xylophone

That's a good recommendation LC and one which I will seek out as I do like the Primitivo grape and when combined with the sunshine and heat in southern Italy/Sicily, then it should be very much to my liking I suspect. Many thanks.

I have been drinking and collecting wine for over 50 years now, and it has been a hobby of mine for that time, hence the reason I have toured many vineyards in France, a few in Australia and New Zealand, sometimes at the invitation of the vineyard owners. I did contribute to a very large thread here when it was Thai Visa and that went on for many pages, but unfortunately they banned the mention of wine?? Anyway going on what others have said, IMO the "19 Crimes" is a fair bottle amongst the cheaper ones although it's not that cheap these days, and although the Chilean wines are a bit cheaper, and I've tried many of them, I really can't get to grips with their "averageness". Nowadays I buy my wine from importers and get it delivered to my door and my favourite at the moment is an Appassimento from southern Italy, as well as one from Wine Pro, because they are full-bodied, well-made and a huge cut above the average everyday offering. I won't touch any wine with fruit juice in it, or even fruit additives of any description because they give me a headache, so I have resorted to asking restaurants here, which only have the "Mont Clair" type wine, if I can take my own bottle of wine along, and they allow me to, with a 200 baht corkage charge – – fine by me. PS. I regularly consumed almost a bottle of red wine every night up until just recently, now I have cut back to about half a bottle followed by a glass of Portuguese Port! I have also taken to buying the more expensive wines as I reason that at the age of 76, I deserve to drink good wine!

Use Helium gas which is used to blow up balloons. Check in the internet how to do it.......it is my "departing this mortal coil" solution; not messy and painless. Good luck with whatever you decide.

And this is from "Faux News"................enough said!

I needed cheering up today because I went to see old friend of mine who is seriously ill in hospital, only to encounter his two daughters who had flown in from overseas ostensibly to comfort him, but in reality to discover what their inheritances might be, and in the process giving his wife of 25 years so much stress and a really bad time, and so sad to see her under this much pressure. When I got home very late from this, I needed cheering up so I re-watched an old favourite of mine called, "The Greatest Showman" and yet again I was absolutely blown away by the choreography in this movie, not to mention the moving songs and the plot (loose as it may be), and it brought tears of happiness to my eyes, because it is an uplifting movie, and yet again, I fell in love with Zendaya!!

I downloaded and watched a movie called, "The Promise" and I think it was a recommendation from someone else on this thread, but whatever, I enjoyed it. I had no idea about the Armenian genocide by the Turks, so after the movie I did a bit of research and it was truly shocking what happened, yet Turkey refuses to accept responsibility for it. I won't go into more detail because if someone wants to watch it, they will get an idea of my shock and horror at what actually happened. Later on I watched a movie called, "The Autopsy of Jane Doe", mainly because I couldn't remember much about it, but not disappointed, so worth a watch if you haven't seen it before....stars Brian Cox.

Thank you so very much LosLobo........and I thought it was excellent too!!

I have no time at all for Charles or for the other Royal duffers, however I did respect HM the Queen, because she epitomised all that was good and staunch in the British character, especially when it was needed. As for the others – – not worth the paper they're printed on.

Okay, here's a test for you avid movie watchers, because I remember watching this particular movie two or three times in the past, but have lost track of it, and what's worse, I can't remember the name of it!! But if I give you a few clues maybe you can come up with the name............ the movie actually takes place in the cabin of a professor/teacher who is about to leave and go, so there are things being moved out of the cabin whilst the dialogue is going on. The main thing about the dialogue is that this professor claims he has lived forever (reincarnated?) and recalls instances throughout history that actually stump the other folks/professors in the cabin, and he is able to describe some of the instances in great detail. Not only that, his knowledge of the past events is seemingly unchallengeable. At the end of the movie he is at the entrance to his cabin when one of the older professors is about to leave and they have an exchange whereby the guy who claims he has lived forever is able to recall something which touches this older professor and he remembers this particular instance (son perhaps?) but the older guy dies or has a heart attack? It is extremely well acted and very plausible and would love to know the name of it so that I can watch it again and put it in my movie collection. Has anyone any ideas of the name of this particular movie – – another clue would be that it didn't receive "worldwide recognition" and the actors although very good were not the superstars that folks now fawn over. Thank you in advance.

Back down the rabbit hole you go............... Ivermectin is not shown to be effective against Covid-19 in clinical trials according to the findings of a joint University of Oxford and Mahidol University study. The study that was published on the peer-reviewed eLife medical journal found that high doses of the drug ivermectin, controversially recommended by some high-profile political and media figures during the pandemic, is ineffective at treating the virus. Conducted at the Center for Tropical Diseases in Bangkok, the study is part of the ongoing PLATCOV trial the study hoped to assess the antiviral effectiveness of medicines in treating early symptomatic Covid-19 infections. The findings support claims that the drug has little antiviral activity against the virus.

And that doesn't surprise me in the least, because Prince Philip was a racist and Charles is as dumb as a bag of rocks, and his main aim in life was to become a tampon so that he could be very close to Camilla when he was doing the business, yet still married to Princess Diana......... In 1993, the British press published the full transcript of a private conversation between then-Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles in which the two had an intimate and sexual exchange. The conversation was notable for a number of reasons, not least of which because it involved the heir to the throne saying that he would like to “live inside [her] trousers” and joking that he would like to be reincarnated as a tampon, hence the name of the scandal. Charles and his now-wife and queen consort Camilla were both married to other people at the time. The transcript not only confirmed Princess Diana’s claims that Charles had been cheating on her but threw gasoline on Charles and Diana’s already contentious separation.

I watched this (In The Land Of Saints & Sinners) last night and thought it was good, and like your wife, I am a bit of a Liam Neeson fan, so it ticked every box for me. I have to admit there were times when I was struggling to understand what was being said, but in the main all good. Thanks for the recommendation.

It's not far from me!!!

"We're on the road to nowhere.............". Wasn't that by "Talking Heads?".

Going down the hill towards Patong, about 50 m past this, there is also another section of the road which is sinking because of subsidence or a drainage pipe has collapsed under it, and this has been visible for at least four or five months and has slowly gotten worse – – – – and today I noticed that this quite large dip/subsidence in the side of the road has been "repaired" by some tarmac being poured in it; probably left over from the roadworks as mentioned in this thread. Whatever the case, this "repair" must have been done by a one legged, one armed blind man, such is the quality of it.

Replying to my own post, because I can't find a thread/posts which relate to VPNs, and I thought there was one?? So I will post on here what happened yesterday when I was watching Julius Caesar with my Smart DNS Proxy, which is usually brilliant and very reliable! The series, three episodes, can run into one another if you are on the iPlayer, and am wondering if this has something to do with the fact that suddenly, when I was trying to get on to the last series, the dreaded message about, "not being available in my region/only available in the UK" or something like that came up so I couldn't watch it. No problem I thought because I would switch to Nord, because I still have some months left on my original subscription, but that was no better and no matter how many times I reset it to try and change servers, the message still appeared and I couldn't get onto iPlayer! So logged out of BBC, logged out of both VPNs, and then shut down the computer and waited awhile whilst I restarted it, but still to no avail, so I played around with the whole thing for a while and I found a solution....... when I eventually logged back on with Smart DNS, but didn't open any of the BBC programmes, I chose a different one completely than the Julius Caesar one I'd been watching, and then it worked, so I was able to get back onto the Julius Caesar one after that. I was disappointed about this, but was more disappointed when Nord, supposedly the "King of VPNs" failed to work, and now that I've got my Smart DNS Proxy working again, I'll get back onto it tonight. It got me wondering whether the techies at BBC have started working on being able to shut down access by a VPN – – any thoughts on this? PS. If someone can find the VPN thread, then kindly move this on to it if you would be so good.

Regarding that point, are there six individual episodes each with their own story, or do they run into one another as a whole? Onto an entirely different subject, I spotted a three-part doco series on BBC iPlayer of Julius Caesar and I've watched the first two parts of it, but unfortunately was unable to watch the finale because......believe it or not my bloody usually reliable Smart DNS Proxy VPN started to misbehave and BBC iPlayer picked up on it, and there was nothing I could do to revisit the series (yes I switched off the VPN, tried Nord VPN, however will probably cover this in more detail on the VPN thread running here). About the series – – very, very good and informative and it called on input from historians/scholars/scientists and just about anyone else with regard to Caesar's reign, and it really did set the record straight and I for one was so glad that I watched it because my understanding of Caesar and his time in power was seriously wrong.

No flies on The Don. But you can see where they've been..................

Sorry to interrupt the discussion, which I found very interesting, as I'm not as au fait with the politics past and present of Israel/Hamas/Palestine/whomsoever as some of you guys. But what I will say is that it would seem that a "workable two-state solution" is not workable because of the Hamas doctrine of wanting to kill all Israelis and wipe Israel off the face of the map, and as long as that exists, then a workable solution doesn't seem possible.

As I have mentioned previously, I have found that Smart DNS Proxy to be the best of the lot, especially when trying to watch BBC iPlayer. I did have Nord for a while, but had problems with that because it would occasionally drop out for some reason and I couldn't get to the bottom of why so I changed, as mentioned above. The others I have tried include: – My Expat VPN, Express VPN, Cyber Ghost VPN, Total AV and Panda, although not sure if the last two were actually VPNs – – too long ago to remember now! Don't think I will change from Smart DNS Proxy, because it's been excellent for the past months.

What are healthy fats and a healthy diet? I hope the mods don't mind me posting this, but it is related to this post and others on the thread, and it appeared this morning in the New Zealand Herald, and is very interesting, so I thought I'd post it – – – not that I think I'm going to live to be a hundred years old, but I might be able to donate my liver to Penfold's in the long run! The search for the secrets to a long, healthy life is as old as mankind. A new study has found a series of clues that take us closer than ever before – and they lie in our blood. In mid-October, a Swedish-led team of researchers reported on their study of blood samples taken from 44,000 people from the age of 64 over a period of up to 35 years. They compared 12 “biomarkers” in the blood of those who went on to live past the age of 100, and those who did not. These markers included cholesterol and blood sugar, the markers of metabolism; uric acid, a marker of inflammation; creatinine, a measure of kidney function; iron, which is linked to anaemia; and enzymes associated with liver function. The research revealed that the chances of becoming a centenarian are linked to 10 of the 12 biomarkers - and three in particular. “Those who made it to their 100th birthday tended to have lower levels of glucose, creatinine and uric acid from their 60s onwards,” says co-author Dr Karin Modig, associate professor of epidemiology at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute. “But although we are genetically predisposed to having higher or lower levels, most of these markers are closely linked with our lifestyle.” In other words, there are things we can do day-to-day that can help us to stay healthy and live longer. Here are a few. 1. Get your cholesterol balance right One of the study’s main findings seems to fly in the face of received medical advice. The research revealed that the people with the lowest levels of total cholesterol had a lower chance of reaching 100 years, compared to those with higher levels. “Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) – the “bad” cholesterol – can build up in the walls of your arteries, which, if left untreated, can cause strokes or heart attacks,” explains Dr Gaurav Sabharwal, founder of One5 Health, which specialises in preventative healthcare and longevity. “But high-density lipoprotein (HDL) – the “good” cholesterol – protects the heart by removing the LDL cholesterol and transporting it back to the liver, where it is removed from the body. This means HDL levels should be high to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. However, elevated total cholesterol levels – the good plus the bad – are also a major risk factor.” “The evidence from large clinical trials demonstrates very clearly that lowering LDL cholesterol reduces our risk of death," says Professor Jeremy Pearson. Photo / 123RF This is because the bad outweighs the good. The new research sits alongside several recent studies suggesting that the link between high total cholesterol and cardiovascular disease disappears in older people, but these remain highly controversial. According to the British Heart Foundation’s Professor Jeremy Pearson: “The evidence from large clinical trials demonstrates very clearly that lowering LDL cholesterol reduces our risk of death overall and from heart attacks and strokes, regardless of age.” What to do: The British Heart Foundation advises eating less saturated fat in foods such as processed meat, pies and pastry, butter, cream and coconut oil. Instead, opt for foods that are high in unsaturated fat such as olive oil, nuts, avocado and oily fish. A high-fibre diet of fruit, vegetables, wholegrains and pulses can also lower cholesterol, as can regular exercise and cutting down on drinking. Smoking increases “bad” cholesterol and lowers “good” cholesterol, so quitting is essential. 2. Tackle your blood sugar The research shows an association with lower levels of glucose in our 60s and a stronger likelihood of living to 100. “Very few of the centenarians had a glucose level above 6.5 earlier in life,” says Dr Modig. An A1C test measures the average amount of sugar in the blood over the past few months and expresses it as a percentage: of the haemoglobin proteins that are holding glucose, 5.7 per cent to 6.4 per cent signals pre-diabetes, while 6.5 per cent or higher usually indicates diabetes. People living with diabetes have a higher risk of heart attacks and strokes and damage to the blood vessels affecting the nerves, eyes and kidneys. What to do: “Type 2 diabetes is preventable for a significant majority of people,” says Dr Paul McArdle, a dietician and diabetes specialist. “It’s thought that 60-90 per cent of Type 2 diabetes is linked to excess body weight, so keeping a healthy weight has been found to maintain lower blood glucose levels.” McArdle recommends a minimally processed diet and, in particular, avoiding sources of highly refined carbohydrates such as sugars, which cause blood sugar spikes. 3. Drop your uric acid Uric acid is associated with gout, the painful joint condition, but it’s also a surrogate marker for your metabolic health in general. “We often see raised uric acid levels in people with diabetes, pre-diabetes, insulin resistance and weight-related conditions such as hyperthyroidism and obesity,” says Dr Sabharwal. It’s unsurprising, then, that people in the study with the lowest uric acid had a four per cent chance of reaching 100, while only 1.5 per cent of those with the highest levels became centenarians. Uric acid is associated with gout, the painful joint condition, but it’s also a surrogate marker for your metabolic health in general. Photo / 123rf What to do: Foods containing purine, including red wine, cheese, red meat, shellfish, bacon and organ meats such as liver, can elevate uric acid. A low-purine diet, combined with drinking two to two-and-a-half litres of water per day, can reduce our levels. “Losing weight and, in particular, dropping body fat mass can also reduce the uric acid in your blood,” says Sabharwal. 4. Get to grips with creatinine “One of the strongest correlations to living to 100 was levels of creatinine, which many people have not heard of,” says Modig. “Very few of the centenarians had a creatinine level above 125.” What does this mean? Creatinine is a waste product of creatine, a chemical made by the body which supplies energy to muscles. Creatinine is removed from the body by the kidneys, so testing our levels can ascertain how well the kidneys are working. The albumin/creatinine ratio was used in the study, showing the number of milligrams of albumin (a protein in blood) for every gram of creatinine. For men, less than 17mg/g is deemed healthy, and for women, it’s less than 25mg/g. What to do: Research by American nephrologists has shown that eating large amounts of protein, in particular cooked red meat, can increase creatinine levels. Conversely, a 2014 study showed a link between increased fibre intake and significant reductions in creatinine. Staying hydrated and lowering your salt intake helps, too. 5. Boost your iron An optimal ferritin blood level, which reveals the level of iron storage in the body, is vital to support cognitive function, the immune system and overall performance of the body. In Britain, experts estimate that 3 per cent of men and 8 per cent of women have iron-deficiency anaemia, which can be treated with supplements, although these can have gastrointestinal side effects. What to do: Sabharwal recommends eating more plant-based foods containing iron “such as lentils, chickpeas, beans, cashew nuts, kale, raisins and fortified breakfast cereal”. Increasing the iron we actually absorb from what we eat is equally important. “Vitamin C, vitamin A and beta carotene, found in carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, red peppers and oranges, may help you absorb more,” he says. 6. Lower your liver enzymes The study also linked lower levels of liver enzymes (proteins made by the organ) in the blood to living to 100 – unsurprisingly, since lower levels usually suggest a healthy liver, whereas higher levels indicate damage or disease. Dr Paul Kooner, consultant hepatologist at London’s Princess Grace Hospital, says that liver blood tests are particularly important, since “liver disease rarely causes symptoms unless cirrhosis develops”. What to do: Eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and limiting alcohol to within NHS guidelines of no more than 14 units per week is the best way to keep liver enzyme levels low. Drinking one cup of coffee a day has been proven to reduce the risk of dying from chronic liver disease by 15 per cent, so it’s worth incorporating into your routine. Adding folate-rich foods such as dark green leafy vegetables to your diet can also lower liver enzyme levels. A 2016 study linked folate deficiency to increased alanine transaminase (ALT), a type of liver enzyme, and liver damage.

Oh dear!!! Never heard of it before and of course wouldn't be allowed now!

This may have been going on for some time and I've not noticed it, or it may have been mentioned elsewhere, however over the past couple of months I have been getting emails, thanking me for my purchase of McAfee software and quoting an order number. Of course I have labelled them as spam and most of them find their way into the spam folder, but a few seem to escape. As yet I haven't opened one of the invoices, but have viewed the email, and I suspect that if one did open the invoice (mainly because it asks for feedback on it) it may contain a virus or some sort of malware. Just saying: – BEWARE false McAfee invoices/orders.

Thinking about it.........I believe you are right as I did see a bright white "something" in the artery on the scan.

Sorry I can't answer your question reliably because I didn't ask the neurosurgeon, although thinking about it I did see something that looked like a piece of plaque in the artery which was blocked??? My friend has been on blood thinners for quite some time and has a pacemaker fitted, and to be honest it all doesn't look very well at all, even before this episode, because his legs, arms and hands were dark blue where he was bleeding under the skin from the capillaries by the looks of things. I have just spoken to his wife today and he has had the intubation tube removed, so things are progressing, albeit slowly and I will know more when I probably go to visit him tomorrow. Thank you for your concern and the information.