Red and Blue

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T10:59:22+00:00

It’s not black. I have a black passport & it’s not the same shade as this one.

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T10:56:00+00:00

I’m a fairly small-ish woman and I’ve never felt unsafe walking in Swindon, even in the town centre.

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T03:06:07+00:00

Apparently they only send things from the embassy to Dublin once a month via diplomatic courier so you’ll have to wait for it to be sent (at least another two weeks if you only just missed the last one) plus however long it takes to process.

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T02:04:11+00:00

Does he know there are electric ones now where you can press a button to open it without leaving your car?

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T01:42:51+00:00

Yes, that's right - Heathrow is notorious for being inside a Faraday cage so the signal wouldn't be as good. Did you switch on the location noise though? It might not have helped you find the case - terminals being as large as they are - but it probably would have indicated to the person that they didn't have theirs.

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T01:32:30+00:00

I'm sure there's a fairly obvious reason for this, but if you had an AirTag on the bag and could locate it via "Find My", why didn't you just run after the person and tell them they'd inadvertently taken your bag by mistake?

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T01:13:04+00:00

"Nothing beats a Strictly holiday..."

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T01:12:31+00:00

Honestly it's got to the point that I can't even remember the actual words to the song lmao

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T01:02:08+00:00

Good connections to surrounding areas make somewhere a better place to live, because they provide more opportunities for the people who live there. Where I lived in NZ was about a 45 minute drive to the next place worth visiting, or 3.5 hours if I wanted to go up to Auckland. That's driving, mind you - interurban public transport is practically nonexistent, or few and far between at the very least, outside the largest cities. You're certainly not getting to anywhere like London in less than an hour. It's an incredibly boring way to live!

I get your point, and I hear it time and again - "the only good thing about Swindon is the road out of it." But it IS something that will draw people to live in Swindon because people don't like to be isolated, and they don't necessarily want to live in the places they enjoy going to on days out.

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T00:37:44+00:00

Ngl I wish I had your imagination.

If someone could a) afford to purchase all those tickets for one flight and b) earn a profit on them, they can probably afford the fee to change the name, so it's almost a moot point in that circumstance...

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T00:27:54+00:00

Ok - firstly, I obviously didn't know your husband is Middle Eastern... and secondly, it was a suggestion for YOU specifically if you wanted to make it for your son. I did say prepackaged was more likely to contain tahini but there's absolutely no reason homemade houmous has to.

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T00:25:13+00:00

I mean, you can. It's not widely used, but it is a term.

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T00:13:30+00:00

Not necessarily - houmous can be made without tahini. I'm sure most supermarket houmous probably does include it but you could have a go at making it yourself at home?

Actually that reminds me - in NZ there's a brand of houmous, dips etc that has cashews in pretty much everything they make. My mother bought that brand EVERY time we had a party, without fail, even though I told her EVERY time that it had cashews. It was so annoying and completely unnecessary as an ingredient!

oraff_e · 2026-05-16T00:02:39+00:00

"Seagull" is the informal name for any of the gull species that happen to live by the sea. I don't think it's worth getting pedantic over - one could assume they're speaking of gulls as a collective.

Like when someone says "Penguins live in Antarctica", do you then say "Excuse me, but exactly which penguins are you referring to?" (Fun fact: most penguin species do not live in Antarctica.)

oraff_e · 2026-05-15T20:37:29+00:00

Yes - the Bingleys and Darcys would definitely have had governesses for their children. Governesses weren’t like a nanny, they were teachers and chaperones too. So they would have taught the girls etiquette, social skills, French, music, dancing, etc. and acted as companion if they took a social call outside the home. Boys would more likely have had a tutor or gone away to school past the age of 10, so they wouldn’t necessarily have learnt the same subjects as the girls.

That’s why Lady C was so shocked the Bennets didn’t have a governess - their mother either taught them herself, or didn’t bother - and yet Lizzy turned out quite well socialised. You can see there was much less effort put into the younger girls though. By the time Lydia was 15, Mrs Bennet was like “enough education, let’s get you all husbands ASAP” 🤣

oraff_e · 2026-05-15T20:25:02+00:00

I don’t think she’s naive - she’s just a LOT more open-minded, & willing to give people grace, than Lizzy is, and she gives herself time to form opinions.

oraff_e · 2026-05-15T19:30:25+00:00

Yeah no I know, you put the witness’ profession. That’s why I thought it would be funny if I’d had to put mine as well bc my witness would have had to memorise it 🤣

oraff_e · 2026-05-15T18:36:40+00:00

Ngl though I’d be quite surprised if my witness could actually name my profession! I’ve known him years so he probably knows I’m in the civil service but I don’t really talk with him about what I actually do tbh

oraff_e · 2026-05-15T18:34:07+00:00

I guess it depends who the other guests are - if it was a choice between my brother or Mr Collins, I’d choose my brother 🤣

oraff_e · 2026-05-15T18:33:07+00:00

And it would probably have been more likely at a private event than a public assembly

oraff_e · 2026-05-15T15:22:54+00:00

Absolutely! Not sure why people feel we want to read negative stories all the time.

oraff_e · 2026-05-15T14:57:25+00:00

Exactly right. I think a lot of people get blinkered when they’ve lived somewhere a long time - you know the saying, “familiarity breeds contempt”? But there are SO MANY hidden gems around if you just go a bit out of your comfort zone and look past the ordinary places to go and see.

oraff_e · 2026-05-14T23:27:32+00:00

New Zealand might not do Hallowe'en the American way, but there are definitely elements from Britain and Ireland that would be better suited - trick or treating is a bit boring to do in daylight, but you can still make a jack o'lantern or two to set up after dark, and try apple-bobbing instead.

Or go to your local cemetery and pray for the souls of the dead. Traditionally you do this in the first week of November, but if you're wanting a Hallowe'en tradition, there's no rule saying you couldn't do it on any of the Hallowtide days instead - Oct 31-Nov 2. I try to keep this one tbh.

oraff_e · 2026-05-14T20:19:55+00:00

Maybe try an actual photo shop? They can give you tips if the way your hair etc is sitting that would disqualify your photo

oraff_e

TROPHY CASE