Jambo

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.

Waiting for my taxi to the airport. 😉

Packing for my 9 night trip to Spain. I fully intend to make up for the last two wasted years when my hip made me virtually housebound for much of the time. So short haul (permitted) flight to Spain now and Thailand trip booked for the whole of March with every intention of a further trip later next year. The only good thing to come from the last two years is I have built up a very healthy travel fund. I am not getting any younger so whilst my general health remains good I fully intend to make the most of the next two years..........at least! 😃

And apparently which eye. 🤣

Spot the difference! 🤣 Screen print taken from his latest vlog posted on UTube 5 hours ago. He gave his very different explanation as to what happened. Some people just attract violence.

Try Ben.

Now that I have my new hip I can look forward to a return to Thailand which is in fact now booked for the whole of next March. I have been binge watching all the Utube videos of these blogger guys riding round Pattaya filming the usual Soi's which make up the entertainment hot spots. I have come to the following conclusions: 1. A great many venues did not survive Covid but have been reborn presumably under new ownership and with a new name. 2. If one believes the comments from these bloggers there are nevertheless many venues currently up for sale. 3. Notwithstanding the above, brand new venues seem to be appearing all over Town. I cannot help wondering where are all the customers going to come from to support all these venues? I would not mind betting that for every venue that is busy with customers there are another two struggling to make a living. ps This comments for Larry (Soi7) I watched a video on AC yesterday now calling itself "Walking Street" Talk about "All Change." I don't think I recognized any of the bars/GoGo's from the days we went sniffing around. Even those dumps you used to frequent in Fields Ave seem to have all changed. 🤣

I have had 6 vaccinations and covid twice irrespective of the jags. The first time my symptoms were very mild apart from the first day. The second time was just like getting the flu but without any fever. It has been three weeks now since I tested positive and I am not, as yet, completely clear of the symptoms. The worst was feeling lethargic all the time and that has only disappeared in the last couple of days. I am left with an infrequent cough but that is about all now. The question is, would my symptoms have been even worse than they were if I had not had the sixth vaccination? Who the f**k knows!

I go with the warning of a world where humans are totally "enslaved" by technology. I commend all to read "The Machine Stops" by E M Forster written I believe in 1909. This envisioned a world where everyone lived underground presumably having destroyed the natural world above ground. Humanity was by then totally dependent upon technology to produce all the basics of life including artificial "food" heating, oxygen etc etc. Nobody went anywhere and communicated verbally and visually on what was described as being very similar to, say, a Laptop. Remember this book was science fiction at the time having been written in 1909. Everything in the human world to maintain life was controlled by "The Machine" but the irony was that "The Machine" was starting to go wrong for the simple fact that in an AI world "Who repairs the repairers, repairers?" Certainly outside the ability of the totally dependent humans. When "The Machine" stops for good so ends humanity.

Booked Qatar in the end. Price was competitive and I like the flight timings. Staying throughout the month of March. Something to look forward to through yet another Scottish winter. ( 7 days until my trip to Spain )

Not my musical scene. Unless, the Commodores counts. 😃