BoganInParasite

The Thai wife and I would prefer to keep details of our first meeting private...but just quietly...it fits the question.

Was well within that period...only 2 days past the 90 days reporting date. Says so in the first line of my comment. Perhaps full strength has slipped into the bottle.

Four or five reports back I was two days past the due date when I went in person to my local IO to get it done. (Deliberate decision by me since it lined up a couple of other things I had to get done in the city so only one trip.) The officer berated me for being late and stressed she was doing me a great favour by not fining me. I quietly but firmly told her she was talking nonsense and (perhaps foolishly) challenged her to make a bigger issue about it. She didn't. Never saw her again...she had been in that IO from my first visit in mid-2018. Was the same person that misled my wife on documentation requirements on the phone as we were preparing to do in and seek the first extension.

I've no idea...perhaps surprisingly.

Not seeing any indication of price reductions in the supermarkets. Everytime I notice a price change it is always up, and seemingly beyond official inflation rate. Been this way for several years now.

Got my renewed Aussie passport via the Bangkok embassy earlier in the year. The new passport turned up without it but two days later the letter arrived in the mail with no explanation. Provided the letter and a copies of it when I did the visa transfers but don't recall if the IO took much notice of it, they gave the original back to me. (As an aside I wondered what new requirements the IO would throw at me this year for the marriage extension application and as a precaution had two copies of every page of my old passport with me in case it was something to do with that document. Nothing. As far as I can tell the only new requirement was two copies of my last 90 day report which I had as well. Don't recall they've ever asked for that previously.)

We had Allied Pickford handle the Brisbane packing/despatch and Bangkok port receiving/clearance and delivered our 20 foot container to Nan and unloaded. Absolutely superb service with the Bangkok to Nan portion being much less cost than you would expect even with four staff in the truck. Also we negotiated the insurance cost down by half by only wanting coverage for total loss, rather than loss or damage. We were also fortunate in being able to do the transaction in my Thai wife's name since she had lived for a time in Australia. Made customs/excise going very smooth. We were able to track the ship...Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Singapore, KL and Chonburi (I think)...a real old slow boat to Thailand trip.

The Chinese economy is showing every sign of imploding. Yes it has been predicted a few times recently and it seems to struggle along, but there are now clear signs the central government is losing control of the situation and doesn't know how to respond. (Apart from no longer reporting certain statistics such as youth unemployment and the bond market it finds embarrassingly negative.) I just don't see the Chinese middle class from having the appetite let alone the money for international travel.

Live in Nan province, wife owns and runs an extremely well regarded homestay. There is no appetite in the province for groups of Chinese tourists. Loud, barging and ungracious groups would be an anathema to much of what gives Nan province a special appeal. There is some interesting historical reasons multigenerational Nan province residents have an elevated dislike of the Han Chinese. To add a little twist, the Burmese caused it.

I gave up on Thai bread. About 18 months ago started to learn how to make my own white bread, took a while to perfect but it is now pretty good. Now also do a whole wheat bread and a spiced fruit bread. And soft white sandwich rolls, and crusty dinner rolls. Wife and friends all enjoy them.

Will not change the fact that Modi is a dictator with little regard for other cultures/ethnicities in the country, albeit, a validly elected dictator.

And who is vetting the vettors, and so on?

Had it for 21 years nows. Still remember the morning I woke up with the sound of metallic cicadas in my head. Got myself checked and had no accompanying loss of hearing but no solutions were offered. There is a ton of videos on YT of seemingly credible medical qualified folks suggesting solutions. Most seem to be around training the brain to tune out the noise. I've been too lazy to try...for other reasons. Seems being caused by underlying and fixable medical conditions is a small minority.

Well thank God he didn't get done for picking mushrooms in a forest.

We see no evidence at all that anyone uses TA when looking to book accomodation in our remote northern part of Thailand. The very first review the wifes homestay got on TA was a 1/5 from someone who had not stayed and clearly posted against the wrong property. TA refused to remove. So we promptly delete a few emails every month from TA trying to upgrade her membership (at our cost) 'for more bookings'. Bizarrely all her subsequent reviews on TA have been 5/5 and her homestay has been number 1 rated in our area for four years.

Nan.

Thinking it would be prudent to put a bet down for the next coup to be in 5-6 years. MFP gets an overwhelming majority at the next election and the elites/military than reassert dominance after a period of muddying the waters.

I took Saw Palmetto for years and until recently was up to three 200mg capsules in the late afternoon. It was definitely effective for me but this year I had begun to feel less so. So in the last two months I tapered off and stopped them, started the 16/8 hour daily fast (eat only between 6am and 2pm in my case), eat a bit less and better and have dropped off 8 kgs (a <deleted>-ton more needed). I'm finding the prostrate issues as measured by frequency of pisses particularly overnight is improved. I find the 16/8 fast easy and having no problems coping with it even while reducing my food. Soon (or later) I need to introduce exercise (beyond lawn mowing) to the regime but eventually I know some form of surgical intervention will probably be likely.

Thinking much easier to quietly put him up in a VVIP suite in a military type hospital. Part of a larger script I'm sure.

So they are professionals then...

Interesting coincidence because I dropped my Aussie mate off to the airport to return home from a visit a year ago today. Which means I haven't had alcohol (usually beer) for one year today. Not sure why. I also haven't had a conversation with anyone other than the wife for the same period. Don't really like interacting with people.

Took me 5+ years to train my wife on how to treat/store cooked or raw foods...and she was a highly trained and experienced nurse. But I also bent a little in the last five years as I observed very few Thais seemingly getting sick from the practices I opposed. In fact up here is Pua there are far more stories of Thais getting sick (parasites) from eating raw meats of various descriptions than food poisoning. Some of it results are the stuff of nightmares and funerals.

Up here in Pua the full cream milk shortage has been evident since early June. This is our fifth year here and I don't recall previous milk shortages. As I've commented before we are somewhat used to being on the end of an unreliable supply chain.

Been down on supply in Pau in northern Nan province for a couple of weeks but almost none in any store last three days. This morning managed to pick up four 200 mls and two 450 mls bottles so got to avoid a shopping trip to Nan for a few more days at least. I'm used to Pua being on the end of unreliable supply chains (particularly during COVID) but this is the worst I've seen for milk.

If I ever returned to Australia and had to live in a city, I'd choose Brisbane. Tried to settle there twice and only lasted six months each time before being lured to overseas jobs, first Singapore and Phoenix the second time. Phoenix, now there's a boring city.