xylophone

I tried smoking it a few times in the UK when I was younger and also in Nigeria, and I couldn't see what other people saw in it because it either made me very hungry, sleepy and sometimes giggly. Not something I took to at all.

Are you off the meds again, poor chap– –on the other hand you could be overdosing on them because the nonsense you have written is surely not of this universe.

I see that it has been removed now.

Whenever I'm out and about on my own motorbike I always wear a helmet, but I've never been offered one when riding on the back of a motorbike taxi, and I don't think they carry them for passengers?

I had thought about that a few months back and went looking, but couldn't find anywhere which was suitable or at a similar cost to my current apartment, so I gave it up as a bad job, however now I'm thinking that I should have a look again, but there's not much around at the moment what with the Russians buying and renting places like it's going out of fashion. When I feel better I will do another search – – thanks for the advice HP.

Thank you for your post schlog, and I'm not sure that I'm over the worst of it yet because this morning I feel particularly grim, so another visit to the hospital is on the cards I think, especially as I am totally unsteady on my feet, with my head spinning, as well as the base of my spine hurting very much. I notice that someone has put a "love it" emoji on my original post, just goes to show that there are some sick "bar stewards" on AN, this especially as I could have fractured my skull and the base of my spine, and the outcome is not fully known yet, especially with the way I'm feeling at the moment. Thanks again.

A night of disappointments on Friday evening, which started with a visit to a restaurant called "West" in Soi Patong Tower, whereby previous visits had been enjoyable and I negotiated being able to bring my own bottle of wine along (because theirs was fruit wine) for a princely sum of 200 baht, which was okay by me. Only this time (and I didn't find out until the bill came along) the charge was 400 baht +10% service charge, and the price of my meal had increased by about 100 baht!! I queried this with the serving guy and he just said that prices had increased everywhere, so they put their price up, or words to that effect. Now 400 baht charge for my own wine was too steep IMO, so I won't be going back to that restaurant, so they have lost my patronage plus the patronage of the other folks I introduced to it. After leaving that restaurant my friend and I went along to another couple of bars in Bangla, but as I've mentioned before "the thrill has gone" and probably went a long time ago if I was truthful, so I don't much enjoy nights out in Bangla these days. I decided to head for home at about 11 PM and as I was walking towards the motorbike taxi place, a group of about six burly guys in their mid-20s or thereabouts, surrounded me and got in my face, with one of them saying, "you dirty bastard, what are you doing here" with a couple of his mates chiming in with similar comments. At the age of 76 I wasn't about to try and take any of these guys on, however I had overheard them in a bar down the road, mention to someone that they were from Nottinghamshire so I basically said to the ringleader what the "fark" are you on about? "You guys are from Nottinghamshire, so what are you playing at, as I was born in England too?". To which he basically said they were only "playing around", but it certainly didn't feel like that although I wasn't unduly threatened, but it was uncomfortable enough. English louts is the best I can say about them. But the worst was yet to come because I got on a motorbike taxi to go home and when we arrived at my Soi, I asked the motorbike taxi driver if his motorbike was strong enough to take me up my steep drive, mainly because my old football knee was playing up a little, to which he replied that it could. So he attempted to get up the drive with me on the back of his motorbike, but unfortunately about halfway up he lost control of it, and I did a backward somersault off the bike and was knocked out for a few minutes and I'm not quite sure what happened next, but I think maybe he picked me up and saw blood gushing out of a head wound so quickly left on his motorbike. I don't remember walking up the remaining part of the drive or the steps to my apartment, but I do remember that the room/my head was spinning and I was in some pain from my back (pelvis area) and my head and I tried to lay down, but think I passed out for a while because I woke up three hours later with my pillow bloodied somewhat, and feeling not well at all. I was feeling very unwell so decided to wait until a bit later when the owners of my apartments were awake to ask them if they could call me a taxi to take me to the hospital, because I was not in a good way and thought I might have fractured my skull. The owners husband decided to take me in their car and I had a CT scan of my head and an x-ray of my hips and chest and I told him to go home and I would get a taxi home, which I did, still feeling very fragile and unwell. The outcome is that I have a couple of wounds on the back of my head, one on my heel, bruising on my shoulders and damage to my lower spine, which I have to go and see the orthopaedic surgeon about next week? Today I went to get the dressing on my head changed and the nurse said that if this was the fault of the motorbike taxi driver, then they were insured and I should claim from him, but how do you claim from someone who decided to do a "runner" after the incident? Not to worry, I said because I had paid it anyway. So an eventful but an unenjoyable evening, which has left me in some pain and questioning why I really need to go to Patong centre, a place I don't enjoy any more and run the risk of all sorts of unsavoury incidents. Moving away from that, the small laundry which opened up about six months ago at the bottom of my drive has closed and somebody who knew the owner said that the woman had borrowed money all over the place and had done a runner. This being one of the small "one-room" like shops in a very small enclave, which also included a Greek restaurant which was recently sold to Russians, plus a café which wasn't doing any business at all and which was sold and bought by someone who has turned it into a coffee and cannabis café, which doesn't seem to be doing much better? The turnover of these small "enterprises" is very high and the above would be typical of what I'm seeing around Patong these days, yet just the other day the ex-girlfriend of a friend of mine asked me if I knew where there were any shops available for rent because she and a friend wanted to rent one and start a little travel advice bureau in it – – this without any experience in the industry at all, but with the burning desire to "open a shop". When I asked her whether she had been seeking out any places that she could use, she basically said she hadn't, but anywhere would do, to which I replied that she really needed to be in an area with a great deal of foot traffic, so that she could sell to the tourists, something which seemed to be alien to her. I would put good money on it that whatever she opens will be destined to fail. Still feeling a little fragile so I will endeavour to get a bit of rest, with the help of a couple of anti-inflammatories plus the antibiotics that the hospital prescribed for my head wounds, hoping that the damage to the base of my spine is not serious.

In a way I feel sorry for you Aust24R, mainly because it would seem that you have strong feelings for your wife, and I believe she is playing you, especially when you find out that she has been "with other men". It's time to "man up" and get out of that relationship because it's toxic, and I certainly wouldn't stand for my wife shagging other guys whilst I was away, for me that would be an absolute no-no. I was in a steady, almost 6 year relationship with a good woman here and the only time she ever asked for money was for her mother's funeral, which I gladly gave her, and I also went to the funeral up north. However during that time and for some time after the funeral and the burning, she refused to speak to me, as if I had done something wrong, which I hadn't and I couldn't find a reason for it. So we were living in the same house with her young daughter and there was no communication whatsoever, and I did warn her that I wouldn't put up with it if it continued and gave her a deadline, once that deadline passed I gave her another one and when that passed I told her to get all of her stuff together and leave – – which she did. Being the softhearted guy I am I wanted to provide the daughter with a future, so I took care of her education, as well as buying a small business for my ex-GF for her future. Basically I got out of the relationship because it was not conducive to a happy life for me and I didn't come here to be miserable. I have taken care of "our" daughter and she has now just graduated from university north of Bangkok and is to be a teacher, and I am still in touch with my ex-GF on Messenger, and we are fine. Life is not about trying to keep your "head above water", but enjoying it as much as possible. My advice is to get out of that situation ASAP.

Personally I can't buy into that statement Danderman123, mainly because it doesn't seem to make sense to me, and I look at it from a different perspective – – trump lies, and his fans also lie, as can be seen often on here, in order to kowtow to the cult leader and also seem to forget that lying about something which can be seen to be true, makes them as much a lying clown as he is! There is no "honour" or "righteousness" in lying, because at the end of the day these clowns are only lying to themselves, and what does that say about them?

Very timely post NanLaew, because I tried Nord VPN on BBC iPlayer a couple of nights ago and it was picked up and I wasn't allowed to access iPlayer, despite trying a few times. So it was back to Smart DNS, which I had forgotten to log into! When I looked at the Nord VPN servers in the UK, it only had one "available" in the north of England, or possibly in Northern Ireland (can't remember now) and that was not working. All up, having tried quite a few VPNs, including Cyberghost, Express VPN, Nord and Total VPN, I have found that Smart DNS is the best one and the most reliable, with just one or two hiccups in a year, and now it has also included an extra add-on which you can load, called "Smart DNS Proxy VPN" and that's an option which allows you to choose the country into which you want to gain access, although not all countries are listed. So I'm letting my Nord VPN subscription run out, although it is handy as a backup at the moment, and I'm continuing with Smart DNS.

But it does have tweets!! Whilst Truth Social is a platform for trump lies!! And on that note, what puzzles me and at the same time astounds me, is that all of the many thousands of lies that trump has told can be found online, in newspapers, various other publications and videos, so they are there for all to see, BUT the trumpies don't see them/don't acknowledge them! So in effect they are lying to themselves, a bit like expecting to be able to book a room on the Titanic, when we all know it's at the bottom of the ocean – – but, using the same logic, trumpies don't. Very strange behaviour, and perhaps it's because there is something in the Kool-Aid which has disturbed their wiring?

Not only are the fundamentals still bad, the name is a total misnomer, a farce in fact, because nothing trump ever says is "truth", so they should call it "Lies Social" as that would be closer to the mark for trump and his cult followers.

Food for thought.........

But he didn't say that did he.................trumpie lies again. So sad.

Well, they don't come here to get a tan do they, and unless they are wealthy in their own right, which I suspect not, then they are here to deal in drugs and other things, whereby they can make some money!

Well that's a $64,000 question isn't it, because I've seen so many farangs, and Thais driving motorbikes with the crash helmet either hanging from the handlebars or elsewhere on the bike, or in the carry basket on the front – – won't do a lot of good there I'm afraid.

For the folks who like docos I came across a hidden gem in the BBC iPlayer library called, "How the Wild West was Won" by Ray Mears and thought it was great.......the true story of the migration west, the cattle trails, the Donner Party and the demise of the Buffalo and the cowboy. Also mentioned were the native Indians and the intro of the railways..............and much more. Fascinating, but hurry if you want to watch it as it is only available for 24 days. I can highly recommend it.

I'm sorry to say that in my opinion, no electric shaver will give you a shave close to a wet razor! I have tried two models of the Philips rotary-head shavers and even the most expensive one brought me out in a rash, so I've converted back to my Braun electric shaver which is altogether the best one for me at the moment. As an aside, you may wish to consider applying a pre-electric talc before you use an electric shaver.

Do you mean those very vaccines that were being developed 10 years prior to Covid? So much nonsense published about these vaccines, as well as other folks recommending the likes of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, that it's estimated millions of people died because they were convinced by the quacks and anti-VAX brigade – – and as for the "unexplained heart attacks and sudden deaths", see below: – Who Really 'Died Suddenly'? A new study sheds light on the risks by Jeremy Faust, MD, MS, MA, Editor-in-Chief, MedPage Today March 21, 2024 During the initial COVID-19 vaccine rollout, a rare complication called myocarditis was detected, primarily in young males. The incidence of this problem was low and most of the cases were mild. Still, even for people in the highest-risk demographic for vaccine-associated myocarditis, receiving the primary series of the COVID-19 vaccines was safer than getting COVID-19 without having been vaccinated. Nevertheless, the anti-vaxxer factions seized on this and used it to sow doubt. The phrase "Died Suddenly" became a kind of motto for those looking to spread misinformation about vaccines. There has never been any link between COVID-19 vaccines and sudden cardiac death. Meanwhile, one of my least favorite cliches during the pandemic was the image of some muscular person flexing for a camera saying that they didn't need vaccination, because they were just so damn healthy. Nor did I get any joy out of stories of athletes who refused the vaccines on those very grounds, only to die of COVID-19 later. https://insidemedicine.substack.com/p/who-really-died-suddenly-anabolic

All the nice girls love a sailor......

I bought my house here from an English guy who had a bar in Bangla and who was struggling financially and wanted to go back to Blighty, and if my memory serves me correctly, he basically gave the bar away for peanuts, handing it over to a friend and I bought his house for a bargain price because I offered him cash in hand within 24 hours. I don't think he ever came back here. Another friend of mine bought (leased) a bar and when he went back to his home country for a couple of months, not only did his girlfriend sell his bar out from under him, she was also getting her leg over some of his friends. He doesn't have the capital to enter into bar business any more and he is shortly going back home, having been here some 11 years or thereabouts. He has said he may come back when the weather in his home country turns cold again, but owning/leasing a bar here is definitely out of the question.

Well that poster can't help it because all he watches is Fox News, so he repeats the nonsense that they spout........another thought sprung to mind, because surely no one could be that dumb, so perhaps he is a shill who is on this thread, and possibly others, to act as click bait?

I have just finished the series, "The Gentlemen" and I thought it was okay although IMO it got bogged down towards the end with too many subplots, some of which I couldn't fathom! Shame really because it started off well enough.