Is there something you're really good at, but never tell new friends etc. because...

[SaladandGravy]

... it sounds so highly unlikely you think people won't believe you?

I have one talent that sounds impossible (I may share later!!) but my great-grandma was about 4 feet nothing tall, not very agile but she could juggle with just about anything you could throw at her that she could physically hold (Diddy little hands too!). We used to just shout "oi Grandma" and throw 3 things at her. it was so funny, and she loved it too.

And my ex could turn a digestive biscuit 360° back to front and widthwaya without it breaking.

(Csn you tell I'm. bored?)

@KittyKattyFosterMummy

I have never had a hangover. And I drink. A lot. And I can mix my drinks without any ill effects at all and pretty much drink anyone under the table. It's not something I'm particularly proud of but it is handy and annoys the heck out of friends as I'm irritatingly chirpy early the next morning...

This is the one I’m most envious of, hands down the mating snakes comes second 🐍

Mine all seem to come with “but” attached. For example, I’m almost ridiculously practical in a crisis, but the moment it’s over I’m a wreck (even fainted at the end of one!). I have a tested IQ of 166 but I’m crap at every day maths skills and, if my son’s homework is anything to go by, I seem to have forgotten most of my education. Also, I’m great at remembering utterly useless facts (great for pub quizzes) but can’t remember useful things like my phone number (which hasn’t changed in over 10 years)!

I can remember conversations too. Word for word. It's annoying when people change their story as I want to pipe up but don't as I would seem weird.id make a good witness in court though
Animals like me even the ones that are aggressive with other people. It must be my smell or something

General knowledge- I absorb as retain info very quickly,and remember the most random of facts. I’m interested in everything - ADHD - so read or have read about all sorts of subjects. I can sit and watch Mastermind and get most questions correct - including many in the ‘specialist’ subject, University Challenge, Millionaire, Chase etc the same.
If I don’t know the answer I can often work it out or guess correctly.
I don’t tell people because it makes me sound like a boasting, know-it-all dick! I actively avoid doing pub quizzes or school quizzes as I have discovered that it pisses other teams off to have someone like me in the room.
There’s no real benefit other than finding it easy to help with the kids homework.

I’m terrific at taking blood

I can give myself goosebumps on demand. I can also send a shiver down my spine either to wake myself up a bit or to cool myself down. It was only recently whilst watching taskmaster that I found out not everyone can do this so i looked it up and apparently it's extremely rare.

@NotPennysBoat

I'm really good at remembering dates. For example I can remember your birthday if you tell me once, it can freak people out if I barely know them!

Oddly I can remember phone numbers, you tell me once and later I'll put it in my phone with a description of you because I didnt remember your name. My phone contacts list has random comments like "The ginger bloke from R&D" "Her from Julie's w fabulous hair"

So actually not useful.

@StrandedStarfish

I’m terrific at taking blood

Snap! Doesn’t matter if I can’t palpate the vein. I can picture it and when I go in, it’s just there.

I love that everyone has a random talent.

I am a memory person. I can’t recall conversations of a few decades ago, verbatim. I can also recall the clothes people were wearing and of course the room and surroundings. For context, I currently do not know where my door keys are.

I can recall random facts & figures, name the Capitol of each state in the USA, place countries, states and cities on a blank map.

I can place your birthplace to within a close distance depending on your accent. If you are from the north of England I might even get the area of the town correct (eg Mill Hill not just Blackburn, or Eastwood not just Hebden Bridge). This is a massively useless skill.

Probably like many women on this thread, I can ‘win’ Millionaire from my sofa.

My other ‘gift’ is the ability to be very calm and logical in emergency situations. It’s like a weird delayed emotional response where I go into a practical, how are we getting out of this mode and the shock etc comes after.
I have survived, and saved someone else from a drowning. I have been confronted by an attacker with a knife and talked my way out of it, and I have been in a terror and calmly led myself and family out of danger. I grew up in a country with civil unrest so put it down to that - it was very much find a way to get to safety first, don’t get shot, panic later when I was a child.

I’m really good at imitating accents from all around the UK. The first time I showed DH he was amazed and kept saying ‘do this one, do that one’. There wasn’t a single one I couldn’t do.

I'm totally talentless. I think it skipped a generation though because my dd has some very unusual talents. She hates people to know about them though. She mirror wrote from a young age, and can still perfectly mirror write/ draw on command. She's ambidextrous too. She has this crazy memory. She could tell you what she ate for dinner three years ago, what time we ate and where etc. she's a master forger!,she can perfectly copy Anyones handwriting after just a glance!. If she reads a book you can flick through to any random page and read a paragraph...and she will be able to tell you what page it's on!!! Teacher discovered that talent and was gobsmacked. She can type on her phone without looking at it lol (probably most teenagers there).

But can she remember to put the lid back on the shampoo after a shower!? Nope lol

@hatsoff234 Really? I've never met or spoken to anyone else in real life who has this too? Very exciting! Has it always just been there? Have you ever told anyone about it? We have a board game in the family called 'Backwords', we played it once years ago, I trounced everyone, nobody will ever play it with me again. I sometimes find it exhausting and wish I could pause it for a while but it plays constantly in my head, reversing everything I hear.

What a great thread!
Seriously impressed by the languages & the unassuming people in high-powered & very specialist skilled jobs. I'm good at what I do but its interesting at best.

I do have an impressive pint downing trick though.

@Butterbegood

My other ‘gift’ is the ability to be very calm and logical in emergency situations. It’s like a weird delayed emotional response where I go into a practical, how are we getting out of this mode and the shock etc comes after. I have survived, and saved someone else from a drowning. I have been confronted by an attacker with a knife and talked my way out of it, and I have been in a terror and calmly led myself and family out of danger. I grew up in a country with civil unrest so put it down to that - it was very much find a way to get to safety first, don’t get shot, panic later when I was a child.

I can do this too. I am not sure its a gift so much as training.

I’m memory woman, I can remember huge detail about things that happened years ago. It freaks people out.

Me too. I try to keep my mouth shut when people misremember things and events but it's hard sometimes!

I can also look at a photo and tell you the month, year and occasion it was taken ( providing I was there obviously) I can more often than not tell you the date too.
My friends love testing me.

'And my ex could turn a digestive biscuit 360° back to front and widthwaya without it breaking.'

So can I. So can everyone. Did you mean 'in his mouth'?

@JustRambling

As an IT professional I spent 3 years working on the Y2K “bug” but I never mention it as everyone knows it was a scam.

I know that it wasn't a scam....it was the tons of prep work that meant that it didn't happen. I am not in IT but worked adjacent to it in my NHS days...I was a part of the local clinical/IT interface.

I have done very well professionally, but my DH is also v successful and without exception everyone assumes that it is his business that funds us.

A friend sat me down a while ago and essentially asked if I was financially well organised (on the back of some awful things happening to close friends) and I realised that she thought I was pretty much a kept woman.

I’m a black belt in Taekwondo. You wouldn’t know to look at me as I’m a small overweight 50 year old.

Like a PP, I’m an excellent investor. I inherited £20,000 in 2002 and it’s currently worth ~£800k. I’ve used a combination of research, observation and intuition to inform my investment decisions, but as I’m actually terrible at maths and can’t use Excell no pension fund manager would ever hire me.

He's being a dick.

What are his good points?

I'm a natural systems thinker.

@PollyCreo

I'm a black belt in a particular martial art, don't mention it as it was a long time ago and not the sort of thing you bring up. Our accountant at work as it turns out also has a black belt (but in a different martial art) so we often have secret discussions about a fight-off in the staff car park and selling tickets. Until other colleagues walk past and then we go back to talking about price lists and spreadsheets

That's great 🤣

I can say any word backwards instantly, it sort of flashes up backwards in my brain and I can just say it as if reading it off a screen

I very rarely admit to it because people ask me to demonstrate and I get so embarrassed speaking my strange backwards language!

I’ve just RTFT and discovered people like me!