Things you're inexplicably good or bad at!

[JauntyJinty]

I was poaching some eggs the other day, and it always something I've found really easy. I hear people talking about how difficult it is to poach eggs but I dont get it - heat up the water, swirl it, drop the eggs in and a few minutes later hike them out again. First time I asusmed it was beginers luck, but I always seem to nail it. Also folding fitted sheets. Just get your fingers in the corners and fold the bloody thing - I don't see why people say it's hard.

but this isn't purley bragging - because I can't crack an egg properly to save my life! I had 2 eggs most mornings for years, so its not a lack of practice - but I very rarely get a nice clean break and no shell in the egg! I've tried all different techniques, on the side of the pan/bowl, on a flat surface, using a knife - none seem to work for me.

Got me wondering if other people have things that find easy that are supposed to be hard and visa versa

And before you ask, yes it is a slow day at work!

Good at - packing cars so everything fits in, remembering routes/places/navigating, slicing bread or meat & weirdly, axe throwing - must have been a Viking in a previous life...

Bad at - injecting myself (had to have them after giving birth, but after breaking two needles, DH had to take over) & making tea/coffee as I drink neither.

Ooh me too!
I also can colour match from memory the colour of an item without having the item to match with.
I can find my way around without a map. Somehow I have an internal compass and sense of place. I also know exactly how long it will take me to get from a to b. Yesterday I was travelling around 80 miles or so, and part way through the journey I got a call to ask how long till I would get there - I said I'd get there in 50 minutes, at 10 minutes to 2 and drew up outside exactly at that time.

Knowing what time it is without a clock, and remembering addresses

I'm terrible at small talk, which annoys me as I'm good at in depth conversations and work meetings, but I just can't work out how to do chit chat!

Guessing the size of things, and knowing whether things will fit just by looking at them, whether it's if clothes will fit someone, or whether a piece of furniture will fit in a spot or whatever. Spookily accurate but oddly rubbish at jigsaws.

I’m good at untangling necklaces

Awful at slicing uncut bread

I can set my brain as an alarm clock and wake up at whatever time I set it at. I'm also excellent at untangling jewellery.

Useless with directions, get muddled with left and right and have no sense of balance.

No sense of direction but I'm a math 'whizz' (a word that my old math teacher would say)

I realised, quite early on in life, that I can master things that are static/predictable (math, languages, law) but I'm useless with anything that is unpredictable (driving somewhere new, romantic relationships).

Thus, I now have a job that suits me to the ground, which I am good at, but I've been properly single for years - which suprises people. I guess I just cannot get my head around how romantic relationships work. And I remember thinking this when I was a child. So that's something I'm rubbish at.

Good at -

• knowing what time it is, despite never wearing a watch.
• knowing if something will fit in a certain size container (baffles my DH)
• answering (correctly) many of the questions on University Challenge, although I have no idea how I know most of these things. I sometimes beat both teams.
• complaining and sorting out crap customer service - I see it as a challenge and will go to great lengths. Sadly this is a very common thing now as so many companies have such poor service.

Bad at

• most things to do with maths, my brain does not compute numbers easily.
• driving confidently, I hate driving around somewhere new and get anxious.
• being patient

I'm really good at poaching eggs too. I always put them in boiling water (with a smidge of white wine vinegar) for one minute and then turn the heat off and let them cook that way. I am however spectacularly awful at maths and I have zero sense of direction. I can literally get to a roundabout with one motorway going south and the other north and be confused as to which one I want (unless it's signposted with my city). I've learned to embrace it now. 😂

I can remember people exceptionally well. I can easily recognise a person I met once or twice years ago. I've remembered people I went to primary school with but never spoke to, or weren't in my year, from seeing the back of their head and their walk. I used to find it embarrassing because people don't remember me the same way which led me to believe I wasn't very memorable, but I've just realised that I have a much better memory for people than most. I also don't often want to talk to people but I am very aware of my surroundings and instantly spot people. Then I have to make the effort to pretend I haven't seen them.

I'm also very good at singing along to songs. I don't know song names or band names but I know the words to an insane number of songs.

And I'm very good at finding smaller things in a bigger picture, like where's wally. I just think to myself "I'm only looking for blue things" and it seems as though all of the blue things on the page jump out at me and everything else is a blur. I thought everybody saw things like that but my children didn't have a clue what I was on about when I explained the method.

I'm really crap at parking the car or figuring out how things will physically move. Any kind of physical puzzle or figuring out how things fit together without instructions is beyond me.

Grown men used to come to me to open jars for them, I could also crush tins, even the big dog food ones with my bare hands. Then I got pregnant and passed my hand strength to my DS and I've never got it back, many years later.

On the other hand, I've recently discovered a talent for joinery despite never having been taught (girls weren't allowed to do woodwork back in the dark ages when I was at school). I've just finished a bird house and a side cabinet, both from scratch out of salvaged wood. I'm planning a mini-greenhouse next.

I’ve got fantastic italic handwriting. Swirls, loops, angles, the lot. No idea where it came from.

Things I can randomly do well - driving a car. Coming to it later in life, had my first lesson last week, instructor couldn’t believe it was my first lesson. Did 3 point turns on my first go! Was expecting to be a bit crap at it, honestly I’m a better driver after one lesson than my exh is now…

I am inexplicably crap at cleaning & tidying. I work hard at it. I’m the only adult here so I have to. I don’t know why it takes me so long to achieve so little, I really don’t know why I’m so inept. I just am.

Good at? Language learning. For whatever reason, it is incredibly easy for me to pick up new languages, and to acquire new voca/grammar structures very quickly. It just feels instinctive somehow - like I never lost that ability that all small children have! I also seem to be able to mimic accents and intonation very accurately to the extent that I can easily be mistaken on the phone for a native speaker. (My appearance in person would be a dead give away for some of the languages that I speak!)

Bad at? Anything involving spatial awareness. In particular, I have no sense of direction at all, and can get lost anywhere. I think that part of my brain is just missing!

Good - I have a great sense of direction and I'm good at remembering how to get to places after being there once.
Good - driving. I'm a very confident driver and I'll drive anywhere. I can also drive very long distances without stopping (would if I was tired obviously but driving doesn't make me tired like it seems to do to a lot of people)
Bad - maths. Anything to do with numbers makes no sense to me. I can't even do primary school maths or work out how to split a bill.
Bad - cooking rice. I've given up and just use the microwave pouches now.

I am a really good baker.
Fresh, made from scratch, bread - easy
Want a victoria sponge - mine will win any WI competition 😁

Can I cook? Can I fuck.
I don't know what it is with my brain, but the minute I try to cook a meal it is either burnt or raw.

I'm really good at walking fast at a steady pace through large crowds, I feel like the people just part in front of me and I can always see a route through a bit like that scene in the Matrix. I was reminded of this yesterday walking with two colleagues through heaving central London and they just couldn't keep up, they kept having people barge into them or block their path and I couldn't understand how I kept losing them.

I'm also really good at following recipes, even really complicated ones, with the ONE exception of quiche which is my absolute nemesis. If it doesn't pour out the base straight away, then the bottom is soggy, or the custard is rubbery, or the edges shrink down too much. I can make a custard tart, I can make a frittata, but I just cannot make a quiche!!

Good at cooking instinctively, good sense of direction, remembering faces, sensing moods in other. Bad at sewing, knitting, climbing ladders, cleaning windows.

Inexplicably accurate as a human kitchen timer. Check on the food - between 5 an 30 seconds left on the timer, every time, whether it was in for 2 minutes or 45 minutes. Also fabulous at parallel parking.

Appalling - sense of direction .I've lived in this house for almost 20 years and I still set off the wrong way for major, predictable destinations (the supermarket, the train station, the motorway). I live and die by the sat nav.

Good at:- cooking, organisation, parking and time management

Bad at:- anything creative, any kind of sport, and public speaking ( I volunteer for a charity and should give talks - I refuse!)

should add a caveat to the cooking though:-poaching eggs a doddle, frying eggs awful… I get oil everywhere

Anything mechanical. I service and maintain my Land Rover and have replaced the engine to make it ULEZ complaint. I've fixed the stable yard tractor, the horse box lorry thing and I rescued a really old car from somebody's garage that a dealer had offered an old lady pennies for.

The engine was in wooden boxes, the gearbox was missing, the inside was a wild life reserve and somebody had stolen the grill but it was a 1948 Rolls Royce. I've rebuilt the engine and found a gearbox but you won't believe the cost of a replacement grill. It's an ongoing project.

My family thought I was totally insane but the lady who owned it gave it to me on the understanding that I did something with it. She keeps finding bits of it and old photographs that she drops round. She has become quite a friend of the family.

The only thing that defeats me is clock mechanisms. I watch Steve Fletcher in wide-eyed amazement.

Never had any formal training, just picked it up from watching my grandfather, Haynes manuals and Youtube.

Good at
Parallel parking and driving
Spatial awareness
Tasting and smelling ('supertaster')
Cooking from scratch without recipe
Small talk / chatting to strangers
Making male friends
Snogging
Wrapping gifts
Sleeping anywhere and for 12hrs
Parenting

Bad at
Pastry, sponge cakes
Being diplomatic/thoughtful
Directions
Making female friends
Thinking straight when even slightly stressed/tired/in pain/upset/horny
Staying awake!

Very good at drinking coffee and eating chocolate.

Have a good eye for photography.

Twice a year someone has to explain to me what the clocks changing mean... as in whether we get extra or less time, they forwards or back etc. My brain can't compute it. (I have an MEng degree, so most maths stuff is straight forward...)

I can tell by sight whether batters are the right consistency and how to adjust them... biscuit, cake, Yorkshire pudding, pancake, cookie etc.

I’m good at running down hill. I used to be brilliant at running downstairs as well but I think I may have lost my nerve.
I’m terrible at taking pills even really tiny ones.