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A stray moggy had a penchant for nesting her multiple litters of kittens in the spare wheel suspended under the rear of my pickup.  It was a daily routine to exit them by squirting the garden hose in there every morning, but no matter what, they returned.  Once she even dragged them into the engine bay and nested there . Luckily my daughter saw the moggy bail out as I started the engine - I raised the hood and the four kittens were hopping all over the place and only just avoiding the fan blades but I managed to get them out.

The daily routine then consisted of raising the hood as well as hosing down the spare wheel well. Then a fortunate thing happened - some lowlife stole my spare wheel, and the moggy never came back. I've since upgraded the truck - first thing I did was adios the spare wheel.

Their life threatening act should be regarded at the very least as attempted manslaughter. They had no right to leave their place of abode, ride a scooter, and have some fun. They jeopardized the future of the entire human race by such malicious actions.  We have managed to maintain the survival rate from this uber deadly disease at circa 99.5% - their actions could have started a massive chain reaction of contagion and reduced this to 99.49999999999999999999999999999999%.

I suggest we introduce Madame la Guillotine for such malicious sociopathic criminals as these.  After all, it is the guillotine that symbolizes the institutionalization of revolutionary chaos, and the world we now live in is surely nothing but institutionalized chaos. 

I'm somewhat unclear as to why the human race have exchanged liberty, fraternity, and equality for what they think is "safety", but I'm very clear that we will severely regret our willingness to be subjugated to the extent we have. Ben Franklin was right.

8 hours ago, Lancelot01 said:

Bah Humbug Mr Cratchit

Libra, solidus, denarius. ????

Calling it a playground is not dissimilar to suggesting that a Lada is a sportscar.

21 hours ago, peterpaintpot said:

Can some nice person explain in simple terms how a machine can mine bitcoins? I thought that bitcoins were a virtual currency. It doesn't make sense to an old prospector like me.

The "explain it to me like I'm a five-year-old" answer is that the bitcoin  miners are similar to auditors of the electronic crypto currency system.  They electronically track all the transactions to make sure that nobody cheats and spends their invisible money more than once, and that one "coin" is not electronically counterfeited. They are paid randomly for their "work" in bitcoin. In fact, new bitcoins are only ever created in this way. 

It's called "mining" because they have to filter through terabytes of data to find a correct "solution" in the form of complex equations, much like a gold miner digging through tons of rock to find a speck of gold.

Forget the technology side of it - imagine they are working in a Charles Dickens period counting house, poring over the ledgers to make sure everything balances and everything is accounted for.

We are in a period of excessive taxation. Governments pull our strings attempting to get even more blood from a stone. This proposed tampon tax is a bloody minded example of cyclical pain inflicted by vampires who wish to cramp the style of those of us that seek a no strings attached solution to society's depression and anger. I predict a crimson wave of protest will come gushing forth if this tax is inserted into the glory hole of legislation.

On a side note - perhaps tampons should receive the same taxation rate as razors and toilet tissues.  All are desirable, but none are essential. A sharp knife replaces the former, a large banana tree leaf (or similar) replaces the latter.  As to the tampon - cork?

The real answer to the conundrum is that the cost of labour in Thailand is exceedingly cheap. Not only cheap in and of itself, but especially cheap compared to the cost of capital expenditure and utilization thereof.

They are facing the Industrial Revolution question - at what point do they replace labour with machinery/automation, and proven methods that avoid continual maintenance.   Societally speaking it is more beneficial to spend X million baht over a long period utilising labour and known faulty methodology and materials, than invest say 10 times as much in capital and get the job done (arguably) once. The capex would go on to create even further replacement of labour as it needs to pay back the investment over time.

This new efficiency and expenditure shift in any particular sector would create labour supply/demand shifts  across the country that would ultimately lead to a  western utopian system of high taxes and government handouts.

There's a reason you don't see too many automatic road making machines, forklifts, self-service fuel stations, self-service supermarket checkouts, or struggle to find service staff at a department store.

Ben Franklin would have a thing or two to say about the OP's predicament.

I wish they would use the 24 hour clock and forget about ante meridiem and post meridiem. I dunno if i'm supposed to stay home from 0900 to 1600, or from 2100 to 0400. 

I suspect the cars-cov-2 virus is equally confused and won't know when to go to bed or when to go out doing what it does.

You know the world has transported itself to destination effed when you google "The end is nigh" expecting to see links to catastrophes of Biblical proportions, but learn to your amazement that apparently it is actually a computer game.

Back on topic - for Pattaya specifically and greater Thailand at large, the end is indeed nigh......and I ain't talkin' about Nintendo.

Bureaucratic corruption, waste, re-work and over expenditure (by quantum) is no different in Thailand to any western country.  The difference is that in  the west, our bureaucrats have learned to waste more of our money much more efficiently and look better while doing it. 

The golden rule regarding the growing of mushrooms is that they be kept in the dark. The same rule should be applied to the taxman. 

Try asking at your Condo reception/office.  They are sure to have some commercial contacts. Or probably already have a few freelance housekeepers available - usually their sister/aunt/niece/cousin. From experience you will find them cheaper than a commercial company as well as being just a phone call away.

At Chonburi, I didn't bother going back to prove bank balance after extending my OA and had no problems with the following extension.  Just make sure you take a 12 month bank statement, the bank letter, copies of every page in your bank passbook(s), and the original passbook(s). 

FX dealers are justified in referring to the country as "Teflon Thailand".

Well done to whoever turned on the hazard lights of the overturned vehicle. Or is that an automatic feature these days? 

On a side note, if confronted by the media (especially in Pattaya), don't give your real name - in your best Sean Connery accent tell them you're from the Republic of Kekistan and your name is something like Reginald Iolangthe Perrin.

I had super sight done to both eyes by Dr. Somchai at BPH about 5 years ago.  I was long-sighted, but reading and computers required glasses. I enjoy photography and collect watches - so the fact that I couldn't see details on my watches and difficulty using a camera convinced me to check it out.

Brilliant experience.  I can now see into next week and can always find my balls (golf) and can read the smallest ever print.  I think they rated my sight at 20/200, which means I can basically read microfilm.  Exaggerating, but you get the idea.

My halo effect was short-lived and after two weeks, driving at night was not a problem.  Your brain "adapts" and even though the halos are still slightly evident, if you don't pay attention to them, they do not distract.  

After about 18 months my left eye went all hazy.  I went back to Somchai and as expected in many cases, some sort of growth had developed behind the lens.  He took me to a laser machine immediately, zapped the eye a dozen times in 30 seconds - hey presto, perfect vision and only a 1,000B appointment fee.  

I have the top Zeiss lenses that are adjusted by the eye and re-focusing long or short is as good as a teenager.  I've heard others that had fixed focal length lenses are not quite so happy.  A few extra baht is worth it.

The only downside to having perfect vision is that the wrinkles on that face staring back at me from the mirror every morning is looking less and less like the hansum man I used to be.

Congrats to the sub-editor for an excellent headline.