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 remember birthdays, even the most unlikely peoples. Most days I’ll recall someone’s birthday even if it’s someone I went to school with 30 years ago (and haven’t seen since) or a random famous person I’ve read about at some point in the past and clocked the birthday.

Opening fizzy drinks without having them spray all over me.

I can pick things up off the floor with my feet. I'm actually better at gripping with my toes than with my hands with how clumsy I am. DH calls it my "monkey feet" and it freaks him out.

I can make perfectly light batter with just flour and water without measuring anything. My gran was the same but the skill somehow skipped my mum, she can copy me and still not have it work.

I can also make pancake and Yorkshire pudding batter just by knowing when it's right and not measuring anything. I really struggle with any other baking though, even following a recipe to the letter is hit and miss, plain scones especially don't like to work for me no matter what recipe I try, (even ones people say are foolproof) but I can make a good cheese scone somehow.

Despite my lack of baking skill I'm a really good cook, I make up my own recipes all the time or adapt other ones depending on what I have in the house or if I think an extra ingredient will make something better. I can make a huge variety of sauces without needing a recipe or measuring anything there either.

I am really good at tetris and finished it loads of times

I remember random people's birthdays and as soon as i hear any song the year it was a hit comes in my head. If it's one of my weaker years (usually the years i have been raising toddlers then it's kids tv i am an expert on.) i have to look it up i can't let it go.i really irritate OH with this.

I can read upside down, page not me.
I can hear a pin drop, my 91 year old mum has fab hearing too.
Make a meal from nowt

Another one here who is a Tetris and grammar ninja! Don’t think I’m autistic, but my DS and DB are.

I'll remember every single persons name I'll meet but also everyone they've ever spoken about. Sometimes I have to stop myself as they find it quite freaky and it looks like I'm stalking then but it's great in other ways

Estimating comparative volumes. I can look at the remaining food on the table after dinner and decide exactly which of my many containers will fit each leftover item perfectly. I like to see the exactly filled contained stacked in my fridge.

I’m exceptionally good at Catchphrase! 😂
I can spot a spelling or grammar error a mile away.
I’m very good at looking at the time when the hour and minutes are the same eg. 08:08 or 17:17.

I am very observant especially when it comes to people. It’s a curse because I will be having a conversation with people and can pick up from their body language what they are thinking. It means I have distanced myself from people as I can instantly tell if someone thinks I’m lying or finds my conversation boring or annoying.
Those tiny eye rolls, smirks, internal sighs, gazing off disinterested... I feel like I can read their minds. It makes me self conscious and usually ends in me cutting the conversation short and avoiding them.
I don’t have any real friends and don’t have close relationships with my family because of this.
On the bright side, I know my DH adores me. He never does these things and is generally interested and thinks I’m hilarious... I can tell this by his body language.

Never forget an argument, I can recall word for word. Infuriating apparently 🤣

I'm very good at giving the year of release of pop songs from 1970 to 1990.

@Orosei

I am really good at getting everything into the freezer. DH insists everything won't fit but everything DOES.

I can read really fast and take in all signs and information around me without really consciously reading. I don't actually feel this is a skill but if I'm ever anywhere new with people they ask questions which seem inane to me "ooh which way is the conference room" or "how much is the parking" or "what time does it close" etc and I don't understand how they don't know, we've walked past the sign that says the answer. DH says not everyone reads every word that they walk past.

OH are you me? Or am I you?

I was going to say the exact same 2 things.

Shopping arrives, freezer is full (apparently) I can fit 3 loaves of bread and a pack of frozen chips in, with no trouble at all. They used to be impressed by it, but now my family just give me the frozen stuff to put away.

speed reading, skim a document, take in information, adn picking up everything on signs.

Occasionally I have to put up a sign, eg recently - don't plug heaters in to extension leads. It is a pain, as I know wherever I put it, most people won't read it. Thye will just walk past and not read it. How does anyone do that? Just walk past a sign, without reading it? What if it is important???

I can look for all appearances that I’m really interested and attentive when inside I couldn’t give a damn and my will to continue is dying a death of a thousand paper cuts.

I’m good at making puff pastry.

Oh and I’m really good at freezer Tetris.(ie making room when it looks like there is none

I have the ability to remember the lyrics of a song having only heard it once. In fact even first time of hearing I have this uncanny ability to know what words are coming next. Singing away to songs in a nightclub my friend once turned to me and asked me how I know the lyrics to so many songs, I was in the middle of singing to a song I had never heard before. Hopeless at music quizzes, couldn't tell you the name of the song (unless obvious from the lyrics) or who sang it.

My family say I am scarily good at finding information on the internet - shame there's no way of turning that 'skill' into a job.
Also make very good bread and can grow vegetables

I can memorise peoples phone numbers

[quote thosetalesofunexpected]@singingsoprano

How on earth can you rember after being at a place once, the directions of a place .

Plus Navigate without a map.

I think its sixth sense that you have got and that is pretty Cool skill to have .

Is it only certain places you instinctly know sense how to nativigate around them?

Do you get a sense of de vue often, (like a sense you have been there before in the past?
But obviously have not at all.!!

Have you found out if your Ancestors have ever lived in these places at all then?

But you only found out later on .

I am just really curious and intrigued by unausaul skills /instincts !

The human mind is even more intriguing and enlightening and puzzling , weird/wonderful and amazing the more I find out about it.[/quote]
@thosetalesofunexpected Don't know, I just find it easy to remember-it looks familiar and I remember local landmarks.

Navigating without a map is based on NSEW and a very good geographical knowledge of towns, cities and counties in the UK. For example, knowing that Leicestershire is East and slightly north of Birmingham etc. I can do this for the whole of the UK.
I have sometimes had a sense of deja-vue, but only occasionally.
No ancestors as far as I know, but it's a great skill to have and comes in useful in quizzes on geography of Great Britiain.

@Arrierttyclock

I'll remember every single persons name I'll meet but also everyone they've ever spoken about. Sometimes I have to stop myself as they find it quite freaky and it looks like I'm stalking then but it's great in other ways

Me too I am brilliant at remembering names

@CrankyFrankie

Fuck all your stealth brags; blowjob queen over here

Ha ha

@Hurtandupset2

I can't think of anything that I'm good at, let alone really good.

Unmumsnetty hugs for you @Hurtandupset2.

Hope you're OK.

I am excellent at reversing the car into our very narrow driveway, to the extent that if DH is driving he quite often swaps with me so I can park it.

Also I'm very good at topping up the windscreen washer tank from a large 5L container without the aid of a funnel without spilling a drop.

I don't think the skills you are all listing are underwhelming, quite the opposite. I am very impressed. I would like to see some of these on job applications more often. I think they are undervalued.

I'm a pretty good time teller without a clock. Usually to within 10 mins. It irritates DS who likes to think he's bushcraft man.

I have been known to find underground water using a bent wire coat hanger. Watermain under a farm yard. Farmer confirmed.

Dealing with bureaucracy. Any form, I will fill it in. Any obstruction I will find a way. This is a skill honed by having a child with SEN.

Good at untangling knots. Two mini kites completely snarled? Give me ten minutes. I find it oddly relaxing.

I suspect I could teach 99% of children/adults to read on a 1:1.

Again, a skill from 6 years + of teaching DS (dyslexia) and reading everything I could get my hands on.