simon43

[quote] For a decent health plan a disease is a disease [/quote] Yes, but there has to be some responsibility by the insuree. It's like riding a motorcycle without a crash helmet and drunk. No insurer would pay up in case of an accident because you have 'brought it upon yourself'. If you engage in bare-back sex and are infected with HIV or another STD, surely the insurer would want to know the background details. "I knowingly engaged in bare-back sex with a whore" might not gain their sympathy to pay up 🙂

I'm a Scientist 🙂. So I can think of many clinical differences. For a start, smallpox is (was) a virus and gonorrhoea is caused by a bacteria. Smallpox is eradicated in the world whilst gonorrhoea is 'rampant' and increasing in the number of cases (Cases of gonorhoea increased by about 50% in 2022 - latest stats). Therefore, I'm still amazed that you are reimbursed for the conditions stated. Enjoy it while it lasts because with the increasing STD stats your insurer might not be so generous in the future 🙂

When I started teaching in Myanmar I had no teaching qualifications except for an in-class TEFL certificate. I did have my Bachelor and post-grad degrees in electronics, but I was initially employed to teach English to 5 year olds.... (being paid $2,500 tax-free to sing nursery rhymes was fine by me). Subsequently, I did study for various CPD certificates in Phonics and speech therapy and child pedagogy (so I could understand how young people learn etc). I was offered a place on a iPGCE course at Nottingham University, but turned it down because a) I would have to pay about 4,000 quid to study the course and b) the lack of a teaching degree had not held me back from obtaining good teaching jobs in both Myanmar and Laos.

Your medical insurance covers the medical costs that enables you to bang working girls without using a condom? Amazing...

A bad workman blames his tools..... Stop bleating on and on about Adobe Pro. I teach for more than 20 years and use whatever software (or none) is available to effectively teach my subjects. I have never had to use Adobe Pro, whether it be for teaching university students, high school, primary etc. I use my own skills and professional experience to teach the subject. Alternative and free software apps are available that offer the functionality of Adobe Pro, albeit that you may need to use more than one app if you are unable to teach effectively without the crutch of Adobe Pro. Go find the apps yourself by searching online - it will be useful practice for you to learn how to use a search engine.....

You have consistently failed to answer the questions posed by forum members in this thread? What do you need to use Adobe Pro for? The only reason that I can think of is that you are actually teaching your students how to use Adobe Pro, and thus need to demonstrate its functionality etc. Otherwise, there are other applications that provide some or all of the functionality of Adobe Pro. As for not paying a subscription etc for use of these professional software packages, that's your problem. Software developers are in it for business and profits, a fact of life. I'm intrigued as to what subject you are teaching and who are your students.

The women have moustaches...... (trust me, I know this!).

My only recollection of Albania is about 55 years ago and sitting on a sunny beach on the Greek island of Corfu (east coast, directly opposite Albania). I saw a guy way out at sea swimming towards the shore. This took him some time. Finally he crawled exhausted on the beach. He had swum all the way across the strait from Albania, dodging the gun boats which at that time patrolled 24/7. All he had were his swimming trunks and a small waterproof bag containing ?... Still, he looked happy to have made it across the sea.

I came into Thailand last Wednesday at Swampy. The IO looked in my passport for a visa (since I have been living and in/out of Thailand for the past 22 years or so. I explained (in Thai) that I had no visa to enter Thailand because I was just coming for shopping and would return back to Laos in a few days, and I pointed out my 1 year Lao visa in my passport. "Ah no problem" said the friendly female IO and stamped me in for 30 days.

I can see the lottery numbers 3, 8 and 6 ... 🙂

[quote] ...how much would be required by all involved to make this problem disappear [/quote] You mean to get someone to 'eliminate' the shooter? About 5,000 baht if there is Burmese guy available for this job..... 🙂

Because they are far away 🙂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh5kZ4uIUC0

But he never got any pu***!! He never even met her.....

I know that man! He called me last week. He works for the lottery company and his job is to call everyone who has won more than $1,000,000 to inform them of their lucky win... 🙂

Where is the scam? The Brit agreed to go to the tailor shop. He was never pressurised to buy anything. All he was asked to do was to turn off his camera.

Ask yourself - would you start chatting to women in your mall in the UK, USA, Australia? Sounds absolutely creepy to me....

Wow, this post has really brought out the soft-brained, the wannabe scientists, the low IQed, the anarchists, the gullible, the useful idiots etc etc! During Covid I saw very little wrong with government strategies, based on what is known about viruses, virus infections and general medical/scientific knowledge. Although some policies turned out to be too 'harsh', in general it was 'better safe than sorry' and it worked reasonably well. If people are mentally-unable to cope with lock-downs, then may I politely suggest that it is these kinds of people that Darwin was referring to when he espoused about survival of the fittest.

Or in this case, all over the road in Rawaii...... RIP innocent Thai passenger and I hope the other Thai woman recovers in hospital.

If that is a 'dig' at my grammar, please be reminded that 'got' in this usage is 100% correct 'real English', and 'gotten' is some form of bastardised English from across the pond 🙂

In other words, during your working career(s), did you ever go to the doctor and get signed off work? Were you actually sick? In my 39 years of various jobs in the UK, EU and Asia, I cannot think of any occasion when I have got a sick note. Yes, I have taken a single day off here and there for flu etc, but never any length of time that would need a sick note. My question comes after reading of the startling stats from the UK about millions of Brits - young and old - who have diagnosed themselves as in poor mental health (using my good friend Dr Google), and have gone on to get signed off work and onto long-term sick pay. Are they 'swinging the lead'?. Are they really in such poor mental health that they are unable to work? Are they just experiencing the normal ups and downs of mental stress, depression etc? Perhaps they are just lazy ****s! What's your opinion? And are you/have you been in the same boat?

[quote] ... Last island trip, we where among a larger group of russians at a bungalow resort, and they where loud, shouting from one bungalow to another, talking laud on phone in the dining area, more louder discussions/talking the more they drank, and had their own bbq party with music with no respect for others. [/quote] Well, to be honest, that sounds just like Thais, sorry I mean Brits, no actually I mean Ozzies, sorry I mean... Anyone here from Greenland?

Well, Linkedin seems to suggest that he is a real person living in Bangkok, (unless he is the Tour Guide with the same name living in South Africa). He has various endorsements from colleagues, but I especially note 4 endorsements for fiction! 🙂

Walking down Sukhumvit Road (in Bangkok) many years ago, one of these guys stopped me and said "Sir, you are wearing lucky shoes"!!! WTF? I kept on walking 🙂

I recall that when I applied to voluntary top up my NI contributions, I had to provide a detailed list of my employment record since the existence of Adam and Eve... With a lot of effort I was able to list more than 20 different employers, both in the UK and ex-EU, and the decision was made to let me pay NI top-ups at the lower rate (good news!). Now that I will need to apply for my state pension early next year, I searched for my employment list and can't find it! I wonder if the pensions department can provide me with the information that I previously gave them. Would I even need to complete the employment history again since they already have it in their records?

Bit more info about pain in your eye: (from my doctor Dr Google). Pain is a tricky thing, and it's certainly possible to feel pain when pressing your eyelids against your eyeballs if you press hard enough ("hard enough" in this context is generally quite a lot less hard than is required to cause damage, by the way). However: Since your eyeballs don't have skin, they also don't have nociception; i.e. they don't have pain receptors in the same way your skin at large does. Eye pains, like headaches, are largely caused by a combination of psychological responses to perceived stimuli and pain responses in associated structures. Basically, the pain you experience when fingering your eye isn't pain in the same sense as the pain you feel from touching a hot stove or pricking yourself with a needle, it's generated by the brain in response to novel stimulus. Your brain knows what eyelids feel like, and it's okay with them, but once you start introducing fingers into the mix, all sorts of disturbances in salinity and moisture crop up, and your brain freaks out (and rightly so). The same phenomenon can be seen with regards to swimming in the ocean: If you try to open your eyes under water, you'll find it a painful and disconcerting experience, but if you keep at it and practice holding your eyes open under water, you'll get used to it, and the pain will go away. Similarly, contact lens wearers will soon learn to deal with these stimuli, and be able to handle eye touching. While I wouldn't advise you to go pawing at your eyeballs, if you for whatever reason have a need to do so, acclimating yourself to the feel of it will make the associated pain go away in short order.