nausea

You ain't seen nothing yet, wait 'till they start on Iran and the Strait of Hormuz gets closed

Magical thinking strikes again.

Well, hopefully she just ran off with the money, and 13 million bt ain't so much by Western standards; still, I am reminded of that old Farang maxim "never be worth more dead than you are alive" .

People are tightrning their belts, that translates to less tourists. No amount of magical thinking will change that reality.

Agree, there is risk, and not just for family and friends who might get roped in. Just because something hasn't happened before doesn't mean it won't happen tomorrow (the problem of induction, to give it a fancy name). My own attitude is I can get by cos I have 2 pensions, and one of them is inflation linked, so it's just not worth the hassle. If I was totally dependent on my State pension I might take a different attitude, but more likely I'd just move to the Philippines.

Yeah, the headline (plummet) is a little hyperbolic, clickbait that caught me anyway. Given the current gobal geopolitical tensions, I'd be very surprised by any meaningfull drop in the price of gold, given its role as a store of value.

Thailand doing their thing, a foot in both camps.

Always thought of Thai food, tasty as it is, as a kind of fusion food, combining Indian and Chinese elements. Yeah, you're crazy if you eat Thai dishes that include raw meat or fish, the risk of parasites is just too great, almost certain, I would've thought, if you do it regularly. I do wonder about Japanese sushi, though; I mean I'm as partial to sushi as the next man, and whilst in Japan they're pretty rigourous about their food hygiene, with only minimal cases of parasitic infection occuring, I'm not so sure about the stuff produced and sold here.

Good news for me, if it translates to sterling; did notice we're going over 45 recently. I was expecting sterling to plummet, given the dire state of the UK economy, was doing my personal financial planning along those lines, so if it stays steady or increases, it's all a bonus. Still expect sterling to plummet eventually, hopefully with a more extended timeline than I originally thought, I may even be dead by the time it all comes fully to fruition (555).

No moral high ground for you, my man, from which to make proclamations on democratic progress; not since you guys started discussing banning the main opposition party in Germany, the AfD.

I have my doubts about the wisdom of this move. Much like Sumo in Japan, oo you really want to internationalise what is essentially a Thai national treasure, with all its attendant rituals and stuff,.

That's my SO. Me, I'm into alcohol à la Bukowski, but I seem to have swallowed a Hellgramite worm.

Teach in a Thai public school for a year and you'll soon understand why there's a problem.

Does Reform stand a chance? Don't know much about them. As for Labour and the Tories, I tend to go with the "two cheeks of the same a*se" view.

Like it. Another one is that you don't pay the girl for sex, you pay her to go away the next day. Yeah, Soi 6 managers. A strong liver and a gregarious personality seem to be the prerequisites. Not quite sure how it all works, but I understand they're part of a business model that encourages high spenders. Not my cup of tea, but horses for courses, obviously a market for it.

✔️

Quelle suprise.

This is news?

Let's throw in Vicky Nuland, just to bring some gender equality to this thread.

I'll leave the traditional afterlife to others, since it's faith, and not logic, based, and hedonistic descriptions fall on the rock of " too much of a good thing", even the most exquisite experiences become boring after a while. I was, however, recently reading about the positive and negative effects of intense meditation, eerily similar to the the effects of psychedelics by the way, which I reckon is probably the closest we get to any kind of documented heaven here on earth, enlightenment and all that, and it quickly became obvious that one man's heaven is another man's hell. Personally, I think it's all very subjective, and a bit Yin and Yang'ish; you have a bad toothache and it's hell, it goes away, and you're in heaven for a moment; similarly, for a lot of Western guys, you're sex starved and in a sort of hell, you come to Thailand and think you've arrived in heaven, but once you become adapted to the ready availability, you revert to your normal state, whatever that might be.

As with most things, "dosis sola facit venenum" (Paracelsus 1538) - the dose makes the poison. I believe some natural sunlight is essential for good health, so c. 15 mins a day for me here in Thailand . Always wear a hat (shaved head). My back doesn't like the sun, I put that down to it getting sunburnt a lot when I was a kid in the UK. My Dad had this ridiculous maxim (knowing what we know now) that you have to get red before you get brown. Definitely ages the skin, I only have to look at the back of my hands to verify that.

Yeah, there's kind of a push to blame current woes on Brexit. This poll sorta fits in with that. Convenient scapegoat, I suppose. Whatever, we're circling the drain. As is Europe. So I don't see that Brexit matters one way or the other.

Yeah, cornflakes are pretty much considered a junk food nowadays. Was always a shredded wheat or weetabix man myself. Don't know if they're much better.

It doesn't really matter what you guys think, the rest of the world looks and says "Banana Republic". Moral high ground lost.

Don't get colds here, too much sunshine, I guess.