PeterRS

Sounds like a new twist on Duty Free! I do remember that first movie with much fondness. It had some great actors like Gordon Jackson, James Robertson Justice, Duncan McRae, John Gregson and the incomparable Joan Greenwood. Of her amazing and very distinctive husky voice, her son recalls it as like "the sound of someone gargling with champagne" and Variety magazine as "one of the wonders of the modern world"!

I have loathed Heathrow for years and always preferred to take Qatar through Doha to get to my UK destination. Last month, though, I had to take Cathay Pacific through Heathrow. I transferred in the opposite direction, from Terminals 3 to 5 and was not looking forward to it. Although quite a few flights had arrived around that time, surprisingly there were buses waiting and queueing was maximum of 1 minute. The bus trip was no more than 5 minutes, immigration was a breeze with the new facial recognition and security very fast. But I deplaned at 06:35 in the morning. I wonder when @unicorn arrived? I can't imagine how long that would all have taken had it been around midday.

Thanks. Do you know if they make them in different sizes? I was told by a friend that they are a little tight - and he tells me he is of average width 😉

I'd suggest adding to that "political and business life."

I notice the OP mentioned Macao. It's way too late to recommend anywhere, partly because the post was made last year and also because I never went to Macao for massage or sex. But since we've been talking about history, it used to be a perfect evening get-away from Hong Kong. Now the American mega casinos and the huge wealth they have created have spoiled it forever for me. In the early 1980s it was just like a sleepy Mediterranean town with some lovely Chinese additions. Friends and I would take a jetfoil over around 5:30pm, get a taxi to the old fashioned Bela Vista hotel, enjoy drinks on the balcony while looking over to the island of Taipa before taking an ultra-cheap taxi to the outermost island of Coloanne for dinner, usually in open air restaurants like Fernando's or Pinocchio's. The food was great, inexpensive and Portuguese wine extremely cheap since it attracted no tax. It was the perfect antidote to ever-busy Hong Kong. A walk near the historic centre or along the Praia Grande before a taxi back to the jetfoil terminal ended perfectly lovely evenings. The Bela Vista Hotel as it was being renovated in the early 1990s to become a Mandarin Oriental Hotel

As I quoted from the article, Roy Cohn was "one of the most reviled men in American history."

I believe it was. Perhaps surprisingly, I had a great time in Hong Kong in spite of the law. Although there was not much of a gay scene as such, meeting up with cute Chinese gay guys was actually relatively easy. One of the locations my friends and I loved was one of the small beaches on the south side of the Island, Middle Bay. Apart from difficulties with parking, it was usually packed on weekends with lots of gorgeous guys almost all wearing slim fit trunks and with whom it was not difficult to chat. The large changing room was especially cruisy! Although not especially cruisy in the city areas, as long as your gaydar was working or you had some gay friends, finding other gay friends for hook-ups was not really difficult. But I felt sorry for most gay Chinese in low paying jobs for they really had a tough time. And of course Hong Kong was a great centre for gay travel then. This was a time when a large number of Tokyo guys really wanted to meet foreigners. My first Asian sauna experience was in Tokyo. As I was entering the steam room, one tall, slim guy coming out was a well known photo book porn star! I loved my Tokyo trips and at one time I was flying for long week-ends every month. PanAm was still flying then and had paticularly cheap tickets. Hotels also were relatively inexpensive. Manila was an extremely popular destination for long sex crazy week-ends, and even cities like Singapore and Kuala Lumpur had their own gay haunts. In some ways I miss those days. It's like some posters talk about the apps and the bars today. They prefer to see the guys they might off in the flesh rather than rely on apps. In the 'old' days, that was really the only way to meet.

It is all so typical of Trump's mentor, Roy Cohn, who believed deeply as I quoted above, "Deflect and distract, never give in, never admit fault, lie and attack, lie and attack, publicity no matter what, win no matter what, all underpinned by a deep, prove-me-wrong belief in the power of chaos and fear."

I am sure this must be correct. After all, Myanmar has been subject to so many earthquakes since these structures were built including quite a few of 7 or more on the Richter scale in or near Sagaing, and one of 8 in 1946.

Sounds quite an interesting book, but clearly it cannot always be completely accurate given the author's extremely broad canvas. The problems in finding gay activists in each country will also not have been easy, if only because of language difficulties, the lack of the internet, some would only be known to smallish local groups and it would be a monumental task to take into account all the historical issues that led to gay life having emerged as it did by 1992. As I know from experience, Julian Chan was far from the only gay activist in Hong Kong and the Ten Percent Club was not a club as such. It was a group of gay men who had some form of group newsletter. The fact is there had been several activists both before and after Chan. One of the first was a British man who had arrived to run the small Arts Centre in late 1977. Neil Duncan passed away many years ago and so there is now no need to avoid using his name. Although himself married, he and one of his gay Chinese colleagues were one of the first ones active in openly discussing the anti-sodomy law and calling for gay rights - this at a time when gay activism was almost unknown. It did not make him popular with his establishment Board of Directors. Soon a Chinese Xiao Ming-xiong, who wrote under the pen name Wu Xiaoming, after studying overseas, returned to Hong Kong and in 1980 wrote "A Chinese Gay's Manifesto". This was followed for some years by an underground newsletter titled the "Pink Triangle". While in the USA, he had read in the Library of Congress a book titled "The Secret History of Homosexuality" about gay life in China published in 1964. He believed the analysis of what made men gay was, as he wrote, "ridiculous". When he returned to Hong Kong he realised that many in the general Chinese community still regarded homosexuality as a foreign vice. He determined to start changing this attitude in his 1984 book in Chinese "A History of Homosexuality". Before Neil left Hong Kong, the very public scandal over the death of Police Inspector John MacLennan in January 1980 had brought the gay issue on to the front page of all the news media. The fact that this led to major public enquiries kept the issue front and centre for several years, although nothing was done to change the law. What it did gradually do was change the perception of many in the 90+% Chinese community to gay men. From being a foreign vice, there came an understanding that China itself had had a rich gay history long before the arrival of foreigners. Lastly, I had heard of the existence of some public lavatories as hang outs for gay sex. Yet the thought appals me, as public lavatories in Hong Kong in the 1980s were filthy, rarely cleaned and smelled of . . . I need go no further. Anyone seeking sex there must have been desperate. But then I suspect many were desperate as most younger working men men would be living with their families in tiny flats with nowhere to meet other guys. Thank goodness the times have changed.

Why should the west be in panic? I merely stated a fact which you did not dispute.

Not new. What IS new is what the BBC reported: it is the BIGGEST call-up since 2011. Or do you dispute that as well? While on the subject does Russia still conscript prisoners - or at least give them the option of conscription in return for freedom (assuming they are not killed in battle)? That became law in the summer of 2023, did it not? Then in October 2024 Putin signed into law measures that even permits defendants in criminal cases to avoid prosecution if they join the military. Even before their trials. Yes? No?

Very true. Some years ago I had a routine X-ray of my abdomen. When I saw the doctor for the result, he was concerned at a spot on my lower right side. He said he would need a second X-ray to check. He also suggested that the spot could be nothing more than "nipple shadow"! (Well, he was cute and he did turn me on!) So when I had the second X-ray, the technician first taped down my nipples. Turned out the spot was indeed a nipple shadow LOL

Anything that might be wrong. But they were not merely started at random. A CAT scan for a simple abdominal ailment revealed a cyst on the pancreas which that particular scan can not see underneath. I was told that usually if a cyst is 5 mms or less there is no need to check, but mine is slightly larger. So an MRI was recommended merely to check there was nothing cancerous underneath. As you suggest, these scans are long - around 75 minutes - and if you do not like being in a tube for that length of time it could get awkward. Since my cyst has grown very slightly larger, I have one MRI every year. If pancreatic cancer is found sufficiently early, it can be surgically removed (leaving the patent either cured or in remission for a long time). But as the organ lies behind the stomach, many doctors at first misdiagnose the condition as being stomach- or back-related. And if that type of cancer has first spread to other organs or a major blood vessel (which I understand occurs in approx. 50% of patients), the survival rate is poor. We should realise that pancreatic cancer, along with liver cancer and brain cancer, has one of the lowest survival rates (according to the Cleveland Clinic). It is essential that it be caught early. Some celebrities who have died of the cancer in the last 20 years include singers Aretha Franklin and Luciano Pavarotti, actors Parick Swayze, Sir John Hurt and Alan Rickman, Apple founder Steve Jobs, musician Quincy Jones, fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, movie director Wolfgang Petersen, broadcasters Jerry Springer and Magnus Magnusson, soccer superstar Gianluca Vialli.

i wonder if anyone has tried the ultra thin Sagami 0.01 condoms.

A simple question. I am frequently asked for my passport when visiting banks and some other businesses (phone company, TrueVisions etc.). Copies are then made of the details page and the visa page. Are laminated copies acceptable - and have you also laminated copies of your visa?

Americans, certainly those who voted for Trump, tend to forget that one of his key mentors was "one of the most reviled men in American history." He came to fame as chief counsel for the fiercely anti-communist Joseph McCarthy's Senate sub-committee in the 1950s. A lawyer of the most notorious kind, a tax cheat and swindler, he counted mobsters as well as Presidents among his clients. He was indicted four times for stock-swindling, obstructing justice, perjury, bribery, conspiracy, extortion, blackmail and filing false reports. Three times he was aquitted and the fourth ended in a mistrial "giving him a kind of sneering, sinister sheen of invulnerability." Robert Cohen, a lawyer at one of his firms said, "He was the man to see if you wanted to beat the system. He did whatever he wanted, and felt he was good enough at everything to get away with it, and he did it for a very, very long time." Another attorney in his office said, "Roy couldn't have given less of a shit about the rules." Cohn himself once was quoted in Penthouse magazine, "I decided long ago to make my own rules." The quotes above and below are from Politico and come from a documentary made about him in 2019. The article continues - He didn’t pay his bills, all but daring his creditors to sue him for what he owed—tailors, locksmiths, mechanics, travel agencies, storage companies, credit card companies, stationery stores, office supply stores. He didn’t pay people back, “friend or foe,” wrote his biographer, Nicholas von Hoffman, who reported that a captain of his yacht called Defiance “had a mental map” of “ports we couldn’t go into because we owed thousands of dollars.” He didn’t pay his taxes, either, racking up millions of dollars in liens. Taxes, he believed, went to “welfare recipients” and “political hacks” and “bloated bureaucrats” and “countries whose people hate our guts.” He ceaselessly taunted the IRS, calling it “the closest thing we have in this country to a Nazi or Soviet-type agency”—subpoenas from which, he said, went straight into “the wastebasket” . . . Cohn became for Trump something much more than simply his attorney. At a most formative moment for Trump, there was no more formative figure than Cohn . . . Deflect and distract, never give in, never admit fault, lie and attack, lie and attack, publicity no matter what, win no matter what, all underpinned by a deep, prove-me-wrong belief in the power of chaos and fear. Trump was Cohn’s most insatiable student and beneficiary. “He didn’t just educate Trump, he didn’t just teach Trump, he put Trump in with people who would make Trump,” Marcus, his cousin, told me. “Roy gave him the tools. All the tools.” Roy Cohn, this extreme gay-bashing homophobe was secretly gay himself and was to die of AIDS aged 59. Six weeks earlier he had finally been disbarred as a lawyer. Trump certainly is not gay but in every other respect he is the near spitting image of hits mentor. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/19/roy-cohn-donald-trump-documentary-228144/

For at least a dozen years I did the annual executive check-up at Bumrungrad. It was a bit like a production line. You arrived around 07:00, changed into the hosptial gown and then went from one station to another ending up with a rectal prostate examination. After finally being able to eat something, you received the detailed report in print and a CD. I did my last one just before I changed my medical plan around 2012. Since then, I have realised that these check ups involved no CAT or MRI scans, merely ultrasound of the abdomen. There was all the usual blood work which is obviously useful in preliminary checking for some cancers and prostate problems. But the entire test was not anywhere as good as I now believe it could have been. I now visit two hospitals when required - BNH and the King Chulalongkorn Public Hospital. I think BNH is a better hospital and considerably less expensive than Bumrungrad - only my opinion! With covid having eaten massively into profits, four years ago it had very large discounts of over 60% for double procedures. I purchased two - heart MRI and corotid artery ultrasound, and endoscopy coupled with colonoscopy. BNH continues to offer package discounts but they are normally in the first 2 months of the year. Difficult if not impossible for visitors to register for the public hospital but I was really surprised that it was there a few years ago that a simple CAT scan revealed a very small cyst on the pancreas. That had been missed at a previous scan at Bumrungrad (although to be fair I have no idea if cysts develop quickly or not)! With pancreatic cancer being difficult to diagnose due to its placement behind the stomach and one of the most deadly, my excellent doctor (who works at a private hospital two days a week) said she wanted an MRI done to check if anything was going on under the cyst. I have since had these done annually and the next one is due end of next week. Thankfully nothing has ever been found. But I often wonder why at least CAT scans are not included in executive check ups at most hospitals, especially for older people. Certainly checks for any pancreas problems should be included.

Methinks the Emperor's new clothes are becoming rather obvious.

From today's BBC website Putin begins biggest Russian military call-up in years President Vladimir Putin has called up 160,000 men aged 18-30, Russia's highest number of conscripts since 2011, as the country moves to expand the size of its military. The spring call-up for a year's military service came several months after Putin said Russia should increase the overall size of its military to almost 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million. That is a rise of 180,000 over the coming three years.

Understandable perhaps, but then were you not the one who disregarded "facts" when forming your "opinions" about the farmer who held on to his land at Narita?

I was first aware of Russian roulette when I watched Michael Cimino's movie "The Deer Hunter" in an open air cinema in Penang almost 25 years ago. At the time I merely thought what a senseless game. I still consider it senseless unless one has a burning desire to play games with death as the ultimate outcome. Although, as this British man discovered, death can be delayed with perhaps decades of impaired living ahead of him.

Given the extensive posts on Myanmar in another thread (yes, I'm guilty!), I suggest we should start a new one since a lot is happening in that country. First, there is a massive amount of reconstruction required in various central parts of the country. The new capital of Naypyitaw was the second most badly hit after Mandalay with the Prediential Palace, the Parliament Building, the War Office and other buildings badly damaged. Since the capital is only around 20 years old, the junta leader has ordered those who constructed the buildings to rebuid them! Yet, he has also awarded a contract to Aung Pyae Sone who just happens to be the junta leader's son, to rebuild damaged military structures. "In Myanmar military parlance, GE officially refers to the work of military engineering units responsible for construction, fortifications, logistics infrastructure, and other engineering support for combat and non-combat operations." Aung Pyae Sone is the owner or a director of quite a number of different companies. Sky One Construction Ltd. is one of them. Is it merely coincidence, I wonder, that SKY, under its Chinese name Xin Ke Yuan, is the company being investigated for inferior steel suppplied for the building in Bangkok which collapsed during the Myanmar earthquake? Could the Myanmar and Thai companies somehow be interlinked? Frankly I do not know. I merely throw it into the pot of speculation. https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/firm-owned-by-myanmar-junta-bosss-son-reportedly-tipped-for-quake-reconstruction.html Second, Al Jazeera has reported that with the junta's conscription drive now nearing the end of its first year, it is likely to be close to hitting its target of 60,000 for drafting into the army. But the junta has changed its rationale for enlisting new troops. Richard Horsey, a senior adviser on Myanmar for the International Crisis Group, said new conscripts are getting harder and harder to round up. While some answered the draft willingly in the first few months of it coming into force last year, that has changed. “Over time, the authorities have had to resort to ever more draconian measures to get conscripts, including abducting young men from bus stops and other public places,” Horsey said. “Local officials have been extorting money from potential conscripts in order to avoid the draft. Some officials have been killed when they entered communities attempting to compile draft lists or enforce conscription orders,” he said. And instead of being posted to guard duty around military bases or other posts behind the front lines as first intended, many of the draftees are said to be getting some of the riskiest battlefield assignments. “There are many reports of conscripts being given the most difficult and dangerous duties that more experienced soldiers are reluctant to do, such as being airdropped behind enemy lines. They are unsurprisingly failing at these tasks – either being killed, defecting or fleeing if they have the chance,” Horsey said. The conscripts are also being rushed into battle with far less training than the soldiers they are joining or replacing, in some cases as little as three months, and treated more like cannon fodder than fighters, said Kyaw Htet Aung, who heads the conflict, peace and security research program at Myanmar’s Institute for Strategy and Policy, an independent think tank. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/11/myanmars-military-drafts-thousands-in-first-year-of-conscription-drive

An article in today's Guardian newspaper suggests that the days of airline boarding passes may be over in about 3 years. The International Civil Aviation Organization is working on plans for a major shake up in air travel with the introduction of a "digital travel incentive." The changes would mean the end of boarding passes and checking in for flights. Instead, when booking a flight, the information will be downloaded on our phones and updated if necessary. This will be then be linked to our passport details also on the phone. Together these will be called "journey passes". Valérie Viale, the director of product management at Amadeus, the travel technology company, has said the changes are “the biggest in 50 years”. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/11/boarding-passes-and-check-in-to-be-scrapped-in-air-travel-shake-up-plans

How valuable these polls are is always questionable. Yet Skytrax has gained in popularity if only because its voters are (mostly) real travellers and it has a huge respondent base. So here are its 2025 top 10. 1. Singapore Changi Airport 2. Doha Hamad International Airport 3. Tokyo Haneda Airport 4. Seoul Incheon International Airport 5. Tokyo Narita International Airport 6. Hong Kong International Airport 7. Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport 8. Rome Fiumicino Airport 9. Munich Airport 10. Zurich Airport Not really surprising that the top six are all in Asia. Nine are in Europe. The only one from North America is Vancouver at #13. Top US airport is Houston Hobby (never head of it! It seems it has just one international route to Dusseldorf - and so I have to wonder how did it gain so many votes?). Houston George Bush comes in at 33 but pipped by New York's LGA at #29. Perhaps not surprisingly JFK is way down at #89. https://www.worldairportawards.com/worlds-top-100-airports-2025/