I found it easier to get the right pillow by trying the numerous options available at the airport. I don’t like lugging around a fluffy pillow so ended up getting an inflatable one. also bear in mind that standing up is different to sitting down. I wanted a pillow with minimal padding behind the neck otherwise it tends to crick my neck forwards.

Don’t overthink it. If he were female then gaps are just assumed to be childbirth related, so don’t get asked. I’d find it hard to believe in this day and age that a gap can be used as a screening tool. My wife was a full time mum for 15 years before returning to work and nobody has asked what the gap on her CV was for.

I keep the dates on my CV vague anyway, with just years rather than months. Unless he was out of action greater than 12 months then it’s easy enough to brush over the details. Who’s to say what exact date his uni course started.

A falling house market generally benefits anyone looking to move up the ladder, ignoring the external factors that may be making it fall.

You might get say 10% lees for your say £500,000 house (i.e. £50,000 less). But your new £1,000,000 house will now be £100,000 less. So you’re £50,000 better off.

As I say… external factors such as cost of living, job security and interest rates make it a little more complicated than that. But if you have a stable job and can afford the mortgage repayments, then sell and buy now if you can.

And as others have said… porting a mortgage is pretty standard. I read this morning that there’s some good trackers out there now without any early redemption charges, so you could do that.

I feel for you @outofbreath. I recently went through my own heart scare. Different problem to you though – something called heart block – which resulted in my heart “pausing”. End result was a pacemaker in a hurry.

I certainly can’t offer medical advice. What I can say is that using a private cardiologist was a relief. I went from knowing I had a problem to having a pacemaker within 24 hours. The cardiologist himself was probably no better different than an NHS one (he was actually an NHS cardiologist). I was just grateful not to have the issue hanging over me for weeks, although in my case I think it’s a fair guess the NHS would have put in my pacemaker in a rush also (having your heart stop is pretty urgent).

I deal with uncertainty by trying to educate myself as much as possible. That leads me down to trying to become a cardiologist almost instantaneously with the aid of Google. I then stress and can’t sleep. Before you know it you think you’re about to die from cat aids. I’m not you, but in your shoes I’d pay good money to get an answer in a week, if the NHS said I’d have to wait 2 weeks. That’s me though.

P.S> I was back on my bike within 8 weeks. Lost a lot of fitness in that time, so nit back to previous levels yet. But feel optimistic that this was a mere blip and I’ll carry on riding my bike into my 70’s just like my dad. Just keep telling yourself “this time will pass” and do some breathing exercises. I’ve had some counselling – not specifically related to my heart – but the skills have helped me calm down.

Good luck with A&E. Hopefully it all sorts itself out.

How quickly does it take for the beta blockers to kick in? I wonder if it’s something that has to build up in the system.

A bad night sleep and too much caffeine send me into afib.

Insurance is just a gamble with the odds stacked in favour of the insurance company.

Insure yourself for events that would financially break you (burning down your house, bikes being robbed), but self-insure for things that you could cover (losing a saddle bag). So in this example, stick your bikes on your home contents insurance with a £500 excess.

An alternative would be welding or something like that. Less money I guess?

I work with welders. It’s a brutally hard job. Noise, fumes and sunburn. Bending over the whole time.

Pay is amazing though. It has to be.

Oh. Forgot to mention my frozen shoulder. Common side effect of not being allowed to move your arm. I went to see a chiropractor and he sorted it with some serious deep tissue torture and dry needling.

@jimr80

It has been a smooth experience for me so far. It has been 3 weeks and feel physically 90% back to normal.

Your experience may differ but here’s how it went for me. Surgery was very quick – maybe 30 minutes. Local anaesthetic. Stayed in overnight . Arm in a sling for the journey home but didn’t bother with it after that. You can’t lift your arm above your head for 3 weeks, just to make sure the wires bed into your heart wall. First day home I went for a short walk on the beach. Worked from home the following day. Back in the office after 5 days.

Keep the surgical plaster on for 3 days. You can shower with it on apparently but I found baths easier. Took it off after that and just dressed with cheap gauze squares and tape. Spray on antiseptic rather than stuff in a pour bottle.

No lifting stuff greater than 3kg with your left arm for 3 weeks. No lifting arm above head either. The area around the pacemaker is still a bit tender, but I wouldn’t say painful.

I’m now up to doing longer hikes and walks. Taken my heart rate up to 140 and seems fine. Could gently cycle if allowed – but that’s been banned for three months. Seeing the cardiologist tomorrow to talk him down from that. I have no perception of the pacemaker doing it’s thing. I presume it’s giving me beats, but I can’t feel it.

Mentally there have been ups and downs. Trying to use some coping strategies I got from a counsellor. I joined some forums and Facebook groups that in hindsight wasn’t wise. I got a bit obsessive and any slight negativity really brought my mood down.

Hopefully you have a smooth experience. Happy to continue sharing updates if it helps. PM or in the forum.

My only tip… shave your chest! The nurse was not the best chest hairdresser.

Edit: another tip. Zip up hoodie or cardigans are easier to get on and off, given you can’t raise your arm above your head.

Lived in Banchory for 8 years on and off. Raised children from birth to teenage years there.

It’s not perfect, but having lived in SE England, S Wales, Houston, Paris and now Perth (Oz), I would not hesitate in go back to Banchory. There’s something amazing about the place that makes me love it despite the crappy winters.

Happened to my wife’s car after a winter tyre change at Costco. My wife has zero mechanical sympathy so normally if something is wrong with the car the first I hear about it is if I take it out for a drive. However, even my wife couldn’t ignore this noise. It was pretty evident within a week.

I’m assuming it’s a chlorine pool rather than salt water. Chemicals can be expensive. Mine is saltwater, and even then I spend £30 a month keeping it balanced. That’s in Australia though.

I’m terms of effort, consider it like looking after another lawn. It took me 6 months to get the hang of it though. My pool spent a lot of time being green or so full of chemicals that it was unusable for those first months.

If you like the house then give the pool a shot. If you don’t get on with it then figure a few ££ to fill it in.

Yeah. That does feel a bit unsatisfactory. Fainting all the time isn’t sustainable.

I appear to be alone on this, but I rate a CEng above a MEng. You need to have the necessary academic ability to gain both, but only a CEng proves you have practical experience and some fledgling managerial skills.

When hiring I look for CEng. I am pretty embedded in my institute though. Do lots of voluntary stuff.

I if you do an MEng and still decide you want a CEng then that’s a huge effort. I hope you like studying 😉

To @donald and @gingerflash I wish you the best of luck. I would say try not to worry, but from very recent experience I know that is impossible.

All I can say is that 24hrs from having it fitted and I feel fine. I’ve got a new gadget to play with. Went for a walk on the beach yesterday. If it weren’t for the mild discomfort around the wound, I reckon a bike ride would be technically feasible (and a very bad idea).

I also feel reassured from some replies above (thanks @spxxky and @spangelsaregreat). Keeping a positive mindset is the only thing I have control over. The rest is out of my hands.

I wouldn’t worry too much at this stage about electric drills or induction hobs. Just as a reference here’s the guide for the manufacturer of my pacemaker which say cordless drills are fine.

https://content.biotronik.com/crm-emi-guide

I’m a welding engineer the guide says a big fat no to welding equipment. But the cardiologist and the representative from the pacemaker firm (who was in surgery) both said I’d be fine as long as I’m not physically doing the welding myself, which I don’t.

What I’m trying to say is there’s no need to worry. There’ll be a solution.

Thanks @superficial for the information.

In my case it won’t be Lyme related as I live in an area without many ticks (Perth, Australia). I wish I could find a reason to be honest as this makes zero sense to me. No family history, fit, slim, non-smoker, blah, blah. The cardiologist just said he has to treat what he finds. I got chatting to a young junior doctor who was happier to hypothesise. So we came up with the possibility of it being a combination of low resting heart rate, covid two weeks ago, and getting back on the bike too soon.

I’m out of hospital now and feeling great. A bit sore where they inserted it, but no issues with heart or energy levels. Just been for a walk on the beach. I’m lucky really – it could have gone much worse

@jimr80

The leaflet I got given says you should refrain from lifting anything heavier than 4.5kg for 3 weeks. So I guess if you are a carpenter then consider 3 weeks off work. The 3 months off the bike I think is a special precaution considering it’s ‘just a hobby’.

@jimr80 3 months off the bike is just to let fibrosis build over the wire connections so they don’t accidentally pull out. I think my general health should recover in 3 weeks.

Age 43 by the way.

Out of surgery now. I got given the Rolls Royce of pacemakers due to my age and fitness. It’s been set at 51 bpm to account for my fitness. My resting heart rate is about 60 normally.

This one has a 4G dongle to go on my bedside to upload my data to the manufacturer each day. I also have an app that I can’t get to work.

The doctors and nurses have been great. Very reassuring. I should be back on the bike in 3 months and there’s nothing stopping me ragging my heart as much as before. My issue was a low heart rate, so the pacemaker should be doing nothing when I’m cycling. No long term implications other than annual checkup and a battery change after 6-12 years.

Complete mystery why my heart started to play up. Absolutely zero issues until the moment it happened and then had four episodes over the space of a day. The cardiologist hasn’t shed much light on it, other than explaining the parts of the heart and wiring that seem to be playing up.

I wish @jimr80 and @richmars all the best.

It has been said, but go with an M1 chip. For your current use an Intel one would be fine, but you want to future proof yourself. At the cost Apple charge you want to make sure it’ll last.

I had a 2010 iMac for 12 years. Upgraded with some RAM and SSD in that time. In the end the Wi-Fi started tripping out so replaced with a Mini M1. Got two Dell screens to go with it and looks neat on my desk. The box is small so really it’s the screens that determine the aesthetics.

It’s a difficult sport to enjoy in the first year or so. Lots of effort for minimal reward. But as soon as you get on the plane, in the footstraps, in a harness you will get a huge buzz. It’s like sailing but faster and cooler.

My advice is to get through the basics on your reservoir this summer. Then book a warm holiday in Greece or similar at a windsurf centre to supercharge your learning.

I’m out of touch with beginner kit, so no advice on eBay purchases.

I had something similar but not the same. Never truly diagnosed but think it was kidney stones that were irritating my pee tubes when sitting on a saddle. I changed to a Shimano Stealth saddle and the kidney stones passed some time later (oh the pain). It just started off as the pee thing though – the kidney stones came later.

Change saddle and drink lots of water. See what happens. You’ll definitely know if you have kidney stones if it gets to that.

We’ve got a Bosch one. Takes hours to get stuff close to dry. Turns itself off when it senses stuff is dry, but in reality they never are.

It’s extremely economical just because it’s so crap that it convinces us to not use it. Not sure that was what they had in mind though.

Maybe newer generation models are better.

I’ve got FireAngel ones (2 smoke, 1 heat). Easy to install.

They didn’t go off when my washing machine started ‘billowing’ smoke though (I wasn’t there – it’s my rental property). The utility room is off the kitchen – which has the heat detector in it. So I guess the smoke didn’t reach the smoke detector in the hallway. Had an electrician come round to re-certify it just to be safe.

From previous experience, how does it reflect when you’ve had a bit of a nosey on someone’s LinkedIn? Does it come across as doing research or being a bit nosey?

Probably best to do it incognito. There’s an option on LinkedIn to hide your identity but it’s buried deep in the settings somewhere.

If you want to PM me the name of the company then I might know them and offer some specific advise.

Sorry, I should also answer your other question.

Day to day I sit in front of a computer. I spend most of my time writing reports and coding (Python). It pretty much revolves around calculating corrosion rates and occasional cathodic protection calculations – lots of maths. A couple of times a week I’ll attend meetings and occasionally give presentations. I don’t get out of the office much due to Covid bollocks.

However, in the past I would spend about 3 months of a year travelling somewhere. I’ll be visiting suppliers and overseeing manufacture of some component. In a previous job I’ll be conducting my own fabrication activity (I used to work for a pipeline installation company), so would spend loads of time in an industrial setting or on a pipe lay vessel. That’s was quite enjoyable when I was young, but I’m over that now. As a graduate companies make sure you get out of the office to see what’s happening on the ground. That also means you’ve got to be willing to work long shifts if it’s somewhere like a pipe mill, and you’ll probably be put on nights. Lots of graduates these days think they’re above that kind of thing, but my view is it’s all part of the learning process. Plus I had to do it, so it’s only fair you do too.

jonba makes a good point above. The best thing to read is ISO 21457. That’s the international standard that governs materials selection in the industry. It’s pretty dry reading but if you read through it a couple of times you can bluff your way through an interview. They know you’re a mechanical engineer so won’t be expecting you to know everything. Hopefully you can get a copy off the internet – if not PM me.

I’ve had an amazing career. Travelled the world and earned good money. I love being a materials engineer – I like being a specialist in something. On the negative side you’ll need to reconcile your conscience with the environment aspect. Plus there’s probably not an entire career in oil and gas left for a fresh graduate. I also don’t imagine the pay and travel are going to be the same for you as they have been for me. Don’t let that put you off though – just want you to be aware of pros and cons.

Do a bit of reading around CO2 corrosion. That’s the predominant corrosion mechanism on the inside of all the pipelines/piping.

External corrosion is due to seawater assuming your employer is mostly North Sea based. Look up coatings and cathodic protection.

I’ll look up some links for you and post a bit more later.

Good luck!

(20yrs as a materials/welding engineer in oil & gas)

Isn’t a low heart rate a sign of fitness? Personally, I wouldn’t try compare my heart rate to a bunch of strangers. I got my dad a heart rate strap for Christmas once and ever since then he thinks his heart is about to conk it every time he goes on a ride, as it is considerably higher than that general rule of thumb of age time some factor.

Wait for a cardiologist to tell you.

Mine is about 50 at sleep – if that helps. Age 42.

Burgess Hill pool in St John’s park – it was in full colour in my day ;-)

Apparently it got filled in in 1999, the year I left home for uni. To be fair, they have built a fantastic leisure centre with outdoor lazy river and flumes. Way more fun, if a little less nostalgic.

I have a pool, but live in Australia where everyone has one. Humblebrag.

I bought a Weber 10 years ago and still looks shiny new despite being left outdoors permanently (under a cover).

Just as general advice, be careful with brushed stainless steel bbqs. It’s very hard to figure out what grade of steel you are getting. Weber’s used to be 304 stainless which will survive outside fine, maybe just the occasional buff to keep it shiny. Cheaper bbqs use lower grades, e.g. 430. It’ll require a bit more maintenance to keep looking good. Take a magnet with you to the shops, and if it sticks then it’s cheaper stainless steel.

Personally I went with the enamelled hood. It has remained spotless and is impossible to scratch – even taking a key to it won’t scratch it.

Those who are willing to be self-employed or directors of limited service companies (one-man consultancies) have to take home more pay than a PAYE employee – otherwise they wouldn’t exist.

I did this for 6 years and it was stressful! I didn’t have one stable contract – I was always on the lookout for the next client. In the end I had to work overseas – away from my family – to keep money rolling in. I also spent 6 months during that time with nothing coming in. If it wasn’t for the financial reward then nobody would bother going through that risk and stress. You need an entrepreneurial mindset, and most people just don’t have that.

My point being, if we accept that the UK economy needs self-employed people then there needs to be an incentive. Some might not like the way we went about getting that incentive (e.g. using dividends and low salaries), but that’s the way the tax system is structured. In my case, the UK government ended up getting more tax than when I was on PAYE due to a combination of corporation tax, employer NI, dividend tax and income tax – so I don’t accept the tax dodging argument in my case at least. Whatever tax structure is dreamed up at the next budget, the end result still needs to be the same – the guy taking the risk needs to take home more pay. If the new tax structure seems a little less like tax dodging to the casual observer then all the better, but it won’t stop people being envious of someone else earning more than them…. that’s the underlying issue here.

(P.S. I’m back on PAYE now and earning much less. Much happier for it.)

As a Perth resident it’s lovely to hear you guys in the UK actually have some sympathy for us. Thanks guys/gals.

It’s only day 2 of 5 days of lockdown, so I don’t think you’ll find anyone complaining yet. There are some lessons to be learnt though. There was clearly a lapse in protocol that lead to this security guard catching the virus. He seems to ‘remembering’ small but useful bits of information on a daily basis. He was also moonlighting as an Uber driver, but ‘apparently’ didn’t do any driving since he caught the virus. Time will tell if this was true or not.

In Scotland (England may differ) mains powered smoke alarms are a bit pointless as they need a 10 year backup battery, so you bin them after that anyway. Most (all?) the battery powered ones last 10 years on a lithium battery now.

Saying that, I still got mains powered ones as I am a landlord and didn’t want live cables from the previous alarms terminating at nothing. The choice of mains powered interlinked alarms is a bit limited though – have a look at FireAngel.

If it’s only for a year (initially) then go with option 1. You may hate Switzerland or the job and come straight back. Or the job might fall through.

At least then if you move back you won’t dread moving back to an old house, thinking “if only we’d bought that new house”.

Not entirely similar, but I moved house 6 months before moving to USA. It was a nice house and when USA turned out not to be to our liking it gave us an easy place to come back to. We rented it out for the 12 months we were away.

I know this was a MTB related question but just in case anyone was interested, the repair on my road tyre caused it to budge out ever so slightly. Eventually this was the spot where my tread wore through, although the tread was pretty worn down already.

I’ll support the Dynaplug recommendation. Yes, the plugs are proprietary but you probably not use more than one per year. It’s hardly bank breaking cost for new ones either.

So apparently if there’s a keep clear box and you’re turning right out of a T junction, if a car decides to overtake the queue on the wrong side of the road at quite some speed it’s still your fault when the inevitable happens and it takes the front off Colin the mighty C-Max,.

I witnessed a similar incident that didn’t result in a crash, but very nearly did. I reported the guys registration to the police and they ended up prosecuting him. It went to court, I was called as a witness. He ended up with points and a fine.

In my incident all the traffic was moving at roughly the speed limit, so the guy overtaking was clearly speeding. Maybe that was the difference here – not that he was prosecuted for speeding though. I forget the charge to be honest, but it wasn’t speeding.

Has anyone tried the Google Nest Wifi mesh gear?

I have this. Three units dotted around the house. Works flawlessly now, but took a couple of days to ‘bed in’ (I think the system has to monitor the signal and work out traffic to optimise itself).

I went with Google as its selling point was zero faff. The downside is that it’s evil Google, but I turned off all the speakers and smart stuff.