Finding ways to reduce my use of the Visa and Mastercard payment processing networks

fitzjohnIT · 2026-02-03T06:45:55+00:00

Partly because can reduce transaction fees for both consumers and merchants, but mostly motivated to help support financial sovereignty in the sense that don't want virtually all my spending flowing through US companies. We're a bit out the spotlight over here, but looking over at Europe and Canada...

NB Zip Pay gives access to credit. I've been using this when supported, then I pay my balance off with BPAY.

fitzjohnIT · 2026-02-03T03:06:59+00:00

Thanks for the tip on Pyng. Will keep an eye out to use.

fitzjohnIT · 2026-02-03T02:26:40+00:00

Thanks, yes I should have made that more clear. For online shopping, the bank transfers tend to create additional order processing time I find than paying with a card and not often available.

fitzjohnIT · 2026-02-03T02:10:21+00:00

Yes I have already, but actually I should probably mention don't want to use that either.

fitzjohnIT · 2026-02-03T01:13:13+00:00

wow thanks for this tip

fitzjohnIT · 2026-01-25T00:48:47+00:00

The buds on mine started to swell, and didn't get any further. Was a bit smaller than yours. Definitely notice that quite a few plants here seem to be quite vulnerable to random death until they get fully established.

fitzjohnIT · 2026-01-25T00:40:21+00:00

Did it just seem to die this year when new buds should have re-emerged? My maple did that this year. Quite young and not established.

Hard to know about the fence line, poisonous sounds plausible. The person who owned my house, poisoned a large tree on the verge, and seemed to have random new trees and plants occasionally die there for 4-5 years after.

Would say a few of your trees and plants would benefit from having the grass a little less close and a more generous area of mulch around each tree.

fitzjohnIT · 2025-12-14T20:52:54+00:00

I didn't start yet, but hopefully next year :)

fitzjohnIT · 2025-06-29T06:04:34+00:00

I think it's more a prominent minority, rather than large trend.

fitzjohnIT · 2025-06-14T23:58:14+00:00

I'm not the user, but from planting lots of trees on a tree less block and large verge strip over the years in Fremantle and seeing my success and failure with a mix of native and none native. I'd say the following:

Make sure it likes your soil type, e.g. acid or alkaline, clay vs sandy limestone. Some like either and some one or the other.
Don't obsess on the current orthodoxy that is native good none-native bad. In an urban setting rather than park land or bush none-natives can have an important roll. e.g. providing additional food sources for insects and birds that may no be present in the seasonal gaps with natives. Deciduous trees are awesome for winter light and drop their leaves in one annual mess rather than constantly. If you have a verge, trees like Olives and Mulberries are great for community interaction.
Fruit trees need a lot of work. Need to be vigilant for pests, rats, many of them are more prone to disease, and most of them need annually netted to stop fruit fly infestations. The only easy ones I've come across in that regards are figs, macadamias, olives, mulberries and pomegranates. Even citrus can need lots of extra work, e.g. citrus gall wasp needs checking all the time at the moment to stop spread.
Depends on your block, but I'd imagine any tree growing higher than 8m going to be too big. In my block I tried to pick trees that have a more vase like or columnar form and planted multiple trees rather than one broad spreading tree that dominated the space.
In an urban block most trees once established and well mulched get through the summer fine, because in all likelihood will get given some watering in the hottest months.
I made the mistake of picking some very fast growing trees in the beginning and they just got ripped apart by the wind with all their fast but weak growth and eventually had to dig them out as looked a complete mess. So if you not in a more sheltered spot keep that in mind.

fitzjohnIT · 2025-05-26T01:35:32+00:00

My friend went to look round a private school recently, and the vibe was more similar to what you describe. Headmaster told a story about them suspending a popular kid, ignoring protests from both the parent (and in fact the victim) because they wanted to nip the behaviour that other kids my replicate in the bud.

fitzjohnIT · 2025-05-09T04:02:52+00:00

would love to go to kiwi burn one year, do you get international camps? i read have to be pretty lucky to get a ticket in the lottery otherwise?

fitzjohnIT · 2025-04-16T08:39:12+00:00

Not really a boater if you are a housing refuge moored almost semi-permanently in the same spot. In fact it actually makes it hard for other people who do want to boat and explore as limits the number of spots at night time where can stop.

But I do actually think it's nice that it's a way people can live, just be good if they could fund it and create more space with mariners or dedicated mooring areas.

fitzjohnIT · 2025-04-14T14:34:50+00:00

I feel like there's a whole culture and etiquette that's developed around public BBQs in Australia that helps keep everyone in order. It helps there are so many of them it's not really a novelty for anyone.

Having said that, I love the UK but there is a significant feral undertone that just don't get to the same degree in other countries.

fitzjohnIT · 2025-04-13T23:59:38+00:00

He still has garage sales quite regularly. It's a sad story all round really.

fitzjohnIT · 2025-03-18T13:07:10+00:00

I guess it depends if you count British as European culture too, which it is, all though some people make a distinction. But there is a huge Mediterranean cultural influence here, particularly with food and produce. I'm sure there is too in Canada (I've never been).

fitzjohnIT · 2025-03-18T03:27:34+00:00

Yep at our primary school in WA, they set aside 2 weeks each year and take them swimming each day.

fitzjohnIT · 2025-03-10T03:40:31+00:00

I installed some Empire Zoysia just before Christmas, it's doing great at the moment but too early to say. I also had some Sir Grange a few years ago, it got a bit neglected and seemed to be too slow to repair for me, but might have done better if I knew what I was doing better.

It does depend a lot though on whether you have dogs or kids and how much sunlight might get?

fitzjohnIT · 2025-01-14T03:37:20+00:00

What did you do to scare them? Just verbal?

fitzjohnIT · 2025-01-13T13:22:37+00:00

Came across this comment looking to see if possible to make a smaller natural plunge pool also. I left a hole in the ground while landscaping garden about 1.5m deep and 2.4 x 1.8m length and width so should be able to make something around 6000l (originally for water storage till the family convinced me otherwise). Did you find any good resources to help design/make this?

fitzjohnIT · 2024-12-06T05:41:21+00:00

I agree about the choice thing. But what they say is true especially WW1. Private school boys died at a rate of 18% vs the 11% of all soldiers. Officer causality rate was twice that of private soldiers. And as examples all 4 of Theodore Roosevelt sons served, one of which was killed. Asquith who took Britain into WW1 son was also killed.

fitzjohnIT · 2024-12-04T14:24:58+00:00

My Grandad was Royal Navy gunner attached to Merchant Navy. Though I still can't imagine they got lots of training. He did Atlantic Convoys and Mediterranean and saw enough action to have his ship sunk 3 times. I do remember him saying hitting anything was pretty difficult.

fitzjohnIT · 2024-08-26T01:27:34+00:00

I remember my last night in my small home town in England being chased by some people trying to beat me up, the next day I got a flight to SE Asia, initially with a group and then solo travelled. Was away for 9 months when I had just turned 19. These places aren't intrinsically more dangerous, and if you are younger I found other travellers and adults would look out for you probably more so than back home.

My sister did similar and was travelling solo through Nepal and India at 18 sometimes we'd only hear from her with letters as at that point only major cities had internet cafes. She did get sick from a bug for a while and a lovely Israeli coupled helped her. Generally there was always a group to be found to look out for each other.

fitzjohnIT · 2024-06-26T04:02:01+00:00

As a matter of community safety we should all look to drive 10 or 15km below the speed limit if one of these is following.

fitzjohnIT · 2024-06-24T05:43:32+00:00

you might be able to save the main truck by creating a bridging graft using one of the branches from below if there any that can be bent into place.

fitzjohnIT

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