Thread 15 - TalkLair: “I Can't Lie To You About Your Chances, But... You Have My Sympathies.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 14).

Autumn seems to have gone straight into winter. It's cold, wet and windy. In the TalkLair, 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). The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch though, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics.

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

Sorry Kuc. Is 'she'll grow out of it' any comfort at all?

Thought not. Have a comforting beverage, and don't grind your teeth, it's bad for them.

Wigan won? Damn - not just that we lost but that the wrong side of the Pennines won.

When I was young, whatever I did my mum could always tell me how to do it better. When I got my First, my first reaction (tellingly) wasn't just delight but 'at least that's one thing she won't be able to find fault with.'

Yeah, well Yorkshire need to step up!

Oh dear, Kuc! Teenagers, eh? Mine's 11 and has actually improved over the last year. She understands the value of going through things a couple of days before and packing the night before.

2 weeks ago, she even got herself out of bed at 5am to leave the house at 6:30 for her residential.

An 11 year old getting themselves up at 5am is quite an achievement, there's good potential there!

My dad used to be like that, a right know-it-all, but then I learned a great deal about a subject he knows little about, horticulture. One day he told me about a planting technique he'd come across and I told him its correct name. I had great satisfaction when his response was 'Huh, can't tell you anything, can I'. Felt like I'd finally arrived.

Feeling a bit weird.

I just found out one of my ex-stepfathers has died (note for dossier keepers, stepdad2, the one who tried to kill my mother and take out an injunction against me for being intimidating - unsurprisingly I've not been in contact for almost 30 years). It seems he'd at some point spread a rumour he'd adopted me, so someone was in touch to see if I could help with info for the executors.

Blimey!

Oh crikey @NoBinturongsHereMate, not surprised you're feeling a bit weird. I didn't know about Stepdad2 (or Stepdad1 for that matter), how awful for you and your mum.

That must be confusing news, bint. I hope you're doing ok. It's very hard to process news of remote deaths, even in more straightforward circumstances.

Goodness Bint, that must be a hell of a headf**k. Hope you're coping OK!

Thanks all. It's stirred up a few things, but I'm countering it by an equally confused dinner - sweet potatoes (orange and purple), beetroot (yellow) and carrots (white) so I have something nice and concrete to be muddled about.

At least the person who emailed had also been in touch with MaBint, so I didn't have to decide whether to tell her or not.

Bloody hell Bint.

You'd better put some green leaves with that and you can have a suffragette flag dinner.

Excellent thinking - flag food!

There's leeks in the accompanying quiche, so it will indeed be the full flag. That's cheering.

Leeks are a food of the Immortals, by the way.

That sounds like discombobulating news for both you and MaBint @NoBinturongsHereMate - hope you’re both okay.

I can never decide between leeks and endive/"chicory" and have to compromise by alternating them.

I am very much in favour of leeks. I had one as part of my dinner this very evening, baked with butter beans in a tomato sauce with cheese on top (the cheese sank).

It's a long time since I've eaten butter beans! I used to always have some pulses soaking for many years when I was young. I don't use much that need soaking these days.

Me neither. The butter beans were in a jar. I am way too disorganised to start off with dried pulses.

I like the idea of pulses in jars, rather than tins, but they're so big, I end up throwing most of them away.

Me too as I don't like them all that much and there's only one of me. Sainsbury's do chickpeas in little tins which stretch to 2-3 lunches for me when mixed with things like bulgur and quinoa.

The only beans I like are green beans (are they technically a bean?) and edamame beans, both of which I buy frozen so there's nothing wasted.

You can always freeze excess pulses from jars, can't you? We tend to buy tins and I don't really see large jars of pulses in the supermarket.