It’s cool outside but it’s sunny so this is manageable for me.

I know objectively it’s not warm and yet it doesn’t feel that cold? And my windows didn’t fog up like nobodies business cooking either.

In terms of tourism probably one of the few legitimate sights of interest.

Agreed red rooster is superior these days.

I hung some of mine out last night and some this morning. I’m not super confident it’s going to fully dry today. Maybe by the end of tomorrow provided the sun holds up.

My slippers are more ugg boots than your traditional slippers.

How can people not? My feet would be freezing if I didn’t even with socks!!

Looking at my energy usage it’s clear my hot water system is the biggest user of energy.

Lol ba boom! ching!

If nuclear was so brilliant the private sector would have done it already. They haven’t because the cost far outweighs the benefit.

And as far taxpayer intervention goes to prop it up I just don’t see any compelling evidence to suggest investment in nuclear will give you better bang for your buck than renewables.

In some countries without much wind, sun and waves nuclear might make sense provided they could cheaply get uranium and dispose waste cheaply. That’s not Australia and we have options.

How many years ago we talking? (just curious).

Hmm I disagree. There’s many restaurants in tourist areas that have excellent food. Western food is of course more expensive than local food, but still a hell of a lot cheaper than AU.

So I’m watching YouTubers that are travelling in northern Australia. At one particular site (Tom Price Tourist Park) they paid 80 dollars at a campsite for the privilege of pitching a tent.

In many SE Asia countries you could get a very nice 4 star hotel room for that price, usually with a nice breakfast included.

And people wonder why folks don’t do tourism in Australia.

I’m going to bed tonight at 10:30 and I’m going to shut my eyes and not be tempted to use my phone.

In reality you should take two cards on your trip just in case you lose one, or one doesn’t work.

For me I used my ING card, which provides 100% full fee rebate on the first 5 eligible fee incurring ATM withdrawal transactions made on the account in that month (excludes International ATM operator fees).

My second card was a wise card. You can load the currency you want on the card and use wise set exchange rate, which is very reasonable. In terms of fees, each calendar month you have a free withdrawal allowance (varies by currency and country) — you can withdraw money up to that amount without any variable fees .

A variable fee changes based on how much you withdraw (and the country). For example, if your card was issued in the EEA, your card has a 1.75% variable fee. If you withdraw 100 EUR, then the variable fee would be 1.75 EUR.

Wise charge the variable fee for every withdrawal on your Wise card over your monthly allowance, regardless of how many times you made a withdrawal that month.

Whatever card you use, often the biggest fee is the foreign atm charging like a wounded bull that your financial institution has no control over (I’m looking at you Thailand and your 7 dollar withdrawal fees).

Before you go, check which banks in the destination country charge the lowest ATM fees for foreign cards.

Something else to be aware of is Aussie banks rejecting foreign transactions. Recently overseas I tried to pay for a hotel with an ING card and ING kept rejecting the payment despite me telling them I was overseas. In this scenario I used my Wise Card instead and all was good, so just be aware that Australian Banks in general can be really annoying when you are overseas.

Today’s society seems to consist of an awful lot of whinging over either current or historical matters.

At some point whinging needs to turn into action.

Pangea Maps look cool but bloody hell they are outrageously expensive.

Who are we subject to though? Banks and Google I suppose.

I find myself much more interested by international news.

Aussie news is basically all about housing/interest rates with the odd splash of violent crime.

Like what is Australia’s future exactly? Who do we want to be? What’s our goal? I feel like these questions are rarely answered, to say nothing of actual practical plans to get there.

Yep and it fucking sucks.