Rang my surgery on Monday morning expecting the usual nonsense of being told to call back at 8am tomorrow or wait three weeks for a telephone triage. Instead the receptionist just said they had a slot on Thursday afternoon and booked me in straightaway.

I actually had to ask her to repeat it because I thought I'd misheard. No interrogation about what was wrong, no being made to feel like I was wasting everyone's time, just a normal appointment like it used to be years ago.

Turned up on Thursday, barely any wait, saw the doctor for a proper ten minutes, got sorted. The whole thing felt almost surreal. I keep waiting for them to ring and say it was a mistake and I need to reapply through some new online portal that doesn't work.

Feels like I've won the lottery but better because this actually happened. My faith in the system has gone up about two percent, which for me is massive progress.

Title says it all, really, but for context…

I started a degree in Maths with the OU at the beginning of 2020, so…Yeah, that was some interesting timing when the pandemic hit, but it at least gave me something to focus on that wasn’t work. I’ve undergone a house move (I now live on my own), two job changes, a study break due to the module I wanted not being available on the January start (which ended up being a blessing in disguise given that it coincided with one of my job changes - I just didn’t have any energy to do anything when I got home each day), some mental health issues, the loss of my grandfather in September at the start of my final set of modules, a kidney stone back in November…and I’ve come out of it all with a really good result. Celebrating with some champagne tonight, because - quite frankly - I think I’ve earned it.

This is a very small win, but putting the AC condensate hose going into my watering can has gathered enough water over summer to keep my plants hydrated.

Especially considering we're having an unusually dry summer in terms of precipitation, yet the air itself is still at least moderately humid, it's a great way to make use of a by-product that would otherwise be wasted and saved precious potable water, I highly recommend giving it a try.

Got a call to say my kid had fallen at the school’s activity day, she managed to unsuccessfully mount a bucking broncho, miss the safety mats and land weirdly on her arm.

We got to hospital around 1.15pm, she was assessed by both dr’s and nurses, x-rayed and full arm back slabbed for a broken elbow and discharged 75 mins after first going in.

Much thanks to the nhs.

I was out sailing today a few miles off the coast of Jura when I dislocated my shoulder. We tried for a bit to put it back in but it wasn’t going so we did a pan pan call (like a less urgent version of a mayday). The coastguard put me in touch with a doctor. He decided it was too late to do an amateur fix, so they launched the Islay lifeboat. The RNLI are truly amazing. They let me sit up front as we went at 25kts and then they helped me into their base to wait for the ambulance.

At Bowmore hospital (2 beds, 2 nurses and an on-call doctor: not your typical busy a&e!) they put it back in, then asked me if I had somewhere to stay. Too difficult to get back to the boat tonight so I phoned the one hotel here. “Oh we were expecting you and we’ve held a room for you.” The RNLI had called them to tell them, just in case.

Oh and the hotel made sure I could get a takeaway curry just as it closed, then brought me a plate and cutlery and let me eat it in the bar.

Sometimes everyone is just wonderful.

Editing to add: thank you all for replying. I’ve got a long day today travelling overland to get back to my boat and my pal who is not a fan of solo sailing especially in the dark as he had to do last night to get to safety. Reading these messages is cheering me up. Stay safe, and if you get the chance please donate to the RNLI: they are the salt of the earth

I feel like everyone has won apart from Argentina! Even France win something because they played fairly unlike Argencheatah.

The Argies are about as popular as your average CasualUK moderator at this point!

Still like Messi though. ;)

Edit - not sure I do now

A younger version of me dreamed of making horror games. Today, I’m finally sharing one with the world.

Graphite in the Hospital is more than just a game to me. It’s years of learning, failing, restarting, and refusing to give up. Every room, every sound, and every detail carries a piece of that journey.

Seeing my Steam page live is surreal, and this is only the beginning.

If you're a gamer and you’d like to support an indie developer chasing a lifelong dream, the biggest thing you can do is wishlist Graphite in the Hospital on Steam. It helps more than you might imagine.

Steam Page link:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4756860/Graphite_in_the_Hospital/

…. And he was out in 2 hours!

Avoided the heatwave too.

Had the best cuppa of my life, in my hand within an hour of delivery.

Thanks NHS - bit sad I couldn’t have another homebirth this time, but the top-notch brew more than made up for it.

Appreciate this is a British sub, but presume our neighbours would like to congratulate England on their best World Cup position since 1966 (which is when we last won it).
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Handed in my notice on Thursday with enough money set aside for a 6 month career break. Love my job and the teams I manage but changes a few months ago are taking the job away from what it was. Taking the opportunity to sit down and focus on writing for 6 months after receiving some really positive feedback from someone I know in publishing. Doesn't matter if it's a success or not, I'm just glad to take an opportunity I know many people would die for.

My day just kept getting better and better today. Firstly, it’s rare I get a Friday off work, but I had one today and that also means I get to spend the day with my 3 year old whilst my wife’s at work.

I thought I’d make the most of it and take him to Morrisons cafe for his dinner, so we walked the 15 minutes down and went straight to the cafe, ordered the food and waited. We got caught up doing animal puzzles and reading books that I didn’t realise 30 minutes had passed, went to speak to someone about how long the food would be when the woman spotted me and asked me if our food had come out, I said it hadn’t and she apologised, said to give her 10 minutes and she’d bring it over, she came back with a refund and our food, apologising again, saying the order had been put through as a staff order (or something, I didn’t understand) but we hadn’t even noticed it had been that long, so great!

After we’d eaten, we needed to do a bit of shopping, so went and got some bits and then I thought I’d see if there was any Blacksticks Cheese but there wasn’t any, so went for the Mexicana, I was checking for the smallest, cheapest wedge because it’s only me who eats it, and rifling through a few £2.50-£3 wedges, I found a big one, went to move it out the way and realised it had been priced at 48p. Picked it up, fully expecting to get found out at the self checkouts, but it went through at 48p.

Finally, I get home and check the Lidl Plus app, because of a prize draw to win money off, popped up saying I’d won a voucher for £19.66 off my shop!

Had a great day with my son and those 3 things just really topped it all off.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Good job too coz I'm skint, and the amount of shite I've had to get boggles the mind.

I got, among other stuff, loads of storage boxes free, two lamps free, 4 IKEA glass tumblers free, a coffee table for £4.

Charity shops, B and M, and Poundstrrrreeeeetcher have also been a godsend.

Some may remember a year ago when a spring on my recliner broke, and hubby had a spare!

Well! Spring, yes same one, broke again. Off he waltzes to shed, no spare spring this time but he's unwound a few coils on the broken end, made a hook, and.....

CHAIR FIXED...AGAIN! 🤣

Link to original post hopefully added!

https://www.reddit.com/r/BritishSuccess/s/zo1lrvLpoH

Usually, you call the GP right when the phone opens to avoid a queue, right? ]

Today, at around 1, I called and got straight through to a person on the phone.

so im decently interested in football and like watching some matches. I’m not one of the people who drop loads of money on jerseys but i like getting myself a football top i like once in a while for under 60-70£.

I have bought 2-3 tops from adidas and never end up wearing them because they are so long or just don’t fit me well. I am 5,9 fit and weight 66kgs so pretty avg, decent build / normal body shape / male.

I have seen some guys wear tops that fit well are not too snug to body and look good. I wonder if these folks get them altered or buy them from other shops online / offline ? how much do these version of tops cost which are well fit. It’s summer season and i would love to wear baggy jorts and get well fit tops that aren’t like weirdly fitted on me because it is a good outfit piece specially in this sweaty weather style and fabric going along the lines is a blessing. please suggest online websites or stores in uk / birmigham / london / Edinburgh. how much do these crop , wearable tops trade off for ? are they expensive?

Yesterday, I stepped over a floor fan and ran my leg down one of the supports with nasty jagged protrusions. This was 5pm.

After quickly realising a Band-Aid (aka Elastoplast 🙄) wasn't going to cut it (and yes, I considered it for about 30 seconds), I booked a taxi to the NHS walk-in centre. I'd lost about 300mls of blood at this time - it made a bloody mess.

I wrapped my leg in a ton of that blue roll and then put three carrier bags on it. That stopped me messing up the taxi, but as I walked in the NHS centre the bags began to leak (I could feel the weight in them when I walked). The sign said '3-4 hour wait' (which I expected anyway), but when I pointed out to the receptionist I had made a mess on the floor, she said 'let me look' and 1 minute later I was in a treatment room.

They applied a tourniquet, and asked why I hadn't gone to A&E - I replied 'I didn't think it was that bad'. They removed the wadding. At least another 500mls of blood was in the bags and went all over the chair and floor. I apologised profusely. They gave me a load of water to drink (I'd begun to sweat profusely), and ten minutes later an ambulance arrived. That took me to the hospital, and I arrived around 6pm.

Fully checked in by 6.30pm in A&E.

Over the next several hours I had X-rays (to check for bone damage and metal fragments), blood tests, and 8 stitches. I'd snicked a vein. They were concerned at my iron levels and heart rate, so I then had two full IV drips. I got out at 2am.

And none of this cost me a penny - apart from the taxi there, and the taxi back. And both of those turned up in under 10 minutes for the first one, and in under 3 minutes for the second.

All of the staff were fucking brilliant at every stage.

The only fly in the ointment was when I was waiting outside the X-ray room to be taken back to treatment, I heard shouting and some fucking pisshead was yelling that he was going to 'punch you fucking cunts' repeatedly. Security were following him.

I feel for NHS staff.

Life really is a choose-your-own-adventure!

I love when being kind pays off! Just got a free upgrade on the train to 1st class in all its recliner seats and air-conditioned glory by getting on at the guard end and being polite to him

It's only a couple of stops but it's glorious

No idea why the buyer needs a hosepipe and reel during a hosepipe ban. But he’s paying me a tenner and needs it urgently.