xylophone

As mad as a meat axe and about as popular as a rattlenake in a lucky dip. US politics for you.

It happens a lot here in Patong and I could name quite a few café's and bars that have opened up in place of others that have closed down, and are now in the process of doing the same. Owning a business here as bignok has said is a "dream of theirs" (Thai girls esp) and unfortunately the majority of people who do open small businesses/cafés etc really don't have a clue. For example in my street there are three Italian restaurants which have opened and closed in fairly quick succession, four bars which have done the same, likewise a couple of cafés and I could probably name another three bars which will be on the market very shortly. Suffice it to say that all of these "small businesses" had one thing in common – – a Thai woman who wanted to own her own business, and a farang who was willing to back her. Having said all that, there are some profitable bars and restaurants here, but the small ones in the out of the way places are the ones which turnover quite frequently, and is not hard to see why.

I have to agree with that comment above, although I have been a United supporter since the mid-1950s, and just to add that, although I am a supporter of a particular team, I am also a supporter of good football, no matter who plays it and that is paramount for me. City have been playing the best football I have ever seen in the UK, and I am truly worried about the FA Cup final between City and United, because I'm not sure that United can live with the excellent style of football that City are playing at the moment.......time will tell.

I'm with 3BB and it seems strange that IvorBiggun2 has been able to download it on TBP?? Will try a few more avenues, and thanks for your help.

Thanks Will, but tried to download the movie, "Millers Crossing" on both TPB and RGBG and it said I needed a VPN to do so and gave me 3 VPN options....will try Lime tomorrow. Ta.

A question please for all of you movie buffs who are au fait (and then some) with the downloading process....... I usually download my movies from 1337x.to but occasionally they don't have what I want, even in the archives, so I have to go to some others, and in a huge percentage of cases, they need you to download a VPN in order to access the movie. I have found ways around it before, but it looks like they've been "closed", so here's the question: – "I have already got the Nord VPN installed on my other laptop and can transfer it to the one I use for the downloads, and I did do that, but how do I get it be recognised by the download site?" Any tips or info would be most welcome.

There has been some good information posted on this thread, and your decision to go to the doctor at his clinic to get it signed is very wise indeed. I say this because he will also have a stamp, which whether it is needed or not, is always good to have. I say this from experience because I have two POL forms sent from different countries, one from the UK and one from New Zealand. Also, I send mine back to the countries concerned using Thai registered post, and it costs me about 120 baht. Good luck and no need to worry.

I don't have a problem with that as it stands, however there are procedures for taking blood pressure and I've never seen them followed in any of my visits to the hospital. In fact on one occasion I suggested to the nurse that the machine needed recalibrating, if indeed it had ever been calibrated in it's life, because it gave an abnormally high blood pressure for me? She didn't know what I was talking about of course, so I went to the ENT room next door (just a few metres away) and got my blood pressure taken then by another machine and it was fairly normal, far lower than the previous reading, and I showed it to her and there was a blank look on her face!

I agree with you, and I always wonder why they bother to take my blood pressure, this especially when I have just walked a few hundred metres across the car park and up the stairs and have only been seated for a couple of minutes, when the nurse comes over and proceeds to take my blood pressure whilst she is talking to me?? It's a nonsense and is added to the bill, even if I wave them away and say I don't want it. Furthermore I remember for some strange reason that my blood pressure was very high, much higher than normal and nothing was said about that. So what's the point in taking it?

I have to say the same about the Bangkok Hospital Phuket dental department, which is an integral part of the hospital, and the dentist I saw there, Dr Supachai was very good indeed, although the whole procedure was expensive, and painful at times (as I hate deep injections) but he did a good job, so far anyway! As others have said, there are good, average and indifferent doctors and practitioners throughout Thailand, and as far as dentists go, I've been fairly lucky, whereas urologists, not so much.

"He wrongly claimed that U.S. gasoline prices reached $9 under Biden. The highest weekly average price under Biden was about $5 in June 2022." Q.E.D.

They seem like nice boys (as one English comedian used to say).

Yes, and that's my point about licenses here and I loved your "barefaced cheek" quip. Actually something similar happened here when I first arrived and I brought with me from NZ an International Driving Permit (I think that's what they were called) and put it under the seat of my motorbike and forgot all about it! About three years later I was stopped at a police checkpoint at the end of Nanai Road and asked to present my license, and there was another farang guy in front of me being dealt with by a second BIB who was asked the same thing. I got my Driving Permit out and realised that it had expired a couple of years earlier and I was a little worried about this until the policeman took it from me and walked over to the other guy and in fairly good English said, "this is what you should have". He didn't look at the date or anything, or perhaps he didn't understand it, however he gave it back to me and sent me on my way! For the record I did eventually get a Thai driving licence for both motorbike and car. PS. Forgot to add that I thought giving the Border Official your gas bill was "genious".

Pure unadulterated nonsense. The time it takes for a coffee to cool down from hot to drinkable is minutes, mainly because the cup absorbs some of the heat. Secondly whoever made the comment that staff shouldn't have to smile at customers obviously has not run a business which depends on customers and repeat business, and just about every service organisation deems this to be part of "excellent customer service". Having said all that, I agree with @steven100and on that note, I have visited both the recently reopened Starbucks in Patong (Jungceylon) and the Coffee Club and not only is the service abysmal, the food is mostly grim, and the amount of times I have received the, "no hab" from staff when I have asked for pepper or indeed "equal" (sweetener) is unbelievable and when I ask them if they can order some from Bangkok for the next time I visit, I get a blank stare and they walk away – – and the result is: – I don't go there anymore!

I posted this on a similar topic here.............. A poster said; "Easy, if you want to rent a motorcycle you have to provide a valid motorcycle licence? No licence, no rent". That's how it should be, but in a country where the baht rules and one can buy one's way out of just about any situation with a handful of currency, then that won't work, sadly. In addition, many of the BIB can't read English or other languages and wouldn't really know what they were looking at; i.e. the licence could have expired years ago, but they wouldn't be able to read it anyway! There has to be a better/more enforceable way.

That's how it should be, but in a country where the baht rules and one can buy one's way out of just about any situation with a handful of currency, then that won't work, sadly. In addition, many of the BIB can't read English or other languages and wouldn't really know what they were looking at; i.e. the licence could have expired years ago, but they wouldn't be able to read it anyway! There has to be a better/more enforceable way.

Now that is a load of hogwash, and you know it, because the actual purpose of a "Fact Check" is just that, what trump says is compared to the facts, and the majority of the time they don't match at all, mainly because he is a compulsive liar. However with a view such as that which you stated, it becomes clear why the MAGA tribe don't know the truth from lies, because they don't want to, so settling for trumps lies suits their agenda. Such a sad group of cultists.

OOPS......sorry about that!! The poster has (I think) a similar name to you......my bad, and I hope the Xatral XL is working for you. All the best.

I can sympathise with you, because as far back as I can remember I never had the sort of stream which one could envy, and standing next to someone in the toilet who was "peeing like a racehorse" made me very aware of my condition. Now, some 55 years later my bladder has stopped working and like @MJCM on this thread, I have to use a catheter every night, but if I'm lucky during the daytime I might get a dribble to ease the pressure. Now to get onto the point – – many of the medications mentioned on this thread are to deal with BPH/enlarged prostate, so as that doesn't seem to be your problem, I don't know how much use they would be to you. Has your urologist recommended any medicine for your condition? As an aside, my urologist gave me Bethanechol tablets which were supposed to "stimulate" my bladder – – but all to no avail I am afraid, however may well be worth asking your urologist about these?

Just another thought, a guy I know sold his house by putting a large for sale "flag" (large banner) on the outside of his fence and he got quite a few enquiries from that, and eventually sold it that way. Good luck.

"If it comes down to biden vs Trump, I bet Trump takes the cake home". Yes you are quite right, trump would take the "take-home" for the amount of lies told, no doubt about that.

Lots of truths in your post, as I have bought and sold a couple of houses here and have friends in the real estate business, and for them it's mainly about getting a listing, whether or not they have a firm buyer. As far as I can recall, the commission these days is around 5% (if you're lucky) however I introduced a real estate guy I know to a friend of mine when he was selling his apartment, and I left them to it because I didn't want to be seen to be "part of the deal", which I wasn't. However when I telephoned my friend to see how he got on, he wasn't going to take it any further because the agent wanted 10% commission!! I do know friends you have sold items on Facebook, as well as one who has rented two large houses via that medium, so it's worth a try and costs nothing but time.

The link provided by another poster, which listed the "fact checks" on trumps speech should be enough to convince any sane person that trump lies, but it would seem that once trumpies have joined the cult and gone down the rabbit hole, they can't see just how much of a low rent circus clown trump is. He will always lie, it's what he does best and he knows that his supporters like to hear his lies, although the problem being that they are not intelligent enough to see them for what they are, and this post fits that category. Simply unbelievable that this huckster can fool so many people, but then again there has to be some inherent problem within these people to want to believe him??

I did and he is a compulsive liar and he cannot change that. And how you can deny that he is a liar, when the fact checks are plain for all to see, and they can be backed up, shows so much about you and other trump fans......so sad.

You make a good point Tug, because you are quite right, trump doesn't debate, he just shouts out the same rubbish that he has memorised over the years – – so here's something to consider: – if he were ever asked a question out of the blue which he hadn't memorised over and over again, which he does with his lies, I doubt very much whether he could answer if it required any sort of critical thinking. He is a huckster and low rent showman, and he appeals to his audience, because of that.