What have you done today thread?

[Newey]

Skechers relaxed fit, the creation of god himself.

[Count Steer]

Jay Blades is probably currently on WhatsApp saying 'Blimey! You'll never believe this but I just, literally, well very nearly literally, bumped into Count Steer in the corridor. He's much taller and far more handsome in real life'.

[ZRX61]

Today, I started a 28 day no swearing challenge


... which I will restart tomorrow

[Noggin]

I've had a couple of VERY challenging days!! WhoTF thought I had a correct level of French to do such an intense course??!!! LOL I will get there but bloody hell it's hard!!

Dyspraxia doesn't help - the disconnection between what I read and my brain actually accepting the words and understanding them has caused some serious stress I can read the words, I know what they all mean but my brain can't process them well enough to actually remember them FFS!!

Anyway - minor meltdown yesterday as I had a bad result in a practice test (200 questions, need a max of 5 errors, I had 16 )

But today has been better (I got 7 wrong today - things I know I don't remember, not stupid mistakes!). AND a couple of people have been kind enough to comment on my actually being brave enough to do the course! Ok, I said I was stupid not brave, but equally, the complements were well received.

Having a couple of fellow students (one on the lorry course, rather than ours) say "Je vous tire mon chapeau" was rather nice!

One of them also said that he was impressed at how much my spoken French has improved since the start of the course!! Which is cool because I can't hear a difference, but he can (Haven't really explained just how little I could read before this! Ok, I can really only read transport related stuff, but at least I can read now )


At least the driving is not bad - and I've just been invited to dinner with some English friends on Friday evening! That is really something to look forward to as I generally only speak french for 5 days, then am here for a weekend and maybe have one evening of english chat, but mostly see french friends before going back to french on monday! LOL (Now the summer season is over, there's almost no one around at all, so I might not speak english or french at weekends! LOL)

Although I did meet an english at the school yesterday who's doing the CPC thing (35 hours of death by powerpoint) - but trying not to chat with him too much as I think he's one that happily speaks very little French


I'd better bloody pass and I do so hope I'll be fluent by 8th November!!

[Pirahna]

I'll be fluent by 8th November

It's not easy doing stuff in foreign. I was chatting to a Spanish friend last week, she's an estate agent, and she was showing me her Duolingo. There's lots of Dutch people around at the moment so she's decided that she needs to speak to them in their own language. She says it's just like speaking English, her next Duolingo line was "het kind drinkt melk", I think she's got a long way to go to sell houses speaking Dutch.

[Noggin]

I'll be fluent by 8th November

It's not easy doing stuff in foreign. I was chatting to a Spanish friend last week, she's an estate agent, and she was showing me her Duolingo. There's lots of Dutch people around at the moment so she's decided that she needs to speak to them in their own language. She says it's just like speaking English, her next Duolingo line was "het kind drinkt melk", I think she's got a long way to go to sell houses speaking Dutch.

It is definitely a challenge. DuoLingo doesn't work with my brain!! (So much my brain doesn't like!) A mate explained it as, Duolingo works on the quiz/game/fun part of your brain, that isn't always connected to the learning part. So if you need to actually learn, sometimes a 'game' doesn't help - although it definitely works for some people!!

The dream is to be able to just chat and understand when people randomly chat with me

[Pirahna]

The dream is to be able to just chat and understand when people randomly chat with me

Spanish people talking to me is a proper mind fuck. The bloke that owns the electricians in town spoke to me at lunch time on his way to the cafe, he knows my Spanish is shit but it's way better than his English and we can say niceties to each other. I spoke with a gardener later, I think he thinks my Spanish is better than it is, but I'm meeting him at midday on Friday at the gasolinera to collect some trees for a friends garden (I own a VW T6).

An app that I've found useful is Language Transfer. There's a full Spanish course on it but only 40 French lessons. It's very different in the way that is teaches the language, you'll probably find it a bit basic but it gets you thinking about language in a different way.

[Noggin]

The dream is to be able to just chat and understand when people randomly chat with me

Spanish people talking to me is a proper mind fuck. The bloke that owns the electricians in town spoke to me at lunch time on his way to the cafe, he knows my Spanish is shit but it's way better than his English and we can say niceties to each other. I spoke with a gardener later, I think he thinks my Spanish is better than it is, but I'm meeting him at midday on Friday at the gasolinera to collect some trees for a friends garden (I own a VW T6).

An app that I've found useful is Language Transfer. There's a full Spanish course on it but only 40 French lessons. It's very different in the way that is teaches the language, you'll probably find it a bit basic but it gets you thinking about language in a different way.

I'll take a look.

Things that bug me are things like - was chatting to another student on monday morning about bikes. A pink car drove by so I was showing him my old pink bike!! Another guy turned round and said something about a car. So I said no, the bike. He asked where my bike was, so I said Chez moi! To which he looked all confused and said how did you get here then. By minibus. Well, turns out that that was what he asked me, did I come by car. To be picky, no I didn't I drove a minibus!! But still, I totally missed what he said.

That is my main issue - need to be able to just 'get' what people say when I'm not expecting them to talk to me!!

The more you get to chat with people, the faster you improve. The biggest reason it took me sooooo long to be able to have a conversation was because up here in winter all the French speak basic english and prefer that to an English butchering their language. So they totally discourage people from attempting to speak French. I was lucky to find a place where a few people would allow me to butcher their language to them Now they don't cringe when I talk to them !! Hopefully by winter they'll be impressed that I speak so much better - hopefully!!

[Pirahna]

The more you get to chat with people, the faster you improve.

When wifey chats with Spanish people she's usually asked how long she's been learning Spanish, two years usually gets a very favourable response. She started with Duolingo in Jan 22, then doing a few days a month in the village charity shop so she could use what she'd learned plus we were doing Spanish lessons twice a week, not forgetting the twice weekly Spanish yoga class (it's like normal yoga except in Spanish). Walking around the village she soon knew most of the women and would stop for a chat at every oportunity. She soon left me behind and started doing conversational groups with Spanish who wanted to improve their English and vice versa. Everywhere we go, if she can talk to a Spanish person then it's a free lesson. The Spanish don't seem to mind either. They're rarely in a hurry and are quite happy to listen to you waffle on, correcting as you go if they understand the jist of what you're trying to say. My Spanish is shit in comparisson but between the two of us we can go to the doctor or take the car to a garage without needing a translator.

[gremlin]

Put some plantar fasciitis insoles in my work shoes.

I now feel about two inches taller.

Whilst having a walnut in each shoe.

[Count Steer]

Put some plantar fasciitis insoles in my work shoes.

I now feel about two inches taller.

Whilst having a walnut in each shoe.

Maybe there's a bit too much arch support? Also the problem I found with some is the heel cup is too thick if there are no original removable insoles in the shoe to take out first).

(If you have a Cotswold Outdoor shop nearby you might be able to try out the green/blue etc versions of Superfeet in the shoes you plan putting them in. Pretty sure Superfeet do versions aimed at day-to-day shoes and not just sports/hiking).

[gremlin]

Put some plantar fasciitis insoles in my work shoes.

I now feel about two inches taller.

Whilst having a walnut in each shoe.

Maybe there's a bit too much arch support? Also the problem I found with some is the heel cup is too thick if there are no original removable insoles in the shoe to take out first).

(If you have a Cotswold Outdoor shop nearby you might be able to try out the green/blue etc versions of Superfeet in the shoes you plan putting them in. Pretty sure Superfeet do versions aimed at day-to-day shoes and not just sports/hiking).

Reading the packet it did say they take getting used to and advise a breaking in period. I'll see how it goes. Before long I'm sure my ballet career will be back on track.

[Taipan]

Put some plantar fasciitis insoles in my work shoes.

I now feel about two inches taller.

Whilst having a walnut in each shoe.

Mandem need to get high on style...

[cheb]

Painted my front door. Little Greene paint make a tedious job slightly more bearable.

[gremlin]

Put some plantar fasciitis insoles in my work shoes.

I now feel about two inches taller.

Whilst having a walnut in each shoe.

Mandem need to get high on style...

With every passing day of trotter discomfort, I'm thinking that I may be sporting an S on my footwear sooner than I think....

[Taipan]

Put some plantar fasciitis insoles in my work shoes.

I now feel about two inches taller.

Whilst having a walnut in each shoe.

Mandem need to get high on style...

With every passing day of trotter discomfort, I'm thinking that I may be sporting an S on my footwear sooner than I think....

Once you wear slip-in Skechers, you'll never go back to arm out reachers!

[Sadlonelygit]

After 2 years, finally got around to fixing the front derailleur cable on the tredder.
The cable itself was fine ....if a little rusty, the outer however had collapsed in spectacular fashion, and thinking back, would have pierced the love plums should I have slid forward on the top rail!
A grand total of €4 was spent on the repair

[Noggin]

Put some plantar fasciitis insoles in my work shoes.

I now feel about two inches taller.

Whilst having a walnut in each shoe.

Often plantar fasciitis is caused by other muscles not functioning right. PF is a just a generic term for foot pain! So if you can find out what muscles in the legs aren't doing what they should do, you should be able to solve the foot pain

But - superfeet insoles rock (I have a collapsed arch on one foot, so I use insole anyway) and Sketchers are really comfy (too expensive for me nowadays, but I used to love them!!)

Good luck and best foot forward

[gremlin]

It's been a bit of a week, so wfh today, thought I'd make myself a lovely banana omelette with yoghurt and mango.

Just eating and something's not right.

Forgot to add the mashed up banana to the eggs.

I now how an omelette with yoghurt and mango. Not quite the culinary treat I was hoping for.

[636mick]

Slept great, had a full English, now off to Bala, Pontcysyllte Aquaduct, then Rhiwagor waterfall. Then burgers on the barbecue, wine, beer and chill. Weather turns tomorrow, but I’ll live with it. Wales is lovely.
Mick