I’m a) currently travelling in Europe, and b) not American. I have encountered plenty in the six weeks or so I’ve been here though. Right now I’m sitting on a riverboat that is about three quarters Americans.

I’ve found that some of the stereotypes are true. Mostly the Americans are loud. Some are loudly ignorant. Some make questionable choices - I’ve seen a few wearing the American flag on their clothes, or blatant bible references.

However, the vast majority of the Americans I’ve spent time talking to are embarrassed by the current political shenanigans. We’ve encountered a few in full throttle support, but it’s rare.

I’ve found the Canadians interesting. Most we’ve spoken with are avoiding visiting America and plan to do so for a few years yet. More than one has said they’re afraid an over zealous border guard would dent them entry, which would affect any travel plans for years into the future, so they’re not taking the chance. Sounds fair to me.

Are Americans abroad garbage? No, not all. Some are. But they do stand out like dog’s bollocks.

We have a bakery truck that drives around playing the ice cream truck music. Does that count?

I guess it is just what you’re used to. In my mind a deer is somewhat exotic, or cute. A ‘nice’ animal. Whereas to me a kangaroo is somewhat annoying, like a large rat. If I’m walking the dog at night I occasionally have to scare a mob off to clear our path. You can’t pat them or approach too closely as they can attack if they feel threatened or scared. Rare, but I’m not going to take that chance. And so many end up as roadkill as fences tend not to stop them. So, not so nice overall.

Interesting to see all the different experiences from around the world.

I live on the outskirts of an Australian city, a couple of hundred metres away from farmland and national park. Opposite me we overlook a large public open space/park.

We have a resident family of magpies. There’s a few cockatoos in the large gum tree next door. There are some kookaburras living in the park who sometimes visit the trees out the front of our place. The odd eagle circling high above. Too many mynas these days. Lots of rosellas and grass parrots. A smattering of finches.

There are tons of kangaroos around. They come into the park to feed at night. During the day they retreat into the national park and we see them when out walking the dog. I’ve run across echidnas and red belly black snakes in the national park, but not technically seen from my window, although we were maybe 15 minutes walk from my front door.

We get the occasional blue tongue lizard visiting our backyard. I found a eastern brown snake skin in the yard once too, but didn’t see its owner. One of my neighbours reported one in his backyard last spring, and my kids have spotted one in the park on the way home from school once, so we know they’re around. There are rabbits around here somewhere and we regularly see them on the nature strip out front at night.

We have the usual assortment of crawlies around. Ants. Spiders. Geckos. Midges. Flies.

There are a couple of horse ajistment places nearby and a pony club. It’s not uncommon to see horses being exercised through the park. Two of our neighbours own horses and ride them home occasionally.

https://youtu.be/hBWTcAAtMj4?t=30

First thing that popped into my head.

The clothes that juuuuust don’t quite fit that I’m hoarding just in case I manage to lose that wright I’ve been trying to lose for the last thirty years now.

To give you an Australian perspective here are some current indicative prices for solar installations over here. https://www.solarquotes.com.au/panels/cost/

My son went for his driver’s licence a little over a year ago. The examiner recorded the test on an iPad and showed me snippets afterwards of things he had to work on for his next attempt.

“Going in for a closer look.”

V

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Yep, I’m well aware that I’m privileged. I’m concerned about the world my kids will live in as they grow up.

This sounds like retirement.

Source: am retired

The YouTube channel The Tim Traveller has covered a few (along with a bunch of other esoteric sights, I really enjoy his stuff).

Example: https://youtu.be/iXSkjw0Kytk?si=J_X-3rbCluOcXRyz

When we built this house we specified power outlets in each toilet for exactly this reason. The low light levels from the motion sensor lamps we have don’t sear your eyeballs when you get up in the middle of the night to pee.

I am choosing to interpret the instructions as dumping a full bottle of pancake mix into the rice cooker, cook twice, then tip out the resulting pancake-cake and slice it up thinly like a pressed ham. I guess slice extra thinly for crepes?

Found it! https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZjbBb3eEYxttpzvT6

I was in Singapore just last week and I swear it wasn’t so perfectly round then. Did I miss an earthquake or something?

IIRC, the Mandarin for “four” sounds similar to “death”, so it is considered unlucky/inauspicious. I think OP was subtly suggesting that the CCP would rather do something to avoid the consequences of climate change than not. Those consequences including social upheaval, resulting in an unhappy populace, resulting in their possible removal from power.

I always lean towards Bosch where possible, mainly because of their charitable work. The founder set things up so that it’s perpetually funded from the company profits. That just appeals to me as the tiebreaker when deciding between a bunch of similarly priced tools that will otherwise do the job well enough.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bosch_Stiftung

That said, I tend to go for corded options where practical. I have some corded tools that I’ve owned for over thirty years now that still get occasional use. Battery tools are convenient for their portability, but they do have a limit to their useful life.