Ruthrieston

The Immigration office in Pattaya can be very busy, but I have taken over the past eighteen months or so to going late, 3.30pm (they close at 4.30pm) and I have avoided the queues. In fact the office has usually been empty. As to the 800,000 locked up in my account, I view it as the money I shall use to travel to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland when it is time to leave. The worst part for me is the exchange rate for the UK pound, The day before the vote to leave the EU I got 56 Baht to the pound, the day after it went down to 36. Now we are struggling to hold around 43, so the loss of almost 30% of my income over these five or more years has been really painful. Another two and a half years till I receive my state pension, but that should help. More than ten years since I retired early and came to live in Thailand and I don't regret it at all.

And here I am, retired to live in Pattaya just over ten years ago now. I was bald at 40, now 63 and although I have worked hard over the past year or so and lost 20 kilos, I still have a belly. So good to be a club member! I have a great deal of respect for Barry Kenyon, and always enjoy reading his articles. Let me assure you that he is in no way trying to belittle expats like me, probably just a little humour, with a hint of sarcasm.

Boring? Never! I am only slightly envious (alright, I am seriously envious) of your wonderful holiday trip. You really know how to make the most of every opportunity, you are also kind and generous, and I am sure the young gentlemen who have kept you company are grateful to have met you too. Thank you for these great reports, you have cheered me up enormously.

Back in the days when I weighed 97 kilos I used to tell my Thai boyfriend that if he did push me off the balcony since my condo is only on the second floor I would probably just bounce back up and flatten him. He never even laughed. These suicides leave me so sad.

Yes, I am laughing at most of that, but at the same time it makes me feel so sad that so much of the population could support all that insanity. The damage tRump did across the civilised world in those four years was catastrophic.

It looks about a third of the size it used to be, so sad. But at least it is opening again. Enjoy Vinapu, and let us know how it goes, please.

Thank you, the happy merry people. From me it's a "Bah humbug!" But I do wish for a peaceful, happy world in 2022. My best wishes to all.

With the bars and clubs ordered to remain closed until 16th January at least there is no reason to head here for New Year at all. Babylon is gone now too, the land sold for development.

With the bars and clubs now ordered to stay closed until the middle of January at least you are not missing much. At least when I go to Bangkok next week I can actually have a drink with my meal in a restaurant which is more than I can have in Pattaya.

There is now some discussion that the junta/government may keep the bars and clubs closed until after new year.

4 weekends of a big music festival on Pattaya beach, and fireworks celebration at the end of November and full on Loy Kratong, but no bars allowed to open??? Insanity reigns. Sigh.

A lovely project, and great to see efforts towards a more green environment. In Pattaya what I cannot understand is the now constant cutting down of trees and greenery on empty plots of land, which apparently has something to do with the avoidance of some kind of land tax. I have seen so many mature, beautiful trees being chopped down and the land left bare in recent times. Sad.

After being closed up in my condo in Pattaya for seven and a half months I am heading to Bangkok in a couple of weeks for some hospital appointments and I intend to make full use of the restaurants in Soi 4 serving alcohol with my food and just enjoying the sense of being free again now that I am fully vaccinated. I have so much respect for the Thai families I see in the shopping centres like Central Festival, with even the toddlers and babies in their prams wearing masks. Stay safe people.

What a beautiful, heartwarming story. He was so lucky to get started at 16! And such a beginning to being gay and free. I hope he is still living a good, happy life.

Most weather forecasts are untrustworthy. This morning there is a deep haze across Pattaya, from my condo on Pratumnak I cannot see the island of Koh Larn at all. I have no idea what is causing this but it is sad after many months of lovely clean and clear air here.

All good, but the Star Award goes to the intelligent young lady in that last Gaetz picture! Excellent work young lady, keep it up.

Very kind, thank you TotallyOz. I think keeping to myself in my condo, not meeting friends since early April has meant that I have done too much thinking and remembering.

In my early teenage years in a small Scottish town I was so scared of being gay that I tried to kill myself three times, one of which almost worked. I was also sexually abused by the son of a coupe who were close friends of my parents, he was a soldier in his early twenties, just back from his second tour in Northern Ireland during the worst of the 'troubles". I got away from him when he tried to rape me in some bushes by the river and ran into a policemen. My treatment by the police was appalling. I was around 13 years old. They put me in the back of the police car next to my abuser. At fourteen I converted from the Scottish Presbyterian Church to the Roman Catholic Church, and at 18 I entered a silent, enclosed monastery, Latin Office and Mass sung in Plainchant daily. The Abbey was built in 1230, semi-ruined still and we were restoring it. Seven years there, with a community who were good, holy men. They respected me, accepted me. No messing about, we lived in separate cells and were silent. Those years of safety and peace enabled me to accept myself as a gay man. The Benedictine rule requires the community to have a secret vote on whether a new monk can be received into vows, and a two thirds plus one vote is required as a minimum. The Abbot told me my vote was unanimous. That was the day I knew there was nothing wrong with me. Three years later I left, and started to live my life at the age of twenty five. I became a nurse. During my three years training to be a Registered Nurse I also volunteered on Gay Switchboard, a phone help line for gay people. Sorry if this is too boring, I shall shut up now!

I looked in the mirror

Frankly I wouldn't touch "Facebook" with a bargepole. In my last job as Chief Executive (silly, grandiose title for a basic management job) of a small Hospice charity in the UK I employed a young man as adviser on communications and publicity on a campaign to increase our fundraising income by over 30% in one year (we achieved over 50% increase) and he advised me to set up an account on Facebook. I had no idea what he was talking about. The next day I went down to lunch in the staff dining area and the cook said she was really upset with me. I asked her what I had done to upset her and she told me she had asked to be my friend on Facebook and I had ignored her. I immediately told my staff to delete this stupid account and never looked at Facebook again.

I always book directly with the hotel and get better rates than any of these dodgy sites.

There is still no real indication as to when the bars will reopen in Pattaya. I am hoping for early in November, but it is anyone's guess. I shan't be fully vaccinated until 30th October, and then need two weeks until my immune system builds it's defence so I shan't be going to a bar until mid November at the earliest anyway. Just walking around the shopping centres is depressing as every time I go something else has closed down. In Central Festival the latest closure has been Duc De Preslin, just empty floor space now. In Terminal 21 the Tom Toms cafe on the ground floor has shut down too. So sad. The worst is Royal Garden where almost 80% of the shop units are shut down. Wine Connection is the only draw for me there now.

I must say that Bolt in Pattaya has transformed my travelling around and means that I no longer need to rent a car once a month to do my big shopping. Also I no longer need to risk my life clinging to the back of a motorbike taxi. I pay less to travel in an airconditioned car than I used to pay for the motorbike taxi. Wonderful!

Very sad for the people of Myanmar, but a clear sign to the maniacs in the fake military junta that their insanity and arrogance will not pay off. Given their arrogance and disdain for the country and its people, sadly there is no easy way out of the situation they have created. There is no way I would travel to Myanmar while the army is still in control.

This is Thailand - can't arrest the Red Bull heir, but this innocent victim is quickly seized..........so sad.