(Part 2) Top products from r/CasualUK

> It's crazy that so many people are running £50/mo contracts they can barely afford. Buy a handset you like outright, and a cheap contract or PAYG, and you'll be much better off.

With flagship phones have continuing their steady rise toward 4 figures and the move (quite a while ago now) to 24 month contracts as standard, the costs have really got huge. To take an example from Three, my provider, the 4gb/m OnePlus 7 Pro contract is £29 upfront and £45/month for 24 months. £1109 total. The exact same phone purchased off Amazon is £700. The exact same SIM card/data plan is £10/month just off taking prices straight from their website (which is not the best way to buy in the slightest). So £940 total over the same time period for an identical phone/plan - so you're dropping basically 15% just on the ability to not pay up front. You'd be better off just getting a loan.

It's so much fun!

There are some great gardening youtubers out there. My two faves are Huw's Nursery and Charles Dowding. Huw just put out an awesome book called Veg In One Bed. It's pretty much a step-by-step guide to planting and harvesting stuff in a single garden bed year-round.

Resolutions were:

1. Cycle more - 2,500miles a year / 100k ft climbing. Am a little ahead on mileage so far this year 230miles between MTB and wattbike sessions (stationary trainer in the gym). Climbing a little down due to turbo time (6.4k done as opposed to 8.3kft a month target). Fitness is getting there, power level is almost back to pre-autumn levels. Lost most of xmas weight (6lb down to sit around 11stone again).
   
   
2. Read more books - 12 books targeted. Finished my first book - an xmas present called [The Science of Game of thrones] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Game-Thrones-myth-busting-mind-blowing-ebook/dp/B017RKCCVA). Had finished it by mid January so moved on to a second book The Hypnotist. The game of thrones book was quite short (250pages ish) and the new one is a bit more of a challenge at 620pages. About halfway through and enjoying it!
   
   
3. Continue learning French. Streak maintained on Duolingo so on target. Have been playing with their new stories functionality and brought another dimension to learning.
   
   
   All in all, good start to the year! Shall see how it goes :)
   

pet hedgehogs are an interesting phenomenon ... and there is a real risk that you will turn out like my American friends ... when I was invited to visit the Rocky Mountain Hedgehog Show - and witness the International Hedgehog Olympic Games ... all true ... have a read of https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prickly-Affair-Charm-Hedgehog/dp/0141988185/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0141988185&pd_rd_r=b27b6009-c8ac-11e8-bc44-47b86a543ebb&pd_rd_w=btGl8&pd_rd_wg=cDIyw&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_p=85d62760-2a0e-407d-aa36-f3c03afc01c3&pf_rd_r=VNP0NR4YC331VQ206QTN&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=VNP0NR4YC331VQ206QTN to find the strange strange truth !! And yes, only African Pygmy Hedgehogs ... not ours. Never ours.

Definitely do it! I suggest you look into mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT), it certainly helps ground me when when things are out of control and I'm feeling frazzled. I've just started reading A Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled by Ruby Wax. It's a 6 week therapy course in MBCT that you can walk yourself through, apparently using mindfulness can help prevent depressive relapses in 60% of people.

May I also recommend Whitstable Mum In Custard Shortage and other fantastic tidbits from Britain's tip-top local newspapers.

Mate of mine bought this book a while back. Gave us a good old chuckle looking through it, this was in it

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wisdom-Nigel-Farage-Blank-book/dp/0091960096

The reviews are amazing

I'm re-reading Alistair Horne's Price of Glory and bloody loving it. Horne was a military historian who had a thing for the French and wrote in the way that only boozy, right-wing ex-public schoolboys at the twilight of Empire could. This particular book is about Verdun and it's just gripping - written in that real 'blood-and-stomach-pills' style that's now faded out of fashion. In fact, I really recommend all of his works - especially as they're all completely torn by his clear love for the French vs. his very real need to crow at them. Think Alan Clark but with actual, proficient scholarship and an absence of outright lies.

Tyrannosaurus Drip is my absolute favourite to read in silly voices!

Have a look in the monthly and daily deals sections of the Kindle store, there's some good stuff in there usually, and even if it's crap you've only wasted 99p mostly.

General recommendations:

The power - Naomi Alderman

Ashes of London - Andrew Taylor

Good Omens - Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (pretty much any of their solo books are good too).

Quite ugly one morning Chris Brookmyre

[IQ] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1474607187/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_jp9NBb44YRWFN) Joe Ide

Republic of Pirates Colin Woodward

Operation Mincemeat - Ben McIntyre , Agent Zigzag and Double Cross are also fascinating and interlinked.

The spider network

I had a day off when my husband didnt and i painted the en suite, are there any household jobs you could do? or you could kon mari your life

Hungover: The Morning After and One Man's Quest for the Cure Paperback – November 20, 2018

Have fun!

This what you're looking for?

This book suggest it isn't just sex toys that get lost

I used to have one Mr Bean book but I can't even remember what it was. A diary book or something maybe?

Anyway looks like you can buy one for fuck all on [Amazon] (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mr-Beans-Scrapbook-about-America/dp/0067575099/) if you need

i started putting aside money into funds to my kids the day they were both born and still put a %age in there to try to give them a bit of a leg up as mine did for them... they are the future after all :)

>and the world seems to be getting worse

is it though? have you read factfullness or how to lie with statistics you can get mired down in doom and gloom by listening to the mainstream media whose job it is to outdo each other in bullshit. Or you can listen the our supposed 'elected reprasentatives' whos only job it seems is to out lie each other to ensure they get to be in #10 next and fuck everyone who they are supposed to represent.

no accountability for either of them anymore...

fact of the matter is, i will live longer, in better health, in a safer world, with better prospects that the previous generation and my children will be better off than i am... thier world will be different to mine but its not going to be the complete clusterfuck the press or the politicians say it will.

ooof... apologies, don't know where that came from :/

Anything from this collection
But my favourite stories are:
Manhole 69 - about an experiment to eliminate the need for sleep.
Now:Zero - a man discovers he has the ability to kill people by writing in a notepad.
Chronopolis - a dystopian future where time-keeping is banned.
The Last World of Mr Goddard - an old man tends to a model version of his city.
Mr. F is Mr. F - a man seems to be ageing backwards...
Billenium - a dystopian future where the world's population is 20 billion.
The Garden of Time
The Watch-Towers
Man on the 99th Floor
Now Wakes the Sea
Minus One
The Sudden Afternoon
Time of Passage

Basically they're all worth a read!