msclelovr

Does the above post @Tomcal mean that, in response to the quoted post, you are lost for words ?

True @Lonely_John but I’ve heard of incidents involving the ‘Goodnight Cinderella’ (drugged drink) trick in various places, including cities in the US and South Africa, and not just Latin America. I feel gay men need to be very careful about the safety of their drinks, especially when out alone. It’s why I always ordered bottled beer.

Sorry to hear your news @floridarob Not being able to travel must be very disappointing. I hope that you are at least recovering well from the effects of the virus.

Nice recollections @Tomcal

IME other jobs. Bear in mind, they lived with their sponsor who supported them for the first few years. So sex work wasn’t really interesting for them. In later years, I know one who became a model, another Cuban is now an accountant and a couple have office jobs.

Thanks for writing further @iendo but I thought you’d said that you were “not into macho boys”. So when did the more feminine or slimmer young men feature in your adventures?

Well, earlier than 2019 -some years before - there were lots of great looking young Cubans with fit bodies. Many of them found older admirers and got exit visas for Spain. (And as is the way of the world, several young men left their older admirers after 3 years ie once they had established residency rights in Spain)

I have 2 French friends who live some way outside Montpellier, but visit the city often. May I ask where this happened so I can warn them to be careful? When I was young, I worked on a gay advice hotline. The advice after a mugging was that you should straightaway write down in detail what happened. Over time, you may remember more details and can add them to your report. And I’d encourage you to work with the police. It will help you regain agency and you may prevent this happening to other people.

@BiBottomBoyis based in Montpelier IIRC, @PeterRS

IMHO only if they stay well-hidden and discreet. That way, no-one has to think about what physical activity they might enjoy. IDK why Oprah and Gayle have just popped into my head…

Short answer: Buenos Aires, Argentina and Bogota, Colombia. Long answer: I’m into muscleboys but various working guys exist. Certainly there are younger guys anxious to meet rich older foreigners. The problem is that it’s hard to predict what gay gyms, clubs or bars will reopen after the pandemic eases. IME there are many younger guys in Buenos Aires looking for an older lover. Argentine citizens carry their ID with them so it’s easy to check their age. I suggest you always do this as I have been propositioned by guys below the age of consent (18 in Argentina) on the street, in shopping malls as well as bars and gyms. Obviously it’s a major help if you speak Spanish well.

Good question @DutchDork. On Google StreetView the area looks pretty ramshackle. And it’s some way from the centre of Niteroi…where a good friend of mine (a fit muscled 35 year old who grew up there) was mugged one afternoon after using a bank ATM.

Very interesting posts @vaughn and @TMax As a tangential question, may I ask about the many (thousands?) Australians who were overseas when the pandemic began. At first, they were trapped overseas and not allowed to return. Has their repatriation now been completed?

As it happens @PeterRS I first met William Shawcross’s father - Hartley Shawcross - in the 1980s. He was in fact the Chief British Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials. I had several long conversations with him about his career. As to Kissinger, I read the book by Christopher Hitchens when it first came out. I wrote above “whether you like or dislike him” because Kissinger clearly divides opinion: I do not agree with your description of him as a “warmonger”. I certainly think he was a master of ‘realpolitik’.

Am I missing some irony or ‘fake news’ here @JKane ? Whether you like or dislike him, there’s no doubt he’s a significant thinker on international affairs. He wrote a forthright opinion piece last month in the WSJ on how failure to address the adverse impacts of the pandemic would be disastrous.

I hope that Aussies returning from India are a lot more responsible than some British-Indians/-Pakistanis who have been found to ignore the UK quarantine regulations on re-entering the country. In the UK, there have been a couple of clusters of infection directly attributed to those recently returned visitors. Luckily so far the infections haven’t spread out.

Has the Federal Government in Australia yet decided when it will reopen the borders to Australians returning from visiting India @TMax?

The famous Brazilian humorist Paulo Gustavo died from complications of Covid19. A Brazilian obituary in English can be found at https://brazilian.report/liveblog/2021/05/05/comedian-paulo-gustavo-dies-covid/ He was aged 42 and as reported he was in good health prior to contracting Covid19.

Gosh, I’m exhausted from just reading about your exploits @Arabcreamer When do you rest? You most certainly deserve a vacation.

What is it?

Is that because you happened to ask them in front of their friends what they would do? I’ve had a similar experience in other countries with a ‘masculine’ culture (such as Argentina) where guys profess to be tops…but in private they’ll happily bottom for me and/or suck cock to completion and swallow my load

That must have been startling. You had a lucky escape @Enlgishman

I guess the answer will depend on Brazilian laws. But these may be overridden by whatever regulations govern the particular building and which the owner has signed up to observe. These regulations can be very restrictive. (For example, I live in a building that prohibits any letting unless it is for at least 12 months and where the renters have to be interviewed and approved in advance.) I feel the caution by @Riobard is timely. I can’t imagine any ‘renter’ arriving from overseas is going to want to find themselves unwelcome and likely to be thrown out on the street suddenly.

No misunderstanding on my part. I read what you wrote, but it’s simply not practicable to manufacture “millions of doses” in advance of the regulatory approval. The necessary ingredients are in short supply nowadays. What you may think of as possibly the simplest thing - the vial for the vaccine - is now in short supply worldwide. The shortages are such that more conventional but needed products (eg insulin) are having their supply restricted.

If you can access Al Jazeera TV @TotallyOz I recommend their excellent news service. They have corespondents based in Bangkok and this Sunday morning there was an lengthy report on the situation in Thailand. There was film of people testing positive and even if asymptomatic, being quarantined in isolation facilities for 14 days. No at-home quarantine is allowed. If symptoms develop, they are transferred to a hospital. Against the rapid rise in cases, it was mentioned that less than 1% of people have been vaccinated. A profound misunderstanding @z909. The UK Government took a “venture capital” approach to vaccines, ordering large amounts and prepaying before any of the vaccines had been developed. It also intervened to prevent Oxford University working with Merck in the US to develop a vaccine to be produced in the US because it feared that the US Government would use its existing powers to prevent the export of any vaccine that proved successful. Also, Merck only offered “reasonable best efforts” to supply the vaccine to the UK. (This is the same clause that the EU Commission has in its contracts). The UK Govt persuaded AstraZeneca (a company with no prior experience in vaccines) to work with Oxford by offering to pay all the development costs. In return for assuming all financial risk, the UK Govt insisted on an absolute guarantee of supply and that the Oxford-AZ vaccine be provided at a very low cost, not only to the UK but also to low-income countries around the world during the pandemic. The EU wasted some months arguing with Oxford-AZ trying to get them to supply their vaccine at a lower cost than the UK had paid. Having failed to lower what is essentially the cost-price, the EU signed a contract with only a “reasonable best efforts” clause (see above). Of course, vaccine manufacture is a complex process. It involves various facilities, mainly in the UK and Belgium. Recently the Belgians acknowledged the significant financial injection by the UK and its lending a team of technical experts to improve the production process at the main plant there. IMO the UK Govt has done an excellent job. The EU seems to be good at the ‘blame game’ but has been shown to be bureaucratic and incompetent.