I have a private dentist very near where I live and it’s the best choice I ever made in terms of dental care.
Previously I used a local NHS dentist (The fact it was on Butcher Lane in Rothwell should have given a clue) and the quality of care seemed OK, but things were rarely actually fixed for any length of time.
Since going private I have spent a bit more over three years, but much of that has been undoing the effects of Wham bars and growing up in the 80’s and the iffy NHS work I have had done over 30 years. I had a check up today at my private dentist and fully expected a need for a filling or potential root canal. I was advised that it was not needed, but might be in 6-12 months if things didn’t settle down. That’s good advice!

For 5w30 engine oil I always use VW spec 507.00. It’s a higher standard than 505.00.
It costs about £10 more for a large can than the cheapest 5w30 but as my Volvo XC90 also uses 5w30 (lower grade) it means I can use one oil across both my cars. Even though these are long life oils, I still change the oil at least once a year even if mileage does not require it. With a Pela syphon pump and a £7 filter I can change the oil on my car for less than £35 in about 20 minutes (most of which is me drinking coffee while the pump sucks the oil out of the sump).

Well the BBQ will get to 370C. Not sure I could do that inside without setting off every smoke alarm in the house!
Kryton57….see a doctor ;-)

I agree with most of what is said above. My son went through AS/A levels a couple of years ago, and daughter is in YR12 now.
If she is coping (no…not coping, actually enjoying!) then surely the extra A-level will give her knowledge that will be valuable in some way.
My son did 5 at AS (Chem, phys, bio, maths, further maths), but dropped bio after AS.
Now with the two year A-level I think three is much more common. My daughter is doing four (Chem, Bio, Maths, Further Maths), but the extra maths is taught off timetable as there are only two in the school doing it.
She was considering physics as well, but timetable and sanity prevailed!
The EPQ is also worth doing.
Most Uni’s only want three solid A-levels, few look at the fourth. And Oxford/Cambridge want extra curricular stuff more than a fourth A-level.
So I would say stick with four, but be ready to drop one if the pressure gets too much. Good luck to her!

Johnners, sorry sir, but the whole “social mobility is zero sum” is rubbish. An educated population lifts the WHOLE countries success. I think you are assuming that little Jimmy from the council estate gets an education funded by rich Tamara’s parents. Jimmy then gets the job that Tamara was “destined” for. But actually what happens is that both Jimmy and Tamara are well educated and succeed in a global economy and both pay more taxes and have more income to spend (perhaps even in each others companies). Social mobility is certainly not zero sum. As education levels rise we ALL become richer (on average and subject to the normal bell curve of wealth distribution).

We are in the slightly less salubrious but ultimately less congested South Leeds ;-)

Had mine done private a couple of years ago by Stephen the best dentist in Woodlesford (!). Very competent, very slick, slightly expensive, but immeasurably better than the NHS I had before in Rothwell (on Butcher Lane as if that should not have been sufficient warning!). You only have one set of teeth so don’t scrimp too much!

Hi FunkyDunc. The Harrogate scheme looks OK, but sadly we have an LS postcode, not an HG one so are not able to apply. The Leeds equivalent bit of the NHS website is very vague (see one of the first posts). I am really grateful for the variety and quality of contact and messages above and via the STW message service. Daughter has started to contact folk and is talking of even doing more than one placement. Once she is earning as a doctor I fully intend to charge her for my time. Probably £500+VAT.

Tom, thanks for your interesting diversion. AI is clearly going to transform medicine (and other industries) I saw that already AI algorithms can scan CT scans for tumours at a rate many times faster than humans and with a very high success rate. Anyhow, probably another (interesting) thread. :-)

Wow! Thanks for all the help and contacts folks. Will pass to said urchin (I still get to call her that for now) and let her run with it.
FunkyDunc…Oxford. Not ideologically wedded to any particular institute. Clearly certain places carry a cache whether that’s justified or not. I suspect eventual destination will be chosen more on the course and the feel of the place rather than the superficial kudos of the place. At the end of the day it isn’t my choice it’s my daughters so I will do the dutiful dad taxi bit of ensuring she sees as many places as possible so she can choose for herself from a position of knowledge.

Thanks Will. I have chucked this over to daughter as she is the one that needs to run with this. No helicopter parenting in this house. :-)

Thanks all for the replies and advice. I have passed this onto her (well sent her the link to STW!) so she can go from there! Any more suggestions welcome as she might do more than one placement/experience. She already volunteers at St Gemmas charity shop on a Saturday so is not averse to giving up her free time to help the community and get experience. Ta!

Thanks Ben. Anaesthesia, Orthopaedics, Cardiology and Neurology are all of interest. Naturally this could change. We did all watch the NHS fly on the wall documentary (St Marys in London) in an attempt to put her off. But if anything it has made her MORE determined to serve in the NHS!

Thanks scaredypants. She has been through that process and drawn a blank. Apparently you have to apply to each department individually AND have a contact name for who to apply to. She has sent off numerous applications and had zero response. Given how many departments there are and the lack of response from the overstretched medics I thought an appeal on here might help.

Further Maths (if you can do it… I can’t!) is amazing as a fourth subject. In my daughters school there are only two or three doing further maths A-level (same when my son did it in 2016). It is therefore taught out of timetabled lessons as a private tutor group with the best maths teachers in the school. Both my two love it, partly because of this. Obviously some schools might have more of a potential intake for further maths so may run it as a normal 3rd subject.

If you are from England then Scottish Unis are REALLY hard to get into. My son is doing MMath at York (2nd Year). He also applied to Edinburgh and they wanted something like A*AA, a good grade higher than Durham which is also rated.
Studying the sciences does not “doom” you to a career in a lab or engineering (unless you want that!), I know many top marketing and sales and HR people who did science/maths at A-level and Uni.
Also to back up the comment made above. Picking your A-levels while in YR11 is really premature. This can only be to aid school resource/timetable planning. All the schools I know don’t ask you to choose until AFTER GCSE results day, and even then I know that many people change subjects in the first term. My daughter is in YR12 at the moment (Maths , Further Maths, Chemistry, Biology) and one of her mates wasn’t getting on with chemistry, so swapped to Drama for a couple of weeks. Two weeks later she wasn’t enjoying that much either, so on the advice of teachers she swapped back to Chemistry because if you are going to do a subject that is not your favourite, then Chemistry trumps Drama on the CV/UCAS application. Good luck wih her choices!

Northwind has it. PE is great for being a teacher/physio etc, but not much clout in the outside world of business and academia.
So if career options will centre around PE then great, if not then I would reconsider.
If PE is the centre of it all then Biology is a cert. After that I would genuinely pick a subject where passion and interests sit.
Personally I am biased towards the sciences, Phys/Chem/Bio and maths/further maths. Other stuff can be done later in life.

No chemicals here, just one of those spinny hovercraft type patio cleaners on the Karcher. Easy peasey and much better than using the lance.

Good luck finding the tea biscuits above. They haven’t been made since 2008!

Costco stuff. Neat or 50% dilute depending on time of year.

I started reading this thread from the start when it was 17 pages long. By the time I caught up it is now on 20 pages.
My Surface 4 (pro of course, but not customised) now has a worn trackpad. Who do I charge for this wear?

I am on the side of the OP in this. Cancelling orders is never something to do lightly, but that is why cooling off periods exist. Ling move on, you lost me at BREXIT and your cycling jibes.

Not sure if this will work, but no harm to try. I find Vitamin B supplements massively improve my mood and feelings when I feel like you describe. But more than anything take comfort in the fact that your feelings are far from uncommon.

I would say get to know them. Ask them what excites them, what they want to achieve in life. Skills can be learnt. Attitudes are harder to shift.

In our house we love the Meindl range, leather and take a little bit of care and about 100 miles of walking to truly break in, but then they are the loveliest things!
Though many of the proper outdoor pros I have seen tend to use fully synthetic (nylon/gortex) upper boots.
Our local GoOutdoors had really knowledgeable and patient staff.

Lamy 2000 Extra Fine fountain pen is the finest writing instrument on earth. I love mine and my equally pen geek daughter uses hers every day for her A-levels. To be fair all Lamy stuff is good.
Moleskine notebooks are the best I have found, but with a little stick on pen holder.

As a first aider myself this is a horrid situation, but you really did the right thing and did your best. It sounds like there was little you could do, but like many of us you tried as sometimes those 1% survivals happen. Unfortunately you got the 99%. Take care of yourself and take comfort that the guy had a better chance of surviving with you than he would without you.

I like Yamaha, but in reality any Yamaha, Pioneer, Sony, Onkyo amp from 2-5 years ago will be a brilliant second hand deal. Speakers, again I would buy on Ebay. Mid size bookshelf speakers for the 4 surrounds, a separate mid and whatever you can afford for a sub (I think you might need to buy this later given the budget!).

It’s a ploy to keep people there!

We have walked it three times this year. Take it easy coming down off Whernside, that’s where I saw most slips and accidents.
It’s a long way. Compeed for blisters, one pair of socks and plenty of fluids and dextrose tablets (coupled with Lidl trail mix, pork pies and bananas!) get me round.
The walk back to Horton in Ribblesdale from the top of Ingleborough takes forever, there are also some great places to slip and fall in the first half mile of your decent (not any height, just bruised muddy backsides!).
Set off early or you will be stuck in a convoy of selfie taking day walkers. Enjoy the scenery!

Cheap knives. Worth a punt I thought!

I bought some of the above knives yesterday. Not received yet, but online reviews look favourable and for the price they are crazy cheap!

The same online retailer also has clearance on the Global anniversary cooks knife for £40. I have this exact knife and it’s great for many kitchen jobs.

My fave and part of cultural heritage is The Meaning of Life. Though save that for his 13th.
Recently watched “How to Train your Dragon” that was good for all the family. Shrek is good too.
Though Wall:E is one of my favourite films, it’s too slow for a bunch of 8 year olds.
Aliens is the obvious choice, but only if Under the Skin is not available. :-)

My daughter got her results yesterday (fab). I was chatting to the principle and teachers and the maths grading scale shocked me a little. I understand and agree with the need to moderate and have roughly the same proportion of each grade from one year to the previous (as despite the Flynn effect, between any two years the biggest variable is the difficulty of the paper, not the smartness of the kids), but this maths paper must have been fiercely difficult. Imaging going into the exam, not being able to do 4/5ths of it and coming out with a “pass” grade 4. As my daughter said, in theory you could skip half of one of the three papers and still have got a 9 in maths! Or to put it another way, out of 500,000 students, only around 17000 got 80% or more correct in maths in order to get a 9.
I support the push for harder exams and grades. Whether that is grade 9 or A** doesn’t really matter.

Leeds comp. So regionally fifteen, nationally 9 (listen to R4), compared with Indian call centre….

Facom are the best I have ever used.
Bahco sets I have bought cheap from Amazon (£11 or so) and are also good.
I have had Were and Bondus stuff in the past and never been impressed with it.

That is a price that is beyond ridiculous.

Peroni

Pearl Jam – Midnight Cowboy.

Weber, charcoal.

Don’t move to Woodlesford, we are full here and the 8 minute train ride to Leeds already struggles for seats on a morning ;-)

My favourite one (not film related) was a 21 year old year in industry placement we had in 2013. Topic of Russia and WW2 came up. Student asked part way through the conversation “Who’s is Stalin?”. My explanation: “Well you have heard of Hitler, yeah? Good. Well he’s like Russias version of Hitler, but with a bigger moustache”.