I so agree, I own clothes in four sizes they all fit. It is crazy. I do know this has changed. Back in the day, I wore one size, and any clothes no matter who made them would fit in that size. I do not know when that all changed, or why.
Once again I consign to hell the NYC MTA. I stood in the dark, cold,, and rain for over an hour tonight waiting for my bus. It never came; I finally took an Uber.
I so agree, I own clothes in four sizes they all fit. It is crazy. I do know this has changed. Back in the day, I wore one size, and any clothes no matter who made them would fit in that size. I do not know when that all changed, or why.
I know that here in NZ there is a history of clothing sizes not being standardised. One of the first woman Members of Parliament, Mabel Howard ( who was an MP 1943-1969 and New Zealand's first female Cabinet Minister) once waved two pairs of outsized bloomers in the air to illustrate her point about non-standardisation. She won her point and legislation was introduced to this effect.
Now most clothing is imported so we are back with non standard sizes. I once owned trousers sized from 12 to 18, all of which fitted.
I tend to buy clothes from Asda (bloated plutocrat that I am), and, being now somewhat more portly around the middle than I once was, but with long arms and legs, I tend to go for Large or Extra Large - both of which seem to fit me OK. I prefer fairly loose-fitting clothes...as long as my trousers stay up of their own accord...
I often buy dresses directly from China as they fit my diminutive height and limbs, and large is usually UK 14 and xlarge UK 16, though some sellers are getting a bit more aware of Western sizing. One size items are seldom more than a UK 14 and sometimes much smaller. (UK and US sizes are also different which can make buying sewing patterns awkward in the UK where they might be either).
Shoes are like that here. The shoe measure thingy will tell you I'm a U.S. 9 1/2, but I was ranging as high as 11 1/2 last week trying desperately to find anything that would actually go on my foot--and if I recall correctly, I'm absolutely average for women here, in length anyways. Can't imagine who wears the 6s.
Got something from Primark in the summer which labelled itself as a size 6. I haven't been a size 6 since early teens, and the dress is voluminous. I normally expect anything from 8-10 to fit, but you could have used the 10 as a marquee capable of holding 50 guests.
Shoes can be anything these days. Standard sizes have gone out of the window and there aren't the shoe shops there used to be where they measured your feet and gave you a pair of shoes that actually fit and didn't split and leak within a couple of weeks.
TICTH restaurants who have somehow noticed the existence of people with gluten intolerance, vegans and vegetarians.- but have apparently never heard of diabetes. You couldn’t do one dessert with sweetener ? Or a Keto option on your menus - would it kill you ? Have you not even heard of fruit salad for fuck’s sake ? Or even just interesting fruit people don’t typically have at home in the UK, pomegranate, mango, pineapple, coconut ?
There aren't the shoe shops there used to be where they measured your feet and gave you a pair of shoes that actually fit and didn't split and leak within a couple of weeks.
We have in Cardiff a very good family-run shoe shop with two branches. So they haven't all gone!
TICTH restaurants who have somehow noticed the existence of people with gluten intolerance, vegans and vegetarians.- but have apparently never heard of diabetes. You couldn’t do one dessert with sweetener ? Or a Keto option on your menus - would it kill you ? Have you not even heard of fruit salad for fuck’s sake ? Or even just interesting fruit people don’t typically have at home in the UK, pomegranate, mango, pineapple, coconut ?
With you on this. I have a diabetic friend and we enjoy going out for meals. But time and time again he's faced with, if he's lucky, a cheeseboard for dessert. Some places don't even have that. In one restaurant he actually had one of the starters (the cheese souffle) for a pudding.
There is occasionally fruit salad but it usually comes with syrup, or honey, or something that spoils it. I really wish he could just have a selection of desserts instead of the semi-eternal cheeseboard or nothing - luckily he likes cheese but fresh fruit would be very welcome for a change.
Also I wish chefs would stop putting chillies into pretty well everything. I don't mind a small touch of spice (I used to love cooking Indian food) but when it gives you inflammation it isn't worth it. There are some restaurants that seem to have chillies in most of their stuff - fishcakes, pizza, pasta, baked potato toppings, whatever.
Have you not even heard of fruit salad for fuck’s sake ? Or even just interesting fruit people don’t typically have at home in the UK, pomegranate, mango, pineapple, coconut ?
My diabetic nurse told me to steer well away from pineapple due to the very high sugar contact
Shoes again. I recently had to buy black shoes when the old ones disintegrated (fortunately just after a funeral) from lack of use - glue dried out and rubber perished. The new ones are the same make, same style, same fit, but the old ones were marked UK size 6 1/2, and the new ones are 7 1/2. Same feet.
Cake. My daughter who is a size 8 is not eating cake, so I reluctantly forewent a slice when we were out for coffee this morning.
Meeting a friend recently we shared a selection of mini cakes, so two each. About an inch square of Christmas fruit slice and a macaroon the size of a 2p coin for me, whilst my friend had lemon drizzle and battenburg. Enough to taste but not too many calories. (Or who am I kidding?)
Broadband salesman knocks on door. He is the fourth rep from the same company to do this in the past few weeks and I have requested each rep to let the company know nobody here is interested and go away and leave us alone.
"Oh no, we can't do that. Can't you just put a note on your door?"
Energy company calls. Why not have a smart meter installed? Because I don't want one and I've asked repeatedly to stop receiving emails and phone calls. I've blocked their numbers but they just phone from new ones.
Is this going to happen every 3-4 weeks for the rest of my life?
Royal Mail parcel delivery - or rather, non-delivery on the now 4th attempt to re-schedule. The perky voice on the phone (automated, of course) couldn't understand me when I read out the tracking number, and eventually just put the phone down on me, even though I was speaking clearly and distinctly. They claimed they'd deliver on Monday, and didn't - and then came on Tuesday when I didn't ask them to, because I tried to re-direct to my place of work for the Wednesday - and then they tried to deliver to my home address when I wasn't there (because I was at work).
I just want my parcel. Why is it so hard?
Washing machine drum paddles. I have never, ever before had to replace a single one in the venerable predecessors of my current machine.
However, I've just ordered my second set of replacements in less than six months. The machine is less than a year old, and it's a make I've been happy with before.
.
Washing machine drum paddles. I have never, ever before had to replace a single one in the venerable predecessors of my current machine.
However, I've just ordered my second set of replacements in less than six months. The machine is less than a year old, and it's a make I've been happy with before.
.
TICTH my own clumsy self, for having spilled water onto my laptop.
Happily, I have a spare (which I am currently using), and the wet machine is drying out close to the Dragon. Apparently, I have to leave it to dry for at least 24 hours, so fingers crossed that it'll be OK.
Oh dear. PC keyboards are a bit different in that you can generally take them apart if you need to, but laptops tend to be integrated which is much less easy. Fingers crossed for you.
Though if you find the keyboard no longer works afterwards, it may be possible to plug in a pc keyboard and use that. I do that with mine as it's bigger and easier to use.
And the Ark might well be quite a humid environment.
Yes, it can be, although the ambient heat produced by the Dragon does help reduce humidity. The dehumidifier tells me that the present level is below 60, at which level it works less effectively - time to turn it off, I think.
Oh dear. PC keyboards are a bit different in that you can generally take them apart if you need to, but laptops tend to be integrated which is much less easy. Fingers crossed for you.
Though if you find the keyboard no longer works afterwards, it may be possible to plug in a pc keyboard and use that. I do that with mine as it's bigger and easier to use.
Thanks, that's a good idea. I don't have a spare keyboard handy (hopefully one won't be needed), but no doubt something suitable could easily be obtained from Mr E Bay's Magic Online Emporium...
Meanwhile, the spare laptop is working OK (albeit still on Windows 8.1!), but, annoyingly, the sound level is not as high as the damp one, and I don't seem to be able to increase the volume...
Oh dear. PC keyboards are a bit different in that you can generally take them apart if you need to, but laptops tend to be integrated which is much less easy. Fingers crossed for you.
Though if you find the keyboard no longer works afterwards, it may be possible to plug in a pc keyboard and use that. I do that with mine as it's bigger and easier to use.
Laptop keyboards can often be replaced if necessary. I've done it a couple of times, though some are fiddlier than other.
The damp laptop has dried out, and is now working again - I think I must have done all the right things straightaway (unplugging, taking out the battery, mopping up as much as possible, and leaving the thing to drain), so no need for expensive repairs or replacement.
Seasonal depression. Don't panic, I'm not going to "do anything silly", a term I always thought badly underrated the seriousness, I'm just pissed off with it. Anxiety, imposter syndrome, gutsache from the anxiety, plummetting mood rollercoasters, soup for brains and total exhaustion just when I need to be on my A game suck like a high class whore wielding a Dyson. Just fuck off, will you!
Not had one this bad for a number of years, was hoping they had passed... more fool I!
I am counting the days till the shortest day on Thursday. I hate the sense of each day being darker than the day before. On Thursday it might not be noticeably lighter for some time, but I'll know the progression is towards lighter days.
Oh FFS! Something feverish and headachy and snotty has rolled in on the coattails of the glums, and clobbered me. I'm sure my boss must think I'm a weekend piss artist, because this is the third time I've phoned in sick on a Monday. I really wanted to talk to him about the depression but couldn't get my words together to describe the physical symptoms, will have to do it when I get in next.
This and its predecessor seem to have been triggered by visiting my mother. I can only assume I'm winding myself into a knot worrying about her mental health, as on neither occasion has the Knotweed gone down with anything.
It's a difficult time of year, the weather's crap and people are under pressure after all the Christmas hype. I've been seeing a lot of this over the past few days and today on social media generally, people going off sick and other people saying they can't cope with Christmas.
I hope you start to feel better soon and can take it at your own pace, and that you manage to get a break you find restorative.
(I'm probably the only one here who actually likes the winter evenings and doesn't look forward to the long summer hours of daylight, but there's always one.)
You're not quite the only one, Ariel. Coming from Northerly Latitudes, I'm sort of ambivalent (or at least philosophical) about the short/long nights: I can accept that without one, we wouldn't have the other, and they're both just part of What Life Is.
I do however sympathise with those who find either extreme difficult, and am sending a big, sunny*, virtual hug to Sanders - hope you feel better soon!
* We haven't actually got any sunshine in West Lothian at the moment - it's pissing with rain - but it's the thought that counts ...
Another person with SAD (it’s very common in manic depressives as we have extreme responses to stimuli). I find January and February particularly hard and always have a bout of depression then (I get mania in Mad March, a known bipolar phenomenon). My sympathies.
(I'm probably the only one here who actually likes the winter evenings and doesn't look forward to the long summer hours of daylight, but there's always one.)
Someone has to, and I won't hold it against you. TBH, if I got a bit more sunlight in the day, I'd probably not be too unhappy with the long nights.
Ponders buying a lightbox... although the NHS advice on these makes me wonder how I'd get time to get best results.
I have a light box but to be honest the more helpful (and cheaper) item was the dawn simulator alarm clock by my head. Possibly because it goes on by itself gently at the earliest possible part of my day (part pre waking!) and i don’t have to carve out time to sit under it, only to get called into a meeting…
Comments
I know that here in NZ there is a history of clothing sizes not being standardised. One of the first woman Members of Parliament, Mabel Howard ( who was an MP 1943-1969 and New Zealand's first female Cabinet Minister) once waved two pairs of outsized bloomers in the air to illustrate her point about non-standardisation. She won her point and legislation was introduced to this effect.
Now most clothing is imported so we are back with non standard sizes. I once owned trousers sized from 12 to 18, all of which fitted.
Shoes can be anything these days. Standard sizes have gone out of the window and there aren't the shoe shops there used to be where they measured your feet and gave you a pair of shoes that actually fit and didn't split and leak within a couple of weeks.
With you on this. I have a diabetic friend and we enjoy going out for meals. But time and time again he's faced with, if he's lucky, a cheeseboard for dessert. Some places don't even have that. In one restaurant he actually had one of the starters (the cheese souffle) for a pudding.
There is occasionally fruit salad but it usually comes with syrup, or honey, or something that spoils it. I really wish he could just have a selection of desserts instead of the semi-eternal cheeseboard or nothing - luckily he likes cheese but fresh fruit would be very welcome for a change.
Also I wish chefs would stop putting chillies into pretty well everything. I don't mind a small touch of spice (I used to love cooking Indian food) but when it gives you inflammation it isn't worth it. There are some restaurants that seem to have chillies in most of their stuff - fishcakes, pizza, pasta, baked potato toppings, whatever.
My diabetic nurse told me to steer well away from pineapple due to the very high sugar contact
Meeting a friend recently we shared a selection of mini cakes, so two each. About an inch square of Christmas fruit slice and a macaroon the size of a 2p coin for me, whilst my friend had lemon drizzle and battenburg. Enough to taste but not too many calories. (Or who am I kidding?)
And in my State also, as it should be.
Good heavens! CHOCOLATE counts as both Fruit and Vegetable? Who knew?
O! what a revelation - I can feel a CHOCOLATE Expotition coming on...
🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫
I'd not have called sugar cane a grass. Large paddocks of it growing on the North Coast of our State, and into Queensland.
Nevertheless, that's what it is, botanically speaking.
"Oh no, we can't do that. Can't you just put a note on your door?"
Energy company calls. Why not have a smart meter installed? Because I don't want one and I've asked repeatedly to stop receiving emails and phone calls. I've blocked their numbers but they just phone from new ones.
Is this going to happen every 3-4 weeks for the rest of my life?
I just want my parcel. Why is it so hard?
Just don't sow it as a lawn.
!
Good news! Today I returned home to find a parcel inside the bush by the side of my front door 🙃
However, I've just ordered my second set of replacements in less than six months. The machine is less than a year old, and it's a make I've been happy with before.
.
Still under warranty I hope? Very annoying, this!
Happily, I have a spare (which I am currently using), and the wet machine is drying out close to the Dragon. Apparently, I have to leave it to dry for at least 24 hours, so fingers crossed that it'll be OK.
Clumsy idiot.
All I have to do now is to resist the temptation to try the thing out until tomorrow evening at the earliest!
Though if you find the keyboard no longer works afterwards, it may be possible to plug in a pc keyboard and use that. I do that with mine as it's bigger and easier to use.
Yes, it can be, although the ambient heat produced by the Dragon does help reduce humidity. The dehumidifier tells me that the present level is below 60, at which level it works less effectively - time to turn it off, I think.
Thanks, that's a good idea. I don't have a spare keyboard handy (hopefully one won't be needed), but no doubt something suitable could easily be obtained from Mr E Bay's Magic Online Emporium...
Meanwhile, the spare laptop is working OK (albeit still on Windows 8.1!), but, annoyingly, the sound level is not as high as the damp one, and I don't seem to be able to increase the volume...
Laptop keyboards can often be replaced if necessary. I've done it a couple of times, though some are fiddlier than other.
The damp laptop has dried out, and is now working again - I think I must have done all the right things straightaway (unplugging, taking out the battery, mopping up as much as possible, and leaving the thing to drain), so no need for expensive repairs or replacement.
Thanks to all of you for the helpful suggestions!
Not had one this bad for a number of years, was hoping they had passed... more fool I!
Just 5 days to the solstice, and then only months until it's possible to be outside without freezing/being soaked. We can do this.
This and its predecessor seem to have been triggered by visiting my mother. I can only assume I'm winding myself into a knot worrying about her mental health, as on neither occasion has the Knotweed gone down with anything.
I hope you start to feel better soon and can take it at your own pace, and that you manage to get a break you find restorative.
(I'm probably the only one here who actually likes the winter evenings and doesn't look forward to the long summer hours of daylight, but there's always one.)
I do however sympathise with those who find either extreme difficult, and am sending a big, sunny*, virtual hug to Sanders - hope you feel better soon!
* We haven't actually got any sunshine in West Lothian at the moment - it's pissing with rain - but it's the thought that counts ...
Someone has to, and I won't hold it against you. TBH, if I got a bit more sunlight in the day, I'd probably not be too unhappy with the long nights.
Ponders buying a lightbox... although the NHS advice on these makes me wonder how I'd get time to get best results.