ciaranm

This is the opposite of my experience. Getting _anything_ sorted with a physical bank takes a long time, prone to error, needs multiple phone calls/in person visits.

The one time I had a problem with Monzo they sorted me out over chat inside the app in ~2 minutes.

It's different, certainly. I'm talking second hand about someone so I don't want to attribute too much of what are my observations as truth - but he's definitely more aware of when he's struggling and can articulate that better compared with when he was younger. He's also at a secondary school with very small class sizes that's set up to help with cases like his, which helps.

He does have other health issues that make day to day life difficult in other ways, so I don't want to say everything's rosy. Still lots of hard work for my parents to manage.

Hey, just want to say that I've watched my own parents handle this with my youngest brother (now 13). It's incredibly difficult and draining both physically and emotionally. I can't imagine how tough it is first hand as a parent.

I find amazon's own courier is by far and away the most likely to deliver damaged goods, FWIW (Central/East London)

Mostly it's fine using AMEX. There's enough exceptions I carry another card, but it's not that bad.

Also: TFL accept AMEX contactless as payment/oyster equivalent.

I've seen anywhere between 5-20% working as a freelancer/consultant in London. This is partly why I think clients are keen to respond to cold emails about work - it can save them a lot of money compared to using recruitment agents.

Apply for contract work. Ask for it from recruiters who contact you. There's plenty out there in the UK, as long as you look. It's easy enough to get set up with an Ltd in 2-3 business days for everything you need, so don't worry about applying for stuff. Just manage your permanent role's notice period - contracts are generally looking for folks in a short time frame.

I've been using a plug like this ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/Charger-Syncwire-4-Port-Interchange... )for my phone/watch/headphone/kindle charging for years. It's very handy - especially when travelling.

I'm exactly the same. I often type out replies to people, then just go 'nah not worth it' and close the tab.

The 'comment is free' section of the guardian is their freelancer/blog bit. What you're probably seeing is the same author being paid for the same piece from multiple sources. Not all that fishy, just the way freelancing works.

I'm not sure " To the degree that sometimes my bosses were left hanging, waiting for a day or more on my work." necessarily means what you're saying. There are absolutely ways to communicate that you need a personal day - or that something is delayed because [reasons] - that aren't 'just disappearing'.

Yeah, you can get either heavy tread or spiky tires. (e.g. http://www.wiggle.co.uk/schwalbe-winter-kevlar-guard-rigid-s...).

My dad uses a tricycle in anything more than an inch or so of snow, as a little skid on a trike is much less likely to have you coming off than on a regular bike.

I commute about 4.5km by bike(each way) twice a day, in London. It's much quicker than public transport. 12-17minutes by bike, with traffic + stop lights. I'd be looking at 30~ minutes by public transport. Even a taxi/car is likely 20 or more. Cities designed before cars are (imo) - so much nicer.

Seems like a chunk of the team left already (and were subsequently hired by Valve[1])

[1] http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-05-22-valve-hired-the...

When I was at Goldman (I left years back), they were pretty proud of the 10k small businesses scheme. They ran it in both the US and UK.

Not sure how much capital each got, but I guess it's similar to what you were thinking.

http://www.goldmansachs.com/citizenship/10000-small-business...

Your friend is likely projecting. People simply don't care that much about what others in the office wear.

I use do not disturb mode between 11pm and 9am. If you're in my contacts list it'll ring (silent), otherwise you're going straight to voicemail. The concept of being woken up by phone a phone call (other than being actively on call for some reason) is crazy.

There's live stats for the UK's national grid. There's a couple of sites that show it, e.g. http://gridwatch.co.uk/

Really interesting to see.

Britain also has the interesting culture of tea drinking in the evenings - almost all using electric kettles. I believe the grid uses hydro stations to cover the load of this. Typically peaks during breaks and/or after popular TV shows in the evening.

Last I checked, Walking, Bus or Tube all registered as worse r.e. pollution. The article suggested it was mostly about duration of exposure, of which cycling was the lowest.

As for traffic incidents - I don't think they're massively different in London compared to the rest of the UK.

The study in the article indicates that risk of death _by any method_ goes down by 41%, though admittedly it's not based on London data.

-edit- Not the article I mentioned above, but similar results: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35717927 (cycling & walking perform better than public transport r.e. pollution intake.)

There's CCTV vans all over the City Of London. They don't tend to venture out much further, but they totally exist. I see them all the time.

I think your aim is a bit off. Might be better pointing your ire at the conservatives.

I've had every pair of EarPods I've ever used break in some form. Either issues with the remote, or the non-dominant ear losing sound (% of volume, or entirely). This has probably happened to 5+ pairs I've had from various Apple devices.

I just use them until they break, then use something else.

If it's automated, or direct from a recruiter - chances are the company hasn't even read my CV. Or looked at any of the previous work I've included. Of course it's disrespectful.

Who do you know who's genuinely not political? People have biases all over the place. They're not going to disappear - understand them, acknowledge them, interpret them. Don't just shrug your shoulders and say "nah I don't like that". They're not publishing opinion pieces - it's research.

Everyone has political motivations. You're going to entirely discount a group that studies migration from the most esteemed university in the UK because you don't like what someone puts on their twitter feed?

London, UK.

I'm a contractor so my commute varies based on my current client. At the moment I'm about 4.5km from the clients office, which I cycle in about 15 minutes (13-17 depending on traffic + lights).

There's a UK-based service supported by the police that helps with this sort of thing: https://www.bikeregister.com/

I haven't had my bike stolen, but friends who have say this helped.

My Grandad drove himself to the hospital the second time he had a heart attack. He decided it was faster than waiting for an ambulance. His wife can't drive b/c she's legally blind now.

Both Match of the Day's are now available on the iPlayer every week - I think from the Tuesday after airing. Still a bunch of asinine restrictions, but it's there. I remember it was like you say when they first started it.