I had the house in the UK externally insulated this year, gave the men tons of ice-cold drinks and massive chocolate boosts to keep their sugars up.

Was this tipping? Have I been found out?

If a person is not a guest at a hotel but walks in to the lobby and asks the concierge for a favor (booking a restaurant, etc) then a tip would be in order.
Granted I've only read about doing this but it is an idea to consider if one needs a favor overseas.

I've never tipped a concierge as far as I can remember. But I've never gotten tickets to the Three Tenors, either. Or maybe now it is Two Tenors.

I think Dukey said it well:

<I never "watch to see what other people are doing" for tour guides and such. If someone wants to "brush off" a tip that is up to them; it has absolutely no bearing on whether or not I feel the service "deserves" a tip IMO.>

In that case the 'concierge' would ask !
was in Strasbourg had booked a hotel one hour from there that I couldn't reach because of snow.
I enter a hotel and ask if they have a room guy says no but can find me a room. I say thanks and the guy doesn't move. I say 'eh ?' He says he needs a tip to do it.
I laugh and walk out. Tell the story at the hotel I found and the guy apologizes for his colleague's behavior.

" it is too complicated for them to realize what is the local custom "


Yes. It is. Especially after reading a thread like this one, where people are all over the map. Literally.

Ah but one needs a brain.

Brained or brainless, this has been a uniquely useless thread. Diverting, though.

A useless diversion? I find diversions to be quite useful.
"Uniquely" useless? You must be new here.

You're quite right, vincenzo, no diversion is ever useless! What was I thinking?

"Ah but one needs a brain."

That would be my problem then. At home I just need a calculator.

I recently stepped into the Avenida Palace in Lisbon. This is an upscale, elegant old hostelry. I was not staying there. I walked through the lobby area to admire and stopped at the concierge desk to ask a question about getting to a destination in the city. I mentioned up front that I was not a guest but would like to be one someday.

Not only did the man take out a map and laboriously explain to me how to reach my destination but he asked me if I needed any help securing a restaurant reservation. (I had told him I was enjoying the food in Lisbon). I did not tip him but would have done so if he had made the call. And I imagine he might not have accepted but who knows..

I'm European and was completely unaware that people elsewhere tip for hotel concierge services. Sounds crazy to me. I did use to tip the people that bring our suitcases to the room, but I have almost stopped using cash so I don't even tip those any more. Given what rooms cost - we stay mostly at 5 star hotels - I expect the hotel to pay good salaries and not expect me to remember to find a cash machine to get cash to tip their employees. I live outside the eurozone.

In the US I always let my husband pay for everything because I get extremely irritated by all the tipping and the taxes that have to be added.

In the US you have garbage men who empty garbage cans or trash cans - if the raccoons don;t get to them first.

Don;t understand the "dust" part since the cans (or bins if you will) don;t hold dust but garbage or trash. (The dust all goes into the bag on the vacuum.)

"The dust all goes into the bag on the vacuum."

And where does that go? And do you think dustbins only date from after vacuum cleaners?

That is the advantage of not being englishspeaking.

Dustmen - garbage men - cleaners - trash collectors: we just get the meaning. You should try in your own mothertongue, it also helps to discuss with people who learnt the language and don't master all linguistical subtleties.

In french it is 'les éboueurs'. But if somebody says 'les poubelleurs' like our kids would say, we understand.

we are all equal in our triviality

Life IS trivial actually.

>>"The dust all goes into the bag on the vacuum."
And where does that go?<<

In our house? It stays in the vacuum for a long, long time.
Is only dust placed in dustbins? And do dustmen only collect bins that only contain dust? You've taken recycling and specialization to a new level.

[The preceding was for NewBe, who thought this thread couldn't get any more useless.]

Having a mild interest in etymology, I looked up dustbin in my aged Concise Oxford English Dictionary. The second definition of "dust" is "household refuse": dustbin is the receptacle for it and dustman the man who empties the receptacle and removes the dust in a dustcart. Of course, originally there may not have been much but dust to throw out.

(Oddly, definition number eight is slang for cash, which I don't remember ever hearing.)

those were the days, every street had a pig to eat the food waste, furniture went to friends/neighbours, the pawn shop, and even clothes were recycled ie mungo or shoddy. Soap came in bars so no need to throw away the plastic bottles, while water came from the tap.

I can feel a Monty Python sketch coming on.