Mutter Bundle #31: Wizard’s Revenge. Patient’s Ungratefulness.
27 Jan 2026 16:51
A ScotRail train to Springburn. Milngavie, Scotland.
28 Jan 2026 22:58
— It’s always you and your bright ideas. “Let’s dump on that baldie, let’s dump on that baldie, it’ll be a laugh…” Happy now? Laughing?
— How was I supposed to know he was a wizard?
31 Jan 2026 19:11
My spusu (https://spusu.co.uk) review on Trustpilot:
Genuinely a breath of fresh air for mobile communications in this part of the world. No inflated hype, no nonsensical gimmicks, no pretending a free bake or a cinema ticket would make up for poor service. They just seem to focus on what a mobile network should be about and quietly get on with it.
As a result, you get a pretty reliable service with decent signal, call catcher, excellent call forwarding management that can be done from within your online account even if you forgot your handset, and a genuinely brilliant take on visual voicemail where messages land in your email inbox as audio attachments.
Almost old fashioned, in the best possible sense, customer service. A real person answers the phone without making you wrestle with all that press one, press two rubbish.
Seen some folks complaining about not receiving OTP or verification texts, but honestly have experienced zero issues myself. I ported my number to spusu and verification texts have worked every single time.
If anything, the service could benefit from letting users port numbers and change plans directly through their account. Well, maybe there are a couple of odd quirks that I have not mentioned purely because they did not seem that important to remember.
Overall, though, a really strong showing. Keep improving and keep growing.
https://uk.trustpilot.com/reviews/697e1fdfb65ae7604417680e
01 Feb 2026 18:30
Swansea, Wales.
04 Feb 2026 14:30
My giffgaff Community post on whether giffgaff can really be your only mobile provider:
giffgaff is my main provider for calls, but for data I mostly use another network’s SIM. Sorry to say it, but the data experience on giffgaff is very hit and miss, and that’s me being polite.
https://community.giffgaff.com/d/34519041-giffgaff-as-main-or-backup-mobile-service/10
06 Feb 2026 21:05
How many times has some receptionist asked you to confirm your details while there were half a dozen other folks hovering around in the same or a nearby queue?
I mean, full, proper confirmation. Name, address with the postcode, date of birth, phone number, the lot. Or the most of it.
Happens all the time, does it not?
Happens all the time and every time it does, my paranoia gets tuned to the max 🤨 😬 😁
07 Feb 2026 12:33
I am probably a bit slow in noticing this, but can't help being curious as to why, when checking broadband availability (https://www.giffgaff.com/broadband#discover-broadband), giffgaff does not offer the option to use the address already saved on your profile, instead asking you to enter your postcode, etc.
I mean, if you're already logged in, why not use the address already on file?
11 Feb 2026 13:35
My giffgaff Community post on whether giffgaff voicemail might feel somewhat old tech in 2026.
Is it just me, or is giffgaff voicemail starting to feel a bit last decade? I mean, call catcher (a text when your phone is off and someone calls but does not leave a message) and Visual Voicemail are hardly cutting-edge in 2026, and I would argue that these days they are closer to "must-have-by-default" than just "nice-to-have".
Some MVNOs that can be considered direct giffgaff competitors, such as VOXI and 1pMobile, offer both, while some others, like SMARTY, at least provide call catcher.
I do realise this has been mentioned before, and more than once, but perhaps another gentle nudge will do no harm?
https://community.giffgaff.com/d/34531866-time-for-a-voicemail-refresh
20 Feb 2026 14:16
Please don’t hate me. A wee rant incoming.
Actually, not even a rant. A question. A hypothetical question, shall we call it that? All resemblances to real people and events are, of course, entirely coincidental. Blah, blah. Blah, blah.
So.
Say there’s a hypothetical patient.
In 2023, this hypothetical patient has a hypothetical CT scan of the abdomen. The report notes a hypothetical lymph node measuring 17mm. Hypothetically, a touch enlarged, but not setting off any alarm bells. Fair enough.
Fast-forward to 2025. Two more hypothetical CT scans take place. The first now suggests that this same hypothetical node measures 26mm.
That, quite reasonably, warrants further hypothetical investigation. Including a hypothetical biopsy. Not of the original node (as that one is far too risky to reach), but of a neighbouring lymph node. The biopsy result? Hypothetical grade one follicular lymphoma. Which, while often described as “the best of the worst”, remains, hypothetically, cancer.
And during the CT-guided biopsy, the original lymph node at the centre of this entire hypothetical saga is measured again. Now hypothetically 28mm.
Then comes January 2026. Another hypothetical CT scan.
The report states that everything is “stable.”
Stable. Stable is good. But... There is no mention whatsoever of the actual size of that persistently monitored, previously slowly-growing, hypothetical lymph node.
And so, to those understandably wondering, “What is your blimming question?”... Here it is:
If a hypothetical patient asks whether the current size of that lymph node can be confirmed, are they unreasonable? Is it unreasonable to want to understand the numbers? The trajectory? The dynamics? Is there any need to hypothetically respond with, “Most people are happy when told everything is stable”? Should being grateful for “stable” cancel out the desire for specifics?