Top tip: take the lid off before using.

Five books about the Taliban might help: https://fivebooks.com/category/world/asia/afghanistan/books-taliban/

They’re also deeply afraid of women.

https://twitter.com/AdamJSmithGA/status/1814723038564192535

Back in the late 1970s friend and I decided to hitchhike through Europe - we were living in London. We got zero rides from Calais and ended up catching a train to Paris, arriving at nearly midnight. The hotels near the station were too expensive, and we were sitting in the gutter looking at a map when a young man asked if he could help.

He said he knew where there were cheaper hotels, and offered to walk us there. He was charming, funny and warm, and we had a great conversation as we walked. After a mile or so he said, well this is crazy, why don’t you come and stay at my place? My mother won’t mind.

He took us to a grand Paris apartment, like from a film. His mother was already in bed, but she called out instructions for putting fresh sheets on the sofas. Hearing that we hadn’t eaten all day, he took us out for a meal at a couscous restaurant nearby (it was after 1am by now). He explained that he had to leave early in the morning because he taught at a school for special needs children outside the city, but that his mother would give us breakfast.

And that is what happened - she was charming and warm, and acted as if it was perfectly normal to feed two random foreigners her son had brought home in the middle of the night.

I’ve loved Paris ever since.

I’d fix my feet, ankles and legs. Not out of vanity, but for function. I long to walk easily again, to be nimble on my feet.

Don’t you have public transport? I usually take a bus to a gallery or cafe, and the mechanic phones or texts to say my car is ready. The repair place also has a few chairs and a free coffee machine, so you can sit and wait if you’d prefer. It’s noisy but interesting. Maybe they have a break room where you could wait?

Scottish Blend.

Creamy, crunchy, fruity? What you want is Eton Mess. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/eton-mess

I hope this sets off a whole chain of people posting pictures of their truly weird hands.

For what it’s worth my own right hand has bad arthritis, every finger is wonky in its own special way, also the thumb. And I’m old, so it’s all veiny and speckled with liver spots. No, you’re not getting a photo.

I remember my poor niece saying, “I can’t believe they let us leave the hospital with her! She’s so tiny and fragile! We don’t know what we’re doing!”

Cheese and marmalade, the sharper both are the better. Mmm.

Where I’m from it’s called “squeezing the lemon”. Mash that pedal! Ha ha. The best bit is when you catch up with them stopped at the next set of lights.

We call them zoodies in our sports club, to differentiate them from hoodies, which have no zip.

For me olives were an acquired taste.

The first time I ate in a restaurant I was about 12 I think. It was a fancy Italian place. When I saw the dishes of (green, pimento-stuffed) olives on the table I was excited to try one. I’d only ever seen pictures of them in American magazines - this was mid-60s New Zealand, Coca Cola was exotic. I put one in my mouth, and almost gagged, the flavour was so completely awful. I spat it into a napkin.

Fast forward to today, and I would gladly hoover up the whole dishful and ask for more. My favourite olive is a big fat juicy Kalamata. I also love tapenade made with black olives. The only olives I dislike are the flavourless cardboardy lumps sometimes passed off as olives.

I do hug my friends (and family when they visit from far, far away), I’m very huggy. Cuddling is another level of intimacy though. I do miss it, a bit.

My farts are so loud you probably heard me earlier and thought it was a car with engine trouble.

Why thank you!

Single about 25 years. I’m 71 and I absolutely love my life. I have lots of friends and a very active life, but I love coming home and being alone there. Before menopause I had a strong libido and terrible taste in men, so I had a lot of truly awful relationships, with endless drama.

It’s kind of by choice I guess, though I don’t get offers. A few years ago a guy gave me the eye and I contemplated it, until I caught sight of his bare feet. Oh dear god no. Self-care is important mate, you need to see a podiatrist.

The main con of being single for me is not enough hugs and cuddles. The pros are too many to give up for that though. I get to decide everything and make plans based on what I want. I can fart loudly, talk to my potplants and be lazy without Someone rolling their eyes, it’s bliss.

No, not attractive. That’s a man who spends a LOT of time in the gym, looking at himself in the mirror. He eats and drinks weird stuff and possibly is on drugs that make him angry. Not my cup of tea.

My experience tells me that if you eat it, you’ll spend the next several hours vomiting. Your friends who also ate it will go out dancing and have a fabulous time.

I was going to suggest proper orthotics as well. Mine were expensive but have served me well for years. I move them into whatever shoes or boots I’m wearing. They don’t work with sandals sadly.