maipenrai

No, I think the traffic congestion was caused by weekend visitors from BKK leaving town - that's what the cab driver told me and I believe him.

Got a Grab taxi from Central Pattaya this afternoon to Jomtien to drop some stuff off - took three tries with Grab, I think because 2nd Rd has been absolutely rammed with traffic all afternoon - guy finally picked me up in a brand new MG Extender pickup, of all things...never even heard of this model before. I hopped on a baht bus for the trip back, and with two of us left on the bus I think the driver finally just said piss on it and turned off at Soi 13/1, leaving us to walk to our final destinations but I didn't mind too much.

They're both good and I have stayed at them many times - no gyms that I am aware of but definitely swimming pools.

Booking is easy - try to cancel an existing booking if you really want to be upset, 555...

What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, 555.....

Say what?? Surely you jest - I wouldn't go near the damned place if it wasn't to meet up with you and the others - I don't think Hooters belongs on Soi 4 and would never go there to drink or eat; and I can't remember the last time I paid an overpriced barfine on Soi 4, lol...

I spent a day at Duxford in 2011 and really enjoyed it, although a day is not enough to really see it in depth and I had to hurry through parts of it; they also have a hangar full of war vehicles that is well worth seeing. I think the highlights for me were the Concorde and the Lockheed SR-71. As a historical footnote, my father spent six months during the war with the Canadian Army building Dunsford Aerodrome, where the BBC series "Top Gear" was filmed. His unit of the Royal Canadian Engineers controlled and operated all of the construction equipment in that theatre and went all over England and Scotland doing all kinds of civic and military works - they were assigned to different units for lodging and rations but were otherwise autonomous and had passes that enabled them to go anywhere at any time. The entire unit was sent over to Europe shortly after D-Day and fought their way right into Germany by the end of the war. My father was on leave in Birmingham one day when he met my mother, who emigrated to Canada in 1949 to marry him.

Was coming down pretty good for a while today, I walked from Jomtien to Pattaya and was at the corner of WS Soi 16 and Pratumnak @12:05 when it really hit - took cover under a 7-11 awning with the underground utility crew who were working right there for about twenty minutes before I was able to carry on my way.

All the more reason to wonder why the whole complex was razed to the ground - I do recall them working on the place for years while they were building it.

On today's long walk I spotted this vacant lot at the corner of Soi 9 and Jomtien 2nd Rd - it jogged my memory as I seemed to recall a fairly ornate building that had been there before: So I thought I'd look through my old photos and see if I could find a photo of the building and by sheer luck I picked the right year to check - here's a shot from 2015 that shows the building almost finished after they had been working on it for years and it became an art gallery:

When I was in TukCom buying a newer IPhone last year I spotted these lighted charge cables and picked up a couple - I've had one going almost full-time for over a year now and it's just as bright as ever - they make a good nightlight both at home and in hotel rooms and condos:

A couple of old Mercedes cars I saw in a repair shop during my stroll down Sukhumvit today:

Before I left home I was in the pub one night with friends, one of whom is a "Harley boy"; he asked me if I could pick up two XL Harley shirts from the dealer in Pattaya; he opened Google maps on his phone and showed me where the local dealer is, way out on Sukhumvit a little way past the south junction of Jomtien 2nd Rd and Sukhumvit. I told him I could get Harley-related shirts much cheaper from the market or street vendors, but oh no, he wanted the "real thing". I asked a local bike-riding expat about getting shirts at this place a couple of weeks ago and he replied "good luck with that!" so I wasn't expecting any miracles. Anyway, I figured I'd work a good walk into this task so I caught a baht bus to the corner of Jomtien Beach Rd and Soi Chayapreuk and then headed out on foot all the way down Chayapreuk to Sukhumvit and then along the main drag. I found the place easy enough and entered it as the only customer; the Thai staff, one female and three males in the showroom, did not even raise their eyes from their phones as I went in and headed over to the clothing section. I poked around there for a while and found a design that didn't look half bad but after going through about 25 examples of same, all they had was one shirt in XL and it was a light grey colour, made in Nicaragua and not really impressing me with its feel. The price, you ask? 1790b, bloody ridiculous and I just shook my head and left the building. I then walked all the way down Sukhumvit to Soi Boonkanchana with the hopes of finding a place to wet my whistle, only to find that a bar complex I had visited before Covid has been plowed and is now just another construction site. I had to walk almost all the way to 2nd Rd to find a place that was open and had a fair thirst on by that time; after taking care of that I carried on to Rompho and had a haircut and bite to eat and then home to the condo - 12.5km altogether and I did enjoy the walk. I'll look around Soi Buakhow market for a Harley shirt or two and if they are not good enough for buddy at home, I'll just give them to someone else.

I think you are judging rather harshly here - I paid lots of barfines back in the day and it was always LT unless I was on Soi 6 in the afternoon; but then the baht strengthened against my dollar and my own stamina, and indeed even my will, weakened as I grew older until today I rarely pay barfines. I never was a two-week millionaire, by the time I started visiting I was already a senior employee and got plenty of time off, not visiting for less than a month and usually more; I worked hard for my money and wanted value when I was spending it and could usually have a pretty good time without being overly extravagant. Today I would consider any barfine up to 500b to be reasonable from a beer bar and perhaps double that for a go-go hottie if you really have to have her, but I would do both sparingly. I've been here for almost six weeks and have only paid three barfines in that time, one for an old friend working on Soi Diana for 500b and two for the same girl in Jomtien during the last week or so, but it was only 300b and she was well worth it.

Yeah, I don't understand why people would put black wheels on anything - they're not attractive IMHO and damned near impossible to keep clean...

Yeah, I guess the car itself doesn't garner enough attention so you have to gild it as well...

Good one - did someone put you in with a shoehorn? Apparently they are very small inside. I'd much prefer to see it with the stock wheels and tires, seems nothing is sacred these days when it comes to "rest-mods".

I don't bother with pools - I never developed a liking for water considering the natural water in my part of the world is not much above freezing even in mid-summer; and my parents never enrolled me in swimming lessons when I was a child so I still can't swim a stroke. I was never one for lazing around on beaches either, I'd rather be walking. How you do go on sometimes.....lol....more chance of getting shocked in your Thai home shower, methinks....

Here's another favourite of mine - 1970 Chevelle SS 454; there was a fellow in my town who ordered one of these with the LS6 option, 450hp with 4spd gearbox and 4:11 posi differential, and I have never seen a car before or since that could lay rubber like that car could:

A couple of years ago I converted all of the fluorescent lights in my house, almost all 4' double fixtures, to LED bulbs - ordered a box of them from Amazon and just worked my way through the fixtures, cutting out the ballasts (what posters are referring to here as "starters", I believe) and rewiring to suit, very easy to do and what a difference in light - I'm happy to say that I haven't had any of these bulbs fail yet; with the fluorescent bulbs I was always having to keep after them.

Picked this up the other day in Dave's store, been a while since I have read any of this series, the Vincent Calvino private eye books; I always enjoyed them since there was usually mention of the old Washington Square bars in BKK and some of the real-life characters who hung around in them, some of whom I actually met and interacted with myself back in the day. This one, the 16th in the series, takes place after the demise of the square.

Thankfully this is another pest that doesn't really occur in the north - some of the deer species do carry them and these varieties can cause health problems amongst these species - mule deer and elk mostly - but they pose no threat to humans.

This one's for forcebwithu:

Plenty of other varieties....

We don't have enough farmland in my neck of the woods to make this a real issue, it is the guys doing crazy jumps and stunts up in the mountains who tend to injure themselves, and the odd drunk running into immovable objects in the suburbs.