xylophone

I should have clarified that statement in as much as if the bank employee was found to be purportedly acting on behalf of the bank and it was established that it was his "scheme" and his alone in trying to offer bank customers products from his bank, then yes without hesitation. As regards that, he was on the bank's premises, using the bank's office, it's utilities and facilities, so I stand by that statement – – the bank is liable.

I agree that the education system needs to be improved, however consequences, and how they apply to everyday life need to be understood, and one of the ways to do this is to penalise the person responsible. It's a bit like the crash helmet laws here, if they changed that law to state that the fine would be 1000 baht for the first offence, and motorbike confiscation for the second, then crash helmets would be worn. As for "to enjoy the joys of the flesh is human nature", well it works in other countries, even with the most ill educated element of the population, so it would work here, but as I said TIT.

I was a senior executive in a bank in NZ for 13 years and if this happened at the bank for which I worked, then the customers would have been paid out, without any hesitation whatsoever. The transactions took place within the banking chamber, orchestrated by a bank employee, using the banks premises and equipment, and as someone else has mentioned, the bank's logo was on paperwork given to the customer. There should be no way that the bank can get out of paying the customers what they are owed, but having said that, TIT, so who knows.

You make a good point @tomacht8, and how about the government puts in place laws which state that if a Thai husband/boyfriend who impregnates and leaves a Thai girl, has to pay maintenance of some description, or have possessions taken away (motorbike for example) or face jail time. As it is now, these guys can do exactly what they want without any fear of consequence, and that in turn can lead to girls who enter into the "trade" to be able to support themselves and their families. Putting this in place will help stop this situation and help stamp out prostitution.

Maybe they are not just "pussy-footing" around!

Agree......my flabber was gasted when I heard this!

Add, "Hunt for the Wilderpeople" to the list above; good Kiwi movie starring Sam Neil.

Agree with you on this, and a few good movies to consider, apart from the ones which have already been mentioned would be: – The Quiet Earth; Utu; The Piano and for a real piece of Kiwiana, "Goodbye Pork Pie" – – you had to really be in NZ to appreciate the last one!

Unfortunately I didn't find anything funny in "Don't Look Up" and turned it off after about 25 minutes! Satire in spades, but the problem being that the satire which was being portrayed in the movie, was just about the equivalent to what was happening in the US at the time, no exaggeration, just plain stupidity and arrogance, and I didn't find anything funny in that at all. In addition it also parodied how the smart phone was beginning to rule our lives, just a plain truth. Everyone to their own I guess.

Yes, it was good, as I've already mentioned somewhere, however the ending was a bit tame in my opinion, because it never really tied anything off/cleared the whole mess up, and left one hanging, so perhaps there is a second series coming out??

Decided to go to Bangla last night to catch up with a couple of friends, this especially as I hadn't been there for about a month; why? – – terminal apathy had set in! Anyway, Bangla at about 7:15 PM was fairly busy, but when one looked closely, it could be seen that the "busy-ness" actually stemmed from the fact that there were vast amounts of girls, all dressed in red outfits, in front of now-open bars, beckoning in would-be punters, of which there were very few at that time. I dropped into Blue Lotus café and had a snack/dinner along with a couple of glasses of nice red (the owner had let me bring my own bottle, as they didn't serve it) and it was good to relax in a nice clean bar, watching the world go by, without the "thump, thump, thump" of loud music bursting one's eardrums. Bangla did liven up later on in the evening and about 9 PM there were quite a few tourists around the place, but just as many Thais, it has to be said. There was the usual bevy of attractive girls sitting at the bar at the entrance to Sea Dragon, and the Harem go-go club was open, but I was told there was no dancing allowed, and gave it a miss anyway. My next port of call was to catch up with a couple of friends in the Black Horse, but a major problem has arisen with that bar, inasmuch as the manager in charge of it, seems to think that turning the music up very loud with a bass sound which makes the glasses rattle, is the way to entice customers into the place, however it has had the opposite effect on a couple of friends of mine who won't go there anymore, mainly because they go for the ambience and the fact they can watch the world go by, have a drink and engage in some banter – – this being almost impossible with the music as loud as it is. Although I like the bar, and the owner, I may well have to give it a miss in future and find another "local" if the manager of the place continues to be an absolute "tw@t", because despite being asked on a number of occasions to turn the music down a little, he does for about five minutes and then turns it back up again! The music bars were again full, as was Red Hot where I went along to sing a few numbers, as it has been about a month since I last did so. I didn't think I was going to get a turn up on the stage, however that did occur at about 11:30 PM, as they were going to close just after midnight, so I did my best and it seemed to please the audience, and the band, so it made my evening. Just after midnight I decided the best place to be would be at home, as I had imbibed in red wine, a couple of beers, a few rums and a couple of tequila shots, and I didn't want to keep on drinking just for the sake of drinking, so I beckoned a motorbike taxi which tried to go up Soi Sansabai, however the traffic situation was absolute pandemonium, not only because the motorbikes were parked either side of that narrow road, but tuk tuks were coming the "wrong way" down it, blocking the motorbikes and tuk tuks going the other way, and as is typically the way here, no one would give way to anyone else and it was a congested mess, so the motorbike taxi man, whom I've used many times before took me home via Soi 8. Overall the place was busier than it has been, but again nowhere near in years gone past, but that's only to be expected, however there was a fair mix of farangs, with Russians, Americans, some Scandies and Brits, plus a few others mixed in, so some folks are making the effort to get back, despite the "hoop jumping" that has to be done/the uncertainty of the regulations. Just about all of the bars were open and I did venture down Soi Freedom to have a look, and many of those bars were open, but with next to no customers, and next to no pretty women around, although one bar had made the effort and was having a huge barbecue with several small pigs being rotisseried, although that didn't bring in the punters either. It has to be said that things are looking brighter, and on another note, a lady friend of mine who owns a massage shop was lamenting the fact that she couldn't get massage ladies for her second shop, and when I asked her why, she replied something along the lines of, "they think they can go to Bangla and pick up a Farang for a short time, and that's better than working full-time". Perhaps it's always been that way?????

You could try taking the urinary alkaliniser called "Ural" to see if that helps at all, although after an operation such as yours, it would be quite normal to get some sort of burning feeling in the urethra, however good that you only feel it "from time to time". I hope things steadily improve for you, and it will be great if you keep posting on here as it will help others in similar situations. Good luck with your next visit/check up.

I tried watching two recently available movies, however I gave up on both of them after a while, because I found they were boring and had no interest to me whatsoever. The movies were, "Living with the Ricardos" (about the relationship between Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz) and "The French Dispatch", which was supposed to be some sort of comedy, but fell well short IMO. Come to think of it, it has been years since I have watched a good comedy, and I'm not sure that they make them any more – – give me the days of the "Pink Panther" movies, starring Peter Sellers, or the television series like, "Fawlty Towers" to name just a couple. On a brighter note, I did download, "Hidden Assets" and thought it was very good indeed and almost binge watched the whole six episodes last night, but ran out of steam, so thought I'd leave the last two remaining episodes until tonight, or perhaps tomorrow. Oh and 1883 was also good but will have wait for further episodes to appear. Many thanks to those who recommended them.

And neither is the same as posting I wanted to die. Changed your tune then, because that is what you posted! Anyway I had you on ignore for quite some time because of your nonsense posts (the above and others boasting about your "partnership" relationships and so on) but took you off that list..........but back on you go, had enough of your posts.

A few years ago he also posted that he was a user of ciprofloxacin and recommended it, and I mentioned that there were reports in the US that it caused tendon damage, and it happened to me, and I posted about it, and quite some time later he cottoned on to this and changed his tune..........

Well, my TURP was carried out by one of the top urological surgeons in Australia, so you may want to write to him and tell him that his procedures are not up to scratch, especially as you know so much about this! As I have already said, thousands upon thousands of expats and medical tourists arrive in Thailand to have medical procedures, and go back home satisfied with the outcomes. The placebo effect is basically the mind believing that whatever one has taken will help/cure them, and who knows what goes on in yours? A few years back you posted that you were ready to die, and indeed wanted to die, so obviously that's changed now!

I have given up buying any more Stinging Nettle Root, because even doubling the dose has made no difference over a four week period, whereas one poster suggested that one tablet/capsule worked for him!!!!! Lots of "recommendations" for natural remedies, but I wonder how many of the reports are that factual, or perhaps there is a placebo effect in play??

Yes, and "wanda" how it got there, esp as the water producers say the water passes through several filtration systems!!

I do believe that I was lucky in my working life, because I enjoyed most of it, from the learning experiences gained from an electrical engineering apprenticeship, which allowed me to travel overseas to work on oil installations, which is always exciting and sometimes dangerous work, and very well paid. When I gave that up I got into sales management and started in a management position in Rank Xerox and enjoyed managing and coaching my team to successes. Over to New Zealand, and becoming Director of Sales and Establishment Marketing for American Express NZ was a brilliant job and brought so many benefits with it – – sales conferences in Hawaii, Singapore, New Caledonia and trips to the Cook Islands, Australia and so on, and being able to have a practice game of tennis with Steffi Graf, sailing the America's Cup Challenger yacht around Auckland Harbour and much, much more, and it was probably the best job of my life. I moved on to become Chief Manager in a major New Zealand bank and launched an extremely successful sales through service program which was even acclaimed by the Banking Ombudsman! Then on to setting up an investment programme for the same bank and building our funds up to just under $2 billion before I left. It was this last part that caused me a huge amount of stress and a medical condition which could have killed me, and I had to make a huge change in my life, so I retired at the age of 55 and moved here. I guess what I'm trying to say is that work wasn't all drudgery for me, and for the most part I enjoyed the travel, challenges, colleague and customer interfaces, as well as the chance to experience new things, even as far as being a personal guest (and friend) of the then Prime Minister of NZ on several occasions! Back to the subject at hand, and the two do tie in, because from having a mostly successful, challenging and exciting working life, I've now come down to nothing to keep the grey matter working, and I can't find anything here that stimulates my one remaining brain cell, hence my post about – – "waking up" and about looking for wine. On the upside, I have learnt how to relax, and even now that becomes difficult to do, but I am having a lot of practice at it!!

Well, there are many answers to your question, because to a great extent it depends upon what sort of wine you like, and after collecting them for 50 years I have a pretty good idea of what I like, but what I like might not be what others like, so I'm opening myself up a little here. At the budget end of the range there are some real wines (no fruit juice added) and they are very palatable IMO, basically fruit (from the grapes) driven and with body and fairly low tannins: – "Barwang The Wall" range of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and a mix of the two. Then there are the "JJ McWilliams" trio as above, and both of these wines are priced at around 399 baht. It really depends upon how much you want to spend, and I buy the above as my everyday drinking wines and splash out on others from distributors and importers I know, especially when they are having clearance sales, and from which I scored some beautiful wines from Sicily just a short while ago, which were originally priced at just under 1000 b a bottle, but I got them for 590 b a bottle.. I have just found a wonderful Carmenare wine from Chile (Root:1) and it's normally priced around 560 baht plus, but I got it on a discount, and I've always liked that particular grape and up until now have struggled to find another wine which matches, but this one is quite lovely. As a general guide, the wines in the boxes/plastic bladders are fruit wines (fruit added to the grape mix) and I won't touch them, however there are wines from France, Italy, Spain Australia and Chile which have fruit juice added to them and you have to look very carefully to be able to spot the "fine print" on the back label as a rule. I don't know where you are, but I could send you the price list of a particular importer and distributor I use, and they have distribution outlets around the country, and you could peruse what they have to offer, then go on to the Internet and search for the wine you like (or think you like) on sites such as Vivino to get a feel for what they have to offer. Better stop here as we are way off topic.......sorry Mods!!!!!

Just as a follow-up to my posts regarding this question, I spoke to a contact I've got at the hospital and he said that the supply of Moderna vaccines was sporadic and only happened when the government released another batch! It is anticipated that there will be another batch released in January, but then who knows, because the hospital certainly isn't sure. You could put your name on a waiting list and they will telephone you when they have a spare spot available, when the vaccines arrive. Patong hospital was vaccinating folk last week, but I don't know if that is still the situation – – possibly a phone call to see what is happening? Good luck.

Basically, waking up!!!!!! Hunting out and finding new red wines to try. Walking round Central shopping mall and browsing, not to mention watching the world go by.

"Love Actually", is a favourite of mine, and I may well watch it again over the next few days. I don't think I've ever watched Elf, or National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, so they will be on the list as well.

Sadly I see it it here MANY TIMES on a daily basis..........and it is not as bad as Libya or Nigeria, I grant you that, but the standard of driving here, and I have lived here for more than 15 years, is appalling.

Update: you may wish to look at this article.............. New Treatment Option Available for Men Suffering from Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia UC San Diego Health among first medical centers in region to offer non-surgical solution for enlarged prostates. July 09, 2018