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 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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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?

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 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 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 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?

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?

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?

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.

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
?

Hi all!! I’m sorry if this comes across as a silly question but I’m hoping to walk to London from about 50km north of Manchester for charity next year during A level summer & I’m wondering if it’d be a silly idea or if it’d be possible?

I’m already not normal about walking, I literally revise while on the treadmill & average around 30km steps daily if I average out across a week 🙈 so I thought “why not do that for charity?!”

I’ve seen on google that people have done it before, however I’m a little dubious as I’m unsure how safe it’d be - like yes I’ll be 18 but I’m also not particularly in the mood to be kidnapped or have anything atrocious happen to me anytime soon! If anybody has at least a vague idea how safe/unsafe it’d be that’d be greatly appreciated!! I’ll be doing it alone if I do it as when I proposed the idea to my friends and parents I got a very horrified look!

And finding routes! Are there any specific apps or sites which anybody would know of? Whenever I go out i usually just see where the wind takes me or use Google maps if I can be bothered, however I have a sneaky feeling that Google maps may be a little unreliable in this situation?

All in all, if anybody has any ideas on how safe/unsafe it’d be, how you’re supposed to navigate, if there’s any point, or literally ANYTHING else it’d be greatly appreciated because I fear that there’s only so much that Google can tell you 🙈🙈 thank you so much!!!

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)!

whenever i go to a hairdresser in the uk i am left feeling disappointed and unhappy with my haircut. today the lady cut off much more than i had asked for, and gave me choppy layers that only look good with curls. took her about 10 minutes as well and cost nearly a days worth of pay.

whenever i get my hair done in another country, not only is it way cheaper but it also looks so much better, the stylists seem to really care about their work and put lots of effort into the haircuts/dyes and the style always seems to frame my face better.
maybe i’m cursed and every hairdresser i go to here but it honestly always feels like a waste so i wait until i’m on holiday to get my hair cut.

I'm in my early 40s and know I don't have the best teeth, but this new dentist I went to was really shaming me about them, saying 'HOW has someone your age got SUCH bad teeth?!'

I've got 4 root canal fillings (and crowns on 2 of them), and 7 fillings in other teeth. The rest have nothing done to them. I just wondered how bad this is for my age as he seemed in such disbelief. Everyone I work with seems to have either never had a filling or just have one!

So today, I drove a fair way and bought a new kayak and went to a nearby canal to try it.

As I was about to launch next to some locks a narrowboat pulled up on the other bank. It was a normal sized narrowboat not the little half length ones you see sometimes. And it soon became apparent it was just a couple of I dare say retired people from the USA. I'll call them hubby and wife, I don't know that for a fact.

Hubby was driving, wife had to jump off and tie up, then go look at the lock. First thing I noticed was she didn't have the key (I last used a powered boat on canals 30+ years ago with scouts, I remember the basics but can't remember what they're properly called). So I shouted over you need the key, and crossed over to see if I could help.

After a brief chat it was established they'd just arrived in the UK today, this was their first lock and they didn't know what to do. So I found a spindle, said "put the key on that, turn it and it'll open the sluice gate so water comes into the lock to raise the level", then I took the key and opened one on the other side.

Eventually some CRT guys turned up and pointed out the other sluices we should've opened (the canals I'm used to only had one per side), I figured that was the end of my usefulness, so wished them a good holiday and went back to my kayak.

But I worry how much they're going to enjoy it? it was great when we had a team of 12 boy scouts ready to jump into action at every lock. When it's just 2 quite frail elderly people who haven't even been shown what to do I can't imagine it being much fun. Seems like something that should have been covered at the hire place?

They're on the Grand Union heading North from Leighton Buzzard area, just hope there's plenty of manned locks for them!

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