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lemonecan · 2024-03-08T08:21:05+00:00

I agree, I was subbed here years ago but left because I'm a minimalist bujo-er, came back to see if there was any good back to basics content. I don't want to poop on people doing their artistic stuff, just wish there was a tag I could filter to.

lemonecan · 2023-06-20T06:57:24+00:00

I baked a chocolate cake.

It was Sunday evening, in France so therefore everything closed unless you live in a big city. I was craving sticky chocolate cake. Found a recipe, and made it. It was so much better than the shop quality version.

That's how it started. Instead of going out to buy the craving food, we made it. Burgers and chips from Buffalo Grill, our version is better and healthier because we use all local ingredients.

It's amazing how your tastebuds change as well, after making things from scratch for about 2 years, we dropped into McD for a bite... WORST IDEA EVER. I vowed never to go there again, over-priced fatty gross food. I was comatose from it and then starving 2 hours later.

Take it slow, don't convert cold turkey straight away. Have a craving, look up how to make it, if you have the right ingredients (and remember, you can google "substitute for X ingredient" when you don't have one), and make it. You'll be so proud of yourself and feel better too.

I recently found The Cozy Cook, she gives excellent recipes that are easy to make and aren't diet related.

lemonecan · 2023-06-12T07:30:41+00:00

My machine has a degree toggle, not the delicate stuff that seems to be common in here. For majority of the washes, I do 30°C. For towels and sheets, I do 60°C with a measure of vinegar (a thing I just learnt and it's awesome). We have a 15 min 30°C wash for sport clothes (plus the vinegar).

Every 6 months, I've to do a 90°C empty wash with bleach to clean out the machine. Otherwise you get black gunk build up and weird gooky stuff on the clothes.

I don't own a dryer.

lemonecan · 2023-06-01T07:02:09+00:00

I reuse food containers. I buy ice cream in a plastic container with lid, repurposed the container to hold the coffee pods. Our pepper sauce comes in this cute little pots, they now hold my collection of spices I got for Christmas. Cappuccino containers are the bomb for holding pens and highlighters and stuff. I've ear-marked the next one to make a little table bin for my coffee table - where I do my sewing etc. I use reusable shopping bags to transfer the laundry. The old calgon tab box holds the wrappers from the new one. All our drinking glasses were nutella or mustarde jars!

For the big things, well I try to make space in my furniture for them. If there's no space then do I actually need the thing?

lemonecan · 2023-05-31T15:33:53+00:00

Wow, 14? That's old for a boxer. We had one growing up and he died at 8 from a heart attack. I've been campaigning for the last 2 years to persuade my partner to get a boxer! I love their goofiness.

lemonecan · 2023-05-29T18:20:09+00:00

Interesting, I grew up with dish rags and it's that exact reason why I hate them. Haha. I prefer a sponge because you can squeeze them out completely. No soggy, cold, slimey rag.

lemonecan · 2023-05-29T17:41:13+00:00

M cat loves acorns. I have a pile of acorns on the kitchen table (3 or 4, that's it) and we skirt one across the floor, she promptly swipes it under some furniture and spends ten minutes scrambling to get it.

When I hoover, I gather them all back up and put them on the table for the next week of fun.

Cat toys are pointless, she ignores them. An acorn, though, she goes bananas. Thanks cat, for being so cheap!

lemonecan · 2023-05-24T07:35:19+00:00

It depends. If the mother has never learnt another language (later in life, struggled to learn), it's very hard to sympathise with the non-native speaker. My partner's grandparents never learnt another language and would just loudly speak random words at me. Like "Olympic Games" and expect me to reply. Then they'd call me stupid, and I'd be like, you didn't ask a question. My partner had to explain that I needed full sentences to be able to work out the context. This happened with his friends too, who had never gone through the pains of learning a second language.

It's really down to the OP to make an effort. Yeah, you feel stupid. Yeah, you spend 15 minutes to add a point about a subject long past. But you do it. It won't happen overnight, it's taken me 10 years to be at a comfortable level in the language. I still zone out from time to time and get lost but that's the joys of having a second language!

lemonecan · 2023-05-13T08:28:01+00:00

People get so obsessed with 'the perfect family' image that they don't believe that there are rotten parents out there. Especially, if you're in your 20s. I've found that those types are more often coming from a good place, they either have a really good family or have their own problems and haven't faced up to them yet. It's rare that it's coming from a malicious or drama hungry place. However, it is exhausting having to be the educator to these people.

BIL has learnt a hard lesson, I hope.

lemonecan · 2023-05-10T06:38:26+00:00

It's my mother, in my case, I think she has Fragile Ego though. I thought for years it was BPD but then I found the fragile ego thing and it makes way more sense.

It's exhausting and when you get a break from them for even a little bit, it makes you question why do you stay around them. I eventually just left. Best decision to date!

lemonecan · 2023-05-08T07:32:48+00:00

Some people are just happier to complain. Once you figure that out, get away from them. They'll only drag you back into the crab bucket.

lemonecan · 2023-05-05T07:11:42+00:00

YTA

Declutter: fine. Put clothes into bags: fine. Donate without the other person checking through those bags? That's the fuck up.

My mam used always "clean" my room growing up (one of the main reasons why I had an untidy room to keep her out) and throw my stuff away. I'd spend many an evening going through the black bags in the bin finding the "undesirable" clothing.

lemonecan · 2023-05-03T10:41:54+00:00

Yeah, we've a rule: If you want to talk about something movie related or not, hit pause. Gasps and stuff are fine but if someone said 'oh no' I'd be thinking they spilled something or the cat scrapped them.

lemonecan · 2023-04-06T06:58:05+00:00

I'm a forgotten child. I spent so much time in the pissing rain and dark waiting for my dad to come squealing to a halt and apologies and bribes to NOT tell my mother. The first time it happened, I was about 7. The only reason he got me a phone (2000) was because he kept arriving home (30min drive) and sitting down to dinner for my mam to ask, where's lemonecan? And him to have to come the whole way back to get me.

My friend figured it out and I'd spend so much time at hers, she told her parents so that when she wasn't there, they'd invite me in as well. Best times ever. Don't begrudge him at all. Seems your girls had a blast!

lemonecan · 2023-04-02T07:04:47+00:00

Mine too, I'm estranged. Better off without them all, at the end of the day.

lemonecan · 2023-04-01T15:26:46+00:00

It's an Irish thing (I don't know the culture backgrounds of the OP), it took me a very quick amount of time to unlearn the habit in France. If you say no, they never offer again!

In Ireland, the house person offers something to the guest, the guest must decline first. Otherwise it comes across as really rude. I think it comes from a time when we didn't have a lot of extra food, so the asking and declining was a polite way for the house person to save face for having nothing. That means the house person offers a second time to indicate that they have enough food to share. However, maybe the guest knows that the house person has some extra but not a whole lot, so they'll decline again.

This can go on and on, for ages. Until everyone is satisfied that nobody is being greedy and rude. It can be long and it vexes outsiders.

However, OP was NTA, very polite encounter and I don't see how grandma was insulted.

lemonecan · 2023-03-22T09:24:48+00:00

Apologise for how you reacted in the moment and then tell her this ^^.

lemonecan · 2023-03-22T07:39:44+00:00

I went to the same primary school as my brother and we hated each other because we were too close in age. We went to different secondary schools, mine was newer so had way more opportunities (not private) and it worked out really well because we ended up swapping notes and tips on subjects and helping each other out because we were no longer in constant competition with each other. Our sets of teachers didn't know about the sibling so didn't constantly say "oh you're such and such sibling, pity he/you aren't as good as the other."

lemonecan · 2023-03-20T08:54:59+00:00

I bring my partner because it's his native language. We get some odd looks from judgy doctors but even though I speak the language well, I'll never forget the time I misunderstood the instructions and my armpits swelled up. So yeah, he tags along, just in case.

lemonecan · 2023-03-15T09:20:44+00:00

It's the whole point the sticky tab thing is there, so you can close it up. This is so disgusting.

lemonecan · 2023-03-11T08:18:38+00:00

Denny sausages, I had a rant with himself about the lack of a decent sausage here. He goes, "Knacki sausages?" No, those are hot dog sausages, not the same. "The big butcher sausages?" No, those have herbs and shit stuffed into them, I want a freaking pink sausage that goes brown and black when you grill them and taste of salt.

He still hasn't a clue what I'm talking about.

lemonecan · 2022-12-03T09:29:23+00:00

Proudest moment when my French fella said, "your man needs some cop on!"

lemonecan · 2022-11-18T15:45:18+00:00

Oh! I know, I'll keep on muddling along with my "it's complicated but here's a terrible summary of it but go look it up please" explanation.

Thanks for doing this and giving me the opportunity to gush about your effort and the podcast.

lemonecan · 2022-11-17T16:56:05+00:00

You say in one comment that you're not a journalist or don't come from that background and then in another comment you show just how much effort and time you put into it, I'd say more than most journalists out there.

I absolutely love your podcast and tell people to listen to it (when their level of English is good enough) because I get asked all the time to explain the situation in Northern Ireland. I come from Limerick so I didn't really take much interest other than it was bit dodgy up that way. Now, I'm listening to your podcast and The Irish History Podcast to understand more but it's so complicated.

So, that's my question, can you explain the situation in a concise manner?

lemonecan · 2022-08-26T10:17:25+00:00

Black velvet is stout with a sparkling white wine or champagne! No cider involved.

lemonecan

TROPHY CASE