The Mock Turtle

Lily wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2020 10:29 am Is there an International Men's Day?

Of course - it's Richard Herring's life's work to remind the poor men on Twitter moaning about there not being one on IWD. It's on 19th November.

Estrella wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2020 4:17 am IWLTS: oh, do fuck off

To the man who has posted on our departmental yammer saying he is “very concerned” that “men seem to be excluded from the focus” of the Inclusion and Diversity Strategy.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKERY?

Well, blimey. So how come the men didn't organise their own international day?

Has anyone responded to that, Est?

Emotional labour, Lily, that’s why.

indigo wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2020 12:14 pm

Estrella wrote: ↑Fri Jan 10, 2020 4:17 am IWLTS: oh, do fuck off

To the man who has posted on our departmental yammer saying he is “very concerned” that “men seem to be excluded from the focus” of the Inclusion and Diversity Strategy.

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCKERY?

Mediocre white men; the eternally oppressed majority. x a million.

Lily: the ones that particularly bothered me were "'Yde Park" which in the book (Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers) was supposed to be a cockney rendition of "Hyde Park" but came out as "eedé Park" and "bilked", which the reader pronounced as "biked". Also, one of the characters started out with a posh estuary accent but by the end of the book had lost the poshness, So annoying!

Byeeeee.

My Saudi is leaving today. Praise Allah.

IWLTS Please don't make this weird.

My oldest friend had a close (platonic) relationship with my dad when we were in our late teens. She is a school friend of mine but got to know him well when she worked in his local pub, and he went to stay with her in Spain when she did her year abroad for uni (where, as I warned her was likely, he had a massive health crisis and I had to fly out to sort it ) They lost touch but when I told her how ill he is she was very upset. She has form for making things about her. I'm seeing her this afternoon for the first time in a while and don't trust myself to be reasonable if she crosses a line. I was never comfortable with their friendship anyway, not least because she knows how complicated my relationship with him is, so it always felt like a bit of a betrayal. She's a good friend in all other ways so I really don't want to fall out with her, especially 20 years down the line.

I do hope it won't be weird, but it really does sound weird from the outset. I'm sorry.

Oh god, Lora. I hope she reins it in.

Also there’s a song in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that lampoons this type of situation. I don’t know if it’s right or not to share it but I’ll leave it here as if she starts her drama you could just burst into song? https://youtu.be/lx14XQDrR0g

Example so don’t feel you need to watch it:

“I just made a new buddy
He and I bonded right away
It was a piece of cake
With no emotional stakes
I got only good things to say
About my friend's dad

It's all the fun of having a dad
Without the painful history...”

That's spot on, Leap She absolutely has her own parent issues. She and my dad haven't seen each other for 20 years and she was very appropriate this afternoon so I was worrying unnecessarily.

I was worried it was a bit close or the bone and nearly deleted I’m glad she was okay, but it’s good to be prepared for this sort of thing just in case.

I'm kind of glad it's enough of a 'thing' to warrant a sketch

IWLTS: Good as it is to improve security, please don't make me go jump through 17 hoops to access my bank account all the time. I go into it several times a day; there must be a happy medium whereby I can perform the same basic banking tasks I've done for years without first having to get a security code, then a second security code, then tell you my inside leg measurement divided by 17 and name the capital of Kazakhstan.

HSBC Lils?

Our joint account is with them, and it drives me mad. I don't use it much, as the bills go out on DD, and my money and personal spending is in Santander, but every now and again I need to log on to do something, and it is so unnecessarily complicated. The worst thing is that to call them to tell them your stupid remote device has run out of battery, you need a telephone PIN that was set up in 2001 and near used, so there are a million security questions just to get that.

HSBC started doing that a while back, but now it's First Direct who are affiliated with/owned by them. It was so easy logging on before and still secure, but soon I will need to use an app to do absolutely everything. So if I'm away from my phone or don't have coverage I won't be able to get into my account.

I'm all for heightened security on certain things, but I shouldn't need to go through the ins and outs of a cat's arse just to look at my balance or to make a regular payment I've made a squillion times before. I also hate that it forces people into have a smartphone if they don't want one unless you carry that secure key thing around with you everywhere.

I do 99% of my HSBC banking on the app now as it’s so much easier just putting in your fingerprint.

I think that's what tipped me over the edge, nine. Trying to get the app set up, and not remembering the stupid questions I answered before the millennium.

I still use the first direct app with my fingerprint, it’s loads easier (and great now you can set up new payees without having to log onto a computer).

I stopped using First Direct a couple of years ago when they locked my account because I couldn't remember some random security answer I set up years before and would only unlock by calling a mobile number that was totally defunct.

IWLTS: I hope you're okay.