CuriousByNature

I'm sorry to hear you had a negative experience. I've never met with anyone myself, but I do know Vin has a stellar reputation on this forum, and I understand it's very much deserved. But as you note, your experience was your experience, good or bad. Only you and Vin can really judge it because you were the only two involved in what transpired. I am a bit surprised at the 200 text exchanges over two days. I don't think I've had that many text exchanges in total with anyone in my whole life - lol.

This is pretty much the extent of mutual touch I've experienced from anyone, anywhere... 😆

That's not being a time waster. You sound like you were to the point, which is more respectful of his time that a long circuitous discussion that doesn't result in a booking. He must not mind burning bridges. I know I would never want a massage from someone with that perspective or attitude.

I believe there has been a lot of discussion, and I also think he joins the board from time to time as well. Sorry, I don't recall the specifics of the discussion.

Is that because it's closer to bedtime?

Maybe he meant the tip of something else.

The only one I can think of, and she is not a Hollywood actress, might be Charlotte Rampling.

The Vatican has announced that the 88-year old pontiff passed away this morning at 7:35 local time. He was the first non-European pope in almost 1300 years, and apparently almost three-quarters of the eligible Cardinals who could become the next Pope had been appointed by Francis. It will be interesting if the next Pope has a vision that aligns with that of Francis, or not.

I'm not familiar with the HK airport, but as a rule of thumb, I try to get a seat as far forward as possible if I'm in Economy, but not the first row because there is no place to store a bag under the seat - since there is no seat in front of you. I also try to sit on the aisle if I have a tight connection so that I can get up as soon as allowed and get my carryon quickly to deplane. When timing is really tight, I've been driven to the connecting gate on one of those buggies, and staff have even taken me to the front of the line at security - though I've only had to do that once. I think it was at O'Hare with a ridiculously short connection time due to my first flight having a delay.

That was awesome. Thank you for sharing this with us all.

Hold on a second. Are you suggesting most of the forum members are vampires?

I admit I have some unfair biases towards GenZ, and I think its based on the differences I see between their attitudes and mine. This string has caused me to look more closely at my own reasons for my biases, and I think I may have judged GenZ too harshly. There are aspects of the GenZ reality that I could probably benefit from. For instance, I wish I was more willing to leave jobs that aren't satisfying, the way many GenZs have no problem doing, rather than holding onto this archaic idea that my employer will reward me for my loyalty. I'm one of those people who was raised to have a 1950s or 1960s attitude about many things, which is not in itself a bad thing, but it makes me somewhat old-fashioned in 2025. Actually, I was probably old-fashioned back in the 1980s when I was growing up... LOL.

I was in Berlin again recently, and I paid another visit to Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Not sure if this place is on most people's radar, but I think it should be if you are a fan of late 1950s-early 1960s modernist architecture. Amazing deep blue stained glass covering seven of the eight honeycombed walls, practically from floor to ceiling. Just spectacular.

Does it need to be a secret? LOL

And here I thought your screen name was referencing a nocturnal bird...

I'm sure anything I produced would be worse. But I think there were a lot of missed opportunities. Nothing came of the manager guy who tried singing, the weird sibling stuff never really developed, the girl realizing she could not give up materialism after only one night at the monastery did not seem very plausible to me, the staff allowing fruit with poisonous seeds to be growing at a 5-star resort resort seemed contrived, and the whole Valentin/criminal friends angle seemed sort of weird and unnecessary. But maybe I'm too critical.

It was a letdown for me because it was the last chance for the show to redeem itself. And I found that it failed. I kept waiting for something good that never materialized.

I feel like I wasted 8 weeks of my life watching this season. Every week I was hoping, 'this week things will take off', but no, for me that never happened. For me the finale was on par with Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone's vault back in 1986. A complete let down after a considerable amount of buildup.

Maybe he deworms his clients before giving them a bone.

You'd need to make sure you're yanking the rip cord and not something else.

I'm hoping that there has been some method to his madness - perhaps starting with the slow burn to make the eventual drama seem all the more explosive? I agree that writer's block is real, and I wonder if that's why British programs sometimes have more than one year between seasons. Giving the writers time to generate great storylines and character development seems more important than churning out episodes to meet an expected deadline, or to satiate hungry viewers who have become used to instant gratification.

Look at you, doing your best to combat workforce challenges by creating new employment initiatives!

Maybe I misunderstood, but I assumed the SW in the title stood for s#$ work, rather than the part of Asia he'll be travelling through... 🤷‍♂️

Is there a chance it could be an STD in the throat? Not wanting to worry you or anything, but did the doctor do a swab? I'm not familiar with this stuff, so I hope it isn't a completely ignorant question to ask...