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I decided to download some of the "Cheers" episodes and specifically looked for those with Kirsty Alley in them, as I thought she was better than Shelley Long (IMO). I managed to locate them on 1337.x.to and have been chuckling about the few I watched so far, so I'm pleased that I downloaded them – – the one-liners and quick wit and repartee are delightful. Many more to watch.

Hi @transam, I see you were targeted by the same newbie poster with a strange name who also targeted me. Seems he had a grudge and had to take it out on someone (us) and there is an old saying which is, "Life is too short to drink bad wine" and by the same token, "life is too short to argue with fools, because they will bring you down to their level and beat you with experience". So it is with a great deal of satisfaction that I will put this particular poster on ignore, and may I respectfully suggest you do likewise. Too much of this type of nonsense going on at the moment IMO. PS. For the record, the new tyres I had fitted to my Swift have improved the ride no end!

Some good points in that post Charlie, and as I was getting worried about my tyres, despite the fact my Suzuki has only done 44,000 km, I decided to take my car to B-Qik to get them checked, and imagine my surprise when one of the fitting guys told me that the back tyres were 11 years old, and the front tyres were about six years old (I do recall getting a couple of new front tyres a few years ago). The tread depth was actually average to good on all of them, but I decided to go the whole hog and get a new set of Goodyear tyres fitted all round, but before they did that they took me into the office and asked me which wheel types I wanted????? It appears that they were prepared to change the alloy wheels along with the tyres which I thought was rather strange because I had the original Suzuki alloys, which were in perfect order. According to the fitter, it is quite common to change the wheels and the tyres at the same time, and this whole exercise would only cost me another 3500 baht, so I considered it, but then again I wanted to keep the original Suzuki alloys so I declined that offer and asked them to go ahead and just fit the tyres, which they did, and I drove home happy, and as noted in Charlie's post, I'm sure the road handling and ride was different with these new tyres on! I had a new battery fitted at the same time so I'm hoping that this little Suzuki Swift will last me for many years to come.

Agree with what's been said above, but what I truly can't understand is how people are so naive as to believe these conspiracy theories and the charlatans who promote them. Measles, for example, is something that I and people of my age were vaccinated against when we were kids and now it's reared it's ugly head again, this especially as it can kill children, and RFK Jr has suggested that the measles vaccine itself may have caused the measles outbreak in Samoa which saw more than 5700 infected and 83 die (many of them young children) stoking vaccine scepticism which doesn't bode well for the future for this island nation. Are the people who believe this conspiracy theory nonsense devoid of working grey matter? And if you want a perfect example, then I refer to the "Sandy Hook Massacre" lie which was spread by Alex Jones, when he said that it was a government set up and that no children were killed, which resulted in people visiting the homes of the parents of the deceased children, knocking on their doors and demanding to see the children, which of course was impossible because they were dead. Just how dim/stupid/gullible can some people get? Now the whole vaccination subject is being brought to the fore again and the nut job RFK Jr will stoke up the anti-VAX rhetoric and will no doubt find a few supporters on AN who wish to believe this idiot, when the very people whom we have selected, trusted, trained, tested and provided with the knowledge and tools to study and improve medicine in order to treat humankind, are being ignored. For the record I have had three Covid shots and although I did get a fairly mild case, it was over and done with in a matter of days. In addition I and probably many others on here, will have had countless vaccinations against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, yellow fever, cholera and countless tetanus jabs over the years (including one of immuno globulin before leaving to work in Africa) and have lived to tell the tale– – I'm just so thankful that there were not any anti-VAX twerps around years ago when I had my jabs.

I wouldn't believe anything that this Kennedy nut job decides to put out there – – why should one listen to an ex-drug addict who believes that a worm ate his brain and who is a conspiracy theorist par excellence. Get real, people.

Another conspiracy theory disproven, apart from by those who want to believe nonsense...... Can the COVID-19 vaccine alter my DNA? No. COVID-19 vaccines do not change or interact with your DNA in any way. Both mRNA and viral vector COVID-19 vaccines deliver instructions (genetic material) to our cells to start building protection against the virus that causes COVID-19. However, the material never enters the nucleus of the cell, which is where our DNA is kept. https://www.orangecountync.gov/Faq.aspx?QID=751 COVID-19 vaccines do not alter DNA. https://www.cdc.gov/covid/vaccines/myths-facts.html Claims that mRNA vaccines change human DNA are back By iHeard STL • February 1, 2024 Despite being unsupported by research, claims about COVID-19 mRNA vaccines interfering with human DNA continue to circulate. This week, one in six adults (17%) surveyed in four states said they’d heard the claim in the last 7 days; 72% of those believed it could be true. Persistence of this claim may be due to concerns recently expressed by Florida’s Surgeon General that mRNA vaccines can carry foreign DNA into a cell. However, mRNA only enters the cell cytoplasm and does not enter the cell’s nucleus where human DNA is found. Messenger RNA (mRNA) in COVID-19 vaccines teaches cells to make a spike protein from the virus, helping the body fight the actual virus. Once the mRNA gives instructions to the cells, the body breaks it down so it cannot harm the body. https://hcrl.wustl.edu/claims-that-mrna-vaccines-change-human-dna-are-back/ Follow the science.......

The Long History of mRNA Vaccines..... Messenger RNA, or mRNA, was discovered in the early 1960s; research into how mRNA could be delivered into cells was developed in the 1970s. So, why did it take until the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 for the first mRNA vaccine to be brought to market? The early years of mRNA research were marked by a lot of enthusiasm for the technology but some difficult technical challenges that took a great deal of innovation to overcome. The biggest challenge was that mRNA would be taken up by the body and quickly degraded before it could “deliver” its message—the RNA transcript—and be read into proteins in the cells. The solution to this problem came from advances in nanotechnology: the development of fatty droplets (lipid nanoparticles) that wrapped the mRNA like a bubble, which allowed entry into the cells. Once inside the cell, the mRNA message could be translated into proteins, like the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, and the immune system would then be primed to recognize the foreign protein. https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/the-long-history-of-mrna-vaccines Follow the science………..

Hi TP, also good to hear from you again and I was quite surprised when an old post of mine popped up with your comments on it! Firstly, in answer to your question I kept my left testicle and still have it all these years later and occasionally it plays up and gives me some pain, but anti-inflammatories for a couple of days calms it down and I get on with life. So sorry to hear that you are still in diapers and I recall our conversations from a few years back and you certainly "went through the mill" as the saying goes, and it would appear that nothing has changed although it would seem you have "gotten used" to it in one way or another?? And as per your comment of "privates falling to bits, bit by bit" well I've had a little bit of the same with a bladder problem which not even the best urologist at Bumrungrad could fix and still doesn't know what has caused it to stop working, so every night before I retire, I use a catheter and drain out about a litre of urine, which allows me to sleep uninterrupted. I have tried to miss this procedure, but no amount of trying or variation on it, allows me to get any sleep and I end up getting out of bed at 3 AM in the morning and fumbling around squirting numbing gel down the old fella, before inserting the catheter, draining out the urine and thankfully getting back to bed. It's no fun getting old, and old age doesn't come alone, as an old friend of mine used to say, and I was younger then, but now I know exactly what he means! Aside from all of that, I hope you are as well as can be expected TP. PS. I notice that Urolift is now available in Thailand – – – 15 years too late for me I'm afraid.

You make a good point in your post, and from what I have read in the various newspapers and media outlets, it would appear that his family were staunch Republicans and donated to the Republican cause, although it doesn't state exactly what his political leanings were! Perhaps his motives were nothing to do with left or right, or for example, "woke" leanings, but purely because he was in pain and/or mentally disturbed?

Somewhere I saw mentioned a movie called "Cherry 2000" and although the reviews weren't that special, they weren't all that bad either, so I thought I'd give it a try. It starred Melanie Griffith along with Laurence Fishburne (in a minor role) and Ben Johnson, not to mention the gorgeous Pamela Gidley!!!! It was obviously a B-movie, and it didn't take itself too seriously, so it was easy viewing in the end.

I have noticed a few reductions on the wines I buy from a distributor, Vinum Lector, and recently snapped up a very good Italian Appassimento red wine which was previously selling at around 600 baht plus VAT, for 480 baht plus VAT, so I bought 12 bottles and yesterday enquired as to its availability again, but unfortunately they have sold out! I don't know whereabouts on Phuket island you will be staying, but Wine Pro has three outlets here and their prices are very competitive, and I sometimes buy a few bottles from Patong Whiskey because their prices are a little bit cheaper than elsewhere and they have a "better" selection than the likes of Big C and Tops. Also a little "supermarket" called Promphan on the 4024 road heading south from the Central junction has a small but different range of wines. As I mentioned in another post, I believe the range of red wines labelled, "19 Crimes" are good value for money and I specifically like the "red blend". I also have another distributor from whom I buy, and they will deliver, but there is a minimum order. If you would like to send me some more information as to your whereabouts and particularly the wine you like, in a PM, then I can give you some more information. As an addendum, on another post I have outlined the tax changes with regards to wine here, so you may wish to peruse that if you can find it.

On one of my earlier visits to Patong, I met up with a friend from Oz and a couple of his Thai girl friends and we went to a Thai restaurant which in those days was amongst quite a few Thai restaurants behind Bangla Road. Not long after finishing the meal (and I do like spicy food) I started to get symptoms similar to flu with a raw throat, runny nose and not feeling particularly well, so I went home. All over and done with the next day, and a couple of days later we met up with the girls again and went to the same restaurant and the same thing happened to me, so I decided to take a look around the corner of the "kitchen" where the cook was preparing the food and I actually saw him add about half a ladle of MSG to the dish he was stir frying!! As it was a favourite restaurant of the girls, my friend and I accompanied them one more time and I specifically asked the waitress "No MSG" please, and she must have complied because I had no ill effects. I did a bit of research on MSG and the symptoms I experienced were typical of an MSG "overdose", I say "overdose" because I like strong cheeses and Thai food and have never been affected by it since, even though occasionally I add a little bit of MSG to my Thai cooking. Everything in moderation and with me it's definitely the case with MSG.

Yesterday I endeavoured to watch a movie which was mentioned on a list of very good movies, and it was called, "All Quiet on the Western Front" (2022 version) so I thought I'd give it a go and I think I had watched the original which was made back in the 30s, and that was pretty grim. However this movie was dark, gruesome and grim all at the same time and if you ever wanted a movie to see what war was really like, then watch this – – if you can. I couldn't finish it because it was so dark/grim. Tonight I watched a movie (again) called, "Lone Survivor" with Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster and Eric Bana and it was supposedly based on a true story about an incident in the fight with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and it was not short of action or gruesome scenes, but nowhere near as grim as the one I mentioned above.

Sad to hear that superal........I believe (wasn't 100% sure) that I did suffer from an episode of gout a few years back so I also took colchicine and it cleared up. However it didn't stop me drinking red wine, thankfully!!!!! Hope it clears up soon!!