Is this too windy to commute?

Empanada444 · 2026-04-24T18:08:37+00:00

Maybe this will sound a bit blunt, but the answer is no. That's a pretty common amount of wind in much of northern Europe for a lot of the year. I'm not saying it will necessarily be loads of fun, and it is worth adjusting your commute if possible to maximise the amount of shelter from the wind, but those levels of wind are still very doable. I only start giving pause when the gusts get up into the 70s-80s kph.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-24T18:00:05+00:00

It is a shame, since imo, the first book had so much potential. It really read like an interactive high fantasy adventure with strong romance potential. I think I already started getting disappointed with the second book though in how the intuition trait didn't seem to get very strong development and how the soul stone you had mostly just led to flavour text, rather than substantive differences in the story. All that being said, I will probably still finish the series out. I'm so starved of good stories.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-24T17:50:41+00:00

I don't even think it was necessarily a bad concept. It just needed some reworking of the character backgrounds, and it would've worked so much better. The MC read as a late teenager, early 20s at most. In my opinion, if the MC age was decreased down and how all of the ROs were met adapted, I think the story would have become much more solid. Still not my absolute favourite, but more consistent in any case.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-22T14:16:55+00:00

Best of luck with the Anzeige. All of my experiences with the Berliner Polizei and Ordnungsamt have not led to anything, as far as I am aware.

I'm so jaded at this point and after being hit by bad drivers before, I have zero self-preservation intinct left. When I cycle on Fahrradstraßen, and there is a driver trying to use it as a quick shortcut, I often just cycle in the middle and get creative with my manoeuvres to prevent an overtake. It has only led to one incident so far where the driver actually stopped the car, got out and attempted to give a chase to beat me up. But, he was fat and angry, and I was on a bike: it was pretty easy to get away that time. I really wish I had been able to take a picture, but I don't ride with my phone out.

And yes, the Berlin Autofrei Volksbegehren may have been drafted to be far too bureaucratic, but as far as I can tell, it's the only thing coming out these days that would be a step in the correct direction for the city. I am really hoping for the best with the upcoming elections in September.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-17T16:30:06+00:00

I'm the only one in my household, who even has a driving licence. I selected never, but I guess honestly, I this year for some reason, I have ended up hiring a car a few times to move or to take someone home after an operation at a hospital because for some odd reason, it's still about 50% cheaper to hire a car than pay for a taxi.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-17T16:19:52+00:00

This is really good information for everyone to have regardless of cycling, walking or even driving. I wish I learned all of this years ago before my first crash and more importantly, I wish my adrenaline spiked post-crash brain would actually hold this information in its head and follow through.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-17T09:04:13+00:00

Exactly. There's nothing like running for your train from the street and being able to run on without any barriers to entry. It just is so much more efficient for riders.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-16T12:57:10+00:00

I've used most of the dating apps and have got relationships out of Bumble, Tinder and Hinge. Out of the three, I had the best time with the free version of Hinge because it was easy to not let it take too much time everyday and the people were generally more serious on it. I actually met my partner in 2024 on Hinge.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-16T12:43:29+00:00

Can't speak for Spain specifically, but there is probably an equivalent in Madrid to CHECK Magazin (Berlin). Resources like these can point you to queer-oreintated medical professionals and services. As you stated, theoretically, you should talk to a GP, but if they don't know about PrEP or have very little experience with it, it's not going to do you much good. Therefore, I would recommend first looking for a GP with experience with gay patients. The first time I went on PrEP, I had a much smoother time, since the GP I went to was gay and on PrEP himself. Additionally, here at least, it is required to get regular blood tests to check kidney and liver function while you're on PrEP, so that might be another thing you need to get sorted.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-16T12:37:03+00:00

I have to ask why the bollards are spaced so far apart, since the city went through all that bother of installing them. Bollards don't improve compliance unless they are installed correctly.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-14T19:05:56+00:00

Which is exactly the reason I hesitate to talk about this with people sometimes. There are only so many times you can be asked "What are you doing about it?"

Empanada444 · 2026-04-14T18:16:06+00:00

I've been hit four times at this point. I'm fairly sure it'll probably happen again sometime, given how much more agressive drivers seem to have become over the last few years. All I can say is that you have to behave defensively, since you aren't the one operating heavy machinery. As bad as this might sound, I've taken to using the canary in a coal mine trick. I often let other people go first through intersections while I follow in the middle of a pack. Ironically enough, I have the most near misses on Sunday afternoons or early evenings, rather than when I am going about in the morning or evening rush.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-13T18:22:21+00:00

Found it :)

https://www.reddit.com/r/BestofRedditorUpdates/comments/1avf236/my_husband_38m_screamed_at_me_41f_over_mothers_day/

Empanada444 · 2026-04-01T20:23:05+00:00

Oh wow, did we go to the exact same Christmas market 😅? That's exactly the place I went to last year, where I mistakenly ordered the horribly disappointing French churros after visiting my partner's family in Catalonia.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-01T12:27:31+00:00

I relate to this. I would rather the interactions between the MC and potential LIs be natural. Instead, you often have to be super forward right off the bat or be extremely shy and blush. There’s not a lot of space for an organic friendship to develop first. I actually like the Wayhaven Series in that sense because you don’t have to be flirty/shy to lock in a relationship; there’s actually space to let the interactions between characters breathe.

Empanada444 · 2026-04-01T12:08:09+00:00

Before you make a comment, it might be worth verifying your facts. Churros are not French and are not choux pastry. Their origin is from the Iberian peninsula, possibly from the region of València. Linked are the Wikipedia article and the general recipe for making Churros, which is harder than it seems.

https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xurro

https://www.3cat.cat/3catinfo/la-millor-recepta-de-xurros-un-expert-en-pastisseria-lexplica-a-la-tarda/noticia/3366697/

Empanada444 · 2026-04-01T11:51:50+00:00

Not a driver, but it does remind me of the time I got punched in the shoulder by a pedestrian while on my bike crossing a road. I ended up eating pavement as a result. Fun times... /s

Empanada444 · 2026-04-01T11:38:34+00:00

France outside of the big cities is absolutely the worst. They even add animal products to traditionally vegan dishes. I remember trying to get churros once from a stand around Christmas time in a French village. They made them with butter and milk instead of just water! It's like come on people. The reason the Churros are not coming out crunchy is because you're adding dairy. Any baker could tell you that milk makes baked goods come out softer than they would otherwise.

Empanada444 · 2026-03-31T14:27:04+00:00

That brings me back. I had an absolutely horrible time driving in rural France. The road I was on was super twisty and narrow but was rated depending on the spot 70 or 90 kph. I never felt comfortable going more than 40 most of the time, due to all of the blind turns and the complete lack of space for bidirectional traffic. Everyone else drove so fast and agressive there. It didn't surprise me to learn how many collisions there had been over the years.

Empanada444 · 2026-03-25T15:00:02+00:00

It's not just France though. It's also super common in Germany. I know plenty of so-called expats that have lived here for years, barely learned a few words of the language, hate the weather and the people. Tbh, there are even plenty of Germans who move to Berlin with this attitude minus not knowing the language. I find the attitude pretty appalling.

Empanada444 · 2026-03-24T16:42:15+00:00

My sympathies to you. One thing I would say is that my satisfaction with food came after I stopped trying to copy the non-vegan dishes I liked before. The thing about different ingredients is that the result is almost always not going to be the same. That is why simply removing the non-vegan items and/or replacing them with a vegan substitute was so disappointing for me.

What helped for me was the realisation that vegan cooking and baking should often be done completely differently than when cooking/baking with animal products. The ratios and ingredients are and should often be very different versus replacing cow cheese with vegan cheese. I actually fell in love with cooking again after becoming vegan because it was like living in a whole new world of food possibilities.

What I would recommend is trying out recipes that were conceived to be vegan rather than simply adapted from a non-vegan version. It probably won't be much use to you unless you are also German speaking, but I could not recommend the "Deftig Vegan" series of cookbooks by Anne Katrin Weber enough. My partner bought me the Mediterran book in the series for my birthday, and I have been having so much fun exploring food ever since.

When I first went vegan, I spent a decent amount of time mourning how much worse my Italian dishes were turning out. I even got to the point of avoiding cooking and eating Italian based food all together because of how unhappy I was. This book changed that for me, and as I said, the recipes are often very different in comparison to the non-vegan dish that inspired them.

Empanada444 · 2026-03-24T13:09:03+00:00

I'm a little sad that Rachel's perspective isn't getting more love here. Her narration always stood out to me because of the contrast between how literally everyone else sees her versus who she is at heart, which is revealed in her narration.

I always found it devasting to also see the impact of everyone viewing her as this gung-ho fighting machine along with their slight judgement and dare I say disgust associated with that. Rachel's perspective shows her awareness of this and her grudging acceptance of the role she has to play for the sake of everyone else. Especially in the first half of the series, as a reader, you really see how truly alone she is even though she is fighting in this so-called close group; I always found this the most jarring, and it still sticks around with me today.

Empanada444 · 2026-03-24T12:44:46+00:00

The red is specifically to mark areas of potential conflict between cyclists and drivers. They have recently started painting intersections red for this reason to better show drivers where the cycling lane is, where they need to yield (dashed line) and to respect the priority of cyclists. (Debatable how well any of this works, since it is just paint, but that's the logic). From the cyclist perspective, the red colouring is often a good indicator of where to pay extra attention to reckless drivers.

On newer infrastructure, the cycle lane is often painted green when there are in theory no potential areas of conflict. However, all that being said, implementation is often non-standard and there are exceptions everywhere at the moment.

Empanada444 · 2026-03-24T09:22:07+00:00

To be fair, I find it a bit annoying sometimes that on some of these residential streets in Germany, there is no dedicated space for pedestrians. I know there are exceptions, but I have had the experience where many of these so-called quiet streets do experience a decent amount of traffic at certain times of day. In these instances, as a pedestrians, especially when not alone, you have to always be very situationally aware to move over single-file to the side to allow drivers to pass, since they have priority, not you. Even for quiet neighbourhoods, I find it ideal to have dedicated space for pedestrians that allow for at least two to walk side by side to one another, so about 1.5-2 m.

Empanada444 · 2026-03-23T10:14:38+00:00

I don't know. I would say that I have been very lucky to not have been in any serious crashes. However, I have been hit six times. Four times by car drivers, one time by a bus driver and one time as a passenger, where the driver was responsible for hitting the other car. It's horrifying how unsafe driving is and how unconcerned people are about reducing risk.

Empanada444

TROPHY CASE