superal

Had my left eye done in the UK but never had an injection , only a series of eye drops . Post op I was given a plastic eye shield cover ( to wear when in bed ) that was taped to my cheek and forehead . It was to protect my eye from me inadvertently rubbing it when sleeping . I was also told no washing hair or water in the eye for 1 week and no air flights for 2 weeks . 6 eye drops a day . Also operation is apparently one of the commonest and straight forward operations performed globally however it still make sense to do a search on the hospital and surgeon IMO . Finally I have been told that cataract operations can cost as little as 22,000 baht in a Thai government hospital with the surgeon being a well qualified Ophthalmologist . The cataract operation will give you your youthful sight back and improve the quality of your life .

Is that £466.54 a marriage pension and please explain what a protected payment is , cos I have never heard of that .

So true but one thing we have learnt is that if you mention the threat of nuclear weapons the opposition backs down . The possession of nuclear weapons is meant to be a deterrent against nuclear war because of the potential global destruction . So Putin has used the threat that enabled him to attack Ukraine and be unopposed by NATO forces and he now has control of the chess board . NATO must be naive and unprepared as there have been altercations within Ukraine for 8 years . The writing was on the wall when Russia reclaimed Crimea . Will the west continue to watch the murder of innocent Ukraine citizens ? As it stands the western governments are prepared to let 100 s of 1000 s of innocent people get slaughtered , hoping that it will avert Putin pressing the button but there is no guarantee because he knows the west will back down again if he threatens nuclear weapons . Putin may not stop in Ukraine and he will take actions against all recent sanctions and possibly double the price of Russian oil & gas . As a footnote , I see next to no Thai TV coverage on this war and the Thai people I speak to have little or no knowledge of this event . Is this your experience too ?

Indeed , Ukraine on their own makes me feel sick and I have started to avoid watching the news because in my opinion NATO has blood on its hands because of a cowardly stance . It is prepared to supply arms but not fully engage the tyrannical Russian forces . In Putins eyes I would think that NATO are involved as accomplices of Ukraine by association . In the mean time the remaining Ukraine citizens in many towns and cities are struggling to live as they have no drinking water , food , heating , transportation , electric , health care or means of communication . I admire the volunteers who are very brave and humanitarians .

Her statement brought the threat of nuclear weapons by Putin . It seems that Putin has only to threaten or shout and the west back down . I hope I am right inasmuch that the western armies have a plan to either assassinate Putin or join up with the Ukraine forces to stop this slaughtering of innocent people . For 2 days now 2 cease fire corridors agreements , to enable Ukrainian people to flee to safety , have been reneged on with Russians gunning down women , children and the elderly on theses escape corridors . How the hell can the rest of the world stand by and witness theses atrocities is mind boggling and all because they are scared of Putin . I say hit Russia now with everything we have and at the same time disable nuclear storage sites . However there is one concern and that is his nuclear armed submarines and the thoughts of China . Would China come to the aid of Russia ? If Putin is not stopped now the rest of Europe are in danger .

I do not want to digress from the main topic but my thoughts are relevant . Russia is the 2nd biggest supplier of oil and gas in the world and any halt on buying either of the commodities will drive up prices at the fuel pumps and domestic heating bills to an extent that many families , globally , will be unable to run a car or heat their house . On the other hand , continuing to buy from Russia will fund Putins atrocities . International tourism will soon be put on the back burner because flying will become expensive and unsafe . Thailand needs to change its mindset and come to terms with the fact that the good old days are gone , drop all entry restrictions to fully vaccinated tourists or simply close the country to tourists completely , thus ending all the confusion on entry compliance to Thailand as a holiday or retirement destination . Also , never mind the tourism , Thailand needs to wake up and be thankful to and respect the expat retirees who support many Thai families and businesses .

Pot & kettle come to mind .

Agree that everyone is entitled to their opinion and you have the choice of talking to them or ignoring them . Keyboard warriors ? all part of the fun . It would be a boring world if we all had the same beliefs and controversy is the spark for debate . Treasure the free world and free speech because it may not be around for too long .

There will be corruption for sure cos that is how Thailand business works . What makes the brewing laws a farce is that I have seen boxes of fake canned Heineken lager , on the back of a motor bike trailer , coming over the Cambodian/ Thai border and being waved in by the Thai immigration . There was a video on you tube showing the manufacturing in what looked like a dirty Cambodian workshop . Further more , there was a time when you could order your favourite beer from an online store but the authorities put a stop on that with the excuse that under age folk were buying it . It is possible to buy some less popular beers from Tops but how do they get round the regulations of production rates ?

Well , many of the vegetables in Thai supermarkets come from China . Hate to think what chemicals or other stuff that they use . Certainly not disclosed or controlled . Most locally grown veg is labour intensive in Thailand and will almost certainly use some form of fertiliser , however what is a concern are the farmers who take tanker loads of untreated excrement taken from domestic cesspits and spread it over their land and then plant on it . That can cause serious health problems to the end user , especially salad items that are not cooked . Small time growers are much safer and cheaper and their profit margins are lower so normally cheaper to buy .

But if we were paid a decent pension , the UK government would not be able to afford to look after all of the immigrants and I like to see people who have made zero contributions get maximum benefits at our expense . Worked nearly 50 years with full contributions ( sometimes in excess of £200 a week when on good earnings ) for less than £200 a week pension . Imagine if my contributions had been paid into a Swiss pension , I would probably be on nearly double .

Unfortunately Russia is not party to the ban on cluster bombs along with the Ukraine and the USA , my Google search tells me and also there are no bans on the vacuum bombs but if used against civilians that becomes a war crime .

When Ukraine became am independent state in 1991 it inherited a huge stock of USSR nuclear weapons that had been stored on the Ukraine's land ( formerly Soviet Union land ) . Ukraine was persuaded to denuclearise in 1994 with the assurance that if they destroyed their nuclear weapons and be party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons , they would receive military help under the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances which was made up by the following countries , Russia , UK , USA , Ukraine . Now totally ignored . Indeed the free world should be ashamed of leaving Ukraine to fight the mighty Russian troops alone , I am really hoping that we send troops to help and not just sanctions . People are dying as of today . Stop them now and after contain the country . BTW , we cannot generalise on Russians , as there will be many good people , as shown recently on TV . It is my belief that Thailand will stand neutral and will leave all the doors open to all countries who wish to trade with them . Having said that , Thailand & China cannot be criticised for abstaining when we have the likes of Boris saying in the House of Commons yesterday that Russia has committed war crimes by using cluster and vacuum bombs and also targeting civilians . Yet the UK are supplying arms to the Ukrainians but stop short of sending in forces . The west is guilty of neglect and cowardice when watching Hitler mark 2 ( Putin ) destroy a desperate nation . Biden is just as guilty , with all his rhetoric , siding and then applauding the Ukraine ambassador to the U.S.A. , same as BJ did yesterday in the HOC . I watched the morning BBC news yesterday when a Ukrainian lady was being interviewed on line and at the end of her talk she swore saying fxxx you . There followed an apology from Dan Walker ( sat in a warm studio drinking hot tea ) for the bad language but I thought she was right to let her plead be heard in the strongest way . I do not condone swearing on early morning TV but in this case we were watching and listening to a very desperate lady who could be near to death from Putins forces . Russia will have certain countries that will be in its alliance because of potential future trade or the concern over departing from the communist belief in the way of living .

Hate to say it but there is an element of truth in your post . However when this event hopefully comes to a safe non-nuclear conclusion , the countries who failed to condemn Russian actions will ostracised . It is my belief that Thailand will follow China to a neutral position and abstain from taking sides .

Covid stats reporting would be more useful if they were giving local figures i.e. province and town , if indeed the testing criteria is country wide .

UK lottery ticket is £2 Wed & Saturday draw . The Euro lottery ticket is £2.50 and Tues & Friday draws. Tis about time the Thai lottery system was updated by going online and using machines installed in say 7-11s , designed for the lottery that enable you to either choose your numbers or go for a lucky dip . As of now you have to troll through lottery slips to find your preferred/ lucky numbers . The current lottery vendors could still sell the underground lottery tickets

There is a reason that he talks when sitting at the far end of a very long 6 meter table . Reports said to avoid the covid virus but some say to give him plenty of warning space between him and a possible assassin .

NATO led coalition forces took out Libya under Gaddafi because of civilian uprising against Gaddafi . NATO knew they would win as they had superior armed forces . However , now they are standing by and witnessing the slaughter of Ukrainian civilians , including young children . Plus Russia is now using cluster bombs in towns and cities . Cluster bombs are prohibited under international law for the last 10 years or so . That means Russia are committing war crimes but that is not enough for the cowardly NATO to get involved , they prefer to watch a man drown rather than try to save him

Have to comment on the benefits . To qualify for most of the benefits you almost have to be a pauper as I found out when I enquired . Benefits are based on your level of total income and your property valuation as unearned income . Some might say that you are better off not having savings and make NIC s as low as possible as you will qualify for the benefits .It is also unfair that a UK pensioner will have to pay for expensive dental services . Finally , when you enrol / sign up for the UK state pension there is within the small print an article that states if you choose to retire abroad your pension will be frozen with an exception to a few reciprocal countries and that is why any appeal will always lose . Indeed the pension rules need to be reviewed as they are out of date and do not take into today's ways of living/ retiring .

Started today here in Issan because the typical heavy and round painted concrete table in my place was hot to the touch at 2 00 pm . Air con needed in the early hours but morning it is a chilly 15 c .

Russia has the most nuclear stock in the world along with America . Will take 1 hydrogen bomb which is 1000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atom bomb and it would cast the globe into a nuclear winter for 4 years or more , massive radiation globally , destroy the ozone layer and halt agricultural farming for 20 years . I am not scare mongering , you can Google the facts . Finally , this part of the world would be the safest place to be to escape the effects , apparently .

They thought he was bluffing by lining up 190,000 troops and armoury and he even said that it was a military exercise , then bang , he invaded Ukraine . We do not know for sure if he is bluffing but it is one hell of a gamble with the end of civilisation as we know it at stake . If he takes Ukraine , he has already told NATO that he wants an area of land from every NATO country bordering west of Ukraine e.g. Poland , Moldova , Hungary etc as a buffer zone and that will trigger world war 3 as NATO have said they will resist and defend any NATO country . The USA already have sent troops to every neighbouring country .

Exactly . Now he is feeling the pinch and defeat a possibility which he never factored in with his invasion plan . Now like a cornered rat and will press the button , rather than back down . In the meanwhile global governments concentrate on sanctions which will be effective later on but right now we have a maniac who is prepared to annihilate the world . Something has to be done asap , even if it means surrendering and take him out when the heat is off . When he hits that button it is too late . Just hoping that we have intelligence monitoring his movements , especially if he makes his way to a nuclear shelter .

State media lies ? yes that is true, however many Russians are aware of that and get the true news via the internet and spread the word by mouth . Lets not forget that there are related families in both Ukraine and Russia and there is a certain reluctance from some of the Russian troops to assault Ukrainians according to a SKY TV report . Despite huge foreign reserves , Putin is now concerned that his war strategy is collapsing around him and his huge personal wealth is disappearing at a rapid rate , along with the dirty money held by the oligarchs . Also the Russian public are realising that they are being cut off from the rest of the world . Finally , Putin's invasion was prompted by an agreement with NATO some years ago when NATO agreed to having a strategic gap between Russian boundaries and any NATO nation . There was intent/ discussions on the Ukraine joining NATO which Putin said broke the treaty . Ironically if Russia secure the Ukraine they will have borders with several NATO countries and then what ?

Considering what Vlad The Unhinged had to say this morning it may not be far off, unfortunately. That would be uncalled for because the majority of the Russian population are against the invasion of Ukraine . Putin is the target , dead or alive , sooner rather than later .Isn't that what happened in the middle east in the recent years i.e the leading tyrants taken out ?