PeterRS

I registered on Monday and just got the date and time for the first jab. My taxi driver today was even displaying his official card showing he had received both shots in early May and then early June.

Something seems really fishy here. The guy owned a resort in Phuket and an apartment complex in Bangkok with a pool. Presumably he and his wife must have been reasonably regular swimmers or at the very least loungers in pools. How could such a man drown in just a meter of water? And why would the resort's pool surveillance cameras not be working? I suppose it's possible one might have had a major heart attack and died in the water. But both? Murder seems most likely. It reminds me of a drowning in Hong Kong many years ago. John Wimbush was the very elegant, English Managing Partner of Deacons, the territory's top law firm. One of his clients had become notorious. A rather strange businessman originally owing a pest control company, George Tan, a Malaysian Chinese, started investing in property in Hong Kong. One year his new company - named Carrian (geddit?) - bought a building in Central District for vastly more than it was worth with money his company clearly did not have. Not that that ever stopped anyone speculating in Hong Kong property. It started a property boom and Tan was making millions. Three years later when the negotiations between Britain and China seemed to be getting into deep water, boom turned to bust. Carrian also went spectacularly bust. On the morning Wimbush was due to be questioned by the police, he did not turn up at this office. A check at his posh home on The Peak discovered him face down in his swimming pool. But it was a little more than curious. He was dressed his his striped three piece business suit. His well polished black shoes were at the pool side. But around his neck was a heavy link chain tied to the grille at the bottom of the deep end. A verdict of suicide was somewhat amazingly given by the coroner. That case also involved the murder of a Malaysian banker who had come to audit some of Carrian's books. When the case finally made it to Court, it was the most complex fraud case Hong Kong had ever seen. After six months, the judge ruled that it was too complex for the jury (and unquestionably for him) and declared a mistrial. The legal establishment was utterly furious and he was forced to resign. He and his wife quickly retired to a home they had in Cyprus. After a few months, the judge wrapped his car around a tree and was killed. Accident or murder? It was never established.

I seem to recall that was the drug AZT. Although it was a breakthrough of sorts, didn't it have to be taken in a strict regimen every few hours, often along with some other drugs because like all viruses HIV was mutating? It was a Taiwanese-American, Dr. David Ho, who discovered the first real protease inhibitor treatment in the early 1990s that made life for HIV patients far more bearable. I remember only because he was on the cover of TIME magazine! I am sure @Ruthriestonis far better informed. I still consider the account of the early history of the AIDS crisis by Randy Shilts 'And The Band Played On' the near definitive book that everyone should read. Vastly better than the TV series packed with stars of the same name. Its one major error was in propagating the "Patient Zero" myth. When the doctors in NYC and LA noticed they were dealing with clusters of cases among young gay men, they eventually realised there almost certainly had to be a common link. Their research led them to a Canadian airline steward named Gaetan Dugas. All at one time had had sex with him. His work had taken him to Africa where it was then discovered there had been a major outbreak of AIDS in the 1920s in and around Kinshasa. We now know it had jumped the species barrier from chimpanzees to humans. Dugas was located. After being tested, he was found to be positive and informed about his passing HIV to others. He was asked to stop having sex with other men. Allegedly, he said he would not. Someone had given him the virus and he saw no reason why he should cease his activities since he was not responsible for his being infected. While that part of the tale may be true, by the end of the century it had become obvious that Dugas, who had by then died, was not Patient Zero and had been much maligned by being so named. However, later research suggested HIV had ben present in the USA much earlier. In 1968 a 15 year old teenager named Robert Rayford from Missouri entered hospital suffering from a variety of ailments. Doctors were baffled. On questioning, they suspected that Rayford was gay and had perhaps been either seriously molested or he was a male prostitute. None of the treatments seemed to work. As his condition worsened he soon developed a pneumonia-like illness and his immune system was discovered to be dysfunctional. He died in May 1969. The autopsy found rare purplish lesions on his left thigh, unheard of in black teenagers. The odd thing about the case was that Rayford had never travelled outside his home state and never received a blood transfusion. The only later connection thrown up was that he lived close to TWA's airline hub of St. Louis. Tissue samples were kept for later analysis. It was found that antibodies against all nine detectable HIV proteins were present in the blood samples. This was published in a medical journal in 1988 but only ever once again referred to, at a Conference in 1999 in Australia. Unfortunately the last known samples of Rayford were destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Anthony Fauci was one who was both curious and baffled. “It certainly could be true, and may even be likely that it’s true,” Fauci said, “but the absolute nailed-down proof isn’t there.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/05/15/mystery-illness-killed-boy-years-later-doctors-learned-what-it-was-aids/

I'll meet you there at 2:00 pm

I always thought the first cases were of kaposi's syndrome identified in New York. But I see from the link that the two sets of cases were discovered on the same day. Thank you @TotallyOzfor reminding us all of this pivotal moment in our lives. It is one we should never forget. It brings back so many memories, many of fear because in those early years being informed of a positive test was quite literally the door opening to a long lingering death. And if we had lovers or just casual acquaintances with whom we might have had sex, we were terrified of what might happen to them and then to us. The fear, too, of the possibility that we were infected and were passing death on to others. And yet, looking back I sometimes wonder if those days were quite as frightening for most of us as perhaps they should have been. I did not refrain from sex after i had heard of HIV. I did not even start to use condoms until I had learned a lot more about the disease. But then I was in a part of the world where it took a longer time for reality to dawn. It took the death in 1987 of one whom I had loved passionately to knock me to my senses. Although we had not been together for four years, we eventually became good friends and I had had tea with him just 10 weeks before his death. His new lover informed me of his passing. He had meant so much to me that I flew the round trip of 12,000 miles just to attend his funeral. Although I was 99% certain I could not have been HIV+ as a result of our relationship, I started to think of all the other men I had slept with, many in different countries. I became more afraid. What if I was positive? A little earlier, in October 1984 three friends in Tokyo had birthdays within 4 days of each other. They invited me to the joint party they would be holding. I said I had to decline. I just could not afford the trip. Nearer the time, I thought this is silly. They are good and close friends and I do want to be there. So I bought a ticket. I did not tell them I would be coming. So when they opened the door and saw me bearing gifts (as it were), there were lots of smiles and laughter. I am glad I went. It was a wonderfully happy evening. I ended up with another of their guests who had seemed such a quiet soul but was a tiger in bed. What I could not know then was that I would see none of my three friends again. They all died of AIDS. I admire @Ruthriestonso much for all he did for those young men he cared for before and after death. You, sir, are one of the many saints and one of the many heroes of those times.

I must have taken more than 200 flights on 747s. One was once the longest route in the word - Chicago to Seoul on Northwest. I remember as we were getting close to Japan asking the flight attendant if we would be landing in Seoul on time. It depends, she told me. The headwinds have been quite strong and we may need to stop in Narita to take on fuel. As we passed Japan I just hoped the captain had done his fuel usage figures correctly! I was fortunate in that most of my Northwest flights were in business class. I could never understand why it was nicknamed Northworst. I assume that was on the basis of the domestic coach flights. I found almost all the trans-Pacific flights enjoyable. Strange to think that the US trans-Pacific flights used only to be on Northwest or Pan-Am. In the early 1980s both carriers tried to woo business passengers with free helicopter trips between JFK and the Manhattan East Side helipad. Best way to get into Manhattan! Around 1983 I took Pan Am to JFK. When the flight attendant came round with the business class lunch, she muttered something. I asked if she would kindly repeat it. She then shouted, "Meat or fish?" The fish was disgusting! That was the last time I took Pan Am. Within a few years they had sold the Pacific routes to United. But JAL was probably the best service for trans Pacific routes.

And now back to the 737 Max and Airbus A320 Neo for medium haul oceanic travel in narrow bodies. Bring back the 747-400 puhlease! Loved that aircraft.

From Supersonic to the back of the bus. Every year the Crystal Cabin Awards are dished out to designers who come up with innovative ideas for aircraft economy interiors. So far as I can see, none has been adopted since airlines have been determined to squeeze as many passengers in as possible. 777s used to have 9 across 3-3-3 seating. Not any more. Several airlines have added an extra seat for a 3-4-3 layout and reduced aisle space to make it possible. 2 or 3 extra rows have also been added therefore reducing seat pitch. On my first 747 flight around 40 plus years ago and for a few years thereafter, I can remember sitting in window seats and yet being able to pass by my two fellow passengers to get out to the toilet without disturbing them. In those days seat pitch must have been 35" to 36' instead of the 31" or 32" common now. This design is short listed in the 2021 Crystal Cabin Awards. It is an idea developed by a 21 year old Spanish student. It is based on a double level cabin, does away with overhead bins in favour of undersea storage. Interesting though it is, it seems those on the lower levels have a definite advantage. By sliding forwards, the seats [rivde a good recline, and having lots of space under the seat in front, there is a ton of legroom. Those in the upper level seem to have the same recline, but I would not be at all happy with not being able to stretch my legs. And there is no possibility of that space being increased. Maybe a two tier economy pricing might be necessary. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/double-decker-airplane-cabin-concepts-crystal-cabin-awards/index.html

I suspect one issue that will eventually come into the mix is speed versus on board facilities. The Concorde seats were narrow. They had only a little more legroom than economy seats and the recline was extremely limited. In the 1950s/early 60s first class cabins were not much more luxurious than premium economy nowadays, although I expect the food was planned to be excellent with lots of caviar etc. For the Concorde inventors, it was assumed that speed would be of paramount importance to passengers. Since then with the advent of the super wide body jumbos and 4 classes, most major airlines have full flat beds in first and business class plus a host of other goodies. Some, like Qantas, are prioritising ultra long haul flights like Perth to London with Sydney to London eventually to follow. The competition is therefore likely to be for executives who prefer to have a night's sleep prior to arrival along with the other goodies that first/business class provides, and those who would like shorter flights over a shorter distance with great meals featuring the best wines and champagnes along with some time to work - although how you work after a few glasses of Crystal champagne, Chateaux Margaux and d'Yquem along with your caviar, balik salmon, beef wellington and freshly made crepes suzette, somehow beats me.

5,878 miles If I had had to live within 20 miles from my home, I think I would be long dead by now!!

Yes, Concorde (it was always referred to using the French spelling) drank fuel, but it did so primarily because it was an aircraft designed using 1950s technology when the price of fuel was peanuts. It was so low it was hardly a factor in any costs. I flew Concord only once in the mid-1990s and loved it. But then i did not pay for my ticket. I also think it is important to remember that Concorde was almost always full or close to full in its first decades - and at prices that in early 1990 were at a 50-100% premium over first class tickets. At those prices both BA and Air France, the only two operators, also made quite a bit of cash from charters. Indeed, it was a chartered Air France flight that crashed. And surely that is what killed (sorry!) the aircraft. No matter how much both airlines spent to ensure such a crash would never happen again, the myth of its being a safe aircraft crashed with it. The reduced passenger numbers which followed allied to the increased maintenance costs could not justify the service continuing. BA's Concorde pilots all believed the aircraft could continue for many more years, but the losses were too great. I cannot say the early evening time saving meant much to me. What I really liked was the ease of travel from boarding at Heathrow direct from the lounge and a guarantee of not less than 15 minutes from arrival at the gate to entering the free limousine into NYC. But the passenger seated next to me was the boss of McDonald's in the UK. He was flying for that evening's Board meeting and would return on the morning Concorde the following day! As to the future, the key surely is once again cost. If the fares are kept to biz class levels, then i see a big demand. But if the trans Pacific flights are no longer than Tokyo to the West Coast gateways, I suggest this could present a problem. Pre-covid, Cathay Pacific was running 5 daily flights from HKG to JFK, all but one being non-stop. SIA had re-introduced its all biz class non-stop Singapore/Newark service. Will there be enough passengers just on a Japan/West Coast service? Clearly United has done its homework and must assume so. But can it keep prices at biz class levels? Maybe it does not need to as top executives can normally fly first class. Of all the Concorde photos, I love this much published one. It is the last ever BA Concorde flight just before landing at its final resting place in Bristol, England. Photo: Lewis Whyld, South West News Service

There used to be three 7 11s quite close to me. The closest put up the shutters about 6 months ago. Then guess what? A new 7 11 three times larger opened two months later that is even closer! You win some, lose some I guess.

I can not agree more. Decades ago I would just dash off an angry letter, more to get the incident off my chest rather than to gain some sort of advantage. I suspect dealing with lawyers as part of my work made me realise that a cool head is needed to describe the incident in a very coherent manner. Words like disgraceful, disrespectful and dreadful quickly disappeared from my complaints, and I always now end regretting for bringing the matter to the attention of the addressee but I do not know any other way of finding redress. With airlines, I know that their playbook is always to deny and delay. So I play the game. I once caught an Asian airline at London deliberately misrepresenting a situation to induce me to travel. Basically their gate supervisor and gate agent both lied to me. I discovered this when I reached my destination. So I composed a letter to the Chairman seeking reimbursement of that sector of my business class ticket. A month later I got the usual letter of apology which also pointed out that the airline had fulfilled the conditions of my ticket by actually getting me from A to B. I wrote back pointing out that deliberate misrepresentation can be actionable in court in London. A month later, they continued to deny responsibility but offered me a free one-way long haul upgrade subject to load. In other words, if the plane was full, tough luck on me. I stuck to my guns. After about 4 months, I wrote again, this time giving them 72 hours to resolve the issue to my satisfaction or I would meet with my solicitor with a view to taking action against the airline. The following day I received a fax, an email AND a hand-delivered letter offering an option of three types of compensation. I took the 50,000 free miles. At that time that was only 10,000 miles short of a business class return ticket to Sydney!

I have railed against RBS in the UK. But my experiences have not all been bad. About 10 years ago I had to transfer a very substantial sum of money from one country to another. Previously I had always done that by a call to the manager of my branch and following up with a fax - although never for such a large sum. Assuming all would go smoothly, I had already made arrangements to transfer much of that cash out of the incoming bank. When I tried to call the manager of my branch, I found for the first time that I was put through to a general call centre. It then took around 14 minutes to get through to my branch. But I was not actually put through. The idiot call centre rep merely told me she had the day off that day. Instead of putting me through to the Assistant Manager, he wished me a good day and hung up! After a couple more tries and well over 30 minutes wasted, I managed to speak to the AM. No problem she said. Just send the fax and then we will call you back to ask you some security questions. I'm on the line now, I said. Ah, but we have to call you at the number registered in your file. Problem! I was travelling and the only numbers they had were those in Bangkok. I asked her to check with her security people. No luck! Nothing I could do would persuade her, no information I provided was acceptable. I then told an untruth. I explained I was not returning to Bangkok for three days and the money had to be in my account the day before then. So I would have to make a special trip back home just to answer some stupid security questions and then immediately fly back to the city I was calling from. In fact, I was due to return home that evening, but she was not to know that. Sure enough, the security people called the following day and asked three perfectly inane questions. The cash was then immediately transferred. I am a great believer in nicely worded letters of complaint sent to the highest official I can find. I found the name of the Chairman of the Bank. I wrote to him, repeated my little fiction. I soon received a letter back from an Assistant saying they had started an internal enquiry and I would hear the result soon. I assumed they would request copies of my "specially purchased" air tickets with the date of my return to the city I had called from. That would then be that. Good try! But they didn't want any evidence. A few weeks later I was informed the bank had put £1,000 into my account as compensation!

I thought I read somewhere that the online app was not working for something like 3 months. If it goes down once, then I can imagine there is a chance it will go down again. For Bangkok residents, the long trek out to Immigration at Chaengwattana is a real pain.

Well, that's reassuring! We've been taking care for more than 14 months and just have to wait another six??? I'm at the point where I might consider flying to another country, doing the two week quarantine, getting vaccinated and then coming back for the second two week quarantine. Trouble is there seems there is a major shortage of vaccines in this part of the world. The one place that has more than it needs is Hong Kong. But in 3 days it raises its quarantine period for those from Thailand to 3 weeks with a further week for observation! That rules that out for me. I wonder what the rules are in the UK. At least there I believe I could quarantine in a family member's house (he lives alone).

I am starting to think all threads about vaccines in Thailand should be frozen. If not, the language in posts will become quickly X-rated. I know this is Thailand, but I remain utterly appalled - and furious - at the cheer inefficiency and now the chaos engulfing those who were elected to solve problems like these. They are the ones who got the country into this disaster by taking their collective eyes off the ball and permitting corruption and cronyism to rule, as it always does. It's at times like this that I wish Thailand would have a benevolent dictator rather than a collective bunch of political morons.

Probably a good many are owned by a senior politician, a General in the army or top policeman! Since one or two were involved in owning gogo bars, it's not outwith the bounds of possibility that even more were making oodles of cash from these other businesses. TIT after all! On a more serious note, I read somewhere yesterday that there are actually 3 million foreigners living in Thailand. No doubt the vast majority are from neighbouring countries and work in lowly jobs. But if these are included by the government in the expat figures when it comes to vaccines, the Lord only knows when most of us, especially those above a certain age, might end up with a needle in their arms.

Vietnam will now test all 13 million inhabitants of ho Chi Minh City in response to the discovery of the new variant of the covid 19 virus. Shops and restaurants will be closed for 15 days and new social distancing rules will be put in place. Vietnam's latest spike accounts for over half the total number of cases in the country. Even so, it still remains far better than most with just over 7,000 infections and 47 deaths. According to the BBC, this new variant first appeared in a cluster of 125 cases attending a Christian Mission in the city. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57303306

Can't wait for the next episode. Two cops arrive through his swimming pool and he then fires more than 60 rounds and lobs tear gas grenades at them? And his excuse? "The man has expressed remorse for shooting at police during the raid but argues that he was defending himself as, without any knowledge who the raiders were and what they were doing there, he genuinely believed that he was about to be the victim of a kidnapping." Clearly the Chinese mafia has replaced the Russian mafia in Pattaya.

From the BBC website Sunday 30 May Vietnam has detected a Covid variant that appears to be a combination of the Indian and UK variants and can spread quickly in the air, officials say. Vietnam's Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long described the latest mutation on Saturday as "very dangerous". ... Mr. Nguyen said the new hybrid variant was more transmissible than previously known versions, especially in the air. He said it was discovered after running tests on newly infected patients, online newspaper VnExpress reported. He added that the genetic code of the virus would be made available soon.

You are correct. But it seems from a second viewing of the vdo, that Tokyo gay library is not a place for meeting up. Merely for reading. I think it would be unlikely you would end up hooking up with anyone there.

Seeing this thread rang a bell. It reminded me of the dreadful serial killer of young gay men in Milwaukee who murdered and dismembered 17 boys between 1978 and 1991. Jeffrey Dahmer was nicknamed the Milwaukee Monster. One case that almost had me in tears was when he had lured a 14 year old Lao boy to his apartment on the pretext of taking photos in underwear for cash. The boy was drugged with an injection into his brain. But he was able to escape from the apartment. He ran into three women who then called the police. By the time they arrived Dahmer had caught up with them. He persuaded the police that the boy was his lover and started to take him back to his apartment. One of the ladies noticed blood from the boy's rectum and asked the police to stop. They did not. Instead they ushered the two back to the apartment. One noticed a bad odour, emanating from another dead body in the apartment. Again they did not investigate and left, telling Dahmer to take more care of his lover. The Lao boy was quickly killed. The bodies of the two dead corpses were then dismembered, although Dahmer kept their heads.

In England penalising homosexual activity had been the official law of the land for centuries. Being accurate, it was not an issue of common law but enacted law. The 1533 Buggery Act affected both men and women. Those found guilty were put to death. That clearly did not stop the upper classes from enjoying the act. The son of Mary Queen of Scots, King James VI of Scotland who became King James ! of England from 1603 till his death in 1625, was a noted homosexual and had multi-year affairs with several of his courtiers. The 17-year old Robert Carr, later the Earl of Suffolk, was one. But the love of his life was the Duke of Buckingham. The 17th century French poet Theophile de Viau commemorated the liaison in a poem that ended, "And it is well known that the King of England / Fucks the Duke of Buckingham." That 1533 law was superced by Parliament during the Victorian era in 1861 when it was replaced by the Sexual Offences Against the Person Act. This removed it as a capital punishment offence and replaced sodomy with a term in prison. It was this Act that the English gradually spread to all its colonies. The first irony is that in many of those colonies, particularly in Asia, homosexuality had been far from uncommon. As is well known, many colonial masters thereafter still took male locals as their lovers. The second irony is that having got rid of most of its colonies, England then repealed the 1861 Act in 1967 and effectively decriminalised homosexuality. But that was too late for it to change the laws in its former colonies. Hence, countries like Singapore and Malaysia still have that 19th century law on their statue books! A few years ago, parliament in London passed another law offering pardons to around 50,000 who were penalised under the 1861 Act. Oscar Wilde is one who was somewhat belatedly pardoned. Another was Alan Turing, and the Pardon Act is now commonly referred to as the Turing Act. Like Totally Oz, personally I dislike the term queer. To me it was a definition at its time and of its time - and these were not good times for gay men and women.

There are more than 2 BJ bars now in Tokyo. I think they are a development of what are called the hattenba which started to appear in the early 1980s. A hattenba is usually a smallish apartment that has been converted using simple things like sheets to create a small maze. Some parts may be a little larger than others and have something like a sofa or a mattress. On entry you pay your entrance fee, go into the small changing room, use a small towel or just walk around nude. The aim is to find someone interesting to have sex with without worrying who might be walking around. Treffpunkt is well known and long established one in the Akasaka district but unless you know your way around Japan adresses, it is very difficult to find. Treffpunkt had only one tiny cubicle-like shower. So if there are several guys in front of you, it might be better to skip the shower and wait till you get home. These are definitely not saunas or bathhouses and there will be no other place to wash! Quick sex is the norm. Here are the two main Tokyo BJ bars. Note that anal sex is not permitted in these new style bars. On the map in this website, the Shinjuku GHbar is on the north east side of the massive Shinjuku station on the edge of the raunchy nightclub Kabukicho district. http://www.gloryholebar.com/en/ I'm not sure the library idea would work for foreigners. In Shinjuku ni-chome there are 2 or 3 shops selling gay books, DVDs, calendars, gels, toys etc. My guess is that these are of more interest to visitors, the more so as they are close to the foreigner-friendly gay bars and the popular 24 Kaikan sauna. For those interested, in Taipei the Gin Gin Gay Shop is very similar to those in Shinjuku ni-chome. The staff are particularly friendly and speak English. This is the location close to the Taipower Building subway station.