Thread 16 - TalkLair: "Well, I'm not exactly quaking in my stylish-yet-affordable boots, but there's definitely something unnatural going on here."

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 15).

Another year over, a new one just begun...

In the TalkLair, the hearth is glowing, the walls festooned with tinsel, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, rugs are down on the floors, the tree is twinkling with fairy lights (and possibly being clambered on by cats). 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 Christmas roast beast over there in the corner of the cave…

Murdoch Mysteries came to my mind, too.

Hide, not hit, damn it!

I've heard of Murdoch Mysteries but not seen any. I'll happily give it a go! I have watched The Alienist which is similar though probably darker and set in 1896. I loved that. I also bloody love to pieces Vienna Blood even though there are not strong female leads. It's rather wonderful and gorgeous to look at.

This site is making me lose the will to live today. Is it just me, or has 7th January been designated International Stupidity Day?

What have you seen, Gonners?

Beyond Labour's abysmal TikTok, of course?

Oh, it's just the usual run of stuff ... mostly threads with incessantly repeated (wrong) answers from people who don't understand the question let alone know the answer, plus the general daily spitefulness. I'm just not in the mood for it.

I cheered myself up, though, by leaving (non-abusive) feedback on the HMRC website which included the word "labyrinthine" and ended with "Feh!" It cheered me up even more when I subsequently realised that I'd failed to find what I was looking for because I'd logged in to MrG's account instead of my own.

Labour seems determined to shoot itself in both feet. Has it been infiltrated by Reform?

Those threads are infuriating, I agree.

I've been having mind-cleansing sessions watching animal videos on X in order to keep me sane. This one cheered me up. The phrase 'almost human' came to mind.

x.com/AMAZlNGNATURE/status/1875691067137253705

Those parrots!

Yes, the spitefulness is really off-putting and quite unnecessary. It turned my DD right off Mumsnet when she was on here briefly.

There's a definite Mean Girls vibe sometimes. I put it down to the anonymity of the Internet. There's also a definite Dunning-Kruger element. I put this down to the ubiquitous availability of the Internet.

On the other hand, I skim lots of threads where the OP is in the most desperate situation, and inevitably, within the first two or three posts, someone has completely nailed the most compassionate and practical advice. I say, 'skim', because threads like that can seem a bit "taking a holiday in someone else's misery".

Yes the advice you can get on this forum is often first-rate. I do wish people would RTFT before they chime in though.

The thread about Musk being nuts had far too many people who've fallen down a far right rabbit hole, but thankfully a lot of people who haven't. That was my brief visit to madness yesterday.

@Vegemiteandhoneyontoast those cockatoos eating their pizza as they gaze off into the distance! My heart! I love cockatoos and parrots and all those sorts of birds. I was a little in love with poor Fefe further down the page who's all bald from anxiety and her deep love for the husband of the couple who've rescued her. I'd love a parrot but I'm too old to do that now.

Oh! Yesterday I went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription and there was a man there with a bengal cat on his shoulder. She was stunning and her fur was so silky soft when she let me stroke her a little bit. I'd love to be able to take Francis out on my shoulder but the fact of the matter is he's so heavy he'd weigh me down. He'd also scratch me to pieces trying to get off so it's never going to happen.

Oh that's lovely, FMB. I'm currently musing how difficult it seems to be to buy music these days. When I hear music I really like, I generally try to buy it in some format or other. But tonight, listening to something I'd heard many times on YouTube, I thought, you really should buy this. So, not available on Bandcamp, my first port of call; they just had a few single tracks. So, try their own website? Digital downloads available, but again, only single tracks. OK, how about CDs? Success at last! 13 quid. OK, then. Total, with carriage and estimated taxes (God knows from where), 34 quid odd. No ta.

@FagsMagsandBags I hadn't seen FeFe but have now and she's adorable. Hopefully all her feathers grow back well.

My birthday is coming up. I've treated myself to a cast iron skillet made in 1932 by a late Wolverhampton company called Holcroft. I had one of their skillets already, of similar age, and it's one of the best pieces of cookware I've ever used, but the new one is three inches wider and will be very useful. From the pictures, it needs cleaning up of baked-on grease but there's no rust, so nothing soda, hot water and elbow grease won't solve.

The first skillet had been a garden ornament for at least 15 years and was incredibly rusty but, once restored, it's a lovely piece of kit. Properly seasoned, it's non-stick and makes the perfect omelette. Bringing it back into regular use has given me enormous satisfaction and hopefully its larger sibling will be the same. Fingers crossed it might be here tomorrow.

That sounds like a proper birthday treat for yourself! I've only ever owned one cast iron pan - a smallish square oven-top grill pan. I suspect MrG left it in China, along with much else of mine!

I owned a cast-iron frying pan once, but it almost broke my wrists using it so I passed it onto someone else.

I am very tired of dental woes. I had a molar out in December that was bothering me for a while before extraction, then the extraction site was painful until it healed, and now the tooth next door to it is hurting and clearly will need to come out. I literally have not had a pain-free day since some time in November and I'm very tired of it. Apologies to @FagsMagsandBags for moaning because I know you've had it a lot worse, and to other threadsters who also have pains. Today I'm feeling like a toddler who just wants to stamp her feet and shout "make it stop!"

No need to apologise, @Britinme tooth pain is absolutely horrible. Plus. apart from my lungs I'm in a really good place right now and the good news about the lungs is that while we still have no idea why they are so rubbish we know that it isn't blood clots, any sort of infection or cancer so it's all good. I'm being referred to the chest people and they're looking into my tachycardic heart - I was watching Casualty just before Christmas and one of the medics was saying "He's taccy at 110" and I said to the TV, "That's rubbish, that's my base level these days, give me something that's properly taccy!" because that's the sort of arsehole I am.🙂

I made a basic outer clothing error today. I didn't look at the weather and decided I'd wear my leopard print coat rather than my brand new waterproof coat. Off I went to therapy, which was bloody great and a blood test and then I noticed it had started raining. I walked home and the rain got heavier and then turned into sleet, so I was cold and wet and only not being utterly miserable because I was enjoying the podcast I was listening to (The Rest is History, all about Charlemagne which I studied and hated at A level and am now enjoying and remembering far more of the players than I'd been aware of. I got straight into the shower at home which helped a lot.

Oh and later this evening there were the most unholy noises outside my flat. Screeching that had to be an animal, but what animal? I went on to the terrace and I could make out in the dim light below a couple of foxes. I said "What on earth are you up to?" and they both looked up at me as though they'd been caught in the act. Then one ran off and the other followed. I'm guessing an attempt at mating that wasn't wanted hence the noises from hell.

That sounds lovely, @Vegemiteandhoneyontoast I have to start thinking of what I want and want I want to do for my birthday. Apparently. It's not until April but I'm going to be sixty so I'm reguarly being asked if I've decided what I want to do. I have no idea. Whenever I try to think about it my brain closes down and refuses to understand what a birthday is let alone that it's something that people might do something "special" for.

Toothache is miserable do lots of sympathy @Britinme

Along with several friends, I was 60 in the first lockdown (and a few more were 50) so it was all Zoom calls. I’ve never really done big birthdays properly but even so lockdown wasn’t ideal so I was hugely appreciative of the gin and brownies sent by my lovely nephew and his wife. Hope you think of something that makes you smile @FagsMagsandBags - you really do deserve a good celebration!

I'm guessing an attempt at mating that wasn't wanted hence the noises from hell.

Foxes make noises from hell even when both keen.

Hope the tooth pain clears up soon, Brit - very frustrating to have successive problems like that rather than your teeth doing the decent thing and getting it all over with in one go.

Britinme · Yesterday 22:02

Don't feel guilty about protracted tooth pain. Others may be worse off, but it's your personal misery.

@FagsMagsandBags I'm the same with birthdays, never know what I want and if anyone asks me my mind instantly goes blank. I think it may go back to a time when I was flat broke and deciding between what was a 'need' or a 'want'.

@Britinme dental pain is one of the worst things ever, complain away and don't hold back.

Tracking info for the skillet now shows it will be delivered tomorrow. Really looking forward to cleaning it up and using it for the first time.