Things you often Wonder

[bickster]

33 minutes ago, Paddywhack said:

I always think it's mad that 7 or 8 of them went on to play for blues or baggies shortly after, as well as Saunders managing both. Did they get much stick returning to Villa Park do you remember?

Nope, never got any stick I remember. It was all Ellis' fault. Hate was reserved for Ellis's even then

[rjw63]

7 hours ago, bickster said:

Unless he’s lost shitloads of weight, mind you it was years ago I last saw him in the Ansells, he was huge

Well Mr Shaw did indeed show up, fair play as not many others did.

Hes now drunk-texting my wife

[mjmooney]

Are Ray Mears and Justin Fletcher the same person? 

[sidcow]

5 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

Are Ray Mears and Justin Fletcher the same person? 

Yes. 

[mjmooney]

13 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Yes. 

Thought so. 

[Xela]

As you get older, do you get more obsessed by the weather?

[TDR V2]

On 23/08/2023 at 16:32, Mandy Lifeboats said:

Here's one for the elder Villa elders. 

In the season we won the league - which player got the most stick and criticism for their performances?   Who was the perceived weak link that was going to cost us the title?  

 

Bailey

Probably

[Mark Albrighton]

40 minutes ago, Xela said:

As you get older, do you get more obsessed by the weather?

I’ve spent a disproportionate amount of time overthinking what the weather will be in recent weeks because of the school holidays and trying to plan out what things to do on which days. 

“No we don’t want to do that indoor activity that day, we should save that for the next day because they say it’s more likely to rain then, we should do something outdoors instead…”

I then find myself irritated more than I should be when the day turns out better than predicted and I’ve spent time and money in the cinema watching Pixar’s Elemental with my kid when a sunny day at a park was a perfectly viable option. 

I try not to overthink and plan for worse case scenarios but I find it comes naturally to me. I find myself overthinking it when I’m out socially too. If we’ve got a pub crawl scheduled I’ll be thinking about whether that pub that’s a further 10 minutes walk from the others is going to be worth it if it’s hammering it down.

[chrisp65]

16 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I’ve spent a disproportionate amount of time overthinking what the weather will be in recent weeks because of the school holidays and trying to plan out what things to do on which days. 

“No we don’t want to do that indoor activity that day, we should save that for the next day because they say it’s more likely to rain then, we should do something outdoors instead…”

I then find myself irritated more than I should be when the day turns out better than predicted and I’ve spent time and money in the cinema watching Pixar’s Elemental with my kid when a sunny day at a park was a perfectly viable option. 

I try not to overthink and plan for worse case scenarios but I find it comes naturally to me. I find myself overthinking it when I’m out socially too. If we’ve got a pub crawl scheduled I’ll be thinking about whether that pub that’s a further 10 minutes walk from the others is going to be worth it if it’s hammering it down.

Could you not just buy a coat?

[Mark Albrighton]

50 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

Could you not just buy a coat?

Are you suggesting when going to a park with the kid or when I go out socially?

At a park, a coat’s fine if the weather’s cold but dry. I think most people typically avoid parks or outside activities when it’s raining. Not a lot of fun.

Going from pub to pub…I don’t know, if I can avoid a long walk in the rain with a bit of forethought, seems to be sufficient enough. I think about it to the extent that if I’m arriving into New Street by train and I want to go to the Jewellery Quarter, I will weigh up whether walking it is an option as opposed to a taxi or tram. A bit of light rain, fine, whatever. But if I think there’s a chance of heavy rain I may review options.

[chrisp65]

5 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

Are you suggesting when going to a park with the kid or when I go out socially?

At a park, a coat’s fine if the weather’s cold but dry. I think most people typically avoid parks or outside activities when it’s raining. Not a lot of fun.

Going from pub to pub…I don’t know, if I can avoid a long walk in the rain with a bit of forethought, seems to be sufficient enough. I think about it to the extent that if I’m arriving into New Street by train and I want to go to the Jewellery Quarter, I will weigh up whether walking it is an option as opposed to a taxi or tram. A bit of light rain, fine, whatever. But if I think there’s a chance of heavy rain I may review options.

There’s glib bit of cliche that goes there’s no such thing as bad weather just the wrong clothing.

For years I thought I couldn’t possibly deliberately be outside in the rain. Then for reasons I don’t recall I realised you can pretty much ignore rain. If you’re running or playing football then just get wet. If you’re shopping, drinking, walking, sightseeing, buy a half decent waterproof.

It’s genuinely quite liberating to just worry about it less. Let the bucket hat set you free.

 

[Follyfoot]

On 23/08/2023 at 16:50, mjmooney said:

Dunno. There was no internet. 

I seem to remember Geddes getting a fair bit of stick 

[mjmooney]

9 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I’ve spent a disproportionate amount of time overthinking what the weather will be in recent weeks because of the school holidays and trying to plan out what things to do on which days. 

“No we don’t want to do that indoor activity that day, we should save that for the next day because they say it’s more likely to rain then, we should do something outdoors instead…”

I then find myself irritated more than I should be when the day turns out better than predicted and I’ve spent time and money in the cinema watching Pixar’s Elemental with my kid when a sunny day at a park was a perfectly viable option. 

I try not to overthink and plan for worse case scenarios but I find it comes naturally to me. I find myself overthinking it when I’m out socially too. If we’ve got a pub crawl scheduled I’ll be thinking about whether that pub that’s a further 10 minutes walk from the others is going to be worth it if it’s hammering it down.

A Very British Problem, this one. Most other countries have predictable seasons - if it's summer, it's going to be sunny, if it's winter, it's going to snow, etc. Not here. I've had American friends asking what clothes to pack for a trip to Britain, depending on the season, and my answer is always the same - bring everything. Rainwear, thick sweaters, shorts, t shirts, the lot. You could get anything. 

[Mark Albrighton]

8 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

There’s glib bit of cliche that goes there’s no such thing as bad weather just the wrong clothing.

For years I thought I couldn’t possibly deliberately be outside in the rain. Then for reasons I don’t recall I realised you can pretty much ignore rain. If you’re running or playing football then just get wet. If you’re shopping, drinking, walking, sightseeing, buy a half decent waterproof.

It’s genuinely quite liberating to just worry about it less. Let the bucket hat set you free.

 

I could do. I know I could be less bothered about it generally. And that is easier for me to do when it’s just me I’m thinking about.

Parks I find are a bit of a pain when it’s raining. The slides can be too slippery, the various climbing stuff (the wooden parts can get particularly hazardous), if there’s a sandpit you can’t really do that, irony overload - they’re less likely to run the splash parks, so they’re out.

We’re less likely to sit down and have lunch outside, so means finding somewhere inside and it’s crowded because everyone else is inside because it’s raining…blah, blah, blah…it’s just other things to think about. It’s better and easier when I know the weather will be dry.

24 minutes ago, mjmooney said:

A Very British Problem, this one. Most other countries have predictable seasons - if it's summer, it's going to be sunny, if it's winter, it's going to snow, etc. Not here. I've had American friends asking what clothes to pack for a trip to Britain, depending on the season, and my answer is always the same - bring everything. Rainwear, thick sweaters, shorts, t shirts, the lot. You could get anything. 

Yeah, this. It could be said it’s the same every summer, although I did feel a couple of summers ago the weather was a bit more predictable and fairly consistent. But it’s likely I’m remembering it wrongly.

This summer and my reading of the various forecasts, my conclusion after reading them was they didn’t need a sun symbol, or a rain cloud or whatever. All they needed was a shrugged shoulders emoji as in “Pffft, no idea, it’s Britain isn’t it?” 

[Seat68]

You inna made of sugar. 

[chrisp65]

  

  

 

always a hat 

coat n hat

flip flops n hat

speedos n hat

The ideal accompaniment for situations involving rain, heat, cold, sunburn, glare, seagull shit, beer spillage.

The original go anywhere do anything item. It’s like a sanitary pad for blokes.

[Mark Albrighton]

26 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

You inna made of sugar. 

Exactly what my mother says. 

Of course if I return from my travels with her only granddaughter soaked through, suddenly her not being made of sugar isn’t sufficient enough and I should have taken her somewhere drier. 

Although it should be noted that as she’s seven years old, my daughter is kinda made of sugar.

[mjmooney]

12 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

always a hat 

coat n hat

flip flops n hat

speedos n hat

The ideal accompaniment for situations involving rain, heat, cold, sunburn, glare, seagull shit, beer spillage.

The original go anywhere do anything item. It’s like a sanitary pad for blokes.

I have a bit of a fraught relationship with hats. When I was a teenager, wearing any sort of hat was very much NOT The Done Thing. We associated them with old blokes, who would always wear them - flat caps for the working class, trilbies for the middle class. We long haired hipsters mostly avoided them ('Only prats wear hats', as we used to say). 

By the time they came back into fashion - beanies, baseballs and buckets - I was middle-aged, and now associated them with irritating youngsters. So, again, I was reluctant to use them at all, I'd rather have just got wet, or sunburned. 

In my dotage, however, I've accepted my fate. Black 'Thinsulate' hat in the winter, white fedora/panama style on the rare hot day in summer. Still doesn't feel at all natural, though. 

[Seat68]

7 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

Exactly what my mother says. 

Of course if I return from my travels with her only granddaughter soaked through, suddenly her not being made of sugar isn’t sufficient enough and I should have taken her somewhere drier. 

Although it should be noted that as she’s seven years old, my daughter is kinda made of sugar.

Yes. There are similar conversations in this house. 

[luckyeddie]

2 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I could do. I know I could be less bothered about it generally. And that is easier for me to do when it’s just me I’m thinking about.

Parks I find are a bit of a pain when it’s raining. The slides can be too slippery, the various climbing stuff (the wooden parts can get particularly hazardous), if there’s a sandpit you can’t really do that, irony overload - they’re less likely to run the splash parks, so they’re out.

We’re less likely to sit down and have lunch outside, so means finding somewhere inside and it’s crowded because everyone else is inside because it’s raining…blah, blah, blah…it’s just other things to think about. It’s better and easier when I know the weather will be dry.

Yeah, this. It could be said it’s the same every summer, although I did feel a couple of summers ago the weather was a bit more predictable and fairly consistent. But it’s likely I’m remembering it wrongly.

This summer and my reading of the various forecasts, my conclusion after reading them was they didn’t need a sun symbol, or a rain cloud or whatever. All they needed was a shrugged shoulders emoji as in “Pffft, no idea, it’s Britain isn’t it?” 

I find the Met Office weather forecasting is very accurate, so I don't bother with any others.