Alright, it's bed time for some but why are you still up? No work tomorrow? Watching some questionable late night TV? Bit of stargazing?

The chinwag thread.

I had Elf on earlier and now chilling with Home Alone. What are your favourites?

Here’s mine. My dad had a grocery store and just before Christmas had a big delivery of fruit and veg which he put in a big shed at the back of the shop. It was December and always freezing cold in there. Among the bananas he found a huge hairy spider as big as a hand. It was totally inert. He gingerly prodded the thing but it didn’t move.

He thought it would be interesting to take it to show relatives at my gran’s party that night. Her birthday was 20th December and she always had a pre Christmas gathering.

And so he put the spider into a small lidded box, took it into Gran’s living room and placed it on the mantle piece above the roaring fire. And he promptly forgot about it.

Much later somebody noticed and asked what was in the box. “Oh, this is interesting,” he said. “Look at what I found today.”

He placed the box in the middle of the floor and we all gathered round. He lifted the lid and we all peered in. Everyone recoiled in horror at the sight of the thing. And then the spider slowly climbed out of the box and ran across the carpet at astonishing speed and under the sofa where my gran and her older sister were sitting.

My great aunt was crippled with arthritis and could barely walk, but she screamed and scrambled for the door, the fastest anyone had seen her move in decades. Everyone followed in extreme haste and we assembled in the kitchen.

My mother was furious with my father - he hadn’t told us what he had found - and she ordered him back into the living room and to capture the thing. He and a brave uncle went back and carefully moved the sofa and then all the furniture. They took up the carpet. They pretty much stripped the place. They didn’t find it.

The party continued for a little while longer in a desultory fashion in the kitchen and then we all went home early. My mother was very upset with my dad in the car back home.

The spider was never found.

In my part of the world, it's

paloovious

swinklan

shit marackled

My daughters are 25 and 23. Over the weekend I mentioned that my elder daughter was ‘talking on the big white telephone’. She had no idea what I meant so I had to explain it (being sick). Then my husband mentioned a rugby player falling on his mush (face) and she didn’t know that one either. I was quite surprised as the first one especially was always very common. I’m from Wales and wouldn’t have thought the first one was down to locality - second one possibly

Not the best but I love it making me feel really festive would love to see other people's.

Winning every day between now and Christmas.

Welcome back to the weekend! You can finally do all the fun things you've been waiting all week to do, like cleaning the oven, de-weeding the garden, or finally unpacking that suitcase from a month ago.

If you need an extra dose of fun, the CasualUK weekly Zoom quiz is here to finish off your day on a trivial high. Five rounds of testing questions will face you, testing your knowledge of Scrabble, Speed Racer, and 3D shapes.

To take part simply click this handy link just before 7:30 this evening, and arm yourself with a pen and paper. No need to turn on your camera or mic, you can simply be a name in ther void.

If you like the sound of this, but are otherwise occupied today, we do this every week, same quiz time, same quiz channel!

See you at 7:30!

When pets get meds from the vet, the dosage is calculated using the animal's weight.

Humans, however, don't.

As a small light person it suddenly struck me that when I am prescribed meds, or when I take headache tablets, the dosage is based on age rather than weight. So my hubby, who is 1' taller than me and 5 stone heavier, gets the same dosage.

Wonder why weight isn't used for people 🤔

Wahey, it's late, it's Saturday night!

Why are you still up? Off out for a fight? Doing the night shift?

Come on in for a chat.