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Sophie_M Welcome to the BB Social Zone - guidelines for posting in this section
  • replies: 0

Hi everyone, This section of the forum is a little different to the others, as you may have noticed in looking around the threads. Elsewhere on the forums, we discuss some pretty heavy topics: mental health issues, thoughts of suicide, trauma, abuse,... View more

Hi everyone, This section of the forum is a little different to the others, as you may have noticed in looking around the threads. Elsewhere on the forums, we discuss some pretty heavy topics: mental health issues, thoughts of suicide, trauma, abuse, relationship breakdowns. Here is the place to come to get away from that and have a bit of fun. Distraction can be an important tool to draw on if you're finding yourself overwhelmed by distressing thoughts and feelings. As this is a section for respite from difficult topics, we will remove posts made in this section that attempt to discuss personal issues. Please use a support thread in the appropriate section for these discussions. Happy posting!

Kazzl The BB cafe
  • replies: 20246

The BB cafe is open for business! Welcome all to a new chill and chat place for everyone on the forum. The BB cafe is whatever you want it to be. There are comfy sofas, tables and chairs, coffee machines, a kitchen stocked with everything. There's a ... View more

The BB cafe is open for business! Welcome all to a new chill and chat place for everyone on the forum. The BB cafe is whatever you want it to be. There are comfy sofas, tables and chairs, coffee machines, a kitchen stocked with everything. There's a pool outside, a bbq area, an annexe with comfy beds for a quiet sleep, tv, dvd, books and whatever else you would like to have here. Most of all, it's a place to meet friends and fellow travellers for a bit of company. Talk over problems, tell jokes, share your day, escape into a world of your making. Grab a coffee and pull up a chair ... So, with a nod to the wonderful Carole King (Hard Rock Cafe) ... Now if you're feeling just a little bit lonely Don't sit at home just mopin' Come on down to where the friendship flows freely You know the door is always open At the BB cafe Come to the BB cafe They will help keep your blues at bay At the BB cafe Important Message from ModSupport: The main intention of the BB Cafe is to encourage light conversation. Please look after your fellow community members by nuturing the BB Cafe as a place to escape some of the more pressing issues in life and save those conversations for personal threads.

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Ggrand Change one letter to change my word..
  • replies: 143

Hello Everyone.... Another thread for some fun distraction... I have a 4 letter word...You can use 4..5.or 6 letters only.. Example:.....FEAR change 1 letter only....to make a new word.. ie: FEAR now becomes TEARS or YEAR... The letters of the word c... View more

Hello Everyone.... Another thread for some fun distraction... I have a 4 letter word...You can use 4..5.or 6 letters only.. Example:.....FEAR change 1 letter only....to make a new word.. ie: FEAR now becomes TEARS or YEAR... The letters of the word can be changed around to make a new word..by replacing one letter only.. ie:..LETTER..can become BETTER...or TESTER...by changing the letter L to S...and shuffling the letters around.. Once you change the word.your turn to select a new 4 letter word for someone else to change it.... Please don’t post a word unless you can change it.. No foreign words....No names of countries, cities, people, animals etc.only commonly used words... okay I’ll go fist..easy word to start with... ROSE... Who’s going to give it a try... Grandy..

Gabs_ COVID Lockdown Scavenger Hunt
  • replies: 1

Hi all, Happy Friday! I was chatting with some friends the other day in a group text and we were talking about funny things we see on our daily lockdown walks.... Then we had a fab idea to do daily scavenger hunts on our walks and share the photos of... View more

Hi all, Happy Friday! I was chatting with some friends the other day in a group text and we were talking about funny things we see on our daily lockdown walks.... Then we had a fab idea to do daily scavenger hunts on our walks and share the photos of it. Obviously, we can't share photos on here, but I thought it might be a bit of a different activity for those States in lockdown. On today's walk we have to find: A street sign with someone's name that we've dated; A staffy (gets you down to the dog park regardless - which makes anyone smile when you see the doggos playing) A red door A child's drawing in the window of a house (bonus points if contains a rainbow) Anyone keen to play? It gets you out and about, as well as being mindful of your surroundings (and who doesn't love a bit of mindfulness). Happy to take suggestions for other stuff we can look out for!

Delectable A-Z Towns/ Villages/ Cities visited.
  • replies: 175

A is for Annecy, a gorgeous village in South Eastern France, gorgeous pastel buildings, a beautiful lac, with canals winding through the village as well as cobbled streets, a village that has everything, reachable on the TGV from Paris, or from Genev... View more

A is for Annecy, a gorgeous village in South Eastern France, gorgeous pastel buildings, a beautiful lac, with canals winding through the village as well as cobbled streets, a village that has everything, reachable on the TGV from Paris, or from Geneva (Switzerland).

smallwolf Acrostics
  • replies: 26

An acrostic is a poem in which the first letters of each line spell out a word or phrase. The word or phrase can be a name, a thing, or whatever you like. Usually, the first letter of each line is capitalized. This makes it easier to see the word spe... View more

An acrostic is a poem in which the first letters of each line spell out a word or phrase. The word or phrase can be a name, a thing, or whatever you like. Usually, the first letter of each line is capitalized. This makes it easier to see the word spelled out vertically down the page. Acrostics are easy to write because they don’t need to rhyme, and you don’t need to worry about the rhythm of the lines. Each line can be as long or as short as you want it to be. For example, LOVE becomes ... Life OptimismValuableEverlasting Just to make it a little more interesting here, I would suggest the word or phrase be something positive - words like BELIEVE, VALUABLE, UNIQUE etc. And while I have used individual words, each line could be phase or sentence.

Willow Jude Celebrities who’ve shared mental health experiences
  • replies: 12

Hi everyone! With Summer Rose’s great question last month about who we would bring to our virtual Big Blue Table, as well as recent coverage of Selena Gomez’s struggle with Bipolar Disorder, I was inspired to see if there are any celebrities or publi... View more

Hi everyone! With Summer Rose’s great question last month about who we would bring to our virtual Big Blue Table, as well as recent coverage of Selena Gomez’s struggle with Bipolar Disorder, I was inspired to see if there are any celebrities or public figures whose discussion of their own mental health issues has brought you comfort, inspiration, someone to identify with, etc, either though them sharing your particular diagnosis or experiences, or just being a visible figure who has experienced mental illness in general. My main two, both of whom have helped me feel not alone in my diagnoses, have been Bill Hader who has shared his journey with anxiety, and Pete Davidson who has discussed his struggles with Borderline Personality Disorder. While some of the people who could fit this category may be polarising/not everyone’s cup of tea (one of my examples included!) or may have made some poor decisions in the past, hopefully we can appreciate their sharing of their mental health experiences with the understanding that that doesn’t necessarily mean we agree with all of their choices. I’m looking forward to hearing other members’ perspectives on this! - WJ

Gruffudd Random Compliments
  • replies: 15

This is the theory part: Give a compliment to the person who posted last... Can include positive things about them you have learned, something about their avatar, or you just like their creative forum name... Given no one is above me, I'll just give ... View more

This is the theory part: Give a compliment to the person who posted last... Can include positive things about them you have learned, something about their avatar, or you just like their creative forum name... Given no one is above me, I'll just give myself a random compliment. ^^^ is fantastic at terrible dad jokes.

Jazminaa How are you feeling today?
  • replies: 5

It is always good to check in with people to see how they are going... Ask someone how they are feeling today & post how you are feeling today. I am feeling okay today, I have a lot to be grateful for and I'm trying to remain positive.

It is always good to check in with people to see how they are going... Ask someone how they are feeling today & post how you are feeling today. I am feeling okay today, I have a lot to be grateful for and I'm trying to remain positive.

MaddieT 53 and sad
  • replies: 8

Hi - This is odd to me but I have been commenting on other people's posts and thought it was wrong to not share myself.2020 was the year from Hell for me. I lost my Aunt who considered me her daughter as we were so alike. I had waited until I was 42 ... View more

Hi - This is odd to me but I have been commenting on other people's posts and thought it was wrong to not share myself.2020 was the year from Hell for me. I lost my Aunt who considered me her daughter as we were so alike. I had waited until I was 42 to find my perfect partner but after two years of marriage, he opted out and I still don't know why. I borrowed money so I could live where we were because I loved the area and thought I could get a job there. Was rebuilding my life and working in Victoria and then COVID struck. Everything stopped. I lost my job, all of my social network and still had to go through all of the bits and pieces that come with a divorce without any friends or family. I ended up (after 8 months of lockdowns) having to apply through the government to return to South Australia to be with my family, it took three applications for them to let me go home.It was all very confronting as I had just turned 50 and was going through menopause (Yay life!).I haven't healed yet. Still depressed, still very lonely and now mildly agoraphobic and unemployed.Anyway - that's me

Summer Rose Big Blue Table Forum Style
  • replies: 16

I want to invite you all to lunch.Some of you may know that Beyondblue recently launched a new fundraising event called the Big Blue Table, which runs during Mental Health Month (October). The idea is for people to invite guests to share a meal and s... View more

I want to invite you all to lunch.Some of you may know that Beyondblue recently launched a new fundraising event called the Big Blue Table, which runs during Mental Health Month (October). The idea is for people to invite guests to share a meal and start a conversation about mental health.Some of us may want to participate, but be unable to due to a range of issues, such as poor health, financial pressure, homeless or social isolation. So, I thought we could honour the sentiment here but keep the conversation light in keeping with this thread.So, how about you all bring a dish and if you want tell us why you chose it. And share the name of a famous person (living or deceased) and why, you’d like to invite them to our lunch.I’m making a big tray of lasagna because it’s one of my mother’s most loved recipes. Everyone loved it so much that she was very cheeky and never shared it when asked! She did, however, give it to me when I got married.And I’m inviting Olivia Newton John because I adored her talent, am grateful for her philanthropy and just miss her.Your turn …

AussieGuy123 Leave Australia
  • replies: 7

So, I'm sick of Australia. The tipping point was when my wife and I went to a house, and were outbid by a 50's couple. Then a couple of weeks later the agent came to us and said 'I know you guys really liked the house, would you be interested in rent... View more

So, I'm sick of Australia. The tipping point was when my wife and I went to a house, and were outbid by a 50's couple. Then a couple of weeks later the agent came to us and said 'I know you guys really liked the house, would you be interested in renting it...' I wanted to SCREAM at the agent and the buyers. It was pure EVIL. They didnt 'Need' the house. They were just buying it to deny anyone else it. If I buy a house its going to cost me 65% of my wage while my wage this year went down and looks like staying flat for a few years on top of no capital growth. I don't want to pay for the mistakes baby boomers and Gen X have made. Going on a debt binge and putting all their eggs in Australian property. The lease densely populated continent yet the highest home prices? 95% of finance goes to housing as opposed to the normal 28%. Yet every Baby boomer/gen x'er I talk to says 'When are you going to buy a house? Buy a house. You need to buy a house...' If I buy a house that's 65% of my income gone. It leaves about 200 a week to pay for petrol, bills, etc. That wont go far here in Australia considering a movie ticket is $25. A beer is $10. Shopping will set you back 50-100 a week alone. I really really hate Australia, lining up my generation to pay for their housing debt. I don't know anyone under 30 who owns a house or anyone under 30 who likes living here. If they do want a home they are told to go live a 'convenient 2 hour drive' to the city. or in one of the 'culturally diverse' suburbs... And it will still cost most my pay. A few of my friends have all saved and suggested we all move to america. Were all professionals. We all want our kids to have opportunities other than Australia offers (debt slavery to pay for baby boomers retirement, Mining, retail or government) I guess I'm just fed up and sick of Australia and a lot of my friends have said the same. We don't feel any loyalty to Australia since all its given us is a 40k uni bill and houses we can never buy but have to rent. Has anyone moved to the US with a profession? Were you allowed to buy a house? Can you renounce Australia citizenship and pay US tax instead. From what we can see we pay about 15% less tax Was the move hard? was it worth it?