Thread 4 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads 1 & 2 & 3.

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.

The animosity will eventually end but they will pick at the scab on and off for quite some time. I know whereof I speak. Don't let it upset you because there's nothing you can do about it. You can't change other people's behaviour only your reaction to it.

I think it's sad to be so embedded in an ideology that something so egregious as a rapist being sent to a women's prison - if that happens - has to be ignored if you are to be ideologically pure.

I have to admit I am as guilty of wanting to pick at the scab as anyone, here or there. I'm going to try to leave it be from now on, I managed to stop posting over here, or even wanting to post over there, so I am sure I can manage to stop looking over there and talking about over there.

I agree. We're several months and almost 4,000 posts on from The Event. I'd rather lose the Genoaing and keep @BinkerTell .

On reflection (after a terrible night's sleep - thanks, jet lag!) I suppose it's about different personality types. Some people need to frequently revisit the traumatic event/injury in order to process what's happened. Some people just want a clean break rather than reopening old wounds. In most things in life, I'm actually more like the first type. I have a dreadful tendency to dwell and stew and keep turning things over in my mind. But on this particular matter, I personally would be comfortable never hearing about (or from!) anything/anybody Old Place-related until the heat death of the universe.

Also - I suppose another difference is that for many posters, until this happened, the Old Place was essentially the only internet home we/they had ever known. Jumping ship must have felt like losing everything.

Anyway. Carry on, one way or another. Doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things.

But please more cat/dog pictures and food talk. I'm so tired and grumpy right now. Look, here are some clams in garlic, chilli and fried curry leaves.

That looks AMAZING @Kucinghitam. Do you eat desserts? Very curious about those, being a sweet fiend.

Can I do a terrible brag for a minute? I’ve finally got the result for my latest assignment on my infectious diseases module. I scored 90%, am absolutely astonished because I was head-scratching through a lot of it and it was a step up from what I’m used to. It’s the first assignment where I’ve managed not to misunderstand anything. It’s given me a lot more confidence for my exam in May, which I’ve been worrying about. I shared the news with Kasper and got a lovely purr in return.

Well done!

(BTW, I think Kasper may have a rather large territory. The past couple of weeks we've been seeing a new cat in our garden who looks remarkably like.)

Fantastic news about your assignment, well done @CyanCrystalViolet! You've been working so hard, you really deserve it. I hope gorgeous Kasper is rewarding you with plenty of loving feline attention.

I do eat desserts too. Although if I have a food craving it tends to be for savoury things. Here are some sweet things I have eaten in the past 2 days. There is ais kacang which is a mound of shaved ice soaked in rose syrup, palm sugar syrup and coconut milk, on top of (bear with me, this makes perfect sense to Asian palates) red beans and grass jelly. This one is fancy because it also has a scoop of ice cream. The pretty colourful things in the display case are Peranakan/Nyonya kuih.

@CyanCrystalViolet that's fantastic! Well done you!

I promise I'll stop baiting the bears. Please don't leave on my account. That food looks gorgeous Kuc.

The food looks wonderful, and the links sent me off on voyages of discovery about mint-related plants, and, oddly, what Cream of Tartar is used for.

VicSynix · Yesterday 19:44

I have also been wondering why our drive-by scolders are SO cross with us. Seems a bit of a waste of energy to lurk in order so you can get enraged...

It seems too me that it's because they want to convince themselves that they were right all along, that we ARE a bunch of nasty bigots. I wonder if they notice the loss of range of debate? It's very sad.

@CyanCrystalViolet

Congratulations on your excellent mark!

🍾🍾🍾

Yes, very impressive mark - always great when hard work pays off. Also excellent cat - I do love his golden eyes.

More food pictures please (though it's prompted me to google and my nearest satay is at least an hour's drive away, which is making me sad). Never been to Malaysia and would love to go.

Nearest I've got so far is changing planes in Singapore. I want to do a lot more exploring of that part of the world. Trouble is, MrBint doesn't do well with heat, or humidity. And he's given up flying. When I stop working I may have to go solo - perhaps as the next of my big train trips. Or we could make it a thread expedition.

Does he do what Mr Monkey does (also bad in the heat) and moan about it but refuse to make any adjustments or concessions towards it?

I just like weather! I like hot, cold, sun, rain, snow. But there's one exception: what an old friend once called "Lancashire suicide weather". Endless grey dampness in places like St Helens, Wigan (sorry Duc), Leigh.

In other news, I Was Being Unreasonable about not having a telly in the living room. So a huge television arrives on Saturday. 55", I understand. I have resolved to love it, like the Sufi saint* who went to sleep on a conker and woke up at the top of a tree, which he could do thing at all about.

Angelica could barely conceal her mirth when she discovered that they were delivering it on my birthday. I'll turn up the volume on Match of the Day while she drifts off to sleep, that'll larn her. (Actually, it won't; she has always delighted in the cheers etc. downstairs, for some reason. It must be that, being who she is, she likes the sound of people enjoying themselves).

*IIRC, and it might not have been a conker, neither.

Morning, thread. Love the new pics of cats and delicious looking food!

He's finally realised that a lightweight, pale, linen shirt might be a better choice for a heatwave than a thick black polo shirt. Walking more slowly and adjusting daily schedules is a work in (not much) progress.

the Sufi saint who went to sleep on a conker and woke up at the top of a tree*

Now that's a nap!

@Kucinghitam looks fantastic! So pretty.

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn enjoying the image of Kasper on the ferry

@angelico53 excellent News, have you updated the thread?

Trouble is, MrBint doesn't do well with heat, or humidity.

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn That would definitely rule out all of SE Asia! I mean, I'm from here and the I-can't-possibly-even-move-in-this-sauna feeling hits me like a truck when I first step off the plane.

More food pictures please

@VicSynix Maybe later. I have something better than food pictures!

Went to the hotel's rooftop swimming pool this afternoon for a refreshing soak, and found a young Korean family clustered around a planter, clucking anxiously. By means of mostly sign language, we established that a bird had crashed into a window by the pool and they'd picked it up, put it on the edge of the planter and were trying to revive it with a bottle top of water. But they had to leave and the small children begged us to keep an eye on it.

I honestly thought the bird was done for. It showed absolutely no signs of recovery for a 10 minutes. But eventually it started moving its head, took a few sips of water, yawned (do they yawn?) and finally started stretching its wings. 10 minutes later, it looked quite perky and attempted to take off - straight into a faceplant and then lay there like it was dead. This routine was repeated a couple of times.

Then, finally, it briefly achieved sustained flight - it faceplanted into the swimming pool. I had to jump in to rescue it, dry it with my pool towel and park it in a sheltered corner to let it dry completely. And it really looked almost dead for half an hour, until finally it started to move again.

Meanwhile I Googled what sort of bird it was (I could tell it was of the swallow/swift/martin type) and also had the lightbulb that maybe swallow/swift/martin birds can't lift off from a level surface. But I felt somewhat reluctant to just throw it off the 40th floor.

The solution, in the end, was to put in on my palm and offer it up to the wind just over the balustrade. It instinctively spread its wings like a kite and then launched itself off my hand. (We did follow its progress to make sure it was actually flying and not PLUMMET-SPLAT).

So threadsters, I give you: the Asian House Swift.

Oh, that's lovely! You are all good bird friends.

That's amazing. European swifts also spend their entire lives in the sky (apart from nesting) and need that assisted lift if for some reason they end up gounded - which means we never get to see them close up.

Is the phrase 'the biology in the subconscious brain' bollox? Nothing to do with gender btw, someone on the radio talking about a weight loss drug.

Having looked it up the drug seems to work on the endocrine system - is that the 'subconscious brain'? Does the brain even have a conscious or subconscious state - is that not the mind?

Anyhow, nice of the radio to give a platform to a GP running a clinic where he prescribes something with side effects including D&V, retinopathy, kidney damage and pancreatitis.

the world has gone maaaaad