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Category: Travel

Contactless payments – travelling in Europe

Contactless payments – travelling in Europe

When travelling in Europe one is able to use public transportation for most journeys. This means that a hire car is unnecessary, and that the environment is a little bit more protected. We started our most-recent adventures in Brighton & Hove, England, using buses and trains, then went to Brussels, Belgium, using trains and trams. Now we’re in Essen, Germany. The first two make it very easy. Touch your contactless debit or credit card on the reader on the way…

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Have you tried everything?

Have you tried everything?

There are two perspectives on life and after-life. “Only two?” you might reasonably wonder. I would argue that there are only two of all binary choices. You only have the choice between standing up and not standing up. If you choose to do anything other than standing up, you are choosing the other thing. There is subtlety here – you can do millions of things that aren’t standing up – but if the sets that you are working within are…

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A little of being a foreigner

A little of being a foreigner

I am an American Citizen, but aside from the legal documentation, I am culturally a foreigner. Because of this I have some experiences that I suspect others never have, or have less often. Before I tell this story, I think you need to know about a difference between British and American homes that is really obvious to a visitor from one to the other: British homes are made of different materials than American ones. In England, homes are almost all…

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Bread SRSLY

Bread SRSLY

I ordered some sourdough bread from Bread SRSLY because, as a celiac [UK: coeliac] I always want to try new things that are gluten free. I ordered Sourdough, Sweet Onion Sourdough and Seeded Sourdough. I thought it best to try the standard sourdough first. It is a bit heavier than real bread, but it definitely had that sourdough taste. I was diagnosed as a baby, so I don’t know how things should taste, but my gluten-able wife confirmed it’s a…

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Two weeks ago, on a plane

Two weeks ago, on a plane

I thought about COVID-19 while I was flying to California a little while ago. This is what I wrote. Please forgive the stream-of-consciousness, but when I re-read it, I thought it was suitable to share. The world is under-going an event which will long be remembered. I don’t think, ultimately, it will be remembered as a health crisis – the number of lives lost might not turn out to be significant in the long-term – but it could have long-term…

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What the world looks like

What the world looks like

If you’re like most people, you will have seen the image in this post and thought something like “Why is the world upside down?” If you’re particularly keen, you may have noticed that the countries in the extreme north are also smaller than usual. So: What am I up to?

Apotheca, Goffstown

Apotheca, Goffstown

My wife and I were looking for a cafe in the Manchester, New Hampshire area which had enough room and comfort for a day spent working on various projects. We found Apotheca, and it’s a great find. We arrived before lunch and after trying a Gibraltar Coffee (very interesting, but perhaps a little grown-up for my tastebuds), I had a coconut latte, which was very good and not too sweet. The reason I am writing about this place, though, is…

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Gluten free travel – Turkey

Gluten free travel – Turkey

While Turkey is in the EU Customs Union, it does not have to abide by its laws unless it has specifically adopted the directive or regulation. This means that restaurants do not have to have information about allergens in their dishes in the same way as EU restaurants do. That said, in the touristy and non-touristy places we visited, we found staff very friendly and willing to try to help. If you are staying in a resort, I dare say…

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Gluten free travel – Thailand

Gluten free travel – Thailand

This post is part of a collection of pages about gluten free restaurants in various locations.Back to list of locations. The big problem with eating gluten free in Southeast Asia is the hidden gluten. It’s reasonably obvious that bread or pasta has gluten in it, but in Thailand, for example, it’s almost impossible to see the oyster sauce or the soy sauce that will make a celiac violently ill. In Thailand, it took me over a month to work out…

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