xylophone

I would agree with that comment, and as I've already posted, the slow start seems to have put a couple of posters off, but sticking with it is well worth the effort.

I don't know whether it's old age or the hot weather, but I don't feel inclined to go out much at all these days, either during the daytime or the evening for that matter! However the couple of times that I have ventured out over the last few days in order to get some shopping, I have noticed a severe decline in the tourists here, and once where Big C was pretty crowded with tourists, and Russian accents could be heard everywhere, now that's not the case, but never fear, the Chinese have arrived. Even before I had spotted the Chinese contingent, I bumped into a farang with his wife and young child all of them wearing masks, so my question was is there a new outbreak of which I'm not aware – – his response was that the bloody Chinese have come back and will be bringing with them all sorts of nasties, so he was taking no chances!!!! Speaking to him and other friends with regards to this, it would appear that the Chinese are about as popular as a rattlesnake in a lucky dip! I often wonder what they live on back in China, because just about every shopping trolley I see here, being pushed around by Chinese, is full of dried noodles, dried fruit, dried this and dried that, along with packets of dried stuff that doesn't look at all appetising – – yet they supposedly live to a ripe old age?? Jungceylon is coming along and I must take a good look round as soon as the demolition and rebuilding work has completely finished, and I sincerely hope that there is a "Subway" in there somewhere, because it serves up far better fare than Starbucks which now seems to major in sweet, sticky, waistline expanding rubbish. I notice that the "Long-time Bar" (adjoining the Rock Bar) is being demolished and the French guy who leased it was standing outside of it looking at what was going on, so he is either overseeing a major rebuild, or complete demolition? Whatever the case, I think it suffered from the fact that the "Rock Bar" was opened right next door to it. On top of that, I noticed that several bars just don't open any more, so perhaps the owners have gone back home, wherever that is, to see out the low season. Having said that, the owners of the two small bars attached to the road side of the Makro building are hanging on, despite just one or two beer drinkers per night, with one of the lady owners sitting behind her bar looking out forlornly, and I know she only recently leased this from a guy who wanted to sell it because it wasn't doing very well, and guess what........things haven't changed. As was recently mentioned by @Patong2, the roof in part of the recreation area of the Chang Hotel which had previously partly collapsed, has now completely done so and it looks a mess, and some. The owner must be in severe financial difficulties to let a huge building like this disintegrate, not to mention the large hotel next to it being empty and looking run down. I do think that this low season is going to be one hell of a difficult season for many of the businesses here, just when they thought that they were over the Covid lock downs, so perhaps more hard times ahead for many.

I've been to Da Nang and found it very pleasant, with the people being extremely friendly and many of them can speak good English. Also travelled to the little, supposedly picturesque fishing village a few kilometres south because it's supposed to be a tourist attraction, however it was so full of tourists that I didn't find it attractive at all! The beach at Dan Nang was not that appealing, however I'm not a beach lover anyway. There was some nightlife which was quite interesting and I liked the Vietnamese cuisine, and also found a superb and not expensive Italian restaurant, with some excellent food and when I asked the owner if the chef was Italian, he said that he was Vietnamese and trained by an Italian chef – – whatever the case, the food was great. I could well visit again, as I have got a friend coming over from Australia, and would like to see a little more of it.

Biden has been nowhere near this. Cut the conspiracy theories unless you can link to evidence other than mere accusations.. I'm afraid they can't help themselves @ozimoron, I think it's something genetic that they can't overcome and one only has to look at MTG to see that.

Sad, so very sad.

It matters not how many times you and other posters like you have reiterated this, as well as a few other reasons why this is a serious offence, and for trump to plead "not guilty" to the charges laid out against him, is plainly stupid. So here we have a man, an ex-president, who took documents (many classified and containing potentially damning information to the US and other countries) not belonging to him and stored them in various rooms in Mar-a-Lago, when law clearly dictates that they should have been handed over to the NARA. The PRA requires that all records created by Presidents (and Vice-Presidents) be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at the end of their administrations – – no arguments, no pleading, no stalling YET trump supporters keep finding arguments against what is clearly a plain and straightforward law...... The PRA makes clear that, upon the conclusion of the President’s term in office, NARA assumes responsibility for the custody, control, preservation of, and access to the records of a President. 44 U.S.C. 2203(g)(1). The PRA makes the legal status of Presidential records clear and unambiguous, providing that the United States reserves and retains “complete ownership, possession, and control of Presidential records.” 44 U.S.C. 2202. There is no history, practice, or provision in law for presidents to take official records with them when they leave office to sort through. What's going on at the moment clearly deserves a place in a "Dumb and Dumber" movie.

Fear not, avid movie watcher, because that which I quoted as the ending has nothing whatsoever to do with the main movie, and it looks just like what it is, an add-on!

Even the people standing either side of her/him look embarrassed!

Although I'm not a trump supporter, far from it in fact, I would have to say that the allegation by this woman seems a bit flimsy to me – – no witnesses, unsure of the date on which it happened and well over 25 years since it supposedly took place. Will be interesting to see how this pans out, but I think the slippery orange one may well duck this.

Thanks for the recommendation on this movie, and I watched it last night, I thought it was very good although IMO it started off a little confusing, but I soon got into it and found it quite intriguing, especially as it is based on a true story. Meryl Streep was superb in it and probably the standout actor throughout, although Hanks went through it well. As you've probably gathered, it was about the Washington Post and a decision to publish certain documents. The movie ends with some flashlights being seen in the Watergate building........

It's been a long time since I saw the movie, "The Sixth Sense" and although I remembered parts of it, not much really, so I downloaded it last night and watched it. What struck me this time round was that it was a very, very clever movie and the acting by Haley Joel Osment was superb, and the scene at the end when he was in the car with his mother, Toni Colette, was a bit of a tearjerker. IMO, well worth a second viewing.

I have to say that my experience here with hospitals is mixed/varied, ranging from the treatment received in the public and private hospitals (as is to be expected). Examples here would be my ex-girlfriend's mother who had mouth cancer and who was being treated at a hospital in Phitsanulok, and when I say treated, it was a visit to the hospital, painkillers dispensed and then sent home, which happened every month until she died. No other treatment was offered or available. A similar thing happened to my ex-girlfriend's brother here in Patong, who developed a very large lump in his throat, which started off about the size of a ping-pong ball and grew to about the size of a tennis ball, making it very difficult for him to eat/swallow, hence he lost a lot of weight and didn't look well at all. The treatment given to him by the local government hospital was iodine tablets, which didn't seem to do much good at all and he was getting more sick by the week, so I decided to take some action and took him along to the Bangkok Phuket hospital and saw a specialist there who said she would need to take a biopsy and would advise further steps from thereon in. It was a tumour and it was benign, and she said she could operate at a cost of 120,000 baht, which I agreed to and footed the bill, and he has been healthy ever since and that was about 12 years ago. My main worry was that the government hospital would keep supplying him with tablets until the day he died, which didn't seem too far away before I took some action. Trying to balance this out somewhat, I have had good treatment at Bangkok Phuket hospital, even though the urologists there are sadly lacking in knowledge and experience IMO as compared to others I have seen. Staying on the "balancing" aspect, my father in the UK was diagnosed with throat cancer and when it became obvious that it was incurable and that he was going to die, he (actually his wife) was given some very strong painkillers to administer, before being sent home, in effect to die, and looking back, there was probably nothing else that could be done, and it doesn't seem that different from what often happens here in such cases. I agree with the posts here which state that in the case of terminally ill patients, where not a lot can be done other than administering painkillers, patients can be sent home to die with some dignity in the care of their relatives/families, and I'm not sure that the treatment for terminally ill patients differs greatly between, for example, the UK and here.

Another trait we have in common!! You stay well too ????.

I like that, because I am the same as you by the looks of things, and I always remember something that my first and only wife (in the UK) shouted at me as we were getting divorced....... "you will end up being a lonely old man", to which I replied, "alone, maybe, but never lonely", and that's one thing she couldn't understand. I more or less had to bring myself up and fend for myself from a very early age, for reasons I won't go into here, so I became very independent and that has stayed with me, and although I am alone I'm not unhappy, and I still have farang friends whom I speak to on a fairly regular basis, and occasionally like to meet up for something to eat and a wander around the nightspots here. Luckily, one friend and his Thai partner own a very lovely restaurant, so that is a reasonably frequent meeting place. In addition I have made friends with various Thai folk here and especially Thai women who own massage shops, as I do like a bona fide massage (lots of old football injuries to contend with) and I do like to give them some business by frequenting them for a manicure or pedicure or even a foot massage. In addition I will often ask what they are intending to eat that evening, and then give them a few hundred baht to be able to buy what they want. Although they like Thai food, they are not averse to large pizza from across the road, which I will happily pay for. I try to make friends with just about everybody with whom I interact, and that includes some of the lovely ladies who work in the supermarket here, who always call out to me when I am wandering around doing my stuff, and give me a big smile and a wave. The only downside I have found is the fact that one particular farang will ask for money by way of a loan to see him through, and I did do this until I put a stop to it, saying that I was not going to be his fallback banker. I am lucky in as much as when I split up with my Thai girlfriend and her 7 yr old daughter, we stayed friends, and indeed I financed them for quite a few years, and I still do for the daughter, whom I have unofficially adopted, and am putting through university, where hopefully she will become a teacher. We are in almost daily contact and I think the world of this beautiful and bright young lady, and she considers me her "real" father. I think there are people in this world like me and Laccessit, and probably many others, who are quite comfortable being on their own, but for others who don't feel the same, then getting out and making new friends and acquaintances has to be a priority.

I will give you my genuine opinion, formed after many, many years of flying between continents.............I never thought about the weight problem until I boarded a United Airways flight between Los Angeles and Auckland (at least I think it was Los Angeles!). I was sat next to an extraordinarily obese man, and he could hardly fit into his seat; he was that large that he had to put his left arm in the seat next to him, which was mine, in addition to having the fat from his enormous waist and chest overlapping into my seat space, so for the whole journey I was being almost smothered by this obese thing, and it was most uncomfortable, but unfortunately the flight was full and I had to put up with it. Now being older and wiser, were it to happen again I would request a seat change and make damn sure that I got one!

On a separate note, I have never downloaded an H265 setting movie because I thought it wouldn't work on my TV?? However I downloaded the movie I have just posted about through my normal qBitTorrent and then transferred it to a USB which I played through VLC to my TV, and it worked just fine, so I won't be afraid to seek those out in future if I have to. Nice to know!

I have just watched this series and wasn't overly impressed with it, although I could say that it was "okay"! I don't know if it was me or the loose storyline, but I never got to find out what the businessmen in the series actually did, especially one who had ties with a football club? Also, I never did understand what the old guy who was dying in his bed (in hospital) actually did and why there was a great deal of money supposedly involved in a potential payoff. I stuck with it until the end and retired to my bed, not really understanding what I had watched!

I wouldn't be too quick sign up for Muslim membership on account of the "76 virgins" reward in your afterlife, because as one witty poster has previously said, "it has been discovered that there was a typo in the original text, and it should have read, 76 Vegans".????

Is that a derogatory Chinese word??????

Miss out "the hunk" bit and I would believe it! And as for being cantankerous, surely not you......????

Always...........a smile costs nothing and can make someone's day.

Hope so❗???????????? Ah, a post that echoes my sentiments entirely. No civil war if the crooked narcissist isn't around to incite one. If that does happen, I wonder what the trumpy halfwits will do then as regards a leader, because there doesn't appear to be anybody else in the wings that really deserves to be president of the USA and who has half a brain.

Just send me the bill, was the cry from the Chinese!!