mrcharliemofo

I'm back living in England now, in Leicestershire. The big thing I noticed when I came back was the size of the women, they are humongous now and obese seems to be the new sexy. Now we've had a few days of decent weather these obese specimens are sadly flashing more flesh and the lousy tattoo craze is alive and kicking here too. I'm with you and the sight of a fit as fook thai girl sporting those awful tatts is a real turn off for me. I can't see how anyone can think they look good ? Back on topic now, I loved Secrets but for me once Larry left it was never the same, Haydn was it ? was a joke and although all seem to love him I never found Mr Egg to be even close to being as good as Larry was. And don't start me on Ben, lowlife tosser !

Phil Bennett RIP. Wales and British Lions. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/59951331 Love this team talk he gave the Welsh before they played England ! Before facing England in 1977, Bennett famously told his Wales team-mates: ‘Look what these b******* have done to Wales. They've taken our coal, our water, our steel. They buy our homes and live in them for a fortnight every year. What have they given us? Absolutely nothing. ‘We've been exploited, raped, controlled and punished by the English – and that's who you are playing this afternoon.’

My mistake, didn't look at it properly. Sorry

We're back ! Bottom of the table after 7-8 matches and now in the Premier league. I can't believe they've done it. Hate to say it but I think we might end up like Norwich and Fulham and become a yo yo club. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/live/football/60572963

I was there for a month as you know and apart from a couple of brief thoughts about nipping down to Baccara to see if an old friend was there I never bothered either. LK had more than enough for me and I'll be staying close to it again next time.

I've been here for the past month and things seem to have got a lot busier over the last couple of weeks around LK. Billabong is usually a good indicator of how busy things are and in the first week I'd say it was lucky to be a third full, last night when I went past it was seriously busy. Treetown has plenty of bars open but to me it was just noise with bars competing for loudest noise they could get from their bands. It wasn't as busy as I thought it'd be. Lots of bars open around Buakhow and Pothole and they all pretty much seem to be doing ok. Now they've virtually dropped the requirements for entry I can see the place picking up really quick as people who have been starved of their Pattaya fix will head back here.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/article-10547257/Tributes-pour-Wigan-Warriors-legend-Vaaiga-Tuigmala-passed-away-age-52.html I met him once after he'd played for Newcastle at Leicester. I stood and watched him make time and talk with a young lad who seemed over the moon that this superstar had made the time to talk with him. I waited until he'd finished talking and then went and asked him for his autograph, he gave me that and then we had a quick chat and Rob Andrew came and dragged him away as the team coach was leaving. The man came across as an absolute Gentleman and he's always been a firm favourite of mine. RIP Inga.

From what I'm reading the hotel you book for day 5 has to be affiliated with a hospital so if you get a positive test you're dragged to the hospital for 'treatment' ( rapid bank balance reduction ), if negative you're free to go. You also have to have proof of booking said hotel for the thai pass or whatever they're calling it. As for your girlfriend, I have absolutely no idea if she's tested or not ? ( EDIT. I've just read that if your girlfriend stays with you in the day 5 hotel she will be tested and if either of you are positive then you're both in for quarantine ). All as clear as mud as usual and I won't attempting it.

Agreed that it'll be a green light but looking at the added details it's not looking as rosy as the last test and go. Hotel stay on day 5 and some other crap ? That's sure to get the tourists flocking in..............not.

Not 100% confirmed yet though is it and the way the goalposts keep moving it could all change again. Still it's good news if it happens.

I was looking here https://www.thaiembassy.com/travel-to-thailand/phuket-sandbox-hotels and couldn't find it ? Thanks for the info and I'll have to have a really thorough search through things and decide what I'm going to do after the 4th Jan announcement. Can't do much more until after that plus it's back to work for me tomorrow so I won't have a lot of time.

Just looked and as far as I can see that hotel isn't on the SHA+ list.

Just looked at insurance too and that was a pleasant surprise. Singapore want another 150 quid to go to Phuket rather than Bangkok but flights from Phuket to Bangkok look dirt cheap. I'll carry on looking at things but whereas before Phuket didn't appeal in the slightest now it's starting to look like a possibility ?? Let's see what happens on the 4th ??

Yeah that's something I'm waiting for but I honestly can't see them relaxing it again hence why I'm thinking Phuket. Just been looking at the SHA hotels in Phuket !

Sitting here alone and having a discussion with myself about whether or not to postpone my Feb - Mar visit to thailand. I was planning on a month there but that looks like a non starter unless I go to Phuket first and do the week there and then head over to Pattaya. I'm desperately trying to convince myself that Phuket wouldn't be to bad an option for a week but I'm losing that battle.

Boots are doing them too at their bigger shops. I've got no idea of a price but my local Boots doesn't do them and I'd have to travel to get it done.

I might be able to run to 300bt to get you one of your 'special' long time ladies 🤣

I'm in NW Leicestershire and the day rates I've been getting are from 15.50 to 17.64, weekends are more and I'm currently getting 21.00 for Saturday and 23.00 for Sunday. There's agencies paying more but I'm content with what I'm getting and the work I'm doing. Last week I top lined over a grand and this week should be the same and this is doing 5 day weeks but it does include Saturday and Sunday. The last time I was here and working I was lucky to get 400-450 a week. Different areas around the country could be paying more and some less.

Good post but just to add that although you're correct about the 56hrs driving in a week the next week he can only do 34hrs as it's a maximum of 90hrs driving in any 2 week period. Last week I did 5 days and worked just over 55hrs. 5 hrs of that was spent waiting for an empty trailer and the next day was 3 hrs sitting around waiting for a tyre fitter to come out to me after I had a blow out on the A34. 8 hrs pay for doing sweet FA will do me.

Weird one that as the bridge sign says 15' 6'' which is usually not a worry and I'm surprised that he didn't make it through. It looks like he may have dropped the suspension on the unit but the trailer still looks pumped up ? I've often wondered how accurate these signs are for bridge heights. When the road gets resurfaced do the bridges get measured again ?

H+S for me has gone crazy, it's so far over the top and in my opinion it's all done for the employer to cover their arses. I've got so many stories about stupid H+S bullshit from the last 10 years I was driving that if I listed them here it'd be classed as fiction. Big tough hairy arsed lorry drivers and we're taught by one extremely large worldwide company that if we were unloading boxes of crisps we could only lift one box at a time ? That same company even had a H+S man spend a full afternoon doing shit on trailers including how to open and close trailer doors and opening and closing the curtains ? Like we'd never done it before. Best I've heard though is the service books / instructions that you get with cars. In the 60's and 70's these books would tell you how to adjust the tappets on your car, nowadays they tell you not to drink the battery acid ?

The accommodation thing was back on with the council and I should have been in a flat last week, but that has gone tits up now as there's a faulty heater valve or something so I have to wait for that to be repaired and when I ask how long I get the standard ''we'll let you know when it's done as we're waiting for them to repair it". Could be next week, next month, who knows ?.

Paper tacho's ! So easy to 'manipulate' them or just lose them when needed, the digital cards and tacho's they use now record everything and remember all the bad things you've done. The lorries now are basically idiot proof, just point and steer. Only real difference I'm noticing even from when I was last driving in 2009 is that H+S has gone completely over the top now and basic common sense and flexibility seems to be a thing of the past.

A day under 6 weeks to get my licence back which if some other drivers are to be believed wasn't bad at all. I'm starting a job tomorrow and the pay is crazy and if they're daft enough to pay it then I'll be happy to relieve them of it. That extra hour thing was I believe only for food deliveries ? Whether that's right or not I don't know but someone here won't be doing it.

Christ don't get me started about that ! I'm so fucking angry with shall we say the sheer incompetence or stupidity of the civil service in this country. My licence expired years ago whilst in thailand and so when I knew I was coming back I renewed it online and it was at my UK address in about 4 days, I did my CPC course online and had my card the following week, I renewed my digi-tacho card online and had it in about 5 days. I did and passed my HGV medical on the 17th June and posted it that day 1st class recorded delivery, it arrived on the 26th June ! In the meantime as I wasn't working I applied online for universal credit, I had 2 phone interviews and a meeting at the local dole office where I was told she was 90% sure there wouldn't be any issue and I should get it. At the same time I saw a flat for rent and it turned out it was a council flat, the woman there was great and seemed keen to get me in the flat but said I needed to have proof of income from either work or universal credit. Are you keeping up ???? All along I'd been aware that there were delays at DVLA regarding postal stuff because of on/off strike action, I'd read or been told anything from 2 weeks to 6 months but as I'd also bought a car and received the V5 in 10 days I was hoping for my licence to come back in the first 2 weeks of July. My woman at the council asked another worker there to speak with someone at the dole office to see what my chances were of getting some income from them......slim because of his time out of the country........flat gone. Then I got an email from universal credit.........you're not eligible because you've been out of the country too long and we're not sure you're staying......you won't be getting any income from us........( I should have come here on the Calais - Kent dinghy service ! ) I can't get work driving vans or 7.5t trucks because I had to send my current licence to DVLA and possible employers and agencies want to see a physical licence, not a copy. I've spoken to agencies about warehouse work but they all want 5 year checkable work history......I don't have it. So after some searching on the government website I then realised that HGV drivers are classed as essential workers and I can email them if I tick the essential worker box. I did that and got an email back within an hour..........6-10 weeks backlog of post and even after processing my application it'll be a 2 week wait for them to send it back to me. So the next time you go to Tesco and the shelves are bare then you'll know one of the main reasons is that DVLA are a bunch of tossers and there's probably 1000's of drivers who's licences expired and they're stuck in the backlog at Swansea and they mostly can't drive. Edit..I've just read that the governments brilliant idea to keep the trucks moving is to allow drivers an extra hour of work everyday. So twice a week now they can do 16 hours instead of 15 and on the other 3 days they can do 14hrs instead of 13. One of the main reasons they can't get drivers is the long hours so what do they do ? Extend them. Edit again...not sure if they mean extend driving time or duty time ?,either way it's not addressing the real issues. Why not go to Swansea and tell those wankers to sort it out ASAP or they'll get the sack ??