Does anybody else have memories of completely inappropriate books being available in their school library?

I loved chess as a kid (I still play competitively now at county level) and so I withdrew every chess book from my Primary School library; after titles such as Chess for Children and the imaginatively titled sequel, More Chess for Children, I eventually borrowed How to Cheat at Chess.

It has since been described as the world's only pornographic chess book, it covers topics like assaulting your opponent, how to resist homosexual advances from your opponent and how to deal with invasive sexual fantasises when playing female opponents. The book was written in 1976 (It hasn't aged well...) but a copy was still to be found in my Primary School library in the early 1990s. Friends I have spoken to since recalled finding copies of Viz, Stephen King horrors and Mein Kampf in their school libraries.

I'm properly deaf and even with my hearing aids I have very little high frequency in one ear and both ears are much reduced through the whole range so having a conversation with me without aids is tedious at best.

You don't wear hearing aids when sleeping.

So what do you hard of hearing folk do about alarm clocks?

I said; So what do you hard of hearing folk do about alarm clocks?

At least, this was our experience last week.

It's like a cross between a docker's flat cap and a sleeping cap. Could never make heads or tails of it. Do they have long hair under there? Is it that they just got out of bed and are having their first cuppa? Why do they wear them in the desert?

I hate my EEE feet! I want nice shoes and can rarely get them. Anyone have any recommendations that are not ridiculously expensive or for someone in their 90s?

My husband is turning 40 in December and he's not happy about it. And i have been struggling to think of what to get him. We were in the park with some friends yesterday and there was a little kid playing with a remote control car. It was super fast and doing some cool tricks and drifting in the dirt. My husbad, kind of jokingly was eying the toy up and saying he wanted one. Just looked them up and they're upwards of £65 so its a real present...Is that the perfect 40th birthday present? Or is it just a whimsicle idea in theory and he'll never use it...

was having a conversation with some friends and i bought up the word 'cheese log' when referring to a wood louse and they were all super confused on what the hell i was talking about. ended up googling it and apparently calling it a cheese log is something very specific to berkshire (where i've lived all my life) and lots of places in england have various different names for it. i had no idea. in my mind they've always been cheese logs. so, i'm wondering, what do you call them where you live? cheese log, wood louse, something else?

Did DJ Spoony on BBC Radio 2 just read out texts from Ben Dover and Phil McAvity and not realise that they were joke names?

Sure I heard it...

(I will be there when it launches)

Where are your friends from?

I just read a post about meeting up with old friends and it made me think about where we get our friends from.

We moved around a lot when I was younger so I only have one friend from childhood who I rarely meet up with but we make an effort to text on birthdays and show up for each other if we have events.

Then friends I had in 6th form who I thought I would be friends with forever, I never see.

Most of my friends I have now I met in uni and I have a couple from jobs I’ve worked in but we probably meet up every few months or so.

My much younger sister, in her 30’s (I’m mid 40’s), is still friends with her high school friends and they meet up almost weekly but we had stopped moving around by the time she went to high school so I feel like she had time to make better bonds. She doesn’t really keep in touch with her uni friends.

I’m interested to hear where everyone else’s friends have come from.

Please share your garden visitors. Happy autumn.

I can still recite The Twa Corbies by heart. A skill I did not realise I possessed until an hour ago.

Norwegian here learning to make Yorkshire puddings, I made a post here previously and had some great tips.

The main things that helped the most was the 1:1:1 ratio method and going by volume, (works out to be about 4 eggs?) not weight. Also I heated my oil for about an hour. One comment said to use Pythag. (3 Oz, 4 Oz and 5 Oz)

I read another tip on another post somewhere that pouring from a height also helps to create that bowl kinda shape as it splashes on the side so I did that too.

I used some leftover tallow this time which was another suggestion since I was making Belgian frites another night.

Oven was at 260C, I also cooked it longer and for 30 minutes.

I also always blend it now to ensure smoothness, cause a few people said the batter might be too thick.

Resting does matter and I believe you can still do it at room temperature whilst the oil and oven is heating up.

The two I made today actually rose a lot more than I thought.

Excuse my bangers and mash in the 2nd pic, she's not the prettiest but damn tasty and quick to make! I also made Katsu curry one time and put it in the giant Yorkie.

Happy with my progress so far!! Thanks again everyone!

My local Chinese has them on the counter and they’re delicious. Where can I get some?

I want to be free of my cash cards but I'm too chicken in case I desperately need something from somewhere that doesn't use contactless.

I can think of prepay petrol pumps but that's it.

Meteorological summer (ends on the last day of August) might be over, yes, but in the UK *astronomical* summer doesn't finish until the 23rd September, when the days and nights are the same length.

Rejoice!

Morning all. What TV shows and/or movies have you been watching this week? Have you enjoyed them? Come in and tell us all about it.

Wahey, it's late, it's Monday night. What's going on mate, why are you still up? Doing the night shift? Watching some TV? In a different time zone?

Come on in for a chat!

Mine is putting the little divider down for the person behind you at the supermarket checkout.

It's such a ridiculously small gesture, but I immediately think yep, you're a good egg. 😂

What other tiny bits of everyday etiquette do you appreciate?

I can't even remember how to teach, I am totally unprepared, I am truly living in terror. Oh god no. Good luck teachers!

Cracking accuracy there, lad