Jambo

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. 😃

In retrospect, I could never work out where Motown ended and Northern Soul started. Or was it the other way round? 🤣 Being a Cockney it was all Motown to me.

I feel a lot like I did before I booked my first ever flight to Thailand back in 2003. Where have those years gone? Medically speaking the advice about how long to wait between my new hip and a long haul flight is somewhat confusing. It would appear 4 to 6 months is the recommended period to wait due to the possibility of blood clots which can be fatal in certain circumstances. So I am looking at flying out at the end of February and staying through March. I will make a similar monthly trip in November next year. In mind to spend three weeks "Up Country" with a few days in Pattaya at the beginning and end of each trip. Well that is the plan at the moment. There is the distinct possibility that my right hip will go the same way as the left one so I need to make the most of my mobility whilst it lasts. I will probably book directly with Air France/KLM in the next few days which looks like costing about 1,000 pounds for the round trip from Edinburgh. Less than my short haul trip to Spain next week. 🤣

I retired to Thailand back in June 2006 some three years after my wife died. For the previous 8 years I had been a self employed accountant working from home building up a client bank of some 50 customers including in the end six large pubs from the same brewery chain. They were a major income source as I did everything for them including running their payrolls and negotiating fines with the Inland Revenue when they got caught hiding income from, say, live music nights or gaming machines. 😉 So in 2006, I sold my client bank to another accountant, took my private pension and retired to Pattaya. I had the time of my life getting pissed every night and having the pick of all Secrets new girls. I even had a business card printed with my title of "Honorary Pussy Tester." That lasted for about 3 months when I realized that as enjoyable as this was my health was suffering and I reverted to "Retirement Mode" and basically socializing at weekends only. Ben was a mate then. In fact he was more like the younger brother I never had. I did an initial set of " Management Accounts" for Secrets because he did not trust Alan his own Manager. There was a lot of "black holes" in the initial recording of expenditure and cash introduced by shareholders but as far as I could tell Alan had done an excellent job in recording day to day income/expenditure once Secrets opened. As much as I was enjoying retirement, Thailand style, I was happy to help out in the office as Alan's main role was head chef and he was a really good Chef. Then one day we all received a message on our phones from Alan telling us he was at Bangkok Airport on his way to Papua New Guinea to run the catering for a Gold Mine. The next day I became Secrets General Manager so full time employed again. There then followed several of the happiest years of my life. It was not like work because all Secrets customers were visiting with the aim of having a great time and most did just that .............in spades! We were a great team as well all getting on with one another. Then Ben f***d it all up with his lifestyle and Poker addictions all funded through Secrets Bank account. I still had the responsibility to somehow pay all the bills and I found myself waking up in the night wondering how I was going to pay the staff. Eventually, I walked away because enough was enough. What a shame.

I wasn't criticizing just making a personal observation. Sorry if I touched a nerve.

I can recall a Pub in Dunfermline refusing to accept my English 20 pound note before a Hearts game but that had more to do with some moody copies apparently doing the rounds. Bloody cheek really given that Scottish notes are not technically legal tender in the UK. 😉

I can't play golf either but it took me 35 years of trying to come to that conclusion. To enjoy retirement one just has to have other interests otherwise there really is a massive hole and you just vegetate. Is there anything more sad than the guys you see sitting in a bar in the middle of the afternoon in Pattaya nursing a half of lager.

Some of you would be very shocked how things are in the UK now. It is almost the exception to pay with cash anymore, anywhere. The very first pub I went into in Rose Street, Edinburgh did not accept cash and that was over two years ago.

White Elephant area. Also, why oh why call it "The Robin Hood?" What possible connection does Robin Hood have to Pattaya, Thailand? Should have called it "Fryer Tuck."

I had a very bad meal there on my first visit and never returned. Awful location.

I get the flu and my 7th covid jag on the 11th November. 🙂 I postponed the covid jag as I only had covid two weeks ago. I have to believe if I hadn't had the covid jags my symptoms would have been far more severe. I finish 6 weeks of giving myself blood thinner injections on the 16th October. My stomach is looking like a pin cushion. The needle looks long but it does not hurt at all.

Sunday : 3 weeks 4 days since my hip replacement and 11 days since I tested positive for covid. 😚 I am walking normally now with no limp and no pain. Some initial stiffness in the hip however that disappears after a minute or two of walking. I had a good/bad year of not being able to do any meaningful exercise as it was just too painful. That has left me really unfit and that has been compounded by feeling really lethargic following covid. It was a real effort today to drag myself away from watching Europe doing the business in the Ryder Cup. I must do a walk every day as walking is the best possible exercise following my operation. I am still religiously doing the set exercises every day but nothing beats a brisk 30 minute walk especially as around where I am living is virtually all up and down hill and the hills are steep! I called into our local charity shop to see if they were interested in taking my two sets of walking sticks and an unused walking frame. Unlike "Jobsworth" at the Royal Hospital they will be delighted to accept my various aids and I promised to drop them in on Friday when my daughter can park in their car park. Under 3 weeks now until my 9 days break in Spain so I want to be able to walk up to an hour or so by then. My hotel is only 2 minutes from the start of "The British Strip" and the first Nightclub so I am hedging my bets. 🤣

I have been mostly stuck in my flat/condo for well over a year. I cannot fly long haul for months (well it is not recommended) so I fly to Alicante shortly hopefully to get some autumn sunshine. Totally free of opioid painkillers I anticipate a good few San Migs and Carlos Primero brandies with my coffee! 😄

When I went for my Hip Replacement Pre-Op meeting at the Royal Hospital I was given an 81 page NHS booklet full of useful information. Of particular help to me was all the various exercises one must undertake to ensure a full recovery. The final two pages was full of "Useful telephone numbers" one of which was entitled 'OT Equipment Return." That has relevance to me as I left the hospital on discharge using a pair of NHS issue walking sticks that looked brand new. I had already purchased myself a set of extended walking sticks that go halfway up ones arms and a walking frame. Neither of these have been used so I intended to donate those to the Royal Hospital at the same time I returned their standard walking sticks. I telephoned the number with a view to arranging a pick up of the items in question. I explained to the guy who answered that I wished to return my pair of walking sticks to the Royal Hospital and donate some unused, brand new, equipment. "No, you cannot do that we don't accept donations." says jobsworth. "Why not?" says I "They are brand new and good quality." "No,sorry." says jobsworth "We are not allowed to accept donations. I suggest you phone the Salvation Army." "Well what about the two walking sticks I left using from the Royal Hospital?" "What's your name and date of birth? asks jobsworth. I give them to him and after a short while he says: "Cannot find you listed in Edinburgh. Where do you live? So I tell him and he says "That's West Lothian. We don't deal with returns in West Lothian, only Edinburgh." To which I respond with "I walked out of The Royal Hospital with the walking sticks and the Royal is in Edinburgh." Jobsworth responds "To be quite honest mate if I was you I would give the whole lot to the Salvation Army." "That is a crazy waste of money. Surely the NHS cannot afford to just give equipment away every time somebody is discharged from Hospital on crutches?" "To be quite honest mate. I have worked for the NHS for 10 years and nothing surprises me any more!" The inmates are in charge of the asylum moment.

We have a house in Bangsaray I haven't seen for two years. I spent weeks repainting the whole of the outside then returned to the UK for a family visit I expected to be three months. Then my hip started to go tits up. Back in the Spring.

Can you really consider a one/off show paying tribute to one of the greatest groups of all time a "cover version". I think not.