PeterRS

Merely out of curiosity, i wonder why the courts decided the arrests were unlawful.

Sorry @jimmie50. I wrote my post before i saw yours. Good luck with the flights.

It's not due out in the USA till December 25 (presumably in time to be included in the Oscars) and the UK till December 26 but the critics embargo has just been lifted. So there are reviews everywhere. Based on the trailer, I totally fail to understand what it is really about. Yet most of the critics are raving about it, especially Chalamet's performance. It seems to be about a ping pong player in the 1950s, a Jewish shoe salesman who decides he is going to be the greatest ping pong player in the world. And he almost makes it. The critics call Chalamet's performance one of the best he has ever given on screen, definitely in Oscar contention. If you want to read more there are several reviews up on youtube. Based on the trailer and what I have read, I'm not sure this is a pic I want to see. Although he is fast becoming a great actor Chalamet is nothing like his previous roles, definitely not a cutie.

I know we all have different experiences. Having flown millions of miles, including plane changes with SIA at Changi, I suggest you will have absolutely no problem with your shortish connection, the more so as you have a through ticket on SIA and are in business class. As @pong2 noted, there will be someone from SIA at the gate either to show you the way or even to accompany you to the new departure terminal and gate. For such an early arrival, it is unlikely you will arrive late due to stacking or anything like that. And if the aircraft is delayed on departure, the pilots have enough time to make some or all of it up en route. I have changed planes at Hong Kong many times when the minimum connecting time for Cathay Pacific flights was just 40 minutes. Never missed a flight. But then Hong Kong only has one terminal. Even so, SIA is such an efficient airline and Changi such an efficient airport I would just accept their 75 minute connecting time and enjoy your flights. They will look after you. Your baggage will be automatically transferred. You will still have a hand luggage security check when entering the new gate but it will be very fast. Incidentally the scheduled flight time is 16 hours 36 minutes. Why bother waiting another 4 hours when you will clearly be very tired and 4 hours can seem an awfully long time. If you had tickets on different airlines or a through ticket on a lesser airline, I would have a different view. But with SIA I'm sure you'll be fine. I have Flight Radar on my iPad and have noted that 6 arrival times in recent days were 5:25, 5:27, 5:20, 5:23, 5:04 and 6:14. You will not need a visa on your return if you decide to stop in Singapore. Frankly, I'd be more worried about your connecting flight from Denver to SFO. It's decades since i flew out of Singapore. If it's anything like LAX you will need plenty of time for Immigration and security checks at evening time.

I know we get these lists from time to time from a variety of different sources. This time it's the turn of the monthly magazine and website International Living. It's top ten are - Greece - Panama - Costa Rica - Portugal - Mexico - Italy - France - Spain - Thailand - Malaysia There are several reasons why I find this list somewhat strange. Greece is basically burning every summer. Not everywhere of course, but many of the islands now have major fires annually. On the mainland in recent years, fires have come very close to Athens. In Portugal many native Portuguese are mightily pissed off with retirees. The Golden Visa for those investing around $250,000 have now been withdrawn but you can still get a visa if you bring in something like $1,100 per month. But then try to find accommodation. Many retirees buy their accommodation and the country now faces very high prices in the many towns and cities, especially Lisbon and Porto. On top of that the amount of accommodation available for rent has fallen drastically. There are still benefits like access to free healthcare after five years. Given the feelings within the country, I would not bank on these continuing for much longer because the Portuguese are really angry. As we know, Thailand has become much more expensive over the years. Add to this the threat of all retirees having to pay tax - I say threat because we have heard nothing more this year on the taxes that we were told would be introduced at the start of this year. Maybe it will not happen, we just at this stage do not know. But we do know that in future the country wants more wealthy retirees. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/01/travel/worlds-best-retirement-destinations-2026

This warning has been repeated over and over again, and thankfully most western tourists heed it. Three individuals were executed last week for drug offences which brings the total to 17 this year. A death sentence is automatic if you bring in more than 15g of diamorphine, 30g of cocaine, 250g of methamphetamine and 500g of cannabis. With cannabis still on sale in Bangkok, don't even think of trying to hide any in your luggage if Singapore is your next stop. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8dymv623q0o

The burger looks nice. I rarely visit one of the chain joints like McDonalds or Burger King, but in Paragon recently and hungry, despite the choice of many restaurants there I stopped at Burger King as they were offering Aberdeen Angus beef burgers - not the usual cardboard tasting meat. They're more expensive and I did find the burger far more satisfying than I expected. The meat was tasty and juicy, and the salad parts quite reasonable. Price for cheeseburger, coke and fries was Bt. 310. I was surprised - I enjoyed it.

FIrst time I've ever seen a martini as a Christmas drink LOL Mind you, the Father Christmas in the pic looks as though he's already imbibed far too many of them.

It's been showing for years, but especially in the last 2 years. Why he bothers when everyone else on the forum knowns his tactics for twisting facts and inventing new ones, I fail to understand. He's like a one man Trump!

One trait of @Moses which is abundantly clear from his posts, is that he is highly selective in what he posts and often fails to provide credible sources. He is now criticising the British admiistration of Hong Kong. He totally omits to mention that Hong Kong has more high rise residential buildings than any other city resulting in Hong Kong having more residents living at the 15th floor or above than any other world city. This gives it the world's tallest urban agglomeration. It also has some of the most stringent building construction safety codes and an excellent record when it comes to fire. How about Russia? Not quite as stringent codes it would seem. Naturally @Moses fails to mention the following urban fires - - the People's Friendship University of Russia Fire in 2003 which killed 44; - the Moscow hospital fire in 2006 which killed 45; - the Nursing Home fire in country's tenth largest city in 2007 which killed 63; - the Lame Horse fire in Perm in 2009 which killed 153; - the Moscow Market Fire in 2012 which killed 17; - the Luka Psychiatric Hospital fire in 2013 which killed 38; - the Kazan Shopping Centre Fire in 2015 which killed 17; - the Moscow Factory fire in 2016 which killed 12; - the Kemerovo Nursing Home Fire in 2022 which killed 22; - the fire at Fryazino office block in 2024 which killed 8; - just 5 days later the fire at a Moscow dormitory killed 5. No doubt @Moses will cry from the hilltops that this is western propaganda! It's fact!

Not merely desperate, I'd suggest - it's despicable!

Strange. I recharged my card at Siam BTS counter just a couple of weeks ago. Did not have to show anything. There should be no need unless your passport has changed since the original Rabbit did require a passport. The reason given when passports were required was "to prevent money laundering." Huh? When the maximum on a card was Bt 4,000. Thai logic once again totally failed me.

I guess the silver lining is that the solar flares had only affected one aircraft without any loss of life or loss of an aircraft, and Airbus took immediate action to resolve the issue.

Personally I loathe Christmas music being played and decorations put up more than about ten days before the 25th. We all know it is now purely a marketing gimmick to drive people into stores. One of the worst in my view is Starbucks. I have no idea who is in charge of music in their coffee shops but the Christmas music is almost all songs from the 1930s and 40s. Only once did I hear something different - a short piece of classical music which I recognised as part of the lovely Christmas Concerto by Arcangelo Corelli written in 1690. Since I have never heard it in other years, I guess the executive choosing the music must have been fired!

It's all getting earlier and earlier. Two weeks ago there were decorations and Christmas music almost everywhere in Taipei. And half the population seemed to be crowding around Chrismas trees to take selfies.

Do you think this might be because these individuals had failed to submit their arrival details online and just did not know about the regulation? I have twice returned to Thailand and was never asked at the departure airport for proof of having obtained the online approval QR code. Mind you, I was not asked for it either when I arrived, even though it was open and on my phone as I went through Immigration.

Thanks for the clarification. Certainly something has been done re changes to the interior since my last visit. Maybe since it was closed for two years during the early covid years they could have made some changes then. I still find it hard to believe that more than 200 people could be packed into that space, but then in the video they all seem pretty tightly packed. Some cute guys there, too!

Just a thought. Since I do quite a lot of research, this has meant looking at photos of gravestones to double check dates of birth and death. I remember my father telling me of once seeing a gravestone with the comment after the lady's name "Lord, she was Thin." Thinking this odd, he looked further round and noticed that the stonemason had run out of space for one letter was on the side. He had tried and failed to fit in "Lord, she was Thine." I plan to be cremated and will probably just try to have my name and dates added to my parents' gravestone. Not that I particularly want that, but perhaps some future generations will seek out the family history. But I do not want any description. If I did, it would probably be something innocuous like "He Did His Best" which of course covers a multitude of good deeds as well as an even greater multitude of sins. If you wish to have a gravestone and have a maximum of six words, I wonder what you would write. I'm particularly interested in @Olddaddy's thoughts LOL

Remember Shakespeare in Love, a movie full of wonderfully dazzling wit and charm? Its writer, Sir Tom Stoppard sadly died yesterday aged 88. I can recall seeing his very first play Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, an amazingly brilliant concept of what goes on offstage during a performance of Hamlet. It has one near iconic line, "Look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else." He had first tried his hand at journalism and then theatre criticism before turning to writing. His body of work for film, TV and radio was hugely impressive. He won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, as well as five Tony Awards in the USA and three Olivier Award in the UK. Other screenplays included John Le Carre's The Russia House and Terry Gilliam's Brazil. He also assisted other writers of screenplays by adding sparkle to their scripts, often without acknowledgement. These included Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the Star Wars episode Revenge of the Sith. Steven Spielberg even consulted him on Schindler's List. His writing was witty and playful, he took ideas seriously and delighted in philsophical and political argument. Among those who mourn his passing is Sir Mick Jagger who wrote on X hat he was "a giant of the theatre. He leaves us with a majestic body of intellectual and amusing work. I will always miss him." Lyricist Sir Tim Rice wrote he "is in awe of nearly everything" Sir Tom did, adding "He's written at least half a dozen, probably twice that, plays that will live for a long, long time – however brilliant plays are, a lot of them don't last long beyond their era, but I think Tom Stoppard's will, no question." The National Theatre called his contribution to British Theatre "simply immense". Born in Czechosolvakia, he was Jewish and fled to the uK after the Nazi invasion. All four of his grandparents died in the holocaust. London's West End Theatres will dim their lights for two minutes at 7:00pm on December 2 as a mark of respect. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c74xe49q7vlo

If you are flying on an Airbus A319, A320, A321 you may need to be prepared for a slight delay in departure. On October 30 a JetBlue A320 from Cancun to Newark experienced a sudden uncontrolled dive. The pilots made a safe landing in Florida. The cause of the dive was discovered to be intense solar flares which may corrupt data critical to the functioning of the flight controls. Although it is believed to be the first time this problem has been discovered in the long history of the Airbus fleet, immediately a notice went out that 6,000 aircraft have to be quickly modified. For over 5,000 of the aircraft, the fix is simple and takes only two hours maintenance time. For roughly 900 older aircraft, new hardware is required and the fix will take longer. An EU Air Worthiness Directive mandated that all affected Airbus planes must be fixed before they can carry passengers again. So far, most airlines have already fixed most of their aircraft which are already flying again. American completed all but 4 of its 209 Airbus planes by Saturday morning. Delta also expected all its Airbus planes to have been fixed by yesterday. In the Asia-Pacific region, it seems only Jetstar has been experiencing major delays with the airline having cancelled 90 flights. The airline expects the required fix to be completed on its aircraft by today. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/28/us/a320-series-fixes

The average elevation of Hat Yai is 47 meters. But that no doubt means some parts are closer to sea level. On the other hand, few cities anywhere can withstand 335 mms of rain in a single day, the more so when it comes on top of continuous rain over several previous days when the ground was already saturated. Total rainfall over the three days culminating in the worst rainfall amounted to 630mm (25 inches). Water flowing down from nearby saturated hills made everything worse. Even in Bangkok drainage in certain parts of the city cannot handle anything that amount of rainfall. It would result in major flooding. 33,000 homes, 5 hospitals, 58 schools and 700 kms of road have been damaged according to Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/weve-lost-everything-how-floods-devastated-one-thailands-largest-cities-2025-11-28/#:~:text="It was all caused by,years%2C resulting in catastrophic floods.

As all reports have indicated, with Hong Kong having so many skyscrapers mostly in very densely populated areas, Hong Kong has some of the toughest building codes in the world. Your post should have been directed at contractors who deliberately (I assume) decided to cut corners by not following the codes. Why do you think 11 senior staff from the contractors and their consultants have now been arrested and some likely to be charged with manslaughter? Since you know so much about building codes and Hong Kong, have they changed since the Chinese assumed control of Hong Kong in 1997?

Always difficult to believe what one picks up from the media, but the facebook comments addressed in @mauRICE's post about the raided venue having been open "for the past eight months" certainly do not fit with Otot Otot which has been open in that same location at the end of the row of shop fronts for 30 years. I wonder if those African biggot preachers have only recently appeared in KL and made life difficult for those visiting Otot Otot, if indeed it was that sauna. But I still believe it must have undergone considerable expansion as even with 100 in the space I last visited it would have been almost packed. And not only the sauna's own website but visitor reviews mention nothing about its having a swmming pool, for the simple reason it doesn't have one. Facebook has an entry 21 hours ago from someone who says the raided sauna has been raided several times before and always reopens. I have never heard of previous raids at Otot Otot. I wonder if @mauRICE has as he is closer to the 'action' there.

And what on earth has that to do with the discussion. Absolutely nothing! My first home for 11 years was on the 25th floor of a complex of 44 skyscrapers named Baguio Villa on the Island's west coast all completed by 1981. For your information the governor at that time was the excellent and much admired Sir Murray MacLehose. I suspect the building codes were much the same as in the early 1980s.

It was a joke!