eyeswideshut

That's okay. Since you're one of my more recent firends it's understandable that you weren't aware of the circumstances, as I don't speak as often about Annette as I used to. No worries.

I did Muay Thai for a while (about 6 months or so). I have no idea how useful it would be for self-defense (though I know that the MT folks one sees on TV takes on insane amounts of beatings), but damn, it builds stamina like nothing else. Before I started I could run perhaps 200 meters before I was out of breath, after 6 months of Muay Thai (we had to stick to basic conditioning for a while because a strike meant we could no longer access to place we trained at) me and the vice-coach (we were the only ones to show up at some trainings during the strike) went out running. 5 kilometers without a single stop, and I felt amazing.

Like I said, I never trained Muay Thai enough to become good at it, nor did I get the chance to try it out for self defense, but it's bloody fun.
Been in Thailand for a long time? Wanted to go there for some time, but I've never managed to save up the money .

How does the visa thing work nowadays? From what I remember, it used to be that you could stay more or less indefinetly and just make a visa run once per month.
Yeah, I know it can be cheap, which was sort of what I was looking for back then. I planned to save up about 50-70.000 krona (7-10K Australian dollars) and spend as long as possible (until money ran out and all I had left was a ticket back) there to train muay thai. Never managed to get as much money as I needed though.

You staying in Perth? I like those picture, very pretty place, looks very much like an idealized European town/city . Australia is another of those places where I've wanted to go for a long time as well. Maybe I should look into a work visa? (Or I can do what my friend did - spend quite a number of months in Australia working illegally ).
Hm, mining...wonder what qualifications one needs? I assume there's not much swinging a pick axe these days .

Quiet? Hardly. I'm about to tell the world some news that I've been looking forward to for a while now. My fingers are hardly touching the keys, as I float on air.

Merry Christmas and a healthy and happy new year to you and yours.

Except for one or two bumps in the road, my internet experiences, relationship-wise have been mostly positive. I love my friends on SG as much, or more, than my everyday friends. Some of the ones on SG have in fact become everyday friends.

The fact that I met Kathy on FetLife is another testimonial for internet social networking.

I appreciate your pragmatic sentiments. The things you say are quite valid in the majority of cases.

The advantage I have in all this is that I experienced the gift of love over a 32 year period with Annette. To compare this relationship with that would be foolish. My needs and desires, as well as my priorities in life have changed dramatically.

I have different reasons for entering into this union. Love needs to be a component for sure, even though most of the other factors may be different.

I assume you're "not a fan" of Hasselhoff as opposed to whoever I actually am. For a minute there I almost felt insulted until I remembered that you don't actually know who I am.

As for the death penalty thing...

Governments shouldn't kill their own citizens---they should protect them. And what happens when the protectors violate that trust? I believe they should be held to a stricter standard. In my mind this applies to anyone who carries a weapon in an official capacity and/or who possesses certain security clearances.

Don't mention it. I saw it again a month or three ago (watched it on YouTube, since I can't be bothered to download), had seen it once before that. Amazing movie that one.

It's good to hear that your day to day life is pretty happy, root canal aside. The last piece of the puzzle for me is finding a suitable place to live. I have to leave where I am in about a month. My landlord has been trying to evict me for about 10 months. I've been unable to pay the exhorbitant rent due to my serious financial problems that are only now easing up.

The landlord-tenant laws here are very favorable to the tenant, thank goodness. Just like everything else in life, this had a beginning, and now it has an end. Once I get my housing squared away, I'll be pretty much okay.

Too long since I saw the 1997 movie, was that the guy whos place he hid out at before the hit?

i don't know, depends on how much you put down for our cats ^-^ my husband put half a bag down on a scratching post one time. The cat did not move for two days

Probably, but I think I'll pass the few seconds of potential fame.

Good luck with that. Mouth pain is one of the worst pains there is. I had a severely impacted and infected tooth not too long ago. It was by far the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. Inserting the needle to numb the area before extraction caused me to let out a blood-curdling scream, which i'd never done before at the dentist.

Oops. maybe I shouldn't be telling you that at this time? Will your dentist put you out during the procedure? Mine doesn't do that. Maybe it's time for me to find one that does.