Lacessit

For me, it is a way of staying mentally active. I like to think I can contribute knowledge and experience as well. Slightly addictive, when I get on a thread of a topic which strikes a chord with me. I do take a break occasionally, when I have had enough of suffering fools gladly.

I can speak Thai with reasonable fluency, and understand it 50% of the time. I can't get my head around the alphabet, so I can't read or write it. i know a few signs. IME the foreigners here who don't have any Thai usually have a Thai partner who is proficient in English, and hence don't bother. I can usually make myself understood in most situations. I talk to my GF in Thai all the time. IMO knowing some Thai is much better than having none, if living here long-term.

Don't worry, the term "witty" will never be associated with your posts.

If the sole qualifications of a "better team" is absolute loyalty, permit me to doubt experience and competence will be there, except perhaps by accident. As for Trump himself, the saying you can't teach an old dog new tricks springs to mind.

Here's a news flash - France, Germany and the UK can make military toys just as technically advanced as the USA. Even the Israelis. Please do place 100% tariffs on car imports. Then you can go back to driving crappy rustbuckets with fuel inefficiency, which will pollute you to death on your Western and Eastern seaboards.

Trump does not seem to understand tariffs are a two-edged sword. His last trade war with China was a disaster for American farmers. IMO leaders of other countries should simply say, bring it on. The tariffs you put on our goods and services, we will double on yours.

Like this? One thing you had to say about the TR-3, it LOOKED like a sports car should.

The Honda's predecessor was a VW Beetle. Heating came via floor vents, from the air-cooled engine. Although basic, the bucket seats were quite comfortable. I worked for a firm, Texfoam, which made those seats. They were manufactured from coconut fibre sprayed with latex, and cured in a mold. It took quite a while for the PU foam technology to do better. The rear engine weight distribution made for quite vicious oversteer in corners, quite a few drivers used to front-engined understeering cars came to grief with it.

In 1974, I bought my first NEW car. A 1974 Honda Civic. Five speed manual gearbox and air conditioning, very economical and agile. For its time, a brilliant small car. It still is the only car I have made money on. My wife of the time had a phobia about old cars, anything over 100,000 km might break down and leave her to be kidnapped by white slavers. I am not exaggerating. It was still in very good condition when I sold it in 1982. No rust, paint only slightly faded. I bought it new for $3200, and sold it to a work colleague's daughter for $3400.

I'd expect Trump to be well into senility by the time he gets to 86, dementia runs in the Trump family. IIRC that was what the Republicans were flagellating Biden with. https://people.com/fred-trump-family-history-dementia-donald-behavior-exclusive-8738427 Someone with dementia with his finger on the nuclear button, now there's a thought.

My first number plate was PT 157

The first Chrysler to be assembled in Australia was the Chrysler Royal, followed by the Chrysler Valiant. The Royal was all fins, whereas the styling of the first Valiant was quite different to the other large car brands, although they would be called compacts in the USA.

Agree with all of it, especially exercise. Interesting sugar is not mentioned as a major health threat.

I bought a 1973 XB Ford Fairmont, exactly as pictured. Cheap plastics manufactured in Broadmeadows kept falling off. The engine was OK, but the radiator was under-designed for a 4.0 litre straight six. It did not like mountain climbing. Four on the floor. As it aged, the steering got more and more vague, with about three inches of free play. Its major design flaw was the drain scuttle under the windscreen wipers, which only had one drain outlet. As a result. water pooling at the other end of the scuttle inevitably caused the steel to corrode, as it was only protected by a cathodic E-coat. Any time it rained, the plush floor carpet got soaked, and rotted. I eventually gave up trying to keep it dry, and retired it to a friend's property west of Euabalong as a hunting vehicle. It was still going strong with its oversquare motor when he sold the property, and I gave it to a kid from one of the neighboring stations.

The dogs are not on a lead. There is no way of knowing whether he has control over them in all situations. IMO a month in a Thai jail would be enough to adjust his anti-social attitude.

In my era, it was quite common for VW Campers to have opaque side and rear curtains, plus a front partition to ward off nosey parkers.

Apart from other quality considerations, American cars became rust buckets anywhere salt was used on the roads to clear snow. OTOH, the Japanese worked on assembly designs, substrates and passivation treatments to increase corrosion resistance. I can remember being shocked on my first visit to the US by the number of vehicles with rusted out door panels and fenders. In Australia, they would have been put off the road. My 19 year old Vios does not have one speck of underbody rust. Admittedly it is in a fairly mild environment, but that's still an impressive achievement.

Ah, the bugeye Sprite. I remember dicing with one. I was OK in the straight, he slaughtered me on the curves.

The Japanese rose to pre-eminence w.r.to vehicle quality after inviting an American statistician, W. Edwards Deming, to Japan. Automotive history might be very different if his own countrymen had listened to him. Nowadays, it's the Koreans who are making seriously good vehicles. And the Chinese are coming. The Germans have mostly sold on cachet and snob value, IMO sometimes not supported by quality of vehicle and support services. The Mercedes logo is called the three-pointed suppository for a reason. Last year, my son bought a Hyundai Kona N. Its performance is quite scary in N mode.

Oh dear. That spear to the front on the VW, which also functioned as a steering column, could be lethal even with seat belts. No doubt the Buick was luxurious, my father owned a Studebaker of similar vintage. Did you ever bother to check the fuel consumption?

The temporary migrant worker visa has minimum wage requirements and working conditions imposed by the Department of Labor. Farmers want the cheapest labor possible, so they can make a profit or even survive as a going concern. Illegals enable that. Farmers will either push up prices to keep going, or quit. Either way, the product on a supermarket shelf gets more expensive. I have no issue with the US deporting bad guys, but it seems to me America is shooting itself in the foot if it exports illegals who just want to work, and send money back home.

While I have never owned one, I did like the pregnant pastie look of the Standard Vanguard. Come to think of it, I have never owned a British make, although all the Brits in Australia seemed to stick with them.

IIRC that was the time when Volvos were considered to be indestructible. I still remember the ad where they stacked 8? 9? Volvos on top of the other, to prove the strength of the safety cage.

I bought a new Honda Civic in 1974, the first car I had with aircon. Brilliant small car for its time. The kerb mass was 800 kg. Today, it is 1300 kg.

IIRC the top speed was 70 mph. AFAIK we never got the A35 in Australia, only the A30 and A40. It was succeeded by the Morris/Austin 1100, which was quite revolutionary with the hydraulic suspension.