Thanetgirl

@Nugent4nil What?! I really love those. Can’t wait to tell the grandkids!

Obviously old news but I still can’t get my head around the fact that macaroon bars are made from mash potatoes 😳 I’m not talking about those fancy French ones I mean Scottish macaroon bars 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

@ThatEricAlper Tell us more! 🤣

@BhattiLaib9960 Get rid of the boyfriend. Use a water spray if he keeps coming back.

Help!!! My boyfriend is threatening to get rid of our kitten if she doesn’t stop jumping on the table. What do I do?

@Amy_90_x I’ll have the fudge one please.

Anyone remember these?

@Matt_Pinner They heard about Trump.

If aliens exist, why haven't they visited Earth? 🤔

@TheAttagirls I agree. Having left school I read about all of them, and formed a huge admiration for Elsie Inglis. I was in Melba house. Again, not a word about her that I can recall at school, not even from our music teacher. Her charity work would have inspired us much more!

@patsyannfagin Lady Astor was a bold choice! I know she was the first female MP to take her seat, but she was a terrible snob and a racist to boot. Elsie Inglis, on the other hand, was quite marvellous.

In 1932, the US Diplomatic Service didn’t want Woman of the Day Virginia Hall as a diplomat, despite her proficiency in five languages. It assigned her to clerical duties instead. Well, only six out of 1500 diplomats were women and that was probably six too many. When she reapplied in 1937, it found a cast-iron reason: no amputees. Its loss was the Special Operations Executive’s gain. In August 1941, Virginia, born OTD in 1906 in Baltimore, became the first female SOE agent to establish operations in Vichy France. She posed as a New York Post reporter, and didn’t let Cuthbert — her wooden leg, legacy of a hunting accident — hold her back. In fact, when she fled over the Pyrenees in November 1942 after successfully masterminding the escape of twelve SOE agents from Mauzac prison and personally putting Hitler’s nose out of joint, she radioed from a safe house to SOE HQ: “Cuthbert is being tiresome, but I can cope”. London misunderstood and responded, "If Cuthbert troublesome, eliminate him." I could tell you of Virginia’s service as a French Army ambulance driver after the Germans invaded in May 1940, or the way she built up the "Heckler" network in Lyon, recruiting and organising French Resistance agents, setting up safe houses, and aiding escaped prisoners of war and downed Allied airmen. I could also tell you how she gathered intelligence on German activities — including info gleaned by brothels frequented by German troops — and put it to good use by organising the sabotage of railways and trains, bridges and roads, telephone and telegraph lines; and pinpointing ammunition dumps, fuel depots — even a German submarine base in Marseilles that was later bombed by Allies. But you don’t want to hear about all that, do you? You want to hear about the prison escape. Mauzac-et-Grand-Castang internment camp was a Vichy French military prison repurposed from an unfinished gunpowder factory barracks in the Dordogne, used to suppress opposition and the French Resistance. In July 1942, it held 592 detainees: political prisoners, Resistance, foreigners, Jews…and twelve SOE agents. Virginia decided to spring them. “If they cannot come out officially, they will come out unofficially.” She couldn’t go anywhere near the camp herself — the “Limping Lady” was too well-known because her face was plastered all over Wanted/Reward posters everywhere — but she was a born organiser. She sent Gaby Bloch to visit her incarcerated SOE agent husband and smuggle in tins of sardines with tools concealed inside so that another SOE agent could make a pass key. She persuaded a sympathetic priest to smuggle in a wireless transmitter. She set up a support team, safe houses, vehicles, helpers, and even two French police uniforms for the operation. Virginia coordinated plans and the timing with the prisoners via smuggled notes: they were to stuff rags and blankets to make their beds look occupied, and unlock the barracks door and hang a painted sackcloth over it to make it look like a locked door. On the afternoon of 15 July 1942, she signalled Go by arranging for an old lady to walk past as the all-clear signal (an old man would have meant cancellation). During the hours of darkness, the guard in Watchtower No. 7 was distracted (or bribed. The jury’s still out) and twelve SOE agents using an old carpet for protection crawled under the perimeter barbed wire, and escaped into the surrounding woods in just 12 minutes. They rendezvoused with Virginia in Lyon and she got them back to London via Spain. Hitler was furious and sent 500 Gestapo and Abwehr agents into Vichy France to hunt down the the escapees, dismantle SOE networks, and intimidate local authorities. Virginia was named by the Gestapo as "the enemy’s most dangerous spy". France was too hot for her to stay where she was and that’s when she undertook a gruelling trek with “tiresome” Cuthbert over the Pyrenees to Spain before arriving back in London. Her wartime work is generally reckoned to have helped to shorten the war by disrupting Nazi operations with the impact of multiple divisions. So was that the end of her wartime career in France? Not at all. Virginia went back in 1944, ahead of D-Day, and operated in the Haute-Loire region for the Office of Strategic Service (now the CIA) by disguising herself as an elderly peasant — but that’s another story for another day. Her lifelong devotion to secrecy is one of the quotes displayed at the CIA: “Many of my friends were killed for talking too much.” Virginia Hall is the only woman civilian in WW2 to have been awarded the US Distinguished Service Cross for extraordinary heroism. She turned down a public ceremony so as not to blow her operational cover, and her reaction to her award was typical of her dry humour. “Not bad for a girl from Baltimore.”

@Jonny_artist Oh god yes! I believe in chocolate!

Does this count as 'finding religion' ?

@DocAtCDI It must have been messy - just what I’m going through, they can’t understand.

Did we ever find out... what the knights in white sat in?

@autcareandshare Ryan seems to have command of a very complex system of attention and acquisition of detailed knowledge. It’s great that you are the sort of parent who can make space for this in your lives, and give Ryan the increasing confidence to exercise his skills.

I do lots of tweets about Ryan and maps and routes, Ryan was fascinated by routes maps since before he could walk or talk back then I'd go around car boot sales buying up all the old maps and guides he'd sit for hours in his pushchair tracing them with his finger these days he uses Google maps, he keeps all the information I dont know how but he does, he can direct me from here in Gloucestershire to Scotland from memory, say we're staying at a campsite or hotel he will then direct me to the shops or the supermarkets, but even that doesn't go far enough to explain his amazing ability with maps, he does it flawlessly,I hear you , you're asking how did Ryan who way back then a non verbal autistic 3 or 4 year old in fact he didn't speak until he was around 8, how did he tell you which way to go, by pointing and imitating the sound of the car indicator, and he does all this while listening to at least 2 radios that are on different stations, he really is amazing. Have a great day everyone.

@james_xond We knocked on their door, or made plans to meet. When I was in my first job I was friends with a girl who lived 7 miles away - she worked where my Dad did. We met up at w/ends. We wrote to each other, & Dad took the letters to and fro. Almost every day. We called him Bert Post.

People who were teenagers before social media existed… how did you communicate with your friends?

@BorsetFinance @SaffronKim There were three boys from a nearby school who can to join our typing class. They were a bit nervous to start with, but we all had fun. One of them said they got laughed at for wanting to learn ‘girls stuff’ but they didn’t give up, and I think we all passed.

@patsyannfagin @SaffronKim I am a guy but in 1983 I got sent on a scheme to secretarial college and learned to touch type. There was only 1 other guy there. We had a hoot and learning to type was a great skill to learn

1972 School careers advisor: “What would you like to be?” Me, aged 14: “A journalist (foreign correspondent), an astronaut, or an actor.” Careers advisor: “Have you considered nursing?” That’s what us girls were up against.

@Lovandfear I have two. I live in a village but spend a lot of time in the nearby town, in a different county. So I joined both libraries.

How many people actually have library cards as adults?

@AMAZlNGNATURE That’s beautiful.

Giant Honeybees use a collective defense known as "shimmering" to deter wasps and other predators, whereby hundreds of individual bees flip their abdomens upwards in a coordinated wave-like pattern.

@NimraShahzadin My aunt used to crochet all the time. Blankets mainly, lovely things. But this - you have made a miracle!

Everyone laughs because I'm a lady and I crochet. Comment below with your opinion, be polite!

@Bostonian7019 @SaffronKim Kent was the same - I failed the 11 Plus anyway.

@patsyannfagin @SaffronKim Lincolnshire had the 11-Plus & girls had to score higher, than boys, to get into grammar/high school.

@luxemiaa No problem with this - good for him. Respect and prioritising his girl’s needs.

This woman on Instagram shared: I was washing my hands in a public women’s restroom when a man yelled out announcing three times, “man coming in. I have to come with my daughter. Sorry!” I thanked him for announcing himself and returned to washing my hands as he quickly went to the closest stall available. An older woman at the next sink gave a disapproving look. I would rather a man accompany his daughter into the women’s bathroom than take her into the men’s bathroom for a number of reasons. Do what you gotta do, dad.

@spacebrandonb And science? Evolution?

I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. Take a moment and listen to this 81 second response from Victor Glover after being asked if he had any thoughts leading up to Easter. I don’t quite think it can be overstated how perfect this crew is for the job.

@ronsterd89 Mine used to say don’t open or shut the door, or they would fall. I don’t know if it was true, but I obeyed her anyway!

My grandma would tell me not to walk in the kitchen when her cakes were in the oven. She was afraid I would cause them to fall 😊 Was this true?

@bagshaw2112 I had forgotten about them! I actually used to love them - can you still buy them?

Today’s #retro #memory ! Who remembers these ! Personally I’d rather not lol 🤮🤮#sunday