One thing you recently discovered that has changed your life

[rosemole]

For the better, obviously.

Can be a thing, person, activity, place...anything really.

Mine is trig bagging. It's so much fun and gets you out there, to unexpected and unknown places.

What's yours?

Mine is 7kg and my duvet is single. Can get it in with no problem

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CY4X3X9Z?th=1
NAYAHOSE Pull Out Cabinet Organiser, Extendable Large Slide Out Kitchen Storage Drawer Shelf, Drawers Cabinet Basket with Handle for Kitchen Bathroom, No Need Drill and Nailing(Range 32-48cm)
For those longing for kitchen drawers, I have one of these, it's brilliant. It's really heavy duty so will take the weight of pans, and no longer have to grovel around on the floor.

I use these on hols under strappy sun dresses and at night in bed. Great for the large of Nork, so comfortable.

From Amazon.

FULIER Women's Bandeau Bra Sports Yoga Seamless Wireless Padded Strapless Bras

Sounds like a brilliant idea. Dh and I had our honeymoon in Andalucia 20 years ago. Loved it but found the summers too hot in that region. The temperature over winter sounds perfect and it is so easy to drive around there. I am now coming up to retirement age so this is definitely going onto the list of ideas.

Did you book an Air BnB?

@Imgoingtobefree

We use Vrbo or Booking . Com for accommodation, we just filter out that we want an apartment and number of bedrooms. A balcony is nice but no need for swimming pool and aircon, although I would be looking for heating. A washing machine is useful if you are planning longer than a week. We start by seeing which days we can get the cheapest flights. We also check out how close we are to shops, restaurants and transport links if we aren't hiring a car.

Unless you particularly want/need to go over the Christmas/ New Year period, I would avoid that because it's a lot more expensive and less choice.

how many people do you go with? same airbnb every year or change? would you retire out there?

@Imgoingtobefree @blueshoes

We are lucky that the apartment is owned by a family member and is not used around Christmas as they like family Christmas at home. So we are welcome to use it then. We do cover the costs etc.

However, two sets of adjoining neighbours who were there over Christmas used Airbnb and VRBO (vacation rental by owner). I hear that Bookings.com also have apartments to rent in the region. Sorry I can't be of more help.

do you go alone? partner or a friend?

Do you tend to do lots of travelling whilst out there?

sounds lovely!

Just myself and partner, and see my previous post, the apartment belongs to a family member so it's the same area. That's a good thing because the minute we arrive we are settled as we know our way around.

And no, I wouldn't retire there, or anywhere but home. That would not be practical with the restrictions of Brexit, and while going in the Winter is fantastic, the reality of living there full time would not really appeal to me. I think it's the novelty of escaping the Winter at home that's the best thing!

BTW we are retired now and very happy to be! Using up the rainy day fund after all the years of hard slog, and spending it while we have the health to enjoy it! No intention of being the richest person in the graveyard lol. 😊

None of which are hard, they simply need basic intelligence!

Yes we do travel around a bit, but only if the mood takes us! It's very easy to get to places like Cadiz, Seville, Cordoba, Ronda and other nearby places either with or without a car. Buses travel from the nearby bus station, and trains from San Roque down the road or from Malaga to many other places. I can see why retired people like us with lots of time on their hands lol choose the area.

That I actually do have ADHD, having suspected for three and half years and spent my entire life feeling like I exist in a parallel universe a lot of the time, where things are easy/make sense to everyone except me.

I'm no taking medication (although it's an option for the future) but just knowing that I am who I am and don't need to try and conform to being/thinking like everyone else has lifted a massive weight off. I always just thought it was me being wrong.

You have a great attitude @Havalona My mum used to say no point being the richest person in the graveyard. x

Why would silicone leach plastics? It's a completely different compound.

This is what I thought when I bought it - but now a doubt has been put in my mind. (I wish I was a scientist.)

@BringOnTheSunshineNow

you are talking out of your bottom. Of course silicone doesn’t “leach plastic” 😆

(as an aside, silicone doesn’t leach anything harmful and certainly not anything it doesn’t even contain!)

Silicone safety - much better than plastic lifewithoutplastic.com/silicone/#:~:text=Is%20Silicone%20Safe%3F,or%20produce%20any%20hazardous%20fumes.%22

I'm autistic with some inattentive ADHD traits and am smart enough to have a STEM degree, yet I cannot cook rice, pasta, or anything else that requires me to stick around and watch it. I cannot cook recipes with too many steps and I cannot cook meals where you have mutliple elements cooked in parallel that need to be ready at the same time, such as meat with vegetables, because I always end up with the components being ready at different times.

Just trying to cook sends my anxiety levels through the roof because I am terrified that it will go wrong again, which in turn increases the chance of me making a mistake.

So I use a rice cooker. I don't have to hang around. I don't have to try to remember the rules of how much water goes with a given amount of rice, because the rice cooker has that written on it. The rice cooker keeps the rice warm so I can wait for the rice to completely finish cooking and then start the thing that the rice will go with, without the rice going cold or being ruined. It takes all the anxiety and fear of failure out of cooking rice, empowering me to actually cook rice dishes at all.

It's not enough to have "basic intelligence". For some types of disability, these things are inherently hard.

This is what I thought when I bought it - but now a doubt has been put in my mind. (I wish I was a scientist.)
As someone with degrees in chemistry: plastics are based on carbon-carbon bonds. Silicone compounds are based on Silicon-silicon bonds.
Silicone is thought to be pretty much biologically inert (although I'm not an expert in that).
Silicone (if it is silicone) can't leach "plastic".

@BringOnTheSunshineNow you’re not going to come back are you?

well if you’re still reading…. stop spouting bollox!

@selffellatingouroborosofhate

I'm now considering a rice cooker! Are they easy if you only need a single portion?

I love my rice cooker £18 from asda, yes you can do as little or as much as you need. If you use half a cup of rice use half a cup of water, it's 1:1 and you put it on and come back and it's done.

A magic eraser! This is more of i forgot they existed. I've cleaned some trainers that had dye on, some marks on the wall that I thought I would have to repaint- the list goes on!

For those wondering about the popcorn maker this is the one:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lekue-Microwave-Popcorn-Popper-Standard/dp/B08HN9FFRD?th=1

There are lots of similar looking ones but I don't know if they are the same; the Joseph Joseph one had lots of bad reviews, but this one has worked great for me.

I use a little bit of coconut oil in it. the popcorn salt I got from the american amazon, as I was visiting there - it's called Flavacol (don't question too deeply what might be in it...). You can also grind up salt to really fine powder or buy something similar here, I'm sure. The American stuff comes in a large carton, and you only need the tiniest bit per bowl, so it will last forever - you could share the cost of ordering it with others.

I haven't yet worked out a way to do sweet popcorn adding the sugar in advance, without it burning. It helped a bit melting the coconut oil first and stirring the sugar in, then adding the kernels, but there might be a way of doing it just adding it all in that I haven't found yet - possibly golden syrup or something. Or you could add the sugar afterwards. Flavours and spices are supposed to work too.

Do you have a link to the stretchy bra tops @Mrsredlipstick ? I’m an HH cup and hate wearing bras at home. Would love to find a comfy one.