mike carey

I don't go there much, pretty much the only time I have fast food (apart from the occasional pizza) is when I'm travelling, and Maccas are the most common outlets on the road. With McCafes here, I can buy a coffee and a slice of cheesecake or a ham cheese and tomato toasted sandwich. They also have some pretty good wraps that they change from time to time.

I love that, Victor, particularly the dirty texts part. I can understand not saying anything if one or the other wasn't alone, and I also understand that a client would be reluctant to say anything in public. Glad to know that you'd be up for people saying something to you in public (it doesn't surprise me that you would be). A completely separate situation, I saw Australian tennis player Todd Woodbridge on a flight from DFW to LAX. We nodded to each other, and I even had a smart arse comment to make but didn't say anything. I regret not doing so. I won't make the same mistake if I see you!

I don't agree. To me there is a significant line between assumptions about what is the norm and a largely passive acceptance of that as the status quo, and white supremacy. To me, white supremacy is the active, even aggressive promotion of white superiority.

This! WTAF indeed. There are reactions (that are real as opposed to the ones the antivaxers obsess about) but they are vanishingly rare. If there are reasons for concern, such as egg allergies (some vaccines are cultured in eggs) then a GP can take appropriate precautions.

There is no limit on who can receive it, the limit is on those for whom it is recommended and who receives it free or paid by insurance. Also, doctors' advice will likely follow the age recommendation. Older people can pay for it themselves.

'Privilege' is a package deal. White, male, heterosexual, cis, Christian (less so). You are more likely to understand it if you fall outside any one of those, and understand more the more of the boxes you don't tick. Still, unless you have thought it through, you are likely to take your level of privilege as the 'norm' and not see those elements of privilege that you have. Last week with the #MeToo surge on Twitter, many cis heterosexual men had an epiphany. They hadn't realised how many of the women in their lives sexual harassment and sexual assault affected, and how the fear of it had a chilling effect on everything they did. To be fair, many women were shocked to find out what they thought they uniquely had faced was the lived experience of virtually all of the women they knew. I hope that this sudden realisation that their lived experience of a comfortable life with the male privilege their gender accorded them was not universal will make at least some of them consider that other forms of privilege exist and benefit them. It won't change the world, but progress is achieved one step at a time.

Providing vaccinations for men (even if only up to 25) adds to herd immunity and helps protect those women (and other men) who for whatever reason have missed out on the shots.

No, he clearly meant Puerto Vallarta, Jal, there is a similar request in the Spa forum.

@Epigonos, good pick up, I had missed that @kov78 had translocated PV to Malta.

Six months till Palm Springs.

That part seems to have worked!

Well, that would be fun to watch!

@SuperJunior, no, it won't be a battle. People in both of them will likely visit the other!

As you said elsewhere, it's only 6 months away. I am torn between the two hotels, decisions, decisions! I stayed at CC this year, but liked Inndulge from my quick look there. TB is sweet, he spends much more of his time texting with me than I deserve. You'll love him when you meet him.

I am slow to understand such things, but I suspect that @VictorPowers may share your love. Of course, I wouldn't know.

You can get a virgin ticket to go to PS? (I know what you meant, just couldn't help myself.)

@stevenkesslar, I think we are agreeing that snark loses its effect when it is offered in person.

If I can add to the discussions generated by @Good Grief. I know you have made some snarky comments and may feel they define you and will continue to do so if you attend the PS event. They won't. Neither will any of the comments made in this thread. Snark loses its edge if uttered in person, and its purveyors tend to tone things down in real life. It can even become quirky rather than offensive. TBT noted that at the Hacienda he felt it was intensely private. At the Canyon Club and, I understand at Inndulge, things were far more social around the pool. People talk about everything and nothing. There are enough people there for the forum event that it becomes very social. You won't feel out of place, or judged for your on-line persona. It will be just fine.

At the risk of launching onto a tangent, this image conveys something significant that photographers have helped to publicise. In their time in refugee camps in Pakistan, Afghans took to the game of cricket with alacrity, and took it home. In not much more than 20 years, Afghanistan has gone from zero to now being one of the 12 full test playing members of the International Cricket Council. (Test cricket is the incomprehensible-to-Americans version of the game played over five days that often ends in a draw.)

Generally speaking, high fibre levels in the lead up to an appointment, but you need to get to understand how your bowels work. What does your regular diet do for you, what effect does extra dietary fibre have, what does a supplement like Metamucil do. Only you can know how all this works out. And no set of procedures is foolproof. If you read the forum widely you will find all sorts of comments on what to do, vegetarian, supplements, things to avoid and so on.

And the previous advice about fibre stands.

Robster has clothes?

'Take the mickey' is certainly a term I'd use. I thought it was universal.

Few Australians hold company shares, some have mutual fund investments that do, but our compulsory national retirement savings scheme is primarily based on bank-run and industry funds that hold huge investments on the stock exchange. The stock market is inherently volatile so the bigger funds here (mainly the industry ones) are realising that investing directly in income producing assets like toll roads and other utilities are more stable and hence more reliable. The Ontario teachers' pension fund has been doing that for years. They are also better custodians of those sorts of assets as they are not driven by quarterly profit figures but by the long term returns.

The fires were the lead item on the ABCTV news this evening, and radio current affairs had an interview with the mayor of Santa Rosa. We've already had the first fires of the season and it's not that long since local rural fire service people returned from deployments firefighting in BC.