I mean, everybody in Canberra is from someplace else anyway so I wouldn’t expect any local special spelling for common words. Maybe I just got in with a pocket of queries weirdos 🤷

In Canberra I worked with a few people who confused me with their talk of draws.

In Australia they just straight-up spell it that way

Cut off for sharing, or cut off for running illegal/unsafe/unlicensed wiring and plumbing connections?

I pulled in late and tired to a random motel 6 in Illinois. Went in to the office with my wife and three small children, talked to the attendant through thick bulletproof glass to get a room. Attendant was very weirdly hesitant.

Went to the room, found the floor was linoleum tiles that were all peeling up at the edges, doors, doorframes, beds all in bad condition, some seriously weird and disturbing smell we didn’t recognize.

Came back down to the office and asked for our money back, which is the single solitary time I’ve ever done that at a hotel. The attendant seemed relieved and was very happy to return the money.

Our kids were really little but they’ve always remembered that and they call it the “nope-tel”

https://arstechnica.com/

One of the things that absolutely sucks donkey balls about being a new parent is that half your friends just totally ghost you and done want to deal with the complications of your kids, which it sounds like your friend is dealing with.

Definitely hanging out in a coffee shop with a bored toddler is not a recipe for a good time, which I guess your friend has not discovered hard enough yet. The other person suggesting hanging out at a park instead is on to something. Or just anywhere else where the kid has something to do besides sit down and shut up, which generally they won’t.

Babbel is working ok for me for learning French.

Just lessons without all the hearts and ads and crap

*Thou hast

The tail boom is massive compared to a sports car but I think the folded-up package looks not bigger than a giant American SUV.

Speaking as one who routinely has trouble parking a motor home and driving over curbs with it — this big awkward-looking vehicle doesn’t look like a great city-car but it does not compete with motor homes for the awkwardness prize.

One anecdote: Trans people do exist in rural Canada. The woman who sold me tires outside Saskatoon was I’m-pretty-sure-maybe-definitely trans and gave every appearance of getting along fine with her coworkers.

I can’t speak to her quality of life generally but anyway nobody has chased her off to Vancouver yet. I would imagine tire shops are probably on the worse end for harassment so if Saskatoon was hell on earth for trans people she probably wouldn’t pick a tire shop to work at.