Hearing Girls Aloud’s Sound of the Underground for the first time in new headphones is a peak listening experience. Absolutely no feeling exists like it!

It’s been a long time since I’ve had to kick a ball back to a bunch of people playing football. I should really start remembering that I’m a theatre person and very much not a sports person…

As a devout non-payer for Ancestry, this period of time with free access to a decent chunk of records is much appreciated!

*Receives an offer to study abroad, secures accommodation in the country, and awaits residence permit decision* 7 months later: 🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗 *Replies back to an email asking about my plans and I have to withdraw my application because of all the delays* 10 minutes later: 👍 OK sure all cancelled!

If there’s one thing you discover constantly as a private tutor, it’s that SO many parents have no idea what their children are learning, enjoy doing, and feel confident (or not) with at school and in their lives. It’s amazing to see sometimes, but a shame how often it’s the case.

#AncestryHour Free access for Women's History Month at AncestryUK through 11.59pm on Wednesday 18 March. www.ancestry.co.uk/c/womens-his...

Where on earth do MFL teachers and tutors interact with each other and share resources? Facebook always seemed to be pretty active but the groups are completely empty now - and I NEED some input/advice from other A Level French tutors!

Trying to set myself up on a bit of a ‘serious casual’ weight loss regime (ie keeping track of things and working towards losing weight but not overdoing it massively) and I lost 1.5 pounds altogether over the last week! That’s a nice start!

this is 100x better than any ai can, could and will ever be

Why on earth is Channel 4 showing the film ‘The Menu’ constantly??

Turns out my fear isn’t necessarily animals, but even being (unintentionally, mind you) backed into a corner and approached with our pet hamster made me very fearful, but even I admit that that’s a silly, irrational fear. Crazy how fear works, huh?

“Oh no, this is going to make the price of petrol go up so quickly and so crazily!” Me, one of those “stubborn” people who has refused to learn to drive for nearly a decade:

Nominative determinism is great and all but why on earth did my ancestor John Pipes have to work as a gas fitter?? And why did the Pipes siblings have to marry people with the surnames Mills and Chambers? The BNA is absolutely full of adverts for all of those things - but nothing else!

I’ve got a hankering for some genealogy tonight. Still trying to get the hang of FamilyEcho’s new tree formats: ‘Multiple’ seems to be weirdly confusing to track most of the time, but is also the most useful other times.

the only way is up !!

oh my god I thought I was 12 stone turns out I’m 15 stone 😟😟

CW: body image, weight loss I just saw a video where I could see my full body shape. I knew I was quite plump but I genuinely felt embarrassed that that’s what I look like. I’ve wanted to really improve my diet and fitness levels, and seeing what I look like has really shown me I need to act now.

Oh gosh, they really are just going for missiles back and forth aren’t they?

I don’t think I’ll ever truly understand how people just… do relationships. I’ve pretty much resigned myself to knowing that I’ll probably never be in one (though much of the world’s functioning doesn’t appear to quite work with that way of life), but the concept does puzzle me somehow.

I’ve been actively spending less time on social media recently, and whilst it’s lovely in so many ways, you miss SO MUCH stuff going on in the world. The fact that it was only once I got home about 2 hours ago that I saw this whole US/Israel/Iran madness is crazy.

open.substack.com/pub/joshthel... This week, I give a brief journey into the linguistics of Iolanthe, by Gilbert and Sullivan. It’s probably also the only time that G&S, Barnum, Green Eggs and Ham, and Old English verbs have been discussed in the same article.

Genealogists of Bluesky (and by extension #genchat ): When you have multiple possible ancestors or ‘aspects’ of a family tree you could look at, how do you decide which you’re going to tackle each day? Do you just jump straight in? Have you a list? Locations or thematically? I’m really curious.

I am now able to officially add Swedish to the list of languages I have professionally taught! 🇸🇪🎉

I finally plucked up the courage to call 111 last night about my painful ear, and headed to the GP (at their recommendation). 4 minutes later, I was done there and they said that my right ear did look red and recommended some sort of combination spray. Hopefully it does at least some sort of job!

brain why the hell can’t you do normal things and just dream about something whilst i’m asleep instead of trying to do cryptic crosswords and waking me up at 4am because you’re exhausting yourself from trying to find an anagram for “I am a tell” 🥲🥲🥲

sorry has no one else in the comments ever watched the big bang theory

Provided that I can get the times to work with the family requirements (currently, anyway), it’s looking like I may be teaching 2 more languages! 🎉

Running myself a bath for the first time in forever (yes, I have at least one shower everyday) and… are taps just running way slower nowadays??

Stood in Newbury, and there’s a world market happening. I hear Peruvian music, smell Nepalese cuisine, hear Greek, and see flags from everywhere as the market holders share their cultures and traditions with us, and it’s so joyful! Yet we see so much cultural division in the country right now.

Knowing that you should get something health-wise checked out but feeling like it might actually not be that big a deal and not wanting to be a problem for anyone is a rough feeling

this was me in copenhagen 3 years ago i’m sorry but what on EARTH has happened to me ever since?!

Sorry there’s ANOTHER one??

We’re seeing constant articles about there being too many candidates for jobs, especially amongst university leavers. And then everyone pops up saying “just do an apprenticeship” or “how about they join a trade?” Which is great and all… but what about when *they* become far too oversubscribed??

I came across a blog called New York Opera Fest as part of some research today, and it is an absolutely awful mess of unresearched, terrible, frankly embarrassing AI slop. We have got to completely turn the Internet upside down.

One of the increasingly alarming things about getting older but having never had a relationship (or anything of that sort) is the realisation that if and/or when I *do* have a relationship, any potential breakup will hit me like a pile of bricks, as if I’m a heartbroken teenager… welp.

awesome, let me move to one of those countries then

Hey! Small heads up! In today’s Substack article - which comes out at 9am GMT!! - I travel the entire world. Rwandan Rap? ✅ Irish folk? ✅ Dutch Country? ✅ Slovak pop? ✅ Liza Minnelli? ✅ I truly look at anything and everything!

Advertise your account with a gif 😌

The snowboarding commentators are the most excited and best BBC commentators of these whole olympics for me

Honestly starting to think we might just need to bring in a Pfand-style system to the UK and if we take it seriously enough it could do so much good for the country. And i say that as someone who took a fair while to appreciate how awesome Pfand can actually be.

Every now and then I find an old message that illustrates just how dire my love life was at university (and has been ever since)

Hitradio RTL Top 40 play The Fate of Ophelia SO MUCH and yet I haven’t got bored of it

I wake up a bit later and the UK entrant is revealed??? Oh well, I don’t feel fussed at all about Eurovision this year. Good luck to him though!

I’m starting to get fairly good at this Substack malarkey: from 9am GMT, you could be reading about the transfer of 3,500 year old artefacts across continents and the cultural importance of Bad Bunny… by following joshthelinguist.substack.com !! 🫡

that for every girl with a dream still was so cuteeee

Honestly the most impressive part about this big air skiing for me is how they push themselves down just a tad and manage to keep themselves stalled up there. On what looks like nothing!

It’s always enjoyable going out for my solo Valentine’s Day trips, but I do always find myself thinking not about my *being* single, but that even the idea of being in a relationship - even being attracted to people! - is something I’ve just never been confident with. I almost feel shame about it!

*turns on Olympics coverage* “Ah cool, ski slalom. Hold on… BRAZIL???”

every now and then whilst i’m watching the olympics, ponderings about the olympic village stories come to mind and it completely changes how i watch it a propos of nothing, happy valentine’s day to all who celebrate

The Dutch absolutely STORMED the speed skating!! Never thought I’d enjoy it that much but gosh I really did. Insane at the end when William Dandjinou just fell right back!