Is because you're there?

I'm just saying we should all adopt the Czech name for it.

Rakousko.

Oh. The chicken wings are coated in that awful seasoning that makes everything taste like rancid seafood. That's disappointing.

Oh I *looove* ordering without having to deal with other people. Genuinely. It's just we've had QR codes everywhere down here for like ten years, so it's odd to see anyone still excited over the tech innovation, you know?

85.

Sitting in a TGI Fridays because I'm in the mood for overpriced mediocrity, and the waitress who showed me to my table is "Oprah just said everyone's getting free crap"-level excited to point out the QR code ordering thing.

How the metric FUCK do you handle this shit full time, American friends?

Appears to be working for you.

I call them "customers".

And yet, an impossibly high number of stars.

In the words of my people, "woof".

Screenshart

Switzerland IS neutral.

The best kind of mess though xx

Collect them all!

Not like you to be speechless xx

I volunteer as tribute, etc etc etc

(To be clear, it's nice. It just feels like it only connects to the prior two books at the very end, and I don't know if I'd be so lenient on its near-total lack of plot - especially directly after Heated Rivalry in the series - if it wasn't part of that universe? I dunno. I feel medium about it!)

Cover of Tough Guy by Rachel Reid. A lumberjack-looking bearded redhead (Ryan) sits forlornly in blue-and-white hockey gear on a bench with a helmet on the floor next to him and another jersey cut off the side of the page. Next to him, a brunette twink (Fabian) in a not quite off-the-shoulder pale pink top, creased purple pants, and hot pink slip-on shoes holds a violin in one hand, with his hand on Sexy Forlorn Ginger's shoulder. His face looks weirdly old for someone who's only supposed to be a youthful 31 in the book. In front of them on the ground, an ice hockey stick, required to appear on the cover by law as the international symbol of This Book Contains A Hockey Player, even though hockey is remarkably tangential to anything of relevance here, really, even by the standards of the previous two books in this series having plots of "what if smoothies made you good at hockey?" and "what if two hockey players spent a decade secretly fucking each other on every second page?". The entire thing has a kind of ugly purple-to-white gradient from top to bottom that makes the setting look like even if these two weren't literal cartoon characters, this would have been a posed shot.

#8: Tough Guy (Rachel Reid, 2020)

If I knew it was "anxious lanky ginger meets hot Arabian twink" again, I wouldn't have read this and #7 back-to-back. It's nice, but less fun than that (even if these two are a better fit), and DEFINITELY the weakest of the first three Heated Rivalry books. 6/10.

Or did they all get cockblocked simultaneously for no reason?

Yeah. I only do part days bc my idiot ex-boss tried being all "actually you need to do all the cleaning AFTER closing" and I read him to filth in front of HR, so "four shorter days + all public hols + never have to close" was the compromise.

And then he got fired anyway lol

YES. I was doing six days a week of casual work in my 20s and now I'm down to four days part-time (and not even full-day shifts), and the only thing that would ever make me consider doing more again is a secure job with a six-figure salary. And *even then*...

Did someone send up the twatsignal or is it just coincidence that every single customer I've had to serve this weekend has been a demanding cunt?

The American Gladiators reboot is so bad it's making me reconsider the Ten revival. Jesus fucking Christ what a disaster.

Weird, I was under the impression Iran was all for the straights.

Finish reading the book I'm 3/4 through before I go to sleep tonight, or start a game I've been meaning to get around to for 18 months now?

People who can't spell trying to make slurs for bisexuals:

2024. Entrance on the back left, judges on the front right, with the gantry to the left of players as they cook and a flat, dim roof.

2025, filmed in the Masterchef Australia kitchen in Melbourne. Entrance at the back right, judges at the front left, gantry to the right of players as they cook. 1930s-style Australian ceiling with bright, warm lighting.

2026. Partly obscured here by temporary bleachers used to hold crowds during the auditions, but visibly the same set as 2024.

Up until 2024 the kitchen had the layout in the first photo here. 2025 they used the Aussie set in Melbourne, which looks totally different. 2026 they're visibly back where they were. But exterior shots in the premiere were of the (very identifiable) Melbourne building?

We can only hope.

...must get back up to Brisbane some time soon.

I mean, shoutout to the hotel I stayed at in Sydney that advertised harbour views and instead I got a fifth-floor balcony overlooking a congested freeway twenty minutes from the closest coast.

So fucking jealous of you.