dunroaming

It is a shame that Pelosi sinks to Trump's level over this.  You expect it from the dumb as dog poo President but she is normally a fairly intelligent woman.  But then again this seems to be the way with American politicians.  They all enjoy swimming in the sewer it would appear, while the rest of us foreigners sit in the stands eating our popcorn!

looking at the video, it does beg the question , why didn't the driver just drive off as soon as the guy started attacking the car with the broom?  They did eventually but...….

On 5/20/2020 at 8:12 AM, nev said:

Indeed I had one a tray back Ute here in Australia when not loaded you can easily lose it in dry or wet conditions.

Utes are built for carrying goods and not for speed.  

17 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

"The British Embassy with repatriate the man for free if he wants to go home to the UK".

I wouldn't be so sure of that.

The British Embassy can arrange for re-patriation but not always without cost.  It will depend on the person's ability to pay now or later.  

5 hours ago, JeffersLos said:

Maybe he doesn't even exist.

 

Nice easy 1,000 quid made from 10 minutes of creating a Fund Me page? 

I can hear the booing from the side lines over this post.  However in Thailand one becomes very cynical and in the country of a thousand scams every story should be viewed with an air of suspicion until proved to be sound.  The story of Ron is not unique and there are many people being taken advantage of for their money.  And not just Thai's against foreigners.  There are plenty of scams going down in the Thai community as well.

Before someone starts shouting that it can happen anywhere, yes of course it can, but this thread is about Thailand and something that has happened here. 

52 minutes ago, Andrew65 said:

Their best bet might be for a hedge fund to buy it. Who else is gonna be up for buying a fairly big airline now? They would probably want control of the company with foreign former executives.

About time Thai were dragged kicking & screaming into the 21st century anyway.

(I guess Malaysian Airlines might be in a similar situation, they were looking wobbly anyway).

Agreed.  Malaysian is looking dodgy, what about Air Asia?

40 minutes ago, purcho said:

Very true . I have been a loyal passenger since 2004 but over the past 5 - 8 years the service has slowly deteriorated to the point that I will look at other options each time I fly now or in the future . Cabin service is a shadow of what it was 10-15 years ago, with the standard of food dropping markedly . To make a point .... salt and pepper have not been served with meals on the international flights that I have taken from 2017 till now , I have had to request them . ( yes those small packets of S & P ) One round of drinks served with main meals , then you have to go to the galley to get additional drinks . I dont know if this has been the same on other International routes but this has been the case from BNE to BKK and same on return . It was a good airline once upon a time .

Totally agree.  My wife and I both fly EVA from the UK (we tend to travel to Thailand at different times) which we both find better than Thai.  Better food, better service and generous legroom!

10 hours ago, RandolphGB said:

The only answer is for the airline to be sold to an experienced foreign group. They’d turn it around within a year and it would become profitable. 
 

Of course, that would never happen as it would it would expose the systematic corruption and cronyism rooted in the airline, which no sensible business group would tolerate and immediately set out ending. 
 

Plus, the loss of face would be too much to bear to have foreigners running their national airline.

Lots of ponderable outcomes when it comes to Thai Airways.  As long as they have a Thai name as CEO then it is possible to sell it on.  The CEO position is usually for the puppets anyway.  Maybe they should sell it for 1 baht to Thaksin and then his Arab chums could bail it out.  They tend to be quite good at airlines.  

Then again you need to look at how Thai operates.  Are the majority of their planes owned or leased?  If leased then it would be easier to downsize, dumping the less profitable routes.  If they own the whole fleet then it is more difficult and as it is probable that a lot of smaller airlines are going to collapse due to the lockdowns, there will be difficulties selling the planes on.

Then you have to consider the new expanding regions to attract tourists and businesses from.  It would seem obvious that China and India would be at the forefront there.  Long before CoVid-19 the tourism landscape was changing for Thailand with China soaring ahead as far as footfall was concerned..  There will always be some call for western tourists but I think that will only expand in the high end five star resorts.  Good for exclusive resorts but not for general tourism.   Back packers never improved the economy and there are much better places to explore these days.

Truth is, nobody can safely predict the future for Thailand as there are so many factors that are unknown.  All of that makes Thai Airways future so unpredictable as well.

Football is a spectator sport, the fans are a major part of the whole game experience.  It is also game where the season ends in May.  Just accept the season is finished and prepare for a re-start in September.  At least then there is a possibility the new season can start with full stadiums.  It is not just about ticket sales either.  Footballers perform to an audience and that feeds the motivation and will to win.  After each goal the players rush towards the fans for their acknowledgement and the crowd always rise to the occasion.  Without that it just isn't football!

4 hours ago, Pilotman said:

Yes, Waitrose is a cut above the rest, which you pay for of course, but there is no excuse for poor customer service, whatever company is involved, something Tesco never seems to learn, In UK or Thailand.  

True enough, Tesco never seem to get it right. It can be a bit of a myth about Waitrose being more expensive.  It very much depends on what it is you are buying.  They have the same policy of their sister company John Lewis about never knowingly being undersold but with groceries that is a minefield as the quality varies so much.

Secret is to get a loyalty card which these days is linked to the John Lewis Card.  There are regular special offers and discounts to card members and I get my newspaper gratis every day.  Some things are certainly expensive but as a foodie I still find it great value.

Oops!  Sorry guys, I have just realised I have turned this post into a shopping trip recommendation.  As you were ????

22 hours ago, Pilotman said:

when I used to go to my local UK supermarket, you were lucky to find the manager anywhere near a customer.  If you did find him or her, it was either a spotty youth, in a cheap suit, with not the faintest idea of how to manage anything, even himself, or a harassed. over weight biddy, who got the job because she had been there for 100 years and nobody else wanted it and she also didn't have a clue.  But maybe that was just my local TESCO.  Now I am in Thailand and the managers here are still invisible, ineffective and/or useless, but the old biddies have been replaced by young girls on skates, who still haven't got a clue and look at you as thought its your fault that the product you have given them doesn't have a bar code, or that the code isn't in their scanning machine, because some moron forgot to register it. Ah well, got a bit off topic there.  keep calm and carry on. Jai yen yen   

At my local supermarket, (Waitrose in Surbiton) it is very different story.  The shelf fillers tend to be A level students working part time. The general staff and till workers are often management trainees as part of their apprenticeships. there are of a fair share of old hand supermarket workers but everyone is a "partner" in the business  Service is always polite and well informed.

I am aware that that Waitrose leads the way in the industry but our local Sainsbury is not that different.

Don't do it!  A large amount of the motivation for drivers must come from the crowds cheering them on.  Same for many sports in my opinion and they should wait until the time when the people can again be involved.

2 hours ago, natway09 said:

When a nearly full plane load from Asia lands at Heathrow & all the passengers are just let loose

in the country with no checks, no quarantine, (self or enforced) it is obvious that the British Government could not give a hoot. Boriis, your Government have failed your people

Interesting that there was little mention on Sunday of Johnson's ridiculous idea of introducing his 14 day self isolating plan for those arriving from overseas that was to start from the end of May!  Another example of how this government is failing to get to grips with the reality of this pandemic.

3 hours ago, 7by7 said:

Because those kits should be used to regularly test those most at risk: NHS and other health workers.

 

Healthcare workers 'should be screened for Covid-19 every week'

 

Unfortunately, only those displaying symptoms are tested; even though patients are infectious before symptoms appear. This is because, despite Hancock's 'assurances,' we do not have enough kits to test even all of those, let alone the approx. 800,000 kits a week needed to regularly test every healthcare worker.

 

So testing arrivals is out; simply not enough kits.

Well according to the health secretary they are now heading towards a capability of 200,000 tests a day.  Given that they tend to be testing less than 80,000 a day I would say that it would be prudent to use the resources better than they are.  It is to do with people coming forward to be tested and that is where there appears to be why there is a short fall.

Of course this is all about who and what we can believe, because there is a lot of ducking and diving going on.

17 minutes ago, tribalfusion001 said:

I arrived back on 25th March and there was a guy standing around with some leaflets just before passport control at LHR. I have to praise Thailand for the thermal scanners at airports, but they have gone totally OTT with it and caused a lot of Thai people to suffer.

My wife arrived back from Thailand about the same time as you in March.  She said the same thing.  When I asked about people on the flight wearing masks she said when she boarded the flight in Bangkok it was only really Thai people wearing them.  Most of them took them off on the flight and when they came through arrivals at Heathrow about half had put them back on again. She didn't. Hardly any farangs were wearing them at all.

Last week I was talking to a Spanish friend of mine in Madrid and he said that the Spanish government's response was all wrong and had caused many unnecessary deaths.  I guess we will all have an axe to grind over this whatever country we come from!

8 minutes ago, 7by7 said:

I first saw reports of a 14 day quarantine being introduced for those arriving in the UK in the online versions of the Daily Mail and the Mirror at the beginning of April while my wife and I were in Thailand. 

 

On arriving at LHR on 28th April we were very surprised to walk through immigration with no health checks at all; not even our temperatures being taken.

 

So I'll believe this latest report when it happens.

 

But I have to wonder why Boris and his boss Cummings did not introduce this measure long ago. They delayed lockdown and social distancing for far too long, and have delayed this even longer. 

 

 

 

The really bizarre thing about this is that the intention is to start the self isolating at the end of May!  There will be 300 international flights arriving in the UK today with about the same number every day.  So what about the thousands of people arriving before the end of May?  It beggars belief! Now that the country have enough testing kits to test over 100,000 people a day then why don't they just test those arriving instead?

It does seem that the government is floundering!

15 minutes ago, tribalfusion001 said:

Yes lots of families with kids on bikes, yesterday I saw 6 lads, about 19 or 20 years old, there were at the castle too and shock horror, they were "sun bathing"and not social distancing tut tut.

 

Last time I rode a bicycle was around rot fai park in BKK, it had a basket on the front 555. So this time I've gone back to what I know and it's a BMX, I don't give a F*** what people think, I enjoy riding them!

Didn't think the young sunbathed at all these days.  I thought they all used fake tan.  Do still see the odd one on a BMX though, you should ride yours if you enjoy it.  I never rode a bicycle in Thailand, too hot for all that strenuous exercise. 

5 minutes ago, tribalfusion001 said:

The papers are quoting Grant Schapps today and need for increased cycling or walking to work as there will be limited capacity on buses/trains. The increase in exercise will be healthy for the nation he said, well, he is right about that, fatties everyway!

 

I bought a 2nd hand bicycle a month ago and cycled to a ruined castle yesterday, drank 2 cans of lager and cycled back, must have been about 50 other people there, social distancing not 555.

I dug my bike out of the garage a couple of weeks ago and I am waiting for new tyres (ordered online) to arrive.  Most of the cyclists I see at the moment are families out with their kids.  The lycra boys are still whizzing around and as arrogant as ever.

8 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

I stayed in a flat right next to Hyde Park.

But my pal that owned it died of AIDs last year, so that's gone now.

He'd paid 600kGBP for an attic room where you could touch all four walls at the same time.

Sounds about right. Property prices around there are ludicrous.  The Knightsbridge side and Kensington Gore are the most expensive areas bordering the park now whereas the north side is a little less.  Park Lane still lives up to it's Monopoly Board reputation as it always has.

19 minutes ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

 

More to the point, what kind of school has 21 year old guys and 14 year old girls in the same school?

 

The first is college/university/vocational training age. The second is high school age barely.

 

 

Yes that is right, a 21 year old would be at University unless they are on placement for teacher training.

This story doesn't sound plausible but maybe that is partly to do with translation problems and bad reporting.

10 hours ago, BritManToo said:

What if you're homeless and a Brit (like many of us)?

Well you must be staying somewhere when you visit or would you be planning on spending your time in a doorway near Hyde Park?

I think that the idea is way too late and needlessly expensive to police.  People are getting frustrated with the lack of clarity over the easing of the lockdown and Boris seems unable to form a plan of action.  I imagine that Sundays announcement will be mainly window dressing to placate the grumbling masses.  I expect a push towards people cycling more and using public transport and cars less.  There certainly has been a massive increase of bikes on the road where we are.  But we are less than an hour or so ride from central London.