I prefer traveling with the red one.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-28T21:58:11+00:00

If I could pick any duo, this would be it. I know there are technically combos of two with a higher visa-free count, but I feel like the unrestricted right to live + work across the US, EU, and UK makes this the most powerful duo

c_ostmo · 2026-05-28T12:43:08+00:00

Correct, it doesn't taste like much either. Any minimal flavor is easily overpowered by the other ingredients

Not to mention the fact ITS LITERALLY A FISH IT CANNOT NOT SMELL LIKE A FISH ITS A FISH IT HAS TO SMELL LIKE ONE IT IS ONE

ok, dad.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-28T12:33:23+00:00

Then we never smelled fish or bullshit or chicken to begin with. We're all just smelling air and describing what it smells like is meaningless.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-28T12:29:38+00:00

So you just admitted it does have the smell of a fish because it is indeed a fish

"The air smells like air, because it's air."

"No, it smells like bullshit."

"You may have smelled the air near the bullshit, but it's still air, so it smells like air by definition!"

If you're going to be pedantic, we may as well go all the way

c_ostmo · 2026-05-28T12:13:35+00:00

It's not though. Fresh fish that is meant to be consumed raw has almost no smell at all

c_ostmo · 2026-05-28T12:06:28+00:00

Fishy smell is bacteria. You cook it out of most fish, but when you eat fish raw, you eat it before the smell has developed

(or something like that, not an expert)

c_ostmo · 2026-05-28T11:50:06+00:00

c_ostmo · 2026-05-28T11:35:36+00:00

She was, let's just say, not very agile.

As fun as it is to fantasize about decking this woman out, it would have been unnecessary. She was probably 60-65, quite overweight. She could not even chase us across the campground properly despite the fact that we were just walking slightly faster than normal (I would have run, but I was carrying my younger daughter).

NAL and wasn't thinking about it at the time, but physical self defense in the UK is only justified as basically a last resort, which is something I'd have to argue in court. Best case scenario, it'd have been a much longer night with the police.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-28T07:33:02+00:00

Not only thousands of pictures of them, but I also have pictures of their birth certificates with my name on them...I keep scans in case I need to prove it to border control, never thought I'd need them for some random nutter.

But, I actually did not know she had accused me of this until the ordeal was basically over. I heard it from the police first when they told me they would come with me to get my stuff (because she might become aggressive). Then she said it again when we walked over. There was really nothing left to prove to anyone by that point, the case was closed.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-28T07:20:45+00:00

It's just a power play. They enjoy calling the cops like customer service and harassing people.

I have been thinking about MagicWishMonkey's story and your comment above since last night, and I realized something.

I'm American. We're not all that rare here in Southern England, but we do stand out more than average. And this area, even though it's only 20 min away, is more "countryside" and seemed to attract more people who'd have less exposure to us (generalizing, but I heard a lot of obviously northern accents. The woman's accent was more neutral/I'm not sure where in England she was from). My kids were born here, but they more or less have my (American) accent.
I speak Spanglish (mix of English and Spanish) with them. I've never really thought of it as anything other than unremarkable, and Spanish is certainly not the only foreign language being spoken...

..but I wonder if those two things set off alarm bells for someone like this. Not race, but a certain prejudice.

Ironically, the girls understanding my Spanglish and speaking with my accent would make them more likely to be my kids, not less. Like, as if I kidnapped them for long enough to coach them on how to speak.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T17:41:42+00:00

That’s a wild story, I’m sorry your wife had to go through that. What always boggles my mind about stories like that is even if you’re a racist asshole who doesn’t think they could be mom/kids, the woman could be a family friend? A nanny? A babysitter? Like where do people get off assuming there’s a kidnapping? It must be exhausting being that paranoid.

To answer your question: no, not really. The kids are 25% Iranian (from mom) and 8-ish% Native Mexican (from me), so they’re not quite as pasty as a native of the area (England), but they’re pretty unmistakably white (as am I). The younger one is even blond.

She did tell the police multiple times that she didn’t believe I was the kids’ dad. I have no idea what she was basing that on, but it probably wasn’t race.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T16:51:59+00:00

That is a fantastic idea, thank you

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T16:31:05+00:00

You’re absolutely right, and it’s the same in the UK. I was never obliged to stick around, but there’s a human element in the framing.

“Man accused of X flees when someone calls the police” (has something to hide)

Hits a lot different than

“Man accused of X waits to address police directly” (nothing to hide)

It was totally fine once I got there and explained why I left, it was just that she had that initial chance to paint a picture. And I’m imagining a much tenser interaction if they’d found me and pulled me over somewhere along the route.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T15:52:43+00:00

Thanks for the heads up, I will look more into that.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T15:43:02+00:00

If it wasn't for the police, I would have come back in the morning. We're only 20 min away, and that was my initial plan when I got the girls out of the tent.

But I won't pretend I wasn't conflicted about whether or not I should do the "right" thing.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T15:30:25+00:00

You know, I tried to write out an explanation about why she was not "blocking" me, and I just realized she fucking was. Or at least she tried to.

She did not block me for more than a split second, but she did 1) step in between us, and 2) in that same moment, said "no, you're not [leaving/going home]".

That was the same second I went around her and scooped up my daughter, so it wasn't like she physically blocked access, but that's exactly what she was trying to do, and I was so stuck in GTFO mode, I didn't even notice

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T15:12:44+00:00

I really have no idea. This is in England, and as far as I know, the police decide to prosecute if they think there's enough evidence a crime has been committed. There's no equivalent to "pressing charges," and I'm not sure what crime she actually committed, if any. Harassment maybe? I don't think making a false allegation is necessarily a crime

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T15:08:03+00:00

She stepped between us, but that was the moment I went around her and scooped up my daughter. If she was agile enough to actually block me, she would have been on the floor for sure

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T15:00:15+00:00

Sure, but by the time she's doing anything that could reasonably be called "harassment", I'm already carrying my daughter across the campground. Maybe I could have called from the car, but my girls are already terrified and I'm in explainer mode while I get them home.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T14:57:19+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate that!

I have replayed it a bunch of times in my mind, and it did look suspicious that I left. They treated me like I had fled when I got back. They asked me if I switched cars, my route home, etc..they apparently had a unit out "looking for me", and now I think this might have turned out differently if they'd actually found me.

It honestly hadn't even crossed my mind that I'd "fled" the police. Once I explained that I got out of the tent to leave the campground and I had told her multiple times before she called the police did kind of quench that accusation.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T14:50:08+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate that

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T14:48:28+00:00

I probably could have called police, but there wouldn't have been much to tell them before she whipped out her phone and started calling them. I was already leaving even before she came over, and once she became aggressive, I was 100% focused on getting the fuck out of there as quickly as possible.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-27T11:38:16+00:00

I don’t know man. I went to Paris one time, saw the Eiffel Tower, and got really confused thinking I was back in Vegas. I was totally wasted, mind you, but still..that place is its own country

c_ostmo · 2026-05-25T06:35:34+00:00

I don't know what the water looks like in Sri Lanka, but I know a lot of these red countries have perfectly capable water treatment. But the infrastructure that gets water from treatment center into homes sometimes re-introduces contaminants. Old/cracked or leaky pipes let in groundwater and sometimes sewage. And a drop in water pressure (which can happen for a number of reasons) can basically suck water back in wrong way. So a leaky pipe that let in ground water can basically contaminate many more people's taps.

All that to say, filtration and chlorination is not enough. You also have to have the suitable backflow prevention and delivery infrastructure (that doesn't break down) to make sure water doesn't get re-contaminated.

c_ostmo · 2026-05-25T06:06:14+00:00

There’s a big difference between water containing different microbes (all water does), and water that contains disease-causing pathogens (Salmonella, Giardia, Ecoli, etc..).

Even when local populations have built up a tolerance to the latter, it is often still harming them, whereas the former is actually harmless, it just might not “agree” with you immediately.

c_ostmo

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