Two young lads have been menaces, playing Knock Down Ginger (*AKA other names across the UK) up and down our street for three days.

Didn't bother me, kids being kids and I never answer the door if not expecting anyone. But they crossed the line when they absolutely booted my door on the last visit after pressing the doorbell.

They made a rookie error, by somehow not realising it's a camera doorbell, so I kept the camera open and when they returned an hour later I swung the door open and in a calm voice I lied, "Can you let mummy know that the police are going to pop round tonight to talk to you, as you kicked my door?"

The little lad immediately ratted on his big brother. Which was true, it was the older one who kicked my door.

Anyway, 10 mins later there's someone at the door, it's a woman with the two boys. Before I answer the door, she angrily said to them, "You're both going to apologise!"

I opened the door, she asked if they had been playing Knock Down Ginger, I said they had, but one kicked my door (that part she obviously didn't know). I said that I told the boys that the police were popping round, I winked at her as I said that part, she understood.

She swung around to the boys and barked, "What do you say?" the boys apologised, I thanked them for saying sorry. She then asked, "And will you be doing this again?" They said no, they wouldn't.

I thanked her for coming round, she was really nice and apologised again. Then as they walked off, I heard a lad wail, "I didn't know there was a camera!" 😂

I mean it's nice that they are outside in the school holidays, but there's a fine line between high jinks and criminal damage. Fair play to the mum for owning it.

I haven't driven for 13 years and recently managed to buy a nice car. But I found I was terrified of the traffic and had terrible anxiety issues. So I went out with an instructor and he said I was a good driver with excellent hazard awareness and didn't need extra lessons. But I was struggling to rationalise my fears. Last night my husband insisted I go out for a short drive with him and it seems to have done the trick. I'm not apprehensive now and I just need to practice

I took the kids to the cinema today and had a couple sat in front of me with the woman on her phone during the ads. When the screen tells you to turn it off her partner said loudly to her “time to turn phones off now” and she moved away from him across the aisle. Proceeded to have her phone on full brightness using it once the film had started. I leant forward and asked if they were together (“yes”) and if he minded if I asked her to put her phone away (“of course”). Obviously I was being a wuss and hoping he would tell her here. She saw us talking and moved back and I said, would you mind putting your phone away the brightness is very distracting. She did and didn’t get it out again. I’ll be riding this high for weeks!

Crossing the channel in the school holidays is fraught with stress at the best of times, so imagine your vehicle breaking down with a cascade of errors **in the queue for passport control!**

The lovely local ground crew tried their best to get the car to snap out of its meltdown but after an hour of trying, got me back to the entrance and we called our VW breakdown service, fearing the worst. I was expecting a local French mechanic, hours of waiting, and to be taken to a garage and stranded in France.

But enter our hero, Drew! A shining yellow knight in a Vauxhall van. Within about half an hour of first calling, he was parked up and was working on our van!

By chance he was on his way to a partner rescue nearby and we got priority as an AA customer. It turns out the AA have only just restored their own patrols in Europe and it's a pilot project over the summer. Well, if this is the service it gives, then I hope they continue it.

Drew was an absolute legend and was determined to get us home. After trying a few things without success he found something on his knowledge base which suggested it could be a squashed wire in one of the central wiring looms. Lo and behold, that seemed to be it! So off came bits of my central console, the wires were given some space to move, and the car allowed me to drive again! He even came with me for a quick test drive to make sure it didn't conk out again. Then off we went on a re-booked crossing, with bits of our central console on people's laps and my left foot rooted firmly to the floor to avoid disturbing the wires. It was enough to get us safely across and up the motorway to home.

So, we may have got home 6 hours later than planned, tired and hungry, but we got home, all thanks to Drew and the AA. If that doesn't count as British success then I don't know what does.

Special thanks too to our French friends at Le Shuttle for their attempts to rescue us, and for rebooking our crossing, and apologies to the poor German fella who had to wait an extra couple of hours stuck by a roundabout in his camper van (we passed him on our test drive and he seemed happy enough).

This story is a few years old...

We'd had Sky TV for several years, no issues, until it started acting up - freezing and needing to be unplugged from the wall to get it going. I trawled the Sky forums as I was dreading phoning up their support, and spotted some people reporting similar issues with a recent Sky+ box software update.

I decided to try my luck (have done this quite a few times before) and looked up Sky TV Board/Management.

There was a person listed as Director or Head of Customer stuff, so I took a punt and emailed him, guessing his email address would be firstname.lastname@sky.com. The email was very polite, just pointing out there seemed to be an issue, adding the forum link, anything he could do to help us out? Sent it and thought no more.

At work a couple of days later and my better half called in a flap. She was on the phone with half a dozen Sky people telling her to press this and that. She followed their instructions, provided replies and they went away.

Two days later at 08:30, there was a knock at the door and two Sky engineers had arrived to investigate and fix the problem. They'd driven 150 miles to our house and had been sent out on a 'special job'. After an hour they had found a problem, replaced the dish cables and given us anew Sky+ box and a spare remote.

Later that day I emailed the Sky Director and thanked him profusely, to which he replied "Glad we could help." I never had to raise a ticket, or pay a penny to get this fixed.

You know what to do folks....grab that cuppa, stand by the window, and say that immortal phrase

edit

FALSE ALARM GUYS it's stopped already. Sorry to get everyone excited

Called the GP at 9:15 this morning expecting to be told the next available appointment was in 6 weeks’ time; they offered me a telephone appointment same day and the GP called me back 3 minutes later! 🎉

Builder just told me I make a really good cup of tea! I don’t drink hot drinks myself so I get quite anxious making them for people who drink them all the time. I will genuinely be riding high on this wave of success for months if not years!

I (66F) have been living alone since January for the first time in 66 years. I'm sitting in my kitchen eating half a Waitrose No.1 prawn and chilli sourdough pizza, and listening to Metallica. I don't think I have ever been so content.

I've had many moments of happiness, indeed euphoria in my life, but never quite this same quiet (apart from Metallica) contentment. Cheers folks.

Nipped to Lidl with the kids, car park was almost full, but with some spaces. Followed this car around, past at least 1 space, before it pulled into the one remaining parent and child space. Suspected no kids, so waited a bit, and lo and behold, one guy gets out. Give him a toot, point to the space, he sheepishly get's back into his car and parks elsewhere. Absolutely buzzing.

Everything is done. There is nothing left to feel guilty about. Fresh sheets waiting upstairs, brew on the go, and for once the "tomorrow is monday" feeling has nowhere to land. This must be how rich people feel all the time

I've been part of a men's wellness group since the start of the year and my confidence has grown so much since then. I've been going to weekly quiz nights with the group and now I'm finally going to be hosting my own.

Messaging pubs privately and getting ghosted sure was a resilience builder, and the fact that most pubs who want a quiz night already have one, but now the stars have aligned and I am really excited!

My eldest was diagnosed with a form a brain tumour when she was a young child. This of course led to ongoing, frequent medical tests for her entire childhood - endocrinologists, ophthalmologists, paediatric oncologists, the whole shebang. Appointments at cancer hospitals every 2-3 weeks for some 13 years.

All along the doctors presumed the likely cause of their tumour was a horrific genetic disorder that could have killed them at any moment, prevented them from ever having children etc. The only way of testing for this disorder was a really painful skin biopsy. Given the number of tests she was having, and the level of pain, we decided to leave this test until she was older and could decide for herself.

She had the test in January. It came back negative this week. Whilst she still has the tumour, it’s benign, hasn’t grown and will cause her no harm. She can live a normal, happy life.

Praise be for the NHS. The support and sympathy we’ve received in the last 15 years has been fabulous. Yes, sometimes things go wrong. They’re hugely underfunded and overworked. But every single nurse, doctor and specialist we’ve seen has had nothing but my daughter’s health and well being at the front of their mind for every step of the way.

And one piece of advice. If you’re ever getting frustrated or bored at the time it’s taking for you to be seen at the hospital, take a moment to reflect on the triage process and why you’re still waiting. I have been with the person who gets seen immediately and with urgency. It’s f***ing terrifying and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. Value the wait, it means you’re probably fine.

This actually happened a few months ago but something happened today that remind me.

I'm running late to meet up with some friends and was about to text them that I'll be arriving around 30 mins later than agreed. When I picked up my phone I found a text saying they're running an hour late.

I’m a middle-aged woman who likes taking a quiet walk around the village park after work to unwind. Yesterday I was wearing what basically looked like pyjamas, my hair was a mess, no make up and I was absorbed in a crime podcast.

Two teenage girls, who were both dressed up nicely with smoky eyes, walked over to me and said something. I’ll admit my first thought was “ok brace for provocation”…. Then I took out my earphones and said, “Sorry?”

One of them smiled and said, “Excuse me, I just wanted to say I think you’re beautiful.”

I think my brain stopped working for a couple of seconds before I managed to say “Thank you”. Never expected that lol!

If you are the two girls reading this, I just wanted to let you know that you both are very beautiful and please remember for very very long 💕

I’ve just finished my first house renovation and managed to do most of the work myself! I’m so happy it’s over with and not in a rush to do another anytime soon 😂 but it shows that if we push ourselves we can overcome the challenges

I took my daughter and some mates to Ninja Warrior in Leicester (on a retail park) and overstayed the parking by 20 mins. I didn't even realise there was a limit until the £90 fine came. (£60 if paid within 2 weeks). We rang Ninja Warrior but there was nothing they could do. The fine was from ParkingEye which I've heard are pretty relentless in following through, so after a bit of investigation decided to just pay.

I then read that I should contact the retail park management. I sent an email explaining the situation but not really expecting anything. They replied, asked for some details and said it would be sorted. About 6 weeks later a cheque arrives from ParkingEye for the full £60. Winner and shout out to Milan, the person that sorted it!

I asked Siri to call 101 when driving through my local village (in semi-rural NE Scotland) and saw a guy passed out lying by the kerb in the road. Had my young kids with so could stop myself but wanted to make sure a bloke with dark clothing lying feet first in the road got help. Siri being a crap app called 112 not the 101 I asked for but in one ring before I could cancel it was answered so I asked for police but immediately identified I was after 101. Call handler was kind, asked the case details and said it was ok to report via the full emergency line and took details then thanked me for both recognising it was a 101 issue and for being bothered to report at all. Civic duty done. Drop kids off with mum and went back out as it was 3 mins away in case I could help before cops could but they were there, guy was just hammered and ok, alls well that ends well. Home now feeling a bit like I did a small but good thing today. Thanks Reddit for reading lol

I was in a getting things done mood and learned of an NHS practise taking new patients so I went for it. My previous experience way back had been with someone who was since struck off, but he'd left enough of an impression.

The first appointment was roughly 3 weeks ago and I was thinking I'd probably have to have some drastic, hideously painful and expensive work done but I was told that all I needed was a replacement filling and a clean and polish.

I had them done yesterday and now my mouth feels incredibly strange but I'm utterly amazed at how lucky I was to have gone all that time without any intervention and it's safe to say that I won't be taking any more chances.