AirmaxUK

Absolutely... me too. I enjoy the little clues about a person from their background stuff in pics. Sometimes recognising a setting in two different profiles so inferring the guys know each other. I probably missed a calling in forensics!

Tom Baker for sure. A couple of years back there was a Radio-4 comedy "Dead Ringers" who had an impersonator that did a good Tom Baker impersonation. They had the impersonator prank call the real Tom Baker on-air and pretend to be him from the future. The real Tom Baker immediately fell into character and there was a very amusing exchange. He seems to be an all round good egg, and up for a laugh. I also vaguely remember Tom Baker appearing on another comedy TV show and they had him going around Ikea's bedroom/wardrobe department shopping for a new 'Tardis' asking the IKEA sales assistants questions about the molecular integrity of different wardrobes etc.

Earlier this morning (GMT) the whole site seems to have been offline ("500 - File not found"). Now it is back and it seems to be raining loads of notifications for me...

I've always imagined friendships like orbits - the core for your partner and immediate family the inner circle for the people you trust implicitly and can rely on (and vice versa). a middle orbit of people who for one reason or another haven't earned the right to be in the inner circle yet or are a little flaky. outer orbits are people who are best described as acquaintances or the very flaky. I'd say a few work colleagues are in the middle circle. Most in the outer orbits. I noticed that during the covid lockdown it was really only my inner circle that reciprocated efforts to communicate and stay in touch. My middle and outer orbits are very thin on people post covid lockdown. As to the original question - what do you look for...? Earned trust. Putting you first when you need it. Being reliable. Being consistent. Being more of an asset than a burden. Reducing (not increasing) the amount of drama in my life. I will say that I have had the misfortune to know two sociopaths and the experience has made me very wary of others, which is a shame, but necessary.

This morning I went to the dentist. When I got home, I had a MS-teams call with my boss and the rest of the team. When I said I had been to the dentist, my boss responded with: "Oh you poor thing, you face looks so swollen". I informed her that actually, I just had a checkup and no work done, so actually I always look like that... She was soooo embarrassed. I've been needling her about it ever since and it's just so funny how embarrassed she is. Me? I don't care. Wide-angle cameras on laptops (especially the Dell ones with the camera at the bottom of the screen) are notoriously unflattering.

UK Specific: I notice that some saunas opened this week. Some are waiting until the June unlocking date. Just wondering what the difference is, since all should be covered by the same rules?

I had a guy who used to leave Post-It notes with messages under my windscreen wiper. They'd be kinda creepy and refer to what I had been doing or wearing. When it was wet weather they'd be in plastic ziplock bags. He must've followed me around doing this because I could drive 40-50 miles somewhere and still find notes when I returned to the car. Work, Gym, Home, Friends, Parents, Shops - nowhere was safe. Some notes would be quite complimentary, others when I'd visited a male friend were a bit jealous. It made me hyper alert to who was around and in the end I figured what car he was using to follow me and looked out for it. The last note he left had his mobile number on it. Not sure what to do, I spoke to some lesbian friends who'd lived in my town a while (I was new here then) and they said this guy was known locally for behaviour like this - but not to worry, they'd sort it out. I gave them the number and I never saw or heard from him again. Looking back I probably should have gone to the police, but back then (late 90's) the local police weren't exactly friendly or sympathetic to "the gays".

Personally I think putting hard criteria like 'must be over 9 inches' or 'must be under 45' in a profile is counter productive as it puts guys off who might otherwise be an awesome shag. I wonder if guys like your Grindr Twink write their profiles with what they want their ideal hookup to be like, but in the absence of perfection, they'll settle for something a little less? The other thing is, particularly on fetish sites like Recon or NKP when people make a 'list' of things they're into it can work two ways - reading the list you might see one or two things you're not into and think it's not a match. That's a negative way of looking at these things... I look at the list and think, hey we match six out of ten things, so we can have plenty of fun. But I think I'm in the minority here...? It reminds me of a personal development workshop on CVs sometime ago where we were advised to write what we want to do or can do, not what we are currently doing. If you're growing, you don't want a job doing the same thing as you're currently doing, you need a CV that stretches you but with out being fictional. Is that what's going on with online profiles too?

Second Pfizer shot last Friday. Kinda achy the following day but fine today.

I can see arguments both ways, but... whether BBRT allows the advertising or not, I am sure people are meeting anyway. I've seen guys using the regional hookup ad section advertising for multiple partners/groups regularly. It seems that turning off the party section isn't really stopping people.

Making mixtapes and swapping with friends. Waiting for everyone in the house to go to bed and then getting up to secretly watch "Red Triangle" programming on Channel 4. Enjoying playing music loud. Experimenting and Building stuff during the long summer holiday - Heathkit As @RawPlug says the mail order catalogs - mens' underwear pages. Rugby practice (for all the wrong reasons, like borrowing someone's sports kit when you'd "forgotten" yours)

I like stuff that's filmed with some background reality in the location - not obviously on a staged set. Little details and clues about the guys and their lives outside the moment that give the hint they might be real people. Very personal, but I like when the guys wear socks and sneakers with nothing else - although a jock on the bottom is hot to see. Cliched/Forced dialog is a turn off. Natural reactions more of a turn on.

This could be the silver lining - I've always preferred cruising in the flesh. Too many guys use the apps/sites for a wank at the idea of meeting which makes the signal to noise ratio very low. This was my very first thought. VISA/Mastercard/Amex are too powerful and dominant to the point they can now dictate how we behave. We need an accessible, reliable means of online payment that people can use with confidence that has no central control. Crypto may be the answer, but isn't easily accessible yet for non-geeks. That needs to change to make it succeed. So, this is a currency in itself. It is an interesting direction some things are going: things like the Helium network reward operators with HNT crypto currency - and you can trade it on Binance for BTC or USD.

Indeed - if he's top - but the reality of fucking a butt that's been sitting in a Prius for 12 hours ain't pretty. If he douches first then maybe...

There's a 4* Best Western "Palm" on the A41 Hendon Way, which I drive past on my way there from the North Circular Road which looks to be walking distance if you don't mind a fifteen minute 0.8 mile walk. Closer than the Premier Inn. There's plenty of Ubers. I haven't stayed there myself as I usually drive to the heath from home.

The lockdown in and of itself wasn't so bad - it forced some things like being able to work from home which otherwise wouldn't have happened. The early days were quite anxious and I remember the moment I read the scientific paper with the modelling that suggested lockdown was going to be a matter of months, not days or weeks. But lockdown brought a confluence of other issues with it. My mother received a diagnosis for pancreatic cancer a week before lockdown and was stuck in hospital and we were unable to visit. Various treatment options were off the table "because of covid" and even getting simple things done like getting a dressing changed or access to supplies was an utter nightmare. It wasn't until a year later and after involving her local MP that we have access to the right services, care, supplies and advice. It seems like "Covid" was a universal excuse for everything - I could write a book about what we've been through but honestly some of it was so ridiculous nobody would believe it. At least fighting for her has given me some focus outside of work. Caring for an older person who has a vulnerable illness meant that I had to be more careful than most with regard to contact with other people. Work has been ok. We have seen good demand throughout and actually revenue was up just shy of 5% despite the covid year. I get to work a mix of 60% at home and 40% on-site. It is interesting to see that some people have really gone the extra mile through the pandemic and others have slacked and hidden behind the pandemic using it as an excuse why something can't be done rather than find creative solutions. My partner is 100% at home since Jan 2020 and that has affected him quite badly. That's beginning to change a bit now he can get out and go to the gym. Outside work, motivation has been low for us both. That is a struggle to get over. You read about people using their time to learn a new language or something, but I can't imagine that. All the things I enjoy - going out, meeting guys, motorcycling, travelling, photography have been curtailed by being locked down. Eating and drinking has been a coping mechanism - we've both put on weight which is now a focus to try and reverse. But on hard days it's easy to be bad... and there's not a lot of other ways to blow off steam right now. I'm thankful for my PT who has been a constant force of positivity and being able to exercise with him even over Zoom has been great. So... its been a mixed bag. I am sure it would have been worse if we were furloughed or out of work as well.

This may be of interest - although the section on Safari is a little out of date: [think before following links] https://www.howtogeek.com/241006/how-to-block-third-party-cookies-in-every-web-browser/

See: [think before following links] https://www.varsity.co.uk/fashion/20084 [think before following links] https://vinnf.medium.com/i-wear-yellow-laces-in-my-boots-6f45916812fa

I like the feel of wearing boots that are very tightly laced, but loose can look good too - I guess it depends on the circumstance. You need to plan around taking them off and putting on taking time - especially with something like 20 or even 30-hole rangers... and boots with zips is just cheating. Socks - for me, its gotta be long soccer soccer/football socks - colours to reflect interests - typically blue or yellow. Laces - I try to keep to original colours and styles, but did go through a phase of yellow or white laces in my rangers - which I stopped after someone informed me that white laces in tall black boots was a racist thing.

My fave boots are black Austrian Army boots from a surplus store - they have leather inside as well as out and are super comfy and supple as well as looking the part. German Army boots are more common and look almost identical but lack the leather internal lining. eg: [think before following links] [think before following links] https://www.varusteleka.com/en/product/austrian-kaz-03-combat-boots-surplus/64337 For a more urban look, I prefer Timberlands - the classic Premium 6-inch boot in the 'sand' colour but also in matt black. I think in the US/Canada you can get them in 9 and 12 inch height as well, both of which are on my want list.

Also seeing the same thing as of 11:30 3 April 2021.

I believe the idea is that by request the chemsex area can be hidden. I think it is aimed at guys who're in recovery and don't want to be triggered.

Being a little autistic, and as a result having issues with making and holding eye contact, my favourite ways to signal are typically also clothing related: GearBerlin T-shirts - various graphics and slogans. Some more subtle than others. I own "Böse" "Proll" "Sniffer" "Sneaks" and the one with the gas mask picture. [think before following links] https://gearberlin.com/collections/t-shirts G-Star RAW had some nice t-shirts a couple of years back with "RAW" very large and a line like someone had spilled some talcum powder... Sk8erboy Socks - with FCK ABL, BONE ME, or "Fuck My Socks Off" Nastypig Socks Also "FroKnowsPhoto" has a line of t-shirts with the slogan "I Shoot RAW" in various styles to publicise his photography website and YouTube channel. I own three of those - my favourite being the one with "I Shoot RAW" in the style of the Back to the Future movie logo, second favourite being the one in the style of the Stranger Things logo. The socks have gotten me attention in everyday life and the I Shoot RAW t-shirt also gets comments. Always looking for new ideas. Biohazard symbol stainless steel "jewellery" and pins from AliExpress or Banggood was my last foray before lockdown.

That's the classic cruising technique. There are variations... The one you describe for works well for situations in a bus/train/bar. The other I recall is making and holding eye contact as you walk towards each other - pass by - count two steps after passing and then turn your head back and smile. If he does the same, then the your're on. It is most successful in places with a decent gay population like Brighton or London in the UK but this all relies on the other person being somewhat aware of their surroundings, and these days people don't look up from their phones in situations where cruising might happen.

Do you have any details or a link to share?