u/4tunabrix

My mum was unfortunately subject to a case of unfair dismissal at her workplace earlier this year. An agreement was made and she received a payout because of it.

She’s now been unemployed for over 3 months and despite receiving many interviews she has been unable to land a job. She’s unfortunately not the most skilled person in the world on paper having worked in mostly admin roles throughout her career. She’s beginning to struggle financially and I really feel for her and would love to be able to offer some help and advice. Unfortunately I am not financially able to support her so anything else I could do would be great.

I worry part of the reason she is struggling to find work is because of her age. She’s been trying so hard to find a job and is applying to new roles every day. She can’t afford to retire either. She’s never struggled to find a job previously but the last time she was applying was 5 years ago and a lot has changed since then.

Any advice would be massively appreciated

I recently started a new job and cycle 30 minutes to work each day, sometimes it’s a bit exhausting but it got me thinking about how much worse it could be.

I once worked nights and finished work at 6am with the first bus home being 8am. I used to sit in a park for 2 hours trying not to fall asleep as the sun came up. This was through the winter and it was a thoroughly miserable experience.

For those of you with unconventional or extreme commutes give me the details!

Say I’m going away for a 2 day hike and want to use a trangia style burner, how much fuel would you take?

I’d only be using it to cook dehydrated meals once an evening. I guess I could working it out by seeing how much fuel I use to heat the amount of water I need but I don’t want to waste fuel and it’s a bit hard to judge once it’s in the burner.

So I got a Lumix GX9 recently and you can feel it rattle in your hand. Not like something is loose, I presume it’s something to do with the image stabilisation. But I do a lot of photography outdoors, hiking, cycling, climbing, and it makes me terrified that any sort of vibration is going to damage it.

Should I be concerned? Is the GX9 a particularly delicate camera? I want to be able to chuck it in my bag and not have to constantly worry if it’s getting bumped about too much…

I’ve been out of the photography game for a good few years now and historically have only shot on film. Due to the cost of film photography these days I’ve made the transition to digital by picking up a Lumix GX9. Obviously this camera is a good few years old now but it fitted my budget and I got it for an incredibly good price. It’s only got a shutter count of 1572!

It arrives tomorrow and I’m super excited, but would be great to hear if you guys have any tips, advice, thoughts on how to get the most of this camera!

On a recent trip outdoors I took my film camera and took some wicked photos.

I’d love to start doing this more often, but my film camera is A. Heavy and bulky, and B. It costs about £40 a roll for film and developing.

I’m therefore looking at getting a decent compact digital fixed lens camera and just wondered if anyone else has thoughts or recommendations?

My budget is about £400( $550). Have looked at things like the Fuji X20 or 30 but wondered if anyone else has any recommendations.

Obviously slightly off topic post, but hopefully some of you have thoughts!

I’m getting more and more interested in foraging and my knowledge is slowly growing and it’s now got me looking for a foraging book for the UK.

I’m a very visual learner so preferably something with plenty of pictures. I’m also more interested in identifying edible plants than mushrooms so something with less of a focus on mushrooms would be good.

I’ve been bouldering indoors for nearly two years now. My local area is literally the worst possible place for outdoor bouldering with the nearest crags at least a 3 hour drive away so I don’t get much chance to get outdoors.

I went to the Peak District earlier in the year but rain meant we got less than 2 hours of climbing in. But I’ve just come back from the Lake District and got 2 solid days of climbing in. First thing I noticed was that it felt much harder than the stuff in the peaks. Far more crimpy moves, lots of body tension, a lot of steep problems and lots of highballs. My gyms grading goes up to 10 and I can climb most 6s but outdoors I was just about able to do V1 if they were in my comfort zone. I was a bit disheartened at first but quickly learnt just to have fun and also just make stuff up of the guidebook problems were unachievable.

The fear is also a much greater problem too, indoors I’m rarely scared unless it’s really dicey but outdoors there was a lot of climbs where I couldn’t get passed the crux because the fear of falling was too great.

I’m sure this is everyone’s experience on their first time outdoors! I wondered if anyone else has climbed in both the Lake District and the Peak District and felt the same? I feel like the Peak District grit is a lot more forgiving than the climbs I was attempting in the Lake District.

I’m planning to get another trip to the peaks in around autumn. It definitely got me keen to increase my skills and confidence outdoors!

A year or so back I updated my sleep system, new sleeping bag, new mattress, and an inflatable pillow. It was a revelation. A lightweight set up that gave me top comfort and finally a good night sleep.

At first I loved the pillow, finally no more achy neck in the morning but slowly I’ve ended up hating it. I hate how may head is constantly wobbling from side to side and if I sleep on the edge it slips out from the other side. I’ve been on the hunt for something better but am yet to land on the right thing. I’ve been looking at the Nemo Fillo with the foam side but I’m not quite sure I like the foam. I think I prefer some sort of filling. Or a half inflatable half filling pillow? I’m at the point where I’m not too bothered about pack size, I don’t want it to be huge and wouldn’t want it to weigh a tonne but I’d sacrifice the space for the comfort.

What are we all using when we want to escape the feeling of snoozing on a half inflated beach ball?

For what it’s worth I’m currently using a sea to summit Aeros ultralight.

People passing out, wildfires, animals visibly struggling to survive, all things I’ve seen on this one train journey. We’ve known this was coming for years and absolutely nothing has been done to prepare for it let alone prevent it. I’m furious at the state of the world.

I’ve worked in labs for several years now and something I’ve always struggle with is drinking enough water. When you’re not allowed to drink in your lab it’s hard to not forget about drinking regularly.

We’re going through a bit of a heat wave here and I’m struggling. Any advice?