u/dusknoir90

I know this is a London/UK wide problem but I've seen about 5 instances of it just in the last week which inspired me to make this post: I just got back from a walk where I saw a man take a sandwich out of the packet and just chuck the packet on the floor about 3m from a bin, and some teens smoking and throw their butts on the floor at a similar distance from a bin.

I don't think there is a lack of bins, I think there are plenty. It's just a lack of caring. I'm always so tempted to say something but I don't want to put myself at personal harm when they're never going to change their behaviour: the kind of person with such disrespect isn't going to take anything I say result in anything other than a punch or a knifing.

The best I can do is hold eye contact and shake my head.

I only ever buy carrot for sofritoes so I only need one at a time. I live in a tiny studio with a tiny fridge and freezer so having a bag of carrots in my fridge that I use one a month is unappealing.

I have tried making something with the rest of the carrots but the only thing I can think of which needs lots of carrots is carrot and coriander soup; while it's okay, I find it needs a tonne of fat to taste good and there are many other soups I'd prefer to make.

I'm just generally not a fan of carrots; however my bolognese definitely suffers without carrots noticably.

My best option at the moment is breaking one out of a packet and scanning it in as a courgette. I know, I am very naughty. I'd rather not do that, but man needs his (single) carrot.

I'm talking specifically about East Ham Lidl, but I've seen other redesigned Lidl's near me in East London. Last year our Lidl closed for a bit and opened with the tills redesigned. And it's been so much worse since the redesign.

They used to have a till area with about 20 tills id estimate. They've redesigned it so there's 24 tills... But they're separated in four bays. I've never seen them open more than two bays even midday on a Sunday when there's a queue stretching all the way round the freezer aisle up to the alcohol so we effectively only have 12 tills now, and it's more often than not 6. The area you queue is really narrow so you get people squeezing and climbing past you to get to their spouses or because they forgot something, and the bay system was really badly thought out. When they do open the second bay, people behind you get to the till first because they were closer to the second bay when it reopens, or you get people bunching up to the closer bay.

There's now always big queues due to the fewer tills available at any one time, used to only be big queues on weekends around midday. Gone are the days I can quickly nip into Lidl for something, I'll be stuck in a queue that I just don't bother unless I have a more significant shop.

Not to mention the new tills don't let you put your own bag on it (I used to put a rucksack so I could load my groceries directly into my bag: can't do that any more) and they error all the freaking time.

Seriously I don't understand why they bothered with this redesign it's been a complete waste of everyone's time.

I was at my heaviest in August 2023 at 196kg (430lbs) and this morning I weighed in at 148.6kg (326lbs)! I'm 174cm (5"8'), am I still super morbidly obese or just... Pretty fuckin' obese? I guess I'll know when people stop avoiding sitting next to me on public transport. Also means I've now lost 25% of my total body weight from my heaviest which is... Pretty insane.

Still feels like a long way to go, still got to lose another 58.6kg (130ish lbs) just to be overweight, but no back pain, can walk for hours, can run, much better than that dark time in 2023 when I cancelled on my friend because he suggested a pub which was a 10 minute walk away from the station and I didn't want to turn up dripping with sweat.

Pretty slowly (managed 2.5km in that time) but feeling damn proud of myself. Who knew someone my size could actually run?