Simple things you just can't do

[Douglas Quaid]

legless said:

Listen to podcasts or audiobooks.

I can get completely and utterly absorbed in a book, or a piece of music, or an interesting TV programme. Podcasts though? Forget it. I sort of tune out after a few minutes, then 20 minutes later I realise that I've not actually listened to anything that anyone's said for the last 15 minutes.

You have to find something you’re interested in. If you zone out, change it. If you’re interested in what the person has to say, you’ll be absorbed.

My usual podcast/audiobook listening place is driving. I find if I’m doing something that’s fairly basic and doesn’t require much thought like driving on a motorway or mowing the lawn I can focus on the book. If I’m doing something complicated the book just turns into background noise.

[cheesejunkie]

Douglas Quaid said:

legless said:

Listen to podcasts or audiobooks.

I can get completely and utterly absorbed in a book, or a piece of music, or an interesting TV programme. Podcasts though? Forget it. I sort of tune out after a few minutes, then 20 minutes later I realise that I've not actually listened to anything that anyone's said for the last 15 minutes.

You have to find something you’re interested in. If you zone out, change it. If you’re interested in what the person has to say, you’ll be absorbed.

My usual podcast/audiobook listening place is driving. I find if I’m doing something that’s fairly basic and doesn’t require much thought like driving on a motorway or mowing the lawn I can focus on the book. If I’m doing something complicated the book just turns into background noise.

I miss long drives, rarely do them now. The gym is where I listen to podcasts. But I used to listen on long drives too.

There are some very interesting ones out there. I agree there's bound to be one that can satisfy an interest.

I split my time between ones that make me laugh and history podcasts. I have also done language lesson podcasts, they're ok but only as a supplement to proper learning. But I wouldn't want a life without podcasts having got so used to listening to them. I'm a mine of useless information now .

[borcy]

Another that can't listen to podcasts. Even things that interest me, I just switch off. Can't listen to dj chattering on the radio either.



Can't do crosswords either, even simple ones. I find the clues baffling.

[Blib]

I regularly and consistently mix up the words 'hospital' & 'hotel'.

I have to catch myself as I always use the wrong one. So, I end up stumbling over the word.

Oh, and the balloon tying thing. The scary bds.

[cheesejunkie]

borcy said:

Another that can't listen to podcasts. Even things that interest me, I just switch off. Can't listen to dj chattering on the radio either.



Can't do crosswords either, even simple ones. I find the clues baffling.

I love a cryptic crossword. I could spend all day absorbed in them. I print two off the computer every morning and do them when I take a work coffee break.

We're all different.

DJ chattering I'll agree on although did like Steve Wright when he was on radio one. fk that was a long time ago and the man's dead now.

[cheesejunkie]

Blib said:

I regularly and consistently mix up the words 'hospital' & 'hotel'.

I have to catch myself as I always use the wrong one. So, I end up stumbling over the word.

Oh, and the balloon tying thing. The scary bds.

I hope you're not a paramedic

[toon10]

borcy said:

Another that can't listen to podcasts. Even things that interest me, I just switch off. Can't listen to dj chattering on the radio either.



Can't do crosswords either, even simple ones. I find the clues baffling.

I can only listen to a podcast if it's on YouTube. the Peter Crouch one and About Effing Time are great, but I couldn't just listen to them on radio or Spotify.

[croyde]

cheesejunkie said:

Blib said:

I regularly and consistently mix up the words 'hospital' & 'hotel'.

I have to catch myself as I always use the wrong one. So, I end up stumbling over the word.

Oh, and the balloon tying thing. The scary bds.

I hope you're not a paramedic

I regularly mix up the words Funeral and Wedding.

To be honest both are pretty similar occasions.

A church service, see friends and family you haven't seen for ages then a wake/party afterwards.

[Blib]

cheesejunkie said:

Blib said:

I regularly and consistently mix up the words 'hospital' & 'hotel'.

I have to catch myself as I always use the wrong one. So, I end up stumbling over the word.

Oh, and the balloon tying thing. The scary bds.

I hope you're not a paramedic

Only for a very short while.

[Purosangue]

cadence braking

[cheesejunkie]

croyde said:

I regularly mix up the words Funeral and Wedding.

To be honest both are pretty similar occasions.

A church service, see friends and family you haven't seen for ages then a wake/party afterwards.

Big aging family I've been to many more funerals than weddings.

It's not cruel to say I've enjoyed some of them and the wake afterwards. People pass in many ways. Not all are like Heany's poem of a four foot box a foot for every year. Some are bloody good fun.

[DickyC]

croyde said:

I regularly mix up the words Funeral and Wedding.

To be honest both are pretty similar occasions.

A church service, see friends and family you haven't seen for ages then a wake/party afterwards.

I read that and my blood ran cold. At the funeral of a girl who committed suicide, I met her parents for the first time. When they thanked me for coming I started to say, "It's a pleasure." And I only just caught it. It was horrible to think I could have added to their woes by accident. "It's a.... tragedy," was the best I could manage.

[droopsnoot]

nute said:

Small talk, really st at it.

I can't do that, either, I'm much better at awkward silences. I also can't talk to people I don't know - there are loads of people I see in the pub that I can nod at, but I can't have a conversation with them. No idea why, I've always been like that.

[cheesejunkie]

DickyC said:

I read that and my blood ran cold. At the funeral of a girl who committed suicide, I met her parents for the first time. When they thanked me for coming I started to say, "It's a pleasure." And I only just caught it. It was horrible to think I could have added to their woes by accident. "It's a.... tragedy," was the best I could manage.

Your attendance would have been appreciated. When going through grief people are not worried about you and might not even be noticing. You're a good person for attending and worrying about what you said but I think that's a needless worry and not one to get worked up about.

[croyde]

DickyC said:

croyde said:

I regularly mix up the words Funeral and Wedding.

To be honest both are pretty similar occasions.

A church service, see friends and family you haven't seen for ages then a wake/party afterwards.

I read that and my blood ran cold. At the funeral of a girl who committed suicide, I met her parents for the first time. When they thanked me for coming I started to say, "It's a pleasure." And I only just caught it. It was horrible to think I could have added to their woes by accident. "It's a.... tragedy," was the best I could manage.

After a run of funerals for older family members that actually were a good day for seeing other family, quite a few drinks and thinking how much they would have enjoyed the day, I went to the funeral of our young nanny.

She had committed suicide. That was the saddest funeral I've ever been to.

A few of her friends, her boyfriend, no family as she was from a poor family in Russia, me and my wife.

The boyfriend asked us to join the few for drinks in a local pub. We all just sat there in silence staring at our drinks.

Edited by croyde on Thursday 25th April 09:09

[cheesejunkie]

cheesejunkie said:

Your attendance would have been appreciated. When going through grief people are not worried about you and might not even be noticing. You're a good person for attending and worrying about what you said but I think that's a needless worry and not one to get worked up about.

ETA, I've been at the funerals of two relations who committed suicide. I remember the parents crying. I was very young, too young to help carrying the coffin. It didn't distress me at all to see my aunt in tears at one of them and I've no memory of her daughter baby sitting me, apparently she did regularly, that lack of memory annoys me. It's perfectly acceptable to have no clue what to do at funerals, I do have a clue due to frequent attendance but I'd not think ill of someone who doesn't.

[DickyC]

cheesejunkie said:

DickyC said:

I read that and my blood ran cold. At the funeral of a girl who committed suicide, I met her parents for the first time. When they thanked me for coming I started to say, "It's a pleasure." And I only just caught it. It was horrible to think I could have added to their woes by accident. "It's a.... tragedy," was the best I could manage.

Your attendance would have been appreciated. When going through grief people are not worried about you and might not even be noticing. You're a good person for attending and worrying about what you said but I think that's a needless worry and not one to get worked up about.

That's kind, thanks.

[Discendo Discimus]

I can do a crossword, but no matter how many times I try, I can't complete even the easiest Sudoku.
Baffling black magic that makes zero sense.

I'm also one of those people who can't draw to save my life. I'm so jealous when somebody can picture something then put it down on paper.

[RGG]

I can't make small talk.

And I can't be diplomatic.

I can be "straightforward"


Can anyone help.

[motco]

croyde said:

cheesejunkie said:

Blib said:

I regularly and consistently mix up the words 'hospital' & 'hotel'.

I have to catch myself as I always use the wrong one. So, I end up stumbling over the word.

Oh, and the balloon tying thing. The scary bds.

I hope you're not a paramedic

I regularly mix up the words Funeral and Wedding.

To be honest both are pretty similar occasions.

A church service, see friends and family you haven't seen for ages then a wake/party afterwards.

One wedding I went to when my (then) twenty-something contemporaries were getting married all in a short span of time, ended with a fight and someone taking a header through a plate glass door which was not safety glass. Not many funerals end in such spectacular fashion. Much blood flowed...