newnative

Well, I got an unpleasant surprise at my last medical checkup. As part of the checkup, I could choose 1 of 2 optional tests. Since I have elevated cholesterol, I chose to have a CAC test done. CAC stands for Coronary Artery Calcium scan. In dozens of annual physicals, here and in the US, this test was never done as part of my annual physicals, even though, as I said, I have elevated cholesterol and have been taking a daily statin for years. My CAC test came back with a score of 433, extremely bad. Anything over 400 apparently indicates high levels of plaque on the arteries, and serious risk of a heart attack. Had I not had this test, I would have had no idea that I have this problem. My blood pressure is normal, stress test was ok, EKG, ok, etc. The doctor doubled my daily statin dosage and put me on a baby aspirin a day, also. Had a second test several months later, result,432. They also did a test that showed where the plaque buildup was on my arteries but it didn't give a blockage percentage. All this was done at Bangkok Pattaya Hospital. I plan to wait a few more months and get a second take on things from either Bumrungrad Hospital or Bangkok Heart Hospital. My big question is whether I should have stents or not. The Pattaya doctor seemed to think not at this point but I want to see what a Bangkok doctor will advise and weigh the two. Stents seem to be recommended if the blockage is 70% or more, but some recent research also seemed to indicate that stent surgery was perhaps being done in too many marginal cases, because it is apparently a money-maker. We'll see what happens. All this is to illustrate that checkups can be a good thing, and can be helpful in pointing out areas of concern. In my case, my medication was changed, which, hopefully, will be somewhat helpful, but I do wonder why I wasn't given this test years ago, when my elevated cholesterol was first diagnosed, or at least when I entered my 60s, to check the plaque buildup at that time. Had it been done with each annual physical, I could at least see the progression of the problem, and an earlier change in medication may have been of benefit.

No, it went through just as it always has. Fingers crossed that will continue.

Should not cost more than 10,000 baht and that fee should include the Will being in both Thai and English.

Not true, of course, but even if it was, the majority of Chinese do not travel in tour groups to Thailand.

I just did mine on-line and the process was the same as usual. Got an email on the 25th that they had received my application, got the approval with the attachment for my passport on the 27th.

'Fast-tracking' translation: Not likely in my life time. But, I would like to be legally married to my Thai partner in Thailand; though we are already legally married in the US.

Probably younger than my age, due to a full head of brown hair with a bit of gray at the temples. My father kept his full head of salt and pepper hair until he passed away at 95, so here's hoping . . .

We live in Pattaya but we have a Bangkok condo that we visit about once a month. It's close to the Phetchaburi MRT and the Airport Link so easy to use it to get around Bangkok and trips we take from the airport.

Pattaya

There are many examples but here's one--do the rest of the research yourself. In America, roughly half of the state run lotteries earmark the net proceeds of the funds to go to education. O course, increased tourism--to places like Las Vegas, benefits the local economy and provides well-paying jobs for the local population. And, as I said, safeguards can be put in place. As others have mentioned, the poor are already betting now.

Not a viable excuse. Limit admittance to foreign passport holders and Thais with a minimum specified income who have applied for and received a special admittance card. The gambling proceeds could actually benefit poor Thais, with some of the money directed to social programs.

Those are just mood changes--happy, grumpy. Neither addresses what you are doing with your life and how you are spending the time you are given each day--or what you are putting in your 'memory bank'. But, anyway, off you go and good luck wherever you end up.

Re-read my first post and you will see 'what's the difference'. Or, more likely, not see. Of course, no place is perfect, every place has both positives and negatives. Of course, one weighs positives and negatives --on many, many things. Duh. No need to 'admit' something so absurdly obvious. Take another gander at the last sentence of my previous post; that's where I am at, with my thinking, with the way I am trying to live my life. It's fine you're looking to move. Just don't expect a change of scenery to change you. You need to do that work yourself.

Huh? Seems you completely missed the point, and ended up concluding the exact opposite of the intention regarding the old woman's story and her take on how she has tried to live her life, her take on how to face adversity and aging, her take on choosing to be positive, even before the get-go, rather than negative, when life throws you a bad curve ball. All of which first starts in your head, with your outlook, before anything else. You did get that one thing right--it does involve your head. For the record, I am here because my spouse is Thai. I am American. We have also lived for a number of years in the USA. We are now living here, which we prefer for a variety of reasons, one being his career; I am retired. Had my spouse been Spanish, we might be living in Spain. Vietnamese, perhaps Vietnam, or maybe the US. We have been here since 2010 and are still loving it. We have been making some wonderful memories here, I know I have, for our 'memory banks'. The point, though, at least for me, is not where you are living your life, it's how you are living your life, what you are making of it, where you are.

Yes, get going immediately, if not sooner. I suspect, though, that you will come to be unsatisfied and unhappy with wherever you end up. And, wherever you end up, I won't be surprised if you'll soon find something, other than yourself, to blame for your dissatisfaction with your life. Then, you'll likely start looking around for the next place to move to--thinking that if you can just find the right place, your life will finally be hunky dory. I think that is apparent to most of us who have been reading your posts on the Forum. Brace yourself for a hard truth. It's you, not your environment, that is the root of your unsatisfied life. You have been living in Pattaya and have found it wanting. Now, you've decided, it's not just Pattaya, it's also the Thai people. It's anything and everything, but certainly not you. Yes, unfortunately, it's you. Pattaya is a huge city. You can be in town with all the entertainments, if you want to. You can be in any of the many quieter beach areas, anywhere from south Jomtien to Wong Amat, if you want to. You can choose to be on the Darkside, with hundreds of housing projects to choose from, if you want to. Ditto with the huge selection of condos to rent or buy all over town, from low-rise to high-rise, in big projects and small. Wherever you end up in Pattaya, the city offers plenty in the way of entertainment, shopping choices from huge malls to fresh markets, services for just about anything, and health care facilities--certainly much more than the American city I lived in. There's plenty here to make every day interesting, but you first need to have some interests--true wherever you hang your hat. There's all sorts of sports available, from badminton, golf, cycling, bowling, hiking, snorkeling, scuba diving, parasailing, volleyball, yoga, working out at a gym, swimming--just about anything is on offer. For socializing, there are expat groups, clubs, and volunteering opportunities. Bangkok, with everything it has to offer, is less than 2 hours away to explore and enjoy. Just scratching the surface and, meanwhile, doing all this with year-round nice weather. In a nutshell, if you can't be satisfied in a big city like Pattaya, with all its variety, how is the next place going to be any different? Any better? You seem to have no apparent interests that have been mentioned in your posts, other than spending a lot of time at the bars, where you seem to meet people you find unsatisfactory, to go with your new view of Thai people, also falling short of the mark. Yes, I think it's definitely time for you to move on, but think a bit on this: Today's Facebook related a story of an old woman, recently widowed, going into a nursing home. The attendant escorted her to her new room, describing it on the way. "I love it!", she exclaimed. The attendant asked her how she could love it, having not seen it yet. She replied that seeing it didn't matter. Happiness, she said, is something that you decide on, ahead of time. Whether she likes the new room or how the furniture is arranged, is not important. What matters, she explains, is not the arrangement of the furniture, but the arrangement of her mind. In her mind, she already decided to love her new living arrangement, no matter what it turned out to be. In her mind, she has arranged it to put aside all the negatives of her now very-changed life, and, instead, focus on, and fully embrace, the positives. At this stage in her life, she tries to disregard what may not work well in her old body, and rejoice at what still does work. That, essentially, is how she has lived her life, greeting each new day as a precious gift, to be made the most of. She relates that, as she has lived her life, she has deposited wonderful memories in the 'memory bank' of her mind. Now that she is in her twilight years, she can withdraw those wonderful memories to savor. She also wryly notes that, even at her age, she is still making deposits in her memory bank. Some might find all this silly and sappy to the max but I do try to live my life--especially as the years advance--along those same lines, to try to accent the positive, rather than the negative, and to try to appreciate the time I have been given, and make the most of it. I'm not sure what you have in your 'memory bank', JT, but, from your posts, your account seems negative. Maybe, starting tomorrow, try beginning the day with a positive attitude, and do something memorable with your day.

Hopefully, sooner.

It's all rather short on details--what's considered petty and what will be the fines charged, rather than prison time. I imagine the police are going to love it. Likely the criminals, too. The actual crime victims, not so much. Steal something and sell it for, say, 100,000 baht. Maybe a few days later get caught for the theft. Pay, I'm guessing, maybe a 1,000 baht theft charge, net profit, 99,000 baht. A penalty fine, if they even catch you, but no jail time. Someone could possibly get a nice little earner going, depending on the details. Perhaps mot quite as good as parts of the USA, though, as I've posted before. In my brother-in-law's jurisdiction, you can steal up to $150 from a store and the police will not respond at all if you phone to report the theft. Nada. Don't bother to even pick up the phone. They don't want to hear it, and certainly don't want to investigate it. So, make the rounds of a couple dozen or so stores each day in that jurisdiction, steal $150 or less worth of merchandise at each, and, there you have it, another nice little earner, with no penalties at all. Use what you want, sell the rest. Some of the CEO's of the biggest retailers are starting to finally publicly squawk about the huge theft problem, cutting deeply into their bottom lines, so maybe things might change a bit--but I doubt it.

. . . . rinse and repeat

My partner and I are impatiently waiting for the Seal U suv. We like the Atto 3 but need more space.

I'm calling BS. As I posted yesterday, the earlier procedure, and the latest one, were to pierce his ears, specifically those wonderful lobes that were just made to sport wonderful diamond sparklers. He's not fooling anyone by posting a pre-pierced ears photo--there's a Christmas tree in the background, for heaven's sake! I once again consulted--no charge to any of you for my time--with his superstar ear-piercing surgeon to the stars and he assures me he should be fully recovered and out of hospital by no later than February, or possibly even earlier depending on how certain 'get out of jail free' cards are dealt, which can so often help a patient psychologically and contribute to an extra speedy recovery after traumatic surgery such as this--and under the knife not once but twice!

Looks like he was crossing where he shouldn't have been--so bad on him. But, maybe he can negotiate his injury and upgrade it for a nose job and it will all turn into a big plus. Glass half-full!

It sounds like only you want to be in Europe. Your kids don't even want to go out and play. Contrary to what you say, your wife does seem to be taking some interest in the kids--she dresses and feeds them and I assume gets them off to school--plenty of work right there, by the way, and she takes enough interest that she wants them to have tablets so they can keep up with their peers and new technology. You mention your shelves are a mess. Clean them up, then! It's the 21st century--there's no such thing as 'woman's work' anymore. Sorry to say it but you sounds like you were raised a bit spoiled if you can't even clean up after yourself. Clean the rest of the house, while you're at it, and throw a load in the washer. As Dear Abby or Ann Landers used to say, 'wake up and smell the coffee'. But, that's just my take, from your one side of the story--and it doesn't even matter, anyway. Either Dear Abby or Ann Landers also used to answer questions such as yours with this: Ask yourself if you are better off with or without this person, in this case, your wife, and go from there. It really just comes down to that, in the end, and doesn't matter whether you both are saints or anything else. I will just add, be brutally honest with yourself when answering that question. Once you have your answer, either way, you need to make the necessary changes to accommodate your answer.

Well, I have been secretly laughing about all the speculation regarding his first medical procedure and now, here we go again, with the second operation. At this point, I might as well put all the speculation to rest and give you the full scoop, which I am privy to--don't ask me how, my sources always demand, and get, my total secrecy and discretion. The first operation was to have his left ear pierced. As many may have noticed, he has wonderful ear lobes that have been crying out to be pierced, to be highlighted, and to be rightly shown to their best advantage. No, they are not in the Lyndon Johnson class, by any means, but still quite nice specimens, thank you very much. And, as one ages, it is nice to be able to call attention to something striking one possesses, is it not? The noted British surgeon, Dr. Earl Anthony Rutherford, yes, that Dr. Rutherford, was called in to perform the delicate, no to mention, intricate, procedure. Many of you, of course, will know he also did the ear piercings for the late singer George Michael, which really put the good doctor on the map, at a relatively young age, as the 'go-to' surgeon for these dicey operations. And, of course, Princess Diana's piercings, to correct the amateur pokes done by an inept childhood friend, with a potato and a needle, of all things, vaulted him into true superstar status in the rarefied world of celebrity ear-piercing So, with something this potentially life-threatening, you go for the best, no questions asked. The operation, we are happy to report, was a complete success. But, of course, with major surgery, and this is major surgery involving penetrating the skin, for heaven's sake, and let's face it (small pun), with visible results on display for everyone to see--from hardened murderers to petty pick pockets-- it's only natural that a long convalescence in hospital was de rigueur before subjecting the patient to the possibly withering scrutiny of his fellow inmates, many not known to possess a wild abundance of human kindness. The second operation, as you have probably guessed by now, was to do the other ear. What could be better than one? Two! And, of course, twice the sparkle with those multi-caret diamond twinklers highlighting the still so youthful-looking lobes, and nicely drawing attention away from that not so youthful-looking dye job. As with the first procedure, a long hospital convalescence is expected, likely into the beginnings of 2024. Better safe than sorry.

I'm an American and I'm not planning to 'comply' either. After reading 100+ pages of mostly speculation, I haven't the foggiest idea of how I would 'comply', even if I wanted to. I'm certainly not going to voluntarily file a Thai tax return. I am retired and I don't work in Thailand--or anywhere else. I earn Social Security and a Virginia government pension, both of which I believe are protected from Thai taxation by the dual taxation agreement. I earn dividends of approximately $10,000 a year, currently maintained in a Schwab account. This, I believe, is subject to taxation, but only if remitted to Thailand, where it becomes 'accessible' for taxation. Not sent to Thailand, not accessible, not subject to Thai tax--at least that is my understanding at this point. I will not be sending any dividend income to Thailand. I will continue to send SS and pension money, from time to time, using Wise, to fund my living expenses in Thailand. At one point I was considering changing my SS deposits to my Thai bank but I think I will hold off on that for now. In the unlikely event I am ever called upon to show documentation, my USA bank statements only show monthly deposits of the SS and pension income--and I only use this bank to send funds to Thailand. I suppose if I wanted to be truly precise for documentation, I could make my Wise transfers the exact amount of the total of a monthly SS and pension payment. My dividend income, which I was going to start sending to my USA bank, will remain in my separate Schwab account.

His 'ailment' is aversion to being treated just like any other normal prisoner.