Why can’t the British eat or drink anything unless they place a table cloth on the table first?

Weeeeeeeell!

was devised to make the best possible use of scarce resources but it wasn’t rubbish by any means. It was made of domestic timbers like oak, elm or beech, no nonsense with Ikea plastic-veneered chipboard, and was rationed for sale to newlyweds setting up first homes. In the days of severe austerity you treasured this bonus and protected it.

Later on, after we’d moved south, we had dining room furniture – table, chairs and a sideboard – in teak which demanded equal care and respect, and it was these that were passed on to me when I got married and ventured out on my own. It didn’t take me long for me and me partner to realise that we didn’t have to do things the way our parents did, and in the early days at least we had less space than our parents ever had, and all that dining furniture got in the way. So we stopped taking meals formally except for special occasions or for guests. A tray on the lap did just fine. And so it did for the people around us.

How does it feel to be in a marriage without any love?

Like many newlyweds of the immediate post-war period my parents began their married life in 1946 with Utility furniture and the Utility mark (pictured) was very familiar to me. The utility scheme

I’m sure there are families that still do the formal family meals, but in our time-challenged age with many families keeping different hours, individual self-service meals are now pretty much the norm most of the time. And even for special occasions, you’re much more likely to see placemats rather than a full tablecloth.

That was true up to a point about my parents and grandparents. Meals, even breakfast at weekends, were semi-formal family occasions with the whole family seated round a be-tableclothed table, each in her/his place with cutlery laid out properly. It was often the job of me and my sister to set the table for a meal. The cloth was there for protection, these were wooden tables.

Hello, I have a question about astral projection. I started to get interested in this a little while after my mum passed in april. I thought I may be able to see her and speak with her if I managed to achieve astral projection. Since this interest, every time i sleep on my back I go into sleep paralysis. However, I cant progress into astral projection because it is very scary for me as I feel like I'm suffocating when this happens. I panic and force myself to wake up. This only ever happened about once a year before this. It sometimes lasts a long time. This has happened about 3 times per week since my mum died, as mentioned on a previous post. I no longer try to go into it anymore(due to the suffocating feeling), but it still happens. I read that sleep paralysis is the pathway to astral projection. Why has this started to happen so frequently since simply taking an interest in it? Is this connected to the afterlife? I am concerned about it as I now cannot seem to stop this happening. Could it be my mum trying to communicate? Im asking due to more knowledge around this in this group.