(Part 2) Best products from r/CasualUK

We wanted "the oldest cat in the shelter", happy to take a black one and/or male, maybe one that needed ongoing medicine, and had been waiting a long time, but one that would be happy to be an only pet, and a mostly indoor cat as at the time we both worked long hours in London. Preferably one with a bit of personality and one that actually liked people (comparatively). So, not much.

We visited Battersea and a couple of places locally but didn't find the right one until we went to Blue Cross in Cambridge. Where we found this tubby ball of fur - 12 and a half at the time and on daily metacam, over 15 now and healthy as anything. He took a little time to settle in and is still nervous of other men, but thinks I'm the best thing ever which is lovely.

We gave Blue Cross £80 and they let us pick him up the next day because we had all the stuff - litter tray, travel box, etc - organised already. he's insured (about £360/year and we're about even) and gets nice Royal Canin satiety food (only £15 a month or so) which stops him begging. Mostly.

Recommend this nice big litter box with a roof, and we use Catsbest clumping eco litter made of sawdust, it honestly stops the house smelling bad.

Find out whether the cat responds to catnip, if it does then get them stoned, it's hilarious. Easy to grow too, it's like mint, just put some seeds in a pot on a windowsill.

Oh yes - and when you get them home make sure they have somewhere to hide. Mine lived under the sofa for most of the first week, they come out and explore at night when it's all safe.

The Errant Hours by Kate Innes. I read this largely as part of my 2016 goal of reading local books - by Shropshire-based authors or set in Shropshire. It was great. It's a historical novel with action, romance and intruige, set in medieval Shropshire - about the same time as the Cadfael books. And it's really well researched; Innes really knows her stuff with the medieval world and has made her setting rich with detail.

Red Sister by Mark Lawrence. This is already on my reading list, and I have the special edition, I've just not got around to it yet because I've had a backlog of books I promised to review first. Mark Lawrence is a fantastic author who has written two triologies before this. He writes fantasy, and some consider it grimdark, especially the Broken Empire trilogy, though the Red Queen's War triology, set in the same world at the same time but focusing on a different protagonist, is rather more funny. Red Sister is set on a different world entirely, or so I understand.

Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian. A classic series with iconic characters who were wonderfully portrayed by Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany in the movie adaptation. Naval adventure set in 1801 or thereabouts. O'Brian's greatest strengths are that he can convey character wonderfully through dialogue, and that he can can weave humour into his narrative, both the obvious humour in the jokes and puns his characters make and the more subtle humour in the ways they are unaware of their own failings or believe things of themselves which are demonstrably exaggerated.

Ok, I use Bludio Victory as my main (£150) but if you're looking to stick around the £50 limit I'd have to suggest either...

• Bludio UFO which is slightly over £50 but I can promise you'll be happy with them, easily best in its range.
  
  
• Bludio F2 Can't speak much about these as I've never personally used them, but knowing bluedio's performance in the higher tiers I can reccommend these with good faith. These are under £50.
  
  Bluedio are fantastic tbh, other than the above I'd say the T4 model is also a good shout but they have quite a few models ranging from £10-150+.
  
  As for In-ear I'd go with Sound Magics E10's they have an S variant with a mic aswell. These are only £35.

Oxo should probably be used for true authenticness.

I transfer the meat to rest, tilt the roasting tin and spoon off any large oil thats on top of the tasty goodness. then the roasting tin goes on the hob on low. sprinkle 2-3 tbs of plain flour. mix that into the fat to make a roux? (im not great on terms) then sprinkle the oxo and mix that into the goopy paste. Then add water that the veg (any veg, usually some of the spud water and the peas water) was boiled in slowly while stirring vigorously to blend it together.
turn up the heat to boil and add more veg water (about 1.5-2inches deep in my pan but that doesn't really help here, eyeball it)
boil it off until its a nice thick-ish consistency. like custard is too far but enough to coat a spoon say. You really want a good coating for those yorkshires.

season and taste it while it's boiling, add more water or stock cubes if it needs a bit of punch. I use 2-3 oxo cubes for a 2-3 people amount of gravy.

ramsey and deliah may have much fancier nicer ways, if youre experimenting. Thats how 3 generations of my family do it.

Good luck and please post us a pic of the finished product!

edit to add, with the goose fat for the roast spuds that everyone is recommending, you can do the yorkshire puddings in them too.

My friend got me this book which is quite a good start

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wild-Food-Complete-Guide-Foragers/dp/1447249968/ref=asc_df_1447249968/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310872601819&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1727189374641849950&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006602&hvtargid=pla-453263144282&psc=1&th=1&psc=1

Also some really good apps as well - I have a british plants, tree and mushroom one I got in a bundle that has a quiz function that’s quite good for learning too.

Also plantsnap is cool for learning about plants (plus has AI identification) as well as building up a log of interesting ones you’ve seen (especially great fun if your at a botanical garden etc) . If what it tells you isn’t right or it can’t work it out, it also gets sent to botanists to help refine/build up the database and sends you their answer back.

Target has some great teas. Tazo, Teavana, Harney and Sons is excellent and really posh. They even have PG Tips. Stash is also really good and inexpensive. I’ve found Red Rose in some grocery stores.

Twinings in the UK is awesome, but it’s crap in the US. It’s always the lowest price in the grocery store outside of the huge boxes of Lipton.

If you like Earl Grey, try the kind with lavender. But don’t steep too strong or it will taste medicinal.

There’s a tea plantation in Charleston SC, and their tea is excellent. I love their loose leaf Earl Grey. It comes in [bags](American Classic Pyramind Teabags, Earl Grey, 12 Count https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004EJY8TC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_Tpu5CbAGZCTSJ) as well. You can use a French press to steep tea (I have a separate filter for tea so there’s no leftover coffee flavor). They also have a breakfast and green as well as others.

Well first, I write. I love writing, our language is incredibly beautiful and I take great pleasure in the art of manipulating it into stories. About 8 years ago I finished this book. I've done a few other things, I have one long, ongoing story, and last year I wrote a novella as a kind of stress relief from my MSc dissertation. Submitted that to tor.com in August as part of their open submission period. It's currently sitting at 110 in a queue, having moved up all of 13 places in three months. Wondering how long to wait before trying to sell it to other people...

I tried to start a science animation thing with a couple of people, and we initially came up with this video as our first project. However, it took a while, and left one person doing most of the work (and he's a sound engineer, not an animator). We thought about hiring in an animator but they're very expensive and we don't have much money, nor are we keen on borrowing. So we're trying a new direction: turning scientific news/research into short stories, and just reading them out. Currently working on a few to get us started.

As a side project to that, I'm trying my hand at audiobook narration. Only just getting used to it, but love doing it, and it's got me back into books after I kinda lost interest in reading when I went back to uni.

Fortunately I work week on/week off, and get a decent amount of down time at work, so I've a lot of time for these things.

I do enjoy other things eg swimming, cooking, but they're more lifestyle than hobbies I think. Well, for me they are.

I stopped having this problem once I finally accepted my own personal failings and purchased a rice measure (although I ended up buying a rice storage bin that had a measuring cup too)


I personally got this, bloody great storage if you eat a fair bit:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000HFXP78

Or just the measuring cup alone:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inomata-chemical-rice-measuring-cup/dp/B004NOEJS8/


There's also smaller ones that are like the cereal dispensing things, but I preferred one i can chuck in the drawer and wheel out a bit.

Usually I put one scoop of that in my rice cooker, with I think 200-300 ml of water, then 150 in the heating element bit.


Not too sure about hob but yeah.



Get a measuring scoop, sort your life out, ladies will love you, men will want to be you, your friends will stop laughing behind your back and if they don't then you can knock them out with a big bag of rice that you can now successfully cook without feeding an army!

Bought this five years ago when it was on a steep sale, 2560x1080 resolution @ 21:9 ratio, and IPS. I went with this because I dislike multiple monitors, but wanted the productivity benefits of them, this was a good compromise.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00ADHLSMO/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Good: videogames that support ultrawide (most modern titles) look fantastic on it, it makes it really hard to go back to 16:9, so very immersive. I'm currently doing online programming classes, so have enough screen real estate for two windows (IDE and browser or pdf) side-by-side is great. Windows 10 and Linux (KDE Plasma & Gnome 3 at least) run 100% fine with no issues encountered.

Bad: not all games support the ratio, and even ones that work still suffer from UI glitches. For example, the bottom of the scoreboard in CSGO gets cut off. Battletech simply is unplayable, you're forced to downgrade to 1920x1080. There are tools to get around this sometimes though, such as Flawless Widescreen. And it takes an long time to get used to reading text that takes up so much width, I physically move my head left to right when reading a Wikipedia entry, for example. And like I said, some websites, such as the homepage of the new Reddit design, looks worse on ultrawide. There are ways to condense text, increase scaling, or you could just open programs that don't have to run fullscreen, but I learnt to live with this instead.

I probably could name more negatives than positives, but playing games that support this resolution, plus productivity gains, more than makes it up for me.

I can't speak for everyone, but for me it is very similar to perfectly normal feelings of nervousness or unease, but can be far more intense and can come on in situations where it is totally not normal to feel that way. The smallest things can play on my mind and however much I talk myself through the logic of the situation, however much I know that everything is fine, the feeling of dread just doesn't go away.

If you want to learn more about Anxiety and the experiences of someone with anxiety, I'd recommend reading Anxiety as an Ally by Dan Ryckert. It really helped me understand my own anxiety and what I was going through. It isn't a traditional "self-help" book as such, but more of an account of Dan's experiences with anxiety. He articulates it all far better than I can in a reddit reply, and it is on sale on kindle for like £3.50 at the moment for Mental Health Awareness Week. I definitely think it would help you understand her better. Disclaimer: I'm a volunteer moderator on the games site Dan writes/makes videos for. That's how I became aware of him and his book. I'm not shilling for him, the book genuinely helped me understand my own anxiety and I think it could help you understand what this lady you're close to is going through.

We've got a Bosch one like this but an older model. Does a good job at clearing up the house and have had it for 6-7 years and going strong.

On prime day we bough a [Eufy 11c] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Eufy-RoboVac-Cleaning-Schedule-Self-Docking/dp/B0769G8BC2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1542708488&sr=8-3&keywords=eufy+11c) for £180. It's great for daily little cleans when we are at work.

We've got a house rabbit who sheds lots, and a beagle who leaves a few hairs around too. The combination of once a week with big hoover and robovac a few times a week seems to keep the floors looking good.

I love gov.uk sites. Afaiunderstand, it was a complete shambles for a very long time, but a few years ago it was all consolidated and redesigned nicely. And not design as in picking a nice colour scheme but design as in content, readability, user interaction, all that stuff.

There's a great, short and very readable book about it from the woman who spearheaded the whole thing: Content Design by Sarah Richards. Highly recommend it

My Mom has cancer and is currently undergoing chemo again to try and push it back (she has a brain tumour).

We’ve found that Sea-Bands have helped with the sickness. This could all be psychosomatic but she hasn’t felt sick when wearing them and her appetite (which went terrible) has returned as she feels able to eat.

My Mom’s also found she’s developed a problem with mint when brushing her teeth so I brought her some unflavoured toothpaste from Amazon and she’s been fine with that. She says it’s a little powdery but bearable.

Grease can also be an issue, like the smell of grease in the house can make you heave if you’re already feeling ill. So just be wary if you’re a big fried chip fan.

However, no two people are the same and hopefully you’ll sail through your chemo. Just remember to eat what you want, when you want it. You don’t have to eat big meals if you don’t want them. Take everyday as it comes and remember to smile even when feeling down.

You’ll be amazed at what smiling to yourself in the mirror can do for your mood.

Good luck honey x

pet hedgehogs are an interesting phenomenon ... and there is a real risk that you will turn out like my American friends ... when I was invited to visit the Rocky Mountain Hedgehog Show - and witness the International Hedgehog Olympic Games ... all true ... have a read of https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prickly-Affair-Charm-Hedgehog/dp/0141988185/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0141988185&pd_rd_r=b27b6009-c8ac-11e8-bc44-47b86a543ebb&pd_rd_w=btGl8&pd_rd_wg=cDIyw&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_p=85d62760-2a0e-407d-aa36-f3c03afc01c3&pf_rd_r=VNP0NR4YC331VQ206QTN&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=VNP0NR4YC331VQ206QTN to find the strange strange truth !! And yes, only African Pygmy Hedgehogs ... not ours. Never ours.

Yorkshire tea is my favorite. I get this massive box on Amazon in the US: https://www.amazon.com/Taylors-Harrogate-Yorkshire-Red-Teabags/dp/B007NIC6FE/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=BF8SEQCHJEVC&keywords=yorkshire+tea&qid=1558462142&s=gateway&sprefix=yorkshire%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1

This beauty:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/COCK-Mug-Funny-Rude-Ceramic/dp/B00CL9SLD6

How's this stuff that was linked further up? https://www.amazon.com/Taylors-Harrogate-Yorkshire-Red-Teabags/dp/B007NIC6FE/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=BF8SEQCHJEVC&keywords=yorkshire+tea&qid=1558462142&s=gateway&sprefix=yorkshire%2Caps%2C162&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1