Does anyone else have things they know, but always have to check?

[Slothkin]

Was just pondering this as I made béchamel yesterday and despite knowing, in my bones, the correct ratios I still had to check. I’ve been making it for 20 years! It’s not complicated! Now wondering whether I have some repressed white sauce related trauma, like an extremely boring sequel to The Machinist.

With recipes, crumble and pancake mix proportions, every time

I used to work on the railway and I still always check records for the ‘up’ and ‘down’ lines as it never made sense to me.

@DisgruntledPelican I live in Cambridge and the up to uni down to home absolutely baffled me when I first moved here!

How long to boil a soft boiled egg for.

Whether or not Robert Palmer is dead.

I KNOW he died in 2003*, but my brain refuses to hold onto this fact and I am always second-guessing myself.

• Thanks, Google.

Like left and right? Still check them on my hands. L

Every time I cook a gammon joint in the Instant Pot I have to look up how much time it takes. I’ve been cooking roast beef for 15 minutes per pound for years, and I can recite Nigella’s recipe for crumble topping in my sleep (90g butter, 120g flour, 6 tablespoons sugar) but I can never remember Instant Pot gammon.

Which side a side plate goes. Of course I know it. But in my youth I made a hideously embarrassing faux pas and feel the need to check every time I lay a table.

When I was sleep deprived when DD was a baby I used to have to keep checking she was in the back of the car in case I was remembering a previous time I'd put her in.

I've been making Yorkshire puddings and pancakes for over 30 years but each time I reach for my Stork cookery book ftom Home Economics class from the age of 12. I know the ingredients and method but the quantities elude me unless I look it up.

I know my ex is a dick but still check it on Facebook

I know my ex is a dick but still check it on Facebook

I love it - perfect!!

Which way is east/west. Have to mentally point through N, E, S, W to make sure. I lived in East London for a bit and have quite a visual memory, so I KNOW which direction it is, but still have to check every time.

How to spell necessary.

@BrilloSolar

Which way is east/west. Have to mentally point through N, E, S, W to make sure. I lived in East London for a bit and have quite a visual memory, so I KNOW which direction it is, but still have to check every time.

Every time.

Never Eat Shredded Wheat.

Also rainbow colours.

And spelling 'weird'. And a few other words.

@MrsFin

How to spell necessary.

I was told " one Cup, two Sugars" as a way to remember how to spell necessary.

Whether there is an ‘e’ in the word before . I had to check it before typing this!

@MrsTerryPratchett I have to do Never Eat Shredded Wheat too! And if I’m alphabetising things I have to run through the alphabet in my head.

Lefty loosey righty tighty. Every time.

I do one collar two sleeves for necessary. Naughty elephants squirt water.

To remember the difference between stationery and stationary remember ‘e’ for envelope. I still need to use that tip. I can never remember my left from right, I have absolutely no sense of direction it’s terrible.

Same! When I read your thread title I thought - béchamel. Spooky,

I always check it in a massive unwieldy cookbook. It’s on page 112, I can remember that!

OK this one is embarrassing.

I know my left and right. But sometimes at work (job involves marking left and right for patients) I close my left hand then look down and see which one is closed to be sure.

Necessary and occasionally ones got 2 cs an one s, and the other's got one c and two ss and I can never remember which way round and the various memory aides arent much help because I can't remember which one they apply to.

Also always have to check discreet and discrete, complement and compliment deserts and desserts.

@Faerysmoke

Like left and right? Still check them on my hands. L

This

& righty tighty lefty loosey

Always need to check which side the petrol cap is when filling up. I've had the car a year and it's a different side to the last car. And I start self doubting which side it is and what side it was in the old car

I always think occasionally should be occaisionslly. It just looks better my way.