You described my daughter! I can completely relate. My daughter has just turned 17, and is in her third year of a double-Bachelors humanities uni degree. At 9, she had mastered Grade 9 maths. At 13, she completed highschool maths and completed the advanced stream official exam (calculus, trig, stats etc) with the highest mark possible. She was innately capable at maths, and but it didn't ignite her at all. Maths was never going to be her future. But maths was very valuable for her overall education. She acknowledges that AOPS, Life of Fred, Zaccarro etc all nurtured her problem-solving skills. And honestly, she needed the challenge of difficult maths for her mental health. But her passions are humanities: languages, music and writing. And this is what she's studying at tertiary level. She's thriving, but does still need extra mental stimulation on the side.

Is there some vinegar and bicarb involved somehow?

They explode?? Please elaborate.

Looks like a rainbow in progress in some way. What will your class be doing with this?

I'm so sorry to hear about your Mum. Thinking of you all.

You're in Adelaide right now? I hope you're enjoying it. Are you planning on coming to Brisbane?

@Sneezyone Sorry, I'll hush now. I hope your snake gets a nice full belly and goes and sleeps it off somewhere that you're comfortable with.

I wish I'd taken a photo of the huge huntsman I caught and put outside the other night 😁

Really, it was no big deal, just a fun story. Carpet snakes are non-venomous. My parents have a local guy who relocates all their snakes for them. He's there often enough that he stays for a chat and cup of tea with them 😄 The only reason they bother to relocate them is that they have a family of possums that live in the ceiling of their garage, and they don't want the snakes to dine on them.

Another snake anecdote just for funsies - my parents found a carpet python coiled up in their car boot recently.

It's playing dress-ups! 😁 When I saw I had a notification for a thread about snakes, I didn't think it would be related to a cosplay comment. I thought it would be reference to our plentiful snakes here in Australia. I had to stop to let a huge carpet python cross the road last week. It would have been the thickness of my forearm. Very cool.

@Scarlett What does caffeine have to do with getting your eyebrows done?

@lauraw4321 How fabulous! I'm sure you'll have a great time. Please report back to us! I remember there was one time my daughter and I happened to walk through something like this, and I commented to her 'wow, it must be dress-up day', and she hissed to me, 'It's called cosplay Mum! It's not dress-ups'. But not everyone was doing dress-ups cosplay. You'll be absolutely fine 😊

Hi Kareni ☺️. We're certainly hoping that some study will fit in. We're looking for options. The ideal thing would be a program that teaches advanced Japanese, but is offered in Korean. Our original plan was to go in Dec-Jan for the Yonsei program again, but (just between you and me 😉), my eldest daughter and her husband just announced that their first baby will be due in December 🥰. So we've made some hasty rearrangements to plans to make things all fit in as best as possible. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up with daughter-of-Kareni again 😊 @bookbard I'm sorry. I've hijacked and side-tracked your thread twice already 😶

This is so so so lovely. It's such important work you do as a puppy trainer. Years ago, I worked at a school where one staff member was a puppy trainer. The puppies in training would be in the classroom with her. The experience benefited so many people, even before the dog graduated on to its owner. 🌻

This is so heart-warming ☺️

My daughter and I are going to be in Seoul when his concerts are on there in June, but I can't find a way to get tickets 😢 We might have to go and listen from outside.

Agust D?

Today I spent way too much time trying to vacuum up a shadow. Yes, really 😒

And I really don't care if using emojis make me look old 😎👍

Seems I'm not the only Grumpy McGrumpypants 😄

What I really don't like is when a staff member directs me to go to the 12-or-less line, even though I clearly have more. And then someone queues behind me, and I want to explain that I was told to go here, really, truly, honestly I was.

Here's a thread for petty whinges. Please join me in being irrationally irritated by petty things. I hope the rest of the world is spared this, but here in Australia, if you buy something like 5 pairs of socks, or 5 teatowels, the bundle is held together with about 6 silly little plastic things, that go through the material. You have to pry the material layers apart, snip the plastic, and then dig around for the tiny near-transparent ends that are floating in the layers somewhere. Arrgghh. My second whinge for the day is about those peel-off seals on jars that don't have a tab to get you started. Arrrgghh again. These are tiny inconveniences, I know, but sometimes it's those tiny things that feel like they are about to tip you over your limit.

Oh goodness, that would bother me too, and I'd have trouble keeping my mouth shut. Another example is when people refer to a child's age as something like 2.8. I think they usually are meaning 2yr8months, and not 2yr and 8/10 of a year.

I think it depends on how make-up makes you feel, as opposed to how it makes you look to others. Does it make you feel brighter, perkier, more confident? Or is it a routine that doesn't actually do anything positive for you? The only make-up I use is a lick of mascara on my upper-outer lashes. I don't think it makes me look younger or prettier, but it does make me feel brighter, for want of a better word.