Thread 3 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucingsparkles]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads 1 and 2.

Gather here all ye refugees from the JTT Flat Earth Society, welcome to the reassuringly oblate spheroid of MN! Ye all already know the answers to the questions "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?"

So really we're all here just to chat randomly.

Ah, I was looking at the wrong thread!

It was November. Still, kind of feels like six months...

I’m also a fan of ‘masculine chic’ but don’t have the shape for men’s clothes either. I wear a lot of black slim jeans and black/checked trousers, shirts and sometimes a blazer. At the moment I’m living in black wooly jumpers from Danish brands (thanks Zalando) as they seem to do the boxy look very well. My style doesn’t change much so I rarely buy new clothes but when I do I try to spend a bit more instead of making a compromise on something in the sale. I had a much-loved pair of trousers in the style @Ginmonkeyagain describes but sadly wore them out.

I wear long swim shorts (just above the knee) that I found in Sports Direct, made out of the same material as normal trunks. My last trunks don't fit me any more because beer and pies they shrank. I can recommend the benefits of the longer short to the threadsters, male and female.

I like the look of those jumpers, @CyanCrystalViolet. Will have to check them out.

For trousers, I live in Carhartt women's work trousers and find them excellent. They don't show the dirt too much and are very comfortable and tough wearing.

@BezMills but no good in France where they have a real issue with long swimwear. Mr Monkey usually wears long swimming shorts and was ordered out of a Lido in Lyon for the crime of not wearing tiny speedos.

@Tricyrtis2022 I like Soyaconcept, Moss Copenhagen and Selected Femme.

Goodness. That's struck France right off our list of summer holiday destinations then DH wouldn't be seen dead in speedos

Ha, I haven't even heard of any of those labels. Will look them up.

It's ok in the sea and lakes but they are really strict about swimming pools. This was an outdoor Lido fed by a river so we assumed it would be ok, but no!

In some pools you have to wear a swimming cap, no exceptions.

Never bought one because I haven’t been swimming for YEARS, but was very tempted by “swim dresses” I saw in the Joe Brown catalogue - a normal one piece with a little skirt. And tankinis too.

Long Tall Sally and Debenhams were my long-torso, decent-leg-cut swimming costume sources, but I tend to bulk buy when I find one I like so haven't used either since they went bankrupt and relaunched.

LL Bean used to have a good range of swimwear styles (I stopped ordering from them when Irish customs got really pushy about import duty, but I think the UK is more relaxed).

AFAIK the French Speedo thing is about hygiene, keeping everything contained.

Waiting for it to stop raining before I walk the dogs. Forecast says sunshine at 15.00. The rivers are swollen, very fast and very brown, I never attempt to cross them when I can’t see the riverbed. In the meantime there’s AIBU, which always reminds me of the made-up letters to Cathy and Claire in Jackie magazine.

I also have a tankini, but a shortage of nice pools near here, unless I want to pay a monthly fortune to the Y. There's one that's reasonably priced at a community centre only about five miles away but the changing rooms are a bit grim and there's no secure storage for belongings unless you take your own padlock.

In the meantime there’s AIBU, which always reminds me of the made-up letters to Cathy and Claire in Jackie magazine.

Heh!

@MavisMcMinty - in the 90s I had a stint for a couple of years as an agony aunt for a mother and baby magazine. We didn't get enough actual letters so I had to make a few up to fill the space. The sane sounding letters with what sounded like genuine problems that might concern people were the made up ones. The unlikely sounding ones were the ones we actually got. Of course they may have been made up too but we had no way of knowing that.

The sane sounding letters with what sounded like genuine problems that might concern people were the made up ones.

Ha ha, really? How funny!

So far today, I have mucked out a garage, taken a load of stuff to the tip, gone to Boots to have some photos printed from my phone on their fancy schmancy little machine doo-da that does it right there and then. Gone and had my hair cut and beard trimmed, back to the garage muck out and taken a load of stuff to a charity shop, and after a cup of tea I am loading the car up and taking more stuff to the new house. I am knackered.

It's almost 9am here and I'm in bed reading stuff on my iPad and drinking a cup of tea. I'm meeting a friend to go to a movie later though. I love being old and retired.

That’s a month’s work for me, Pike.

I think Jacqueline Wilson admitted somewhere that she enhanced some of the Cathy and Claire letters even if she didn't write them all. Not unreasonably really - if there were subjects that needed to be covered, lump a few letters together.

Which thought prompted me to google her name plus 'gender' and guess what, she's clearly concerned and sceptical. No wonder she hasn't got as much publicity lately.

I met Jacqueline Wilson once in the 90s. Spiky and highly intelligent. I'm glad to hear she's a sceptic. Excellent writer too.