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I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with some aspects of your post, because the aspect of "fruit wine" is more tightly controlled than you suggest. If any fruit juice is added, and I did post something here a few years ago with regards to the amounts of fruit juice/wine which can be added, to the wine so it falls into the "fruit wine" category. Not only that, on the label it has to state, "fruit wine" somewhere (although I will admit it's never prominent) so imagine that an exporter of wine wanted to send his product to Thailand and produced a label which falsely stated that it was "fruit wine". Should he be found out for this ruse, then he would be subject to huge fines and reputational damage, not to mention probably having the stock destroyed. I've heard this on several occasions and there is nothing to suggest that the Thai authorities will have any bearing on what is on the label, because it will already be stated on the label from the producing country, what it is, so the producer/the producing country would be fraudulently exporting a product. You may also wish to peruse the information on this link...... https://www.the-londoner.com/blog/ordering-and-buying-wine-in-thailand/ I also remember speaking to one of the hierarchy of the Wine Connection chain in Thailand when they were selling wine which was fruit wine, although not that you could see it on the label, but it was inexpensive, hence the reason it was done, to get through Thai excise duty. This wine was produced in Vietnam and the white wine had juice from passionfruit and pineapple (I think it was) whereas the red wine was mixed with juice from "black fruits" as the person said (blueberry, blackberry, plum et cetera). So fruit wine is a reality.

Thanks for the update @schlog and I might have to give that a try over the next couple of days. I still think it will be many months before it is fully "up to speed again" and I also think that they will have to do something about the rain/water run-off from the side of the hill over which they have spread a concrete layer – – nevertheless good news and thank you again. And for your trouble I can highly recommend a great wine from Wine Pro......Camasello (Puglia) Rosso Appasimento 2020; at around 800 baht with tax, it is magnifico!!!

Well I don't like right wing nut jobs, and I have got no time for the MAGA dimwits, so if you wish to call it obsessed, then by all means do – that's your prerogative, and not one I subscribe to.

Well you are right on the fact that grapes are a fruit, but adding fruit juice to a wine with grapes means that the wine has to be labelled (or have somewhere on the label) "fruit wine". That has been the law with regards to international wine labelling for some time now, and I don't like it so I don't buy it. I am able to buy the "19 Crimes" for under 500 baht so that is my go-to standby, whereas the EagleHawk at 399 baht is far too "thin/insipid" but is good for Thai spicy food IMO. One that has been here for quite a while and can still be gotten for around 400 baht is "Barwang" Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz and many of the everyday Australian Reds come from the south-east Australia region and are meant for the lower end of the market and for everyday drinking. Good value IMO. I recently went to Wine Pro and despite trying around 24 bottles of wine, I've only found two which I thought were quite lovely wines, an Italian red (Primitivo or Negroamaro grape) from southern Italy made by the Appasimento method (a slight drying of the grapes before fermentation) which gives the wine good body and alcohol content. I think it was around 750 baht, but an exceptional wine. The other was a French country wine from Languedoc region called, "Mazan", and it was a Cabernet Sauvignon/Syrah blend and it was very good for a country wine (Pays D'Oc). Around 500 baht a bottle as I recall. If you don't have an outlet like that near you, then those I have mentioned and others have mentioned could be worth a try, and you may wish to seek out some McWilliams wines because I noticed that Villa Market had them on special at 400 baht (and Barwang) and for that price they are not bad at all. I've had my fill of drinking top quality wines over the 50 years I have been collecting them, and I now find that these wines are well overpriced here, and have not travelled (or been stored) well, so I seek out the everyday drinkers, as I call them, and I'm always delighted when I find a few good ones, as I did from Wine Pro.

So they buy into the lie – – and down the rabbit hole they go, where intelligence, clarity of thought and even common sense are non-existent. From whence spring forth such idiots as, "the Oath Keepers", "the Boogaloo boys", "the Proud Boys" and so on......a threat to the country, democracy and to mankind itself.

A bold statement considering that 47% of Americans voted for a person who revels in lies, deceit and fraud. Then the Capitol Hill fiasco and now the attacking of Paul Pelosi make me think that there aren't too many bright people left in the US.

I would say that the post from @London Lowf wouldn't be far off the mark, because that is one hell of a landslip and although I'm not a structural engineer I would say there is some mighty big work to be done there, because the hill/dirt supporting the road has to be rebuilt and I would think that they would have to put some huge concrete piles in to even start that process. I had an inkling something wasn't right when they were covering the hill on the other side of the road with concrete and putting in a small gully, which was far too small in my opinion, on the side of the road to catch the water. Unfortunately it would appear that this concreting of the hill resulted in water cascading down it and into the small gully, and under the road, thereby washing away the foundation. The effect this had can be seen from the pictures.

Depends on a couple of things Terry, because these days a lot of the blenders have phosphor bronze bearings in the top section, so no moving parts per se, just a phosphor bronze sleeve that can be punched out and replaced, if indeed there are those parts available? I've had a blender for about 15 years and although I don't use it a lot, it has been used for some grunty work over it's time, and it's still going, and it wasn't that expensive – – so I would ask yourself if it's worth repairing or buying a brand-new one which will cost under a thousand baht (I've seen them at this price) and I may well last you a lifetime? I have just read the post from Stubuz and it reminded me that if you are careful you can punch out the liquidiser blade and spindle, clean it up and apply a little grease, not enough to taint your food, and reassemble it, something I have done with other similar appliances.

Reminds me of the strap line of one of the posters on here, if I can remember it correctly, whereby he quotes, "they will keep on voting until they get it right" or words to that effect, and this fiasco in Brazil seems to be following a path just recently trodden elsewhere........

Posted as written in the NY Times and NZ Herald.......just to help you out???? He was completely caught up in the fantasy, in the MAGA fantasy,” he said. DePape’s workmate and employer for the past 5 years stated. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/suspect-in-nancy-pelosi-attack-consumed-by-conspiracy-theories-boss-says Also…In the NY Times: The man accused of the Pelosi attack was consumed by conspiracy theories, his employer said. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/us/pelosi-attack-depape-arraignment.html

Thanks, and as for the link, which I was about to look for again, until I saw your post, it was from an article in the New Zealand Herald newspaper and also originally published in the New York Times. But there again, as we've seen on this thread, there are folks who don't want to believe there is a link between this event and MAGA, but.............

Thought I would give some feedback on my post: – after I had reported to the supplier and Lazada that the cutting head was useless, they gave me a full refund and I didn't have to return the item – – satisfactory resolution as far as I'm concerned.

Same here after 10 years. Rarely used of late so no big deal for me.

I have tried Express VPN and Cyberghost VPN, and one other, the name of which I can't remember at the moment, and none of them were completely "up to scratch" with "dropouts" and "stuttering" (sorry about the terminology) as well as actually being unable to get through to the protected websites I wanted, BBC iPlayer being the main one. So on a friend's recommendation I switched to Nord VPN and I've been absolutely delighted with it for the past six months, and I'm able to watch BBC iPlayer material, as well as international rugby matches on an Australian sports channel. So I can highly recommend it.

Don't give up your day job ????.

You said, "Conflating two separate issues", and I will reply that they have a common thread linking them which is plain for all right minded people to see, but not of course for the orange man/MAGA supporters.

I'm still watching the other Vietnam war series I mentioned, made in 2017, and it makes for riveting viewing, and McNamara was as guilty as anyone, in the early stages, of being just as stupid as the rest of the military hierarchy, Westmorland included. It does mention that McNamara ran some numbers and they seemed to show that the war was unwinnable, but we know how that panned out.............

TIT, so there is always another one in the graft queue with his hand out.

Promise that you won't cry when you see the actual footage of the idiot breaking into the house, or indeed try to rearrange the narrative to suit the twisted ideals of the MAGA sympathisers on here – – promise?? And then when he is jailed for his crimes, perhaps you will want to send him some letters of MAGA comfort!! Lock him up, there are enough idiots running loose in the US without letting another one go free.

It's a long time since I heard that saying, and it was a favourite of a now deceased friend of mine, especially when referring to someone's hairstyle, saying that it "looks like an explosion in a mattress factory".

You may have already bought one, so this post might be a bit late for you, however I had bought a top-quality Sealy mattress about a year ago and I've never been completely satisfied with it because it's a bit too firm for my liking, although I did try them out at the showroom. So I bought a latex topper thinking that would help, and it didn't really do the job I wanted it to and I was feeling pain on the "pressure points" of my hips and shoulders, and as I wasn't getting much sleep I had to do something, so I went along to "Baan & Beyond" and tried out a few more mattresses and I did a bit more research and apparently the small coil spring mattresses are good for alleviating pressure point problems, so I bought one!! It is softer than I would normally have settled on, but then again at my age, I think I probably need it. It wasn't expensive and with the discount it came to about 9500 baht, and I've had it for about a week now and it's been great and I'm finally getting a decent night's sleep. Although my other mattress cost me about 28,000 baht and is like brand-new, I donated it to the owner of the apartments I stay in and they will use it for another one of their rooms.

Ah, the Ed Wood "joke" that became a cult classic!

Didn't anyone tell the locals that there was a Hollywood movie production about extraterrestrials going on nearby??????

When I looked at the road that had fallen away, plus what remained prior to the slip and after it, I wondered why someone hadn't thought of building an overpass from the part of the road which is still safe, to join up with the road at the bottom of the hill? True enough there is some jungle to cut down, but being able to put in columns that support a road, then making it the same size as a dual carriageway would certainly save any problems with future slips??

About 10 years ago I needed some space and time to reflect upon the past and the future, having made a major move from NZ to Patong, living with a lovely Thai lady for almost 6 years and then breaking up (don't ask, because I don't know why!). So I went to Rarotonga (Cook Islands), to spend a couple of weeks in a friends bungalow, not knowing what I would do or exactly how it would pan out, but I soon settled into it and took long walks along the pristine beaches and crystal clear sea, found a few books to read and also looked up a couple of old friends from my NZ days, and much to my amazement I managed to RELAX, something I have found hard to do over most of my life. It is a beautiful small island, with good-natured people and it's easy to just lose yourself in tranquillity, or whatever you want to do, and it certainly helped me to "clear my head" as the saying goes.