JSixpack

The placebo effect is real so you might try labeling some cheap vitamin pills as monoatomic gold and see if your family members feel better taking them.

https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5963/what-is-monoatomic-gold

4 hours ago, The manic said:

 good quality fish oil

Bummer:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/well/live/omega-3-supplements-dont-protect-against-heart-disease.html

On 3/29/2018 at 10:24 PM, simon43 said:

Any other suggestions for leafy green vegs?

Got any spinach or kale around there?

Most of the replies here have discounted this reason:

On 3/29/2018 at 7:14 PM, fineleg said:

I have recently taken out the office 365 personal subscription, partly because of the benefits of the 1TB of storage on OneDrive.

8 hours ago, KittenKong said:

I have sites hosted in Singapore. It costs half what Thai hosting would cost, and is many times better. In fact I pay no more for hosting in Singapore than I do for hosting in the US or UK or Europe. The EU hosting company I use offers a choice of 7 different locations for exactly the same price.

^This. Best value: a USA, UK, or EU provider who'll let you choose the hosting at a data center in Singapore.

40 minutes ago, bwpage3 said:

Some women will get the land, new house, the new cars, gold, the face and still do something and lose it all?

 

If they are after money in the first place, why do you think they do this after they already got everything they always dreamed of?

 

 

2 hours ago, Brunolem said:

Easier said than done.

Who would, could, have anticipated in 2005 that the euro would go down by 30% within the next 10 or 12 years?

Especially since the euro had gone up by 30% between 2000 and 2005...

And where is it going from there?

Most easily you'd start investing early in an established global investment trust that would hold assets in various countries including Asia. Let the pros make money from the fluctuations. So though the euro went down 30%, JPMorgan Global Growth & Inc, for example, went up 203%.  You're good.

10 hours ago, darksidedog said:

Probably not enough trash and cigarette butts in the new sand being delivered for it to blend in.

That's exactly why the solution has always been to get the sand from Jomtien beach. Shoulda grabbed it a few years ago. With a bit o' luck it'll just wash back down to Jomtien and then they can do it all over again.

56 minutes ago, Brunolem said:

Yet, I am still waiting for an interesting conversation with the locals (I am not talking about the business elites, but about the average guy).

If you live in rural Isaan, then you'll have about as interesting a conversation with those locals as you will in the rural USA or anywhere. Simple people out there concerned with families, local news, and getting by. In that case you'll have to learn to share their interests, gossip, and appreciate characters--they can be pretty funny.

Quote

Here in Isaan, I am always called "farang" by people who don't know me..."fingered" may be exagerated but, for example, members of a family passing by will alert each other saying "look, a farang".

 

I don't consider farang as insulting in itself, but the problem is that it is clearly used to make a distinction between Whites and Asians.

 

If you visit a national park, for example, you will be asked to pay the foreigner price, while if you are from Asian origine, even with a foreign passport, you may well end up being charged the Thai price...as long as you don't open your mouth...

Well, the fact is you aren't Thai and that means you do need to be treated differently, as most farangs agree except they want to be treated better. Most farangs don't want a bunch of chilies routinely dumped into their *ka pao gai--for a culinary example. A Brit might find that in Australia he's lumped into the "whinging Pom" category before even gets off the plane. Similarly in the UK

Outsiders aren't welcome, say villagers

When villagers were asked for innovative ways to improve their community, it was hardly the anticipated answer but it was certainly clear: “No outsiders.”

     --https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7909620/Outsiders-arent-welcome-say-villagers.html 

Nor are the national parks etc. going to bother checking everyone's passports and ID cards, which would include the Thais. But you've ignored the fact that if you show a Thai driver's license you get the Thai price, right? I have done so before and explained I've lived in Thailand a long time. So the object isn't actually to express racism. Have to suck that one up but hardly a reason that you have to leave Thailand! Merely a silly excuse.

Asians are in general ethnocentric. But that has positive aspects in that it's easy to travel around and enjoy distinct Asian cultures. Thailand is a good place to be based then.

And I really enjoy overcoming the farang stereotype a Thai might have, get a smile, and enjoy a pleasant encounter in the future. In Pattaya that's a fine challenge as the idiot farang tourists have created such a negative impression. I've found Thais so relieved and friendly once they realize I'm not one of the idiots and we can joke around.

Quote

Another much appreciated place by retired foreigners nowadays is South Portugal, where the cost of living is becoming cheaper than in Thailand where the prices of everything, starting with real estate, are climbing vertically.

 

Otherwise, I agree that people can find themselves in trouble anywhere, and that some of them will never be happy, no matter the place.

Let's listen to some expats whinging in Portugal.

Whatever happened to the noise abatement act?

I KNOW it's summer,I KNOW everyone is outside having fun! Actually the tourists aren't the problem..It's the wretched services..Maybe it's me?but has anyone else noticed how b****y noisy all the garden equipment is these days.?We no longer use our gardeners because quite frankly-they don't garden!.What they do is TRIM and BLOW. They use industrial size hellishly noisy machines to reduce shrubs,hedges and even some trees into bald submission.Ditto for the very few lawns we have around us. They don't coordinate this activity either, they do it on every single day of the week bar sunday,and at every concievable time from 7.30 am onwards.I know I sound like a GOW,but at least I know it will magically stop at the end of the season.The poor tourists have PAID for this awful intrusion. This area is known as the Areio do Sonho..Place of dreams...hardly!!!

Anyone else as fed up as I am over this ever increasing mechanical intrusion?

 

GeniB, NOISE!!!

Why are chops as thin as paper here? And where is the Fish n Chips? I have not yet found a fish that I can fry. After all the water has drained, it falls to pieces as they become so thin. All the congelado fish are 50% water that you pay for.

 

Ukkram Male, Sooooo disappointed

Last week I got a massive craving for a fray bentos steak and kidney pie so ater searching all week I found one in apolina omg i couldnt get home quick enough once cooked along with boiled potato's and gardens peas some bisto gravy i am drooling so bad but when i started eating it was not what i remember it was bad!!!

 

Ronnie the Painter, Sooooo disappointed

Quote

 

Finally, generally speaking, people who are a bit short financially may be wise to think twice before chosing a country like Thailand for retirement, because of the currency exchange issue mentionned above...consider that the euro has gone from 52 to 37 baht during the last decade or so, an almost 30% depreciation...where will it be in 10 years?

If you're moving to a foreign country then you've gotta take currency fluctuations into account. There are a number of good ways to do that. Unfortunately many expats don't plan well for this obvious issue and congratulate themselves keeping all their assets priced in a depreciating currency. Which would be OK the asset appreciation is significantly greater than the currency depreciation but it seems it often isn't.

Well, this was our schadenfreude thread of the week complete with a fantasy scenario. There's no evidence that more are leaving than ever before, percentage-wise, or that the more exceeds the number arriving. Been hearing the everybody's heading for the exits shit-stirring for years.

Many an expat leaves simply because he needs the "free" healthcare back in the nanny state or the free education for the kids. Nothing new there. I know some who never intended to stay but just find a girl and bring her back home--and they did.

And the strength of the baht has had some impact, no question. However, the exchange rate issue could have been managed had the expat invested wisely in, and managed, Thai assets earlier, such as shares of good companies on the SET, instead of listening to--or even enjoying making--doom predictions about the Thai economy.

I might point out that more people are reaching retirement age and so more have looked at Thailand as a retirement haven. Of the more, more, in absolute numbers, would be leaving. Another issue is that then a higher number arriving are suffering from mental disorders

Over 20% of adults aged 60 and over suffer from a mental or neurological disorder (excluding headache disorders) and 6.6% of all disability (disability adjusted life years-DALYs) among people over 60 years is attributed to mental and neurological disorders.

     --http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs381/en/

and can't adjust themselves to a different culture and environment. And this fact is obvious from the curmudgeon infestation on the forum, whose whinging and finger pointing depress those already on the edge.

2 minutes ago, dorchester said:

Here comes our annual deaths from H2S, hydrogen sulfide.It plays a nasty game,of smelling like rotten eggs,then tricks your brain into thinking its gone when its not

Well, we're just gonna have to create as many negative spins as possible to compensate for the loss of finger-pointing at the "clogged drains" by our ace TVF Drainage Engineers. Next: (1) too little too late and (2) just get clogged again, unlike the pristine drains in, ah, the UK. Be sure to report any subsequently clogged drains you notice to The Authorities rather than whinge here, though we do have a thread specifically for whinging.

On 3/28/2018 at 11:03 AM, Pattaya46 said:

The demolition itself took about just one year, not bad,

but the long legal and administrative process before that took 3-4 years I think.

The owner made everything that could possibly delay or stop the process...

Another blow for the mighty TVF Tea Money Chorus who'd of course immediately chanted and sneered it'd never be torn down. One member bet his left nut . . . yet castration is so ill-advised for any cesspoolian.  

19 hours ago, KittenKong said:

 I've never met a Thai barber who knew anything about scissors or layering either. It's just dab dab dab with electric shears. Maybe they all trained on Aussie sheep farms.

I don't get this. Seems it would be true only the dirt cheap Thai barber shops for Thais. In the average shop if I tell them to use scissors only, they do; and use them skillfully enough, depending on the barber. As with most services, you find the ones you like, put them through the training ;), and then stay with them. Mostly.

I doubt M'soft cares about that previous installation. Your post implies you've uninstalled Office 2013 anyway. If so then you surely won't have any issue w/ M'soft. If you haven't done a scan with Windows Defender it wouldn't hurt to do that and be sure it's happy.

They came up with idea last year. Soi 6 was going to be a showcase. Ha! Pattaya Songkran went on as usual, complete w/ PVC pipes.

16 hours ago, madusa said:

Hello, hello, are there more interesting things going on in Pattaya?

There's actually lots more to do here than, you know, just drinkin' and enjoyin' soapies and threesomes all the time—which ain't too bad, come down to it. Relevant threads: When boredom starts to rule the day, I Love Pattaya, and Why live in Pattaya?.

59 minutes ago, Psimbo said:

Wow- it took 9 comments for someone to see the positive side of this. A shame people can't be a bit more glass full as opposed to glass empty. At this rate i really can't be bothered reading the next 6 pages of comment.

 

I see this as a good thing- a shame others don't.

 

Always wid da Negative Waves, always wid da Negative Waves Geezers. 

Yep, the moment a new construction is even proposed many of our members fall victim to TVF Poster New Construction Syndrome (TVFPNCS) with its 5 stages:

1. Puzzlement
2. Disbelief; "no need"
3. Derision; doom prediction
4. Hate (disappointment)
5. Acceptance.

We saw exactly the same plague when the Tunnel was announced and under construction--to cite one recent prominent example.

Various members are already in the first three stages of the disease. Most, according to degree of bigotry, have now moved rapidly into Stage 3, so the thread is degenerating into the usual silly bash fest. The line will have to built or the plan abandoned before further progress or regression can be expected. Have the cartoons started yet?

If built, then we'll need another roll call and laugh to see who survived the subsequent depression and embarrassment. Most will pretend they don't remember. Some will disappear, having lost the will to live. Some, perpetually sufffering in Stage 3 of the disease, will live on hope of finally hearing news of a derailment--it must happen someday. They'll wait. And wait.

34 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Don't count on it.

Prayut lowered the top speed of the 670km Thai-Japanese high-speed train project connecting Bangkok to Chiang Mai from 300kph to between 180kph and 200kph in order to reduce the overall cost of the project.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/Thailand-looks-at-slower-bullet-train-to-cut-costs

There's no reason he won't do the same with the Bangkok to U-Tapao run.

Yes, there's an obvious reason: the Bangkok U-Tapao run is so much shorter that he may feel the higher cost, much less by comparison, would be affordable. 

7 hours ago, EricTh said:

Asians don't have public sex.

Great thing about the UK and Europe, eh. All that public sex everywhere, on the beaches, around the lake at Tivoli Gardens, in the flower beds at St James Park in front of Buckingham Palace. And the videos of it posted on facebook, porno sites, and news sites. Particularly enthusiastic performers featured in the Mail. Nobody ever arrested for public indecency. Why don't the Russians go there and do it?

20 hours ago, Yann55 said:

I daresay the drainage pipes are a much bigger problem than what those Russians were doing on them.

 

They spew an appalling amount of foul sewage water into the sea, 24/7

 

That pipe isn't a sewage pipe.

Quote

When it comes to sex, the human capacity for hypocrisy reaches Everestic heights ... never mind that we're all on this planet because our parents had sex, never mind that sex between consenting adults has never caused anyone any harm (unlike guns, pollution, greed, hypocrisy and a million other human inventions), never mind that we were not born with any clothes on, never mind that seeing people having sex is unlikely to cause anyone physical or moral injury (and YES I include the children) etc etc ... The innumerable sanctimonious self-appointed guardians of morality will never miss an occasion to treat sex as some kind of horrible crime. It's depressing, pathetic, totalitarian and above all, unfathomably stupid.

 

 

I don't think their activity was being treated as a horrible crime but just a crime. Cops probably found it amusing too but, you know, have a job to do.

To accompany this last rant in your post, let's put on the Beatles' Why Don't We Do It In The Road? Maybe change the line

No one will be watching us

to

So if someone watches us?

1 hour ago, chrisinth said:

 

This would be the way to go if you don't have confidence in Defender. I would even go the extra mile and pay the few hundred baht to get an AV suite that covers for virus/malware and a configurable firewall (not that there is much wrong with the window's one now a days). One of the most important pieces of software you can have in this world of on-line threats. Note that this is my view and that I do respect the people that don't use AV.

 

Optionally, turn on the protection and run a scan with windows defender. When/if the program detects anything (such as KMS), you have the option of how defender deals with the threat if you click on Details by the detected 'threat' reference Actions. It will give you the choice of either:

Delete & clean

Quarantine

Allow

 

or words to that effect. If something is detected, read up on it before making a decision.

^This. Firewall's fine. Get the free version of Malwarebytes and run a manual scan every week or so--can schedule it as you wish. Also make the exception for the activator when it's found.

This begs the question of whether you should be using a "cut price" version of Windows. But I'll leave that matter for our hall monitors to discuss.

Great--means more water/powder/ice left for assaulting the tourists on the side roads.