I’ve actually mentioned to one of the higher-ups that I want to reach 40 with my back intact!

Yes, same here. I suppose it’s to stop any plausible deniability.

Where I currently work, there’s a culture of insisting you don’t need a break. Of course, I see people’s faces at the end of the day and think, “you need a break”. I’m going insane.

Every dialect has a word for it. There’s no gap.

Well I felt the profit motive went without saying but I think you’re right.

One thing I can tell you with confidence about the Netherlands is that people there almost invariably overestimate their proficiency in English, so adverts and public announcements and the like in English often have embarrassing mistakes, so I’d put money down that they’re not going to hire a native speaker or perhaps even a chartered translator to check the translations.

I’ve got a black joker card in my wallet. I was walking to the tram stop with someone once, when I saw this playing card face-down on the floor, so I said “bet you I can guess this card,” I knelt down, and I said “I think it’s a joker.” I was about to turn it over when my friend said “hold on, black or red?” I said black and turned it over, and now it lives in my wallet.

https://jockstrapmusic.bandcamp.com/album/wicked-city

Perhaps a lesson in heeding your elders’ word then.

I’ve recently learnt how to pronounce Irish slender consonants after basically years of wondering how to do it.

I mean, you could look it up yourself if you doubt it so.

You’ll be thrilled to learn, then, that there’s only one adjective in that insult.

But the famous thing about learning to ride a bike is that you don’t forget, even after decades. I’ve just looked it up to double-check and all I got was articles about why you never forget. It’s like saying you’ll forget how to walk up stairs or something.

You don’t know the expression, “it’s like riding a bike”?

There’s a fair number of people who insist that “geek” and “nerd” mean two different, specific things. I think this is the same phenomenon, that people seek nuance where there isn’t because it makes the language seem more interesting or something.

It’s just the transition I don’t like!

If you’ve been told once and your job hangs in the balance, then perhaps that’s a sign of needlessly strict management, but if I just got a stern “please don’t swear in front of the public” I’d just stop swearing.

Winter time, not wintertime.

Your dish is called a jacket potato if I understand you right. What I like to do is boil rice then mix it with peanut butter and sriracha and just eat that like it is.

Fairly often I get this feeling like everyone around me’s making things difficult for me.