just stubbed my big toe on the bathroom door and about a quarter of my entire toenail chipped clean off. I'll have to take a closer look in the morning.

>>472832
You can be a functional adult and get a tax refund. I had a couple of grand spare so I chucked it into a pension before tax year end last year and got to claim £500 back off HMRC.

British Gas were insistent that the last bill they sent me, after not sending a bill for 3 months because it was "in review" after fitting my smart meter, was correct. They reckoned I owe them £120 despite the fact I had already been paying the exact amount of electricity I had used on the smart meter.

This month's bill they have realised their fuck up (somehow they'd included charges going all the way back to when I'd moved in and then simply done their maths wrong) so now I'm £30 in credit. Fucking retards. I'm fine with that, obviously, it's just how fucking obnoxious it is getting through to them with the message of "no this is obviously wrong" when you know they have fucked up and hey won't admit they've fucked up.

That's the kind of bureaucracy that drives me mad, because while I can afford to be slightly out of pocket one month until it gets resolved, imagine how much it fucks over people who can't.

>>472827

>The thing about Timpsons is that they're one of the few employers for people coming out of prison

Is that why they always have a weird little hut outside the supermarket/shopping centre/service station and never a proper shop inside it?

>>472834
>You can be a functional adult and get a tax refund

That's what I meant, I've had it multiple times, so I feel like it's something anyone who has had real life dealings with work and wages and taxes will have had at least once in their life.

I have been very ill today. The annoying thing is, it feels like a really bad hangover, but I have not been out drinking so I feel like I've been scammed by my health somehow. I also put the heating on for the first time, due to my immense suffering, and so I haven't been able to make it till November. How frustrating.

I've eaten too much quince jam the last three days and now it has given me diarrhea. I'm not sure it says something about the quality of my jam. A jar a day wouldn't be sustainable for anybody.

>>472840
I find that if I have three, possibly four, clementines in quick succession they'll go right through me.

Charlotte Church has been murdered in The Traitors. So long to her wonderful bosom.

>>472832
>Do you mean to tell me you've never had a tax refund?

I had a tax refund 15 years ago after I became a student but have otherwise either been employed for years. Am I missing a trick here? Is it just me paying for all of you lot?

If I remember right one of you writes to the council every year asking for money and they chuck you a couple hundred quid but that might have been when councils were slightly less bankrupt than now.

>>472839
I think I'm coming down with whatever is going around too. Mostly because of FILTHY ANIMALS who don't stay home when they're sick so they instead cough and splutter all over people at the supermarket, in the office and the woman I went out with tonight told me she half-thought about cancelling but decided she'd be a big girl and come out despite a fever.

Yes lockdown did effect me and yes I want it back.

>>472842

If you have a steady full-time job, the only reason you're likely to get a refund is if someone in your payroll department fucked up and put you on the wrong tax code. Overpaying tax (and being owed a refund) is far more likely if you're in and out of work, or if you have various bits of temporary and part-time work.

I've definitely gone overboard with Vinted. I've just picked up an Arket shirt, which looks unworn, for £12 and I have a couple of Oliver Spencer shirts on the way which came to about £26 combined.

There's something a bit off with the story about that autistic lad who was volunteering at Waitrose.

A friend who is getting a bit antsy after not having a proper job for almost a year just answered an online ad for a "freelance business consultant". It turned out that they were offering to train him to become a dropshipping consultant who would then teach unwitting sods how to set up their own web shop with Chinese tat.

So I guess the dropshipping grift has now moved to teaching people how to teach people how to dropship.

They show Question Time earlier on the BBC News channel now, so I’m watching it with as much effort as I can muster. A man in sunglasses in the crowd just suggested Prince Andrew should be “exiled”. I don’t care how terminally online we all think we are here, but this chronic masturbator Blues Brother has us all beat.

Reese looks absolutely nothing like Reese.

I think I should invest in some sort of sleep tracker. There are days when I wake up full of pep and joie de vivre and don't even feel like drinking coffee or taking prescription speed.

Oh I proper fancy a cornetto.

I see quite a few tent boxes when I'm on the motorway. Are people really sleeping in a tent on top of their cars?

>>472870

Some tent boxes can be surprisingly roomy.

Always wondered what it's like to have a shag inside one of them. But generally, I hate camping. Just the constant dampness, and honestly the inconvenience of it. I'd prefer even the most budget hotel room.

I stayed up until 3am last night looking at replacing my footwear. I've had a trusty pair of £20 trainers that have lasted for 3 years through some horrific abuse of walking hundreds of miles in all weather conditions with the treads now completely worn flat and now I can't get them to stop stinking because the material inside is rotting away. Equally some cheap and cheerful boots just cracked after a long walk.

Last night I ended up buying some new Doc Martens boots instead (never had a pair before, expensive) but now I need to actually buy what I set out to buy only I have no idea how to go about it. I don't want to get caught in the fast-fashion loop of a bad pair of trainers that fall apart in a few months but equally I'm very hard on my trainers so a beater model is probably just as likely to perform as well as some of the overpriced rubbish you can buy online that has shitty soles that get holes within 5 minutes of outside use.

I'm perhaps answering my own need that I'm very taken with these: https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/men's-low-waterproof-hiking-boot-nh100-dark-grey/_/R-p-352773?mc=8871780&c=beige_grey

But at £30 I'm questioning the PU/Polyester upper and how they'll look in real life.

Sage ticked because I know I'm just being a tart and nobody gives a fuck what a middle-age man wears on his feet.

If a vampire drank the blood of someone with aids would they catch it too?

>>472892
I have these, they're okay for going on walks but I don't know if I'd want them for everyday use.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/men-s-waterproof-hiking-shoes-mh500-black/_/R-p-330812

>>472893
Not unless they had open wounds in their own mouth or throat and also do vampires have working circulatory systems? From what I've seen, not really. Then they either have supercharged immune systems or just don't need one, being dead. I'm going to say no.

Bought some tailored women's trousers secondhand yesterday and I can't tell if you can tell that they're women's trousers. Also, I was wearing them today around the house, and I thought "these feel weird around the crotch... no, beneath the crotch" and, after taking them off and investigating, I realised they have what I can only describe as a fanny cushion. It's several layers of fabric exactly where the fanny would be. I haven't done enough testing to see if they'd protect my gonads.

Oh, well, I've spent £3.50 on less.

>>472893
I don't think I've ever seen vampire lore where the vampires could get human illnesses. I feel as if it's one of the main perks of being a vampire, that you no longer suffer the effects of pathogens. I'm confident the Elder Scrolls ones don't, I'm fairly sure they don't in the World of Darkness, and searching "twilight sick" just returned lots of stuff about an episode of My Little Pony. They can in Warhammer, but nothing matters or makes sense in Warhammer so I'm not counting that as a worthwhile contribution to the greater vampiric cannon.

I've booked the week off work but I've done pretty much fuck all so far. It doesn't help that the weather has been a bit shite, I really need to get into the habit of using my annual leave earlier in the year.

>>472895

Vampires in Warhammer aren't really vampires in the same sense as other folklore. They are more like undead nobility.

>>472897
What? Like Dracula? Or... like half of all fictional vampires? I'm not going to get into a big argument about at what point a vampire stops being a proper vampire, but that is literally the original vampire you're describing.

>>472895

My friend, your life is about to change for the better.

>>472898

As in, they're the lords at the top of an open and entirely "mundane", within the context of the setting, society of undead beings. Being nobility is kind of a defining trait of being a vampire for them, purity of the bloodline and so on, and less so all the necromancy and blood drinking and whatnot, which any old wizard or ghoul can do too if they work hard enough.

Vampires in other folklore lead a double life where they disguise as humans. Dracula, or his real life inspirations in characters like Vlad the Impaler or Elizabeth Bathory, were nobles, but that wasn't an essential vampire trait. It was just a big advantage that allowed that type of classic vampire to thrive. Their vampire powers, turning into a bat, being burned by sunlight, and all that, were a much bigger deal.

>>472899
He looks terrible. The waist is too low. However, that first part wasn't dismiliar to my own internal monologue yesterday. Fuck it, I'm buying those tassled loafers as well.

Also can I get any input on whether the prevalence of minge buffers in women's trousers?

>>472900
Vlad von Carstein definitely tricked everyone into thinking he was a normal enough bloke for a time, I think. You're splitting hairs about the other stuff.

>>472901

It's splitting hairs if you want, but to me it's a pretty significant difference if your vampires are functionally just another fantasy species/faction alongside orcs goblins elves and dwarves; versus if they are a spooky paranormal boogeyman monster that goes bump in the night.

They're the same thing in an ontological sense, sure, they have fangs and sleep in coffins and have Hungarian names. Very different entities in a storytelling purpose, though.

>>472895
How does your arse look in the mirror? And does it button/zip the wrong way?

>Also can I get any input on whether the prevalence of minge buffers in women's trousers?

I've never seen them but would presume it's to stop fanny leakage from bleaching them white.

>>472895
>I don't think I've ever seen vampire lore where the vampires could get human illnesses.

The vampires in Firefall would presumably get human illnesses but that takes it to such hard-science that I'm not sure if they still count.

Would you try and fuck a lady vampire, lads? If women these days are obsessed with monster erotica then we should get some leeway too to try and danger-sex with a supernatural predator.

>>472899
I liked The IT Crowd but since learning what 'Jumping the Shark' means I can't not think about it while watching.

>>472904

>>472903
I would fuck a vampire lady, I think most people would if it's the typical gothy female vampire type of woman. I think you have to be legit gay to not want to be a thrall of some big titted Ventrue baddie.

Did anyone play the Arc Raiders beta? Do you think it'll have longevity? I want a multiplayer game to play and can't decide between Arc Raiders or Battlefield 6. Whatever has max longevity.

>>472906
Would a vampire have a dry fanny though?

>>472903
They button the same way as all my other trousers. I think it's just shirts that go the other way. Besides, would anyone notice? I don't think anyone even knows about the shirt thing, no one knows anything anymore. My arse looks fine, I think.

>Would you try and fuck a lady vampire, lads?
Mate, that's all I'm doing.

>>472907
There's only one way to find out, and lube is widely available if not.

I ran out of plain flour so I've had to use ~30% self-raising when making Yorkshire puddings. Probably the best they've ever turned out.

>>472909
Self-raising flour is like salted butter - it's just better and there's no reason not to use it*.

*Results may vary.

Not sure what to make of the movie Scream. I remember the buzz when it first came out, although I actually never watched it. It does seem to be pretty cliché 90s teen horror. Not fundamentally different from other franchises like Final Destination in that respect, going by the first 20 minutes of it.

>>472911
What worked well for Scream is that it satirises slasher films while also being a decent slasher film in its own right.

It also has the bonus that Neve Campbell would get it.

>>472912

I don't know. It's the last few minutes and I honestly can't say I liked it. In any case, if it was an attempt to satirise slasher films, then it failed. The movie falls over its own feet attempting to be something it isn't.

We tend to assume food prices in cities are higher than outside, but did you know that it costs nearly £160 to transport just 1kg of food 12 miles from London?

>>472914

U wot m8?

>>472915

It's true.

So I wondered what kind of drink I should have as my usual these days and ended up on a natural wine website:

>As it unravels the bubbles become soft and it evokes lovely, fruity aromas of ripe strawberry, sour cranberries with a hint of vanilla pod; think along the lines of cherry cola. The sip doesn’t disappoint; It's delicious – Fruity, friendly and has slight perceived sweetness (although it's dry). If you somehow manage to keep some of it in the bottle for a few days, you will discover a very interesting still natural wine. We recommend serving chilled.

I love the idea of owning this wine and it's only £22 for a bottle but I have no idea when I'd ever want to drink it so it would just end up sitting in my flat in all likelihood until it spoils. I'm only drinking alcohol a few times a year these days and I never feel the compulsion to drink at home.

It's a nice little rosé to drink with an arty lass is what it's saying. But if I bring anyone home then my perversion is to bang and then order a takeaway in bed together.

It's really happened - he's just The Andrew Formerly Known As Prince now: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0qp75z3dw4o

I accept that he is a bonehead of the highest order, but I still feel bad for him. Everybody knows, I imagine, that Jeffrey Epstein's MO was to make friends with rich and powerful people, invite them to sex parties, and include trafficked teenagers so he could then blackmail the celebrities. Someone as epically retarded as Prince Andrew would never think twice about being invited to these events, with numerous other powerful figures, and he probably never even asked Virginia Giuffre how old she was. And I doubt she told him. Nonce Andrew was one of countless people who got duped by Epstein, and I get the feeling that everyone in the media wants to throw the book at somebody who isn't them, because they were all there too, and Handsy Andy has just been picked as the scapegoat. There's no indication that he was masterminding or controlling the exploitation; he was just there. If he deserves this treatment, I guarantee many dozens of other household names deserve it too, and as long as we're focusing on Prince Andrew, nobody is looking at any of them.

>>472919
It's sad that I know this but I remember reading over a decade ago that Charles was looking to economise the royal family so he probably won't be the only one losing titles. At any rate Prince Andrew stopped receiving public money in 2019 because he's mysteriously loaded so I'm sure he'll be fine.

I don't understand why this is headline news or why you would want to watch the Question Time audience react to it like, presumably, a baying mob. Why is the BBC News website so naff?

>>472916

Again, U wot m8? Are you personally delivering that 1kg of food in a black cab during rush hour and paying the fare both ways?

>>472920
I had to stop watching Question Time because they were all forced to be polite to an utterly deranged shrieking headcase from Reform. Changing the subject to Prince Andrew was a tremendous improvement on the competitive imbecility they were engaged in about fucking immigration for the fifty billionth time.

>>472921
No, that's just the cost of getting it into space. Black cabs won't get it to low earth orbit.

>>472923
This is the kind stuff that Neil deGrasse Tyson keeps saying that makes everyone think he's a dick.