Gecko123

Has the feel of a final warning, if you ask me.

rainy weather => no foot traffic => no money => grumpy mood

More power to you, but I'd say that's pretty behind the times in terms of licensing standards. In most states in the US if corrective lenses are required to pass vision test it's specified on the driver's license. Also, in many states - but not all - once a driver hits senior citizen status an in person renewal application is required, and renewal periods are shortened, reflecting that driving skills often deteriorate as people age.

I've long been convinced that a lot of accidents in Thailand are caused by people who should be wearing glasses when they drive but aren't, either out of vanity or having more pressing financial pressures. Thailand needs to start specifying on driver's licenses if corrective lenses are required to drive safely as a first step towards pressuring people to make sure their eyesight is adequate to drive safely.

First things first: How much does the OP drink and smoke? If answer to either or both questions is "heavily", dietary changes will probably have only limited benefit. Other remedial recommendation: chew your food thoroughly.

Headline should should read: "Comb over mystery solved once and for all!"

May garner initial sympathy, but also serves as a reminder of what a polarizing and divisive person he is. There was an assassination attempt in Las Vegas during the 2016 campaign. I don't recall any bump in the polls as a result.

The Supreme Court's recent decisions to broaden criminal immunity for presidents and weaken other democratic safeguards could be fueling perceptions that political violence is one of the few available means left to remove or prevent someone with authoritarian and lawless tendencies from remaining in or obtaining office.

Suppose you successfully kick somebody's butt. Then what? If they know where you live, you'll be looking over your shoulder until the day you move. Plus there's the risk that you could be seriously or fatally injured by something/somebody you didn't see coming. Don't fight back; go to the police is my best advice.

Hey tough guy... Try pulling a stunt like that on a NYC subway car and see what happens.

I'm sorry to say that you're probably right. Although they seem to have a strong bond and commitment to their marriage, the anti-Americanism and racism certain elements of the British populace have directed towards her have undoubtable had a corrosive effect on their marriage.

For the record, he's a Harvard Law School graduate.

Thanks for the tip. Tried this out on the kitchen counters this morning and results were very promising.

Almost no insects in house, only occasional mosquito, occasional ant invasion.

The RN may be disappointed, but more people love France and are proud to be French today than the day before. Don't be fooled by Bardella's youth and charm, he is a sinister man. The French have first hand experience about what happens when the extreme right gets into power (Hitler, Mussolini, Franco), and were justifiably alarmed by this prospect. Thank goodness they made the right choice. Vive la France.

Who you talking about? Rishi Sunak? Elizabeth Truss? Boris Johnson?

Breath of fresh air. Nice to see someone telling it like it is.

Have you ever gone on a jing-jok killing spree? Not necessarily proud of it, but I just finished my first. And I’m not promising it will be my last. Some background. There’s a gap at the top of the back kitchen door which they can crawl through, and over the years they had just about taken over the house. In every room, on every wall, on the ceilings, behind curtains, all over the place. Over the years, I guess I learned to live with them, and because I never did anything about it, they pretty much lost fear of me. Some of these jing-joks, I’m guessing here, might have been tenth generation house guests. My list of grievances was pretty long. Defecating on freshly washed dishes and pots and pans hanging on the kitchen walls. May have been responsible for an expensive washing machine repair. I also started wondering if all these lizard droppings were good for my respiratory health, and whether constantly seeing things scurrying on the walls and ceilings was good for my mental health. How long, I wondered, before I started seeing pink elephants? My snapping point was watching two of them chasing each other in the cutlery cannister, playfully jumping from spoon to fork to knife and back again. So, armed with a fly swatter, I went to war. None were spared. Not jing-joks already missing tails. Not elderly jing-joks. Not newborn or juvenile jing-joks. Not pregnant jing-joks. Nor did I discriminate based on skin color: light complected and dark complected jing-joks all met the same fate. Some of the craftier ones were systematically hunted down. In a few cases, furniture was moved in the process. One thing I noticed was that after the first round of killings, word got out fast. When I entered a room, any still surviving jing-joks ran for cover like their lives depended on it, which, of course, it did. It was like, ‘Did you see what happened to Freddy? Looked like he got hit by a bus or something.’ I know there’s gonna be a few people who perhaps disapprove, but I want to report that my sense of well-being has markedly improved as a result. Feels like my house is my house once again. Sorry little fellas, but I felt like it had to be done.

@MalcolmB What happened to Mr. Big Plans? All of a sudden it sounds like all you're doing is going out looking to get laid and getting hammered. What happened to learn Thai, get married, give wedding speech in Thai, build house, invest in rental properties, get citizenship? Has that all gone up in smoke? You sound like a troubled soul, and I've got news for you: Thailand can be very unkind to troubled souls. Thailand knows how to chew up and spit guys like you out so fast it will make your head spin. Seen it happen dozens of times. Just a word of caution. I just want to tell you that I have found all of your comments about drinking and driving to be absolutely appalling. Intoxication/inebriation increases the risk of having an accident. Period. The fact that someone may not ever have had an accident despite frequently driving intoxicated is totally irrelevant. We're talking well-documented statistical probabilities here, not asinine and probably fabricated personal anecdotes. And what happened to Mr. 'I-Love-and-Respect-Thai-People-too-too-much'? What kind of example are you setting for Thailand's people by driving around drunk all the time and what kind of respect are you showing by endangering everyone else on the road by your behavior? As a guest in this country, and as someone who has no doubt been exposed to far more driver safety education than most Thais, you should be setting the highest possible road safety example. Again, I am absolutely appalled by your comments.

Thank you for speaking out about this problem

It was most likely playful horseplay gone terribly wrong. The guy simply misjudged the amount of protection the costume padding provided. His companion appears to be smiling which suggests that it was done playfully. The stance the guy took when delivering the punch (he does not appear to have put his full body into the punch) does not suggest that his intention was to injure the guy either. Poor choice for a horseplay target, but my guess is that's about it.

The "poo" is far more likely to hit elsewhere in the world. People will be running to Thailand not the other way around. Don't see any 'Hotel Rwanda' scenarios in Thailand's foreseeable future.

Re: Barbados Virtually all islands (incl Philippines) have been scratched off my plan B list due to sea level rise and hurricane/typhoon risk.

You've made some very interesting observations. You're right that most guys out in the countryside seem to be homebodies, and I am one as well. I don't consider myself a hermit but the homebody lifestyle comes naturally to the rural lifestyle. In the past few years I've been on this kick about trying to be a better neighbor, which mainly has consisted of planting extra food in the vegetable garden and giving it away to many of the households in my immediate area. This has really helped develop a sense of giving back to the community and developing goodwill and more neighborly relations. With all the anti-immigrant sentiment circling the globe these days, I also look at it as investment in case there's ever a pogrom in Thailand. When you get in sync with the rhythm of the village, that's when you see just how hard people are working. Someone who sleeps in until 10 am can be oblivious that someone's been up since 4 in the morning loading a truck or working on a tractor engine. Just working in my garden for 3-4 a day, with the luxury of cooling off in the house any time I feel like it is exhausting enough. I have nothing but the highest level of respect for anyone who puts in 8 hours a day or more doing field work. My observation about village women isn't necessarily that they're necessarily all beauty queens or rocket scientists, but where they excel is having sunny dispositions, being affable, and being committed to the marriage long term. The vast majority are hard working, don't smoke, do not drink heavily, have outgoing personalities, and manage the household finances well. You constantly hear on this forum that Thai men are prone to doing runners after starting families, but what people don't realize is how truly dependent farming husbands and wives are on each other. The wife is dependent on the husband to operate the farm, and the husband is dependent on his wife to manage the household and raise the children. Somebody bails out on the marriage in that situation, both parties are dramatically worse off. Quite an incentive to stay in the marriage. I can't say I'm strongly sexually attracted to many women in the village, but the vast majority seem like they are fulfilling their wifely duties, they all have nice personalities and charm and the husbands seem to be content. I do not hear reports of domestic violence, and there are very few screaming matches, that sort of thing. While many of the prettiest and academically on the ball young women head to big cities for school or work, you're right in saying that it's kids from neglected and dysfunctional families who are most likely to end up in red-light districts. It's an obscene lie for people to say that farm girls are regularly pushed into that lifestyle by avaricious parents. Only in the most dysfunctional families, usually scarred by drug abuse, alcoholism, or multi-generational prostitution does that occur. My next door neighbor, Laem, who now only comes home at irregular intervals after taking a truck-driving job with Izuzu, used to tell me some really juicy stories about people in town.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Just a quick exchange of notes: I eat plenty of hummus, baba ghanoush (made with Thai eggplant and sesame seeds), black/red bean chilis, feta salads, bitter melon with egg, shiitake mushrooms. Year round veggies from the garden: green beans, bitter melon, eggplant, corn peppers, basils, carrots, collard, cilantro, etc. 20 years ago, without a car, I ate strictly what could be found at the local talaat nat, but have gradually shifted over time to a more Western diet, motivated mainly by a desire to eat a balanced more varied, healthy diet, but perhaps also because I found I missed some foods from back home. I fully understand that on paper 500 baht for day would sound high, but that works out to 15,000 baht per month, and unless you eat like a bird, or eat a strictly vegan diet, I really don't think that it's excessive. The cost drivers are things like coffee, cooking oils (olive and avocado), nuts, chocolate, and imported fruit, and seafood. One thing you said which surprised me was that you think nuts are unhealthy. I'm under the impression that they are extremely heart healthy, rich in fiber, healthy fats, etc.