Lacessit

I could send a photo, but I wouldn't like to upset you if you are having breakfast. Thanks for reminding me, I must check down below.

I do have to wonder how I have lived here for 12 years, and got to age 78, without growing two heads.

Sorry if climate change offends you. It's based on facts and observation, not theory. You can say gravity is just a theory too. Just step off the balcony on the fourteenth floor of a condo in Pattaya, and watch how quickly the hypothesis becomes reality.

It's a similar language; however, the alphabet is different. https://askanydifference.com/difference-between-russian-and-ukrainian/

I've done that trip on a scooter, from Mae Sai to Nong Khai. That was scary enough for me, when I could accelerate to get out of the way. I hate to think what it would be like on a bicycle, but it's your life, your choice. I'd put it in the same risk category as going for a swim off Lady Julia Percy Island.

I'd put that question in the category of " Have you stopped beating your wife yet?"

No-one needs to rely on Chinese goods if they don't want to. All any country has to do is fire the venal politicians who went offshore to fill their pockets, and bring manufacturing back home. Google Andrew Robb, he's an ideal example. I suspect the Germans are scrambling to develop new suppliers, wouldn't you?

Too much information.

IMO China is watching the conflict in Ukraine very carefully, and it does not like what it sees. The myth of the mighty Russian army has turned to dust, Western weapons are pulverising armaments that were thought to be fairly impregnable. If it's that difficult to invade over land, how much more difficult is it over 120 km of water? With the USA possessing many more nuclear subs than the Chinese. The other aspect is globalisation, which has benefited China immensely, and kept its population fed. Become a pariah nation like Russia, with the access to international markets cut off, and the Chinese economic miracle becomes very fragile. China has to export, or starve. America is its single biggest customer.

As I understand it, Canadians get pensions from several sources. I would say if your deceased husband was getting a military pension, I'd be almost certain you would qualify for a widow's pension. AFAIK every Commonwealth country does the same. The rest, I don't know. My condolences for your loss, good luck.

They are beautiful as long as they keep well away from me. Australia is a country which houses 11 out of 12 of the most venomous creatures in the world. As far as snakes go, the inland taipan is considered to be the world's deadliest. A single bite contains enough venom to kill up to 280 humans. So my background makes me nervous around snakes.

Peera Pharmacy is on the road into the Old City, about 50 metres up from Thapae Gate. Turn left off the inner ring road. The lady in there speaks very good English, and sells meds at competitive prices. You can also ask on LINE, Peera Pharmacy.

In quite a few rural villages, the locals would probably be eating it.

Unless you can provide a genuine link, yes.

Ah, this week's entry for the tautology competition.

Some of the contestants look like giraffes, I guess petite girls should not bother applying. Through years of practice, I've observed myself and any girl are always the same height when we are horizontal.

Quite agree, many Thais can take offense and some have guns in their glove-boxes. I still remember my driving instructor when I was training for my driver's license at age 18. I blew my horn at another car, and he said you should never need to use the horn. When I asked why, he said you're the one who put yourself in an unsafe position if you needed to use it.

The reliance on technology is working pretty well in Ukraine. Thanks to the thievery of Putin and his cronies, Russia tried to build its military on the cheap. A T-72 tank has almost none of the technology of an Abrams M1, and it's showing in the way modern shoulder-launched missiles are decimating them. The T-90 is just a dressed-up T-72. Hypersonic missiles are fine for terrorizing civilian populations, but unless they have a nuke on the pointy end, they are no good for anything else. And expensive. Classic case of putting the eggs in the wrong basket. Russia leads the world in one statistic. Their national minimum wage has gone backwards by -20% under Putin. Most nations have had an increase in that parameter despite COVID. I don't know how much the average Russian knows about economics. Having said that, if Jacinta crunched whatever you are getting by way of earnings in income or pension by 20%, I guess you would be pretty p###ed with her.

Well, we can expect a big jump in the COVID figures. Or not, if only the really sick go to a hospital. How many will self-isolate, how many will totally ignore their symptoms? Santayana said those who forget the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them.

Same for Amazon Prime. I'm quite surprised some of the sex scenes in "Peaky Blinders" got through, as well as the language.

I don't think that's possible. Putin has succeeded in reverting Russia to a hermit kingdom, just like North Korea. Russia is an international pariah, no foreign company wants to be there anymore. In North Korea, the population has been cut off from any modern living. I understand only the ruling elite can own mobile phones. You can't miss what you never knew was there. Facebook, Twitter? What are they? The danger for Putin is the average Russian knows what they had, before the sanctions kicked in. Add to that a body count he can't hide for ever, and it's a recipe for regime change, just as Afghanistan was the catalyst that led to the dissolution of the USSR.

I'm simply pointing out the UN is underfunded to be the world's policeman. Given the corruption that exists in a number of its arms, permit me to doubt its effectiveness anyway.

The Russian Federation paid $69 million in membership fees to the UN in 2021. The contribution of the US was $11.6 billion. I suspect the Russian contribution in 2022 would be even less. I hate to admit it, but Trump was right. Europe etc. should be putting far more into the defenses of their democracies, America can't be the world's policeman forever.

I did not say it was right, just that your comparison is invalid. Totalitarian regimes do use their military against their civilian population, you may be predicting Russia's future.

When a country with an economy as small as Russia's devotes on average 16% of its budget to its military arm, something's got to give. As a comparison, New Zealand spends just 1.5%. My guess would be Russian military expenditure is even higher now. You are quoting 2019 data, this is 2022 with sanctions on a lot of things, including transportation and the technologies required to grow and harvest food. Due to the corruption in Russia, the agricultural sector is probably underfunded. You think Putin cares if his fellow Russians go hungry? Stalin didn't, he and Lysenko screwed up the farm sector for decades. Putin is no different to Stalin.