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.

Weird night for me last night - woke up about 1am unable to breathe and feeling like I was constricted in my throat/upper chest. After about 20 seconds of whooping and wheezing could breathe normally again. Absolutely no clue what it was as it cleared so quickly and then didn't happen again. All I can think was either asthma in my sleep or maybe a dream induced panic attack.

Another plus point for mumsnet compared to the previous place, when your post is flagged up by their AI, they take the time to come and tell you not to worry. What a GBOL.

Don't worry, donttellhimpike

Looks like MNHQ recognise you from The Other Place!

Are weed and weed products still illegal in the U.K. ? All legal here in Maine and there are cannabis shops abounding. In fact the city brought in a rule to say you weren't allowed to open one within a couple of hundred yards of another one. Over 21 only though (same as alcohol, which is illegal for under-21s here). They check your drivers license when you go in, even for grey-haired oldies like me. I have discovered that CBD does nothing for my occasional insomnia, but full-blown thc is great. They sell a drink and gummies and caramels with it in (I don't smoke). Sadly I discovered that I can't really take it anyway because when I get up to use the loo in the middle of the night, I feel distinctly wobbly and that doesn't feel safe.

And now my reply is hidden so the AI is obviously primed to look for that particular word. No nortiness here - all perfectly legal!

What is the word??

It seems to be a word related to plants that grow where you don't want them to grow in the garden, and the official name for a plant like that. Rhymes with swede.

"Don't worry, donttellhimpike"

Ooh, I didn't catch that first time, although I'm minded to believe they went with that cos it's the more well known phrase, rather than they know me from 't otherplace

And now my post has been reinstated, as pike's was. I think that's fair moderation on the whole. Hard to do on a site as big and busy as this one.

Anyone else being plagued with repeated Cookies pop ups? I keep pressing OK, yet it pops up again on every new page or thread. Just me?

It's a very long time since I did mushrooms or the like and I don't think I could do it again. All come down things aside I become very, very bossy.

Here's a photo of Francis and Django sleeping together earlier. Well, they're not asleep as you can see with Francis. Django is such a void that it's hard to see what he's up to in a certain light.

This is one where you can see into the void. Poor imprisoned Django taken last week.

And yesterday I promised a photo of books. This is not all the books. Note that the lowest shelf is about three feet from the floor. I didn't include the floor because there is currently a bit of a mess there with things on the verge of finding a home. I keep standing in front of the shelves and enjoying the piles. They make me happy. The high ceilings in this flat also make me happy. It's a very strange layout and the ceiling in my bedroom is higher than the ceilings in the loooong living area.

Oh I do like a shelf creaking slightly under the weght of books. One of life's little pleasures. Great photos Grace.

Cats and bookshelves! Ah, you are really spoiling us

I too like it here more than the other place. I like the chattiness of this thread without the cattiness. It feels very warm, friendly, and inclusive! And me not even a mother!

Hi Lawlsie! They've made me welcome, when there's no possibility of me being a mother. My thread about becoming a grandfather went down quite well.

Here he is, trying and failing to keep seawater out of his wellies.

There's no force on earth that can keep seawater out of wellies! What a lovely picture, Disgrace

My son is coming up tonight, cos tomorrow I shall join angelico in Old Githood. Therefore I have been mostly cooking and cleaning today. So, pizza dough made, check, veggie tortilla mix made, check, sourdough on track for breakfast tomorrow, check, kitchen floor, bathroom floor...

This is worse than a Date Night! 😄

Wonderful picture, @DisgraceToTheYChromosome 😍

Your birthday tomorrow @duc748? Many happy returns, have a lovely time with your son!

Happy birthday for tomorrow @duc748 - it will be half over by the time I wake up tomorrow morning.

Of course as of Friday next week I shall be in the same time zone as the rest of you for a month, as I am visiting the UK to stay with my (autistic) elder son in the hope of giving him some adulting lessons, which at the age of 44 one would hope he wouldn't need but it appears he does. I am very tired of continually forking out to support him because he would, for example, rather eat out every night than cook for himself, and thinks cigarettes and beer are two of the five food groups.

I sympathise. My younger son has just had an autism diagnosis. He’s doing well at present, but I’m apprehensive about the teenage years and adulthood. Self regulation is a minefield. We have a family history of addictive/compulsive behaviours and I’m fearful for his future. I want to help him develop the skills he needs but it’s so hard.

At least you know the score, so are perhaps better armed than before, Winter.

I've been diagnosed with sleep apnoea and am waiting for an appointment to talk about treatment. I'm doing evening walks to get my fitness back up and make for better sleep.

Happy birthday for tomorrow, @duc748/moto, you old git! It's a rum do, this growing old business.

I'm cheered this week, though, by an all clear on certain medical matters, and I've taken delivery of that Sentia stuff. I haven't tried it yet.

Also, in womens' rights news, we have a bye election in west lancs today, and another MP, Jo Stephens(?), came round canvassing for the Labour candidate, so I asked her in and asked her about Labour and gender ideology. She says she's in the shadow cabinet but I forgot to ask her post. She said the was face to face with Starmer last week and he said an absolute no to self-ID and that he was solid on single sex spaces. She seemed pretty gender critical herself but was fairly circumspect. I was heartened, actually, because (a) I think she was being straight and (b) I think this is a shift from Starmer, if accurate. He still has to do more for me, because of the ridiculous cervix comment. And being an unlikeable authoritarian and all the rest, of course. Something, though.

@Winterborne74 - my son wasn't diagnosed until he was in his early thirties. Autism was less known about in schools and by parents like us when he was at school in the 80s and early 90s. We all thought he was just very immature. If you talked to him, it would take you a while before you noticed something a bit offbeat about him. He works as a builders' labourer, through an agency, so work isn't reliable. He was working as a gardener, which was work he loved and he was learning a lot, but the guy he was working for insisted on regarding him as self-employed, which is something he should never be because his executive function just isn't up to that sort of organization, and eventually he got the sack for being too disorganized. That has now left him with two years of unpaid taxes and NI which will undoubtedly come back to bite him in a while, but at the moment the agency at least pays his tax and NI. I have no clue what to do about it, and can't afford to bail him out anyway.

The best advice I can give you is to do what I wish I had done and teach your son life skills like cooking and self-organization. That way, even if he never has a high-paying job he will at least not run into the sort of issues my son does. My NT daughter is far more organized than I am and I didn't teach her directly either - she just picked it up by osmosis I guess. My dyspraxic youngest , who lives here in the US albeit in NJ not Maine, seems to float between the two extremes, but his wife helps to keep him on the straight and narrow!