radioman

I'm watching "The Gold" at the moment, short - 6 part - series currently on BBC iPlayer or "those" sites. Tells the tale of the Brinks Mat robbery or rather the aftermath of how the crooks got rid of £26 million in gold bullion they didn't expect to find. Highlights some of the ineptitude present in 80's policing in the UK. I'm only halfway through it but an enjoyable watch. Very Sarf London.

Hyatt Regency is my go to place at the moment. Located just past the soi 8 and soi 11 crossroads with suk. About halfway between Nana and Cowboy. So you have pretty much all of the peak Suk areas within striking distance. I have had no problem with entertaining a takeaway. A friend regularly uses the place and gets his tinder girls to pitch up at the club lounge for drinks before he "shows them the room"!

Bamber Gasgoine, 87 Your starter for 10, no conferring. (Any other grisly brits on here will know)

Yup, definitely. Of this there is no doubt.

I hear you man. That shit really gets to me. Then there are people who refer to the personal number they use with their debit and credit cards as a "PIN number" 😡

Elton John?

A big ass speed bump in front of every pedestrian crossing would fix a lot of issues.

I think they recycle the numbers anyway, but the one I recall was quite petite and had a quite remarkable skill set. I've recently discovered a "new" one, off broadway so to speak but appears equally as proficient. Happy days in Bangkok at the moment.

She was quite something.

Absolutely no issue with the whole process. Thailand Pass application took less than 24 hours. I had prepared all the paperwork ahead of doing the online submission, including the cropped QR codes from my vaccination certificate as jpg files. At check-in in Doha the Qatar Airways staff wanted to see 4 documents: Passport Thailand Pass QR code Hotel reservation Insurance cert. All were checked that they had my name associated with them. The flight was full but non-eventful. The flight touched down at 06:30 and on arrival there were a lot of blue chairs arranged at the point where the concourse splits into the different arms. The wait here was a couple of minutes while the checked I had the TP paper. Then proceed to the desk where the TP QR code is scanned and confirmed against passport. Then on to immigration which was very smooth, no queue. A short wait for the bag then out to the arrival hall. Here the very efficient and smooth air-side process takes a dive. Very chaotic with half a dozen desks supporting a hundred hotels and several hundred people milling about in a small space, everyone looking for there hotel. I had booked at the Hyatt Regency on Soi 13. Not the cheapest but I felt re-assured that I might be getting a halfway decent service. They use Bumrungrad hospital which is barely a block away. At the airport the rep swiftly directed me to a black Toyota Camry outside and within a minute or two I was on my way into town. Friday morning traffic was much as I remember and it took a little while to reach the tollway exit adjacent to Sukhumvit Soi 1. From there it was straight to the pcr test at Bumrungrad, a drive through service that was complete in less that 2-3 minutes. and from there straight to the hotel on Soi 13. Check-in was nothing more than to check my name on the list and from there I was escorted to the room. Vey nice and the reason I chose the Hyatt. Being locked in a room for possibly 24 hours I wanted it to be at least pleasant. Other than being devoid of the usual room amenities it was very much as expected. I was in the room by 08:20. I settled in to do some work, watch a bit of tv and wait for the next day but the phone rang at around 5pm to say my test was negative and the result sent to my registered e-mail address. I phoned a friend and by 6:30pm we were downing cold ones at Viva on soi 8. So 12 hours from touchdown to beers on Sukhumvit, not too bad considering the state of play. It was a pretty wild night, lots of booze and lots of entertainment that lasted well into the next day, Seems Bangkok is developing a lot of hidden backroom speakeasy style joints to get around the 11pm lock down.. I had arranged for my daughter and son to drive into town the next day and fetch me and after lunch in Terminal 21 we made our way out of town and back home. It's been a year and 5 months that I've been away, I'm fortunate to have a well paid contract at the moment and in a way have taken advantage of the difficult travel situation to get my head down and crack on with work. That and knowing that I could not manage another 14 days in quarantine which has kept me away from home for so long. So home for a month I plan a lot of catching up at home as well as fun evenings out in town.

Thanks for the info KS. I was scheduled to fly in on Nov 12 but an urgent work requirement had me fly to Denmark for a week which meant delaying until Dec 2. Company is picking up the bill for my lost hotel/PCR test and insurance. First time around the TP took about 5 days, that was right at the beginning of the scheme. Last Monday evening I filled in the TP application again and woke up Tuesday morning with the email in my inbox to say it was approved, barely 12 hours. I will stay at the Hyatt Regency on Suk who partner with Bumrungrad, hopefully all will be smooth.

I wonder if this is also related to a change in the bank insurance limit being reduced from 5 million to 1 million. All rather starts to suggest that nervousness about bank's ability to repay investors is increasing.

TV Series, Upload An odd one, future based afterlife romcom series, er, I think. Kind of okay and not in the least bit heavy watching, almost bubblegum with a hint of intrigue. Easy on the eye watch in the shape of Andy Allo. ***1/2

Just put it down to Bimbonics

I think I've watched every one of these from the time they were originally shown. It's become a bit formulaic over the 6 seasons, perhaps not surprisingly so given the subject and objectives. I still think it is a brilliant set of series and a solid benchmark for assessing similar. I'll reserve comment on season 6 so as not to add a spoiler. Worth a watch, 4-4.5 stars.

I caught that at 56, was just getting used to nice and easy then some bastard decided to offer me a job so that's me back in the sandpit until at least the middle of 2023. I might try again after that. Pension is now making bank.

I'd like to think so but all I've read so far seems to suggest October as a date for vaccinated travelers with no quarantine and then only Phuket and Samui where they hope to have done enough local vaccinations. Clearly targeting end of year peak season tourists. https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/2082927/samui-prepares-no-quarantine-plan Bonkers I think.

As always context is everything. Trans costs in relation to other military healthcare costs look to be so small that questioning them suggests an inability get a grip on scale. The Rand Corp study that looked at this https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1530.html suggests TG medical treatment costs are likely to be between 2.4 and 8 million US$. That against 958 million US$ mental healthcare costs and an overall US military healthcare spending figure of 6,277,320,000 US$. Even at the upper bound of $8mil it's pocket change against the $84mil the military spends on ED meds.

No issues for me here. Two Xs and one 11. All on 14.3 and working as before. iPad pro also on iOS 14.3 working as before but for one niggle, opening the cover does not switch on the screen. backlight comes on but not the actual display. Pressing the button on top solves it, but still not what I expect.

I spent a good but of time in Indonesia in the mid 90's, Palembang to Pontianak and all points in between. Jakarta was always fun and nights at the Tanamur were always some of the best. The list of close encounters, some of the most bizarre kind, would fill a book. This was all before I had really experienced Thailand and probably just as well since I always felt Thailand was a bit tame compared to my experiences in Indonesia had been, that and the many months at Subic, Olongapo and the surrounding Barrio's. A friend once described the Tanamur quite succinctly as that bar in the original star wars which had one of just about every species in the entire galaxy.. I could well believe it if they had truly modeled that scene on the Tanamur, it was even wilder in truth. In addition to the three T's mentioned in the articles above the Hard Rock Cafe in Jakarta was another major fun venue.

That's being very generous It's because all those judges have been infected by a secret deep state virus spread by the FBI and the DOJ to make them do the oppositions work without knowing it.

I think it was the Koreans that did (or do) sell cans of Korean air in the airport, so that people travelling overseas could experience the breath of home. Nuts!

Second on the list

I suspect they would tell you it's more the Independence from India than anything. History can be so selective.

The cotton wool of beers, pfeffh!