Ask UK

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Community for asking and answering any question related to the life, the people or anything related to the UK.

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We don't really have an official Christmas works do so we miss out on the fallout of such events!

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We were on a trip in Scotland and walking through a somewhat shady neighbourhood. These 2 kids were walking towards us and randomly passed a football to me, expecting me to pass it back.

Is this a usual occurrence? I have never had this happen in my country but I have seen it done for videos. I'm asking about the UK specifically because I feel like you guys have an interesting street football culture. Maybe I'm wrong and this is a normal thing in lots of countries.

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This has just happened to me for at least the 3rd time in one year. I cancelled the things I planned for today only to be at home for the delivery; I was sat at home all day and heard nothing. Then, around 2PM I found a red slip saying I should contact Royal Mail for a redelivery (I was at work yesterday when they first ~~tried~~ left a red slip). Obviously my only other day off is tomorrow (Wednesday), and the earliest they allow me to schedule it for is Thursday, so the earliest I can TRY to receive it is an entire week from now. Alternatively, I could have it redelivered to the post office near me, which closes before I could get back from work (EDIT: it ALSO opens after I have to leave for work, therefore completely useless for picking up stuff that arrives on my working day). This is super infuriating now.

Once I even found 2 red slips with different dates in my post box, even though it was empty the night before.

What's going on when this happens?

UPDATE:

So this morning, as a night owl, I decided to make a sacrifice and took an early train to the delivery office (which is open between 8AM and 10AM, but I get it, otherwise the parcels are en route during the day). I asked the guy at the window about it, being fully aware that he might or might not be part of the actual delivery process; not blaming, not interrogating, just simply asking if he knows what the heck is going on.

Yupp, he confirmed what everyone has been commenting about, lol. He didn't have anything other in mind, apart from the afternoon delivery guy cutting corners. I can still imagine it's because they are loaded with work (it happens to be the case at my job) and it's literally impossible to make everyone happy, but management refuses to pay more people. Or he's just lazy. I don't know, but the bottom line is, it wasn't because of some technical nuance, bureaucracy, barometric pressure change in the stratosphere or God knows what. Most likely, he had the parcel but decided to bring the red slip only.

My trust in humanity is in the negatives.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/31696866

I am a cisgender man with dual citizenship between the USA and the UK. My husband is a transgender man who does not have UK citizenship.

As part of our threat modeling, we are developing a shortlist of nations where we would migrate if things get rough. The UK, while being on a worrisome trend line with regards ro trans rights, made the list because it would be relatively simple for us to move and work there with my citizenship already sorted.

Could any UK trans people help us to understand the GRC? My husband has fully transitioned with respect to his US documentation. When we married, he was also a man. Since all his documents match, could he get by without a GRC, or would he be forced through the humiliation of immigrating as his birth-sex and then acquiring a GRC once we moved? Would a GRC be necessary to receive basic healthcare and/or hormones?

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I'm thinking of buying a new laptop from a business in Spain (Slimbook fwiw), but it's not clear to me from what I've read online whether or what kind of additional charges I'd have to pay. Has anyone else been through the process already?

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At a table? Desk? Living room in front of the TV?

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I was looking at a potential new job until it occurred to me to ask about dealing with "on-call" support.

As I work in tech, there is usually an expectation that some level of support is handled off hours in case systems go down. However this position didn't have any compensation for making yourself available and generally only 15 mins from a phone or computer to support the systems. The best they could offer was "time in-lieu" if you get called, which is basically saying they'll let you work your contracted maximum hours despite it being unsociable hours.

Fuck that.

After seeing elsewhere someone commenting that they would refuse to on-call if there was also a "return to office", because if they had to go to the office to work, then how could they possibly support it from home, it made me wonder what other things should I remember to enquire about when interviewing and asking the hiring company?

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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puffin_crossing

I thought it would be pretty cool and funny to set this as a power on/off button for a computer but I don't know if normal people are allowed to buy it.

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I'm replacing the light at my front door, and I dont seem to be able to find what I want.

My current light is solar powered, light and motion sensitive so it only comes on at night and dims when there is no movement. However during winter there isn't enough light during the day to charge it so that it lasts longer than a couple of hours.

I would like to replace it with a mains powered one, but keeping the only on at night, and dims when there is no movement so that it illuminates the house number. Everything I see appears to only have one or the other (unless they actually have both but the listing details are terrible), does anyone know the terminology I need to use?

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The BBC has been on the case yesterday and today, and at least I’m somewhat interested and perhaps even tempted to go see them. But do people care?

What other band, if they got back together, would tempt you?

11
 
 

Edit: the move must be to another location within the UK.

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White or brown toast?

Toasted or not?

Anything else I should know about cucumber sandwiches?

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We are currently in a silly situation when dealing with refillable products for home, and I was wondering if anyone else had any ideas.

If I wanted shower gel (for example), all the refillable locations require a bottle with the capacity printed on it, and for it to be empty. And basically I don't want to wait until my shower gel is out completely before getting any more, so I would want an intermediate container however I cannot find a 1l bottle that has the capacity embossed on it so that I can take it to the refill station, and bring it home. I really don't want to buy another small plastic bottle with the capacity on a paper label that does one refill of the gel, and would have to be replaced when the label comes off.

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Hi folks,

I've been living in London for about 3 years now but didn't own much so never bothered to get contents insurance. As I'm steadily acrruing things I thought it'd be worth getting some sort of cover. I looked around on some price comparison sites and also reviews here and there. I'm getting anywhere from £60 to £500, although LV offering £250 is quite appealing and I've heard lots of good reviews. How much are you folks paying for contents insurance? What has your experience been with your providers and making claims? Any insight would be nice.

15
 
 

Coming from another country, I always wonder why the two utility companies I have here in the UK, Thames Water and Octopus Energy, would calculate an amount that they think I should pay monthly, instead of just charge whatever I used last month. To me, the latter way makes much more sense and is the standard practice in the countries I lived before.

The amount they calculated seems to generate either a huge credit balance, or a huge underestimation. Thames Water changed my monthly bill from £29 to £7, and then to £17 over the course of a year and a half. Octopus Energy built up more than £200 of a credit balance (not sure if it's a result of the UK government energy gift credit last winter), then set a minimal amount of £61 monthly. They say the purpose is to make sure that the credit balance would be always be more than £100. Okay...but why? If I want to save money, I'd go to a bank.

I could see that it might make sense if the measurement is not as easy or accurate, but come on, it's the 21st century and the meter shows me my energy usage by the hour, surely they can calculate the exact amount rather than pull a random number out of nowhere?

16
 
 

Ok so I left Britain more than 15 years ago and have been living in Norway, blissfully unaware of what's been happening. I recently went back to visit family, where I notice that my dad's had a bit of a swing to the right, politically speaking. At some point he put on gbnews.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!?

How popular is this blatant propaganda?

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Midge defence? (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by AlpacaChariot@lemmy.world to c/askuk
 
 

If anyone has any good tips on beating the midges, please share them!

I got absolutely devoured this weekend up by Loch Latrine (edit: Katrine) (completely forgot it was midge season, so I was unprepared).

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I've recently been really enjoying poached eggs on toast with sriracha sauce drizzled on top, with a decent portion of chipotle baked beans on the side.

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It comes up from time to time but I thought I'd make a thread on it.

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Lavatory paper, toilet tissue, bog roll, bumwad, arse wipe, shit tickets; we all need it but I can't find a good one for a reasonable price.

Obviously I don't want the tracing paper you get in a public toilet, but it seems a waste to pay for the quadruple-velvet perfume-soaked premium nonsense. Supermarket own brand is soft enough but tends to fall apart. Who Gives A Crap is environmentally friendly but their basic stuff disintegrates immediately and their premium stuff is even more expensive than the fancy Andrex.

And no, there's no room for a bidet.

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He was my favorite creator in Britain who inspired me as a kid to make art and characters and I mourned his death when he passed away while I was in school…but thankfully his friends and family kept the work alive as of right now.

I’ve been drawing art just like him ever since even though I’m American where he was popular.

My current art blog: kylejudd.wordpress.com

Here’s an unreleased piece of tribute to Edd:

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So far I’ve seen Shaun of the Dead and Colin which were pretty good films in my opinion.

I wonder what else Britain has that they made…

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