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Our unexpected visit to "Myanmar" on Friday was to take Sai's family out to dinner. The outside Terrace was part their Chinese restaurant. I have eaten Chinese food before in Mae Sot but previously found it very hard to find even one dish that I recognised. I was absolutely delighted to find that two thirds of their extensive menu was devoted to Cantonese food most of which would have been included in any menu in the UK for a Cantonese Chinese restaurant. The attentive young waiter spoke fluent english and I left him to recommend my two main dishes. What you see here is all my food as the rest of the family stuck to ordering Thai food which comprised the remaining third of the menu. The Thai food kept arriving with this only the first arrivals. The complex had its own micro brewery. Again, I left the young waiter to recommend a brew and he suggested the German fruit beer. It looks a bit strange but it was delicious as was the two that followed. 😛 This was my main dish being Cantonese BBQ beef. It was superb and just melted in the mouth. The other main dish was Cantonese sweet & sour ribs with and served in a pineapple. Again, it was delicious and left all for me. It must have been 10 years since I eat Cantonese style Chinese but I reckon we will be back there within a month or so. The cost, including drinks, 2360 baht. I left a suitable tip when paying the bill but gave the young waiter 200 baht to himself. Nice to hit the Jackpot.

Tonight's dinner in Caspe.

Wee seafood snack.

Reckon you will make it to the end?. 😀 I hate to think how low my tolerance is now.Probably get pissed on 2 shandy's.

A first try this evening with "coq au vin". Rooster in red wine sauce. Now as rooster is not easy to find, very often chicken is used. It is not very complicated, but still requires a bit of time. Chicken, bacon, mushrooms, potato, carrots, garlic, shallots, onion, thym, I did the job, but with the Miss following closely and helping. But this time when tasting she said "no, not my style , papa".... Anyway a few.pics : And a short video explaining the process better than I would do. There are some around in English as well.

MINDHUNTER... drama about the set up of the psychology of criminals section at the FBI...enjoying it

Dave Shanghai is a fabulous city for a short visit. Taxi down to the Bund ...old rebuilt dock area where all the old buildings are left the gateway to China and beautiful. Cross the river to the massive observation tower lift and wonderful views. Back across the river Olde Town Jewish Quarter lovely to walk around and fabulous restaurants. Cab back to airport job done. It's really spectacular down where I have written about and so space age in parts. Great city.

Just back from Nana Plaza. The place was absolutely rammed tonight.

Great to see more small brewers springing up in Ireland, very welcome change from Guinness 🇮🇪

That looks good... 👍🏼

Waiting to start a Distillery tour ....

Another Irish Breaky

If I make it over as planned January I'll have a few trips to your bar Phil.

Gripping 4 part mini-series that is a dramatization of the true story of the "Central Park Five" whereas five teens from Harlem became trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack and rape in Central Park. I am on the 2nd episode in and it's pretty intense so far.

Cod Bakewell Tart

Here in Caspe Spain for a week chasing pussy.

How can the "Taffies'' be that good at rugby ? they ain't got the population and what they have got are all sheep shaggers lol

New Budget Airline Attendant: Welcome aboard Ala Carte Air, sir. May I see your ticket? Passenger: Sure. Attendant: You're in seat 12B. That will be £5, please! Passenger: What for? Attendant: For telling you where to sit. Passenger: But I already knew where to sit. Attendant: Nevertheless, we are now charging a seat-locator fee of £5. It's the airline's new policy. Passenger: That's the craziest thing I ever heard. I won't pay it. Attendant: Sir, do you want a seat on this flight, or not? Passenger: Yes, yes. All right, I'll pay. But the airline is going to hear about this. Attendant: Thank you. My goodness, your carry-on bag looks heavy. Would you like me to stow it in the overhead compartment for you? Passenger: That would be swell, thanks. Attendant: No problem (grunts). Up we go, and done! That will be £10, please. Passenger: What? Attendant: The airline now charges a £10 carry-on assistance fee. Passenger: This is extortion. I won't stand for it. Attendant: Actually, you're right, you can't stand. You need to sit, and fasten your seat belt. We're about to push back from the gate. But first I need that £10. Passenger: No way. Attendant: Sir, if you don't comply, I will be forced to call the Air Marshal. And you really don't want me to do that. Passenger: Why not? Is he going to shoot me? Attendant: No, but there's a £50 Air-Marshal hailing fee. Passenger: Oh, all right, here, take the £10. I can't believe this. Attendant: Thank you for your cooperation, sir. Is there anything else I can do for you? Passenger: Yes. It's stuffy in here, and my overhead fan doesn't seem to work. Can you fix it? Attendant: Your overhead fan is not broken, sir. Just insert three twenties into the overhead coin slot for the first ten minutes. Passenger: The airline is charging me for cabin air? Attendant: Of course not, sir. Stagnant cabin air is provided free of charge. It's the circulating air that costs 60 pence. Passenger: I don't have any twenties. Can you make change for a pound? Attendant: Certainly, sir! Here you go! Passenger: But you've given me only 80 pence for my pound. Attendant: Yes, there's a change-making fee of 20 pence. Passenger: For cryin' out loud. All I have left is a lousy twenty pee? What the heck can I do with this? Attendant: Hang on to it. You'll need it later for the lavatory…

Can only assume that whoever Abrahams flogged it to had no idea originally of the background history. How long did that relaunch last. Shame yet again somebody else comprehensively rinsed

the price is not the key issue. the overheads are. and the location. as i have always said, the hotel SHOULD support most of the fixed costs, its in an ideal location, alebeit without lift or parking. the bar tho is going to be a hard one to gt going in todays market, in an otherwise empty side soi, with zero expat customs regulars. its like a brand new venture now, nothing in the way of goodwill. who ever take sit on has to budget for 1 yrs full costs in the bank, including staff.. and expect to make zip from feb to october. that in itself is the real price of the business. that the real investment. not the old bar stools and tables.. but the predicted cost of turning it from a maulsoleam to a business. plus who ever buys it was expected to buy that lovely ltd company that goes along with it. doing that means you take on its liabilities, known and unknown. all adds up to a lot more that the 600K

Blue Streak.....Great job on the currency photos...Big John did a great job on the old Secrets board with photo updates on the exchange rates for years and years...

The Durango & Silverton narrow guage railroad. 100 miles round trip to Silverton and back. A good 7 hour ride with 1 to 2 hour layover in Silverton to spend your hard earned money. For train buffs.... this is world famous and a " Must Ride " destination.

Rolling Stones last year in London. They were amazing

Was supposed to go see Elton tonight, the tickets were not selling well on StubHub. But concert is in Edmonton 180 miles away and we just got our first snowfall, would not have been a fun drive, especially the return. Just as I woke up checked my email and they had sold, still doubled my money. So I’m sad but happy at the same time. The ticket business can be very strange. There were less than 200 pairs of tickets left a week ago, but the better seats just were not selling. I’ve seen events where 3,000 seats are up for grabs and my seats sold 4 months out. Oh well, people came to their senses and realised sellers weren’t going to drop their prices any more. Have a free Cineplex ticket that’s only good for today, think I’ll go see Rambo

It's been a couple of weeks since I did the last update, so thought I'd describe the goings on over the last fortnight. Bank girl has been here both weekends - arriving around 6 pm on Friday and going back Monday morning. Having a really nice time with her, she's learned how to handle this old scrote, gives me time when I need it, isn't a cling-on in bed and is the real traditional Thai "take care" lady. It's really sweet. She gets me a coffee every morning, the bedroom activities are getting better and better as she gets used to me and even got her using my trimmer and strimmer devices to shave my body hair. Gogo girl has taken a real back seat now. I hate myself inasmuch as I'm lying to her as to my whereabouts. It's easy to take the pressure off if I say I'm in Hua Hin playing golf or in BKK on business. The fact is my golf clubs have been standing on the balcony in the shipping bag I brought them in since I moved into the condo. I shouldn't actually call her gogo girl any more, as she's left the gogo and now working with her "mama" at a pisshole bar on a side street off Soi Bukhao. I'm trying to encourage her to take barfines (she has 2 kids and her real mama in Loei to support) as she needs the money, but she's still insisting on not going with men. She says she's too scared and "only boom boom you" and "I want take care you every day and every night". I keep telling her I want no pressure and no girlfriend, trying to let her down gently. She's not taking the hint unfortunately. Maybe I'll see her again if bank girl skips a weekend coming here but as mentioned before gogo girl is the "helmet scraper" and that still bothers me. Although last time I saw her she was much better, I still had a sore dick for 24 hours. As to other activities, I like the GC's. Went to one earlier this week in Jomtien (my 4th visit there). New lady, very pretty, tall and slim, 34 years old and only been there a couple of weeks (not a newbie to the industry I might add - far from it in fact, she's spent time in Korea, Singapore, HK, Phuket and Sumui) but a newbie to this GC. Did get a bit of pressure from the 2 mamasans, both wanting drinks, but I did buy them a drink on previous visits, so did so but said don't ask again. If I want to buy you one, I will. If you ask again, I definitely won't. Some good banter with them and one of them brought over this newbie. Normally I don't like being "presented" with a girl, I prefer to look around and choose myself. But she was so pretty. My first concern was that she was a ladyboy. Before I invited her to sit with me I said "I have 1 question". She said immediately "I know - I'm not a ladyboy. Every man asks me that". She was 100% lady, as I found out upstairs, after a few drinks. The total for my early evening escapade was 2,500 all in. I had 3 drinks, I bought her 3 drinks and 1 LD each for the 2 mamasans. So 8 drinks and a very good time in a nice room upstairs that had a good shower and porn showing on the TV. I did leave some tips on top of that, but pretty good value for the equivalent of 66 of our English pounds. I think I mentioned previously that after being here solidly now for 8 weeks little things start to grate on me. I try to think to myself "don't be an old goat, don't be a Victor Meldrew" but when the same annoying things happen consistently, day after day, it does grate. All happen in the morning too . . . 1) Soi dogs and in particular dog shit on the pavement. It's a lovely walk from my condo to where I usually have breakfast. Every morning there are piles of Soi Dogshit as I walk along Beach Road. Disgusting. While there are rubbish trucks that take away all the beach vendor trash that's laid out roadside every day, nobody seems responsible for cleaning up dog shit. 2) The stench from the drains as you walk along Beach Road. There are drains about every 20 yards and particular when there's a breeze there's a certain point as you get near every drain when that horrible sewagy stench wafts into your nose. Bloody horrible. 3) Serving food at random times and out of synch. Happens in all restaurants, particularly when I'm having dinner with Bank girl. Main courses come before starters sometimes, they randomly put down one dish without the accompanying one, serve all my order 10 minutes before bank girl (and vice versa). One particularly annoying case was one breakfast where I just ordered boiled eggs, toast, butter and jam. They must have had a toast run going for other customers too as within a minute the toast was served and a full 6 minutes later the eggs arrive. I did take exception to this and sent the toast back - I want warm (or preferably hot) toast with my eggs, not stone cold and all served at the same time. 4) Thais walking wearing flipflops who drag their feet. Don't know why, but this really winds me up. Pick your feet up for goodness sake. Sounds like someone sanding wood. Anyway, overall I'm enjoying my extended stay. Bank girl coming this afternoon so looking forward to a nice weekend. Anywhere in the world has things that grate, Thailand just has different annoyances.

Yeah I think everyone was trying to outdo Motörhead at the time. I think Hawkwind funnily enough was the loudest for me. Same as you couldn’t hear a thing for days.

McDonalds double sausage and egg muffin breakfast meal.😀