Nigel Garvie

8 hours ago, jimmycabs said:

To register for a repatriation flight , you must complete the registration online, from a link on their website. Go to Thaiembassy.org, scroll down and choose the Uk as your country, there Will be two links, left is for English, right is for Thai, when you get to the homepage, on the news feed on the right hand side there will be a link to repatriation flights, giving full details of how to register and requirements for the embassy. There were three flights released for August which are all fully booked, the flights are made up of , 300 Thais and 50 Europeans. They will release more flights in September, with Thai airways, the cost is £698 one way.

The requirements for Thais are less exhaustive than Europeans travelling, on arrival they will be required to spend two weeks in state quarantine. My mate who was on last Sunday’s flight told me he asked some Thais on the flight where they would be spending their quarantine time, and none had been told where they were going. Hope this is of some help, good luck ????

 

Many thanks Jimmy and others who have given their helpful advice. Much appreciated.

23 minutes ago, howerde said:

Currently, this is the only way out of UK to Thailand,  there were onlt 2 flights in Jul and 3 in Aug sept is not known yet, dont bother phoning, you need to email them with the documents they want and then wait, the did have a list where you could register for a flight, good luck

http://www.thaiembassy.org/london/en/services/7742/119247-Requirements-for-Certificate-of-Entry-during-trave.html

Thanks for the help. As usual it is a bit of a mess. One of the documents is "Fit to fly". Seems like not much point in paying for one now, and having to get another a few days before you depart! Fortunately it is more easy for her I guess, as I can't travel till later in the year. 

21 minutes ago, maqui said:

2 is 1, my question was not about the visa, Covid test certificate, etc. My question was about waiting times for getting on a flight after meeting all the requirements.

Apologies for posting this on two threads, but this one I discovered was more relevant.

"My Thai partner and I have been back in Scotland for 6 weeks, but she has to return to CM for work etc soon. Her KLM return flight was cancelled, and we are also told the only option is a repatriation flight. Endless attempts to contact the Thai embassy in London have failed. The phone menu options just lead you in circles, clearly like so many of them in business this was written by a sadist.

If anyone can offer any help or advice about how we should tackle this (Whilst we still retain some sanity!) I/we would be very grateful."

1 hour ago, lopburi3 said:

The only option at this time is reparation flights using Embassy as pax flights are still not allowed into Thailand.  Yes it has to be paid for and upon arrival there will be 2 weeks in quarantine.  Have not seen any report of covid transmission in Thai reparation quarantine.  The covid has been picked up prior or during travel.  If she waits for normal flights what will be required is not known at this time.

Thanks, lopburi3 and Petrogas for raising this issue.

My Thai partner and I have been back in Scotland for 6 weeks, but she has to return to CM for work etc soon. Her KLM return flight was cancelled, and we are also told the only option is a repatriation flight. Endless attempts to contact the Thai embassy in London have failed. The phone menu options just lead you in circles, clearly like so many of them in business this was written by a sadist.

If anyone can offer any help or advice about how we should tackle this (Whilst we still retain some sanity!) I/we would be very grateful.

5 hours ago, Rookiescot said:

I have said for years that anyone who wants to be a politician should be barred from being a politician.

Parliaments should be filled with intellectuals and professionals from all walks of life.

Their names are drawn from a list and they have to serve one year with no other outside interests.

But like jury duty.  

Absolutely, I have been saying the same myself for a long time. Ambition, particularly ruthless ambition, should immediately disqualify you from top posts in Government and in other walks of life. The problem is that, again and again, we see people elected, or who seize power, and have no idea what to do with it when they have it. Their only motivation was to actually be in power. Boris is a good example, great for a few (Often laughable) headline ideas like a bridge to Ireland, but absolutely useless when it comes to detail. 

Did you hear what happened to Fred?...........he got lifted off the street and forced to be Home Secretary. He is totally distraught, he only wanted to carry on his job as a Social Worker!  ????

It is impossible to imagine how anyone could do any worse than the current bunch of completely unqualified, utter inadequates.

It looks like they have simply resorted to lining their own pockets, and those of their friends, because that's the only world they ever knew. Thailand could give them no lessons in corruption. 

1 hour ago, bkk6060 said:

Boy, lets hope there is a vaccine.

Still waiting for HIV, Herpes, etc.

And Hepatitis C keeps mutating they cannot find a vaccine.

If Covid keeps changing along the way, who knows.

It's a sound post. Molecular level bio-chemistry has made blistering advances in the last 10 years, but there is still a huge journey to travel there. The more we know the more incredibly complex it becomes. Some of the layman's glib solutions - here and elsewhere - just don't take this complexity into account. 

I remain optimistic on the vaccine front though. There are two leading reasons why the common cold virus has no vaccines, firstly because it is relatively harmless, and secondly because like flu it comes in so many varieties. The financial imperative for the Pharma industries is not there.

Covid -19, unless people are utterly deluded, is much more serious. There is a huge investment in research here now. HIV, Herpes, Hep C, the common cold, flu, etc, don't bring the strongest economies in the world grinding to a halt. If we just let it run it's course there will be millions and millions of deaths. Even our largely pathetic bunch of national leaders don't want that much blood on their hands, given the idea that "Saving the economy" by letting the pandemic roll is just a theory.

Tragically we are in for a long deep recession. Social unrest is also on the cards, as I cannot see taxes from the young going on supporting the boomers in the style they feel entitled to.

3 verses from a song about the Great Depression.  Sobering.

Blind Alfred Reed. 1929. 

There once was a time when everything was cheap,  now prices gonna make a poor man weep.
When we pay our grocery bill, we just feel like making our will, 

Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live.

I remember when dry goods were cheap as dirt, we could take two bits and buy a dandy shirt.

Now we pay three bucks or more, get a shirt that another man wore,

Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live.

Most all preachers preach for gold and not for souls, that's what keeps a poor man in a hole.
We can hardly get our breath, taxed and schooled and preached to death, 

Tell me how can a poor man stand such times and live.

4 hours ago, WorriedNoodle said:

On the subject of war ming:-

What do you give a Chinese, Glasgow Rangers supporter for Xmas?............

An orange wok

On 8/5/2020 at 5:59 AM, ballpoint said:

Stevie Wonder is playing his 1st ever gig in China and the place is packed to the rafters.

In a bid to break the ice, he asks if anyone has a request. One chap jumps out of his seat in the 1st row and shouts at the top of his voice, "Play a jazz chord! Play a jazz chord!" Amazed that this guy knows about the jazz influences in Stevie's career, the blind impresario starts to play an ‘e’ minor scale and then goes into a difficult jazz melody for about 10 minutes.
When he finishes the whole place goes wild.

The chap jumps out of his seat again and shouts "No, no, play a jazz chord, play a jazz chord". A bit cheesed off by this, Stevie, being the professional he is, dives straight in to a jazz improvisation with his band and really tears the place apart.
The crowd go ballistic with this impromptu show of his musical expertise, but still the little Chinese man jumps up again and shouts "No, no. Play a jazz chord, play a jazz chord".

Stevie is really pigged off now that this chap doesn't seem to appreciate his playing ability and shouts to him from the stage,
"OK smart @rse, you get up here and do it".

The little bloke climbs onto the stage, takes hold of the mike and starts to sing...
"A jazz chord to say, I ruv you..."

Yes, well known among musicians that one. Here's a couple more.

What is the difference between a Rock musician and a Jazz musician.

A Rock musician plays 3 chords to thousands of people, and a jazz musician plays thousands of......................

A banjo player and a bodhran player fall of a cliff at exactly the same time, which one hits the bottom first?

..............Does it matter?

7 hours ago, RuamRudy said:

In the interest of balance, I thought I might point out that there is a major schism emerging within the SNP at this very moment.

 

Joanna Cherry, held by many to be a very capable and likeable MP, had previously indicated her intention to run for Ruth Davidson's seat in the Scottish Parliamentary elections next spring. Only this week, however, the NEC of the SNP has thwarted that bid by creating a new rule whereby a sitting MP is now forced to resign from their Westminster constituency before they an put themselves forward for Holyrood (she had stated that she would resign from Westminster if she was elected an MSP).

 

At the same time, James Dorman, the MSP for Glasgow Cathcart, who had previously announced that he was retiring but later changed his mind and proposed that he would stand for re-election, was ruled out when the NEC decided that Glasgow must have an all-female list, stating that his prior resignation was not rescinded in time.

 

The ire this is creating amongst the rank and file is significant, with many people cancelling their membership. One might wonder why the party is going through these paroxysms of self mutilation when the goal of independence has never seemed so close to being achieved, however from what I can gather, there is a major power struggle going on inside the party, with the young reactionaries forcing out the old guard.

 

Much of this is probably beyond the interest of the average man on the street, but the real impact will be seen with the emergence of new independence parties - the much touted Wings party (backed by the independence blog Wings over Scotland), for example, has been linked to Salmond potentially making a return to political life. 

 

One thing is certain to me though - if independence is achieved, one of the first fall-outs from it will be the dissolution of the SNP, or a mass defection of much of its membership. 

Cards on the table. I think NS has done a brilliant job, honest and direct with the public, and solid in Holyrood as Carcrash learned to his cost. She is THE recognised face of the SNP and the independence struggle. Why are we doing this you quite rightly say. 

Salmond - rightly or wrongly - is tainted goods, and would put a number of the waverers that we are winning from the middle ground right off. 

The idealism of the young is admirable, but they lack experience, and are easily mislead. I am saying this despite the fact that I am on record as supporting the young over the venal boomers who have exploited everyone, including the young to the hilt. However to see how Lansman utterly abused the votes of his young Momentum supporters for his own ends, shows how easily this can be done. 

It is sad that the moment we get a majority - albeit small - of the public on our side, the rats appear, to try and get a slice of the action and promote their myopic narrow viewed interpretation of what independence should be. I wish the Wings party, the ISP, the SSP, and god knows who else would away and boil their heids. If a second list vote won't pay off for the SNP, then I will vote Green who have been unwavering in their support for independence. If they force me to eat more carrots I'll just have to live with that!

2 hours ago, WorriedNoodle said:

Check Osho & the F word for a hilarious take on this

5 hours ago, RuamRudy said:

Nigel, did you know John Hinde from Outward Bound Locheil? In 1990 he took a bunch of rowdy, unfit apprentices, myself included, into the wilds of Lochaber and scared the bejeesus out of us, but everyone to a lad came away feeling 10ft tall after that 2 week course. He was a remarkable and inspiring man. 

The place I worked was Camusrory at the head of Loch Nevis, in Knoydart, but that was 1975! "Moby MacLean" had a place on the other side of the Loch for a few years. Yes we knew of the Locheil OB school, and our boss (Tony Montgomery) was friends with the boss there, but who that was I wouldn't know. Character building stuff for sure, but seasonal, and I moved on to different work in mid Argyll that winter.

A bit off topic I guess, but harmlessly so. 

2 hours ago, scammed said:

oh the drama, americans die every year from traffic accidents, constipation, flu, cancer, and thousands of other reasons, and that is a good thing, or you would have 300 year ole retirees draining the economy and health care system. did you note that the average age of deaths from corona is over 70 years old ?

but never mind, just carry on with the inane drivel its because trump is president

Being a country with a devil take the hindmost ideology, I can't imagine anyone much over 100 actually getting health insurance, let alone 300.

The ultimate irony is that Trumps utterly bungled approach to the Covid -19 virus problem is eliminating his supporters in the demographic where he does best. 

1 hour ago, Tippaporn said:

I had replied to mtls2005's specific comment:  "Attacking mask use, and real doctors and scientists, is counter-productive."  My comment was meant to point out that people have a tendency to give legitimacy to the doctors and science they agree with by using the qualifier "real."  Conversely, they label doctors or science which refute their views as "fake."

 

mtls2005 responded to which I replied back:  "Simply pointing out what people do.  It's all too obvious."

 

ChouDouFu chimed in and my reply to him was:  "Neither am I defending nor renouncing one doctor over another.  Simply pointing out that people will claim as truth one doctor "real" and another "fake" depending on how it suits their purposes.  And saying that I'm not fooled."

 

You later quipped:  "...says the person who thinks science is about “viewpoints,”"  to which I replied:  "Never said that or claimed it.  Your bias affecting your reading comprehension?"

 

It's only too obvious what my original point was.  People have comprehension issues, misinterpret what's real, insert their own made up interpretations, pass them off as truth and go on and on about it.  According to one poster, "I was owned."  LOL

Just a small point here that relates to most of what you wrote. 

SCIENCE IS A METHOD, NOT AN OPINION, OR A BELIEF SYSTEM LIKE RELIGION. 

It is based on evidence accumulated from research and endless exhaustive tests and trials. Science does not claim it has all the answers, it reflects the evidence known to date. Doubt is a key element to good science, the ability to challenge and change the conclusions based on new information. This is what Fauci did incidentally. Trump is averse to evidence in the same way that vampires are averse to wooden stakes. 

That, as you say, there are good and bad scientists there is no doubt, let alone the fake scientists all over the web who are not scientists at all.  Such bearers of false witness inevitably come to grief when faced with the facts. 

6 hours ago, Heppinger said:

I guess you could argue you that point, though i would call hastings more of a family feud as you all had Germanic ancestry.   This time round the transition is not going to be so smooth. 

Not really, try telling a Norwegian or Dane that they are German. The Normans were Vikings who settled in north east France, and intermingled with the Francs. The Anglo Saxons (Old English pre 1066) were indeed German tribes mainly. Genetically they remain the dominant strain in English DNA, The Normans were rulers, but limited in number by comparison. 

Off topic a bit, but just to tidy that one up.