Coss

Yes my iPhone - I took a Nikon with me for the Laos trip but never used it, as every time I thought I'd use it, MLG turned the excursion into a "Take photo for me, take me photo..." The iPhone is good for those, as I them hand it off to her and she can airdrop the ones she likes, that show her to the best advantage for InyaFaceYouTwitTok. The Nikon is an old D5600 and was gonna be used for it's video capabilities so I could do a bit of movie work (unrealised personal project) Next time I'm gonna have to make sure the trip doesn't include a house blessing. Though I'm now informed it's every year for three years, though only two left and smaller ones. On Buddhas, we now have a 6 inch shiny brass one, for our house, duly blessed and monked and such.

And now this: WHERE ARE THE CLIMATE HAVENS? F************ck Bloody hordes on incoming flights to Middle Earth.

Curious minds wanna know - by top tier - do you mean paid for business class? or is there some other tier that us mortals can access? I have relatives that use business class because of the peace of mind that it gives them. Me, I need the money to upgrade kitchen in house 2

I also got the message I have posted after my text - when I went to earth.nullschool Any Trump supporters reading this, please consider what's going to happen, when the the weather people can no longer tell you, when bad things are going to happen to you, because Trump fired all the weather people. Will you wake up in two weeks time, in the middle of a Hurricane? a Firestorm? a Frozen Ice Block ? Floods? I guess there's no worry, Trump and God will save you.

Yes, supermarket shelves in Queensland are empty. I went to the earth.nullschool website to see this from the NZ perspective vis though the one near NZ looks like it's wanng

Also most of the western colonisers - do - the other hand , treaties are usually accompanied by dolts from both sides, who'll out do each other, in inaccurate rhetoric....

Curiously more people do, than I remember from 10 yrs ago, and seemingly for safety/not being fined, rather than as a sun hat, like they used to.

Yes and with the following: US President Donald Trump's administration is pausing its offensive cyber operations against Russia, ... one wonders if the domestic push back against this (there will be some) will force Donald to put on his big boy pants and issue some sort of negative statement about Russia. et voilà - piss tape... Though if I were Putin, I'd let the situation in America devolve further.

Lest the casual observer be "influenced" to think, that many on this board are anti-American, please note, everyone here knows Americans and counts them, some members here, as friends. What is being derided and detested is the current leadership. To be silent in the face of, such abject failure, in intelligence, in morality and in duty of office, would be negligent.

more like 15% Irish, 80% Norway/Sweden/Denmark, 5% Das Englander

SNL

Oh and Scoot - never again. Scoot's airline slogan is Escape the Ordinary.

- an overdue rant: I booked a trip with 5 flights Akl - Mel - Sin - Bkk (train to Laos) Vte - Mel - Akl. Of the seven flights I ended up with, not one, did what it said on the can. 1. Akl - Mel - Online check in - great - but it didn't work. I know this because at the gate, each online checkin victim, was called to the gate and issued a paper boarding pass there. The flight on China Airlines (Taiwan) was unremarkable excepting seats for anorexics, not real people with shoulders. 2. Mel - Sin - Delayed 3 hrs, fair enough, this happens. But at the gate, delayed 1 hr more. Then 1 hr more. The passengers were ready to lynch anyone that got in their way, me too at 1 am. 3. Sin - Bkk - gone already, see 2 above. Connecting passengers left to wander airport to find new connecting flights, somewhere not on display boards. Eventually snack vendor pointed to the right place. 4. Bkk - Vte - Little turbo prop budgie and pleasant experience, though I do have to wonder why with any empty airport, they parked th plane as far from th terminal and customs/immigration as possible, so we walked for 15 minutes in the noonday sun. Added to this, MLG waiting in arrivals, was engrossed in her phone and didn't see me come through, so I waited for 15 minutes next to her, until she noticed me, nearly divorced her on the spot. 5. Vte - Bkk - Delayed 1 hr, Ok these things happen. On arrival me and 3 others were guided through Bkk airport, at a fast trot, to make the next flight. Note to airlines, not everyone is 22 yrs old. Some of us could have a heart attack and die, on an enforced 2km fast trot. I nearly did. Think of the publicity. 6. Bkk - Mel - also late but not seriously so. This one has only, the tiny seats to complain about and the unnotified lack of food unless you pay. Jet Star, of course. 7. Mel - Akl - also late but not seriously so. This one has only, the tiny seats to complain about. Quantas this time. Just once I'd like to go to the airport, get on the plane at the appointed time and arrive at the time they said it would, with no other indignities.

Ensure you have your "Quite Voice" with you. Turns out this is all the work of some rich guy, it costs to get in and he runs it, as a 'make a profit someday' venture. An example of philanthropy in SEA that is rare these days. As I wandered about and wondered at some of the 'newness' of some of the sculptures, there was a voice in my head. Windsor Davies as Battery Sergeant Major Williams in the sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum - addressing the troops: "All right you lot, today we are going to be carving! Your lot over there, you carve Buddhas, you lot over there, you carve other things from south east Asia. Right now get to it!" I surmise that a lot of the wood used in the newer ones, came from stumps and offcuts, from all the "ahem" logging that the government doesn't do.

More:

Buddha Pharaoh Smiling Father Time Queen Victoria?

I though this one deserved it's own thread, one because there's 35 photos and two because I was taken aback at the scale and modernity of it, having got used to Laos being a dusty backwater. Interesting never the less. It's fortunate that they included "Art" in the title, because whilst here are many truly museum quality exhibits, some are very obviously new and visitor pleasing.... To get there, it's a near 1km walk over flooded rice fields

Couple more, snake (was a good little curry) and Jackfruit trees outside my bedroom.

I'm gonna binge series two, after my next infusion (Pembrolizumab - means cupla-three days TV rest). I'm hoping the second is as good as the first.

I thought Kushner, Trump's son in law had solved the Middle East? Another lie?

Good Lad, we really do like America down here, and most all of my life has been on the bandwagon (trombone). Though in WWII we had a saying, about the U.S. servicemen who R&R'd here, "Over-paid, over-sexed, and over here". Of course a lot of our fellas were in one Theatre or another, so the U.S. guys were popular. I might be 1/2 yank excepting the DNA says Nordic.