I’m sure a pegging gag could be inserted here.

• Those who enjoy movies starring Lemmy Kilmister

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.

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!

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

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

From what I can tell it’s a depiction of song lyrics, not an actual event.

Or, the squid is having the best day ever, getting a piggy back ride from their bestest buddy whale.

Wheeee!

Provided the nonsense in the middle east doesn’t escalate too badly we’re off to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix next month. So today we tried Azerbaijani food for the first time: khangal and fisinjan. Bloody lovely.

April Hill Writing

Opinion seems to be that Ferrari failed in building an electric car that no-one wants to buy.

I wonder if they deliberately built something they know won’t be a success so they can point to that failure as pushback on regulations that would prevent them continuing to build traditional petrol cars.

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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.

Not shady, and not strictly a finfluencer either, but Chris Kohler has more hits than misses in his finance inspired short videos.

https://youtube.com/@chriskohlernews

Toowoomba is missing? I had a boss from there once. Very proud of the fact it was the second biggest inland city in the country.

Having been on a few Segway tours I was surprised when they stopped making them. Easy to learn, fun to ride. Eventually they will age out and be gone. I wouldn’t buy one for myself to have at home, but for whizzing around sightseeing when on holiday they’re great.

One of my favourite things about being retired is the ability to go to the shops in the middle of the day, when it’s quiet. No crowds. Parking. No rush. Bliss!

Been through this.

After an allergy test revealed that I had a dust allergy I bought a Dyson to replace our cheap generic vacuum cleaner and thought it was the bee’s knees. Then the power switch went. And it would clog the power head constantly. Then, at about 10 years old it packed it in completely when the motor died.

Replaced that with a Miele which hasn’t missed a beat. So much so we bought a second when we moved into our current house (one for upstairs, one for downstairs, I’m lazy). In terms of suction they are the same or better, but ergonomically they shit all over the Dyson. Not as purple though.

I’m retired, so yeah, time off work isn’t an issue. We get away pretty regularly, domestically and internationally. I guess about two months a year, in aggregate, on average?

Vacuum Cleaners

We have four.

One lives in my backyard shed, for cleanups and dust collection.

One lives in my garage, for cleaning the cars.

Our house is split level, so we have one for upstairs and another one for downstairs. All to save carrying it up and down the six steps that divide the front and back of the house. These two are the same make and model.

Are transport and accommodation costs included in staging?