xylophone

Yes, racism has been in football for as long as I can remember, even going back 60 years, although nowhere near what it is today, and I may add that IMO a lot of it is from lower class, mindless thugs, but how do you stop them from watching a game of football??

Might be able to do that with the help of a Cialis tablet!!

I have just read an article on the "James Suckling" website which I found quite astounding....... TREASURY WINES REPORT…. It has stepped up sales efforts in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore and began selling in September a Chinese-made version of Penfolds in China, known as, One By Penfolds. Made with grapes from the north of China, it sells for around $50 per bottle. So two things stick out for me in as much as although China has been coming along in leaps and bounds with regards to grape production, producing a Penfold's from those grapes just doesn't do it for me, and anyway at $50 a bottle I doubt I will be trying it!

Well, no responses to the suggestion to change the "Patong – the Wake" name, so here goes with a few other snippets. First of all there was an absolutely superb piece on Thaiger called, Russian brotherhood stealing Phuket jobs. https://thethaiger.com/news/phuket/russian-brotherhood-stealing-phuket-jobs And it pulled no punches and covered many things that bug folk here in Patong, including corruption and the slack BIB, amongst many others; well worth a read. Luckily enough I don't drive fast here either on my motorbike or in my car, so when I was driving my bike along Nanai Road at about 35 to 40 km/h, I was able to brake sharply, very sharply when a younger Chinese guy decided to walk out into the road without looking and I just about stopped with my front wheel touching his leg, and I shouted some obscenities at him which he probably didn't understand, however the Thai motorbike taxi guys sitting nearby gave me the thumbs up and laughed. I thought the situation in Patong had improved somewhat, however there still seem to be some small businesses closing down and one of them used to be called "Cheap Charlies" in Nanai, and it was a guesthouse which wasn't that expensive (not too hard to fathom that was it) before it changed owners and names, and now it is up for sale/rent/lease. Another couple of shops in Nanai have gone the same way, and judging by the very few bar mongers around these days, I would suggest that one or two other bars in Nanai would be following that pattern. Haven't really been out in Bangla as have had quite a few hospital visits what with cutting out a cancer on my chest, and also some major dental work which involved many big injections, which I hate, and which will be about 68,000 baht when the final bill comes in. And when it is all over I will go out on Bangla and celebrate one way or another!

I and just about all of the other posters here agree with you, however Ralf001 won't have a bar of it, and I have to wonder what his motive is??

Mainland do a smaller sized block called "Epicure" and that is also good.

A very good post may I say...........given me food for thought so I will opt out of reading this thread and leave others to it!!

No it's not really an interesting phenomenon taking place, it's just that there are levelheaded people who don't believe in fairy stories, and find it pitiful/painful when others continue to believe, when they should have gotten out of this habit years ago after discovering that Santa Claus wasn't real. I don't see what the other rabid fairy story believers post, because I have them all on "ignore", however from your reply it would seem that one of them actually believes the old "barstool" tale, when there are probably others like me, who haven't been near a barstool in ages, and who only have one or two beers a week, and don't sit in bars all day. So much for that fairytale. I agree with the post by @Nemesis, and normal, levelheaded people think likewise, and realise that the bible and its contents are very much like a Spider-Man series – – entertaining but impossible. Having said that, these folk are certain that these things happened and I even had one person on this forum come on and challenge a cartoon I posted about, "some folks even believe that penguins walked all the way from the Antarctic to get on a boat built by a 500 year old man", whereby he put forward arguments that suggested they could, would you believe! To round it all off, in pagan times, corn dollies were seen as containing the spirits that would enable a good crop and the way of determining whether a woman was a witch or not was to throw her in the water and if she surfaced, it was seen that the water didn't want her because she was a witch, whereas if she drowned, then the water did want her.....a nonsense thought process but it appealed to them. And nowadays folks have supposedly moved on?? And of course there are the "godly" institutions which do everything they can to protect their paedophile priests and vicars, so in effect they are free to do their evil deeds again. A bit like an evil brotherhood for want of better terminology. Finally, it doesn't seriously bother me, but what does is the fact that people can be so stupid as to believe in fairy stories in this day and at their age. Stupidity has no bounds, and this was reported today: "A pastor has died after going 25 days without food and water while trying to fast like Jesus".

That is the brand I buy and it does become scarce on occasion, but I always manage to find it somewhere!!

In the main because the insured person has not adhered to the "clauses and conditions/exclusions" included in the policy, most of the time because they have not read it fully. It really is that simple.

Price increases are noticeable all round, not just in "expat stores" and as I do most of my buying in the local Big C and like to wander round and decide what I want for dinner, but I won't let the prices put me off as a rule. If I fancy something else, then I will visit Villa Market and their selection is pretty good. But what I won't do is to forego something that I would like to eat, because of the price, and that includes Aussie/NZ tenderloin steak, which I cook on occasion. I do this because I reckon at my age I have deserved to be able to eat exactly what I want and when I want it, and to accompany it with a few glasses of nice red wine.

Quite true, and something similar happened to my ex-girlfriend's sister who was driving carefully along the road on her way into Patong town, when an idiot Frenchman on the other side of the road came round a bend way too fast and lost control of the big bike which went skidding into the poor woman. She had a double fracture of the leg and still cannot walk properly after many years, a broken hip and a couple of broken ribs and was in hospital for quite some time. She was completely in the right and not speeding, and doesn't drink, and no amount of training would have enabled her to avoid this particular accident.

All this does is to show that there are many more dumb Americans out there than previously thought.

Yes but only one way, from the Beach end..............

Might as well close this thread as it has gone nowhere and is going nowhere. In its place could be one named; "Do you believe in Santa Claus and why".........one bunch of folk saying they do and another saying they don't. Either way the argument would be about something which doesn't exist/an imaginary being, so the end result would be the same as this thread, both arguing about something which doesn't exist......sorted!

Or was that "Miss FunnyFanny" (according to Russ Abbott). Just loved his humour!

I was looking for another post here which suggested that the renters of these motorbikes should play a part in whether the potential hirer is suitable, but can't find it now. I was speaking to somebody who rents out motorbikes, and also there was a post on the forum about how much was able to be made by motorbike renting, and it is enormous, and this person suggested that they would rent a motorbike to anybody as long as they got a copy of the passport, because it was such a lucrative business and the number of serious accidents whereby the motorbike would be written off, are few and far between – – in summary there is too much money to be made by renting these bikes out to all and sundry, whether they are suitable hirers or not.

Who knows what the shortly to be introduced landing fee will cover, however it would be a good bet that there would be some restrictions on what it covered, and they would include the fact that the driver must have a current driving licence or international driving permit; that they are of a certain age; that no alcohol is involved; that passengers are a no-no........and so on??

As you undoubtedly know, it's very hard to ascertain the speed at which he was travelling, but having been a road user for 60 years, I would hazard a guess at around 70 to 80 km/h. There, satisfied now?

They argued quite a bit, especially late on in the evening, and after a few drinks. It has been said that the guy had taken lewd pictures of the woman, and that he had quite a few affairs, so all in all not a good mix. RIP young lady.

I eventually "binge watched" the last three episodes of "The Gold" last night and I thought it was a great series although IMO I was left "hanging" in the final episode – – but apparently that's the way it was. Well worth a watch as you have said. I also dug out one from way back which I had dismissed then and really couldn't remember much about it, and watched it again, and now it all made sense! The movie was called "Dark City" and I'm so pleased that I decided to rewatch it, and I have to say that whomsoever dreams up movies like this, must have a vivid imagination. Again, well worth a watch if you haven't seen it before, and even if you have, give it another try!

I totally agree with your post and following on from your comments, just to show how totally brainwashed or gullible the human race is, I cringed when I heard the cries of the rescuers in the Turkish earthquake, when they pulled young girl out from the rubble, and shouted, "God is great" – – and I wondered where he was, this imaginary being, when around 40,000 other people, including children were crushed to death in this earthquake; not so great I would say, or possibly on a tea break?? I also cringed the other day when I watched the Pope's visit to the Congo and there were thousands of dirt poor "believers" chanting and singing to this corpulent Pope, head of probably the richest corporation in the world, when they didn't even know where their next meal was coming from. So it's no surprise to me that there are some very gullible folks out there who choose to "worship" this imaginary being, who by the way, also oversees the people that convince suicide bombers that they will go to a "better life with 72 virgins on call", if they will set off a bomb which kills scores of people – – how stupid is that, or should I say how gullible can one be?

But you can't prove that he isn't can you! That's because he is a man made construct to try and help humankind make some sense of their lives and existence......and that age old question about, "there has to be something else/life after death, doesn't there??".

Maybe you are right LL, because the situation in Patong at the moment has changed quite markedly from an almost dead "backwater" to a lively, thronging place which bears no relation to what it was a couple of years ago. I've enjoyed contributing to the current thread, and also in reading the responses, so maybe other posters and contributors, along with the mods, could suggest another name for it and we could still continue a thread about Patong in general, maybe called something like "Patong Life" or something more adventurous if someone can come up with a name?? Would be interested to hear any comments.