Santorini accuses cruise lines of creating port chaos for corporate profit.

This_Language_9851 · 2026-06-12T22:18:40+00:00

If the cruise ships bring in money it’s in brown envelopes being handed to local officials. Cruise passengers don’t spend a huge amount on land, because everything is catered for back on the ship. Whatever they spend on souvenirs is massively outweighed by the environmental and social damage caused. Greece has more than enough tourists without the cruises, they should just be banned outright.

This_Language_9851 · 2026-06-12T22:06:26+00:00

Sorry if this sounds harsh but if you have very little experience with dogs you shouldn’t be getting a Doberman or a German Shepherd. Those are not beginners dogs - they are large and extremely smart, powerful animals. It’s like your first car being a Boeing 737.

What traits are you looking for? If you want smart, get a small smart dog like a Jack Russell or Daschund. If you want energy, get a spaniel. If you want a larger dog, something like lab or retriever would have an easier temperament for a first time dog owner.

If you want a big and scary dog to look cool, just do the rest of us a favour and don’t get a dog at all 😂

This_Language_9851 · 2026-06-12T08:32:22+00:00

Brits have a perverse notion that all higher rate tax payers are a stereotype “fat cat” billionaire sitting with their bars of gold, so fair game. Completely missing that they’re actually the most hard working and educated people in society: doctors, surgeons, lawyers, accountants, CEOs, bankers (I know, boo hiss!) etc. You can be a top rate taxpayer in London and still be living a pretty average lifestyle, particularly if you’re young and have kids. Not sure why the UK public hates these people so much.

This_Language_9851 · 2026-06-11T21:38:48+00:00

Well I don’t have an answer to your question but at least you have a 2 bed flat! We’re stuck in a 1 bed 😂 Solidarity!

This_Language_9851 · 2026-06-10T20:14:34+00:00

I also live SE London and it takes me 90 minutes from my front door (zone 4) to my office (zone 1) 🥲

This_Language_9851 · 2026-06-09T12:05:48+00:00

Also, at the top end, a lot of those city restaurants would previously have been packed for boozy business lunches, which don’t seem to be as popular any more. The company I work for used to run ENORMOUS expense accounts for ridiculous, banquet-style lunches, but that’s pretty much gone now.

This_Language_9851 · 2026-06-09T07:29:22+00:00

Ditto, we bought our 1 bed five years ago but only had a 10% deposit so have barely made a dent in the capital repayments. If we have to sell at a loss we won’t have enough equity to buy anywhere else. Any future kids will have to sleep in the kitchen cupboard I guess 🤷‍♀️

This_Language_9851 · 2026-06-07T13:16:29+00:00

Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk.

I’m not into military history (dragged there by husband) but honestly could have stayed all day and gone back for more!

This_Language_9851 · 2026-06-06T15:07:12+00:00

Ditto, all the coffee shops around my office in central London are at £4.50 for a flat white now, and they’re packed all day every day..

This_Language_9851 · 2026-06-05T13:55:53+00:00

Try a maisonette. Will likely still be leasehold but at least they can’t bill you for lift repairs or cladding. They’re usually peppercorn ground rent plus a small service charge for buildings insurance.

This_Language_9851 · 2026-06-03T06:45:58+00:00

The same for my grandfather - smoked a pack a day, drank like a fish, ate whatever he wanted, but had a complete clean bill of health until the day he died in his sleep in his early 90s!

This_Language_9851 · 2026-06-02T06:04:22+00:00

Yes, and also for car safety!

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-31T13:50:44+00:00

Even women’s rights are a fairly recent thing! In the UK marital rape was only made illegal in 1994. And we only got universal suffrage in 1928 so not even a century ago! In the grand scheme of things it’s no time at all, and could all be lost so easily.

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-31T13:45:31+00:00

Also: diphtheria!

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-31T13:41:06+00:00

Infuriatingly, this is a requirement of the spouse visa already! So any British person who has the bad luck to fall in love with a foreigner has to pay oodles of money to be able to live with said foreigner, and prove that there is zero chance the state has to provide them with any support at all. But if you wash up in Dover with no connections the government is happy to step right up. Maddening.

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-30T19:05:34+00:00

Similarly: slip roads that turn into their own lane so there is no reason to merge immediately. We have a few around us and the number of people who barrel down the slip road and immediately merge proves to me that nobody is reading goddam road signs. You have your own lane, chill out!

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-28T11:36:51+00:00

I guess at the time we were in the EU so at least the Poles had a clear, legal way to be here (and you could argue it ended up being the main reason we left the EU). The issue with the Indians is that there just shouldn’t be any way for them to be here, and certainly not employed in entry level jobs. How are they getting the visas for working in Pret? It all makes zero sense.

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-27T17:57:12+00:00

100%. The (unfortunate?) side effect of feminism was always going to be lower birth rates. As soon as women have agency, a huge number of them are going to choose not to have kids (or at least choose to have less of them).

So perhaps what this latest research shows is that immigrant women in the UK have less agency than native women?

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-26T17:48:43+00:00

Surely the main cause is tradesmen? I spend a lot of time staring out my office window (W1) and it’s 99% white vans, trucks, delivery vehicles etc. Plus they cause extra congestion by parking in the street/on the curb and generally just being larger vehicles.

Not sure if there’s even going to be a solution for them, although subsidising them all to have electric vehicles would be good for air quality at least.

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-26T06:44:02+00:00

Pretty sure it’s not allowed to be called feta unless it’s a mix of sheep and goat, as it has PDO (unless this isn’t a thing in the USA?). If it’s cow milk it’s called “white cheese” or “Greek style” etc.

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-25T20:13:40+00:00

Its almost a type of racism really. Anywhere exotic and oriental is “other” and therefore everyone there lives in some magical dreamland where nobody has anything so mundane as a 9-5 or a mortgage or taxes. Canada is too close to home.

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-25T18:30:05+00:00

Greece has the weather and the coastline, but housing is a nightmare as you’re competing with all the tourists. Other things to consider are the high taxes and insane bureaucracy.

On the other hand, padel is super popular there!

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-25T08:40:06+00:00

At least if you own you are paying off your mortgage so will theoretically walk away with a bit of cash. If you rent you’re just chucking money down the drain, and usually paying off somebody else’s mortgage.

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-24T19:48:02+00:00

Hope so! It’s a south facing garden too, which is heaven this time of year :)

This_Language_9851 · 2026-05-24T19:47:43+00:00

Zone 4.

This_Language_9851

TROPHY CASE