sydneyjohn57

From countries I've been in Australia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore

17 minutes ago, stoolpusher said:

A smidge off topic:

Actually it is still on topic as sunrise fits into "other heavenly sights"

Is the movie My Thai Bride, a doco about a Welsh guy made in 2011?

Synopsis – one paragraphTed, a 46-year old salesman from Wales, visits Thailand on business. After revelling in the carnal pleasures of Bangkok, he falls in love with Tip, a bar girl. They marry and start a new life in her poor, rural home. Ted soon finds he isn’t alone. In northeast Thailand marriage to foreign men has become an industry. Things soon sour for Ted. His money has disappeared much faster than he expected. No one seems to want him around the farm anymore. When Ted asks Tip if she loves him, she replies: “I can’t eat or drink your love.” Ted returns home destitute, having learned what his Thai wife already knew: without money you lose everything.

https://vimeo.com/ondemand/mythaibride

In January 2006, I was in the Philippines (my 2nd visit) and met up with a 25yo GG whom I had chatted to on internet and we traveled around a number of places with me using a Lonely Planet travel guide to find places to stay. We ended up staying one night at a beachside resort(?) where we were the only 2 people guests as the place only opened certain times during the year and was winding down after the New Year holidays. When inquiring about dinner we were told to wander up the beach to the next resort where dinner was had overlooking the bay and arranged with the owner to move to that resort the following day.

I took numerous pictures of the sunset and rather than upload the 35 approx photos from one night I thought I would try something different.

Thanks Cobber.

A couple more in the vicinity of the 1st shot which is obvious because of the facade of the hotel on the left. Photo taken on the footbridge across the railway station from my mobile phone of the time.

This taken 28 September 2017

These from 28th Dec 2015

With nothing much open and lots of time to fill during the current lockdown I have been going through some old files on the computer and phone, deleting some rubbish and also appreciating some of the photos that I have taken.

My photography skills are basic... point and shoot cameras and mobile phones are my limit. I am sure some of our more experienced photographers on the forum may also contribute as I guess everyone has plenty of time on their hands.

Herewith a couple from me :

A view on my way home from my local pub at about 7pm 22nd March 2019

6pm, 6th June 2019, Boracay

Masai Mara, Kenya, July 2000.... Unfortunately the camera made allowance for the low light. It was actually spectacular.

Philippines, January 2006... taken on a Nokia dumb phone

I'm just experimenting on something else from that Philippine trip which I will post a bit later for critique.

Its only now after listening to it again without watching that I hear the crickets as a constant background noise. The cockatoos of course are the noisiest with the intermittent magpie. Nowhere else in the world would you hear that combination.

As I can't go to the pub each evening as I did  before the lockdown, I have a couple of drinks on my balcony as the sun goes down. Sunset at 5.21pm here in Sydney today and as I sat drinking my cold beer this was my view, actually it was more about the sounds... so if you turn up the volume......

20 years ago I went on a safari in Kenya and after that I will never step foot into a zoo again. Wild animals belong in the wild. I'd post some photos here but don't want to thread fuck Annat's post.

1 hour ago, Woodie said:

Virgin Australia looks to be in real trouble here. Not that Virgin is a competitor on the BKK run, but it will be one of many that go down unless the government bails them out.They are 4 Billion in debt and have asked the gov for 1.4 Billion to help out.

Just like to point out that only about 13% of Virgin is Australian owned via the sharemarket so I honestly hope that Aus gov does not bail them out. Their shareholders are Etihad (approx 22%), Singapore Airlines (20% approx), HNA  Group (Chinese airline approx 13%), Nanshan Group (Chinese airline approx 23%) and Virgin Group (UK approx 9%). If the airline is running at a loss ask the owners (shareholders) for more money.

Sorry to thread fuck.

This is an interesting graph (as at 9pm 11th April) of the age spread of the virus in Australia, specially the numbers of young people in their 20's:

10 hours ago, snoopdawg said:

the River Kwan

Was that an exhibition by Quinn of his artwork?

Here in Australia they have now set a limit for non essential indoor gatherings to 100 people which will affect larger restaurants, pubs and clubs.

Until 6 months ago my local pub was owned by a family group who have 6 or 7 pubs but has now been taken over by a large organisation that have 80 venues. The licensee has been retained and I asked him yesterday what will happen as the bar never has more than about 50 patrons at any one time. He said that he was awaiting a call from head office but likely the pub will close before Friday. Their reasoning that they are unable to keep patrons more than 1.5 metres away from each other especially in the restaurant with a family group and in the poker machine room where the machines are mostly lined up next to each other.

I advised him that they are mad to close the whole venue as they will lose 100% revenue and likely still have to pay full time staff for a while. My suggestion to him was to close the restaurant, move tables in the bar area and keep suggesting to patrons to remain at a distance from each other. In the poker machine room (aka engine room as it is the main income generator and gives the pub its $34 million value) just shut down every 2nd machine.

He did take my advice re poker machines and advised head office of 'his' plans so I will find out around 4pm after I walk to the pub to find out if its still open.

I am predicting the next shortage in Australia is going to be packaged beer!!!

These were forwarded to me an hour ago and show the scene in Angeles last night.

I've just received an email from Cebu Pacific that they are grounding all planes from tomorrow(18th March) until 14th April due to the "Enhanced Community Quarantine" measures of the Philippine Government.

This, shutting down of travel to and from Manila as well as all bar & business closures throughout the country will have a massive economic effect.

59 minutes ago, bumblebee said:

According to the poster on FB, this is the popular Temple bar area of Dublin on Saturday night, and then tonight, Sunday, at the same time. 

Strange that the same push bikes should still be there?

Australia.

I am now retired and live alone in suburban Sydney and have not changed my routine at all as yet. Each day around 4pm I walk to the pub (not the closest to me but only 1.5 klm away) have a few beers with friends and walk back. I have not noticed any discernible change in patronage and in the streets only ever see very few people wearing masks and those mainly Asian.

As I have no car, I walk everywhere and go to the supermarket a couple of times each week and see evidence of panic buying as toilet paper & tissue shelves have been bare for a fortnight. (luckily I bought an 8 pack 3 weeks ago so have a few months supply as one roll lasts about 3 weeks).

At 62 I am not eligible for the aged pension as it is only available for me at age 67 and then subject to a means test. I am living off my superannuation pension which I built up over many years by salary sacrificing and topping up as much as I could. Since 25th Feb the balance in my super fund has dropped around 7-8% which hasn't concerned me too much but will do if it drops much further.

For the last couple of years I have done my traveling around May to July and would normally be booking something around now but will wait a while to see what happens elsewhere before deciding as I would like to get of here when the colder months of winter hit July to August.

Anyone arriving in Australia from midnight tonight (4.5 hours from now) will have to self isolate for 14 days. We'll see how that goes and how it is enforced.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/covid-19-testing/

As of March 9, 2020

We are aggregating sparse data from various sources. Where a source is official, the entry is clearly marked. Even official sources don't always report daily. Some report weekly but, in order to provide a set of comparable data, estimates are provided based on the latest available data. Estimated values are clearly marked.

48 minutes ago, seven said:

1 hour ago, xyzzy said:

I don't see a lot of good data on Australia

Good point. Nothing from Oz or Africa. Very few from South America.

https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert

In Australia

As at 06:30 hrs on 14 March 2020, there were 197 confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19), including 3 deaths, in Australia.

• 1 in the Australian Capital Territory
• 91 in New South Wales
• 0 in the Northern Territory^*
• 35 in Queensland^#
• 16 in South Australia^#
• 4 in Tasmania
• 36 in Victoria^*#
• 14 in Western Australia^#

*Note that under National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System reporting requirements, cases are reported based on their Australian jurisdiction of residence rather than where they were detected. For example, a case reported previously in the NT in a NSW resident is counted in the national figures as a NSW case.

# Includes Diamond Princess repatriation cases: Qld (3), SA (1), Vic (4), WA (2, including 1 death).

Further details:

• 15 of the initially reported cases in Australia all had a direct or indirect travel history to Wuhan, China
• 10 cases, including 1 death, are associated with the Diamond Princess cruise ship repatriation flight from Japan
• 18 cases are reported to have had a direct or indirect travel link to Iran
• 92 cases are reported to have had a direct or indirect travel link to other countries and regions.
• 32 cases, including 2 deaths, do not have a reported history of overseas travel
  • 8 of these cases are associated with an aged care facility in NSW. 2 residents of this facility have sadly died
  • 2 cases are either directly or indirectly associated with attendance at a workshop
  • 22 cases are close contacts of known cases, with further details pending
• The likely place of exposure for a further 30 newly reported cases is under investigation

Of the 197 Australian cases reported, 27 of these cases are reported to have recovered.

3 hours ago, Jimmy Cargopants said:

An Englishman, Scotsman, Irishman, Welshman, Frenchman, Russian, Spaniard, Mexican, American, Norwegian, Swede, Albanian, Italian, Indian, Moroccan, Dutchman, Brazilian, Kenyan, Kiwi and a Belgian walk into a Pattaya bar…

The barman tells 'em: "You can't come in here without a Thai."

Great, us Aussies are exempt !!!!!!!

11 hours ago, Jimmy Cargopants said:

What did I say  .. and what's a pee between friends 555

Oh come on Jimmy. Surely you knew you can't pee in Quinn's, BBG's, or Soihound's corner of the world without permission from one of them.

3 hours ago, rxpharm said:

Here's a humorous take on the situation from John Oliver

"This video is not available".

Taken down by youtube or not available in my country I wonder?

2 hours ago, xyzzy said:

It take something like 30 days for a container to get from China to Charleston, South Carolina so they really haven't seen the slow down yet. But expect it soon which will cause some parts shortages

Yesterday I was speaking to a crane operator who works at Botany Port, Sydney's main container port and he says that they have seen a definite slow down in arriving ships and the midnight shift has been cancelled which basically means that workload has reduced by a third.

Glad it all went well, speedy recovery.