u/blizeH

I know I’m overlooking a number of things, in particular the fact everything has to be done ‘right’ but lately there have been some things that have stood out to me including the lido shutting down and not being able to re-open without £5m investment, and now there are talks of rebuilding the stakepark at a cost of around £700k - how can a skatepark cost more to rebuild than double the value of an average home rebuild?

I often see references to the private chef post here a while back. I was actually pretty inspired by the original post that kicked it all off, and honestly £150 seemed like good value for all that meal prep. But I ended up going in a slightly different direction and used that money to justify trying a couple of meal kits instead, and it’s been a complete game changer.

The main benefits for me have been:

- No more thinking about meal planning
- Shopping is massively easier now
- I’m actually learning how to cook. Embarrassing to admit at nearly 40, but I’m making loads of things I’ve never made before
- The cooking itself is surprisingly easy and low stress
- It’s now a lot easier to get the kids involved in cooking, which has a nice benefit of them now trying new foods

I’ve tried a few different companies, but for me the clear winner has been Planthood - I get that this might be met with some eye rolls and I get it, but apparently something like 80% of their customers are meat eaters though, which makes sense to me now.

A few reasons I think it’s especially good compared to the others I’ve tried:

- It’s so much easier and simpler than the others since they make the sauces and do more of the prep work
- I’m eating way more variety than before, including things I didn’t even know existed
- The sauces are unreal. This is the real difference for me. They’re pre-made by chefs and taste so good.
- The combinations/pairings are really clever - a few times I thought a meal tasted a bit average, then realised I’d forgotten to add a topping or finishing sauce and it completely transformed it. One recent meal included red wine vinegar red onion, which I normally hate, but it took the dish from about a 6/10 to a solid 9
- Weirdly, the smells. A lot of meals don’t rely on loads of frying onions/garlic as the base, which means the house doesn’t end up smelling intensely of cooking afterwards. My wife’s autistic so that’s actually been a bonus for us
- I just feel better after eating now. Hard to explain, but noticeably better

Meal kits have basically taken me from being a pretty useless 40 year old who found even basic cooking stressful, to making meals that are honestly nicer than a lot of meals out. My wife and I have barely wanted to eat out the past couple of months because most places just haven’t been as good.

Curious if anyone else is finding meal kits to be just as valuable here?

Hi, I’m after some really versatile every day trousers that I can happily wear on a day out with the kids at playgrounds/soft plays etc but then go out for a meal in the evening and not look too out of place

Ideally it’d have an elasticated waist so I don’t need to wear a belt, and also have sole stretch so I can run around in them and they’re still comfortable

For what it’s worth I have some of ‘The Don’ pants by Fabletics and they’re really close to what I’m after, but they are absolute fur magnets and we have two cats :/ Thanks!

Hi, my current method is to favourite any photos I want to delete because it's marginally quicker and less presses than actually deleting them on my phone. But I'm wondering are there any other tools or features I'm missing? For example lots of my photos are series where I'd only like to keep one or two, but I can't see any option to remove duplicates

Thanks

Long shot, but we’re 1 player short for a game today at 7pm. Please can you message me if you’re interested in playing?

Edit: to be clear - it’s a dads game, but we’re short so anyone is welcome. The vibe is very relaxed/friendly/casual

Hi, we’re here now with the kids and they have no intention of leaving any time soon, but parking is limited to 4 hours.

I’m looking on Google now and tempted to head to Kingsmead Square Car Park for another 4 hours, but I’m wondering if for future visits there’s somewhere better please, where I wouldn’t have to love the car? From another thread Newlands park & ride could be a good option, but it’s the opposite side of Bath to us and an additional 30 minutes at least driving. Thanks!

I’ve been lucky to be FIRE now for 10 years, for the most part I love it, I definitely understand the ‘lack of purpose’ thing and wouldn’t be against getting a part time job in the future, but the worst thing I’ve found is when people ask what you do

So many people I know are really struggling now. It’s easy enough to have empathy and talk about how bad things are, but my go-to if someone asks what I do has always been ‘programmer’, but lately I get so many questions about AI that I have absolutely no clue about (I haven’t done a single line of code for a decade) and even worse when people are feeling sorry for me because the industry is in a bit of a tough spot right now. And I’m just there cringing inside because these people are empathising with me based on a lie

I posted a similar thing a while back on r/FiredUK and got some good answers, but honestly since then it’s only gotten worse as I meet new people since my son started school. We have property, but if I told people were landlords that’s not a good look, if I tell people I do stocks/investments that’s a bit better but then they ask me for advice and tips and I have no fucking clue beyond buying a cheap index fund which when I suggest that they get disappointed like I’m holding out on them.

Saying I’m retired is not an option for at least another 10 years, and saying ‘between jobs’ would also likely garner fake sympathy and people asking me if I’ve found anything yet etc. I know I’m overthinking this but man, I hate it so much whenever someone asks what I do, or how work’s going. Can anyone else relate? :)