Britboy

Going through all my stuff that's been in storage for a while. Now up to all my football memorabilia . . . memories, memories . . Anyway, this is one of my prized possessions, as an Ipswich fan in particular, signed by the man himself, Roger Osborne, who scored our winner in 1-0 win over Arsenal in May 1978 . . .

Thanks for the condolences. Such a great mate, left his wife (from Peru) and 3 kids devastated. We had such a laugh over the years. As to your question about my hair, unfortunately all those golden locks have gone down thousands of different plug-holes over the years. As you'll probably remember when we had a couple of beers together at Le Pub, it's a grey no. 1 these days, for what's left of it . . 😩

Yeah, Dan Dare - I remember that crappy airline very well. Lloret de Mar was the destination when I was 17 and 18, two trips with two different sets of mates. First holidays away and what a ball we had. Going through my storage stuff have found all my old pics and ironically found some of those trips. Very sad in some ways. That's me on the left but my mate Paul, on the right, who stayed a life-long friend, died 3 years ago, aged 59. Awful.

They wouldn't give a stuff about the 50k, but the 2 weeks they certainly would . . 😩 If Thailand is a no-go when the colder weather comes, they'll just go somewhere else, exotic, with some "fun" available. Though not Magaluf, we all did that when we were 18. Fish & Chips and Kiss Me Quick hats are long in the past . . 😉

It wouldn't surprise me if it ended up being Feb 2021 before general tourism was allowed, but my point was nobody in their right mind would announce that 5-6 months in advance. That's still 4 months - again not realistic to announce anything right now for year end, it'll be a month-by-month decision. Maybe even week by week (or in UK's case, day by day). It's still the high season and any country will want to maximise that, especially after being locked down for 6 months. Creative countries would offer incentives to attract foreign visitors. High season is still the best chance Thailand has of making some kind of economic recovery. Ironically, particularly in UK, furloughed workers are actually better off having stayed at home for 5 months. I have a few mates ready to jump on a plane to Thailand as soon as it's possible - they're fed up being cocooned and when the bad weather comes (which won't be long) they, and many others I'm sure, will head off somewhere for some sunshine and fun. While Thailand has obviously done a good job (plus had a bit of luck) controlling Covid, but if it doesn't open up in the relatively near future, to some degree, I can see the internal protests escalating and becoming a real problem for the Junta. I really don't know how many workers, in Pattaya in particular, have survived for 5 months with zero income. Sure, many have gone back to the family in Isaan, but many of these people are the primary bread-winner for the family. There must be a shed-load of western sponsors helping out I reckon . . . 😉

And talking of bullshit, just had a look at the World Coronavirus "worldometer" (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/). Scary stuff in some cases, bullshit in others. India had 880 deaths today, making a total of 51,255. Just as scary is 54,288 new cases today. But looking at deaths per capita, it's only 38, compared to UK's 609. I believe the bullshit element is China. Zero new deaths today, 22 new cases and a total death count of only 4,634. I wonder if Thailand will believe those Chinese figures and start letting them in first as tourists based on that?

Like I said though, it wasn't exhaustive. But if Bangkok Post, The Nation, Pattaya One and Pattaya Mail aren't featuring it, then I call bullshit.

Good, that's what I thought. Honestly, I can't stand vloggers who love the sound of their own voice and are so verbose it actually does make me angry. Sure, they're not professional presenters, but f**k me the times I really do shout at my laptop "for fucks sake, get on with it" or "for fucks sake spit it out".

I've had a quick scout round some of the Thai-based media (not exhaustive by any means) and I haven't spotted this "no tourism until Feb 2021" publicised anywhere. Has anyone found it? If not, I just wonder if this is pure scaremongering by "someone". When I played the video, at the time I did wonder how any country, with the current facts available, could say that they're "closed" to tourism for 6 months. That's a helluva long time, apart from the fact it wipes out all of Thailand's high season. If it's fact, in my opinion, the Thai government are bonkers to make such a statement.

I'm on a retirement visa, I came back mid Feb as the pandemic in UK was starting to affect my 93-year old mum, who couldn't get out. She passed away mid April. Would I have come back to UK if my mum had been in good shape? No.

That's true as well. Hard to tell where Ronnie's head's at. He kind of seems in the mood to just walk off and concede as he's obviously really unhappy with his cue action. Very odd - never seen him in this frame of mind before (on the table that is).

Wilson was unlucky to lose that last frame. The table does seem to be playing difficult - Hendry, Parrot and Docherty have all commented, but I get the impression they're not saying what they really think, i.e. it's bad. Certainly one shot that was heading for one of the balk pockets curved off-line. Reminds me of playing pool on some of the tables in Pattaya . . . 😉

Fortunately he got 2 back at the end of the session, but as Hendry has said, Ronnie is there for the taking if Kieron plays it right. Won't take a lot to get Ronnie really frustrated.

It was great drama and agree that it's up to Ronnie how he plays it. I often think about what a nightmare it would be if Ronnie did have a lash when in a snooker and smashed all the balls everywhere and the ref having to replace them. Nightmare.

Wilson's final frame had everything, what a game . . Did you see the interviews afterwards? Ronnie wouldn't shut up about finding a cue action and Selby felt Ronnie disrespected him by smashing the balls when he was in a snooker. Can't wait for the final and like you, I think Ronnie will win it, possibly relatively easily.

Wow, they're both brilliant . . . Floor Jansen has an outstanding voice - not sure if you're aware but she's lead singer of Nightwish at the moment. Here's one of her best performances, live at Download 2016. There's an interview to start with, the music starts at 1:52. Great song, especially live . . On the Sound of Silence, his version is excellent. Probably my favourite cover of that song is by Disturbed, believe it or not. This is live from Download 2016 too. There's an interview and their first track "The Vengeful One" (great song if you're into the heavy stuff), then there's an interview starting at 5:22 with their cover of Sound of Silence starting at 6:51. It's brilliant.

Just had all my stuff delivered from storage to sort out, throw what I don't want to keep, before putting it back in storage again . . . Found some of my old ornaments. I've mentioned my trip to North Korea in the 80's, here's the viper liquor I bought while I was there . .

That's brilliant. especially the last 3 and half minutes. The music in this, Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars more was fantastic. Years ahead of it's time.

That's right. In his interview he said he's really struggling with long pots and especially those where the white ball is a long way from the target ball, so his target is to avoid that scenario. Not always possible of course, but he controls the white so well he'll do his best to ensure he has as many easy pots as possible.

Yes, that blue he missed to the middle pocket at the end of the final frame was awful, allowing Williams to clear up for the draw.

That final frame was interesting (re-spotted black after a draw) and Ronnie's interview afterwards was typically Ronnie (I don't have a stroke, Selby will smash me). Don't know if you saw the final frame, but well worth watching if you can. It had everything.

I was a Systems Analyst at one time, so got into development to a certain level. So I can understand why your career decisions were boolean . . 😉 Good for you mate - I can imagine being MD of an IBM subsidiary must have been hairy stuff. The company I worked for in the US was a massive company (Intergraph, born out of the NASA moonlanding missions). Nine of the top VP's at NASA left after the moonlandings to form Intergraph and it was a billion $ business in the mid to late 80's. To be honest that's one of the reasons I took the job in the UK. The politics and bureaucracy at Intergraph was horrendous - not my scene at all. Big part of my decision. Being street smart is a huge asset, when used in the right way. Appreciate your comment on being happy for my happiness. From your posts that I've read on this forum you're in a pretty good place yourself, which is great.

Absolutely I made conscientious decisions when it came to life changing choices. The majority of mine have been career decisions. I'll give one example. I'm a Brit and in the mid-80's I was headhunted by a US company to move and work there. I took that job. No regrets. My wife and I had an 18-month old daughter. We then had a son, who was born in the US. After about two years I'd gone through all the rigmarole, with the company's help, of being approved for a green card. I'd received the letter of approval for all the family (except my son, who was joint US/UK anyway). I was then head-hunted for a managing directors job with a big company in London. I was only 32, so to get such a top job offer was awesome. They flew me to London first class for a weekend to go through all the formalities and the official job offer. So a massive dilemma. If I took the job I'd lose the green card. If I didn't take it I'd be turning down a massive opportunity. I decided to take the job. I'd love to know what would have happened if I'd stayed in the US. A whole different career. Plus my daughter, to this day, gives me stick that I didn't stay so she'd have a green card. Sibling rivalry cos my son was dual national anyway, so he can live and work in either place. I absolutely get and agree with what you say as to counting my blessings and I have no regrets. I've had a great life, both my kids are happy and successful. So it's not a case of regretting the decision I made at that crossroads, I'd just love to know what would have happened if I'd turned the job down.

Getting back to your original question . . . I think mine would be "Crossroad Dilemmas". In our lives we all face various decisions. Most are small and in relative terms insignificant. But we all have one, or some, major ones. I've had my fair share throughout my life - I'd say I've had 5 major, life-changing crossroads, all with 2 options. If we get a choice when we pass on, I would love to relive those 5 crossroads, make the alternative choice and see what the outcome would have been. Bearing in mind I suppose that if I made the alternate choice with crossroads 1, then crossroads 2-5 probably wouldn't have happened. But you get my drift. Would love to know.