When I worked at a supermarket, I had to train a 17 year old girl on her first day.

While we were putting out the ready meals, I tried to break the ice with some casual small talk: "Do you prefer Chinese or Indian food?"

Big mistake.

She immediately launched into a foul mouthed rant full of slurs about how much she hated Indian people. When I cut her off and explained how completely out of line and racist she was being, she just shrugged and said:

"You shouldn't have asked if you didn't want to hear the truth."

Safe to say, her supermarket career ended almost as soon as it started.

I had a slightly bizarre conversation with my neighbour this morning while we were both out the front of our houses.

The hosepipe ban came up, and she said that if she saw anyone on the street using a hosepipe, she'd call the police. I genuinely thought she was joking, but she was completely serious and said people need to be held accountable.

It got me thinking less about the ban itself and more about the etiquette of it all.

If you saw a neighbour using a hosepipe during a ban, would you actually confront them or report them? Or would you just assume they might have an exemption, be using a different water source, or simply mind your own business?

It feels like there's a line between wanting people to follow the rules and actively policing your neighbours. I'm curious where most people think that line is.

I work in a little record shop in Leeds and had someone come in today, hum three notes at me, and ask if I could tell them the song. Not the artist. The song. From the humming.

Told them I would need a bit more to go on, and they looked at me like I had personally let them down.

It got me thinking that every retail job must have its own version of this. The one request that comes in so often, or is so absurd, that a small part of you quietly leaves your body every time it happens.

So go on. What is the one that broke you.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my friends and family, and I am happy for them…but is anyone else just over weddings in their current state? They’re so bleeding expensive as a guest, and also for the couples wedding married.

Abroad weddings cost an absolute bomb as a guest. Even when they’re in the UK they’re often in the middle of nowhere requiring a couple of nights in a hotel + taxis which often totals over £200 a head. Plus the cost of getting there and a new outfit that has to be in a particular, as often restrictive, dress code. Everything feels like it’s just for TikTok and Instagram. Same trends, same speeches, same staged group shots. What happened to little local weddings, ceremony in the local church and then reception in a small local hotel? £100 expectation for a gift after spending over £500 already, multiple times a year is a big ask.

Don’t get me started on stags and hen dos. All abroad, all expensive, multiple for one person. It is just too much! When I’ve said I can’t go because I can’t afford £500+ I get told I’m a bad friend?!

* Not American. Sorry I didn’t know gotten wasn’t correct.

I’ve never really understood why, two and a half men was aired in the UK. When Charlie Sheen was still the main actor, it just seemed like it was on tv 24/7, like back to back episodes all day.

The comedy for me at least, just didn’t work. I mean why would it? It’s a US show aired in the UK. It was just this cheesy carryon. But I guess someone must of enjoyed it, otherwise why was it even aired in the UK.

Late night US talk shows are another one. I just don’t find any of the content giving “laugh out loud” vibes for a British Audience.

Any other US Shows aired in the UK that just make you think, WTF?

I’m a guy, and this happened this morning in my apartment/residential building gym.

I was in the middle of my bench press workout. There were multiple empty benches in the gym. I got up briefly between sets, and a woman walked in carrying a tripod, camera/phone and other equipment. Instead of using one of the empty benches, she put all of her stuff on the bench I was actively using.

I said, “I’m using that bench.”

She replied, quite rudely, “I’m just using this bench to set up my stuff, OKAY?” The way she said “okay” came across as if I’d done something wrong by pointing out I was using it.

She then set the tripod up immediately next to my bench and started recording herself. It was so close that I genuinely had to be careful during my next bench press set because the dumbbell could have hit the tripod. Rather than risk damaging her equipment or having an awkward confrontation, I gave up and moved to another empty bench.

What frustrated me wasn’t just the tripod—it was the attitude and the assumption that I’d simply accommodate her. I also felt a bit stuck because I’m a man. If this had been another guy, I probably would have just said, “Mate, can you move that? It’s in the way,” and had a normal conversation. But with a woman, I was worried that if the interaction escalated, it could easily be perceived differently, so I just walked away.

Am I overthinking this, or would this annoy you too?

What would you have done in my situation?

I recently went to Alton towers with the kids and their grandparents.

We got them fast passes so they could make the most of the day, it's something we usually do when we go to the Orlando theme parks, it just makes it a much more enjoyable experience.

But their grandparents were aghast. The idea that we would pay so they could skip the queue seemed to really bother them, they said it was teaching them poor values, that they'll think they're better than everyone else and it is a waste of money.

My view is that I was just paying for a product.

What do people think about them ?

I have a few British family friends and whenever I talk to them, they're always so much funnier on average than the people in my home country. Plus, I find British sitcoms and comedies way funnier than the ones here too. Scots are especially hilarious, I always find myself laughing when speaking to the few I know. Is it just because I'm not used to British humor, or is there something specific to the UK?

Right UKers, I'm Dutch but I fucking love your cheese. I've just arrived back in the UK for the first time in a while to visit some friends, and before I left the Netherlands a sacrilegious French colleague of mine ridiculed the idea that British or Dutch cheese even remotely compares to French cheese, and that the French have all the best stuff. I strongly contested this idea, and have agreed that in two weeks we are going to do a blind taste testing of all three to determine the best. I have the Dutch and French cheeses sourced from friends on the continent, but I'm going to need to source the UK stuff myself this week.

I need your help. I'm going to be in North Kent, Bedfordshire / Hertfordshire border, and Portsmouth this week. I need cheeses I'll be able to source easily from around those places, but I'm willing to venture away from supermarkets to get the really good stuff.

So, what's your best recommendations? Style, and goat/cow/sheep doesn't matter, as long as it helps put a naiive Frenchie in her place!

Thank you in advance for your help!

Hello!

I'm British-Turkish and my wife is Japanese. We met in Osaka when I was there for academic research and hit it off, she now lives over here with me and we’re expecting our daughter, Ayaha, in August!

My wife is very insistent on her learning Japanese, which I'm obviously on board with, whilst I would like to teach her Turkish or Gagauz, as they are my heritage languages.

However, deep down, I’ve been a bit worried about school life for our child. English is obviously what we'd like her to use in an educational environment to interact with people, but we're also concerned that this will detract from her ability to fully learn her parents' languages. Does anyone have experience with this?

It’s been so long since I’ve seen a proper bargain reduction in any of the supermarkets near me. Most give paltry 10-20% reductions, and Sainsburys seems the worst, to me. I don’t see staff rummaging through and adding further reductions in any of the times I’ve been.

I remember you’d often see things with like 75% off in many supermarkets. Or, maybe I misremember.

My doctors surgery (England) want you to fill out an online form to request an appointment. You can only do this when the surgery is open. Why can’t I fill the form out when the surgery is closed for them to see in the morning? It’s not for anything urgent but during the day I’m busy with kids and forget. In the evening I think of it but can’t fill out the form. My wife thinks that it would result in more people requesting appointments but I can’t see why it would? Surely it’s the same people asking for an appointment just spread over more time? Unless they are relying on people like me forgetting in order to cut down on patients they need to see.

Is the mobility of wealth in the UK simply dead?

So many people under 30 are increasingly accepting of a future where they stay on the same wage and life basically is what it is.

It seems wealth mobility in the UK is absolutely nothing like it was in the 70’s or 80’s and many of the boomers you see today who started off in low skilled labour and progressed to a decent level of wealth are unreplicable.

I'm 25, and I have realised I possess little life skills. I can hold down a soft skills based job, but other than that I don't think I have many life skills.

Cooking very limited

Gardening basically inexistent and I am having trouble with it.

Cleaning a house, omg do I struggle.

Sticking to a budget and not being impulsive spender, basically non existent.

For context, I grew up in a single parent household. My mum was busy with work and school. My dad was a lazy bum. I would spend every waking hour of the day gaming when not school, until I reached about 16-17 and started going outside the house.

Then COVID hit.

I swear I am not making this up. In my High School, if you had one of those blue asthma inhalers, people would ALWAYS ask you to give them an inhaler burn. This was done by holding it right down up against their wrist, and then spraying it as many times as they could withstand.

The resulting (let's not beat around the bush here) chemical burn was then paraded around the school as evidence of how hard you were. I would get asked maybe like once or twice a month by anyone who saw me using the inhaler if I could give them an inhaler burn. Even then, it struck me as kind of stupid, so I only obliged their request a few times. It was like some sort of ritual scarification.

I brought this up to my mates and they thought I was doing a bit. Did this happen anywhere else?

I graduated around 2013 while I earn good money now I didn’t really start my career properly until 2018 due to doing a masters and taking some time off in between. I still owe around £10k 😬

There’s no real published data out there of those who have/haven’t paid it off and what their balances currently look like like so I thought I’d ask here

(I sincerely apologise for how fucked over those under Plan 2 etc are and their loans balances)

Is there an unspoken time allowance/limit before all the flowers and plastic wrapping and toys and offerings are discarded?

I was speaking to a friend of mine and we were talking about dinner. I mentioned that me, my wife and my kids all eat dinner at the same time and we eat the same meal. My friend said that his kids eat before them, then him and his wife eat dinner once the kids go to bed. But I've noticed that it seems to be more common these days for kids to eat separately from their parents, and I've always found that really odd. If both parents are home at a reasonable time, surely a family dinner is more convenient for everybody?

Obviously some people work late and need to eat dinner later than their family. But for people who finish work at a reasonable time and are home for when their kids eat dinner...why don't you guys have a family dinner? By the way, this isn't me judging people, I am genuinely just curious because it just sounds like more effort to me to have separate dinner times when everybody could be home for a family dinner. Cooking twice sounds exhausting 😭

For context I’m 20F. I work as a TA in a primary school with an agency and I don’t have anything to do now that summer has started. I’m not allowed to go out so I would prefer any indoor hobbies. (don’t say I’m over 18 I can do what I want because thats is not how it works in my household lol)

I’m currently just bedrotting and have been scrolling on social media these past few days so today I have decided to deactivate my socials. However I’m just so bored!!

I’m learning how to drive so I guess thats going to occupy me for two hours once a week. I’m looking into buying some paint and small square canvases so I can do mini arts and also want to buy some crocheting stuff.

What do you do to occupy yourself during the summer holidays
?

The price of cigarettes is through the roof. How do you afford it?

If you're on a low income, what do you sacrifice?

For me it's the seatbelt sensor, anything heavy on the passengers seat and my car has a bitch fit that I have a passenger without a seat belt. For context I can't turn this off so just annoys the hell out of me.

Edit: I'm fully aware how a seatbelt works and appreciate the advice on how to put this in. It's just not every time and usually when I'm a mile down the road. Additional context, it's the same noise as my tyre pressure warning and any other issue!

Currently sitting waiting for a delayed CrossCountry service (shock!).

My partner and I disagree on this - in their opinion, the refund should go to your employer as they paid for the ticket. In mine, it's my time that's been wasted, so it should go to me personally.

What does everyone else think?

I'm unfortunate enough to have to travel long distances for work with CrossCountry regularly, and am intimately acquainted with their Delay Repay webpage. Needless to say, they've paid for my lunch a fair few times!

Edit: I am salaried, do not get overtime nor formal TOIL - although my manager does give some flexibility, it's not formal policy. Generally the travel leads to very long days (getting home at 8pm tonight after a 6:30am train yesterday morning) and the tickets are paid for directly by my employer. The expenses policy says nothing on the matter also.

Based on the responses, I think my position is vindicated and I shall claim moral victory, but to keep the peace I shan't be revisiting this particular conversation 😂 Thanks all, have been enjoying this when the train WiFi was working (not well or often)!

Years ago I watched the movie Four Lions and one of the characters, Barry, was often referred to as "Baz." I then learned that this was a trend among other names in the UK. For example, Gary is Gaz, Bashir is Boz/Bozzy, Jerry becomes Jezza, among others.

Why do you guys shorten it like that? What are the origins of this? Do people still do this?

Hello guys!

I am from Sweden but I absolutely adore HP sauce.

The Brits are damn geniuses. But while eating it today I was just curious what use does the sauce actually have? Is it just for some specific foods?

Maybe I will be seen as crazy now but I eat it on everything. Steak, fries, chicken if it's a food I put HP sauce on it.