JourneysEnd

Absolutely wrong!
I don't do that at all in my professional work. I also don't haggle at Best Buy or with the plumber.
Either pay the set fee or go home. 

I wouldn't haggle with an escort in exactly the same way that I wouldn't haggle at a cinema or restaurant.

When you are paying someone to perform a satisfactory service for you, it's important that they feel the service is valued by you. The provider sets the price, you can take it or leave it, but why should the provider have to spend uncompensated time haggling with you?

It happened to me once and rung alarm bells. This was a provider I contacted through RM in Munich last year. All his photos were 3-5 years old and he refused to send anything more recent, just said "I still look like this". Then, once we'd agreed a time he asked for a photo (he was coming to me, so no security cam etc. reason). When I said no, he launched into a massive homophobic rant.
Bullet dodged...

It happened to me once and rung alarm bells. This was a provider I contacted through RM in Munich last year. All his photos were 3-5 years old and he refused to send anything more recent, just said "I still look like this". Then, once we'd agreed a time he asked for a photo (he was coming to me, so no security cam etc. reason). When I said no, he launched into a massive homophobic rant.
Bullet dodged...

I learned years ago to replace the phrase "I cannot afford" with "That's not my priority".
I travel business class, because that is a priority to me.  But I drive a 14 year old automobile  and stay in the cheapest rooms in hotels and cruise ships.   A new automobile is not a priority to me.  A balcony or window on a cruise cabin is not a priority to me.  But the extra seat width and legroom and service on a flight is a priority to me, and I can't have that unless I give up something else that is less of a priority to me.  Hiring a goodlooking man for massage or escort is a also priority for me.

I totally agree with this mindset: 
 

I wouldn’t make fun of them, it’s annoying but people are allowed to ask for a discount. I think it saves me time in finding out that they’re not suitable for me. I just say ‘no’ and I make sure they don’t book.
It’s like this; my rate is clear, it’s (say £250)…that’s what I value my time/effort/service as. And because the product is basically me, that’s what I’m valuing me as.
Now….some client comes along, has a look at my product, and decides to offer say £200. He clearly knows my rate is £250 but to get a bit off to make him feel special or clever or that he’s smarter than me he tries for £50 off.
Obviously he can afford £250 or he wouldn’t be shopping here but hey, he’s always looking for a deal so why not see if this guy will do one for him? 
I read his offer and think ‘ah ok so he values me at 20% less than I value me…and he’s looking to have a great experience? I’ll put him in the same category as the ‘hey are you free now?’, ‘hi here’s a pic of my cock / ass’ and ‘do you do half hour sessions?’ punters and simply say ‘no sorry’ and save myself the trouble of seeing this client. 
 

This has been discussed ad nauseam. It's closer to £200.   £300 if there is something special - i.e giant endowment, very high end / porn star . Outside London , this drops to £150.
The escorts are entrepreneurs - if you are a foreigner from a rich country / place, you can sometimes  be changed more than someone local from the UK, and your experience may differ.  . 

The documentary "The Celluloid Closet" covers this very well. 

Heathrow Express is so expensive when you can use the Elizabeth Line

My new favorite drag name.

This is the most reasonable response here.
From my perspective, both sides clearly are forgetting it’s people, not things. There’s little respect here from either direction.

ChrisOfLondon is a nice guy, enthusiastically Vers and great fun in bed. 
Communication can be challenging, though. He's not great at answering messages and, despite agreeing to meet up and taking a deposit, he cancelled with very little notice. 
He's fun and good at what he does, but I'd have a backup planned.

Luv it both ways but particularly giving so much pleasure to someone who enjoys it...Often it comes toa partner as a complete and wonderful surprise. Besides, how can you fuck without lube unless you can apply lots of spit and I can't think of a better way to apply it.

There are books I can read over and over and still be entertained:
The Last Herald-Mage of Valdemar trilogy by Mercedes Lackey (fantasy with a gay lead character)
Drawing Blood by Poppy Brite (beautiful ghost story)
Liquor by Poppy Brite (gay couple setting up a restaurant in New Orleans)
Blue Heaven/Putting on the Ritz/My Lucky Star by Joe Keenan (laugh-out-loud farces from the writer of Frasier)
Lux the Poet/The Good Fairies of New York by Martin Millar (farces with a British punk and fantasy spin)
The Watchmen by Alan Moore (iconic graphic novel that reinvented the superhero genre)
Forty Years of Murder by Keith Simpson (biography of Home Office pathologist)
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
 
 

Passion. In my first career, I enjoyed it and did very well but wasn't passionate about it. Then I had a near-death experience (knifed in the throat in a homophobic attack) and it made me look at my life. I realised that I was doing a job I was bored by and was looking at decades more work. I'd always been passionately interested in a different career, but hadn't studied it after school because I couldn't afford the 5years of training. I used savings, bursaries etc to retrain and supported myself working nights in a care home and as a masseur. It was a long, hard 5 years and totally worth it. I'm still in my new career 15 years on and I'm still as passionate about it as I was when I first started.
Go passion, without a doubt.

“Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”

Asimov's "The Foundation Trilogy"
Too complicated to understand everything in one read ...
To interesting to not read it again once you figured it all out. 

Nineteen Eighty-Four is one of those books I pick up repeatedly, thinking I am just going to read a scene or a passage and end up reading the whole thing again. Everything I've needed to know about human behavior, I learned from this book.

Can't comment on interesting as he wasn't too chatty when I met him (to be fair, I was a bit late because I went to the wrong address). He's certainly likeable enough- I'm not sure what it would take to make someone "abnormally" likeable.

Passion. In my first career, I enjoyed it and did very well but wasn't passionate about it. Then I had a near-death experience (knifed in the throat in a homophobic attack) and it made me look at my life. I realised that I was doing a job I was bored by and was looking at decades more work. I'd always been passionately interested in a different career, but hadn't studied it after school because I couldn't afford the 5years of training. I used savings, bursaries etc to retrain and supported myself working nights in a care home and as a masseur. It was a long, hard 5 years and totally worth it. I'm still in my new career 15 years on and I'm still as passionate about it as I was when I first started.
Go passion, without a doubt.