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.

Sympathies @BinkerTell that all sounds too too much. Good to hear you have a aupport network.

Hello Medee! Never posted on WDYLN so can’t place you unfortunately, but it’s good to see friendly posts. Hope you settle in.

LN Day off and a very long walk. Ostensibly to pick up my car after its service, but handily coinciding with the start of the latest Pikmin challenge. So by the time I got home I had 5 and 1/5 challenges under my belt as well as a shiny, smooth-running car. And over 20,000 steps. Tagine, couscous and falafel for dinner, and the last episode of His Dark Materials. Set the Pikmin on 2 more mushrooms before retiring to bed.

Hello, Medee.

Thank you all so much. It does mean a lot. I really like @mach2 's idea of waking up and everything since 2016 having been a dream (with the exception of completing my doctorate). Though I think it was Bobby rather than Pam Ewing in the shower.

And when I'm feeling stronger @NotDrowningJustCrowing I will take you on that offer.

Oh @BinkerTell much sympathy for all the shitness, I can only echo what everyone has said and offer (((brackets))).

Hello @DisgraceToTheYChromosome, I remember you! Congratulations to Jackbaby and your family!

And hello too to @Medee!

Hello all - and welcome home Kuc, I hope the virus didn't spoil the trip too much.

If we're going to do LN I had a lovely day - the weather was good, I got a line of washing dry outside and went for a (short) walk. Wildflowers are my great interest and pleasure - so far there's just a sprinkling of flowers on the furze and a few dandelions, but all the leaves are appearing. Lots more crocuses in the garden and a long sweep of snowdrops making me feel that the cold and muddy knees a few years ago were justified.

And wandering round the house with RTÉ1 on in the background was really fun, they'd gone all-in on stuff to tie in with our brand-new bank holiday, so there was stuff on nature, St Brigid, Kildare (with a bit of Christy Moore along the way) folklore and history - very enjoyable imo.

Then made a huge vat of Bolognese sauce, to be frozen, and used a bit of it with added spices and stuff to make a Maltese baked pasta. Yum.

And got cross with Alice on the Archers.

oh, and welcome Medee, whoever you are!

welcome home Kuc, I hope the virus didn't spoil the trip too much.

Thanks @DeanVolecapeAKAelderberry! I'm feeling much better, although the coughing fits are still manifesting (embarrassingly) at random times - I suspect they'll continue for some weeks. Also, am hideously jetlagged. And worst of all, I'm suffering Malaysian-food-withdrawal symptoms.

Post viral coughs can be wonderfully deep and resonant - a great way to get everyone around you to take a step (or several) back.

@Medee Hiya! I'm a long-time Wdidder too, went by OneOfOne in the old country. I haven't been on their much in the last years, just busy with family stuff, in a good way, and couldn't keep up.

oh god the shame - 'on there'

dies a little

ah Binkers I'm sorry to hear that, it all sounds a lot! I'm glad you are surrounded by good people, very important!

I've just ordered a very expensive sample of "Sentia". This is David Nutt's new alcohol-free but mood-enhancing drink. (Nutt is/was prof of pharma/neuro/psycho something - infamously fired from the gov's drug advisory group by Alan Johnson for being insufficiently drugs-are-bad-mkay?).

It was £16 for 20cl. Gulp. I'll neck it and report back, shall I, when it arrives?

alcohol-free but mood enhancing drink

£16 seems a helluvalot for a nice cup of tea

I'm intrigued but not £16 intrigued

Hahahaha! Quite right, elders. Apparently, though, it's all about Gaba, which is described here:

www.verywellhealth.com/gaba-5095143

I expect it's bollocks - and I take gabapentin, for neuropathic pain, so this might be lost on me anyway. But I would like to find a pleasant substitute for spirits, a fondness for which seems to be growing! I tried something called "Three Spirits" ( I think). Not very satisfying.

ha! I googled gamma-aminobutyric acid and see that it does indeed occur naturally in tea. Despite the insistence that it has to be really extra special expensive tea, I'll stick to the regular stuff (Irishwomen are notorious for it).

alcohol-free but mood enhancing drink

£16 seems a helluvalot for a nice cup of tea

Ha! Quite so! I am lucky, I suppose, that I get a bit enough kick out of my coffee. I gave up cigarettes without too much trouble - nearly 40 years ago now! - and I rarely drink due to heartburn and headaches. Never done recreation drugs that much but coffee I could not live without.

Hello to @Medee good to see you even tho I haven't the faintest idea who you are! Much sympathy @BinkerTell I hope it gets better. And hello to @DisgraceToTheYChromosome - great username. Congrats to JackBaby.

I don't post much here because it's not easy on my phone and I'm mostly on my phone these days not the big computer in my office due to retirement - YAY! I DO post a lot on Twitter. Best not put my handle here but if you know my real name it's @ Miss my real name.

Something excellent.

Was recommended an app called "Concertino", which works with Apple Music to sort out its classical music catalogue. It's free and bloody brilliant - you can search on composer, instrument, performer, all nested and with a brilliant UI. It's transforming apple music for me. Makes it worth it.

Binker, I'm so sorry to hear about your woes. I hope things will pick up for you both on the health and professional front. I remember how rightly proud you were when you completed the PhD.

It sounds like your tank is empty for the moment. I hope you can rest and recover. (I'm Hel&D btw)

Bloody hell. There are some really terrible men about if AIBU is anything to go by (if the OPs aren’t just bored trolls amusing themselves). And the women OPs are so feeble and pathetic in putting up with them and minimising their men’s fuckwittery. It’s making my internet slapping hand itch.

I know, I know, NOT ALL MEN.

too darn many men

yes yes, some of my best friends etcetera

and some women are stinkers too

I think it was Nutt who came in to do guest lectures for one of my degree modules (drugs and the mind). V good educator, if it was him - letting students loose on some of the safer drugs is certainly a good way to get good feedback scores, but he was also very engaging and informative.