Seconded. I like to slather steaks in english mustard. My partner and kids think I’m insane.
Another annual tradition for me is leftover Christmas ham, in white bread, with loads of english mustard, while sitting on my ass watching the cricket.
The older I get the more I appreciate usability over a cheap price tag.
Our current washing machine demands the gathering of an audience by loudly singing the song of its people a full minute or more before it will let you open the damn door. It also has no respect for human arms, requiring a traversal from far left (soap dispenser ), to far right (power on), to centre (program select), then back to the far right for temperature and spin adjust and finally cycle start. Put the damn controls in a logical order across the top of the machine for fuck’s sake!
Not sure about BIFL, but I’m reasonably happy with my Merrell’s.
Men’s MOAB 3 GORE-TEX (Wide) Beluga Hiking Boot | Men’s Hiking | Merrell Australia https://www.merrellaustralia.com.au/products/moab-3-gtx-beluga
Haven’t tried them in snow, but they’ve handled mud, tropical rain storms and deep puddles just fine. Comfy for my wide feet. Recently changed the laces after about 15 months, other than that they’ve been durable.
Australia has two public broadcasters: ABC and SBS. Both provide reasonably balanced reporting.
abc.net.au/news is the main one, similar in concept to the BBC. Officially they don’t support RSS feeds any longer, but they still exist and work. See https://james.cridland.net/blog/2025/abc-news-australia-rss-feeds/
sbs.com.au/news is our “Special Broadcasting Service” and caters to our more multicultural and indigenous audiences in general, but their news is fairly solid, perhaps without the breadth and depth of the ABC. Their main RSS news feed is at https://www.sbs.com.au/news/feed and they have others. See https://feedsearch.dev/api/v1/search?result=true&url=sbs.com.au
+1 if it is a food tour. That’s my go-to for a new country.
(I’m talking about international travel mainly, although my process also works for longer domestic trips.)
My longer answer is “it depends on what sort of traveller you are and how long you’ve got.” Want to catch the main sights quickly? A hop on hop off bus loop can get you past the big ones with commentary in an hour or two and help you orient yourself in a new city, which can be a good way to fill a layover. For a longer visit, I like to start with a food tour, as you tend to pick up all sorts of local knowledge. For example, visiting Hanoi a few years ago we did a food tour on the first night there and our guide got us comfortable crossing the road on foot.
When we do a walking tour we look for the slightly oddball or themed ones because we’re not that much into mass market tourism and prefer to get more of a local experience that way. I find sites like Viator, GetYourGuide or WithLocals good places to start.
For longer stays in a single place I’ll research the main attractions and build an itinerary around those I want to visit. I’m old enough that I prefer buying some old fashioned guide books and starting there with highlighters and post-it notes before heading online to dive deeper. Mainly I value someone collating and editing the content and I find the blogs, forums and travel sites a little too hyper focused or promotional when I’m broad brushing at first. Sometimes I find gems that I add to the list.
I plot what I want to see on a map, then work out how and when based on transport links and proximity where appropriate. When we did a lap of France it started with a big old paper map pinned on the wall, when we did Singapore and Malaysia I used a list in Google maps.
Once I have the rough outline done I dive into the details online and build myself a detailed run sheet, with the hard points, like flights and hotels and booked tours, useful stuff, like currency and time conversions, reminders for things like e visa applications due, and pick lists of possibilities for filling up in between. About once a week or so I include a do nothing day.
I am not a sit on the beach doing nothing traveller, so that process works for me. I find if I don’t have at the very least a list of things to pick from then we tend to procrastinate and end up doing absolutely nothing, which to me always feels like a waste after paying for the airfare and accommodation. YMMV
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinmar_von_Brennenberg
From what I can tell it’s a depiction of song lyrics, not an actual event.
For some reason, the version I get is slightly different. Instead of chilli sauce I get fried shallots. Still get the segments with kecap manis and oil and spices. Holding the shallot end while cutting means no oily fingers. The other sachet, with the salt/seasoning, has a second segment with chilli powder.
Shall we start comparing how we prepare the deliciousness? First, fill the kettle and set it off. After dumping the package contents into a bowl, add half a cup (or more, if you have a big bowl) of frozen peas. Use your scissors to chop in a couple of fresh spring onions, two or three birdseye chillies, then add more fried shallots, chilli crisp and a good sprinkle of togarashi powder, throw in an ice cube portion of frozen lemon juice. About now the kettle should have boiled, so fill the bowl with hot water. Wait two minutes and dig in. Tasty meal in about five minutes with minimum dishes.
Or, the squid is having the best day ever, getting a piggy back ride from their bestest buddy whale.
Wheeee!
These sorts of calculations always do my head in.
It’s likely that the $4M has some rate of return, meaning that you could do this on a bit less. Well, as long as the return exceeded the increase in median income each year. You don’t want the capital to run out before you.
I taught myself VBA when I inherited a job that involved taking data from multiple sources and producing summary reports of various types for multiple stakeholders. The person before me spent days each week doing it, it took me about a week of learning and playing to bring that down to 5 minutes or so.
I found VBA useful for dealing with administrivia.
I ended up doing similar things multiple times afterwards, with variations on source data (excel, text files, word docs), source data location (local drive, network, databases, SharePoint) and output (pivots, charts, tables, text files, email, word docs, etc.) depending on what was needed. Someone else mentioned data validation already.
Automate the boring stuff.
Similar to their concept of the post-yardwork, let me introduce “the 'miring”, the beer you have after completing some DIY project, drunk in silent contemplation of the result.
Partner: “All done love?” Me: “Yep, just having a 'miring. Be with you in a minute.”
I’ll push the boundary somewhat and nominate bitters. I enjoy bourbon and bitters, as in an old fashioned without the sugar. Earlier this year I purchased some Orinoco bitters, which are spiced - think cumin and cardamom. I’ve been alternating the tropical fruit flavours of the more traditional Angostura with the Orinoco. I must get my hands on some citrus bitters too.