Come and tell me your dull and unexciting news 12: Calmly through the day (

[MissConductUS]

I've started a new one. Please join us and share the boring and mundane things happening in your world. It will be calming for all.

I’m currently sitting outside in the sunshine, and have taken my hoodie off! I’m just wearing a jersey maxi dress and it’s actually really comfortable

It's lovely here, very spring like. Sadly I've spent it in bed

I know what you mean about the running socks spudlet. I hope you have many happy miles in them.

eggy I'm a Duolingo user and haven't found that particularly, but then I've not tried any others to compare it to. I heard about Sound Garden on radio 4 this morning and they suggested that it was good if you were learning a language, so downloading that is my mission for tomorrow.

squirrel are the men actually there or just in your head?

I use Duolingo together with Babel.

These are my favorite running socks, don't know if you can get them in the UK:

thorlo.com/collections/running-socks

As you can see they are specially padded in the impact zones. They are also really comfortable and warm. I've been wearing them around the house with these recovery sandals:

www.hokaoneone.com/womens-recovery-sandals/ora-recovery-slide/1099674.html

And speaking of running, I see my orthopedist tomorrow at 8:00. I think I'm probably done running unless I have the surgery, which will leave me on crutches for two months. I've been running for over 40 years, so it's not surprising. I'm also rather enjoying the stationary bike.

My Aldi ones have been pretty good for the prices must say, but they’ve done many miles, been through just about every soggy substance you can imagine encountering on a country trail run in a farming area and have been washed probably a hundred times or more and they’re starting to show their age... these are my new socks:

www.asics.com/gb/en-gb/running-density-cushioning-sock/p/130885-0001.html?

Hoping for great things!

Sorry to hear about your running woes @MissConductUS - I hope they get you back on the road again. Perhaps you need to embrace trail running - less impact than tarmac (although considerably higher levels of squelch)! Come to the grubby side

Spudlet, those Asic socks look just like my Thorlos. I'm sure you'll love them.

If the ortho tells me I can probably drive and go up and down stairs on the crutches after the surgery I might have it this summer.

It's about to start snowing here again. Just one to three inches this time, fortunately.

Now you all have me looking at socks - I don't need any.

Lovely weather here today. I even saw one tiny flower.

I’ve gone rainbow mad since being given a beautiful stained glass one, it’s in the window so want rainbow towels for the bathroom later in the year and socks and a throw for me, just want colour around the place.

You'd love the stained glass window that was in our old front door @Holothane. We like it too. So much that the old front door is currently propped up against the shed as we don't know how to get the window out or what to do with it.

I have re-downloded Duolingo. And now I'm slightly addicted. I do think it works best if you start with some basic French as it takes you straight into sentences. However I realised for the first time that I can touch the phrases and it tells you what each word means.

That glass sounds gorgeous.❤️❤️

I couldn't get on with Duolingo. People rave about it but I found it jumped from basic to advanced within a day. What's the secret?

I couldn’t get on with it either. The phrases “throwing spaghetti at a wall” and “monkeys and typewriters” spring to mind. It just flings random words and phrases at you with no context or explanation of the underlying grammar. It did my head in so I deleted the app.

The plumber needs to order a part for our boiler so no quick fix today. I’m wearing an extra hoody over my jumper & making do. We seem to be managing OK.

Sodding There is actually method to the madness.
The more ridiculous the sentence the better the words and the forms stick (on average).
Babel is more conventional in its aproach with 'useful' content and special grammar and vocabulary courses.

I hope your spare part arrives quickly!

@Prokupatuscrakedatus

Sodding There is actually method to the madness. The more ridiculous the sentence the better the words and the forms stick (on average). Babel is more conventional in its aproach with 'useful' content and special grammar and vocabulary courses.

I hope your spare part arrives quickly!

Yes, I think the Duolingo madness works and I will never forget the Spanish for apples even though I am unlikely to ever need to use it in real life!

What a gorgeous day - it felt like (ssshh) whispers spring.
I managed a run this afternoon as not needed for childminding. I am so unfit these days, I'm thoroughly ashamed, still enjoyed it though.
Made chick pea & mushroom patties for tea. I thought they were very nice, DH was meh ( but he is with anything that doesn't contain meat)
I am resisting looking at socks.

I hope your spare part arrives quickly!

Plumber has messaged. It may be up to two weeks, as it is out of stock everywhere and has to be specially ordered from the manufacturer. 😭

Speaking of spare parts, DH has picked up the mended part for the snowblower and they've ordered him a new one. He says it doesn't fit perfectly but may work, which is good because as you can see I am back in snowstorm hell. If you look carefully you can see it coming down.

@soddingkitten

I hope your spare part arrives quickly!

Plumber has messaged. It may be up to two weeks, as it is out of stock everywhere and has to be specially ordered from the manufacturer. 😭

We were without a furnace for about a week a few years ago as ours failed it took that long to get it replaced. I feel your pain. Get some more electric convection heaters. We now have four that we purchased during that time.

Is replacing it completely a possibility?

We now have electric heaters for warmth, when our boiler acts up. But - oh the cold showers. I made hot water in the kettle for washing my hair, but for the rest I was brave.

Our water heater is a separate unit from the furnace, so we still had hot water when the furnace wasn't working.

That was a small mercy I guess.

I couldn't get on with Duolingo. People rave about it but I found it jumped from basic to advanced within a day. What's the secret

I have used it for a while for a not the run of the mill language, and found it too slow. You could take a quicker route with mine, so used that sometimes.
I suspect it may be different for different languages?

It was so lovely to run in the sunshine after work today! I’m making oven baked ratatouille: slow cooked courgette, aubergine, peppers and tomatoes for dinner. The slow cooking is too slow, I’m starving!

@lightand
As most of the not run of the mill language courses are done by volunteers, speed and qualitiy depend on their number, time and background. An when you are used to learning languages, it's another thing altogether and a lot of courses may seem too slow for you.

On a different note: I have to prepare my workplace for being away, and I have to write a handover for every project.

I think it was the jumping straight into sentences that threw me last time. I was a bit 'whoaaaa, slow down' about it.
However over lockdown 1, I did some 1:1 French lessons via Skype and was set written homework too. That's made me much more confident with my verbs. So today being on Duolingo has felt like a fun new game on my phone. Lots of saying 'I am a horse' and reading sentences about a cat eating pizza. It's very unforgiving when my phone autocorrects and I don't notice though.

@HelenaJustina, that sounds absolutely gorgeous. Please may I have the recipe?

@MissConductUS

I clicked on your recovery sandals link, you can get them here in several shops (when they are open). The surgeon promises me, that I will be able to run, once everything is healed and if I am a good girl and wear my 'shoe'

@EggyPegg have PM’d you. Hope you’ve got it?! It’s from The Green Roasting Tin cookbook which is my absolute favourite. Not made a duff recipe from it yet.