xylophone

I believe we also need someone who can take control of the midfield, and run it, and although Eriksson and Fernandes are good players, they don't control or dominate the midfield and that is something we have missed for quite some time. Do that and get a goalscorer and we will be up and running again. I remember just a few short years ago when Manchester United's name was linked to Haarland and Kevin de Bruyne, both superb players whom I thought we should have snapped up, but we didn't – – now look where they are.

Good luck Simon and please post the outcome!

Garner I agree with, but Chong no.

Australian movie???? Also looks like Sam Neill in it?

Not sure that I understand that – – translation please??

I watched a British made thriller last night called, "I Came By" and it was pretty good, although I had to look online to get the ending explained, because I didn't think it was that clear, but then again, perhaps that's just me!!!

But Edward Woodward would!

I have had a couple of colonoscopies here in Thailand at Bangkok Phuket Hospital and have had absolutely no problem whatsoever with the treatment or the hospital care, so go ahead and book an appointment somewhere close to you, and rest easy it's a simple and non-painful procedure.

Only the dumb ones..........

The rule of law has to be applied and if the orange clown is charged and jailed, then so be it. There is no tough call, because the "threat of riots" is basically saying that mob rule will succeed against what up until now has been a true democracy. So hopefully he will be charged/jailed and what happens after that will be upon the rioters........democracy should never be held to ransom.

I downloaded and watched a new movie last night called, "Vesper" and despite the fact it could have turned out into something special, IMO, that didn't happen! However I did manage to watch it through until the end, although I wouldn't recommend it to anybody, but as we all know, "different strokes for different folks" so others may well find it okay.

I think I watched this over 10 years ago???

I'm totally on your side with this and it amazes/annoys me to think that there are people on this thread and others on AN who seriously believe the election was fraudulent, despite no evidence, no faulty voting machines, no sackfuls of "lost" votes and every case they have taken to court has been thrown out through – – yes you've got it; lack of evidence! But that is still not enough to convince those who have been sucked in by this huckster, that maybe, just maybe the electoral system which has been operating successfully for yonks, and has been checked, and checked is 100% okay, it's only the minds of the Kool-Aid believers that are faulty, and some.

I think that's the main battle cry of the trump supporters (the stolen bit) and it's beyond belief that over 70% of Republicans don't think that Biden is the legitimate president! It has always been said that trumps target audience is the poorly educated, but I didn't realise just how many there were in the US – – including some in the Senate.

So sad if this is the case, because the USA will have sunk lower than could ever be imagined, goaded and guided by the hands of a dumb pathological liar, narcissist and thief. Perhaps it says more about the USA than could ever be expressed here or elsewhere for that matter.

Not a tactical one though, because since day one of this invasion, most of it has been disastrous, and now he is pushing new conscripts out into battle with very little to no training, poorly equipped and pushing back on their forced enrolment in this fiasco. Maybe I should rewrite your heading thus: – "Vladimir Putin is a corrupt idiot, with visions of grandeur".

Very applicable, and it's a saying I'd always loved in the past, but had forgotten about, and I remember thinking it was very similar to a quote from the English philosopher, John Ruskin. So very true though.

Fucidin is available in large tubes and is not expensive.

Coming Alive, Coming Alive, ah, ah, ah, ah (apologies to the Bee Gees for rearranging their "Staying Alive" lyrics!). Not the usual Bangla stuff, but other events around the place........a trip along the Beach Road at 5 PM or thereabouts highlighted a lot of activity with many of the shops and restaurants alive and well and touting their wares, and the amount of cars, motorbikes and tuk tuks around the place, accompanied by a fair amount of foot traffic, suggested things were on the up and up. Looking up Bangla, even that had a smattering of people already in the bars, with a few walkers milling around as well. Many more motorbikes parked outside of Big C, and across the road, and the Starbucks attached to Jungceylon had a couple of handfuls of customers; and as regards Jungceylon, I was informed by an employee of Power Buy in Central that he thought they would be reopening in November! A general drive around Patong over the last couple of days has shown that this activity is the norm, that is, apart from the places which are still closed and look like they will never open again, for instance those small shops in Rat-u-thid, many of which have been partly demolished and I guess the restaurant the "Lucky 13" wasn't that lucky after all as it is closed and in a state of disrepair. I did mention an Italian restaurant not far from me in Nanai which I thought had closed "temporarily" (for the holidays?) However that looks to be totally devoid of any signs of life and whatever was left standing has now been stripped out, so closed down! With that are some signs of hope, although to be honest I don't give some of them much hope........for example, opposite the junction of Soi Banzaan and Soi Nanai there was a type of Italian sandwich bar which never did much business, and being that there is nowhere to park, and it's not really "foot traffic friendly", it's not surprising it closed. However some hopeful punter has decided to open a bar in that space, which is hardly big enough to "swing a cat" as the saying goes, so I believe it will go the same way as "Le Drinkeria" – – time will tell. Following on from that, it is in a row of establishments, which already has six or seven bars in about a 50 m stretch, so custom will be at a premium! I did say that this wasn't the usual Bangla stuff, however I did go out with some friends on Saturday night and did the usual dining stuff and ended up at Suzie Wong's again, and was there at the right time to see a seductive "towel routine" whereby the towels were partly removed at times, and I have to feel sorry for one of the girls, because I think she must have had a nasty accident when she was younger and fallen on an axe, because she had acquired a nasty gash, the poor girl!!!! I'll get my coat................

Thank you for the compliment @JetsetBkk and I have tried to be a good citizen since I've been here, helping out a few Thai families and Thai folk along the way (including a few farangs), as well as unofficially adopting my ex girlfriend's daughter and putting her through high school and university, which I'm still doing, and of course staying out of trouble. Perhaps they sense an element of "fear/trepidation" in me when I visit them and they play on that, especially after the time when they tried to charge me for a transfer of information to a new passport, and I questioned it, so they put me through the hoops for a couple of days. Anyway as I said in my previous post I'm going to give it another try, and use the agent as a backup if necessary. Today is the day of my 90 day report, which I will do at Patong and I've never had a problem there, simply in and out within a couple of minutes – – – if only they would do retirement extensions at that office, then I would be delighted.

Pleased to hear that, however that's not been my experience as you will have seen from my post a couple of days ago, nor the experience of my good friend here who has just today used an agent and everything went smoothly. Yes, I can only think that it is bad luck, both on my behalf and the same with my friend, and I have been renewing my extension of stay since 2007. You did mention that "every immigration office around Thailand has an interpretation of rules" and I think that's very much the case here as I believe I've just got to the bottom of why my friend was refused his extension of stay, even though he had 800K in the bank which had been there for years – – – – – you may recall that when the money in the bank scenario and the monthly remittance of 65K, along with a letter from the embassy, were in play, that it was reported from some I/Os that the 800K in the bank had to be in an accessible account, and not a long-term deposit account, whereas others just accepted the 800K irrespective of what type of account it was in. My friend had the 800k in the bank in a four-year deposit account BUT he was able to access/withdraw that at any time provided he waived the interest earned, i.e. the bank did not pay it, so he thought he was safe, but not here in Phuket at that time. I can only assume that this particular moment in time that this was the case. Thank you for your good wishes with regard to my renewal of extension, and I have found a great workaround: – I will complete the necessary paperwork, get the statements and letter from the bank and trundle off to immigration a few days early just to give me some leeway. If it all goes smoothly then I will be overjoyed, however if they manage to find a problem, whether it be real or manufactured, then I will simply leave the I/O and come back to Patong and use an agent – – sorted!!!!

Unfortunately Phuket has its own set of rules and charges Jim, just as others have found out, so I will make my decision in a couple of days.

Noticed that two very good series are back on BBC iPlayer; "Wolf Hall" and "Versailles" so will watch them again as quality like these two productions is so hard to find these days.

I have just been talking to this friend of mine, because my retirement extension date is fast looming, as is his, and he is going to see his agent tomorrow to see how much it will cost him, even though he has had the 800k in the bank for years, so I quizzed him further on this............. When he was ordered out of the immigration office, he had given the officer the complete year statement from his Kasikorn Bank, showing over 800 K, untouched, in that account and he had taken along his normal bank book, plus all the normal paperwork, which the officer then perused. My friend had been transferring 65k per month into his account, which he topped up as spending money, and the officer saw that one month he hadn't bought that 65 K into the country and quizzed him about it, to which my friend pointed out that he had more than the 800 K requirement in the bank anyway, but the I/O wouldn't have any of it and said that because he had missed a month it wasn't acceptable. This friend pointed out to the officer that he had complied with the requirement to have 800 K in the bank and that superseded the 65K per month previous requirement, but the I/O became angry and ordered him out of the office, and as I have said previously he then used an agent. Onto my case, the agent I spoke to requires 15,000 baht provided all of my paperwork is in order, however I have to go to immigration (which I was hoping not to have to do) to get my photograph taken, and the lady said I would be in and out in a matter of minutes and they would have my passport ready the next day. I explained that I would rather not have to go to immigration and explained that they were not "nice people to deal with", and to my surprise this Thai person said that more and more farangs were having problems in that regard, and in her opinion the I/O's were just looking for ways to be able to make life difficult so that an agent had to be used, and they would get a cut of the cost of the agent. So a Thai agent admitted that us poor farangs were getting a rough deal, and she quoted several other instances! I'm still giving the agent route some thought and I will see what my friend says after his meeting with the agent tomorrow. There is a Post Script to this, inasmuch as on another occasion the I/O accused him of working in the country and was adamant that this was the case, when in fact it wasn't as he has never worked in this country, so either he has been desperately unlucky or he's got one of those guilty faces!!!!! Or they see him as an "easy touch"?

You must have missed a key element of my previous post, in which I specifically said I don't have any anger or venom towards the orange clown, that is something that you mistakenly believe. However I will constantly regurgitate the truth about him and his crooked cohorts, mainly because he and they spew the divisive hatefulness which has split the country. So if you don't like what I'm posting, then don't read my posts. In which case you won't have to worry about your cast-iron stomach!