LarryLEB

Food delivery and Lazada orders, I give 20 to 30 Baht in cash.  I never use the online tipping option because how do I know that the delivery person will actually get the tip?

These delivery people do not make much, so I'm happy to add the tip.

4 hours ago, hotchilli said:

Too bloody late you ignorant woman... now after your dog killed someone you say you want to give it away.

I think the term ignorant does not apply here unless she had no idea of the killing reputation of such dogs.  If she was aware of the many prior incidents with this breed, then the term stupid, not ignorant, applies.  In addition, not caring about the safety of others makes her callous and negligent,  at a minimum.

She should definitely be held legally responsible.

Our condo has 4 air cons.  As of last month, they are all now inverter.

We had been cleaning them every 6 months.  Going forward, we've decided to clean them every 4 months.  

Why?  The unit in one of the bedrooms was not installed exactly right and the runoff pipe tends to clog between around the 4 or 5 month mark, causing leaking water onto the bedroom floor.

I had the Shingrix vaccine done at Jomtien Hospital.  I paid 13,490 Baht.  That was the price in December 2023.

You couldn't make this stuff up! 

• Chishu Ryu (actor in many of Yasujiro Ozu's films; (Ozu is my favourite director, bar none).  Films include:  Tokyo Story (voted the greatest film of all time in the 2012 edition of a poll of film directors by Sight and Sound magazine) ; Floating Weeds, Good Morning, Late Spring, Early Summer.
• Takashi Shimura (200+ films, including 21 of Akira Kurosawa's 30 films).  Ikiru, (considered one of the greatest movies of all time) Seven Samurai, Sanjuro, High and Low, Kwaidan.
• Toshiro Mifune:  Seven Samurai, Rashomon, Yojimbo, High and Low, Throne of Blood, Red Beard.  Also, Hiroshi Inagaki's beautiful 1962 film Chushingura (in my opinion the best film about the 47 Loyal Retainers) as well as Inagaki's celebrated Samurai Trilogy. 
• Others:  Jean Gabin, Anthony Quinn, Peter Ustinov, Alec Guinness.

I recently finished the 3-volume biography of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmond Morris:  The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, and Colonel Roosevelt (and I'm not even American!).  Beautifully written, wonderfully detailed, and extensively referenced.  I see why it's often referred to as the definitive biography of "Teddy."  Great owning a Kindle!

Currently, I'm nearly finished The Complete Adventures of Feluda (volumes 1 and 2) by Satyajit Ray (the director of the acclaimed 1955 film, Pater Panchali).  These volumes are a collection of fictional short stories about an Indian private detective based in Calcutta.  His cases take him throughout India.  (also on Kindle)

Recently also was Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich.  The author (Nobel Prize winner) interviewed dozens of witnesses to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Next in line is Requiem for a Dream by Hubert Selby Jr. 

Read much?  I'm a book junkie.

6 hours ago, john donson said:

Arcoxia, yes, but don't overdo it

Buy generic etoricoxib.  Brand name Arcoxia (same ingredient) is overpriced.  90 mg once a day to start.  But, don't use it for more than 4 or 5 days in a row.

Sutherland was my favourite actor.  Never a bad performance.  Thanks for all the great memories...

22 hours ago, CanadaSam said:

As a couple of people have mentioned, the medicine the OP requires is freely available at many pharmacies.

 

I, however, have to visit the hospital every couple of weeks, and pay the doctor's consultation, and then I can only buy it in the hospital pharmacy (not available outside), and I'm talking about mild sleeping medication!

I am in the same position as you, CanadaSam.  I see a specialist every 6 months for a blood test due to the psoriasis meds that I take.  So, at the same time, I also have the same specialist order 6 months of my sleeping med.  No need for a separate consultation.

A couple of months ago, I visited a favourite restaurant for lunch in downtown Pattaya. It is a one-shophouse place open at the front; no air conditioning.  It has been a successful little restaurant for over 30 years.

I was happy to see the same owner, a Thai woman, still in charge.  We chatted during the lunch, and she mentioned that it was lucky that I had come for lunch and not for dinner.  She said that there is a cannabis shop on both sides of her restaurant now, and that from late afternoon onwards, the smell from pot smokers is overwhelming.  It has caused a decrease in her business.

Additionally, and more importantly, she lives above the restaurant (it's one of those 3-storey shophouses so common here).  Her mother, who is in her 80s's, lives with her above the restaurant.  The mother has asthma and has been having severe problems with the amount of cannabis smoke.  The owner said that she will likely have to close her shop and move elsewhere.  

I hope the recriminalization will save what is a very basic, but very good, place;  and will not force the owner to abandon her livelihood.

(Of course, this situation is caused by people not being responsible for their effect on others; rather than the issue of whether of not pot smoking has a negative impact on health.)  

On 3/19/2024 at 1:33 AM, mstevens said:

I am not saying you should take all of these, but this is my personal daily supplement regime:

 

Multivitamin

Vitamin K2 Mk7

Vitamin D (in the cloudy / wet months only)

Magnesium

Fish oil

 

A few notes:

- I agree 100% with the poster who mentioned not to skimp on fish oil. Buy the best you can afford. (I buy Carlson, Wild Norwegian, Elite Omega-3 Gems, Natural Lemon, 1,600 mg which is available on iHerb)

- A multivitamin is useful to fill in any gaps / deficiencies in your diet. Think of it as an insurance policy. Again, buy a good one.

- Vitamin D is a must if you don't spend much time outside in the sun. If you do spend a lot of time in the sun, you may not need it. I take 5000 IU of vitamin D daily for half the year.

- Vitamin K2 Mk7 is very good for bone health and driving calcium in to the bones (and away from the arteries). The Mk7 version is the best as it is the most easily absorbed.

- I take all my supplements in the morning, except for magnesium which I take twice a day, 150 mg in the morning and 150 mg at night.

 

No matter which vitamins you take and how high quality they are, your diet is even more important. Just which diet is best is very much a moot point and I don't want to mess with the thread by going down that path.....but please don't think that taking lots of high quality vitamins will make you healthy, as it won't necessarily. But it certainly will help. What you eat is the most important thing! Combining high quality vitamins with a great diet is the way to go.

AGREED regarding Vitamin K2 Mk7 for exactly the reason stated above.

RUTNIN eye hospital in Bangkok.  I have used them for several eye problems:  

• double vision in one eye - solved by corneal debridement (outpatient)
• macular pucker in other eye - couldn't be diagnosed in Pattaya [see below]
• retina checkups - because I have had a retinal tear in one eye and a vitreous hemhorrage in the other

I've been very satisfied with the medical care I've received at Rutnin.  I live in Pattaya, but is worth the trip.

I was advised by a private hospital specialist here in Pattaya to go to Rutnin because the Pattaya hospital didn't have the up-to-date latest equipment to confirm the macular pucker.  Rutnin had the necessary equipment.  Rutnin always updates its equipment with the newest technology.

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

When most people say they were "put under" they usually mean IV sedation with propofol. Because as far as they experience/recall they are knocked out suddenly and wake up when it is over. Actually they are (usually deeply) sedated but rousable during the procedure but due ot the agent used have no memory of any of it.

 

No place is using GA for this.  People just vary in what they call deep IV sedation.

 

 

Sheryl, as usual, is correct.   I have had three colonoscopies.  I was awake for all three, not 'put under."  

In 1983, I did all my own planning and bookings for a 6-month trip:  Canada to Tokyo to Hong Kong to Bangkok to INDIA to Bahrain to France to England, then back to Thailand.  No Internet, of course, so I spent a lot of time with the OH&R Guide ("Official Hotel and Resort" Guide).  I phoned the hotels myself and booked my own rooms.

I decided that the easiest way to see a lot of India was to book a guided tour for my 14 days there.  However, I booked a tour with a private car and driver, and with a private guide.  Travel between cities was by air.  I got to see a lot of India and in the kind of detail that I wouldn't have been able to alone.  It turned out that I was a tour group of only one person -- me.  I met other people on the same itinerary with the same tour company -- they travelled together as a group, and on the same flights.  The first flight was from Bombay (didn't become Mumbai officially until 1995) to Jaipur.  I got to know one couple from the  USA very well, and we kept in touch afterwards.

I had only two nights in Bahrain, so I booked a day tour there, which was going to be cancelled since I was the only one to book (a minimum of two was required).  So, I told them I would pay for two, and the tour went ahead.

From 1983 to 2011 (when I retired to Thailand), I spent my two-month annual vacations in Asia.  During that time, I did the following one-day tours:

• Ayutthaya, Thailand
• Tokyo, first day there to help get oriented
• Seoul, during a mandatory two-night stopover between flights

The above tours were the tour-bus type.  I wouldn't want to do more than one day by tour bus.

There was one more guided tour during this period:  a four-day tour of Angkor; this time by private car, driver, and guide, again. 

Until 2015, those were the only guided tours that I took.  In 2015, '17, and '19, my partner and I spent about 2 weeks each time in Japan.  We did several one-day guided tours:  Nara, Kyoto (three different times), Nikko, Kamakura, Tokyo, but it was just the two of us and the guide -- no group.  The guides were local people, experts, certified guides and very knowledgeable.  These tours made sure that we got to see what were the most important sites for us; and we were able to get answers to all our questions:  a great time!  More pricey, but customizable, and far more informative and pleasant than a group tour would have been.  In our opinions, good value for money.  The rest of the time we were on our own (easy to plan out with the Internet).  

In summary, I find that guided tours can have their uses, even though nearly all of my travels have been done without a guide or a tour.

renumerated ? ... switch the m and the n, please.

16 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

I just want to point out at this time that the medical burden of tourists on Thailands medical industry (i.e. cost of unpaid bills) is 300,000 Million Baht a year....   which is 1.5% of the income tourists bring to the medical industry which is 24 Billion Baht year.

 

So.. if foreigners stopped coming to Thailand, Thailands medical industry would be 23.7 Billion Baht per year worse off... 

 

 

At today's rate of exchange, 300,000 Million Baht equals 8.4 BILLION U.S. DOLLARS.  I suspect that your figure is incorrect. 

On 1/18/2024 at 11:14 PM, GammaGlobulin said:

I have, for many years, been looking here for CLOROX BLEACH, at a cheap price, just like it is available in North America.

 

I prefer Clorox Bleach, also.  Until about a year ago, it was available at a couple of the supermarkets in Pattaya.  Then, seemed to disappear.

A now buy Clorox Bleach from Lazada.  The 2-liter bottle is around 170 Baht + delivery.

What a joke (aka "it is to laugh")

6 hours ago, eyeman said:

 

I have CO2 measuring thing putting the aircon on can bring my room down from a stale 650 to 510 so there is definitely some exchange going on..

In our condo, the North end of each room is floor-to-ceiling glass, with half of that being the typical sliding panel.  These definitely do leak air.  For example, when we head to bed, the purifiers in our sitting/dining/kitchen area read 001 or 002 (PM2.5).  When we get up in the morning and turn them on, they (recently) have been starting at the 020 to 025 range (with the a/c off).  So, the polluted air does enter around the glass panels.