Basic skills - would you admit to lacking?

As long as her little finger points upwards, as in holding a teacup, she’ll get away with it Calli

One of my DD can do that, it's ear-shattering! So unladylike, she wasn't brought up like that. ?

Oh yes, I would love to be able to do that big through the fingers whistle.
It would have been less embarrassing than my yelling coo-ee in full Aussie style across a French market when I lost Orlin in Villereal.

which dipstick thought it was a good deal
which dipstick thought it was a good idea

My typing could be improved too.

Oh no, me neither, CanadianGran. I can do the actions of it, but can't bear the water up my nose.

Oh, and loud whistling with fingers. I always admired this ability, but can't seem to master it.

I can't do a front crawl with the sideways breathing. I can swim, but not at all gracefully. When I try to do the head under, side breathing I just can't seem to master it.

I keep meaning to sign up for proper swimming lessons.

the M should have helped too LauraNorder
But why are they in the same slot?

P and R have their own slots.

Give me a gear stick any day!

The D can be quite helpful Calli, no offence but …

Can't ride a bike, people have tried to teach me, but I would be danger to myself and other road users. I have an adult trike which I use occasionally, bu I prefer to walk unless I have something too heavy to carry.

LauraNorder

Callistemon Do cars have dipsticks now?

I’d say yes, more often than not in the driving seat

LauraNorder you do make me laugh ?

LauraNorder

Callistemon Do cars have dipsticks now?

I’d say yes, more often than not in the driving seat

?

Me today, wondering why I couldn't get DH's automatic to do more than 10 miles an hour.
It was in manual mode - which dipstick thought it was a good deal to put it right next to drive mode?

our car doesn’t have a dipstick any more

Oh, thank goodness, I was going to go out and check but there's thunder and lightning outside.

Callistemon Do cars have dipsticks now?

I’d say yes, more often than not in the driving seat

I can’t hang wallpaper, the tyres on my car are so heavy that I can’t even lift them and our car doesn’t have a dipstick any more. Thankfully we have a decorator and belong to the RAC.
The new radio/cd player in my car has totally flummoxed me, I can’t see the little buttons, and it’s so complicated, that I lose the will to carry on and try to remember what to do.
And I wouldn’t even try to fix anyone’s teeth or operate on anyone……..

I lack decorating skills - probably because I dislike doing it so much; paint gets everywhere.

At junior school we were taught some basics of sewing, weaving, embroidery and my mother taught me how to knit.
The rest I taught myself eg dressmaking, but did go to dressmaking classes when we moved here.

I learnt piano, violin and oboe (the oboe very badly) but was never good enough to play anything on the school stage, sadly.

In my 70s I taught myself to crochet from books and YouTube.

I can't sing at all, but I think it's a talent, not a skill.
I could ride a bike but haven't done for ages.

Do cars have dipsticks now? I used to regularly check on my first car but haven't done that since.

I could change a terry nappy with baby on my knee!!

Multi-semi-skilled, that's me.

I can do most things necessary for survival but have to admit to having zero nursing skills, I don’t like the sight of any bodily fluids and have no patience.
Buttons? No problem.

I was thinking of this recently, as I am concerned our roles within the home have become too polarised! My husband ( an engineer) is good at traditionally male fixing roles and is a good carpenter, so I have got a little out of practice at workshop skills- I tend to be the assistant who passes the saw or paste brush, and general cleaner upper! I’ve determined to do more of the repairs and house maintenance. Electrics and plumbing and anything more than pumping up a car tyre I leave to the experts! I can sew but haven’t crocheted in years. My current project is learning to play a keyboard - but progress is slow! My husband recently fixed the washing machine- which I don’t think he has ever used! So I am trying to learn self sufficiently and role reversal! Important as we get older not to lose skills I think.

I was really nervous of changing the spotlights in my new bungalow, YouTube to the rescue. I do still need to buy a new ladder as I want one with a 'tray' at the top, and really appreciated my friend's tip to use a shoulder bag for the old/ new bulb.

I’m a reasonable cook, can sew on a button, minor other clothing repairs, check the car fluids/tyre pressures, garden, admin and project manage. No artistic bent at all, that includes actually making anything, sewing, knitting, crochet, decorating or jigsaws. I have little patience in those areas.

Of course they are, BBbevan! Mind you, the one who is a medic isn’t much cop at doing stitches on humans! ? A career in surgery isn’t beckoning.

I can do most basic things - knit, sew, cook, clean a house, decorate (although I’ve just paid someone to decorate the downstairs loo and dining room), weed, deadhead roses, cut the lawn and if I don’t know how to do something I’ll ask someone to do it for me or look it up. When OH was overseas I blocked the loo. I looked it up on YouTube and fixed it. But, when my washing machine broke down another time OH was away I rang a friend and her OH came round and organised a repair.

I can’t do many practical things. I can sew on a button, though. I once read that someone - was it Shirley Conran? - said that anyone faced with a button, a needle and some thread and couldn’t work out how to combine them was unfit for any form of further education.

I am not faintly interested in any sort of sewing or knitting, so it doesn’t worry me that I can’t do them. I can’t cook, either, except for the basic essentials.

I can sing, I can write passable poetry and I know a fair amount about the arts and natural history, but I can’t do anything actually useful.

Gardening: people talk mysteriously of soil types, acidic, lime, clay; annuals and perennials, ground cover, climbing plants, florabundi, hybrids and quote seven syllable names and seventeen different types of compost.
And my parents were keen gardeners.

I always reckoned that being able to ride a horse, milk a goat and shoot a gun fairly accurately would set me up reasonably well come the revolution (still waiting). I can make bread, make butter, sew and make clothes. One of the first things DH taught me was how to change a wheel but they are fixed so firmly nowadays that you need to be superman to do it. I can gut a fish and could do the same to a bird or animal but would rather not! I used to be good at wallpapering but my frozen shoulder means I can't reach up high enough to do it now.