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…

I learnt a huge amount of practical skills in Brownies and, later, Guides. I can't imagine not being able to ask a bus driver to stop - I'm always THAT person in shops who asks them to open more tills (hate queueing, because arthritis makes standing deeply uncomfortable for me).

Vegemiteandhoneyontoast

Chicken and dairy are most likely, but I don't remember eating chicken. It can take a few days to develop, so I can't pinpoint anything.

Daughter is fine an hearty, she had two days of vomiting from the first, before I was ill.

Thanks for the advice, Dean, only I can't abide bananas!

I turned a job down this week and the doctor said not to join a ship before next Monday, or more, if I'm still ill.

The bananas are useful for getting potassium back into your system, but the orange juice in the re-hydration solution will do the same thing.

Hope you feel better very soon, SinnerBoy. Elderberry's advice is good, though without the bananas. If you've got it then something like Dioralyte helps.

I learnt a huge amount of practical skills in Brownies

Same here, though sometimes I was oblivious that I was actually taking a badge and thought I was just being shown how to do something.

Some of what we did at Brownies didn't make any sense to me at all. In one session, when I was about 8, we were told to 'make something out of nothing' so I went away and thought about how one might do that and realised it was impossible. The following week all the other girls turned up with egg boxes which had various bits of organic matter where the eggs go, berries, leaves and whatnot, and they were praised for their efforts. Not being able to make something out of nothing, I hadn't taken anything and just stood there feeling utterly confused. It still bugs me a bit today. Shortly after that I stopped going.

There is a moment in childhood, maybe in Brownies, maybe at school, when an intelligent child suddenly realises that some adults are stupid. They know more things at the moment, but their ability to think is limited.

That's true. I was recounting to my DS last time I saw him, that I recall his first joke. I don't mean, repeating some joke he's heard at school, I mean actually making up something funny in the course of conversation. And then grinning. And he would have been seven or so. And his mother and I looked at other, and it was quite a 'wow' moment. Familiar to many parents, I'm sure.

when an intelligent child suddenly realises that some adults are stupid

I remember that. It happened for me when I realised that a thing called fashion existed. The idea that people followed fashions so they ended up looking the same just seemed so ridiculous.

My family communicates a lot through sarcasm and jokes, and I remember absolutely bursting with pride when my still very small (about 4?) nephew turned to me and said "You SAID that was nice, but you MEANT it was yuck, didn't you, Squeaky?" It was like the "By George, she's got it!" moment in My Fair Lady.

My dad had a wicked sense of humour and my mum's could be too. I inherited it. I certainly don't remember my first joke but I do remember my mum having a Sunday afternoon nap and my baby brother and I put makeup on her face to make her look like a clown. Our priest came knocking on the door and we let her answer it without telling her. We Knew we'd get in trouble but we didn't care!

It makes me sad that gen Z are quite feeble.

@SinnerBoy I hope you're on the mend very soon.

I've just discovered the Bluestocking! How have I missed that so far? It's a lot of fun. Very frustrating in that I can't figure out how to get a picture to post. I've tried pasting it from my desktop but that doesn't work.

You have to use the 'add image' button below the message box. And it needs to be under a certain size (it will tell you if it's too big).

According to my mother, my first joke was as a toddler, looking at the BBC1 logo on the telly and announcing WEE WEE SEE ONE and then collapsing into helpless laughter.

I tried that with an image from my desktop but it wouldn't show and didn't tell me it was too big.

That's rather good! I remember telling MiniPSB to be as quiet as a mouse and him going squeak.

I checked with him and as I suspected, he and his friends would all shout loudly at the driver. He's 24.

Vegemiteandhoneyontoast · Yesterday 14:48

Hope you feel better very soon, SinnerBoy. Elderberry's advice is good, though without the bananas. If you've got it then something like Dioralyte helps.

Thanks for all the good wishes, everyone. I've been taking Dioralyte and am using a far, far cheaper knock off brand.

Squeaky My daughter was also 4 when she said, "You said brilliant, but you mean silly, don't you?" I explained that I was being sarcastic and she then asked constantly if I was being sarcastic; I usually answered no, of course not, but she was rarely fooled.

It took me a couple of tries to get it. I hadn't noticed that when you click 'Add image' another link appears below it saying 'Add image (up to 6mb each)' and that's the one you have to click to get an image to post. It isn't obvious.

@Britinme as @Vegemiteandhoneyontoast says, after you click on Add Image, this extra section (circled) appears and then you have click on that to actually get the file menu for adding your image.

What are you using to generate an image? I haven't done it yet, but after the very accurate (apart from the fingers) portrait of me AI produced yesterday I'm tempted to try.

My photos are always too large, so I use Snipping Tool on the computer and attach the snip, it usually looks good.

Speedy recovery Sinner!

I can’t imagine being too scared to ask a bus driver to stop a bus!

I remember an incident of utter stupidity that is kind of the opposite of that though. On my way to work one morning, the train went through Clapham Junction without stopping (no great surprise, it wasn’t meant to stop there) and a woman who was definitely old enough to know better pulled the alarm cord. When the guard reached our carriage on his rounds of trying to find out what the emergency was, she said she’d pulled the cord because the train hadn’t stopped. He pointed out that the cord was meant for emergencies and that the train wasn’t meant to stop there anyway. She said it was an emergency as she would be late for work. Clearly having stopped the train she was even later and she ensured that many if her fellow passengers were late for work too.

Remember this?

@Vegemiteandhoneyontoast that may be the answer and I'll give that a try. I was using an AI to generate the image.

I tried the above procedure and all that happens is I get a message saying "to continue please correct the above errors" and the red error message says 'Please enter a message'. I have no idea how many mb the picture is but it isn't a big one and I don't know how to find out how many mb it is.

Oh and now the picture posted when I put a message with it!