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What’s on your mind?

maflynn said:
The Mount Everest season has opened up. It was delayed by a few weeks, at the khumbu icefall. We're used to waterfalls, but the khumbu icefall is a moving flow if ice where giant seracs can fall on the poor hiker. There was one such serac delaying the support staff from getting the rigging, ladders and ropes setup.

This delay may mean that typical summit windows (middle to late May) will get compressed with many people attempting the summit at the same time.

Climbing Mount Everest is not on my bucket list, I have no desire, but I am fascinated by it. I usually follow the season, as people try to ascend to the top of the world.
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Have you seen the queues to get to the summit at times though? A nightmare.
1777734866765.png
 
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Do you own banknotes and coins from other nations?

Well, we still own Czech Kronen, 1 US Dollar 💵, and some coins from German Democratic Republic (GDR or DDR in German).
 
Scepticalscribe said:
I cannot conceive of why anyone sane would want to do such a thing, especially in such insane numbers and in such conditions.
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If you’ve never read Into Thin Air (Krakauer), I highly recommend it. The book is compelling, well-written, and follows the paths of several climbers, some serious, some dilettantes.

—————
ETA: the last few posts made me think of this documentary, which I greatly enjoyed.

Originally, Sophie wanted to become a dancer. Instead, she went into business. For years, there was little to suggest that this businesswoman would one day stand on the summit of Mount Everest or K2. But the financial crisis of 2008 forced Sophie Lavaud to rethink what she wanted out of life.

Since turning to mountain climbing, Sophie has climbed eleven of the 14 highest mountains in the world.


(note: watching the video on YouTube's website allows automatic translation into many languages)
 
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Scepticalscribe said:
The Balkans do not - repeat do not - use the Deutsch Mark (and I am very familiar with the Balkans).
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At least back to 2007 Balkan countries uses Deutsch Mark:

Wo noch mit D-Mark bezahlt wird

Wer als Tourist auf den Balkan oder nach Polen reist, kann dort oft noch die alte Währung verwenden.
www.wz.de www.wz.de

I don't know the current situation.

Or here 2017

www.welt.de

Bosnien-Herzegowina: Hier dürfen Sie noch mit Mark bezahlen - WELT

Es soll ja Menschen geben, die noch Schwierigkeiten mit dem Euro haben. Sie werden in Bosnien-Herzegowina ihre Freude haben, denn hier gibt es noch die Mark – und das ist nicht das einzige Skurrile.
www.welt.de www.welt.de
 
boppin said:
At least back to 2007 Balkan countries uses Deutsch Mark:

Wo noch mit D-Mark bezahlt wird

Wer als Tourist auf den Balkan oder nach Polen reist, kann dort oft noch die alte Währung verwenden.
www.wz.de www.wz.de
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The Deutschmark was no longer legal tender in 2007.

Please stop posting such nonsense.

In the late 1990s, yes, I do recall the DM in use in parts of the Balkans - and we (that is, those of us who worked with some international organisations) were paid in it - in preference to being paid in the (US) dollar.

However, that changed with the introduction of the Euro in 2002.
boppin said:
I don't know the current situation.
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Evidently not.

And no, the DM is not used in the Balkans; however, one can find businesses and places where the Euro is used.
 
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Scepticalscribe said:
The Deutschmark was no longer legal tender in 2007.

Please stop posting such nonsense.
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Eh yes. Press articles don't count.

Anyway. Here in Germany were some parties where people could paid their drinks with Deutsch Mark.

Or as usual:
From 2025


Update 2:

The simple fact is that the Deutsche Mark continues to be used in Bosnia and Herzegovina unofficially, of course, because there is no obligation to exchange it. And even if it's true that Bosniaks have millions or even billions of Deutsche Mark in cash, they can exchange it for euros at any time. But exchange them when everyone accepts it?

Update 3:

Press article from "Merkur" Last year. You can still pay with Deutsch Mark in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They quote MDR.

And there is no obligation to exchange to DM into Euros and it is time unlimited. Everything of course unofficially.

www.merkur.de

Über 12 Milliarden DM sind nicht in Euro umgetauscht worden

Haben Sie auch noch ein paar alte D-Mark bei sich zu Hause herumliegen? Falls ja, sind Sie damit bei weitem nicht alleine.
www.merkur.de www.merkur.de
 
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boppin said:
Today I met a man from Scotland at the petrol station earlier. We spoke first in English and then in German. He needs German for his work. That was exciting!
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I understood him perfectly well, by the way, but my spoken English is just a kind of sloppy, broken English. Besides, I feel somehow inferior to native speakers when it comes to pronunciation. My written expression was always better than my spoken English.
 
This is sometimes very confusing by switching permanently between British and American English.

But people here got also confused when I wrote "chips" by meaning in American English "French fries".
 

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boppin said:
In Münster, Germany, there was a very specific dialect called "Masematte" which is "build" by Lower German, Yiddish and some other language I don't remember. They published a dictionary for this specific dialect several years ago. Best known word is "Maloche" Which means translated "Arbeit" or in English "work".
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WDR told that were only up to 600 words of Masematte but it's absolutely sufficient because you can build new words or terms for "Standard German". For example "Brille" or "glasses" in English. In Masematte it would be some kind like "Leeze Döppen". It was much better explained in ZDF crimical series "Wilsberg". I simply listen to it again. However very interesting dialect!

Most people don't realize that Masematte is in their colloquial language today and think this would be "their dialect ". 🤣

And by way. It was said or told that Masematte would be "the language of criminals". That's absolutely silly! It's like someone would say the term "Zigeuner" or Gypsy would stay for "ziehende Gauner" or "traveling crooks" what a left extrem teacher once told me. It just means "traveling people". Nothing more! And that's a culture!
 
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Tired after a poor nights sleep tossing and turning. No particular reason.

Mrs AFB is about to head to work. Usually I’d do some housework at the weekends when she is working but I think I’ll take it easy today. Too tired to push myself.

Maybe a walk as the sun is coming out.
 
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All our phones gave off loud alerts a couple of days ago, and while we picked them up to look at what’s going on, our block shook.

A very minor earthquake here in Taipei. Nothing like the one I was also coincidentally here for a couple of years ago. That one didn’t have an alert, so this is a new system.

Quite exciting!

IMG_0736.jpeg
 
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Apple fanboy said:
Touching. I’m realising more and more I don’t have much time left with my parents. Unfortunately I don’t see much of them but we speak often. In fact I’m going to give him a call now.
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An excellent idea.

I'd give anything to be able to lift the phone to have a chat with my dad.

Was listening to classical music this morning on the radio, - he loved music, we used to go to classical music concerts together - and thinking of him.
 
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Scepticalscribe said:
An excellent idea.

I'd give anything to be able to lift the phone to have a chat with my dad.

Was listening to classical music this morning on the radio, - he loved music, we used to go to classical music concerts together - and thinking of him.
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Just had a quick catch up. He was in the pub.
I wish he’d told me his wife was away for the weekend. We could have met up.
 
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