Twitter's on fire so I guess I'm back here

the Baths have been closed since 1978; I genuinely have no idea why this became a point of discourse in the year of our lord 2026, but that's TikTok for you (or, more accurately, Instagram reels, because I will never view a single TikTok in my life, I am 33 and I cannot be doing it)

and now to the meatier point: yes, the Baths themselves are Roman, but the geo-thermal spring that forms the basis of the Baths was already a sacred site for the pre-Roman Celtic people who lived in the area. Archaeological evidence is pretty firm on this. A cool, groovy fact about the Romans is that a lot of their religion (and just their imperial tactics in general) was based on the principles of syncretism. In practice, this means incorporating beliefs, practices or deities from one religion into another. The Romans figured out that, rather than suppress all local religion, it was easier to allow the people in the areas that you've conquered to continue to worship their gods, with the caveat that you're going to really highlight the similarities between their gods and yours, and strongly suggest that their gods are really just versions of yours, because Roman superiority, or something. This is called interpretatio Romana for the Latin freaks out there. Before the Romans turned up, the springs at Bath were already a worship site for the Celtic goddess, Sulis. The Romans looked at Sulis, waved their arms about a bit, and said 'cool, so Minerva, yeah?' and built the Baths on that site, dedicated to Sulis-Minerva - a version of the Celtic Sulis which was syncretised with the Roman Minerva. The Celtic people got to keep a version of their god, the Romans got their Baths, and everyone was happy, damp, and warm. In theory, anyway. That's not really how imperialism works, but y'know.

As the city train station is called Bath Spa, the city is Bath, the spa is Thermae Bath Spa, and the Roman attraction is the Roman Baths, and the spa at Bath is a famous and popular attraction where you can swim in the authentic waters of the hot springs, and they’re all on top of each other, it’s no wonder that people are constantly incredibly confused. I am genuinely sympathetic about people getting confused on the internet when grown adults from all over the planet can’t understand it, when they’re looking right at it and receiving explicit instructions about it.

As the Thermae marketing puts it, Thermae Bath Spa offers a unique opportunity to bathe in Bath’s naturally warm, mineral-rich waters just as the Celts and Romans did over 2,000 years ago.

This is because it is the same water. The water that is cleaned. Kuzco’s water.

Thermae Bath Spa draws water from the three springs – the King’s Spring (from under Stall Street), the Cross Bath (with some water rising directly to the surface of the Cross Bath in order to honour the desires of the Spring Foundation to let an unadulterated source of the water rise from Mother Earth into the atmosphere) and the Hetling Spring (a new bore hole sunk in 1998 and 2011). The water is tested weekly and has been consistently biologically hygienic.

That’s because they treat the water, because brain-eating amoeba are both a) optional and b) bad for spa marketing.

The reasons they haven’t cleaned up the Roman Baths for public swimming is because those buildings do far better as a delicate and important piece of heritage that people are perfectly happy to buy tickets to. Why the hell should a Roman cultural site also be run as a swimming pool. Like, why bother doing that. The reason you can’t swim in it is because there’s no incentives for letting you. But the amoeba aren’t a blocker. Amoeba are entirely optional. Nor is it insane to want to swim in the UK’s most famous hot spring. The same waters are right there to swim in - in a different building next door.

At the 1985 Labour party meet, the motion to support LGBT rights as a party was passed due to a block vote from mining unions.

1. borrowing misery from future

2. carrying grief of the past

you should also never ever unplug the air conditioner and stick a flashlight in the vent that blows air to see if we're in there. it's very bad, that place should not be checked

and whatever you do, if you've already made the mistake of unplugging it, don't remove it from the window for cleaning if possible. and whether it's possible to remove the unit or not, don't carefully disassemble the front panel, document where the screws go and plastic bits go, and open up the vent more to be able to get into it easily

as black mold, i'm an expert on this. you should heed my warnings: now, if you've somehow made the mistake of doing all of the above, you should not use warm water and dish soap to CLEAN the inside of the vent thoroughly. DON'T ever use a bottle brush to get into the hard to reach places. and certainly don't rinse and dry the cleaned area before carefully putting it back together

there's nothing wrong with us, black mold. we don't cause or exacerbate breathing conditions like asthma or other illnesses. it's cool, we're cool

furthermore, if you're capable of removing the window unit, DONT take a hose with the same soapy water and wash the portion of the window unit that sits outside the window and is therefore weatherproofed.

whatever you do, don't allow the air conditioner to dry before plugging it back in and turning it on again

and if you have a central air conditioner, you will definitely never ever consult a manual or sources online to perform a similar cleaning procedure on the cooling unit outside.

It is a lot of elbow grease and definitely not just spraying a can and waiting. Especially do not use the ones that are self rinsing via the natural condensation of water around the coils where all you have to do is let the foam settle a couple hours before turning the unit back on. These foaming cleaners are also terrible to use on the removable air intake vent covers. You definitely do not just have to spray the opposite side of all the trapped shit on the plastic mesh and let the foam push it off. Also that stuff on the cover is great for you and your air conditioner.