xylophone

As told by a friend who went to the restaurant to enquire about the food (tapas) and I did see a guy rearranging the chairs when I went past, so............

After not posting for a couple of months, I seem to have gone ballistic, however this last event is an absolute doozy, so I just had to post here about it......... A friend enquired about the tapas in a recently opened tapas restaurant, only to be told that they didn't do tapas. This gets interesting because not only do they not do tapas, which is on the sign outside of the restaurant, the owner is from Sweden (not famous for its tapas) and the name of the restaurant is the "Mayflower" (named after a flower or a famous ship?). And to top the lot, on a billboard outside of the "restaurant" there are several pics of burgers with French fries and similar. So we have a Swedish guy, opening a tapas restaurant which doesn't serve tapas, in Thailand and naming the restaurant the Mayflower, outside of which is an advertising board containing pics of burgers....hmmm. TIT.

Agree and yet another one of my favourite movies...........now you mention it and the fact that it is Nov 5th, I will watch it again tonight. Thank you!

Maybe too much monosodium glutamate perhaps?? A friend of mine here was just commenting on that a couple of nights ago, and although I know it's a natural substance, it would appear that some folks are somewhat allergic to it in "large" doses?

Curiouser and curiouser.......the desire to own or open a small business here in Patong seems to override the basic business principles, or indeed common sense of some people. I mentioned in another post about the businesses which close/and/or are not doing so well, and just yesterday I noticed more........a very small "space" which about three incarnations ago opened up as a coffee and cake shop, closed down after two or three months because of no business, then was opened again a little later as another coffee/cake shop, which lasted about the same time and closed, and had been empty for a couple of months or more. Then about two weeks ago I saw that it had opened up again as a – – yes you guessed it – – a coffee shop, but with a difference because it advertised itself as a "Healthy Café" (or similar) which also sold cannabis, or purported to. However I saw no activity in it and about a week or so ago, noticed a sign in the window saying that staff were needed (in English and in Thai), and just a couple of days ago noticed a sign next to that saying, "Business for Sale". Another short lived dream gone bust. The newly opened Italian restaurant/café called, "Nice to Meat You" doesn't seem to be catering for many meat eaters these days, if any, although a few of the rooms have been taken by the looks of things. This area of Nanai is not a magnet for foot traffic and would-be diners, neither is it for a massage shop, which was advertised for 400,000 baht (even though it had very little business) and was eventually bought by two older ladies for 250,000 baht (or was it 200,000 baht?) And as yet I've seen nobody go into the place, nor any of the usual giveaway signs of shoes being parked outside of the door. Don't see it lasting long at this rate. The huge hotel, "Chang Residence" which needed major renovations because it had been left to the elements over the Covid period, is now being worked upon and tidied up somewhat, although there is still a lot of work to do, so it'll be interesting to see how that pans out. Further north there are a few bars on the right-hand side, almost opposite Makro, which have one or two girls each in the places, with just a very occasional farang, so I don't see a long-term future for these places either. Overall, I really don't see much in the way of a future for a lot of these places, but as long as there are farangs with money to spend, no business acumen and lust to be taken care of, then I suppose this will continue, as it has done in the past – – although I will add a rider to this, because in the past landlords were very reasonable with regards to rent they charged, whereas now this is not the case, so it's a whole different ballgame.

Obvious.........he's a trump/MAGA supporter and does not recognise anything wrong with the trump clan of crooks. AND facts won't help one iota!

Which is readily available here in Thailand.......................

My pleasure my good friend!! PS. Hope you have got it sorted? PPS. I will be sticking with my Suzuki Swift until I pop my clogs!

The nurse with the big feet?? Be careful!

I have got the answer for you "macahoom" as there is an old Ford Prefect 100E going cheap not far from me and with this car you don't have to worry about the newfangled electrics, because it hardly has any! And just so that the battery lasts longer, the windscreen wipers are operated off the inlet manifold, and not the battery!!! Good luck old chap.

Thanks A D..............Xylo

Forgot to mention that I have downloaded a movie which seems to have slipped through the net and been released without fanfare, so to speak, because I've not seen mention of it anywhere, however it's called, "The Sound of Freedom" and stars Jim Caviezel, whom I've always liked, so I will watch that over the next few nights.

I watched, "A Haunting in Venice" a couple of nights ago and found it to be good, not exceedingly so, but good enough to keep my attention for the duration. Loosely based on the novel by Agatha Christie, it had all the twists and turns, plots and subplots associated with that particular writer, plus a few more added I think, to add to the mystery. Overall, pleased with it and IMO a good movie to pass a quiet evening.

Many thanks @recom273 and I will look out for it.

Well to be honest I got bored with it many years ago and it then became no more than a place to meet friends and to undertake an hour or so of people watching. Having said that there were a couple of bar owners I got to know and I occasionally popped in for a drink. As for your question re. bf and st; well I don't know as do not partake of those services!! OOPS......forgot that I did enjoy singing a few numbers in Red Hot, but as previously mentioned, not so now! PS. Comments on Taco Bell please, if you don't mind 🙂

Yes it has, so I thought I would chip in and give it my 10 pennyworth (or more)! As it happens I haven't been out to Bangla more than a handful of times over the last 2 to 3 months, mainly because I haven't really felt like it – – perhaps because I'm getting old. That aside, it has become distinctly "old hat" to me and a few of my friends, and as I am not one for sitting on a bar stool discussing nothing in particular, the whole place feels very boring. So an update here, as I see it: – the few times I have been out, I have eaten at Blue Beach Café and Restaurant as one is assured of good food and good service, by excellent wait staff, so it makes a good start to the evening. Although I have been past what was once my favourite venue to belt out a song or two, "Red Hot", I haven't had the inclination to go in, mainly because a couple of the band have left and I haven't seen the great lady singer Mayen there for a while, and she always helped me with the high notes on "Don't Stop Believing". To add to that a couple of friends who have been along have said that it is being populated by Russian folk, with the band adapting to the new clientele, by singing more Russian songs – – not for me thank you! Now a good place to sit and watch the world go by on Bangla, is what used to be Smiley Bar and is now Blue Lotus café, so I will have to give that a try as in days gone by it was a good spot for people watching. Soi Sansabai is certainly seeing a lot of activity with regards to new building/renovations going on, which makes it terribly crowded when trying to navigate a homeward path on the back of a motorbike taxi, because the building activity, new café's and restaurants and the inability of certain members of the human race to be able to keep to one side of the road, makes life very difficult. Further up in Soi Banzaan, the previously named "Canada House", now turned into a bar, is struggling for custom (who'd have thought it??), so the ladies working in the bar have taken to sitting on stools on the side of the road so that they can be seen by passers-by, which doesn't seem to have had much of an effect and I don't think I've ever seen one customer in there? Onto Nanai and the recently opened "Blue Sky" bar is about as popular as a rattlesnake in a lucky dip with customers. Further along, the long-awaited opening of the Italian restaurant "Verdi" (I think) happened a couple of weeks ago, but I have no idea if it is being frequented by customers or not, although on the few times I've driven by it doesn't seem to be busy in the slightest.......and that seems to be par for course in Nanai at the moment with the recently refurbished/reopened "Chang bar", almost opposite two other bars "Rock Bar and Long Time Bar" doing nothing much at all other than wasting electricity by being open! The same could be said for many other bars such as the "Thirsty Lizard" and the recently opened black bar called "Hurricane Rock Bar". However the lack of activity in Nanai has not stopped someone opening a new restaurant venture in south Nanai where two other restaurant ventures failed in quick succession and I think I noticed something about a "Fondue" when driving by so whether that's what they are serving or the name of it, I'm not sure? Traffic congestion seems to have eased somewhat what with the restriction caused by the roadworks/water works debacle, getting a little better, but it is still not fixed completely. There are another couple of reasons I'm not been out recently, one is that I seem to have acquired some sort of allergy, which often happens around this time of the year, and I wish I could find out what was causing it, because it makes me feel very tired and lethargic should I say, so staying in and watching a movie seems a good option with a good bottle of red (please don't tell me it's the red wine which is causing it because I wouldn't want to change the habit of a lifetime, well almost anyway). I'm hoping to get out to the restaurant called, "West" over the next week or so to sample their "Châteaubriand" as they call it, and being able to take a good bottle of my own wine along, helps tremendously. Either before or after that I will go to the Italian restaurant in Soi Patong Beach, "Amena e Core" which serves good Italian food, and lets me bring my good bottle of wine for a small surcharge. Something else I will add which has made me think just recently was that the last time I went out I noticed that the lady drinks were now 220 baht, and having visited an old friend whom I've known for probably 10 years, at one of the bars, just to catch up and have a chat, I was surprised at the price of these lady drinks, so for this particular woman I slipped her a few hundred baht "under the table" as well as buying her a couple of drinks. Having said that I'm afraid my days of buying thousands of baht's worth of drinks for the bar girls has long gone, because at one time you could have a conversation with them, but now not so much. I suppose that for someone like me who's been here for 17 years, it's only natural that the attraction of Bangla would wane somewhat, and it certainly has for me, and as I'm not one for sitting at a bar stool during the daytime, or really during the evening for that matter, more than say once a week, it's really to catch up with a friend or two, or to have a change from cooking my own food, and eating out – – luckily there are some nice restaurants around, a few more of which I have to try. Anyway, high season is approaching and so the hustle and bustle, toil and trouble will be upon us again soon.

Afraid it didn't work for me!

I have to say that the few times I have had some sort of fungal infection, terbinafine (not oral) has worked the best of all, despite trying just about every other antifungal on the market.

On that note, the small apartment block in which I stay, is currently drawing water from a very deep well, however I'm not sure how clean it is, so I bought this little filter contraption to go on the sink tap, which is where I draw water from for drinking and cooking. Wasn't sure if it was working well until the owner tested it with a little device and it appears it is working extremely well, so I can recommend it. (my version is the 8000E model).

Me also using 1337x.to........maybe it will drop into this soon?? Fingers crossed!

Someone mentioned that there was a new season, Season 3 of the marvellous, "Slow Horses" and I seem to recall something about Apple TV??? So do I have to have this to be able to watch it, or is it available elsewhere? Thank you in anticipation.

Mine too!

MAGA Mike states that school shootings are the fault of feminism. teaching evolution and divorce etc. He also suggests that sex outside of marriage should be banned. Yet, he is an avid supporter the twice divorced and 'grab 'em by the p*ssy' proven rapist. Jeez....you couldn't make this stuff up. Unbelievable.

Ah......owl sees all but knows nothing. That should be your tagline/strapline. What a load of nonsense spews forth from your beak.

Exactly where.......as I can't find it??