mfd101

Thanks, that's reassuring. I'll no doubt ring Surin Immi closer to the time but I didn't want to do the complex planning that's involved every year (bank papers & health insurance) only to find I got the date wrong & have to do everything over again ... Cheers

Chinese exports are a double-edged sword in more ways than one!

Just doing some forward planning, having done my 90-day report today, taking me to Sunday 8 October for the next one. As a result of the covid extension of 3 weeks granted out of the blue a year or more ago, my annual renewal is out of kilter with my 90-day reporting. My next annual renewal is due 30 October. Can I bring that forward to 13 October (ie 2.5 weeks in advance) to coincide with doing my next 90-day report 5 days late? Not sure of the general rule on this (2 weeks in advance? 3? 4?) And unaware of what Surin might apply (having missed the opportunity to ask there this morning in a busy & understaffed office), but can check later to be sure. Any useful comment appreciated.

It would be interesting to rerun the election today. I suspect that MFP would get over 50% of votes. But of course we'll never know.

Serial pest ⇒ spray can

Lack of quorum = lack of interest.

Characteristically - everywhere in the world - it is women who marry up, not men. Buried deep in our genes I should think, and not surprising.

Just as "in the West", taking you home to meet the family is a good sign (she's serious), but it's only good if you're serious too. As for money matters, that goes with the territory. Either get used to it or get out.

The anyone-but-Pita school has only one outcome: The anything-but-moving-forward Thailand.

Optimism is a source of strength.

I should have thought Canberra would get a mention (though perhaps it's too small to qualify). I spent 36 years of my life there and it's hard to beat for petit bourgeois comfort and safety (yawn).

And he has in common with Prawit an interest in watches. Must be a qualification required for the Premiership, punctuality being a national obsession.

I doubt the current POTUS - or his predecessor - could find Thailand on the map.

My experience of arriving with my Thai partner in hotels here in Thailand, but also in Australia, Vietnam, HK and Singapore, has always been the same: A quick glance from the front desk, cough cough, Um would that be two beds or one, Sir? One kingsize thank you. Very well, Sir. Only once in NZ in what turned out to be a Christian hotel in Taupo was there the slightest appearance of alarm or discomfort, soon dissipated when it turned out we were quite civilized.

Remember that the outcome of the election shows major generational change under way. Today's young people are often well-informed through modern technologies and even the relatively small Bangkok 'middle classes' produce reasonably well-educated young people ... Which suggests that things won't be just a rerun of the horrors of the past, try as the dinosaurs might. There will be a point - next week? in 6 months? 2 years? - when modernity breaks once and for all through the barriers.

Well there's the ties that bind, and then there's the Thais that don't.

Trouble may be brewing but I think the dinosaurs are just having a bit of a giggle to maintain their morale. Entertainment all round. But if they do try it on, then Thailand's future will be in the hands of the young people of Bangkok - and later their parents & some busloads from Isaan.

I wonder if prolixity is a sign of cognitive decline.

I doubt that it's Prayut with his foot on the brakes at the moment. No substantial reason for him to cling on once the new PM & Cabinet are nominated. Anything he decides now as acting PM has neither credibility nor staying-power. Which I suspect he well understands.

Where's an asteroid extinction event when you need one?

Mmmm, well when it comes to retirement age it could just be that the Aussies still know how to count and the French don't.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world in a country with a long history of authoritarian centralism & welfarism-gone-mad, the French are rioting in the streets because the government wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

At this stage it looks like the Ukrainian Blitzkrieg will follow rather than precede a Russian collapse.

Well as a gay I can't help noticing he's far and away the most hansum man in the room.

Interesting use of the word 'democratic' in the phrase "the democratic regime of government" ...