xylophone

I started watching it and something fired a neuron in this ageing brain of mine, and I couldn't quite remember what it was – – until a little later I realised that a version of this was done in around 2010 and starred Mel Gibson. It didn't follow exactly the same path, but close enough in many respects, however I will keep on watching it because I want to see what the original was like. Thanks to @RayWright for the heads up on this series.

Life in rural OZ....... Dear Mum & Dad, I am well. Hope youse are too. Tell me big brothers Doug and Phil that the Army is better than workin' on the farm - tell them to get in bloody quick smart before the jobs are all gone!! I wuz a bit slow in settling down at first, because ya don't hafta get outta bed until 6am. But I like sleeping in now, cuz all ya gotta do before brekky is make ya bed and shine ya boots and clean ya uniform. No bloody cows to milk, no calves to feed, no feed to stack - nothin'!! Ya haz gotta shower though, but it’s not so bad, coz there's lotsa hot water and even a light to see what ya doing! At brekky ya get cereal, fruit and eggs but there's no kangaroo steaks or possum stew like wot Mum makes. You don't get fed again until noon and by that time all the city boys are buggered because we've been on a 'route march' - geez its only just like walking to the windmill in the back paddock!! This one will kill me brothers Doug and Phil with laughter. I keep getting medals for shootin' - dunno why. The bullseye is as big as a bloody possum's bum and it don't move and it's not firing back at ya like the Johnsons did when our big scrubber bull got into their prize cows before the Ekka last year! All ya gotta do is make yourself comfortable and hit the target - it's a piece of piss!! You don't even load your own cartridges, they comes in little boxes, and ya don't have to steady yourself against the rollbar of the roo shooting truck when you reload! Sometimes ya gotta wrestle with the city boys and I gotta be real careful coz they break easy - it's not like fighting with Doug and Phil and Jack and Boori and Steve and Muzza all at once like we do at home after the muster. Turns out I'm not a bad boxer either and it looks like I'm the best the platoon's got, and I've only been beaten by this one bloke from the Engineers - he's 6 foot 5 and 15 stone and three pick handles across the shoulders and as ya know I'm only 5 foot 7 and eight stone wringin' wet, but I fought him till the other blokes carried me off to the boozer. I can't complain about the Army - tell the boys to get in quick before word gets around how bloody good it is. Your loving daughter, Sheila

Now you are being deliberately obtuse because it's the way this hush money payment was treated, because in doing so trump falsified business records to hide the payments and falsifying business records is illegal and an offence. Read again: – the charge was that Trump worked to falsify and illegally categorise reimbursements to his lawyer to cover up the payment.

I mean.............. The case stems from a "hush money" payment of $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016. Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office allege Trump worked to falsely and illegally categorize reimbursements to his lawyer to cover up the payment. With the help of his former fixer Michael Cohen, Trump would allegedly pay Stormy Daniels $130,000 in 2016 to keep quiet about her story. After Trump became president, prosecutors say, he started reimbursing Cohen for the payment, which he would record in his financial records as legal fees to Cohen. These payments could land Trump in prison. Prosecutors allege that Trump broke the law by falsifying these business records to hide illegal hush-money payments and protect Trump’s chances during the presidential election. The former president faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts last April. The charges carry a maximum of four years in prison. He is a crook who escaped justice, but still a crook!

Jeez........trying to cover up his payment to a hooker by "cooking the books/accounting fraud" is SO much more than a mere "misstep". Reality please...........

No different to the current crooked and compulsive liar Trump (stealing $2.1 million from a charity for example) and his family/contacts. Jared and his wife will be very happy with the "commission" they have received for various property deals, and so it goes on.

Oops a speller there.......he meant corruption surely!!

But wait.........trump pardons drug dealing criminals, so he has a chance that the fat man will help. Then again he is not the right colour!!!

I'm not sure where all of this nonsense attacking you came from, or why, however suffice it to say that I have followed your posts for years and found them to be interesting, because IMO you are a knowledgeable fellow. That you don't suffer fools gladly or condone misinformation posted here, for me is a bonus, so keep on doing what you've always done and keep up the good work.

Can't disagree with your post, however changing laws or making special cases for this tiny minority IMO should really not be entertained. The problem being that you will have, and do have, males competing as females in a female sport, for example. And as for the nonsense about "identifying as", well that's gone too far. Next we will have someone trying to persuade authorities that they identify as a rabbit and therefore are not governed by rules made for humans! It has gotten that stupid.

Well, the orange man has got to look after his fellow billionaires, as has often been posted, so don't be surprised if the rich get richer and the poor........ well you know the rest!

Well I don't see it that way and even though I'm not a Trump supporter, I do like what the brains behind him are doing, and reverting to male and female genders is natural and common sense IMO. When I saw people saying they "identified with....." or "identified as...... " then to me it was a sign that the world had gone, or was going, mad and I was totally against it. There are males and there are females and that has been the way since time immemorial, and reverting to that situation won't erase anybody, but will just stop the nonsense which surrounds this whole DEI/transgender/LGBTQ+/identifying as... Idiocy, and people will carry on just the same as they always have done as in the sane times of yesteryear when all this nonsense was unheard of.

Saddened to hear that Lacessit because up until just recently I was sending around five or six thumb drives to my friend in Australia on which I would copy movies for him, so perhaps things have changed now? When I used to take the little package into the post office they would ask me what was in it and I would hold up my thumb and say "computer" and I posted them without any problem – – – new rules maybe??

Yes I thought the same as you @grumpyoldman with regard to a name change and along with yours, I could suggest something like "Patong happenings" or "Patong, in and around" so let's see what happens. As for your question about the restaurant Churascco, it is in the entrance to the restaurant alley of Jungceylon opposite the pub, "The Irish Times" and I know they have Chilean wines on the menu, but not sure about Argentinian wines although I think they had a Malbec or two on the wine list, which could well have come from Argentina? Well worth a visit if you like good steaks, which I occasionally do, and be prepared to pay just over 1000 baht for a 300 g steak with some French fries, VAT and service charge included. The owner did tell me he had some Wagyu steak available, so I might try that next time, however once a month for a steak like that is fine for me.

But then again, Trump does exactly that and repeatedly says that the election was stolen (or both of them were) repeatedly calls Biden and family, "the Biden crime family" and still asserts that he wrote the book, "The Art of the Deal" amongst other lies that he perpetuates, so just following the Maga playbook and doing what Trump does, so that has to be okay doesn't it! But whilst trump continually spouts lies, what I and others continually post is the truth!!

You poor disillusioned soul, I feel sorry for you and your type because you label anybody who doesn't agree that Trump is the "Saviour" of the US, to be a "leftie" when you know nothing about me or my political leanings. I was never a leftie, as you put it, and voted for the party on the right of the political spectrum. However in your tiny mind, anybody who realises that Trump is a grifter, a compulsive liar, a felon and is also very dumb, is a leftie, when in fact I, like many others, can't stand people like him and think that America deserves better. So I'm not spouting the same old boring crap, I have printed the truth and you obviously don't like it. Get used to hearing it, because you can't change what he has already done and what is already in the record books.

A neurogenic bladder can be one that doesn't operate like it should do, resulting in retained urine and very often a UTI, or it can be a bladder which allows urine to leak out or a bladder which one doesn't have control over. An underactive bladder, which is what I have, means that I cannot pass urine and have to use a catheter daily, and visits to various specialists here and in Bangkok have not found a solution for it. I visited a clinic in the south of Phuket which does do stem cell treatment and I investigated that for my condition, but decided against it because there is no precedent for it actually working for my condition, so it could be a waste of a lot of money. Are there any other folk out there who have a similar condition or have been treated/cured of an underactive bladder caused by a non-functioning detrusor muscle?

Don't like the truth then. Man up and take it on the chin.........trump is what he is and nothing will change that because it is in his nature to be a liar and a grifter and he has proven it time and time again. Accept it.

US tech multibillionaires including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos were given prime positions at Donald Trump’s inauguration today, in an unprecedented demonstration of their power and influence. Be afraid, be very afraid....... Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg are the world’s three richest people, and in addition to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who also attended, their combined fortune sits at just above US$1 trillion ($1.76t), according to Forbes. Their prominent positions on the inauguration stage was particularly notable for Zuckerberg, whom Trump had threatened with life imprisonment just months ago. The Meta chief recently made headlines by brashly aligning his company’s policies with Trump’s worldview, notably by eliminating fact-checking in the United States and relaxing hate speech restrictions on Facebook and Instagram.

Agree with that remark @Patong2, although after nearly getting wiped out by an absolute idiot on a large motorbike driving up the middle-of-the-road when traffic on both sides of the road was at a standstill, and the speed he was going had to be seen to be believed. The slightest movement of a car or another motorbike would have sent him to see Buddha, and to be honest I often think that will be the best place for idiots like this, because if he had an accident, I wouldn't stop to help and I would simply shout, "som nam na" as I drove past. It really made me think if this was the place to be now and I did think about Hua Hin, but recently read a post on the forum which remarked on the number of Russians who now inhabited that part of Thailand and how the whole place had "gone to the dogs" so I gave that one away. There are some redeeming features for me here, and one of them was the restaurant I again went to last night, called, "Churascco" where I had a wonderful Black Angus tenderloin steak. The place was packed and at one time there were people standing outside of the restaurant waiting for a table to come free!! I spoke to the owner and told him how great his food was and how wonderful his staff were, and they are excellent, and he appreciated it. Of course I have my daughter who lives in Phuket town and who is still looking for a job, even after graduating with honours (teaching qualification) from a top university here, so that is another redeeming feature, amongst a few other friends I have in Patong. Jumping around a bit; I have been past the "new, exciting place to be", called "Patongo" on a few occasions during the day and evening and it would appear to be about as popular as a ham sandwich in a synagogue?? Surely the developers and builders of such a place would have done their homework – – but then again this is Thailand! I have been researching treatments for a neurogenic bladder (i.e. it doesn't work) and did find a place in Rawai which seemed promising, using stem cell treatment, but am having second thoughts about that and perhaps I should post on the medical thread for my thoughts on the place and treatment. Also, I seem to be the main poster on this thread at the moment so maybe it needs to close down or to have a name change?? All suggestions welcomed, via the mods of course!

No, just someone who isn't a convicted felon, who is not a multi-bankrupt and has "stiffed" the everyday working man from what they were owed, who is not a grifter and compulsive liar and who is not dumb......surely not too much to ask. So if this is the best that the US can do then god help America.......and the poor citizens who were taken in by his lies and grifting will soon rue the day that they believed him.

Yes, a bottle of red wine a day with my main meal was standard procedure for me, even when I got here 18 years ago, however now I've cut it back to half a bottle per night, followed by a small glass of Portuguese port. I don't suffer in the morning, and maybe it's to do with my genes because my birth father lived to be 88 years old and was a regular pub goer, and my birth mother 84 or thereabouts. In summary, I don't see myself giving up the red wine, and try to stick to the quality wines, even though occasionally I will imbibe on one of the cheaper wines if my evening meal is a spicy/Thai/Indian meal. A little story for you – – around 2002 I did a tour of French vineyards along with a French wine merchant and we were in the cellar, near Beaune, of a wine producer M Bocqanet, tasting some of his wines, and they were delightful. Then an older portly man with the traditional French beret came into the cellar and helped himself to a large glass of wine and lit up a cigarette! When I asked about him, M Bocquanet told me he was his father and at the age of 75 (or was it 78?) was still working in the vineyard and loved his red wine and cigarettes and he looked in "rude health". I know everyone is different, but that gave me some hope for the future!!!!!

Trump campaigned as a populist defender of the American working class, but he has put some of his richest donors in commanding roles in the top reaches of Government. A number will oversee the very industries that produced their fortunes. “These are really rich people,” said Kara Swisher, a journalist who chronicles the tech industry and is a former opinion writer for the New York Times. “As much as they like to have an image of not being spendy, they’re all really spendy. They all have private planes, they all have assistants, they have people who get them the kind of nuts they want.” A few of the billionaires will presumably not need homes in Washington. Charles Kushner, a real estate executive whose companies are worth US$2.9b, according to Forbes, is to live in Paris as the US ambassador to France. Trump pardoned Kushner, a major donor to Trump’s 2024 campaign, in the last days of his first term. In 2004, Kushner pleaded guilty to tax evasion, retaliating against a federal witness and lying to the Federal Election Commission. This is very apt.....even if posted previously. And the poor folk and average working folk fell for it:-

He can't stop lying, but then again it's in his nature.............. · When President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, near Paris, in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true. Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed. · Mr. Trump resisted supporting an official funeral and lowering flags after the death of Senator John McCain of Arizona, a Vietnam War hero whose military service he had disparaged. And Mr. Trump’s assertion on Friday that “I never called John a loser” was belied by video and Twitter recording him doing just that in 2015.