blazes

The quality of the WC as a "spectacle." (Ridiculous to compare different eras in playing quality.) Anyone who saw Spain drag their asses through the borefest final against Holland in 2010 will know what I am talking about. About the only thing memorable about the 1986 WC in Mexico is Maradona's Hand of God. Whereas, as a spectacle, the Mexico WC of 1970 contained Gordon Banks's miraculous save against Pele and also a brilliant final between Italy and Brazil showcasing some of the best footballers ever to walk the planet. Those were spectacles I don't expect to be repeated in Qatar.....

If you want to see the woke development of the BBC (and woke generally) look for Silent Witness (available on BBC iPlayer). This police/pathology whodunnit series began in 1995 and continues to this day. In 1995 there was never a single black face to be seen. By 2000 you could see minor police officers of "bame" provenance, and by 2010 you began to see blacks in senior police positions (nearly always female). It's all basically woke in outlook, but it doesn't go out of its way to make men (especially white men) look dumb. In these truly modern times, the show has Clarissa (of the "ableist" community) who, despite her physical infirmity, manages to help solve the most complex of crimes. So far we have not seen a trannie. (However, I have only seen the show up to 2019.)

I have been watching the World Cup since 1954, when it was in Switzerland. Sad to see the quality of football decline since then, now that all the "world" takes part at some stage. For those who know nothing about football, the only way you can enjoy (even minimally) the World Cup is if you choose a country or countries to follow, support, for whatever weird reason you yourself might have. Thus a game between a Sunni Moslem state and a Shia might have some ooomf to it. Or Wales to beat England. Or Canada to beat USA. Above all, the first stage will be interesting for these non-soccer reasons: Also, USA to play one of George Bush's axis of evil, Iran. Lots of non-football reasons to enjoy a game. The heat in Qatar will, even now, be overwhelming, so....slow games no doubt.

Not as bad as "bigly" though.....

What exactly is a "soft power asset"? Anything special?

"Equity" (which has now been transformed to mean "an outcome that reflects things like racial or gender composition") ensures that a "real man" can compete all he likes, but he ain't going to get anywhere if he happens to be white and of sound mind and body.

"gross" and "creepy" (for starters).

2 million entered US illegally since Uncle Joe took charge and on his first day in office shut down the main pipeline that would have spared Americans from the hideous energy inflation they now suffer from. So, over-population will soon be making native-born Americans look longingly at Thailand as a place to live. In Thailand they do take care of their borders (even if it causes us falang a lot of trouble at Immigration).

As a Canadian, I can assure you that that is 100% bo££ocks. I live in a city that attracts zillions of homeless (sorry, I should say "unhoused" to be PC) from all over Canada. (Fully supported by an insanely liberal welfare system.) I come to Thailand and really have to search to find a homeless person in what is clearly a very low-wage economy.

Nice little village. On the moon, is it?

makes me want to smash his literal head against the wall....

Alas, we did not notice your absence.....

oops, you almost said Kaffirland there! Martin Tyler, IMO, has the only acceptable "received English" voice to be found anywhere in tv commentary. Always relaxing and not like that terrible schmuck Peter Drury, who screams every time a player comes anywhere near scoring a goal. (Clearly, he is aiming to have his minor private-school voice repeated ad nauseam for years to come.)

Not being able to understand the commentators is definitely a major plus. Watching the EPL, I frequently have to mute the commentary because of the inane $hite that is being uttered both by the main commentator and the side-kick. (The latter often painfully ignorant of the laws of the game!) For some reason, the sound of a female commentator makes things even worse, usually because of the higher pitch of the voice, which brings out regional accents more acutely. Mostly Essex and Northern. How blessed is a Thai listener not having to cringe every time he hears "cup" pronounced as "coop" (plus all uses of "u" that become "oo". Country becomes "coontry" and so on.)

Low intelligence, greed and loneliness will do their ponzi trick. But above all, Greed. It happens all over the world (see Bernie Madoff). Maybe school-children should be taught at all ages that there is no such thing as a free lunch. None. Never.

It's difficult to figure out who people are on one's own flight. My (Thai) wife and I arrived at Suvarnaphumi last night. The plane (Thai Air 777) from Tokyo was packed to the gills. (As far as I could tell, Thai has no less than 3 classes above Cattle Class, all full. Economy had not a single seat free.) However, at Immigration, there were no queues of any kind. My wife, with her Thai passport, had to go through the fingers-thumbs-and-face routine just like me. At a guess (and obviously that's all it can be from very superficial observation) a good 60% of passengers were Thai and about 30% Japanese, leaving the rest to be Canadians or Americans.

My 11 year-old granddaughter recently told me, when I held a door open for her, that the gesture was "sexist". Welcome to Western feminism....

One more question: this means you did not come in Visa Exempt, right?

Interesting account. Question: when you say the minivan "was waiting for me", does this mean you booked it in advance? Also, what do you estimate the Ubon-Chong Mek drive to be normally, when no floods? Thanks.

I had a Nehru (Mao?) jacket made at Alba Mode in 2008 for $80. First class and I have worn it regularly through all those years. 94/2 Phetkasem Road (more or less dead centre of HH) Phone (in 2008, I am reading from the label): 06-7105395 and 06-7098932

It's been 5 years since I applied for a retirement visa of one year, but at that time I only needed to show (bank letter and notarised) the Thai consulate that I did indeed have an income of at least 65,000 baht per month. There was no stipulation that you had to deposit the money in a Thai bank (I did not in fact have one, anyway). Subsequently the Canadian consulate in Chiang Mai gave me an income letter to conform with the (65k monthly income) requirement for a 1-year extension. In other words, if you are applying from outside the country, is it not the case that you don't need to send money to a Thai bank account?

Lots of good suggestions above. Ram Hospital is ok, and you could try the Suan Dok hospital (is that the correct name?). I once had excellent and cheap treatment there (special section at entrance for falang). Could it be anything to do with your sciatic nerve? It's possible that a masseur who really knows what he or she is doing could give some treatment that might help. Also look on YouTube asking a question like "extreme leg pain treatment". Also, look up the Mayo Clinic, the most trustworthy purveyor of medical information on line.