What are your underwhelming skills that you’re privately quite proud of

[Breakfastburrito]

Mine are:

Being exceptionally good at slicing bread (straight, even slices every time, even on squishy, unevenly shaped loaves)

Uncannily accurate at guessing the time when I haven’t looked at a clock for hours - I’m never more than a few minutes out.

Tell me the things you can do that are not that impressive!

I can drink and drink and drink and no matter how drunk I get I am never ever sick.

Won't part with it, nope.

I can eat a huge amount very quickly

I’m great at directions. I can re-trace a route perfectly. My dh is really crap at this and invariably turns right if we should be going left.

I remember names and random facts about people and always have to keep my mouth shut when I meet them again so I don’t freak them out.

I can always manage to pack all our luggage into the boot of the car - often after DH has already been trying for 20 minutes and has admitted defeat. I can also fit all the shopping that need to be refrigerated into the fridge, even when it appears impossible.

I can fast forward using the Sky controller x30 and always press play at exactly the right moment for the programme to resume - my family call it "Mummy's Special Skill" - I've not added it to my CV though...

@hansgrueber

I have cross-dominance, people think it means I'm a bit kinky, it actually means that I use a different hand for different tasks, I write with my right but any cutting, peeling is done with my left, something no-one noticed, including me, until I was about 15! When picking something up I tend to use my left, when I used to bother ironing I could use either which was quite handy.

I never knew this had a name. Me too - although opposite hands to you. Right-handed tennis player, thrower and cutter-outer, left-handed writer and potato-peeler, and can't decide about things like ironing. And I eat with a spoon in the wrong hand. Discovered as a teen, after my mother bought me some posh left handed scissors because I'm left handed - except I wasn't. I can find things out on the internet. Things that no one else can find. And I'm a skilled tense-identifier. If you need to know your past subjunctive from your future perfect continuous, I'm your woman.

I'm another one who can almost accurately guess the time and doesn't need an alarm clock. There seems to be quite a lot like this which is great to hear as my ones think I'm a freak!
Can boil a perfect soft egg to dip toast in.
Am great at untangling the worst knots from anything.

I can always guess correctly what the sex of a baby will be before I'm either told or it's born.
Also I can tell if the contestants will pick set A or set B questions on the chase

I can guess the medical diagnosis when my daughter watches her hospital programmes. I guess correctly true crime cases and can also reel off the names of serial killers from a description of their crimes... freaks the hell outta my DP

I can walk really fast. But I can't run 🤣

My husband would love you. I always cut the bread slants and he always gives out about it.

According to mum I make a ‘sharp’ cup of tea. I also make good gingerbread

I can pick up the right number of sheets of paper for the number of children in the class or group, without counting them. Occasionally I might be out by 1 sheet but generally my accuracy is good.

I’m crap at telling apart human faces but can tell the difference between dozens of ‘identical’ black and brown horses of the same breed. I can also identify around 100 individual horses from their gait alone, from up to a quarter of a mile away.

I’m the same on the time
@Breakfastburrito! It’s a good skill to have.

I can put any tent up really fast (time depends on size and complexity of tent) without ever having seen it before or looking at the instructions. Not a very useful skill really

I am totally temperature controlled, coat free 11 months of the year, but equally happy in the tropics
Research. I can always find stuff out really quickly.
Babies and dogs really like me, I am a baby and dog whisperer.

Also have a magic internal clock and alarm clock.

But I would give up all of the above to be able to catnap

I am totally temperature controlled, coat free 11 months of the year, but equally happy in the tropics

I would pay 10k to have this skill. It would totally change my life!

Oh but I can catnap like a boss. Everyone in my family can.

I was starting to think I had no super-powers, I can't read maps, remember birthdays and would pack 8 pairs of shoes for a weekend break, but I've racked my brains and think:

I never get stomach bugs, even if one of the children get them and I can eat anything and not get sick, so am always the consumer of slightly out of date products.

I am also a great finder of things, only failed once when it turned out the child had actually hidden the passport inside one of her board books to prevent me leaving the country.

Really, really good memory for faces (but rubbish with names). This is a combo that can be deeply annoying when I spot someone who looks totally different to present day in some bit-part role at the start of their career in an obscure old movie and say ‘look, it’s him. The one that played that vet in that thingy programme in the 80’s and now he’s in that American show with whatshername with the hair’.

I can also spot the musical influences in most songs but the fact that I can usually neither recall the name of the artist nor the title, nor most of the tune of the influencing song I’m trying to describe drives my poor family almost as crazy as when I do the face thing. For them, it must be like being permanently trapped in the world’s crappest game of charades.

I have a memory that people find remarkable, goes back to before I could walk.

I can scan a text for certain words/info, very quickly. Sometimes I only take a second per page. An obsolete skill.

If someone spins a coin on a table, I can see which side it’s going to land on. I’m rarely wrong. I know several people who can’t do this, but I don’t understand why they can’t. Can you all do it?

Am bizarrely good with accents

I'm quite good at predicting weather ( as in, I think it will rain at about 3pm, not what it's going to be next week). I can read very fast, and I have excellent finding skills! My days as a barmaid mean that I can add up very quickly.

@Diversion

I'm very good at thinking worse case scenarios, which makes me very good at risk assessments and I love doing them. I will admit to being a bit odd.

I was thinking I don't have any special power until I saw this.

Me too, I am good at thinking through alternative scenarios - I call it war gaming. I work in risk management.

I have a good head for remembering medical and scientific information. When my daughter was a baby in special care. The doctor asked me what was wrong with her. I presented such a detailed history of what I was told by other consultants that the doctor thought I had medical training.

However, I am terrible with remembering people and faces and could not tell you who I went to school with or name my ex-colleagues. I keep forgetting their names which makes checking up on them on Linkedin quite challenging.

I know the lyrics of many hundreds of songs absolutely perfectly. This would be more useful if I could hold a tune at the same time.
I can always, always find the toilets really quickly, wherever I am.

I can remember what you were wearing the last time I seen you but cannot remember names. I have no real interest in fashion I don't know why I remember clothes.