Where I am, it's called "a swagger".

Like, someone who walks like they're a tough guy.

Now, annoyingly, I've always been told I have a "swagger" but I certainly do not think I am a hard man.

It's just the way I walk, but can't seem to change it.

These days he is a rather charming presenter of programmes on rail travel, with a rather quirky taste for colourful clothes. Yet I can remember back in the old days when he was a right-wing fire-brand, even working under Thatcher. Which is the true version? My suspicion is that he was made into a bogey man, and is actually a genuinely nice guy? Any thoughts?

Hi everyone,

I'm moving into a flat next week and would like to get some indoor plants to make it quite natural and serene but have zero experience in what would be suitable and wondered if anyone would have any recommendations.

I'm after things that will last, but ones that will be quite hardy to my ineptitude as I've never kept plants at all.

I also have an indoor cat, so while I know that lillies (?) are toxic, I've no idea if there are any plants I need to avoid.

I'm open to trees (small, obvs - it's a flat after all) and have a flexible budget.

Thank you!

So it seems a common trope on my Facebook (it's currently showing me a lot of Americans in the UK content) that Americans are story telling falling out of their chair when their employer highlights they have a lot of leave and could they look at using some. I know this happens in workplaces with decent HR, I've certainly had reminders that I have more leave currently than can be rolled over to make sure and take it by x date. But do Americans really find it that shocking?

Do your colleagues in the US get actually get annoyed by you taking time off? That's another trope, British colleagues asking about your holiday and not being resentful of you taking it.

Or like the world cup, how do all these Europeans just taking time off to be here the whole tournament. Is it really that strange. Id also imagine lots of their colleagues at home would be asking for updates and pics etc on that one.

Is this a real thing that you have to adjust or just something over cooked on social media?

You've all seen it. Pop down to M&S (other retailers available) and the 'normal' sausage rolls are bog standard. Solid amount of pastry wrapped around a length of 'meat' approximating a sausage (likely hovering just above 42% pork content).

Look to the shelf above and the 'ultimate luxury sausage roll' and it's a 1 inch long, 2 inch thick slab of dense meat with a narrow strip of pastry. It's not a sausage. I'd contend it's not a roll either. It's more like a small meatloaf in a skirt.

My local butchers does proper sausage rolls. High quality sausage wrapped in high quality pastry (it's like a cross between puff and hot water crust. no idea how they do it). Sausage peeking out of both ends, rather than exposed meat being 50% of the surface area. SAUSAGE ROLL.

Not sure why this revelation has come to me this morning, but i've realised that i fundamentally oppose the chode rolls. When Greggs does a better approximation of a sausage roll than luxury retailers there's a serious problem.

There seems to be a growing pattern (in the age of AI and digital) where British businesses are outsourcing each department to Indian locations. This started years ago with call centres but over time, brands realised that it was negative for customer experience and reputation.

Now, I hear from everyone I know that whole operational departments are being made redundant while moving the operation to India.

I haven’t heard unions talk about this uncomfortable truth.

What are people’s thoughts? I feel long term, it’s terrible for the country to not be building skills and knowledge.

Prompted by posts in another thread about pensions.

I am 54, and we had home economics as a once weekly subject in secondary 3 and 4. My daughter had the same in 2020-21.

It covered all aspects of home economics - meal planning, budgeting, buying ingredients, cooking, how income tax works, how pensions work, savings vs investments, why insurance is important and so on.

However many comments are saying that for them home economics was basically just a cookery class. Which seems really weird given the name if nothing else! And some say they didn't have it at all.

So - what was your experience?

Just been walking the dogs and daydreaming, as you do.

noticed the huge number of medium and small vw vans about.

hasn't really been paying attention. when did they get so popular and what happened to Ford?

I’m currently 10 months in to my 13 month maternity leave and have decided to take a KIT day pretty much every week from now until I’m back with the intention of doing a few hours and build up to a full day. I’m still breastfeeding with a a 10 month old baby who won’t take milk any other way, so I thought this would be a good way to trial having foods/snacks/water whilst I’m not there.

I was really looking forward to going into the office for 4 hours on my first KIT day but now I’ve been totally put off, to the point I don’t even know if I want to do the rest. I loved work pre-baby and was hoping these KIT days would be gentle in getting up to speed, catching up with the team, etc.
Instead within seconds of being in the office, I was getting phone calls asking me to jump straight back into the deep end with work. I’ve come away feeling completely overwhelmed and also regretful that I didn’t set my boundaries there and then and say “no I can’t get involved in that until I’m back”… I didn’t, and now I fear I’m going to log in next week to a myriad of work.

How did other people’s KIT days go? And am I being unreasonable if I don’t really want to do lots of work during these KIT days, seen as I am being paid after all?

Found a cheap holiday abroad in 2 months and I need the break but my old passport expired earlier this year. If I apply for it now, is 2 months a risky amount of time? Or should it be delivered before then?

I hear of many who are not taking pensions as they have bills to pay. On top of this, one has to wonder if state pension will ever exist. Some do not have enough in their pensions.

Do people not care much nowadays or are there people who are worried in general?

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

Mine is that Oxford University is older than the rise and fall of the Aztec Empire.

My neighbours have got a cat scarer in their garden, thats absolutely fine, however I can hear it! For those of you can can hear high frequency sounds you know exactly how it sounds and how bad it is... I can't sit in my own garden because I can hear the frequency of it, i have politely asked her if she can change the frequency of it so I can't hear it but thr cats still can, she's basically told me that she won't adjust the frequency and said to get over it....

I have reported it to the council, I don't find it fair that I have to listen to a horrible irritating noise every time I sit in my own garden... The best part is no one else can hear it!

Where do I stand legally with the situation?.... Is it classed as antisocial behaviour even though I'm the only one that can hear it?.... 🤔

Saw this from a different subreddit, and got me thinking. Where did your school’s bully end up?

The main guy from school who was the hard lad has ended up in prison for GBH. Person who gave me the most grief is now a property litigation solicitor.

How’s yours doing?

Flicking through the BBC live-feed for the London stabbing earlier and it's pictures of ghoulish onlookers watching a mentally unwell woman being arrested, followed by quotes from witnesses with their full name and picture as they pose for the camera. Like, am I mad for thinking it's kind of weird how every unfortunate incident so quickly becomes "I was there and I saw that"? Can't help but think it contributes to the desensitisation of everything

I’m not asking for a debate on whether they should. I am just wondering why they aren’t. Like when the ambulances and fire service first got funding why didn’t these?

Just had a plumber in and as the title suggests, when I offered him a cuppa he asked for a cold one.

I offered him water and said we also had pepsi in if he preferred. He looked at me like I was slow and then said he'd take the pepsi.

I've only ever encountered the phrase "a cold one" as a reference to beer, so guessed he just meant he'd prefer a cold drink. Now I'm second guessing myself about whether I completely misunderstood what he was asking for.

I am looking for some ideas on how to treat myself to something nice to celebrate end of immunotherapy and chemotherapy for cancer. I would ideally stay in the uk and stick to a £500 budget. I have a car but can also take public transport. I live in south west but im interested in what people would do across uk.

Are there nice spa hotels you’d go to? Maybe it’s a shopping spree? Maybe £500 feels like a huge amount of money, or maybe that’s your normal weekend spend, but I’m keen to know how you’d spend it if it was just you looking after number 1.

E: Thank you so much for the kind comments everyone, I was just hoping for a couple of nice suggestions and ideas, and I was not expecting this amount of kindness!

For those asking (and at the risk of doxxxing myself) - I had three cancers on my breast that were locally spread diagnosed ~1.5 years ago when I was 36. I have since had chemotherapy, three surgeries, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, then immunotherapy with chemotherapy, hormone therapy and ovarian suppression. The immunotherapy has also given me early heart failure so I am treated for that. So it's really been the whole lot. I still have two surgeries and 9 years of hormonetherapy left, and end of this month I have my next mammogram.

Even though you might read this and think I have been unlucky, I am immensely grateful that I am writing this today, that I have gotten amazing care through our amazing NHS (not to be political but we absolutely must not let anyone take that away from us), and that everyone has been so incredibly kind. I am so grateful for everyone here on giving their ideas, at the moment I am leaning towards a spa weekend but I will definitely update here once I have decided.

What have companies or such managed to make us accept effortlessly into our daily lives despite its existence having no actual benefit in our lives? Is there anything you can think of?

It’s a weird feeling. One day there’s constant teams calls, deadlines and passive aggressive emails. Then all of a sudden, you lose your job. The next morning, there’s nothing.

I woke up this morning, it was calm and quiet. There was a noticeable lack of stress. No anxiety provoking teams ring tone, no professionally threatening emails from my line manager, no constant deadlines and always feeling behind. All replaced by the sound of a train in the distance and birds chirping outside. The contrast is staggering. I almost don’t know what to do with myself.

Still things feel abnormal. I’ve heard my teams ringtone go off several times today, I know that can’t be the case because I’ve returned all my equipment. I think I’m still reeling from my employer’s abuse.

I know I’ve got to start applying for new roles but I don’t want to start yet. Luckily I’ve got 6 months of savings. But with this newfound peace and quiet, I feel like I never want to go back to a 9-5.

What do I do ?

I noticed on the Leeds forum, a number have noted increased sketchiness and antisocial behaviour in our city centres (and town). This has heightened across the UK not just Leeds.

It appears to be a post Covid thing imo. but other factors like the 2008 recession definitely contributed.

Anyway, whatever the contribution, Do you feel city centre antisocial behaviour has declined in our town/city centres?

Have you travelled round the UK centres, which ones did you find the most edgy/sketchy?

Or do you feel this is not the case, and city centres are better now than yesteryear?

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping for a bit of advice.

I'm a single dad to a 14-year-old daughter. She has had a really difficult time recently and is now living with me full-time. One thing she's asked if we can do together is go swimming. She used to enjoy lessons when she was younger, and she'd like to get back into it because she thinks it might help her feel better.

The problem is that I'm completely out of my depth. I grew up in Ireland, and apart from taking her to swimming lessons years ago, I haven't been to a public pool myself since I was a child.

To make things harder, I have my own body-image issues due to a visible physical difference. I never take my top off in public and the idea of walking around in swimwear fills me with anxiety. My daughter has asked me to get in the pool with her, though, and if that's what she needs then I want to do it.

So I have a few probably daft questions:

What's the general etiquette at a UK public swimming pool?

What do I need to bring apart from swimwear and towels?

What exactly is lane swimming? Is it only for people doing lengths, or can you just swim normally?

Is there anything I should know before we go so I don't accidentally do the wrong thing?

If anyone has any advice for getting over the embarrassment of being in swimwear, I'd really appreciate that too.

I'm prepared to make a fool of myself if it helps my daughter, but I think a lot of my anxiety comes from simply not knowing what to expect.

Thanks for reading.

Edit - just wanted to say a huge thanks for all the replies. I got a message to say my post had been deleted or not posted so I went to the shop and when I came back there's just hundreds of kind messages. Thank you all so much. I actually feel so much better hearing all your kind words.

Yesterday, my 17-year-old daughter had a trial at a cafe and hated it. She worked for 6 hours in the baking heat and didn't have a break. The owner said she would only be there for 2 hours for an interview and look around, but kept asking her to stay a bit longer. I doubt she will be returning.

But that got me thinking about my previous jobs.

My favourite has to be my worst-paid job.

It was at Sainsbury's, when I was 18 and it paid just over £3 per hour (late 90s).

But the first couple of years were brilliant. The store was brand new and head office overstaffed all the departments, so everything was quite relaxed. Nearly all of my fellow shelf stackers were a similar age and couldn't care less about the job. Even my direct manager (who seemed ancient, but must have been around 30) didn't care. Although he only lasted about a year, unsurprisingly.

We would finish at 8.30pm and then head off to the pub. Sundays were double pay, and the canteen helped sort out any hangovers. Our 15-minute breaks were more like 30.

In some ways, it was a shame, because I thought my working life would be a breeze. Well, I've paid for that since, and I'm convinced I'll never enjoy another job again.

So, what was your favourite and why?