Anders
00:06 – 00:23
Yes, so let’s dive right in, Mark. Before the conversation wanders off. Hello and welcome to Southern Summers and Northern Winters. How are you this week, Mark?

Mark
00:25 – 00:28
I’m fine. Anders, how are you? Another week gone by, hasn’t

Anders
00:28 – 00:41
it? Yeah, we didn’t get to record after because the week after Willow joined us, I was just too busy. But you know, that’s how life is sometimes. These

Mark
00:41 – 00:42
things happen, don’t they?

Anders
00:42 – 00:49
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I read that you had 39 degrees Celsius this weekend. Is that true?

Mark
00:51 – 01:05
Yes, I was away. I was trying to do some sightseeing and it was a little bit warm, I must say. I was in a town called Bendigo, which is about 400 kilometers from home. So

Speaker 3
01:05 – 01:06
we

Mark
01:06 – 01:14
dropped Willow off at the airport last Friday and we kept going from there because it was only 150 kilometers from there. So

Anders
01:14 – 01:14
I’ve

Mark
01:15 – 01:27
been to Bendigo maybe only twice in my life for some strange reason and found it to be a really uh really interesting town actually so I’m not quite sure why i haven’t been there more but i’m hoping to go back in so

Anders
01:28 – 01:29
What’s special about Bendigo

Mark
01:31 – 02:19
It’s got a long, long history associated with gold mining and the Federation of Victoria and things like that. So it was highly populated around the 1850s by Chinese, Australians, Englishmen, and people from all over the world who rushed to the Bendigo area to try and strike it rich in gold. Bendigo The area around Bendigo had more gold taken out of it than anywhere else in Australia in the 1800s. So it was very A very popular area and hence, there’s a lot of historical, I would say maybe Victorian era buildings still in Bendigo that are used today that were built in the late 1800s, which is pretty old for Australia.

Anders
02:20 – 02:22
Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s the thing.

Mark
02:23 – 02:57
So it was quite nice. So we went to a few places up there. They’ve got a couple of old gold mines. So we went to this one gold mine and it. It’s a tourist guideline, so we didn’t actually, we just had a look around. You could pay for a tour and go underground if you wanted to, but I liked that they had a historical tramway attached to it. There used to be trams in Bendigo going everywhere, but they were wheeled back in the 1970s, and so they run this one route around town, which is called the Bendigo Historic Tramway, so you can jump on this tram, and it costs $15 Australian, so about 10 euros, and it’s sort

Anders
02:57 – 02:57
of

Mark
02:57 – 03:16
like a hop-on hop-off bus, so you can jump on and off the tram. Okay, all day long. So so yeah, it was quite good. What else is there a giant stupa from a Buddhist? A giant Buddhist temple, one of the biggest in the world, is located in a paddock just out of Bendigo. Quite strange, but it was…

Anders
03:16 – 03:17
Something you wouldn’t

Mark
03:17 – 03:29
expect there, but yeah, well… No, it was nice actually. I went in, and it felt really, it felt peaceful. Yeah. I don’t know, but yeah, it just did. It felt nice and peaceful inside and calm.

Speaker 2
03:30 – 03:30
Yeah.

Mark
03:31 – 03:39
Because I guess that’s what Buddhism is all about. It’s about, you know, helping people and, you know, things like that. Whereas some of our other religions could probably learn off some of their principles, but.

Anders
03:39 – 04:31
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. True. True. That’s something, um, I like because one thing I enjoy when traveling is to go into religious places because as you, as you mentioned, there’s this, this calmness, this, gigantic piece. It’s almost otherworldly. And I know this may sound a little superstitious, or I don’t know, but still, it’s something that you feel, this is greater than just you. This is something that was maybe created over centuries. I enjoy that. And yeah, as you say, this is just peaceful and something that I guess we can all use in this day and age, can’t we?

Anders
04:31 – 04:33
Just a couple of minutes

Mark
04:33 – 04:44
reflection. We certainly can, you know. you know, religions like that where it’s all about, you know, helping others and being peaceful and calm in life and

Anders
04:44 – 04:44
things like

Mark
04:44 – 04:51
that, you know, I think, um, you know, other religions around the world, I won’t mention them, could certainly learn a, learn

Anders
04:51 – 04:51
a

Mark
04:51 – 04:52
thing or two from, uh, from

Anders
04:52 – 04:53
them sort

Mark
04:53 – 04:54
of philosophies, I would think.

Anders
04:55 – 05:53
Yeah. The thing is, the thing is religion is, I mean, there are many, many ways, this is, this is like a, you know, a topic that could really go off in many directions. But my opinion is, my belief is that, you know, religion is something that, you know, clever people created over centuries in order to explain things that they otherwise probably couldn’t explain. Now we have science to explain many of the natural occurrences and But previously, you know, 1000 years ago, you would use like, you know, storytelling, and religion. And I think it’s, you know, where probably where both you and I are from in the Western world, religion is sort of considered like, like a private thing, you know, it’s certainly here in Germany, it’s, yeah, we have an official Catholic religion here in the southern parts of Germany, but basically, it’s your own thing, you know, it’s private.

Anders
05:55 – 06:16
So yeah, but basically, you know, in many countries where religion is really an integrated part of the culture, like much more so than here in the Western world, There tends to be discussions, let’s just put it like that, and conflicts, and that’s just sad. Oh, there

Mark
06:16 – 06:21
is. I thought you said before religion was created to exploit things, not explain things.

Anders
06:22 – 06:34
Yeah, well, exploit as well, because, you know, some old, oftentimes old men, you know, they found a way to control the masses through religion, didn’t

Mark
06:34 – 06:38
they? Some old men still controlling the masses, isn’t

Speaker 2
06:38 – 06:40
there? Speaking

Anders
06:40 – 06:47
of which, here in Europe, we’re very much concerned about the Pope because he’s apparently he’s very ill. Yes, I

Mark
06:47 – 07:00
see that. I don’t know what they can expect. He’s 88. So you know, he’s probably Yeah. Yeah. We might say some white smoke in the next couple of weeks.

Anders
07:00 – 07:12
Yeah, I think so. I think so. Yeah. We, we, um, we, um, usually, um, I guess popes, uh, I don’t know if it’s written somewhere that they have to be old before they’re even elected, but I don’t know.

Mark
07:12 – 07:14
They all seem to be old all the

Anders
07:14 – 07:59
time. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways. Religion is something that, you know, no matter where you travel, you should certainly always, you know, be careful and respectful. Yeah, definitely. So, so, yeah, but, but I enjoy going into these religious places, but particularly Buddhist temples, like you mentioned, there were lots in Thailand. Yeah. And I enjoyed that. You know, when you when you go into a room where, you know, the height to the to the ceiling is just like, I don’t know, 20 meters, 25 meters. It just adds a certain gravitas, doesn’t it? It’s just,

Mark
08:00 – 08:28
it does very much, so. And this, obviously, this. They call it a stupor. I don’t know if that’s a name for the church that they have for that religion or it’s just But inside, it’s just a big it was a big square room with several giant Buddha. Yeah Jews or you know gods that are related to To that religion and things like that. And yeah, I did I don’t feel much religiously, but I felt really calm and

Anders
08:29 – 08:29
yeah It

Mark
08:29 – 08:29
was quite nice

Anders
08:32 – 09:15
That’s what it’s supposed to. I’m not particularly religious either, but it’s just, you know. There is something, I get in a reflective mind when I go in. There are many large churches here in Munich, you’ve probably been to a few of those. And it’s nice, it’s just nice to go in there and just sit down and reflect. You have to remember in a Catholic church, you have to take off your cap or your hat when you go in as a man, you are not allowed. Apparently, because I wear a hat all the time when I’m out, and apparently the hand of God is supposed to be able to touch you.

Mark
09:15 – 09:20
Touch your head, is he? Yeah. He can’t take your hat off and touch your head with the other hand.

Anders
09:20 – 09:29
no no no no out of respect for god you take off your hat however uh ladies are allowed to wear a scarf wow

Mark
09:30 – 09:30
okay

Anders
09:30 – 09:31
yeah anyways

Mark
09:32 – 09:34
he doesn’t want to touch their neck so

Anders
09:34 – 09:44
yeah yeah yeah yeah so uh but how big is the city you mentioned i’ve already forgotten the name again Bendigo it’s 150 150 000 oh that’s fairly big that’s the fourth

Mark
09:50 – 09:51
biggest city in Victoria, so I’m just

Speaker 3
09:51 – 09:52
trying to figure

Mark
09:52 – 10:15
out, I didn’t actually look, I assume obviously Melbourne’s the biggest, I would assume Geelong is probably the second biggest, and then I would think Ballarat and Bendigo, which would be three and four, so there’s not really many big inland cities in Victoria, but yeah, it had 150,000 people, so it was definitely a fair, well, fair-sized city anyway by

Anders
10:15 – 10:25
Australian standards. You would expect a certain sort of infrastructure or mass public transportation services.

Mark
10:25 – 11:02
Plenty of buses and stuff floating around and lots of shops and pubs and restaurants and hotels. We stayed at this hotel, this was quite interesting, we stayed at a Best Western Hotel just on the edge of town, maybe three kilometers from the city and It was a pretty hot day on Saturday. It was like 37 and when we left there was a few people sitting around the pool drinking beers and stuff and I don’t know but things must have got rowdy later on because we’re in our hotel room and next minute we hear someone yell out get on the ground now and I sneak my head

Speaker 2
11:02 – 11:03
out

Mark
11:03 – 11:21
the window and it’s the police. Oh no! So someone was, someone had been plying up. There was a bit of yelling and screaming going on and so went on for about an hour. five policemen walking around, so I don’t know whether they got taken away in the end or what happened. But yeah, it was an interesting time. So I

Anders
11:22 – 11:22
was

Mark
11:22 – 11:26
having a bit of a peek out the window and around the door to see what was going on. Some

Anders
11:26 – 11:27
people letting off some

Mark
11:27 – 11:34
steam there. Yeah, I would say so. Maybe a bit too much sun and a bit too much alcohol on a hot day.

Anders
11:34 – 12:00
What’s your advice, speaking of that? Memories or moments? What’s your advice there? Because I am alcohol in general. Well, I enjoy my occasional beer and stuff. But when in the sun, I usually do not drink any alcohol and also on airplanes. I don’t know what it is, but I tend to get unwell when I drink alcohol. Oh, on an airplane.

Mark
12:01 – 12:24
Look, I, I used to, uh, maybe I used to drink a lot of, actually the first time I flew overseas, I drank a lot of alcohol on a plane I was on and found myself, uh, in the toilet throwing up as I was circling London for the first time. This was back in the days where alcohol was pretty much free pour back then. And you

Anders
12:24 – 12:24
could,

Mark
12:24 – 12:47
um, you could just keep hitting the button and someone would bring you a drink and, uh, This was actually on a gruder Indonesia back in 1999. You could smoke ciggies as well So you could sit up the back drinking copious amounts of scotch I did with this Irish guy in the South African guy I met and so pretty much all the way from Bangkok to London We sat there drinking scotch and smoking ciggies in the back of the plane until it all became a little

Speaker 2
12:47 – 12:48
bit unheard of today

Mark
12:51 – 13:05
So, yeah, so it was it’s quite a fond memory that I still have but um, but these days I don’t drink a lot on a plane, mainly, one of the reasons I really don’t drink a lot on the plane, I like trying foreign beers, but the beer’s never cold, like, literally,

Speaker 2
13:05 – 13:07
because it’s in the trolley.

Mark
13:07 – 13:18
And I find it really hard to drink warm beer, so I stay away from the beer. Sometimes, I might have one glass of red, if there’s something, you know, in the meal that I like, but

Speaker 2
13:18 – 13:18
there’s

Mark
13:18 – 13:49
not many airlines that now offer you a scotch or a vodka or anything like that. Beer, red or white wine. And that’s it. I think the last airline I flew on was Singapore that actually offered, you know, scotch or they were making actually Singapore slings, you know, cocktail airline named after the same thing. So they were busy making them on board. That was in 2023. But other than that, yeah, you very rarely find. any airlines that are, yeah, that are pouring scotch and vodka

Anders
13:49 – 13:49
or

Mark
13:49 – 13:50
anything

Anders
13:50 – 13:50
like

Mark
13:50 – 13:51
that. No, no. I

Anders
13:51 – 14:42
think if you’re lucky. When you fly first class, sometimes you will get a champagne or something. I haven’t flown first class in ages, but Yeah, I can take that like, like a welcome glass of something, you know, sparkling wine. But But, but, but apart from that, it’s just, you know, I’m not really, I don’t get airsick often. But Yeah, but but, you know, if there are some turbulence and, I don’t want to risk it, to be honest, I because alcohol will certainly enhance that unwell feeling for me, if my if my stomach is sort of uneasy, a little bit on edge, then then alcohol certainly won’t help.

Anders
14:42 – 14:45
So So for me, it’s just a coke. And that’s it, you know,

Mark
14:46 – 14:48
For some reason I drink, I like apple juice when I’m on

Anders
14:48 – 14:50
a plane. I don’t know why I don’t drink apple juice

Mark
14:50 – 15:01
at home. I don’t know whether it’s the sweetness of it or something to do with being dehydrated on a plane. But yeah, but as for alcohol, I think the older you get, the less you drink in general.

Anders
15:01 – 15:04
Yeah, that’s true. That is actually true. That is actually true. You know,

Mark
15:04 – 15:13
like I don’t drink anywhere near as much as I did like, you know, 10 years ago. Some weeks I wouldn’t, some weeks I wouldn’t even have a drink, you

Speaker 3
15:13 – 15:14
know,

Mark
15:14 – 15:26
whereas once upon a time I used to come home from work and, you know, probably have a beer every night or, you know, something like that. But, uh, but not so much anymore. And even when I go out now, I find myself ordering wine more than, um,

Anders
15:27 – 15:48
Yeah, more than anything. Yeah, that’s true. It’s it’s uh, I’ve been thinking the same thing, you know Because here at home my wife stopped stopped drinking alcohol for a couple of years ago Actually, she only drinks a non-alcoholic sparkling wine and you know cider and all these yeah, uh things um Or sparkling tea is another thing that they’ve

Mark
15:48 – 15:49
got to say that I

Anders
15:49 – 15:49
don’t

Mark
15:49 – 16:03
understand. I don’t understand the whole the whole non-alcoholic thing like Yeah. I don’t know. It’s not, it’s not, I just prefer to drink Coke or something. Yeah. Or lemonade. I know it’s popular these days, but

Anders
16:03 – 16:52
yeah. We’ve, we’ve tried several, several, um, alcohol-free non-alcoholic, uh, beers and they, they are all very sweet and, and, and they don’t really taste like beer. However, there’s a, um, a Munich, uh, brewery, Augustina. They have a new alcohol-free beer that I can’t taste the difference. So that’s really encouraging if they have somehow managed to make the taste pretty similar to normal beer. And there’s no alcohol in it. So that’s, that’s encouraging. That’s really good. Because then, you know, I prefer my beer cold, just like you. And so as long as it’s cold, we should be fine there.

Anders
16:53 – 16:54
I

Mark
16:54 – 17:00
just can’t say that I really like beer, but I can’t love beer enough that I’ll drink it when it hasn’t got any alcohol in it.

Anders
17:02 – 17:03
I agree with you.

Mark
17:03 – 17:16
There’s other drinks I’d prefer to drink. Yeah, alcoholic options. Yeah. No, look, it’s all good. Everyone, it’s everyone to their own.

Speaker 2
17:16 – 17:17
Absolutely. I

Mark
17:17 – 17:25
really like the taste of beer. Like I find I drink more beer in, in the summer, like when it’s hot, like I really like beer on a hot day. Yeah.

Speaker 2
17:25 – 17:25
It’s

Mark
17:25 – 17:53
hot outside. Nothing, nothing as good as a really cold beer, but in the winter when the weather’s cold, I’m not saying much. a beer person i’d rather drink um i’d prefer to drink scotch or wine but one thing about beer beer makes me really tired these days the older i get like if i have two beers i’ll be sitting there and i’ll be yawning my head off i don’t know why like i don’t know i don’t know what’s in it that makes me tired but but i could have two scotches you know scotch and coke i don’t drink scotch

Anders
17:54 – 17:54
I’m not

Mark
17:54 – 18:15
an aficionado who can pace the difference between a $100 bottle of scotch and a $40 bottle of scotch. So generally I just buy whatever’s on special because I know I’m going to mix it with coke anyway. Or sometimes I buy rum and mix it with dried ginger because that’s alright as well. I think I’ve lost my whole train of thought.

Anders
18:17 – 19:01
I agree with you with beer. The thing about beer is that that’s something I really know how much I can take. with wine, it’s usually different. And it’s difficult for me to control. I may get a headache and suddenly the day after, I might have a hangover. I don’t like that. I hate having a hangover. So beer is usually just a couple of beers and then it’s it’s out anyway. I’ve had enough. Yeah. Yeah. And as you say, I get, I get, um, tired. So, so yeah, it’s, uh,

Mark
19:02 – 19:31
you know, to, to really want to drink a lot or, you know, tie one on, as you’d say, you’ve really got to be in a certain situation these days, you know, that’s really fluid with maybe, you know, you, there’s got to be a really good atmosphere or people around that you, you know, you haven’t seen or you really like or things like that. And then you can, then it can sort of flow on and you can sort of get into the vibe and, and, and drink a lot. It doesn’t happen often anymore these days, but

Speaker 3
19:31 – 19:31
yeah,

Mark
19:31 – 19:39
I find that like, if I haven’t seen people for a long time and we go out and things like that, it’s a lot easier to, to lose count of what you’ve been

Speaker 2
19:39 – 19:40
drinking.

Mark
19:41 – 19:45
It doesn’t happen all that often. But yeah, you need to have the right atmosphere with the right

Anders
19:45 – 19:48
people. Like an Oktoberfest or something like that. Yeah.

Mark
19:49 – 19:54
Yeah, something similar to that, for sure.

Anders
19:54 – 19:54
Other than

Mark
19:54 – 19:57
that, if you’re sitting around home, you know,

Anders
19:57 – 19:57
yeah,

Mark
19:57 – 19:57
no, that’s

Anders
19:58 – 19:58
different.

Mark
19:58 – 19:59
You need to be out, you know,

Anders
19:59 – 20:00
be in a social

Mark
20:00 – 20:02
situation these days.

Anders
20:03 – 20:14
You just mentioned pouring coke into your scotch. Did you know that the Austrians, they do this with red wine, they will take any red wine, really, and just pour coke into it.

Mark
20:15 – 20:16
Wow. I’ve never

Anders
20:16 – 20:20
heard that one. So red wine and Coke is a thing there.

Mark
20:21 – 20:34
I’ve had Coke in Weespier before in Freiburg. I think they call that a diesel or something, but yeah, but never, never Coke in, That sounds really wrong on so many levels. To

Anders
20:34 – 20:42
me too. And I’m not a really big red wine aficionado, but, but, but yeah, still red wine and coke really?

Mark
20:42 – 20:56
For some reason I could see lemonade, but you know, coke. Not so much mineral water. Yeah. You know, soda water. Yeah. Any clear liquid for some reason. That’s

Anders
20:56 – 21:16
the thing. The Germans, they like to water their alcoholic drinks, their alcoholic beverages. They like white wine and sparkling water. That’s a wine, surely. They do it with beer as well, with lemonade. Lemonade,

Mark
21:16 – 21:16
yeah.

Anders
21:17 – 21:20
That’s a Rattler. In Australia, they

Mark
21:20 – 21:24
actually call it a Shandy. A Shandy. Yeah,

Speaker 3
21:24 – 21:24
I don’t

Mark
21:24 – 21:39
know why it’s called a Shandy in Australia, but that’s what they call a beer and lemonade in Australia, actually. Actually, in saying that, when I was younger, beer in the pub used to be really popular with a shot of raspberry cordial. Oh, I

Anders
21:39 – 21:40
can actually imagine

Mark
21:40 – 21:40
that.

Anders
21:40 – 21:41
Yeah.

Mark
21:41 – 21:50
Yeah. Yeah. Girls used to drink it. Like it used to be, uh, a drink for the ladies because beer was obviously a lot cheaper than, than spirits or anything like

Speaker 3
21:50 – 21:50
that.

Mark
21:50 – 21:58
So a lot of the ladies used to drink beer with a, with a shot of yeah, straight red cordial in it just to sweeten it up a little bit.

Speaker 3
21:58 – 21:59
So make it a little bit before it’s time.

Mark
21:59 – 22:02
There’s a lot of raspberry beers now floating around. So,

Anders
22:02 – 22:02
um,

Mark
22:03 – 22:07
yeah, pretty, pretty flavored craft beer and stuff like that. So yeah.

Anders
22:08 – 22:33
Yeah. And a new thing here is, which I find a little, a little odd, to be frank, it’s, it’s beer and then just unsweetened mineral water, sparkling mineral water, just, just, you know, thinned out beer. I don’t see the point of that, but it’s just

Mark
22:34 – 22:49
Like I was never one to drink a lot of alcohol straight like I can drink Okay, so I drink a little bit of wild turkey, honey bourbon, because it’s sweet. I can drink that on

Speaker 2
22:49 – 22:49
the

Mark
22:49 – 22:57
rocks and sip it, but I’m not one for drinking, like I said, straight scotch or straight vodka or anything like that. It’s all a little bit, yeah.

Anders
22:58 – 23:03
The scotch is also very often very smoky and that’s just not for me. That’s just not for me.

Mark
23:05 – 23:08
If anything burns and it doesn’t taste good, well, you know, why drink it? This

Anders
23:09 – 23:09
is

Mark
23:10 – 23:12
back to the core issue, doesn’t it?

Anders
23:12 – 23:28
Yeah, that’s what some people will call it an acquired taste, which it certainly is. Yeah. So anyways, it was really nice to have Willow on the podcast. How was she about this afterwards? Did you talk about it? Because it was really good. Yeah,

Mark
23:28 – 23:35
she said she enjoyed it. She liked the experience of it. Didn’t want to listen to herself talk though. So she wouldn’t listen to it again afterwards.

Speaker 3
23:35 – 23:36
No

Mark
23:36 – 23:45
It was fun having a having a chat and talking about what she did. So she flew home Last Friday, which

Anders
23:45 – 23:45
I

Mark
23:45 – 23:59
dropped her off before we went to Bendigo and I think today she Today she went to school for the first time in China to to the university so it was only just to get you classes and schedules and stuff like

Speaker 2
23:59 – 23:59
that,

Mark
23:59 – 24:26
but She was pretty nervous about it. She said cause she’s a She’s a little bit anxious. She has a bit of anxiety about you know, what other people think and you know And and things like that and so I tried to reassure and say hey, no one knows you over there, mate It’s it doesn’t really matter like, you know things like that so hopefully she will hopefully she’ll get in there and and make some friends

Anders
24:26 – 24:45
yes absolutely and and and i mean of course she’s anxious and in you know no matter how I would be too, you know, in a foreign country and starting in a foreign university. And of course, I mean, but it’s going to be fine. She’s clever. She’s smart. Yeah, she’ll

Mark
24:45 – 24:45
be right.

Anders
24:46 – 24:46
And she lucked

Mark
24:46 – 25:05
out. She got the whole row to herself on the plane. Like that never happens to me. You know, I could never even get an empty seat next to me, let alone a whole row. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve flown with that child. And she sat like maybe on the other side of the aisle and had a whole row or a seat empty next to her. Drives me insane.

Anders
25:05 – 25:06
Oh, there are

Mark
25:06 – 25:06
some

Anders
25:06 – 25:08
people who have that airplane luck. I know

Mark
25:10 – 25:38
I’ve had only ever once and that was because the plane was half empty and the stewardess said do you want to move down to that three that empty row of seats, you know, which was quite good because we were flying from Hanoi to Busan in South Korea and the plane left at like 1 a.m. In the morning or sunlight. So I got to lay down like across the aisle of seats and That was quite good, but that’s the last time I remember Having a whole aisle to myself. I think

Anders
25:38 – 25:39
yeah, I usually

Mark
25:39 – 25:39
I

Anders
25:42 – 26:08
I usually get the seats with with the least legs leg room. And I am I’m a fairly tall guy. So so it’s always and then there are these little people sitting by the emergency exits, you know, they can hardly even touch the floor with their with their feet. And then, and I’m left somewhere down on, I don’t know, row 25 or something. And it’s just, you know, crammed in between a lot of economy seats.

Mark
26:09 – 26:13
Yeah. Are you an aisle person or a window person?

Anders
26:13 – 26:22
I am an aisle person for that same reason, because then sometimes I can sort of, you know, stretch my leg out. Yeah. I’m an aisle

Mark
26:22 – 26:37
person for the same reason. And that worked well when we had kids, because, you know, if you had a four seat across the middle, that was fine. If you had a three seat on the side, that was fine. But now it starts to pose a little bit of a problem because my wife is a window person.

Speaker 3
26:38 – 26:38
I’m

Mark
26:38 – 26:48
an aisle person, and there’s not a lot of two-seat configurations on Windows these days. They’re mainly threes. So who

Speaker 3
26:48 – 26:49
wins that argument, Mark?

Mark
26:52 – 27:08
I’m still in the experimental stage. We flew to Bali a couple of years ago and picked the aisle and the window and left the seat in the middle. Okay. In hope that, uh, that no one would sit in it, but that was a spectacular failure. So someone was in the middle, which was okay.

Speaker 3
27:08 – 27:09
So

Mark
27:09 – 27:33
we’re flying to Phnom Penh in Cambodia in. July with Singapore and once again, we’ve come across this dilemma. So We did the same thing pick the window and the aisle with a seat in the middle. So we’ll We’ll see what happens there. See if anyone is in the seat I picked the seats up towards the back because I thought they possibly filled up the plane at the front.

Speaker 3
27:33 – 27:34
Yes. So yeah,

Mark
27:34 – 28:06
only any gaps they may very well be and Up the back, but I got really lucky on the way home on this trip. We’re going obviously to Phnom Penh in Cambodia and then we’re going to the chin down to say willow, so, um, yeah. On the way home, we’ve got to fly from chin down to Manila via Hong Kong with cafe Pacific. And so it’s two separate flights, but, but both. They must use a smaller airline because it’s a two, four, two configuration. So there’s, so we got the two seats on the window, one on the window, one on the aisle with no one in between, which was really good.

Mark
28:07 – 28:15
And then from manila to melbourne we’re fond of an airline called cb pacific in the last four Last four rows in the plane is also two seats only on the window. So

Speaker 2
28:16 – 28:16
i’m

Mark
28:16 – 28:24
extra and booked them as well. So So yeah all the way home. We got lucky with the two-seater but uh So that makes it easy because she can sit

Speaker 2
28:24 – 28:24
there

Mark
28:24 – 28:25
and I can sit on the aisle

Speaker 3
28:26 – 28:26
There’s no

Mark
28:26 – 28:45
concern at all. But yeah, but on the way over we’ve got to take we’ve got to go melbourne to singapore singapore to non-pen Nong Pen to Shanghai and Shanghai to Tsingtao, which is where Willow lives, and they’re all three-seat combinations. So we’ve picked the seat on the aisle and the seat on the window and left the one in the middle spare, and we’ll see what happens.

Anders
28:45 – 28:48
And where’s Marley? She’s not sitting in the middle. She’s not coming with you.

Mark
28:48 – 28:59
She’s not coming this time. So she’s got school, so she’s going to stay home for the, we’re going for about 14, no, about 17 days. She’ll be 17 by then. So,

Speaker 2
28:59 – 29:00
uh, so we

Mark
29:00 – 29:08
figured it was about time to, to test the water and, uh, let her stay home by herself and see how she goes for that length of time. We’re probably, we’re

Anders
29:09 – 29:09
probably only going

Mark
29:09 – 29:13
to stay, we’re only probably only left there for maybe three days before

Speaker 2
29:13 – 29:13
this,

Mark
29:13 – 29:30
but we left when we went to Europe in 2023, Willow was 17 and we left her at home for about the same, same length of time. So, um, That’s sort of about that time where, yeah, where they need to learn to stay home by himself a little bit. I mean, obviously we leave food and money and everything for her. She’s just got to

Anders
29:30 – 29:30
get

Mark
29:30 – 29:34
herself up and go to school and show a bit of responsibility and things like that. And look after herself.

Anders
29:35 – 29:36
That’s a good exercise. Good exercise. Yeah,

Mark
29:37 – 30:02
no, it’s a good exercise. Well, it’s a good plan because like I said, we want to, we want to travel. 2027 just being back and Marley will be 18 just out of secondary school and so she’ll have to look after herself at some stage. She’s more than welcome to stay in the house, which we said, you know, because the house is paid for, she’ll just have to chip in for the bills, but she can live here by herself while we’re traveling for a

Anders
30:02 – 30:02
bit.

Mark
30:03 – 30:06
Yeah. So it’s all good practice for her.

Anders
30:06 – 30:35
Absolutely, absolutely. So talking about these airplanes that you’re already where you’re already booking the seats, because if you want to have like a booked or confirmed seat number and maybe a seat combination if you’re more traveling together, this is what will cost you a fairly significant amount of money here in Europe if you want to make sure that you have a confirmed seat numbers. Is that the same thing there with you?

Mark
30:36 – 30:49
It depends which airlines you’re flying on. So with Singapore Airlines, no, because they’re obviously a five star airline. So your seats are generally complimentary or there’s a certain amount of seats on the plane that are complimentary. Like

Anders
30:49 – 30:50
if you’re the

Mark
30:50 – 31:10
ones with the extra leg room, you know, on the, the fire escape and things like that, then, then you obviously pay more. But other than that, the seat. Choice was complimentary. China Eastern, we flew with as well, seat choice was complimentary with them as well. Cafe Pacific, the seat choice was complimentary

Anders
31:10 – 31:13
there as

Mark
31:14 – 31:43
well. But with the other one, with Cebu Pacific, they did have complimentary seats, but if I wanted to secure them two seats by themselves down in the back, then I, uh, I paid extra, but not much. I think I paid like $15 Australian a seat. So about 10 euros to get the seat that I wanted. So, but if you were to fly within Australia with say Jetstar or, you know, if you fly around Asia with a Vietjet or one of the AirAsia, you would certainly be paying for, um, for whatever seat selection that you wanted for sure.

Mark
31:43 – 31:50
So the cheaper, the cheaper the airline, uh, you’ll be certainly paying for the, the seat selection and the luggage and everything else that goes along with it.

Anders
31:51 – 32:25
Yeah, exactly. And this was my, the last time I flew was here in January. I flew just on a business trip to Copenhagen in Denmark. And it was just, you know, a routine business really on a Monday morning is like, only business people, you know. So I didn’t book anything because I really didn’t care and I only had, you know, carry on with me. But yeah, if I had booked a confirmed seat, it would have cost me like, I think it was close to 25, 30 euros. Yeah. Well, they make

Mark
32:25 – 32:27
money anyway they can, don’t they?

Anders
32:27 – 32:29
Yeah. And this was Lufthansa. This is a fairly…

Mark
32:29 – 32:30
Well, that’s crazy.

Anders
32:31 – 32:33
Yeah. You know, this is the… My least

Mark
32:33 – 32:34
favorite international airline.

Anders
32:37 – 32:39
Yeah, they’ve certainly dropped off the, um,

Mark
32:40 – 32:48
like I said, I’ve flown some turkeys in my time, but, you know, Frankfurt to Singapore on left-hand rates up there with some of the biggest turkeys I’ve ever flown with.

Anders
32:48 – 32:51
Yeah.

Mark
32:51 – 33:27
Um, but yeah, like some of the prices, uh, it’s sometimes, sometimes a cheap plane is not really a cheap plane when you add everything. Like I know with say Jetstar. If you flew to Vietnam or even Bali, you might get your flight from Australia for $300 one way, which is considerably cheap, but you’d be tacking on $100 at least for your seat choice, 15 kilos of luggage, and probably one scungy meal that they drag out for you, which would be a

Speaker 2
33:27 – 33:28
sandwich or

Mark
33:28 – 33:45
something like that. And a drink. So, you know, I know this sounds bad, but when is this me and Beck traveling? I tend to… Pay more and fly, you know decent airline like cafe or singapore, but when there’s four of us flying, um, you know, it makes a You just can’t afford I just can’t afford

Anders
33:46 – 33:58
no And quite frankly, you know, um, well, I know when they when the kids grow up and and you know They get more accustomed to better service better food and stuff. But as long as they’re small kids, they really don’t care do they?

Mark
33:59 – 34:19
No, that’s it You don’t when they’re when they’re that small. So in the end it um Yeah, this still costs more money. Yeah. You know, so when there’s only two of us, you know, we can afford a better class of hotel and a better class of airline. And quite honestly, the older I get, I want a more comfier seat on a plane.

Anders
34:19 – 34:19
Absolutely.

Mark
34:20 – 34:57
If I can actually afford it because as we’ve said, you know, everything from Australia is is basically long haul to go anywhere. Yeah Out of the country. So I think you know, like we go Melbourne to Singapore is like eight hours and then Singapore to Phnom Penh in Cambodia is three hours and then Phnom Penh to Shanghai is Four hours and then Shanghai to Qingdao is three hours. So, you know, like I actually chose it this way because I get sick of flying long flights. So 11 hours, 12 hours just annoys me. So I went, okay, let’s try and break it up a bit.

Mark
34:57 – 35:23
Um, and do a stop on the way to China and a stop on the way home from China. So I’m actually really excited about stopping in the Philippines on the way home. Yeah. even though we’re only going to manila manila’s not my first choice of where i really wanted to go i’d like to went to one of the islands like boracay or or palawan or you know one of them ones with the nice crystal clear blue waters and white sands and and things like that but hey we only had uh three days so

Anders
35:23 – 35:23
yeah

Mark
35:24 – 35:41
so we’re gonna stop in in manila for three days and see what that’s like with the view of possibly going back to philippines maybe at christmas time and going to see some of Of the islands, but i’ve got a lot of thrown a lot of things around at christmas i’m sure where i’m gonna go You don’t want to go somewhere for two or three weeks. So yeah,

Anders
35:41 – 35:41
am

Mark
35:41 – 35:56
I going to taiwan? That was i was thinking about going to taiwan Maybe or sri lanka trying to pick out a few countries. I haven’t been like i’m in the philippines. So that will be a Be another country to the list of places that I haven’t actually been so Yeah,

Anders
35:56 – 36:20
it’s it’s amazing. I mean when you say eight hours of flight, I mean if we fly eight hours We’re, I’m sure we can get from Munich to almost to Los Angeles in eight hours. It’s certainly get to New York in five and a half, six hours. So, yeah. So what’s, for instance, the nearest overseas, that would be New Zealand, wouldn’t it, from Melbourne? Yeah,

Mark
36:21 – 36:23
New Zealand. New Zealand’s about three and a half from Melbourne.

Anders
36:23 – 36:24
Yeah, there you go.

Mark
36:25 – 37:49
Yeah, and then Bali Bali’s probably six. So Singapore I think is eight or seven might be seven and a half Depending on which way which way you fly But it’s overnight. So it’s alright, but doesn’t leave Melbourne until I Think caught to midnight. So 1145 p.m So hopefully I’ll sleep most of it and wake up when they serve breakfast but that brings you out to another point sometimes when you fly overnight and you fly with a a good carrier like I’ve had this before with Garuda Indonesia out of Bali. All you want to do is go to sleep, but they just want to wake you up and serve you meals because Because they’re a good carrier, you know and meals are a part of the deal like so You know, you leave Bali 1030 with Garuda flying Garuda before only because they’re another airline that has the two-seat combination on the side So you’d leave Bali I think with Garuda about 1030 at night you know and you’ve had a long day by then because you’re um, I know you’ve been up and packing and you know and you’ve been buggering around and sitting at the airport and you know who might have had a drink at the airport yeah you know and you get on the plane and i’ll find as soon as i get on the plane i feel really tired i don’t know if it’s the pure oxygen or the you know the more oxygenated atmosphere that you’re in on a plane because they’re you know pumping Yeah, and it makes me makes me tired at the start a lot of times I actually fall asleep for the airplane takes off sometimes

Speaker 2
37:49 – 37:49
Yeah,

Mark
37:50 – 37:55
but I don’t sleep for long But but so yeah, but so you’re asleep for you know now and then they wake you up for a meal and you go

Speaker 2
37:55 – 37:55
Yeah, like

Mark
37:56 – 38:06
a six-hour flight So yeah, and then so you finally get back to sleep and then two hours out of Melbourne they wake up again for another meal so Basically, you get a chance to sleep for maybe two and a half hours out of a

Speaker 3
38:06 – 38:07
six-hour flight

Mark
38:07 – 38:27
because they’re waking you up for to feed you because that’s the right thing to do because that’s what you paid for but it’s not always the the best thing for you when you’re flying overnight. So I’ve seen the same thing will happen with Singapore. Like, you know, they’ll either feed us when we get on. And then again, just before we land, like, but you know, it might be, I might be sleeping.

Anders
38:28 – 38:41
It’s an idea. Why don’t, why don’t they, they implement something that you could just wear like a sign saying, you know, I, I refrained from taking my meals. I want to sleep. Do not disturb signs. Yeah, I think they

Mark
38:41 – 38:52
do. But one of the, One of the bad aspects of sleeping on the aisle is that if they’re bringing meals

Speaker 3
38:52 – 38:57
around, then they’re standing right next to you and they’re passing it over your head so you’re gonna wake up anyway. Yeah, that’s

Mark
38:57 – 39:03
true. This is an issue if you’re on the window like you could just stay asleep and

Speaker 3
39:03 – 39:04
you

Mark
39:04 – 39:11
probably wouldn’t bother you and you wouldn’t feel them or hear them talking to the person over the top of you saying, you know, do you want chicken or do you want lamb? You know?

Anders
39:11 – 39:36
Yeah. True. Can you go. Another thing I find annoying on long haul flights is once we flew from Munich to Bangkok and we flew over Dubai. It was with Emirates on the 380 actually. It was quite interesting. It was quite enjoyable in that sense because it was a fairly new plane. I’ve never

Mark
39:36 – 39:36
flown a 380.

Anders
39:37 – 40:23
Wow, that’s really because very quiet, just so gigantic, you can just you can sort of sense that, you know, there’s some commotion now and the motors, the engines are running at high speed. And then all of a sudden, it just slowly takes off and leaves the ground, you know, it’s really like, wow. However, what’s annoying is that on on on these long haul flights, Any call over the intercom is brought in like five languages and it takes forever. This is constantly something being announced over the intercom and so it makes it impossible for you to sleep.

Anders
40:24 – 41:07
It’s just, you know, even if you want to like you say, go to sleep for a couple of hours, it’s impossible because then they announce that, yeah, whatever, the captain is welcoming you and then they announce the food, then they announce the custom free sales that they are offering, whatever. Duty free, yeah. So there’s always something going on, you know, and they, Yeah, it’s just, it’s just annoying. And it comes in five, I counted five languages. So an announcement will go on for like five minutes. They can’t just make it short and nice and neat.

Anders
41:08 – 41:15
It just goes on. I said to my wife, is this a joke? Because I have a feeling that they’re constantly talking.

Mark
41:17 – 41:23
it’s my uh it’s still my greatest wish to fly an a380 i’ve never i’ve never been able to find one uh

Speaker 3
41:23 – 41:24
i’ve never caught one

Mark
41:25 – 41:49
anywhere um you know and the years to fly one are running out because a lot of airlines they’re getting old they haven’t been made for the last five years. Speaking of Emirates, Emirates has got the largest fleet of them. Emirates fly around 116 A380s still to today and every month or so they’re calling on Airbus to remake a newer version of it, more fuel efficient like the newer ones.

Anders
41:49 – 41:51
The thing is they stripped

Mark
41:51 – 41:52
their assembly line years

Anders
41:53 – 42:02
ago. They’re pretty expensive in terms of maintenance and you know just the upkeeping of them is expensive so that’s why they discontinued them. Yeah,

Mark
42:02 – 42:33
honestly still got about 10 or 12 of them. They fly mainly to Mainly the long haul as well Singapore I’ve definitely got a few but a lot of them have parked them like in in airport graveyards where they just sit and There’s no market for them because obviously they don’t make them anymore. So there’s no There’s no aftermath The other day that’s the one I stripped it down for economy size and it’s got like 600 seats in it or something like that, you know Economy Wow Economy configuration only you are.

Anders
42:34 – 42:35
Yeah. Wow Yeah,

Mark
42:36 – 42:41
so it’s uh, yeah, it’s a dream of mine hopefully yeah 2003 so

Anders
42:41 – 43:07
yeah and It was an experience, I must say it was it was apart from the constant intercom annoyance, it really was a pleasant experience. Emirates in general, I enjoy that. So it was from Munich to Dubai, and then again from Dubai to to Bangkok, actually. So I probably

Mark
43:07 – 43:38
find Middle Middle Eastern airlines are probably The best in the world literally, I think yeah When people ask me who’s the best airline I’ve ever flown with I’d always say kata For sure. I’ve only flown with them once but it’s stuck in my stuck in my mind through the seat comfort the legroom the staff the food the drinks like you know that was That was done on there was quite fine. And then probably singapore after that. I’ve only flown nema Couple of times but they were always really really good as well. So

Speaker 2
43:38 – 43:39
yeah,

Mark
43:39 – 44:02
they’re two airlines that I definitely Definitely really like flying with Emirates was too long ago for me to really remember. I’m sure it was good, but it was back in 2003 so uh-huh. Oh, yeah It was it was a lifetime ago when the only ever time I flew Emirates and actually I flew Emirates to Munich. So from Where was I fine from from Sydney? So yeah back in back in the day there but

Speaker 3
44:03 – 44:05
Yeah. Yeah. Like it’s a while

Mark
44:05 – 44:13
ago. Yeah. 21 years ago for sure. I’m trying to, it is a long time ago, isn’t it? It

Anders
44:13 – 45:26
is. It is speaking of, um, well, um, I wanted to mention, um, on, on, on Friday, um, Alex and I, uh, my wife and I, we went to a, a, um, an exhibition or a fair. Munich is a huge convention city. You know, there’s always something going on. And this weekend was the free The Freemesa, which is for travels. So there were stands from both from countries and travel agencies, but also a lot of outdoor companies. with outdoor equipment and camper vans and anything spare time, free time related, travel related, leisure time related. So that was pretty interesting because way back when, when we were traveling Australia and New Zealand, we were spending time in camp.

Anders
45:27 – 46:08
Actually, we stayed, we lived in camper vans for like six months. A lot has happened, which was great to see, a lot has happened since then, you know, this is probably 10 years, 12 years ago, since we had that camper van. And a lot has happened, you know, the comfort and safety things that they’ve implemented, It was really great to see. So I just wanted to mention that, you know, a lot of stuff is happening because we’re talking about hotels and airplanes. But no matter how you travel as a family, there are many ways to do this.

Anders
46:08 – 47:04
Am I right or wrong way? No, there isn’t. And I was just saying, you know, a camper van, you know, comfort is increasing there as well. I mean, it’s just, you always think of camping as a sort of a rather, you know, not too comfortable ways of travel, but really, really, it can really be. It’s, It’s something that is increasing in terms of the thickness of the mattresses and the driver’s seat, whatever. I mean, it’s all these little things and it just makes it more and more comfortable. And I can certainly remember when we had spent like, we slept like three months on a very thin mattress in a camper van in New Zealand.

Anders
47:05 – 47:51
I have a feeling I can still feel that in my bones to this day. I guess a similar thing wouldn’t happen today because of the mattresses. are just getting thick. It’s, as I say, it’s the little things. But it was nice to see. All about comfort when you get older. Yeah, it really is. And you could spend like 100,000 euros on a camper van these days, like, not too big, but certainly with nice equipment in it, you know, like a shower cabin and a kitchen and everything, you know, meticulously fit into, there’s no millimeter left anywhere, but it was just fun to see and we really enjoyed it.

Anders
47:53 – 48:16
So yeah, I just wanted to mention that. a thing like that going on, you know, anyway, as you say, you know, there’s no right or wrong, in terms of means of travel and means of transportation is just really, as long as you do it, as long as you do it, that’s the that’s the main point, as long as you get out there, get out of your comfort zone. Sometimes, yeah. And everyone has

Mark
48:16 – 48:17
their own way to go.

Anders
48:18 – 49:00
Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah. And go and get inspired. Didn’t book or buy anything there? No, we didn’t. We just got a couple of pamphlets and, you know, just brochures. Because one thing we saw that was really interesting is that, you know, on a normal family car, Even down to like not too big a car you could have now you can have on the roof you can have a rooftop tent mounted on there and there was a German company showing off some of their new models. And it wasn’t too expensive. It’s like 3000 euros for a rooftop tent.

Anders
49:00 – 49:10
That’s actually not bad. I mean, that was… And it was really easy to, you know, open up and set up. You

Mark
49:10 – 49:17
see a lot of them in Australia. There’s tons. A lot of people, because Australia is big on, you know, four wheel drives and four wheel drive utes

Speaker 2
49:17 – 49:18
or

Mark
49:18 – 49:26
truck utes as the Americans call them or whatever they want to call them. Yeah, there’s a real, real lot of them rooftop tents all

Speaker 2
49:26 – 49:26
over

Mark
49:26 – 49:46
the place here, which is quite good. People who love getting up the bush, as we call it in Australia, and camping in the outdoors. Yeah, it comes in handy. They just flip it open, folds up, or You can even get ones that fold from the roof and fold down to the ground, like gives you a bit of an annex as well.

Anders
49:46 – 50:00
They showed them too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I guess if you’re doing this thing in the bush, you wouldn’t want to be too close to the ground, would you? I mean, because of wildlife and, you know, I certainly wouldn’t

Mark
50:00 – 50:00
get a

Anders
50:00 – 50:00
big

Mark
50:00 – 50:02
brown snake or something like that.

Speaker 2
50:02 – 50:02
Yeah.

Mark
50:06 – 50:21
Speaking of that, I went to work this morning and I, uh, went into, uh, where I work and I opened it like a, cause we have like a flywire doors in Australia, like, you know, the screen doors and wooden door. So you can have your main door open and you, you know, you flywire.

Anders
50:21 – 50:21
For

Mark
50:21 – 50:43
ventilation. Yeah. Ventilation and whatsoever. And I opened his door and I come face to face with like a huntsman that I reckon was about as round as what my hands were. And I was like. He was just sitting on the door looking at me. So I didn’t kill him. I got a broom and handed him, put him outside at the base of a tree and let him go. So, but

Speaker 3
50:43 – 50:44
yeah,

Mark
50:44 – 50:49
it’s always, um, he was really big actually. He’d been around for a while. He was a big spider for sure.

Anders
50:49 – 50:49
His

Mark
50:49 – 50:53
legs were, legs were a good couple of inches long, I reckon. So, um,

Anders
50:53 – 51:10
I spent three months in Australia and I didn’t see a spider that big. I saw one right back in Victoria. Um, but, but, uh, apart from that, I didn’t see any big spiders, um, up in Queensland. I would have expected to see some, but I didn’t, uh, I was

Mark
51:10 – 51:22
mainly living. I don’t know if they have Huntsman’s up North or whether it’s the Victorian spider or not, but I assume they probably do, but they just live in, they’re generally indoor spiders and they’ll live up in a corner and they just catch little bugs and

Anders
51:23 – 51:23
yeah.

Mark
51:23 – 51:28
And things so they won’t bite you pass a lady scare you because they’re because of their

Anders
51:28 – 51:36
size They’re not venomous poisonous are they no

Mark
51:37 – 52:04
Which is um, which is quite good, but yeah, I don’t know. Yeah, it’s just you know, this is Australia Australia Snakes things that people assume will kill them, but not necessarily Not necessarily such I must admit I was out for a walk the other day and did say a snake Wasn’t a very big one. It was just a small one We’re at walking. I’m not in the bush like on a walking track just on the edge of town. It was in like a wetlands area.

Speaker 2
52:04 – 52:05
Yeah, I

Mark
52:05 – 52:36
there’s some swamps in there you know where birds nest and things like this and it was uh it looks like a little copperhead snake um pretty venomous but um if you leave them alone they leave you alone we just came to a stop while it was crossing the path and it just Went into the other side into the bush most things they’re probably scared of you as as yeah of them so if you you know if you let them let them go like they’ll just They’re not gonna turn around and you know lunge at your face or anything anything like that.

Mark
52:36 – 52:39
They’ll just generally walk off so

Anders
52:39 – 53:24
One, we’ve got, my wife’s got a cousin living in Melbourne and his wife, they’re pretty much outdoor people and they’re sports people. They go, you know, marathon running and stuff like that. And she was, she told us once she was, She was out for a run in the morning and on her usual path, because she came with fairly high speed. She didn’t see the snake until it was right in front of her. And she, you know, really had to back off because it was quite aggressive. I guess I guess that can happen, you know, if you’re not if you’re not observant and aware.

Anders
53:24 – 53:26
Yeah. Yeah. We were

Mark
53:26 – 53:28
able to spot this one about five meters or

Anders
53:29 – 53:29
oh, yeah, yeah

Mark
53:29 – 53:34
before we actually before we actually got to it So, um, but yeah, I can imagine if you did startle it.

Anders
53:35 – 53:47
Um, exactly that was what that was what happened at Happened and and and when you’re running at least when I am jogging running, uh, it gets kind of meditative Uh, so so it’s it’s you know, i’m just you know in my own

Mark
53:47 – 53:48
thinking about something

Anders
53:48 – 54:01
else Yeah, exactly. And so I can guess that it could probably get pretty dangerous. And she said, you know, if, if it had bitten her, she would have to hurry back, you know, to Australia has

Mark
54:01 – 54:06
like, like nine out of the top 10 most venomous snakes in the world or something. Yeah.

Anders
54:06 – 54:14
There’s a joke here in Europe saying, you know, You know, going to the moon is safer than traveling in Australia.

Mark
54:14 – 54:33
Yeah. But TV shows love to make that out because people, people really, really enjoy that sort of stuff in America and Europe and, and things like that. But, but like I said, you know, like I’m, I’m 50, I don’t live in a city. I live in a country town and I reckon I’ve seen a snake maybe half a dozen times in my

Speaker 2
54:33 – 54:33
life.

Mark
54:33 – 54:39
Yeah. Because. Yeah, there’s no kangaroos bouncing down the street. That’s for sure.

Anders
54:39 – 54:40
Yeah.

Mark
54:41 – 54:41
I’ve

Anders
54:41 – 54:41
been

Mark
54:41 – 54:42
Queensland.

Anders
54:43 – 54:49
I’ve been Queensland. We saw kangaroos on the, on, on the side of the roads, you know, just bouncing around. If

Mark
54:49 – 55:06
I drive half an hour from here out into the bush, I’ll certainly say kangaroos and wombats and. Yeah. And things like that. Um, you know, if you go looking for them, you’ll, uh, you’ll certainly find them. There’s no worries about that. But yeah, as for venomous stuff, you know, like you said, they are here, but yeah, but they’re not, they’re not looking for you, you know?

Anders
55:06 – 55:06
No, no.

Mark
55:07 – 55:07
If you

Anders
55:07 – 55:10
just mind your own business, they will mind their own business.

Mark
55:11 – 55:30
It’s like when I hear people getting, you know eaten by sharks and things like that in Australia and then there’s a big outcry and they have to go and hunt the shark. I’m like, well you’re going in the water where these sharks live. Like whose fault is it? You’re going in their house and they’re biting you or killing you, you know. Who’s stupid? You or the, you know, you or the

Anders
55:30 – 55:32
shark. Exactly. Let’s be

Mark
55:32 – 55:34
honest. It’s just one of them.

Anders
55:35 – 55:38
The shark’s been here for, yeah, well, millions of years.

Mark
55:38 – 55:54
Yeah, most definitely. Like, and there’s, you know, people every year get killed by sharks in Australia. Um, but you know, you’re out there in the water with it. You’ve got to be somewhat, somewhat responsible for, for that action. And you

Speaker 3
55:54 – 55:54
know, you must know

Mark
55:54 – 56:16
that you must know the chances of that could. could possibly happen. Anyone that goes in the ocean, you know, knows that. And, you know, Australia is a big country with a big coastline and lots of people swim in the ocean. Like I used to swim in the ocean. And, you know, when we were younger, our friends, we used to all go surfing and body boarding and, and things like that without a concern in the world. Yeah. Yeah.

Anders
56:17 – 56:48
Up, up North in Queensland, there were some, some mangroves, uh, or areas with water and a lot of, you know, bushes and trees and stuff. And when we were there, we met a guy who was swimming, you know, in these waters every day with his dog. And he said sometimes, you know, he never really worried about it, but he said, you know, sometimes he did feel some movement below him.

Mark
56:50 – 56:52
No, thank you very much.

Anders
56:57 – 57:16
The crocs up there, we were traveling there at a time when Anton was really just three years old. I never left his side when we were on a beach, you know, I was always there because I had this fear that out of all of a sudden, you know, a croc would would come rushing out of the water and just because we’ve all

Mark
57:16 – 57:19
seen Crocodile Dundee

Speaker 3
57:21 – 57:22
water bottle and tries to pull her into the,

Mark
57:23 – 57:28
haven’t we, but you know, no Paul Hagen with the big knife behind us sometimes.

Anders
57:28 – 57:38
Exactly. Exactly. So, you know, I, um, I just felt, you know, you can’t be too safe, you know, particularly with kids, you know, it’s just,

Mark
57:39 – 58:14
You’ve got to be aware of your surroundings, don’t you? You know, and this is the, this is the thing. It’s like, there’s a lot of people that drown, you know, at Bondi every year, like foreigners that come to Australia and jump in the water. And, um, you know, if you’ve got no real beach swimming experience, especially maybe beach conditions in Australia, like, I mean, I know the beaches in Northern Germany and stuff are more like lakes and ponds compared to what you obviously find. In Australia, a lot of the time, you know, there’s not so many rips and big waves and dumpers and people, I think come to Australia sometimes I think they can just, you know, wander out into the ocean and everything will be fine.

Mark
58:14 – 58:16
And there’s a rip or, you know,

Speaker 3
58:16 – 58:17
anything

Mark
58:17 – 58:25
like that going on. And before you know it, you know, you’re 50 meters offshore and, uh, and struggling for air and, you know, it’s true. It’s all over for you.

Anders
58:25 – 59:00
It happens every summer in Denmark, the North Sea coast, the Germans, they’re not used to, like you say, they’re not used to ocean swimming. Yeah. And they go out and, you know, in spite of all the warnings, always issued. You know, there’s at least a handful of episodes every summer, sadly. And mostly, sad to say, mostly it is tourists that simply do not listen to what the locals are telling them. Yeah,

Mark
59:01 – 59:03
I think they can swim in a swimming pool, and that’s you know the same

Anders
59:03 – 59:03
as

Mark
59:03 – 59:11
having anywhere, and you know it’s It’s certainly not but yeah I couldn’t do anything worse than going on holiday and not coming back from that

Anders
59:11 – 59:11
no

Mark
59:11 – 59:17
no something He did something silly you know, like that. And true,

Speaker 2
59:18 – 59:18
true

Mark
59:18 – 59:21
happens, I guess, all the time. Yeah. So was there an election in Germany?

Speaker 2
59:22 – 59:22
Yeah, there

Anders
59:22 – 59:33
was. You got a new leader? Is that right? We have a new leader coming. Yeah. Leader sounds so, you know, authoritarian, but

Mark
59:33 – 59:36
it’s not a prime minister like Australia. He

Anders
59:36 – 1:00:32
is a chancellor. Yeah. Yeah, so and he’s, you know, it went from from social democratic to a conservative leader now. But it will take in Germany, we’re quite thorough in terms of, you know, preparing the groundworks for government, or coalition, as they call it here. So the parties will have to meet and see where they have agreed where they can make agreements. So they’re saying and probably not until Easter. We won’t have like a finished government. So there will be the old government will continue their work until then. So yeah, there’s going to be a shift here and suddenly it’s gone to the right, quite a big leap to the right, which is sad considering the history of Germany.

Anders
1:00:33 – 1:01:19
However, I must say, and I say this to everybody that I talk to about this, you know, the political establishment in many countries in the world has become a little bit elitist. So, the little man, you know, the hard-working little man gets left behind. So, they go voting for those people where they feel they’re hurt, who’s got their back. And so, it’s out on the flanks to the left or the right, the extremists, left or right. Definitely, because they will use the rhetoric needed for for for these people to so that they feel they’re heard.

Anders
1:01:20 – 1:01:55
So so this is worrying. So and I say this, you know, really, whether or not you like Trump or not, I mean, you know, the reason why he’s in office now is pretty much due to the Democratic Party in the US because they didn’t do their they didn’t do their job. So. And the same thing happened here in Germany, you know, social democratic, which is pretty much in the middle of everything, you know, and this is where I always say, you know, real politics takes place in the middle, always. If you want to get something done, you go over the middle.

Anders
1:01:55 – 1:02:11
Because that’s where the most people are. But they just became too elitist. They just didn’t hear the average man, the average person. They pointed fingers at anything sounding a little bit too extreme.

Mark
1:02:11 – 1:02:11
Blame everyone else.

Anders
1:02:12 – 1:02:39
blame everyone else. So what happens if you get when you go into that voter voting cabin, close the curtain behind you and you stand there with your with your in the voting booth with with with a list and a pen. Of course, you give you know, the political political establishment a finger, right? Yeah, that’s what you do. So so I guess that’s what happened. I guess that’s what happened.

Mark
1:02:40 – 1:03:02
In Australia, we say that the policy doesn’t pass the pub test. If it doesn’t pass the pub test, it’s no good. If the common man doesn’t, if you can’t walk into a pub with a policy in Australia and say, okay, this is what I think, and you can’t get a unanimous agreement on it, then the policy doesn’t pass the pub test, as we

Speaker 3
1:03:02 – 1:03:03
call it in Australia.

Mark
1:03:03 – 1:03:27
And it’s only something that user leaders would agree with. and not the normal man and yeah so a lot of political parties are suffering for that and it’s exactly the same in Australia is what you said like know more and more people vote regionally for who’s telling them in this area what they want and

Speaker 3
1:03:27 – 1:03:28
what

Mark
1:03:28 – 1:03:35
they think they can do where I think a lot of a long time ago people would vote on a national level where they

Speaker 2
1:03:35 – 1:03:35
think

Mark
1:03:35 – 1:03:47
that was better but now I think it’s becoming more micro voting like so yeah per region and if they think that they can do something for you in their own region no matter which party it is whether

Speaker 3
1:03:47 – 1:03:47
it’s

Mark
1:03:47 – 1:03:59
independent you know I don’t know in your but in our country it’s uh labor and liberal and national it’s called and but nationals not national probably what you’d think nationals are farmers

Speaker 2
1:04:00 – 1:04:01
okay yeah yeah

Mark
1:04:01 – 1:04:04
farming federation party pretty much on the land

Speaker 2
1:04:04 – 1:04:04
so

Mark
1:04:04 – 1:04:38
um so The Nationals and the Liberals form the coalition, much like you’re talking about a coalition, and they fight against Labor, who are a standalone party, and traditionally they’re the only three major parties in the country, and the Greens, but they’re still Pretty minor, so the Labor are in government, but there’s an election due to be called any day because they’re both wheeling out policies left, right, and center, and probably spending billions of dollars that none of them have to spend. But that’s what’s going on, and now it’s all about border security and stuff because the

Speaker 2
1:04:38 – 1:04:39
Chinese

Mark
1:04:39 – 1:04:47
dis-parked three naval ships off the coast between Australia and New Zealand in international waters and did some live fire exercises two days

Anders
1:04:47 – 1:04:49
ago. Really? Did they? Wow.

Mark
1:04:49 – 1:05:09
Yeah, so Australia and New Zealand are all up in arms about this that had to divert planes, you know and things like that because yeah Because China, yeah pulled up with three naval ships and yeah and gave them six hours notice that they were gonna do some live ammunition training drills in between Australia and New Zealand so that went down like a like a lead balloon

Anders
1:05:11 – 1:05:43
Yeah, you know, it’s it’s, and it’s, and it’s a little sad because, you know, here in Germany, we here in our household, we’re pretty. I would say we’re pretty moderate. We just, you know, basically on in the middle of, you know, because like I said, if you want something done politically, you go in the middle and find agreements there. And of course, we’ve seen the world. We’ve seen what’s going on in the world. So I consider myself to be fairly aware of the condition of the planet and stuff.

Anders
1:05:44 – 1:06:20
So normally, we would go and support Green or, you know, some kind of social democratic party. The problem has been for the last four years, they have not been willing to compromise at all in anything, you know, it’s just, and that’s not good either. You know, that’s just when if you’re not willing to, because political work is one big compromise always you know you have to you know find common ground and make agreements with people and it’s a compromise and the greens didn’t want to do that so they went out on

Speaker 2
1:06:20 – 1:06:20
yeah

Anders
1:06:21 – 1:06:41
you know they were just flushed out with a with a in the toilet this the just yesterday because they they may have some political views that sound pretty reasonable. But if you’re not willing to compromise at all, then you’re not you’re not getting your your work done. You know, nothing’s black and

Mark
1:06:41 – 1:06:42
white in this world.

Anders
1:06:42 – 1:07:17
It isn’t it isn’t so so yeah, it’s gonna be you know, exciting times ahead. can’t really say for the for the next couple of months nothing will happen and then they will start working and we’ll see what happens you know it’s um yeah exciting times exciting times interesting yeah yeah definitely Exactly. So, so, um, anyways, Mark, it’s been fun. It’s already way over an hour. Um, you have a good week and, uh, we’ll be back. Next week, next

Mark
1:07:17 – 1:07:37
week, next week I will be in somewhere different. So hopefully, hopefully I can, I’ve got to move out because, uh, my kitchen’s getting fixed, but we’re just moving to a house. Uh, up the road in a town about five kilometers away for two weeks while they uh pull our kitchen out that had water damage oh

Speaker 2
1:07:37 – 1:07:38
yeah you mentioned that yeah yeah and

Mark
1:07:38 – 1:07:44
i’ll take this speaker and uh we still should be able to tune in same time if you’re free next week and

Anders
1:07:45 – 1:07:58
i should be i should be so anyways if and if not then we’ll just coordinate um i should definitely excellent you say hello to the family and i will say hello to yours too and have a good week we will see you next week.

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