Jambo

Catching the odd decent fish from time to time helps. Something I have rarely seemed to be able to do "Up Country" 🤣

Agreed. Booked myself into Sutus Ct Hotel, very close to Soi B, for a couple of nights next week. Enjoyed my last visit. Nice room with parking and just 590 baht a night.

Just like F1. 🤣 Relatively speaking!

Then why mention it? Personally, I don't find him at all arrogant at all as he is a brit, at the very top of his game, and a winner. I think the majority of those that seem to have an irrational disliking to him do so because he neither drives for THEIR team and is black to boot ............................but not necessarily in that order.

Actually, I am not. Personally I am watching the start hoping the Two Ferrari's will take one another out at the first corner but Vettel has given up so unlikely. When that doesn't happen I turn over and usually watch either footy or golf in that order. I then take another peek after about an hour to see how far Lewis H is ahead of the hammer throwers. I lost interest in F1 after the pundits spent so much time trying desparately to find something exciting about one or two stop strategies and starting on hard compound tyres. I realised I had totally lost interest when I found myself hoping one of the tyre change team would f**k up the locking nut and a wheel would fall off at the end of the pit lane just to relieve the monotony. Technology and the cost thereof has wrecked F1 as a sporting spectacle. They don't even sound or look like real F1 racing cars any more. I used to drive all over the UK to watch motor sport both two, and four wheels. Three wheels with sidecars held together with duck tape! Oh, for the smell of Castrol R in the morning. 🤣

Been listening to "Van the Man" most of my life.

Once every month on a Wednesday I sit parked opposite the Marquee from about 2.50 - 3.30pm whilst my wife Sai is in the dentist. I am sure that the same 2 and sometimes 3 customers are the same ones sitting there every time. I never felt the urge to join them as they look so sad and anyway I don't do afternoon drinking. So I listen to fabulous103fm instead. 😀

The problem currently with F1 is that unless a mechanical failure, driver rule indiscretion or pile up at turn 1, Hamilton being the best driver by far driving the best car by far is going to win virtually every race. I watch the start just in case the turn 1 pile up occurs and then ideally watch some footy or golf then briefly turn back a couple of times to see how far Hamilton is leading.

Maybe the salvation of F1 might be to have Mercedes start at the back of the grid in every other race or just use hard tyres.

I don't suppose they sell any real draft beer other than lager? God, I miss a pint of Deuchars IPA.

Unfortunately, not on their takeaway menu. 🥴

Tally-ho! Either would do. 🤣

In 15 years I have gone from "Hi hansum man" to "Hi Papa" and back to "Hi hansum man." Ain't life grand. 🤣

Terry, He's just an overgrown teddy bear. Next time he turns up go and give him a big hug mate. But make sure somebody has a camera handy.🤣

There were far too many choices for a year or two prior to the pandemic restrictions with many comments in this forum as to how quiet it was in Pattaya's entertainment venues. The western world's economies and the high valued baht were responsible and that has not changed at all. Sadly, no doubt by the end of the year the choices will have continued to reduce to the advantage of those that remain. Survival of the fittest and/or owners with deep pockets.

This space should have been occupied by a photo of snake about 6+ feet long that came over the back wall of the house in Mae Sot yesterday into the "Thai" BBQ area if it had not scared the shit out of me! 🤣 Think python about the diameter of my wrist but Sai says not a python but something phonetically in Thai that sounded like "banchan". It looked like a python to me! Sai went to grab a garden broom which was hanging up behind us and when we both turned round it was gone. One of the most scary things I have learned about snakes in Thailand is that they can move really fast when spooked. The fact we did not know where it went was almost as worrying as seeing it in the first place. We can only assume it went back over the wall which has a small steam running behind it and parallel to the rear of the house.

Just two months remaining of the rainy season for Pattaya. It is not unusual for July and August not to have much rain other than the odd horrendous thunderstorm with the more continuous daily rain in October but come November it is normally like throwing an off switch. I always used to come over at the beginning of November to play golf and never ever lost a day to bad weather. If the heavy stuff does not happen in October it is going to be really bad by the end of the year. It seems to be very different up here in Mae Sot. The rainy season really is the rainy season with downpours almost every day but September is the last month and that is it for another year. The whole world's weather has become chaotic and unpredictable.

Well I was talking to a mutual good friend of ours yesterday and from his comments it is far from being all "doom and gloom" for expat pussy hounds. Of course there are simply not enough expats in Pattaya to make all the openplan beers bars look anything other than what they are which is depressingly empty. That is not going to change just get worse. Many of the GoGo's that reopened are going to close again for the same reason. They particularly must be losing money every day they remain open. What is missing of course is the photo's that cannot be taken/shown inside the much smaller number of GoGo's and "Clubs" that are being visited in reasonable numbers by expats particularly where they are offering the expat staple diet of friendly interactive pussy, nice premises and reasonably priced drinks. But I suppose if I was sitting day after day self isolating back in the UK, the USA or Oz desperately waiting to return to Pattaya I would welcome any photo's even of the "doom and gloom" variety. I too am desperately waiting to return. 14 days , and counting. 🤣

Years ago I was a spectator at the Bob Hope Classic and I recall watching Vijay tee off and my mate said "You know why Vijay hits the ball so straight don't you?" "No idea." says I "Well when he was growing up he was scared to hit the ball into the rough in case he got eaten by a lion." "Lions? I don't think there are lions in Fiji?" says I "Well nobody told him that." says my mate 🤣

Good post. I would not have considered your point about the "seniors" keeping a young golfer with aspirations from a PGA spot. I never suffered from having a hard time breaking 80 due to the fact that I rarely broke 90. 🤣

Sent to Tommy by PayPal.

Sadly, I believe you are absolutely correct. It is September in 3 days and the only possibilities Thailand are currently offering to a select group of "tourists" is absolute bollocks. To start with most tourists do not have enough available holiday entitlement in one go to take 4 weeks the first two of which will be in a very restrictive and expensive quarantine hotel. So that is going to be a non-event. My two daughters plus grandaughter have rebooked to visit me in Thailand in mid-March and I so hope I am wrong but I just do not see them making that trip. Thailand seems to be focused on preserving their low reported incidents of Covid19 irrespective of the damage they are doing to their own tourist industry and all the Thai's that find themselves currently unemployed.

I wonder if you really would? School was always a struggle for me and I so envied the kids who seemed so much more academically gifted than me. I was stubborn and that made up the difference. The kids these days, at least those that have ready access to the internet, have no idea how lucky they are as compared to our generation. I can still remember when an exchange History teacher set us a project for the school holidays based upon a quotation from some obscure author I had never heard of let alone the quotation. I had to get two buses to a library to find both the book that the quotation was taken from and then try to work out what it meant. These days just Google the quotation and find the essay written for you. Top and tail it; move a few paragraphs around use alternative phrases and get an A+ for form work. I know it is not as simple as I have described but I absolutely know the internet would have made life so much easier for me if it had been available when I started school. But I still doubt if I would have got more than 11% in my final French exam. 🤣

It is very different in Tak province where I stay until I return to Bangsaray/Pattaya for a week and a half each month for R & R and my sanity. You still cannot enter any of the three major Shopping Centers without wearing a mask, signing in and having a temperature test. The same in all 7/11's except the signing in has become somewhat optional. There was also strictly enforced prohibition of travelling outside, or entering, the Region for a period. That has long since ended. Social distancing was also strictly enforced but now relaxed and largely now totally ignored. For the first 3 months or so post the start of Covid19 almost 100% of Thai's were wearing masks outside of the shopping centers. That has gradually reduced to probably less than 50%. I now only wear a mask when going shopping. I never believed that wearing a mask made much difference but I did not wish to be the looked at farang embarrassing teerak. Initially I thought these measures were way over the top but that view was not shared by Thai's in the province if Sai and her family are representative. The reason I have changed my mind is quite simple. In the whole province there have been just TWO Covid19 cases and they were both visitors from Pattaya. One of Sai's friends who visits regularly is a senior nurse at the large Government Hospital where the two cases were treated and she is certain they would have heard if there were other cases in the province. Coincidence, luck or prudent good management? Take your pick.

There is only one reason to be told a secret. So you can tell it to somebody else!