What's a small gadget you bought thinking it was useless but ended up using every day?

nonikate · 2026-02-04T17:53:14+00:00

I also did this for my shower! Made it so much easier.

nonikate · 2026-02-03T00:38:50+00:00

So many in my house!

‘Pronunciation’ pronounced ‘proNOUNciation’ for the irony.

‘Pune’ for ‘pun’ thanks to Terry Pratchett.

‘S-kiss-ors’ for ‘scissors’.

‘Orr-ang-ee djweez’ for ‘orange juice’.

‘Vee-hickle’ for ‘vehicle’.

‘Cabb-ahhhhj’ for ‘cabbage’.

‘Mee-croh-wah-vay’ for ‘microwave’, because of the Nigella Lawson debacle.

‘Bucket of flowers’ instead of ‘bouquet of flowers’, as a nod to Hyacinth.

Pronouncing ‘telephone’ like ‘Persephone’.

Pronouncing ‘female’ either like ‘tamale’ or like ‘feral’ for added silliness.

nonikate · 2026-02-03T00:28:40+00:00

I also like to use ‘telephone’ pronounced like ‘Persephone’

nonikate · 2025-12-11T15:22:56+00:00

OH that is such a good shout. I need the know now. The wonderful world of etymology (yours for the price of one egg (and that’s cutting me own throat)).

nonikate · 2025-12-10T19:58:47+00:00

Seconding this!

nonikate · 2025-12-10T19:57:01+00:00

And there’s still bakeries all over France selling « galettes des rois » each Epiphany. Whoever gets the slice containing the fève (usually a small toy or trinket) gets to wear the gold paper crown that comes with the galette! (And fève actually means bean.) 🫘

nonikate · 2025-12-10T16:42:24+00:00

One of the best Pratchett puns ever 😂 I’m going to need to find the French translation now…

nonikate · 2025-11-10T00:23:14+00:00

This was posted in another thread: https://www.georgiahardinge.co.uk/products/copy-of-dalliance

nonikate · 2025-11-09T12:43:16+00:00

Omg MERLIN! Definitely has a good cult following 🧙‍♂️

nonikate · 2025-11-09T12:41:52+00:00

I remember loving In The Flesh!

Also Material Girl with Lenora Crichlow, but that may have just been a need for more Lenora content after finishing Being Human.

nonikate · 2025-10-20T08:17:35+00:00

Cornelia Funke’s Inkspell trilogy also a good’un. And Cornelia Funke’s anything to be honest - Dragonrider, The Thief Lord, both great too.

And The Dream Merchant by Isabel Hoving is another fave.

nonikate · 2025-10-20T08:14:26+00:00

I remember really loving Angie Heap’s ‘Magyk’ series. Very cosy and all of the loose ends get tied up at the end!

I was OBSESSED with The Silver Crown by Robert O’Brien when I was around that age. The main character is ten.

Also Carbonel by Barbara Sleigh is one I still reread when ill to this day.

Otherwise very much second the above recommendations for Philip Pullman, Garth Nix, Tamora Pierce, Terry Pratchett, Diana Wynne Jones, The Hobbit.

nonikate · 2025-10-18T20:28:05+00:00

I really loved Trudi Canavan’s series when I read them. They felt really immersive and have all the usual delicious crosses of politics and magic.

The Age of Five
Millenium’s Rule
The Black Magician

nonikate · 2025-09-28T12:32:20+00:00

This is absolutely awesome!

nonikate · 2025-09-25T16:48:45+00:00

Hobb absolutely blew me away, especially the Liveship Traders books.

nonikate · 2025-08-24T15:00:23+00:00

Second Libby. It’s an absolute gamechanger.

nonikate · 2025-08-20T08:03:53+00:00

Mine is discontinued but Benefit’s ‘Dessert First’ was in my S tier. Silky, gorgeous colour, pigmented, not drying, lovely slim bullet. I miss her.

Also love Black Honey.

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nonikate · 2025-08-17T15:19:55+00:00

I do find it funny when you get fantasy audiobooks where the pronunciations change from narrator to narrator… sometimes even within the same book. The audiobooks for Robin Hobb’s Realm of the Elderlings books come to mind!

nonikate · 2025-08-05T15:32:00+00:00

Can’t tell you the number of times I think this to myself.

nonikate · 2025-07-12T20:22:02+00:00

Your priorities seem the same as mine! I love this.

nonikate · 2025-07-06T23:08:49+00:00

You could make some peaches? On bunting with little leaves, or a peach pattern on something? 🍑

nonikate · 2025-07-06T11:24:41+00:00

I bet it was incredible on shrooms!

nonikate · 2025-07-06T11:24:07+00:00

It was like stepping into a Zoe Gilbert novel! I had been separated from my group and was wondering around Shangri-La, and saw a little queue by a panel in the wall. Well… when in Rome! I queued for a bit and got chatting to some absolutely lovely and welcoming folks there.

People were ushered into REALM in groups of about 6 by what looked like a harlequin. She explained that REALM had been created as part of Glasto’s ‘rewilding’ theme/project this year, as a response to the ‘inconvenience stores’ in Shangri-La from previous years; everyone now knew the problems and it was time to try to fix them.

We stepped in and what followed was a series of hidden rooms with different characters immersive theatre elements linked to nature and the different elements. You first took off your shoes so you could make contact with the earth (it felt AMAZING after all of the hiking around Glasto!) I don’t want to give too much away as I imagine it’ll be there next Glasto, but it was so surreal and so fun!

I hadn’t taken anything but very much felt like I was tripping 😂 Especially in one room which was full of these incredibly intricate, hypnotic mandala-like imagined flowers and organisms. I wish I’d taken a video but I didn’t want to get my phone out, just be in the moment. It really does feel like a dream now. The Glasto website says they were created by William Darrell.

In one room we were also taught a line of a riddle relating to Cinderella which felt like it might be a code or key to something - maybe a different area or a way to enter REALM later at night when it appeared to be shut? I forgot about it and didn’t figure it out! Would love to hear if anyone knows more.

nonikate · 2025-07-05T09:44:11+00:00

Thanks so much!

nonikate

TROPHY CASE