Thread 5 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads (thread 4).

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.

BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn · Today 14:04

There's still time for the gales to reach Worthing. They were in Scotland overnight, and we got the edge of them here, and are heading south.

It's died right down here, thankfully! The noise was really irritating.

Reasonably pleasant here in Herts where hurricanes hardly ever happen. I am struggling to stay awake, since I didn't sleep on the plane, but so far the grandchildren have kept me going and I think the Fairport Convention gig I'm going to this evening in Harpenden will probably keep me conscious.

Wow! Any of the original Fairports still in it?

A bit blowy in South and West Yorkshire - there were a few power problems at work in the morning.

Only Simon Nicol. I used to be a big pal of Ric, one of the vioinists, and we still see each other at their gigs from time to time. A GBOL. I bet you have a great time, Brit.

Oh - Duc: they're doing a gig in Southport soon, I believe. Not too far from you...

@angelico53

Ooh, ta!

I went to Cropredy once, about a million years ago. On my old Triumph, with g/f, tent and sleeping bags. Somehow we got home in one bit.

Just looked up “penury” on google, as I just used it then wondered if I’d used it correctly (yes, of course, how could I have doubted myself?), and while there learnt some wonderful new words, e.g.:

Solivagant [soh-LIH-va-ghent] (adjective): To wander alone. This fun word comes from the Latin words “solus” meaning alone, and “vagans” meaning “wander.”

Noun. nemophilist (plural nemophilists) (rare) One who is fond of forests or forest scenery; a haunter of the woods.

Noun. cynophilist (plural cynophilists) A person who is fond of dogs.

Librocubicularist (n): A person who reads in bed.

I am all of these things!

…I say “learnt” but I won’t remember any of them by morning.

It was Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Ric Sanders, Chris Leslie and Dave Mattacks, all of whom have played with Fairport over the years. They had Ben Savage and Hannah Sanders as guests, who were excellent, and Hannah sang Sandy Denny's part on Reynardine with them, which was terrific. It was a fabulous evening and my daughter and I both loved it. No problem staying awake, but I slept very well when I finally got to bed. The last time I saw Fairport was at Nettlebed folk club in Oxfordshire about 21 years ago, and they were still as good now. I've also seen them when Dave Swarbrick was still with us.

@MavisMcMinty - I am also a librocubicularist and have been all my life without knowing it!

Hannah has a terrific voice, and Chris a fine medodic touch on the violin.

Ric and I were in several bands together - one a Hot Club sort, with two violinists, three or four guitarists and a bass, playing Django stuff. Embarrssingly, we were called the Fishnet Tights String Orchestra.

Later, we had a jazz/fusion outfit, which was outrageously good fun. Top bloke and ace jazzer. Somewhere, there's a tape of the two of us free improv for hours in 1970. I think substances may have been involved.

I've loved Fairport forever. What we did in the holidays, wonderful. Captured the sense that one could do anything, both musically and otherwise, that signified that time. Some of those songs (She moved through the fair, Meet on the ledge) I still play after 50 years of playing them.

<sigh>

Oh yes they played a good mix of newer and older. Among the latter "The banks of the sweet primroses ", "My love is in America " and "The girl from the hiring fair" and among the former "Cider Rain" stands out. And they finished with "Mattie Groves" of course. I wonder if you know my friend Andy Leonard, who knows several of them and goes to Cropredy every year and takes photos for them.

@MavisMcMinty , I'm all of them too.

It was cold and windy when I went out but we escaped the storm. Thankfully.

The hospital visit was fine. Nothing to worry about, if it returns go straight back to your GP.

Yesterday was the two year anniversary of the death of my friend's husband who was my brother from another mother. We had a celebration, lots of people were at hers. Too many for my tennitus so I mostly stayed in the kitchen washing up. Later we went to the pub were a rockabilly band played and I found myself entranced by the drummer who was v hot with beautiful arms. I drank very little and had a pint of water. We jived, I awoke and find myself just grand this morning. More so because Francis went nose to nose with me and gave me a little kiss/lick. He rarely does/did. The arrival of Django has helped. Francis is more nose affectionate and I love it!

They're fabulous words, @MavisMcMinty . Is there a word for someone who discovers and delights in new words, but can't retain them? I'd be that one too.

Fairports sounds great, Brit.

Meanwhile I'm looking forward to seeing Wigan on C4 at lunchtime for our first game of the season. Always good to be on terrestrial TV.

For the cat lovers...

I’m feeling a bit fraudulent, please pretend this is OK:

Bought a Grazia “limited edition” beauty box for £40 earlier this week containing £250+ of skincare/cosmetics. It was missing 3 items (none of which I really cared about tbh) so I contacted the website, explained what had happened, and asked them to send me the 3 missing items. The customer care adviser said she’d send me a replacement box, I asked if/how I should return the incomplete box and she didn’t answer. Today the replacement box has come (with the missing items this time) so now I have £500+ of products for £40.

Ha ha mach!

I’d assume you’re fine to keep the original box @MavisMcMinty . It’s probably easier just to send you s whole new box and it looks better from their perspective.

As a comparison, I once ordered some stuff online from Ottolenghi. It included a cookbook along with assorted foods. A pot of tahini leaked. I let them know and told them what it had leaked onto (some jars of spice, as far as I recall). I was sent my whole order again as they said they wanted to get it right rather than just replacing the damaged items.

Thanks artant! It was amazing value to begin with, and lots of very useable products, including a BROWN eyeliner when eyeliners in these boxes are invariably black, which is way too harsh for me. If anyone wants me to send them black eyeliner, I have dozens of the things, unused.

Haha @mach2!

That is fabulous good fortune, @MavisMcMinty. I agree with you on the black eyeliner - I mean, I'm SE-Asian-coloured (with black hair and very dark brown eyes) and I don't use black eyeliner because it's too harsh.

If you like learning new words @weaseleyes, I highly recommend the podcast "Something Rhymes With Purple" with Gyles Brandreth and Susie Dent.

I like Susie Dent, @Kucinghitam (though I can't tolerate too much Gyles Brandreth), but my memory is so frustrating! I have a reasonably large vocabulary, but it's like I've reached my mental limit and there's no room to fit any new ones in for longer than half an hour. It's a pity the cool, new words can't displace some of the old ones. I'd cheerfully substitute solivagant for poptart, for example.

It's not great to use words people won't understand, though.

Oh, olisthostromes!