I've had a Gaggia Classic for a few years and over the last few months I've been having issues with the flow from the group head.

I think it might be an issue with the solenoid valve. There was some guidance I saw online about flicking rapidly from the group head to the steam wand, as this forces water through and clears any blockages. And yes this does seem to work - if I rapidly flick the switches the water suddenly flows a lot faster from the group head. But it's not a permanent fix.

I've descaled it several times. Is there something else I can do, or does the valve need replacing?

Do dogs sometimes recall a time a few years back where they failed to catch a frisbee?

Often people will ask me to share my Amazon wishlist for birthdays/christmas. It's pretty convenient for them, and it'll mean I'm getting something I'm genuinely after.

However I'm trying to avoid Amazon going forward. Are there any websites you'd recommend that allow you to share a wishlist which collates links from other sites?

Gift vouchers can be nice presents, but if you think about it, you're paying for the opportunity to lock in your money forcing the recipient to shop at that particular company. And more often than not, the recipient will then spent a little more than the value of the voucher in order to use it all. If you'd given them money instead, the outcome would have been the same, but this way the company gets your cash in advance. I have to hand it to whoever came up with the idea, it's a capitalist's wet dream!

And pre-orders (I'm specifically thinking of videogames here), this did make sense once upon a time when you were buying a physical copy that may have had limited stocks. But nowadays for digital pre-orders... what's the point? You're putting your trust in the company that the game will be polished from the start. At least with something like a Kickstarter, you're helping to fund development of the game. But here what exactly do you get out of it? Maybe some additional pre-order cosmetics that'll you use once? The concept is bizarre to me.

Initially I was thinking 'ah this is a bit pretentious', but I soon found it quite charming, and the production quality/shot compositions really impressed me!

So I wanted a copy of the board game Carcassonne as it's a game I've played with friends before and loved. For things like this I (like many others) would gravitate towards Amazon.

But after some research I found that my local board game cafe sells copies of the game cheaper than anywhere online. Yesterday I popped by, grabbed a copy and had a nice chat with the owner about the game and their favourite expansions. This was a significantly better experience than buying the game online from a soulless corporation, and my money has gone to an great local company rather than a billionaire. Why did we give up the joy of shopping locally and in-person for convenience?

Similarly I was looking out for a black denim jacket in my size. Instead of going to a big clothing retailer I checked out some charity shops, and I found exactly what I wanted for a fraction of the price with the money going towards charity.

Going forward I'm going to avoid Amazon and any big American companies wherever possible. Hopefully others will do the same :)