Lacessit

It's not necessary to sign marriage papers to make a Thai will.

Those female friends - I want photos.

I would say Thailand is a lot more difficult for an older foreign woman than an older foreign man, that is just a fact of life here. Plenty of young Thai women wanting to hook up with an older foreign male, can't say I have ever seen an obverse example. When I lived in a condo in CM, there were several older women there who seemed quite bitter about their situation. I can't say much about the Chiang Rai expat social situation, I'm not interested in it myself. Google Chiang Rai Ties if you want more information. I can say Chiang Rai is cheaper in terms of purchasing condo accommodation, and condo rental cost. PM me if you would like more information.

Most of my friends in Australia are married to women of a similar age. Some are happy, some not. I don't know a lot of people here, I prefer it that way. Two or three friends, the rest are acquaintances. I am happy with my own company. If I want someone to talk to or in my bed, I go to my GF's house in the village. She gets my laundry done and cooks for me, takes care of me while I am there. I cook for myself in the condo, or get takeaways. Can't be bothered going to bars, full of drunks wanting to bend anyone's ear. I live alone as much as I want to, and with someone as much as I want to. I am comfortable with the lifestyle I have.

The devil is in the detail. What does "permanent residence" mean? I am aware of an agreement between Thailand and Australia relating to taxation which means someone earning income can be taxed in either country, but not both. I doubt the Thai government would levy tax on pension income or capital transfers from abroad, although nothing this government does surprises me. I am not a permanent resident of this country if I can be booted out by either failing to renew my visa extension, or having it refused.

The other old joke about Jaguars was you bought two of them, so you could have at least one that was not in the service shop undergoing repairs. AFAIK the Toyota transplant into a Merc works well. The purported reliability of the W126 engine IME is more Mercedes spin than substance. I have the scars to prove it.

It makes better sense to me than dating a 20 yo airhead, and we are doing more than just dating.......

Bacteria and viruses are entirely different, a bacterial infection caused by a vaccine would be as rare as elephant poo in Antarctica. There are exercises available to clear congested lungs, talk to a physiotherapist.

I would suggest safety on Thai roads is more dependent on driver skills than the number of airbags a vehicle has. Proactive vs. reactive.

Buy her a cushion to sit on, save 300,000 baht.

Absolutely spot on. I was talking with a criminologist some decades ago, about rising delinquency in Australia. He said role models are the most critical element of a child becoming an adult.

An alternative hypothesis is she has you well trained.

Your choice, to me mRNA vaccines are comparatively new technology. There are certainly more reports of adverse reactions to Pfizer than Moderna. A couple of friends of my son were young and healthy too. Unvaccinated. One is dead, the other has long COVID. I suggest you stop faffing about, the virus doesn't care what you believe.

Any test kit which mixes the swab contents with a small vial of liquid prior to applying to the test zone will give a valid result. Test kits that only involve touching the swab to the test zone will generate some false negatives. IME the only way to generate a false positive on most tests of this nature is sample contamination, i.e. failure to observe sterile procedure.

IMO if you go to a private hospital and test positive, the odds are pretty good they will take you into quarantine. There's good money in it for them. A government hospital may send you home to self-quarantine, or quarantine you depending on how severe the symptoms are. Clinics would be a lottery, as it would depend on whether the doctor was affiliated with a hospital, and what that hospital is. Myself and my GF were quarantined in a public hospital on the basis of ATK tests, no PCR was done. My symptoms were not severe, the quarantine was probably based on my age.

They are usually accurate to or above 90%. The bigger concern is with false negatives, the Chinese Lepu kits were withdrawn by the government from distribution for that reason. Faulty design.

Good luck with that, getting teenagers to observe mask discipline and social distancing would be like herding cats. It's all BS anyway, those schoolgirls probably crammed themselves into a songthaew after they left the mall.

Gravity takes over.

It would be beneficial if tracking worked, all the evidence is once the number of infections hit a critical mass, tracking collapses under the weight of potential contacts. IMO Bangkok is past that number some time ago. My advice to the OP would be to self-isolate, with a stock of ATK kits to ascertain when he is no longer testing positive. Only go to a hospital if breathing difficulties develop. Having been in quarantine in a Thai public hospital, I can assure everyone it is no picnic. From what I gather, private hospitals are very expensive.

The other thing the OP might want to know is cure time for optimum strength. Cover the pour with wet sacking, and allow to stay undisturbed for three days. Keep wet. Then remove the sacking, and allow to dry. Carbon dioxide in the air reacts with calcium hydroxide in the wet cement. It's also known as slaked lime. That's where the bond strength of the cured concrete comes from. The normal proportions for concrete are 4 parts of stone, 2 parts of sand, and one of cement. Good quality water should be used to avoid rebar corrosion, which will occur if the chloride content of the water is too high. Corrosion of rebar results in spalling. At best, spalling is ugly. At worst, it is a risk to structural integrity.

Of course Thais can be taught, like anyone else. My GF is very street-smart, and her grand-daughter has astonished me with how rapidly she has picked up things like the Greco-Roman alphabet, numbers, days of the week, and names of months in English. She's as smart as a whip. The education system in Thailand focuses on obedience to authority. That's why the elite here don't like having farangs around, we give Thais within our orbit ideas, and it's much better for the powers that be if they can keep the population dumb.

I would seriously suggest getting vaccinated with whatever is available NOW, is your life or serious illness worth the risk of waiting? All the data says anyone vaccinated reduces those risks very substantially. I was vaccinated with the supposedly inferior Sinovac/AZ combo, sore throat and runny nose for three days after I got COVID, end of story. My Thai GF, who was unvaccinated, was very ill for about 10 days. I don't understand your aversion to Moderna, it is a mRNA type vaccine similar to Pfizer, with marginally better protection according to the data I've read. Why don't you want it?

Quote from fdsa's post: "Moderna is widely available here on Phuket (on the contrary to Pfizer, unfortunately, which I would prefer over all other vaccines)" Now look at the location under my nom-de-plume, I am talking about availability of Pfizer in Chiang Rai.

It's available at Central Festival, free. Go there in the morning to get a queue number, then the shot is given after 2 pm in the afternoon. You will need your passport and any documents relating to prior jabs. It's much more difficult if you can't speak Thai, they don't have English speakers. I should think it would also be available at the government hospital, but you may have a very long waiting time. I don't know what the situation with the private hospitals is, you would have to ask.

Quite correct, I would not expect them to be selling cars for no profit.