griffinkate @griffinkate@sunbeam.city

I share a blogpost on LinkedIn roughly once a week, and EVERY TIME it takes me ages to work out how. Great UI you've got there, be a shame if something happened to it.

Today I bumped into a woman in LIDL, said "Sorry" and was horrified when she replied: "It's OK."

Bloody foreigners.

#BritishCulture

British culture is having a 4-ring gas hob but using one specific ring (usually the bottom left one) for about 90% of your cooking because it's the biggest.

The electric ignition on this gas ring is always the first to fail, and when it does, you start keeping a gas lighter in the kitchen drawer.

Aaaaaand...I discovered today that the Welsh class went ahead last week despite the strike! Apparently the tutor was only going to bother sending an email if the class was cancelled, so if we received nothing from her, we were supposed to assume it was going ahead.

Last week she crossed the picket line, despite saying the previous week that she wouldn't, and went ahead with teaching the class.

So she's a terrible communicator, a liar AND a blackleg.

I have discovered that the museum meet-up actually did happen! But everybody met in a different part of the museum from where I was, so I didn't see them.

Basically: we assumed the organised tour would be cancelled because of the strikes, so we arranged to have coffee/lunch in the cafe. So I went to the cafe. Everybody else went to the front desk to check if the tour was on, and it was! They assembled in a place that's hidden from view if you're in the cafe bit, then went on the tour.

I actually feel better knowing that the event went ahead and an annoying misunderstanding caused me to miss it. Rather than thinking nobody bothered.

Not sure if I think the tour *should* have gone ahead. The tour guide would presumably have a contract with the museum and not the university, but the university would have paid for the tour, which makes it feel a bit like crossing a picket line to me.

Feels like I'm dunking on the older generation a lot today, but something else I've just remembered: does anyone else have relatives who cut up cereal boxes and use the cardboard to write on? I have two different sets of relatives who do this, one boomer-aged and one elderly.

It seems to be for stuff that's slightly more permanent than today's shopping list? e.g. when one of them was trying to gain weight after an illness, he kept a piece of cereal-box cardboard in the bathroom near the scales to write down his weight every week.

OK, it seems I need to clarify that this post was light-hearted and I'm not actually buying 4-packs of toothbrush covers every week. I've bought one 4-pack in my life.

It was just a joke based on how easy those things are to lose, that's all.

Boomer culture is emailing a quiz to selected family and friends but for some reason the file you attach is a .jpg rather than a Word doc or a PDF or anything remotely suitable for the written word.

Boomer culture is sending a text or email, shutting down your computer or putting your phone in a different room and then asking the recipient six hours later if they got your text/email. Then acting surprised when they tell you they replied to it.

These little plastic things for putting on your toothbrush when you travel are weird and also defy maths. Why?

You need 1 or 2
You have to buy 4 because they only sell them in packs of four
And yet you end up with...0, necessitating the purchase of more.

I watched a brilliant documentary today called The Serengeti Rules. Covering the really important work of scientists I'd never heard of about the effect of predators on ecosystems - and how humans can mess it all up.

If you're in the UK with a TV licence you can still get it on iPlayer:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000b8p4/unlocking-natures-secrets-the-serengeti-rules

Contains a few images of animals hunting/eating other animals and whale slaughter by humans.

But one thing I *have* decided is that I am not going to any events "organised" by anyone in this group again. No Christmas get-togethers, no casual coffees.

No way am I putting energy into choosing an outfit and working out how to get to a place and actually travelling there, only to find I'm the only one who's bothered. I'll find other Welsh learners to socialise with, people who can make a plan and stick to it.

Trouble is, right, if it wasn't for a vague sense of obligation and/or having promised myself/someone else in advance, I would probably never go anywhere. Literally. If I had to ask myself "Do I want to go to this thing?" every time, the answer would always be no.

This is a really common psychological thing: stuff always seems easier & more appealing in advance. So we use commitment to get ourselves/others to actually do stuff that we'd never want to do if it was suggested on the day. And that's great, because mostly things are worthwhile and/or "fun when you get there". If you don't have any sense of obligation about events and only go when you feel like it, I think you miss out.

Yesterday I was about to drag myself out of the house with my complaining back and tear-stained face, to an event I also didn't want to attend. I was going because someone who needs a lot of support right now specifically asked if I'd be there.

The organiser of the event dropped out and so did the person who's asked me to come! Luckily I found out before leaving the house!

I'm wondering if this is some kind of lesson about cutting down on the number of things I go to out of a sense of obligation.

I just...I know what it's like to organise things and have zero people turn up. So I try to support organisers. But when the organisers themselves don't turn up to their own events...?