British Gas bloke is supposed to be coming to sort out a smart meter today.

What are we betting he doesn't show up?

I didn't win on the EuroMillions.

It turns out I deposited the £20 in my account but didn't buy the tickets because I'm a thicko.

Just woke up and it looks like I've got a cold again. Fuck.

Had a nice long walk along the lanes and canals. Met an incredibly friendly little cat on a bridge too, who, were I of lower moral character, I'm pretty sure I could have popped in my rucksack and taken home.

I had a lovely month seeing someone and doing all the right things but then she had to go abroad for a couple weeks for work. It felt passionate when she left but now it feels like I'm putting all the effort in and I've been bad at keeping a momentum of conversation going. She's just got back today so she's too jet lagged to see me this weekend and has suggested meeting up during the week

But equally I could just be gas-lighting myself as I've been stung before by women losing interest and she's has communicated that she's had a really busy few weeks. I don't know; do I save this sinking ship, see how it goes or do I accept now that all is lost? I guess the only thing I can do is try to gauge how things are now that she's back in the country and for now assume that it might just be a rough patch - next time we meet I'll just ask her "How do you feeling now that you're back, I missed you" to both give an opening for her to say how she feels but while being supportive.

>>469347
Wouldn't it have freaked out and attacked you?

I did the same today. A good few hours walking along a river soaking up the sun with a stop for an overpriced lunch (and some coffee and cake) at a market. Although I feel completely disorientated now that I'm getting all this daylight and warmth when the other week it was freezing.

>>469348
That ended up quite emo really quickly. I'm going to cook a nice stir fry tonight and then try to be productive.

What's the deal with dentists in England? I've not seen my doctor in years but I could (theoretically) book an appointment tomorrow, but I've been taken off of my dentists patient list because I haven't attended for a couple of months. Yes it's an exageration but you get the point.
I need a filling replacing soon, preferably before it becomes too painful to bear.

>>469347
I half thought you were going to kick it into the canal.

>>469348
Absolutely. Attempting to put a cat in a rucksack would probably end in your death, no matter how nice and welcoming it is. I just wanted to emphasis quite how friendly it had been.

I bought a "pork and bacon roll" from a Morrisons Daily while I was out. It was basically a disgusting sausage roll and not a roll at all. So disgusting in fact that I theorise it might have been the very dish that convinced the ancient Jews to prohibit the eating of pork.

>>469350

I've not seen a dentist in years, since before the pandemic at least, because it's just fucking impossible to even find one that's taking NHS patient registrations around here. I would imagine that even if I did find one it would be upwards of six months before I'd even get an appointment in.

I seem to recall we had this conversation a while ago and that one bellend kept insisting you can get one easy peasy, but at some stage last year (or the one before maybe, I can't quite remember) I literally spent a fortnight phoning every dentist I could find the number for after work, and got nowhere. I've since given up. And then even if I could get registered and get an appointment, the fees even for NHS treatment are absurd, it's the kind of money that would sting even before cost of living went mental, but nowadays would really put me in a tough position.

My teeth are shagged, there's a few visible cracks and chips but I'm (usually) not in pain at least so I have just decided basically that's me, dentists are a rich people luxury now it seems. As long as I don't eat too many sweets or drink too much sugary fizzy pop I will probably survive.

>>469350
>I half thought you were going to kick it into the canal.

As far as I'm aware, the pusher only targets humans.

Anyway, I've also been out for a walk in the countryside today with it being nice and sunny.

>>469350
Dentists hate NHS patients.
I havent been in a year or so to my local, but it over years it went from being an entirely pleasent experience, as best a dentists can be at least, to feeling like they were almost spiteful at having to deal with me. As quick as possible in and out the door. The bloke actually said If I was paying I could have the white filler, but because I'm "only" NHS I should be happy with the basic grey stuff.

You lot are surprisingly quiet on International Women's Day. And especially as it's a socialist observance decreed by Lenin where the 8th was specifically chosen because it's when women in Tsarist Russia began a general strike demanding bread and peace that sparked the revolution.

>>469352
Pay for the dentist lad. This is one of those things where you absolutely do not want to fuck about and the world's not going to be any better when those aching sores you call teeth get infected.

>>469355

What part of a) not being able to get registered and b) not being able to afford it are you too thick to get, richlad?

>>469356
The one where your health is extremely important.

>>469355

Lenin had a lot to say about fisherfolk and none of it would particularly please womanrespecterlad so let's not open that can of worms eh. We've been doing well lately to focus on real politics, like the impending collapse of American global hegemony into tinpot dictatorship and its implications.

>>469357

I don't know how you ended up as an IT manager or even made it through Rory Stuart's book, you have the IQ of a fucking victoria sponge.

>>469359
>>/emo/33571
We've got a fucking AI bot here or something.

>>469359
I'm neither of those people which by simple deduction means that you're an IT manager.

>Towns and cities across the UK are holding a day of reflection on Sunday with 2025 marking five years since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c798l9gz4y1o

How will you lads be reflecting today on Covid-19?

>>469362
By having a head cold.
Feels like my head is being squashed.

>>469362
I'll be staying home. It's a tough job but someone has to do it.

So why aren't we doing this on the 23rd when the first lockdown started?

>>469364
I'm guessing it's because people were already dying before we went into lockdown. I'm guessing five years ago now was roughly when there was all the speculation about whether Cheltenham festival should be cancelled.

>>469362

I don't want to "reflect" on it. I still live under the shadow of the pandemic whether I want to or not. It might be five years ago but the way it wrecked my social life, happiest relationship, and job situation have been pretty enormous long term consequences that I am reminded of time and time again even as I try my best to move on.

Nothing ever really went back to normal, the way I see it. People have this false narrative that we had a couple of years of wierdness and then we put it all behind us, but that's not what happened. People's behaviours permanently changed. Social expectations permanently changed. Attitudes permanently changed. The pandemic was not a temporary event, it was a pivotal moment that changed the trajectory of society.

>>469366

I think part of the reason we aren't talking about it is that many middle-class people had quite a nice time during the pandemic. We can't really reconcile the fact that while some people had drinkies in the garden and stashed away loads of money that they weren't spending on Pret and train fares, other people had their lives completely ruined. Most people in government, the media and senior management are firmly in the first camp; either they don't understand how the pandemic affected other people, or they do understand and they're too embarrassed to highlight their own good fortune.

I find it very frustrating when the media talk about the huge increase in people claiming disability benefits as if it's some kind of mystery. After everything that's happened, of course loads of people are going to be on the sick. The last lockdown ended and we were just expected to get on with it, but no thought was given to all of the people who had no normal to return to - the recovering alcoholics who fell off the wagon, the people who lost their minds in isolation, the chronically ill people who deteriorated massively without proper treatment.

Back in the first lockdown, I remember saying on here that I hoped society would learn something from the pandemic, that we'd all remember what it felt like to not know if you'd have a job next week, to remember all the people in hi-vis who kept going out to work through that terrifying period. In hindsight, I think we've gone in the opposite direction. It seems flippant to say that "the vibes are off", but it's really the only way to describe it - public spaces feel different, strangers seem more wary, conversations seem more hostile. It's like we haven't quite woken up from a bad dream.

>>469367
>I find it very frustrating when the media talk about the huge increase in people claiming disability benefits as if it's some kind of mystery. After everything that's happened, of course loads of people are going to be on the sick. The last lockdown ended and we were just expected to get on with it, but no thought was given to all of the people who had no normal to return to - the recovering alcoholics who fell off the wagon, the people who lost their minds in isolation, the chronically ill people who deteriorated massively without proper treatment.

No the problem driving the government is that Britain is so much worse than everywhere else. We're now a nation of bennies claimants whereas the rest of the world has recovered and let's not pretend that a lot of people aren't just taking the piss.

>>469367
>We can't really reconcile the fact that while some people had drinkies in the garden and stashed away loads of money that they weren't spending on Pret and train fares, other people had their lives completely ruined.

How sheltered are you if you think the poors never got pissed or had parties during the pandemic?

>>469367
>the people who lost their minds in isolation
This is the main one for me. I was classed as a key worker for some unknown reason, and I kept going to work as normal. I wasn't allowed to go out with my friends, but I didn't really like my friends and I didn't miss them. My life was basically unaffected. A lot of complaints I hear from other people are things which have either always been a problem for me (what's that? No more fun nights out that you really enjoy? No holidays with your loved ones? Again, you're just describing my normal life) or things that are always problems for other people (every three or four years, the news decides to go out and interview some poor people, like poverty is a new thing, even though there are always poor people - people going to food banks during the pandemic was on the news, but people were going to food banks before as well, and they still are now), so I have always been monumentally flippant about the whole thing.

But so many people have gone utterly apeshit now. I work with a woman who says she will quit the job if they make her go back into the office and stop her from working from home. She used to come in every day, just like everyone else did, but now she is quite clearly terrified of going to work. I get on really well with her and she's one of my favourite colleagues, so I'm pissed off that I never see her now, but at some point she clearly developed massive social anxiety and agoraphobia, and she can't live normally now and her life is falling apart. And I probably know 5-10 other people in the exact same situation. I call it "pandemic panic", because it's the same thing for all of them: they used to have no problem going outside, but now they're all cowering shut-ins. I have friends who think it's weird that I shop in supermarkets instead of ordering everything online and paying someone to deliver it. Pandemic Panic is a real thing, although its official name is probably something else, and that doesn't even address the widespread increase in conspiracy theories, and fringe lunacy going mainstream.

>>469370
>I work with a woman who says she will quit the job if they make her go back into the office and stop her from working from home. She used to come in every day, just like everyone else did, but now she is quite clearly terrified of going to work.

Her individual example is probably different but I don't think you can blame anxiety on not wanting to spend 2 hours commuting to sit in a stale office where you might even be asked to wear smart trousers. That's a massive hit on someone's work-life balance that doesn't help anyone but Pret and those cunts working on the underground. There's a lot of bullshit we do these days that we don't think about just because it's something that's always been done and the pandemic merely exposed one of them which we've all just accepted is coming back.

Anyway, for me, my mental symptom is how I now despise people coughing and sneezing in public. It seems like nearly every time I go to Lidl I'll have some ignorant arsehole walk behind me and start coughing away. This didn't use to annoy me, I'd sit next to someone in my hotdesking office who was clearly sick just being glad I got a seat and not think to connect the dots - but now you can all fuck right off with your cold germs.

>>469370

That's one side of it, but then there's also just the fact that once you give somebody a taste of a better life, it can be really hard to go back to the old way. I am no psychologist but I am fairly certain that if you studied it, people are going to be much unhappier when they know how much better things could be, and then making them go back to how it was, versus never having experienced it at all.

We can have some boomer arsehole kind of take on it where we say "yeah well tough it's how it is" but like always, those kinds of takes are the ones that reveal a true lack of perspective. I fundamentally believe most people do have empathy, but only once they have been in a certain position themselves- This is why I am always coming to the conclusion that the kind of retarded vaguely conservative lot who say that kind of shit are usually people who have led an easy life. I've seen it myself that the moment they go through something they had previously dismissed, the penny drops and they change their tune.

But anyway that's kind of how it was for me. During the pandemic I had a promotion and a payrise and I was doing Very Important work, I had better hours and a better work life balance (for myself, at least; as mentioned preciously it came at a very steep cost to my social life and relationship, lot of nights and that meant I was basically the only volunteer.) But when the pandemic was declared finished and over, that was that, no more money or position, back to the shit hours, overtime, and barely acceptable pay I had before. It made me re-evaluate why I was in that line of work and face the conclusion that I had to get out, but that's very hard to do when you have become settled somewhere like I had.

So anyway that's a long wined way of saying I can absolutely understand how people feel when they have been able to work from home for a couple of years, suddenly being forced to go back. I would have been suicidal if I was one of those people I think.

>>469369

That's not the point I was trying to make, although I will point out that all those people who had "socially distanced gatherings" could only do so because they had a garden - a luxury that wasn't available to the millions of young people living in flats or student accommodation. The impact of fines for lockdown breaches massively disproportionately fell on poorer and younger people.

https://www.ed.ac.uk/research-innovation/latest-research-news/covid-rule-fines-peaked-in-latter-stages-of-lockd

The point I was trying to make was that we weren't really in it together. The gap between rich and poor grew substantially during the pandemic, with wealthier households piling up unprecedented levels of savings. The educational attainment of poorer kids fell even further behind their richer peers and it's looking like that gap will have permanent effects. Lockdowns massively exacerbated existing inequalities in housing; being stuck at home all day was much more pleasant for a retired couple in a detached house than a young family cooped up in a small flat. A lot of workers on casual, temporary or zero-hours contracts were excluded from the furlough scheme.

>>469373

>A lot of workers on casual, temporary or zero-hours contracts were excluded from the furlough scheme.

I'd love to know how many billions companies claimed on those employees' behalf anyway, and then just pocketed it.

Probably going to light up the fireplace for the last time this season. Just bough another bag of logs.

>>469475
>Just bough another bag of logs.
Better stick 'em in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkSg4jIL_Bo

>>469478

There's a line between astute observational comedy and just recounting something you overheard in a cafe.

I think you need to find a new attainable northern bird to obsess over, for all our sakes.

>>469479

Any northerner would know that a northern bird with any slight amount of success or fame is no longer attainable, she will already be convinced she is the greatest thing since pease pudding.

>>469480

>a northern bird with any slight amount of success or fame is no longer attainable, she will already be convinced she is the greatest thing since pease pudding

Plus, she'll move south to That London.

And struggle to pay rent for her one-bedroom when she realises there's a long queue of Northerners who, buoyed by modest initial success, think the world is at their feet.

That said, I find Grace Long very endearing. I imagine being on a date with her would be very genuinely entertaining and funny, because she just seems like that kind of person.

>>469482

I bet she's not funny at all when she's not doing a pre-rehearsed but for a video.

I've been dragging my feet as the Mrs wants me to move to her insular, very quaint and arty middle class town but I've just discovered that they have real bacon here. The butcher, all the restaurants and cafés. Even the Premier corner shop stocks real, local bacon.

>>469481
Life would be so much easier if we had control over which of those lives we get. I would happily work a lot harder for 100 grand a year, then stop for a bit, then go back. I think most people feel that way. So life makes those jobs much harder to get, and you show up at work every day ready to climb that ladder, and there is no ladder. Maybe I just have a shit job, or a loser personality, but I bet I would be a lot happier doing this job if I had the option to go and do a more edifying job for a year whenever I wanted.

Minimum wage has gone up quite a lot.

>>469485

It's a Saturday so I won't go all classlad on you but I do find it's a position that you only ever hear from people who have had some immense lucky break or privilege that they refuse to acknowledge. If only it were so simple for all of us, the world wouldn't be in the state it's in right now.

But anyway nah. I love driving me van, me. Like, I properly enjoy it. Been doing it roughly six months and the enthusiasm hasn't washed out yet, normally the novelty has worn off by now with any other job I have done and thought I liked, but this time it's real. I was driving about in the early spring sunshine with the windows down the other day, when it was pushing 20 degrees, looking at all the office buildings around me, thinking how miserable all the people inside must be because they're not allowed outside to enjoy it. Couldn't get me back in a flourescent light fish tank job if you paid me double.

You can't always have your dream job, but I bet there is a job out there that doesn't make you feel like topping yourself. If you put aside expectations of money and power, there's a way to beat the system by actually being happy in what you do.

I like this picture because he looks like the chad meme lol

>>469485

> I would happily work a lot harder for 100 grand a year, then stop for a bit, then go back. I think most people feel that way.


For as long as I've been a working adult, I've always pondered that.

For most people who have a job and who go to work every day, it's just barely more than a way of supporting themselves. And that's completely fine. You should work to pay your own way. But what if, through frugal living and good management of your finances, you're in a position where you can suddenly afford to simply do fuck all for a year or two, at least nothing that you feel pressured to at least sell to your next employer as a "sabbatical".

The same companies that are complicit in causing people who really want to work to be unemployed sometimes for a year or more are unduly suspicious of any gaps in your CV that last longer than two or three months. When they are part of the whole reason why you are in that position, either by firing you or by being the tenth company that you've interviewed at who won't hire you.

My way of looking at it is that they just don't want people to realise that there are other things in life besides work. And to realise that idleness can actually be valuable in shaping who you are as a person. Because if people actually woke up to the thought that idleness isn't the cardinal sin that employers everywhere will have you believe it is, then you'd have many more people saying, fuck it, I'm not doing this anymore. And they would no longer be afraid that a year of doing nothing would kill their career.

Worth not being oblivious to the fact that a lot of people simply don't have the financial reserves these days to just be on their sofa for a year or two. Or travel the world without a care. Your mortgage and family life will probably tie you down to where that'll always be a fantasy for most people.

But my theory stands. That a big reason why they don't like candidates with big gaps in their CV is that they don't want somebody who has experienced something other than years or decades of almost uninterrupted daily grind.

>>469488

I'd imagine most people who do have the opportunity to do that just lie on their CV and say they were volunteering for some made up charity somewhere and give a "reference" that's just their mate's phone number. They don't need to worry though, because one frightening truth is that many people genuinely don't have anything besides work, and they lack even the capacity to imagine anything else. I've had so many colleagues like that over the years, who mention they are often bored when they are not at work, and that blows my mind.

However, I think it's also fair to say that's a chicken and egg kind of situation. Were they always going to turn out like that, or is it a result of the obsessive fetishisation of protestant work ethic our culture tries to brainwash everyone into?

Naturally I have a chip on my shoulder about this because all my life I have been singled out as one of those outsider heathen heretics, a non-conformist and disruptive influence, someone who goes against the grain. My first priority for a long time now has been simply to do the least I can to live a comfortable life. I really didn't intentionally try and come out that way, but I was locked into that path by the way teachers at school labelled me as one and treated me like one. As I entered the world of adult work, I was already imprinted, my managers and bosses always judged me as such. It never mattered how hard I worked, so I stopped giving a fuck; there's no pleasing somebody who has already made their mind up about you.

I don't think enough people actually understand how that feels.

>>469487
>I love driving me van, me.
Give it a fucking rest, Alexei. Christ.

>>469489

>My first priority for a long time now has been simply to do the least I can to live a comfortable life.

At one of my old jobs, the building's caretaker was a Nigerian chap who was in his late 30s/early 40s. I guess the job was paying enough to support his two kids, next to his wife working as an NHS nurse. But he wasn't rich by any means. And yet, he was one of the most genuinely happy people I've ever met. Always came to work with a smile and brimming with positivity, always fun to chat with on a tea break. I don't think I ever saw him in a bad mood for the almost four years that I worked there.

Most of us office employees were probably making a few times his salary, but I don't think a single one of us, myself included, was as happy about their station in life as Nigerianlad. It really made me think sometimes. I'm sure his job had its stressful sides, not least because he was almost always on 24-hour call in case of emergencies. But he was content. And that's something that some of our higher ups couldn't say about themselves.

After a round on Gladiators the women just say "I'm so happy to see strong women, women with strength make me so joyful", but the men go "320lbs is a worm's bench press, you're a liar and a villain, the body dysmorphia you feel is real".

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UCknRhQE8kM

>>469495

I've had two good hearty laughs today. One was earlier on when I remembered Ed Balls tweeting Ed Balls, the second one was over this.

>>469494
I'm glad the knobhead ex-soldier got knocked out today. He was proper up his own arse, to the point I think the Gladiators deliberately went soft on his opponent.

>>469495
Symptom of a dying or dead culture.

>>469498
Calm down, mate. It's only an air fryer.

I know one of you is very interested in Liz Truss' sex life, so you might want to read this article in The Mail today.

>>469500

Who cares. Angela Rayner is it now. Tell us about her sex life.

>>469501
I find it hard to be attracted to gormless people.

>>469502

>gormless

Then maybe neither Truss nor Rayner should really be your flavour.

>>469503
Neither of them are?

My mate got drunk last night and I started getting an insight into his sexuality, he likes it when women bimbo themselves up 'to impress us men' which is what gets him off. He's a successful photographer so it gives his career a twist.

I don't want to kink-shame but sometimes I feel like the most sexless man in the universe. I'm not sure there's anything that specifically 'gets me off' beyond intimacy itself. It must be nice, like I imagine if you have a foot fetish you can just get a nice job in a shoe-store and find a lass who doesn't mind a foot massage and that's your happy life.

>>469500
That's a strange article to read. It says that they worked closely together on getting her into office in her 20s, she gave him some advice on international trade and they exchanged books - she gave him Atlas Shrugged that even he called a bore and managed to push through 1,000 pages of, he gave her a book on stock market swindlers that apparently influenced her premiership (?) - then they suddenly decided to stop working so closely together and she decided to stay in her marriage while he dropped of his?

Am I just thick and there are some blatant euphemisms I'm missing here? I wanted to hear if all the rumours about her were true and that had a female PM who was shagging everyone rather than some boring arsehole talking about how his marriage broke down because he couldn't talk to his wife. Especially if she's a former PM now gallivanting about in the US.

>>469506
I wonder where Auntie Mabel's plane is now.

>>469505

>she gave him Atlas Shrugged

Which may well have set her on her right wing course.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/20/liz-truss-cpac-speech

Ayn Rand is to bootstrap capitalism what Nietzsche is to nihilism.

>>469507
I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but I don't think I have seen her, or her plane, since about September 2001.

>>469508
I've read Atlas Shrugged, and it is my personal belief that it could not persuade anyone. It's very slightly better than the haters give it credit for, but the whole thing reads like a tiresomely repetitive manifesto from an insane person.

>>469507

Leeds.

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/g-sftz

I bet it was very warm and cozy in Auntie Mabel's hole, IYKWIM.

>>469510


>I've read Atlas Shrugged, and it is my personal belief that it could not persuade anyone

Just reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra will not make you a nihilist. But it can be a gateway down that rabbit hole. Just as Ayn Rand's works can intrigue you to delve deeper into right-wing capitalism. And persuade you to subscribe to it.

Today I've been to Quarry Bank. There was a man taking a picture of a group of old people wearing dry robes, so I fully expect it to end up on one of those 'dry robe wankers' social media pages. It was very odd to watch him recording them.

Neil Peart from Rush, widely acclaimed Best Drummer Of All Time in the same manner as Jimi Hendrix on guitar, was super into Ayn Rand. So much so that their widely respected and influential concept album 2112 is pretty much a love letter to Atlas Shrugged.

The storyline depicts a communist dystopia where the government, a shadowy cabal of mechanicus tech priest type figures, have vast computers that take care of all human needs, from food and clothing to art and music. Humanity lives in absolute peace and harmony, with war and famine eradicated, but this comes at the cost of the human soul, which is forbidden from free expression. The main character finds an old guitar in a cave, learns to play it in three minutes, but when he shows the tech priests his wonderful discovery, they say it's shit and he's gay, so he kills himself.

This is why you should never care about a musician's political opinions. They are always full of shit. I still like that album a lot despite the fact it's intended to be straight up libertarian propaganda; and actually with the advent of AI nowadays I find it amusingly ironic how that part of the storyline may well indeed come true, but with the sides switched.

Just spent £110 on a poncey alarm clock. I have become everything I most despise.

>>469515
Does it wake you up with a blowjob or something? You better give a twenty quid note to the next homeless geezer you see.

>>469516
Is that how you get your morning blowjobs?

Inspirational story time: a little over an hour ago, I was having an adult tantrum and general mental collapse over my failure to erect a curtain rail. I know you're all good at DIY, but I think my house is just not built to have DIY done to it. I put the rail up, and it immediately fell down, ripping out the holders and leaving giant holes in my wall. I really didn't want to sleep with no curtains. Not only am I incapable of putting up a curtain rail, but I am also the poster who paid a gypsy two grand for three hours of roofing work, and I am also the poster whose shelf fell off my wall in that /diy/ thread, and my good degree and affluent upbringing did not prepare me in any way for finding a good job, and when I finally found a job I was proud of, it eventually crumbled away into a shitty mong-job, and I don't think I have ever successfully chatted up a woman I wanted to chat up ever in my life. I am worthless by every conceivable metric.

But now, a couple of hours later, the curtain is up! You just need to think outside the box, and superglue some spare metal plates you have onto your bedroom wall over the holes, and balance the curtain rail on there, for tonight at least. And I raged at my friend in a message she won't see tomorrow, and I had to take it back because I remember now that I am a good enough person that she will worry about me, and I know loads of people would never even think of my trick with the metal plates, and maybe I live a dull life right now, but I put up a curtain rail and if I can do that, I could easily make a good impression on any employer I wanted to be interviewed by, or charm any woman I actually met who wanted to be charmed. I feel fucking fantastic.

I don't have bipolar disorder, nor indeed any mental health conditions officially, but I really was very sad a couple of hours ago and now I feel positively electrified. The world is your oyster, fellow night-posters. You have so much going for you, and we all forget our own strength sometimes, but the strength and the charisma and the wit and the intelligence are all still there, so use them. You strong, brave, clever and funny paragon of humanity, you.

>>469517
No. But the alarm does do that then?

>>469515
Here was me thinking I'd spent a lot when I got an Amazon Echo Spot for £50, which is essentially a glorified alarm clock.

>>469516

It gently wakes you up with an artificial sunrise. It's part of a desperate attempt to repair the damage done to my circadian rhythm by a lifetime of bad habits and shift work. I'm getting too old to just wing it on five hours of sleep and Happy Shopper energy drinks.

>>469522

Bah. That's what amphetamines are for.

Hang on, do Oasis even have big eyebrows?

>>469592

Not any more, but that just happens with age, like your shins going bald.

The doorbell rang. It was a smartly dressed West African family inviting me to a memorial to Jesus' death.

I racistly assumed it would be for some weird niche black church, but no it's the Jehovah's. Very white looking Jesus.

My main experience with JWs is them standing around book stalls in town. The fact they're coming to my door is alarming.

>>469596
They stopped trying to convert people a few years ago, I think, but they're back now and they've started again. They stopped before the pandemic and I can't find anything online, so I have no idea what's going on.

Why are you lads always being contacted by the Jehovah's Witnesses? Seems like a monthly occurance, or maybe it was the Mormons last time.

>>469593
I really don't want my shins to go bald. When does my arse hair fall out? That's the only hair I've got a problem with.

>>469600

>Why are you lads always being contacted by the Jehovah's Witnesses?

We live in neighbourhoods that are a bit rough, but not frighteningly so.

>When does my arse hair fall out?

Never, unless you have a terrible fright like Duncan Goodhew. You can get it permanently removed if it bothers you, but you will have to let a girl with no GCSEs attack your bumhole with an industrial laser.

>>469600
I reckon 'lonely aging internet nerd' is a good demographic for poaching converts. You might see religious cults grow as millennials get older I suspect up until the inevitable noncing scandal.

I was complimented twice this past week on my dress sense. So, while heading through the park on my way to the supermarket today, I really appreciated the effort made by a teenage girl to keep my feet on the ground by heckling me with "you look like Jeffrey Dahmer!". It's fine, it's just the glasses and it's still better than looking like I work in IT. And she won't be laughing when I eat her boyfriend.

>>469601
Helpful answers. One day I'll live somewhere interesting enough to be regularly bothered by religious fundementalists. Like Kabul, perhaps. And honestly, I think the best place to be attacked with an industrial laser is the bumhole. I know it can handle it, it's already been through so much.

>>469603
>I reckon 'lonely aging internet nerd' is a good demographic for poaching converts.
You should stop writing that on your front door then. As for the other thing I think you're right. Indeed, the next Heaven's Gate, or perhaps even Scientology, is probably already well underway. We've already had the Zizians.

>>469605

I mostly seem to get compliments on how healthy I look. From people who've known me a long time it makes sense but I'm not sure how to take it from new people.

>>Why are you lads always being contacted by the Jehovah's Witnesses?
>We live in neighbourhoods that are a bit rough, but not frighteningly so.
I'll semi confirm that, I used to see them regularly until I moved off the estate. There are still the ones hanging around the bus stop but they don't seem to be trying.

I'm cooking shakshuka for tea (again) but I'm a little concerned because I've decided to try Cirio chopped tomatoes instead of sticking with Mutti. I've had little a bit out of the tin and they taste ridiculously sweet; they have 3.4g of sugar per 100g, compared to 2.8g for Mutti.

I can't decide if this military jacket would look cool and be a good item to have during the kind of weather we're in right now. Or if I'd just wind up looking like Jeremy Usbourne? I also where combat boots sometimes and I really, really don't want to look like I'm playing at army.

>>469618
You'd look like a right wally.

Are you looking for a thin waterproof jacket?

>>469619
I feel as though you posted that photo as supporting evidence that I'd look like a wally and I don't see how.

I suppose so, yes.

>>469620
The design isn't nice and it doesn't look like it'd be a good fit either, in my opinion.

You could try one of Decathlon's own brand jackets:

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/men-s-hiking-lightweight-waterproof-jacket-mh500/_/R-p-301681

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/men's-waterproof-hiking-jacket-10degc-nh500-grey/_/R-p-331992

You could get a Rab downpour on sale for a similar price. They seem to have replaced The North Face if you wanted to pretend to be a middle class person who pretends to be outdoorsy.

https://www.alpinetrek.co.uk/rab-downpour-eco-jacket-waterproof-jacket/

If you're a small size then there's usually stock in Montane's outlet. They're usually a better fit than Rab, in my experience.

https://mountain-kit.co.uk/men-c18/waterproof-c24/montane-mens-minimus-stretch-ultra-jacket-p354

https://mountain-kit.co.uk/men-c18/waterproof-c24/montane-mens-spine-jacket-p1457

Scottish mountain rescue tend to use Keela jackets, you can probably find these a bit cheaper from other sellers:

https://keelaoutdoors.com/products/saxon-jacket

>>469618
Ignore the haters, mate, you'll look fine. I wouldn't have thought that jacket was official military anyway, s'jus digital camo that could be confused with a mild flower print. Absolutely nothing wrong with it, especially if you're a nature enthusiast.

>>469621
>Complains about design and cut
>suggests rural roadman
But seriously though I'm presuming this is decent advice if you care about performance.

Does anyone remember a Walls (and continental equivalent - Frigo?) ice cream shaped like Donkey Kong's head (Kev Bayliss design)? It might have sold in Spain as well. The brown bits were chocolate flavour, the skin coloured bits were vanilla or strawberry. It would have been mid-late nineties, as DKC came out in 94, and the DKC TV show aired from 97 to 00.

I've seen posts on forums from 2013 reminiscing about it, saying you could send in the lolly sticks for an inflatable banana. I've found pictures of the inflatable banana. I've found pictures of original Donkey Kong lollies from the 80s. I've found a picture of a Donkey Kong Country branded ice lolly wrapper, but the description and design and it not being Walls suggests it's a different thing.

It might be Mandela effect, but other people remember it, and the evidence of the inflatable banana suggests it's real. But I can't find photos. I looked for over an hour last night. It strikes me as odd that there is so much catalogued nostalgia of old ice cream treats, yet no Donkey Kong Country Kev Bayliss Design Ice Cream Lollies.

>>469623
Sorry to be all Peter Kay "d'ya remember Donkey Kong ice creams?" it's just going to do my head in til I find it or forget about it again.

>>469624

>Peter Kay

Guess who's dead? George Formby! You know, George Formby George Forby George Formby!

I'm glad I'm not the only one whose a silly goose with fashion sometimes.

I went out with a woman today and she said that I dress like an American. She qualified that she thinks I'm sexy but now I guess I'll resist any urge to start wearing a cap backwards or have t-shirts that are two sizes too big.

>>469618
It's a bit much for anything but fishing. It's not just how loud and unflattering it is, the drawstrings will make you look like a tramp.

>>469622
You can wear a black raincoat and not look like a chav if you dress the right way elsewhere. Even a pair of grey jeans will break it.

The problem with anything camo is it's very much dominating your outfit and anything that goes with it will be on that style direction unless you're an attractive young woman.

Just burned my tongue on mashed potato.

The steak was good though. Seasoned with homegrown dried chili pepper flakes.

>>469622
I barely know what a roadman is, I'm assuming it's what chavs are called these days, let alone a rural one. That first Decathlon jacket alone is clearly nicer than the one otherlad is considering. It has the added benefit of pit zips for when you're a sweaty bastard and need to cool down.

Anyway, today's charity shop find for me was a gingham long sleeve Fred Perry shirt for £14. It doesn't look like it's been worn.

White kitkat chunky isn't as good as the regular counterpart. I got a pack of 4 for £1.35 whereas I'd usually pay up to £1 for a single bar (!) - it makes me wonder if these multipacks are a cheaper variety with a different recipe or something.