Random Confessions | Page 148 | Golden Skate

Random Confessions

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset
Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Country
United-States
:laugh:

Of course after a thousand years have passed, there are going to be thousands, if not millions, of descendents. But, it is still something that you would be proud to find out.

Anyway, because of the license fee, the BBC are very protective of their programming. So, I don't think you'll find copies of WDYTYA on YouTube. But, you might (*cough*) find some on another well-known video sharing site that some skating competitions get streamed on.

I can't risk saying any more. You'll just have to get your (Doctor Martin) boots on, and start moving around l'internet every day trying to find them. ;)

We are now 4 episodes into the current series (the 5[SUP]th[/SUP] episode is on tonight, but I don't think I'll get a chance to see it before going on holidays in a couple of days), and every episode so far has been very interesting.

  1. Daniel Radcliffe: After finding out in the previews that his Dad is from Northern Ireland, I was excited about what was going to be found on his Dad's side. But, as it turned out, it was his Mum's side that I found more interesting. Her family are Jewish (and one of them was the absolute image of Daniel!), but her ancestors came to England long before everything kicked off in Europe. So, it was something new finding out about what life was life for the Jewish communities that were established before the persecutions of the early 20[SUP]th[/SUP] century. And the specific story they found about his great-granda was very interesting. For his Dad's side, they focussed in on the experiences of his ancestors in the First World War. But, it is normal for people looking to research their family in Ireland to not be able to go back to far. There was a big fire in the records office which means that the only census records that survive are the 20[SUP]th[/SUP] century ones. The only other way to find out things is to go to parish records, and for that you need to know where exactly to look! So, I suspect that once the producers found a good story on his Mum's side, they decided to give more weight to it.

  2. Naomie Harris: I have to be honest, going into the episode, I knew she was an actress, but I wasn't too familiar with her. But, she had the same effect as Olivia Coleman did when she was on last year - you just took an instant liking to her! The thing that was frustrating, though, is that her own story was only mentioned in passing at the start, and wasn't properly explained. She mentioned that she had only met her Dad about 5 times in her whole life, yet when she was talking to him about his family, they seemed to get on well. And it got even more intriguing, because she was shocked to find out that he had lots of family that literally lived round the corner from the street where she grew up, but she never knew about them. Anyway, her explorations into her heritage on both sides took her to various Caribbean islands, and inevitably into the story of slavery. And, like when Liz Bonnin was on a few years ago, it was both sides of the slave trade. There was one moment that particularly stood out for me. It was when Naomie visited an old woman who last saw her when she was a baby, and who knew her great-granny well. It was so beautiful seeing them catching up. When Naomie asked her about a particular issue that had come up, this woman said she didn't know anything about it. But it was obvious from her body language that she knew everything about it. And after keeping the secret for all these decades, she wasn't going to betray a confidence now just for a TV show. I just hope that she told Naomie something in private, away from the cameras. Because this issue was so big that it actually had Naomie questioning who she was.

  3. Michael and Jack Whitehall: What can I say about the first duo to be on the show (father and son)? The exact opposite of Naomi Harris - you couldn't like them if you reared them! I know there are different sorts of comedy, but I cannot imagine them being the least bit funny at all! They were so dour! But, thankfully, the stories about their ancestors were more interesting than they were. And I learnt a lot about significant events in British history that I had never heard tell of before, but which people in England and Wales are probably taught about at school (we were taught about what was happening in Ireland at the same time, which is kinda understandable as it was pretty big). The best bit was that if something came up that he didn't like the sound of, Michael would just zone out and totally ignore it. He wasn't going to sit there and listen to anything bad being said about his ancestors!

  4. Kate Winslet: Another actress whose show reminded me a lot of Olivia Colman's, and Kim Cattrell's for that matter. The thing that really made the programmes that Olivia and Kim were on so enjoyable is that they really got into the stories. And so did Kate. This episode actually ties in with some of the things we have been discussing. There were rumours in the family that there was Swedish ancestry on her Mum's side. And when Kate was growing up, there were actually comments about how much they looked like a little Scandinavian family. And Kate was absolutely delighted when the programme proved this to be correct. And she got really emotionally connected with the people she was finding out about when she went to Sweden. And the same happened when she was exploring her Dad's side. She was really getting into the story of one particular ancestor on this side. But, then something was revealed about him which brought her back down to Earth with a bump. And she ended up really torn about how to feel about him. Best programme of the series so far.

  5. Katherine Ryan: On tonight. Don't know her, but I hope she is more likable than the last people representing comedy that were on.

  6. Paul Merton: On next Monday. Another comedian, so same hope goes as for Katherine Ryan.


The TV guides don't go any further, so I don't know what order the remaining 2 episodes will be aired in. But, to be honest, I think Sharon Osbourne is the only one of them that international readers will be familiar with. Because, frankly, I haven't even heard tell of the other person featured, a Mark Wright!

I hope you have enjoyed this wee summary.

CaroLiza_fan

:thank: so much! I enjoyed your summary thoroughly! I must explore and see if I can by hook or by crook find a couple of the episodes, esp Kate Winslet's. Sorry it took me so long to respond. I hadn't read it till this morning; I sometimes forget to check all the threads I've been posting in. Also, I didn't even go online for almost all of last week.

Whenever I hear someone currently from the British Isles (or someone who grew up there) use a phrase that I recognize from my childhood, it thrills me. Such as your writing, above, "I haven't even heard tell of ...." I grew up in Oklahoma. Southernisms often are taken verbatim from Irish, Scots, Welsh or English ancestors, especially if a few generations back they were somewhere in Appalachia. So thank you for using some of your actual speech patterns. It's fun. I've been listening to The Beatles Channel, and it's fun to hear their (to me) Southernisms. For just one example, I recently noticed how they sang "Anything a-tall" .... which I used to hear from relatives and other people. I miss my childhood culture and speech patterns ... especially miss my grandparents' voices ... so this is fun for me.

Thanks again for taking the time to recap the stories. :rock:
 

hanyuufan5

✨**:。*
Medalist
Joined
May 19, 2018
I just spent 6 hours cleaning my parents' attic, which was full of decades worth of clutter. I'm ravenously hungry, I'm thirsty, and I broke out in yet more heat rash, but I found a ton of clothes I've been missing since high school and thought I'd never see again. :luv17: Most of them still fit, a few of them I can't believe I could ever get my chest into. :laugh:

There was also a picture of one set of my dad's grandparents in their home country when they were young! I look absolutely nothing like either of them. :jaw: Oddly, that's the side of my family that I've always felt the least connection to, to the point where I sometimes almost forget that I'm also their ethnicity (which is also Eastern European but is potentially identifying and thus a secret) and not just Russian with some Polish and a smidge of Siberian and Central Asian. If they saw me, I'm pretty sure they'd be shocked that I'm their direct descendant. (And yes, I'm sure I am. :laugh: Their other descendants show up in the right place in my DNA cousin matches. I just got more genes from my dad's Russian side than their side, I guess.)
 

Ichatdelune

Long live the Queen and her successors
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Country
South-Korea
I convinced my best friend Nicole to suffer... ahem, I mean, work together at the English academy. And while I'm gaping at how quickly she's adapting to the environment (and not be on the brink of being fired like my previous self) she's like "I don't know anything, I feel lost, I'm a terrible teacher, what am I doing". Seriously, we're best friends because we complement each other, me with my sometimes overly-headstrong ways lifting up her low self-esteem and her selflessness making me look back on myself. Anyway, it's lovely to have her because with the season going on I'm in less of a state to properly look over kids, but now I can just ask Nicole to take them over :laugh:

Side note, I gave her the English name Nicole. It began as a joke, she said that everyone around her had an English name and she didn't and I said she could be Nicole, Nicole Park had a nice ring to it. She made a face at me, so of course I kept calling her that :biggrin: and it stuck. Now she sometimes calls herself Nicole ;)
 

Seren

Wakabond Forever
Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 21, 2014
All my patients this week asked me what I was doing over the long weekend (Monday is a holiday in the USA) and I didn’t have the heart to say that what I am most excited for is sleeping...
 

Ichatdelune

Long live the Queen and her successors
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Country
South-Korea
Things kids say: a part of a collection, dutifully recorded by yours truly.

"You just look 33 years old." - Karen, 7 years old (context: asked my age, told her to guess, her answer was 33, asked why. Am a millennial)

"Aren't you supposed to know everything?" - Lydia, 10 years old

"But it was all a futile dream." - Faye, 7 years old

"Then you're supposed to come earlier." - Lucia, 7 years old (context: was asked to come in early that day, she asked why she never saw me for the past two weeks, answered that my work shift starts later than her time)

"That's a stupid way of writing." - Grace, 11 years old, after learning that the "illegible text" was just cursive

"My favourite character is the dog because the dog is ugly." - Alex, 8 years old

"Can't I sell my brother to the zoo too? He's like a monkey too." - Riley, 9 years old

"I just want to buy the cowboy hat. My brother can put it on. I'm not wearing it." - Ryan, 8 years old

"Which is hotter, boiling oil or lava?" - Thomas, 12 years old

"Because I am perfect right now." - Pete, 10 years old

"Being a ghost is nice, you can eat everybody else's food." & after being reminded of the fact ghosts can't eat, "Then I guess I'll have to stay human." - Joshua, 11 years old

"My brother was being annoying, of course I couldn't leave home on time." - Angie, 8 years old, after being told she shouldn't have been late if she wanted to leave early
 

Ducky

On the Ice
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
All my patients this week asked me what I was doing over the long weekend (Monday is a holiday in the USA) and I didn’t have the heart to say that what I am most excited for is sleeping...

Ha, everyone I know is all about catching up on sleep, although I get you: most of my colleagues know someone either in the Hamptons or upstate so mostly everyone was out of town last weekend whereas my weekend plans usually consist of getting brunch at my local and hanging out in the park. Oh, and sleeping.
 

iluvtodd

Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 5, 2004
Country
United-States
Things kids say: a part of a collection, dutifully recorded by your truly.

"You just look 33 years old." - Karen, 7 years old (context: asked my age, told her to guess, her answer was 33, asked why. Am a millennial)

"Aren't you supposed to know everything?" - Lydia, 10 years old

"But it was all a futile dream." - Faye, 7 years old

"Then you're supposed to come earlier." - Lucia, 7 years old (context: was asked to come in early that day, she asked why she never saw me for the past two weeks, answered that my work shift starts later than her time)

"That's a stupid way of writing." - Grace, 11 years old, after learning that the "illegible text" was just cursive

"My favourite character is the dog because the dog is ugly." - Alex, 8 years old

"Can't I sell my brother to the zoo too? He's like a monkey too." - Riley, 9 years old

"I just want to buy the cowboy hat. My brother can put it on. I'm not wearing it." - Ryan, 8 years old

"Which is hotter, boiling oil or lava?" - Thomas, 12 years old

"Because I am perfect right now." - Pete, 10 years old

"Being a ghost is nice, you can eat everybody else's food." & after being reminded of the fact ghosts can't eat, "Then I guess I'll have to stay human." - Joshua, 11 years old

"My brother was being annoying, of course I couldn't leave home on time." - Angie, 8 years old, after being told she shouldn't have been late if she wanted to leave early

These are priceless! :rofl: :clap: :thank:
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
I just spent 6 hours cleaning my parents' attic, which was full of decades worth of clutter. I'm ravenously hungry, I'm thirsty, and I broke out in yet more heat rash, but I found a ton of clothes I've been missing since high school and thought I'd never see again. :luv17: Most of them still fit, a few of them I can't believe I could ever get my chest into. :laugh:

This is a good opportunity to tell you guys a story that I didn't get a chance to tell you at the time.

A couple of months ago, a skater who I have adopted (but who is unfortunately no longer competing, and you would not be familiar with because she never competed internationally) posted something on Facebook that came as a bit of a surprise. She was saying that she was hunting through boxes of stuff and found her very first figure skating dress, which she had got for her first competition back when she was 10. So she tried it on, and it still fitted! :shocked:

She accompanied it with 2 photos - one of her wearing the dress as a 10 year old, and one of her wearing the dress as an 18 year old. And, if I am totally honest, it suits her far better now than it did when she was a kid! She just looks amazing in it! :love:

Hey, maybe now that she knows that she has a beautiful skating dress that fits her, she might consider returning to the ice. But, given that the reason she quit in the first place is that she no longer lives near a rink, I doubt it. :disapp:

There was also a picture of one set of my dad's grandparents in their home country when they were young! I look absolutely nothing like either of them. :jaw: Oddly, that's the side of my family that I've always felt the least connection to, to the point where I sometimes almost forget that I'm also their ethnicity (which is also Eastern European but is potentially identifying and thus a secret) and not just Russian with some Polish and a smidge of Siberian and Central Asian. If they saw me, I'm pretty sure they'd be shocked that I'm their direct descendant. (And yes, I'm sure I am. :laugh: Their other descendants show up in the right place in my DNA cousin matches. I just got more genes from my dad's Russian side than their side, I guess.)

Don't take this the wrong way, because it is intended as a compliment.

You really are a "bitsa", aren't you? :)

(Don't know if the phrase is used outside the British Isles, but it is shorthand for "bitsa this, bitsa that". And I don't know why, but I always imagine the full phrase being said in an Italian accent...)

It must be so fascinating to have such a diverse family history. I really envy you.

I'm boring in comparison - ¾ Northern Irish and ¼ English.

CaroLiza_fan
 

hanyuufan5

✨**:。*
Medalist
Joined
May 19, 2018
Don't take this the wrong way, because it is intended as a compliment.

You really are a "bitsa", aren't you? :)

(Don't know if the phrase is used outside the British Isles, but it is shorthand for "bitsa this, bitsa that". And I don't know why, but I always imagine the full phrase being said in an Italian accent...)

It must be so fascinating to have such a diverse family history. I really envy you.

I'm boring in comparison - ¾ Northern Irish and ¼ English.

CaroLiza_fan

Haha, I haven't even posted the half of it. According to those tests, my DNA is more or less a record of all the native inhabitants and invading tribes of half of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. A few crusaders might have even snuck into the family. :laugh: The areas where my ancestors lived definitely did not have simple, peaceful histories.

I think being only a few things or even only one thing is really cool, too, though. I just think everyone's ancestry is interesting in different ways. :biggrin:


And speaking of old clothing, I'm in my early 30s and have had the shirt I'm wearing now since I was 8. :laugh: It's made of very stretchy material, and I've worn it so often for so long that it's kind of grown bigger along with me. Not sure I'd wear it to work, but it's definitely in good enough condition to wear shopping or something.
 

TallyT

Record Breaker
Joined
Apr 23, 2018
Country
Australia
I don't have clothes from when I was a kid, but I do have at least two shirts - that I wear to work - that I bought in the late 80s. And one of them was second-hand then...

They are of course extremely artificial fabric, so haven't faded that you'd notice, and I've replaced the buttons here and there.
 

Ichatdelune

Long live the Queen and her successors
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Country
South-Korea
I've just made a difficult decision: I have decided to stop watching rhythmic gymnastics. Watching beautiful performers making mistakes and being disappointed with themselves places a heavy toll on my psyche, and I'm worn out with that with just being a figure skating fan alone. Lesson (painfully) learned: don't be a fangirl, especially with Russian athletes (deep sigh)
 

Vandevska

U don't have to build the end of the world out it.
Medalist
Joined
Dec 18, 2017

elbkup

Power without conscience is a savage weapon
Medalist
Joined
Mar 3, 2015
Country
United-States
Today's rubric: a small part of the weird side of the internet. :dance3:

This channel has to be the weirdest Youtube channel I follow. :rock: It's definitely one of my guilty pleasures. :laugh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFgOC2AHn_8

.....

But then again, have a look at these and tell me if it's actually the weirdest. :laugh2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWHV5IxDuB0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqcSk-EDrRo&list=PLTJwUfUd8XBguvffQBb8-n1KTopgJzbUh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lk_YAp8Wh5s

These are... My. Good. Gosh.!!!!! :eek: :eeking:

Add: Evan & Katelyn DIY..... :shocked:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UUZHpXPFz2A
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
OK. Disclaimer time. I actually found this out well over a year ago, but never got round to posting about it.

My skating crush and my favourite young actress from the same country were actually born on exactly the same day (albeit about 40 miles apart). And I am curious to find out what time they were each born, to find out which of them is actually older.

The weird thing is, even though they were born on the same day, I tend to think of them in totally different ways.

With the actress, I tend to think of her as a kid. I think that is because I first came across her in children's programmes. And it doesn't help that she still tends to play characters that are in their early to mid teens, even though it is obvious that she is now grown up. (What is it about TV programmes having big age differences between characters and the people playing them?!)

With the skater, I have always tended to think of her as a grown-up. And that is despite the fact that I first saw her when she was competing in Junior competitions.

I think the underlying reason that I think of them in different ways, even though I know they are exactly the same age, is that I first came across the actress a few years before I first came across the skater. So whereas the actress was still physically a kid when I first saw her, the skater was more physically mature.

And my mind hasn't adjusted as they have got older.

It's amazing how the mind can be so irrational.

CaroLiza_fan

P.S. I described the actress as my "favourite young actress" from that country, because my favourite actress from that country is actually somebody else. And she just happens to be older than the people I am talking about.
 

Ichatdelune

Long live the Queen and her successors
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Country
South-Korea
Today, it's the day of Chuseok here in Korea. It's kinda like Thanksgiving in a way that it's a holiday about thanking the harvest and being with family, but instead of turkey and pumpkin pie we eat rice cakes and the family dinner is of less importance than 차례, the rite/ritual (Wikipedia says 'ancestral memorial services') where we pay homage and thank our ancestors by laying out tables of food and bowing down a couple of times. I'd say happy holidays if a)other countries other than China (with a different name and different customs) did this as we do and b)if I cared about it as a holiday :p, but since I'm only enjoying the fact that it being a three-day holiday (the day before and after are also holidays here) lets me be up for all the competitions happening this weekend I'll just say happy skating weekend :laugh:

Both my paternal grandparents passed in September (my paternal grandmother first, my paternal grandfather the year after her), so the anniversary of their passing for this year has been decided to be merged with 차례. The unfortunate thing about that is a)my father is the oldest son so it's going to take place at our place b)my father, while being oldest son, is the 6th child of my paternal grandparents, he has 5 older sisters plus a younger brother c)I'm not close to the paternal side of the family, in fact I barely feel any kinship and d)crowds get on my antisocial nerves. I'm going to have to somehow sneak away to watch my figure skating and be elated and/or depressed in private (deep sigh) Hope my uncles, the husbands of my paternal aunts, get my father drunk enough for me to do that. Like, with my brother still doing his military service and so not at home I'll have to be the one who's the topic of the conversation, and when that happens my father is going to demand my presence. All the higher powers above, I'm stressed out already without having to tell the 'family' that no, I'm still single, I don't have much friends in general let alone in my college department, I'm on my year off anyway, I'm trying to teach English to eight-year-olds and struggling not to lose it while virtually babysitting 40+ kids in the meanwhile, no I'm not an English major, I major in Korea literature, yes I still want to be an author, no I haven't written anything much of worth for the last 6 months, no I'm not going to be like J.K. Rowling, the Korean market is different never mind the changes in the market that took place during the last 20 years. Did I mention I can't say I need to take my meds daily for me to not lose it once a week because my father, a trained doctor, doesn't believe in ADD/depression/anxiety issues?

Damn this became long. Sorry for the rant.
 
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