Lifeboat Muster Point for TalkExiles - Thread 2

[Kucingsparkles]

Continuation of previous thread.

Gather here all ye refugees from the foundering ship of JTT, if ye be in need of "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

Or just to chat randomly.

There's a wall between our house and next door, used as a short-cut by both foxes and the sort of cats who won't go in at night ("No, I won't! And you can't make me!"). The face-offs when they meet, going in opposite directions, can be quite noisy. It's generally the fox who backs off.

Oops, posted too soon. Happy New Home, Crows!

A sleeping fox is an excellent welcome!

Wow! Hello thread. I used to post on GU back in the late 90s and 00s. I made it in to the new place and lasted a couple of years, but it never felt the same. Had a bit of a grumble with a couple of wrongmos and managed to quit for good.

Been here since, on and off. Very strange to recognise your names.

Will read through the whole thing now.

Lovely fox pic. All sounds great and very exciting, Crows.

Congratulations on the succesful move @IReallyLikeCrows I reckon the sleepy fox is a good omen for you.

I am taking it relatively easy with my move, got another seven weeks before I have to leave here but my god, LPs are heavy, got about 1500 of the fuckers, and that's before I even get to the thousands of CDs. I am just clearing enough space in the old house so I can start being ruthless about what is coming to the new house, what is going to a charity shop, and what is going to the tip. I don't know why but I find really difficult emotionally to do this, always leaves me feeling really down when I have a clear out, I said before the hoarder instinct is string in me, and it's definitely something psychological.

I have this little book to read over christmas, which may help.

Dostadning: The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

A charming, practical, and unsentimental approach to putting a home in order while reflecting on the tiny joys that make up a long life.

In Sweden there is a kind of decluttering called döstädning, dö meaning “death” and städning meaning “cleaning.” This surprising and invigorating process of clearing out unnecessary belongings can be undertaken at any age or life stage but should be done sooner than later, before others have to do it for you. In The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, artist Margareta Magnusson, with Scandinavian humor and wisdom, instructs readers to embrace minimalism. Her radical and joyous method for putting things in order helps families broach sensitive conversations, and makes the process uplifting rather than overwhelming.

www.goodreads.com/book/show/50723534-dostadning

The problem with having a house with a basement and an attic is the amount of crap you pack in there. Ditto garage. I can be ruthless, but I can't fight my beloved, who isn't, when the things I would get rid of are his.

I can't fight my beloved, who isn't, when the things I would get rid of are his.

Arf, @Britinme. We have a similar problem. I was an Army brat and am ruthless about de-cluttering, but can I persuade MrG that the Columbia Encyclopedia (1983 edition) and a shelf full of 1960s physics textbooks could be a tad out of date? He's not even a physicist!

I can be quite vicious when I'm decluttering but I still find myself with so much. 15 boxes of books isn't "roughly a hundred". I don't like parting with things and even when I have rid myself of a mountain of clothes before long I've built another Everest. I'm going to try really hard not to do that this time. I'm also not going to buy a book for quite a while. Unless it's on Kindle. I have a love/hate relationship with Kindle. It's so handy but there's nothing to sniff.

@Dotellhimpike LPs are mad heavy. You really can't put too many in a box unless you're prepared to break the box or break yourself. Or both.

I think the fox is a good omen too. I love urban foxes. There are a couple near Snoop in Shoreham by sea and my one here after over eleven in the countryside seeing precisely zero foxes.

Happy new home! A sleeping fox is definitely a good omen. Storage heaters can take a bit of fiddling with to get settings that work for you, but I gather they are both ore efficient and more user friendly than they used to be.

Hello, peae - I'm not sure who you were on GU, but it's nice to see a new old face.

I was thinking I might start doing my last nights on this thread, although I'm starting to branch out elsewhere for specific topics.

@IReallyLikeCrows - ah yes, Kindle. I have over 800 books in my Kindle library of which I probably have read no more than half. That's in addition to the six large and two small actual bookcases in my house and the piles in various places. The problem is that I used to be a very fast reader, and in my head I still am, but in practice I'm a lot slower now but keep buying books as if I am the reader I used to be.

Congratulations on your foxy new home, @IReallyLikeCrows !🦊

If you see a fox asleep, does that mean that it's going to rain hard?

Glad you're in and starting to sort yourself out, @IReallyLikeCrows! The sleeping fox is lovely.

Heavy plastic bags for life hold 10-15LPs, and sit nicely in rows. I discovered this helping a DJ / collector / dealer move house. Thousands of records. He used Iceland ones, I guess they were the perfect size.

My kindle library is like this too. I’ve stopped looking at the deals now as I’ve probably got enough books to last me a life time. I don’t read much for pleasure now since I spend all day reading textbooks, and when I do sit down to read I usually end up falling asleep a few pages in.

My attention span has gone all to hell in recent years. Whether it's post-lockdown cabbage-brain or menopausal brain-fog, I know not. Very sadly it means that I often struggle to concentrate on books, which feels like I'm losing a big piece of myself when reading used to be my favourite refuge. I do still try though, mostly with library books (ours also does e-books on an app).

It sounds like you've reached that time of life, Kuc.

Very best wishes for your new home, crows.

We did a crazy thing yesterday - we bought a new car. I know that's something that many people do, but actually walking into a showroom, going for a test drive, paying a deposit and driving it home - that's something we've never done. We were a bit shocked afterwards.

Our youngest is at the start of a nursing degree, and his old landrover is on life support. Angelica has the family car mostly, for her job. So we now have two decent (very small) cars between three of us, in a sort of pool, and that poor old black lanny is being towed away.

I'm the same but I am slowly building it back up again. It's not age or covid brain (although I definitely have covid brain) as much as using the internet permanantly has reshaped my braynes, I need to reshape 'em back to reading braynes.

Congrats on the new vehicle, angelico. We've done that a couple of times and it does feel weird.

Thanks, Tri.

Even when I've had money stashed, I've felt poor and insecure. It's my childhood, I expect. My entire family, as afr as the eye could see, was skint!

I think I may have Covid brain, I often think of something to write, but am then lacking when it comes to doing so. I end up forgetting half of the points, or just don't seem to be able to articulate myself!

Hello Peae - who were you on GUT? I was Splattsville on both GUT and the replacement.

My reading has significantly reduced as a result of Covid existing - mainly as pre-covid I flew a lot for work, and got through loads of books on flights / waiting at airports etc, and then when you get home you want to finish them. Now I've had just one work flight since March 2020, so my book consumption has reduced drastically. I have no intention of going back to the old travelling routine (and thankfully my boss agrees), so I just need a different trigger to pick up the kindle.

I do my main reading early in the morning while tucked up in bed with a mug of tea. It's lovely and cosy.

angelico, I know what you mean about that insecure feeling. If it's a childhood thing it never goes away. My family weren't skint, but my dad was a real Scrooge who even used to complain about the price of potatoes. Asking for pretty much anything always turned into a huge drama, so we learned to not ask. It's a hard habit to break so getting a new car is really big deal.

I've known a few men of my dad's age, born around 1934-5, and they've all been mean too.