mike carey

@jeremywalker makes some good points. I would say that clients should let the escorts take the lead, don't push them, they are in business and you shouldn't push them to make their business personal with you. Don't push them for off-the-clock time, don't chat aimlessly with them unless they initiate it. As I think I've mentioned before, I chat with a small number of escorts, text messages, the occasional voice call, but I've let them define the frequency and detail of those interactions.

Australian consumer law would prohibit that. If you don't quote the fee as part of the cost, you can't charge it. It would be interesting if someone booked on line with an Australian reseller whether the charge would stand up.

I suspect it would be impossible to control any analysis of a possible link for a type of self-fulfilling prophecy, people doing crazy things not because of a full moon but because they knew it was one.

It took you decades?

Not now (it shows up as 'not found 404') but I didn't check earlier either, I relied on previous experience. In the past, if profiles have been inaccessible, I could see them if I logged out. If it still comes up inaccessible to you, try logging out and looking again, if it shows the 404 message that would mean he has since renamed his profile.

'Inaccessible' means he has blocked you.

Bonne anniversaire!

This is a reasonably good summary of where things are now. https://www.dmarge.com/2016/05/difference-formal-semi-formal.html#gsi1 As it says, formal used to mean white tie (tails), semi-formal meant black tie (tuxedo, or dinner suit), but semi-formal now often means lounge suit. The military have uniform equivalents of (at least) black tie. Earlier in my time in the RAAF when we had a base at Penang, guys would have shirts made that had the required white front, cuffs and collar but had wild patterns (think batik or Hawaiian shirt material) for the back and sleeves. So, during the formal part of the meal they would look the part, but after that they could tone the look down. Despite what the article says about black, you often see people wearing [matching] coloured ties and cummerbunds. (I have a red set of them.)

Yep, bought one for £99 from a menswear shop in the local town when I was on a course with the RAF. There were a few occasions during the few months I was there where it was mandatory for Mess functions and several more where it was preferred. I think it would have cost me £40 to rent one, so like others have said, buying made sense. I still have it although it is several years since I've worn it.

Fron Granny's Column in the SMH [edited]: ' Visiting an IT office I saw a label 'AMD' and when I asked was told it meant 'air movement device'. I asked why it wasn't just labelled 'fan'? Because, I was told, the geeks would ask what an 'F.A.N.' was.

I wouldn't get hung up on the origin of words. Meanings change over time and sometimes all reference to a word's origin is lost. Who uses awful to mean fill with awe? The OED lists the meaning of patient as, 'A person receiving or registered to receive medical treatment.' It has lost any trace of its origin. 'Endure without complaint' is the definition of the adjective, not the noun, and I don't think patients are expected, by definition, to be patient. I recall a [probably apocryphal] story of a student referring to clients in a pharmacy lecture only to have the lecturer state imperiously that lawyers and prostitutes have clients, pharmacists have patients. That is not to say I don't get snippy about some of the shifts of usage. I bridle at announcements on trains and aeroplanes referring to customers instead of passengers. It may be a useful way to remind staff that that is their relationship with the passengers, but not as a way to address said passengers.

I love it when a skywriter does something important.

Canberra had a sharp rainstorm on Sunday morning, and this picture was posted of the scene outside Canberra Ikea. Most of the commentary on the thread was about whether that's a crocodile on the right of the frame. (Spoiler ... I won't even bother.)

Parking in front of the liquor store.

Not necessarily. When I was doing basic web page building (on an intranet, but same rules apply) one of the traps was including a link to where the photo was (which you have to do on here) rather than saving a copy of it in the same folder as your web page and linking that to the page. Yes you are still posting a link, but it can be a link to a location you control so it will always work. There is another trick to this and that is posting a relative link rather than an absolute on. If you post an absolute link (usually the entire file path), if you move either the photo or the web page within your web folders, the link may be lost. With a relative link (usually just the file name), you can move files within your folders and the software will maintain the link. It's been a few years, so the details of how to do it will no doubt have progressed since then.

My mother, fresh from leaving my father and even before the divorce bought a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica. In 1965 it was £300 but as a teacher she paid £144 in instalments. I spent hours reading it. I still have it.

The origin of Mazda is in Zoroastrianism, could be a link there (so perhaps Persian). Speculation on my part.

Well, I've heard of being 'chill' but that's going a bit far.

I thought that was dressing to the left or right.

Or call College Dom for a nice relaxed BFE! (BTW the guy you replied to asked the question in 2010 and is no longer a member of the forum.)

I've ceased to use Facebook as much as I did in the past (I've even stopped commenting on @Brian Kevin's posts there). I have quite a few American friends there from my time working in the US, some are extremely gay friendly and others are very conservative (although I've never seen even them post anything homophobic). All my exchanges there have been civil, but I've only offered measured comments on conservative issues (even on posts that have been shared from that fascist troll Pamela Geller). FB can be civil!

Occasionally twitter throws up some good giggles. A dude posted a tweet complaining about bilingual road signs. People offered useful suggestions such as ‘Don’t read the parts you don’t understand’, and someone posted an example of how confusing they can be, how railway stations can be rendered dangerous by this too: Then someone posted this: ‘Imagine the paranoia he'd experience if he was to drive past a farm growing carrots, wondering whether the Welsh signage was talking about him.’ Google translate tells me that the Welsh word for carrots is ‘moron’.

I love avocados. Millennials not being able to afford to buy a house because they spend too much on smashed avos on toast in cafes has been a feature of the national conversation here for several years now. I'm a leftist, so back to ME, avocados on toast with black pepper and a splash of balsamic or cider vinegar is a delight. I eat more salads when I'm at my sister's house, and hers are often the more substantial for having diced avocados, feta cheese and olives in them. The little bit of liquid in them from the feta and the olives and the final bits of avocado flesh that you scrape off the skin means you don't really need a dressing on the salad.

The first time I ever had pizza was with an aunt, uncle and cousins in Sydney. It was from one of the first Pizza Huts in Australia. There may have been authentic pizza places here but they were few. My verdict was that pizza was a crap idea. One of the pizzas we had was 'ground beef'. We don't even call it ground beef here, we call it mince, so it was clearly a Pizza Hut transfer. Looking back, a 'mince' pizza was never going to cut it. Several years later, when I was in first year uni, I discovered pizza at an independent pizza restaurant in Canberra. Whether it was authentic was immaterial, it was good. When you get past the different crusts and the industrial production, the pizza chains here, at least, manage to make reasonable pizzas. There are always better ones at small local shops. I found one in my area when it was the only place open on the evening of 1 Jan 2000, and I still go there and order the same pizza I did then.

I'm calm, and it wasn't directed at you specifically! It's something that I've seen frequently, and I always think they mean psychological or similar therapy rather than massage therapy when I first read it. If someone says they are going to see their therapist, masseur is not the first type of therapist I think of, that's all. I characterised what I said as a rant for a reason!