u/Mireillka

I'm from Szczecin where we say 'na dwór', and obviously I thought that's the default and 'na pole' is regional to some parts of Poland. I honestly thought that 'going outside' translates to 'wychodzić na dwór' but after actually thinking about it I've realised it translates to 'wychodzić na zewnątrz'. I'm only visiting my family in Szczecin, so I don't really have anyone unbiased to ask about it, and tbh, living in the UK and being told by many people who's second language is Polish, that I'm always the easiest to understand cos I speak the 'default' Polish and have no accent, it kinda reaffirmed me in believing that I indeed speak the default Polish, like dunno, RP English heard on the radio, but am I? Or is it just my weird Szczecin pride, that I didn't even know I have, taking over me?

We had a cat fence on top of our normal garden fence in the past but it quickly turned out that one of our cats is allergic to fleas, and no flea treatments, collars etc. were good enough, as the fleas would take a bite first, before realising that her skin wasn't tasty due to the treatments. It's not life threatening allergy, it's just skin becoming very itchy and inflamed, but we obviously don't want that for her, not to mention things like that can get infected etc. so the cats are back to being fully indoors. It was diagnosed by a vet after her having recurring skin issues.

We are in the UK and there are plenty of outdoor cats in the area(even tho it's nearby a very busy road near city centre, hospital and uni!), as well as tiny cute mice and equally cute but massive rats that all spread fleas in to our garden.

This year, during all the heatwaves, in desperation not to die of heatstroke we put a net in our garden doors to let some cool evening/morning air in (our house is tiny, so we only have 1 window and those garden doors downstairs. Upstairs we already had nets in the windows, and our cats are used to them and not interested in getting out. Obviously we don't leave the windows/garden doors open without supervision regardless). We were anxious about getting fleas through the net, but it's been months, and it's been fine. Thus it got me thinking that maybe we can get a catio in our garden and she wouldn't get fleas? (We can't get a catio from the upstairs widnow cos it would be too difficult of a project, according to my partner, even tho I would love to have an awning and a flea safe catio in one, above the garden doors! But I'm not the one who would be building it so it's not up to me).

Are we just lucky with the lack of fleas through the net in the garden doors, or is a bug net actually enough to keep fleas away, and we could, for example, build a catio with those nets over the proper metal/plastic net and keep it flea secure?

It's not like our cats are desperate for the outdoors, we just think it would be nice for them. They are both elderly: allergic to fleas and lively 14yo female Chewy, and a lazy 17yo male Behemoth who has arthritis. Obviously spayed, neutered and under vet's care. They don't get enough warm sunny spots inside since we have so few and small windows, and before we bought the house we were living in dogdy underground shared accomodations to save money. Yes, we have vit D deficiencies, and if that's a thing for cats, they probably do as well (jokingly, they get good food, so they are probably fine), so you can see why we would want them to get some sun.

Could someone explain to me what other factors than hardness, affect tap water quality?

I've been to Japan and experienced the two extremes of water hardness, Tokyo's baby smooth tap water and Nagano's hot spring tap water, so I can roughly judge how water behaves with shampoos, skin etc.

I live in the UK and the thing is that water behaves as if it's hard - shampoos not foaming well, water worsening my acne, making my hair rough etc. but we barely get any scale issues. We had a glass kettle for 5 years and only needed it descaled 3 times. Now we have a temperature controll kettle that I keep checking for scale cos it can affect the temperature readings, but it's been months and it's absolutely scale free. I have no scale issues in the bathrooms either. A bottle of Viakal lasts me years.

I'm visiting my family in Poland rn, and here the water behaves as if it's super soft, with shampoos foaming like a dream (1 shampoo I brought with me, and H&S that we got in Poland, but has the same ingredients as the ones we get in the UK), skin left smooth and hair silky, but my mom an nan have massive issues with scale residue. Every year we go, my partner has to pull my mom's fancy tap apart and soak it in a descaler, as it's insides get so bad that it's difficult to change water temp. They have to descale their kettles every few months and use lots of descaling chemicals for normal kitchen and bathroom cleaning.

If my UK water isn't hard, why it's still so bad for my hair and skin?? And how is my mom's and nan's water so hard, but feels great and makes my hair silky like the water in Tokyo?

I'm neurodivergent so I end up befriending lots of other neurodivergent people, who have higher chances of being 'picky eaters', yet I've not met an onion hater irl. I've met multiple people who won't eat fruit, a few who don't like meat etc. But never someone who, like me, hates onions. I find it shocking. Onions have such strong and overpowering flavour that lingers for hours! A single bite on an onion chunk will leave me distressed for the rest of the day and give me trouble falling asleeping, cos no matter how much I brush and floss, the nasty flavour doesn't go away.

On the contrary, I've met a few people for whom onions could possibly give bad bowel symptoms, but they are unable to cut onions for even 2 weeks just to check if that could be the reason. Alliums are the most common IBS trigger, and I would argue that a person doesn't even have to have IBS to suffer symptoms if they eat tons of onions. It's like with cherries - in moderation they won't give a healthy person any bad symptoms, but when someone eats too much, the sorbitol in cherries will take revenge. It's a common knowledge for anyone who has a cherry tree in their garden. Obviously, if someone has no symptoms, not an issue, but if someone is experiencing regular explosive diarrhoeas, I just can't fathom how they wouldn't just try cutting out some common trigger foods once they learn they could be the cause. I worked with a doctor whos nurse was cleaning the toilet after multiple times a day. When I told him off and suggested low FODMAP diet, he said he wouldn't be able to live without onions. He started cleaning after himself only while I was working with him and returned to leaving shit covered toilet the moment his nurse was back from her holidays. Onion lovers are sick.

I admit, I'm a fairly picky eater, mostly sensitive to flavours, not textures, which is seemingly a more rare version of ARFID.

BUT ... Onions have a very distinct texture, and I find it unpleasant even as a person who loves all sort of food textures and is a veggie lover. I'll eat crunchy and mushy veggies, but onion texture is just wrong. It feels not meant as food. Soo how there are so little onion haters when it ticks the boxes for all sorts of reasons a person might hate a food?

Two weeks ago I had an appointment to which I gave myself 40 minutes to get there by foot, cos google maps was showing 24 minutes and I planned to take a leisurely stroll. I walked as slow as possible and still made it in 15 minutes and had to wait 25 minutes

Today I had an appointment at the same time, same place, but forgot and realised only 7 minutes before the appointment time. Got ready in 4 minutes so I left 3 minutes before I was meant to be there. I was sure that if I walk fast I'll make it before 10 past and they would still see me. I walked so fast that I got all sweaty, breathless and my knees and hips are killing me, yet I arrived 15 minutes past, which was too late to be seen :(

So walking as slow as possible took me 15 minutes, and walking as fast as possible took me 18 minutes?? How is that possible?!

This kept happening to me for years when I was working 25-50 minutes(29min on google maps) walk from home. Because it was up hill and with lots of crossings and foot traffic I always blamed the difference on those factors. Today tho, it can't be explained by anything else than ADHD bending the time and space. In both cases I waited 2 minutes on a large crossing, and today I crossed every small one on red lights (it's legal in the UK) while two weeks ago I was waiting for green on all of them to kill the time.

It literally can't be explained in any other way than some supernatural occurrence. (I'm joking about it being supernatural, but I still can't fathom how is that possible...)

Is this happening to anyone else?