soalbundy

That's the same question as why do pubs have parking lots. They all require snail post in case you alter something with digital tools but I have found when push comes to shove they will accept a scan sent per email as long as the original is on its way per post, in my case with BMW the woman said she would authorize payment with a scan as long as either they find what I had already sent or I send the second original per post. Sounds like an employment scheme to me.

Lying has its own dangers. The German state pension people have worked out a scheme with a QR code, sounds reasonable at first but then you need a transaction code number (how to get?) and you have to make a video of your face etc. Reading through all the steps it seems easier just to fill in the form. Everyone seems scared of scams, security is number one these days. My German bank changed their bank card system, so after 3 failed attempts I get the new card but my tan generator wouldn't accept it, I had to buy a new QR tan generator but the producer wont supply outside Germany so I had to get a German friend to buy me one and send it to me. I can't use the card in an ATM, you have to register for permission with the bank, no permanent pin number, you have to use the tan generator each time which will give you a new pin number for each use, it's bollucks.

Yes I understand that, BMW will also pay the missed payments. The worst thing about it all is being so powerless, having to rely on office staff in a different far away country who are just doing their day job, there are no email exchanges with the same person, each time someone new answers so there is no time to build a rapport with anyone, you're just a number causing problems. Yesterday I sent a life certificate to the German state pension provider, my biggest source of income, thankfully they have never given me problems but there is always a first time. 3 life certificates a year is a source of problems, one is bound to go tits up.

We are all familiar with the inadequacies of the Thai postal service but we rarely speak about the lack of efficiency in our homeland. My BMW company pension and my British pension were both canceled in May because I hadn't received the life certificate forms sent to me through the Thai post. I sent emails to both organizations and received new forms from them per email, so far so good. I filled out the forms and sent them off with EMS confident that I would receive double payment in June, imagine my surprise when no money came in June either. Again I sent off emails asking why. The answers given were that they hadn't received the life certificate. I wrote several more emails explaining the situation in detail and received no reply. Now into July I used the EMS tracking service and found that both organizations had received the certificates on the 20th of June, leaving ample time I thought for payments to be made end of June. I decided to telephone them. I started with BMW Munich, the lady was polite and sympathetic but explained, after typing on her keyboard, that my life certificate wasn't in the system, my explanations regarding the EMS tracking service brought forward only, "Hmmm, yes, I don't know, perhaps it's delayed in another department, ring up in a couple of days time and if I haven't got it then do another one and email it to me and I will authorize payment." This caused me to lose my cool telling her she had had 16 days already to process my certificate, so much for German efficiency, like water off a ducks back. My telephone conversation with DWP had more success, 15 minutes of 'please hold the line or perhaps you would like to call later,' a friendly female voice greeted me, after the lady had typed on her keyboard, she told me that yes they had received it (success at last) but it was in another department being processed. "How long does this take", I fumed," You've had it for over two weeks", "Hmmm (the same Hmmm in Germany) yes well these things take time, it will all be finished in a few days time" "So DWP needs 3 weeks to process a simple document" "Apparently" she said laughing. Full marks though for EMS, they had delivered to both Germany and the UK from Isaan within 4 days.

Actually water buffaloes are very timid towards people normally....exceptions sometimes, if you are with a very large dog, great Dane size (it will go for the dog) or if they have a very young calf. Water buffaloes will stare at you if you walk past them but that is curiosity. There are many in my immediate neighbourhood and they will shy away from a 6 year old child.

After looking at the pic all I can say is fill your boots

Somehow I don't think they are bothered about what Somchai thinks, the air is rarefied in the circles they move in.

Maybe someone in the kitchen is gnashing his gums in anger at his lost teeth.

No, I was obviously fitter at 40 when I had all my own teeth but I still weigh the same 68 kilos but at 75 I still clamber on the roof to clean the rain gutters and go for long walks at 5 in the morning, genetically lucky. What I meant was my mental state; I feel more confident, at peace, grateful, I have made all my mistakes in the past but regret non of them and the future doesn't concern me, it is causal and beyond my control, ("there are paths that guide our way; rough hew them how we may"). it is as it is; I observe what happens with detachment; I am on the stage but also in the audience. I don't expect to reach 85, if I would then no doubt physical ailments would appear but that is a concern of the body and the 'me' that thinks it's real (even now). There is comfort in the inevitability of what will happen eventually.

Dry you out. The booze is just making things worse. We have all gone through difficult situations, life throws us challenges. You have only 3 possibilities, change the situation, leave the situation, accept the situation. Remember, no good or bad situations last forever. The stoic philosophical Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius once said, "You have power over your mind - not outside events, realize this and you will find strength". He also said, "Alter the things that you can and accept those you can't"; good advice. I wish you well.

You're right, nothing does, life is movement and change but it's important just to observe it and not take it personally, it isn't for anybody....it just is.

It isn't that easy, an epiphany doesn't come from reading a few books, I have been engaging with the 'hard problem' of brain and consciousness (how can something physical like the brain produce something non physical like the mind.....it can't) for almost thirty years. It starts with the feeling that something isn't quiet right. spiritual teachers often recommend reading Advaita Vedanta, a corner stone of the worlds oldest religion, Hinduism, I consider that too difficult to begin with. I would recommend watching some YouTube programs from the cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman about the illusion of reality and the end of spacetime as a basis for reality and go from there. An interesting documentary on YouTube is, 'is consciousness primary' by metaRising, they produce some good documentaries on the subject. Tony Parsons (YouTube) has some very radical views which are difficult to grasp for a beginner, he has written several books, his first is quite short, 'The open secret' which he wrote after having a spontaneous awakening while walking through a park in London where he realized that not only did he not exist but had never done so and for a few seconds he was the trees, the grass, the dogs etc. here my favorite excerpt:- "There is no me or you, no seeker, no enlightenment, no disciple and no guru. There is no better or worse, no path or purpose, and nothing that has to be achieved. All appearance is source. All that apparently manifests in the hypnotic dream of separation – the world, the life story, the search for home, is one appearing as two, the nothing appearing as everything, the absolute appearing as the particular. There is no separate intelligence weaving a destiny and no choice functioning at any level. Nothing is happening but this, as it is, invites the apparent seeker to rediscover that which is . . . the abiding, uncaused, unchanging, impersonal silence from which unconditional love overflows and celebrates. It is the wonderful mystery." At first I rejected it, only much later I came to see the truth in it, anyway, good luck.

No pain. My mental attitude towards life and death has changed enormously for the better over the years by privately studying the philosophy behind Buddhism and Hinduism and listening to physicists on YouTube such as Donald Hoffman and Thomas Campbell. I now appreciate that consciousness is the primary factor in the cosmos and that spacetime is just an interface for the manifestations of consciousness, after that comes the realization that all occurrences happen in the space of me but not to or for me. Basically we are the absolute but there is no you or me.......not everyone's cup of tea but it works for me.

Can't agree, at 75 I have never felt better.

Listening to his watch ticking.

What wall? it looks as if bits of the wall has collapsed and most of it is outside, it is most peculiar, it looks rather as if something has hit the wall in various places or an explosion has occurred and the wall has suffered Schrapnell damage.

Thailand has finally smelt the coffee, money is short everywhere throughout the world, average families are in a world of pain, no thoughts on exotic holidays.

To quote Mark Twain again, "If elections changed anything they wouldn't be allowed". The establishment doesn't take a beating lying down. Wongsuwan is probably the worst possible choice for Thailand but, like civil unrest, that wont faze the establishment as long as the machinery of corruption remains in their hands. There is hope that the civil servants, foot soldiers and other political parties will regard this attempt as too brazen even for Thai politics but scum has the propensity to swim to the top of dirty water.

It's more to do with high unemployment in China off late. Western firms are leaving China in droves, people with university degrees working as janitors, the mortgage debacle hasn't been resolved and according to one article on Youtube China has misrepresented its GDP to the tune of 16 trillion Dollars, the Chinese are not happy campers. I doubt they will get a million to come here.

So reality

and the national debt along with inflation

The UK probably wants cheap fruit for their food banks, the only organization on the island that is expanding.

Pita didn't get a majority of the electorate, his party had the most votes out of all the parties contesting which is why his government would be a coalition of 8 parties I believe, a recipe for disaster. It was pretty obvious that the Senate would blackball him as he was too radical in their opinion, he should have kept quiet about some of his policies. Opening up the alcohol market was especially dangerous, there are a couple of very big players who would be against this, one of them is very influential.

The Thai lawyer was jealous, he was ripping off the thief for far less which was (forgive the word) legal but he is being egotistical, the immigration office has many more mouths to feed.

So now they are low paid comedians, giggle while you scam.