u/OrdinaryJord

Until recently everyone on my cul-de-sac was mired with 36mbps FTTC, one of the few small areas in my entire town that isn't FTTP, despite being built in 2017. The Openreach fibre checker has been saying "We'll be building in this area in the next year" for well over a year at this point. I believe all cables are run in ducts in the ground. In 2024 some contractors came and pulled fibre cables through these ducts (I asked them what they were doing and this is what they told me).

I noticed an Openreach engineer outside of one of my neighbours houses recently and decided to plug their address into the Openreach FTTP checker only to see that they could order FTTP. Spurred on by this I decided to check all of the houses on the cul-de-sac and found that 5 of the 11 could get FTTP installed now.

The houses go from 1 to 11 clockwise and the strange thing is that it isn't something like 1 to 5 can get it and the others can't. Its just random ones so numbers 2, 3, 7, 10 and 11 can get it. All the houses bar number 3 are semi-detached as well so there are some, including myself, who's attached neighbour can get it.

I emailed Openreach and just got some generic nonsense about building in the area soon. Its incredibly frustrating as when we bought the house a few years ago we were able to order a community fibre who then delayed and delayed until telling us they were no longer going to build in our area.

What on earth could the rationale be for just peppering random houses with FTTP?

Was listening to the radio the other day and heard this song and was like "I know these lyrics!". Turns out it uses a sample from 7...

I cant find an official link but you can find it on YouTube etc

Hi all,

I left my PC unattended for 15 minutes last night and when I came back it was on the BIOS screen and after a lot of troubleshooting it turns out that my primary SSD (C drive) has died.

My motherboard is an MSI b550 tomahawk and in my primary m.2 slot I had a 500gb SSD which appears to be dead. In the second m.2 slot I have a gen 3 western digital ssd (1tb) which seems to be working fine still.

I'm ordering a new SSD today and my first question is should I spend an extra £40 which will take me from a Samsung 990 Evo Plus to a Samsung 990 Pro? My only use for this PC is gaming. (Both 2tb).

My second question is this: Should I install windows on the older 1tb SSD in the gen 3 slot and hold the newer gen 4 SSD in the gen 4 slot just to be a gaming storage drive OR install windows on the gen 4 SSD and keep the gen 3 as a gaming storage drive?

Finally, if I decide to install windows onto the new SSD is it generally a better and cleaner option to simply wipe the older SSD and re-install everything? It only holds games so theres nothing sentimental there. (Unfortunately a lot of photos lost on the dead drive).

When they came out I could go to M&S and get the speckled egg cookies whenever I wanted no problem. They blew up on social media and within a week I couldn't get my fix anywhere!

Hi all,

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I (34M) made a post recently stating that I was due to have microsurgery, which was a mistake on my part as I was actually booked to have scrotal scleropathy.

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My original surgery was 10 days ago. On the day I arrived at midday and was pretty much immediately taken to a sort of pre-operative area where I was given a hospital gown, compression leggings and anti-slip socks. The surgeon and anaesthetist both came to see me and talked me through the procedure and I signed a final consent form. Its worth saying that the staff could not have been nicer.

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After about an hour I was taken to a bed and wheeled into a room where they prepared me for the operation. I had been feeling very anxious about going under general anaesthetic but again the staff were fantastic and so friendly. They inserted a cannula and then some sort of painkiller that actually felt immediately very pleasant. Next came the anaesthetic. The next thing I knew I was coming around in the recovery ward.

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I know some people get nausea but I felt completely fine and alert very quickly. Its actually such a bizarre experience. Its like you've blinked and suddenly teleported into the future. After this I was taken to a different ward where they took my blood pressure, heart rate and temperature. They then gave me a hot drink and some toast and after a little while asked if I could walk to and use the toilet, which I could. After this they called my wife and took me out to her car when she arrived.

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At home I put on some supportive underwear and went to sleep for a few hours. After waking I felt more pain as the painkillers had started to wear off. I noticed some swelling and bruising had started but had been told this was to be expected. I had an awful nights sleep as I wasn't able to get comfortable at all.

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Day 2: I woke to find the swelling and bruising had increased. I spent most of the day in bed in a fair amount of discomfort. By the evening my scrotum was purple and the size of a large orange. I was beginning to get a little concerned.

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Day 3: I woke to find my scrotum totally purple/black and the size of a grapefruit, maybe slightly bigger. I decided to call the number they gave me and was told to go to A&E (The emergency department for any US readers). As it was early it wasn't too busy in there and I was initially seen to very quickly. They said some urology doctors would be coming to see me shortly. I'm not sure what its like elsewhere in the world but the nature of the NHS being free means there are a lot of time wasters going to A&E for things that really aren't necessary. I got the vibe initially from the doctor who I could tell was thinking "This guy had an operation 2 days ago of course there will be bruising and swelling, I've got more important things to be doing". Upon seeing the swelling the entire mood in the room changed. The doctor just said "Oh wow OK, yeah". It turned out the swelling was my scrotum filling with blood, so a huge hematoma. They told me not to eat or drink, as I may be operated on the same day and to also expect a stay in hospital. Several hours later I was taken to a ward and told I was booked in for an operation the next morning. They gave me some decent painkillers but I had an awful sleep anyway between anxiety and the noises of the ward.

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Day 4: Due to an emergency procedure taking precedence my operation is moved to the early afternoon. I don't mind but I'm absolutely starving and so thirsty. There is a bit of 'drama' as a different doctor visits me and suggests that I could just go home and wait it out. Not long after the origi doctor and the head of urology come to see me, the boss takes one look and says surgery, end of discussion. Eventually they come for me and all of a sudden I'm back in the pre-operative room joking with the staff and being put under. I wake up again feeling fine. I'm taken back to the ward and then moved to a nicer ward not long after. The doctor visits and says that they basically un-stitched the original incision and drained the blood out from there, they then put a corrugated drain in stop the same thing happening again, which they will monitor over the next few days. I now realise why my bed is covered in absorption pads.

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Day 5: I wake up and note that the drain is doing its job. The bed is absolutely saturated in some seriously funky liquids. Its horrible but I'm glad because the alternative would have been another grapefruit. I spend most of the day in bed because standing is too painful.

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Days 6, 7: Less and less comes out of the drain each day. Standing is agony so I spend most of the time lying down watching things on my phone and drifting in and out of sleep. You don't get a good sleep in hospital.

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Day 8: The doctor says the drain can come out. A few hours later some nurses come, cut the stitch holding the drain in and then pull it out. I won't lie this was a very unpleasant experience. They dress the wound and tell me I'm going to be discharged. After putting on a jock strap I realised the drain itself was causing a fair bit of discomfort. I can stand for about a minute now before the pain gets bad. In the evening I'm discharged, given some prescription painkillers and antibiotics and sent on my way. Im told I will be visited periodically by a nurse at home to change and clean the dressing.

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Day 10: Today, I'm home and taking it easy. I still can't sit properly on a chair so I alternate between lying/sitting in bed and sitting downstairs with my feet up. The only time I get any pain is when standing up which builds gradually over about a minute before it becomes too much. Its quickly relieved by sitting back down, but it allows me to move about a bit. The nurse visited yesterday and checked the wound and said its healing nicely. For now its just a case of taking it day by day and waiting for the pain and swelling to subside.

Hi all,

I (33M) am undergoing microsurgical repair of my varicocele next week on the NHS. I can't find much about peoples experiences of this on the NHS as most on this forum seem to have been offered embolization instead in the UK. I am just wondering if anyone has had this surgery on the NHS and what to expect?

I will be going under general anaesthetic for the first time and I am quite nervous about that, so any reassurance would be appreciated.

I've seen a few threads where people have talked about supportive underwear as well. Does anyone have any examples of the styles that work best? Or any UK brands I can look into picking up this weekend?

Is there anything else people would recommend I get for my recovery?