General chat thread

[OneFrenchEgg]

Hi all

I just thought, as I'm wandering shopping on my own, that I don't have everyday people to chat to - I didn't make school gate friends and I don't have work friends (work at home) although I like my colleagues and we do chat. Locally I realised I have no one to say hi to really or to ask to the cinema or for coffee.
So I thought - why don't we have a general chat thread? Like how's your day not disasters type thing?

I'll start - I made a start on Christmas shopping today which feels a bit daft. And I'm faffing round while my kids buy clothes until we meet at 5.30pm.

Maybe we just aren't very sociable after all ...

I went out for lunch with my teenager today. We cycled there. Ate at a Brazilian steakhouse. Cycled home and then watched some Thai Cave Rescue on Netflix.

All was great.., until my STBXH decided to call and… mess with my head some more. it ended in me hanging up to avert a full scale ADHD meltdown. Horrible man.

I’ve been calming myself down with Duolingo.

What did you get in your Christmas shopping?

Oh I love a bit of duolingo. Are you focussing in any language in particular? I've been trying Spanish.
I got a lovely bottle of gin and a board game for a friend. And some very pretty wrapping which has little stars on it .

That sounds great.

I’m trying to learn Swedish. Well predominantly. My Duolingo looks like I have ADHD 🤣. I’ve used it to learn a bit of Korean, Finnish, French, Japanese, German. Scottish Gaelic, Danish and Norwegian too.

I have been trying to stick with Swedish though. That came about because I was doing Danish and got really frustrated with the pronunciation (it’s quite something!). So I switched to Swedish instead. Then last week I was curious about how different Norwegian is to Swedish, so I started a bit of that too. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Jag tycker om lära svenska. för närvarande! Which may be some vague approximation of ‘I like learning Swedish. Currently!’

How is the Spanish going?

I tried to word my question carefully! Figured you may have a few languages on the go!
Very slowly. Think I need to listen to music or watch tv maybe?

Have you watched money heist? It’s in Spanish and good. Well the first couple of seasons were. I didn’t watch the latest one.

I have been trying to listen out for Duolingo Swedish in stuff off Netflix. Alas people don’t go around saying ‘The girl is eating and apple but not an orange’ very often. 🤣

Oh no but actually can you try Latvian because I just watched The Good Neighbour and there was loads but no subtitles?

Haha. Alas Latvian is not a Duolingo option.

I may have investigated this earlier this year… 🤣

Google translate tells me that the Latvian equivalent of ’Flickor äter ett äpple men inte en apelsin’ in Latvian is: meitene ēd ābolu, bet ne apelsīnu.

it still probably didn’t come up.

There was not much a apple eating although I think a fish was gutted. There was a scene where knowing what was said felt quite central to the plot...

I find knowing what’s being said is often quite central to the plot. And certainly to understanding it. 🤣🤣🤣

I put subtitles on everything for that reason.

Yes we tried but it just said ' woman speaks in Latvian' - very useful! Was big chunks of dialogue

Brilliant subtitles! They probably didn’t have a Latvian translator. I don’t think there is a surplus of Latvian speakers globally, so the translators are probably harder to find.

Doesn’t help you understand the plot though.

Great idea for a thread @OneFrenchEgg

I'm doing a big freezer cooking session today, beef casserole and beef chilli. I haven't been able to find my normal brand of minced-garlic-in-big-jars so I spent a full hour yesterday peeling and pureeing garlic to make my own, which i substituted for jarred in my recipe. Judging from the smell in my kitchen the home made paste is much stronger 😬.

Oh I love garlic. Frying garlic and onions is my favourite smell.
Given up on finding out the Latvian - Google tells me many have gone before me 😃

A general chat thread sounds fab! Today I have mostly been recuperating, it's been a busy week and I'm fairly overstimulated from doing too much. Going to have a takeaway for tea to take away some of the burden!
Christmas shopping sounds good OneFrenchEgg, I start mine quite early in the year but I do have a few people to buy for and tend to go a little overboard with the Christmas celebrations- it's probably my favourite time of year.
Poffytop I always admire people who can batch cook and also then remember to eat the results- most things I make for the freezer end up staying there for months until I remember and take them out, by which time they all look the same and it's luck of the draw what I have defrosted, and usually it doesn't look appetising anymore. I have learnt that to eat home-cooked food and not waste things, I need to only cook what we will eat for that specific meal.

I can’t batch cook either @DinosaurOfFire. It’s the sort of thing I’d do enthusiastically but then I never eat any of it. I can never remember it’s there and, even if I do, I don’t remember to defrost things.

i’m doing a roast dinner with pork belly today. What kind of takeaway are you having?

I can't batch cook either.
I'm trying to learn proper meals at 50 I was raised on ready meals really and find it hard to do more than assemble things. Learnt how to cook curry, toad in the hole, lasagna recently. I can bake though 😂.
Christmas - hmm. I have a lot of dutiful presents so I like to do them and then spend time on the kids presents in more festive mood. But it was nice yesterday to feel inspired.

I can cook really well (if I manage to pull myself together to buy the ingredients and make time for cooking). I like learning about food and learning to cook new things. It’s in the all or nothing sphere for me. You’ll either get a really good meal. Or I won’t have made anything and it’ll be takeaway/beans on toast etc. I’m just a bit crap at the consistent stuff.

We do eat every day though and have varied diets. But it’s not an efficient process at all.

SudocremOnEverything Probably pizza this evening- we usually have Indian but we've had that a lot recently so I fancy a change.
I'm glad it's not just me that can't batch cook! I'm a pretty decent cook and baker but it seems once it's in the freezer or even the back of the fridge, it's out of sight, out of mind.
OneFrenchEgg I'm fortunate to not have any 'dutiful' presents, it's all fun things for close friends or family and the kids. My SIL's and their partners get token gifts (wine and chocolate) as we decided to only do 'proper' gifts for children on that side of the family, which makes life easier there. Although the first year they said 'Lets not do gifts for adults' I took them literally and didn't get anything, whereas they got us wine and a couple of large boxes of chocolates- I'm not sure if thats a neurotypical thing or just my DH's family not saying what they mean! That made for an awkward Boxing day!

I will confess to having bought most of my wrapping paper and at least half of my kids gifts already though, I start early as I have an awful habit of procrastinating so this way I'm not rushing around the week before Christmas trying to get things last minute. I did start listening to Christmas music earlier than usual this year though thanks to the sensory overload of the heatwaves in August!

I will start Christmas shopping in… mid December. 🤦🏻‍♀️

If I started now, I’d put it away and forget what I’ve bought/where it is. There is no way buying early would save me money or make me more organised. I do a burst of online ordering and a single trip to the shops for Christmas presents.

My toddler would much rather have pizza than a roast dinner. The teenager would happily eat either. 🤣

I do try not to buy the kids stuff just yet but it is quite tempting - I think I like to get things ticked off my list. Like I know I have to do it now Summer is over.
I've booked Christmas lights with the teens - they are gorgeous friendly boys who still indulge me in a selfie and a hug so im keen to string out family Christmas stuff as long as possible.

Hahah @SudocremOnEverything dh would love you. When they were little he preferred to wait til mid December and then try to find some random Christmas market and go out pretending to be in a Richard Curtis film while I wrestled with the entire contents of the Argos catalogue and mass produced power rangers 😂