MetaFilter

There’s always the New Forest which is beautiful, amazing for hiking and wild ponies everywhere. It is a little bit touristy but that’s not a problem as soon as you walk into the countryside.

You can get there from Reading by changing at Basingstoke to Brockenhurst, should take 1.5 hours at most.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 2:02 AM on July 1, 2022

I’d recommend the “How to train your dragon” audiobook series by Cressida Cowell. My 8 year old son loves these books and the narrator is David Tennant, having a great time. Note that the plot and many of the characters are completely different to the films!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 6:26 AM on July 4, 2019

How about the New Forest? It’s a beautiful area with small towns and villages, moors and woods with lots of easy cycling. You can get a train from Waterloo to Brockenhurst in about 90 minutes, where you’ll find hotels, pubs and cafes near to the station. Also: lots of wild ponies!
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 9:47 AM on June 19, 2018

I have a Eufy Robovac 11 which cleans our downstairs (tiled) floor. We occasionally bring it upstairs to have a go at the carpets.

It is generally pretty good. It sometimes gets stuck under things and struggles with very deep carpet. Cables or thin cord materials sometimes get wrapped around the rotors. It's easy to fix, but better if you don't have many of these in the house.

Emptying it is easy. As others have mentioned you'll need some way… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 6:15 AM on November 10, 2017

Would it be possible to use a wax seal somewhere on the box so that any opening of the lid requires the wax to be cracked? This would also make a jewellery box opening seem more special.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 3:07 AM on October 5, 2017

Thanks for all the responses. We settled into a pattern of five minutes of TV watching while holding a small ice pack, then pricking the sides of the fingers using different fingers each time. The suggestion to let the arm rest at the side and then squeezing down the arm was useful as well. There was still a fair bit of reluctance for the first prick but on the occasions where we didn't get a good blood output he seemed happy enough to get another needle prick. He got a small sweet reward after… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 1:15 PM on July 30, 2017

I'd recommend getting a few small containers with tight lids, some black duct tape and small powerful magnets. You can assemble these into black magnetic capsules which can be stuck to the back of signposts, railings and so forth. They are very hard to find unless you know where to look. You can seal your paper inside so it's protected from any bad weather.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 3:56 AM on July 24, 2017

I would head to the New Forest - close to Salisbury / Southampton and accessible by train or bus. The villages are small and surrounded by heathland and woodland through which wild ponies roam. There are plenty of good walking routes.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 6:22 AM on June 21, 2017 marked best answer

Agreed, responsible journalism and reporting on suicide is important according to the research. The Samaritans in the UK have their own media guidelines.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 7:11 AM on May 19, 2017

Box Hill is perfectly doable with some practice. It has a very steady gradient - choose an easy gear and cycle at a steady pace. Change to an easier gear if you're getting out of breath.

I would, however, suggest looking for alternative routes that avoid the bulk of the hill as you may be able to do a longer route very much faster.

This area of Surrey is heaving with people on bikes and so I would hope that the local infrastructure and… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 7:47 AM on May 5, 2017 marked best answer

If you are not in the same geographic area, it might be helpful to install something like TeamViewer next time you are there. This will allow you to easily connect and remotely control her PC and figure out what's going on.

I also suggest that Google Photos might be the way forward, especially if she can upload her current set of photos and let it get to work automatically indexing and grouping them. Ultimately what some people are looking for is a way to find photos and… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 2:20 PM on March 18, 2017

If motivation is an issue you could try making it into a game - challenging yourself to hit certain levels. Various apps help here - e.g. Charity Miles, The Walk, CoachMe or by using a tracker like a FitBit.

Also, there's games like Ingress where you have to walk in the real world to find virtual stuff - I play and find I walk a lot more than I would otherwise.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 8:39 AM on May 9, 2016 marked best answer

Shopping: the centre of York has good / interesting shops. Leeds and Harrogate also cater for small amounts of shopping interspersed with cafes. Or if you're after large malls, Meadowhall outside Sheffield is about an hour away.

For things to do, have you considered the Turkish Baths in Harrogate? These were recently restored to their former glory.

Alternatively you could aim for historical houses - for example Castle Howard or Beningbrough Hall.
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 4:25 AM on February 23, 2016

I cycle to work once a week - from Surbiton to the south side of the City.

It looks like you should have a relatively nice ride. As previously mentioned, both cyclestreets.net and Google Maps are good for navigation. If you like you can get a handlebar mount for your phone which can help with navigation, as long as you don’t get distracted by it. I have a Quad Lock case for my iPhone which is fantastic.

As others have mentioned visibility is… [more]
posted to Ask MetaFilter by Stark at 7:49 AM on February 9, 2016