xylophone

Thanks for the info BTH and so sorry to hear about your broken hip, I just hope that it mends soon? What is the outlook for you re this?? All the best, Xylo.

Fortunately those years have long gone for me and walking around in a T-shirt and shorts, getting soaked by idiots with very large water guns, very often filled with bacteria laden water, is not my idea of fun. My madness days are well in the past and did include making bombs, travelling to Libya at the end of the Gadhafi revolution (which was madness in itself) and after that, working in Nigeria at the end of the Biafran war, and getting shot at. Oh, and I forgot to mention having a pistol pressed against my head by an angry Libyan soldier and then being lined up against a wall with a few other expats and having rifles pointed at us, which I truly thought was the end of my life at that time. There are many other "mad" exploits I have undertaken and I now leave that to other idiots, and whilst they are "embracing the madness that is Songkran", I shall be sitting comfortably at home having a nice evening meal with a lovely bottle of red wine, and then watching a good movie, whilst the madness goes on outside – – ah, heaven!

Great to hear from you BTH and I hope you are well, and also thank you for the information which I will go into shortly. Firstly I have contacted ETERNA in Switzerland, via email, but after three attempts, I have had no reply (great customer service!!!!) And I've also contacted a few other Eterna agencies around the place, but again no reply! I've also contacted Chrono24 on a couple of occasions, but their very helpful answer was: "take it to an Eterna dealer", which of course is not really feasible here in Phuket as there are none, although I do know of a watchmaker/seller/repairer in Phuket town, so he will be my next port of call. The amount of watchmakers/dealers/second-hand sellers I have contacted is immense, and I can only assume that this watch is so rare that nobody knows about it, or that it's not very valuable at all! Having said that, I have been told that it is solid 18 carat gold, so it's got to be worth something. It also keeps precise time. One other angle is that I have two potential "serial numbers" to play with, because on the back of the watch is the number: 1226155 62 S and in the guarantee booklet that came with the watch when I bought it, is a "reference" number: 729411862, so not sure which one to use although I will Google both of them after your message. Once again BTH thanks for your very helpful email and it has given me new hope in finding out what model it is and if it's worth anything. I stopped wearing it a few years ago now, mainly because I was worried about falling off my motorbike and damaging it, and it's such a beautiful watch (IMO) that I didn't want to damage it so it's been sitting in my desk drawer all that time. I've now come to the conclusion that it is such a lovely watch that it needs to be worn by someone who is proud of it, hence my investigation on it and its value. I will let you know how it goes BTH and when you are next in Patong, make sure to look me up because I will shout you a lovely meal and a great bottle of wine. Take care old friend and stay in touch from time to time as it's always good to hear from you.

Generally I agree, however I have just watched what I thought was a good movie, called, "The Last Duel", starring Matt Damon, Adam Driver and Ben Affleck and the delightful Jodie Comer. Based on a true story in medieval times and told from the different perspectives of the main characters. Great sets and scenery and must have cost a fortune to produce (Ridley Scott) but don't know what the movie grossed as I cannot access the IMDB website for some reason!

You are right, I haven't seen either!! But then again I am not keen on "series" unless they are two or three long!

Thanks and from the reviews I read it is not that good!!

Seeking out a few movies from the recent past I came across one called, "Nobody" and it stars Bob Odenkirk (whom I knew nothing about) and starts off very low-key and "timid" but soon evolves into action and lots of killing/shooting. I wasn't really anticipating this but in the end it made for quite good viewing! Also came across one featuring Jason Statham and written and produced by Guy Ritchie (surprised?) called "Wrath of Man" which again starts off low-key but later on turns into a shooting fest. It transpires that Jason Statham's new job as a security guard for a security company is not what it seems and he has "ulterior motives"......an okay movie, more so if you like Guy Ritchie and Jason Statham and lots of shooting!.

Yes indeed he does, he is now the UNDISPUTED TACO KING (clown) OF THE WORLD!! "Iran never asked for a pause on strikes on energy sites and has not given a final response to Donald Trump’s 15-point peace plan, peace talk mediators told the Wall Street Journal. The report came hours after the US President announced a 10-day extension to the energy ceasefire “as per Iranian government request”, and claimed talks were going “very well”. Trump has now twice moved back his own deadline to “obliterate” the Islamic Republic’s energy infrastructure as part of his pressure campaign to end the war. He extended his initial March 23 ultimatum to March 27, and the new pause expires on April 6 at 8pm ET" Trump extends IRAN 48 hour deadline, to 5 days, and now another ten days making the deadline that started as 48 hours to 17 days total. TRUMP IS AN IDIOT AND HE PROVES IT DAILY, IF NOT BY THE HOUR!

Good old Petie, praying for help from his chritsian followers, but he won't get much help from these Republican pedophiles and one has to wonder how many more are hiding under the GOP coat-tails, as there are more it seems!! "MAGA Republican Pastors Father, son, and son-in-law — all convicted of child sex crimes at the same Michigan MAGA megachurch. The pastor called the victims liars and said they were “possessed by demons” Between 2023 and early 2026, the Living Word Church (also known as Living Word International Church/Mark Barclay Ministries) in Midland, Michigan, has been involved in a major sexual abuse scandal. Multiple high-level leaders and volunteers have been convicted of and sentenced to prison for sexually assaulting children. Three individuals closely tied to the church leadership have been convicted of sex crimes in the past two years: former Associate Pastor Randy Saylor, former Pastor James Randolph, and volunteer Brandon Saylor. James Randolph (59): Convicted in August 2025 of six counts of sexual assault (two first-degree, four second-degree), including abuse of a child under 13. He was sentenced in March 2026 to 25 to 40 years in prison. He is the son-in-law of head pastor Mark Barclay. Randy Saylor (73): Former associate pastor who pleaded no contest to 11 counts of sexual assault (five first-degree, six second-degree) against children under 13. He was sentenced in February 2026 to 10 to 25 years in prison, making him 83 before parole eligibility. Brandon Saylor (44): Volunteer and son of Randy Saylor, he was sentenced in April 2024 to 5 to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting four children under 13 over a decade." A disgusting bunch of scum, yet preaching the word of "god", and the Republicans follow this nonsense; it is to laugh.

One good thing about Patong at the moment is the fact that the traffic is easing up somewhat most times of the day, although there are still a few idiots on big bikes who are putting other people's lives at risk by speedily riding in and out of the traffic, and they usually are shirtless and helmet-less and I would say they range from French Africans to Arabs. That excludes the witless Chinese who decide to drive the wrong way up the roads, usually with both feet dangling a couple of inches off the ground, so I gingerly steer round these idiots. On the subject of motorbikes, I noticed a very large open back truck parked alongside a "shop" in Soi Nanai taking back the motorbikes which were on show at this place, but by all accounts that had no success with rentals although some other places had – – but that is the name of the game. A friend of mine who used to have a bar here but relocated back to the UK when he ran out of money, has just revisited Patong for a couple of weeks to catch up with friends and he told me that "Patong is just not the same anymore" and I would have to agree with him, as do many others who have been here for more than a decade. He says the atmosphere in Bangla is nowhere near what it was (not sure how you measure that) and he believes that quite a few bars will go bust in these coming months, especially as the bar owners (not the renters) are increasing the rents quite substantially? Time will tell in these coming months. I met up with the ex-wife of a friend who had come back to visit her friends and we enjoyed a meal in the Wine Connection, well I say "enjoyed" because after we had sat down, in traipsed eight or 10 Russians, complete with baby in pushchair and they were fairly noisy. The "lead woman" was huge in all departments and not unlike a female version of "giant haystacks" and some, and they must have been from some distant tribe in Russia because they were all huge in stature, not necessarily fat, although a couple were, and they rather spoilt the evening for me. On the way home I looked into the South American restaurant El Gaucho and there were about 12 people dining there and because it's quite a big restaurant, it looked fairly empty. Compare that to my favourite South American restaurant nearby, Churrasco, and that had around 26 diners in it, and I waved at the wait staff as I passed and got a good smile as I always do. I met up with my daughter again yesterday at Lotus's in Phuket town and enjoyed a good lunch with her, and we chatted at length about the teaching aids which she is putting together in order to be the mainstay of her business in the future, and I may be biased, but the diagram of the human heart which she had put together on her iPad was absolutely brilliant, and I was blown away by it. She is a very talented young woman and am so very proud of her and what she has done so far. One thing I forgot to do whilst I was in Phuket town was to visit a jeweller (Ratsada) to see if he could put a value on my Eterna quartz 18 carat gold wristwatch, which is in good working order and I bought it in 1982 in Jersey, so that probably makes it a "vintage" watch, but no one I have contacted so far (including Eterna in Switzerland who do not answer my email requests) has been able to identify the model or put a value on it. It is an unusual shape, but I don't wear it any more as I am worried about damaging it if I fall off my motorbike, and whilst it's water resistant, it's not waterproof and getting caught in the rain here is a fairly frequent occurrence. Having said all of that it is a waste of a very attractive watch just sitting in my desk drawer, so if someone could put it to good use (for a fair price) then I would gladly sell it, but not easy....... Songkran is looming, so that means three days locked away in my condo or only going out in my car, so that I can escape the madness of this event. So I will spend a few days searching out some movies to help me through it! PS. If anyone knows the model name of this watch then I would be most grateful if they would tell me!!

Don't ya just love it.........the most powerful nation in the world, being run by a nutjob. You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried! Although the US Administration and its nonsense would make a good few episodes of "The Muppets"!!

Wow, many thanks for that detailed analysis of the movie..........so much more than meets the eye, as the saying goes.

Came across a movie made in 1949 which was very highly rated as one of the "best movies ever" (not IMHO) and it was called, "The Third Man". It was a good enough movie made in black-and-white (obviously) and starring Orson Welles amongst others and dealt with some black-market shenanigans in Vienna just after the war. Worth a watch if you like the oldies and is available on BBC iPlayer. A couple of days later I decided to watch a movie made in 1970 which starred Jeff Bridges and the quite delightful Karen Allen, called "Starman" which was enjoyable in a laid-back fashion and with nothing exceptional about it, just an everyday average easy to watch movie.

And I suspect many of us who are neither "leftists" nor on the right of the political spectrum wil celebrate his demise, because trump is a lying, arrogant and ignorant POS and one doesn't have to "hate" to see the truth.

You are a good man Simon, take care and stay safe and well.