PeterRS

You have excited my curiosity. I just ordered the kindle edition of Call Me By Your Name. For a while in my late teens I thought it would be fashionable to read some Russian literature. I loved Anna Karenina, got through War and Peace but can recall little about it, and failed to finish The Brothers Karamazov. My reading habits then took a major turn downwards!

Apologies. I must have been in one of @Olddaddy's trains of thought!

Surely that depends to a very large extent where you are? Sorry I expect this will highjack the thread a bit but it is only to illustrate a point. Hope it pisses no one off!

I have a fertile and quite active imagination, unfortunately LOL

@Pete1111 - many thanks for your list. Can you perhaps elaborate a little on how at least some of the movie of Call Me By Your Name differs from the book? I was thrilled that James ivory won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for the movie, if only because I admired his Merchant/Ivory movie collaborations so much, especially The Remains of the Day, Howards End and Room With A View. I have only read one Mary Renault book: The Persian Boy, part 2 of her Alexander Trilogy. Her superb writing brings her subjects completely alive and must have been something of a revolution for a female writer in her day.

Two court judgements today have hit the headlines, one in the USA and one in the UK. The one which will be most talked about is the resentencing of the Lyle Brothers in the USA. In 1989 they were convicted and sentenced to life in prison without the possiblity of parole for the brutal murder of their parents. They had basically alleged they snapped one evening and could take no more of the regular sexual molestation by their father. A judge has resentenced the pair to 50 years in prison but now with the possibility of parole. The brothers have admitted to the murder. Relatives say the brothers have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation and have undertaken and paid for a variety of major improvements for prisoners, adding that the severity of the sentence should be revisited because of an evolving understanding of childhood sexual abuse. A cousin, Diane Hernandez, testified that she lived with the Menendez family in their Beverly Hills home and viewed herself as an older sister to the boys. On the stand, she described how their father Jose Menendez intimidated and terrorized the house, and testified about his “hallway rule” that when he was with the brothers, no one else could be. A parole board hearing is scheduled for June 13. If approved, the result must then go to the State Governor who has the right to accept or reject it. The one that will go unnoticed by most is that of Peter Sullivan in the UK whose life sentence has just been quashed on DNA evidence proving he could not have been guilty. He has been in jail for 38 years for the horrific murder of a 21 year old florist. Now 68, his life has been wrongly cut short by virtually half a lifetime. Remarkably he has said to the media, "I am not angry, I am not bitter. I am simply anxious to return to my loved ones and family as I’ve got to make the most of what is left of the existence I am granted in this world.” We have heard in the past about prison releases due to wrongful convictions, tainted evidence etc. The first that come to mind are the Central Park Five in the New York, two of whom had been aged only 14 and 16 at the time of the crime - although their sentences were for little more than a decade. In the UK four men were given life sentences for a pub bombing which resulted in several deaths in 1975, later confirmed to be as a result of confessions under torture and massively tainted police evidence. One died in prison. the others were freed and exonerated after 15 years in jail. But I sometimes wonder how I would feel if, like Peter Sullivan, I had had to spend 38 years in jail on the basis of a wrongful conviction. Would I not be so eaten up by anger and bitterness that I might have become the person the system thought it was sentencing? How could I seriously start to enjoy life knowing that all my most productive years had been taken away from me with perhaps only 10-15 years of life left? How do you while away 38 years productively? The thought horrifies me. https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/13/us/menendez-brothers-resentencing-hearing https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/may/13/peter-sullivan-jail-murder-conviction-quashed-diane-sindall

CNN has obviously seen @unicorn's post! There is an article on the website today illustrating how to pronounce some British place names - including at the end the name of that that massively long Welsh village (although I still defy anyone actually to pronounce it anything like correctly!!) https://edition.cnn.com/travel/commonly-mispronounced-british-place-names

The next little nugget from "Original Sin" appears in today's CNN website. When Biden arrived at the mega-George Clooney fundraiser, he did not know who Clooney was! "The president appeared 'severely diminished', as if he’d aged a decade since Clooney last saw him in December 2022 . . . 'You know George,' the assisting aide told the president, gently reminding him who was in front of him. 'Yeah, yeah,' the president said to one of the most recognizable men in the world, the host of this lucrative fundraiser. 'Thank you for being here' . . . "Biden’s apparent inability to recognize Clooney was one of the starkest signs of his physical and mental decline in the final year of his presidency . . . The Clooney fundraiser took place on June 15, less than two weeks before the debate. Clooney was 'shaken to his core' by the interaction with a man he’d known for years, Tapper and Thompson report." https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/13/politics/biden-book-george-clooney

I had assumed that the escort was not intending providing his actual "identity card". Why else would he have mentioned blocking out certain information? It would ony be a copy. I therefore assumed - I believe reasonably - that anyone reading my response would fully understand that by providing a driving licence that would also be a copy. It could hardly be the original as he could not block out details! More importantly, he would also have to see the prospective client in person when showing the original! I have been told that photocopies of driving licences are not that difficult to forge.

As far as i am aware the UK does not issue Identity Cards for citizens. You can try a driving licence but they are pretty easy to forge. As would be ID cards issued overseas unless you are a document expert. The only reliable proof is a photocopy of a passport - if he actually has a passport. As @vinapu rightly suggests, unless you are absolutely certain of age it could be dangerous for you. If you can inform readers of the agency's name, some may already have used it and be prepared to vouch for it. If he is working freelance, then the possible degree of danger is increased.

The Guardian newspaper has received an advance copy of "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, It's Cover Up and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again." To say it is damning is - well - ultra-mild. Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson's devastating expose results in David Plouffe who managed Barack Obama's unexpected victory in 2008 being totally clear: "He totally fucked us". Drafted in to try and help Kamala Harris campaign, it was says Plouffe, "a fucking nightmare . . . and it's all Biden" Members of Congress, major donors, White House staffers, campaign insiders and journalists were all perfectly well aware that Biden stood no chance against a lying, belligerent Trump. His "diminshing energy, cognitative skills and ability to deliver a speech" were obvious to his family and close members of staff from the beginning of 2023. But they chose to shield Biden at every turn. As the article points out, "A prominent Democratic strategist says of Biden’s determination to seek re-election: 'It was an abomination. He stole an election from the Democratic party; he stole it from the American people.'” "Original Sin" tells how prominent figures tried to intervene in various ways. None was successful against the praetorian guard protecting his failing mental acuity and the extent of his decline. As a result they succeeded in achieving what Biden most wanted to avoid: the return of Trump! https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/12/biden-harris-david-plouffe-book

My guess is that western airlines already have Thai desintation airports at BKK and DMK. Adding a third at UTP would mean basing an another entire front and back office staff plus at least a couple of engineers there. It would not make financial sense. It only really works for airlines without bases at the other hubs, in my view.

If you are stuck in the apartment, do try to watch the Japanese gay movie Egoist from my list. It's well worth seeing. You can see the whole movie here - https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8o8267

If it is just heavy rain, it can actually be quite fun provided there is no lightning. It's the combination of very heavy rain and very strong winds blowing that rain almost horizontal which Thailand rarely if ever gets. But the typhoon season in the South China Sea generally starts in June and ends in October. June may seem quite early but in my very first year in Hong Kong there were two in June - fortunately mild ones. Bad ones thereafter tended to start in August. In 2020 I arrived in the Danang area on March 1 and the weather was excellent throughout.

Please bear in mind that Vietnam - especially central Vietnam - is like The Philippines - typhoon country, although these usually occur later in the year. When one is around, no amount of even genuine (i.e. non-fake) gear will keep you dry. In any case, staying at home is strongly advised because the howling winds can easily whip up anything loose on the streets and hit you badly.

In my whoring days I was often slightly reluctant to take boys back to my hotel. So if near Soi Twilight I'd opt for the nearest short time rooms which were usually in the garage at the Suriwong Hotel across the road. Basic furnishing with a large bed, a TV and a bathrooom with a full somewhat narrow bath with a shower - athough I could never imagine anyone intent on sex wanting to have a bath. But they fulfilled their function and were cheap. Having spent a small part of my career working in Tokyo and visited at least another 50 or so times, I got used to the much more common "Love Hotels" which are dotted all over the country. It is estimated that there are some 37,000 of them! With homes in Japanese towns and cities generally being small and packed very closely together, privacy is generally not something the Japanese expect or seek. But where to enjoy an intimate session, perhaps with all manner of moans, groans and shrieks with your loved one - be it boyfriend, girlfriend, wife or just lover? Thus during the Edo period was the concept of what has become the love hotel born. Who living in Tokyo is not aware of Dogenzaka, roughly translated as Love Hill, in Tokyo's trendy Shibuya district? An entire narrow street filled with all manner of love hotels each decorated uniquely, some with circular rotating beds, some with SM equipment - you name it, you are likely to find it. The great thing for Japanese, especially for couples who may have reasons for not wishing to be seen together, is that you rarely see any actual people in these hotels. If you drive, you take the lift to an automated reception area, get your key pass and then go to the room. Entering on foot, if there happens to be a receptionist, theere will be a wall so he/she can not see anything more than your midriff! And love hotels are not confimed to cities. Anyone taking the airport limousine bus from Narita to the city will pass by at least three located virtually in open countryside that I can recall. Outside cities, they tend to be externally more flamboyant, more garish and more obvious. Whereas I have seen love hotels in Hong Kong which seem to go to great lengths to remain inconspicuous, in Japan the more obvious the better. I was reminded of this today in a fascinating illustrated article in The Guardian. It's titled, "WE'RE HAVING SEX INSIDE MOBY DICK! THE WILD ARCHITECTURAL WORLD OF JAPAN'S LOVE HOTELS. And immediately below we see a photo of the leviathan with its teeth waiting to open and welcome you! I have often wondered, though: is having sex in something like a whale supposed to make you feel even more horny? Love Hotels is the title of a new book of that name by French photographer François Prost. “I find love hotels culturally fascinating,” says Prost . . . Japan is generally a fairly conservative society, but these are places of escapism, fantasy and almost childlike wonder. And you find them everywhere.” He recently made a 3,000 km journey around Japan to photograph some of the more obvious as well as some of the more bizarre examples. I include a few photos from the article below. Hotel UFO in Chiba Prefecture half way between Narita and Tokyo Hotel Flower Style in Nara near Kyoto Hotel Sea Stork near Tokyo You'll note Godzilla making an appearance near the top. The Japanese are mad about Godzilla. There is even a hotel where I once stayed in Tokyo's Kabukicho disrict with a huge Godzilla staring down at the street below. What do you reckon a developer might think of putting a whale in the middle of Silom? It would make a pleasant change from the monsters of nearby Bangkok One! All photos by François Prost https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2025/may/05/japan-love-hotels-moby-dick-ufos

We all remember the fuss Trump made prior to his first inaugural when he blasted Boeing for delays in delivery of 'his' new Presidential 747. Of course we know it's actually two Air Force 1s because where one flies, the other is virtually on its tail so no one knows which of the two the President actually has his ass on. With Boeing still unable to deliver until 2027 or even 2028, today comes news that Trump's continued annoyance at Boeing may lead to him acquiring from the Qatar government one of their 747-800 aircraft as the new Presidential Air Force 1. The White House says it is in negotiations with the Qataris. And of course where is Trump headed to on his upcoming overseas trip? You guessed it. Qatar. If the deal goes ahead, will it be a gift? If so it will be hidebound by all the usual US government restrictions. Not that that will concern Trump. As his spinmistress said, "President Trump is committed to full transparency." Oh really? This will then likely be the first occasion! And on his Truth Social at the weekend, Trump claimed it would be a gift at no cost! But there is another issue. Will it be one plane or two? For the 747-800 which is now flown only by Lufthansa in its passenger version, has a much longer stretched upper deck than the 747-200s currently in use. It will therefore look considerably different from Air Force 2. Does anyone believe that the Qatari jet with presumably its gold fittings and other accoutrements suitable for a mega-rich head of state - the Qataris have already said it will be a "flying palace"! - will fly empty while the Donald slums it in Air Force 2? And what's the betting that if the deal goes ahead, that "gift" will end up as the replacement for the ageing Trump family 757! Oh how the Donald loves his toys - but only the ones that cost hundreds of millions! https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5ell3gkxvo

In principle I would agree with you. But the examples you cite refer to individuals in countries with hugely different conditions from Thailand. And in all, violence played a part. The Imperial system in Russia was a disaster for the vast majority of the people. Gandhi was fighting - peacefully - for independence for his people after centuries of foreign rule, although violence on a massive scale was the result. Castro similarly - granted Castro's Cuba can not have been a particularly pleasant place in large part a result of stringent US sanctions, but then pre-Castro Cuba was basically run by the mob and for again the vast majority it will have been a pretty gruesome existence - Mandela was fighting against a brutal enforced separation of the races, and Walesa was fighting against a politically and socially oppressive government. I realise these were merely examples in your "never say never" position. But present day Thailand illustrates none of the above characteristics. It did some decades ago when there were several student riots, fighting in the streets and deaths. But Thailand now is a very different country. It is also for many of its citizens a wealthier country. Unlike the serfs, the native-born Africans who were forced to get up at 2:00 am in order to make an hours' long journey just to get subsistence work etc., most Thais are relatively speaking much more content with their life. Yes, they would like changes. Yes, they believe the elite and the military still have far too much say over their lives. Change in some form will no doubt come to Thailand, although in my view it probably needs a major reform of the education system to see that become reality. But please remember I was not talking about Thais as a whole. I was talking about a specific section as mentioned by @bkkmfj2648 - barboys. Change has actually already occurred within this group. When I first came to Thailand at the end of the 1970s and throughout the 1980s and 1990s, I came across no non-Thais who worked in the gogo and host bars etc. From reports here Thais are now in a considerable minority. And that's because of two reasons: a birthrate that has declined very substantially in a very short space of time, and work for young under-educated Thai boys now no longer being restricted to toiling in the paddy fields or in the village shop, with the result that bar work has become generally much less attractive. In the bar trade, for those working in Jomtien, I maintain that life must indeed seem helpless with the arrival of the low season.

I have never been inside an air traffic control centre and can only base my thoughts on what I see in movies. On that basis, the entire system seems almost antiquated. No doubt it works, but having controllers depend on moveable strips and old-fashioned radar screens is desperately out of date.

Have you looked at the Warsaw thread?

Sucker Spoon Sucks Sympathetically!

I hope you can snap out of that melancholy feeling quickly. Retirement should be a time when life not only becomes easier, it should actually become more interesting. I'm a lot older than you but I certainly know the problems of tighter budgets. Coming from the UK, my pension (that sounds as though it might be a decent sum of money - it's actually little more than beer money, or in my case vodka money!) was frozen the moment I started taking it. I knew this would be the case and had been saving up what I believed would be a considerable sum to see me through retirement. Of course I failed to factor in the dot.com bubble, the 2003 SARS crisis, the 2008 financial meltdown and interest rates plunging to little more than 1% for 15 years or so when I had reckoned on 5%. But since I was running my own little company as all this financial mayhem was going on around me, I loved my work and was happy to continue beyond normal retirement age. Thereafter, I kind of just fell into another part time job - unpaid to start with but hopefully generating some income eventually. At the urging of friends, including one of many decades' standing who was both a newspaper critic and author, I started writing. At first it was one book. Then another on a similar subject followed. The problem with all books by unknown authors is actually getting work publlished. Publishers will not look at you, so you have to go through the dreaded literary agents. Checking the websites of the 200 or more in the UK, each one wants different formal Proposals that can each take up to 8 hours to write. But then having got two published, the third published last summer was a whole lot easier. Having now finished a fourth, I am stuck for a good subject for the next. I do enjoy writing and do want to continue. It fills in a lot of time that otherwise might turn me into the lazy slob I always thought I'd become. Over a very drunken lunch last year, an old university friend very seriously suggested I should pen "The History of A Sex Tourist in Asia." That actually became incredibly tempting until I realised I'd have to change the names of so many people and places, partly to protect their identities and, as importantly, my own! But do think about doing something once you have decided on where you will end up living - a part-time job via the internet, a hobby a . . . whatever. That surprises me, if only because you look far from fat in the photos you posted earlier. I reckon I have a few more kilos and the young man I met in Danang had absolutely no hang up about it at all! (I'm sending you a pm with a little more detail). Sadly this does not surprise me. We really should recall that the Thai people voted in the largest numbers in 2023 for change - change through the new party run by Pita Limjaroenrat. But the elites almost always get their way in Thailand. They were not going to put up with the sort of changes he wanted and manufactured a means both to ban him as an MP and then disband his party. It's not the first time that has happened and I am sure it will not be the last. Young people have no reason to push for change as long as they know they are up against both a brick wall and an iron fence they can never break through. Hopefully Khun Pita and the people around him will make sure he runs in the next election and he is this time so squeaky clean that there can be no grounds for banning him. Then change may come. But it's merely a hope.

How about just a BONGER index - Barely Older Naughty Gentleman's Easy Retirement!!! LOL!

For several years, RTW tickets were always cheaper if purchased in Kuala Lumpur. Then Bangkok took over. However, I once hit a snag with a Bangkok issued RTW ticket. After several stops in Europe, I landed in New York. After 3 days, I flew on to LAX from La Guardia. Since I was packed and out of my hotel room a few hours before i needed to be at the airport, I went down to the Village and bought some porn DVDs. On my return, instead of locking them in my suitcase, I just put them into one of the compartments in my trolley bag. As I went through security, I was hauled aside by a grossly overweight lady and asked if she I would take off my belt and my shoes. She then went through the trolley bag and of course found the DVDs which she proceeded to lay out on a table so that all passengers could see them. That did not concern me as the chance of someone going through that security line who actually knew me was nil. Eventually, everything was repacked and I made it to the gate. Boarding the 767 business class, I had just settled down in the seat when I heard my name called. I was asked to take my luggage and proceeded to the aircraft entrance door. Great, I thought. Upgrade to first class! Not at all! Two airline cops were waiting to escort me off the aircraft and asked me to wait. Then that ridiculous security lady waddled duck-like towards me. I was asked to put my trolley bag on a seat and open it. One cop asked her what had she found. She fished into the compartment and pulled out the DVDs. The cops then turned on her. "You have delayed this aircraft for something that has nothing to do with aircraft safety? Get back to your position before we report you - and fast!" The cops then apologised profusely to me for what I can only assume they regarded as an invasion of privacy. They wanted my address so the airline could send an official apology. I waived that off saying all I wanted to do was get to LAX quickly as I had a dinner engagement. Back in my seat, the purser came to me with a large glass of champagne and another apology. The point of this tale is that I wondered why had this lady pulled me aside. It's not as though I looked anything other than a normal passenger. Only on my return to Hong Kong did a friend who works for Cathay Pacific take a look at my boarding cards. "Look at this," he said. There on my US boarding cards were in quite large letters "SSS". That is because in the US they regard Thailand as semi-dangerous and the letters stand for "Special Security Screening"!

Air traffic controllers not turning up really concerns me. It reminds me of Ronald Reagan's decision to fire 11,359 air traffic controllers after most had gone on strike for shorter working weeks, and hire new ones. How do you train someone to be an air traffic controller almost overnight? Sure, retired ones can come back to the job, but those who are older might suffer from slight eyesight and other ageing issues. To me, an air traffic controller is as important as the pilot of an A380 jumbo, if not more so.