Macron is surely aware that France, along with the rest of the EU, is headed for the toilet, so he is going to need troops for national security, not against external actors, but the inevitable internal uprising.
The Chiang Mai casino hotel has been under construction for more than 5 years. They have not been in a rush to complete as they have been waiting for the politicians to get 'the paperwork' done. It is an open secret around here (on the river, just south of the outer ring road).
My wife's first job 35 years ago was receptionist in the CM casino. She has many tales.
You don't say where you are. In our village there are a few guys that do small jobs such as these. If your wife only speaks with house builders rather than the village odd-job guy, you have their answer.
I have been using MyTello for the last few years - they set up a local (Bangkok) number for you to call for each contact you wish to speak with. No need to use a 'smartphone'. Obviously not free, but very cheap.
I phoned them and discussed what I needed to do, which is how I came by this info. The guy said he could put a note on my file, but I decided to inform them officially by post detailing the payment made and allocation requirements. He said it would take about 6 months for them to process the payment.
If you cannot use Skype and want to use a call from any phone, set up an account with app.mytello.com/en and setup a connection to the number(s) you require. They will allocate a Bangkok number for you to dial from any phone number you register for a usage charge of 0.4 baht per minute, so a small additional cost to a call to Bangkok.
My morning toasts gets drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and first press coconut oil (2 each) purely for medicinal purposes (removes all the joint inflammations I suffered for years with - no more ibuprofen), then topped with sliced tomato (good for <deleted>, apparently) and then eaten along with bananas and other fruits, washed down with a couple of cups of green tea.
The electricity disappears for 30-90 minutes sometimes because an inebriated pickup driver drives into an electricity pole. Can be any time of day.....