xylophone

I watched a French movie (with English subtitles) on BBC iPlayer last night, called "By the grace of God" and it was good and dealt with a paedophile in the Catholic Church in France, and the move by initially one man, then many, to get this particular priest tried for his crimes. It was very difficult for them because they were blocked at every turn by the church and Vatican hierarchy, although things started to look a little better for them when some folks who had been helpers in the church came out with similar stories and that they had witnessed child molestation. It was based on a true story and although the action mentioned above happened in or around 2017, the guilty party (or parties) have not yet been brought to account. I still preferred the movie "Spotlight", but both of them were well done.

So, why are wine glasses different shapes? Through a number of testings and experiments, experts have found that the shape of the glass has the ability to concentrate the wine's aroma, further intensifying the varietal characteristics. And as for stray cats, well I try to kill them whenever I can – – they are indiscriminate killers of wildlife and need to be eradicated.

Thinking back on that figure, it is probably more like 20,000 baht a month on wine these days, but then again with the tax that the Thai government put on wine, along with rising production costs worldwide, that could well increase in time to come.

Then just stay happy in your ignorance, and don't go posting on something of which you obviously know nothing about.

Well it was a firkin big murkin and god knows what was lurkin in it!!

I probably spend about 25,000 baht a month on wine and port, although it used to be quite a bit more until I cut back a wee bit. I've been studying, collecting and drinking wine now for 50 years and I can tell the difference between a poor bottle and a good bottle, and I only drink red wine anyway, including port (Portuguese of course). I do store my wine in a temperature controlled wine fridge which holds up to about 30 bottles plus, however I don't decant them although I do let them breathe before I pour them, and I do prefer wines with a little bottle age To cover the points in the following post, I do try and match the food with the wine, however I have moved to the wines with a bit more body these days, like for example an Appasimento from Apulia, and I do like a good Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz from Australia, and just recently I discovered an absolutely wonderful wine from California, the like of which I have not experienced before, which totally surprised me. Always open to try new wines and I once discovered a great wine from Bulgaria, as well as one from the Lebanon, so I have an open mind with regards to wine, but I know what I like......and always red!

I spend around 100,000 baht a month on average, but I do live a good lifestyle, with wine being one of my major purchases!!!!! However I do eat out on occasion, whilst cooking my own meals at home, which I enjoy doing. And I never scrimp and save on any food which I want/crave – – I just buy it. I did buy a house when I first arrived here 17 years ago, but sold it around five years later and moved into a rental apartment as an interim stage to finding another house, but I became so used to the small/compact, easy to clean apartment that I have been here ever since! I do provide my unofficially adopted Thai daughter with a 15,000 baht monthly allowance, and she's now in her last year at university, and is truly a lovely young lady, but soon she will have to go out on her own and find a job, earn a salary and find her own way in the world, but I don't think she's actually thought that through, so a chat with her a little later down the line is on the cards! Having said that I don't mind supporting her for a few more years if necessary, but she has to realise what the world is all about. Occasionally I cook a Thai meal and enjoy spicy food, so my diet is quite varied, and today I'm going to cook a traditional French beef bourguignon to have with a lovely bottle of wine, whereas yesterday I had pasta with a side salad, and the evening before that an Indian curry – – I live well enough and hopefully have enough money to see me through to the end of my life. I do know guys who scrape by on their UK pensions, and one who doesn't quite make it on his Australian pension, so often looks for a handout. I couldn't live that way I'm afraid. Overall I'm happy with my lot and see no reason to go back to NZ or the UK for that matter, where my standard of living would drop quite markedly.

Part of a more in-depth article which appeared in the NZ Herald and NY Times.... Donald Trump can lay claim to the title of most prodigious liar in the history of the presidency. This challenges commonplace beliefs about the American political system. How could such a deceitful and duplicitous figure win the White House in the first place and then retain the loyalty of so many voters after his endless lies were exposed? George Edwards, a political scientist at Texas A&M and a retired editor of Presidential Studies Quarterly, states the case bluntly: “Donald Trump tells more untruths than any previous president.” What’s more, “There is no one that is a close second.” The reason he still has his supporters is that many people are angry about how they have been left behind in the current economic climate, especially the poorly educated Schweitzer told the magazine The Greater Good in 2017. “Trump has tapped into that anger, and he is trusted because he professes to feel angry about the same things.” Trump, Schweitzer said, “has created a siege-like mentality. Foreign countries are out to get us; the media is out to get him. This is a rallying cry that bonds people together. Finally, The belief that Donald Trump was denied the White House in 2020 because of Democratic Party fraud is arguably the greatest challenge to the legitimacy of the federal government since the Civil War, if not in American history. It is hard to think of a time when nearly two-fifths of Americans seemed honestly to believe that the man in the White House is there because of theft. Sad but unfortunately true. Dumb and Dumber springs to mind.

Some parts of this look fairly habitable?

Of course tattoos can be to boast about one thing or another........... Consider the two guys having a shower in a sauna, when one of them spots a tattoo on the old fella of the other guy which says "Ludo", so the guy bursts out laughing and says that the tattoo should be removed because it shows just how small the guys old fella is. And the reply was, well when it's fully extended, it spells, "Llundudno"!

I downloaded and watched the original movie, "Flight of the Phoenix" and it was very good quality remarkably, and a good film, starring James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Hardy Kruger, Ernest Borgnine and a few others, and it brought back memories of my time in the Sahara in 1970 because I experienced the sandstorms like they did and also flying in an aeroplane which had a faulty undercarriage so we couldn't land in the desert camps to pick up others, but we made it back to Tripoli airport. The front landing wheel would not lock in place so we went round the control tower three or four times to see if they could spot a problem, and they couldn't, and the mechanical override for the wheel didn't work either, so we were told to brace for an emergency landing and what was more frightening was looking out of the window and seeing the runway lined with fire trucks, jeeps and ambulances........however the pilot put it down with one hell of a bump and I thought the undercarriage was going to come through the floor it was that severe, but we survived. I also experienced flying through a sandstorm albeit not a severe one, in our little Pilatus Porter plane coming back into our camp, and it was quite frightening because it wasn't easy to see where we were going and although we did land safely, the sand played havoc with the edges of the prop, just like being sandblasted. Last but not least it also bought back the memories of being stuck in the Calanschio Sand Sea when our Toyota Land Rover became hopelessly bogged down in deep sand and the gear lever broke off, so we were stuck in the middle of the Sahara desert with no radio and no water (all my fault because I was a newby didn't know the procedures for such a trip). We couldn't go anywhere, so my young Jordanian trainee engineer decided to walk to find the sand road, which would eventually lead back to the camp, if indeed he could make it because it was mid-afternoon and bloody hot. I saw him disappear in the distance all the time wondering how I was going to stay alive and wondering if I could drink the radiator water to do so. Suddenly I saw his arms waving and in the far distance a couple of Land Rover's with the huge aerials on the back, and as luck would have it, it was a BP engineering party, so they came to our rescue, luckily. Watching the movie bought all of this back and although it was dangerous, I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Probably leased and paid for by his grifting of gullible supporters!

Yep...........I got fed up with it a while ago and put him on ignore. As I am just about to do with Neeranam as he idolises trump to the point of it being sickening, and can see no wrong in that lying POS.

I downloaded and watched a movie (2016) called, "Hell or High Water" which starred Chris Pine, Ben Foster and Jeff Bridges, as I had never seen it before as it was being featured on BBC iPlayer, and it was very good, especially with some good acting from Ben Foster. I've also taken to watching a couple of series of documentaries on iPlayer, one about the Egyptians, and another with David Attenborough and some prehistoric fossils (no not his friends) and I would just as soon watch these than any of the very average movies and series that seem to be out there at the moment.

Well he continues to prove my point..........can't help himself and the only non-lie in your post is that he was a POTUS, and a mediocre one at that. PS. Want to buy a wall near Mexico!!

More Kool Aid sir!!

Trump will almost certainly be the loser that his mouth, low IQ and many failed businesses show him to be.........but he will still have his followers, because they know no different. Cult following and sad to see these losers following the loser-in-chief.

Many thanks for the information @DFPhuket as I wasn't aware of the promotions, so I have just booked an ultrasound of the abdomen!!

Yes it did have a toilet and it was called Monjo bar, whatever that meant! He told me that he had sublet it (sub leased) and was focusing on Lovely Bar, but quite where he is now I have no idea?

Maybe not, but there are certainly kickbacks paid by leasing companies when large orders are placed, so either way kickbacks/backhanders/skimming are all part of the game.

Just remembered, that bar was called, "Monjo Bar".

Always loved this.............. https://fb.watch/lrLMHnVVbH/

Yes........you have to use a Thai calculator and Thai logic!!

Have you tried looking at JetStar prices, although it might mean a short hop between Sydney and Brisbane? Despite all that people have said about JetStar I have flown them many times between Sydney and Phuket, business class, and always found them to be excellent.

Not yet, but his time is coming...... But what is proven is that he is a liar, a cheat, a grifter and a man who has many failed businesses (Trumped!, Trump Steaks, Trump Network, GoTrump, Tour de Trump, Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka, The New Jersey Generals, Trump Mortgage, Trump: The Game, Trump Magazine, Trump Ice and not forgetting Trump University) and with no moral compass whatsoever........which of course makes him an ideal candidate for the next US president in the eyes of those who have drunk the Kool aid and who fit his "poorly educated" requirement for his fan base. Sad, so very sad for the once great USA.