LaosLover

True enough. Death on the Nile was a moderate prestige hit. Which means its commerciality demands that Christie be updated. Stuff that people don't bother to make woke to milk it a little longer is simply completely forgotten. like Kipling was. Or James Bond wasn't.

Shower-wise, my condo has warm-hot water and my gym has hot-hot water, so I do tend to treat myself every other day. The only pay over the odds thing I might do these days is if I'm buying something in an antique of upscale craft store, I no longer ask for a discount. These places are lucky to be alive post-covid, and typically they still have the pre-covid price tag on them.

When was the last time you read one of her books? What % of people under 50 can even identify her? Is the short form mystery novel even a thing anymore? Ultimately, time is the big canceller. Things drift out of view. In my lifetime there was a Dixieland Jazz #1 hit (an instrumental, Washington Square). Now you can't even say Dixieland. The few things like A Christmas Carol or Sherlock Holmes that pass down through the centuries are very rare. These modernizations are about selling old rope for new money for the estate. And about getting Christie's dead wood (sales-wise) name out there. Mission accomplished.

I'd rather hear from you than him any day of the week. So there's that. Your medical situation is always a wild card. Now you see you, now you don't.

A lot of retiree's want a cheap version of Florida. Pattaya is low-end cheap Floria, Bahrain would be more expensive cheap Florida. That's why Mexico with its great beaches never makes the list. It's cheap Florida, but with more Mexicans, which what the Cheap Floridians are determined to avoid. Some also want to move to cheap Vancouver/Seattle. Otherwise known as Singapore. They should let American retire to England, which they think of as cheap New England.

In New York, they sell tee shirts with the immortal Goodfella's quote: Eff you, you <deleted> Eff. I see a smattering of Chinese people wearing them. My favorite tee shirt controversy was when they were selling Osama Bin Laden ones on Suk Road with the caption: Anthrax War Now!, circa 2001. The story was that the King heard about it and had them banned. Note to self, put that one in the checked luggage, don't wear it to the airport.

Life expectancy calculators put me at a 92-97 check-out age. I have a reassuring 85% chance of making it to 84. With new life-extending stuff in the pipeline and an 11 years younger wife, plus some money in the bank, I'm shooting for 100+. I'll def be seriously chilling around '90 (at the latest). Prob go back go our Christmas tree farm in America. We just planted an orchard with that in mind on our back slope. 20 years from now, 4 kinds of pears plucked off a tree (by someone else) will be a big deal to me. And I'll be drowning in them. If my wife goes first (50/50% possibility), I'd prob just run out the clock in my condo in Nimman. Selling the farm would mean more money than I could ever spend. I wish I could send some of it down the time tunnel to my 20 year old self who had to had to walk to work for a month to save up for Mott The Hoople tickets (opening act: Queen). So either way, these current years (70 to 80) look to be the freest and best years of my life. And then the fade out looks to be as benign as it gets. Elon Musk can have everything, but he can't buy the level of plush life, love and peace that I merely have to keep breathing to collect on. A lot of your life is down to luck, but some of it is down to personal integrity and growth.

Nice to see you back. Do you know Keith Jarret's ECM record label Bach catalog? ECM and their super-spare modernist style was my way in. Keller Quartet doing Art of Fugue was my first taste.

Bumrungrad has a kind of super HDL test they're offering, a deeper dive into which kinds of cholesterol are affecting you in various ways. Hype or for real? I'm going to do genetic testing for cancer prevention and thought I'd add the test, along with one for heavy metals. Might as well toss it on the pile.

There's a profitable blog or sub stack to be had here, since the old people who want to work out are many and the resources available to their unique needs are very few or non-existent. There was a woman featured in New York Mag who makes huge money with a weight training site for women in their 40's. There's only one book for later age weight training available on Amazon, and it's confusingly laid out. Googling on questions like rest times, you're always fighting through a sea of "it depends" when you're looking at site that's more about selling me supplements than giving me advice for free. Most of sites skews younger, but then Senior-oriented sites go the other way and assume your on death's door and fit only for "chair yoga", like I saw on Better Call Saul. Personal trainers in Thailand are more like activity pals. They correct your form and hold your iced tea. It's not individualized training, even by age, it's a very generic program from their computer. They body-analyzed me, and then they never followed up on it, even with prompting. There's no explanation of concepts, even at the basic lifts and superset level. Even in a western-oriented neighborhood ( I live in Nimman, Chiang Mai), there often a bit of a language barrier. They often don't know the English words for stuff like hypertrophy. I signed up for 50 sessions! 34 down, 16 to try out with another trainer. On the plus side, it worked out to only 500 baht a session -and it did make me go.

The guy here who had a couple of seemingly well friends die suddenly has really stayed with me. Every moment is a gift. That's why they call it the present.

This would be a good time to talk to a lawyer about medical power of attorney and stuff like that. Also, bring along your contract from the nursing home.

The bit where they're ironing socks is new to me. But I've always been too cheap to spring for ironing. It all seems to come out well enough without that upcharge. I knew someone who was a personal assistant to Julia Roberts and he had to iron her socks. Other people's socks too.

Many people moved here for cheap sex. I moved here for cheap sushi -and having someone else clean my house and fold my underwear. I went back to the laundry assistant for a foot rub. She should stick to the laundry concierge career choice.

Agreed. Like I said, the self-care and personal responsibility comittments have done as much for my well being as the dumb bells. And the endorphin rise from exercise is subtle, but cumulative. It really is like water on a rock. Magical thinking about drinking protein shakes goes nowhere. Educating myself about and including more high quality protein every time I eat or soon after is very doggedly taking a kilo off of me a month. I learned a lot here from Big Star and Lacset and others. Not too many sources available about late age training from people who have actually done it.

I'm 70, I started lifting weights with a trainer 6 months ago. Currently doing it every other day. The results: Ok-ish, not that great; don't believe media hype. With such a late start, it may take 2 more years to get a flat belly. A great lesson in patience, humility, and acceptance. I don't dread the gym anymore, I even miss it if I don't go; like I used to just show up and punch my internal time clock to meditate, I know I will progress, just not at my preferred rate. My diet is good, my booze is about 4 units a week, my pot habit half a spliff a day. Beyond that and the exercise, I've dropped a lot of stress of about doing what I'm supposed to be doing, now that I am doing it. Travel-wise, I have a friend in São Paulo who rates it as the most intellectual and pervy dating market in the world. Would love to do a Turkey, Iran (on a tour), Jerusalem, Marrikash swing through. Def a Mediterranean swing thru or three. The Chiang Mai smoke season is off peak for most places I still want to see. I want more comfort and am willing to pay for it. Those 800 baht a night places have brutal mattresses. If a cab door to door from my BKK hotel to my Hua Hin hotel is "only" $60 more than the mini-van, this is the first year when I'm not thinking twice about it.

One upside of being pushed into doing it myself at a coin-op: so far 7/11 has been begrudgingly generous in making change for 10 baht coins. 7/11 is like the bank of the common man. Yeah, this thread started out in the pub. I def like hearing about laundry service elsewhere. I was hoping for a little sociology on the changing face of Thai's getting out of the laundry business and why. Next stop: Hua Hin. Staying near the 5* reviewed Malee Laundry (50 baht a kilo). You have to be the most Metta, pay it forward kind of person in the world to remember to rave about your laundry person on Google. Said one fan: "socks matched". I can't wait.

So generous, thanks -and to all. I just used an Ottaris laundry place. They give you free soap and encourage you to pop round to 7/11 for 10 baht coins. As usual, one 40 baht, 40 minute spin dry left the clothes medium-damp. And then one dryer stopped for no reason. So call that five 40 baht dryer efforts and two 30 baht washing machines. So 260 baht for the privilege of doing it myself -plus 50 baht to my laundry assistant, who I never saw again.

Been smoke-dodging from Chiang Mai and enjoying some stays in Bangkok along Suk Road. Used to always be cheap by the kilo laundry places conveniently near the hotel, but I'm finding them gone, and a lot of Google map listings now non-existent. On Nut has it, but you have walk 15 minutes, Soi 11 the same, Soi 33, only Coin op that you do yourself. Update: one of the massage women in the same alley will assist you and even put it in the dryer for a tip. In the Old City of Chiang Mai, the one-stop massage parlor/laundry drop off is endangered. In the old days, that place would be a travel agent, too. Coin op -with very variable dryers- is the new expectation. Obviously, the laughable offer from the hotel to wash a tee shirt for 175 baht goes unheeded. This may be another kind of business that the young have no interest in following their parents into. Alternate theory: All those laundry women have better employment options post-covid. Or rent rises have driven these little sliver-businesses under. So be it rural Issan or Soi Touristico, how's the laundry drop off situation where you are?

"I don't like being debunked and laughed at so I'm going to pretend it's just "a lot of words".

In this odd little internet backwater of fading oldsters, it's mostly grieving about a loss of testosterone. Blind worship of a fake he-man who "tells it like it is" (gag me) gives a momentary lift of fully delusional and fictitious self-agency. He can't help you, he won't help you. We see a lot of sullen and defensive hamster wheel spinning here to avoid this comically obvious truth. Cue passive aggressive confused emoticons. Confused? They got that right.

I love the correlation between Trump lovers here and getting soaked by hookers for money. Short version: he really doesn't love you long-time either.

I was private messaging with a very esteemed member of our little group recently. He got ill, Thailand doesn't have the medicine he needs, he went home. On the basis of his example, I have maintained my expensive medicare. Add on my decent Cigna health plan here and a dedicated large emergency fund, and I am covered at the level of presidents and movie stars. But it's down to luck as to how many bowls of khao soi noodles I have left in front of me.

Sounds like a Marxist attack to me.

Do keep up. It's Marxists now as a diss in Fox-land. Communists is your father's paranoia. Also: saying marxist makes them feel intelligent. If you want to see stuttering and stammering at Joe Biden levels, ask them to tell the difference between marxists and communists.