My partner heats baked beans in a pan on the stove. He's in his 30s, and the only other person I know who does this is my grandfather who was born in the 1920s. Anyone else still ignoring the invention of the microwave? He thinks it's better and faster in a pan, and I just can't agree.

I'm running this as an ice breaker on a departmental away day. Anyone got any zingers? They can be to do with office work, personality preference or just pure silliness. Nothing NSFW of course! Nobody is policing the questions prior to asking so I can be as silly as I like, however, I would prefer to keep my job. Colleagues are a mix of Welsh and English, mostly - if that makes a difference. [Asking AI is boring, come on the humans!]

AskUK,

I have to get something off my chest that’s been bothering me occasionally for nearly a year now. 

Last Christmas, my wife and I were visiting the UK from America, and were largely amazed by how pleasant the train journeys were. 

However, I had one really bizarre experience that stuck with me for how unexpected it was, and I want your take. 

Here’s the situation - we’re on a train from London to Pewsey. We have reserved seats, but at London the cut off a couple of rail cars, and so many people who had reserved seats now do not - the conductor announces that it’s a free for all. Vibes are bad. My wife and I initially have seats (not our own, as someone else has taken those), but I give mine up to an elderly person, and so we get slightly separated. 

As we progress across the countryside, the train fills. And fills. And fills. Frankly, it felt dangerous? People fill the aisles to the point where no one can move, and I watch each station stop become a clusterfuck of people rushing to get off, while the platform people surge forward. 

Okay so, because we got on at the beginning,  and have large bags for our multi-week trip, we stash the big bags in the dedicated little luggage room at the end of the carriage, and then went to sit down… but as the train fills, I get this deep sense of anxiety about how the heck I’m going to get down the aisle to the bags, extract the bags, and exit the train at the station before I get swamped by the onrush of people. I have a vision of being unable to get off the train in time and stuck on Xmas eve miles away from the destination, unable to get back. 

I’m unfamiliar with the train line, have no cell service, and so pretty much immediately after the stop that I know to be the stop prior to ours, I signal to my wife and begin making my way down the aisle towards the luggage room. This is not fun - it’s a squeeze, but there’s no alternative. I cannot quantum tunnel through people, and yet everyone seems oddly resentful, sullen and unhelpful, despite presumably all facing a similar issue? Idk, it’s odd. Finally, I make it to the accordion connection point between the two carriages, where the luggage room is. Our two bags (check-in size, 20kgs each) are now piled underneath a vast stash of other bags, push chairs, wheelchairs, etc. I begin to sweat. The train is moving vigorously. I gingerly begin to try to get at my wife’s bag and my bag, knowing that if I’m still standing in this hallway pulling bags out when we arrive at the station, I’m going to be holding up many angry people. 

Here’s where it got weird - I pull out bag number 1, and squeeze it next to me, steadying it with one hand, while I try and get bag number 2. This inevitably involves a little bit of bag juggling, and there isn’t much space, but I’m not squeezing anyone more than they are already squeezed. Anyway - this one guy, with a very aggressive tone, says “what are you trying to do”? Like, as if he’s trying to start a fight. What throws me is that he looks relatively normal. Like, I’m not culturally attuned to the types of people who might want to fight on public transit in the UK, but I’m just totally not expecting this. So I completely ignore it. I come from a city where public transit is populated entirely by people who will murder you not out of maliciousness, but just because they’re having a schizophrenic break, so I’m good at cultivating a sense of “this isn’t happening”.

Anyway. It kind of keeps happening - he tries to make eye contact, and keeps making comments like “what are you doing” (which - isn’t it obvious?!)  but no one else says anything. They all just stare at their feet. Not the kind of supportive glance I’m hoping for. By this point, I have both bags by my feet / between my legs, and there’s only an awkward 3 or 4 minutes before the train pulls into Pewsey and, exactly as hoped, I’m able to step off the train with the massive bags without getting in anyone’s way. I have no chance to look back and see if that made it clear to him what the goal was. 

Once on the station, I realize how weirdly tense and stressed I was - I’m soaked with sweat. 

Anyway - I’m curious if from the British perspective I broke some kind of deep train etiquette, or if your aggressive psychos just look better dressed than ours. 

I’m 17 from the uk and I just started college a month ago.
Before I started college I thought maybe things would change and I would come out of my shell. This didn’t happen

I sit in the park every lunch on my own. I have no friends. I’ve never had a girlfriend matter of fact, I’ve never had a romantic hug, kiss, or even held hands romantically.

I can’t do 2 years of this.

What do I do?

Personally, I'm a divide by group size kind of guy. If there's 12 people, just add it all up, add your tip and divide by 12. Everyone pays the same, and the waiter just walks round and everyone taps for the same amount.

I go out all the time with work colleagues in big groups and this is the strategy every time. The idea being, it just averages out over time if one person has more or less. And really, once you work it out the difference is usually +-£5 at most. It's fast and easy.

I have friends who are convinced this is the most complicated way to pay and is hugely unfair. Which I would get if the difference was massive or if we all didn't have well paid jobs. Their preferred way to pay is to have a single person pay the full bill, share bank details in WhatsApp, send receipt in WhatsApp and then everyone has to remember to tally up their bill and transfer the money across. To me that just seems needlessly complicated.

Since Aug Bank Holiday Weekend, we’ve been experiencing an airplane like pressure as soon as we walk into the house. It triggers our tinnitus (high pitched ringing & static noise) and I don’t feel this outside. It gets worse higher up in the house & on the top floor as well as at night. There is momentary relief when we use the hot water sometimes.

It started with a mechanical hum that I could hear throughout the whole house, and my tinnitus was triggered at the same time. An hour before it started I heard a squeaky pipe noise from the top floor wall.

The hum is still ongoing - loudest on top & first floor, not constant but lasts for long periods of time - especially after midnight but also during the day.

I don’t have an AC or a HVAC system (UK). Only a water tank in the attic. We have had 5 plumbers, 1 electrician and 3 Thames Water engineers come check - they say everything is fine and so is our water pressure. We can hear the hum when our hot water & heating are off and the pressure is constant but worst at night.

We live in a terraced house and suspect the source is from next door’s HMO with a loft conversion that is a studio with kitchen/bathroom facilities - the loft tenant mentioned that she doesn’t use the loft toilet and it hasn’t been working for over a year and uses the top floor bathroom instead.
They have a combi-boiler in their garage-converted kitchen as well as a rear extension in the garden. I think in total they have 7 rooms - 3 en-suites and 4 studios.

I have done electrical & water mains tests in my house and with other neighbouring properties - but have not been able to do an electrical mains test with the HMO.

Please help it’s been 1 and 1/2 months of this and we’re sleeping on the ground floor as that is where our ears are the least triggered. Would appreciate any advice :))

Finish work on the Friday and don't get home until Monday, have a few hours sleep and go to work hungover/still high.

I don't take drugs myself and only drink maybe 2 or 3 times a year. I'm not judging, but the concept seems alien to me.

I remember when I (28m) was younger and had quite a few friends who did this, but even now there's always people who still do.

My dad is 58 and still has some friends who do, so I'm guessing that some people don't grow out of it.

As I mentioned, the concept seems alien to me, so could someone please explain the appeal?

Thanks.

Basically I'm super unemployed and sad. I've been applying for everything. I look online "join a recruitment agency mwhahaahahah" but I can't find any. I applied for one actually and got rejected😄🔫

All the ones that show up on Google either literally have no jobs on them or are obvious scams. Stressed out babes this isn't okay. But ye any help appreciated.

Maybe it's the traditional British Christmas Dinner, or maybe its something more reflective of another culture. Either way, I'm interested.

My original plan was to save for a down payment on my childhood home but once reality hit, I realised I’d never be able to afford bills, maintenance or pay off the mortgage within my lifetime. Now I don’t have a clue what to save for.

What are you guys doing with yours? Education would be my second choice but the uk job market is so broken, I know countless people who got degrees to only end up still struggling in minimum wage jobs.

Beards were super popular in the 2010s but I feel they’re less so now. Does that match other people’s perception?

Something I constantly wonder about is how so many women in their early 20s on social media afford to live in luxury flats in major cities like London and Manchester. They live alone, go shopping, eat out at nice restaurants and have beautifully furnished apartments, and I’m always curious about what they actually do for a living.

A lot of them have a decent following, but not necessarily 100k+ followers, so I wouldn’t expect them to be making huge amounts from influencing alone. Is it a particular career they’re in, are they making money through other streams, or is there something I’m missing? I highly doubt theyre doing stocks and trades on the side.

I earn a decent salary for the city I live in. I’m not living lavishly, but I can comfortably cover my expenses and put some money into savings each month. Even so, I can’t imagine affording that kind of lifestyle on my income, especially with the current cost of living crisis. I’m genuinely so curious about how they’re doing it because I see more and more of them on my feed!

Basically title. Saw a post from ~9 months ago talking about there being a second option in small text, there also being a way to get around it through a link etc. I'm seeing none of that now, and going through the no-app route but conceding the One Login, it still rejected me saying:

"We were not able to complete your identity check using security questions."

That's after submitting perfect details of my DVLA license that I'm trying to renew (address change + new photo) for them to verify, and consenting for like 5 different third-party companies - including for some reason Experian, "because companies like Experian have access to information and interactions you've previously had with other organisations." - like that's meant to reassure me?

Feels like the computer said no before I even finished the entire process. What would using an app even change about verifying anything? Is the only alternative hoping that I can do this at my local post office?

​

Hey everyone, I'm not from Europe (I live in a tropical country) and I'm writing a fanfic set in England, so I need to get this right.

I've seen some stuff online about British bathrooms having two separate taps, one for hot and one for cold, instead of a single mixer tap like we have here. Is that actually a thing? And if so, is it something everyone has, or is it more of a rich people thing / old houses only kind of deal?

I know this probably sounds like a stupid question 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 but I genuinely have no idea and Google is giving me mixed answers lol. Any help would be appreciated!

What is everyone’s go to cut of frozen chips?

For some reason, I feel like crinkle cut chips are fancier than straight cut or steak cut. It always makes me feel like I’m eating a fancy dinner/tea with crinkle cut chips.

Maybe you don't like or can't cook, maybe work means you're too busy, or you just prefer takeaway or ready meals - if your palate is tuned to that, what do you do for Christmas dinner?

EDIT: Well that set the cat amongst the pigeons - thanks for the wonderful response everyone. Just not the person who said i was being rude (?) then deleted the post.

My contribution: I enjoy cooking anyway, but Christmas morning spending 3 hours cooking the feast is great fun for me. We have about 10 family members round - people drift in out for a chat and a drink, I'll go in the lounge with everyone while stuff's in the oven, Christmas music playing... love it.

A bit about myself, I'm a Chemical Engineer in Manufacturing and also hold an Engineering degree. I've come to the point where I'm sick of 5 days onsite and firefighting problems. What's a job I can get into from here? For context, I'm on around £40K and tbh if there's scope to climb the ladder in my next job, I am all for taking a massive paycut.

I'm looking to update my various piercings with gold plated jewelry but I can only seem to find crazy factory with pieces around £5 or more luxury places at £30-£50 a piece. I've tried looking but there don't seem to be many options that aren't Chinese resellers.

Are there any other low to middle ground suppliers? Or am I just dreaming? I'm looking to replace 12 pieces of jewellery so it'll add up quickly

Went into my local b&m store today and noticed they have started playing normal songs rather than the royalty free stuff they've been playing for years. Was a nice change to sing along to some bangers like 'Mr brightside' whilst wandering the aisles. Has anyone noticed this in other UK stores? Mine is near Bristol.

Every year it’s the same, round this time of year the humidity in my room sky rockets, floor becomes wet to the touch, condensation, mold, and even rust, sweating even though it’s cold.

We’re talking 90-100% humidity, it’s so bad it actually broke my brothers vintage speakers

It’s a constant battle of putting the portable AC on and hoping it runs long enough to pull the water out of the air before it shuts off on being too cold

Even then I’ve only really achieved 77% on a good day with the air con

Would a dehumidifier be able to keep it down? To around 50-70% and are they safe to run 24/7?

This is likely a daft question.

My built-in cooker is having problems and it's a gas hookup and neither myself nor my partner are particularly handy or confident in fixing or replacing it. I rang up a company recommended to me by an acquaintance that specialises in appliances and they said it would be £80 for someone to come out and have a look, and if I carried on with their services they would halve that to £40 on the final bill.

Great, so they came round last Tuesday, grumbled some things about the cooker, and said they would send me an invoice regarding costs on fixing it versus replacing it. It has been over a week and I have heard nothing, including no invoice or means to pay the initial £80.

My feeling is that it is on them to produce an invoice before proceeding, and if they never produce an invoice then that's that? If they really want my business, I should not be chasing them, they should be chasing me. Also, this does not give me a lot of confidence that they really care about doing the job.

So, is it ok to just move on and accept I've been ghosted, or should I follow-up? I am unlikely to proceed with their services either way.

How can you tell if someone is intelligent? Whether this means a high IQ or a high level of emotional intelligence, what do you find to be the telltale signs?

This is for Halloween only

Consider : prices , variety , accessibility to different locations etc

When you get "test" calls, what's the protocol for handling them?

I needed to test a phone system earlier, and I told the 999 operator I was testing, and they asked me for my initials (of my name). Is that standard?

i’m looking into shower head filters because i’m really into haircare and someone suggested a shower head filter to cancel out that maybe being an issue

but i’m wondering if in the UK it’s necessary? i googled the water in my area (cheltenham) and it says it’s hard water…

results were kinda confusing it says online they don’t soften water so is it a scam or even effective enough idk ?! i rent also so would need to be renter friendly

ty