4MyEgo

Actually the 2nd wasn't the booster as the dosage levels given were halved if you like, so the 1st booster was the 2nd shot, the 2nd booster was the 3rd shot. The above said, I have had two shots (one full dose) and a half dose (1st booster, 2nd shot). As John Travolta would say; I'm so .........d

From my research on line, there is no evidence base to support the 2nd booster, however the CDC say why not. It's interesting to know that the CDC receives huge amounts of money for big pharma, that said it would be hard to say that there is a conflict of interest when big pharma are directly contributing to the CDC, after all they are an independent organisation. I also found it interesting that 1/4 of FDA employers have gone to work for big pharma, the so called revolving doors. https://ashpublications.org/ashclinicalnews/news/4797/CDC-Pressed-to-Acknowledge-Industry-Funding https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/09/28/495694559/a-look-at-how-the-revolving-door-spins-from-fda-to-industry

Yeh nah, I'm sitting on the fence, 3 Pfizer jabs should do me fine, although I will look at things in August when it will be 6 months since I received my 1st booster, that said, prior to my 1st booster, I did a blood test which showed that the antibodies were waning so got the 1st booster, just to be sure, to be sure as Paddy told me. What the government isn't telling people is that our T-cells should take over when and if we do get this virus, and of course we should survive it if we have been vaccinated. They are also failing to advise us of the downside of getting too many doses, i.e. that it can do to our immune system as many top Dr's in their fields of immunology and virology have said. Did I mention Anutin is not qualified in his elected position and that the WHO have got this one right thus far IMO.

I would give that a WIDE BERTH personally as I'm sure as soon as you order it the store will send you a message back on the lines of; so solly wong plice. That said it's a common occurrence due to the lack of consumer laws here and they obviously think that they can sway you to buy something else, preferably with the right price, i.e. with the extra two (2) digits that are supposed to be in front of the displayed price, e.g. XX,988.

I have to ask, is there any particular reason you, or your friend don't have a Thai bank account ? I find it much easier and cost effective to transfer one large sum annually, preferably when the exchange rate is a good one, (no control over that), all about timing. Once the finds are in my Thai account, I use my Thai debit card to withdrawal the funds I require and put it away in a "safe" place, until I need to top up again as I usually do a lot of internet internet purchases which are also very cost effective as opposed to using my fuel to drive to the store and pay more for those products. Got to be one step ahead of the game, however if there is a reason you cannot obtain a Thai bank account and debit card here, please share the reason with us, e.g. I don't know if times have changed but I got mine yonks ago without a hassle and pay 200 baht per year for the card.

Totally agree, just drove 20 minutes to get my haircut at the Mumma and Pappa's store, 100 baht for haircut, 70 baht for two small beers, there's 170 baht, not including the fuel, wear and tear of the vehicle, insurance and registration, and of course maintenance.

Each to their own.

I guess this is your mindset has to be tested, e.g. I have been on the marriage extension 5 years, 1st year IO pushed us to go for the retirement route upon our application for the marriage extension, however I made sure the next year we received what I originally applied for, the marriage extension, and ever since that time, they keep changing the rules, although I have always had the ace up my sleeve with additional docs etc, but the last one broke the camels back so to speak. After returning to collect he marriage extension on the day they said to, i.e. clearly stamped in my passport, they said they didn't receive it and that they would call me when they get it. I just drove an hour 20, so had to drive and hour 20 back home, and of course as soon as I got home they called me, ok, you can come back now, yeh right thanks, I did the next day, so I have put the 800k into a fixed account and will apply for the retirement extension next year, so over the changing of rules and their reluctance to do their job, guess the marriage extension being checked by an external division means they have to cross their T's and dot their i's as opposed to issuing the retirement extension on the spot without anyone checking the paperwork. I can't say that I have experienced anything like the above, maybe it has to do with me being married to a Thai and I'm always smiling to those who pass me in the village, at home in the front, or in the street or at a shop, store, that said, I don't expect Thai's to be friendly to me, took me a while to get used to even my sister in-law who comes over for 5 minutes a day to sponge off the Mrs, not even a hello or acknowledgment that I'm there, and I discussed this with the wife who assured me this is how Thai's are, they don't greet like foreigners greet, she spent 9 years in Aus with me so she knows how we greet, and being European, she would always cringe when visitors would come over and kiss her on each cheek, I would laugh ????. So I make it a point to always go to where my sister-in-law is and say hello, say her name and how are you, she will reply with er, ok, that's the best she can do with a smile, so no skin off my nose, as for the in-laws when I see them, it's the chin up and the chin up back at me with a smile, I also make some jokes with hand gestures or other and they laugh, probably think I'm a dipstick, but always get them to smile. I sense the shyness, and perhaps the uncomfortableness of most not being able to speak out lingo, or know how to greet us, but a smile or a chin up does go a long way, that said, I am sure their is some jealousy and that comes with the lack of education in my opinion, not forgetting it is part of human nature for some too. I have been here about the same as you and sure it got hard in the beginning but I am right at home now, and do my absolute best to drop the ball when they throw it at me, i.e. I won't play the game, I don't want to, so each time the ball ends up on the ground, I don't let anything get to me anymore, all I have to do is think if I had to go back to where I came from and I start to feel as if I want to vomit. Thailand is not perfect, but it is very affordable for me and my family, I have no neighbours too close around me, lots of greenery surrounding us, nice big comfortable house that I can sit in all day without feeling the heat most days until really hot summer days. I guess what I'm trying to say, it's all about the mindset, and if you can't get to it, then you will fail, for me, I have found it and that has made a huge difference for me, in other words, not interested in who, what, when, it's me, my family and what happens within our boundaries, so I won't allow the mind to upset me because some Joe wants more paperwork or I have to do a 90 day online report, I just accept it's not perfect, neither is Australia, albeit it more prettier, but also a Nanny State and an expensive one at that, I mean who pay $5 for iceberg lettuce.......crickey, if you think the grass is greener back there, good luck with that.

300k WOW, that must be a year ???? On a good month I can make 250k from day trading. House paid off, car paid off, no debt, two kids that go to a private Catholic school, so no international fees there. The entire family has private health care cover and we eat well, imports as well and I like my case of beer a month, not a big drinker, also my budget includes everything, except for annual domestic holidays and international holidays every 2 years. What's my budget, 70,000 baht per month on average, and can be reduced to around 58,000 baht per month if I removed the private health care cover for the family which costs me 217,500 baht per year, not hard to put 250,000 baht aside a year. 300k baht you must mean a year because no one would be required to spend 300k a month, and using your words, you don't live an extravagant life.

Thx. But I have to disagree with you there. The trip to the Dr back in Aus costs me $55 after Medicare pays me back around $35, it works out to be about $20 out of my pocket for me or 500 baht. My Dr prescribes me with double strength meds, e.g. instead of 40mg, I get 80mg and cut them in half, that way I get 6 months worth which is the max he will prescribe me, but it works out to 12 months worth once I cut them in half. I have done the math and it works out to be $403 cheaper or 10, 000 baht savings for me compared to buying them here. Also when ordering here, I don't buy them over the counter, I do it on LINE or by email and buy 6 months worth which they courier to my address for 35 baht. I got this down pat, trust me.

I live 20kms from the nearest town and in a rice field, and I do frequent the town twice a week for a few drinks and some good fair dinkum BS from the expat pi$$ heads, why would he be winding you up ?

Hey Chris, straight out of Sydney in 2015. So from my experience, also married to my Thai wife 15 years, it goes something like this and sorry, it is long, but it does cover things others might not have picked up. 1} Don't tell the banks you are moving overseas, just tell them you are going on an extended holiday and make sure your cards have at least 2 years on them before the dates on your cards expire. Make sure the bank makes a note that you will be overseas so you can access your account and make transactions, they will need your mobile number to be able to send you a code each time for certain transactions, so make sure you get that right first up. Have more than one account in Aus and also set up a Wise account for any future fund transfers you want to send her to Thailand, i.e. from your bank in Aus to your Wise account, then onto your bank in Thailand, note Wise will charge you if you leave more than the threshold amount in that account, I think it's 20k and they charge something like 1.65% a month, yes a month, so only put money in there when ready to transfer to your Thai account. 2} Retain an Aussie address and make sure everyone has it, banks, Medicare, etc, an address like a good mates address and a PO Box for all your mail to go to, your mate can have a key and you can make your annual fee payment online provided you register and provide your email address, also get your mate to be a signatory with the post office for any parcels that may come your way while you are over here. 3} I return every 2-3 years, note, don't go over 4 years, I haven't gone over 4 because you will will need to use your Medicare card before the 5 year mark otherwise they will cancel it and for you to get that card back, you need to re-establish your residency, and that can take up to 6 months living in the land of slavery. So make sure your Medicare has at least 5 years on it before you come, you can say you lost it and they can send you a replacement before you leave, remember to tell them of your new address, i.e. your mates address and your PO Box. I once renewed my card from here online as it was about to expire....lol, I said I lost it and they sent me a new one to my PO Box and I picked it up from my mate when I went back and used it to see the Dr, the 5 years starts again each time you use it. 4} Vodaphone have a $20 365 day recharge card where you can use that for the banks to send you the code to, that is what I do, make sure you turn on roaming and make a note when to renew the $20 365 day card online and you will be fine, remember to put on roaming and have it charged daily, whatever you do, don't answer it if it rings and don't make any calls from it or you will run out of credit real fast....lol. There is no charge for reading your text messages that the bank sends you with their code for you to use. 5} Let the electoral roll know you won't be voting unless you intend on keeping your Australian Residency for tax purposes, otherwise you can't vote as a non-resident and if you are going to be a non-resident for tax purposes let them know otherwise try getting out of the $1,000 fine for not notifying them, I went through this, fortunately they tried it on me, but I had copies of everything, so stuck it right up them. 6} If you have a property, talk to your accountant as there have been some recent changes to the tax laws regarding Capital Gains Tax and that may cost you more than you think, trust me, it's very ugly. 7} Renew your drivers licence because you cannot renew it from here online, although I do believe different states have different rules, in NSW you can't, so make sure you get as many years on it that you can, it all depends on your age, under 44 is 10 years, over 44 is 5 years, again that's for NSW. Next will be to get your Thai drivers licence here, pretty straight forward. 8} If your on any prescription meds, get 12 months worth if you can as they are expensive here compared to Aus 9} I did mention to you to talk to an accountant regarding property, if you don't have any, but have super or money laying around, you want you accountant to tell you how best to invest so you earn some $'s on it, if you retain residency, you will pay tax, if you become a non-resident for tax purposes and invest it in the ASX you won't pay any tax on fully franked shares and there is no Capital Gains Tax, so you may want to cover this area 10} If your not old enough to get the pension, you would be aware that you need two years in Aus to make it portable, i.e. to receive it here, i.e. if your looking to receive the pension in a few years time. If your already getting it, disregard what I said. 11} Cost of living all depends on how many of you there are and who you want to support, if it's just you and the Mrs, you should be ok on 50k baht a month, eating good foods and imports excluding any holidays, and private health cover policies. This will assume your house will be debt free and your car paid off. 11} Others might have mentioned private health cover here is expensive and goes up with age, so if you do decide to get one, maybe look at one that has deductibles, the higher the deductible (you pay) first in the event of hospitalisation, the lower the policy. I am sure you will work it all out when it comes to building, just remember, the golden rule, only invest as much as your prepared to walk away from, I say that with respect to your wife. You see a lot of guys lose a lot of money here because they wear their hearts on their sleeves and trust their wives with their finances, huge mistake in my opinion, love is one thing, finances is another. Anything more you need to know, let me know and best of luck on your new home, sooner or later you will find out how much the Australia you left behind will hate you, because you escaped the slave trade IMO.

Throw em in the bin. Too easy.

Yeh, not this time, it just died, probably from one of those famous blackout we have every now and again, who knows. We did have to replace an air con circuit board due to a gecko getting fried, hate the bastards with a passion, cost me 2,500 baht and they $hit everywhere......lol

I'm 87kg so not overweight for a 186cm guy. I think your right about the brushes, the motor was replaced almost 5 years ago and when I looked at the brushes this morning, they are not really that worn as they still fit in their respective slots without any loss in size, albeit it they are a little grooved if you know what I mean. Think will go back to the manufacturer as it could well be the motor, because it shouldn't be that hot after 12 minutes, no doubt he will be ducking and weaving as their sales rep doesn't work here anymore and they are in Bangkok. I even lubricated under the belt after giving it a clean, no wear or tear, and the only real thing I have replaced on the treadmill is the motor belt, and the board and motor 5 years ago which were under warranty, but we still had to pay something towards it, I think it was 4,000 baht, delivery and for the rep to replace it, the board only had a 2 year warranty so that was at our cost, I think it was 2,500 baht, plus the delivery from Bangkok and labour.

I sold PLS a little early yesterday, it was up 5c from when I bought in at $2.73 a day or two earlier, but made enough coin by the end of the day to be happy with it. S32 is on the down, so will have to wait for that to come back up, its a dividend paying stock so not too fussed, but I do like to get in and out as quick as possible as opposed to being stuck. PLS has some wild swings, but when it rebounds, if your in, it's happy days. I went in on PLS again today about 15 minutes after the open, @ $2.62. I later saw when the market closed, that it dropped to $2.58 and closed at $2.70. After I purchased it I closed off as I didn't want to see if the blood bath was going to continue. I'm in 50k and as I looked at it again after the close, have no option to see what happens on the opening on Monday, I'm up 8c which is really nice, and hope it has some more in it, maybe another 5c-10c. I like Mondays, so fingers crossed.

Wow, thanks heavy. Give yourself time to resolve the issues on your list and advise the banks that you are taking the matter to the Ombudsman, at least that way, they are on notice and probably won't want to do anything untoward to pi$$ you off further. I have a list too, but with slow planning the list is getting smaller by the day and like you, the more I distance myself from these corporations, the better off I am, albeit I will continue to use them to my advantage in the game where I can.

I take it you are trying to keep your residency for tax purposes, whereas I don't and reap the reward of not having to pay any tax, albeit 10% withholding tax from the interest paid to me by the banks. This suits me as I have family here, and no property back in Oz. I do have a daughter there though who collects my mail for me.

They made me so crazy a few years back wanting me to provide them with my address details on some kind of official government document witnessed by a JP. I no JP's here, besides they can't witness overseas documents, being a retired JP from when I moved here 6 + years ago, oh, then a Notary is ok, I said not for me at $90 per paper they sign, that said, as I was going to back to Oz in a couple of months at that time, I said make a note of that and I will email you witnessed JP docs of my overseas license as there was nothing else that I could provide them with, except a CBA statement that had my address on it, both with do, they later rejected the license as Google maps couldn't recognise the address....lol, but they were ok with the CBA statement, go figure. They came back a year + later wanting the same stuff again, and again fortunately for me, I was going back to Oz and did it again for them, wasn't happy about it, but you got to do what you got to do. Last year I changed the address of the CBA account to a local address in Oz because I heard some guys saying the banks closed their accounts because they were overseas, as for the ING account I didn't change it as I don't use that account much, except when I want to get free international charges and ATM fees when I go to Oz. Your not wrong about banks and some government departments, like Medicare, don't use it for 5 years, then you lose it, so we go back roughly every two years to use it, and when the date is getting close to the 5 year car renewal mark, I go to their website and say I lost the card, they then renew it with another 5 years and I pick it up from my daughter when back in Oz next. This is all becoming a game you have to play to stay ahead of it. As far as CBA are concerned, I live in the Oz address they have, and if they ever got in touch with me, I am overseas on holiday at the moment, and yes I am returning, next month, sometimes you have to BS, don't like it, but honesty got my ING card and account cancelled.

As I am a non-resident for tax purposes, I was ok with the banks paying the ATO the withholding tax and them knowing I resided overseas. I well, guess the ATO miss out on any withholding tax now because of the banks policy on overseas residence. As I have an Australian address with my CBA account, if the ATO ever said oi, you haven't notified your bank to withhold the tax from your account, I will simply say, if I told them I have an overseas address, they will shut my account down and I need an account to invest large sums of money into the ASX which you guys encourage. Can't have your cake and eat it too, they can provide me with what I owe them in withheld interest not held by the bank and I will transfer it to them, however doubt that day will ever arrive.

From another article, "However, stunned workers heard an argument which escalated and was followed by four gunshots. Witnesses then allegedly saw David stumble out of the room holding a gun". Could be self defence, be interesting to see what transpired, the other guy and his wife dead, this guy shot and holding the gun, a real teaser. RIP to the deceased.

Let him rot in jail, I hear there's 30 plus to a room with a stinker in the same room. He can then reflect on how beautiful life is.

All jokes aside, you have to have your wits about you anywhere in the world. In my opinion, Thailand is relatively safe, but being a tourist anywhere in the world means most stand out like dogs balls, and shouldn't be carrying large sums of money, cards and handbags with them. People struggling in these times will go to any length to pick on an easy target because they know if they tried it on a Thai it would a different matter all together. Anyways I hope he doesn't find his new quarters to cramped.

Thainess

On the off chance, does anyone know where I can buy some motor brushes for my treadmill as they are below half way down and after 12 minutes it's starting to give out that burning smell and the motor is hot enough to fry an egg on.