In Australia, we call it “turtle necking”. The visual is worse.

That’s awesome… And you know that now you’ve mentioned dogs, you must pay the dog tax.

Milk and cereal, milk and cereal, milk and cereal, cereal and milk!

I’m not sure. My partner isn’t as pedantic as I am, so I end up scooping his day old crumbs on to my toast the next day.

I love that you buy in bulk because you’re right - it definitely is cheaper buying more if you can eat it all before it spoils. What kind of foods do you make with cream cheese? Genuinely curious. I love cream cheese but I can’t finish it fast enough.

Absolutely. Butter acolytes unite!

Absolutely no digging in to the tub of butter, and no other food bits (usually bread crumbs) must be left inside.

If dug in to, it must be smoothed out before putting back in to the fridge. As for the crumbs, take them out and put them back on to the bread they came from. Now the butter can be put back in to the fridge.

I drive lots on the weekends, so I listen to podcasts. I’m currently listening to “Behind the Bastard” and I’m spending time here and there reading up on very dark history that I was never taught in any level of school.

So to answer your question, podcasts and reading! I’ve also made lists and info sheets on all sorts of things like what to look for in health food supplements, what my regiment is when I’m sick, list of books to read, ideas for birthday gifts, price comparisons… I also recently bought a Kalimba so that’s keeping me busy, too. It’s an instrument that’s easy to carry, so I dream of being able to play it by a camp-fire since I am hopeless at guitar.

At least I’ll never go hungry, but eventually I’ll get sick of myself.

When I was about the age of 12, I had a new friend who asked me if I believed in God. I said no, and then she told me I was going to burn in hell. That was my first introduction to religion.

I don’t remember ever speaking with her again, but I still remember that interaction crystal clear and where it happened 20+ years later.

Oh, no I haven’t, but thank you for the share, I’ll go take a look. Going out to eat has gone up in price so much that it is pushing me to learn to cook my favourite dishes, and explore flavours I would otherwise never have tasted before.

Something else I had planned to do was once a month, my partner and I write down three countries (six between us) we want to visit or re visit on small pieces of paper. We put them in a cup and draw three countries: First is the main meal, second is dessert, third is an activity.

Definitely more effort involved but it gets him to expand his culinary skills past pasta and chicken wraps.

Cook one meal from a different country every month. I’ve always loved cooking and I have a partner who is equally as enthusiastic to eat it with me! The foods have to be something I’ve never cooked before. Some can be ones I’ve eaten before, so I have something to compare to. I’m thinking of starting with traditional foods from Afghanistan, Russia, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Uyghur…

I’ll never be able to hold a candle to my grandma, but planting seeds and seeing the little seedlings poke out of the soil. It’s really satisfying to know that I’ve done something right to be able to create life.

I’m not so up on what’s new and such, and I’ve really enjoyed a few games I’ve downloaded:

(Obligatory apology for any link or format issues. On mobile and first time posting.)

Scalak. You rotate and move blocks and pieces around to try to match up edges. Hard to explain. Kind of like the baby’s “put the square in the square hole” toy except for adults. It’s got really nice, calming music, so it’s nice to play before bed or offline on the plane.

MultiSudoku. Off-line sudoku that has five sudoku squares (?) attached together.

Word Hero. I love word games and this has been my favourite. It’s basically Boggle and after each game, it ranks the scores from everyone around the world who played the same game as you. Been playing this for years. Unfortunately online only.

Burnable Garbage Day. Earth has completely filled with rubbish, and a cleaning robot has woken up from a deep slumber to find out why the planet has become this way. Originally a Japanese game so the translations are a bit dodgy, but it’s a really fun play. I think it can be played offline. It’s been a while since I’ve played this.

Mahjong 13 Tiles. The only actual mahjong game I could find that isn’t like the old Windows tile matching game. This is the gambling version where there is no money bets, but you can play against bots. It’s been ages since I’ve played this so I can’t remember if it’s online or offline or if you can play against real people.

Dingbats. Guessing famous idioms from drawings. Can be played offline.

Quell Reflect. Moving a bubble around to capture all the gems. The puzzles get harder as you progress. Can be played offline.

Influence. You start with one cell (think Chinese checkers) and you keep spreading your influence to conquer the other players. Can be played off-line.

What the Forecast. Obnoxious, rude weather app.

Whicons. Minimalist white icon pack for Android.

BirdNET. Identifies birds by their call. I’ve used this in Canada and Australia.

Plant Net. Same thing as BirdNET but photos of plants. Also can confirm it works in Canada and Australia.

Edit: Forgot one game, Slitherlink. I set it to easy and listen to podcasts in the background to wind down at the end of the night. Each hexagon (or whichever shape you choose) has a number, and each number represents the max number of sides that can be selected. Eventually the entire board is connected via one line. You’ll have to read the description, it’s the best description I can give, albeit not a very good one.

Edit edit: This is what happens when I haven’t had my coffee yet. Kakuro is another numbers game like sudoku.