xpaulo

I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the opening ceremony of the Vancouver Olympics. I was sitting next to a gay couple, and one of the two men carried on a hilarious commentary throughout the ceremony. We were also sitting in the midst of a group of couples, the husbands all being the managers of tire shops in small town B.C. and Alberta. The wives were laughing at all the jokes, but the husbands were probably all thinking this is what happens when you come to the Sodom and Gomorrah that is Vancouver.

I think what you're going through is not unusual, but you have the good sense to accept it and plan accordingly. I've met Canadian straight expat men in Latin America, Mexico and Costa Rica, who moved there for retirement. They're usually divorced and alone except for other lonely expat men they meet every day at a bar. For whatever reason they haven't found a local woman to marry who at least would bring companionship and her own family for added security. I think the companionship is the big thing except for the true loners who don't want it. It sounds like income won't be an issue for you which is a definitely a plus.

That's a cool place, or it was about 15 years ago.

If this is too off topic I can delete, but this is Canada's new hockey sweetheart/cult figure, Arber Xhekaj, mom an immigrant from Prague, dad from Kosovo,, met in Hamilton, Ontario, and Arber is the result. He's 21 and really good at hockey fights so he's a huge hero after just a few NHL games. He may not be good enough for the NHL and says Prague may be next in his hockey career as he has Czech citizenship as well as Canadian. He has huge hands. Was stocking shelves at Costco during the pandemic. Team nickname is Wifi because his family name looks like a password. Halloween costume?

I had heard about beautiful Russian women on the job in Antalya, beautiful women in general in the city as it was the most European-like city I've seen in Turkey and the women wear tight jeans, etc. But are there also Ukrainian and Russian young men working there as well. I often notice how many hot-ish looking Ukrainian men there in news reports and so forth. Not conventionally good looking maybe.... but maybe it's a type of a masculinity.

My one time there about 15 years ago, there seemed to be a lot of good looking and somewhat tough East European guys with hard bodies. It was heaven to me. Is it much different now?

There was a scandal in Rio with business owners paying police officers to murder young boys who would swarm a tourist. I talked to an American woman at a hostel who that happened to. She started dancing with a little boy at a street party and all of the sudden there were ten little boys all running their hands through her clothes looking for valuables... it was only a matter of seconds.

Compassion probably about the same with cops in Canada. Really varies between individuals. I've seen stories in the papers where police put in a lot of effort into finding the attacker and gathering evidence. And others where they talk to the victim and then the attackers.... it's usually more than one person, and then say there's no point laying charges. One gay kid in Vancouver called his elected representative the next morning, who promptly called the police chief who called back soon after and said there had been a big misunderstanding, the case was still open.... the two bullies were charged and pleaded guilty. There were witnesses the officers at the scene refused to talk to.

Yes, people who are using slimy tactics to embarrass others online should be punished. There was a group in the Vancouver area several years ago who would use a woman friend to develop a relationship as a woman with a guy on a chatline.. usually an older teen or twenties, then after a number of sessions tell him she's actually 14 and then try to arrange a meeting. If the guy agreed, he was confronted in a public area by young bullies who videotaped the confrontation and put it up online. They went too far once, entrapping an 18 year old with significant mental disabilities who invited the "girl" to the ice rink where he worked and was confronted. There was absolutely no indication he had any sexual aims, but was rather just wanting to make a friend. He was fired from his job and shamed in the community. But some in the media took up his cause and I haven't heard of those "outers" since. Although they did entrap a police officer once who clearly wanted to have sex with a 14 year old. He was charged and convicted. And it is depressing that men go online everywhere in Canada trying find young teen girls.

I have chosen the watchful waiting. My doctor and a specialist she consulted both agree that's the best course for now. I don't think I've been officially diagnosed, but the finger, urination problems and blood tests all suggest cancer. I heard an interview long before this became an issue for me with an expert who explained most men with the signs won't need cancer treatment and as you said, some die as a result of the treatment. Plus our system is under a lot of pressure and I have no wish to contribute to it. And I don't want to die, but I'm reconciled to it. The best part of my life is over, all of my immediate family have passed and I'm not a relationship person. So short of hopefully sucking more Brazilian dicks, which is not nothing, there's not much left to look forward to. I wish I could choose the time though.

I was told by an acquaintance once that the public library in our town disapproves of people taking their books on vacation, but I was never told that first hand so I'm skeptical. It's a small town library though and doesn't have a great selection. It was getting hard to find a book there I wanted to read. I also suspect they may be culling the books they have and are careful about what they acquire. It wouldn't be right wing in this case, but more about getting rid of politically incorrect stuff. What's politically correct is or is not is a matter of opinion however, so I won't pick sides in that battle.

Never thought I'd switch to Kindle, but I did when I realized how convenient it is, especially for travel. No more taking 4 or 5 big paperbacks on vacations. Also now that I'm retired I'm just ploughing through cheap adventure/war/spy type novels. Usually only five or six dollars each.

I'm not sure if that's possible in Canada. Despite politicians promises to not privatize health care, there are various private clinics operating across the country for MRIs and other testing. I suppose it would be possible to pay for private health insurance to have a surgery in the United States, but I'm guessing you can't just sign up for it, go to the States for the surgery, and then cancel the insurance. The current problems in Canada are being used to push for more private health care for those who can afford it.

Got the first and perhaps my only shot of monkey pox vaccine in Vancouver on Thursday. I was going there anyway and was able to book an appointment. But it was taking walk-ins too. The clinic was in a downtown health centre. It was at street level with lots of signs and it was a beautiful day so the door was propped wide open. Obviously no concerns about haters trying to disrupt the clinic or harass anybody. It wasn't busy, but always at least one or two guys waiting. They didn't ask any awkward questions, just, did I read the criteria and did I qualify. The risks the nurse mentioned were contact with clothing and sharing eating utensils, which I found funny, because let's be honest, those aren't the risks I've been thinking about. Anyway, I feel better about travelling this winter. And grateful to the public health unit in metro Vancouver for providing the vaccine to people from out of province. They're only giving one shot for now, but it's a start. No swelling or pain, etc, from the shot.

Thanks for these posts guys. My doctor isn't the best straight up communicator, but I think she's been saying for the past couple of years I almost certainly have prostrate cancer, but it hasn't reached the point of needing treatment. She's also given me the option of going to a big city to see a specialist and she's been sending my test results to a specialist in Vancouver who talked to me on the phone last winter. He agreed with her I didn't need any treatment or more advanced testing at that time. I had a blood test in July and my doctor didn't call so I assume it hadn't changed, but I'm talking to her this week and I'll ask her. It was to good to read these posts to see what the future might hold for me and also reassuring that it can be dealt with.

Google says only “Altruistic” surrogacy" is legal in Canada, appears to be no difference for same sex or single male parents from heterosexual parents. And the usual procedure is to implant a fertilized egg from a donor into the surrogate mother. Generally the surrogate is also the biological mother only when the intention is that she remains a part of the child's life.

I'd rather have rats gnaw on my face than vote for Air Canada as a top airline. But maybe it's just so bad it's a special case. They've been blaming the federal government for all the delays at Canadian airports, and it shares the blame, but I think the bigger problem are the alrlines fault for not rehiring enough ground staff and air crew and overselling.

Gee, no North American airlines in the top 20, that's a big surprise, NOT.

Canada is also ending the vaccination requirement on Oct 1. And people don't have to fill out the pre-entry form if they don't want to. Government still mulling over whether to keep masking on planes and trains.

I may have gone there about 15 years ago. Was it a fancy looking multi-level place?

I thought it was a marvel of engineering and ingenuity when I saw the one in Australia. It works well.

Wow, still there? There was a lot of activity the couple times I went.

There was a cruising place there with an interesting set-up. They had a wall with glory holes. The guys standing there were about three or four feet higher than the guys standing on a sunken floor on the other side so their heads (mouths) were at about the same height as the dicks sticking out through the holes. I quite liked it.

Holy shit, I had a co-worker who did that all time. And it worked, their victim always ended up having to apologize to the provoker.

The first time I visited some friends in Perth, I fell in love with it and wanted to move there. It seemed like a paradise (I live in Canada). On my second visit I developed a more realistic view. But I still believe it would probably be one of the best places in the world to live for me. I really liked the Australian cities. Except Adelaide. I don't know why it didn't appeal to me.