MrsDoyle

Ah, the Scunthorpe problem… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem

Yes, Kindle does now support epub. Annoyingly, it no longer supports mobi. I mean, I can still read all the mobi files on my ancient Kindle Keyboard and on the Kindle phone app, but any new book files have to be in epub format. I have a massive amount of mobi files, now have to convert them with Caliber if I want to add them to my Kindle.

I mostly use the ReadEra app on my phone, it does pretty much everything. My favourite feature is that you can control screen brightness by touch while reading, without ferreting around in settings.

I kissed the blarney stone once, disgusting business. I lay down, half my body hanging out under the parapet, while a man held on to my legs. Reached up my head and put my lips on the stone. What was I thinking?!?

It’s an upper crust thing. A bit old-fashioned as well.

Scotland too: “hen” to women, “pal” to everyone.

I’m going with beekeeping as my “field” because it’s my main hobby now I’m retired. So. Many. Misconceptions. The Bee Movie was not a documentary, people! The mating process for honeybees is horrifying and you don’t want to know. Male bees have one job, and then they die. If they don’t do that job, they still die; their sisters kick them out at the end of summer. Plus, I was talking to someone the other day who didn’t realise we let the bees just roam around.

Sometimes it’s couched as “team player”. Some jobs I had it absolutely mattered who you were friends with.

Back in the 80s TV where I lived used to show Bollywood films at about 1am, which was when I got home from work. So I started watching this film, which was apparently a romance. Sparky career woman rejects advances of handsome fellow. Everyone starts singing and dancing. Ok, a musical then. Thugs burst in and shoot the place up. Woman’s father is killed, she swears vengeance. Uh ok… Local politician tries to shut down newspaper our heroine has just inherited, handsome fellow intervenes. More singing and dancing, ending in fireworks! which is apparently Bollywood for hot sex. Plot twist, handsome fellow is actually a baddie! I had to stop watching at 4am, no idea how it ended up.

Do viruses and bacteria count? Antibac resistance is building. I imagine a virus that fritzed our brains would give animals some advantage.

One Thing After Another.

Culture in general was much more monolithic

That’s interesting - I didn’t experience the advent of the internet like that, probably because I’m from a fairly multicultural background and travelled at lot at that time. I lived near DC for a few months in 1976 and went on a three-week road trip around California in 1990 and did notice how isolated from the rest of the world Americans in general seemed, especially outside the big cities. I was a real novelty, exotic even, and I’m a white cis het woman. Just with a funny accent, from a country they’d never heard of.

Written by LG Lazarus, lol.

Look for volunteer opportunities. In my town I found a litter-picking group that met once a week. Then through members of that group I joined another one that maintains flower beds and planters around the town. Then joined an effort to rehabilitate an environment project on a nearby farm, and ended up in the beekeeping team. Another group I was in for a few years organises gentle walks for elderly folks. I learned a huge amount from all these things, and none of it cost me anything but time.

Stage one: Effortful noise when rising from a low chair/sofa

Stage two: Inability to rise from a low chair/sofa. Beanbag? Nooooo….

My own turning point was finding myself unable to get out of the bath by just standing up. It was comic but also terrifying. I eventually worked out I could lever myself up with my arms. Phew.

Thunderpants. Made for thunderbums. https://www.thunderpants.co.nz/

https://www.thunderpants.co.nz/ Available in UK and US!

The slogan for the “full-back” knickers I wear is “They won’t go up your bum.” And they don’t! (Insanely comfy, jaunty colours, sturdy. Expensive but worth it.)

Genius!

Some uk supermarkets have started dropping the use by date in favour of codes like this. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45786012 The article says it’s to reduce waste and that staff will have special training to know when to bin stuff. I imagine the training is in how to read the codes.

Both sides have elevators. One side also has the bridge lift, the mechanism that raises the central bridge to let ships through.