How about a thread with top tips in it – sort of common sense practical things that you have discovered or found out. Not Viz top tips!
Here is an example to get things going.
For years I have been putting T shirts and jumpers on back to front then realising and putting them on the right way. Recently I noticed what appears to be a convention – there is often a washing label inside the seam that goes down the side, and all my T shirts and jumpers have this on the left hand side if I have got it the right way round. All my T shirts and jumpers are black with a great big white label so it’s quite easy to just look at this and throw it over my head. I was quite proud of my “discovery” so I have told quite a few people about it and received replies from “that’s very useful” to “I have known about that for years”!
Have I just admitted that it has taken me years to discover how to get dressed properly?!
I love a good roast with gravy. Top tip for great gravy - use the tops of leaks, chopped and washed and let soak in saucepan full of fresh cold water for a couple of hours. This will infuse the water with a tasty onion flavour. Drain into another pan to cook your vegetables. Keep draining into another pan for other vegetables, so your using the same water to boil all your veg. Put all the cooked veg in a pot with lid to keep hot. You should have a nice stock full of flavour and goodness ready to turn into gravy.
It is true that our hearing slowly deteriorates with age. Is also true that our ears don’t stop growing, maybe an evolutionary compensation. Also true for many with age hair finds a way of growing in unusual places and ears are one of them.
There’s more to this toilet paper thing than that. I won’t post a link but googling some of the below text can easily find this Guardian article that reported the study that concluded:
“ If you roll over… You like taking charge, crave organisation and are likely to overachieve.
If you roll under… You’re laid-back, dependable and seek relationships with strong foundations.
If you don’t care, as long as it’s there… You aim to minimise conflict, value flexibility and like putting yourself in new situations.
But could your choice tell us something about your earning power? One US survey found that 73% of people who earn under $20,000 roll under, while 60% of those who earn over $50,000 roll over.”
If you are driving a car you don’t know, or even your own and you have forgotten, and you need to fill up…look at the fuel gauge as you pull into the petrol station. If the hose and nozzle are to the right of the pump on the gauge, the tank’s flap is also on the right, and vice versa.
I’m not convinced that’s consistently correct, but even so…
If you’re driving a car and need to fill up, fuel hoses always reach the other side of normal sized cars so it doesn’t matter which side you go to, and there’s no need to add to existing queues by waiting for ‘the right side’ to become available.
Also, if you need to do a bit of shopping as you pay for your fuel, move your car from the pump to let others get on with their life while you spend 10 minutes mooching around wondering which sandwich you fancy. The worst that can happen is that the youth on the till smiles gratefully when you go in and mumbles something about thinking you were doing a drive-off, to which you smile and explain how you’re helping throughput at a busy time. And if you’re the woman who has wandered off for a mooch in the shop and when you amble back a bloke smiles and gently suggests that the enormous queue might have dissolved more quickly if you’d moved your car first, don’t adopt an angry defensive attitude at him and pretend there was a queue at the till and that because you’ve had had long day at work (haven’t we all?) it’s ok to block the pump off while you’re away. And if you don’t mind, don’t swear at me … err him. There really is no need you know.
On cold mornings, use a jug of warm water to clear your car windows, It clears everything smoothly and equally and the warmth prevents the inside misting up when you climb in & drive away. I’ve been doing this since the late 70s and it just works. Use warm water not hot. If you can’t plunge your fist in it’s too hot. Warm is fine, and is so much quicker and more efficient than Steve next door working his way round with a scraper and de-icer trying to create visibility.
Checking the cars at the house today suggests it is a common rule.
The BMW’s have the pump hose & fuel flap on the right
Ford have a left side pump hose & fuel flap
Honda’s pump hose does NOT follow the rule, but the fuel gauge has an arrow pointing to left & the fuel flap is on the left
Never happens. The hose hangs from a high position above the car; it may occasionally drape across the glass if you stop too soon at the pump but it’s made of rubber or similar, and isn’t covered in grit or abrasive materials. Again, I’ve done it since forever, and have never scratched either paintwork or glass.
