Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Inconsequential things you ponder on...

193 replies

mineofuselessinformation · 03/07/2021 17:57

The local ice cream van plays the Match of the Day theme tune (has been doing it for years, so not to do with the Euros). I still can't work out the connection.

A neighbour over the road from me has a Ring doorbell. Since it plays the intro to the Go Compare jingle, is this some surreptitious form of marketing?

Yes, I probably do have too much time on my hands! Grin

OP posts:
purrswhileheeats · 05/07/2021 21:34

I still wonder how cats and dogs became domesticated? Who decided they would be pets? I look at my cats every day and puzzle how they're such a big part of my life - strange enigmatic creatures!

Hawdyerwheesht · 05/07/2021 21:38

If anyone else paints nails with clear varnish just to enjoy peeling it off like glue.

Kanaloa · 05/07/2021 21:56

@Hawdyerwheesht

Don’t know if it’s the same feeling but I used to spread pva glue on my hands when I was a kid then let it dry and peel it off. Still love helping the kids with crafts in the hope of peeling off some glue.

Original poster
mineofuselessinformation · 05/07/2021 23:23

I just wanted to add the Sun Life advert, where the neighbour brings in their mistakenly delivered post...
Who on earth would trust a company who can't even send their mail to the right address???

OP posts:
GiantWingedWaspMoth · 05/07/2021 23:30

@purrswhileheeats

I still wonder how cats and dogs became domesticated? Who decided they would be pets? I look at my cats every day and puzzle how they're such a big part of my life - strange enigmatic creatures!
It's my understanding that cats self-domesticated. They basically realised that life was easier if someone else caught the food for them...
GiantWingedWaspMoth · 05/07/2021 23:32

@Hawdyerwheesht

If anyone else paints nails with clear varnish just to enjoy peeling it off like glue.
Worse. I've been known to PVA glue myself for the same reason... (Can't believe I'm admitting that on here)
LavenderAskew · 05/07/2021 23:33

Do you need to be able to swim before you join the navy?

doodlejump1980 · 05/07/2021 23:37

Why aren’t there more ancient trees about? Like trees that are thousands of years old?

wanderedlonelyasacloud · 05/07/2021 23:38

I've often wondered how people invented baking however many hundreds of years ago.

How did they know what ingredients to put together, why did they think to try certain combinations, after making a random mixture why did they then decided to cook it etc

GiantWingedWaspMoth · 05/07/2021 23:38

@LavenderAskew

Do you need to be able to swim before you join the navy?
In Britain, yes. You need to pass a fitness test which includes being able to swim.

I have been told that it's different in America, and that they will teach you to swim if you can't. Don't know if that's true.

Anordinarymum · 05/07/2021 23:41

@mineofuselessinformation

I just wanted to add the Sun Life advert, where the neighbour brings in their mistakenly delivered post... Who on earth would trust a company who can't even send their mail to the right address???
Yeah.. but what if it was the postman who delivered it to June ?
DinosaurOfFire · 05/07/2021 23:50

@doodlejump1980

Why aren’t there more ancient trees about? Like trees that are thousands of years old?
I'm pretty sure it's because as a nation we used them for building our ships over the centuries. Naval ships were huge and needed huge trees to make the masts as well as the main structure of the boat taking a lot of wood resources.
TheFoundations · 05/07/2021 23:59

@wanderedlonelyasacloud

I've often wondered how people invented baking however many hundreds of years ago.

How did they know what ingredients to put together, why did they think to try certain combinations, after making a random mixture why did they then decided to cook it etc

I was going to say that. I can't imagine someone suddenly pulling something out of the oven and going 'By god, I've invented the Victoria Sponge!!'

Also, the poor design of the human body. So very miraculous in so many ways, and yet capable of being desperately thirsty and needing to pee at the same time. Recycle, dammit!

TheFoundations · 06/07/2021 00:01

@doodlejump1980

Why aren’t there more ancient trees about? Like trees that are thousands of years old?
I think trees don't live forever, they have a lifespan. Hundreds of years, but not thousands.

It's quite heartbreaking thinking that a tree could die of old age.

GiantWingedWaspMoth · 06/07/2021 00:04

The short answer for why there aren't more really old trees is:

Wood is useful (not just ships, but buildings, heat, paper, furniture etc) and trees eventually die.

omgwhy · 06/07/2021 00:39

I always wonder how explorers knew if they were on an island or a massive land mass.. because unless you walk the whole of America how did you know it wasn't just a tiny island?

How did they have enough food? Water? Because they had no idea how long they would be?

And also how did they get back the the UK and then back to said "island" if they didn't know where they were?

For some reason early day exploration blows my mind.

SallySycamore · 06/07/2021 00:58

Whether the people in the background of our holiday photos had a nice time, and whether they have us in their photos.

And sometimes when I meet somebody for the first time, I try to work out how likely it is I've been in the same place as them before.

WrongWayApricot · 06/07/2021 01:43

Our ice cream van plays ding dong ding dong my cock's this long Westminster quarters.

EnjoyingTheArmoire · 06/07/2021 02:37

@BraveBraveMouse

I wonder what Neanderthals looked like and how they might have behaved differently to homo sapiens. I wonder how they died, did HS kill them all? As lots of us have small amounts of N DNA from interbreeding I wonder how that is expressed, particularly in terms of behaviour.
I would recommend 'Kindred' by Rebecca Wragg Sykes as an up to date book covering all things Neanderthal Smile
IHateCoronavirus · 06/07/2021 03:43

Ooh good thread.

I want to know… in the world’s strongest man competitions do they have an even stronger man resetting all of the challenges?

OccultGnuAsWell · 06/07/2021 08:24

In a similar vein to BalloonSlayer re food and calories.

If calories are burned by the body to keep us warm would I lose weight faster by sitting in a cold room?

And would I gain more weight eating exactly the same amount of food but in a hot country?

OnceUponAMidnightBeery · 06/07/2021 08:46

[quote Kanaloa]@Hawdyerwheesht

Don’t know if it’s the same feeling but I used to spread pva glue on my hands when I was a kid then let it dry and peel it off. Still love helping the kids with crafts in the hope of peeling off some glue.[/quote]
And me!

rantymcrantface66 · 06/07/2021 09:08

@LavenderAskew

Do you need to be able to swim before you join the navy?
Depends which Navy. ExP was in the Merchant Navy for many years (think he still is actually) and cannot swim. I was shocked it wasn't a requirement when you spend months at sea
rantymcrantface66 · 06/07/2021 09:11

I wonder if the people of today would cop in the past and if we'd manage to invent such wonderful things and get so much done. Yes there are some amazing minds and making inventions with all the technology we have to hand but I wonder if Gary from accounts who struggles with an IKEA flat pack would get on in a time where we had little but man land horse power to get things done. Not sure I've explained it very well but I know what I mean in my head 😆

Clawdy · 06/07/2021 09:18

Watching my thirteen month old grandson toddling round, endlessly on the move, grabbing everything, getting bored with all his many toys - I wonder how parents managed a hundred and more years ago, no toys, no safety gates, possibly no gardens to play in, and certainly no easy-to-wash clothes! Life was unbelievably different.