SolClark

Sandshoes in east Yorkshire

A proper plastic and glass bottle return scheme, like Germany.

Ive just moved back from Melbourne after 2 years. The heat here is worse. They have aircon and frequent evening storms to take the temperatures down. Very rarely is it 35+ for more than 4 days in a row (in Melbourne). The winters are comfortable but not warm by any stretch. Also the only dangerous spiders in Victoria are redbacks, which are small black widow type things. Not very common at all unless you start looking for them in garages etc. They definitely do work life balance better. Politically and socially they're having similar issues to us. Lots of complaints about immigration and housing. Opposition is a reform-esque MAGA-lite.

When did this come in?

No, they just rope off the alcohol aisles in supermarkets.

Had no luck unfortunately - was treated the same as all others moving from Germany so had to go fully private with Bupa. It's not *that* expensive per month but you can expect to be paying a fair chunk of the total bill every time you visit a GP/hospital/dentist.

I'm from Hull, left at 18. Lived in midlands, Scotland, Berlin, Australia and now Manchester at 32. I'd say there is definitely a grass is always greener element - other areas have issues too, and moving abroad especially for any length of time comes with a *lot* of hassle. Id also say that any city is a bit shit if you don't have a social network, which obviously takes a bit of time to build. Having said that, I would never consider moving back to Hull, and my life would be significantly worse had I never made the move originally. That isn't necessarily a comment on how bad Hull is, but on how much you change as a person by trying somewhere completely new. You sound like you will regret it if you don't at least try. Why not rent somewhere on a 6-12 month contract and see how you feel?

Genuinely shocked at your preference for TNT. I find the punditry, pre match buildup and post match analysis a million miles ahead on Sky, and I actively avoid TNT if I can help it. Maybe I'm in the minority Can you elaborate on what you mean?

I left in 2020. Lived in Berlin for 3 years and Melbourne for 2. Moving back to the UK permanently in May. The fact is that there are downsides to everywhere, and inevitably people end up comparing real life in their home country to highlights of places abroad. For example, German bureaucracy is a cliché but I was not prepared for how hostile the state and every company is to the average person. The rules around health insurance and tax in particular are absolutely insane particularly if you're self employed. Happy to elaborate if anybody is interested. Australia is a bit more laid back than the UK and certainly sunnier, but they've got much the same problems we have socially and politically. Much better public sector pay, though of course.

https://preview.redd.it/aaspb25j2o2e1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9212f0698d1c5d3b17ea7f6039c85a06f242e556

Trainline sells tickets all over Europe with the same app and user interface. This is probably done to avoid running into specific problems elsewhere. Trenitalia (Italy's biggest carrier) recently introduced a mandatory 'check in' process between purchase and boarding, regardless of where you buy the ticket. A five minute minimum advance purchase time would get around problems associated with that, for example.

There's a lot of reasons beyond the negative 'terminally online' stereotypes. I've had American spellings drilled into me by editors of journals over the course of my career as a researcher. Even some of the prominent British journals use American spellings as standard. I admit it's a fairly niche example, but I bet that it applies to a lot of journalists too. Any coders or even LaTeX users will be very familiar with the forced use of 'color', for example.

'University town' is still a useful descriptor if used properly. I'd use it for places like Leamington Spa, Canterbury, St Andrews etc where the majority of the facilities and infrastructure seem to be geared towards students, and where the population seems disproportionately young. This most definitely doesn't apply to most cities, where professionals, tourists and families are more commonplace. A good decisive metric for this is whether or not a place turns into a ghost town during summer and winter breaks.

I was indifferent to it until statey funes and cozzy livs followed up. Now I hope we continue the trend indefinitely

My work involves running experiments in foreign labs a lot. The one in the US we use is set up for 24 hour shifts, but only for 3 days (day gap in the middle). Im currently based in Aus and we have neither the staff or the money to send enough qualified people to properly and safely split this time up, so I end up just doing the full thing. It requires continuous action and planning so not like you can grab an hour here and there. I absolutely hate it. Last month I chained one of these 24 hour shifts with a flight to Italy in prep for a 12 hour day shift the following day. Ended up awake continuously for 58 hours. Got 6 hours and started the new shift. I won't do that again. The pay isn't even good

Well, ooh la di da, Mr French Man

This is largely a pedantic point, but unless you're talking about a literal god, surely by definition the creation of the universe is not supernatural because it happened? Physicists can't describe singularities very well, but the inability to accurately model something doesn't make that thing supernatural. Supernatural would be something disobeying established physical laws in a situation where they should definitely apply, like an earthly object not adhering to classical mechanics. I don't think the big bang qualifies, unless you're also willing to say that black holes etc are supernatural.

Mainly on trains. Paul O'Grady on a train to St Pancras, Bill Nighy in the natural history museum, Richard Griffiths also in St Pancras, Scarlett Moffat on the LNER east coast line. Lots of footballers but only because I lived near a training ground. I can't think of a scenario where I would approach any celebrity. It's such a one sided interaction - you get an anecdote and a photo, they just get bothered. I think it's fine to quickly tell somebody you appreciate their work without asking for anything, but that's the absolute limit in my book.

A job is you selling your time to someone else. This is like a customer complaining that the guy at the car dealership has a tattoo. As long as your decisions in your personal life do not inhibit you from doing your job, then your employer has nothing to complain about

Look, I'm hardly a mental health maestro myself, but reach out if you want to chat. I obviously don't know you or your situation, but I really hope you change your mind

'Ben From Canada' for Movies/TV

This used to piss me off too until someone rightfully pointed out that warm wet tea bags in a food bin promote mold and bad smells. It's especially a problem if you live with someone who insists on having the little brown bio bin on the kitchen counter, which I think is much much worse than the teabag thing

If I need to be extremely high functioning on a particular day (i.e. teaching or using hazardous chemicals/machinery), I'll make sure not to drink alcohol for a couple of days before, and limit myself to only a single weak coffee the morning of. I find this limits symptoms to only an increased heart rate and maybe some headaches which I can live with. If I don't do this then I run the risk of being all over the place (shaky hands to an almost comical level and brain fog like you wouldn't believe). Lack of sleep is a big problem for me but I think I hide it well enough. I also go for a run in the evenings before dinner. I find this 'resets' my mind to some degree because I find it basically impossible to entertain a coherent thought while doing high-intensity exercise. I definitely need therapy for this and also occasional intense periods of depression, but I spent early twenties in denial (I come from a 'everyone has that, just have a beer and relax' family), then moved to Germany where its oddly taboo to seek help for mental issues and can negatively affect loan applications etc., and now I'm in Australia without public health insurance. Not really sure why I'm telling you this. I don't often stop to actually think about this because I've normalised it to such a ridiculous degree. I don't like to think about how much better I'd be doing if I nipped this in the bud early on.

I'm on my third post doc position but struggle to relate to this. Academia is an absolute scam, don't get me wrong, but in my experience the vast majority of PhDs and above are humble, down to earth people - essentially the opposite of what you describe. The issues in academia can all be traced back to the stronghold publishers have over the entire industry, in my opinion. Perhaps you've been unlucky, or maybe it's field dependent.

We do toilets really well. Currently in the US for work and I'm sick to death of public toilets with gaps in the stall doors, water level high enough to dip your balls in, and often no toilet lid at all. Then you have e.g. the Hungarian shelf loos and the heated Japanese toilet seats. We do it best.

It's ...fine. it does the job, it's just filthy and really short on space. Its certainly no Edinburgh airport. To all those saying that there's nothing wrong with MAN, how many years has it been since the travelators between terminals were working? 5? 10?

People who say that they're 'humbled' when they're e.g. collecting an award. Surely they mean the absolute fucking opposite

I recently started making an conscious effort to stop making this mistake, but I've been wondering if there's a regional aspect to this. It does not come at all naturally to me to ever say 'fewer' in a sentence, and growing up (east yorkshire) I'm fairly sure I never heard anybody use anything other than 'less than'. Maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

Also people who use 'its safe to say...' before banal statements or observations. If its used online it's usually followed by a crying happy emoji which somewhat hastens my rise to anger.

Washing a colander. Those holes really slow down the rinsing phase

You're getting downvoted but is this really a controversial opinion? I'm originally from Hull where you can get something half decent for 100k, but I'd need a complete career change to move back home to take advantage of it. Not trying to cause an argument, just genuinely interested in other perspectives.

This is a good one. I wish I made the thread less focussed on our international image. Might have made the comments look a bit less like an echo chamber

I don't see how? An Indian restaurant in the UK is a hell of a lot different to that of e.g. Germany, Australia, Japan, USA etc and presumably also India though I've not had the fortune to visit. By 'British style Indian curry house' I mean the specific variation of Indian cuisine found in the UK, which while most obviously is Indian in origin, is influenced by the specific regions from which the Indian community in the UK derive, and has evolved over time to be what many consider to be the national dish. When I say 'British' I don't necessarily mean white. If you're born here then you're British with zero need to tack on extra adjectives.

Lost in Translation really gets to me

You are having a difficult discussion to everybody else here.

But their sentences come to an end regardless of whether they're actually ready to reintegrate don't they? So how is it better not to try

very broadly speaking, we agree. But if mass extinctions is 10 on the scale and the sewage problem is 1, then the NHS is 1.1. Surely you see the precedent that it might set? If this type of discussion is normalised and euthanasia becomes legal partly due to it, what is to stop vulnerable people being coerced into ending their lives to ease pressure on services that are failing only because they're underfunded and/or poorly managed? I'm all for some level of self-sacrifice when there is a societal threat (e.g. cutting meat consumption and utilising public transport to help the planet), but sacrificing your life to help an NHS staff shortage is on a whole other level.

What if I said that I was pro-euthenasia because it'll reduce sewage overflow on the south coast, or that it'll alleviate some of the fresh produce shortages in supermarkets? The current state of public services should have no bearing on whether people should take their own lives. We're not at the stage where we've exhausted all other options.

Probably the NHS bit. It reminded me of the 'have we tried killing all the poor' sketch from Mitchell and Webb.

You lost me quite abruptly in paragraph 3