u/just_a_girl_23

Hi, I'm hoping for some advice. Please be gentle as I've no idea what I'm doing and am fully aware how thick I sound.

I used to do agency / contractor work for circa 20 years. I worked for multiple companies so had a lot of different employers at the same time for a long time.

I've only ever agreed to one company pension scheme which is my current one which is a regular/normal job.

But I keep finding out by chance, I have lots of 'bitty' pensions - we are talking usually £5 here, £20 there etc that I never agreed to be in and was never told about. There's also one that has £900 in it that I specifically remember opting out of! Today I had one from a pension scheme for an agency I worked for EIGHT years ago.

None of these I agreed to. Virtually none of these schemes ever reached out to me on registering me. I'm wondering how many more I have??

Can anyone explain it to me like I'm 5 how I can go about finding out where I have more of this stashed away without my knowledge? I can't even begin to list the agencies and some went under donkeys ago.

Also can I merge all these into one big pot? If so, how? And how do I decide which to go with?

Thank you for any advice.

Hi all! Hope this is ok to ask here, I do have an appointment with my GP booked but wondered in the meantime if anyone else has had this?

So I had some issues for a few years which I figured out was piriformis but the doctors had no interest in entertaining helping with it or acknowledging I was even struggling. Fast forward to last year, my lower back was becoming more painful and more frequently and limiting my movement. I couldn't even do yoga stretches. After much begging, I finally got sent to a physio who confirmed I now also have sciatica. I don't have the report to hand but I know L2 was definitely one of the areas mentioned. I was given exercises to do and sent on my merry hobbling way...

I'm not sure if my piriformis cleared up or if the sciatica pain is just more intense so I don't notice the piriformis.

As mentioned, I was already struggling with stretches so this hasn't gone well.

I have an active job and I walk everywhere so it's not like I've not been keeping mobile in this time.

Then 3 weeks ago I injured myself, I twisted in an awkward way so went to sit down, when I stood up I had a very satisfying crunch in my lower back and the next day all my sciatica pain was gone and my movements were barely restricted. I felt incredible. But it started again. Then this morning I was laying in bed and stretched my legs out, only to get another crunch and I can now get my socks on easily.

What is this 'crunching' I'm experiencing and why is it helping? Am I basically accidentally re-aligning the problem areas or something? I will discuss with the GP as I don't want to risk permanent damage, but any insight would be much appreciated!

Shouldn't have bothered asking, thanks for the crazy amount of downvotes 😒🙃🥱

Despite loving to cook, and being in my 40s, I've surprisingly never been in charge of a bbq before or been allowed to assist. I also have an irrational level fear of flames (except candles) so I've never pushed to change that.

Decided to face my fears this weekend and refused to let anyone take over. Was only on little disposables but it's a start.

None of us got food poisoning; and I didn't burn anything.... including myself!

Now I kind of want to do random bbqs for dinner this summer for just myself 😂