PeterRS

It aways staggers me that 73.2% of payments made in China are by mobile phones. It goes even further. More mobile phone transacations are made in Vietnam, South Korea and india than in any European nation or the USA. I must be of the old school as I do not like to pay by phone. I have phone apps but these are to do things like check balances and get credit card notifications. Here in Bangkok I always thought mobile phones were to speed up transactions. Well, I have lost count of the number of times I have been in a supermarket check out when it has taken almost a minute and sometimes more for a customer to find the relevant pay page on her app (yes, it's usually a woman!). Cash, debit or credit card seems far faster.

This is a particularly important subject that has been mirrored sadly in quite a few countries. In Ireland, babies were often forcibly taken from unmarried mothers, many innocent and unaware of how women became pregnant, and placed in religious homes run by nuns. These were I believe officially sanctioned both by the church and the state with often brutal conditions for the children who would eventually be placed with proper 'couples'. The 2013 movie about one mother who tried to find her son "Philomena" is hugely moving. For 100 years, the Australian government forcibly removed aboriginal children from their mothers to be placed with white parents, in forster care or in institutions, many managed by religious organisations. The facilities were basic and often brutal in the extreme as children were forced to think and become 'white'. This policy was rooted in the relatively common and deeply held colonial racist view that non-white people were inferior and thus incapable of leading their own lives. They were later given the term "The Stolen Generation". In 2008 the country's Prime Minister issued a formal apology in parliament to all those in The Stolen Generations. Kipling's view of colonialism that it was "the white man's burden" to improve - and thus westernise - native populations is now too frequently regarded as true. Even though he wrote this at the end of the 19th century when America was colonising The Philippines, it had been common throughout almost all colonial history. Sadly, after colonial traders seeking loot for their nation's treasuries had arrived, flocks of missionaries would follow: Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals in all what they believed as their God-given right. Their mission was simple: convert souls for "their" God and to hell with local religious beliefs which had been practiced often for millennia. The rape of so many countries is one of the huge stains on so-called western civiisations. Seldom, alas, do we think of the consequent ravaging of local religions, customs and beliefs. In mid-19th century China alone, the Taiping Rebellion was a direct result of Christian missionaries spreading their doctrine. As a result between 20 and 30 million Chinese were killed. It is desperately sad that, in my view, around the world these priests and their hierarchy actually believed they were doing good. Even worse, in their efforts to win souls, some not infrequently resorted to ghastly forms of sadism and torture. I can't wait to see "Bones of Crows".

London also has - or used to have - a similar half price booth in, I believe, Leicester Square. On business trips to the USA, I occasionally managed side trips to Las Vegas. One year she was performing her one-woman show, "The Showgirl Must Go On", at Caesar's Palace and I purchasd a ticket well in advance. What a woman! What a performer! When she wasn't singing, she was cracking rapid fire joke after joke after joke - many of them pretty risqué, but the audience loved it all. I have forgotten most of these jokes, but one has aways stuck in my mind. Slightly adapted it went like this - She is walking along the beach in Atlantic City, admiring all the young men sunning themselves, when she suddenly notices one young man totally naked and jerking off! Curious, she goes up to him and asks quite innocently, "Young man. You have a beautiful body but may I ask what you are doing?" "Isn't it obvious?" the young man replies. "I'm telling the time." "And what time is it?" He looks down at his erection and tells her it is a couple of minutes to midday. Thank you, she replies. Checking her watch, she sees that it is indeed two minutes to twelve. Interesting! So she proceeds on her way along the beach. Within minutes she sees another handsome Adonis, also totally naked and also enjoying a wank. She decides to ask him the same question. "Can't you see I'm telling the time?" To her next question he tells her it is exactly midday. How strange, she thinks, he is exactly right. She thanks the young man and continues walking. Then, before her she sees a third equally handsome young man enjoying a wank. She goes up to him. "Young man. You have a beautiful body and I can see that you are telling the time. Can you tell me what time it is?" "Telling the time? Of course I'm not telling the time! Can't you see? I'm winding the clock!" I wanted to include Ms. Midler in my Gay Icons series as most will know she more or less started her career in 1970 singing at the large gay Continental Baths sauna in New York when her pianist was Barry Manilow. Not surprisingly she built up a huge gay following. Her 1998 album is titled "Bathhouse Betty". As she said at the time, "I kind of wear the label 'Bathhouse Betty' with pride." Unfortunately I can not find enough material to include her in the Icons series. But I'll end this with her Song of the Year Grammy in 1990 which she perfumed at the Awards ceremony.

As @macaroni21 mentions, Singapore traffic is far, far lighter than Bangkok's. That's partly because the tax on cars is vastly higher and partly because of the congestion charge motorists must pay to enter the central area. A new Toyoya Corolla Altis today costs S$173,888 (US$130,000). Of this S$103,799 represents tax. Total cost of owning, running and maintaining the Toyota over 10 years is estimated at S$253,326! https://dollarsandsense.sg/cost-owning-car-singapore/ The other issues in his post are all extremely important to F1 organisers. I am not sure if Bangkok has environmental protection laws, but as also pointed out, the noise of even just one F1 car racing around a city can be heard virtually all over it. Make that 22 or 24 and the noise is ear-splittingly deafening. I happened to be involved as a consultant (! pace @Keithambrose) with the Hong Kong Tourist Association when it was considering an F1 race in the late 1990s. As with Singapore, the television shots with cars racing around Hong Kong's harbour district would be worth vast sums in free worldwide advertising. The conclusion we all came to was that with all the efforts required to close roads. resurface roads, build the extensive necessary infrastructure, the noise which would greatly exceed environmental protection limits and most all the relatively small financial return, it was not worth proceeding. We had been given a copy of a study prepared by the former driver Gerhard Berger as a result of which the F1 Austrian Grand Prix had been reinstated. That made clear that the bulk of revenues to the government came as much from the VAT returns from hotel and other items as from the sale of expensive tickets. Hong Kong had no VAT on most items and only a minuscule hotel tax. It was an easy decision to take.

I'm curious. How much would you pay to see a Broadway show? A show you really wanted to see? Back in the 1980s and 1990s I took in a Broadway show almost every time I was in New York. I can't recall ever paying more than about $75 for a seat. Then came the Mel Brooks musical "The Producers". It took Broadway by storm and demand far exceeded supply. In true free market economics, the producers of the show hiked top price tickets to a whopping all time high of $500. And that was in 2001! Thankfully I saw it later in London for not much more than £60. The highest I have paid on Broadway was $150. The last time was for "Wicked", a show lots of people love but for whatever reason I loathed! I walked out at the interval. I was thinking about pricing when I read the article below in today's Guardian newspaper. A 15-week run of Shakesepeare's "Othello" with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhall in the cast could set you back a whopping $921 for a top price centre stalls seat. Want to see George Clooney in "Good Night and Good Luck" opening on April 3? That will set you back $799! I am old enough to recall when famous artists toured theatres in the UK relatively regularly for a tiny fraction of these prices. One I vividly remember is Franco Zeffirelli's production of "Much Ado About Nothing" with a cast including Maggie Smith and her then husband, the wonderful actor Robert Stephens, Derek Jacobi, Anthony Hopkins, Frank Finlay and other wonderful British actors. Changed days for poor theatre lovers! https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/mar/24/othello-broadway-ticket-prices

Many will recall the devastating floods of 2011. These not only swamped parts of the city, Don Mueang airport was flooded and closed for some weeks. Ayutthaya was also under water for weeks. Particularly heavy rains in the north that year had caused an increase in the level of the Chao Phraya river. This coincided with extra high tides during the high water period in October. Both surges met in and near Bangkok. The ground floor of the house of one of my work colleagues was under water for nearly 3 months. Endless ideas were 'floated' by the government to reduce the impact of the flooding. One government idiot even suggested placing a line of long tail boats across the river with their propellers at full blast so as to push the surging Chao Phraya waters back up stream! Only in Thailand! Since then, there have been warnings of flooding at this time of year in at least four or five years, the last two being 2022 and 2024 when there were alerts in Bangkok. Years earlier I can remember going down to the river during the flood season. Even then much of the river bank on both sides was packed with sandbags. At the Shangri La hotel they were not only at the river bank, they were also piled up around the swimming pool! Moving the capital would not be a unique event. Myanmar did it a few years ago replacing Rangoon with a totally new city in Naypyidaw. 40% of Jakarta now lies below sea level and is subject to horrific annual flooding. Six years ago the Indonesian government announced a move to another completely new city 1,200 kms from Jakarta. Nusantara located on the island of Borneo will become the new capital. Were the Thai government to announce a new capital, no doubt those who have invested in all the huge modern structure in the city will be screaming with anger. But it would be their own faults. As I understand it, one reason for Bangkok sinking is the result of government decisions in the 1950s. Bangkok then was the Venice of the East, a city of klongs and not very many roads. A decision was made to modernise the city. Consultants were brought in who clearly knew little about water management. They advised filling in the klongs and making them roads. And to me that is one problem with hiring outside individual consultants. Neither they nor those doing the hiring are really aware of the long term effects. The must be a wide range of consutants with different specialities to span the wide range of probable results.

Did you enjoy the movie? It has had dire reviews!

This time an icon who fortunately remains with us even though now well into his 80s. On a visit to Scotland during my student years, I was exceedingly fortunate to catch a couple of plays being performed at the celebrated Edinburgh International Festival, Shakespeare's “Richard II” and Marlowe's “Edward II”. Playing the title role of each king was a young English actor about whom there was a considerable buzz in theatrical circles. The friend who accompanied me was then at drama school and madly in love with him. Unfortunately, he told me, the actor already had a steady boyfriend. That was the first time I knew Ian McKellen was gay. The young McKellen as Shakespeare's "Richard II": Photo Prospect Theatre Company Outside the theatre ‘business’ the public had little idea that this young man emerging as one of Britain's finest stage actors was anything other than a hot-blooded young alpha-male. Actors were never identified with their roles, which was just as well for one very much in the closet. The character of Edward II is not only bisexual – or possibly even gay, he comes to an especially nasty end when his enemies at court thrust a red-hot poker up his anus. The very conservative Edinburgh audience was shocked with elderly matrons walking out and many indignant letters sent to the press. A love scene between King Edward II and his favourite, Piers Gaveston, played by actor James Laurenson: Photo Central Press Having been at Oxford University with several friends who were to become theatrical luminaries in their own right (the director of “CATS” and “Les Misérables” as well as future head of the National Theatre, Trevor Nunn, and fellow actor Derek Jacobi), Ian McKellen was already known in the business and marked for success. He joined both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre where his roles included Macbeth and Iago in “Othello”. In tandem he worked on a host of contemporary commercial plays in London's West End and occasionally on Broadway. In New York he had a huge success as Salieri in the Peter Schaffer play “Amadeus” when he won every possible award. Back in England, he even took on a role in the very British Christmas pantomime entertainment, playing Widow Twanky in “Aladdin”. As a gloriously camp Widow Twanky: Photo Manuel Harlan Like many of his generation of British actors, he was late making the move to Hollywood. After a few smaller roles, he played the aging lead of a famously gay Broadway producer in "Gods and Monsters", a role for which he was nominated for an Oscar. Soon after, his movie career shot him to worldwide stardom through his roles in the “X-Men” series and Peter Jackson's “Lord of the Rings” Trilogy followed by “The Hobbit”. Before then, though, he had finally decided at age 49 to come out publicly. Violently opposed to a proposed policy of Margaret Thatcher’s government to prohibit city councils from promoting homosexuality, he made his own sexuality unexpectedly known in a radio programme. Around this time he claims he was visited by Britain’s Environment Secretary, Michael Howard. Howard refused to lobby against the new policy. He then had the cheek to ask McKellen if he would sign autographs for his children. McKellan agreed to do so, but added the words “Fuck off, I’m gay!” Such an admission could have had a negative effect on his career. Not so for McKellen. Only three years later Queen Elizabeth conferred on him a knighthood for services to the Performing Arts. Since then, being an openly gay public figure Sir Ian has helped by lending his support to a host of gay causes and organizations, not limited to his native country. Invited to perform "King Lear" in Singapore in 2007, the city state which still had anti-gay laws on its statute books, he took part in a 'live' morning radio show. When asked what he would like to see in Singapore, he quipped, "Can you recommend a nice gay bar?" Allegedly the programme controller had a fit and pulled the plug on the rest of interview. Some years later, Sir Ian recorded a video message to be played prior to the Shanghai Gay Pride Parade. At home he is a co-founder of Stonewall UK. An atheist, for a time he was especially concerned that copies of the Old Testament were placed in every hotel room in the USA. He particularly disliked the passages in Leviticus which warn men about “lying” with other men. Whether this is true or not, it was openly discussed that he would always rip out those pages before replacing the book back in its drawer! Sir Ian has always had a wide variety of very close friends, far from all being gay. Perhaps the most famous is the actor he met in the 1970s when both were members of the Royal Shakespeare Company. McKellen was playing major roles. His friend describes himself at that time as “little more than a jobbing actor with a wife and two young children, always a little intimidated by Ian.” That friend was Patrick Stewart. In 2013 the two played on consecutive nights in Samuel Becket’s “Waiting for Godot” and Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land” on both Broadway and then on tour in the United Kingdom. Stewart and McKellen in "Waiting for Godot": Photo Joan Marcus When Hollywood beckoned, it was first for Stewart when cast in the hugely successful “Star Trek: The Next Generation” television series in 1987. It was another 11 years before McKellen landed his starring role as the ageing real-life gay movie director James Whale in “Gods and Monsters”. The friendship with Stewart was renewed a year later when both were selected to star in the first of the “X-Men” movies. So close have the two friends become that the tabloids call it “the most famous bromance in Hollywood”. For Stewart’s third marriage in 2013, McKellen flew from London to New York to officiate at the ceremony. McKellen went on to even greater international success in Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy followed by “The Hobbit”. At the same time he has actively encouraged young gay men, especially well-known personalities, to sweep away the closet. In Gayety magazine earlier this year he was quoted as saying, “I have never met anybody who came out who regretted it. Being in the closet is silly. Don’t listen to your advisers, listen to your heart. Listen to your gay friends who know better. Come out. Get into the sunshine.” At the venerable age of 85, there seems no stopping this modest knight, a gentle man for whom gay activism is as much part of his DNA as is the stage and screen.

A few years ago o one of the forums there was mention of at east one care home near Jomtien. I am sorry I just cannot recall any detail. I did see on Facebook the following from Jomtien Hospital โรงพยาบาลจอมเทียน - Jomtien Hospital 1 July 2020 · Elderly Care @ Jomtien Hospital Take care of your loved ones … for their quality of life. A. Independent elders who can carry out daily living B. Post-operation patients C. Chronic patients who need special care D. Dementia/ paralysis patients E. Patients with intense needs or who cannot carry out daily living Provided services Weekly health assessment by physician 24 Hours support by special nurse Nutrition supervised by dietitian Body exercise supervised by physical therapist Daily 3 meals served Dedicated single room Recreation activities ----------------------------------------------------------------- For more information; call in-patient department at 0 3312 5951 or emergency department at 0 3312 5912 I realise this is not quite what you mean, but it's a start. I also found this. It's all in Thai but using google translate it suggests the price is from Bt. 20,000 per month. https://baanlalisa.com/baan-lalisa-nursing-home-in-pattaya/

We live and learn LOL. Seriously, great reports, thanks.

I read that Thailand is once again preparing a feasibillity study on hosting a Formula 1 Grand Prix street race. As one who enjoys F1, I realise it could do wonders for the image of the city worldwide. This from Newsweek of March 19 - "Although Thailand has an FIA-approved Grand Prix circuit in Buriram, the country is gearing up to host a Formula One street race in Bangkok. Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra recently met with F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali to discuss the ambitious plan. As a first step toward bringing F1 to the capital by 2028, Thailand will now move forward with a feasibility study." But it will never happen! It's madness! Back in 2012 one entrepreneur claimed he would bring an F1 race to Bangkok's streets. This drew quite an extensive correspondence in this forum - So many factors rule Bangkok out. First, roads and traffic. Hosting an F1 race means deciding on a route of around 5 - 8 kms with roads which will not pose any hazard to cars, drivers and spectators. Remember the first Las Vegas race last year? A manhole cover broke loose during practice and it was a miracle that it caused no damage. Then an F1 race requires roads to be closed to all traffic for several hours on the two practice days and the qualification day in addition to virtually the whole day of the race itself, a day which will also include Formula 2 races. With Bangkok's roads already vastly overcrowded, can you imagine the mayhem such closures will cause? Second, infrastructure. Grandstands for 100,000 plus spectators have to be erected and sturdy fencing around the track to ensure no spectators are involved if there is a crash (and crashes do happen with some regularity on street circuits). A very long area needs to be set aside for the construction of the team pits and garages and the Paddock Club for the high-rollers who pay fortunes to be close to the action. Third, time of day. Apart from existing tracks where racing is held in the afternoons local time, increasingly F1 wants races that can be televised at reasonable times in Europe and the USA. Hence most new tracks in the Middle East and Asia in the last 18 years have involved some form of night racing. No doubt the views of temples and the Grand Palace at night will be spectacular, but the installation of tens of thousands of specially designed light fixtures can easily cost US$30 million or a lot more. Total Cost. SIngapore was the first night race on the F1 calendar in 2008. For 2024, it is estimated that the total cost for 100 minutes or so of televised racing along with all the pre- and post-activities in SIngapore was US$150 million. Of this the government chipped in $90 million with the private sector paying the rest. Hoteliers and airlines hiked prices considerably to recoup some of their costs, and a private entertainment entrepreneur organised a major week-end of massive parties with top of the line pop stars. SIngapore's F1 street circuit race track. Can Bangkok meet all these specifications? In my view, definitely not unless a group of zillionaires comes together. Even so, the need to get so many government departments to sign off on it will be an insurmountable headache, even with many brown envelopes flying around. In my view a feasibility study is virtually a waste of time and money. https://dollarsandsense.sg/cost-singapore-host-f1/

The problem with new Museums is always obtaining enough exhibits or merit. The fact that the core of the Museum will be Khun Petch's collection is a huge boost that should give the Museum regional if not worldwide status. That along with the experience of the curators surely bodes well for the Museum's future. Now if only someone would do something to get music in all its various forms more professionally developed in Thaiand, as it is in most other Asian countries, I for one would be delighted.

Sorry but I do not agree. Sure, that does happen and it can cost a great deal in emotional and other turmoil. But free sex does not always imply that the relationship will break down. Since my butterfly days, I have entered into this kind of relationship - but well aware that the large age gap might eventually result in heartache. Twice it has. The second time I almost swore off forming any relationship. And then my partner suddenly appeared by clicking on me on one of the apps I had intended to delete. I never thought it could develop in the longer term. It has for several years now and shows no sign of ending. I'll settle for this any day. I think dementia is one of those illnesses older gay guys living in Thailand fear most. I have one friend whom I knew even before moving to Asia and with whom I worked on many projects - he in London and me in Asia - over the years. He is one of the lucky ones. When his half Thai/halfEnglish partner was informed my friend had the onset of dementia in 2019, he made the wise move to relocate from the UK to Chiang Mai. Although my friend's memory is now totally gone, his partner still cares for him. I think we should remember that there are several very pleasant facilities in what are normally called care homes in various parts of the country. I know of three just outside Chiang Mai. One of my clients (straight) recently enrolled a dear gay friend approaching 80 in one after his boyfriend of several years, having learned about the onset of dementia, disappeared with their car and several valuables from their home. She tells me that her friend is very happy there and the fees are incredibly inexpensive. The homes run a shuttle minibus service to Chiang Mai several times a day and when he first moved, he was still able occasionally to be part of the gay scene. No longer, alas, as the illness has progressed. The important point is we don't have to be alone!

Like others, during my visiting butterfly days I fell in love quite a few times only to fall out again relatively quickly. But as a butterfly that never seemed to faze me. It was just par for the course. Now I realise that there are some - perhaps more than I realise - who do form lasting relationships with money boys that are rewarding in many ways without involving hard cash for services rendered. Some foreigners live here with their bfs; others have visited regularly over many years. I do sometimes reminisce and wonder what happened to all those with whom I enjoyed such amazing times and on whom I had that mad sudden crush. I hope they have done well in life, and I hope none succumbed to AIDS which was not even on the horizon when I started visiting. I suspect, though, in both cases some did not fare as well as others. I just wish that those in such a relationship now are able to compromise with someone who has a very different lifestyle. Maybe it will turn out that he will not be the one for you. On the other hand, all young guys have their own habits, likes and dislikes. It we never compromise, surely we lay ourselves open to never enjoying a meaningful, enjoyable and fun relationship, the more so when there is a very large age gap. Oops, apologies! Sermonising!

Fascinating. Thanks. I had tried to make it clear that the photo was of Goldeneye with the caption.

This partcular story may have escaped virtually every poster's notice. Although only partly related to MBK, previous incidents of extreme violence between two particular Bangkok educational institutions and the reasons they continue to keep hjappening have certainly been reported in these columns. This is a long post from 2021 outlining in detail the death of one student killed while helping his mother only because he was from a different college. There is no need to read the article because the attached video titled "Dying to Gradiuate" in it basically explains it all in detail - https://www.channelnewsasia.com/watch/dying-graduate-1511241?cid=fbins What is horrific is that some students are encouraged to engage in violence against students from the other college by graduates from decades ago (see video starting at 20:06).

Isn't Colombia preferable to Brazil for the younger twinkier guys the OP prefers?

One day perhaps he will learn that the life we have is for living - not spending a great deal of time trying to extend it. Or he may end up like that guy who promoted jogging as a way of living fitter. He collapsed and died in his 50s if I remember correctly.

I have only once taken viagra. It left me with a form of pounding in the head which I did not like and which stayed with me for a few hours. On advice of friends, I switched to Tadalafil, better known as Cialis. I have no identifiable side effects and the great thing is it keeps one 'active' for a good 30 or more hours. The problem is that, i believe, it is still under a manufacturer's copyright and so hugely more expensive than generic viagra. There is a Thai generic named Talafil which is not much cheaper but seems to work as well. Does anyone know of a cheap version?

Brilliant! You have done a great service by bringing up the possibility of negotiating for procedures at at least one good private hospital. I guess like an aircraft, MRI and CAT scanners only make money when they are in use. So if they are lying idle, some revenue is better than none. I'll certainly try this next time.

I can do you an excellent line of thermal mountaineering underwear! LOL

Thanks. I should have pointed out that they are usually there from late October to early-February.

Interesting! I had absolutely no idea he was more than remotely connected to Broadway, particularly his contributions to "Anything Goes" and "Showboat". Yet it is frankly not accurate to say he was involved in "Showboat", for example. His only contribtion was to one song "Bill" which was originally written by Jerome Kern and Wodehouse in 1917. It then had nothing to do with "Showboat". It was only added quite a few years after being reworked by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was one of four new songs added to the hugely expensive Hal Prince production I saw in New York in 1994. After its premiere, "Showboat" had been reworked many, many times with contributions by quite a few people. Wodehouse certainly contributed to the history of Broadway, though, especially in his collaboration with Jerome Kern illustrating his brilliance at writing lyrics. Many of those shows were written for the tiny 299-seat Princess Theatre in the second decade of the century when the team was joined by another superb British lyricist, Guy Bolton.

In a 1999 article marking the 100th anniversary of the birth of Noël Coward, TIME magazine noted that “no other 20th century figure approached Coward’s creative breadth: playwright, actor, composer, lyricist, novelist, stage director, film producer, Vegas ‘entertainer’”. Audiences adored Coward’s plays, his stage musicals, his wit and his often-cutting repartee. Between the two World Wars, Coward dominated the theatrical profession on both sides of the Atlantic as no one else has done before or since. As TIME added, he did so with “a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise.” Some of his plays have stood the test of time, but few are programmed today. Perhaps he is now best known for just one song: “Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the Midday Sun.” First performed in New York in 1931, according to his biographer Sheridan Morley he wrote it whilst driving from Hanoi to Saigon “without pen, paper or piano!” Yet behind his assured, high society mask, for much of his life Coward was a deeply unhappy man. It is now well-known that Coward was gay although he never admitted this during his life. It might upset the county set of middle aged, dyed-in-the-wool ladies who came in bus-droves to attend the mid-week matinees of his plays, was his regular excuse. Hailing from a very middle-class background, he was born in the suburbs of London.Aged 14 he became the protégé and almost certainly the lover of a society painter, Philip Streatfield. Although Streatfield was to die a year later, Coward had by then been introduced widely into the high society of the times and quickly adopted its accent and its manners. Entering his teens, Coward had started work as a child actor. He had always been interested in the theatre and by age 20 he was writing his own plays. Soon he was to be a huge success in virtually all areas of society entertainment. It was at a performance of his musical revue “London Calling” that he met one of his early lovers. Prince George, Duke of Kent, was the fourth son of Britain’s King George V (and thus to become brother to two Kings). They began a clandestine affair. During the Roaring Twenties, the scandals surrounding the very bisexual, drug-taking Prince George were legendary. Even after his marriage, one commentator at the time noted, “He is not safe in a taxi with either sex.” The British Security Service once reported that George and Coward had been seen cavorting through the streets of London “dressed and made up as women!” Their on-going relationship was to last for two decades. Only death parted George from “dearest, darling Noël”. In 1942 George was killed in an air crash in Scotland. Coward wrote in his diary, “The thought that I shall never see him again is terribly painful.” Prince George, The Duke of Kent In public Coward was a master of the one-line quip, often cutting and always trotted out spontaneously. One evening walking across London’s Leicester Square, a friend drew his attention to the huge advertising hoarding above the Odeon Cinema – Michael Redgrave and Dirk Bogarde in The Sea Shall Not Have Them Bemused, Coward turned to his friend and exclaimed, “I can’t think why ever not, dear boy. Everyone else has!” In the movie business, Redgrave was known to be bisexual and Bogarde homosexual, although neither came out during their lives. In another famous Coward quip. he was standing on a balcony overlooking the procession of carriages passing en route to the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Beside him was his young nephew. In one carriage was a monstrously overweight woman. Noël’s nephew was curious. “Uncle Noël! Who is in that carriage?” “That, dear boy, is Queen Sālote of Tonga.” Pointing to her tiny slim Prime Minster sitting opposite, the nephew was equally curious. “And who is the little man with her?” “That, dear boy, is her lunch!” Given his enormous success in the years between the World Wars and the patriotic film he wrote as part of the national war effort “In Which We Serve”, it was assumed that Coward would be awarded a knighthood. He was not. Prime Minister Churchill and other top members of the government were aware of the relationship with Prince George and were anxious that it be totally covered up, to the extent that George’s letters to Coward were stolen from his London home – with Churchill’s approval. Apart from the scandal if the public were to hear of the affair, homosexual relations between two men were still strictly illegal, and would remain so in England until 1967. Coward would finally be given a knighthood in 1970. Perhaps somewhat extraordinarily, George’s sister-in-law, the mother of Queen Elizabeth II, remained a lifelong friend. After the war, Coward started a relationship with a young actor, Graham Payne, who was to remain with him for the rest of his life. Soon Coward and Payne took a long lease on a house in Jamaica named Goldeneye, owned by Ian Fleming the creator of the James Bond novels. Later they built their own house on the island and it was here that Coward died in 1973. Thereafter Payne was frequently questioned about the relationship with Prince George. He refused to confirm any had taken place. Indeed Coward had never openly revealed his sexuality. Ian Fleming's Goldeneye in Jamaica rented by Coward Coward’s contribution to his country is marked by a memorial stone in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey and the re-naming in 2006 of one of London’s theatres as the Noël Coward Theatre.

The seats illustrated in my post above are not the only ones being "considered". Someone has come up with a new double decker economy seat with flat bed available as part of it - Another has a real double decker ordinary seat -