mike carey

Moderator's Note Gentlemen, the back and forth sniping has gone on for long enough. Remember that the topic of this thread is Sauna Thermas. Kindly resist the urge to launch off on tangents about other things or to comment on how well or poorly some customers behave in their interactions there. In other words, Stay On Topic. Thank you for your cooperation in keeping things civil.

My current regular introduced me to rimming, and does it well. It wasn't on our first meeting, so he had assessed my level of cleanliness beforehand.

He's a nice guy, every bit as good looking as his photos. Setting up a meeting was easy, on RM messenger and switching to WhatsApp. I enjoyed our time together but would have liked it to go further. I put that down to the cues I was sending. I haven't repeated so far, but no regrets at all.

Yes it does default to the topic you're in, but I've fallen for it often enough that I usually remember to look at the text at the end of the search box for the drop down list to change it, if necessary.

As I learnt in a previous thread (I think that included a video explaining in perhaps too much detail how the digestive system works) eating stimulates the intestines to move it all along (and it's not simply the pressure of food entering the small intestine, there are hormonal and nerve reactions involved), so eating in the n hours before your meeting will result in some of that s**t being closer - perhaps too close - to the action.

The cynic in me says that on a US Legacy 3 airline I would need to taste test the dressing before taking their word that it was in fact 'spicy'. One hot chilli in the room when they made it, sure, a lot, or actually any heat in the dressing, maybe not! (And as an aside, to me spicy and hot are not the same thing, there are combinations of aromatic spices that flavour foods that aren't in the least bit hot. Of course there are some cuisines where the two go together, Sichuan being one,)

This is an outrageous slander of the great British culinary tradition. Actually, no it's not. It is, however, slightly unfair to say that the idea of food actually tasting like something had completely passed the country by. Curry houses have been popular in the UK for decades, and chicken tikka masala is called a national dish of the country. I haven't been there for years (sorry Jamie) but there was, and perhaps still is, much stodge on offer.

Well, that didn't happen, IRROPS intervened! My flight home was scheduled to be from LAX to Melbourne but unexpected headwinds resulted in it diverting to Sydney. Easy, refuel and go on, right? Well no. Given the circumstances Qantas handled it reasonably well. Whether the result of crew duty and an inordinate delay that would have occasioned or the requirements of Australian immigration and customs we had to collect our bags and clear arrival formalities in Sydney. Whether they chose the best solution is a separate question, but their execution of the arrangements were a case study in how to recover well and at the same time a text book example of how to fuck up the communications. On the aeroplane on arrival the flight crew told us that the flight would terminate in Sydney but they didn't know whether the aircraft would continue to Melbourne with a different flight number (and they didn't address what passengers whose destination was Sydney would do) or we'd clear customs and be rebooked on domestic flights (SYD-MEL is one of the five busiest airport pairs in the world, so onward flights wouldn't be too hard). Fairly quickly the 'clear customs' option was confirmed and we were told an extra SYD-MEL flight had been scheduled (and that SYD pax were free to collect their bags and leave). So far so good. Quickly the 'shit happens' fairy intervened. The queues for the passport checking machines were slow, but eventually I had cleared it and had my entry ticket in my hand. Then, a problem! The automatic final entry gates hadn't been programmed to expect QF94 pax in Sydney so they didn't work and we had to queue again to be cleared by an immigration officer. Sigh, beyond Qantas' control but not a good look, nor a good first impression for visitors. Once through that baggage collection and customs took moments (comparatively), and at the Qantas domestic bag drop/check-in area they had reconfigured it to handle our flight separately from other pax, that was smooth and the line kept moving, albeit not at an express pace. While what we were told by the crew and ground handling staff was accurate (and importantly told us if they didn't yet know something), the overall communications were appalling, as the digital comms were invariably at odds with what actual people were telling us (I have no idea whether the digital part had any human input or if it was all system-generated, but I don't care, it was wrong, incorrect texts, incorrect e-mails that didn't actually matter as I didn't see them till I was home, and incorrect information on their app, but hey, the digital comms all said the same [wrong] thing!). Surprisingly, not everyone was as sanguine about what was happening as I was and there were plenty of 'worst airline ever', 'totally incompetent' and 'I'll never fly Qantas again' comments being thrown about. There was also a fair amount of unfortunate near-abusive commentary directed at the ground staff member there to answer questions. I had to laugh, in the five hours after we landed in Sydney, I received 10 (ten) text messages telling me the supposed timing for the new QF94 from Sydney International Terminal to Melbourne, the last when I was in baggage claim in Canberra! Inconvenient for many, I'm sure, distressing for some who travel rarely, no doubt, but if you could step back for a moment it was interesting to observe the responses, both corporate and individual, and not for the first time I saw a sort of camaraderie among the people going through the 'ordeal'. Okay, so I didn't get my first A220 flight, but I was booked onto a Sydney-Canberra flight, and was home before I would have been on my original schedule. Oh, and I didn't lose the points upgrade I'd scored on the MEL-CBR flight, they put me in J to Canberra.

It may not be as clear-cut as that. A consultation for a specific condition is different to one for sexual health advice, although ideally they would be with the same primary care provider. In Canberra, there is a sexual health clinic that offers advice, testing, vaccinations and related prescriptions. It's run by the territory department of health and is free at the point of service delivery. My last appointment they offered advice on mpox and HPV vaccination (the latter would be at a cost to me) and PrEP on demand. Now, back to the topic of the thread.

Whatever you do, don't tell @nycman you prefer a bagel from Queens! Grin!

Simon, I think your number's up.

OMG!! So, sneakers are straight-people shoes??

Well, that's something I would never have expected to read, @Simon Suraci!

Thanks to everyone for a great weekend, the usual suspects who did the heavy lifting, @Oliver and Phil, @David-SF, @sam.fitzpatrick, @azdr0710 for his tireless taxi service (and bit of In N Out). Thanks @Simon Suraci for your invaluable advice on things to do in San Diego, if only I'd had time to more of them. The zoo is worth it in itself. I know there are things and people I've missed and for that i apologise. À l'année prochaine!

The thing with a lot of those folk recipes is that if you don't know what it 'should' be like and try to make it from a recipe or a video, what your first attempt tastes like will be your 'standard' (or convince you it was a bad idea to even try). If you persevere, you may vary it either by chance or to incorporate suggestions from whatever source, and your 'standard' may shift. If you then try an 'authentic' version, your opinion of it is coloured by your version, for better or worse. And of course every cook from the particular culture has their own version that is 'better than all the others'. And so many 'native speakers' of the dish have similarly vague versions of the recipe as your friend.

Yes, but would it be the truth or a fairy tale?

It's nice to have a lifestyle that is absolutely fabulous.

Exactly what I had thought!

Great to have met you, @BodeBrentwood, I'm so glad you enjoyed the weekend.

Spooky!

You could say that, I couldn't possibly comment!

Yep, there's a group playing cards plus a few others. Love to see you here!

Oh, yes there are, and for me it was only time, not anything that really affected me in the grand scheme of things. I can live with that!! And thank you!

In LA, have car, see you all tomorrow! PS. I hate the LAX immigration queue. Over 90 minutes tonight. OK, I'm over it now!!

Hey, a guy's gotta milk this gig for all it's worth!