WeeFi 🧡

@annbauerwriter I love how they do Mr B in "Pride and Prejudice: Sort Of". He is just a wingback chair facing away from the audience with a newspaper showing over the top 😆

I believe in my heart that some men prefer being married to a narrow-thinking woman. It makes for an easier, more orderly life. This is a major theme of "Pride & Prejudice." The vain, neurotic, not-clever wife and her controlling, mildly cruel husband.

Not dealing with my emotions has also stolen my ability to read (no concentration) or sleep for any length of time, so I have taken to watching ENDLESS British crime dramas. The mandatory opening scene is a chaotic family breakfast, featuring at least one person staring furtively at their scrambled eggs for Reasons Unknown. The cast needs to include Martin Clunes, or James Hannah (or both) and Nicola Walker, and a nice woman who used to be in Casualty, but you can’t remember her name, so you have to pause and look it up. The body is always found by a dog walker. Someone also has to vomit at this point (either the dog walker or a policeman fresh out of policeman school, either will do). The cast needs to include an eccentric pathologist, an enthusiastic but naïve junior detective, and a desk sergeant who knows more than he’s letting on. The main detective must have sketchy coping strategies and constantly argue with their boss, but rather than getting them sacked, this attitude somehow makes them better at solving crimes. There is a lot of car door slamming, and people are in such a rush to catch murderers, they never say goodbye to each other on the telephone. It’s also almost always set at the sea side, because you can conveniently throw things into the sea, like mobile telephones and murder weapons. The sea also provides ample opportunity for yet more furtive staring. At some point, the detective will need to consult a retired policeman who, quite fortuitously, remembers every single detail from a case he never solved in 1973. People stare out of windows and draw arrows on whiteboards. Then, just when everything seems hopeless, the eccentric pathologist rings at some ungodly hour of the morning with a break through, we discover the murderer didn’t clean their car boot out properly, and something the detective hasn’t been able to ‘quite put their finger on’ since episode two suddenly makes sense and they finally decide share it with the rest of us. The closing episode usually involves a tense car chase, lots of confrontation and shouting (usually in a multi-story car park or a disused warehouse), but finally we can all rest easy because the murderer is caught (and it’s never, ever the furtive starer). Please God let my reading mojo come back soon or I will lose my ACTUAL MARBLES. *watches another one*

@Emma_Turner75 I love PowerPoint but not to talk at kids. I can prepare a word or image to prompt discussion, or task support that would take too long to write up live. I liked my rotating blackboard but hated a single whiteboard that couldn't hide anything. PPP doesn't have to be boring!

When I first started teaching there was no PowerPoint,no digital projection whatsoever & no laptops. Learning the craft ‘analogue’ was a brilliant experience & sharpened all aspects of teaching; I’d still always choose real pen and real board over digital almost 100% of the time.

@that_stocks_guy @currys I had a similar issue with @currys . Even after admitting I was right, they downright lied to me about having phoned me and various other things. Eventually their Twitter customer service team tackled it because they don't like us telling people.

#ConsumerRightsAct #Currys #KnowYourRights A rant for @currys, who are currently breaking the law. Normally I'd let it go, but your customer service is a shitshow and your desire to wash your hands of the faulty items you sell is illegal. On 10 October 2025, I walked into your Exeter shop and bought a PCSpecialist computer. This was the birthday present for my 12-year-old. A present they'd been dropping hints about for months with the subtlety of a child who remains terrible at poker. They'd saved their own pocket money towards it. I topped it up. It was, genuinely, a lovely moment. For four months, it was perfect. Homework. Games. The full experience of being 12 in 2025. On 22 February 2026, four months and 12 days after purchase, it stopped working. No final farewell. It just… stopped. My child sat there pressing the power button with increasing desperation, and nothing happened. The machine that had cost a significant amount of adult money, and a not-insignificant amount of 12-year-old pocket money, was dead. Fine, I thought. This is what a receipt is for. I'll call Currys (the shop I bought it from, with my money, as a birthday present for my child) and they'll sort it. Your staff told me that my contract wasn't with Currys, and that I should contact the manufacturer. They also told me to go in-store with the machine to have it looked at. I went in-store. The in-store staff told me to call the number I had just called. I called again. I was given the phone number for PCSpecialist. Phone → store → same phone → manufacturer. A perfect circle of not helping. A masterpiece of redirection. If it weren't happening to me, I'd almost admire it. Now let's talk about the law, because I think someone at Currys may have forgotten it exists. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 is not a suggestion. It is extremely clear on this point: when you buy something from a retailer, your legal contract is with that retailer. Not the brand on the box. Not the manufacturer. Not some third party you've never met. The shop. The one that took your money and handed you a receipt. Within the first six months of purchase, the law presumes the fault existed at the point of sale. I don't have to prove the computer was faulty when I bought it. Currys has to prove it wasn't. The burden of proof sits entirely with them. During this window, I am legally entitled to a repair or a replacement, and if either of those fails, a full refund. We are currently inside that six-month window. I bought it on 10 October 2025. I complained on 22 February 2026. I am four and a half months in. The law is not ambiguous about what happens here. What makes this particularly spectacular is that Currys' own published policy acknowledges the six-month framework. It is written down on their website. They know the rules. They have typed them up and put them on the internet. They are simply hoping that their customers are too tired from the runaround to actually enforce them. PCSpecialist are entirely blameless in this story. They manufactured a machine. Currys sold that machine to me. My dispute is with Currys. Directing me to PCSpecialist is the retail equivalent of Tesco selling you a gone-off chicken, and when you try to return it, handing you the farmer's phone number. The farmer didn't sell you the chicken. You don't have to knock on the farmer's door. You go back to the supermarket. This is not a controversial legal position. It is just how shops work. My 12-year-old has been without their birthday present for a few days now. They have been, I have to say, considerably more gracious about this than I have. They haven't complained. They've been patient. They are, in this situation, the bigger person — which is a sentence I never expected to write about a primary school leaver, but here we are. They shouldn't have to be patient. They should just have a working computer. So this is where we are, @currys. I know my rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. But before I go down the small claims court route, and start contacting every journalist in my network on a slow news day, I am giving you the opportunity to do the right thing, in the hope that public accountability is more efficient than your customer service helpline. A child saved their pocket money for this. Sort it out.

Goosebumps! People often ask, is Shakespeare still relevant? Here is a great example, from the Steven Colbert Show, in which Sir Ian McKellen delivers an extraordinary speech. Shakespeare’s words are timeless, urgent and important. #Shakespeare #ianmckellen #stevencolbert

@BarbaraBleiman which *emerge*, obvs. 🤦🏻‍♂️

@BarbaraBleiman I was just saying to a friend that my favourite lesson is always just me, a class of halfway willing kids and a copy each of a poem which, by the end, is covered in annotations which emerges from our discussion.

Is it just me, or are others also concerned at the whole bookletisation trend (fad?) for subjects like English, where there's no 'right' order, the curriculum is cumulative, much depends on student response & as @MaryMyatt says, high quality texts, not resources, are key? 1/

@BarbaraBleiman It is sooo hard to get this across to many of the folk in charge, but the best thing about the job.

@WeeFi24 Just this! Or a lesson where you pursue really interesting and valuable lines of enquiry that you hadn’t envisaged at the start, because the students have opened up new avenues of thought!

@BarbaraBleiman Also, a booklet will inevitably contain spoilers for the text to come. How does a booklet on "Of Mice and Men", for example, avoid revealing the devastating events of Ch 5+6? These chapters are so engaging when read to a class who don't know they are coming.

@ysljennii I asked this same question re a dementia patient. The optician confirmed that they rely a lot on their equipment, and not as much on our answers as we probably think!

How tf do doctors know babies prescription if they can’t tell them what they can & can’t see???

@heraldscotland I love this offer, but how do you turn off auto-renew? If you have to call to do it, that puts me off.

Get 12 months of The Herald for just £20 in our January sale 🚨 Subscribe HERE: heraldscotland.com/subscribe/?utm…

@signoralbertoli @Plusnet I had this too - directed to IG which directed me back to where I came from.

.@plusnet need router moved. phone waiting time constantly over 20/30 minutes. phone message says to go to website. website says call first or leave instagram message. instagram message says call first or fo to website. Who designed your customer service? Franz Kafka?

@DalgetySusan On a London - Glasgow train, the very cheerful announcer said that anyone who wanted to keep their bags beside them was welcome to do so if they paid a child fare. This would be payable when he came to check tickets - all they had to do was leave the bag on the seat 😆

X-country train to Edinburgh and in the seats around me there are at least 5 people who have barricaded the empty seat beside them with bags while there are people standing in the corridors, inc. one woman whose luggage is in one our reserved seats. And she wouldn’t shift it.

Statement forwarded to @indyscotnews by @LeanneTervit #Holyrood2026 "My name is Leanne Tervit. I’m a full-time unpaid carer who grew up in Woodmill Crescent, Dunfermline. I donated a kidney to save my mum, who has had three transplants, and I live on £540 a month in Universal Credit. It’s a 24/7 job with no holidays, no sick pay, and no pension, but it saves the country a fortune in care costs. Back in June, I decided I wanted to stand as an independent candidate in the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections. I grew up in an area of high deprivation where many people don’t vote anymore – they feel no party has ever given them hope or changed their lives. I thought, maybe someone like me could make a difference. Working class voices are almost non existent in politics, and I wanted to try. Then I hit the wall.... I asked the Electoral Commission if I could crowdfund for a campaign. Leaflets, travel, and the deposit, just like every other candidate does. They said they couldn’t advise on benefits and sent me to the DWP. What followed was months of emails and calls. At first, DWP officials told me any money raised would count as capital and be taken off my benefits. Later, they changed it to “we’ll decide after the fact” – meaning I’d have to risk losing my only income on a decision that might come too late. No one can take that chance of looking their sole income. I’m effectively barred from standing. And so are 3.1 million other people on Universal Credit. Even when lawyers (Balfour + Manson) offered to investigate for £3,000, the DWP said I couldn’t crowdfund the legal fees either – the same money would be deducted. People keep suggesting workarounds: “Just get someone else to hold the money,” or “Find an election agent to manage a separate account.” But the very fact that we have to find complicated workarounds proves how unequal and unfair the system is. Why should people on benefits have to jump through extra hoops that wealthier candidates never face? And in deprived areas like the one I grew up in, it’s not that simple. Who do you ask to take on the legal and financial responsibility of being your election agent or handling campaign funds? Most people are struggling themselves – they can’t risk their own finances or credit rating. Trust is hard when everyone’s just trying to survive. These “solutions” only work if you already have a network of financially secure friends or family. For many of us, that network doesn’t exist. Since then, I’ve contacted Inclusion Scotland, the Scottish Legal Aid Board, the Scottish Human Rights Commission, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, and more. I’ve submitted dozens of Freedom of Information requests. I’ve spoken to the Equality Advisory Service. And I got my MP, Graeme Downie, to ask a written question in Parliament. The answers have been shocking. The DWP has admitted in writing that: • They have never carried out any equality impact assessment on how the £6,000 capital rule affects people’s ability to stand for election or fundraise for candidacy. • They have never considered adding “verified election expenses” or “political donations” to the list of disregarded capital. • They keep no records of how many claimants have had benefits cut because of campaign donations. • There is no specific guidance for caseworkers on political crowdfunding. The Electoral Commission has admitted they have never assessed how benefits rules affect equal access to standing for election, and they have never even spoken to DWP or HMRC about why tax-free political donations count as capital for UC claimants. The Ministry of Justice has admitted they hold no assessments on whether these rules breach human rights obligations under ICCPR Article 25 or ECHR Protocol 1 Article 3 – the right to free elections and equal access to public office. In other words: for 12 years, a rule that acts as a wealth test on democracy has existed without anyone in government ever checking its impact, counting its victims, or considering a fix. This isn’t a mistake. It’s deliberate exclusion. It disproportionately hits disabled people, carers, women, anyone on low or part time wages – the groups most likely to be on Universal Credit. It’s indirect discrimination. It breaches the Public Sector Equality Duty. And it turns our “free elections” into elections for those who can afford them. My local papers – The Courier and Dunfermline Press – have run my story. My MP has now written directly to the Minister asking for urgent change. But I’m not stopping. This rule must be wiped out. Elections should be open to anyone, regardless of how much money they have or whether they’re on benefits. I’m just one carer from Dunfermline. But I’m not letting this go. If you believe democracy is for all of us, not just the privileged few, please share my story. Contact your MP. Demand an end to this discrimination against the poor."

@Craig_B2022 @scotgov I have recently made a similar shift in my working life for similar reasons! Anyway this isn't the best platform for nuanced discussion of this stuff 🙄

We’re supporting Scotland’s teachers. Plans to reduce classroom contact time would give teachers more time to: -prepare for lessons -support wider school improvement activities -respond to diverse pupil needs Learn more: gov.scot/news/deliverin…

@MsSammyMcHugh Moving most or all of your non contact to one day; what could possibly go wrong? 😜 It's not like you need it during the school day, is it? 🙄

What a load of tosh (the announcement not the reporting obvs). This is either pie in the sky *or* it will be hijacked by those who are anti-education for <insert> reason. Not buying it.

Woman of the Day Scottish teacher Mary Moffat, born in 1822 in South Africa, the first woman to cross the Kalahari (she did it twice while pregnant). Without her, we might never have heard of the bloke she married. In fact, the locals always referred to him as “Mary Moffat’s husband”. Born in the mission outpost of Kuruman and educated in Cape Town, Mary was fluent in at least six African languages, including the local Bantu language Setswana. She was kind, selfless, practical - she would turn up to formal events in everyday clothes - and resourceful. She baked bread, sewed clothes, made essentials like soap and candles from scarce resources, and found her vocation in teaching. She later ran infant schools for up to 100 Bakwena children at mission stations in Botswana, and taught their mothers sewing and language skills. Mary met her future husband when he was recovering from severe wounds sustained after he’d attempted to shoot a lion which had been terrorising villagers. It savaged his arm before expiring. He recovered at Kuruman, realised what a catch she was and asked her to marry him. It was by far the best decision he ever made in his life, one he openly acknowledged. She’d married a missionary, abolitionist and explorer, but she was even more of a nomad than he. They trekked by ox-drawn wagon for twelve days to their first home, a mission station at Mabotsa, Botswana, where Mary cultivated vegetables, dealt with the daily threat of lion attacks, set up an infant school, and networked with local chiefs, impressing them with her calm diplomacy and cultural sensitivity. She gave birth to their first child, a sickly son, but it was soon time to uproot and establish a new mission at Chonuane. It was a bad move. The river dried up, drought destroyed their crops and they were forced by malnutrition to return to Kuruman, where Mary’s half-starved appearance shocked her family. Soon afterwards, she gave birth to a baby girl. That became the recurring theme of her life: pregnancy (they had six children) and physical hardship in unforgiving terrain. He’d heard of a “remote and shining lake” on the other side of the Kalahari. As soon as Mary gave birth to another son, she joined his 1,500-mile expedition to Lake Ngami in 1849 while pregnant. They were plagued by tsetse flies, endured extreme temperatures, far too little water, and sickness, and lived on iron rations of stewed meat, corn and milk for three months. Mary nursed two children with malaria and suffered partial paralysis (possibly a stroke) but had no choice to press on. Her fourth baby died. Her fifth child was born in the desert. In 1852, she sailed to Britain with the children for safety and recuperation, and after her return in 1958, gave birth to her sixth child. Mary died in 1862, aged just 41. Is that the end of the story? Not quite. Mary Moffat’s husband’s second Zambezi Expedition ended in failure two years later and when he tried to find the source of the Nile, managed to lose contact with the outside world for six years. That never would have happened on Mary’s watch. Here’s the thing. He’d never have found his “remote and shining lake” or its impressive Falls without her. Her diplomacy and language skills smoothed his path. It was Mary who negotiated safe passage for his expeditions, Mary who gathered vital intell on the best routes and how to find sources of water, Mary whose widely-respected reputation secured alliances with groups like the Makololo, enabling her husband to map the Zambezi River and advance north into Zambia. In the end, the New York Herald sent journalist Henry Morton Stanley to track down Mary Moffat’s husband. He found him on the shores of Lake Tanganyika OTD in 1871, greeting him with the famous words: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?"

@the_traitors_ When someone is murdered or banished, their charity should be publicised at the end of the show. I'm sure this would result in a lot of donations.

The head of Neuroblastoma UK, the charity Alan Carr donated his Celebrity Traitors winnings to, thanks Alan for his support in new statement: "It has been wonderful to follow along with Alan’s journey on the show and he has been just as entertaining as ever. As a small charity £87,500 can make a huge difference to our work. We couldn’t be more grateful for his continued support of our charity.”