Gonzo

Have you been using Vaseline again?

I was only joking about the BMW. I am a modest bloke and never try to show off, like some of the Thais from Bangkok. They arrive here on weekends in their cheap condos and their flash cars, they bought with a mortgage from their bank. I am glad when we leave early on Wednesday morning, before the hordes from Bangkok arrive for the long holiday weekend. There are always lots of big trucks on Highway 36, probably carrying goods from the industrial areas around Rayong to the wharves in Laem Chabang. The truck drivers, unlike so many of the other idiotic car drivers, especially the mini bus drivers, seem to understand how to drive properly. One has to drive well drive well to handle a big truck. I don't think the trucks get checked how much weight they are carrying often. That would be the reason why 36 is now churned up badly. Last time I drove on 36 was a while ago and the road was in reasonably good condition. They could not have done much maintenance work since then.It's amazing how many other drivers try to get past the many trucks at high speeds in any possible way, forever changing lanes without using their indicators. Having banged my head against hard objects so often would be the equivalent to the damage that does to the brain of someone who drinks a lot of beer on a daily basis. Level O medical science.

I feel sorry for Mark Cavendish for coming off his bike and badly injuring his shoulder. The great sprinter is now out of this years Tour de France. I cringed when I saw the replay on TV today. It is great that the first five stages were given to England, probably in recognition that Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome have won the Tour in 2012 an in 2013.. I watched the last 50 kilometres of the second stage from York to Sheffield this evening, which was won by the Italian Nibali. Chris Froome put in a strong performance and will again be a strong contender, when the Tour de France will move to the Alps and then the Pyrenaes in a few weeks from now.. I will watch most of it in Australia, where it will be broadcast later in the evening at a more convenient time than the World Cup, not interfering with day to day activities. Sheffield looks like a nice place with many historical buildings. I have never been to England and it is great to be able see some of the places during the first five stages of the Tour de France. The Tour de France is shown here in Thailand every day live on Eurosport with English commentary, also at a more convenient time.

Remember the Godfather movies. They mafiosi used black American made Ford Fairlane sedans. In 1972 I bought an imported second-hand one from an old bloke who hardly had ever used it. I bought the car from him when he was no longer able to drive. Until not so long ago, we had no speed limits on the Stuart Highway all the way down to Alice Springs, except in the built up areas and there aren't many in the Northern Territory. The NT is also still the only place in Australia where they allow road trains with three trailers. That makes some road trains more than a hundred metres long. When you were stuck behind a road train, it could be hairy trying to overtake one. The road trains would drive along doing about 80 miles per hour. We still spoke in miles and gallons then. The Fairlane was an incredibly fast car. When trying to overtake a road train one had to wait until the driver blew his horn, signalling that he thought it was save to overtake him. When that happened I would press the accelerator down as far as I could and the Fairlane would kick back and take off like a rocket, going as fast as 140 miles per hour, which allowed me to overtake the road train in a flash. The only problem with the Fairlane was it was very heavy on fuel consumption and fuel was cheap in Oz then. It was using a gallon of juice for every 11-12 miles. As for driving at 20 k/hr. here in Pattaya, I am not surprised now, since you told me, that there are so many cars driving behind me blowing their horns with very angry faces. Jokes aside, it is no longer fun driving a car here, except early in the morning. Sukhumvit, Pattaya Thai, Klang and Nua are a pain in the backside. Third Road is just as bad. Driving past your place on 36 to Chantaburi is a lot better and one can drive safely doing 120 to 130 clicks per hour. After that the small Vios becomes a bit unstable. The fuel consumption for the Vios is not what Toyota promised, 7 litres of Gasohol 91 for every 100 km. It is more like 12 litres of juice for every 100 kilometres, probably due to the stop-start traffic. I should have bought a BMW.

Yes, but they had a very good goal keeper making lots of good saves. I thought he might be able to save a penalty during the penalty shoot out, but it was not to be. A goal keeper is one of the most important positions in a football team. There was some very good goal keeping so far. Hitting the goal posts twice is not being unfortunate. It is just another opportunity missed. Just my opinion.

We walked past the Soi 5 Immigration office last Thursday morning. There were no people waiting outside Immigration and there were plenty of places to park a car. it is probably due to people watching the World Cup and sleeping in. There are big Buddhist holidays coming up next Friday 11.July, which will end on the following Monday on 14. July. People should be aware of this.

It has spoiled my day now, to see Costa Rica loose in such an unfortunate way. Arjen Robben should have been red carded for taking all those dives to get free kicks for his team. Like Team USA, Costa Rica nearly won when they had some very good chances near the end of the game.

Little Costa Rica held Holland goalless in the first half. Their goal keeper made quite a few good saves. Arjen Robben is without a doubt a top player, but takes a lot of dives. He does not do that when he plays at Bayern. The referees would give him quite a few yellow cards, if he did that in the Bundesliga. Robben would then spend a lot of time sitting on the bench under coach Pep Guardiola.

The Tour de France is finally underway. Young Marcel Kittel will take over from Cavendish altogether soon as the best sprinter. He won the first stage in England. http://www.letour.com/le-tour/2014/us/stage-1.html

Sometimes, when I watch a football game like the one that just finished, I wished they would start thinking about starting up a proper Rollerball competition.

An even less exciting second half. Argentina played it save. 1:0 is enough to get to the semi finals. Ask Germany. I will try to have a nap before the Netherlands - Costa Rica game, which could be difficult after two cups of coffee.

Good clean game between Argentina and Belgium in the first half with Higuaine scoring a good early goal after 8 minutes. Good save by Romero after 25 min. and Messi missed with with a good free kick after a foul on him after 38 min. from just outside the penalty box, which went over the corner bar by a small margin. Di Mario had to come off with a calf injury after 32 minutes. Reminds me of the Germany-France game with Argentina leading 1:0 at half time. Further goals could be hard to come by between the two teams defending well and playing good technical football.

I would not put money on a Germany-Brazil final. Watching Brazil yesterday was like watching Brazil-Chile again. The referee was like the Japanese referee in the Chile game and favoured Brazil for most of the time. I dont know why the second goal Columbia scored was disallowed. I would like to see another replay. Bad luck for Brazil to lo lose Nyamar to a back injury for the rest of the WC. Germany played much better last night than they played against Algeria. Joachim Löw made the right changes when he strengthened the defence by putting Phillip Lahm into his preferred position as right back and having Mats Hummels return as a defender was also good news. That made it possible to play both Sammie Khedira and Sebastian Schweisteiger in midfield together and Miroslav Klose up front. Mats Hummels scored the only goal of the game with a good header in the 13th minute. Neuer made a great save again in the last seconds of added on time from a shot at goal from Karim Benzema to prevent the game from going into extra time. That was enough to reach the last four in the World Cups 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. Not a bad record considering what they achieved before that, winning the WC three times and being runners up three times, including the World Cup against England in 1966, which they lost late in the game after that controversial goal. Now its time to start packing the suitcases again. The TGF put so much gear into hers to make it ten kilos over the allowable limit. I dont know why she needs another three pairs of shoes to take with her and all the other rubbish. She has already all the stuff she needs in the condo in Darwin from our previous visits. I will be able to watch the games tonight and the game against Brazil next Tuesday. Then it will be off to the airport and I wont be able to post much, if anything at all for the next three months, probably to the relief for some of the board members following this message board.

As far as I am concerned, this is the worst side Brazil fielded, since I first watched them play against Sweden in a World Cup in 1958, which they won with a 17-year old Pele making his debut with a fantastic performance and then went on to be the best player in the world for a very long time. In the first half tonight, Brazil's Silva scored a lucky goal after 7 minutes from a corner, after a bad defensive error from a Columbian defender.

France could start with Lloris, Debuchy, Evra, Varane, Sakho, Cabaye, Valbuena, Benzema, Griezmann, Matuidi, Progba. Looks like Germany will have to play against more Algerians again. Karim Benzema will be the danger man.

It looks like Germany will start with Manuel Neuer, Lahm, Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels, Höwedes, Sebastian Schweinsteiger, Sammi Khedira, Thomas Müller, Toni Kroos, Memet Özil and Miroslav Klose. We will know in half an hour's time.

They sound very much alike. No wonder his wife left him, with his hatred of football and always comparing it with American football, an entirely different sport. Indonesians love football, just like they do in Thailand and just about in every other country in the world. He is obsessed with his hatred of football, but seems to watch every game in this World Cup and I wonder why.

And I always thought you were a Manchester United supporter.

I was sitting outside my room in the Melasti Beach Inn on Kuta Beach Road, waxing my surf board in August 1977, when the news came through that Elvis Presley had died. Certain things stay on your mind forever. I am not sure, if soccer fanatic Mr Lasvegas was kicking a ball around with little kids from Bali at the same time. http://youtu.be/uWqax9iHfRU

Maybe it's time to get rid of Jose Mourinho.

All right then. I will consider buying new tyres (tires) when the car is five years old, one year from now.

It was great to have a day off from football (soccer) yesterday. It gave us a chance to make some overdue travel preparations in Pattaya, instead of watching the football all night long and then mostly hibernating during the day, eating rubbish meals from the 7/11 from across the road. I have never seen so little traffic like yesterday morning on Third Road, Pattaya Nua and then Sukhumvit. Half of Thailand must have watched the football and slept all morning. A lot of places we went to had half their staff missing, taking the day off. Team USA’s 19-year old youngster, Julian Green came on late in extra time and scored a fantastic goal. Green was signed up by Bayern some time ago, but only had a few minutes play in Bayern’s first team. Bayern are now saying he will be one of the stars of Team USA at the next World Cup in Russia in 2018. Ironically, 23-year old Kevin de Bruyne, Belgium’s best player against Team USA plays in the Bundesliga for Wolfsburg as well. Germany could do with Green and de Bruyne playing in tomorrow’s match against France.

Your absence from the "proper football" thread until now has been greatly missed. The 207 countries from the FIFA confederation are wrong. American football is the best "football" game by a country mile and it's a shame most kids cannot afford to play the game, as it is too costly how to learn how to play the game. Brazil spent 12 billion dollars on the World Cup. I have been to Bali more than 50 times. It was my home away from home for many years. I only saw very few very young kids kicking a football around. Most local youngsters and visitors are mostly into surfing. Are you still shuffling cards in Las Vegas, or are you back to teaching kids in Rayong a bit of English for 25K baht pay per month. Thanks for red carding me. You are welcome to do that as often as you like.

And Argentina as well and Arjen Robben from the Netherlands!