I was today years old when I realised.......

[cwtchesandprosecco]

What have you recently realised that’s made you feel like a bit of an idiot?

Mine is that I didn’t know you shouldn’t flush tampons down the toilet...... I swear I remember my mother telling me I could when I first started using them, and that’s what I’ve done for 14 years! It was only through a conversation with a friend (about whether you empty your bathroom bin before the cleaner comes.....) and subsequent google that I’ve found out you shouldn’t.....

So, what have you have you learnt recently that you definitely should have known before?

I learnt recently because of present climes that the HIV virus was also a zoonotic virus and that bird flu can spread from chickens to ducks to wild birds to humans. It's time we looked closely at our relationship with wild animals.

Bird flu can spread from wild birds where it is endemic, to domestic fowl, and can then jump to humans. This has long been a major worry, and is part of the reason why they cull huge flocks when there is an outbreak. All domestic fowl have to be kept under cover if there are cases, as the risk is from them coming into contact with the virus through the poo of wild birds. The concerns are both the economic damage of huge flocks of chickens dying, and the risk to human health from people who have contact with the birds.

But the answer is not kill them all off they are dangerous.

DH was today years old when he found out it was toe the line not tow the line! I overthought it and had to Google!

@BasiliskStare

OK I don't think this is such a stupid one but I think I was 30 odd before someone pointed it out and now I cannot unsee it. So look at Wales / Anglesey on a map and it looks like a cowboy firing a gun . ( so Anglesey is the cowboy's head with his hat on - bit of a brim ) & then if you look towards Abersoch that is his arm with his cowboy gun. ) I don't think it's up there with thinking cows are mythical beasts but just a thing I don't think I had ever seen until my thirties. I told DS when he was young and now he cannot unsee it either

Oh yes!

@Ineke

I was also amazed to discover that you can now get kettles with different temperature gauges as coffee and tea are best made with varying temperatures of hot, not boiling water. I always make tea with freshly boiled water, so I must have been doing it wrong all my life. Does it make a difference?

We've had a multi temp kettle for quite a while now and it does make a real difference to coffee.

I used to complain all the time to dh to not bring the kettle to boil when making me coffee because it just tastes burnt. Now he can select the right temperature and I don't need to moan

@SMaCM

that is my gift to you , your friends and family & for generations to come. I really need to look up what that tiny island is because it looks like a bullet

Basilisk x

[quote BasiliskStare]@SMaCM

that is my gift to you , your friends and family & for generations to come. I really need to look up what that tiny island is because it looks like a bullet

Basilisk x[/quote]
You piqued my curiosity, @BasiliskStare . It's called Bardsey Island, and according to Wikipedia had a population of 11 in 2019.

Continuing the theme, I think if you rotate Bardsey Island 90 degrees anticlockwise, it looks like David Crockett's hat.

Love the cowboy, he's even got a mouth. How cute.

I agree with a pp re the UK looking like a witch but try this...

www.boredpanda.com/europe-countries-shapes-according-creative-people/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

You'll be pleased to hear that the Daily Mail have picked up on this thread and turned it into an article which is basically just screenshots - top journalism there!

For the record:
@cwtchesandprosecco, @5lilducks, @Moolan, @BarbaraofSeville, @Mintyflesh, @MintLampShade, @PLAYJAJADINGDONG, @Crikeyblimey, @doodlejump1980, @Stirmecrazy, @ColdTattyWaitingForSummer, @Ineke, @SparklingSaskia, @TheLost, @thenovice, @sashh ("if my carer ever reads this, I'm dead" ), @Crumpetsandhoney, @Buggersticks, @Kokosrieksts, @Riddo, @peakygal - your ignorance has brought you fame :

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9375481/People-Mumsnet-reveal-hysterical-lapses-knowledge.html

Eurgh..... I feel strangely violated

Oh piss off Daily Mail you rag of shit

@giao - yes yes could not e better could it.

Hope you are well but yes the mouth was a refinement which I noticed all those years ago when the person who told me this told me.

Basilisk x

@DadDadDad - excellent research - I told my son this some years ago and he told some friends when he went to Oxford who in turn can never unsee this , but Bardsey island is most excellent research - DS has been looking up population & what is the difference between a hamlet and a village. I could tell you but I fear it would bore you to death ( or indeed not )

Thanks, @BasiliskStare - my son is currently studying in Oxford, so maybe I could revive this with a new generation...

@ArmchairTraveller

My daughter was today years old when she realised that woodworm are also beetles and can fly. She’s 30.

Oh dear . I'm 56 and never realised that

@EvilOnion

You should put a metal spoon in the microwave if you're heating liquids.

What?? I thought putting metal in a microwave is a very bad idea?

Why the @shinynewapple21 ?

I'm 50, and I have also learnt today that woodworm is a generic name for the larva of several beetles (thanks, Wikipedia!). But I'm not embarrassed! I've learnt something new - even at this age I can learn new things, because there is so much to learn about the world. That's something to celebrate.

So, fuck off, Daily Mail, it's only the narrow-minded, the sort who subscribe to your worldview, who laugh at people who are honest about their errors and are willing to say so to help others learn too.

@MoonCatcher

It was only in the last few years, I'm 50-odd, that I realised a Private Ambulance transports dead bodies, and not live patients to private hospitals. I did always wonder why they always looked so grim.

Not always . Private ambulances are sometimes used for transporting unwell or disabled people when NHS is not involved. So, for example, when my dad moved care homes we had to pay for a private ambulance to transfer him .

@DadDadDad Oh lovely - between us we could get Cowboy Anglesey Bardsey gently spreading its way through the population.

Lovely to hear about DS . BTW My Ds loved Oxford. He probably gave friends a laugh for a short while re cowboy.

Basilisk.

The tag on my duvet (john lewis) says "this tag indicates the base of the duvet"!

@wimbler What witchcraft is this - mine doesn't - I have to count the pockets to see which way up it goes. Perhaps this is Nature's way of telling me I need to buy a new duvet.

I lived in the Far East and was amazed/terrified when I found out cockroaches can fly

The duvet thing... I just draw a small arrow on one corner with a Sharpie. Doesn't show through the cover, always get it the right way round, no need for complicated remembering of which corner has the tag, etc.