Bad beat/Moaning/Venting thread - Wordle Gummidge

[Tar.Aldarion]

I think so. We need to design an education system for early intervention also. I think its around 6, 7, 8 that a lot of kids have their essential views on money formed.

I was writing down my savings each week and forecasting interest earned at expected interest rates, at 5 years old. There was a scheme in school to school to get kids into saving, we'd bring in a pound or something each week and the teacher would deposit it in our accounts.

[horatio1]

Last minute trip to Killarney. Have been granted one mornings golf .

What's my best option within 30-40 min drive and any other must do's I should fit into the rest of the 3 days?

[Raoul Duke III]

I think so. We need to design an education system for early intervention also. I think its around 6, 7, 8 that a lot of kids have their essential views on money formed.

I have no idea how our kids formed their views but from observation:

Child #1 (14): is extremely conservative with money, even money that is not hers, seems afraid to spend it.
Child #2 (12): is a spender but not a crazy one. Is interested in money and how it 'works'. Could follow paternal side.
Child #3 (10): likely to be a payday lender victim all her life although cute enough to know that begging Daddy for €€€ produces optimal results

None of them really seem to get the link between earning (via jobs) and money. Child #1 for example wanted money for some unspecified purpose. I told her what jobs she could do to earn it. You could see the mental gymnastics going on before a decision of 'that's too much like hard work' was taken and she walked away, dropping her request.

So yeah, clearly we haven't done a very good job.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

heh. I did some research at some point on this. Not much though. And the most established advice on what is good for kids and money in terms of how they perceive money when they grow up is to give them a steady stable reliable pocket money every week with no conditions attached. So we use the Revolut Junior account for that for the eldest. Every Saturday night €10 is taken from my account and put in hers. She can see it on the Junior app on her tablet and has a bank card for spending in shops. Think its quite handy.

There's also an interesting thing in the Junior app where the parent can set 'stretch goals' - things the kids can do to earn extra money. Its quite a smart idea in terms of showing how earnings can add to money.

They are though missing a savings element - something where the kids learn the benefits of storing money up for bigger future expenses.

[Wombatman]

Last minute trip to Killarney. Have been granted one mornings golf .

What's my best option within 30-40 min drive and any other must do's I should fit into the rest of the 3 days?

Golf Now app.

[hotspur]

I'm fairly sure if offered a choice between a 5c and 20c coin I would still choose the 5c coin as it's slightly bigger.

[Wombatman]

I'm fairly sure if offered a choice between a 5c and 20c coin I would still choose the 5c coin as it's slightly bigger.

Typical Spurs fan evaluating what coin to throw at the Arsenal match. It's all about saving the 15c right?

[Mellor]

Are you talking about rewards etc? There's no obvious option in the Irish market atm. In some other countries you can easily game points and cashback. This can make credit cards a very obvious proposition. The KBC card I have comes with a small cashback percentage on certain purchases but it's capped at €10 a month. I always cover the stamp duty and a few quid extra but it's hardly of massive benefit. I think the old schemes from AIB/BOI/UB had some monthly fees but you would get great discounts on various stuff like Ticketmaster, Aer Lingus, insurance and others. They were nuked a while back afaik.

If there's no reward/benefits available, then taking the min or zero rate card is the only play. I think that came up before the CC options in Ireland.
Kind of baffling that pro-consumer aspects are kyboshed, leaving only the debt-coaster option.

I remember thinking when when I Was younger that anyone would be insane to own a credit card, possibly influenced by similar only-bad-side aspects on offer.

[dobby]

Last minute trip to Killarney. Have been granted one mornings golf .

What's my best option within 30-40 min drive and any other must do's I should fit into the rest of the 3 days?

The killeen course at Killarney golf club, spectacular.

[Raoul Duke III]

heh. I did some research at some point on this. Not much though. And the most established advice on what is good for kids and money in terms of how they perceive money when they grow up is to give them a steady stable reliable pocket money every week with no conditions attached. So we use the Revolut Junior account for that for the eldest. Every Saturday night €10 is taken from my account and put in hers. She can see it on the Junior app on her tablet and has a bank card for spending in shops. Think its quite handy.

There's also an interesting thing in the Junior app where the parent can set 'stretch goals' - things the kids can do to earn extra money. Its quite a smart idea in terms of showing how earnings can add to money.

They are though missing a savings element - something where the kids learn the benefits of storing money up for bigger future expenses.

Meh, I kinda assume they'll take the good stuff we gave them, discard the bad and put that on top of their own life experience to come up with something that works for them.

If not, they'll be living at home when they're 30.

[Silver-Tiger]

Last minute trip to Killarney. Have been granted one mornings golf .

What's my best option within 30-40 min drive and any other must do's I should fit into the rest of the 3 days?

Good shout from Dobby. If you're going this week as it suggests you are then you have the weather!
I played Dooks near Glenbeigh during the heatwave and honestly had some of the most spectacular scenery i've seen on any golf course. Would recommend.

[Lao Lao]

Catching 200 a week represents

Disagree. The cheapest credit card are generally terrible, and lack most of the features that make a credit card advantageous. That's without considering the rates.
Cheaper cards are generally pay less, get nothing situations.

I'm open to correction but I'm pretty sure he meant that anybody with a credit card should be clearing their balance in full every month and never paying any interest. The only charge you should be paying is the government €30 stamp duty fee per year which you have to pay. Once you do that you have access to free short term credit.

[elbows]

Last minute trip to Killarney. Have been granted one mornings golf .

What's my best option within 30-40 min drive and any other must do's I should fit into the rest of the 3 days?

Tralee is an absolute treat but pricey. We played it in perfect weather similar to this week and it was so enjoyable and I didn’t even play well.

[Lao Lao]

I have no idea how our kids formed their views but from observation:

Child #1 (14): is extremely conservative with money, even money that is not hers, seems afraid to spend it.
Child #2 (12): is a spender but not a crazy one. Is interested in money and how it 'works'. Could follow paternal side.
Child #3 (10): likely to be a payday lender victim all her life although cute enough to know that begging Daddy for €€€ produces optimal results

None of them really seem to get the link between earning (via jobs) and money. Child #1 for example wanted money for some unspecified purpose. I told her what jobs she could do to earn it. You could see the mental gymnastics going on before a decision of 'that's too much like hard work' was taken and she walked away, dropping her request.

So yeah, clearly we haven't done a very good job.

I've no idea of what is/isn't acceptable in terms of kids working nowadays but when I was a kid, I got paid a weekly amount of pocket money. The mother guarded the purse strings with her life. If you spent all your money before the next pocket money day, tough shit, that's your problem. The aul lad was sometimes a bit more forgiving if you caught him at the right time and out of ear shot of herself. I remember once, I had spent all my pocket money and pay day was three days away but all my mates were going to some new film in the cinema in two days time. He gave me the extra cash as he didn't want me to be the only one out of all my mates to miss it. When I was 14, I started working with the milk man on a Friday afternoon after school, calling door to door, helping collect peoples milk bill for the week. At 16, I moved onto be a lounge boy. I wanted to still do some weekend work during 6th year but the parents would have none of it. There was no pocket money while I was working but it came back for the last year of school.

So, I have to agree with Hitch. Pocket money each week and options for extra if you work. I mean, it turned me from a working class boy into a middle class, Times reading, credit union loving, Homeless people hugging, barrister for buddies, model citizen.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

I feel Lao Lao is now cured. Who's next?

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

My growing-up experience was that my dad never had money, was always spending it on nonsense, while my uncle was famous in the family for 'still having his first 50 pence piece'. The result was my dad was always working hard to get promotions to catch up on his spending, while my uncle seems to have coasted through doing not very much*, still in the very first place he bought when he was 20. Always took that to heart that its better to always be a bit broke and hungry as it gets you up in the morning.


* It turns out this wasn't actually true, he rose to be the marketing director of a large investment firm, but never mentioned it, and so seemed to be a dosser. Not sure what that means for my perceived reality.

But those early life perceptions around money and its use seem to really stick with you. Remember reading one study that showed kids in an experimental game were more likely to use credit-card like facilities in the game if they didn't have regular pocket money in real life. They seemed to have a disposable attitude to spending and money. While kids who had regular flows were much more sensible.

[Lao Lao]

I feel Lao Lao is now cured. Who's next?

Be careful, I still have Tar on retainer...

[horatio1]

Cheers Everyone. I will be digging up the Killeen Friday morning.

[Theresa]

Golf Now app.

Ah Wombat. A man of your knowledge shouldn't be giving this cancerous application any marketing. Keep Golf Now out of Ireland, or anywhere. It's only bad for golf!

[Mellor]

I'm open to correction but I'm pretty sure he meant that anybody with a credit card should be clearing their balance in full every month and never paying any interest. The only charge you should be paying is the government €30 stamp duty fee per year which you have to pay. Once you do that you have access to free short term credit.

Perhaps that’s what they meant. But surely it’s a given that being hit up for the interest is a bad move.

Bit I was pointing out that sometimes taking a duty+fee card can be +EV compared to a duty+no fee card. But maybe, as pointed out above they don’t exist in the Irish market.

[Wombatman]

Ah Wombat. A man of your knowledge shouldn't be giving this cancerous application any marketing. Keep Golf Now out of Ireland, or anywhere. It's only bad for golf!

Crazy talk. I use it all the time. Fantastic choice and value. If golf courses used it correctly they would be able to generate more off peak revenue and be much better off.
What do you have against it?

[Raoul Duke III]

So, I have to agree with Hitch. Pocket money each week and options for extra if you work. I mean, it turned me from a working class boy into a middle class, Times reading, credit union loving, Homeless people hugging, barrister for buddies, model citizen.

that is what we do - except the 'extra' usually ends up being charity rather than earnings

[Tar.Aldarion]

Never got pocket money apart from that 1 pound primary school thing I guess, nor asked for money, man I could have been raking it in. My siblings had no such restraint.
I was more like, hmm my parents have 5 kids, I don't think they get paid well with those jobs, I will not put undue pressure on them for my penny sweets.

[thechamp87]

Looking for a golf course recommendation too. Group of us heading to Kilkenny for 2 nights 10-12 September and playing Mount Juliet on the Saturday. Anywhere good near Kilkenny or on the way down from Dublin to play on the Friday?

[Solksjaer!]

Looking for a golf course recommendation too. Group of us heading to Kilkenny for 2 nights 10-12 September and playing Mount Juliet on the Saturday. Anywhere good near Kilkenny or on the way down from Dublin to play on the Friday?

Rathsallagh . Kilkea Castle both great value , or head over to Mount Wolsey. All great .

[DeadParrot]

you could be right degag! It might be due to going deeper into academic argumentation over the years. In general, research theories only work if you cling strongly to them until you need to reject them - you have to love the theory and defend it against everything until it becomes clear it can no longer be defended, as that process allows you to truly understand the phenomenon you are trying to study (or so the idea goes anyway). So I've got into the habit of strongly sticking to an idea and defending it until it is collapsed in real life as in academia.

Maybe also given the job is idea generation, its useful practice to float loads of ideas and see what work. So you might have loads of stupid ideas, but its still a good idea to come up with them, because the good ideas emerge along the stupid ideas. But it probably means then you have more ideas than are a good idea to have.

If every hill is a hill you die on, that dilutes the enormity of the act significantly

[Silver-Tiger]

Carlow golf club is an excellent Parkland/Heathland. Might get it for decent enough value on a Friday afternoon.

[Theresa]

Crazy talk. I use it all the time. Fantastic choice and value. If golf courses used it correctly they would be able to generate more off peak revenue and be much better off.
What do you have against it?

Their business model.

For their software and marketing prowess all they ask from courses is X number of tee times per day. Maybe 3 or 4 foresomes.

Sounds reasonable right?

But golf now reserve the right to sell those tee times at whatever price they want.

This means a golfer could be paying $80 for a tee time at 2:42pm and $50 at 2:51pm. Course now fields calls incessantly about pricing differences.

Ultimately it means downward pressure on tee times prices.

Great you say! Cheaper golf!

Not so much, course margins from tee times are already pretty tight, especially for public golf.

So really all this “revenue loss” means is worse course conditions or course services over time. A race to the bottom. Worse courses = less golfers = less golf.

Its a sycophantic business model but it’s very very successful.

I suspect the usage of golf now is slightly different in Ireland but this model is definitely their end game.

[Wombatman]

Their business model.

For their software and marketing prowess all they ask from courses is X number of tee times per day. Maybe 3 or 4 foresomes.

Sounds reasonable right?

But golf now reserve the right to sell those tee times at whatever price they want.

This means a golfer could be paying $80 for a tee time at 2:42pm and $50 at 2:51pm. Course now fields calls incessantly about pricing differences.

Ultimately it means downward pressure on tee times prices.

Great you say! Cheaper golf!

Not so much, course margins from tee times are already pretty tight, especially for public golf.

So really all this “revenue loss” means is worse course conditions or course services over time. A race to the bottom. Worse courses = less golfers = less golf.

Its a sycophantic business model but it’s very very successful.

I suspect the usage of golf now is slightly different in Ireland but this model is definitely their end game.

Your viewpoint is very stilted.

Golf clubs are notoriously terrible at marketing and promotion. Booking systems for visitors are non-existent in some places.

Most places that use GN well in Ireland can leverage it for more revenue during off peak times. AFAIK they don't need to offer Hot Deal slots at weekends. If they do they can offer them at outrageous times.

Easier booking will mean more footfall. Footfall = green fee revenue and spinoff revenue i.e. Bar, pro shop etc. Can lead to a real positive spin up where untimely more golf is being played.

Nobody is phoning constantly because the missed a Hot Deal. Most likely they are sucking it up and paying the normal green fee price.

Unlike many businesses golf courses have mainly fixed overheads no matter how many 'clients' they service. This means you have to fill the timesheet as best you can. Golf Now gives clubs a great opportunity to do this.

[Theresa]

Your viewpoint is very stilted. True it is up on stilts, and its operator focused but its also the result of literally hundreds of conversations with owner/operators about it.

Golf clubs are notoriously terrible at marketing and promotion. Booking systems for visitors are non-existent in some places. True (this is what spawned Golf now)

Most places that use GN well in Ireland can leverage it for more revenue during off peak times. True
AFAIK they don't need to offer Hot Deal slots at weekends. If they do they can offer them at outrageous times. This is at Golf Nows discretion. A quick look at golfnow for Kildare shows times on Sat between midday and 6pm. Not "outrageous" at all.

Easier booking will mean more footfall. Footfall = green fee revenue and spinoff revenue i.e. Bar, pro shop etc. Can lead to a real positive spin up where untimely more golf is being played. True

Nobody is phoning constantly because the missed a Hot Deal. Most likely they are sucking it up and paying the normal green fee price. False, I have lots of examples of courses being called about pricing, I also have lots of examples of golfers just not choosing that course. But they aren't calling so much as just being silently disgruntled. This just pushes customers to other courses.

Unlike many businesses golf courses have mainly fixed overheads no matter how many 'clients' they service. This means you have to fill the timesheet as best you can. Golf Now gives clubs a great opportunity to do this.

How do you think they come up with their green fee?

They are generally running on tight green fee margins.
Downward pressure (which is undeniably what golf now causes) means less margin.
Less margin means something has to give, its usually course condition, or service.
Worse course condition or service means less satisfied customers (for the price).
Which means less customers.
Which means more downward pressure.
and so on.

Bad for golf!

I have no disagreement over the usability and value delivered to the end user though.

Just that lots of great end user value doesn't means providers benefit.
This is seen in lots of business models where middlemen contrive to skim of the real value providers.

[Wombatman]

I have no disagreement over the usability and value delivered to the end user though.

Just that lots of great end user value doesn't means providers benefit.
This is seen in lots of business models where middlemen contrive to skim of the real value providers.

Organisations that use user friendly third party portals well like Amazon, Just Eat, or Booking.com simply do better business. It's is symbiotic not parasitic. You will have edge cases and sob stories alright but that is how it is for the most part. Organisations are not forced to use them for goodness sake.

You said they would go to the golf course down the road. They must be doing something better then surely?

Doesn't somebody on here follow a business model where middlemen contrive to skim of the real value providers?

[Theresa]

Hey, you keep using it! But value and convenience has a cost. You just might not know you aren't willing to pay it.

[ComradeCollie]

Had a few pints this afternoon with HH. Had planned on Nealon's, but it wasn't open , so it was back to Pantibar again. He seemed surprisingly impressed with the Guinness 0.0, and almost relaxed for the last 30 minutes

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

They pedestrianised a measly two, TWO, streets in the whole city for a few hours an evening and after a rip-roaring success have just decided to end the trial. You'd have to wonder.

[ComradeCollie]

They pedestrianised a measly two, TWO, streets in the whole city for a few hours an evening and after a rip-roaring success have just decided to end the trial. You'd have to wonder.

How was the truffle movie?

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

How was the truffle movie?

Ah it wasn't up to much. Beautiful setting but it didn't seem to have a point. Still nice though.

[hotspur]

How was the truffle movie?

It's impressive that I can wonder "which one?" what with there being two truffle themed films currently being shown.

[dobby]

A bit late but somewhat relevant to last weeks China discussion. A programme just started on BBC2 called Chinas Magic Weapon and looks good so far

[Strewelpeter]

Interesting programme on BBC2 abouut the Confucius institute and Chinese not very subtle use of soft power.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Interesting programme on BBC2 abouut the Confucius institute and Chinese not very subtle use of soft power.

They're (genuinely) a great idea imo. There's so much misinformation and so little known about China, that they need greater understanding in the world of what China as a culture is about. They need more people speaking their language, knowing their history and customs, as its in lack of knowledge that ignorance is bred.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

France also has a very good program like that with the Alliance Francais, and I think they openly modelled themselves on the alliance. Or at least according to a Chinese guy I once met whose job was to go around the world opening Confucius Institutes.

[dobby]

Interesting programme on BBC2 abouut the Confucius institute and Chinese not very subtle use of soft power.

Take me off ignore m8

[ComradeCollie]

It's impressive that I can wonder "which one?" what with there being two truffle themed films currently being shown.

The fella you had a huge crush on, Rory Stewart, has his bit on Afghanistan on BBC2 again tonight at 23.15. Well past my bedtime, though might be worth recording.

[Denny Crane]

I take it Voulgaris isn't working for the Mavs any more?

[Denny Crane]

If there's no reward/benefits available, then taking the min or zero rate card is the only play. I think that came up before the CC options in Ireland.
Kind of baffling that pro-consumer aspects are kyboshed, leaving only the debt-coaster option.

I remember thinking when when I Was younger that anyone would be insane to own a credit card, possibly influenced by similar only-bad-side aspects on offer.

I remember the life-life Frank Abigail from catch me if you can, saying that you're crazy not to use one. The fraud protection is substantially better.

Practically no rewards in Ireland. Think BOI have something with travel lounges. AIB is likely best with a very meager cashback

[Denny Crane]

Raoul Duke III I replied to your pm btw. Not sure if it got lost in the interwebs.

[Denny Crane]

Seems like the simulation has gotten really lazy with the recurring cast of strangers out and about. Maybe Covid was to cover an extended system update.

[hotspur]

The fella you had a huge crush on, Rory Stewart, has his bit on Afghanistan on BBC2 again tonight at 23.15. Well past my bedtime, though might be worth recording.

I'll watch that. Past my bedtime too, but it's on Youtube.

[Raoul Duke III]

Raoul Duke III I replied to your pm btw. Not sure if it got lost in the interwebs.

yes, I am on it but realised I need to call as 'we don't respond to email' (WTF)

[Raoul Duke III]

I'll watch that. Past my bedtime too, but it's on Youtube.

100% definitely a spy but seems quite a genuine fella

[Raoul Duke III]

Had a few pints this afternoon with HH. Had planned on Nealon's, but it wasn't open , so it was back to Pantibar again. He seemed surprisingly impressed with the Guinness 0.0, and almost relaxed for the last 30 minutes

Had to Google it but it's a real thing apparently. There was I chortling to myself at the thoughts of you getting Hitch unwittingly wasted and unleashed on the good people of Pantibar.

[Degag]

Perhaps that’s what they meant. But surely it’s a given that being hit up for the interest is a bad move.

That's what i meant but it was in response to a post saying a credit card may be expensive because of interest and charges - which as you said is fairly obvious, but objectively should never materialise, making it a fairly cheap credit option.

[Lao Lao]

Part 3 of 3 - It's taken me much longer than it should have to get around to posting this.


On arrival back to the Hotel Asia, we met back up with Stuart and told him of our day’s experience. Unsurprisingly, he was a little baffled by all we had to tell and almost looked at us in complete and utter disbelief as we re-encountered the events of the day. After eventually convincing him that the events of the day had indeed unfolded as we had said, we set about planning the evening ahead, after all it was his birthday and was the first birthday away from home for any of us and we needed to celebrate in style, well at least in Lop Buri style.

We settled on a restaurant for the night and after dinner arranged for a cake and candles to be brought to the table for the birthday boy. This, needless to say, got the attention of some of the locals and in particular, one local couple sitting near us. The cake was too big for just the three of us, so we offered the few other diners in the restaurant a slice each. The couple beside us gladly accepted.

Following dinner, an impromptu karaoke style night ensued. The beer and Thai whiskey kept on flowing and the local couple kicked off the proceedings with a few Thai songs that we could not make head nor tail of. It’s kind of remarkable how that five people, none of which can speak the others native language can converse and communicate so easily with the help of Thai whiskey. Somehow it didn’t matter that we couldn’t speak Thai or that they couldn’t speak English, we still had a great time.

Eventually, the restaurant had to close so we said our goodbyes and headed to the Hotel Asia via the local 7-11 to top up on beer and Thai whiskey. We weren’t lucky enough to have a second night of football and Kylie so we settled for some dodgy Thai soap opera and some music before eventually calling it a night.

On awaking the next morning, we decided it was time to leave Lop Buri and journey further north to Chang Mai, the cultural capital of Thailand. We checked out of the Hotel Asia and made our way back to the train station. Our plan was to get a sleeper berth on the night train. It would be a ten hour journey through the night and we had no desire to travel 3^rd class for this length of time. It was to be 1^st class all the way to Chang Mai, or so we thought.

On our arrival at the train station, we encountered our first real language barrier. Our vast knowledge of Thai stretched to ‘Hello’ and ‘Thank You’. Equally as impressive, the staff at the ticket office spoke no English at all. We were struggling until Wendy, a young Dutch back-packer, arrived at the counter armed with her book titled, ‘A Travellers Guide by Pictures.’ Its brilliance lay in its sheer simplicity. It contained pages upon pages of pictures of everyday objects, from apples to trains, from bottles of water to ambulances and from clothes to beds.

Combining the book with the ancient Irish language technique of pointing, talking very loudly, making stupid faces and shapes with our hands, we discovered that all sleeper carriages were booked up for the next three days. Now, don’t get me wrong, Lop Buri is a lovely quaint little town, but we had already been there for three days and it just wasn’t a six day sort of town. We needed an alternative to the train. It was back to the picture book, pointing, talking extremely loud, stupid faces and making shapes with our hands!

We somehow figured out that there was a bus departing from the train station at midnight. However, it would apparently be better if we travelled roughly thirty-five kilometres outside Lop Buri to a different bus station as they would have several buses departing almost every hour from eight o’clock onwards. We were in no position to argue, so we headed back to the Hotel Asia to rustle up a taxi with our new friend, Wendy, in tow.

The staff of the Hotel Asia assured us that they could easily get both a taxi and a driver to take us to the bus station. This was very re-assuring as one without the other would have been pretty pointless. With time to spare, we all spent the next few hours chilling out, catching up on a few e-mails in the nearby internet café and wandering around Lop Buri.

The town was the former capital of the Khmer-Lavo period and while there is not that much to the town, the ruins of Phra Narai Ratchaniwet, former palace of King Narai, was well worth checking out. Entry was free which fit in well with our budget and it also contained the somewhat overly ambitiously named Lop Buri National Museum. The palace was built between 1665 and 1677 and was designed by both Khmer and French architects. The historians and architects among us may tell you that this is a kind of a strange mix but I thought that it worked rather well!

After wandering around Lop Buri for a few hours, we headed back to the Hotel Asia, where sure to their word, our taxi, along with a driver, turned up just before seven pm. The word taxi is probably not the best description to use. Our mode of transport was an early 1970’s Ford Cortina, or least I think it was. The problem was that it was rather hard to tell exactly what make and model it was as there were more spare parts than there was original. That coupled with the severe amount of rust and holes made our thirty-five kilometres journey a daunting prospect.

The boot of the car was just about big enough to hold Ste and Wendy’s rucksack and half of mine! The other half hung precariously out of the boot and although we tied the boot down with a piece of frayed string, I was fairly confident that I would never see the contents of my rucksack again. Wendy, Ste and I squeezed, and I mean squeezed, into the back seat along with our small back packs, while Stuart had the equal discomfort of the passenger seat along with both his rucksack and backpack to accompany him. At last, we were on our way.

We weren’t too sure whether our driver was in a rush to get home or whether Michael Schumacher was his all-time hero but either way, he had no hesitation in putting the accelerator to the floor in true Formula 1 style. In addition to this, he felt it necessary to overtake every other vehicle on the road.

This, while quite scary, was not the worst of it. Roughly ten minutes into the journey, we experienced our second Asian monsoon type weather. First came the lightning, flashing across the dark night sky, followed quickly by large rumbling noises of thunder. Within minutes, the skies opened, and a torrential downpour flooded the road. The windscreen of our taxi leaked badly, and Stuart started to get very wet.

At one point, the rain was so bad you could not see more than about ten metres ahead of you. Normally, this wouldn’t bother me, you simply slow down and drive at an acceptable speed. But not our driver, he was determined to become the first Asian Formula 1 driver in the sport and instead of slowing down, he actually sped up. At one point, he overtook a forty-foot truck and three cars in the one go, all the while when you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.

I am in no way a nervous passenger, but I can honestly say that I thought that this would be the last journey I would ever make. Strange thoughts ran through my head. Would my rucksack get flown to far from the debris of any accident to be noticed being that it was barely in the car as it was? It contained every form if I.D. that I possessed, without it, how would they identify my dead body. Was I wearing clean boxer shorts? My mother had always told me to wear clean boxer shorts in case of an accident. Don’t you just hate when mothers are always right! These thoughts, albeit not pleasant ones, took my mind off the oncoming traffic.

After about twenty minutes, the rain eased off and we arrived at the bus station. By bus station, I mean a piece of concrete in the middle of nowhere with a small hut for the ticket office. My rucksack somehow managed to stay the pace for the thirty-five kilometre journey and for the first time on our trip, I gladly put it onto my back and smiled contently. We approached the ticket office and resorted back to the picture book, talking very loudly, pointing and stupid faces, but all to no avail. The eight o’clock, eight thirty, nine thirty, ten thirty and eleven o’clock buses north were all fully booked. The next available bus was ten hours away at five thirty the next morning. We had a decision to make. Sit on the ground overnight for ten hours or try catch our driver before he left.

I sprinted across the concrete slab that was our bus station quicker than Linfield Christie down the 100m track and stopped our driver just as he was about to make his way home. Being the shrewd Thai businessman that he was, he proceeded to charge us the same fare back to Lop Buri as he had charged us to get to the bus station. With both our driver and us knowing that we had absolutely no alternative, we reluctantly agreed to pay full fare back.

Thirty stomach churning, crazy driving, car overtaking, suicidal minutes later, we arrived back at the train station in Lop Buri. The ticket staff looked bemused to see us again so soon. We decided to try again just in case anybody had cancelled since earlier this morning.

After several minutes of pointing and talking really slowly this time, because the talking really loudly had failed twice before, we managed to secure four 2^nd class tickets on the that night’s train. How we didn’t get them at the first time of asking, I still to this day have no idea. Mildly content with our achievement, we settled down on the platform and had a celebratory beer.

We were finally leaving Lop Buri, or as we liked to call it, the Asian twilight zone.

[Denny Crane]

A bit late but somewhat relevant to last weeks China discussion. A programme just started on BBC2 called Chinas Magic Weapon and looks good so far

Right on time

[ComradeCollie]

Had to Google it but it's a real thing apparently. There was I chortling to myself at the thoughts of you getting Hitch unwittingly wasted and unleashed on the good people of Pantibar.

I was impressed by the fee condoms and lube. Not like I ever paid for them, but I think I got most of them from the men who have sex with men clinic in Baggot St, when I was living with one of my old maths lecturers around there. Yup, I've said too much again.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Had to Google it but it's a real thing apparently. .

Its completely indistinguishable from the traditional stuff. The worlds best scientists, recruited away from curing cancer in order to make a drink, have outdone themselves in Guinness Inc. Very drinkable, which is often where the 0.0s fall down. Like I could enjoyably keep up with CC and his 'real' pints of the same.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

I was impressed by the fee condoms and lube. Not like I ever paid for them, but I think I got most of them from the men who have sex with men clinic in Baggot St, when I was living with one of my old maths lecturers around there. Yup, I've said too much again.

I'll leave it to you to decide if you have mistaken hand sanitiser for lube.

[Hitchhiker's Guide To...]

Seems like the simulation has gotten really lazy with the recurring cast of strangers out and about. Maybe Covid was to cover an extended system update.

whats this about?!

[Mellor]

whats this about?!

Firmware update in the matrix

[Raoul Duke III]

Firmware update in the matrix

Denny hanging out with the machine elves again.

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