Things that you are supposed to know about but don't.

[DoItForTheDucks]

Does anyone else feel completely lost when their hairdresser asks them what they want done with their hair? I've no idea beyond Please cut it, preferably with scissors and not garden shears and stop cutting before the point where I start to resemble a rather more elephantine Bruce Willis. They throw all these hairdressing jargon at me and I've no idea what any of it means. I look them up occasionally then immediately forget.

Likewise interior design. I have no idea what looks good with what and which colours complement each other. It is a complete mystery to me. I know that colour wheels exist but I'm none the wiser for them. I'd love to have an innate sense of style but it's never going to happen.

Finally. Jeans. There are so many types of them. Boyfriend, girlfriend, Mom, Step Brother, Ex MIL, Postman's wife etc. How do you know the difference?

What everyday things baffle you?

How electricity works

Nobody really understands electricity .

We just understand how to generate it and how to make use of it.

KFC -"is that a meal?" Eh? Yeah...it's dinner. DSs won't let me use the drive thru as I embarrass them with all my questions. I just want sodding chicken and chips.

Bitcoin - no clue

@tiredandgrumpy

We were recently stuck waiting to use the air to top up tyres behind a guy who tried to use the water hose on his tyres & couldn't fathom what was going wrong.

Can someone explain what the etiquette is with funeral cars please? As a driver, I guess it's just courteous to let them all past, but is there anything pedestrians are supposed to do? (This sounds silly, but the equivalent of standing & taking a hat off etc?). Feel rude not knowing, but I grew up in the middle of nowhere so we never saw them.

Not a silly question at all. I was taught to bow my head and be silent but I don’t know if what I’m doing is correct etiquette- interested

@Tolleshunt there is usually a little picture of the pump on the fuel level with an arrow that points to the side (or the image is on the side the pump is on).

Can someone explain what the etiquette is with funeral cars please? As a driver, I guess it's just courteous to let them all past, but is there anything pedestrians are supposed to do? (This sounds silly, but the equivalent of standing & taking a hat off etc?). Feel rude not knowing, but I grew up in the middle of nowhere so we never saw them.

You don't have to do anything, but stopping yo pay your respects is nice. I was in one of the cars following my FIL few years ago, and I was really touched to see people stop and bow their heads.

I was always taught never to overtake a hearse. That's made me late for work a few times!

@Bluewavescrashing

How to change oil and screenwash in a car. No idea

I don't think you change screenwash you just top up the water bottle and add some screenwash. I hope that's right cos it's what I've been doing for over 30 years!

I wanted to start a thread every time I think of one of these! Hopefully a medical professional can answer me -

when you're asked by a doctor/nurse/HCP whether you have any allergies do they mean food/drug allergies, or any? I always feel ridiculous saying 'hayfever' etc and then they write it down but surely it's completely irrelevant whether dogs or dust or pollen make me sneezy?!

Things like hair and nails confuse me too.

I dont really know what a gel or acrylic mani-pedi is. Just get rid of the rough skin and make it so my nails are the same colour 🤷‍♀️

@Mamette I learned quite recently that the number that they were supposed to be inflated to was just inside the little door that you open when putting the petrol in.

Whaaaaaaaaaat?! I usually just stick about 30 in and hope that works. I've been driving for 16 years. I always wondered how people knew!

I still have to get DH to order my new tyres for me. He knows how to read the sides of the tyres to buy the right ones. That is about the extent of his car knowledge though.

Eyebrows. Can't fathom why people are so obsessed with them or whether I should take any interest in mine.

Just about everything here (history, politics, car maintenance, mortgages, electricity, computers) as well as :
DIY - grew up in a flat in the US ; if something went wrong, you called the super. I can't even hang up a picture; I'm afraid of hitting a pipe/electric wire.
Related:
Hiring builders/handypeople. Almost every time I've hired someone, they've done a rubbish job and/or overcharged. If I try to use someone that's been recommended, they've invariably gone back to some country that's not this one. Our house is falling down around our ears but I can't get someone to fix it. Perhaps the garden will swallow it up first.

Thanks, I know, Wynston, but I even get confused and panicky about that, and overthink it so I start to wonder which perspective it’s from! I’ve got in a total panic about anything car related! 🤦‍♀️

The majority of things people have posted about can be learned. It depends about how much of a toss you give about them,or how much it is needed to help your daily living,Single parent. For instance in my past I had no reason to give a toss about car maintainence,or how to hang a picture,or fix a boiler, or tax,or budgeting. I've found YouTube invaluable! Extra knowledge like stuff re politics too, I try to keep informed and listen to current affairs online or on radio stations when doing rubbish domestic tasks . All the make up stuff is a mystery TBF, I attempt to look presentable,but I have no idea re contouring . I'm actually too old for that nonsense !

The rules of tennis.
Politics.
Astrophysics

Yes to the hairdresser thing

When you have the MOT done and say you need a new xxx, never heard of xxx sounds important also sounds expensive. I should probably shop around but I don't actually know what I'm shopping around for. So yeah garage will fit said part and you hand over the cash and in the back of your mind think I might have been able to get that fixed for £50 cheaper.

My boss knows the technical names for all screwdrivers, tape, nail you name it he knows the proper name for it. I'm there thinking it's a screwdriver. I know a flat head from a Philps but that's it.

@AriesTheRam You got me on the astrophysics lol. (But I do enjoy the infinite monkey cage with Prof Cox on t',wireless) Thing being none of us are perfect about everything and thing I've found about having to fend for self and being told I was rubbish at practical stuff by ex was that given time and determination I could actually try to figure out a lot of stuff,mostly successfully,did have a few big fails though 😁

@Mycatismadeofstringcheese I feel like we have the same hairdresser

Car maintenance is a bit hit and miss. Know how to top up the windscreen wash and check oil that's it.

I find it really hard to visualise spaces and maps / architect plans

Ordering prescriptions I always seem to fuck it up somehow.

@DaughterX no, we don't need to know about hayfever. Or dust. Or cats etc. I don't write any of those down, but I know some people do (probably because they're not sure of the significance and don't want to "miss anything") and it's not really a big deal. It's mainly food and medication allergies that we're interested in.

Loving these! Remotes for the TV. Why are there three? Why do I always pick the wrong one? I don't use our second TV at all, as that's also attached to xbox and other stuff the kids use. Just too much. If it was left to me I'd probably just use a portable dvd player and dvds.

Lots of DIY stuff like hanging a picture properly or putting up shelves. I understand the theory but can’t seem to get my hands to do what they should! But I am ok at the basics of decorating.

I’m ok on hairdressers (though I cut my own hair), jeans, coffee...

My nemesis is complex personal finances - I’m 48 and can manage a budget well, I’ve had to! But I’d love to understand pensions, isa’s, credit cards and life assurance better.

I’m pretty good on car maintenance - tyre pressure your manual will tell you the correct pressures but yes it’s good to have someone show you how to check this and “sense” roughly when you’ve put enough air in etc

No clue on betting or maths beyond arithmetic, percentages and VERY basic algebra. Totally clueless on things like geometry

Gardening - out of my entire family of origin I am utterly useless at this! I can’t even keep cut flowers alive for long! Again I know the theory can even answer quiz questions but seemingly just being in the vicinity of a plant causes it to die within 24 hours!

Geography - ok on Uk and Europe, bit less good on USA, struggle with small countries in other continents, and especially struggle with “new” countries - why is “new” in quotations ? Because “new” includes former ussr nations and those countries that were part of Yugoslavia etc confuses the hell out of me!

@thankyoupeter I think it’s basically that the rarer something is the more value it has kind of so if they make more money the more there is the less value it has?

Dd is AMAZING at modern make up can do the whole contouring thing, fabulous eyeliner etc...she’s SO good she’s regularly asked to do friends and even their siblings make up for special occasions even weddings - me, I’m stuck in the 80’s! Concealer, foundation, powder then I add colours (I do refrain from stripes of purple and hot pink and electric blue mascara though) and I can’t do eyeliner the same on both eyes!

I can sew, cross stitch, knit (at a basic level don’t know how to follow a pattern but can cast on/off and can do knit or purl), do basic mending/alterations.

I can play most card games but I’d LOVE to learn to play poker as the psychological aspect fascinates me!

@daughterx ex hcp here -

Allergies - mention ALL allergies as you never know if it will become relevant and it gives a complete picture

@ginwithasplashoftonic - go to council mot centre rather than a commercial mechanic - less likely to get ripped off as they don’t make money getting you to have work done/things replaced. But yes understanding the basics of how a car works so you KNOW if they say “the right phalange needs replaced and it’s £££” you know enough to go “this model doesn’t have a right phalange” or “really? I thought they were only £” still too many mechanics ripping off women drivers/customers

When I see a hearse when I'm driving I always turn the radio off. I don't know why, it doesn't make any difference to the family concerned but it just feels wrong to have music blaring out near a group of funeral cars.

The thing I get confused about is debt. So the U.K. has all this debt. Who have we borrowed from? The USA? But they have shit loads of debt too, so who do they owe? Is every country in debt? Are we all just passing the money around the world in some never ending debt loop? I know some countries are in debt to the U.K. so do we use that as collateral for our debt?
What happens if we don't repay it? Can some bank or some other country repossess our assets?

I don't think I'd understand even if someone explained it to me. I'm crap at sums and financial stuff.

Any post office stuff except buying stamps or sending a letter abroad. Everyone else seems to know what to do for whatever service they're there for, as if they do it regularly. Haven't the foggiest about how to send a parcel, for example, as any parcel I send are done via a third party like Amazon.

Until recently, it was online shopping for clothes, as I have always preferred to try stuff on. So never had to return anything and had to ask on here how you go about it, and charges for delivery etc. I started a thread on it here and got great advice. And then became skint as a result.

How to make coffee

How to change a tyre.

The solar system. I remember studying it at school and learning the order of planets etc but I find it mind boggling thinking about things like orbits of the earth and the angle of its axis, and the moon, and why you can see certain things in the night sky only at particular times. DS is some kind of physics genius and is very patient with me. He's explained loads of times and I still go "so does the moon go round the sun or the earth?" and things like that. The minute I start to think about stuff like distances outside our galaxy, my brain just explodes and I almost feel I have vertigo. It's no good explaining to me about light years. How can light years be a thing??! It's only on Star Trek!