rickudon

Owls ill-health might have been Covid. It finally got me 2 weeks ago, headache and severe fatigue, took a test 3rd day and positive - daughter also unwell so she was then tested and positive also. Wife panicked and took her to hospital for 3 days..... leaving me at home with my son who had just arrived from the UK. Other family lurkers evaporated for 4 days, until i recovered. Food supplies got a bit low, had to order some takeaways. Some of the others had been unwell the week before but wouldn't test. M-in-L has only just recovered after 3 weeks - at 80 and only one vaccination she is lucky. Still a bit tired, need a nap if i do any work. Although a fair bit of rain over the last month, ponds have gone up only a bit (some banks overflowed). Worst flooding on the Roads was July. Did Khon Kean zoo on Saturday, was pleasantly surprised, but visiting at this time of year not pleasant as a bit hilly and exhausted after one and a half hours due to the humidity. Just got to see most of it and then a big storm - was soaked and still damp when we got back to Udon. Caught a bit of a chill. A week or 2 before i am back to grass cutting.

since Covid 2 weeks ago find have to take a couple of naps during the day - especially after any activity.

British University education Has become a disaster since you have to pay for it. In the 60's and 70's, you got free tuition and modest grants towards living costs. About 10% went to university and many would quickly get a job afterwards with some relevance to their degree. By your late 20's you were buying a house and thinking of having a family. Now, 50% go to university, many to pretty useless courses. By the time you finish you have 60,000 GBP of debt at interest rates of up to 6%, most are still paying it off in their 40's - latest estimates are that nearly half will still be paying it off in their 50's, if ever. These debts and crippling house prices mean many will never buy their own homes, and marriage and having a family is out of the question without 2 incomes. Few graduates get a job related to their degree - and most now need to do a masters course (more debt) to stand out from the crowd. Getting a graduate level job can take years, and you earn less than those who left school at 18 and went straight into skilled work. Typically you have to apply for hundreds of jobs to get one. As nurses and those who previously did apprenticeships were encouraged/forced to go to University, there is a lack of skilled manual workers (electricians, plumbers, carpenters etc.) so they now earn more than graduates. The universities themselves have become commercialised - it is all about getting the tuition fees in and spending that money - and because the students pay, you cannot fail them anymore easily, or they sue. International students especially prized as you charge more. Only people who positively financially benefit from University are doctors and lawyers. University education should be rationed to a countries needs and to those with sufficient academic ability, for most people apprenticeships, on the job training and specific courses for specific skills are more useful - and the employers KNOW what they need. The whole world is overflowing with university graduates for whom there are no jobs.

2 Moderna in 2021 in the UK and one AstraZeneca this year in Thailand. Covid confirmed by a test 9 days ago, lasted 4 days. mainly like a cold but had one day mainly in bed. Daughter also confirmed same day as me, sick 2-3 days. Other people - Brother and his wife in the UK both got it in 2022, son in Africa got it late 2021, other Thai family members - 4 probables (untested) all this year. M-in-L seems to have some long Covid - hasn't done any work outside for 3 weeks.

Lost count of the number of dogs which are sleeping in the road and do not move until you are a metre away, and out of sight; also dogs running across the road in front of the car. Only hit 3 dogs so far, 2 at very low speeds, third ran into the radiator grill (running at high speed). When your car gets damaged, no one owns the dog ..... Dog catchers could make a living keeping the sois clear. 24 hours to collect or it's soup!

A bit like the life insurance with profits plans sold in UK back in the 80's. Although they didn't go bust, the pay out was derisory - I was in a plan for 15 years, and got back barely more than i paid in, about one third of projected value. An ordinary savings account would have done 50% better. I now always do my own investing, and only invest in something i can cash in quickly. Only time i lost money was 2008 .... but i waited and at least got the value back to 2008 values 4 years later. My current investment has grown by 60% plus in the last 5 years - in the top 5 funds i monitor - while 20 funds have growth of 10% or less (even negative). Yes, i feel a bit smug!

Do you have a local recycling man who goes from house to house? They will BUY junk, and will know people who would be interested in your stuff. Try him with a few basic items and offer him a commission on any buyers he brings.

The UK passport agency maybe a government agency, but most of the work has been 'contracted out'. Some may remember the chaos of the new Siemens-Nixdorf computer system which utterly failed to deal with applications in even moderate volumes. Also the printing is contracted out ( there was a furore when it turned out the new Navy Blue passports were going to be printed in France -well done Brexit!). Many of these delays with government work are because the government doesn't actually do it - it was contracted out to the lowest or best connected bidder - that's Capitalism for you.

That is exactly the setup in my wife's house when i moved here in 2010 ..... 2 upgrades since then but still about 30 years behind western standard.

Durian .... not tried growing it, but have read that they need a lot of water. Sun? Not sure. I have tried a number of times to grow Mangosteen (one of my favourite fruits). I can get them to germinate and they grow easily to 2 leaves - then they just sit there for ages. They hate sun. As seedlings, only takes a couple of hours of full sun and they die. Wife did buy me a tree which we planted at the farm; I put up shade cloth to protect it and was doing fine. Then a big rain came and the shade cloth was 'borrowed' to stop the fish swimming away from the pond. 2 days later it was dead, the sun came out. Other news - i have been raising taptim in a concrete tank. Emptied the tank just over a week ago, and put in my 1.2 rai pond - 26 fish, between 8-12 cm long. They have settled in well and i see a number every time i feed the fish. Also had to put my 2 Oscars in the pond as my other concrete ring was commandeered as a home for the F-in-L's golden swamp eel he caught. They are pure yellow gold coloured and considered lucky - we had one about 4 years ago, and family members won the lottery 3 times after using it to divinate the numbers! Only small wins though. Need a big win or might not have enough for the next visa extension ..... that sala was just a bit to expensive!

Before EVs become common place, they need to produce waterproof cars! Every wet season i have to drive through flood water, some of which comes up to chassis level.......

Yes. I am part of a very small Bridge club. Also had some fishing companions, although they are no longer here. Their is an expat club (I think it still meets) but overly bureaucratic! Also some bike riders. If you want anything in particular, i suggest you post on Udonmap.com, it is a fairly active forum.

Yes, i live just 3 minutes outside the ring road, still get that 'village' feel, although getting a bit suburban these days. Still have our rice field, orchard and fishing ponds just 200 metres away!

First city i visited in Thailand was Udon Thani. Been here for 14 years, when not in the UK. has everything i need - cheap housing with a garden, airport, train station, good coach connections, choice of hospitals, several farang food specialists, good parks, some good schools that do not cost the earth, and can get to anywhere in the city in 20 minutes (traffic permitting). Also substantial expat population (mainly retirees). Air quality moderate - did buy an air purifier but only used twice in the last 2 years. Oh, and plenty of fishing.

yes, get about 3 calls per week - if unknown number, i do not answer usually (did miss a call from network provider that i was out of credit though!). I did ask one caller to speak English, usually they hang up but this time they said i had an immigration problem and needed to pay 100,000 baht to clear it up! I had been to immigration the day before for 90 day report so knew absolutely this was a scam,,,,,,

Assuming your details are stored on the THAI Computer system, should be about 30 minutes at your local Amphoe. Wife got copies of my daughters BC in that time - can also get copies done in English as well. Cost was 20 baht. Should be able to get from other amphoes as well i hear.

Mor prom -totally useless and unnecessary application. Was never asked to load it on my phone, never been asked for it, just carry my Vaccination certificates, that is all i have ever been asked for.

Science is what allows us to understand how processes on this planet work, and why even life as we know it can exist. Unfortunately half the posters on here continually demonstrate by their scientific knowledge why trying to stop the current global warming is a mammoth task. Climate is indeed a very complex system, requiring knowledge of astrophysics, physics, geology, chemistry, biology, meteorology and mathematics at a minimum to understand it - no-one individual knows everything. It is also a dynamic system so is constantly changing. BUT we do know enough to say that rising CO2 levels WILL cause warming.

The police could have been a little bit more imaginative - accept the bribe to drop the 'use of a fake passport' charge. let him out the front door and then arrest him on the Interpol red notice!

I look forward to seeing this being strictly enforced - then in one years time driving will become pleasurable as 75% of drivers would be banned! I wish.........

Just catching up on developments here after a couple of busy weeks. Was sorry to hear about the Koi. My thoughts on that - 1. Disease - unlikely. Disease outbreaks tend to kill the fish over a period, not one day. Also usually only one species affected. Plaa Nin died too, so disease unlikely. 2. Pollution. Unless some physical evidence, hard to tell. Anyone spraying rice paddies locally? would they wash out a tank in your pond?. Is there a water inflow to the pond (i.e. drainage from a rice paddy)? 3. Oxygen. This seems most likely. Kills many species at the same time. Do you have any air breathing fish in the pond? (snakeheads, climbing perch, snakeskin gourami) if you do and none died, again suggests Oxygen. Did you have a thunderstorm the day before? The cold rain or low air pressure can cause a phytoplanktom bloom to crash and suck all the oxygen up. Have had this happen in garden ponds quite a few times. Was speaking to Dean at Papa Farang's in Udon, and he had a fish kill last week after heavy rain - he says happens nearly every year, lost 40 koi, all the biggest ones. Smaller fish were ok. 4. Other. Lightning strike. Once had about 40 dead java barbs after a thunder storm, just in one part of a pond. Speculation that they were electrocuted. Another unusual event that happened to me in Australia, when i was doing environmental survey work. All the barramundi in the billabong near the camp died. We were told to find out why. Eventually found out that heavy rain at the start of the wet season had soaked into the soil (which was black swamp soil) and oxygen in the rain had oxidised sulphur in the soil to sulphuric acid - water from little springs at the edge had a PH of 1.5 ! Other events. Here in Udon loads of rain this month, our ponds are already overflowing. My vegetable garden requires rubber boots to walk around it, been under water most of the time. Only have Okra left, everything else drowned in June! Okra does really well here, likes it hot and once established hard to kill and disease free. Have to pick every 2 days hence the need for rubber boots .....

He was accused by the Russians of being a mercenary. From the BBC article it seems (but not explicitly said) that he was still working for Presidium Network. The Russians have shown time and time again they have no respect for Human life in Ukraine. Maybe Pedrogaz should check his facts, or join the Wagner group.

Hit by 20 bullets? Did the cops do their training in Ohio?

I always wondered why they said do not stand under trees - after all the lightning strikes the tree, not you (usually). The one day in Australia i was sent to recover a car which had got bogged down avoiding a fallen tree. The tree had been struck by lightning, and the trunk had exploded nearly chopping the tree in half. I found wood splinters up to 15 cm long embedded in the ground up to 10 metres away. I now avoid trees in a thunder storm. In Thailand, home was struck by lightning once - ear shattering and did cause a small fire - more interesting was the 2 'bullet holes' it blew in opposite sides of a large concrete water jar.

Obviously 2-3 thousand cases a day is a vast under estimate. All the figures from the start are probably under-estimates. Now with mild symptoms for most people, especially if vaccinated, and home testing, i doubt that even 10% of cases are reported. In our area, there were very few cases before April this year - none in our family, and only one neighbour. Since then at least 3 neighbours and 7 family members, most in June. Daughter back in school and weekly testing done; Usually a couple in my daughters class each month since she went back. if 5% of all students get it every month, easy to estimate that the REAL monthly figures are probably over a million.