Jambo

My first three Company cars were consecutive Morris Marina's followed by a Morris Ital which was basically another Marina. They were without doubt a leading candidate for the worst British motor cars of all time. They had no power at all and no brakes to speak of! I had to drive them during the week but kept my sanity at the weekends getting through a series of used A H Sprite/M G Midget and a Triumph Spitfire. I bought my Daughters the cheapest new Citroen saloon which served them well for a couple of years so one thumbs up for a Frog mobile.

Looking out of my living room window at yet another pathetic day of almost non-stop drizzle and unbroken really low down cloud scudding from right to left. And its cold. And miserable. And its 3:10pm and very soon it will be dark enough to justify turning on the light. And the nights will keep getting longer until the back end of December after which we will be snowed in until March by which time I will have returned and promise not to start moaning about the heat and humidity. And its 3:15pm now and definitely getting dark! And I just turned on the lights because I cannot see the keyboard.

I just have just two nights in Bangkok right at the start of my month trip in March. That hasn't stopped me changing my hotel in Bangkok three times in a week. 🤣 I finally settled on Dynasty Inn simply for the location in Soi 4, Nana.

I am not sure I quite understand. When one does the cloning the new phone will not have a sim card and therefore does not have a phone number. It is not until the cloning is finished, hopefully successfully, that one puts the existing sim card into the new phone and thus the new phone inherits the existing phone number. Or am I wrong? I have always allowed the shop I purchased a phone to transfer everything but the last time they f***d it up. This time I will be buying the phone from Amazon and attempting everything myself.

All I am really worried about is transferring my WhatsApp and Line Apps and all the associated data from my existing android phone to a new one. As I am very comfortable with my current OPPO phone to me it makes sense to stay with OPPO. If I am cloning one phone to another am I right in believing that having carried out that exercise both phones should then look and look and act identical to one another. By that I mean as far as Apps and associated data is concerned not any additional bells and whistles there may be on the new phone.

What I am doing is trying to make up my mind as to whether I should buy a new smart phone or not. Or more particularly, when and where to buy a new phone. I used to always buy Samsung simply because I got used to them. Not that I had many as change occurred when they stopped working for good or I had damaged them beyond reasonable repair. People who queue up outside phone shops every time a new model is launched IMHO are certifiable. Then I bought an OPPO phone well over three years ago because they brought out a model which got a great review of the camera and was less than half the price than replacing my aging Samsung. I have been extremely happy with the OPPO phone but now that is starting to look its age and I am scared if it just stopped working I would be in the shite. So do I buy one now or wait until I return for my month of March in Thailand and buy OPPO then? I class phones as "capital expenditure" and I have an inbuilt reticence to spend my capital on anything. The only downside of buying my original OPPO was that the clown in the phone shop (in Thailand) royally f***d up cloning my old Samsung to the new OPPO and I lost data for ever and had to reinstall my most favorite , and most used, Apps including WhatsApp and Line. The same thing happened not so long ago to a good friend in Thailand which explained why we could not phone one another for a month or so. To buy, or not to buy? That is the question.

How right you are and so was I. I can still quote word for word my French teachers final comment on my end of year School Report: "He is lazy, untidy and never works well." Well I did get 11% in the mock O-Level French exam after which they threw me out French. I mean what more do you need to know in Frog other than "Aimee vous les blow jobs?"

Just start with "Mai Pet" when ordering any Thai meal. It will still come at least medium spicy. On my second trip I let a Thai girl take me to the "Ruen Thai??" restaurant in second road and let her order a meal for the two of us. I wanted it to be an authentic Thai meal so I told her to order for me just as if she was ordering for herself. It took my head off and my mouth would not stop burning. I was told to just eat plain rice but that didn't help. I used up copious amounts of water and that did not help either. Half of the Thai staff were around me helping the farang in distress. 🤣 Mai Pet, for ever after!

I wanted it to start from the 1st December because I plan to make a second monthly trip to Thailand for the month of November 2024. I will take the chance on my trip to Tenerife on the 6th December.

I have just completed an annual travel Insurance policy effective from the 1st December. From a monetary point of view that is a no-brainer as the cost of a single trip cover for a monthly visit to Thailand is only 30 pounds less than the annual policy. With such a monthly trip booked for March and a week in Tenerife early next month my anticipated further travel next year will effectively cost me nothing as far as insurance is concerned. I really didn't consider this but reading the small print I find that should any new medical condition, treatment, investigation or prescribed medication arise during the year I have to immediately advise that to the Insurers.

Our Ford car could not understand Sai's Thai accent and she used to get really annoyed when she couldn't use the phone voice control. It didn't work either for the Thai salesman at Ford's in Pattaya and I had to use it for him after he told me what to do. I use Alexa for music but not much else. The sound bar I linked to my smart TV is brilliant.

She is hedging her bets! Yesterday I noticed her U-Tube video was on the subject of the respective merits and which was best out of Viagra and Cialis. Basically, her conclusion was that it was a draw but as Cialis effects apparently last for 36 hours they are much better value for money if one can still shag more than once in 24 hours particularly if used in the generic version such as Apcalis. She didn't actually mention "Apcalis" by name but that is what they sell in the Pharmacist in Second Road just past The Robin Hood. So they tell me. 🤣

I tried quoting a member's post in the "What are you doing now?" topic a few minutes ago and that would not work for me either.

I am making up for the last two years when I could hardly walk and certainly couldn't travel. Been finalizing the details of my month in Thailand in March this morning. Bored this afternoon and the weather in Scotland is shite as usual. So I just booked a week in Tenerife on the 6th December with Jet2. 🤣

My dreams are mostly like that and I often get quite annoyed with myself that I cannot remember the dream that seemed so detailed and real apparently only a short time before. I have a quite regular dream where I am driving a car up a steep winding hill and suddenly the car is going backwards down the hill and I cannot control it and I am in a blind panic waiting for the crash that never happens. The most lucid dream I ever had was when I was being attacked in the street and I threw several punches to defend myself. When I woke in the morning I found dried blood on both my hand and the bedside table. It was very fortunate I had been sleeping laying on my right side throwing left hooks. If I had been laying the other way round I might well have decked Sai.

The first week in November was always the time when my golfing buddies started to return to Pattaya because you could count on the rainy season ending like throwing a switch. Not this year and I was told in a message yesterday that it does not look good throughout the next 10 days or so. Up "North" the rainy season normally ended a month earlier than down in Pattaya. Not this year as when I spoke to Sai on Line this morning it was pissing down in Mae Sot. Some Lab in China has f***d up the weather everywhere!

That comment is spot on. The last occasion I tried to renew my Retirement visa having done it myself for years I found that they had moved the goalposts. Having effectively forced me to apply initially for a short term extension the guy in IP said to me "Why didn't you use an Agent?" A few days later I gave up and went to see Secrets Thai accountant who had my passport returned correctly stamped within a few days. The "fee" was the going rate for "Agent" renewals.

The easy part of my return trip to Thailand was booking my Qatar Airways flights. The following 30 days of my visit is much more complicated as I wish to spend time both “Up Country” and in Pattaya. I arrive at Swampy around 12.30 on Saturday 2nd March following roughly two 6 hour flights with a couple of hours in between. I will no doubt be tired as I am a light sleeper at the best of times and I rarely sleep during flights. So I have booked myself into a decent hotel in the Nana area for a couple of nights to recover before taking the short flight up north. Well that’s the theory although it seems rather wasteful not to visit Nana for a mooch around and I do recall having the best massage ever in the same area. You’ve got to really and after all it’s been a long time. 😃 I mentioned my trip recently to a good friend in Pattaya including the “Up Country” aspect to which he responded with “That’s the last time I EVER spend three weeks “Up Country!” That hit a nerve. Covid affected lives in so many ways. Being locked down in the family home in Mae Sot for well over a year with only one other person speaking English did nothing for a relationship. Well sadly, nothing good. Then my hip took a turn for the worse whilst visiting my daughters in the UK. So it has been well over two years since I left Thailand. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and so did regular video calls on Line. I am now really looking forward to heading up north. Spending several weeks back in the family home, much less so. Then a Eureka moment. I remembered that all the living areas including the modern bathroom, the main lounge and all bedrooms are upstairs. Up a very steep flight of stairs. Oh dear, my new hip will not be able to cope with those stairs. Well that’s my story and I am sticking to it as well.😉 So sadly I have had to book a hotel for the duration of my 17 days in Mae Sot. Fortunately “The Centara Hotel” (quite possibly the best and most comfortable hotel in the north west) with its two swimming pools, gym etc had a vacancy at an amazingly low provincial rate. After my trip to Mae Sot which I sincerely hope goes well I fly Nok Airways back down to Don Mueang. Then its taxi down to Pattaya for a 10 night stay in my old “night out on the town” hotel in Soi Buakhao. A good location with the hotel almost exactly equal distance between Soi Boomerang and L K Metro. Trips used to be a lot simpler in the old days. What time will my taxi arrive at the Residence Gardens? How long will it take me to shower, change into my best shagging gear and get to the FLB bar? If all goes well I will be back for another month in November. If it doesn’t go well the month will just be in Pattaya.

I hate change! If one is happy with Windows 10, assuming it is doing everything one wishes it to do, why move to Windows 11? The laptop I am currently using came with Windows 10. I absolutely hated it and followed a tutorial which made Windows 10 in appearance look like Windows 8. At least I think it was 8 so I was happy once again. 🤣

I can only base this comment based on watching U-Tube videos but it seems to me that there are new bars here there and everywhere in Pattaya. What there is not is anywhere near enough potential customers to make the majority of them viable. Prior to Covid there were already far too many bars all chasing a diminished number of potential customers. If it was bad then, and it was, surely it is far worse now? Or am I watching the wrong U-Tubers?

Phil looks as if he needs a good rest and a chance to recharge his batteries. Finally finding a buyer for Milk cannot have come a day too soon. I look forward to seeing a rejuvenated Phil in Le Pub when I visit in March.

I just saw a U-Tube video from Phil announcing that he has found a buyer for Milk. I will be surprised if it ever becomes a rival to Le Pub next door. Milk's girls staying put?

My first car was a "Sit Up and Beg" Ford Popular which burned engine oil almost as fast as it used up petrol. I used to pour used oil which came from taxi's into the sump. The following is an example of the same car as mine except mine looked like it had been used for stock car racing. I failed my first driving test aged 17 in a motoring school car. I then did 3,000 illegal miles in the Ford Pop putting the L Plates back on at the test center and sailed through my second test. The test "Examiner" loved the car not knowing that none of the indicators worked. I paid 25 pounds for it and it lasted a year when a drunk driver crashed into it whilst it was parked and wrote it off. I received 37 pounds from his insurance company in compensation and 10 pounds from the policeman who gave me the bad news but wanted the four wheels.

Starting today, back on my virtually zero carb fasting diet to get rid of the excesses of my 9 nights in extremely sunny and nonseasonal hot Benidorm. No problems flying with my now 7 week old new hip other than setting off the alarms on the body scanner at both Edinburgh and Alicante airports. 🤣 My hip stood up well although I was somewhat nervous in getting on and particularly off the sunbeds round the pool as they are so low down. The resort, particularly the British Strip, was heaving. Every Nightclub with hourly live performances by tribute acts and politically incorrect comics was standing room only. Fortunately, as I have no pretensions of class, I enjoyed my nostalgic return to the scene of my first overseas holiday all those years ago.