Hi. If only a word purveyed has sentence to our emotive, then word’s are to our communicate with substance - someone with the emotive comeuppance to exchange a mood with exchange to expression is intently a learned individual. Then there’s our mind, the psychedelic transistors our fluent brain has; a differing strain of remembrance, if mood aloud has perception, then the altered mind counts to the subsequent influences, a threshold on variances, this is counterintuitive too altering substances. The mind recalls a perception of reality if enclosed in-jumbled conflict, the mind of an awareness to recall the trace substance, no, one would think, the mind reacts on reality. The potency a substance is inaccurate, our surroundings, are congenital to our wellbeing, the interaction present couldn’t challenge in a subjective mood, only briefly am I conscious of my-reality: to alter a imitative mind, has no concept to read this phrased word, a parlance to one sentence. #prose #ramblings

Just got myself some wireless earbuds. I poo-poohed the very notion when they first became a thing, on the grounds that they'd soon get lost... but I instantly like them. Not having to worry about getting caught in the cable (which is something I do quite often) is really quite convenient. Also I can pause by tapping rather than having to unlock my phone. So, that's a win. Until they got lost, that is.

I don't normally listen to podcasts because I just don't have the time. If I'm sat down I want some visual stimulation (reading, TV, games, whatever) or I feel like I'm a useless lemon. Just sat there staring into space listening to things isn't for me. I don't cook, which is when everyone else seems to do podcasts, and when I do work-office I prefer to use commuting time for reading. But I do do washing-up and stuff, which with wireless headphones threatens to become a viable route to regular podcasts...

Anyway, this one is hosted by Alistair Campbell and Rory Stewart - both respectable figures, in my view, of their respective parties. Here they interview Keir Starmer, who calls Boris Johnson a bullshitter and says he took the piss out of the public. Yes, mild-mannered lawyer has had enough. Interesting discussions on whether politics is systematically broken (Stewart) or just in need of a good reform (Starmer).I think they both have good points - the system does need strengthening, some things need to be hardened from convention; not sure about Stewart's suggestion of proportional representation, fairly convinced that a written constitution would be useless. Dunno if he's right about their being permanent global shifts in politics over the last few years but it's certainly provocative. Pretty clear from Keir that he has a very firm grasp of political theory, and I continue to want to marry the man and have his babies.

#Ramblings

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-rest-is-politics/id1611374685

‎The Rest Is Politics on Apple Podcasts

‎News · 2022

I'll share a thought on the general topic of €€. Now I'm browsing the pages of german-way.com, a fine blog post collection of US-ians living as expats in German speaking areas of Europe.. about life, and living here. Amusing culture shocks included, and a few looks into mirrors. A good read. Thank you for linking there @Clarice Boomshakalaka Bouvier!

So, while we Germans were always reluctant to adapt credit or other cards in the first place, the pandemic years certainly helped push that idea. Cashless is king now (however local attempts like the Geldkarte sucked balls already 15 years ago, and never took off). To the point where normal banks, i.e. those that have both ATM and in-person service, are mostly gone (to be fair, that development started maybe a decade before, with branch closings). When I moved here there were 5 banks in easy walking distance. Now, just one is left, and its the one that requires the longest detour.

Essentially, my only convenient way to get cash now is at the supermarket. There, you pay by card, and withdraw cash while you're at it. "Ich möchte noch Bargeld abheben bitte" is what you say before taking out your card. Still we're slow at this too: technically, 20 years ago that was the way to go in the UK, called "cashback", and very common there but unbeknownst to continental Germans. Only the last few years changed that.

But abundance of the no-fee ATM has ended in Germany, so sometimes you take that extra trip to the supermarket in order to withdraw some cash. Seriously, we do that here, because fully cash-less doesn't work.

But. Supermarket cashiers only take girocards, tied to a "real" current account, for this. No credit cards, no fancy internet-only banking cards. No visa, no Amex, no Master card will get you cash. Inconvenient for some.

So, while waiting in line the other day, two American ladies probably younger that 30 waited behind me, giggling and fuzzing about how to reach the minimum purchase of 5€ to be allowed to use the cashback feature. They went for three Christmas-y chocolate santas and a gift box of eggnog in small bottles. But, the fancy internet-only newgen credit card she had wasn't accepted by the system, and the shop lady said "you cannot use a credit card for cashback, you'd need to..." and was cut off by the ladies leaving the till that very instant.

Just like that, gone, rushing past me while I was packing my things in a bag. They could have said "sorry, I didn't buy into your overly complicated scheme" or simply "Oh, I didn't know". Yes, Germany still is complicated and sometimes demanding.

#ramblings #cultureshock #cash #euro #girocard #alltag #supermarket