rickudon

Witness protection - an oil barrel and concrete.....

Have twice been chased by Thai drivers after a single warning toot. I wait in the car for them to come to me. They cannot see if I have a weapon, and have retreated each time.

A few points. First, I have never actually seen a motorcycle helmet on sale for 99 baht. I do not go looking for them because I avoid riding on bikes as much as possible. Most motorcycle accidents happen at low speed, even a cheap helmet increase your chances of avoiding serious injury. Have to start somewhere. Second, Driver education. It should be compulsory to get a licence, and be more extensive. Even free courses would save lives and the country money. Third, and no-one else has mentioned this, Compulsory TV averts on the dangers of not following safety rules. I have never seen one on Thai tv. In the UK, they appear quite regularly. 'Clunk click every trip', does that ring a bell? I do know that 2 car accidents I walked away from would have been an entirely different outcome without a seatbelt. Every single one of my Thai nephews and nieces have had motorbike accidents which required hospitalisation. Roads in Thailand are like a battlefield.

So all the growers are offloading their stock to stupid female drug mules, explains a lot of the recent Cannabis busts from tourists on their way home!

I hope they are aware of Google's disclaimer:-

Another wonderful appointee. Just like the new acting head of FEMA, who apparently didn't know that that the USA has a Hurricane season!

Alternatively, maybe with so many migrants to round up and deport, security personnel are to busy to look for drugs.....

Certainly seems all these stupid women have somethings in common - obsessed with their looks, no real job and probably no academic qualifications. I guess it comes down to become a drug mule or a prostitute; all they are good for.

When i first came to Thailand 15 years ago, i got a quote - about 20% of my monthly income..... haven't bothered since.

Don't care about Bangkok, but here in Udon Thani we have had well over 30 cm in May. Have some ponds overflowing - usually takes until August/September, if at all. Definitely wettest since 2010 (probably wetter than that year).

Where are the snails coming from? Prevention is better than cure. Spend a couple of hours looking for snails and removing hiding places. Works for me, only find a couple of snails a week, without really looking for them.

Reality. At the current death rate, if everybody in Thailand caught this version of Covid, 2,000 people would die. Compare that to the annual road death rate. if they all caught Flu, it would kill 3 times as many. No need for panic.

A few facts: 1. for every one degree centigrade rise in air temperature, the water vapour holding capacity increases by 7%. Higher temperatures also mean higher evaporation, so it is actually more likely that higher levels of saturation will be reached. Many studies suggest that rainfall intensity (amount falling in a given period of time) has increased up to 15% in the last 25 years. this can lead to more flash floods and more erosion. 2.Glaciers in central Europe have lost 39% of their volume in the last 25 years. Globally, loss has been 5%. 3. sea level rise, this averaged out as about 1.5 mm per year in the 2oth Century. In the 21st Century, this average is over 3 mm per year. In 2024, this increased to nearly 6 mm for the year. 4. Floods and droughts. Increased rain intensity has led to more floods. Conversely, higher rates of evaporation are leading to more droughts. 5. wildfires. in the last 21 years, extreme wildfires have become more frequent, more intense and burned larger areas. mainly affecting boreal forests in North America and Siberia. 6. in the 21st century, average temperature has increased by about 0.3 degrees Centigrade per decade. this rate is slowly increasing. It is easy to extrapolate that if the rate stays the same, 1.5 degrees centigrade of warming will almost certainly be reached by 2030 and 2 degrees by 2050.

Unfortunately need brackish water for breeding. Most of the giant prawns are grown near the coast. In Isaan, have been told supply of prawn larvae is a monopoly - they want you to sign up to a contract for larvae, feed and harvest of adult prawns. You take all the risks and they charge you over the top for everything - they make all the profit. There is a market for small wild shrimps (like you get in Pad Thai), But harvesting is labour intensive. My Mother-in-law did it for a while but too old now, I have dug a number of small ponds. and if the shrimps thrive, may try catching them. Will be about a year before i can assess stocks. Can find nothing on the internet about this, just have to go by what is known about shrimp ecology from USA or similar.

Who froze tax allowances, child benefit and tried to impose 1% pay rises on all public sector workers? 2010-2025 saw the biggest fall in inflation adjusted income under the Tories and students being saddled with probably the highest level of student debt in Europe. Brexit just added another layer of toxic icing. This just pushed more people onto the welfare state. Oh and also highest levels of migration ( Mainly of those from India, which put pressure on better paid jobs).

Cheese is a matter of taste. I admit to not liking most continental cheeses, either to waxy or rank. only one i like is brie. Plenty of other types of British cheese, Cheshire, Wensleydale. Double Gloucester, but rarely available here and always expensive (4-5 times as much). The Aro Cheddar is actually not to bad, better than the mild cheap stuff in UK supermarkets. mainly use cooked (on toast, toppings). As for your other products, do not eat cornflakes; i get Muesli at about 150 baht a kilo (cheaper if i make myself) and practically never buy chocolate in Thailand as also overpriced. I do like the odd McVitie's Chocolate digestive, which are a similar price here to the UK (but frequently welded together!). If you are rich enough, you can buy what you want. But most of us have to live on a budget. So i buy very few European products, only locally made versions (if good enough, but reasonable quality harder to find). My diet is about 90% Asean sourced. Just takes a while to find what you want. Been here long enough to have done this.

In our village, rarely see them at our house. Down on the farm, used to see quite a few, but since everyone installed loads of solar powered security lights, they have gone.

I have moderate BPH, and CKD. Finally got fed up with the slightly increased urinary frequency, urgency(once i feel a need to go, i have to go if standing up VERY soon) and weak flow. Urologist put me on Duodart. Didn't notice much change at first - but after a month or two flow had improved; subsequently I have found that ejaculation takes a lot longer and volume decreased, but if anything erections are better and no effect on Libido. I can get through the night without urinating, as long as i go after midnight before sleeping - wake up around 5 a.m., when i get up have to go quickly and usually again two times in next 2 hours. After that frequency is ok. Urgency is still an issue when i do need to go and emptying bladder not wonderful, get some leakage if too quick afterwards. On the whole, i can live with it.

If it was profitable to exploit what remains (there are a range of values, but your 30 years is at the top end) oil companies would do so. Oil price is same as it was 15 years ago, it just isn't economic to invest in trying to increase production. The oil companies just want to take what they can from existing wells without spending more. If oil price were to double, maybe interest would grow.

Yes. Compared 400 gram Sainsbury's block to one kilo block. No wastage. Actually did the maths and Makro block is actually about 10% cheaper. Smaller pieces of cheese in Thailand are double the cost. Sometimes freeze part of the block - perfectly ok when thawed again.

The soil in our family's paddy fields is so awful, that without chemicals etc. we get only 3 bags per rai average (about 120 kilos) after milling about 60 kilos. With ploughing, harvesting done by machine (or paid labour), seed costs etc, it costs 2-3,000 baht a rai to grow it. We do not grow any more, cheaper to buy rice. I have converted my wife's field into fish ponds and hopefully fruit trees ( the soil is still awful, but mangoes seem to survive so far). Maintenance is less an do get some fish and fruit.

Sad. I am a liberal person, but there is a point at which we have to ask does the government have to pay for every perceived need? The welfare state should cover basic needs, not provide individual tutors for every student who has some problems. If speech and language therapy needed. cannot we train the parents to provide most of it? I agree with free normal education, free health care, state pension and limited unemployment benefit. Everything else should be on a cost/benefit analysis - if the benefit isn't high enough, do not expect the government to pay for it. There is a place for workfare - get benefits (including some money) for doing work which benefits society and the environment.

Two-thirds of all North sea oil has already been pumped. In the UK sector, the only unexploited reserves are in smaller fields and are probably uneconomic to develop at current prices. The last major oil field to be discovered in the UK sector was over 25 years ago. Trump, as usual, knows nothing. North sea gas also declining, at current rates, it will only last another 14 years

Cheese - basic cheddar one kilo block is now under 300 baht in Makro - a lot less than one baht a gram (30 satang) similar price to UK.

I sometimes grow real spinach. Not easy in Thailand. Only cool season and only successful sometimes. needs shade. hard to get the seeds, usually from UK.