Kate @griffinkate@sunbeam.city

It dawned on me today that the main way I've been useful to neighbours in all the places I've lived in is by letting them use my bin and park on my driveway.

So basically my chief contribution to the communities I live in consists of providing empty space. This doesn't make me feel great, to be honest.

I recently applied to a scheme called Siarad, that pairs Welsh learners with fluent speakers so the learners can improve their Welsh with weekly (online) chats.

I thought it would be great to get the opportunity to talk regularly to a native speaker.

I have heard nothing in connection with my application, but today they emailed my entire class to say that at our level, we're all considered to be fluent speakers and would we please volunteer to be paired with a learner? 🤦‍♀️

I suppose it's flattering really, but...NO!

Walnuts are bitter bastards and anyone who says otherwise is in the pay of Big Walnut, change my mind

90% of the topics we cover in Welsh classes are like "here is a thing where you can use your Welsh outside the classes" and "tell us how you're using your Welsh outside the classes".

I don't reeeeally mind, but I bet Italian classes aren't all "Tell-a us how you eat-a the pizza!"

A couple of stragglers that I planted out today. They look a lot less healthy, but we'll see.

Johnson: it's bad that people who rent can't paint their front door or even put a picture on the wall

"so what are you going to do for renters' rights?"

[silence]

"are you going to give renters the right to decorate their homes?"

[silence]

"are you at least going to give renters the right to put a sodding picture up without the risk of losing six weeks' pay?"

Johnson: we are going to solve this problem by introducing a 95% mortgage so only total losers have to rent

My spider plant had a load of "spiderettes" which were draining energy from the main plant, so I've propagated them the lazy way by just shoving loads of them into a couple of pots and hoping for the best. We'll see what happens!

My email client deletes messages that have been in the Trash folder for 30 days. But there are always at least 500 messages in there, and today it's closer to 600.

In other words, I must be deleting about 20 messages every day. That seems like a lot, given that I've tried hard to unsubscribe from stuff I don't want to receive.

I had a dream the other night in which I came up with a brilliant name for a band. I woke up and thought "Right, I really have to write that down." So I turned over in my bunk-bed and turned on the lamp and found a piece of paper and wrote it down.

Woke up the next morning, remembered about the band name, thought I'd written it down.

Then remembered I don't sleep in a bunk bed. The lamp I turned on to write was one I'd never seen before. I'm not sure the words I wrote on the paper were even in my handwriting.

In other words, when I made the note I had "woken" from one dream into another.

I have tried to remember the band name and it was something like "Fleeing the Last Emperor". So...not actually worth writing down!

Journalists who submit a chart of data to their editor saying "So you'll get a designer or a tech person to make it look better, right?" are basically the information equivalent of people who give clothes to the charity shop and say "You'll wash it before it goes out on the shop floor, right?"

....And today's weird fact that I've just realised is that the People's Republic of China is younger than Roger Taylor (former Queen drummer). Also younger than Meryl Streep. And Bruce Springsteen.

Surprised but pleased to learn that China is aiming to peak greenhouse gas emissions before 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2060: https://www.edie.net/news/9/China-s-carbon-neutral-target-for-2060--What-does-it-mean-for-global-climate-action-

There's a tutor at the Welsh centre whose "real" (birth?) name is Elizabeth, so that's what's in her work email address, but is always known as Angharad. There's another tutor who is also officially called Elizabeth but is known as Mair. This would be confusing enough, but there's also the issue that neither of them knew how to update your display name on Zoom for ages, so both were using the wrong/official name instead of the name they actually want to be called until someone in the class explained how to do it.

They're both still using their wrong/official names as their email display names but then signing off with their real/preferred names.

We've just had an email saying that Angharad/Elizabeth can't teach us tonight so Mair/Elizabeth will be taking over. OK then!

Me: I need to meet new people and open up my horizons a bit

Also me: I wish I could find some Welsh-speakers to practise with outside lessons

Someone from my Welsh class: Do you want to join my weekly Welsh-language Zoom chat with people from all over the world?

Me: NOT LIKE THAT

Me: how can I do stuff without actually doing it

Men: women need protecting

Women: will you protect us from a deadly disease by voluntarily wearing a cloth covering over your face for short periods?

Men: LOL no