newnative

If someone poisoned them likely they were dangerous or creating a noise problem and needed to be put down.

Yellowstone was on my list that I posted. Great series, and I also like the others of his on your list.

Thanks for posting. Lots of redevelopment going on in that area, with the new shopping/entertainment complex going in at Again Pattaya on a large plot by the circle. Also, the really huge Centre Point 3 resort is now going up in front of Cape Dara. A new highrise condo is planned near the recently finished Akara Hotel. Centara Grand Resort is undergoing a rather large renovation and another new luxury highrise condo, Arom Wongamat, has opened or is about to open. Have also seen signs for a Wyndham Grand condo project.

Currently reading the new Reacher novel, In Too Deep. Have been reading some of the Robert Crais novels I missed featuring private detective Elvis Cole. Found a wonderful Japanese writer, Keigo Higashino, and have been reading his mysteries. John Sandford's Virgil Flowers novels are excellent--a companion series to the Lucas Davenport 'Prey' novels. Also catching up with some of the Robert Harris novels I missed. Good stuff. Waiting next to be read, The Waiting, by the always reliable Michael Connelly.

The Sound of Music Grease Love, Actually National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Casablanca Gone with the Wind Titanic

Rewatching Mad Men; I think I missed some of the episodes first time around. Wonderful series, and easy to see why Variety named it the second best tv series of all-time. Also watching New Amsterdam, Slow Horses, Yellowstone, The Good Place, A Man on the Inside, No Good Deed, Outlander, The Agency, Dalgliesh, and Black Doves.

Likes or dislikes?

Sure, 49.9 vs. 48.3. Neither got 50%. Both were liked, or disliked, about equally.

Yes, but still couldn't reach 50% of the POPULAR vote. Still just 49.9% vs. 48.3 no matter how you try to slice it. Still roughly half wanting Trump, half Harris.

Thank you. Exactly the point I was making. You look at the map and if you didn't know and had to guess you'd think Trump won maybe 80% of the vote to Harris's 20%. Look at all that red! My gosh! The reality is 49.9% vs. 48.3%. The reality is roughly half of the actual voters preferred Trump and roughly half of the actual voters preferred Harris. But that reality is not reflected with either your map or the EC. As I said in a previous post, the map could be entirely red--or blue--and the winner could have won by just 51 votes.

49.9 vs. 48.3.

I understand the EC just fine, more's the pity. Basically, you had roughly half of the voters wanting Trump, roughly half of the voters wanting Harris. That's the reality. Neither reached 50% of the vote. The EC vote can give a very false impression. A candidate can win every state by 1 vote and have a huge EC win, but the popular vote was razor thin. Was he or she overwhelmingly favored by the voters? No.

I wouldn't call 49.9% of the vote vs. 48.3% a 'landslide'. Once again, out of 3 tries, Trump failed to reach 50%.

It started out being about the service charge but several post have been about the food quality and quantity, which I responded to. Yes, we pay the service charge, and don't give it another thought.

Spouse and I eat at Fuji maybe 2 or 3 times a month, usually at lunch because you get a free drink and a little fruit cup dessert thing. We almost always order the teriyaki chicken and one of two different appetizers we like. I don't think either of us has noticed any change in the portions of the dishes we order---no change in the size of the dishes, soup bowls, rice bowls, etc. Perhaps other menu items we don't order have changed. We are still happy with the food quality of what we order or we would no longer dine there.

Good advice.

American, starting my 15th year living in Pattaya.

Probably the same as it's always been. Some condos will have some noise, the majority won't of any major note. When you get a thread like this, it's more likely those getting some noise will respond--more people take the time to complain than to praise. Maybe a couple dozen or so have complained--out of the many forum members living in condos. With also a few saying they haven't had any problems. Spouse and I have lived in about a dozen different condo projects in Pattaya, plus two in Bangkok and one in Rayong. Excessive noise was not a problem in any of them. Did the occasional door slam? Yes. Did we now and then hear somebody walking by in the hallway in some of the projects? Yes. Was any of the occasional noise a problem for us? No.

Some good advice and information has been given, and I am certainly learning some new things. We finished our second house build late last year. Even though we were essentially building the same plan as our first house but with an extra bedroom and bath and an expanded master bedroom and bigger Thai kitchen, we still had a few things not go exactly as planned. My one piece of advice would be to plan ahead as much as possible, and with as much detail as possible, before the build starts. Pay special attention to the electrical plan, including lighting, which is super important. It should be both detailed and specific. Some pointers on that: Think carefully about where you will need plug-ins. Are you planning to have an electric reclining sofa floating in the living room? If so, make sure you have a floor outlet where the sofa will be so you don't end up with an ugly electrical cord snaking across the floor to a wall outlet. If you are floating furniture, you could have a floor outlet under an end table so you could hide the cord of a floor or table lamp. Pay special attention to plug-in locations in the kitchen and baths but good planning needs to be done for each room, based on functions that you will need a plug-in for. Make sure you have plug-ins in the right locations for all the built-in kitchen appliances planned. Think about your daily routine and also the furniture you will have. For example, if you will have a home office with a desk, make sure you will have a wall plug-in where the desk will be. With our latest build we knew there would be a built-in desk with a cord hider on top so we made sure to have a wall plug-in in the right position. We also knew we would need electric in a built-in bookcase next to the desk for a printer so that wall area also needed a plug-in--at the right height. You should have a furniture plan in place in advance with at least the major items in place: sofa, beds, dining table, wall-hung tvs, major art work, etc., so you can plan your electric and lighting needs around where they will be. Don't just put a mark on a floorplan indicating a plug-in is needed. Be specific as to exactly where it is needed--distance from the nearest wall, height up from the floor. The same goes for wall switches. Plan ahead and think about exactly where you want them, and what they will control. Pay special attention to 2-way switches. If you want a switch by your bed to turn off and on overhead lights, make sure you get it in the right location--don't just guess or be vague about it--you don't want it to end up inaccessible right behind your headboard. Also, don't be vague about air con and ceiling fan locations, especially air cons. Make sure both are exactly where you want them for all the rooms. Ditto for ceiling lights. You should have a ceiling lighting plan with measured locations for the lights so they are wired and installed in exactly the right places you want them. Plan for general lighting, task lighting, and decorative, such as highlighting artwork. You need to do all of this room by room for every room, including the garage and terrace areas. It's a lot of work but it will pay off down the road when you go to plug something in or turn on a light and the plug and light switch are exactly where they should be. You likely won't get every single thing correct with the electrical and lighting plan but the object is to get as much correct as possible. Finally, I can second the very good advice to be on site as much as possible supervising and observing the work. Thai spouse and I were on site almost every day work was being done on our latest house and it paid off when we were able to catch errors about to be done--or if questions came up about something--and lots did. We had a contractor who was supposed to be supervising the build but he was also doing other houses and was usually around only at the start of the work in the morning to give instructions and back in the evening--and sometimes not even then. We ended up with a better build by being their ourselves. Good luck!

Doubtful you've been to Pattaya in the past few years--or if you did visit you didn't see much. Pattaya is attracting both 'elite' tourists and also residents.

Just noticed a typo. DOW should be $39.40, not $391.40.

Well, it took a big dip, didn't it? But, then it came back, didn't it? Dips also happen with stocks, from time to time. With both, though, the average long-term trajectory has been up, over time. Just one example. My late Dad no longer has his stock portfolio but I kept a list of his stocks on Yahoo Portfolio Manager, which I still have. In 2009, when he died, the portfolio, held in a family trust, was worth about $600,000. No stocks were bought or sold after his death, with the portfolio kept intact. In April 2011, for some reason I can't remember, I did a printout of his stocks at that time, which I kept. The portfolio was then worth about $747,000. MSFT at $25.63! LLY at $35.68. DOW, on the other hand, a subject of several posts on this thread, was $36.70 then--and not much different today--$39I.40. In December 2019, when my Mom passed away, the portfolio was worth $1.88 million--I still have the Merrill Lynch printout. Then, in 2020, covid hit and the portfolio took a huge dip--I think at one point it was down to around $1.2 or 1.3 million. By the time probate was finally finished and the portfolio distributed, it was back up to a little over $1.8 million. Today, had it not been liquidated, it would be worth $2.3 million. So, dips, but a rising trajectory over time. Same, with housing. Just one example. One of the last condos I owned in the US, in Reston, VA, I bought in 2008 for $216,500. Fixed it up and a year later sold it for $244,250. Zillow tells me it is now worth $325,700. The original owner, by the way, bought the condo for $93,580 in 1993. One of the things I like about owning property is not only do you put a roof over your head but you also have the potential to make some money--on that rising trajectory.

No, different developer.

Ban the bus driver from driving a commercial vehicle for life. To start.

Boo hoo. Next time stay at a hotel. Condo rentals of less than a month are illegal. You were breaking the law, bud.