dddave

Any time I try to sign in to iHerb, it times out and won't open. I've attempted day and night, both on Chrome and Bing. I just changed my ISP this month from ToT to 3BB. Could that have anything to do with it? Not having the problem with any other websites. I have tried both the Thailand and US site. Not using a VPN

May I ask you to point out where the word suicide was used? I wrote of despair and at no point did I specifically apply it to this case.

Anybody looking for a business idea? How about titanium/carbon fibre umbrellas capable of withstanding the impact of bodies falling from up to 20 stories. There does seem to be unique local market for such a device.

"I also use Montreal Steak spice, which I brought from back home while visiting, and it gives the burgers a good flavor if you want something besides no spice or pepper and salt." Cautionary note about "Montreal Spice" I'd suggest not buying the large restaurant sized bottle. I also like "Montreal Spice" but I found it doesn't like the Thai climate in the long run. Within a year, the spice inside the big bottle had turned into a moldy, sodden mass with a unpleasant smell and I had to bin it. Difficult to use that much spice within it's shelf life. I use the smaller bottles now without issue. I have found that putting dry rice in bottles of many different spices helps to stop clumping. Garlic powder seems to turn into a rock pretty quickly unless you put it into a zip bag and squeeze out every bit of air before sealing. Speaking of MAKRO fresh ground beef, has anybody else found it seems to have an excessive amount of moisture? When I try to mold it into a patty, the Makro ground beef seems unusually wet and doesn't seem to form a firm patty. I stopped buying it for that reason and the very high price. Instead I buy the 1kg blocks of frozen NZ ground beef which seem to be much better overall quality when thawed. Less expensive as well.

I haven't seen the "Golden Grass" patties. I will definitely check them out. Are they in the same case or elsewhere in the store?

I was referring to these:

I had excellent treatment at Ocean Dental in the plaza at Soi-5 and Jomtien 2nd Rd. Well equipped office, fluent English spoken. They seem to take the time to explain things well. Moderate prices.

"Relaxing lending rules": such an innocuous sentence camouflaging the monumental impact such changes could bring about. Most of Thailand's current lending laws came about as a result of hard lessons learned when various "BOOM" economies suddenly went "POP". Under secured loans, collusion between bankers and developers, huge pre-sales at unrealistic discounts and dozens of other schemes that come about when big money wants bigger money. New rules will quickly be twisted to someone's advantage but the ailing foundation will still be crumbling bit by bit. 1997 can and probably will happen again.

I've lived a fortunate life and have never had to endure true despair. Great sadness, yes and the feeling of irretrievable loss when a loved one died but always knowing that as bad as I feel, it will eventually pass and I will resume my normal self. I imagine real despair does not allow for repair and renewal, only bleak and unending misery. I can not judge those that can not face that future.

In the "BEEF" section at MAKRO, there is always a freezer case with 2kg blocks of frozen ground beef. There are usually individual packaged Australian beef patties under the "ARO" brand, marked "Wagyu" and "Grass Fed". The Wagyu cooked properly makes one of the best hamburgers I've experienced in Thailand; from frozen, 2 1/2 minutes on each side, medium hot pan, paired with a grilled Makro sesame seed bun. Yum. B129 each so not cheap but worth the money.

"what on earth did he do with the money?" Pure speculation but judging from the full body tattoos, he probably gave it away to various monks and mystics and more than a few dealers in hallucinatory substances.

Back in 2004, I bought a 33% share of a Nana Plaza bar from an American friend. When He and I and a silent partner sat down to go over the financials, I was surprised to see no entry along the likes of "Public Relations" or any other euphemism for under the table payments. "Who takes care of the police?", I asked. "Nobody." was the surprising response. Neither he nor any of the other Nana Plaza bar owners he knew had ever been asked for a regular bribe from either the police or local politicians. "Narit", the local cop who's beat was Nana Plaza would stop by from time to time, accept a drink or two, play some pool, flirt with the girls he knew but the only brown envelope he ever got was at Christmas time when everybody from the sweepers to the ice guy got the same. Hard to believe but true.

A friend of a friend recently sold his small beer bar, noting one of the causes being frequent extortion attempts by local Brits and Northern Euro gangs. He said a month didn't go by without 2 or 3 "tough guy's" coming into the bar, demanding "insurance" payments. He decided to call it quits when one of the thugs showed him pictures of his house. He had opened the bar just after covid when rents were very low, just for fun, as a place to socialize with friends. Raising rent was part of his decision but the threats sealed the deal. He also noted that almost every night there would be some sort of incident, pushing, sometimes punches thrown. He blames it all on the rapidly increasing use of drugs by expats which didn't seem to be an issue 10+ years ago. He figures with the relaxed pot laws, more younger Brits come here and try to support themselves selling pot, meth and ice which always leads to forming gangs. "Running a bar isn't much fun anymore." he said.

One thing not yet taken into account, the exponential increase in car rental agencies all over Pattaya. You really can't drive 1/2Km on any major Pattaya area soi and not pass a rental agency, many of which seem to be controlled by Russians. The price of rentals has also dropped dramatically. B1000/day used to be the norm, now B500 and sometimes less for older cars is common. On a busy weekend, I wouldn't be surprised if several thousand rentals were part of the traffic.

One man having multiple wives has forever been legal and accepted in many cultures so why not the opposite? There are some ethnic tribes in China where the women share multiple husbands and paternity isn't an issue. The women raise the kids, the men playing no role whatsoever.