It’s something I’ve seen all my life but today at work I noticed it and actually gave it some thought. Why do people put a line through the 7? I know it’s not a big deal but it’s just one of those little things that leave you with curiosity. I personally believe it’s supposed to just be a “7” without a line going through it as that’s the proper way to write it but for those of you who add a line through it, why?

Edit: I know it’s done to differentiate a 1 and 7 but just make the top bit longer? Or maybe I’m reading into it too much 😂

I went to my follow up appointment after some minor surgery and the consultant asked me if I had a girlfriend. I said no I'm gay and he said 'If I'd known that I wouldn't have done the surgery because they're more likely to sue me.' Young me just wanted it all over and done with and didn't have the wherewithal to make a complaint but nowadays I would.

This isn't aimed at the NHS in any way which is full of amazing people who do their best but as in any area of life a bad apple appears once in a while.

Just a thought that occurred to me this morning: since I’ve been employed at my current job, I don’t remember the last time I slept all the way through the night without interruption. I don’t wake up in the nighttime as such, though; I usually wake up after 6am. The later it gets, the more annoying it is, because I know I don’t have time to complete another sleep cycle in, say, 30 minutes, so I lose that sleep.

On the other hand, I’ve found a comfort in waking up a couple of hours before I need to get up. It feels like a reset and a second opportunity to fall asleep, so when I do manage to sleep through to my alarm in one go, I feel like I’ve been cheated out of one of my sleeps. Kind of disorienting tbh, feels like fast forwarding.

Do you also wake up a lot in the night or do you manage to sleep right through to the alarm? Good, bad?

Yesterday my neighbour dropped in to say hi. There were cloths on the chair that require folding, there were toys on the floor that required putting away and there were suitcases in the hallway as we had gone out for the weekend. The house is always a mess when someone pops around without informing.

Is this the norm or am I the exception.

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Hi all, my partner, son and step daughter have always lived and grew up around two hours away from where I lived as a youngster.

I have mentioned this to them on occasion and none of them believe that it was a thing.

It can't just be my school (Soham village college, Cambridgeshire,) that had this rule at least up until 1999 which is when I left.

Walking through the park at lunch, casually saluted a magpie and it got me thinking
Obviously they don’t know why we salute them but I wonder as they’re super clever if they notice and simply accept our strange behaviour around them. For example they might observe us walking around a park and have learned that we put a hand up when we encounter them and this might have frightened them generations on but they’ve passed down their ‘mag knowledge’ through the family tree

It’s been a long day 😂

My husband (50) passed away two weeks after an 8 month battle with cancer. I (f48) cared for him while juggling full time work as a teacher in a secondary school.

I’ve been given a fit note for 6 weeks. I need a break after caring and the trauma. I was thinking about sodding off to Thailand for a few weeks. What’s the deal with going away while on a fit note?

I’m someone who generally plays by the rules and hardly ever take a day off sick. What would happen if school found out I’d been abroad in term time?

Really hate the clickity clacky formal mens office work shoes. I find They’re not the very comfortable, the soles wear easy, and they are like little foot coffins.

Is there such a thing as an office work shoe that actually looks like an appropriate shoe to wear in the office but feels more like a trainer?

I’ve heard claims of the likes of the turkish mafia being heavily involved in the Haringey/North London Area, would be interested in learning more about cases like that and others.

I've got to say it has to be Ribena for me! I seem to get a really dry mouth with Vimto

I am a foreigner who is planning to visit the UK this year in December. My main priority is to visit several Christmas markets.

In looking for other UK holiday traditions, I have seen references to Pantos. Is this something that an outsider would enjoy, or is it more for the local community?

I’ll go first… cleared gutters out on a huge 3/4 story building and got £1200 in a mornings work. (Amazing for me) …. your turn!
Not a Willy waving contest just curious! 😁

Always fall asleep to The Golden Girls here. What do you fall asleep to?

At work with my morning coffee munching on a chocolate malted milk biscuit, watching the rain can feeling very content.

I’ve been getting these calls for the last couple of months or so.

My phone has a feature where it screens calls from unknown numbers and asks them to explain their reason for calling, so I almost never answer the unknown number calls, but almost all of them, all different numbers, have been asked to be added to WhatsApp.

The first time I thought it was one of my friends because the voice sounded similar to her but she denied it. Now I’ve been getting these calls once a week to once a fortnight, all different numbers, last one was just an hour ago.

Anyone else been getting these? Is this the newest telemarketing scheme and/or newest scam?

For me it’s how big commercial planes stay in the sky, I mean I’ve watched countless documentaries on it but I just don’t understand how something that big, heavy manage to stay up. And how it is able to store fuel for 10/12 hour journeys!

Oh, don’t get me started on large commercial shipping containers. You’re telling me that ship has about 2,000 tonnes of weight and it’s floating? Get out

Yes, I kinda get the science behind it, but it just boggles my mind

Over the last couple of months I’ve been out with my newborn and I have come across strangers opening up to me about their inability to conceive.

The first time I took my older child to the playground and a lady who was there with her nephew came and sat on the bench with me and struck up a conversation by asking me how old my newborn was. She then proceeded to talk about how she has tried for over 15 years and has done a round of IVF on the nhs and is going to go private to try again.

Then a few weeks ago, I went to a shop and the cashier (who was in her late 40s) said she had given up but to have kids was her only wish in life.

Then today, I went to my local restaurant to pick up some food for dinner and while waiting a lady who works there came and sat next to us and asked what my son’s name was. Her response was omg that’s what I want to call my son if I have a son. I said oh are you pregnant? She said no I’ve been trying for 10 years and I can’t get pregnant at all…

It’s really hard to respond, i feel terrible for them but I don’t want to ask intrusive questions like “have you tried x, or thought about adopting etc. my main response so far is “oh I’m so sorry to hear that, I hope you get what you want in life.” But that falls so flat in my opinion?

This is a really genuine question, I’m not annoyed that people talk about it and I guess it feels nice to know people i dont know feel safe enough to open up to me but I also don’t want to say anything that’s hurtful or rude.

What would you say?

My son (14) is heading to the UK for a week on a school trip and will be staying with a host family.
We'd love to send him with a small gift from Bavaria as a thank-you, but we're struggling for ideas.

Bavarian sausages are apparently not keen on crossing international borders these days, and Bavarian beer might be slightly controversial coming from a 14-year-old, despite the fact that he'd be perfectly legal with it here. ;)

What would you actually be happy to receive from Bavaria? Any suggestions from the UK crowd?

P.S. No, we don't know anything about the host family yet.

Recently I was looking at some old handwritten documents that were beautiful in their execution, I suppose you'd call it copperplate style.
I can make my handwriting have a decent appearance but nowhere along the lines of the pen and ink styles from years ago. Penmanship was also taught back then to ensure consistency.
France I believe still has lessons on this topic so their hand writing has a regular feel and there is a huge rising trend in the US to return to the cursive styles.
I personally think it's quite a good Idea as long as there are allowances for left handers.
But I can hear the replies already - "I only text", or "when was the last time you wrote a letter" I get it! But judging by the state of some of the handwriting nowadays, it's illegible.

For me, it’s wealthy parents. I don’t want to be a scrounger, I’d still want to work for my money, but knowing my parents have money and are well off put some security on me.

Again, it’s easy for me to sit here and say I’d still work, where in reality I would probably live off their money because anyone can sit here and pretend to have morals and say they are a hard worker.

But all in all, I just wish I was in a well off family and I don’t blame those parents who spoil their kids, I would probably do the same if I was wealthy and I had kids.

That or having parents in general who I can speak to, i was left an orphan at the age of around 11, im 32 now and when i see young adults going to see family around the festival times i get a little jealous. But hey life goes on

In the UK, there seems to be an acceptance that if someone's death or the cause of it is captured on camera (e.g. CCTV or dash cam footage etc) in a newsworthy event, UK news channels showing the footage will almost always respectfully cut away at the actual moment of death. Likewise, dead bodies won't generally be shown on the screen or in newspapers, unless covered.

However, other countries seem to have less qualms about showing death, even to the extent they're totally nonchalant about it or conversely treat it as the 'money shot'. I guess this comes down to a combination of differing cultural attitudes to death and pandering to morbid curiosity, which you could argue is just the media giving the public what they want.

So, with the globalisation of news and the fact that so many people now get their news from social media where there's very few limits on what people will post, is this just a legacy UK thing that belongs in the past or is it a principle we should hang on to?

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My personal view - I like the respect and decorum associated with the way things are, even though it's hard to argue for the effectiveness of these when everything's generally available uncut somewhere else online - take the recent Amazon Air cargo plane crash for example.

Edit: 1. Thank you everyone for the comments 2. Apologies for implying electricity makes noise. You knew what I meant. 3. Apparently I need to get assessed for autism, judging by about 90% of the comments 😅 4. Thanks to the person who pointed out it's a colon, not a semicolon. I am ashamed...

I often hear the colon in the microwave clock display flashing on and off, or plugs buzzing. My husband can't hear it.

I'm in husband's office rather than at my own desk today as he's off work ill and my desk is in the bedroom. I've spent the entire morning going insane because I could hear a whistling going up and down, like a tiny police car siren. After crawling round on the floor listening to various plugs I finally found it was the sound of the little standby light of one of his monitors as it faded on and off.

I also always seem to hear those mosquito anti-social garden alarms that were all the rage about ten years ago, but at 34 I'm deffo out of the target age/hearing rage for those.

Wondering if my superpower is just being able to hear really irritating noises.

Those who absolutely refuse to flatshare because due to personal reasons, how much is your rent?

I’m really feeling the doom and gloom at the moment and could do with something light, entertaining and easy to watch to take my mind off everything for a while.

I don’t currently subscribe to any streaming services but would consider it if there was something uplifting to watch.

What are your suggestions, please? 😊