newnative

Bravo! You hit it! Thanks.

I'm seeing lots of new recruits for the Just Can't Quit Pattaya Fan Club, including the usual number who haven't been to Pattaya anytime recently, yet are still compelled to spend their time reading about and commenting on a city they neither visit or live in. Welcome to the club, you!

Good, short, accurate description of Trump--loser with no redeeming values. Especially loser--twice with the actual voters in two presidential elections. Loser by 2.8 MILLION votes in 2016. Loser by 7 MILLION votes in 2020. LOSER TWICE OVER. And, likely a loser for the THIRD time with the actual voters in 2024.

Vows to eradicate poverty as she enters a grand mansion. Any disconnect there?

Not my take, but I respect your viewpoint. I think she mostly did 'give a toss'--but not every waking minute of every day of the 19 years of her show. So, cancel her. Also not buying Markle being a horrible tyrant, either. I think both are victims of some 'underlings', frankly, not really knowing their place in the workplace hierarchy--and seizing on, and likely blowing up, a few instances of perhaps poor behavior to 'get at' the boss. I do wonder if reprimanding an employee is now considered poor behavior by a boss, who is not being 'kind' and 'loving'. Maybe only if they are female and named Markle. Or, a certain magazine editor wearing Prada. We're seeing the same thing with Harris--some stories of staff turnover. She must be the dreaded 'difficult to work with'. Can't have that, at least not in a woman. Note: If an 'underling is reduced to tears', likely they are the wrong person for a demanding, high-pressure job and should look for something more suitable to their delicate temperament. Perhaps teaching flower arranging. These days, with social media so pervasive, a few negative stories, true or not, can easily leave a false, unfair impression. I think that is mostly the case with both women, with some envy and jealousy thrown in for good measure. I re-read some of the Ellen workplace stories and found myself thinking, what's the big deal. Pretty thin, watery gruel to feast on considering 19 years of workplace behavior involving hundreds of workers to dissect and find fault with. The sole possibly serious charge I noticed involved alleged sexual harassment or other questionable behavior by three male producers, who were fired. People are human, they aren't perfect. If a celebrity chooses to use their public position to try to both promote and to try to be kind, compassionate, etc., I don't think it's hypocrisy if they aren't always successful in practicing what they preach. And, it is certainly not hypocrisy, in my book, to believe and promote love, joy, etc., as important things to strive for in general, but also be focused, in the workplace as a boss running a business, on other important things--like keeping the business afloat. Ellen did that for 19 years, keeping her show at or near the top of the ratings, not an easy thing by any means. And, at the same time, keeping her workers employed, including, it seems, some rather resentful, ungrateful ones.

Dems need to ignore the polls and run flat out until election day. Dems need to remember that there are Trump supporters who are deeply embarrassed to admit to a pollster that they support such an awful candidate--so they'll lie to the pollsters. Sad they support a candidate so terrible they can't mention the name.

What a load of BS. Likely, I am in the minority but I find the whole 'mean boss' bruhaha to be much ado about absolutely nothing. She's the boss. She's paying your salary and she's responsible for you having a job in the first place, and continuing to have an income and a job to go to. That means she is not required to be nice. That means she can be demanding of her staff. That means she can be tough. That means she's not required to befriend every person working for her. That means she doesn't have to pretend to like or care about everyone working for her. Don't like it? Quit. There's the door. It's the Ellen Show , not the Coffee Runner Show. Not the Deputy Assistant Flunky Show. I have no doubt that some incidents happened and I also have no doubt that they were publicized greatly out of proportion to what actually happened by a few disgruntled staff members. It bears remembering that her show was on for 19 years. That's a long time--of course there were bound to be some incidents, disagreements, differences of opinion, arguments, stressful times, etc., in that many years of putting on a very high-pressure, daily show. I doubt her management style was much different from what a man's would be in that same environment--but as a woman that still doesn't fly. And, a gay woman . . . ? Strong, tough man--admired. Strong, tough woman--bitch. What I find utterly laughable is the scorn for her, which does not seem to have abated much. I imagine there's some resentful envy in there, too. Apparently, she is 'shameless' for not showing quite enough remorse for being a tough boss, for not being friendly enough or caring enough to her employees. Apparently, what remorse she has shown has been judged as being not sincere enough to satisfy the great unwashed of social media. I imagine she's thinking, I really don't know why I need to do anything. I totally agree.

Actually, more than 60% of Chinese visitors to Thailand are traveling independently, and not in groups.

My Dad died in his sleep about a week shy of his 95th birthday. He had some heart ailments later in life but was sharp as a tack right to the end. Mom lived to 101 and died of old age. She had dementia beginning in her 80s and it gradually got worse. But, the last time I saw her I think she recognized me. Dad and Mom lived remarkable and interesting lives. Born in 1914 and 1918, they went from riding in horse-drawn wagons as young children to flying on the Concorde on one of their trips to Europe. My Dad worked for the US Dept. of Defense and the family was stationed a lot of different places around the world--including Germany right after World War II, probably Dad's most interesting assignment. I miss them both but I know I am indeed lucky to have had them as a part of my life for as long as I did.

I like your idea to eliminate the 2 EC votes each state gets for their Senators. What troubles me the most about the EC is one candidate winning the popular vote but still losing the election. I'd like to see extra EC votes awarded to the candidate that wins the nationwide popular vote--maybe 51 votes, one for each state and DC.

Including me. This Virginian is getting his mail-in ballot ready.

Thanks!

Several posters, including myself, have mentioned that a shallow pitch can cause leaking with tiled roofs. In an earlier post I mentioned my neighbor's house. Her main tile roof has a steep pitch and no leak problems. Her porch tile roof has a shallow pitch, something like yours. It leaks, even though the house is only about a year old. Your roof also appears to be on the shallow side so that might be the problem.

Lock both of them up. They can be cell mates.

I haven't seen any photos of your leaky roof on this thread. My point remains. I think it would be more helpful to see your leaky roof photos rather than photos of a roof with no problems that is not leaking.

I think few believe this. The 2016 race was very close. The 2020 race was very close. I think it would be more accurate to say that most 'here' believe the 2024 election will also be a close one. When I say 'close' I am referring to the Electoral College vote. I think what most democrats believe will be a 'landslide' will be the popular vote. Clinton won the popular vote by over 2.8 million votes. A landslide. Biden did even better, winning by 7 million votes. An even bigger landslide. Unfortunately, one of the biggest drawbacks of having the EC is that it can give a very damaging, false impression of a presidential election. The 2016 and 2020 elections are both good examples. The democratic candidates won the popular vote by landslides. The elections were really not close elections at all with regard to which candidate the actual voters wanted as their president. However, both elections are incorrectly viewed as close elections solely because the EC vote was close. An actual, truly close election would be Kennedy-Nixon, as one example. Kennedy won by around 117,000 votes. That's close. 2.8 million? Not close at all. Landslide. In two elections, Trump has never even reached 50% of the vote. The actual voters have soundly rejected him twice, with landslide tallies for the democrat candidate. The only legitimacy he has is solely due to the Electoral College. Yet another reason to get rid of it.

Gold digger. Tramp. Illegal immigrant. Stripper. Grifter.

Why? He posted his roof has no leaks--as does mine. The 'no leaks part' would be the whole roof. It might be more helpful if you posted photos of your roof, and the areas where it leaks.

Likely they are undercounting Trump's support due to some Trump supporters being deeply and extremely embarrassed to admit that they support chump Trump. Says something about the awfulness of the candidate when that's the case. Democrats need to run non-stop flat out from here to election day and call in the big guns to keep the momentum going and encourage registration and voting, especially in the crucial swing states. All hands on deck, no let up.

Spouse and I use the gym at one of Pattaya's resorts. We're also in the process of setting up a home gym.

It will be interesting to see how condo projects handle this. My spouse and I have a Bangkok condo and, so far, there are no charging stations at the condo. I think, though, as more people buy EVs, there will be pressure put on condo committees by these owners to have charging stations installed. I'm not sure how projects will deal with the fire safety issue if they only have underground or garage-type parking. The BKK condo does have some open-air surface parking and some of this could be used for charging stations; it is far enough away from the condo building to keep the building safe, should a fire occur. I noticed at our last visit that some of this parking has now been blocked off so, perhaps, residents are being prepared to lose this parking to charging stations down the road. I'm curious if any readers live at a condo project that has installed charging stations and, if so, where they were installed.

As others have said, a properly installed tile roof should not leak. My spouse and I have, in the past two years, built two new houses with tile roofs. No leaks so far. The builder used curved tiles, rather than flat. I think most modern houses will have metal frames rather than wood, as our houses have. Also, as others have said, the pitch of the roof is important. Both our houses have steep roof pitches. We have a neighbor who has a new house similar to ours. She has no problems with the roof on the main house, which is like ours, but her porch tile roof is at a much more shallow pitch and it leaks.

Yaa! About time.

If Trump had a lick of sense he'd get himself down to Home Depot, buy a roll of duct tape, and use it liberally to cover Vance's mouth--and, perhaps his nose, as well. Fortunately, he doesn't have a lick of sense so Vance will likely remain non-duct taped to prove what an idiot he is every time he opens his mouth--which is greatly helping Harris. Remember, people, Trump is 78, hugely overweight, and a massive heart attack just waiting to happen. No thinking person could want Vance a heartbeat away from the presidency.

My Thai spouse and I have booked a new Sealion, scheduled for delivery sometime in October. He drives, I don't in Thailand. We took a test drive and he was impressed with how it drove. I liked the ride comfort, the seat comfort, and the excellent seating position and view out the front. The back seats were also comfortable and there was a lot of leg room for the Thai family members we sometimes have in the car. The ride seemed fine to us but I would suggest taking a test drive to see how you like how it drives. We both liked the beautiful exterior styling and the very well-equipped and nice-looking interior, including the interior color combination--it was nice to see an interior that was not all black, as we have had with so many cars and are bored with. We decided we wanted PHEV because we wanted to move into electric but we felt we were not ready for all-electric yet. We think that with most of our driving around town we will be able to just use the electric mode and save on buying gas. Probably 75% of our driving is around town When we travel, about once a month, we won't have range anxiety and we can fill up quickly at a gas station and not have to wait around for the the electric mode to recharge--although we do have the option to recharge if we stop somewhere that has an electric charger free and we are going to be having lunch and won't mind the wait. We have a new house and we had an electric charger built in the carport as part of the build, so we can easily charge the car at night. I'm not sure we would have selected PHEV if we still lived in a condo project--and certainly not if there wasn't charging available on-site. We currently own a 2018 Honda CR-V. It has been a terrific car and we would have liked to buy another one but, frankly, the 'new' model looked very dated--especially side-by-side with the new Chinese models we looked at. I have posted before that it looks like it should have been the 2020 or 2021 model, with little new that we could see except a refreshed front and back. The 2024 model should have been a really new blank page design. Another big minus for the CR-V was the price--over 1.7MB for the model we were interested in. As you have noted, the Sealion, about the same size as the CR-V and better equipped, is less than 1MB. We could not see what made the Honda cost 700,000 baht more--enough to buy a second BYD like the Dolphin. We will likely buy the upper model Sealion but even that model is only 1,039,000 baht; tremendous value, we feel, for a very nice car. We thought it looked as nice, or nicer, than some car models we looked at costing 2MB or more. We are getting 600,000 baht for our Honda trade so our outlay for the new car is 439,000 baht. One of our concerns is buying a Chinese auto for the first time and how good service will be. We'll see. We realize that resale will likely be much lower than with a Japanese model but, hey, we have already saved about 700,000 baht. We like that BYD has a Pattaya dealership. We know we are taking a bit of a gamble with the Sealion vs. buying another CR-V but we added up all the pros and cons and the Sealion won--for us. Good luck with your car search and your decision.