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

Oh and someone once told MiL that you should cut the crusty outside off brie and camembert so she did that for years.

I do this, much to the disgust of every one I know, but thats because I cant bear to put mould in my mouth. Yes, I do know that cheese is basically mouldy milk but for some reason I just can do it! And no, I dont eat blue cheese.

Oh my goodness. Evening made.

Still convinced Gibraltar is an island. And worse than all of you, isn't it next to Jersey?

I thought archive was pronounced are-chive

My ex thought Africa was a country.

Gladlyandsand my geography teacher did explain why there were no snakes in Ireland and there were fewer in the uk than France. During ice age all the snakes moved south and those that didn't make it died.

When the ice age started to melt not all the snakes manage to make it back. The English Channel melted so did the Irish bit of the sea that is connected to Scotland and England. All did not happen in one day. It was a slow migration that took to years.

Please feel free to correct.

In my head Switzerland is oop north near Norway/Sweden and is on the coast, and that Austria is north of Germany not south.

I was gobsmacked to find Switzerland is between France, Germany and Italy and totally landlocked, in my head it is covered in snow and therefore well north, same with Austria!

Gladys sorry but there's mould in most foods. Along with insect parts etc.

Oh and on my mental map Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria etc are all oop north with Latvia, Lithuania etc.

Also, I thought Moldova was a made up place until embarrassingly recently!

There was a set of questions about penguins on tonight's University Challenge and the Galapagos penguins were an answer. Apparently the most abundant species of penguin are the Macaroni Penguins, which I thought I would have heard of before in that case, but hadn't.

I know Bacon and I am fine with almost everything, but there is something about the overt mould on some cheeses that I cant stomach!

In my house the three second rule is for pussies, ten second rule+ here! But brie crust? Not on your life :o

Another one who thought it was hand gliding am still not convinced.

"I thought that Nicola Sturgeon was Nicolas Turgeon for ages."
There's a hockey player called Luka Sbisa, who actually plays for the team I follow, and I thought his name was Lukas Bisa for an embarrassingly long time considering the fact that I listen to or watch every single game. I didn't realize until I saw him interviewed about 2/3 of the way through the season, and they called him by his first name. What's worse I'd seen it written down, it just hadn't registered.

"During ice age all the snakes moved south and those that didn't make it died."
As far as I know there's no evidence that there were ever snakes in Ireland. There are no snakes in Newfoundland either. It has to do with the fact that they've been islands for such a long time, but Great Britain has only been an island for about 8000 years.

paperdoll are you confusing Gibraltar and Guernsey, which is an island near Jersey?

All of mine are covered in the thread already, including some I never knew before reading. Hang gliding?!

www.google.co.uk/search?q=hang+gliding&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 - google search Hang Gliding results.

www.google.co.uk/search?q=hand+gliding&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8 - Google search Hand Gliding results.

Clearly Hand Gliding is searched so often that Google doesnt need to ask "Did you mean...." as it knows what you meant!

You hang from the frame of the glider, hence hang gliding.

Can't remember how old I was but it was a bit older than you'd expect when I discovered dragons aren't real :) I'd asked my mom how animal control manage to keep them under control and I got a giggle and an explanation as to why it's a non issue.

I also cut the rind of Brie and Camembert. I just plain don't like that bit.

the world amazes me i forget its round and therefore am always surprised to find countries not where i think they should be.

In Ireland, that when people talked about the troubles 'up north' , that Eskimos were shooting each other from behind igloos.

I thought it was 'slip a stable under the tree'! What's a sable??

Sable is animal fur - made into a coat or stole.

This may completely out me, but I convinced my best friend that marshmallows grow on trees...

Dragons like in fairy tales - fictional
Komodo dragons - real, live in Indonesia, do not breathe fire, hanker after princesses or lie on heaps of gold and jewels

Way upthread, there was confusion about Great Britain and the Isle of Wight. As I understand it, geographically (ie ignoring political boundaries) the British Isles is the name for a group of islands off the northwest coast of Europe. The biggest island is Great Britain and the next biggest is Ireland. The island of Great Britain contains most of the landmass of the countries of England, Scotland and Wales. There are lots of other islands in the British Isles, e.g. the Isle of Wight, the Isle of Man, Anglesey, Arran, the Hebridean islands, the Orkneys, the Shetlands. These are not part of Great Britain geographically because they are separate islands.

Politically, the United Kingdom is made up of four separate countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. N. Ireland is made up of part of the island of Ireland + a few small islands. The other countries each comprise part of the island of Great Britain + various other islands. The Isle of Wight is in England politically.

If anybody seriously wants to get to grips with knowing the countries of the world - spelling, location, which continent are they in, population, borders, you name it - you can't do better than play some Geography quizzes on Sporcle. Free website, quizzes on everything under the sun.

When I first relised many years ago that DH thought that Gibraltar was an island I was I kept telling him it was the southern point of the Iberian peninsula, he kept telling me that while I'd never been there he had and got there by sea from Spain and had to use his passport.
Even showing him on maps would not convince him, then it dawned on me. He emigrated from Spain to Australia before Franco's death when " La Verja" or the fence which separated the Spanish and Gibraltarian sides was in place so Gibraltar was not accessible by land from the spanish side and having reached it by boat he was convinced it was an island. Every time we have been there now by car or even on foot once, I remind him he thought it was an island

It took until the grand age of 24 to realise that the lyrics to row row row your boat was "life is but a dream" rather than "butter dream" I did wonder why people were dreaming about butter Also, the alphabet is sung in the same tune as twinkle twinkle little star!!!!!

Until recently I thought Yosemite sounded like yo Semite, and up until not many years ago thought lemur was French derived and pronounced le mur.

DD very small, playing alphabet game, word beginning with 'n' a napple.

DD thought my pubic hair was a disease that I had.

DS read the packet as party liners, we still use that term

Have just found out there are a pair of islands called Gibraltar Islands in the river Thames near Berkshire.
Also a Gibraltar Island in Ohio, USA