xylophone

An assumption on your part based on what you have read about chilis, however I also like other spicy foods like black pepper (nothing to do with Capsaicin) and also mild foods without too much spicy taste in them, for example onions and ginger – – not to mention the fact that I like cheeses ranging from mild to strong. And there is absolutely no way that my tastebuds are dead because I appreciate many different wines and the flavours therein. Not to mention other foods of varying descriptions, but when I think about it, what sort of taste is there in a chicken and mushroom pie with no other flavouring/additives whatsoever? Nice try but don't give up your day job. PS. You might want to substitute the "your tastebuds are probably dead" with something along the lines of, that I appreciate flavours that I can get wonderful taste sensations from, such as a beef bourguignon, paella, pork in a garlic and wine marinade and so on.....many and varied taste sensations are what I thrive on.

I have liked spicy food since way back when (probably when I was in Nigeria at the end of the Biafran war, when whatever "meat" you got was steeped in a hot sauce, probably so you couldn't tell that it was either full of maggots or rotten) – – but I digress. I have mainly stuck to farang food since I've been here with the occasional effort at cooking Thai food, but I'm leaning more towards making the majority of my meals, Thai, mainly because I do like spicy food and I can eat green chilis if I want, and I often sprinkle them on my home-made pizzas. And just to cement my thought process onto leaning much more towards cooking Thai food, just yesterday I had a chicken and mushroom pie which a friend's wife had cooked for me, and I had it with mashed potato and brussels sprouts, with some very weak chicken Bisto gravy. I then realised that it was all very bland and damn near tasteless, so no more of that stuff for me, and although I do make the occasional Italian dish with some chili in it, Thai food will gradually take over my menu, apart from the fact that I do like a good tenderloin steak with some stilton on it (accompanied by a nice bottle of red wine) on occasion. So I will be experimenting with more Thai dishes and the next in line will be a Panang chicken curry!!!! Thank you to whoever started the thread because it's tickled my tastebuds.

He is lucky to have a life left to talk about this experience!! I did a bungeejump in Australia when I was in my mid 40s, but only because my son promised that he would do it if I did it first, but after seeing me hurtle towards a very shallow pool of water he chickened out, and I can't say that I blame him. Here in Patong there was a guy killed in a bungeejumping facility and when the depth of the water was examined it was no more than about 2 feet deep, so it was practically useless to stop an injury, which I believe it supposedly designed to do.

Not only that, the majority of Russian girls/women I have seen here, apart from never smiling, have the pouty/rubber plunger lips, so perhaps that is why they don't smile, or can't smile perhaps! I don't find them attractive at all.

There's nothing like a good curry........ Indian curry video.mp4

I did test drive the Nissan Almera, but wasn't impressed with it and it is a larger car than I wanted, and I don't think I've ever had four people in my Swift since I bought it all those years ago!! It would be great if they bought out an updated Nissan March or a similar vehicle, however as I said previously, I was quite taken with the Suzuki Celerio, so will give that a look when the time comes

Yes I do appreciate what SATIRE is, however it was the IMDb website which described the movie as "wickedly funny" so perhaps my expectations were primed for laughter? And satire is ok but when a movie depends upon it and plays it out to the "n-th" degree then IMO it can become tiresome .

I did watch it few weeks back, and I don't recall it being like a "gay fetish film", however online the movie was described as "wickedly funny", however I didn't find it wickedly funny at all and I think I got about halfway through it before I switched it off.

From the little that was reported a short while ago, regarding a potential "peace plan", it would seem that this particular plan really is in Russia's favour, given that they want to retain the parts of Ukraine which they have currently raided/destroyed as part of that plan. I sincerely hope that the Russian invaders are defeated and pushed back, as they are the aggressors, and once this sort of thing starts, where does it end?

Absolutely spot on @KhaoYai. Nailed it.

It seems par for course for that poster as I got a couple of insulting responses from him a while back, that's why I have put him on "ignore", so can't see anything he posts!

Well no real surprises because Port originates in Portugal and the distributor I mentioned from my location in Phuket, actually has a centre in Pattaya, so will deliver there..........and as for Chiang Mai, not so sure about that!!

New evidence seems to implicate "Racoon dogs" sold in Wuhan market.......... .......findings reported last week bolstered the market theory. Mining a trove of genetic data taken from swabs at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan in early 2020, virus experts said they found samples containing genetic material from both the coronavirus and illegally traded raccoon dogs. The finding, while hardly conclusive, pointed to an infected animal. The study also said the virus was unlikely to have evolved in the course of certain laboratory experiments. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world

I entirely agree with you, but unfortunately there are a lot of nut jobs in the US (and around the world) who believe in the sort of rubbish about the creation of earth 6000 years ago and that God created everything, and so on, but just how far will they go?? Climate change is just one of another example which they have hooked onto and it really perturbs me somewhat to think that there are these mindless individuals who think that way, and in some cases can change fact into fiction because they have the power to do so – – what on earth is the world coming to?

The replay on a few clips clearly showed it to be handball, so the referee made the right decision in the end. What I didn't see was why Mitrovic was given the red card??

You must look a lot closer than I do - I've never spotted more than one or two. Can you give me a pointer as to where I should be looking? Thanks. This from a poster who hates Patong with a vengeance according to his posts........maybe he is back here and on the look-out for company LL??

That's the one I meant, not the 2002!! My bad!

What I want to know is, who is this "President Bindan"???? Luckily the US has got President Biden to keep a steady hand on the helm rather than the one mentioned above or the corrupt orange predecessor!

I had a Turp done at the Epworth Hospital in Melbourne 12 years ago (or thereabouts) and it wasn't all plain sailing afterwards because I had to use a catheter for a lot longer than is normal, and I'm not sure if this actually affected my urinary system, because about six or seven years after that I had to have a bladder neck incision to enable me to pass urine better, but now my bladder has stopped working altogether and I am using a catheter on a daily basis – – not where I thought I would be at this particular point. The holmium laser treatment on the prostate does exactly what the TURP (cutting) does, but does it via a laser. Sorry to have veered off-topic ????

I thought the Stag was a great looking car, however it had its problems as did the Triumph 2000 that I had, with a stub axle breaking just after leaving the motorway. A workmate had the Allegro and that was a heap, with a gearlever a bit like pushing a knife through custard, and I had a company car which was the Morris Marina and that was also a heap of rubbish. My mini had to have a new subframe and about the same time a new gearbox because they failed. In addition to that it was going rusty/rotten through and through. My Ford Cortina 1300 cc was a good looking car but an absolute dog to start, and thankfully a couple of mechanics I knew got me a second hand 1500 cc engine and fitted that, and the difference was remarkable. The Triumph Herald that I borrowed from a friend was reasonable, although the road handling was poor, as was the TR4A IRS that I had, and you never knew whether you were going to make it round a corner or if the car would "hop" round of its own accord. Before I left the UK I did get a nice company car which was the Vauxhall Cavalier 2L and never had a bit of trouble with it and it was a solid car which I liked. Almost forgot, there was an Austin 2002 (?) which was a big heavy old car that nobody seemed to like. Strangely enough my first Ford Prefect (not the one with the sloping back) with a side valve engine gave me no problems whatsoever. When I look back now at all of those cars I had or drove, and compare them to the cars I had later on in life such as a range of BMWs, Mercedes Benz 350 SL, and the fantastic Saab 9-5 Aero, the difference is absolutely astounding. The cars of today with the likes of Kia, Mazda, Toyota and others, really do leave those I've mentioned above, in the dust.

Absolutely right, and the infamous "brown envelopes" situation has been going on for years in Patong and in many other places I would suppose. A guy I know here was the owner of a very large and "locally famous" nightclub/venue and when the closing time issue was being discussed and put back to a 1 AM closing time, his club was allowed to stay open to all hours, sometimes to 6 o'clock in the morning......and why was this?? Simply because he had an arrangement with the local BIB whereby he paid them a large amount of cash every month (can't remember whether it was 100,000 or 200,000 baht) so that the closing times did not apply to his establishment, and he was left alone, which was one of the reasons that it was the "only place in town" to go to after the bars had closed. Thailand and corruption go hand in hand and the tentacles of corruption spread throughout the land, top to bottom and it will never change.

Took your advice and decided to go out on the town last night and catch up with a couple of friends at Blue Beach Café and Restaurant, where I had something to eat which was, as usual, very tasty, of course accompanied by a few glasses of red wine. It was reasonably full, though plenty of choices for seats, and they had the guitarist "Moody" playing, and he is an extremely good and versatile guitarist and really makes the evening. Then four of us decided to trundle up Bangla, which was only slightly less crowded than in past weeks, apart from the queue waiting to get into "Illuzion" which snaked out to the far side of Bangla and then down some – – have never been in there so don't know what the attraction is?? Also visited the Black Horse bar which is a great place to sit and watch the world go by, which we did for about half an hour before heading off into Soi Sea Dragon and as I've posted elsewhere, got the lowdown on the police raid, and we wondered why Suzie Wong's and Harem were closed?? Maybe part of a bigger clampdown although I'm not sure that the last two I've mentioned would be guilty of the sort of misdemeanours already quoted for the closed go-go bar? Whilst the others were going to visit a few other bars, I decided to try my luck at Red Hot as I haven't been there for six weeks or more, and I got talking to one of the tourist police stationed just along the road and he mentioned that they were there to enforce a 1 AM closing time, which surprised me, and sure enough when I got into Red Hot and sang a couple of numbers, I was not allowed to do any more because they were restricted for time! The band had changed a little from last time I visited, although the key members were still there, and I was surprised to be approached by, first of all, a guy from Belgium who said that he had seen me sing over a few years and described me as a "legend", and then a pretty blonde haired woman came over to me and started chatting away and kissing me on the cheek, saying that she had seen me sing there four years ago and was delighted that I was still there, and was hanging around a while and I wasn't sure if she had other intentions, or just wanted a drink, or indeed wanted to buy me one! Lastly a couple of Aussie girls sitting nearby came over and gave me a big hug and a kiss and said, "you were awesome", so my night was made, and I trundled home with the help of a friendly motorbike taxi and this morning I am feeling a little seedy after following the advice of @HighPriority but I had a good time, so it was worth it.

Well things are livening up a bit now @zzzzz, although not to their previous levels, but bit by bit Jungceylon is being inhabited by more tourists and a few shops returning, along with the obligatory "property investment booths". Big C does have quite a few Russians and Chinese shopping there, and as has been mentioned before, as soon as the shelves are full of certain produce, within 24 hours they are almost empty again. Patong Central is busy in the café/restaurant/food department, however I haven't been upstairs to view the stores therein.

I was in Bangla Road last night and with a few friends, decided to go into Soi Sea Dragon to have a look around, and sure enough the go-go bar that begins with a "V" was shut down and a person in the know said that some trucks arrived early in the morning and moved just about everything out of the place. What was surprising was that the well-known go-go club "Suzie Wong's" has also been shut down, along with its sister venue, "Harem" and as far as I know, there have never been any underage girls working in those places, one of which I have visited with friends on occasion, and I also know the owner of both of them. Good to see that the girls were able to continue with some sort of activity, because all of them were crowded round the bar at the end of Soi Sea Dragon, which was frantically busy with customers!

They do have a huge selection of wines and they do have a price list which you request by email. Something I should mention is that there is a minimum order, which is 6 bottles for ther Port......can't remember about the wines as now get mine from Wine Pro and a great wine shop in Patong called "Aleena House".