Things you really should have known sooner...

[TheDodgyEnd]

I’ve just learned that Casablanca is not in South America at all and is, in fact in Morocco! Who knew 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️
Anyone else got any tidbits they learned far too late in life?

Oh..........

@doodlejump I've just learned that now by reading your post I thought they were like anchovies

I was far too old before I realised that 'segue' was actually pronounced 'segway'.

Whenever I read it, in my head it was 'seeg'.

Here you go, Gannel.

Lanarkshire

Sorry. Gammeld.

Lanarkshire is a country in the central lowlands of Scotland (I thought you may have confused the two).

@TheDodgyEnd halfway between Birmingham and Wales is Telford, where I live (some parts may be likened to a war zone by some...)

Waves to neighbour. I know which parts you are referring to

We only discovered that Gibraltar is not an island thanks to MN. DH and I are educated to degree level as well.

@Bratsandtwats

I know they are spelt differently but I only recently realised you say ‘bold’ and ‘bald’ differently!

On a recent trip to Belgium found out that the top half of Belgium speaks Dutch. How could I get to my ripe old age and not know this?

@Yazoop glad I'm not the only one! Tiny wee fishes. 🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟

I thought all dogs were boys and all cats were girls until 8/9!!

Also only learned the other week that kippers aren't fish in their own right but that the name of smoked herring.

Only recently read that Holland is not a country. It’s just part of the Netherlands. Always thought it was it’s own country!

Was 2 decades out of uni where I’d studied English when I became aware that there is a spelling rule behind choosing the correct spelling of practice/practise, licence/ license. I thought they were interchangeable but now know you choose the c spelling if the word is a noun, the s spelling if it’s a verb. E.g I went to piano practice. I need to practise the piano.

Gherkins are not a separate type of vegetable that grow as gherkins.

I still actually think this is a trick to fool us all

I met somebody once who thought Casablanca was in South America.

I'm surprised they could dress themselves in the morning.

On a recent trip to Belgium found out that the top half of Belgium speaks Dutch.
It's called Flemish.

Haha Daisy I can't iron either!

Only this year I realised that painkillers block the pain receptors in your brain. They don't magically know where/what is causing the pain and go there! I actually think it was an mn thread that taught me that

I'm my defence, I'm Scottish and knew that our national animal was the unicorn

You can get caper berries too, as the name tells you, they are the berries of the caper plant. They are pickled, usually with the stalk left on, and served like olives as an apero.

That explains why the capers that were served with my meal at a fancy Edinburgh restaurant were so much bigger than the capers I'd encountered previously!

"For years I wouldn't eat mince pies because I didn't want to eat fruity-flavoured beef pies. Of course "mince meat" is not actually meat!!

Once upon a time it was, hence the name.

there is going to be a 'run' on small terracotta tortoises on Amazon.

Surely it would be a slow amble on small terracotta tortoises

l thought Lancashire was as up north as you could get before Scotland. Until at 13 we drove from Lancashire to Scotland!

To be fair you're only one off, just got Cumbria between Lancashire and Scotland.

And now for my one. Kind of serious.

If your car engine is not running, you will lose power braking after two or three stops. Then the pedal will feel like an immovable rock. I found this out the hard way.

Also, I probably would have understood Revelation better when I read it as a child if I had known that a 'seal' was something you put on a closed envelope or box, and not just a swimming animal

That when weighing out something messy like soft butter, golden syrup, etc. the simple way to do it is to put the tin or tub on the scales, set the scale at 200g, if you want 200g, and take out butter etc. until scale says zero.
God knows why it took me decades to work this out.

Safariboot

I have mentioned this before but when I was little and satellite tv was new, whenever I heard that people worked in satellite tv I thought they worked actually on the satellite so the newsreaders for Sky etc had a daily commute into orbit.