Gsxrnz

One of my idiosyncrasies (of which I have many) is to pay more than a casual observance to the homeless and street people from all around the world. By my estimation I would say that a good 80% of them on average have some sort of mental or psychological disorder, often made worse by drugs or alcohol. Regarding Pattaya in particular, it is easy to differentiate the "routinely" homeless from those that have come upon hard times relatively recently due to the lockdowns. The routinely homeless appear more comfortable with their situation and usually show behavioral signs of their mental disorder, are unkempt and obviously don't make cleanliness a priority. The recent homeless have a look of total confusion, fear, and some embarrassment, are reasonably presentable and decently dressed, and often have amongst their observable possessions something that is of no use to them in their predicament, such as a mini ironing board, a crash helmet, a rice cooker, or a suitcase.

In 12 years I have never been asked for a copy of the reverse side of the departure card (bearing a date-stamp), nor have I seen any officer of any immigration office or airport staff even look at the back of the card. Twice I have lost my card and when departing BKK, simply grabbed a blank arrivals/departures card and completed the necessary section. Never had a problem.

I think the "relaxed" body muscles from being three sheets to the wind offer some advantage and protection from injury when tipping yourself off your scooter. Not that I'm speaking from experience, of course.

I think they'll apply the same logic as the pound of flesh theory.

That's Thai for <deleted>.

Tell me about it, but somehow describing a 15cm ruler just doesn't carry the same weight as the proverbial 6 inches.

I fail to see why simply weaving across lanes attracted the attention of the BIB.

I've been reliably informed that the official "town planner" in Patts is 9 years old and his tools consist of two six inch rulers (formerly a one footer but it broke) , a blunt 4B pencil stub, a 210 piece set of leggo, and one of those city street playmats of Miami. That's where the Miami idea came from. We should be thankful it wasn't a street playmat of Venice. Oh wait........

If they conk out of hospital space I know a fantastic location that would probably fit 100,00 + beds, has great logistics for food, parking and emergency vehicle access, it's own emergency services team, is fully air conditioned, and totally vacant now and the foreseeable future - it's known as Suvarnabhumi.

In my youth my "go to" snack when arriving home after an evening on the turps was a tin of baked beans (with sausages) on (usually burnt) toast. The secret was to throw in a handful of grated cheese while cooking and let it semi-melt so it had that pizza gooiness texture. I'm a Kiwi so they were obviously Wattie's. There jingle was "It must be Wattieeeeeeeeeeeeeee's! One memorable occasion was when I was 17 and woolshed parties at the farms of numerous sons of farmers was a thing. Arrived home and cooking my BB a bit late at 6am - Dad awakens and goes to fetch the newspaper and enquires as to why there are four waratahs and 30 yards of barbed wire hanging out the back of my Ford Anglia.

I committed the crime of the century last week and got a long overdue illegal haircut from my regular barber. It was a weird experience - a clandestine arrangement to meet at his business premises after parking the scooter elsewhere, sneaking under the half opened shutter door which was then closed, dimmed lighting, no a/c, sneaking out under the door again, and an agreement that if asked we'd say we'd been eating food and/or a sexual rendezvous (he's gay, I ain't). I now have an even greater sense of admiration for any underground organization working behind enemy lines. But I do wonder at the new alternative reality that makes getting a haircut a punishable crime - I'm pretty sure that in totalitarian states of Soviet Russia and Mao's China, even getting a haircut was not a criminal offence.

I find it amazing how we've all been conditioned. Pavlov would be impressed. I've been conditioned to accept that maybe, just MAYBE I'll be allowed to go and play golf next week, and I should be (and will be) thankful for this mercy. I'm now unsure which is the alternate reality - pre or post Sars-cov-2.

As half the population have little more than a pot to p*** in, or if they do, a window to empty it from, I'm a bit skeptical that 42% managed to fall back on their "savings". Unless the money borrowed from the local loan shark counts as savings. Whoops, 42.SIX THREE percent - love those decimal places but no brownie points for accuracy.

Many market vendors still spray their chicken with formalin to stop it going off while on display. Alcohol would be a welcome variation to the diet.

The elephant in the room is... has any brave soul opted to offer their right thumbprint in lieu of a signature, and if so, was it black or blue?

Not really. I have what Kiwi's call Jacindaphobia. The most distasteful side effect of the condition is that the mere sight of her image makes you want to run off and slam a car door on your personal appendage.

I'm just waiting for a country (probably not Thailand) to achieve near a 100% vaccination rate. Then the "news" will be that 100% of all covid deaths were vaccinated. And that will be added justification for further tyranny. They won't admit that the elderly and morbidly sick almost always die with a lower respiratory disease as a complication anyway. The world's power hungry elites will go full-metal-jacket and appoint Commissar Jacinda Adern (NZ's woke neurotic millennial version of Oedipus' misandrystic overbearing and tyrannical mother) as the WHO Chief Camp Mother, and send us all to bed without our supper for a generation.

Perhaps flux can be better described as a post-modernist concept in which individualism and originality are maligned in favor of deconstructionism and state endorsed cognitive dissonance.

Pro forma, the Latin phrase which means "for the sake of form", is the basic principle of Thai driving regulations and general Thai law. Pro forma is applied in both the formation of law, the way in which law is enforced, and the way in which Thais live their daily lives. That's why many foreigners struggle with Thai concepts of constant fluidity and change - I suspect that those of us who enjoy and are good at dancing get along better in Thailand than non-dancers. As long as you understand that red lights, green lights, traffic lane lines, stop signs, railway signs, no parking signs, speed limit signs ad infinitum are merely there for the sake of having them there, and not rules to be abided by, you'll do OK. Me thinks I consumed too much ouzo and yoghurt last night.

The vaccines will be available on the ground floor of all second string shopping malls, right beside the genuine Gucci T-shirts and Vuitton handbags.

I seriously wonder if there is an idiom in Thai which equates to building castles in the sky, or counting chickens before they hatch.

I sign and date every copied document in blue pen. Have only once been asked to sign original bank letter. They're a law unto themselves at IMMO. Guarantee if I staple the TM7 pages together, they'll remove the staple - if I don't staple them, they'll staple them. If I attach two copies of the same passport page because the entry stamp and extension expiry stamp are on the same page, they'll give one back - If I give them only one copy, they'll demand another. As a rule I take spare copies of everything imaginable. Once I highlighted my name n a document because it was buried in the text. IMMO officer was <deleted> off because I used green and they use yellow. She was happy when I presented her with a pristine copy for her to smite with her yellow highlighter.

Note the last line in the article. "This (test) is primarily designed for those without symptoms". Gotta love it - TIT.

To continue your math to it's logical conclusion - if the initial 20,000 infected only had contact with 3 people each, and those 60,000 people contacted 3 people each, and iterate this for only 7 days, then you have over 43 million to "contact trace" in 7 days. If you assume the number of contacts is actually 5 persons each day and iterate this, you reach 1,562,500,000 potential contacts in 7 days. On the 8th day it goes to over 7.5 BILLION. And that's why the world's tyrannical reaction to the entire sars-cov-2 thing is not only laughable, it's criminal. There's a reason you don't see too many people successfully pushing string uphill, herding cats, or displaying their collection of wooden horse r-soles.

Re the passport photos. When you do get them done, get about 30 copies. I've been using the same picture for at least 6 years for everything from annual visa renewal to D/L renewal, police report, you name it. They never look at the pic. You could probably attach a photo of your dog and it would pass muster.