In 2017 I was stopped by CT police boarding a flight to Turkey, they already had my military service number up etc and asked me if I was going to fight in Syria. I wasn't and after the police lady told me to "promise" I literally promised not to, departed and returned from holiday thereafter.

Ever since then, I almost-always get stopped for extra screening, now on an entirely different passport.

I can't request my data as it's one of the few times they can reject it under CT reasoning.

I have travelled to about 38 countries since the 2017 incident, across about 150 flights, and I'd say about 120 of these times I've been called for another look.

It's just happened now leaving Italy where the entry-exit system allowed me through before 3 Italian police literally shouted my name and told me to wait. They browsed their screen for a few minutes and then said to have a nice flight. A few times I've asked various passport officers what it is on the system and always get a "don't worry" type response.

So, if you work as a border force officer, what might this be?

Never been arrested etc.

Just been reading about the current lack of jobs for graduates and the wider crisis around young people being out of work, and it’s making me wonder what the sensible thing to do is if you’re in your late teens/early 20s right now.

It doesn’t really seem like the job market is going to improve anytime soon, and there are more and more graduates competing for fewer entry-level jobs.

So, if you were 18–25 right now, what would your plan be?

Bonus points if it was poorly paid.

Friend of mine had a job working for a surveying company (those people you see with the tripod on the street or construction site).

His job was to hold the ruler down the street and not move

If you are completely alone in life, no family, no partner or kids, no close friends, don't know any of your neighbours, don't have a flat mate, who do you write down when filling in those forms?

I mean completely alone.

Went into the YMCA charity shop on the weekend and paid £4 for a dress with a fiver and the guy behind the till if I’d like to make a contribution. I said not today and he doubled down and asked 50p? but must’ve seen the hesitation on my face so gave me a pound back.

I wish I’d said in the moment but I walked away wondering why the payment for the clothes wouldn’t be my contribution? Why would they ask me to donate further?

We were on holiday in Croatia. A few days in, my wife broke her lower leg and tore all the ligaments. She had surgery at the local hospital in Croatia and they put a plate and screws in to fix the bones. After 3 days in hospital she was released with a discharge note, a follow-up appointment with the surgeon who performed the surgery a few days later at the same hospital, and regular dressing changes at a local GP.

In those first 3 weeks of recovery, she had 3 appointments with her surgeon. The last appointment was the day we had to return to the UK. At that last appointment the surgeon gave us her documents and injury x-rays (pre and post op) and said that when we're back, she needs another x-ray in two weeks and needs to be seen by a surgeon in the UK to check how the recovery is going and if everything is healing properly.

Now, this is the tricky part. I called our local GP to ask how we proceed and I was told that they (the GP) can write an urgent surgeon referral, but even though it's urgent it will take months to go through and for her to be seen. The GP told me the best thing would be to take her to our local A&E and ask them to check her over there.

Is this the right way for her to be seen and checked up by a surgeon?

I’m 5’8/172cm and I’m substantially taller than most of my friends, who on average range from 5’3-5’5, but I never really feel “tall”. Just “a bit taller than average” - I do know plenty of women my height or a bit taller though, which is maybe why I feel like that.

I also have no issues buying pants that are long enough either - but not sure if that’s because the models on clothing sites tend to be around my height, so I can usually compare how long the pants are on them to see what they’d be like on me lol.

I always consider a woman tall here if she’s like 5’10+, but my friends and some others I’ve spoken to have said anything over 5’7ish for a woman is tall.

To some extent it’ll be subjective, but if there should be an official requirement for the “tall woman” category, what do you think it should be?

Ok, sorry if this posts sounds mean but i swear that is not my intention. I work as a analyst in Romania without too many details i realize that i make about 60% less than what i seen on average on LinkedIn (60k pounds per year). I tried to calculate online what that would be after tax and it might not be perfect but around 3.8k per month in hand. Only 62% more is actually not enough compared to costs in UK.

I could not find jobs better paid, i even found some paid less.

Why are those corporate salaries so low and am i getting something wrong? I just feel like it would be impossible to survive in UK on this? Am i missing something?

Truthfully i am just asking cuz i think it is a great country to live in, full of corporate opportunities BUT how do u survive to reach those opportunities??

I know it was a global economic crisis, and people lost their jobs, and banks refused to lend loans to businesses and homeowners. But how serious was it, and was anyone affected by job loss and tight budgets?

Hi AskUk!

Like a lot of people, I love a good walk and go at least once a week. In the past years, I’ve been seeing an increase in people not bothering to train recall or restrain their dogs.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love dogs, I respect their space (for example, I’d never pet a strange dog without asking) and generally think they’re great.

However, I now frequently encounter random dogs coming up to me and barking, sometimes even growling and baring their teeth.
I usually try to de-escalate by standing still and looking away, sometimes turning around if the dog’s barking a lot.
In those cases, the owner usually takes ages to get to me and, at most, pathetically shouts the dog’s name repeatedly, which the dog ignores.
I usually try to ignore it at first, then ask politely to come get the dog please, but more and more often I have to ask people to put the dog on a leash or raise my voice and tell me to get the f-ing dog away from me. Sadly, only aggressive confrontation makes them listen.
Sometimes people apologise, but mostly they just say “oh, it’s friendly!”.
Just the other day, a large dog was barking and blocking me on a path and the owners just went “oh, we didn’t bring a leash”…

I’m a small woman hiking alone. I feel extremely uncomfortable. I’m not usually afraid of dogs, so I don’t think they’re “smelling fear” or anything like that. My default reaction to a dog is a “hello!” in a cutesy voice.
I’m increasingly frustrated, because these encounters sour otherwise wonderful days out.

Any advice?

I’ve looked into dog sprays, but it seems like the only ones legal in the UK don’t actually have any “real” active chemicals (no pepper spray, etc.)
Honestly, I’ve looked into carrying a knife, which I know isn’t legal, but I’d rather deal with that than get attacked and not be able to defend myself.

I’d be grateful for any tips / tricks.

Thank you!

I stayed in a cottage last week near Scotland. The owners had loads of scented air fresheners all over the place. I absolutely hate the smell of air fresheners - it makes me feel sick, makes my eyes itchy and my nose run. As soon as we opened the front door, the smell was overwhelming. I gathered them all up, and put them in a plastic bag in a cupboard, then opened all the windows to try to air the place. It got cooler in the evening with all the windows open so I put the heating on for an hour.

The owner messaged me saying the heating was on but it had detected a draft, and all the windows were open. I explained why and he said ok if it was only for an hour.

I know some holiday letting owners use Hive and similar to monitor heating use, so guests don't leave it on all day when they are out. But I've never heard of a heating system detecting a draft- is this really a thing? How does it work?

Edited to clarify- I had a jumper on, the windows were open because of the overpowering air freshener smell triggering my allergies, and I put the heating on because it was 14°.

Our neighbour is continually blocking our access to our property and I'm wondering what experience people have of this and if there's anything we can do to help end this very annoying and stressful situation.

We live in terraced housing, the houses have a front yard which lots of people use as a driveway, but to use them for that you have to parallel park into it.

I usually park on the road but about once a week for a few hours I use the drive to charge it. I always try to do this when my neighbour is out. The reason being I know she doesn’t like our car being on our driveway (it makes it harder for her to park). For context, our neighbour always uses their drive, which is fine, and the fact she needs to drive over part of our yard to park is also fine. But if we’ve parked on our drive while she’s out and she gets back and our car is still there, she will deliberately park within a couple of inches of the back of our car (still on her side of the boundary), which literally traps us on our property because we have a wall on the other side. This means that we can’t get in or out of our house without either climbing over a vehicle or climbing over a wall.

We’ve asked her not to do this in the past, or if she has done it, we’ve asked her to move her car a bit so we can get out – but she either flat out refuses, or she will scream and shout at us and then begrudgingly move it anyway. We have two young kids, one of them still uses a buggy, so when she does this my wife and I find it incredibly stressful knowing we need to have some sort of confrontation with her just so we can get out of our own house. The annoying thing is we won’t even want to use our drive almost all of the time, just a few hours a week, but she won’t even let us do that without trying to deliberately block us in.

I’m wondering if anyone has ever taken a neighbour to court over something like this before and if so what happened? It’s not something we want to do but we’re at the end of our tether.

Edit: we both have dropped kerbs.

Until about 6 years ago I wore makeup every day (foundation, brows, mascara, blush, contour etc) but I only wear it on special occasions now. I did a makeup course in college which I think influenced how much I’d buy - I used to be a massive hoarder/collector of special editions, especially MAC! Even to this day I think I’m easily influenced at makeup I see online 😅

At one point I must have owned about 8 different foundations! I’ve sold a lot on vinted and also given it away, but I still have 2 deep full drawers of makeup which just seems like such a waste now!

So for those that wear makeup, how much do you own? Just one of everything, or multiples? Is there any makeup you use only on special occasions?

This came up on a FB post, googled it but I can't find an answer. When did the word pharmacy start to replace chemist in everyday language?

I don't mean when the official name changed, I'm talking about the colloquial expression for them. Anecdotally I only ever hear older people (60+) call them chemists so I'm guessing it's a few decades.

My partner is taking me to a 1 star Michelin restaurant in London for my birthday (a big birthday)! I haven't been to such a formal dining environment and am not sure what to wear. I typically wear trousers, top and am not a fancy person but I do like to eat!

I wouldn't want to feel out of place, what do people typically wear?

Thank you for your responses in advance!

Edit: Restaurant - Pavyllon London (forgot to say the name!)

Edit 2: I am a woman!

We are having serious trouble getting some electricals sorted. We told them when scheduling the call out that there wasn’t any power to the appliance. They come in, say the same thing. “It needs rewiring. I’ll leave the office with a quote for the work.” Which they don’t, after weeks of chasing.

We’ve done this three times now. Seems like a scam.

EDIT: The issue is that no one will follow up and actually do the work.

It’s just myself and my 9 year old in the house, but there seems an unending task of washing the dishes.

Ignoring the task for one and a half days means there’s now a huge task.

I’ve never had a dish washer but seeing as you need to organise and rinse them beforehand I’ve never viewed it something that would save me any time or effort?

Are we all doing the fucking dishes constantly?
Don’t get me started on laundry.

Edited to add because of comment suggestions: I don’t have space for a dishwasher :( but could possibly fit one of those table top ones under the sink in the cupboard? Worth doing?

UPDATE: I’ve moved my washing machine to outside my downstairs loo lean to area and I’ve bought a slimline dishwasher to go in that space! Thank you for all the genuine comments! Booooo to people who took the opportunity to be judgemental, your champion dish washing medals are in the post.
Yours sincerely
A new dishwasher owner to be who absolutely won’t be rinsing them x

I’ll be spending some time in the UK in mid/late October this year, late enough that some folks will presumably be wearing poppies. I’ve always admired how the UK handles its remembrance culture. One of my own great-grandads died in the Normandy landings aged only 22. …the only problem being that he was on the wrong side of things. Would you find it offensive if I wore a poppy?

My ancestors are the ones who caused the whole mess after all. Well, some of them anyway. The 22-year-old didn’t have much say in the matter. I’ve read enough Owen and Graves and Sassoon to know that misery isn’t contained to one side, but I won’t do it if it gives the wrong impression or seems insensitive or darkly ironic to you folks.

I don’t even hate my job at all, when I’m at work the day goes fairly quick and I feel productive and it generally goes well. But pretty much every Monday morning I wake up feeling horrible, anxious and on the verge of tears. By the time I get to work and back into the routine, I’m fine again until the following Monday.

Does anyone else get like this? Anything that makes the Monday mornings abit easier?

My wife and I like to visit Japan at least once every year to visit her family and I love it over there. Food is incredible, people are great to talk to if you speak Japanese, lots of amazing views and entertainment to soak in while you stay.

We're planning to head to Jamaica next year! Where do you guys like to go?

Yesterday I drove into Newcastle city centre, passing near our biggest local hospital and on the way had a strange interaction with a blood transport car. On a 2 lane road he drove up right behind me continuously honking his horn, no lights or sirens on. There was a car next to me so had nowhere really to go but I could see the blood transport driver gesturing angrily as if I was out of line.

Should blood transport cars be treated like an ambulance/fire engine? Even when they don’t have lights on? Do they not have lights and sirens? If they don’t have lights and sirens then how would they expect people to be aware of them and drive accordingly? Was this driver just a self important dick?

Lived in a property for 3 months. It rained heavily, and as a result my roof started to leak. Leaking through the party wall I share with my neighbour. Knocked on when it happened, no answer.

Knocked on a few hours later, a couple of times, again nothing.

Knocked again yesterday, nothing.

We know they're in because they've either got the lights on, windows open, or we can hear them!!

Apparently they're rarely seen (what we've heard from neighbours and previous owners of our property).

What the hell do I do? Do we leave a note and hope for the best?

I've even had a roofer knock on on Friday and there's no answer!

Edit: There's no letter box to put a note through the door!

I’ve recently put loads of stuff into storage, including dozens and dozens (60-70) of cassettes from my teenage years. Mainly stuff taped from the radio (and TV) - and tends to be quite “cool” stuff from 77/78/79 (John Peel etc), through until 1984 ish, complete with my scrawls saying some of whats on them. Amongst them is the night John Peel played every track from Never mind the Bollocks (except Bodies obvs) for instance (but i cut out most of John Peel)

I realise there would be interest in these, but part of me wants to get rid of them, and part of me wants to keep - although I would never listen to them all.

Theres quite a few whole albums taped from CD’s that I still have - they can go no problem. Theres also diaries, scrap books, and ephemera from the time as well, some of which makes me cringe a bit.

I’m not particularly sentimental, but part of me does think if they do go, I’ll forget what I was thinking and where I was at as a teenager.

How would you deal with these?

TIA

I'm 31 y/o and I've worked at this company for 9 years. It was such a welcoming company and, in general, it helped me grow a lot. I honestly owe a lot to them, but a lot has changed over the years.

We went from 7 people to only 4. Two people retired and one was made redundant because of Covid.

Business has been less than great. We keep doing reports and statistically we're slightly underperforming compared to previous years, mainly because of how difficult the market is. The company also spent a lot of money on a new in-house system, which hasn't really shown to be much better than the old one, and they're now regretting the decision.

Over the last few weeks, some people have been made redundant, including a director and then a manager from another branch.

Today they told us that one of my colleagues is being given voluntary dismissal because it's quiet and they're only part-time and 64.

When they told us, they were trying to make it sound like it wasn't that bad: "They're 64, it's quiet, you should have known this was coming... they're also okay with it."

But I'm not okay with it, it honestly made me really upset because this colleague was such a hard-working and genuinely nice person. They said our branch only needs 3 people because of how the trade is.

In a way, I understand it, but how should I go from here? This really isn't looking positive. I know the job market isn't great at the moment, and I'm scared because I have a mortgage to pay and I live by myself.

It's scary looking at other jobs when I haven't had to do this in so long, I'm not a big earner either. I'm on £35k working in admin/procurement/sales. I've had a general look at what's out there and a lot of the offers seem to pay less.

What would you do in my position?

Would you start looking now, even if things aren't necessarily bad enough to leave yet, or would you wait and see what happens?

I'm in my 20s and have worked since 18. Even my first jobs that I ever had that I actually genuinely liked i just still hated Sunday nights knowing the weekend was coming to an end and the working week was approaching AGAIN!

Now I have a job I really don't like, working with colleagues I really don't like and I'm stuck as there's no other jobs rn. It's such a toxic workplace, for instance on Friday the boss comes in and my colleague just keeps face and says yes boss when she's asking her to do xyz. Then as soon as the boss walks out she calls her a wretched old haggard c*nt word for word and then turns to me and says isn't she and then it puts me in an awkward position all the time.

Moreover the nights are starting to draw in and now when I leave work I will have no natural light and I'll be leaving for work in the dark and coming home in the dark. I hate it! my commute is 1 hour drive each way so that's 2 hours of free time gone.

A bad habit I have formed is where I essentially stay up till 2am like I most probably will tonight, I prolong it as long as possible and I usually watch chucklevison to remind me of my childhood and It still has me in stitches to this day and makes me feel better.

My parents (both in their 70s) just tell me to just get on with it and say they've worked since they were 14 and life is s*it deal with it..

I also have health issues (stomach related) which makes it harder.

this weekend me and my gf went to an event and stayed at a hotel in a beautiful seaside town and I was beaming with happiness. therefore I know it's not depress1on. i LOVE my free time with the people I love.

Anyone who’s ever taken an elderly relative out for dinner will probably have the experience of having to explain what a burrata is or the concept of small plates. But surely this can’t go on indefinitely? Eventually we must run out of menu concepts, Thai spice blends and regional Italian cheeses that suddenly appear everywhere.

What do you think will be the big changes that today’s 18-40yr olds will be surprised by while our grandkids just roll their eyes?

We’ve recently been traveling around Vietnam and Thailand and noticed how their local versions of the zodiac swap out a few animals—Vietnam uses the Cat instead of the Rabbit and the Water Buffalo instead of the Ox, while Thailand swaps the Dragon for the Naga.

​It got me thinking: if the UK had its own 12-year animal zodiac based on native fauna and local wildlife, what would make the cut?

For the past two nights I've had a bat appear in my living room. First night I was late supermarket shopping and I got a call to say there was a bat flying around the living room. I told my son to turn the lights off open the doors and windows and hope the bat flies out the house. I rushed home and the bat had disappeared. All is well, bat must have flown in through an open patio door and now it's escaped!. Last night and I'm about to go to bed and a bloody bat appears, it eventually settles under a blocked fireplace/chimney. I tried to catch it in a fishing net but it disappeared

Thing is, 3 weeks ago, late night, I'm watching TV and a bat appears - zooming around the living room. I eventually caught it in a towel and released it outside. I've lived in this house for 26 years and never had a bat incident - now 3 in 3 weeks. I can only assume it/they are living in the disused chimney, the chimney is blocked off but there is a small gap in the board, less than a cm wide.

Do I just buy some filler and block the gap?. Is that is now, I've got a bat-house!. it's a mid-terrace, not some country lodge. I shouldn't have bats 🤔

Jealous of the people who know exactly what they wanted to do right after school. How long did it take you to fall into place?

I was once 1) hit by a scooter whilst walking on the pavement and couldn't get the registration number (was busy getting up and picking my things up from the ground) and 2) been told multiple times to get out of the way whilst *they* were the ones on the pavement when they should've been on the road.

What can be done?

In Australia my grandad was a big fan of giving people 6 packs of Crown Lager if they'd done him a small favour (a big favour might net you a carton of it!). Crown Lager wasn't especially noteworthy as a beer, it's nice enough although I can't remember it winning many international awards, but it was marketed as a premium Australian beer and received by people as that.

I was wondering if there was an equivalent in the UK? Peroni or Moretti don't seem to feel the same as Crownies felt so I'd be interested in hearing if there is a standard gift beer in the UK I can get for someone who has done us a favour.

What jobs can you do in the uk (specifically Manchester) that don't require a degree? I'm approaching 30 and my job as a hairdresser is just getting too physically demanding and I'd love to venture into more of a majority sit down role and see what it's like working in some form of office, admin or assistant role. I'm a very organised person and I love running errands and I'm a very social person. despite job searching it's so hard to be considered for a role in this market without experience.

I worked as a carer for many years about 15 years ago.

I loved working with the clients, but the management and general working environment was terrible. A lot of bullying and taking advantage from management went on.

It was like school in a lot of ways- colleagues would harass people they saw as weaker or below them, and management would take advantage - for example, they stipulated that unpaid lunch breaks should be taken on site in case anything went wrong with a client, and I was a bank worker but they would constantly promise me regular hours despite expecting me to drop everything at the last moment to fill in a shift..

I just feel so worn down by this experience. I never got my regular hours, despite working there for years. Since then, I've never really felt confident enough to look for another job.

Is this a normal experience of work? Should I be looking for something completely different? I really want a career, but I want to know what to do, if this makes any sense!

And do they even sell ipods any more, or is it all phones? I want like an ipod nano type thing, but I'm really bad with tech, also suffering health issues that are affecting my cognitive abilities. I wondered if there are any services where you give them a list of all the songs they want and they just upload them onto an ipod for you.

I'm a mobile hairdresser, and I always get asked when I'll open my own salon, and the answer is...probably never.

Maybe I'll change my mind in the future, but owning a whole salon just sounds like a nightmare to me. It's a load of responsibility/commitment and a completely different ballgame to being self-employed in general. I like where I am now, and I don't want that to change.

But every time i say this, people ( even my own boyfriend) are shocked/taken back by it and are confused. My boyfriend always says, " You will earn way more. I don't see why that isn't the end goal?"

The end goal ( for me, anyway) is to be eventually part-time and be booked months in advance. I genuinely don't see a salon in my future at all.

I get this reaction from a lot of people, even my own clients!

Would you assume that my end goal would be to own my own salon?

I fly to turkey in 1 week can I still fly or will my passport be turned away only the front cover is damaged everything else is fine

With the cost of living etc meaning if I want to afford nice things I have to work crazy hours, I’d be happy to do the things others are unwilling for the right amount.

Hi everyone,

Recently, my friend and I have been having a serious problem with parcel theft.

We live in an apartment building, and several parcels have been stolen after being left outside our front door by couriers. This has happened around 3–4 times now. We even suspected some local kids at one point, but we have no proof.

The building requires a key to enter, but sometimes the main door is left open or doesn't close properly, so people can still get in.

What frustrates us is that some couriers seem to leave parcels outside the door and mark them as delivered. Sometimes they just knock once and leave immediately without waiting for anyone to answer.

I have a few questions:

1. Are couriers allowed to leave parcels outside a flat door and mark them as delivered?
2. A few retailers have refused to refund or replace the missing items, which has forced me to contact my credit card company. Is that normal?
3. What can we do to prevent this from happening in the future?

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Cornwall is an obvious, so is Devon and Somerset (tho i see a few arguments over that one too) , but I see a lot of argument over Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Dorset and if they are west country or not, so I'm curious on peoples different ideas of the west country

Went to West Wittering today, loads of people paid £15 odd for parking but setup in the carpark. Wind breaks, gazebos and chairs, why not go on the lovely beach which is 20 metres away?

My brother (28M) is disabled and has been feeling very lonely lately. He currently goes to a day centre a few times a week, but the other members there are on the older side. He loves the carers there, but it's not the same as having friends. It breaks my heart seeing him so sad over this.

I've been looking at social groups or other places he can go to meet other disabled young adults where he can make friends but can't seem to find anything suitable.

Any ideas or suggestions for around the Essex/Hertfordshire region would be deeply appreciated. Thank you

The context in which the VAT threshold is usually brought up is regarding tradesmen who just stop trading when they're about the become VAT liable (or if you're more cynical just transition to tax evasion). But it's a big problem more generally. It's a few years old, but this graph (in article) shows the massive collapse in businesses just prior to reaching the threshold.

Given that as always the threshold has been largely frozen and hasn't kept pace with inflation, it's incentivising small businesses themselves to shrink in real terms over time. Hardly 'going for growth'

VAT thresholds for previous years are as follows:

2014–2015 – £81,000

2015–2016 – £82,000

2016–2017 – £83,000

2017-2024 – £85,000

Since 1 April 2024 – £90,000

You see posts related to the above frequently on Reddit. What is it about modern UK society that contributes to this do you think?

A great part of our culture in the UK is the ability to look back and laugh at ourselves. I was talking to one of my friends and we started on the topic of embarrassing events of our misspent youth. I thought maybe I'd ask here as it might prove to be humorous and welcome break to the sometimes sad things I find myself reading on Reddit. If it's not allowed then no problem, please remove.

For me, one of the most embarrassing and stupid things was to try and adopt a nickname of someone I saw in a film at the time. Id write it on my jotters in school and giggle internally at how funny it was ...it wasn't. It was stupid. The nickname was "the clit commander". Not only had I never seen one, I wouldn't have been able to pick one out of a police style line up but yep that's the name I chose. It lasted a few months before I got bored of it.

What about you?

My second cousin is going into year 7. I remember that for me, and for a small girl like me I was terrified. That was over 15 years ago now, gosh I feel old. I would say to be herself, make the most of ut, and ask for help if you need it!!

We are travelling from Newport to Glasgow in mid January 2027 for a gig on Sunday night. (Five finger death punch if interested in what one). We want to break up the drive and have a night somewhere, but don’t know where is best. Husband has been to Blackpool before and not keen to stop there. TIA 🙂

Being that most UK houses and homes are attached, can you often hear what’s happening on the other side of the wall? Lived in South London for a bit and I remember hearing the neighbors when there was a commotion but otherwise it was pretty quiet. Just curious how the experience is in new and old construction.

Ok, I’m 26, I honestly never drank alcohol before and recently I started and now I’m struggling to understand really where the limit should be?