xylophone

To refer to something posted way back when the thread was started, no I don't believe in any god, in any way, shape or form. Religion and god are man-made constructs to try and provide some answers as to from whence we came, who are we and why are we here etc, and have been used and hijacked for centuries as tools of suppression, poverty, and in order to make money from those willing to follow one of these constructs. As an example, huge amounts of money flows into the Vatican City to swell their coffers and to support a corpulent Pope and his hangers on, whilst at the same time providing a haven for paedophiles and child molesters, and all of this has been built as a business, with a business model ensuring that the Catholic Church becomes very wealthy. None of the "Christian belief models" has stopped something like the recent schoolchildren massacre, the huge famines of the past in the likes of Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen and others which killed millions of people, many of whom were children, so religion/god in any of its forms is nothing but a nonsense followed at one end by the simpleminded and at the other by those wishing to make money out of it. And somewhere in the middle are those who wish to "do good" or ease their conscience by making donations to various religious organisations. To add to the nonsense, new religious belief organisations are springing up all over the world, and even these have followers, including those who believe that the world is only 6000 years old, despite fossils been carbon dated back millions of years, but this doesn't fit their narrative, so is ignored. The sad part about it is that this belief is being taught in some schools in the USA, rather than the theory of evolution, or perhaps alongside of that, but it shows the power that these people have. Over my 75 years I have met many people who said that they are Christians/Catholics and prove that by going to church every Sunday, however as the old saying goes, "standing in a church on a Sunday does not mean that you are a Christian, any more than standing in a garage and believing that you are a car" (or words to that effect). It's a funny old world, and if someone from another planet looked down upon what is happening here with regards to religion/god/faiths/beliefs (apart from some faiths which do not rely on religious fervour and money) and what we have done to ourselves and the world in following these constructs, they would watch in disbelief at our stupidity.

And good for Utd IMO as he wasn't strong enough for the job..........couldn't keep the players in line/order and like OGS couldn't command respect.

Jarrow Formula d-limonene 1000mg capsules, which can be bought from Amazon, eBay and other sites. And I no longer need to take it now, as I don't suffer from reflux of any sort. Just a note here.........when you first start taking the capsules you will experience "orange burps" for a few days and these taper off soon then disappear.

Of course that decision is up to you, but what I can say is that omeprazole (a PPI similar to Prevacid) really did help my condition, and without it I don't know what I would have done, and the d-limonene which I took later on really was the clincher. Don't be afraid of PPIs, and you don't need to be on them for life, although my doctor was okay with me being on them for a couple of years. What really persuaded me to take PPIs and make a change in my lifestyle (getting out of the extremely stressful job I was in) was when he told me that if I carried on the way I was, then I could well be dead from esophageal cancer within a year or so. So I resigned and took time out for myself, and decided to come over and live in Phuket, and I don't suffer from this any more, thankfully.

A bit of an exaggeration I think, however some bars on the periphery of Bangla have certainly changed hands a few times over the past six or eight months. There are bars in Bangla which are not doing very well at all, and a few which are doing fair to good, however there is a pretty good nightlife scene going on at the moment, so some bar owners would be happy with this. I will add that the bars in a couple of Soi's are having a lean time, but outside of those, not so bad.

I suffered from gastric reflux for a few years and it became dangerous because I developed Barrett's oesophagus, which is often called a "precancerous" condition. My doctor put me on omeprazole 40 mg in the morning and the same in the evening for about six months and then wound back the dosage. I also learned what foods exacerbated the problem, namely: – red peppers, onions, milk chocolate and a few others, and stayed away from them. I continued with the omeprazole for a couple of years and then I discovered d-limonene capsules, and took those for a few weeks and my condition completely disappeared, and I have not taken omeprazole for many years now, although I do keep some on standby, just in case. I went back to NZ and my doctor did a gastroscopy on me and was absolutely amazed that my Barrett's oesophagus had disappeared, so I told him about the d-limonene, and he actually ordered some online for a friend of his – – yes that's absolutely true, because despite what this friend was doing he was still suffering a bit. If you do a bit of digging around on d-limonene, and don't be put off by the fact that in one of its forms, it can be a very good cleaner!!, You will find some references to the treatment of gastric reflux and similar. Best of luck, and I did note that another poster has mentioned about raising the head of your bed a couple of inches, and that helped for me also

Agree with what you say, and anyway with the meagre wages/pay which the majority of the everyday Thai workers take home, there really isn't enough to even consider putting some away for the future, so they really are stuffed.

How can I watch the match in Thailand........any channels on Thai TV or similar, like the 3BB GIGATV box??

A PS. to my previous post.......I was also surprised the president Kharzi siphoned off around 10 million dollars a day (at one time) from the Afghan nation, opium exporters and funds given by the US, UK etc, to private accounts in the Arab States, and the US/UK etc knew that he was corrupt but did nothing about it.......

I watched the doco on BBC iPlayer, called "Bitter Lake" and it was informative and intriguing at the same time and who would have thought that an agreement signed between the USA and Saudi Arabia all those years ago, as regards the oil supply would have had such a long lasting and wide ranging effect. The Doco also weaved in aspects of the power of the banks and the US government's decision to let them self regulate, and the disaster that caused, amongst other events, which I'm not too sure had that much of an effect, however the doco had "long tentacles" and was very interesting watch.

You make some good points in your post, and the one I have quoted above, IMO, should be one that is implemented because of the reason you state. I heard a woman on the news yesterday rolling out the same old, same old, "guns don't kill people, people kill people". I would have loved someone to have answered, "guns are the instruments which people use to kill people, so take away the instruments and the deaths should fall". And many quote the Second Amendment, however laws could be introduced which do not change that, however change the rules and regulations around it. Having said that, the US seems to have more than its fair share of nutters, even electing a corrupt orange one as president – – so perhaps there isn't any hope!

I can't disagree with much of what you say, however AWB was bought because of his attacking prowess and I remember seeing him pushing forward on many occasions when he played for CP, hence being bought for that reason. Whenever I have seen him play for United, he is reluctant to push forward and certainly has very little idea of defensive marking, or in how to "jockey" a player, so what potential he initially had seems to have disappeared. The same has happened with Rashford in respect of his game falling off, and I believe he is worth persevering with, because on his day he is brilliant, and that was the same with Martial, so we seem to have players whose game has dropped off markedly, and I wonder if that's anything to do with the coaching??

I don't know much about the services you mention, however I do know that in the main, the Tuk Tuk drivers are very aware that they have to smarten up their act, and just a couple of weeks ago a friend of mine who wanted to get home from Bangla to Karon late at night, was charged 300 baht for that journey, which I thought was very reasonable.

“Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money!”

I did say in a previous post that it would be interesting to see how the tourist situation in Patong unfolded, and it seems to have gotten better if last night in Bangla was anything to go by. Not only in Bangla, but I've noticed other groups of tourists from other countries around the place, and in particular from India and Arabic countries so the opening of the borders has helped somewhat. Bangla last night was fairly busy, and more so as it is late May, and the friends I was with commented on that fact, however the point I should make is that there were quite a few people walking up and down Bangla, but very few bars which were full, apart from Kangaroo Bar which always seems popular. And to add to that, the Tiger complex had people sitting out in front, and also at the bars going back at least halfway down the complex, so they would be very happy, as about six weeks ago, the place was dead/empty! I had a pizza at the Blue Lotus Café and bar, which was ordered from the Blue Beach Restaurant and quickly made its way to me, so I was pleased about that as I was getting peckish, and the food from the Blue Beach Restaurant is always good and this was no exception. I and a good friend of mine went into Soi Sea Dragon, and although there were a few folk in there, for the most part it was pretty empty, and the bar at the front of it, which used to play host to the girls from Suzie Wong's was now looking sad because of the girls departure, and very few customers, but I did notice some girls dressed in what looked like a cross between an air hostess and a nurse's uniform, and very smart they looked, so hopefully they managed to entice some customers to the bar a little later on. We also had a quick look down Soi Freedom to see what was going on, and there was still no sign of the promised live band, and the place was devoid of customers in the main, and I still have no idea why someone would set up at least a dozen tables, along with chairs, halfway down that Soi??? It looked like it was the start of a restaurant, however it would be the last place any sane person would ever consider starting a restaurant, and true to form there was still nobody in the place. The tables and chairs were all new and wooden and looked very smart, so the whole setup would have been reasonably expensive, along with leasing the premises, still, TIT, and who knows what drives some people in this place. My friend picked up his girlfriend and the three of us went along to Red Hot to spend a good couple of hours there, and I managed my three regular songs, and also added my rendition of, "House of the Rising Sun" which went down a treat as there were a few folk from around my era, who remembered the song, with a couple of them saying it was better than the original! Looking further afield, as I said previously it is a mixed bag, and the bars and shops seem to be opening and closing with regular monotony, and I fear for the future of the new French Patisserie which opened on Nanai just recently, this because I haven't seen any customers in it in my many times of passing by. Shine Bistro, in Nanai, has now become, "Drinking lizard" and I don't think it's the same owners, so that would be another one to add to the list of closures. In general, Patong has not died a death which led to folks to celebrate this with a "wake", but could well be described as starting to come "awake" and I sincerely hope this is the case because there are many small businesses who need an influx of tourists, and none more so than the rows of Tuk Tuks which were parked end to end for at least 200 m down on both sides of the road down Rat-u-Thid – – but then again Tuk Tuk drivers have never had great reputations here and are disliked by many, but personally I have always had good and fair service from them and the motorbike taxis.

Dream on.........100 customers per bar??????

The original quote could be true, given the amount of corruption here in Thailand!!!! LOL.

One more to add to the list:-

There are those who believe in a god and those who don't........

Now there's an idea....... and if I can't find a G string, maybe budgie smugglers will do!

I make quite a few pizzas at home and I buy the small extremely thin and crusty bases from macro as I can't be bothered making them, and often by way of a change I will make a tandoori chicken pizza, where I have marinated and cooked thin strips of chicken in a tandoori marinade mix before adding it to the pizza. I cook a normal pizza with just the tomato base and mozzarella cheese, plus some thinly sliced onion, then add the chicken at the end, along with just a few thin slices of banana and a few dabs of some sweet mango chutney, plus a few splashes of plain unsweetened yoghurt – – and as I'm a chili lover, I sprinkle some chopped chilis over it. Sounds like a lot, but done sparingly it's great!

Having played football for some 40 plus years, as well as tennis for at least 10 years, jock itch/similar has been a not infrequent companion over the years, and I tried many things, all of the ones mentioned, but In recent times, terbinafine cream has worked well for me and seems to act more quickly in clearing up the total fungal infection, which if not cleared up completely, can come back again very quickly. Outside of that, these days I use a "dusting powder" in the groin which contains clotrimazole, as an everyday "prophylactic", if you wish.

True, and in my experience of 16 years here in Patong, I've heard that from numerous Thai women, and the reasons they give are; – they smell through poor personal hygiene, they are extremely "tight" with their money and they are generally unpleasant to women! I'm sure there are more but can't think of them at the moment. A couple of instances come to mind, where a woman I know who owns/manages a massage parlour was asked by an Indian guy who decided to come in for a massage, if she would take 20 baht to cover the "extras" he wanted, which of course was refused and he was given short shrift and ushered out of the place. An incident I witnessed a few years ago at a bar in Soi Sea Dragon was pretty typical – – three Indian guys were looking for some women to "satisfy their needs" and were having no luck at several bars they visited, the owners of whom I knew, however they came to the bar which I was at and none of the girls wanted to know them and basically moved away, however there was one really fat, ugly lady boy at the other end of the bar, and she eventually agreed to go with the three of them. The thought of it almost made me sick.

A post to interrupt the inter-rivalry banter and so on....... I have been a Man United supporter since 1956 or thereabouts and have never wavered in my support for them, apart from going to watch Brighton and Hove Albion in the early sixties on many occasions with a family friend. So when Brighton kicked our backsides with their 4-0 win, and deservedly so, I got to wondering how come United had sunk so low, and IMO it has to be a deep-seated problem within the club, and it needs clearing up – – needs "open heart surgery" as someone has suggested, and let's hope it is swift and severe. In the meantime I have to take my hat off to Manchester City and Liverpool for the style of football they have played over the past few seasons, because they simply play the best football of any I've ever seen in my many years. Irrespective of who wins the title, both of these teams have played exceptionally well throughout the season. Congratulations to them both.