mike carey

Well, that took be by surprise, I'd never seen long haul flights with baggage not included in the price, but then trans-Atlantic flights are not what I usually search. And yes random LAX-LHR and JFK-LHR searches for next month showed most fares didn't include it, and that was irrespective of whether the fare was labelled Economy or Basic Economy. At least on American my OW status should get me a free bag, but that's all theoretical as it's not a trip I'm likely ever to take.

I can't wait till my next trip to London! That sort of engagement with clients is guaranteed to maximise their satisfaction with the meeting experience. Bravo for adopting modern marketing. If you reply to this post you will receive my automated engagement assessment questionnaire.

The headline was clearly wrong. I've never seen a car that was wearing flip flops and an apron!

That's true. At the moment it's not an issue as he's not in the Socceroos squad. However, he faces a broader dilemma. Australia has to qualify in the Asian Confederation, so many of its games are in the Middle East. In a 'normal' qualification round we potentially face home and away games in Saudi Arabia, Oman, the UAE, Qatar and Iran, and this year due to Covid travel restrictions we have also played 'home' games in the UAE. Granted they are fly-in fly-out encounters not the six weeks that the finals could involve but if he's not prepared to travel to those countries it limits his value to the squad. I have to wonder, however, how much real danger do the laws in those countries pose to members of visiting professional sports teams. Is it likely to be any more dangerous than Russia, host of the last World Cup where there are aggressively homophobic policies and public attitudes, but homosexuality is nominally legal.

And I suspect that holds true whether you intended 'cultivated' as a verb (past participle) or an adjective.

My similarly antique French did not include this quirk, or I had forgotten it, but even Google Translate when tweaked with an obviously feminine object confirms this, «Omar m'a tuée» it should be.

Shouldn't it have been, «Omar m'a tué»?

Quite so, @Unicorn, and not much chance of a pharma-funded study. More likely a country (or sub-national jurisdiction like a state/province or city) with a robust system of health data collection will track immunity levels over time after boosters are administered and use the results to inform decisions on which vaccines to use and for whom. For example, Israeli data is currently informing much of the decision process on boosters.

The issue had been discussed for some time. The federal government had said they would consider allowing unvaccinated players entry to the country, but that the Victorian state government would have to request an exemption. The Victorian Premier basically said, nothing to do with us, international borders are entirely up to the feds. At the time the Premier had said that he couldn't in good conscience tell Australians they couldn't attend the AO without being fully vaccinated but ask for players to be able to be there without confirming their vaccination status. Regardless of the merits of vaccine mandates, it's pretty clear that mandates will still apply in Melbourne until at least the end of January. If players had been allowed in, there would have been virtually nothing they would be able to do outside the tournament itself without proof of vaccination.

It's a reasonable hypothesis, and one which I have heard immunologists cite, that a different class of vaccine stimulates the immune system differently so having a different booster to the original course of vaccine could provide a complementary effect. Separately there is a school of thought that the existing vaccines should have been released as three dose vaccines. With more time clinical trials could have been conducted to determine whether two or three doses was better. Instead we are conducting observational experiments to see how immunity persists after third doses of like and unlike vaccines. I'll eventually be part of the 'unlike' cohort, AZ and BioNTech/Pfizer.

Yep, it's on now although it's past the peak eclipse (that was 97%). It's cloudy here unfortunately. The moon rose here at 1945 local time (an hour ago). (That's the evening of the 19th.)

So you named your dog after a tennis star?

'You have the stamp of genius!' 'Philately will get you nowhere.' I guess I should try flattery in case I'm ever in London.

Unintentionally funny encyclopaedia titles. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FEOBzs1VIAcIHtA?format=jpg&name=large

Yeah, I know (although not uniquely, as @Epigonosattests). In the context of an Aussie school playground, Vegemite definitely falls into the 'Anglo food' category.

The sandwich thing reflects something that is shared in immigrant communities. There are often stories of Italian or Asian students from immigrant families in this country trading their lunches, of items common in their cuisine (think of salami and pickled vegetables for people from Mediterranean countries) for mundane and dare I say boring Anglo food like processed cheese, peanut butter or Vegemite sandwiches. What you eat three tines a day is less attractive, particularly for children, than something that is rare or uncommon. Even lobster for every meal could become boring. I suspect for me it could take quite a while for that to happen, though!

At least I figured that one out, lol.

I wasn't aware of that feature of the arch. If I had been I would have been tempted to take the ride. I admit I hadn't researched it and didn't look closely, and just thought of it as an interesting landmark. Now I'll know if I'm ever back in the area.

That a good example of the point I was making about 'another language' being English as an exception. Do you know of these banks required their US employees to learn the language of the bank's home country for rotations there? I take your point @CuriousByNatureabout lower level employees and those in Anglophone provinces. (I have to wonder in front-line Border Services Agency staff, even in prairie provinces, can manage without French. I realise the answer may be different for someone on the land border with North Dakota than at the international airport in Winnipeg or Calgary [or even Regina].)

It's an interesting question, but I don't think there is any real comparison unless English was the 'another language' they had to learn. For an English speaker there are few jobs in the US or Australia where speaking another language is necessary, either practically or as a matter of policy. As has been noted already, that is not the case in Canada where federal employees are required to be able to conduct business in both English and French. Air Canada may not require proficiency in French (I'm surprised it apparently does not), but for a big national company that needs to deal with the federal government to have a CEO not able to conduct business with them if the officials they were with chose to speak French is inconceivable. As to whether he has tarnished the company's brand, I suspect he it's his own brand rather than the airline's that he's tarnished (except to the extent that allowing him to get away with being monolingual for so long did so).

IIRC there were people in Peru who were unable to leave the country. Different to the Australians who could do what they liked where they were, and were free to leave, but were unable to return to Australia because of the limits in quarantine places here and hence on airline seats.

That is the perfect way to characterise it. Till we meet again indeed!

@TygerscentI remember a goodbye kiss from you at a Palm Springs pool party took rather longer than I had expected. And I suppose that 'I remember' are the key words.

Looked at that way, I agree. I was thinking more of the sort of trip that I'm likely to want to make, and although I mentioned interstate trips here, my comment was mainly about international trips (and no land borders here). They are the test requirements I think will remain in place for a while. I doubt domestic testing requirements will be so long lasting, and in any events not all states have them. The Queensland-NSW border will be the challenging one for the same reasons you cite, as there are cross-border communities where tests will quickly become a right pain in the arse if there isn't an exception for them. Flying to WA or Tasmania, or for me even flying to Queensland (2 hours) a test would be less of an issue (and I wouldn't need one to fly back).

I'm quite happy to take the test, and the Australian government requires pre-departure tests for passengers from here regardless of destination countries' requirements as well as for travellers to Australia. Some states here require pre-departure tests for people travelling to them. Much as I might like to wait it out until they are no longer required, I'm not confident that will be soon.