ilikeanswers

It might work better than you expect😜

Got a butcher made duck and veal pot pie for Christmas eve. Very delicious French style gravy, probably the last thing I'll be baking this year with the heat wave coming🥵

Four N Twenty meat pies were on SnackMasters this week. You can watch the ep if you want to see how these delicacies are made. Unfortunately you do have to log in: Snackmasters Four'N Twenty Classic Meat Pie & King Sized Sausage Roll Went to a Christmas market last night got a Christmas pie with roast chicken, pork, gravy and breadcrumbs stuffing. It was really nice.

My mum renewed her passport thinking it would take a long time and she has a trip planned next year. Sent her application last week recieved tracking details from post yesterday. No priority or express so I reckon the passport office must have cleared the backlog.

Sounds like you probably should have done an expedition style cruise if you were looking for something with less big cities. Only the smaller ships can stop at the little towns or wilderness areas.

Not everywhere. Depends where you go. I spent two weeks island hopping Hawaii and only paid for parking twice, both in Honolulu.

I have tried! Maybe the tongue twister is the universe's way, of telling us there is something underhand going on😜.

This situation requires a card If only you could give one to the universe to make it leave you alone😔. In the meantime let the love and support of family and friends carry you. You will never be a burden to them so don't ever feel guilty for leaning on them.

Oh sorry I must have mixed up the zeros😳. I don't usually exchange $1000 or over so my mind went straight to $100. My debit card has no fees whatsoever along with market rate exchange. I use an app to locate fee free ATMs which usually are bank ones or companies my card provider has a deal with so I haven't paid foreign exchange fees on my debit card transactions in many years. That is why when comparing I focus on the exchange rate and probably why I can't remember what the fees were in my examples assuming there were fees as I notice many foreign exchange businesses just bundle the fee into to the exchange rate just so they can advertise as "fee free"😬.

I have to admit US$10 for US$100 does look a bit too much for me😂. I suppose it is also a matter of perspective, you see the difference as paying for something you value which I assume is a sense of security. I'm not as worried about my debit cards so to me that is money I could be spending on other things I more enjoy. As for numbers I can't remember all details but I remember some of the losses I calculated on AU$100 vs market rates For XPF was about AU$12, PLN was the worst around AU$20 but also AUD was dropping at the time so it could have impacted and HRK was around AU$14. Without remembering the US exchange rates for my experiences it makes it hard to compare to your example but I guess it is not too bad, though it wouldn't convince me to give up a debit card😂.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, I did understand your point I just thought it is interesting how different the US experience is. For you there is little difference between a bad and good exchange rate but for me the gap between good and bad exchange rates is much bigger. If there aren't any bank ATMs around I won't even exchange anything below AU$100 because the exchange rates I experience usually makes the value just not worth it.

If you were exchanging AUDs you might think twice 😜. As Americans you're lucky your currency is basically desirable every where so your exchange rates aren't as bad. Unless I am exchanging for USDs, Euros or NZDs I have found converting AUDs to local currency is on average a big loss even for small amounts (two exceptions was NOK and JPY where we got great deals). Now I almost exclusively use ATMs since I get market rates and either no or low fees. With how much I have saved in fees and unfavourable exchanges even if I didn't get reimbursed for a compromised debit card I'd still come out ahead😂.

Reading the original post the OP said after making a report the Chief Security Officer told them that only plumber and cabin steward entered their room and that he would investigate but expected them to deny. It seems to me the Chief Security Officer is making the insinuation that plumber or cabin steward committed the fraud and the OP was just going along with what they were being told.

To be fair there are certain medical conditions that make touch technology very difficult to use. My father use to work with computers so he is fairly technologically adept but his condition means phone screens don't respond to his touch and his voice is unrecognisable by those virtual assistant apps so mobile phones are difficult for him to use and not by choice. I have modified his phone so it is better suited to his condition but unfortunately many apps don't support these modifications. I understand that people like my father are a tiny minority and for a lot of these companies including cruising it would not be profitable to make more disabled friendly apps but I do still find it a bit sad that society doesn't want to carve out a little space for these people☹️.

I don't know if I would describe it as a class system but I do agree there is a gap between the tech literate and illiterate. I heard someone once describe the gap as equivalent to reading writing literacy at the turn of last century. I see it personally with my own parents, the things they miss out on because they cannot understand modern tech on top of which their disabilities make some technologies really difficult to use. In Uruguay they are trying to close the gap with a government funded program to teach seniors how to use tablets. Apparently results have been good with participants able to use many apps they couldn't before.

I personally have always found eating food that I enjoy to be a much more pleasurable experience than eating food that others may like but I am not as fond of. Call me crazy if you like but if the choice is there I would always chose my own taste buds preferences over another person's opinion😜.

I still follow the local tipping customs no matter what is expected/hoped of foreign tourists and when I visited French Polynesia I did what the locals do which was not to tip and no one batted an eye. The prices are already high, they have covered all their costs and factored in profits, not to mention most of the tour companies are family run businesses or sole traders so they are practically owner operated. Tipping in countries where it is not the norm just jacks up prices and can cause discrimination against local patrons. There is really no reason to tip where tipping is not the norm.

My unusual/unpopular opinion: I, would be happy to sail on a no frills ship. I'm not attracted to the resort style amusements of mass market cruises and I'm not too keen on the luxury of small ship cruises. I'm strongly motivated by itinerary so I don't really care too much about ship features. Simple entertainment, usually enrichment activities are enough for me. As long as the cabin is comfortable enough to sleep in, the food edible and there is at least one deck for taking in the views I wouldn't really need anything else.

My first cruise technically was a 5 night yacht trip around the Whitsundays. First actual ship trip was 13 nights around the Marquesas.

On Aranui 3 they had whole deck for smokers, unfortunately for me it was also a deck with really good views 😆. Coincidentally I was just reading another thread where a lot of people were wishing smoking lounges on cruise ships were brought back.

Sweden doesn't seem to means test at all as I remember reading that the guy who created Ikea Ingvar Kamprad was able to collect the Swedish pension despite being a billionaire. Though after he died I also remember Swedes not being to happy about this when they learnt he spent his life avoiding paying Swedish taxes😂. It is debates like these that sometimes make me think maybe a universal basic income isn't such a crazy idea especially when compared to our already screwed up social services. If nothing else it would be a heck of a lot less bureaucratic 😵‍💫 .

☹️

Now I feel a bit naive😳. I always just assumed I could EFT the money if I was in that situation

Last year we did a similar route, did you do the Paperbark walk in Agnes Water? I found it such a lovely surprise. This year we decided to do western QLD. Couldn't get to Birdsville thanks to flooding but did get as far west as Boulia via the Winton Boulia road which I thought lived up to it reputation as beautiful drive though according to the Middleton hotel owner the landscape was greener than he had experienced in years living there. La Nina takes and then gives😂.