xylophone

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.

Probably sold to the Chinese as delicacies, as those people will eat just about anything that moves, and even if it doesn't, they'll still eat it!

Plenty in South America to choose from ????.

A guy back in the UK has jumped onto this "woke" bandwagon and has written to the NHS telling them that he "identifies" as a monkey, in which case he has asked for a weekly delivery of bananas to his house, so as not to be discriminated against.

Ah yes, that reminds me of the old joke about the piano player in a pub who has a pet monkey to accompany him, which does various tricks, however unfortunately the monkey lifts its leg and pees in a guys beer, so he goes over to the piano player and says, "do you know your monkeys peed in my beer"...........and the piano player says, "you hum it son, I'll play it".

I tried all of those individually and in various combinations, over a period of perhaps six or seven years, and all to no avail I am afraid, and as Sheryl has said, only "supposedly good" for BPH.

Your quote from Eckhart Tolle shows that you are into new-age "mysticism/spiritualism" and his most famous book was described thus: – "The book draws from a variety of spiritual traditions,[5] and one reviewer described it as "Buddhism mixed with mysticism and a few references to Jesus Christ, a sort of New Age re-working of Zen."[6] It uses these traditions to describe a "belief system based on living in the present moment".[7] Its core message is that people's emotional problems are rooted in their identification with their minds. That explains a lot about your posts and belief system.......new-age twaddle and very little about a god..

And that's the nub of it.......well said. A man made construct to help bring some comfort to a hard life and in grief.

I just had to comment on that LL, because the traffic here now is the worst I've ever seen it in my almost 16 years here, and the drivers seem to be a mixture of obviously Thai, with their usual bad road manners, wobbly Russians on wobbly bikes and the same with the Chinese, and on that note, on my visits to Bangkok Phuket hospital a couple of times over the past few days, I've noticed quite a few Russians with lots of bandages on their legs and arms – – motorbike accidents! Jungceylon is now just about fully back to normal and quite busy, with Big C being the busiest of all, and guess what, with a huge percentage of Russians milling around the place – – who'd have thunk it!! I took a trip to Central Patong and although it was not too busy overall, the food hall on the bottom level was busy and again, mostly populated by Russians and a few Chinese! I like to take a trip over there because they have a slightly different food selection than Big C and this time they had a lovely "healthy fruit and cranberry snack bar" from NZ which I happened upon and I bought a couple, which was fatal because I'm now addicted to them! Not only is the traffic horrendous in general, Nanai Road, which is narrow, is now a nightmare come 5 PM and the road off it, Soi Banzaan is just about impassable at times due to stupid parking and the inability of Thais, in the main, to be able to judge distances between cars and motorbikes on the road. However the small bars dotted along Nanai seem to be doing reasonable business at that hour, apart from a few bar mongers who can be seen at these places throughout the day, but they seem to be in the minority. I did hear some sad news that a young and attractive (32 years old) Thai woman had hung herself a few days ago, and it seems to be over a domestic argument, and it made me very sad, as it did a few friends of mine in that Soi. I met up with a couple of bar owners yesterday and asked them how business was going, and they said it was "up-and-down" and they echoed the comments of myself and LL on this thread, whereby they suggested that although Bangla Road itself was crowded, the bars were not so much. They also suggested that one of the reasons was because the clientele were younger and there were more families visiting these days, however they could well be Russian families escaping the war. I'm hoping to get out again at the end of the week, but over the past couple of weeks I've had quite a few dental visits with the extraction of a molar, double root canal and also a couple of visits to the dermatology department, and just a couple of days ago rather large skin excision, requiring 22 stitches, so those events have slowed me up somewhat, but plenty of painkillers should put me right, as has the occasional glass of wine or three!

I know this is a little out of your way, however courier post is always an option, and if you were able to contact the guy, then you could get a better idea as to whether he could fix it or not. I have an old (40 years plus) Eterna watch which had stopped working and nobody here in Phuket could fix it, until I was given the name of a watch repairer in Phuket town by a friend of mine who had his Rolex repaired and completely rebuilt by this guy, who seems to be a bit of a whizz. So I took my watch along and sure enough, within a week he had it fixed and I was pleased and amazed, so here are his details, and good luck: – Ratsada Optical. Email address is: [email protected] or telephone: 076 218292 or 089 7488060 All the best.

Interesting post, and I am pleased that we had the previous interchange of posts, because it has got me thinking about my insurance costs! My current premium is 140,000 baht per annum and in the main I pay for any outpatient procedure, and as I am 76 this year I'm expecting the premium to increase, so that has got me thinking about cancelling the insurance and covering any medical costs out of my own pocket. I've got to think long and hard about this because in truth, Aetna has been pretty good through the years, however do I want to keep paying 140,000 baht plus increases for the remainder of my years when I could probably cover it myself without too much of a problem – – but therein lies the conundrum, because as one gets older the chances of a major medical event become more likely and I'm wondering how much a "major medical event" would cost? Food for thought.