Main topic aside, what are you doing putting bread and butter together with a fork?

All the small appliance suggestions so far are great - they remove a lot of the danger and give you an easy place to start. Same for the safety items. Even with no fear, it is sensible to have an extinguisher and fire blanket in the kitchen.

When you feel that you are ready to start picking up knives and working with flame, do it with a friend or family member that is suitably understanding & willing to teach. Simply watching it done is still familiarising yourself with the process and hopefully reducing your fears.

My sister is the same way - I am teaching her slowly. We started with baking, as all the prep work is done cold with only one heating process. Not exactly healthy, but it it gets the ball rolling on working with heat.

You’ll love Anthracite Grey then.

It’s a nickel & dimed hot potato that neither side wants to take the hit on now. Our ‘left’ (Labour) has moved right enough now that it is unrecognisable from the party that Blair led in the 90s. It took unprecedented levels of corruption, cronyism and flat out fraud from the previous Tory run government to change the winds - and honestly it’s the same wind with a slightly more palatable odour.

Brexit did the service no favours. We used to be able to tap an increasing array of medical talent from the EU, which promptly plateaued then stagnated after the vote. Now we have more and more locums and agency staff that cost a bomb to keep up. Ironically, we are now seeing an marked increase of African and Asian staffers, which the racist idiots that voted Leave abhor.

https://ukandeu.ac.uk/what-has-brexit-meant-for-the-nhs/

Another major question is how Brexit affects the NHS workforce. New nurses arriving from the EU and EFTA states slowed to near zero immediately and dental recruitment entered a prolonged slowdown, exacerbated in both cases by a new language testing regime.

As with funding, both the politics and the actual impact of this were based on a longstanding problem caused by domestic short-termism: many key staff groups were in serious shortage seven years ago, and many still are. The reaction of successive governments has been to repeatedly reform visa rules to enable a very high rate of recruitment from Africa and Asia.

While I have no issues with the nationalities of the people there to make me well, it has led to shortcomings such as the Nigerian nurse scandal.

Along with the many, many strikes that have occurred - the argument for privatisation sadly becomes stronger. I’m actually on our work’s healthcare plan as an employee benefit, something I have never experienced before. It’s very nice for me, but it shows that my company does not trust the public system to ensure my continued fitness for work.

Big ramble there, sorry.

I almost died from stress

Thanks for your continued living, I imagine future updates might be more problematic otherwise.

Cheers for the update :)

Not that you should have to, but web results can be disabled in start search.

Winkey+R will open the no-frills run menu. As long as you know the exact exe or component name, you’re good:

• notepad
• calc
• cmd
• control
• control userpasswords2
• mstsc
• ncpa.cpl
• diskmgmt.msc
• devmgmt.msc
• shutdown (with /s, /r or /h switches)

A few decent ones there.

Terraced in this instance means there are two other homes, one either side, that we share walls with.

Having good neighbours is essential.

Tongue in cheek, of course.

The free healthcare has nosedived over the last 2 decades. It’s still free, but wait times for everything are insane unless you are actively dying. People can wait years for routine procedures & treatments. A regular GP appointment is weeks, unless you snag an ‘emergency’ appointment by phoning in at 8am sharp and beating everyone else doing the same.

If you need an ambulance and aren’t having a cardiac episode or similar - good luck and hope someone can drive your ass to hospital. Wait times are hours at minimum. A long time to be writhing around in (non life threatening!) pain.

Yes it is free. Unfortunately it is underfunded and overworked.

“Shit could be worse” never ceases to be true.

Best wishes from me, sounds like you have a handful.

Wales, so close enough.

25 years, 6 years in.

Not in the US. Suburban Wales, UK.

It affords a 3-bedroom terraced home. It used to be cheaper before our previous UK government fucked interest rates.

Jfc, that’s my mortgage at least 4 times over. Any money spent on your kid is well spent, but it’s horrible that you must sacrifice that much.

Already is. See GeForce Now, which is already getting Grocery Shrink Ray’d come January…

They can keep it then.

The music really planted the game in its age and was half the bloody fun!

They did Vice City dirty this way too.

I will never tire of beating 7 shades out of Anna Navarre on that plane. Though the killswitch method is flat out hilarious.

The Revision mod made DE even better.

Worth a replay with it on if you haven’t already

I miss heated mirrors now that you mention it. My 2003 Civic had them but the 2012 Corsa does not. Joys of poverty spec - I’m lucky to have electric windows.

With good climate (not a rust belt) and being fortunate enough to not blow an engine, it should do well with diligent maintenance.

Mostly why mine still goes. The bodywork is utter crap - full of scratches, dings, dents and the front end looks like someone dropped a running belt sander on it. Ex write-off. Mechanically though it is sound.

My worry is the timing chain. Chains last longer than belts, but they are a dog to change and generally not worth the labour. It will be that or a crash that sends it to the great scrappy in the sky.

Mid-90s a bit too early for me. I am fond of ABS (mandatory here since '04) and airbags ('98) at the very least. Not always a guarantee on cars of that era. Love the looks though.

Best of luck with your teenager.

It’s a good point.

I’d hazard a guess that they are more in the minority than before though. Closest I have seen is friend-of-a-friend referrals for nominal cost pirate IPTV services that provide cable channels & movies. Even then they are paid, and most invite trouble by just going at it without a VPN. Current going rate is £50 for a year here - bring your own Fire stick.

Funny you should mention Synology though, ours is running an Emby server for media here. Having everything properly catalogued (and presented with flair) is fantastic.

Yes please.

I don’t know how much longer my button & dialled up 2012 shitbox is going to last. Being able to buy new without the crap is something to look forward to.

Then again, there’s the whole ‘car phones home/connected services’ thing to consider as well. I like my car safe, but dumb as rocks otherwise.

Yep.

For about the past decade, I’ve only ever upgraded because the current broke (and beyond economic repair), or otherwise became untenable.

Using a refurb S10 now. The S8 prior had a bust screen. Only had that because I needed it to play nice with Bluetooth LE hearing aids. Probably my only recent upgrade that went from one working phone to another.

Tend to only buy flagships, as they are better supported by alternative software - good if they live long enough to age out of official updates.