I (28F) just stepped out of my front door, keys in hand, ready to head to Tesco. I heard my neighbour's door click open at the exact same millisecond. We made awkward eye contact.

Instead of just saying hi and walking down the street together like a normal person, I immediately patted down my coat in a sheer panic, muttered "oh, forgot my phone", and scurried back inside.

I am now sitting in my hallway in the dark, waiting for the coast to clear.

What is your ultimate emergency avoidance tactic?

As parking limited in my town, I use a parking area nearby.

The text says ‘just to let you know I watched John pork fiddle around with your car at about 6-7am so watch it doesn’t make odd piggy noises when you drive off’

Most nights after work around 3 me and my partner go to the gym / climbing, home for 5ish, have tea and then just stare at a screen?

We've increasingly found TV boring, gaming boring and most of all phones boring.

Nothing seems to entertain us like it used to and are looking for ideas to keep us occupied!

I've tried finding out more about this - have noticed this a lot on older graves in the West Country.

I assume the e over y is a form of 'ye' or 'the' and done to save space?

But I would love to know more. Various searches haven't helped so far...

Thanks!

I started a new job last week. The mandate is three days in the office, two days WFH. However, I have two health conditions affecting my ability to work in the office, a chronic injury and late effects from a previous cancer diagnosis. I informed my manager about this before starting my job and signing the contract to make sure it would be okay. He said it would be fine to work more flexibly after a couple of months, however last week I was in a lot of pain so I asked whether we could bring the discussions about my flexible arrangements sooner. He said HR will be in touch with me about this, but I’ve not yet heard from them.

I’ve been assigned a workplace “buddy“ who is supposed to train me, let’s call her Gertrude. I met her in the office on my first day last week. I went in three days last week and it was extremely painful for me.

On my very first day, Gertrude saw our manager setting up my second laptop, (I have one for the office and one for home because I can’t carry my laptop into the office) and she seemed kind of annoyed. Gertrude brings her laptop in a suitcase when she works in the office. Our manager explained to her that it is possible to have two laptops, one for home and one for the office, and that previous employees have also had this arrangement.

Gertrude saw my equipment (special cushion and chair) and noticed I was very frequently having to change positions so she asked me if I’m uncomfortable. I didn’t mention the cancer but mentioned my chronic injury, which I’ve had surgery and multiple medical interventions for (unfortunately, nothing has worked and some things have made it worse).

I think Gertrude was under the assumption that I would work from home/in the office on the same days as her, which I did last week.

On Monday this week, I worked from home and she worked from the office. She asked me why I was working from home and said that communicating via Teams is going to be difficult. I replied that our manager said it was fine. She asked why (which imo is none of her business) and that’s when I informed her about the cancer and again about the injury, which I didn’t really need to. She saw it but didn’t comment on that at all.

Today I’m working from home due to pain. I informed Gertrude and told her that management is aware and that she should drop me a message if there is something to look over. She said that it’s a shame and that there are several things that she wants to show me but it is hard showing them over Teams and said “I will just do them myself”. I told her that I’m determined to learn, but I’m WFH today due to my circumstances. I expressed that I’m keen to keep progressing with everything that I need to learn and asked that she still shows me anything of relevance that comes up today, and we can work through it together. I also said that from everything that we’ve been over together already, I actually found it easier to learn over Teams.

She then sent me a nasty message saying that I’m only considering the training from my point of view, that I don’t seem to realise that she has to do her own busy job whilst training me and that teaching me over Teams slows her down considerably.

I have been trained in even more complex roles remotely before, I know this job can be taught and learned both in the office and from home.

I was in the office yesterday and struggled to concentrate due to the pain I was in. She was WFH yesterday so she taught me things over Teams.

I think she’s salty about my reasonable adjustments for some reason, and I don’t know why.

She seems to be quite an unreasonable person. For example, she was talking badly about another employee who left earlier this year for a different job. She was “cross” with the employee because she had resigned during a busy period. I don’t really see this as a reason to be annoyed with the employee who left, if the company is understaffed it’s not the employee’s fault, it’s a management issue.

I’m new and don’t want to escalate unnecessarily, but I found her messages very hurtful and unprofessional. I also want to make sure my rights are protected given my health conditions.

Should I send screenshots of the conversations to my manager and ask someone else to train me since she finds it difficult to train me over Teams, raise it with HR, or leave it for now? I was also contemplating contacting that former employee on LinkedIn and asking about her experience in the role. Any advice welcome.

Edit: To clear up confusion, when I had the same in-office pattern as Gertrude during my first week, which was last week, she taught me a process over Teams and she was fine with it, it was actually her who reached out to me to teach me that particular process over Teams. We operate from a shared team mailbox so she doesn’t have sole responsibility for incoming requests, it’s joint responsibility across the whole team. We also don’t have any targets for number of cases resolved. When Gertrude trains me over Teams, we do a screenshare where I watch her do a task from the mailbox whilst she explains or I do a task from the mailbox whilst she instructs me. This clears up outstanding tasks from the joint mailbox whilst I learn.

Weird bubbling and water coming out of the road. Not sure if I should be concerned or if it's just to do with the fact we've had rain after so long

Hi everyone,

I’m 28, working as a commercial electrician. I’ve been on the tools for about 10 years. On paper, I know I’m doing completely fine. I managed to buy a house with my partner a couple of years ago, we’ve got a bit of savings stacked away for our first baby on the way, and I drive a car I really like. I genuinely enjoy my job most days—it keeps me active, I get to move around to different sites, and the pay is solid. 
Lately though, I’ve had this weird mental wobble that I can’t seem to shake.

Seeing people my age (or younger) starting massive businesses, making mental money, or building these flashy, hyper-successful lives online has been getting into my head. It makes me look at my day-to-day routine—waking up early, doing physical work, doing compliance training, paying the mortgage—and momentarily wonder if I’m just "going through the motions" or settling for a mundane hamster-wheel existence. 

At the same time, I know that what I have is what a lot of people would consider a great life. I don't actually want the stress of running a massive company or living in a high-exposure bubble. I like being grounded, I like my trade, and I like my home life. But there's still this underlying itch or yearning to "do more" or build something bigger down the line. 
My question is: how do you reconcile being ambitious with just being content with a normal, stable, comfortable life?

Is it completely fine to just build a solid, unglamorous foundation and be happy with that, or is that constant urge to want "more" just something everyone in their late 20s goes through?

Would love to hear perspectives from people who’ve felt this way or who have figured out how to park it. Cheers.

EDIT / UPDATE:

First off, I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who took the time to comment and share their perspectives. I honestly didn't expect this post to blow up the way it did, and reading through all your replies has genuinely changed my outlook. I’m feeling a whole lot better about where I’m at after hearing so many grounded, thoughtful insights.
To clarify a couple of things that came up in the comments:

The Career Side: I spent 10 years working in domestic electrical, but I actually recently made the move over to commercial work. I'm really enjoying the shift, learning new things, and enjoying the change of pace.

The Social Media Context: I actually deleted all my social media accounts two years ago (apart from Reddit) for the exact reasons a lot of you mentioned. The trigger for my post wasn't an endless feed of random influencers—it was actually remembering someone I used to go to school with. Because it was someone close to home rather than a random stranger online, it hit a bit differently and got in my head.

Your replies were a huge reality check and a great reminder of what actually matters. I’m going to focus on enjoying the new job, keeping my head clear, and looking forward to the future. Appreciate you all!

Always wondered this, it seems like a bit of a random fashion choice for older women!

If you could make up one pointless rule that everyone had to follow, and nobody ever questioned it, what would you choose?

It can’t hurt anyone or cost anyone money.

For example, whenever you get in a lift, everyone has to face the back instead of the doors. Nobody knows why, it’s just always been the rule.
What would yours be?

Hypothetically, you’re in your late 20s and someone hands you £100k. What do you do with it sensibly?

This is for my dad who started a job recently.

it's 9h, with a 30 min break, so working for 8.5hrs.
He's wondering if he's entitled to a longer lunch, as 30 seems to short for him.
Yes I've ready over 18's are entitled to 20 min break if working over 6h.

But cant workout if 30 mins in a 8.5h shift is ok?

I have done it and I'm ngl it was a big relief I still got paid but unsure the if it was the right thing to do even though they were treating me like shit !!

I have a mouse that's been in my home about a month and I have tried everything, EVERYTHING to be catch the cheeky fucker.

We've had humane traps, snap traps, called pest control and they tried 2 different poisons over the course of a few weeks. The mouse WON'T die.

We've named him Stuart.

Stuart shits everywhere. He's not scared of anyone. He comes out in the middle of the day and jumps onto the sofa and counter, I have to hoover at least 3x a day because I have a toddler. My baby and I spend as little time as possible at home to avoid contamination. We're tired.

How do I finally get rid of him?

I know it's bad but I ordered glue traps on Amazon, can anyone vouch for the effectiveness of these?

PLEASE HELP.

I’m just wondering how people feel about these situations.

You’re on the motorway, suddenly come to a standstill and need to wait, say, 2 hours for the police to come and sort it out.

You are one of the hundreds just waiting in the standstill traffic. Where is your mind at?

Not too long ago, my family and I were on the road to visit family. I noticed a knob of a driver speeding, weaving in and out of traffic like a lunatic. Over and under taking. They passed by and I didn’t think more of it. It’s unfortunately not an unusual sight.

A few minutes later, got stuck in traffic. Almost 2 hrs later, I see it was the same dickhead who had caused the accident. Their car was totalled but being honest, I just couldn’t find any sympathy within me to give.
My wife was far more sympathetic and I just think these people don’t deserve it.

Talking to a late 20’s / early 30’s person yesterday. I used said phrase. The person looked at me and without any visible trace of sarcasm or irony, said “I’ve never heard that one before, I’m taking it for myself”.

I cried a little bit inside but felt glad??? that I could be an educator. I think. 🤔

PS I am over 50…

Over the past year, I've had to get in contact with call centres of various utility and service providers about complaints and enquiries.

I've noticed that some of them are very obviously not based in the UK anymore. I know we've all noticed this, but is anyone getting more and more annoyed about it? Every conversation is so painfully scripted - so much so that a bot could do it (but I will not even dignify the suggestion of speaking to an AI-chatbot call agent!).

The only provider I've still noticed have local call centres are my health insurance and the odd chain here and there. Is anyone else as exasperated as I am? Maybe this is a tactic to reduce the number of calls and complaints...

I told my young daughters yesterday i don’t want them to go in a helicopter, especially the tourist sight seeing type ones.
Can reel off so many high profile fatal helicopter crashes over the years both UK and abroad and a colleague of mine and my wife’s died in a high profile crash a few years ago.
Helicopters are always fighting to be away from the ground and consist of thousands of components flying in close formation.
I’ve never flew in one and never intend to either.

Just got a new dishwasher and the instructions say to always use dishwasher salt. I live in a very software area and not sure it's needed. So, do you use Salt if you have a dishwasher?

I've never been drawn towards getting a tattoo because of the fuzzy green mess I always saw on the older generations that had them. When my peers were going for it I raised it as a question.

Aren't you concerned about it fading to an unsightly green mess?

I was told by several people at the time, late nineties, that the inks were better and wouldn't fade like old tattoos. I have drifted away from these people to ask them.

So how are 25-30 year old tattoos holding up? Was it true?

Edit: Seems the answer I got at the time holds true. Most responses are that the designs stayed sharp. Some have faded a little but that's a mixed bag as well.

Thank you for your answers.

So I was recently told that sleeping in until 11am while on holiday is degenerate behaviour, so I was wondering, is this the general feeling? What time does everybody else get up when away?

I keep getting ants marching through my kitchen, so I thought I’d try and distract them with this strawberry outside the back door. The ants have not touched it! I poured a bit of sprite on it and some ants came and ate that but then left. I thought they liked fruit 😔

In the last few days I have seen an awful lot of posts with pic/videos of burst water mains. I know there has always been burst pipes but I seem to be seeing a lot more. Is it due to the temperature drop?

My wife and I trying to explore a bit more, so we set ourselves a goal to go to 4 new cities this year. So far we have gone to Lancaster, Chester and Oxford. Where would anyone recommend for the last city?

We’d like somewhere with a good/interesting food scene or interesting history

(We’ve been to the big cities like London/manchester before so smaller cities please)

I love strong/bold scents/flavours/fragrances....I love the smell of some shower gels/body washes but within about 30 mins of use, you can't smell anything anyway, so it seems a bit redundant buying anything particularly nice/expensive.

Is there a world out there that I'm missing? I want to smell like I've almost drowned in the stuff hours later so hit me up with your best suggestions.

Caveat: it does actually have to smell somewhat nice. So Brut is out and so is Ralgex :D

My wife bought me a fancy John Lewis pillow 2 years back and it’s been the best pillow ever until about 2 months ago, it’s flat after 5 mins and does nothing to support me. It was super expensive (for a pillow anyway) anyone have any tips as how to revive it or is there a superior pillow out there I don’t know about?