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Memories of a True Rock ’n’ Roll Dad
Phuket Life
/
Community
My dear friend of many years, Sam Wilkinson sadly passed away some weeks ago back in his home-town of Liverpool, in England. Sam was a wonderful character, known and loved by many in Phuket and around Thailand. He was a sort of romantic troubadour and wandering artist of abundant talents… in music, words, wit and just the noble art of enjoying life to the full! Sam was always kind and loving, sometimes almost unworldly and seeming to belong in a kinder, gentler era than the one we now inhabit.
Soapbox Satire: Let’s lose the riff-raff
Phuket Life
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Community
The Tourism Authority of Thailand is again going to target the “wealthy group of tourists” as it works out its marketing plan as it contributes to the recovery of the Thai economy following a two-year hiatus due to closed borders and restrictions. The TAT claims that by focusing on the “rich groups”, B1.93 trillion will be generated in 2024 even though the number of tourists will be fewer than in the past years.
Pandemic, or Endemic Epidemic? It’s all Academic!
Phuket Life
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Community
Lathers of sweat, optimism and excitement are flying about in torrents, as Thailand’s government, the Tourism Authority, and various industry ‘big-wigs’ work themselves into a frenzy of anticipation about re-naming the present viral pandemic as an ‘epidemic’. As if re-branding the horrible COVID-19 virus which has seen fit to ‘borrow’ our cellular tissues for its pre-programmed reproductive purposes, will make one iota of difference to how the virus actually behaves.
Blazing Saddles: Count your blessings… and your livers!
Phuket Life
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Community
I am sitting in the lovely We Café by Rawai Beach enjoying a healthy salad lunch with one of the most remarkable cyclists I’ve ever met… hell, he’s one of the most remarkable humans I’ve ever met!
Blazing Saddles: Let’s Play at the PlayYard!
Phuket Life
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Community
It’s a glorious sunrise morning at 6am and I’m sitting at the edge of the beach on Phuket’s north-east corner, overlooking a stunning vista of the lapping sea channel which leads to Phang Nga Bay framed by a series of glorious rolling hills beyond.
Blazing Saddles: New Year Revolutions
Phuket Life
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Community
Making ‒ and often immediately breaking ‒ New Year’s resolutions is an age-old tradition all over the world as we pass from one year into the next. Hope, and its close cousin, self-delusion, are abundant at this time of year as we promise to be better and brighter versions of ourselves. In Thailand, in fact you get not just one, but three clear chances to make and then try to keep your resolutions, as Thailand munificently celebrates three separate New Years – Gregorian, Chinese and Thai!
Blazing Saddles: E-Zee does it!
Phuket Life
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Community
If you Google “E-biking and the Covid pandemic” you’ll be deluged with over 160 million listings extolling the many superb benefits of adopting this mode of transport during the haunted days we presently inhabit. Another Google deluge you’ll frequently receive concerns the fact that we humans have only got until about next Wednesday to do something drastic about climate change and our addiction to carbonising our environment. So, in the grip of this pandemic which has made us realise that social-distancing, being fit and healthy, avoiding obesity and getting lots of fresh air and vitamin D, going out for a bit of a bike ride has become something of a “no-brainer”.
A Meal with… Shane Magnier and Gerry Mitchell
Phuket Life
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Community
On the 1st of October 2021, I heard the sad news that my friend Shane Magnier had passed away in County Clare in southwest Ireland. It was a considerable shock, because we’d talked by phone a couple of years earlier and he was his usual hale and hearty self, and also because he was a relatively young man. Sadly, Shane developed an aggressive form of kidney cancer and died in a hospice near Limerick at the end of September.
Blazing Saddles: A Bumpy Ride
Phuket Life
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Community
A few months ago, I returned home from a fairly punishing ride in deluges of monsoonal rain. Generally, I don’t mind cycling in the rain as long as there’s a hot shower afterwards, and I was enjoying exactly such a treat when I happened to make the mistake of looking down at my dripping torso. “Good Grief!” I shrieked. “What on Earth is that?”
A Meal with… SUPERMAN!
Phuket Life
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Community
Call me ‘Old Mister Unadventurous’, but I can honestly say I have never thought what jolly fun it would be to climb to the top of a high building and then throw myself off onto a small pile of cardboard boxes to break my fall, or possibly my neck! So, finding myself seated opposite a man who has basically done that sort of thing for a living for much of his 68-year life, was somewhat intimidating to say the least.
Blazing Saddles: A dam fine ride!
Phuket Life
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Community
“Dam!” I thought, “they’ve actually got it right.” It was early on a sodden Sunday morning in June and that very weekend the Meteorological Department had said with all-knowing solemnity that the day would mark the start of Phuket’s “Rainy Season”.
A Meal With... Dessert with Richard Pope!
Phuket Life
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Community
The annual Kata Rocks Superyacht Rendezvous held last December was a somewhat different version of the huge, international, luxury event which we’ve come to expect. The fact that it happened at all is a ringing endorsement to the optimism and brio of the man behind the event itself and the luxurious Kata Rocks Resort… Richard Pope.
Blazing Saddles: Sane Sane, but different
Phuket Life
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Community
Much beloved by me and many other local cyclists is our bicycle’s ability to take us to relatively quiet, undiscovered corners of the Andaman which have remained fairly unblemished by the ravages of mass tourism and commercialisation. One such beloved corner of ‘forgotten Phuket’ is Ao Sane Cove, with its three little beaches overlooking the much larger and more commercial Nai Harn Beach in the island’s southwest corner.
A Meal with… The Chef of Longevity
Phuket Life
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Community
We have living here in Phuket a veritable guru of longevity, someone who can tell us a lot about how to live a long and healthy life. Alessandro Frau is the owner and Executive Chef of the fabulous Acqua restaurant overlooking Kalim Bay.
Blazing Paddles: Strokin’ in Phuket
Phuket Life
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Community
Yes, you read correctly, it’s not a typo. This week Blazing Saddles is taking to the water, which as we live on an island surrounded by the stuff, isn’t very difficult to do.
A Meal With… ‘‘Mister Koh Lanta’
Phuket Life
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Community
Based in Bangkok and still with one foot in the high (blood)-pressured world of advertising, I started pursuing my retirement dream of becoming a travel writer in 2004 by freelancing for John Everingham’s iconic Art Asia Press and The Greater Phuket Magazine. December of that year saw me on an assignment to a magical realm called Koh Lanta, where John said I should get in touch with a fellow named Duane Lennie… who he described as “Mister Koh Lanta” and who was reputed to know everything there was to know about this fabled isle.
Blazing Saddles: Life’s a Beach… so just grab it!
Phuket Life
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Community
Over 71% of our planet is covered with water and we ourselves are comprised of over 60% of the stuff! In addition, science has discovered that proximity to water is absolutely fundamental to our to our well-being and even our very happiness is absolutely dependent on it.
A Meal With… Benny at ‘Benny’s’
Phuket Life
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Community
Welcoming bolt-holes in which to hunker down, cheering glass in hand, and enjoy tasty, mood-boosting cuisine within a buzzy, sociable environment are undoubtedly a major way in which to tackle the travails that menace us all in these harried times.
Bathing Saddles: To the water borne
Phuket Life
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Community
Boris Johnson is thinking of asking British doctors to issue prescriptions to their patients to go cycling in order to combat the huge wave of obesity and diabetes which is sweeping Britain, which of course also increases the susceptibility and severity of falling foul to COVID-19. Maybe this is not a bad plan in a nation which has opened up thousands of kilometres of dedicated cycling and walking paths through lovely, beguiling countryside and is now planning significant future investment in separated cycle paths and lanes, plus training courses in safe cycling.
A Meal with… Mister Wellness
Phuket Life
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Community
Inspiration and optimism may be two elements of ‘normal’ Phuket life which are in short supply right now. While there are positives to the lack of international tourists on the island such as quieter, less dangerous roads, cleaner air, empty beaches and a general pace of life which harks back to a quieter, gentler time, there’s no doubt that many island residents are suffering.
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