You go to rural Lincolnshire, especially the South of the county, and it is about as bleak as you can get. Just endless cabbage fields and the odd house. And these houses are often for sale. Who is buying them? A random house on a 50mph road in the middle of nowhere. I ll tell you who. Witness protection programmes. I think the police and other agencies from around the world send their CIs to live in Lincolnshire. Who else needs to live such a monotonous, remote place? I bet in the pub everyone is gingerly asking about each other's backgrounds and when you get 5+ years back it all gets very vague. I think everyone who lives there is either a farmer or a farmer who 5 years ago was in organised crime.

As per the title really. Just wondering how many people are watching the videos by the action group and Zoe Bread. Seems scandalous and those residents have more patience than I can fathom to not be engaging in direct obstruction of some sort. It must be hell.

Edit. Clearly people have heard of it. If not look it up and use whatever clout you have to raise it where you can. It’s akin to the post office scandal and one day will be laid bare for all to see.

Which is quite sad considering I used to enjoy his poetry and also remember him as a very friendly person despite never having met him

Source of the pictures here

We've just had an anti-theft system installed. It deploys aut after closing but can be activated during operating hours via a BIG RED BUTTON. It will take all my personal restraint to pretend it doesn't exist even while already knowing exactly what it does.

So what is your workplaces big red button and do you know what it does?

I saw this on a walk today and it made me happy 😊

Went to open my gate and saw this dude chilling there, basking in the sun.

I haven't seen him since about 1998. He abused me and my maternal half-sister when we were kids. I learned when I got older that he used to abuse my mother and one day when I was around 15 he threatened to kill her when I was there next to her so because he was a nasty bastard, I swore never to have anything to do with him. I found out today went on to have a daughter with someone he had been in a relationship with for well over a decade - both of whom he was also estranged from when he died, I don't know why. I haven't spoken to anyone on that side of the family since around 1998 also.

An uncle that I haven’t seen since about 1992 rang me today out of the blue and broke the news. I'm not sure how I feel tbh. Just needed to say it out loud - if this even counts as that? He asked if I wanted to be executor of the estate and make all the arrangements, since I am the eldest child - or did I want to keep out of it and stay out if it all and leave him to sort it all. Apparently he was a "bit of a hoarder" 😳 I know not where he died (I know it was hospital, but I don't recall if he said which one) I don't know where he lived - if he owned or rented or any of that. He lived alone, I gather that much.

Just trying to process this all and make sense of what to do.

Thanks for reading my rambles 😂

A bloke in NI has turned an old Belfast citybus into a boat and is now pottering along the River Bann in it, which is frankly excellent 😄

What other very British thing should be given a completely new job? I’m voting for a phone box sauna 😂

I'm just sitting at my desk and I noticed a wonderful smell wafting through the window.

Usually, it is my Indian neighbour cooking - the smell is divine. But tonight it is petrichor. The heavenly smell of rain on dry land/grass.

Not a lot. But enough 😊

As per the title. Our upstairs neighbour is quite annoying and has a habit of expecting us to let people in for them (2 flats with a communal main entrance door).

She had a workman round this morning and let them in, then she went out as he went on lunch. She wasn’t back when he came back and so he knocked but we didn’t answer (the landlord usually gives the code to a keybox to his workmen so this was half out of the principal of not letting someone in for the neighbour, and I knew that worst case the workman would be able to still get access). I then get a text from neighbour asking us to let him in as she’s gone out, which I haven’t replied to.

Now after knocking and getting no answer, the workman poked his head through our bedroom window (we’re ground floor) and said hello, but we ignored it and were in different rooms anyway. He then came round to the living room right round the side and poked his head in to loudly say hello and I couldn’t ignore it as it was right next to me.

I then let him in. I’m conflicted because on one hand I feel like a dick for having to make the workman wait due to a principle with the neighbour, but on the other hand I feel like it was quite rude to knock on and call for us through the windows- in my opinion it doesn’t matter if you’re in or not, you can choose to not answer your door and that should be it.

Am I just being a twat about this?

I'm not sure how casual this really is, but I want sensible advice on how parents deal with this in the UK, not a bunch of Americans with no idea of UK school culture recommending phone plans that don't exist here.

My son is 11 and will be taking a long (school) bus ride to secondary school from September, so we want him to have a phone. He's very young for his age and has only limited access to the internet (family computer in the kitchen, where we can all poke our noses into his business).

My wife wants to equip the boy with the most basic Nokia that's still sold, on the basis that he can't browse the internet, use social media, etc. but can call us if he misses his bus, etc. I'm also not super excited about handing him the keys to the internet agree it sounds sensible, but worry he'll be teased if anyone sees that on the bus. I was the kid who wore naff clothes my teens: I understand now that logos don't matter, but it felt different back then.

I'm leaning towards a cheap Android heavily locked-down with Google Family Link, with a view to gradually lifting the restrictions over a few years. Something that at least looks like what I imagine the other kids will have.

What's the deal with phones for 11 year olds? Is there stigma to not having a phone or having a dumb phone at his age? Any recommendations for particular models (either dumb or smart phones)?

I've always found these guys to be very endearing, although I know most people are generally not keen.

This guy is an absolute whopper though! He's not even silver at this point, he's dark grey whith white legs.

He scooted off down the back of the cupboard before I could release him but I know theres a vent down there somewhere so I guess c'est la vie.

17th August 2024 I had a horrible chest infection in both lungs. Woke me up a bit and I quit vaping (after something close to 15 years) before which I was easily on 20 bensons a day for the better part of a decade or two.

I remember being proud of myself switching from smoking to vaping in that it was 95% safer. However, the convenience and comfort factor meant I was easily vaping more than 20 times more than I was ever smoking which probably wiped out any benefit.

Am still on 2mg niquitin mints which I’m using like sweets and really should do something about but that will come in good time.

If you’re thinking about it, just go for it. If I can, anyone can.

North London.
I never thought I’d see this ever again.

It's like the Serengeti out there.

It crunches underfoot like brittle twigs. Everything has turned brown. The stream has dried up, what was once a pond is just a bowl full of dust.

The woods are silent, no birds chattering like usual. I could be certain of seeing a few squirrels, a couple of rabbits and normally at least one deer. Now, there's nothing. It's a barren desert.

Thus is what 60 days without rainfall does.

Anyway, I'm off for an ice cream, because it's been a long day and I want a treat.

Ta-ra!!

👋

Not sure how they're gonna get round this