Southern Summers and Northern Winters Episode 12 Transcript

Just as a pretence, we start off talking about Mark buying a microphone arm to get better sound quality for the podcast.

Mark
00:00 – 00:25
But this is the 1 that I found easiest. So the first 1 I bought was like from a, that had the arm and everything. It was from like a discount shop and it was like 18 bucks. It had the arm and the microphone and everything. Yeah. I bought, then I bought a really dear 1 and it came with like, you needed a mixed deck with it. And I couldn’t figure out how to work it. So I, so I shelved it and bought this 1.

Anders
00:27 – 00:30
There you go. How are you?

Mark
00:30 – 00:32
I’m very good. How are you?

Anders
00:32 – 01:10
I am good. I’ve been, we could get into this, actually. So maybe we should just start. Yeah, because I’ve been thinking a lot about international acquaintances and all of that, But it’s a little bit political, but we can get around that without getting into party specifics and stuff like that. But yeah, it’s just sad, the state of the world, but travel helps, that’s kind of my point. So let’s just get going. Hi, and welcome to Southern Summers and Northern Winters. Hi, Mark.

Mark
01:11 – 01:13
Hi, Anders. How are you this week?

Anders
01:13 – 01:48
I am. I’m good. Generally, I’m good. But you know, the way the world is, you know, developing at the moment in terms of politics and international relations and stuff like that, it’s just a little overwhelming, maybe because my native Denmark, I don’t know how much coverage of this you have in Australia, but my my native Denmark is also Greenland. And and the new administration in in the US, they they want to acquire,

Mark
01:49 – 01:50
they want to buy Greenland.

Anders
01:51 – 01:58
They don’t want Yeah, they want to buy Greenland as a piece of real estate, more or less.

Mark
01:59 – 02:01
Which is the Trump puzzle.

Anders
02:01 – 02:29
Yes, exactly. Which is, yeah, well, they are serious. They mean business. Obviously, they do. But the thing is, really, since 1951, the Americans have had permission to do whatever they want on Greenland, because we, you know, in NATO, as Denmark is a part of NATO, I think Australia is a part of NATO as well, aren’t you? No, no,

Mark
02:29 – 02:48
no, we’re gonna, we’re gonna own alliance with America and, and Great Britain called AUKUS Australia, US, UK, because they’re about to sell us some nuclear submarines or some jargon like that to help protect the Pacific from the big bad enemy China, you know.

Anders
02:48 – 03:10
Oh yeah, yeah. Well, anyways, we have this NATO alliance and we’re… Yeah, so the Americans, they’ve pretty much since the 50s, they’ve had, you know, permission to do what they want. And they can still do that they could even they could build a military base in any city in Greenland.

Mark
03:13 – 03:16
There’d be a monetary transaction to buy?

Anders
03:16 – 04:04
No. Well, the thing is, Greenland is not for sale. I mean, Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders, the people living there. They have, we have an alliance going 800 years back in time. So it’s a bit like the Commonwealth where the Queen or the now the king is the head of state. So is our king is the head of state of Greenland. But they are they are more or less independent. We pay out of Denmark, from Denmark. The Greenlanders can enjoy like a welfare state, they can, you know, they have free schools, free, free health care, stuff like that, which they wouldn’t be able to have.

Mark
04:06 – 04:09
None of that’s free in America. No, no, no, no, no.

Anders
04:11 – 04:30
So it’s just a little sad. And now they’re talking about, you know, because obviously Trump means business. So now they’re imposing these customs fee. Yeah, tax on import taxes on But

Mark
04:30 – 04:34
that only hurts Americans as much as it hurts anyone else.

Anders
04:34 – 05:05
Yeah, the thing is, you know, yeah, short term, it will be bad for Europe as well, obviously, because we have a lot of interest in exporting to the Americans. But in the long term, yeah, the only losers will be the Americans, because everything will get more expensive. And I even think Trump, you know, when campaigning on lower prices for the average consumers.

Mark
05:05 – 05:35
What did he say today? He said there might be a bit of short-term pain for the long-term gain, I think, for Americans. He’s got to spin it somehow. I think luckily Australia is not in the firing line because we have a massive trade surplus with America We buy way more off them than what they buy off us. So yeah, that’s what our foreign minister said on the news today Anyway, she said well We’re out of the firing line because yeah It would be detrimental for them to put a tariff on us when they send way more stuff our way than we send their way.

Anders
05:36 – 06:08
You know, he was saying yesterday, the Europeans, they don’t buy anything from the Americans. Well, we do. I mean, it depends. It really depends on how you see things. Yeah. In many ways, we do import a lot, particularly also online services. A lot of most of the tech companies that I have subscriptions, streaming, everything, It’s all American. I mean, I put a lot of my disposal income

Mark
06:09 – 06:10
into American companies.

Anders
06:10 – 06:12
Yeah. So, so,

Mark
06:14 – 06:17
so do you have, Like, do you subscribe to like Netflix?

Anders
06:17 – 06:18
Yeah, we do. Yeah.

Mark
06:19 – 06:23
And so what’s Netflix cost in what’s Netflix cost in Germany? Do you know?

Anders
06:23 – 06:29
It’s it’s it’s funny you should ask, because they just this morning they just sent me a price increase email.

Mark
06:30 – 06:31
Yeah. As they would.

Anders
06:31 – 06:40
Yeah. So now we’re up at around 23 euros. I think it’s $25. And yeah, $25.

Mark
06:42 – 07:10
I don’t know. In Australia they have like, they have different, you know, levels where you can have more TVs and yeah in 4k or non 4k. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, whatever you want I think I’ve just got the basic package which is like I don’t think I’ve got the 4k version and it’s I think it’s like 1899 Australian so maybe yeah 9 euros or 10 years, but then also have Disney and it’s like 17. It’s the same price It’s like 17.99. Yeah as well, but I’m gonna get that cut off because I don’t watch it.

Anders
07:10 – 07:11
So, okay

Mark
07:11 – 07:19
well, I have Amazon Prime because Amazon Prime is The most valuable 1 because you get your free, you get free delivery with Amazon.

Anders
07:19 – 07:20
Yeah. Yeah.

Mark
07:20 – 07:31
Free Kindle books and free music and free movies and you know, and all that. And this is only like $8.99. But I guess if you’re the richest man in the world, you can afford to only charge $8.99, can’t you? And get away with it.

Anders
07:31 – 08:12
Yeah. Well, the thing is, the thing is, we have all of these. And here in Germany, I mean, Amazon Prime is, is a no brainer. It’s I think we pay an annual fees, not monthly, we pay annual, I think it’s 75 euros a year. Yeah. And, you know, we literally, what do we have 2 or 3 deliveries a week from Amazon. You know, even just Last week I just ordered some batteries, small AAA batteries and lithium, small flat ones. So they just came in an envelope.

Mark
08:12 – 08:28
And they’re so fast. Like Amazon is amazing. I can order stuff even far, per se, off Amazon America or Amazon, any international. A lot of times I could get that quicker than I could get something from Australia sometimes.

Anders
08:29 – 08:32
So you have, you have Amazon warehouses in Australia?

Mark
08:32 – 09:17
Yes, we do in Australia. So there’s a .com.au Amazon version where you can buy, I think, certainly in Australia. Sometimes I get some stuff overseas if it’s cheap and the dollar’s favorable, which it’s Not quite favorable at the moment, but that’s a whole different story So yeah, so yeah, we definitely do are I started warehousing? I think I’m sorry maybe 4 or 5 years ago when dot-com that are you came in? So so yeah, so it’s actually think that there’s a don’t know if it’s huge in Australia like it is everywhere else I don’t know a lot of people to buy stuff off Amazon so I’m in Australia, but I do because I was a Longtime buyer when they’re in America because I want to say days and blu-ray Stuff like that.

Mark
09:17 – 09:31
Yeah available in America because you get like special editions and stuff back in them days. But yeah, I guess it’s not quite to the stage like we don’t have food and stuff like that like you can get I guess in America. I don’t know if they deliver food and stuff.

Anders
09:31 – 10:11
Yeah, they do in Germany as well. Yeah, you can actually I mean, we have several warehouses even here in Munich in the in the greater Munich area, we have several warehouses and, and they’re huge. What, what I really dislike, I must say, because we do need to think about the environment and stuff. So when I buy something in 1 order, I can order 2 types of batteries, for instance, and they may come in 2 separate deliveries. And that’s just, you know, they really should, but I guess it’s too complicated from a logistical point of view to make sure

I am sure you will find Episode 10 and Episode 11 a good read as well.

Mark
10:11 – 10:17
that someone picking their mortars together, wouldn’t they, instead of having a robot, maybe plucking it off a shelf and whacking it in a box or something like that.

Anders
10:17 – 10:47
Yeah, and even if they come from 2 different warehouses here in Munich, I mean, yeah, so and I guess they have so many deliveries, they even have their own vans now driving around here in Germany. So, but if it comes from a warehouse with you know from a greater distance then they will simply DHL it and you know I guess they pay nothing you know for all these deliveries with their logistical partners they just have like.

Mark
10:47 – 10:53
I find that like in like you’re talking about the boxes in Australia, I’ll order something small and it’ll turn up in this huge box, like full

Anders
10:53 – 10:55
of bubble

Mark
10:55 – 11:03
bits and things like that. I’m like, man, this is only small and you sent me a box, like 5 times the size of it. I can only hide the recycling in boxes. But

Anders
11:04 – 11:37
yeah, yeah, no, that’s that’s, you know, sometimes from from from a sustainable point of sustainability point of view, it’s it’s it’s really I’m sometimes struggling, you know, with, you know, hitting that purchase button and say, okay, okay, order now and then we’ll be here tomorrow at noon. Sometimes I think, you know, can I wait? And Sometimes I could wait, but then I know, it doesn’t really matter because it may not even come with the same delivery. So yeah.

Mark
11:37 – 11:40
We love the convenience, don’t we?

Anders
11:40 – 12:05
It is. And now, I mean, really, again, back to the America tax thing. I mean, Amazon is probably my, my, the place where I order the most. So So I would say, you know, I’m 1 of those who where the where the balance should be okay in and certainly in US favor, because we order so much.

Mark
12:06 – 12:08
Yeah, that’s what you would think, wouldn’t you?

Anders
12:08 – 12:32
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So yeah, it’s just, you know, I guess his administration is catering to to the domestic base, the MAGA fans back home in the United States, and they have no clue how could they, many of these people, no offense, but international savvy is not really there.

Mark
12:32 – 12:34
No, they got no idea sometimes.

Anders
12:37 – 13:20
And they can be, they are good people. It’s not like that. It’s just it’s just, yeah, they are, they don’t know any better. And it’s just for sure. So, so it’s just the world is much more nuanced than what you can put into a 30 second clickbait online clip or, or some snippet on on CNN or whatever you I mean, it’s much more complicated and nuanced than that. But I guess this is the way we’re headed. I mean, we have an election here in Germany as well in 2 and a half weeks. And it’s it’s Yeah, it’s not going in the right direction really at the moment.

Anders
13:21 – 13:40
It’s closed borders, everyone looking out for themselves. You and I grew up in a world where I could go across Europe for months without even bringing my passport. I didn’t need any papers. But that’s different now, isn’t it?

Mark
13:41 – 13:56
That is. This is the world we’re heading into, I think, at the moment, for a period of time of protectionism I guess or austerity I guess for the memory country.

Anders
13:56 – 14:44
You would think that you know we should know better I mean I was just in a discussion yesterday with someone and said, you know, all the things that, you know, since the Second World War, that all these clever people, they, you know, sort of, they made a consensus that, you know, we should avoid war, we should have alliances, do international trade and all that And we sort of subscribe to that idea for decades that as long as we’re trading with 1 another, we’re dealing, buying stuff from 1 another, you know, we all have an interest in not going to war.

Anders
14:45 – 14:59
But then every once in a while comes to like a tyrant who could not get a date in high school. And then, you know, they want to, they want to, you know, just put their anger on anyone they meet.

Mark
15:01 – 15:07
I think as much of it is to do historically with transition to technology, I guess, and lack of

Anders
15:07 – 15:08
jobs. Yeah.

Mark
15:08 – 15:19
You know, and that’s, this is probably where all this is deeply rooted in the fact that, you know, if there’s no jobs, then, you know, you’ve got to have someone to blame and possibly immigrants

Anders
15:19 – 15:22
and illegal immigrants or even

Mark
15:23 – 15:34
refugees, you know, who are coming to countries and maybe illegally filling positions. I think that’s 1 of the big ones in America. Isn’t that’s what they go on about

Anders
15:34 – 15:37
Yeah, that’s what they’re talking about. Yeah

Mark
15:37 – 16:19
and things like that and I look I’ve got a Not a big thing. I’m not against refugees. I’m not against countries taking refugees in but you’ve got to I think you’ve got to do it right like a lot of countries Australia doesn’t do it right either like we we bring in these people and I’m not being racist here, these people could be any people I’m not talking about Any specific group there and then what you do is you just lump them all in 1 area Yeah, and and you don’t give many training and you don’t try and find them jobs and you just and you leave them and that breeds discontent and that breeds Possibly terrorism and different things like that because you haven’t tried to integrate them properly into society.

Mark
16:19 – 16:33
You think that by bringing them to your country is giving them a better life but you know if they’ve got no job, they’ve got no house, you know, they haven’t got a decent lifestyle, well then is it really any better for them than where they’ve come from and that breeds anger.

Anders
16:34 – 17:22
The lack of hope and perspective will tear down any man. I mean, definitely. It’s the same thing that is the same for the same reason we have refugees. I mean, in some cultures, they, you know, the first born son, you know, kind of inherits everything. And that’s the 1 person that every 1 in the family is putting their hopes on. And if you’re like the third born or fifth born son in a family, you have, in many countries, you don’t have any perspective. And then obviously, you start looking for your luck and perspective elsewhere. So you travel abroad and yeah, you’re absolutely right.

Anders
17:23 – 18:04
In Germany, I would say this, I mean, if it wasn’t for refugees and people coming from abroad, we would have an issue with many healthcare jobs, for instance, in retirement homes and definitely in the daycare, in the care of our elderly, even in many logistical jobs, in restaurant business, you know, hotel business, We wouldn’t be able to function as a society.

Mark
18:04 – 18:10
This is what I often say about Australia, these people come and do jobs that as Australians we don’t want to do.

Anders
18:10 – 18:11
Yeah, exactly.

Mark
18:12 – 18:20
We don’t want to pick vegetables and farm and do stuff like that in the heat and you know, we don’t want to be cleaners

Anders
18:21 – 19:08
We’re too comfortable for it. It’s a Western world syndrome We’re lazy and we’re overpaid And we have like, you know, we’re used to a certain standard of living that, you know, it costs money. And we get angry and pissed off if we can’t go on 3 holidays a year and all these things you know this it’s really just luxury problems that you know if we if we would put our act together we could do these jobs ourselves and then we could have like an argument about not having too many foreigners but as as it is now I always say, you know, these foreigners They’re they’re doing the jobs that we don’t want to do.

Anders
19:08 – 19:12
So What are we what are we complaining about? I mean really?

Mark
19:13 – 20:06
Most definitely like we have a Visa system for travelers. I think gotta be maybe under 35 I think is I think standard age and you can get like a 1 year visa in Australia. But if you go and do, I think it’s 90 days on a farm or in you know agricultural area or something like that they’ll extend your visa for 2 years. Wow yeah yeah so you’ve got to go and do farm work basically like picking picking vegetables or grapes or apples or you know working in childcare or something like this There’s a certain specific but most people are always complaining about them the farm works Oh, yeah, the people have to go and only because it’s also opened for corruption as well like you often hear stories about foreigners going to do this and then getting ripped off and not paid properly.

Anders
20:06 – 20:07
Exploited by the farmer.

Mark
20:07 – 20:25
Yeah, it comes down to the person saying well you know do you want your pay or do you want your 90 day visa? You know and things like this. I mean the government are trying to crack down on it now, but it was a bit too hard about it a few years ago. Yeah, they were getting mistreated, doing this farm work

Anders
20:25 – 21:01
and stuff. I heard a story some years ago, I think it was when we were traveling in Australia. So that’s long ago now, but that you actually had on some farms, you had food rottening on on on crops rottening on trees and, and, and, because no 1, they could be picked. They had no 1 to do it. That just makes me sad. I mean, we have a food crisis on the planet and then, you know, elsewhere on the planet, you have, you cannot pick it. What was that?

Mark
21:01 – 21:15
It was happening last year. I don’t know whether it was bananas last year or they had a lot of bananas or avocados or something and they just couldn’t pick them so they just plough them back into the ground and go again basically for the next season.

Anders
21:15 – 21:38
Well it doesn’t make any sense and so I always say you know, generally it really doesn’t matter which country, you get the politicians you elect. So I always say, you know, if you want smarter politicians, We should have make it interesting for smart people to go into politics and then then make sure we go voting for them on election day

Mark
21:39 – 21:48
I don’t know if they have any laws in your country or they don’t really in our country But what I find is the biggest problem with politicians is there’s too many career politicians

Anders
21:48 – 21:49
that want to

Mark
21:49 – 22:10
stay in there from the start to the end. And it’s not in their, it’s not in their best interests to bring in different laws sometimes and things like that. They want to stay cushy in their jobs. So they get their, you know, their big pension and their free travel entitlements and stuff like that when they when they finish, you know I think that no 1 should be able to stay in politics longer than 10 years because that should turn over fresh ideas

Anders
22:10 – 22:11
Yes, exactly

Mark
22:11 – 22:19
people and bringing new people in but these days They just stay if they don’t get elected, they just go to the opposition and wait and see if they can get reelected.

Anders
22:20 – 22:20
And yeah,

Mark
22:20 – 22:28
there’s many people that spend their whole life in politics and looking after the policies that will then look after them, not look after the people.

Anders
22:30 – 23:10
And many of the issues we have in the world today, they cannot be solved within an election period. So the politicians have no interest in solving, for instance, let’s say just climate or, you know, adaption to, you know, new technology or whatever, because it’s way beyond their election period. And they’re not they they only, you know, they care for the next 4 years, 4 to 5 years, depending on how long an election period is in your country. And it’s just, you know, sometimes It’s just the political systems that we have, it’s just, yeah, and I agree with you, it’s, you know, more than 10 years, that’s really time to move on.

Anders
23:10 – 23:12
Time to move on.

Mark
23:12 – 23:13
Definitely. Get out of the private sector.

Anders
23:15 – 24:08
Yeah. Yeah. So, So no, it’s just that, you know, yeah, we need to step up and make sure that, you know, the world comes in a better state than it currently is. And nobody knows what’s going to happen, for instance, with the United States in the next 4 years. It certainly looks very overheated at the moment. I’m sure it will sort of settle, you know, once he’s been in office for a while. For the moment, I can only you know, chat and talk to my American friends and because all of all of those that I know personally, they just look like 1 big excuse, you know, and this is we’re really sorry for what kind of reputation we have at the moment.

Anders
24:10 – 24:16
Yes, yeah, well, it’s, you know, you and I are good friends. So don’t worry about it. But yeah,

Mark
24:17 – 24:22
look, it’s a democracy and the American people voted for Trump. That’s the way the world is.

Anders
24:22 – 24:24
Yeah, exactly.

Mark
24:24 – 24:29
You know, you can’t, you can’t spend your voting is voting compulsory in Germany. Do you have to vote?

Anders
24:30 – 24:44
No, you don’t. I think you have a moral obligation to do so, but yeah, no, you’re not, you’re not, you’re not forced. They can’t, they can’t enforce any, any, anything on you if you don’t vote.

Mark
24:44 – 24:59
You have a legal obligation in Australia to vote. It is a criminal offence. Yeah, it’s a criminal offence not to vote. You have to go into a voting booth and you have to get your name kicked off the roster or ticked off the Electoral roll as it’s called.

Anders
24:59 – 25:00
Okay to

Mark
25:00 – 25:15
show that you you have voted I mean if you don’t the penalties not my telling it’s like $25 or $50 or something like that if you don’t vote. But yeah, but legally, you’re obliged to anyone over 18 is obliged to go and cast a vote.

Anders
25:16 – 25:34
I think, I don’t know. I kind of like the idea. It’s it’s a little it would be a little harsh but but yeah, why not? I mean, I certainly believe you have a moral obligation to vote and I always you know, I will always go voting.

Mark
25:35 – 25:37
So do you vote in a German election as well as?

Anders
25:37 – 26:25
No, that’s the, no, I can’t because I’m a Danish citizen and I would have to, I would have to apply for German citizenship. The thing is, this is just an internal EU thing, they really should make it like, you know, where you pay your taxes, you should also have, you know, be able to vote. So, geography should matter, not just your citizenship. But it’s an internal EU thing. And I kind of think some of the politicians, they don’t want to change this because, you know, this is just, it works for them. But yeah, I can and I can’t even vote in Denmark as well because I don’t live there.

Mark
26:25 – 26:40
Okay, so you can’t go to well, you don’t live in the capital. So you can’t really go to an embassy, can you? I know, Australians can go to an embassy overseas, but I guess you’ve got to be, you know, for you It’s not worth going to Berlin to vote. You might as well go to Denmark and vote if you’re gonna go to

Anders
26:40 – 26:48
Yeah, but I can’t When I’ve lived abroad for 2 years or more, I don’t have a vote in Denmark anymore.

Mark
26:49 – 27:37
Okay, so Australians are still meant to, but we’re meant to go to an embassy overseas and cast our vote at the embassy if we’re traveling. So The only time I never voted was in 2019 when we were away and I actually wanted to. I was in Laos and I wanted to go to the embassy and vote but you actually have to, it was difficult so I don’t think they really want you to even though they say it’s compulsory. You had to fill in a form and fax it to the the electoral office in Australia to say that you were gonna vote somewhere else and I had no fax machine and no printer and things like that so I didn’t bother and they sent me, they fined me and Rebecca We weren’t home, but my sister just, I got my sister to send him a letter and say that we were out of the country for 12 months and that was never heard from him again.

Mark
27:38 – 27:45
So yeah, so in that regard, do you guys also, do you vote online or do you have to go and physically vote?

Anders
27:45 – 28:10
We can do both, Not online, we can mail a letter. But not online. That’s just not accepted. Particularly in Germany, you know, they’re technically hesitant, as we’ve often talked about. That won’t come for the next 50 years, I don’t think so Denmark maybe?

Mark
28:10 – 28:31
Well I know some countries do it Estonia was an early taker of The online voting I don’t see why we can’t do it. It would be a lot easier. I mean We’re a world that uses computers every day to do do everything You know if we trust the computer with our banking and things like that now money why why we’re not trusting them with a vote.

Anders
28:31 – 29:13
It’s a good argument. It’s a really good argument. I don’t know. It’s for Germany, I could certainly say they are not ready for that. Absolutely not. In Denmark, you go as well. There’s also some kind of, I don’t know, it’s, it’s, there’s something about going to the, you know, election station, the polling station and entering the booth. And, you know, I think there’s, it’s a ritual. And I think it’s, it’s, it’s, it makes it more important to me. Yes, There’s something about it, you know, the whole ceremonial more or less, that you go in there and you make your vote and put it in the box.

Anders
29:15 – 29:20
I think it’s a healthy exercise mentally, you know.

Mark
29:21 – 29:51
Because I do think about it, I guess. Yeah, yeah. They make you vote in Australia, but they can’t ensure that you’re actually voting. Like you can just go and fold your ballot up and yeah put it in the box with no vote on it which I have done before only because there was no 1 I wanted to vote for so I’m not quite sure where that vote goes for but yeah as long as you get your name ticked off you yeah you don’t actually yeah vote for anyone you can just file the paper and put in the box if you want

Anders
29:52 – 30:22
when you think about so many countries where you do not have a free election I think it’s in in our part of the world where we do have free elections I think I think we should we should never take democracy for certain. I mean, for granted, it’s just because we’re used to it. And so I don’t think we cherish it as we should.

Mark
30:22 – 30:36
I think the government sort of say in Australia, well if everyone has to vote, then no 1 can say they didn’t have a say, you know, because Everyone’s had a chance to have a say. So, you know, if you don’t vote and then you complain about who’s in power and things like that.

Anders
30:36 – 30:37
Exactly.

Mark
30:37 – 30:46
Have you really got an argument if you didn’t take the time to go and put your ballot, you know, in a place, in a box and say, this is who I want

Anders
30:46 – 30:46
to be legal.

Mark
30:47 – 30:55
Whether that works or not for you, but yeah, you can’t sort of go well, yeah, I don’t like this, but you haven’t really done anything about it, have you?

Anders
30:55 – 31:02
Exactly right. I completely agree. I also say to people, you know, if you don’t vote, don’t complain. I mean, it’s just…

Mark
31:02 – 31:03
It’s here, isn’t it?

Anders
31:04 – 31:25
So yeah, at the moment, Alex, my wife, she obviously is going to vote. So we’re discussing a bit of politics at the moment, Because, you know, she basically goes voting for both of us. I can’t I can’t I can’t be sure what she’s going to vote but she’s a

Mark
31:25 – 31:31
right yeah she’s in a show you who she writes for or does she keep that like, afterwards, but sometimes,

Anders
31:31 – 32:10
you know, I don’t even I sometimes I don’t it’s no it’s a personal thing. I mean, yeah, do whatever she wants. Yeah, I would be I would be very surprised if she voted something very radical. She’s an informed and reasonable person. So So, I think we more or less agree. I can, I should say, I can go vote for the EU and the local mayor and stuff? I can vote for that, but I cannot vote for the parliament. So I sometimes go vote as well when there’s an EU election. Yep. Okay. So yeah. So no, it’s just the general state of the world.

Anders
32:10 – 33:05
I think we should all contribute in whatever way we can to make sure that we have a prosperous and free world, because people like you and I, Marc, we like to travel, we like to meet people. And here’s another thing. When you meet people traveling and you come into their circles of life, when you travel their local communities and people are nice people are kind, they are, you know, they are open for to foreigners, they are, you know, I’ve never I’ve never seen anything else than kind and open people, hospitable people. So everything we hear in the media and the politicians and stuff, it’s just seems like a different world, different planet, doesn’t it?

Mark
33:06 – 33:14
It does. You’re correct. You know, I guess travel opens your mind through other experiences.

Anders
33:14 – 33:15
It does.

Mark
33:15 – 33:35
That’s what it’s all about, listening to what other people from other countries have got to say. Like, for instance, you know, I learned something tonight that, you know, you don’t have to vote in Germany, things like that. And this is this sort of a lot of it’s trivial knowledge, but it’s knowledge you would never get if you weren’t within a conversation with someone who lives in a different part of the world.

Anders
33:35 – 33:36
Yeah, exactly.

Mark
33:36 – 33:59
Like, you know, I’m not all of a sudden just going to sit there and go, I wonder whether they vote in Germany. But when you’re in conversation about these things, you know, you become inquisitive and you ask questions and you go, okay, so now I know that I don’t have to vote in Germany and that Anders lives in Germany, but can’t vote in Germany and can’t vote in his own country either.

Anders
34:01 – 34:06
Yeah, that’s, that’s, I don’t have any democratic rights. Right.

Mark
34:08 – 34:13
Someone who lives, someone who lives in passport control at an airport, actually, you haven’t really got a country.

Anders
34:14 – 34:36
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But speaking of various customs, I mean, you recently posted, because you have a lot to do with China at the moment. And I was looking into your social media and you posted photos from your, was it an airbnb? No, it was a privately rented apartment.

Mark
34:36 – 34:40
Yeah, it was an apartment that people live in.

Anders
34:40 – 34:42
And you didn’t have an oven in that.

Mark
34:42 – 34:55
No ovens. And that’s not Unusual because we went to another apartment Where my daughter lives with another family and they don’t have an oven either ovens are really not a thing in them

Anders
34:55 – 34:56
Do they not bake?

Mark
34:57 – 35:26
No, no. No, they do not bake at all most of their food is cooked in a wok on you know on a yeah and and That’s how they that’s how they do it. I guess if they Well, I’m not even sure they said they had an air fryer, but they don’t often Use it. So I think yeah, so they don’t really They don’t really fry anything pass I like in oil, you know, they might fry wok, you know, with vegetables and stuff like that, toss through a bit of olive oil.

Anders
35:26 – 35:27
Spring rolls or something

Mark
35:27 – 36:00
like that. Yeah. And things like that. But they don’t really roast anything, you know, they don’t bake bread and they don’t, you know, have a roast pork or a roast lamb or a roast beef like like we might do in Western countries like you know or anything like that or roast potatoes like everything that they eat is, you know, tossed greens and rice and you know, Chinese style beef and you know prawns and all that sort of stuff that can just be tossed through a through a wok, basically. So, so, yeah, so it’s not uncommon not to have a stove.

Mark
36:00 – 36:26
I thought it was a little bit strange, but but yeah, apparently it’s not, not a thing, but they might have sometimes I was told there could be a communal stove in like an apartment building. Like there might be a communal area downstairs where there is a stove sometimes that people can use. Yeah, so that was what they were telling me, but I’m not quite sure whether that’s true.

Anders
36:26 – 36:33
They have these crackers that they, you know, there’s a saying in them, you know, For good luck, you can open these crackers.

Mark
36:33 – 36:34
Yeah, the fortune cookies.

Anders
36:34 – 36:39
Fortune cookies, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but and I guess they’re baked, but I don’t know.

Mark
36:39 – 36:59
Yeah. I mean, bakeries and that obviously, you know, it’s all probably done commercially for bread and things like that. But they don’t eat a lot of bread anyway. Like I don’t, it’s very rare that like they don’t make sandwiches or things like that. Like that’s not a, that’s not really a thing in China to eat bread at all. Hardly. So.

Anders
36:59 – 37:04
That’s another thing. Because they eat rice more, you know, with basically anything, don’t they? I mean,

Mark
37:04 – 37:15
rice is a breakfast food in China. It’s not really even really a lunch food or a dinner food. They eat it mainly At breakfast time so at dinner a lot of it is

Anders
37:15 – 37:18
What do they eat it for breakfast? With or

Mark
37:18 – 37:50
with yeah egg and things like that. So they said to a fried rice fried rice is more of a breakfast food in China at night time a lot of it like I said is tossed vegetables steamed vegetables and things like that that they chuck soy sauce and chilies and stuff through like that and they’ll often have like they have like a buffet every night on their table you know there might be 6 or 7 or 8 8 dishes you know going on and that’s sort of traditionally tea and there might be a couple of different meats and a couple of different, you know, vegetable dishes and things like that.

Mark
37:50 – 38:00
So they often have a, yeah, 5 or 6 dishes going on each night and they just stick it all in the middle of the table and you just go and, you go and choose from that. So, yeah,

Anders
38:00 – 38:13
just okay. Yeah, I guess, so like the sweet breakfast, like we like, you know, our jams and bread and toast and stuff. They don’t have that at all.

Mark
38:13 – 39:00
No, not really. They sell it. But yeah, but no 1 has. From what I could gather, well, the people that will I live with anyway, they? Don’t have that sort of breakfast But they eat a lot of Always on the table There’s like sunflower seeds and you know, it’s all healthy stuff. You know, Chinese look like stick figures. Yeah Yeah, it is really healthy stuff like seeds and lots of seeds and nuts and you know and vegetables broccoli and you know and all this sort of stuff like this like like flat out and you know, they they wouldn’t local people or to a certain maybe a younger generation but medium age would never go to McDonald’s or anything like that for a meal because that’s just not you know it’s

Anders
39:00 – 39:01
for tourists

Mark
39:01 – 39:16
okay yeah basically yes everything’s freshly cooked you know and a lot of its soup based as well so so yeah so that’s why they’re all so skinny. And yeah, that’s why I look like a man mountain when I walk around China. Yeah,

Anders
39:19 – 39:29
it’s right. You know, in the Western world, we eat white bread and a lot of sweet stuff with artificial flavor, a lot of sugar and fat.

Mark
39:29 – 40:03
And That’s another thing in China, they don’t need a lot of sugar. Like if you buy Western equivalents in China, they taste different because they don’t have the same sugar content in them that they do here. Like if you had a Fanta, like I’ve had it in China, nowhere near as sweet, more like orange juice than it is in the Western world. If you have cake, you have cake, but the cake is not sweet. So sugar really doesn’t exist in a lot of foods in China where you would find in Western. They still make it, but they just don’t have sugar in them.

Anders
40:03 – 40:18
Sugar is used because some like 20, 25 years ago, there was a lot, you know, people were scared of fat in their food. Yeah. Die low carb, low fat and all of these things, you know, diet, whatever. So instead,

Mark
40:19 – 40:20
that’s very good, full of sugar.

Anders
40:20 – 40:32
Exactly. They use sugar instead to enhance the flavor. And, and since then, you know, it’s really just gotten worse. I would say. Yeah. Sugar is extremely addictive.

Mark
40:34 – 40:34
That is.

Anders
40:35 – 40:58
And yeah, yeah. Sorry. No, I was just reading this weekend that, you know, you can actually, and you should every once in a while make a sugar detox. Slowly, you know, ease out of all the sugar intake and it’s hard. And it’s actually hard to avoid. Yeah, it’s hard to avoid.

Mark
40:59 – 41:07
It’s in everything. Literally, you look on the back of everything and there’s sugar in it. Like, you know, it’s, it’s really only water. It’s really only water that you can’t

Anders
41:07 – 41:45
get sugar. Exactly. I was, I was, we wanted to buy some yogurt, recently and, and, and, and, Alex was saying, you know, I want to make sure that it’s no sugar in it. And it was not possible. She looked at every single and in Germany, we do like our yogurt. We have a huge, huge huge, like selection in the supermarkets and all of them, all of them, even the natural flavored ones with no like a strawberry or whatever you can get, just the natural flavored ones, they were full of sugar. Really?

Mark
41:45 – 42:02
Yeah, definitely. As you see a lot in Australia that say no sugar, no extra sugar added, but still there’s a lot of sugar even before you want to add natural sugars, I guess, before you even want to before you want to add anything to it.

Anders
42:04 – 42:10
And even some ingredients, they will produce sugar, like fermented

Mark
42:12 – 42:15
beer. Yeah, wine,

Anders
42:15 – 42:16
things like that.

Mark
42:16 – 42:23
And you can’t get away from it, can you? Like this is the issue. Yeah, it’s a tricky 1, isn’t it? It is.

Anders
42:24 – 42:44
It’s an interesting topic because we think, for instance, we think that breakfast is a global thing, but it’s not. We certainly do not have the same habits in terms of breakfast. That’s why, you know, you go into a hotel, you have continental breakfast. That’s probably, yeah.

Mark
42:45 – 43:14
People used to eat like carb, carb heavy breakfast because manual labor was what. Yeah. It’s happening. Well, and now manual labor’s not really happening for a lot of us, let’s be honest. So, so, you know, so you don’t need to, to be, you know, carb, carb loading in the morning on your, you know, on your breakfast with sugars and breads and, you know, and all this sort of stuff, because you don’t need that energy during the day. Cause you’re not actually doing anything really, you know, really physical.

Anders
43:14 – 43:52
No, you know, it’s funny. I do have a thing for the Italian kitchen. Because to me, it’s my favorite kitchen. And it’s just, you know, breakfast in Italy is what they have is a cappuccino and maybe a some sort of pastry. And that’s it. They don’t they don’t eat breakfast like, you know, continental Europeans like here in Germany, we like sausage roll or, you know, a bun with cheese or something like that.

Mark
43:52 – 43:52
Breads, cheeses.

Anders
43:52 – 44:04
Yeah, exactly. Maybe a yogurt. We have these muesli with cereal in it and yogurt or an egg or something like that. Something like you say, sounds

Mark
44:04 – 44:12
healthy, healthier than the English breakfast, you know, which is baked beans and eggs and hash browns and you know sausages and you know,

Anders
44:13 – 44:14
lots of fat and salt.

Mark
44:15 – 44:18
Yeah, all that sort of yummy stuff. I will say,

Anders
44:18 – 44:19
yeah, it’s

Mark
44:19 – 44:20
definitely indulged in some.

Anders
44:20 – 44:29
I do like my breakfast. I do like my English or Irish breakfast. I do. The Irish breakfast is with a blood sausage, black pudding.

Mark
44:29 – 44:37
Black pudding. Yeah, I like that too. That’s nice. I’ve had some of that before Yeah, I mean, you know where you are is when you’re in Rome do as the

Anders
44:37 – 44:45
Romans do Yeah, exactly, exactly But when you’re in Rome, you don’t get a breakfast like you can get your pastry and a cappuccino I

Mark
44:45 – 44:50
wonder where that saying come from? Where does that saying come from? When in Rome, there was the Romans. What did the Romans do?

Anders
44:52 – 44:53
Well, they had a…

Mark
44:53 – 44:56
They tried to follow, I guess they had an advanced society for that,

Anders
44:57 – 45:00
The Roman upper class, they certainly knew how to live, didn’t they?

Mark
45:00 – 45:03
Well, they did. They were in party mode a lot of the time.

Anders
45:05 – 45:14
Yeah, so no, but did you know that in Italy, you do not order a cappuccino after 10 o’clock in the morning?

Mark
45:15 – 45:17
Because it’s a breakfast drink, is

Anders
45:17 – 45:22
it? It’s a breakfast drink. And if you do so, they will immediately know that you’re a tourist.

Mark
45:22 – 45:24
You’re a tourist and charge you more for it.

Anders
45:26 – 45:37
So the Italians, they would a cappuccino, a cafe latte or whatever. It’s any milk drink, anything with milk is

Mark
45:37 – 45:39
up until. Espresso after 10 o’clock.

Anders
45:39 – 45:53
Espresso, well, some Italians, they go on espresso black all day. But particularly those with milk, after 10, of course you can get it, it’s not like that, it’s just that they will judge you.

Mark
45:54 – 45:55
They might look down their nose at you.

Anders
45:58 – 45:59
So yeah, that’s the thing.

Mark
45:59 – 46:34
I’m sure I’ve been judged in many countries. So it’s not, it’s not, not something new. So in Australia at the moment or in Victoria where we are, we’re in the middle of a short heatwave here. It was 39 yesterday, it was 38 today. It’s gonna be 38 tomorrow. And then it’s gonna cool down to 28 the next day before it whips back up into the high 30s on the weekend again. Which is quite strange because far north Queensland just had something like a thousand mils of rain in the last 24 hours and there’s floods.

Anders
46:34 – 46:36
So, you know, again,

Mark
46:36 – 46:46
the length and breadth of our country. Yeah. So there’s flooding in 1 part of the country and the other part of the country is dying through a heatwave as I sit here in the shed sweating.

Anders
46:46 – 46:54
Wow. Is the weather getting more extreme in Australia or is it just something they say in the media? What’s your take on that?

Mark
46:56 – 47:34
I’m gonna say that this is probably the hottest summer I reckon we’ve had in Australia in maybe 10 years or more. I thought the days of long prolonged periods of hot weather had gone but they seem to be back this season especially like is nearly every day has been over 30 or around 30. I would say for the last month or so or even before that, whereas other years we’ll get in days around, a lot of days around 20s and not really many days in the 30s or even high 30s. So this year’s been a bit of a turnaround in this part of Australia anyway, but they seem to be getting a lot of, there seems to be a lot of rain up.

Mark
47:35 – 47:53
So I don’t really know. It’s really hard to say. I think time sort of dulls your memory on weather perception. You know, as a kid, I always thought it was hot, but then, you know, now I don’t think it’s been all that hot, but then it’s hot again this year. But they are saying it’s been the hottest last year, it’s the hottest year on record. So,

Anders
47:54 – 47:54
wow,

Mark
47:55 – 47:55
it is.

Anders
47:55 – 48:03
It’s sort of like the same here in, in, in Europe, it’s in, in central Europe. They say, you know, in the good old days, we used to have white winters, snowy winters.

Mark
48:04 – 48:06
And they don’t get any snow much, do you? No, we

Anders
48:06 – 48:41
don’t. No, it’s actually, it’s, you know, a lot of the glaciers are collapsing. And it’s really, the weather is certainly changing. And, you know, you can believe what you want, whether or not it’s manmade, it doesn’t really matter. It’s it’s it’s time to adapt, we need to adapt to the changes that we that we are seeing. I mean, For instance, my native Denmark, it’s just, you know, a lot of coastal line where you used to have like houses and buildings along the coast. You can’t do that anymore. You can’t get them insured.

Mark
48:42 – 48:43
Yeah, that’s it.

Anders
48:43 – 48:44
Yeah. So, so, in

Mark
48:44 – 48:45
case they go underwater.

Anders
48:47 – 49:01
And this is new. I mean, within the last couple of years, they start talking about, you know, we won’t insure new buildings on the coast because of the change.

Mark
49:02 – 49:23
Insurance has become a bit of an issue, I think, like especially housing insurance and things like that, especially worldwide, because there’s so much unpredictable weather and so many claims and catastrophes happening that the price of like household insurance, I think, in general around the world is like you through the roof like

Anders
49:23 – 49:23
yeah,

Mark
49:23 – 49:52
those these insurance companies are paying out you know so much so obviously they they then kick it on to They kick it on to you, but It’s just companies There’s a bit of a waste to it some stuff not a waste But they’re wasteful because it’s I find this in Australia a lot. It’s not your money. You’re happy to spend it So, you know, you can get a rort off the government, you know Australians are all up for you know Take it government for whatever whatever they can and things like this. And then we wonder why we’ve got high prices.

Anders
49:52 – 49:53
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mark
49:53 – 50:38
That’s a whole other argument. But so I think maybe November we had a leak in the back of our dishwasher and it went behind our cupboards. So, So I had to ring the insurance and so straight away after I made a claim they stuck the insurance up by $20 a month straight away before they’d even done any work. So it went up and then I haven’t actually had anything done yet because it was coming into Christmas time and the tradespeople were closing down and you know And it was though everyone was gonna be shut for 2 or 3 weeks in the cabinet Go ahead So a guy has to make some cabinets to re-put back in our kitchen Someone has to come in and put some new vinyl down Someone has to come in and remove a couple of boards in the floor because we’ve got wooden floorboards in because we live in an old house so someone’s got to do that.

Mark
50:38 – 51:00
So you know, so a plumber’s then got to come in and disconnect it, an electrician’s got to come in, this says there’s all these trades that have got to come in and sort of work you know in unison hopefully to get this like done in a week, but. The, the, so the insurance company sort of billeted out to 1 building company to oversee, you know, all these other, yeah.

Anders
51:00 – 51:02
Like coordinate the things. Yeah. Yeah.

Mark
51:02 – 51:30
Yeah. They coordinate it. So, so the coordinator rings the other week and he’s like, Oh, can we come and start next week? And I’m like, well, you probably can, but I don’t know. What are we going to do? Like, we can’t access the kitchen in our house. So we meant to stay here or is the insurance company going to pay for us to move out for a week or something like that. And he’s like, Oh yeah. So he’s run you to the page. Like, okay, so I’ll ring the insurance company and we’ll, we’ll, we’ll work something out about you.

Mark
51:30 – 51:43
I’m moving out for a week or so. Why, why we do this? Which is what they told us when they first come and assess that, because we can’t use your kitchen, it’s not really much you can, you can’t really do much, can you, you can’t cook, you can’t get a drink.

Anders
51:43 – 51:45
And all this just because the dishwasher was leaking.

Mark
51:46 – 52:08
Yeah, it leaked behind the back of the cupboards. So it went under the sort of under the wooden flooring and under the false board that’s on the bottom of your cupboards and things like that. So there could be mold or anything going on under there. But yeah, it’s probably it’s an overkill. But like, I probably would have left it but Rebecca was like well you need to ring in I guess If you don’t ring in and something happens 6 months. Yeah

Anders
52:10 – 52:12
Yeah, your wife’s right

Mark
52:14 – 52:39
So we’re gonna cover it now because yeah, so you’ve got a really ring then the actual insurance company ring me up the other day and they’re like, Yes, so the building company wants you to move out for a month I said a month like no, it’s not gonna take that long and things like this is why we pay so much for insurance Yeah, I can’t take a month to fix what is in our kitchen. Like to me, it will take a week at the most, just by looking

Anders
52:39 – 52:39
at it.

Mark
52:39 – 53:07
If they’ve got to replace a couple of boards, all the guy’s got to do is replace the carcass, he calls it, of the cupboard. So they’ll lift the bench top up because it’s all right and because the kitchens to slot in in pieces They’ll take the bottom cabinets out and you’ll put some new ones in so that yeah done for that bit Then all the guys got to do is come in put some lino down You know things like this shouldn’t take 4 weeks, but you go well No wonder we’re paying so much when you know accommodation for 4 weeks You know in an Airbnb or something’s probably gonna cost what the whole friggin repair cost.

Mark
53:07 – 53:30
Yeah, exactly why you’re The wonder why insurance policies cost so much And I said that to him he goes do you think you’d need to move out for a month? And I said, I don’t think so. Like, so he was going back to the building company. This was the insurer to say, you know, to talk to him about it again. So I still haven’t heard back.

Anders
53:30 – 54:04
But these building companies, these handymen, we had a plumber last week to fix our toilet. It was running all the time. And it was just basically just need to be decalcified. And you know, just stuff like that. And there was a dripping faucet in the bathroom as well. So they fixed all that. I got a bill for 700-800 euros. Come on, you were here like literally 30 minutes.

Mark
54:05 – 54:08
Yeah, that’s it. And

Anders
54:08 – 54:23
we did, we did, they did change some things, we did get a new faucet, which was overpriced, like beyond belief. Anyway, it was just, they were here for 30 minutes. And they I think they charged us for 2 hours of labour.

Mark
54:23 – 54:26
Probably the minimum call-out or something like that.

Anders
54:26 – 54:33
Something like that, you know, plus the driving. That’s like a fixed fee they have for even starting their

Mark
54:33 – 54:41
such a scam Isn’t that like and you know and you wonder why things this idea and why people yeah Yeah, I think so that price it’s ridiculous

Anders
54:42 – 54:47
And as you say in terms of insurance because these these building companies they love insurance

Mark
54:47 – 54:48
Yeah, definitely

Anders
54:48 – 54:51
since because that’s when they can really

Mark
54:51 – 54:52
really rip the price up.

Anders
54:52 – 54:54
Yeah So

Mark
54:54 – 54:57
Then I wonder why I’m all of a sudden, you know, paying,

Anders
54:57 – 54:57
you know,

Mark
54:57 – 55:19
a hundred and whatever it is, $150 a month for insurance, you know, and $100, $150 a month for the house insurance on top of that, like, so you’ve got to ensure the inside and I’ve got to ensure the outside, you know, and I bought a new car insurance went from like $40 a month to $100 a month for a brand new car.

Anders
55:19 – 55:28
Which is interesting because a new, I can, to a point I can understand that, but a new car shouldn’t have any issues either. No.

Mark
55:28 – 55:48
No. They only work on the replacement fee, don’t they? They go, well, if he crashes this and writes it off, well then I’ve got to hand out 25 grand. If he crashes his old $5, 000 car, I’ve only got to hand out $5, 000. Don’t I? Like, so that’s where they get you in the end. It’s listen, that’s what you sound like. Whingers. We’re here whinging away about everything.

Anders
55:48 – 56:13
Old grumpy man. Anyway, Mark, it’s always a pleasure to chat with you. It’s been way over an hour again. And Yeah, we should, we should, I will, before we talk the next time, we, I will get into the statistics because I do think we can start seeing, hopefully we have some listeners, Mark.

Mark
56:13 – 56:14
It’d be nice.

Anders
56:14 – 56:25
Yeah, we have a few. I saw that the last time I checked but if you’re listening to this podcast, please do make some noise, you know, drop us

Mark
56:25 – 56:37
a line. Yeah, definitely. Even though we haven’t touched a travel discussion tonight at all, but that’s all right. We will get back into Yeah. We talked about China a little bit. We did.

Anders
56:37 – 57:03
We talked about cultural differences. And this is the whole this is actually could probably be a side thing on this podcast that you know, yeah, we talk about travels. We will get into that, you know, in many more episodes. But, you know, we should, it’s also about what travel brings us, you know, the understanding, international understanding of 1 another and you know, the

Mark
57:03 – 57:04
definitely

Anders
57:04 – 57:11
Yeah, so so yeah, do do give us a like, give us a thumbs up and and drop us a line and

Mark
57:12 – 57:13
appreciate it.

Anders
57:13 – 57:32
Absolutely, absolutely. We will. Well, there’s so many notes to this episode, I guess, but we will in the notes of each episode, you will find links to our Instagram, YouTube and other socials. So yeah, Thanks for listening and have a good week.

Mark
57:32 – 57:35
Thank you. We will talk to you next week for sure.

Anders
57:36 – 57:37
Bye. Bye.