Jambo

I have been trying to imagine Boycott fitting into the style of Stokes current England test side particularly if he was opening the batting on a 4th innings run chase. I've given up.

Thanks, much appreciated. The simple fact is that on the 13th April I stood on the bathroom scales and gave myself the fright of my life. Limited exercise and comfort eating resulted in me actually feeling ashamed of myself. If my scales had been of the "speak your weight variety" it would have said "Will you two stop fucking about!" When I was playing football in my 20's to 30's my adult playing weight was 13st 7lb, never got knocked over and I could run for ever. I was a "box to box" player without ever knowing it. 🤣 I am never going to get back to that but my target is to get to 13st 12lb by the 13th October which completes six months on the diet. When I do that, and I will, I will have lost just over 26 kilos. I have 5 kilos to go and 7 weeks left. I may not have too many years left but my new hip and I are going to enjoy them.

I passed a big landmark today. Tuesday is my weigh/in day and my total weight loss is now 20.6 Kilo ( 3st 3lb). That leaves me 5.4 kilo's to still lose by 13th October to hit my 6 months target weight. I am regularly losing a kilo a week so I am on track. I might even be really close when I go in for my hip replacement operation on the 15th September. If only my hip would not stop me doing my old daily sit/up regime I would have been able to rid myself of the last stubborn strip of belly fat which refuses to disappear. I cannot wait until I can turn that belly fat into stomach muscle. There is a six pack underneath for sure. 😄

Nice one Tom. Lanza helped me on several occasions and refused to take any monetary consideration for his time and expertise. The best I could do was to leave a bottle which I hope he enjoyed. A real nice guy.

That wooden one reminds me of my Bearded Collie who could not go out for a walk without coming home with sticks like that........ ONLY bigger! 🤣

About 6 weeks ago I finally allowed common sense to overcome my ego and started to use a walking stick to get round whilst the days get closer (finally) to my hip replacement operation next month. On Saturday I walked out of the bathroom and the following happened That is the stick in two pieces after the handle snapped. Only the fact I was at home and managed to use my free arm/hand to stop me falling saved me from potential injury. This just should not have happened and it was sheer luck I was not walking outside. Not that I can walk far outside. Amazon delivered walking stick mark 2 which looks the business!

Good post. Nothing ever stays the same including it would seem the size of the girls. I am certain that when I first visited Thailand back in 2002 the majority of the girls were much slimmer than they are now. Of course there are still good looking and slim girls around but are they not the exception rather than the rule? Do you remember Secrets Shop next door to the bar? Every time I was about to leave the shop I would look up and above the window was a set of large photo's of a number of the original dancers. All of them were stunning, not an ounce of excess weight and I would have hated to see their age on their ID cards. I think I knew a couple of them quite well. 🤣

I would love to have the nerve to say something like that! Is that against the rules???

I would imagine that sentiment would be expressed by 99% of all forum members apart from maybe a first curiosity Milk visit and a half pint. We visit Le Pub to see Phil. Everything else is background ambience.

Nice slim girls mate! There is a chance I might be checking for myself before the year is out. Depends how quickly I get over my operation. Better start saving up given your prices for drinks. 🤣

Just completed 15 weeks on my carnivore diet and total weight loss is now 17.5Kg or 2 stone 10 lbs in old money. I have 8Kg to go by 13 October to hit my target weight and return to a more balanced diet. One that includes vegetables and fruit. 🤣 Not at all easy as when I lose weight it is mostly 1 Kg a week with several weeks when I did not lose anything, three weeks when I lost 2 Kg and the first week when I lost 3 Kg. I find sticking to the diet incredibly easy because I never feel hungry. I enjoy my food when I am eating it but I have no cravings at all. Not even for the bar of Bourneville chocolate my son-in-law left me or the litre bottle of Bailey's my mate Sweatie gave me when he visited the UK recently. Both will not see the light of day until I hit my target.

Larry mate, that is so very sad news. I was not as close as you but countless was the times we bumped into one another over the years. My thoughts are with the both of you.

It is not only Thai lady drivers who cannot reverse. How my youngest daughter passed her test first time, or any time, is a mystery to me. A week after passing her test I bought her and her older sister a new wee Citroen car because they were offering free insurance for young drivers with full no claims bonus after two years. One week after that she managed to do significant damage to the Citroen and another car she drove into at Edinburgh's Ice rink. Six months later, whilst reversing off our driveway she caught the front "bumper" on a gate post and pulled it off. Some time later the house opposite us had a builders skip outside. They marked it with a couple of cones and even a light at either end. That did not stop daughter driving off our driveway again and managing somehow to hit it. The car was sold when the end of the two years free insurance was looming by when they both had boyfriends with cars. My daughter drives me regularly now whilst I am semi incapacitated. Her driving has improved significantly over the years but she still changes gears at the speed of light and I often close my eyes as she hurtles into most every corner. Women drivers...............you have to love'em! 😄

Take care as I believe that officially you need a work permit to paint your own house as you would be depriving a Thai National from earning an honest living. You will probably be OK if you have not upset any of your neighbors enough that they report you to Immigration. I spent 2 months painting the whole of the outside of our house in Bangsaray before my (extended) trip to the UK including all the walls and fences. It was not in too bad condition and the bulk of the preparation work involved filling in cracks etc and a certain amount of sanding and very limited use of primer. Two coats of quality paint and I was very pleased with the end result. The biggest and most annoying problem was uplifting and temporary moving all the plants and shrubs to get at the exterior walls. A word of advice. We farlangs are not used to any kind of manual work out in the sun in Thailand. Even in the shade it does not take long for the heat to make life very uncomfortable. In the sun, and you will not be able to avoid working at some stages in the sun, is a killer. My solution was to start work as soon as it was light enough to see what I was doing and stop as soon as I could not take it any longer. I then came out again for an hour or so every evening. That also has the advantage of limiting the number of pissed off at farlang Thai painters who see you up a ladder with a paint brush in your hand. Good luck. I really enjoyed doing some real work for a change.

Its good news week! Letter received today from NHS Scotland advising my hip operation booked in for the 15th September. I did check and it is 2023. 🙂 I am so glad I have stuck to my diet for the last 13 weeks. My GP could not have been exaggerating when he mentioned how bad my most recent x-rays had been.

Annie, my Grannie was born in Edinburgh which makes me enough of a plastic Scot to have played football for Scotland. As this born and bred cockney did not learn this fact until I was 37 years of age I never faced the difficult choice between offering my services to either England or Scotland. 🤣

Rod Stewart - Whole family lived 5 minutes walk from my home in Highgate Village, North London. I played several times in the same Sunday morning footy team run by his uncle and brother. I was still at school and relied on a lift to the ground. He turned up once in a Lamborghini Miura. Strictly speaking, he is English. Lulu and Maurice Gibbs were part of my newspaper round in Hampstead. If I had failed my 11+ I would have been at school with Ray and Dave Davies of the Kinks. 🤣 Sting and George Michael both lived in Highgate. They didn't drink in the Red Lion and Son or The Gatehouse.

That is exactly what I was remembering! 🤣

It was most definitely The Black Pearl I was thinking of and Aqua-Demi was the one quite close to where I went fishing a few times. In fact it was the guy that owned the fishing park that took me there the first time.

Who remembers the various bars on the Darkside that had swimming pools? I used to go to a couple from time to time which were really "dirty". Well the girls were not the pools! 🤣 I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the bars. I make new friends every day as well. One was near where I used to go fishing but the main one I am thinking of was way out but very popular. Had a fair sized indoor pool the girls used to romp around sans kit if bought a drink. I remember sharing a wee plunge pool wondering if I would survive. 😄

Well the actual operation seems to be relatively routine these days. From U-tube videos I have viewed they have you up and walking almost immediately like the next day. I have been on my *diet in hope that my luck would turn and I would receive notification of when I could look forward to the operation. I thought that getting down to my target weight would make the recovery period so much easier. There is bound to be a post operative exercise program to be followed. I remember Larry (Soi 7) having his double hip replacement and although I cannot recall how long he took to recover it did not seem to have been all that long. What I do know, for sure, was that for maybe years after he used to go on a long walk almost every day. Today I am hobbling around with the aid of a walking stick and in great pain. If after the operation I can throw away the stick for ever and walk again albeit maybe with some discomfort I will settle for that for sure. *I received the good news phone calls whilst doing my usual Friday visit to my daughter. When she was giving me a lift back home she suggested celebrating the good news. I broke my diet for the only time in 13 weeks by sitting in the car and eating something called a "Fleurie Galaxy" ice cream from McDonalds. It was delicious! 🤣

Finally light at the end of the tunnel. After twice phoning the Hospital in Edinburgh to try to find out if they had feed back following my most recent updated x-rays I today received a telephone call from one of the Consultants I met almost 18 months ago. He seemed to remember me but started by admitting that there were currently 5,000+ patients currently on the waiting list for hip replacement operations in Scotland. Nevertheless, he confirmed that the x-ray had shown that my hip had deteriorated greatly and in view of this he was placing me on the "Urgent" list . He advised that my operation would take place : 1. Within a maximum of 6 months or 2. Before, if a suitable cancellation arises or 3. Immediately if I am admitted to hospital in the event of my hip collapsing which, apparently, is a possibility. I thanked him and at least I now know that the operation will take place within a maximum of 6 months. Two hours later I receive another phone call but this time from the lady who I spoke to yesterday. This lady administers the actual waiting lists for the various Consultants. She confirmed that I had been placed on the 'Urgent" list and that I should expect the operation within the next two to three months. I mentioned that the Consultant had said within 6 months however she again reiterated, two to three months. How much are flights for Xmas? 🤣

You mentioned the cracking from your upper neck area and how annoying it is. I get a lot of pain from my knee/hip but the thing that like you really pisses me off is the constant cracking I get, in my case, in my knee. The "experts" completely ignore my knee referring always to it being residual pain from my hip. There may be an element in that but it feels to me that I am walking bone on bone in my knee.

"Exercise according to the experts is the No.1 factor in improving ones health and life expectancy" I have been a distance runner; footballer; golfer; jogger; hiker, and daily cyclist. So how come I have osteoarthritis in both knees, take two types of opioids to counter the pain and am in the queue waiting for a hip replacement operation? I love "experts". I tried to obtain clarification from my medical "expert" as to whether it is safe to take oral morphine in addition to co-codamol or instead of co-codamol. That has never been made clear to me. The first appointment for me to speak to him over the telephone is 10:00am on 25th August. Not being completely stupid, in the interim I have taken the default position of if I feel the need to take the oral morphine I skip the co-codomol. Neither appear to make any difference anyway.

Crossing Second Road at the traffic lights is always dangerous because as soon as the lights go red on the main drag and you think it is safe to cross the motorbikes turning right out of Pattaya Tai come flying round the corner. If I was crossing there I always made sure there was several ladies to the right of me giving me cover. May not be the most gentlemanly thing to do but self preservation comes first.