Thread 18 - TalkLair: "That's no moon. It's a space station!"

[RasaSayangEh]

(Previous thread 17)

We've had our heatwave - is this it for the summer? All is lush and green in our LairGarden, flowers are blooming, berries are ripening...

In the TalkLair, all the windows are open, the Pimms is chilled, the MN massive salad is ready to serve. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch, 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…

😆

Funny!

Great news Rasa. The suffering paid off, as it brought luck (possibly).

Excellent news about the sixth form places, Rasa!

Oh that's brilliant for both DDs! How do you think it will work out - is this the first time they've been at separate schools?

What a relief, Rasa! I hope both your daughters enjoy whatever subjects they've chosen and do really well.

Told you it was lucky!

Though it would have been much fairer if it had dumped on the DDs.

Thank you all!

Yes, first time TheCells will be in different schools - it'll be a big change for them. DD1 is going to a huge college with a couple of thousand students doing every possible spectrum of subjects and qualifications. DD2 is going to tiny specialist college with a few hundred students, which only does maths, further maths, computing and hard sciences. I hope they'll both thrive in their new (very different) environments!

Our kitchen is nearly done, too. We have a working sink, washing machine, dishwasher and oven. No hob yet as it needs the electrician to connect it specially. The next two days we are supposed to be getting the flooring installed; this is the worrying part because the previous week they hadn't been able to get the screed completely level (the original sub-floors, discovered under the tiles, were several different materials and levels) and the final kitchen bits can't be finished until the floor is in.

So you get all this again (in spades!) in two years with uni entrance?

So, acting as a bird latrine really IS lucky!

I hope them being in separate schools is a positive experience for both of them, though I'm sure it will feel very strange at first, not being one half of "X&Y". Maybe DD1 won't feel the need to be quite so stroppy if she doesn't feel she's constantly being compared with her sister?

So is DD2 very maths-and-science-y like her parents and DD1 not so much? I can see that might cause some conflict ... even though she did beat her sister in one subject!

Looking back more than 50 years, it's almost funny how these things seemed to matter at the time. I really hope they're not taking the same A-levels! 😅

I’ve taught at least two of sets of twins who’ve gone right through school together, then through Foundation together (choosing the same pathway) and progressed on to the same degree. I think different sixth form choices sounds positive.

@Gonners Both Cells are very maths and science-y, also very musical (which they must have got from DH, or skipped a generation on my side, because I barely got past Grade 3 piano). IMO it's the very fact that they're so similar in interests and aptitudes which fuels some of the conflict - they're desperate to differentiate themselves and it's been difficult to do so when they were in the same school, same subjects, same sets, closely overlapping friend groups because of said similar interests.

In their new schools both are doing maths and further maths, but have diverged in the other A-levels probably to make sure they don't get funnelled into similar degrees later on.

I know a few same-sex twins and it sounds like it can be a difficult relationship between them. Hopefully going to different colleges will help that.

I'm so glad my twin is male and there's no competition between us or struggle to be different from one another.

the possibility of pregnancy without penetration

Ah yes! The nuns at my Catholic school warned us about “splash pregnancy”. I was dubious then and remain more so now.

You're surely not suggesting that nuns are not experts on sex?

😮😂😂

I think they didn’t want us anywhere near a naked penis.

There was that thing of always carrying a telephone directory in case you had to sit on a male lap. No idea how they fend in these paperless days.

carrying a telephone directory

Seriously? Even in my innocent girlhood, such an idea never occurred to me.

Were young women supposed to carry a telephone directory wherever they went? Imagining what that would look like, you go a party and all the women are holding a telephone directory, just in case.

Saying that, some of the girls at my school advised each other to sleep with a hockey stick between their legs...

Saying that, some of the girls at my school advised each other to sleep with a hockey stick between their legs...

Ah, but for what purpose? 😉

I never actually figured it out, Gonners!

I think carrying the telephone directory was always something the generation just below the speaker had done. Very effective barrier contraceptive method I would think.

I'm struggling to work out how either a telephone directory or a hockey stick would prevent pregnancy...

RE phone book as barrier contraceptive -

... but possibly inclined to sogginess under the right circs.