unblocktheplanet

Is Immigration starting to get their act together? Wonder who the wonder-boy (or -gal) is with the bright idea to make online actually work. I made an appt for my annual extension at CW & got a reminder by email day before! BTW, my experience today makes me think CW has way let down its guard against Covid. (Yes, we should be doing renewals online, too!) Inside was waaay too crowded for my liking. Definitely most dangerous place I've been in town...including public hospital! They need to start putting people out of those spaced chairs on the mezzanine again instead of allowing them to congregate inside. Don't know if you agree or not, but I have great sympathy for those hardworking IOs. Seriously, can you imagine yourself doing this automaton job, keeping all the paperwork in order & stamps organised? There are two younger rather-large go-fers (not cops, I think), suffling around paperwork in a complete funk. Can't even see people's smiles these days...

This Israeli study is a real ball-breaker. You can get better efficacy against infection with a fourth-dose booster from Pfizer but double the number of adverse reactions. I wonder if efficacy & adversity are correlated. Appears we'll be masking & vaxxing forever.

Outstanding idea! IF we get govt-gauranteed medical insurance for the duration of our visa or extension. If govt really wants foreigners, it needs to protect them, too.

In a pig's!

And Phra Yut wants to welcome him back!

Touching wood, but Immigration has been pulling itself a bit more together with a few items. Just got an email reminder about my appt for my extension t'mow! Gobsmacked, really...

Consumer report: Poster above suggested one teaspoon of whole fenugreek seeds with a little water before bed. Tried that last night & got 10 uninterrupted hours of sleep. No hangover on rising. Okay, could be placebo effect. Caveat is fenugreek can reduce thyroid & cortisol so i would not recommend this for daily use. Just because a product is all-natural or herbal does not mean it can't have serious side effects depending on each person. Pharma started out herbal. I'm glad Clonazepam is working out for another poster but, again, can stop being effective and produce cognitive decline long-term. Tinnitus loud enough to keep you awake sounds terrible!

We really like a morning cup of Thai tea or Indian chai lightly sweetened with condensed milk. However, the most popular & ubiquitous brand pictured is low-quality tea sweepings with (completely unnecessary) colour added. We recently bought a pack of Tata tea from India with 15% whole leaf. (Peng Lee Indian grocery, Asok fresh market.) It’s pretty good but the best we’ve ever had came from Myanmar. Over this two year Covid period, we have been able to get any of our usual high-quality, uncoloured Burmese tea brands. There are many good brands (perhaps due to the influence of the Brits) but this one is excellent. If anyone reads Burmese or knows how to access this tea online for mail order or any other kind of supply-chain (migrant labour?), we’d definitely be your best friend. TIA!

My online approval, with due date, arrived day after applying. By then, I had already sent off a postal application, receipt not received yet. At CW at least, the counter is (stupidly) not reset to match your extension even though they've seen your face in person.

Trick is making sure there more than just 800k. If there are any bank charges, it'll break your heart on extension day.

I thought Gandhi too care of that!?!

If you're primarily interested in your local rainfall, a simple rain gauge from Lazada would do the job.

Where can I buy one of those inflateables? (No, not her!)

Joe, is this now across the board 30 days for re-entry permit holders? I'm concerned I'll have to buy insurance (if possible: I'm 72) for 8 or 9 months till my next extension. The only other option is not getting a re-entry permit, returning visa-exempt, applying for a fresh extension.

Four pages (so far) of people talking about how Omicron isn't really much to worry about. May be true, maybe not. But what is true is the next variant will come out of some poor, crowded country because rich govts looked after themselves first. The next one may be the big killer. Or not. We're all in the dark. I think it's wise to be cautious & prudent, not take unnecessary risks in indoor social situations. I very occasionally eat in a restaurant but pretty much only if I'm the only diner. Boring? Yeah, for sure. But, fer Crikey's, show some responsibility. Unfortunately, there are many people who, sick or not, feel forced to work to put food on their table. That's what happens when there's no support from a greedy, grabby, grubby cabal of wannabes.

After they become ineffective, the big worry in old age is cognitive decline. None of us wants that.

Don't buy the bedtime angle. Religious bedtimes at 10 or 11 work great. Sure is a bummer that many of us just can't sleep naturally.

Hard to imagine these huge private infrastructure projects will ever turn a profit. If mass transit charges too high, commuters won't ride. Too low & it's a charity. I can't imagine corpos are doing this to save the earth.

These are all VERY heavy & addictive meds. I was second time stupid on Alprazolam but you get to a certain point when you're so desperate for a night's sleep you throw common sense out. Comes with consequences, you know. The worst of it is, I don't care at all if I'm addicted & sleeping. But all these stop working in due course, leaving us strung out. And stopping is possible but requires great dedication, willpower & suffering. Think of Nancy Reagan & don't start: this is your brain on benzos.

I wait all year to say this: Happy VD!

Happy V.D., everybody!

Only Thai film to be made during the Covid lockdown is brilliant. See Paul Spurrier's horror spoof, The Maestro: Symphony of Terror, starring Somtow Sucharitkul. Completely brilliant!

All this should be going to genuine third-world countries where the next Covid variants are incubating right this minute.

Wow! Looks like some serious graft in some general's pocket!

Glad to hear you're not using RO. Lots of wastage but the worst jealth effect is demineralisation. I considered an RO system here in BK when there was saltwater incursion. With climate change & sea rise, we may need RO eventually but likely not in my lifetime.