xylophone

Done!!

Try this ............BUT click on Enable editing at the top of the doc to get a full doc that enables you to enter your own details. Thai Will template amended.docx

Have sent you a basic Thai/English Will template via PM.............let me know if you can open it as a few folk have had a problem doing so.

A slight correction to your post if I may: – "repeating a lie does not make it the truth, no matter how many times it is done".

I was tempted to give up just over halfway through when different plots and people were being introduced, thereby muddying the story IMO, but I stayed with it until the end and all I can say that it was "different" but not a good series, and quite preposterous at times.

Good luck with your search, and when you are doing that research, make sure that you know the upper age limit for your insurance cover, because some policies will only cover you up to the age of 75 (for example) and this was particularly true with a policy I was looking at here in Thailand. Luckily enough I stuck with my original insurer, and because I had taken out the policy before I had turned 60 years old, they were prepared to insure me until I departed this mortal coil. Food for thought.

I can identify with your feelings, and although I'm not religious in any way, shape or form (any religion or Buddhism) I do have a measure of discomfort with what's happening in the world. I am also a free spirit having worked in many places around the world, including the Sahara desert, Biafra and a frozen Norway, and preferring my own company as a rule. To get to the point, about 10 years ago I decided I needed to get out of this place and find some peace of mind, so I went to Rarotonga (Cook Islands) and it is a small island, much like paradise, and I stayed in a friends bungalow, which was empty, and I had the place to myself, plus endless sandy beaches and crystal clear water, and just exploring the emptiness enabled me to clear my senses and see things differently. I read a couple of books, which is something I hadn't done in years, and I just wandered around the place and it was very therapeutic, so that when I returned here, I saw things from a different perspective. Locking myself away on a "desert island" was great for me, and I have to admit that many times in the past I've often thought of getting a "shack in the countryside" and living off the land and fending for myself, but have never really done it. If you could do that for a few months to see how you fared, then you could get a good idea of what it's like and if it's the life you would like to lead – – perhaps ask a few friends who have friends and family who live up north (for example) whereupon you could build a shack, or even put an old shipping container on their land in which to live for a while. If you don't do it now, you will probably never do it, so if you are thinking about it, it's the right time.

I make my own pizza most of the time, using a store bought thin crust base, topped with a thin tomato dressing and some mozzarella cheese – – – and after I have cooked that, I add my own precooked chili con carne. Lovely jubbly!!!!

Sorry to hear about your troubles, although I can sympathise because I have been down a similar route over the years, and it's now got to the stage where I can't pass any water, so self catheterisation is both my saviour and my concern. I did go to Bumrungrad hospital to see what they could do but despite the urologist being top-notch, and doing all of the tests he could, the outcome was that the nerves in my bladder had stopped working, and there appeared to be no solution to it (well there is one, but that's another story). Whilst I was at Bumrungrad I did see that they were advertising the Rezum treatment and had all the equipment there to carry it out, so maybe that would be your first port of call, especially as they have your medical records there. This would have been about three months ago or more, so perhaps worth giving it a try??

A couple of paragraphs of an op-ed piece which appeared in this morning's New Zealand Herald: – I say this with neither glee nor sorrow, merely as an absolute political fact. The Donald’s goose is cooked. Republicans can take comfort that this means Ron DeSantis is much more likely to win the nomination and subsequent election in 2024 and Democrats can take comfort that the man who triggered their sensitive souls won’t be back in the White House in this lifetime and is unlikely to make it to the next. So Rest in Peace, Donald J Trump, it’s been a wild ride but it looks like the world is ready to return to normality again. And as much as it’s been fun, sooner or later all parties have to come to an end. And the sooner that clown and crook is locked away, or totally forgotten about, which would hurt him no end, the better.

In my opinion, that could certainly be the case, and I did mention something about that a few weeks back, and there is also a pickup in the number of groups of Indians I see roaming around the place.

I'm not sure Jim, however once a few pigeons find that they can't safely land there, perhaps it works a bit like the "jungle telegraph" so others aren't tempted to perch there?? Anyway this friend of mine is going to give it a try because he has tried just about everything else, including all of the things already mentioned, so he's got nothing to lose. When if/he does this I will report back on the outcome for others who may be experiencing the same problem.

I haven't posted for a while because of various ailments, including a bad allergy (to what, I don't know) then a bad sinus infection and latterly "turning" my ankle which obviously damaged ligaments because my foot swelled up like a balloon, so I've been housebound........... All the same, I was determined to go out last night, so I caught up with a couple of friends and because it was some time since I was out and about, I over imbibed quite markedly!! Started at the Blue Beach Café and Restaurant and sampled the delicious Chicken Cordon Bleu, whilst my friend had some spicy pork balls, and this is something I must try next time I'm there because they were very tasty. Anyway after a lovely dinner and a few glasses of wine, we ventured onto Bangla Road itself and it was very crowded, almost reminiscent of the old days, in fact it WAS reminiscent of the old days, with many touts advertising "sexy shows", others promoting suits and shirts, and of course the usual plethora of girls trying to coax us into their particular bars. We stopped for a couple of drinks just inside the entrance of Soi Freedom, at a bar which is now run by the previous management of Smiley Bar, and it was good to catch up with those folks, whilst being able to view the comings and goings in the Soi. The lady boys show is still going, but I wouldn't say it was going strong, because I think there is a limited audience for tall/overweight former blokes, dressed in drag and miming to Tina Turner songs! So the expat foot traffic in the Soi was very limited, although the Blue Lotus Café was fairly busy, which is a good sign. From there we ventured into Soi Sea Dragon, which was crowded and getting back to its old ways, although I have to say that there is a dearth of good looking girls in that Soi, certainly nothing that appealed to us in any way, shape or form. So we quickly looked into Suzie Wong's and that was packed, so we didn't stay and walked on again where a friend suggested we try a go-go called "The Lover" as he seemed to recall that he visited it many years ago and was keen to see what it was like. So, we three pushed aside the curtains and stepped into the place, only to see it was "staffed" by dumpy overweight girls with drooping boobs! Not my scene at all, nor that of the other guys, so a quick exit was made. We decided on one last drink in that Soi, so sat at a table and whilst we were deciding what to drink, a petite and average looking girl, who had not spoken a word to us, then asked us to buy her a drink, and one for her friend! It's no surprise then that we refused, so without saying anything they just moved away. I may be harking back to times way gone by, but I do recall many years ago that the girls would try and engage in conversation with you, have a laugh with you and so on, before expecting a drink, and not usually asking for one either – – but now we have decidedly average girls, who cannot engage in any sort of conversation, almost demanding a drink the minute one sits down, and they can't understand why they are not bought a drink. Unbelievable! We ended up at Red Hot, which was crowded, and it was good to meet up with a couple of people I knew from before, one of them being aircrew and others being acquaintances I'd made whilst singing my songs there in the past. Unfortunately the willpower was quickly diminishing as the evening went on and more alcohol was consumed, and after I had finished a couple songs, a youngish Russian couple at the next table, bought the three of us a beer each, so I got chatting to him and in a way I felt sorry for him, because although I have never really met a Russian to whom I have taken a liking, he seemed genuine and was here in Thailand escaping the war, and I'm not surprised, because he had a delightful young wife and didn't believe in what was going on in Russia, so left the country – – and I can't say that I blame him. Just before I leave this post I have to congratulate the band at Red Hot because they played a version of "Hotel California", with three of them playing guitars, which was absolutely outstanding, and the best I have ever heard outside of the original recording by the Eagles. Not only that, some of their other renditions of various songs were brilliant, and this has to be the best live band I've ever seen, even surpassing the very famous ones I have had the pleasure of watching live. So it looks like Patong is back on song, and for the tourists and "two-week millionaires" it's still a paradise, but for the old buggers like me, who have been here many years and seen most of what there is to see, it's a once or twice a week venture out, just to relieve the cabin fever and prove to myself that there is nightlife in Patong!!

Yes, I think that is the case, and I do recall reading something about this a while back, whereby the pigeon when coming into land on whatever surface it chooses, encounters the invisible fishing line and freaks out because it gets knocked off balance whilst in flight and soon stays away from that landing spot.

Unfortunately they and a couple of other "statues" of Hawks, including one which made a sound which was supposedly the sound which Hawks make, and one which flapped its wings in the breeze, didn't work for a friend of mine and I have passed on the information regarding the fishing line, which I think is a great idea. Some good ideas on here, all the same.

I recall in my youth that an Hungarian wine called "Bulls Blood" was very inexpensive, but was reasonable drinking (if my memory serves me correctly) and just to change countries a little, a few years ago I was helping a guy who owned a Deli here in Patong, to clear out some of his old wine stock (and some of it was way past its "use by" date) and organise a wine sale for him, which I did. Whilst I was ferreting around on some of the shelves I found a bottle of Bulgarian wine, something I had never come across before, although this was something special because it had the gold wire (the same as some top notch Spanish wines do) around the bottle and also a commemorative label as it was supposedly for an event to do with Bulgarian royalty (don't ask me what it was) so I enquired as to the wine and the owner of the shop couldn't recall stocking it or even selling any of it, so he gifted me the bottle to take home and try. Well I was absolutely stunned at the quality of this wine and it was certainly better than a few top-class Bordeaux and Cote Rotie that I had tasted in my time and I asked him if there was any chance of finding any more, because I would gladly pay good money for it, but no luck. I had never really thought of Bulgarian wine, but winemaking in that part of the world stretches back many centuries BC, and it was absolutely delightful.

I spend about 1.2 million baht a year, although I do have a daughter who I'm putting through university at the moment, so I pay all of those fees and pay for an apartment for her near the University, as well as her living expenses. I must admit I do spend far too much on wine and food, and even though I'm learning to cook more Thai food, I still eat out a couple of times a week, and buy the occasional Aussie tenderloin steak to have with some Stilton cheese I could cut back if I wanted to, but at the age of 75, I believe I deserve my "treats".

Now that's one idea I like, and I will recommend it to a friend of mine who has had a pigeon problem for a long time now, this despite buying plastic owls that hoot; something akin to a kids mobile which you hang from the ceiling and flaps its wings; a large black bird which is triggered by movement (by pigeons) and none have worked. He has a soft pellet pistol, but cannot be on guard all day, so I think the taut fishing line is the answer, and I believe I've heard this from somewhere else in the past. He doesn't want to use poison because he has got a couple of small dogs and accidents do happen. So thank you Mm.

Watched a couple of movies over this last week, the first one being, "The Quiet American" (the 2002 version) which starred Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser, and it was okay and did "reference" American involvement in the war between the Vietnamese and French. The second was on BBC iPlayer and was called, "Woman in Gold" and starred Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, and that was an interesting movie based on a true story, and hopefully I won't be giving anything away, but the Nazi treatment of Jews at that time, brought a tear to my eye, much more so than other movies about that subject, although this movie was not actually about that..........

It appears that the ignorance is yours, because you know absolutely nothing about the circumstances in which these fish were caught and eaten. The worms were easily visible in the flesh of the barracuda if one cared to inspect it and as for you believing that the fish would be gutted and cleaned immediately, well that again shows your ignorance, and incorrect assumptions, of the situation we were in. The Nigerians did not catch the fish we ate, because they were non-educated south-eastern state Nigerians from the jungle and although they were employed as cooks, many had no idea what they were doing, but because famine and death were rife, just about anyone could get a job on an oil rig in those days, experienced or not. So why don't you stick to your publication of menus (lifted from somewhere else by the looks of things) and stop making assumptions, because it makes you look very foolish........

Another thing I forgot to mention apart from the fact that I don't eat seafood (perhaps the occasional prawn or two) is that I don't eat any fish! There is a reason......working offshore Nigeria on an oil rig at the end of the Biafran war, we ran out of food, and because the whole place had been starved into submission (starvation was the main reason Biafra fell) there was no food to be had, so we took to fishing off the rig for our food supply, and the majority of the fish we caught were large barracuda, which unfortunately were full of worms. So that became our staple food for a couple of weeks and I absolutely hated it, however luckily enough, occasionally the Nigerian cooks would get some barracuda "steaks" and cook them in a very hot spicy red sauce which took away the taste and you couldn't see the worms in the flesh. Never cared for fish prior to that and certainly didn't after that episode. I also forgot to mention that I cook many other Thai dishes, but my original post was just an EXAMPLE as to what one could do on a tight budget. So may I suggest that it is your post which is both "ignorant and myopic".

All very nice I am sure but I don't eat seafood so much of your menu is off-limits to me. Not ignorant or myopic, just stating my preferences.........!! I do eat chicken and pork along with beef, so my choices are manifold as are the dishes I like. And anyway this is not a thread on menus and I am sure you eat well and what I eat is "up to me".

Well he must be quite good at the cult business (not much else though because of his many failed businesses) because he's got no personality whatsoever, other than that of a huckster and a crook, and he's proven it time and time again – – poor old US of A, and the dimwits who vote for him.

Back on the subject of what it costs to live in Thailand on a budget, I have posted before about the amount I spend on an annual basis, and I do live well and don't skimp on anything, including "real" wine. However I was having a discussion the other evening with a friend of mine when we were talking about how much we could live on here if we had to, and it was quite a remarkable discussion because we both agreed that we could dispense with our "farang style food" and switch to Thai food, and do this quite easily. This because we have both taken a liking to spicy Thai food and indeed, I find I am eating more of it now than I ever did. When you consider that I can make two evening meals out of 35 baht container of minced chicken, a couple of chilis and some string beans, accompanied by a portion of home cooked rice, mixed to produce Pad Krapow Gai (sorry about the spelling) and if I had to, I could live on stuff like this – – but then again I don't have to. I guess what I'm trying to say is that in Thailand you can live as expensively or as frugally as you wish – – not the frugal route for me at the moment, but if it came down to it, I certainly could.

Thanks for that link because I've been having a "discussion" on another thread (on this forum) with someone who says there is no such thing as fruit wine in Thailand, and I remember reading this article a while back and wasn't able to find it, so thank you for that.