According to Wikipedia, “the world population … was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded eight billion in mid-November 2022. It took around 300,000 years of human prehistory and history for the human population to reach a billion and only 218 years more to reach 8 billion.”

There are PLENTY of people in the world. Some of them need to get off my lawn. Grrr.

Sadly they moved away, and let the flat to concrete-shod students.

Cold baked beans straight from the tin, eaten with a spoon. I’m grinning thinking of my dinner guests’ faces as they contemplate their tins.

Lived downstairs from a couple who were in a chamber orchestra - he was cello, she was violin. They apologised, but I LOVED my morning recital, even if it was only part of the full score.

I got a gift card to a steak restaurant as a thank you for a huge favour. It was the last place I’d go for a meal. I’d rather have had a book token - I could have bought half a dozen books, and instead it was a not very enjoyable meal for two.

Card games. We used to have card nights every week back in the 70s. One of the most fun games was something called Racing Demon. Each player has a full pack and all play at the same time. We would have 15 people sitting on the floor in a circle, all screaming. It gets CRAZY. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerts There are hundreds of card games, with a huge range of skill required. There are a lot of trick-taking games similar to bridge where you play with a partner - euchre, whist, 500. All you need is a few packs of playing cards. (Everyone brought their own pack for Racing Demon, lol.)

God, me too. I thought I was too dumb to “get it”.

Imagine a cup of coffee being all you look forward to.

https://youtu.be/s-mOy8VUEBk

Office I worked in had shower rooms. I did bike to work but never showered there because eeewwww.

• Ardbeg

I’ll add in her something I learned recently - whisky can become “corked”, ie if the stopper is made of cork, it can go bad and ruin the drink’s flavour. I thought this was just a wine thing, but apparently it can happen with whisky too.

I’m happy just to know they’re there, living their lives.

I saw takahē in captivity too, in Zealandia. You can sort of see why they almost went extinct - their big defence move is to sit reeeeally still. Big silly chooks.

https://www.visitzealandia.com/About/Wildlife/Birds

https://www.doc.govt.nz/our-work/takahe-recovery-programme/

Ive travelled a lot, and I’ve never been yelled at in any other airport. In other international hub airports you follow “transit” signs to get to the main waiting area, with shops, cafes, bars etc.

This is it. Yes, spinning HDDs may be cheaper, but replacing mine with an SSD made my PC faster and quieter, especially on boot.

About half an hour ag

TIL, that is so interesting! I should start selling my blackcurrant jam in the States, it’s delicious.

A couple of times I’ve travelled Air NZ route that goes London-Auckland via LAX. The plane has to stop to refuel I guess. All the passengers are forced to queue up to be fingerprinted and have their eyeballs scanned, while a security guard walks up and down screaming “STAY IN THE LINE!” Then they’re herded into a lounge barely big enough to hold everyone (first class passengers have their own little pen next to the toilets). Apologetic air crew distribute apples, crisps and bottles of water. For hours. Through a glass wall is a view of the rest of the airport: shops, cafes, bars, space to stroll. But hey, at least you get to not miss your flight, and the US is safe from Kiwi tourists.

I don’t know if they still do this, I avoid the route.

Uxorious: devoted to one’s wife.