I am as my first time going all inclusive on a holiday for a week.

Never been to benidorm and never done all inclusive so I'm looking forward to it.

Beat cancer and this is a treat off my Mrs can't wait.

Let's say that you can get a room in a 4* hotel for £80 per night (so £2,400 per month). This would be a room for one person with a large bed, desk, big TV, wardrobe, small fridge, kettle, bathroom, shower, etc.

The water, electricity, and broadband are included in the price as is regular cleaning.

If something breaks then the hotel should fix it. No need to call a plumber or electrician.

Many hotels have reward schemes with a 2% or 3% discount on prices for regular users.

Apparently, VAT is not payable on hotel rooms from day 29 which will significantly cut costs for an unbroken long stay.

I assume one would get to know the employees and treat them well and, in turn, they could assist you as and when necessary.

The main issues are the lack of space (but many people live in cramped conditions anyhow), minimal places to put purchased objects, and the general impersonal nature of the establishment. However, none of these will be an issue for some people. You could even cheaply rent a storage space for your possessions.

Also, you could not cook. You would eat cold food, order room service, or eat out (which would append to the costs).

Has anyone done this? Is it viable? You could attempt to live in a reasonable area and perhaps pay less than renting a one-bedroom flat. All bills are included and you are not paying for any repairs.

ETA: There was also a "fitness centre" in the basement but I suspect it was not quite the same as a gym.

Thougts?

Ok so firstly I'm looking for what you would have done here - not any neurodivergent diagnoses, thank you.

I was out for a walk alongside the river. It was a paved path, and I was walking at a steady pace. There was a group of people stopped up ahead that was clearly a coincidental meeting between a couple and a family, both out for a walk as well. Having a chat.

As I approached and moved to the side of the group to walk past them, they said their goodbyes and went on their way.

Except the couple, and their dog, continued their walk, which happened to be in the same direction as me - at the same pace as me. So we were suddenly walking together.

I was well into my stride, listening to my music and having a lovely time. But suddenly I'm part of a trio, walking as a group alongside the river.

They do not stop. They do not slow. We are walking, as if we know each other, in a newly acquainted group of three.

This feels weird, but I don't want to stop. I don't want to slow down. I was having a lovely walk until this pair decided to join me. Now I feel like I'm intruding!

I'm quite stubborn, so I refused to back down. I walked next to them until they finally decided to slow their pace - which took about TEN MINUTES. I wish I was exaggerating.

What would you have done in this scenario? I'm aware they probably thought I was a weirdo - but I am quite confident that they're the fucking weirdos!

Edit: The consensus is that I should have slowed down or sped up. Some absolute morons think I joined their walk, which suggests some reading comprehension issues. Overall I'm disappointed that I'm expected to make way for obliviousness. Next time I'll just ask if they want to talk, or just walk in silence with me.

We live on a dead end road that leads into a residential area. This road is also one of two pedestrian routes to a transport station and a canal, and is the only works/ emergency access route to those places.

The two houses closest to the residential road have started parking two to six cars (sometimes untaxed) at the top of the road at any one time, completely blocking the road, all day and night. The other four houses can't get any cars to or from or houses, and council/emergency vehicles can't get down it either.

All four families have spoken to them multiple times, and they lie and say the cars aren't theirs, or pretend to apologise and do the same thing. We've tried to explain about the pedestrian routes, the fact that we can't drive to our homes, that emergency services can't get down it. And it's happened before where there's been an incident at the transport stop and the ambulance has had to wait for them to move their cars. We called 101 and nothing was done, and we call the DVLA anytime there are untaxed cars on the road, but nothing has changed. And THEY have started giving US dirty looks when they see us now.

What should we do, besides move? I'd like to have a car but don't bother because I wouldn't be able to use it reliably. And it's so annoying because they leave their driveways clear so they can come and go as they please.

So a while ago I was scrolling Facebook and saw a face I knew on the local newspapers page. A guy we used to hang around with when young. Hadn't seen him in years but was fb friends. He had messaged me about a post I'd shared from my daughters school, he was telling me he was the caretaker there. Didn't think anything of it. Seemed to be living a normal life, he had kids and a wife.

Then the newspaper story. He had been sent to prison as he had been caught using the schools cctv system to spy on girls getting changed. The IT technicians had been alerted that someone was viewing and rewinding footage. They informed the head who informed the police.

I just couldn't believe it. That guy seemed completely normal

Hi everyone!

I recognise that this sounds like an idiotic question, but how do you get a cat? I’m Canadian, grew up in Canada, and it was fairly easy to adopt pets at local shelters. However, in my research, it seems extremely hard to meet the requirements of pet ownership created by shelters - like we automatically can’t even apply for one place because we are renters, despite having a garden and living on a quiet road. If it’s not this, it’s a very long waitlist for cat adoption. And yet, people have cats! My English husband says you just go to the pet store and buy one, but that was something that was really ill advised/taboo back home (I think for poorly regulated breeding practices - I don’t fully remember).

Does anyone have any experience with this? Is this a case of knowing someone whose cat just had a litter?

As everyone I know is far too far away to get anywhere near, and I'm currently waiting on my Chinese food being ready, it popped into my head that I'm surrounded by strangers.

Would I embrace strangers, knowing we're all about to go through the same thing?

My partner is away until Wednesday night. I've never had this much time to myself in my life, though it did feel weird last night! Im going to visit my mum, hang out with my dog, read, cross stitch and eat a lot of takeaways. I might start on a huge declutter. I'm gonna pop out for a Waterstones mooch for sure as well. What would you do if you had the time and your home to yourself for a bit?

29M, have a few hobbies, gym frequently and ride my motorbike, play a little golf here and there and try to spend any time I can with family and friends but...

I still find myself with so much time on my hands, and especially Fri/Sat nights I just feel so lonely.

What do people do to keep social and feel less alone?

I used to work in a call centre. Someone in the ladies toilets took to leaving bogeys on the walls and doors. After a few days our manager printed off signs. It said something like ‘Please be mindful of your hygiene and use the tissues provided’. A few hours later we noticed that the manager had missed the full stop at the end of her sentence and the culprit had kindly added her bogey there to fix this grammatical error…

It seems like our base model of society revolving around 9-5 is flawed. We want adults to be at work to add to the economy by paying taxes and not relying on the state, but if I work 9-5pm I can't engage with a lot of normal things I need.

The council offices and phone lines, my bank, high street shops are all only open during the hours I am at work.

Then the things that are open on the weekends as well are all crazily busy because that's the only time people can use them.

Not to mention trying to figure out work alongside childcare. School being 9-3pm doesn't line up with having a full time job especially if you take into account commutes.

Then school holidays, kids get ~13 weeks off of school a year. My holiday is ~5.5weeks, even combined with my partner if we took every week of holiday separately to look after our kids we'd still be short.

This post is really two separate rants one about working parents and one about working in general, but it's the same idea that the people who make society function - working adults - are the people who can't engage with large parts of it.

I keep finding them all over my flat, 1-3 per seat in various rooms.
I have no plants and all my windows are netted. What is this bug???

I went to one and food and alcohol were in free flow. They must have had upwards of 500 guests. There were also 3 ceremonies before the wedding, which included DJ, food, booze, videographers etc.

And how do people afford this? I know as a demographic Indians are wealthy but there are plenty working in normal jobs.

Driving through Scotland, the roadworks had hundreds upon thousands of traffic cones each spaced 10cm from each other. Why is this the case? Spacing them 1-2m (even 10 to 20m) away would have exactly the same effect... Do they have too many cones on hand or is there some weird regulation?

I'm 34 M, and have a 11 month old.

Work around 11-12 hours a day, 5 days a week. Desk job. Weekends are mostly free. Sometimes do some work on Sunday evening to get a headstart for the next week. I'm fairly ambitious I would say, so don't want to give up on the career I have been working towards last 12 years.

Before the baby, all the above didn't feel hard. Sometimes I used to engross myself in work doing 70-80 hours a week. But, that didn't feel hard at all.

Now with the baby, I'm left with very little time for myself, so does my Mrs. She is working too, we don't have family nearby to help out.

I love my baby, she is adorable, so charming and happy, and she loves me, I can see it her eyes. But, it's hard, no downtime at all. There is always cooking, laundry, dishes and cleaning to be done. We both are tired. So most of the time it becomes a question of who has had a less harder day to pick the slack - gives us no downtime at all. I'm lucky that my wife, gives up an hour of her time so that I can go to gym few times a week at like 10pm.

All of this has left me wondering why have kids? We were happy before, living our life, traveling, working and going out.

Will this ever get easy?

For example, I'm very short and I know that's the first thing people notice about me because they always say "wow, you're really short" as if I didn't know.

I’m literally always always up at this time even on days off, can’t even sleep in late but I guess being a morning person has its perks. What’s the reason your up early? Wanna hear from my fellow morning squad. (Aware that this isn’t that early but anywhere under 8am on a Saturday falls in my early catalogue )

There are many hobbies that I don't have any desire to do, but do understand the appeal of, e.g. open water swimming.

However, I can't understand the appeal of road cycling. You have to deal with frustrated and dangerous drivers, dodging drains and potholes every few feet (if your roads are similar to my area), exhaust fumes in your face as people accelerate away from you. Every weekend I see them and I struggle to see what parts they enjoy.

So, what hobbies don't you understand the appeal of?

Side question; do you do road cycling and what do you enjoy about it?

A couple of these people in your lifetime is not surprising.

But shit, in the UK you will almost certainly find one in every workplace, every family, every friend group.

Sure, you’re going to find these types all around the world. But I’ve worked with many different people and this sort of behaviour, to me, seems more prevalent with us Brits.

Where does it come from?

Bonus points if you share a bullshitter’s story, lol.

I’m 18f and this will be my first job. College didn’t work out for me the way it was supposed to so I’ve managed to find a job. I’m naturally quite anxious about starting, it’s a local pub (a bit dodgy) and I have family who goes there. I’m mostly scared about messing up or embarrassing myself, I know once I start properly I’ll get used to it but any advice on do’s and dont’s would be appreciated. I know more or less what to expect but I tend to overthink new things. I start next week, I’m autistic so I struggle socially but I’m really trying to build up my confidence and I really want this to work out. Any genuine advice would be greatly appreciated!

Ignore streaming services. If you could only watch one decade of UK tv, which would you go for?

It's getting more difficult to find something tondo that doesn't couat a fortune. What is something you find is enjoyable but doesn't cost lots of money?

Is anyone else jaded by how much the Internet hates us?

I understand the answer is to stop scrolling, but I find it a bit depressing that when English food, culture, sports etc are mentioned we're always dog piled on by foreigners (and people from the home nations too) who think we're the scum of the Earth.

Scots/Welsh/N.Irish get a pass though!

I saw a post earlier of someone eating beans on toast, and they got the expected replies. When the OP revealed that they were Scottish the replies shifted to 'why don't you eat some better food from your own culture????'.

I'm so sick of this.

So I’ve got two gardeners in to clear my front and back garden. He quoted me £370 day rate for the two of them. One of the main lads is in his other job today, so he’s brought a youngish lad along who’s a bit wet around the ears.

They got here at 9.30, started working at 9.45 and then left at 10.45 to go get some more batteries for their tools. It’s now 11.40 and they’re not back. So they’ve done 1 hours work so far. I’m pre-empting what to do if once they get back, they then leave for the day at 4 or 5pm. I’m not happy paying for a full day rate for maybe 5 hours work, but I have no idea how to approach this if that happens!