26 May 2026

My most important, life-changing purchases of the last 10 years


1. portable air con. buy it now while it's out of season! no more sleepless nights because it's too hot

2. air purifier for the bedroom. I don't wake up with blocked sinuses every day anymore

3. ear wax microsuction removal. thought I was going deaf, eardrops stopped working, NHS refused to do anything.

4. 23andme DNA test with health analysis. I found out about things I need to be aware of if I have children, and what diseases I particularly need to look out for later in life so I can plan ahead.

5. a mini toolbox. the number of times I've needed a tiny or regular screwdriver, pliers, etc.

6. wireless headphones. perfect for helping me handle noisy environments

7. label printer for switches and plugs

8. 100W usb charger and 3m USB-C cable

9. Google Pixel series of phones, because they've come with preorder discounts, free subscriptions, decent trade-in special offers, and latest android features and monthly security patches

10. not a purchase, but has saved me ££££s: using Topcashback, Rewards Gateway and Quidco, using Money Saving Expert to earn the best savings, and Compare The Meerkat for the best energy and insurance deals, HotUKDeals for plenty of good deals and free stuff including cheap SIM card plans, and Mobiles.co.uk for super discounted Vodafone SIM

Not Reform

 Reform want to: 

- Replace the NHS with insurance-based healthcare model like the US

- Remove women's right to abortion, equal pay for women, sack women if they're pregnant, make it harder for women to get divorced, and tax women who don't or can't have children

- Cut taxes for wealthy multi millionaires and billionaires like Farage

- Lower minimum wage for younger people

- Allow sacking and rehiring people with a lower salary, and have more zero hour contracts

- Bomb primary schools in Iran

- Cut infrastructure spending by £150bn and use it to buy tanks

- Remove your right to protest and a fair trial


They've already lied to you:

- Raised council tax, said they would cut it 

- Immigration actually costs the taxpayer less than 1%, we actually get a net tax gain from migrants (cost £10bn/yr, raise £23/bn year). If we taxed the billionaires 2% more, that would fund migrants entirely

- Said they would cut waste, but spent £600k on a car park with 8 spaces for their senior employees and making council workers pay for their parking

- Promised to put up Christmas lights but didn't put up any because the union jack flags would be a fire hazard


The problem is the wealthy in their yachts, not asylum seekers desperately fleeing war. Class war not culture war. If you care about this, only Greens and Lib Dems want to introduce taxes on the top 1%.

Privacy

 "I don't mind the government watching everything I'm doing, I have nothing to hide" 

You're confusing privacy with secrecy.


Your privacy is no one else's business, leaks can harm you.

Secrets and lies hide the truth, they can harm others.


What might be harmless today might be used against you in the future. If everyone knew you were the #1 person buying the most Coca Cola in your local store, when it turns out Coca Cola support Trump, people may come after you too.


If you knew the government were tracking your every moment, wouldn't you act differently?


If your data is sold off, a third party or an AI might misinterpret your innocent intentions.


Just because you think there's nothing to hide, doesn't mean you're immune to scrutiny.

Trees

How does a tree know to grow its leaves in spring, and shed them in autumn? Does it keep a calendar? How sunny and cloudy it is? Does it remember the previous seasons?

You imagine there might be one instruction that says "grow" and another that says "drop off". As if it were two separate discrete conditions.


But it's even simpler than that. It is actually one system with two ends. It is bimodal.


The tree is monitoring the temperature and sunlight. As it gets warmer and brighter, a chemical says grow. As the weather cools and gets darker, the chemical auxin stops saying grow. It is a temperature-dependent instruction. And other chemical comes in to cut off the leaves and seal it.


It is akin to a sympathetic and parasympathetic pathway in the human body.

UK Mobile Networks Explained 2026

There are only 3 networks now: Vodafone/Three (recently merged), O2, EE. 

Tesco Mobile and Giffgaff uses O2's network. So if you have bad signal with O2, you'll have bad signal with any other MVNO that uses O2. 


You should go on the Ofcom website because they have maps of what signal is like for each of them over the UK.

I've been with Tesco, Vodafone, Giffgaff, Three, Lebara, Anywhere SIM, and Sky.


I would recommend Vodafone purely because they have the best network. I've done tests carrying several phones around with me using free SIM cards and testing the signal between Reading and Leatherhead, and Vodafone was the best. Then it's O2, and finally EE. This lines up with the Ofcom maps as well.

If you care more about customer service specifically, Tesco has the best, followed by Giffgaff. Three has the worst customer service. Vodafone customer service is not the best, however, they also have the best deals if you get a SIM via mobiles.co.uk SIM only that gives you cashback. I'm currently on £7/mo after cashback for 200GB data, unlimited texts and minutes. And I have an e-SIM installed with Sky (O2) for £1/mo for 1GB data/mo, as a backup in case of bad signal.


Also check out topcashback.co.uk as there are often good deals on there for new contracts, and you can combine it with mobiles.co.uk cashback

And finally, also check for SIM deals on HotUKDeals.com as sometimes Lebara and similar have deals for £1/mo for 100GB for 6 months.

Sauron is a bad project manager

You know you're an adult when you realise:

Sauron in Lord of the Rings only lost because of bad team management practices.

  • Orcs hate each other and are tortured = Toxic workplace culture
  • All power depended on the One Ring = Single point of failure
  • No defences at Mount Doom = Poor internal security protocols protecting key assets
  • Saruman launching his own war and not sharing intelligence = Hiring rogue contractors
  • Hobbits got through undetected = Arrogant blind spots in risk analysis
  • Assumed someone wanted to fight to take the ring, not destroy it = Poor assumptions

25 May 2026

Gluten Free + Vaccines

"They didn't have gluten free bread in the past so we don't need it now" 


They died. People with celiac disease just died. About 30% of all children died. Doctors were baffled for hundreds of years by malabsorption, until things like the banana diet ~1924.


"We never needed vaccines before" 


People just died. About half of the world population died from the plague. Vaccines save lives - just look at mortality graphs before and after vaccines were introduced.


---


This doesn't justify every superfood fad and health scam like lion's mane mushroom, detox or antioxidants. What separates pseudoscience from what to trust is meta analyses (study of studies).


Next time there's a new product promising a quick fix, do the research. 

26 February 2026

Dirty Business Channel 4 - Example Letter to MP

Wanted to express my disgust and anger at <your local water company> for dumping raw sewage into our rivers. The Channel 4 series Dirty Business was shocking how bad it is. I hope you get a chance to watch it. And looking at https://www.sewagemap.co.uk/ it's disgusting.

<add your personal experience with rivers and seas>

These companies need to be held to account and I support WASP (Windrush Against Sewage Pollution). https://www.windrushwasp.org/

The UK has the most privatised water anywhere in the world. It needs to be nationalised and put the £145 billions in profits back into fixing our treatment works.

It is incredibly relevant and important that <your local water company> is both made to pay for operating like a seriously organised crime unit committing thousands of offences in dumping untreated water - which is never legal despite heavy rain. And they must stop polluting our rivers as a priority. And we need to nationalise all the water companies. And ensure that the Environment Agency actually are funded correctly with powers and regulations that actually are actively used to fix things, not stand by and let these rich companies turn the UK into a cesspit.

People have died from E-coli and other infections caused by swimming in rivers and seas containing raw sewage. This is unacceptable and blood is on the hands of Thames Water, the Environment Agency, David Cameron and Liz Truss for cutting regulations.

15 February 2026

Myths 1

 Need to dispel some myths:

Keeping a straight back doesn't prevent a hunchback. It's more likely to actually cause a spinal injury. Movement every 20-60 minutes is the best way to avoid it. So don't police slouching, instead, change your posture regularly.


No particular food or dish is healthy or unhealthy. It's how often you have it. That's what makes up a diet. Too much of anything isn't good for you. The most important thing in your diet is variety, to ensure getting the necessary nutrients. Having the same meal every day leads to missing micronutrients. That isn't a licence for only eating ultra processed foods (bread, cereal, instant noodles, crisps, bacon, etc).


Intelligence is not linear, it's actually like a radial graph. No one is skilled at everything, everyone has gaps. Emotional intelligence is overlooked, neglecting someone's emotional needs like safety, security and trust leads to trauma. Don't shout and get angry, use compassion.


Exams and homework don't make better grades. Giving kids more time to be creative makes better results because standardised testing creates a radical, extreme version of right and wrong, killing our imagination and joy in play.


Nobody is perfect. Ever since we left the sea, our vision has never been better. Everyone makes mistakes, we shouldn't hold each to such high standards. Nitpicking imperfections, most likely of which are likely to be outside of our control, is toxic. Errors are data points for learning, not moral failings.


Sex is not binary. It is bimodal, because the two hormones overlap. It is the same as the sympathetic and parasympathetic pathway (adrenaline vs acetylcholine) and the same reason trees grow and shed their leaves: it is not two systems, it is all part of one system with two poles. Some women produce more testosterone than some men, meaning trans people should be included wherever they like.


Discipline and willpower don't work. You don't need to push yourself harder, you need to change your environment, so it's easier for you to do the good thing (if you have weights by your bed, you can pick them when you wake up) and harder to do the bad thing (don't keep snacks in the cupboard).


You can teach a dog new tricks. Neuroplasticity means we are designed to learn and adapt. You can keep your neuroplasticity up by doing new things (reading a new book, travelling somewhere new, etc) and problem solving (puzzles and quizzes) - and it reduces your chances of Alzheimer's.


Grief isn't linear, and it doesn't go away. You rebuild your life around it. There is no closure, or getting over it, there is only the courage to keep moving forwards, and finding an outlet for the pain. Grief is love preserving with nowhere to go.


Hard work != success. Success is down to starting conditions (like money), timing, and luck. For every 1 successful person you read about, 1000 people were doing the same things and didn't succeed. Many scientific discoveries were pure accidents.


Sleep isn't a waste, you need it to clear neurotoxins and regulate committing to long term memory.


"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is wrong, because every infection leaves scars in your organs, meaning things don't work as well as they used to.


Stress isn't all bad. Stress when you're doing something you care about (eustress) causes you you grow, like a muscle has to be stressed to grow more. Distress (overwhelming strain, like pushing yourself too hard at the gym) only heals by having time to recover.