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BBC iPlayer had the movie, "A Bridge Too Far" available for the next month, so I thought I'd watch it as I can't remember anything about it, or even if I had watched it previously! The whole operation was called "Operation Market Garden" and was mainly conceived by the British, although in its operation there were US, Canadian and Polish forces taking part. Sadly the whole operation was a failure and around 15,000 and 17,000 troops were killed and captured. History has laid the blame mainly at the feet of Montgomery and Urquart although there were many other components overseen by other fairly incompetent army personnel which contributed to the disaster. I experienced a tinge of sadness when I saw the paratroopers descending upon the Dutch countryside and remembered the words of my father when he described how paratroopers were crying out for help when they were dumped in the sea on an aborted airborne landing off the coast of Italy (or was it Sicily?) and drowned, weighed down by the heavy gear they were carrying. Certainly Montgomery was an arrogant, pompous and self righteous man who really didn't get on with the American commanders (and them with him neither), however he was successful in his own right and my father fought under him in the 8th Army in the battle of El Alamein, which was a huge success in routing the Germans in North Africa. Brought back memories for me...........pics of Dad during WW11

What I hate is I had to suffer like the rest of the middle class under Biden....... And you think that trump and his cohorts will be looking after you when he is president. IMO this sums things up nicely..

The Phuket office used to require a hand drawn map, but on my last visit a few months ago they requested a Google map copy of my location/abode!! You may want to check that out before you go to Immigration.

I'm surprised you stayed in the thread this long Richard, and an old saying springs to mind with regards to this dumbo you are "debating/discussing" and it goes like this: – "never argue with idiots because they will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience". Similar to the expression about pigs; "never wrestle with pigs. You both get dirty and the pig likes it.” It still amazes me that this level of stupidity and ignorance is still out there with some folk. I'm also out of here because seeing what he/she/it has written has made me question my belief in sanity and humanity!

I'm also struggling to comprehend the ignorance of that particular poster, because surely no one can be that ignorant and stupid? And the only reason I can think that this poster continues with his ignorance and stupidity is because he/she/it is winding people up with the posts, because that's their raison d'être. You are quite right there is no point in posting facts to try and combat that level of ignorance and am surprised that someone of your ilk has even been drawn into this discussion/debate, however it would appear he/she/it is not alone by virtue of the few emoji's that have supported he/she/it and that is quite unbelievable. Time to switch off from this topic and let the dipsticks wallow in the ignorance in their own echo chamber.

Seeing posts like the one you are referring to is absolutely amazing in this day and age, and I can totally understand your reluctance to get involved (debate or discuss) with this dipstick, so best to ignore him and his inane ramblings. All the same, keep up your good work, because you bring up some good points in your posts.

What an absolute load of garbage and nonsense and your total misunderstanding of long-standing science. In fact I will go as far as to say you have purposely posted your rubbish to gain some following from the other dipsticks who believe your nonsense. Let's take smallpox for example and way back in 1796 when the first "vaccine" was used, there was no CDC website and it was up to doctors and scientists to come up with a method to combat the smallpox virus and Dr Edward Jenner, Louis Pasteur and John Fewster (earlier than Jenner) were instrumental in doing this. Your misguided beliefs are laughable and you should really be posting on a Walt Disney website, because that's where your comments belong.

The woman is a nut-job and certainly not right in the head.......but that matches other republicans like RFKjr, for example, so who knows what these crackpots will come up with!! A Kraken perhaps....lol

IMO he just looks old......and he is, and acts as expected of an older man.

I watched a movie I'd never heard of before, called "Marshall" and it was the story of Thurgood Marshall, the crusading lawyer who would become the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, and although it was mainly a courtroom drama with just a few scenes outside of it, it was very good. It starred Chadwick Boseman and Kate Hudson, amongst others. Another one I watched a couple of nights ago (again) was "The Dallas Buyers Club" and I enjoyed it and the acting by Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto was outstanding. Yet one more for the record, I watched a little-known movie by George Clooney, called "The American" and although it was fairly slow, it was also enjoyable.

What is "DUCCT"???? And no smart answers that it is a type of tape please😉 Lol.

Love your posts @TallGuyJohninBKKand thank you for seeking out fact and science based information........however as can be seen there are a large number of anti-vaxx and conspiracy theorists on here who want to be seen and heard, for whatever reason (maybe they are just insignificant little people or just the gullible and "poorly educated"). Keep up your good work.

It matters not that these "scientists" have been discredited because the posters on ignore are the "poorly educated" (Trump quote) gullible and naive. As proof, they believe in......... -The deep State -A cabal of Democrats operating from a pizza parlour conducted satanic rituals and drank the blood of babies -Big Pharma -Covid was a hoax -Bill Gates is in collusion with others to control the world -The Sandy Hook massacre did not occur -The Covid vaccine can magnetise a person's body And much more nonsense out there which these fools choose to believe in. Sad, so vey sad and unbelievable to sane, normal and rational folk.

I had some pretty hairy events on motorbikes in my teens, and the same with cars, as well as making pretty large pipe bombs out of weedkiller and sugar and having some near misses with those escapades. Travelled to Libya to work for an oil company just after the Gaddafi revolution, and things were very "unsettling" there for the expats like me and I almost got my head stoved in by a very large pipe bolt thrown by an irate Libyan mechanic and luckily it missed by inches. Then onto Nigeria just after the Biafran war had ended, although there was still quite a bit of aggravation in south-eastern state and one had to be very wary. Back to Libya in 1976 and had a very large pistol held against my temple by an angry Libyan soldier who caught a few of us drinking, and I thought those were my last few moments on earth, I really did. On almost my last trip to Libya, the Fokker Friendship F 27 which was flying a few of us out of our desert camp to Tripoli airport, encountered an undercarriage problem, when it wouldn't come down and lock in place. The rotund Scottish pilot (a very experienced man by the way he handled it) told us that we had to strap ourselves in as we could well have to execute a crash landing. He flew the plane over the control tower a few times to see if they could pinpoint a problem from where they stood, but apparently not, so he told us to prepare for a "bumpy landing" (his nice words for a crash landing I think). Anyway he managed to put the plane down with one hell of a bump and I thought the rear wheels would come through the bottom of the plane, but as it happens the front landing gear, which eventually came down, held up, but I can tell you it was one hell of a frightening experience, especially seeing the fire engines lining up alongside the runway. A few more dangerous escapades, but none as bad as the above, and I consider myself lucky to have made it this far and I hope for a few more years yet!!

I subscribe to several different medical journals and research establishments, and I did see about a year or so ago that progress had been made on using the mRNA technology in a bid to fight cancer, but it is still in its early stages. Let's hope they can utilise this new technology to good effect on other illnesses/conditions.

Do we know if he had a "medical event" which incapacitated him?

Sad that you believe and post such rubbish. Really sad, but then again that is what your type do........you gave yourself away when you said, "WE have shown......". A member of the Far-Right or conspiracy theory brigade perhaps? Haven't got the time to read your nonsense so on to Ignore you go.

You forgot about the 7 million people who died as a result of Covid 19, but then that statistic didn't fit your narrative, so you chose to ignore it. Sad.

Well LL, it wasn't my intention to go out for the evening celebrations, just to go out for a meal and be home way before they started. This because I'm not a "party animal" any more, and I do get home in plenty of time, but even early on in the evening the traffic was horrendous.

Try telling that to the families of those who died as a result of Covid. Covid-19, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2020, killed millions of people, shredded economies and overwhelmed health systems. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/china-says-it-shared-covid-information-without-holding-anything-back/4MJ5SCX7T5FUFH7IKFVLH

Thanks LIK, and I'm hoping 2025 is better than 2024 for me, but NY Eve threw up a few disappointments.......... Although I wasn't planning going out for actual New Year celebrations, I did phone La Capannina to see if I and a friend from England could go along for dinner, and they said it was okay..... So at 7 PM I hailed a Tuk Tuk outside of my apartment block and asked him if he could take me to the restaurant, and his response was, "how much you give me?", So my response was, how much you want, and he said 500 baht, so I replied I will give you 200 baht (which was the figure quoted by a couple of other Tuk Tuk drivers recently) and he gesticulated angrily and started to drive away! He then turned round and said 300 baht, so I couldn't be bothered haggling and said okay. Arrived at the restaurant and they had no knowledge of my booking although we did manage to get a small table, although the chairs were the most uncomfortable I have ever sat in! To say that I was very disappointed that the menu had been altered for that particular evening, would be an understatement, because the fare on offer was much reduced and there were no pizzas available and very little else that I liked or wanted for that matter. Anyway getting over that disappointment I and my friend ordered and waited. What came was nothing like I had been used to at this restaurant and as we were both hungry, what was brought to the table was mostly eaten, although my friend could only eat half of his main course because he said it was far too salty, and I have to say that mine was also. I had suggested that we could walk back to our respective apartments, which were no more than about 100m apart, but my gluteal muscles which had been aching after sitting on that awful seat, and which had been damaged in my recent accident, were hurting like the clappers and they made it very difficult for me to even walk, but I did manage to walk bit by bit, slowly back to Soi Banzaan which is where there is a massage shop owned by a friend of mine, so I reasoned that if I could make it back to that, then they might be able to do something to loosen up those glutes. It was a long, slow and painful walk for me, but I did manage to get to the shop and the older lady there was superb, finding out the areas which were painful and working on them and after 45 minutes I'd had enough because it was a little painful, so I paid her and tipped her handsomely and set off home. I took an Ibuprofen, had a shower and got to bed about midnight and thankfully slept reasonably well. In conclusion, a disappointing end to a disappointing year, so let's hope this New Year brings better luck and health for me. And finally, the traffic last night was like something I have never seen in my life, with idiots, more idiots and even more idiots driving as if they had a death wish and if you were a pedestrian trying to cross the road, then you were sh!t out of luck and some!

"One of my favorite wines I drink (and sell as part of my portfolio)" Intrigued by your comment GOM........do you trade/buy/sell fine wines?? Send me a PM if the info is confidential.

The French Burgundy (Pinot Noir) I tasted at the Wine Connection was a:- Pinot Noir from Henri de Bareuil in the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune, and they sell it in the Wine Connection store/shop.

I've never been impressed with the Pinot Noir wines I've had here, however a few weeks ago I sampled one at the Wine Connection, a French Pinot Noir and I thought it was a nice wine, not outstanding, but had all the attributes of a typical French Pinot Noir. Can't remember where I posted it, but I'll have search through to see if I can find the name for you.

Back on topic.........what-lowmedium-price-wine-do-you-recommend Sorry about the previous ramble, but I have had chance to taste the Jacob's Creek Merlot and it is a very pleasant easy drinking red wine, with no discernible strong tannins and perhaps a little bit of oak treatment with "oak staves or oak chips", but don't quote me on that! Would I buy it for an everyday wine, based on this one bottle, yes I would as it would complement just about every dish one wished to serve it with. And at 445 baht a bottle it is at the cheaper end of the wine scale here, apart from the "fruit wines". I didn't find any hints of "black fruits" (often mentioned by wine tasters) in it, but a good everyday drinker, all the same.