Jambo

I think the only airline food I have ever looked forward to was the "cream tea" of scones, clotted cream and jam one used to get on the evening BA Shuttle back from Heathrow to Edinburgh. Two curries on Thai Airways flight turned my lips blue with an allergic reaction. Unfortunately, I only found that out at one of the "clap clinics" on second road I visited on day 2 thinking I had contracted some kind of social disease during my first night. 😆

I thought "Henlow" was a miss print when I first read your post as I was quite a regular visitor to the RAF museum in "Hendon" which was quite near to where I lived in Finchley, North London. I had to Google Henlow which I can now delete from my list of English Towns I have never heard of before.😉 I always had an affinity to this museum as I had an uncle who had been in the RAF. As a wee sprog I can recall having model WW2 aeroplanes hanging down from my bedroom ceiling. I recall my last visit to The Imperial War museum was the day before I made my first trip to Thailand. I stayed overnight in London and spent the afternoon in the museum. It was the first week in November and was a freakishly warm day.

I hope the Service girl didn't get stuffed with the unpaid bill. It is quite common practice to deduct the equivalent of an unpaid bill from the service girls wages.

I wonder how many bars in Tree Town are making a profit? I would hazard a guess, very few. Same old, same old. Too many bars all chasing the same diminished number of potential customers. Yet new "beer gardens" continue to open hoping they will be different. Give me a comfortable air conditioned bar with a good sound system, nice eye candy and reasonable prices any day.

That is exactly how I monitor my BP also using an Omron device with the band that goes around the arm. I also still have my original Omron wrist device which is well over 10 years old which still gives broadly very similar results but always with slightly higher readings. The cardiologist who telephoned me yesterday told me to stop getting fixated about daily BP readings. Just to take them once a week as my readings were now very consistent.

My telephone consultation this morning was not quite what I expected. It turned out that the readings I had sent were described as being just what they hoped to see. When I mentioned the low pulse rate I told that too at mid 40's was fine. I was told that although my heart attack was mild it will take some considerable time to fully recover from the effects. To improve my general fitness they would like me to sign up for a cardio fitness program they have in conjunction with the Excite Leisure center one of which is a short bus ride from where I currently live. It is designed specifically for someone like me recovering from a heart condition. Ending on a positive note the doctor confirmed that there is no reason why I cannot undertake flights once again. I can now update my annual travel insurance policy and pay the additional substantial surcharge they now require.

I am due a telephone consultation with my GP at 7:30 this morning. I don't believe I have ever had a problem with my BP but I left hospital after my mild heart attack in December with a whole batch of medications to take each day including one for BP. As requested I sent my own subsequent PB readings to the Practice and he subsequently reduced the amount of the PB dose. Earlier this week I sent him my BP results for the last two weeks which average out at 115/52 which presumably is good. On the other hand, my pulse rate seems very low and I previously drew this to his attention and also to the Practice Nurse who takes and monitors my bloods from time to time. Neither seemed to be concerned but I intend to raise this today during the consultation. It could be that I am getting a false reading from the pulse rate. When I was in the hospital they discovered that I apparently have an "extra" beat in my pulse. Again, that did not appear to be of any major concern and may be heriditory as my grandaughter has the same.

All my telephone conversations these days both to and from Thailand are either using Line or Whats App. I make a video call to Thailand most every day using Line and it still amazes me how clear these calls are thanks to the wonders of modern technology. Which reminds me..........I am late!

I was given a Hornby train set one Christmas with the engine exactly like the above. Over time I added accessories until it completely filled the available floor space. I remember that it could be a little temperamental with something array with the electrical connection at times. Long after it ceased to be a toy the engine was on show in a display cabinet but what finally happened to it I do not recall.

Sorry, I just gave that previous post of yours a "thumbs Up" in a sort of reflex action! I forgot it got overtaken by circumstance. I hope things look better for you soon. I am finding it hard to mentally get over the fact I have actually had a mild heart attack. I expect to be able to get back to the long walks I was doing after my hip operation but it is just not happening yet. Got a long way to go to get back to normal.

Strawberries and raspberries are fine with low sugar content. Its the double cream swamping them which fucks one up!

Living and socializing in Pattaya for 15+ years I have met the inevitable number of individuals who ranged from the just odd through the inveterate liars to the the certifiable insane. Sometimes, all on the same day. One of my favorite member of the "just odd" category was this guy who used to visit aGoGo's armed with an A4 pad. He always sat next to the stage. When the girls came on the stage to dance he used to draw circles on the pad and write their number in the circle. He would then start grading them with by adding a number from 1 - 10. If they did a shift change he would turn the page and start again. What he did with the result is unclear as I was told that he never asked any girl to join him and certainly did not bar fine any of the girls.

Just received a phone call from Sai to let me know that sadly one of our two original recycled Soi dogs from our first house in Pattaya passed quietly in her sleep a few minutes ago. Tung Tong (aka RAMBO) Tung Tong was about 17 years old so she had a good innings. She was one of two soi dogs we used to feed each day outside our original house on the Darkside. Then we moved to Bangsaray and the following day when I came home from working in Secrets I discovered that Sai and her sister had retrieved the two dogs and that they were happily making themselves at home in Bangsaray. Eventually they/we relocated to the house in Mae Sot where they became a pack of 4 then 5 dogs all of which were former Soi dogs. I send money each month and they are spoiled rotten.

Take care - The Munro's can bite back! My former boss in Edinburgh, Jim Souness, tragically died climbing in the Munro's literally one week after he formally retired from the Company. A very accomplished golfer in addition to which whilst he was studying to become an actuary he also played part time on the wing for both Hibs and subsequently Hearts. Life can be very unfair.

Just completed amending my Qatar Airways flights from a monthly trip in March to the month of June. In view of my recent health issues I did not feel confident I will have recovered sufficiently by the 2nd March to get the most out of the trip.

Yes, I spent over two months completely repainting the whole of the outside of the property including all the boundary walls and fences. It felt really good to do some project myself although trying to cope with manual work in the Thai heat and keeping out of the sun was draining at times. Each day I made a start whilst it was still dark. I had spent the previous year or so "Up Country" almost locked away due to covid restrictions with hardly anyone other than Sai speaking in English to me. Believe me, that puts a big strain on everyone. So when the opportunity arose I threw myself into the "project" back down south. Unfortunately, by then Pattaya was virtually a covid induced ghost town so I was basically still on my own. I had not seen my daughters for 3 years and when a window opened up to fly to the UK I booked a flight with the thought of maybe staying for maybe 2 or 3 months before returning to Thailand. I had only been back a couple of weeks and I started to get severe pain in my left knee from residual pain from my hip. Investigations followed and I found myself on the waiting list for a hip replacement operation. It actually went downhill from there! Two and a half years later having successfully had the new hip I book a months trip to Thailand for the whole of March most of it to be spent with Sai up in Mae Sot with a week back in the house in Bang Saray. Then I have a mild heart attack on December 2nd which throws everything into total confusion once again. My GP told me yesterday that medically speaking he believes I would be fit to fly in March. Unfortunately, I am by no means convinced that physically I will be up for the trip as soon as the 1st March. I seem to have lost all the good work I put in after the new hip operation. I think I will postpone my trip back to Mae Sot and Bang Saray to May.

Personally, I would have absolutely no objection to paying 90 baht for a beer ( not Leo) as long as I was enjoying it in the ambience of an air conditioned hostess style bar. These open air beer bar complexes have zero attraction for me. It surprises me not at all that they all seem virtually devoid of customers.

We still have the house in Bangsaray.

Many thanks. I am still getting used to my new Oppo phone and although I have made use of the "side app panel" I never noticed the link to the screen translation.

Nightclub/hotel/forum/Villa/cruiser/three "taxi's"/ 30+ hostess /Food/Great sound system/Party nights/live music. Hardly anyone ( least of all most of the shareholders) had the faintest idea how successful Secrets was for a good number of years. An absolute cash cow with a nights takings more than most bars took in a week or more. Let the good times roll. Ben was more like the Brother I never had. Then the addiction set in. He started playing poker from Manila to Vegas to New Zealand to St Petersburg etc etc never once telling me when he was coming back. Larry used to keep me updated as to how he was doing in the tournaments. I resigned when he didn't leave me enough in the bank to pay the staff monthly wages. Phil and I were always the last to get paid. What a shame.

They are useful insomuch as they enable somebody like me to get an up to date snap shot of different areas of Pattaya and particularly how busy, or not, the Town was at the time. My overall impression is that there are far, far too many entertainment venues now all over Town all looking for the same potential "western" customers to make them profitable. There is absolutely no way that the majority are viable. Just look at Tree Town as a prime example where virtually every bar, with one or two exceptions, has girls sitting around in an empty bar. That picture is repeated everywhere these vloggers film with the notable exception of L K Metro but even then one does not know how busy it is inside the GoGo's. Yet still more developments take place to add to the number of venues trying to find customers. Busy bars attract customers. They always have. Empty bars .......................... stay empty.

Jealousy always was the biggest form of flattery. The forum got them through the front door the first time and they kept coming back because they liked what they found inside.

I am fairly sure it is the Atorvastatin although my prognosis is solely based on a Google search which confirmed diarrhea as a common side effect. I will be sure to mention this today when I have my bloods taken again but a week today is my appointment to assess how I am responding to all the meds I am taking. Yesterday was almost a "perfect storm" of things that could conspire to make me feel like shite. No sleep after 02:00am caused by a continuous streaming cold and the worst diarrhea I have experienced since I started on all these new meds. I felt really bad about alarming my two daughters who had come round to help me consume all the left over Christmas goodies. I think I will get them to phone my GP the next time I need an appointment. Amazingly, he phoned me 20 minutes after Karen had spoke to the Receptionist at the Practice.

I have had a really bad and very long day. It started at 02:00am when I woke up, went for a pee and could not get back to sleep due to a streaming cold causing me to blow my nose every 5 minutes or so. I wondered whether I had Covid, yet again, particularly as both my grandchildren had experienced Covid during the early part of the week leading up to out family Christmas Dinner. Tested negative but started to feel stressed out. I have been on my FIVE post heart attack medications for almost 3 weeks now. More blood tests at my GP tomorrow when I will mention the fact that I am experiencing the galloping trots on a daily basis and particularly bad today. Not feeling at all good today made worse by the diarrhea and experiencing a couple of brief problems with my eyes probably through wearing my contacts too long when I was already tired. I could not help thinking I might be having another heart attack and immediately turned anxiety into full blown panic attacks. Managed to speak over the phone with my GP, the medical equivalent of a lottery win, who reminded me that I had postponed my annual checkup at the Eye Hospital to monitor the growth, if any, of the freckle in the back of my eye. That was unavoidable as it clashed with my hip replacement operation. So Tomorrow I now have blood tests at 09:50 and a consultation with the Practice Eye Doctor at 12 noon. Whatever next?

A Delta Blues interpretation originally from Led Zeppelin IV.