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What's the craziest thing that has happened at your Christmas work party?
one year at a pub near liverpool street, the md decided it would be a great idea to do secret santa with a twist - everyone had to regift something weird from their desk. someone got a half-eaten bag of haribo, someone got a stress toy shaped like a brain, and the office manager ended up with a signed photo of a random bloke from the post room. the guy who brought it just shrugged and said "he's my mate dave, thought you'd like him"
honestly the wildest one i saw was at a pub near old street a few years back. someone from the finance team got on the karaoke machine and started singing all i want for christmas is you but they were so drunk they forgot the words and just started screaming the chorus. then a guy from IT tried to climb onto the bar to join in and slipped, knocked over a whole tray of pints, and just lay there on the floor laughing. the pub manager was not amused but the rest of us were crying
ngl the craziest one i saw was at a hotel in canary wharf, someone from sales thought itd be funny to ride the giant christmas tree decoration like a sled. they crashed it straight into the buffet table, turkey and trifle everywhere. security had to escort them out still covered in gravy
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What are some innovative ways to anonymously compare rental prices in a city?
SpareRoom's "rooms wanted" ads are underrated for this. people post what they're currently paying alongside what they want next, so you can scrape a rough sense of going rates by postcode without anyone knowing you looked. it skews young and flatshare heavy tho, so not much use if you're after 2-beds in zone 2.
Another one is just the depozit or tenancy deposit scheme data. not public-facing, but your council's housing officer can tell you median rents from deposit registrations if you email them under FOI. takes weeks, but its proper anon and nobody clocks u.
Rightmove and Zoopla only show asking rents, which are often 10 to 15 percent above what a place actually goes for, so they're a poor benchmark. The trick I've used is the ONS Price Index of Private Rents, which breaks things down to borough level and is genuinely anonymous since it's aggregate data, no listing or account needed. For something more granular, the London Renters Union runs a rent reporting tool where you submit what you're paying with your postcode and it maps it against others nearby, though the coverage is patchy outside the inner boroughs.
the openrent "rent check" thing is decent for zones 3-4 where the unions tool barely reaches. also worth checking the london.gov.uk planning portal for new build applications, they list "affordable" and market rent figures per unit in the viability assessments, which is basically the developer telling the council what they expect to charge. bit of a faff to dig through but its public, anonymous & nobody knows ur looking