Thread 14 - TalkLair: “What The Hell Are We Supposed To Use, Man? Harsh Language?”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 13).

Summer should be well under way, but the chilly wind, grey clouds and pouring rain beg to differ. Looks like 2024 continues to be a washout - on the bright side, the Tories got washed out too! In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm. The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

I got 8 on the Pantone one, which I think is the worst score so far. 172 on the blue green one.

I got 2 on the pantone 172 on the blues-and-greens one. Actual turquoise stone comes in quite a variety of colours - the cheaper stuff, some of which is reconstituted, some dyed, is much more universally on the 'blue' end that some older pieces. My mother had a ring given to her by a sister who had lived in India and it's much lighter and greener, and I have a necklace of (I think) American hand-carved beads some of which are distinctly shading towards the greener end (in truth, I used to have a necklace, currently I have a jar full of hand-carved turquoise beads and the silver beads that used to separate them. Must do something about that).

I closed the tab before I noted down my score on the blue green but I was more green than 55% of the population and my turquoise was blue. I agree though if I could have said a greeny blue or a bluey green I would have. I'll go and have a look at the other one.

0 on the Pantone one although it took me far too long to figure out how to start the quiz so I think I score pretty highly on the idiot spectrum.

0 for me too. There's a phone game I used to play that's just like that, it's called I Love Hue.

I was far too stupid to work out how the Pantone one worked or what I was supposed to be doing.

You're meant to drag the squares in each strip so they run in colour order. Doesn't work on a phone, though.

It worked on my phone but I reckon I may well do better on my iPad as the screen is both bigger (obvs) and better.

I finally got it to work and scored 4 ... might do better in natural light, I suppose, but am unlikely to remember!

I need to have another massive rant about the FiL house saga, because I know it's effectively none of my beeswax and I can't shout at people IRL. (Feel free to scroll!)

Background was that Sibling A, who lives on the other end of the country, had done a Zoopla estimate which came up with an insanely high price. Those of us who live locally said "Um, that's clearly completely wrong for the area, even if the house was done up like Grand Designs instead of being a smelly 1970s relic" and Sibling A conceded that we were right. FiL said he would be happy with a lower [£RealisticPrice] that we locals suggested. But Sibling B, who lives intermediately far away, got the insane price stuck in his head.

Nevertheless, after my last rant we made astounding progress within a few short days in a flurry of WhatsApp messages and family phone calls, a fucking miracle with how avoidant they all are. Asking price (ambitious but not insane, kept Sibling B happy) and agent agreed between all family members, FiL signed agreement with agent, house went on Rightmove, first viewings booked in. Amazing!

Couple of weeks later, got a lowball offer from a developer. Everybody agreed it was too low and we should wait to see if he increased. Few days on, he offered a bit more. Then a few more days later, he offered [£RealisticPrice].

I said to DH "This is it! We should tell everyone to accept!" - he agreed, then did sweet FA. The family WhatsApp group remained silent. Nobody replied.

A couple of weeks passed. We were told there were another couple of viewings booked. Last weekend, report from agent that none of the new viewings were successful. "Quelle surprise," I said to DH. But the only response from the family WhatsApp was Sibling A saying that he'd asked the agent to make a video walkthrough for Rightmove and that maybe we should reduce the asking price. "Like rearranging the fucking deckchairs on the fucking Titanic," I said to DH.

So now we're nearly 2 months into the house being on the market, we've pissed a perfectly good offer up the wall, and meanwhile FiL has been paying council tax/utilities/insurance on two properties since he moved out in April!

Oh dear, what a carry on!

Anyway, our refugees have moved out, they went without notifying us, on Wednesday. It's a bit of a relief, because they'd become disrespectful and were saying nasty things to and about our daughter. We'd given them notice to leave by the end of the month, but they just took their stuff downstairs and got in a taxi.

I asked if they needed help and got a brusque "No!" It was more that they were rude to my wife, after an incident where her sister was washing the kitchen floor and told the mother (refugee) off for walking on it in dirty shoes... They said they would leave, then didn't, but the daughter had a go at my wife and called her rude and disrespectful, literally wagging her finger at her.

They were complaining that all the places they'd looked at were rough, but as the mother doesn't want to work, my sympathy is zero!

We'd been tiptoeing about, trying to avoid being in the same room as them, it was very awkward.

That soinds very wearing, @Kucinghitam Kucinghitam. I'm once again grateful I had no siblings to deal with when sorting Dad out.

Glad you've got your house back to yourselves, @SinnerBoy Sinner.

A bit of other people's weirdness as light relief for you both: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5169477-to-be-frustrated-with-my-friend-whos-become-a-guru-after-a-trip-to-india?

Blimey, @Kucinghitam that sounds infuriating! We had a thing a couple of years ago when my step mother was finding it increasingly difficult to move my dad around his wheelchair. My and her siblings were all wringing their hands about what to do when the glaringly obvious answer was to get him an electric wheelchair. It was Mr Veg who sorted that, ordered it and set it up for him. It was life changing for everyone.

Glad you've got your house back, @SinnerBoy and hope you're enjoying the peace and space. If it was us, we'd be saying 'Hark!' now and then to remind ourselves of the change.

That thread about the woman becoming a guru after two weeks in India is interesting. She sounds seriously annoying.

Someone I know/knew did similar when he re-married and has had a personality transplant, ditching who he was and taking on all her ideas.

Sympathies for the in-law woes Kuc. Dealing with one's own family can be bad enough but in-law shit is far worse.

A Prince among Men thread:

Husband abandoned me and two kids by text message and emigrated to New Zealand www.mumsnet.com/Talk/relationships/5169420-husband-abandoned-me-and-two-kids-by-text-message-and-emigrated-to-new-zealand

What's very weird is how many other posters have come across this sort behaviour before.

I saw that one, what a horrible thing to do and it's awful that so many people are familiar with similar incidents.

Then there's this woman who is 36 weeks pregnant and her partner is out every night with another woman. For some reason she isn't kicking off in the way you might expect.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/relationships/5169370-fiance-wants-to-go-on-a-break-but-im-36-weeks-pregnant?page=1

I've been reading about the strangeness of HP Lovecraft who seems to have been afraid of almost everything, including salad. I'm glad I'm not him.

www.reddit.com/r/Lovecraft/comments/dm898x/was_lovecraft_afraid_of_salad_what_else_was_he/

Worth following that Reddit link for the paragraph with Lovecraft's description of the lettuce, which for some reason my iPad wouldn't let me copy to paste here.

This one, I think, Brit. Apparently it was in a letter to a friend.

"Essentially, Lovecraft was having a mental breakdown because his favorite local grocer had decided to install a fresh produce stand at the back of the store. He felt it was disgusting and unsanitary, especially because some of the vegetables were slightly wilted or bruised, and because there was still some dirt attached to a few of the turnips. Also, they dared to have a selection of mushrooms and the thought of them willfully contaminating the store with spores and fungi was too much for him."

Hang on, there's more.

"To be honest, he did spend at least two paragraphs on how wilted the lettuce was. Something like "sun-seared and withered, the feted leaves had been recently sprayed with water by the listless, dull-eyed storekeep in hopes of conveying freshness, but the act had only underscored the magnitude of festering putrescence that permeated the hoary, near-rotten vegetation. Even as I watched a hoard of fat, corpulent flies swarmed above the noxious decay, stirring the dust in the air and further coating the offal in even more abundant filth.""

To be fair, that does sound like a lettuce that wouldn’t even outlast a Liz Truss premiership.

Is it 'pick a pointless argument on Mumsnet' day or is the Equinox making people fractious?

I kind of wish I could see it so I could decide if it just needed the end cutting off and soaking for a bit, but there are a great many generations of lettuces since the one that Lovecraft saw.

I'm sure everyone here has seen the 'letter to a woman who called me a terf' thread, and now I see there's an update, but how brilliantly is it written (both parts), and how depressing in its accuracy?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/3108929-a-letter-to-the-woman-who-called-me-a-terf?page=38&reply=138466947