The Usual Suspect

I have never had an "officer" come round my house to check my "status". Everyone in my village (including the headman) knows me. They see me every day, out and about. Actually, I'm the ONLY foreigner who lives here full time, unless of course there are a few I have not met, who just hide inside drinking their Chang, or whatever, (that their wives or g.f.'s buy for them) and watching t.v. When, on the rare occasion, you see them, you can always identify them by their pale white skin. They look like they live in a cave.

Stupid people do stupid things. I once worked the overnight shift in a "Big C" type store in the U.S., so we used to get a lot of odd sods in at those hours, especially during carnival season. One fine night, I walked around the corner into my aisle to commence my tasks, and there was a couple, she in a mini skirt with no underpants, and her male friend banging her in the backside. It definitely made my night a bit more interesting. The really stupid thing was that the place was bristling with CCTV cameras. Needless to say, security escorted them out of the store in quick fashion! The videos were a real hoot!

We have a troop of monkies about 5 mi s from the house. This poor mother has been carrying this wee guy a few days now. Really sad to see. I feed the monkies most days.

It looks like this is a first time mother. I read a few things on this. One train of thought is the mother doesn't know the wee guy is dead. The other is obviously the emotional attachment.

Once when I was in Nepal, I was visiting Swayambunath. There was a momma monkey there who had been carrying around her dead baby so long it had become mummified. Sad to see.

Reprimand.......I am sure this face saving measure for the administrator is much appreciated by the parents who lost their dear children. I can vividly remember the first statements made by this administrator on camera, after the disaster, while he smiled the whole time. Yeah, I know, "The Land of Smiles". He'll just go on about his business, but I hope those children's deaths haunt him to his grave.

Get real....... T.I.T. They don't have support groups or workshops for shiite. Unless maybe you want to learn how to kiss arse or negotiate your way through the maze of corruption.

I was running Windows 7 Home Premium and thought I would upgrade to Windows 10 because it was free and the most recent version. After a couple of days with Windows 10, I wasn't impressed in the slightest. I found the platform unfamiliar and problematic (at least for me). I switched back to Windows 7 thinking it would be as simple and smooth as Microsoft touted before my upgrade. Since I switched back, I have had nothing but problems. It is definitely NOT the Windows 7 that originally came with my Lenovo laptop. It's sticky, freezes up constantly and some of my previous programs were either not there, or malfunctioned. I even tried a clean install, but to no avail. Big mistake.

No.

And I was worried about spiders and scorpions under the toilet seat.......Holy <deleted>!

The best thing I did was stopped trying to make sense of Thailand.

Same time as me......5:30 a.m.

This is just another "changeover scam" as far as I'm concerned. Why should the customer be forced to pay for a technical change made by the company? A similar "scam" is being pulled off by AIS. They are changing their sim cards over to 3G from 2G. The only problem is that the cards will not work on existing 2G phones. Due to this, the customer is required to buy a new phone for a minimum of 399 baht for a Samsung Hero clone, including the new sim card. Supposedly, 100 baht is a "service charge" and the rest is supposed to go towards minutes on your new phone. To add more aggravation to the situation, the clerk refused to sell me a phone using my Thai driver's license as I.D.. They told me I needed to bring my yellow book before they could sell me a phone. T.I.T.

The "holiday" UUGGHH! wreaked more havoc with my pension transfer, than with immigration! What a pain in the arse. I just went in this morning to the immigration office in Amnat Charoen. As always, I was treated with promptness and respect. The immigration officer even apologized for the "inconvenience" I experienced because of the holiday and processed my visa extension as fast as he could, as we walked in the door the minute the office opened. I have NEVER in the four years I have lived in Thailand, had a single problem with immigration! We ALWAYS go in with our ducks in a row, no overstays, proper documents (in duplicate), photos, etc. We have never had to wait more than fifteen minutes to be processed. Every staff member we have had to deal with has been right on. We were even informed that "if all goes according to plan" I will be able to do my next 90 day report in Roi Et! Thank you, Sweet Jesus!

Surprise!

Sooooooo..........How much of this 10 million baht will go to "administrative" costs? What a <deleted>.

I call it "Puke - et".

If you hang around toilets long enough you're bound to get some crap on your shoes.

Surprise!

The S.O.B. is smiling while reenacting his crime! He is a total waste of oxygen. ​Being high on drugs or alcohol is no defense for committing crimes, especially ones as heinous as this. One CHOOSES to drugs and alcohol! No one forces their hand. He should be put away for life without parole. Admission of guilt, apologies, or remorse, should not be taken into account when handing down a verdict. Just the thought of that poor, defenseless, little child being murdered at the hands of this monster is incomprehensible.

I managed to catch Dengue Fever a couple of months ago. I spent six days in hospital. I felt like I had influenza from hell. Seriously, I felt like I had been hit by a truck. While I was in hospital, a government man stopped by to take down my address, which puzzled me. On the very day I was released from hospital, the blowers came around to fog the neighborhood around our house. The post by "loonytune" was spot on! When I saw them next door, I immediately closed all the doors and windows. When the guys came knocking at my door asking to be let in so they could fog my entire house, I just said, NO WAY!, and motioned for them to go away. They looked at me, shaking their heads and laughing like I was a complete idiot. Some of them weren't even wearing masks! They fogged all the property around my house, and after the wind blew it all away I stepped outside and mozzies were flying around everywhere. Mission accomplished!

My Thai wife was doing fine before she met me, and she would do fine if I left. We met and married for love, not economic gain. Do we both do better together? Absolutely! However, our relationship is based on mutual co-operation and sharing of burdens economic and otherwise, just the way ANY marriage relationship should be based. We live on an increasingly smaller planet and because of that, our relationships are changing as well. Traditionalists might as well get used to it. It is the wave of the future.

I've lived in Thailand only a few years. I used to return once a year to the U.S. to visit relatives. Every year I returned it became more and more uncomfortable. More drama, more laying on of guilt and blame for my "selfish" decision to live on the other side of the planet, (even though I'm retired and on a meager income that would make it nearly impossible to live in America). Quite frankly, although I love my family, I don't see a return to the U.S. in my future unless someone dies, maybe not even then.

Welcome to the REAL world!

Education?

Samsung Hero

My Thai wife and I don't fit your criteria, but I do have our personal experience to offer. My wife was granted permanent residency in the U.S. and was assigned a green card. Up until the time we visited the States, she had never been there. She wanted to experience for herself the realities of living in the west before we made a commitment to move there. In Thailand she has a government job which she has worked at for 18 years with full benefits and a retirement program. She also owns land and two vehicles. It might surprise some, but when she experienced the "realities" compared to her "fantasies" about living in America, she was not impressed. Having to give up her job, benefits, retirement, property, close family ties, and tropical weather for a minimum wage laboring job and winter weather with no Thai community anywhere near mass transit routes, in addition to my meager fixed income (at least in the States), had absolutely NO attraction for her. When we returned to Thailand she voluntarily relinquished her permanent resident status and green card in Bangkok. We haven't regretted a single thing about her decision since. She's happy, I'm happy, and we're building a new house close to her mother and father's place. Things couldn't be better.