Ridiculous things you've only recently realised you've been wrong about your entire life

[Seasidedolly]

I genuinely thought if you pulled the reverse cord on ceiling fans, it would circulate warm air.

My friend thought the yellow average speed cameras on motorways were there to look for missing children.

I had another recent revelation but I can't remember it now

I thought Timbuktu was in Asia???

I hate to sound all snooty on a lighthearted thread but my mind is blown that anyone in the UK would not know that Ireland, as in the Republic of, is not in the UK. Is the fact that it is a republic not something of a giveaway for starters?

But anyway, who am I to criticise because I too thought that weasels were huge. I thought they were the size of a badger. Willie Weasel was always nearly as big as Policeman Badger in the Tufty Club... please tell me that other posters are familiar with the Tufty club

I was in the Tufty club.

That sprouts grow on a stalk - I was genuinely surprised when I saw some in the supermarket still on the stalk. I'm not sure how I thought they grew, guess I'd never really thought about it

I was scarily old ef pre realising that there wasn't an Irish F1 team rather it was a driver called Timo Glock (Team O'Glock was what I was hearing)

I spent my whole childhood thinking that Fox's glacier mints made a mistake by putting a bear on the wrappers

So wait - are they named after the NZ glacier?!

I have learned quite a few things on this thread, including that a place I went to as a child is not, in fact, an island. FFS. It has cable cars though, doesn't it?

I love threads like this.
OH had no idea why the veins in his arm were blue and has almost no knowledge of wildlife; thought badgers were the size of hedgehogs.
I had no idea for years that windmills turned to face the wind. I blame Camberwick Green and Windy Miller. His mill always pointed the same way.

Gavin and Stacey spent their time shuttling between Barry and Billericay. On the M4, not the Irish ferry!

'I thought Center Parcs was completely indoors until I went there in my early 20s!'

It isn't? I thought it was a futuristic holiday Under A Dome.

“I was surprised to find out a few years ago that Irn Bru wasn't made in Scotland from girders. I thought girders was the manufacturer” no offence intended but as a Scot that made me nearly perfect myself!!

“NotDavidTennant I hope IrnBru does have food colouring and not copious quantities of rust!” colouring yes but also degraded iron aka rust!

“Oh and I didn't realise that Wales, Scotland and Ireland had actual Capital city. I thought London was the only capital in the UK and that Cardiff, Dublin and Edinburgh were sort of "honourary" titles, but not real.” I was once given detention by an English teacher (as in from england) for stating that London was NOT the capital of the UK. My parents (Scot) and headteacher (welsh) soon put her straight and the detention was cancelled! Also ahem Belfast is the capital of northern Ireland not Dublin.

But confess I didn't know Gibraltar wasn't an island until a recent similar thread and just from this thread learning silicon/silicone are not the same thing. I too thought it was like aluminium/aluminum.

Sbexh never believed Portsmouth was an island even though he lived there for years.

'Perfect myself" I wish! Pee myself!

"It has cable cars though, doesn't it?" Can islands not have cable cars?

I visited the Barrs Irn bru factory in the 80's and I remember there being a huge pile of iron filings. The guy who was showing us round said that it was a girder that had just been ground up ready to put into Irn bru.

For YEARS I told everyone the there actually were girders in Irn bru because I had seen it.

"It has cable cars though, doesn't it?" Can islands not have cable cars?confused

Of course! I was testing my memory of the place, not saying islands can't have cable cars

Sunbeam the 'iron curtain' was the name that Churchill gave to Stalin's 'communism'. So the areas controlled by the USSR were seen to be behind an 'iron curtain' (ie you could peak behind it). It was in part because they had had to capitulate to Stalin so much towards the end of WW2 by deciding up Berlin etc - which as we all know ended up with a REAL wall and not just a figurative curtain!

It always confused me too until I found myself teaching A Level history!

Dividing not deciding!

pissing myself at. baby horse and Petish Michael :) hahaha.

I used to think Cleethorps was in Greece.

Here is Gibralter then' I always thought it was an island off Spain....or somewhere.

Sorry..Where is Gilbrater then?

at hang gliding.. How did I get this wrong!

orange it's attached to the south of Spain. Border crossing can be a lengthy event apparently (never been myself)

Gibraltar is the tip that almost touches Morocco. As in Gibraltar's Straight, to enter the Mediterranean.

As a kid, I told my dsis that when the moon is orangey coloured, it's because the sun is heating up and if you ever see a really orange-red moon, it's a sign the sun is overheating and may soon explode, causing the Apocalypse. (I still have no idea why the moon actually does appear orange at times. Any thoughts?). I didn't think anything more of it until we were together about 15 years later under an orange moon and she anxiously asked me whether the sun was about to explode. She had believed that crap I'd made up on the spot as a joke well into her twenties ...

When I was younger, I used to think that cats were all female and dogs were all male. They would mate and the cat would give birth to litters of mixed puppies and kittens. Thankfully I wasn't too old before realising about that one.

I am at most of these..

I thought it was hand gliding
tuna was tiny
etc etc etc on most of this thread

I vaguely thought that Gibraltar was on the piece of land that joined France to Spain, which by the way is considerably wider than I imagined.

Greece isn't where it should be either.

The Works have a massive wall map, I'm getting one tomorrow.