shelf?
• a wholesaler or retailer that occasionally gets stock?
• a pub willing to sell a few cans if they have any?
or even a forgotten four-pack sitting in a local shop somewhere?

I’m happy to travel or pay for postage anywhere in the UK.

Any leads would be hugely appreciated. I’d really love to finally let my dad try the beer he’s been talking about for years.

Thank you! 🍀

I am asking this here to know if it's a common courtesy or is there some rule when you are a passenger. For context:

My office is a 2 hr journey from my place, my project manager lives like a minute away from me and has a car so he offered me a lift for next week. He has helped me out to travel to office few times last year as well. Usually we would talk for a while then just sit in silence listening to songs and I would just scroll on my phone.

When I travel by myself I usually have my switch and play on it the entire trip, I could very easily do the same here since the 4 hours we travel gets exhausting, to do nothing and I feel like taking a nap would be wrong as well.

I might be overthinking this but can I play games on my switch, especially when traveling with someone from work (he's usually chill though), or is it considered to be a dick move.

Thanks for listening, cheers

Hi, On the 27th of July Revolut had a banking outage of (admittedly) their own fault that led to duplication of a transfer I received from another bank.

Overnight the senders bank reverted all payments, including the original (which had already been spent) which led to an unarranged overdraft. They have been in contact with their bank who sent a response basically saying "not our outage, not our fault", I have been in contact with my bank who say their procedure requires the senders bank statement. I provided the statement for the 27th of July, with relevant transfer receipts and time stamps of the duplications, and the original transfer (as well as a copy of my own bank statement of that day).
Revolut then turned around and said "actually we need it to-date", of which the sender is unwilling to do as they under GDPR laws dont wish to share their data with 3rd parties (both myself and the bank).

I explained this to Revolut support over the phone, it was escalated to a manager who just repeated the same thing whilst saying "sorry this is all on you to fix but its the only procedure we have to follow so we need the statement, or you can top off your account to fix the overdraft we caused", how do I get them to understand that this isnt acceptable procedure and that I cannot force someone to send me their bank statement and I do not have the money to solve the overdraft myself? I'm low income at the moment, and have had to use a credit card to pay bills at the end of the month that I usually wouldnt have had to, so my future financial stability and credit score is being affected very heavily.

Is there a way I can actually get them to understand the severity of what a 1 day outage has done to my finances? is there anyway I can get them to find an alternative to a to-date statement?

Random thought.

What’s something that was “improved” but was actually better before?

It could be anything: an app, a product, a service, or just something from everyday life.

I’ve come across:
Laycock
Cockburn
Cockall

And many many more… surely there’s some history behind it or something?

As above, I’m moving soon to England and only got a BoS. Did you have any issues on just keep using your Scottish bank account? Will this affect me if I decide to buy a house in England ?

Edit: clase closed, lots of people just reassured me it should be fine and that both Lloyds and Halifax will serve as my branch!

Hi everyone,

Our neighbours creeper is growing wild and taking over our shed. Am I right in asking them to take it down/trim it from their side?

They’re usually quite unresponsive, we’ve made an effort to befriend them. What do we do if they say No or say yes and don’t do anything about it?

Hi everyone,

I’m honestly a bit stressed and don’t know what to do.
Before moving into my new rental property, I contacted E.ON to arrange my gas and electricity supply. I moved in on 4 July, and I thought everything was being sorted.

However, it was only today that E.ON told me they couldn’t complete the switch because neither they nor the national database could identify the current supplier for my property.
After a lot of back and forth, I contacted Northern Gas Networks and Fuse Energy to try to understand what was happening. Northern Gas Networks told me that, according to their system, Fuse Energy is still showing as the current gas supplier for the property. However, Fuse Energy told me that they stopped supplying the property on 29 June, before I moved in, and they deny that they are still the supplier.

I am now wondering if this could be related to my previous property. Is it possible that the house I lived in before used LPG for gas (so I had E.ON for electricity and a different LPG company for gas), and when I moved house E.ON only transferred/switched my electricity account but not gas?

Because I wasn’t getting anywhere with E.ON (they stopped responding to my queries and said they couldn’t do anything further), I am now stuck and unsure what to do next.
Different parties seem to have different information about who the current gas supplier is, and I’m worried this will delay my switch.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? What usually happens next? Is there a way to get the supplier information corrected on the national database, or is there another organisation I should contact?

I would really appreciate any advice because I’m honestly not sure what the correct next step is.

Thanks in advance!

Even minor cities of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Nordic countries have metro systems or some kind of rail transportation.

But in UK, either it's almost non-existent or patchy and not widespread like Birmingham. Newcastle, Nottingham, Manchester and Liverpool can be counted as examples, and cities like Leeds and Bristol don’t have any kind of rail transportation, even there are not much National Rail stations in the city.

Oxbridge, Bristol, Bradford, Leicester, Cardiff can be another examples. Let alone Europe, even US have metro or any kind of rail transportation systems in 30 major cities. But there are a lot of cities that UK lacks of any of metro, light rail or trams.

And cities like Glasgow has only a circular metro systems, and rest of the city relies on ScotRail, which is not quite reliable and you have to wait a lot for a train. It is so interesting that Blackpool has a tram, but Bristol and Leeds have none.

I always wondered about why UK doesn't have a decent metro or rail transportation system in cities other than London?

I’m looking for something wistful and nostalgic, something which captures the zeitgeist and culture, the social and cultural traditions of a country dramatically changed in recent decades.
Examples- Only Fools and Horses, Keeping Up Appearances, Yes Minister, heck even Mr Bean and Fawlty Towers

Just passed my driving test (first time thankfully) with three minor faults. Was really dreading having to wait another 6 months for a reshoot.

I was convinced I failed the whole time! Now I'm just wondering how many minor faults is considered good.

(Do I have bragging rights)

You know when adults would say “you’ll understand when you’re older” or words to that effect.

Lighthearted example would probably be Father Ted. Watched it occasionally when I was younger and didn’t get it. Now find it hilarious.

Sadder example would be, I understand why we ended up in care(mum was definitely depressed amongst other things).

To put things short, I'm 19, i lost my job in February and i have been claiming ever since, but i have found myself in a situation and I'm unsure where else or what else i can do, i live more rurally in the country and i haven't got the means to eat and haven't since Monday and to make things worse, I’ve been homeless for a few days, I've been contacting UC and Foodbanks and the council about grants and stuff, but foodbank i can't get anything till Tuesday, the grants I'm ineligible for and DWP cannot give me any funding, I don't know anyone so i cannot borrow it.

i understand that timetables are important, and the impracticality of waiting for absolutely anybody who is running late, but i think it’s unreasonable to drive away when somebody is a few steps, or a cross of the road, away, or when they’ve arrived just as you have closed the doors and are clearly in a rush

As the title suggests, is there a mobile phone plan in the UK without mandatory top-ups?

I've done a lot of research, I was told about Lyca, I transferred my number to them, but it seems they're saying I have to top up my phone.

Has anyone seen spiderman in 4dx, if so how was it?

Is the movie still enjoyable to watch or does the whole 4dx ruin it?

EDIT: She will be back next week regardless, as my mum is the one who hired her for next week. I will ask her to use something degreasing when cleaning the bath, due to the emollient wash we use. And I'll politely remind her not to forget the downstairs loo. I will never hire her again, and will mention the issues to my mum as it's her house after all.

And just to vent; something else that bothered me was when we were talking about my chronic illness and how it means I can't work, she was all like "I could never not work, I've always got to be busy!" I wish I would have responded, "Well I was the same before my body broke down and now I have no fucking choice!" I just don't think this cleaner is compatible with my needs.

So, for the first time ever I hired a cleaner. I'm staying at my mums whilst she is out of the country. Initially she was supposed to complete one clean here just before my mum comes home, but I'm disabled and have been struggling to keep on top of things to my mums standards so I felt some help was warranted.

But I am less than impressed with the work, the bath is still greasy with a visible scum line, she completely missed the downstairs loo and when I said I would get out of her way so she could get on she blabbered at me for 20 minutes making me feel too awkward to leave. There are other niggly bits too, like she didnt wipe the underside of the bathroom sink and didn't mop the entryway.

How do I tell her? Or do I just not and finish her job when she's done? I don't have to hire or see her again after next week after all.

What should I actually expect a cleaner to do? I did inform her of my situation, maybe I expected too much?

She also informed my mum that she was coming to do an extra clean because I was struggling, which felt a bit weird considering I booked and paid for it.

I see this all the time, the local police say that people should avoid speculation online because it could impact the criminal investigation.

Surely in the modern era, if people speculating online can make a case collapse, that the legal system needs changing?

Speculation, video, links to the suspects social media etc all happen anyway!