DillyDaily @ DillyDaily @lemmy.world

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2 yr. ago

I'll tip the waitress who politely put up with my dad as he makes a racist fool of himself over dinner. She doesn't deserve that at work, she deserves compensation (and my dad wonders why we only go out once a year)

I'll tip the barista who managed to pull some tables together and keep track of my 25+ coffee order as I attempted to wrangle all of my students into a Cafe when Melbourne decided to rain on our botanical garden excursion. No one in hospo wants a 25 top coming in unannounced, let alone a group as roudy as my students. They deserve a tip.

I'll tip the restaurant that took the time to ask me clarifying questions about my allergies and make me something off menu after cleaning down the kitchen for cross contamination. I wasn't expecting anything more than black coffee because I knew going in, there was nothing on the menu I could eat. It's my friends favourite restaurant and it's their birthday so I'm not going to reject the invite. I don't expect the staff to cater to me, but they do, so I feel a tip is warrented.

Tipping has it's place, I tip more than most, my friends will often make fun of me for how often I tip (look, I'll be honest, I do tip a lot because I have allergies and as a customer I know I'm extra work) but the way the Australian service industry is trying to use Americanised tipping culture to compensate for wage theft and stagnated income rates is disgusting.

Tuesday afternoon $7 tickets at the independent cinema, a trip to IGA and a big purse means I can manage a decent $20 date for two.

But I don't really want to sit elbow to elbow with strangers in a sticky uncomfortable seat, while kids cry, the guy in front keeps checking his phone with the screen brightness set to "solar flare", and the Capti-view the staff gave me breaks or desyncs halfway through the movie.

The last few times I went the experience was so uncomfortable, I don't think they could give the tickets away for free to make me go again. My best friend and I will take a laptop to the park, relax on a picnic blanket with some Bluetooth headphones and snacks and enjoy a pirated movie in relative peace and comfort. It's a change of scenery and a cheap outting.

As an Australian, I'd also argue that an infestation depends on the species of spider, and how far out of the city you are.

10 daddy long legs (cellar spiders) is a bad time if you have to walk through them, but it's not an infestation, I think I'd need 20 daddy long legs and a few hundred little babies before I say something is infested.

1 red back and an unhatched egg web would count as an infestation for me because I'm currently living in the city, but growing up in a regional town, you'd need 5+ before it's infested.

I've got about 8 chubby bum garden spiders living under the capping of the colorbond, but the fence isn't infested because they're just garden spiders and they're in the garden. That's just where they live. I feel like I'd need 50+ spiders on the fence before I consider breaking out the mortein.

One thing that baffles me is that at McDonald's Australia, a hamburger costs less than a small sundae, and a small sundae is over 2.5x the price of a soft serve.

It makes sense for the soft serve to be a loss leader, but I do find it odd how expensive the sundae and Mcflurry is in comparison.

Also, a flake soft serve currently costs more than a plain soft serve.... It costs 15c more for them not to shove a chocolate bar in your ice cream.

Volume eating is what helps me get into gear. Same sized plate as always, but a smaller, more reasonable portion of the actual food, served on a gigantic bed of lettuce, cucumber, cabbage, shiritake noodles, etc.

I'm feeling full immediately because of the volume, I stay full because the meal itself was an appropriate portion of something nutritious, and after a few weeks of eating like this I find I'm naturally gravitating towards smaller portions of more veggie-heavy meals, recognising when I'm full, and no longer eating with my eyes. I no longer need the bed of cabbage to satisfy my hunger.

Perhaps it has something to do with the gut microbiome and the fibre in the cabbage that just re-wires my stomach to be happy with a diet.

This is my opinion too - you might be able to convince me to roast it in the air fryer, but I'm more likely to cook it in the microwave and then just do a minute in the air fryer to crisp it up (our oven's broiler/grill is broken, otherwise I'd crisp it up under that)

Unless I'm making jacket potatoes for more than 5 people (in which case a big baking tray in the oven makes sense) the microwave is just so fool proof for a cooked spud.

Bitter tea is part of the British tea experience. If you want tea served perfectly and properly with respect to the leaves and bringing out their best flavours, you want to drink tea the way they do in East Asia, not Britain.

So full disclaimer, I'm not a Real Brit™, my mum and her mam (as well as my partner) are from all across the Midlands and my dad's family is from Dundee, but I was born and raised in Australia.

I am an excessive tea drinker even by British standards, and I work with fellow tea addicts. 8 cups a day is a normal day for me (but that's because I used to have a smoke with my cuppa, I gave up the cancer darts but not the tea) I don't really drink water unless I'm at the gym.

The "kettle" we refer to is almost always an electric kettle. You should only ever boil water in them as other liquids can damage the base plates. It takes 1-2 minutes to boil depending on how much water you put in, while it's boiling you get your mug and tea ready. If it's just me having a tea, I'll only fill the kettle to the minimum level. Just enough for one cup.

Your every day standard cup is going to be made with an affordable plain "black tea" tea bag. Something like Typhoo, PG tips, Twinnings (these are the brands I'm familiar with in Australia. We have also have Bushells which is a decent daily cuppa, I think Lipton would be the most accessible outside the UK).

Earl Grey is popular, but wouldn't be considered "a standard cup of tea". (I picture it a bit like coke and Pepsi, it's kind of the same, but if someone orders a coke it's polite to ask "is Pepsi okay?", same with tea, if someone asks for a cup of tea you'd say "earl grey okay?")

"English breakfast" would be the most standard named blend, but in Australia some of our brands just say "black tea bags" and that's it.

If you're planning on drinking more than a cup a day, get a few different blends, it's worth it. Right now in my cupboard I have English Breakfast, Russian Caravan, Earl Grey, and Billy Tea Camp-fire blend (which is an Australian brand but still something we'd consider "standard black", but with a hint of smokiness). I'll usually drink at least two different "flavours" a day, and I also have herbal teas.

Some people get fancy and will have a jar of loose leaf as their daily tea, but it's unlikely they'll use a tea pot, they'll probably use an

Sugar, milk and honey is all completely up to personal preference. My nan would consider black-tea with one teaspoon of sugar and a "dash" of milk to be a "standard brew", but that's why you might hear tea drinkers say "I'll have a tea, white with one" or "black with none". It's always good to specify. Again, experiment with sugar, milk and honey. The only thing you'll be judged on is if you ask for more than 3 sugars (delicious, but how can you taste the tea with so much sugar?)

I make my tea with plant based milk and saccharine tablets, so I'm kind of a tea heathen in that regard.

My 8 cups a day is crazy, I think 3 cups is more typical - one with breakfast, one at morning tea and one at afternoon tea, or perhaps a tea after pudding/dessert.

My 8 cups won't all be black tea, I'll have a chamomile, or peppermint tea to keep the caffeine levels within reason. Those types of tea are normally served without milk, often without sugar, but maybe a small spoon if you have a sweet tooth (honey is popular in herbal teas), again, I'm a bit of a whack job with my milk, so I put oat milk in my chamomile and in my green tea. (though not in peppermint tea. I also have an Auslan Strawberry Gum tea that absolutely does not work with milk, it's too acidic)

Tea can be very astringent (makes your tongue feel dry and tight) and this is often why people will prefer one blend over another, or add milk and sugar.

The astringency is impacted by how long you steep the tea. "leaving the bag in" without asking when serving tea to someone is considered a bit of a faux pas, but because it can result in a stronger, bolder, and more astringent tea, if you like that, you can ask your host to leave the bag in.

This is the what my experience with British -Australian tea culture has been.

The British "stole" tea culture from East Asia and India and made it their own, so other than boiling water in a microwave (please stop doing that America, I know you have the wrong voltage for electric kettles, but putting plain water in the microwave is kinda dangerous) I say tea should be made the way you like it.

TL:DR Boil plain water in an electric kettle. Pour into a cup with an "English Breakfast" tea bag, let it steep for 1-2 minutes. Remove, squeeze and discard bag (unless your guest has asked to leave it in) Add milk and sugar to your personal preferences. Repeat 3 times a day. Experiment with other blends like Earl Grey, Irish Breakfast, Ceylon, Yorkshire Tea, etc and make it your own.

I have so many categories of "lazy meal" because it all depends on what kind of lazy I'm feeling.

Don't want to stand around a hob or worry about burning something? Slow cooker mushroom rissoto or freezer soup (during the month I add odd bits of unused veg and fresh herbs into a zip lock to make vegetable soup with, this means on a lazy day in just dump the whole bag in, pour over some water, press a button and walk away)

Don't want to chop things? Roast sweet potato with canned corn and lebneh/yoghurt/sour cream (stab the yam with a fork and "roast" in the microwave for extra laziness)

Don't want to wash up crockery? Cous cous, Walnut, and cranberry/sultana warm salad (it can be prepared in the same bowl you eat from, which can also totally be a disposable container)

Don't want to wait for something to cook? A slab of cold Japanese tofu with pickled radish & carrot, cucumber, spring onion and whatever sauce (soy, ponzu, teriyaki, etc)

Another "quick cook" go to is what I call "fakers pho". I have pho stock cubes, and a ready to serve shiritaki hot pot noodles. So I just boil the kettle, pour the water over the noodles and cubes, add raw mushroom or tofu (if you had rotisserie chicken in the fridge that would be perfect to rip into) and rip up some coriander & spring onion from outside.

Then there's "don't want to do anything" which is a carton of up-and-go (a pre-made meal replacement shake basically) and a banana or raw carrot to munch on.

But at a certain point my laziness will be bad enough that "bedtime for dinner" sounds good to me.

If someone I think is "high class" or just classy in general offers to brew some tea I'm expecting the loose leaf and a porcelain teapot to come out, and some science about the perfect steeping time for this particular blend.

If I'm in my trackies and slippers having a fag on the patio, and offer to brew tea for the tradie working on a roof, I'm pouring boiling hot water over a dusty 2 cent bag in a thick ass mug, and he knows it.

With my Nan, this means that she's just finished a cup but she'll happily put the kettle back on if you'd like one, but she's not going to just start making tea because she's alright for now, but if are having one she'll join you for another.

If it had been more than 1 hour since her last cuppa she'd just say "I'm putting the kettle on" and that was that, everyone in the house without their milk teeth was getting a cup of tea shoved in their hands once the kettle had boiled.

But if someone is wearing the pants, I'd argue they don't count as empty.

Exactly, if you've got money lying around, invest in something that doesn't require you to get off your ass and ensure the singular person/family selling their labour for your dividends isn't forced to shelter in a mold infested leaky death trap.

You're profiting of someone else's undeniable need for shelter and housing. You can at least fix the broken extraction fan above the gas cooker and not winge about the loss your precious rental income for that week.

The stock market is way easier to invest in than the property market. I genuinely don't understand why landlords take it on, then bitch about it.

Living modestly isn't the same as trimming off all the fat to prioritise survival and savings above all else (which is what this vet tech would need to do to really make a difference for her financial state)

I'm on a very similar income ($36,000AUD) in a country with similar issues surrounding housing, and a quickly rising cost of living crisis. I'm not sure about her exact area, my cousin's in Edmonton, so that's my main reference point.

I live within my means and other than a student loan, I have no debt. But I also have no property and no real assets beyond the everyday items I need for work (laptop, phone, my bicycle)

It is very comforting and peaceful to live within my means. And I often experience a "simplified joy" in moments where work is calm, my family is happy and I have an afternoon off to take my time and bake this week's meals to keep the grocery budget happy and healthy.

But most of the time work is not calm, work is a major contributor of emotional and physical stress, and taking stress leave isn't quite yet a financial option (until I'm approaching mental health breaking point, which so far so good)

Usually the family isn't happy, I've got chronic health issues, my partner and I both have disabilities, it's vital we maintain chunky emergency funds because our savings disappear quickly when one of us needs to see a specialist (public healthcare in Australia is a mess at the moment) so if we're talking about going to the country for the weekend to have a relaxing holiday we're usually deciding its not worth the petrol, train or accommodation costs when for all we know I could require an urgent doctors appointment tomorrow and we'd wished we'd saved all that money.

We're financially smart in the sense that we are 5-6 big emergencies away from bankruptcy which is so much more than most people in my income bracket. But in our experience we tend to get our emergencies in waves where it's one right after another leading into each other. It's scary.

Fortunately we don't want kids, but if we did, I can't see how we'd do that without majority changes to my income stream.

It's also just exhausting to live on a strict budget all the time. I'm definitely getting fit biking halfway across town 3 times trying to shop at Aldi and veg markets because it's the most affordable grocery option, I'm lucky I'm not time poor, but many people working low wage jobs are. Mentally it's hard keeping track of everything all the time, comparing prices and holding back. It's socially exhausting, having to constantly remind friends that unless it's a free or very low cost outting, we won't be hanging out.

Being out at work and feeling exhausted and headachey and knowing some caffeine would help, but I forgot to pack a zip lock bag of instant coffee, so I'm out of options because that's what's budgeted for. So I finish out my day in pain. Likewise, I had to give up my monthly massages because it was a luxury my budget couldn't bear. It didn't reduce my physical capacity, but it has made my daily pain level higher which makes me less happy.

Small things like that's make me feel tired, frustrated, burnt out and angry that my income is so low.

But then I'll have a moment like today, where I'm harvesting the sunchokes i planted in August, thinking to myself, being poor prompted me to grow these, but having them here to water and watch grow has been so good for my mental health and this is such a rewarding experience.....but I could have also had this experience with money in my pocket.

I was definitely more happy and more comfortable 5 years ago when my same income had a higher buying power so my budget wasn't as tight.

I will never want to live outside my means. But boy howdy the cost of living here means I'm getting close to having to make the real tough decisions (like, do I really need to pay extra for certified allergen free ingredients, or can I gamble on the cheaper brands that "may contain traces of") to avoid blowing my budget.

The mantle or shelf above the fireplace, mounted on the chimney part is often wood.

Yes, even if she trimmed her expenses (which I agree is possible, though I don't know much about Canada) she would still not be living a "good" life despite being well educated, and fully employed with stable housing. She would be living a safe, healthy and financially functional, but it would not be a sustainable, happy, and enjoyable life, and her savings contributions would be not be enough to give her financial independence without some serious investments.

Thank you!

Sync for reddit won't help much on the lemmy 😂

But same, I use sync and while I'm still new and learning all the features, the only issue I've had is that I can't work out how yo view large images in HD. But I'm sure I'm just missing the button, because I know you could do it with sync for reddit.

I think it depends what you're trying to learn - I'm slowly teaching myself to use Excel beyond the highschool level understanding I have. It's easy enough to fact-check ChatGPT because the formula either works or it doesn't. And I'm not to fussed if everything I learn to do is a total bodge job, because it's just for my personal development, it's not something I need for work or doing any serious spread sheeting.

Marketing, promotion, quality content generation - which in itself is a bucket load of work.

You've got actual production work, setting up a decent lighting/camera/sound system for your content, preparing everything you need to film or run a quality live stream. Post production, editing takes longer than people think.

But pre-production, there's work to do on yourself, grooming and preparing physically, especially if you are going to be getting into anything fetish related, it adds another level of preparation (and possibly an extra level to post production clean up)

It's also not something you can always compartmentalise, I have a friend who does some generic feet stuff, she had to quit swimming and change her entire gym routine to allow herself to shower at home, because catching athletes foot meant she'd loose income. She has to choose her socks and shoes based on protecting the physical appearance of her feet. She can't just chuck on some thongs (flip flops) in summer because her clientele don't like the tan lines and are vocal about it.

PR is important, you need to have time to engage with the audience, reply to messages and maintain the illusion of the parasocial relationship, to keep your subscribers keen. It can take easily take an hour a day to do if you have large enough fan base and want to maintain it.

There's a lot to like about the "person next door" charm of a low budget, low effort approach to nudes and clips, but that's what most people on OF are already doing, so if you want real money you have to set yourself apart from that.