Charlie

A half dozen years ago, my spouse and I were booked into the St. Giles by our travel agent. When we checked in, my spouse looked around in puzzlement, then suddenly realized, "My god! I lived in this building when I first arrived in London in the 1960s. This used to be the London YMCA!" Sure enough, he could still find his way to the swimming pool.

I love conveyor belt sushi restaurants! When I discovered one in Fukuoka I ate there every night.

If you look for them in a shoe store, they are now usually called "athletic shoes," since there are special types for tennis, basketball, running, etc.

Many manuals still refer to the parking brake as the "emergency brake," although I can't imagine it being able to stop a modern car.

My spouse uses it all the time.

To "dial" a phone number. When was the last time you used a phone that had a dial?

If you search, you will find he has been asked about on here before.

There is a difference between teaching at the elementary school level, where a degree in education is usually required, and teaching at a higher level, where it is as important to have knowledge of a particular subject matter, like math, biology or a foreign language. Most schools which are hiring teachers without training in education are looking for people with some specialized subject expertise, who can teach that subject at high school level while working towards professional credentials in education. My sense is that Stormy is thinking about teaching younger children, which requires a different kind of training, and--in my experience--a different kind of personality than someone who is subject-oriented.

I think they are just trying to prove that it really was cooked in a skillet and not a microwave.

Odd: his stats in his ad say he is 6'7" not "SixFtNine" (will the guy who shows up be 6'3"?)

I read the New Yorker article and watched the video, because both were sent to me by a friend who has never had any interest in opera, but now thinks that maybe he would like it. Sex sells. I have seen some noted countertenors over the years, starting with James Bowman, and have known a couple personally. Unfortunately, I have rarely enjoyed listening to them, even when they are technically excellent. I guess it is a matter of taste.

We stayed at both the Fairmont Vancouver (the original one by the art gallery downtown) and the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, and loved both of them. I was at the Empress in Victoria about 30 years ago.

I have taken the Indian Pacific both ways between Sydney and Perth, and the Ghan from Adelaide to Alice Springs. They were wonderful tourist experiences, but the only people we met who took them for practical reasons were folks who took them because they could take their own cars along for use when they got to their destination.

The train from Vancouver to Toronto used to take 3 days; we took it a couple of months ago, and it now takes 5 days. The problem is the same as in the US: the tracks are owned by the freight lines, which means freight trains get priority, so passenger trains often have to sit on side tracks and wait while the freights keep to their schedule. It is a relaxing way to get across Canada if you are not in a hurry and want to enjoy the scenery, but it's not a practical way to just get from A to B.

Flying makes no sense in the northeast for any trip under 300 miles. Trains don't make sense for most trips over 500 miles. Buses only make sense for trips under 150 miles. In bad weather, trains are more reliable than the other two.

Before making that jump, I would suggest becoming involved in a volunteer program working with kids, to see how you actually feel about spending lots of time with them. That said, being a formal teacher is not the same as just enjoying being with them--see @jeezopete's post above. It is a career, with its own professional obligations which may be just as stressful as what you are dealing with now.

Before making that jump, I would suggest becoming involved in a volunteer program working with kids, to see how you actually feel about spending lots of time with them. That said, being a formal teacher is not the same as just enjoying being with them--see @jeezopete's post above. It is a career, with its own professional obligations which may be just as stressful as what you are dealing with now.

My best friend was born in that hospital.

As I mentioned in the thread linked by @samhexum, when my spouse's doctor converted to a concierge practice, he considered it worthwhile to spend the money to stay in it, because his medical conditions need plenty of monitoring. Eventually I joined the practice, too, because of dissatisfaction with the limited availability of my longtime primary care physician. $1800/yr seems like a bargain to us, since we pay $2200/yr per person.

I prefer hard, because I hate to find shreds of the soft stuff in my underpants when I take them off (I know: TMI).

For me, message is a physically therapeutic experience, while sex is a psychologically therapeutic experience. I prefer not to combine the two experiences, which is why I would not hire a masseur for sex. The few times that I tried to hire a masseur for both, I found the combined experience unsatisfying.

Continuous.

I have always believed in dog-walking as part of a fitness plan, because it's good for both of you. Unless, of course, you have a dog like mine who keeps stopping to intensively sniff something for a couple of minutes.

On a dare when I was a teenager, I once rode a coaster 18 times in a row. I don't think I have been on one since then.

One never needed a/c in London before the late 1970s. Now there are enough days in the 80s to make it worthwhile.