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Original poster

Things you really should have known sooner...

516 replies

TheDodgyEnd · 10/10/2017 12:50

I’ve just learned that Casablanca is not in South America at all and is, in fact in Morocco! Who knew 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️
Anyone else got any tidbits they learned far too late in life?

OP posts:
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Original poster
TheDodgyEnd · 11/10/2017 14:58

@OhOurBilly you really have made this thread pure genius - I’m so glad I posted purely for your tale!!!

Right I’m off to buy a terracotta tortoise to immortalise your story and to give my home a bit of bal-ash 😂

Thanks for all your posts everyone Star

OP posts:
OhOurBilly · 11/10/2017 14:49

(also, I just googled whether they were amphibians or reptile so not to show myself up further than already )

OhOurBilly · 11/10/2017 14:47

In fairness, if someone started talking to me about Eritrea or Djibouti I would probably adopt a serious face and nod knowingly as I'd definitely assume it was a skin condition until I googled it.

So maybe it's not such a surprise that I'm married to a man who thinks terracotta is reptilian... Shock Hmm

keepondreaming · 11/10/2017 13:53

Portsmouth (Portsea Island) is absolutely entirely surrounded by water and you have to cross a bridge on one of the three roads to get onto it.

It is certainly possible to circumnavigate in a boat and this is done quite regularly by scout troops and sailing clubs. There a couple of low bridges along the Hilsea creek (you may have to duck at high tide!) but it’s perfectly doable!

Eolian · 11/10/2017 13:35

Dh is a history teacher and gets asked all sorts of jaw-droppingly dim questions by kids (most of which are a bit forgivable because of their age). But once he was doing a big timeline of historical periods for a GCSE class and one kid piped up "So when did all the stuff in Lord of the Rings happen?" Shock There was a stunned silence, then the whole class fell about laughing.

Original poster
TheDodgyEnd · 11/10/2017 13:21

Foggy it just made perfect sense to be honest 🙄 and I just assumed ball-ache was two separate words so when I saw ballache written on MN I thought ‘wow, loads of people know this word but it’s always out of context’ ....then the penny dropped and I skulked away sheepishly.

OP posts:
Foggymist · 11/10/2017 13:19

Thanks, that's hilarious Grin How/where did that meaning come from for you??

Original poster
TheDodgyEnd · 11/10/2017 13:17

@Foggymist

“Strictly is jam packed full of ballache”

Or...

“Wow look at the ballache that dancer employed during that routine”

Grin
OP posts:
Foggymist · 11/10/2017 13:09

@TheDodgyEnd can you use bal-ash in a sentence please? Grin

Waytroze · 11/10/2017 12:56

My mum used to pronounce portakabin as por-tack-a-bin, rather than por-ta-cab-in (as in, a portable cabin).

The look on her face when she heard me say the word was amazing. You could almost see the penny drop.

The road to MIL's house passes a large yard with a lot of old portakabins. DH and I call it the por-tack-a-bin gravy-yard.

Original poster
TheDodgyEnd · 11/10/2017 12:48

@MissionItsPossible bal-ash was not my finest moment Blush considering I’m 33 I’ve used ballache to describe many a fancy thing.

OP posts:
MissionItsPossible · 11/10/2017 12:40

I am crying at 'bal-ash' being a fancy word!! Grin

I was giving a speech and kept using the word epitome but pronounced it "epp-ee-tome" (tome rhyming with home). Someone corrected me and it was to my shame I had actually heard that word but never put two and two together.

poppym12 · 11/10/2017 12:10

Yes holdthewine! I thought Asdle was a supermarket just in Bristol until my Somerset-born partner explained that his mom actually shopped in Asda but the random L pops up in many words.

Original poster
TheDodgyEnd · 11/10/2017 11:41

@holdthewine ahh yes sorry, idiot here didn’t take into account regional accents! (I’m very south east)

Do threads in chat get deleted? I don’t want to lose the record of #terracottatoise

OP posts:
holdthewine · 11/10/2017 11:32

I did Nikki’s quiz and got 54% lots I knew but couldn’t spell accurately (including many of the ‘Stans just mentioned). Not sure I trust a quiz which lists Cyprus as in Asia though! Sucker for a quiz!

Enjoying this thread as on enforced rest through illness. (Hence doing quizzes!) Just love terracotta - I’m sure it’s all about terrapins and I can see how your brain made that connection and kept it.

cjt110 · 11/10/2017 11:26

I asked last week where do Melons actually grow and you never see them. They grow on the ground apparently. I'm 30 and this was like an epiphany.

steppemum · 11/10/2017 11:22

I've also recently learned that Azerbaijan was part of the Soviet Union. I didn't even realise it had a border with Russia...

Lots of parts of the former soviet union didn't have borders with Russia, all of central asia for example (Kyrgystan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan)

NikiBabe · 11/10/2017 11:15

@holdthewine i didnt mean absolutely everyone. But how can some people have never heard of Eritrea or Djibouti.

holdthewine · 11/10/2017 11:10

Thedodgyend yes I guess you’re right but in the West Country we say “baul-cunny” instead of “balcunny” with a hard ‘a’ as in anatomy. It’s all about au instead of a I guess, not the L. Though people from Bristol (like my DM) but an L in words which don’t have one so area becomes areal...

And Holmes the surname was always pronounced with it’s L in my school.

Nikibabe I can only speak for myself but my Geography is actually excellent thanks (in the sense of where things are on a map, I’m not a Geographer) but don’t we all have mental blocks?

NikiBabe · 11/10/2017 11:09

Try this quiz. www.jetpunk.com/quizzes/how-many-countries-can-you-name

Or this one

www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/22274/countries-of-africa-quiz

I can usually get all of the Africa on time but run out of time on world.

OhOurBilly · 11/10/2017 11:07

TellMeItsNotTrue I may fashion the baby some kind of plant pot/tortoise hybrid costume and present him with that. it would not be the first time I have made a fancy dress costume from giant plant pots

NikiBabe · 11/10/2017 10:56

I honestly cant believe peoples geography is so shocking.

ToucanPlayAtThatGame · 11/10/2017 10:53

My DP just informed me there is a country called Djibouti. Pronounced Dja booty. It's not for from Eritrea apparently lol

x2boys · 11/10/2017 10:52

holdthewineGrin

SteamingPistons · 11/10/2017 10:51

Lol 2nd, tbh I had absolutely no idea how they managed to make beef so fruity! I don't know why I assumed mince meat was beef specifically, probably because it was brown and referred to as meat 😂

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