Lacessit

You grew up in the Napa Valley? I have news for you, Australians regard wines from that region as only fit for cardboard cartons. Thin and insipid. I guess it depends on what one's palate gets trained for. A full-bodied Aussie Shiraz would probably overload your taste buds.

If you can show me a laboratory in Thailand capable of performing wine analysis for smoke taint guaiacols, I might start believing you. The link is to what I would call a dedicated wine analysis and winemaking supply company in Australia, which is used by about 70% of vineyards there. If Thailand has a company as state of the art as that, I'll bare my butt in Chatuchak Market. https://www.vintessential.com.au/winemaking-store/ Instead of making vague unsubstantiated assertions, please post a brand, year, varietal and price of a Thai wine you consider to be good quality.

I beg to differ, the Thai women in the massage shop I mentioned are all adamant they don't want a Thai male. Of course, they could be just telling me what they think I want to hear. However, knowing their previous history, I don't think so. The oldest woman there had an abusive Thai husband. When she was 30, he said she was not beautiful anymore, and left her, with a 5 yo daughter to support. I guess that would color one's outlook. She is quite envious of my GF.

When someone says what I am posting is irrelevant, it sounds to me like a put-down, and I am quite intolerant of people who do that. Hence my response. IMO there are not really any "better" choices, unless one is prepared to shell out 2000 - 3000 baht for decent wine. Irrigated wines such as Yellowtail fill the mouth; however, there are few nuances to them. They are reasonably balanced, without ageing subtleties. Adequate is my description of them. I suppose I am spoilt for wine, having drunk Booth's Premium Shiraz in its heyday of 1990, and Heathcote and Margaret River wines that retail for over $100 in Australia. Those were the days.

You may be right, for Thai women in their twenties and thirties. IMO it's different when they are in their forties and fifties, after they have been discarded by their Thai men for something younger. I have regular ( legit ) massages at a shop staffed by women in their forties and fifties. If I wasn't already taken, I'd stand as much chance as a honeycomb with a bear. They are always asking me if I have any farang friends that could take care of them. For women their age, it's a pretty bleak future. When they can no longer work, it's back to the village, with a government pension of 600 baht/month when they reach 60. I would spend twice that in a single day.

I am reasonably competent in Thai, I can't say I will ever master it. Same with the culture, there are some mindsets I can comprehend, others which are alien to me. I don't worry about it. Jai yenn yenn. IMO the expectation of women everywhere, not just Thailand, is the man should be a good provider. Those are pretty thin on the ground in Thailand, due to low wages, particularly in rural areas. It's hardly surprising Thai women should prefer an old foreigner on a Western pension to a Thai man their own age that is a shiftless, gambling, abusive drunk. That's not prejudice, just pragmatism.

Melatonin does absolutely nothing for me. I suppose everyone's physiology is different. I take Codiphen ( drowsy antihistamine ) once a week, which I buy very cheaply at a Chiang Mai pharmacy, 50 baht for a box of ten tablets. 8 - 9 hours of good sleep. I have also recently discovered 25 mg of THC in an edible cannabis cookie prior to bedtime acts as a sedative and pain reliever to boot.

See my post on this page 2 as to why Thai wines are bad. I have not encountered one where I could get past half a glass. It's unlikely Thai wines will improve, given xenophobia and face. I don't know if wine making is one of the occupations reserved for Thais. In any case, it's unlikely a really good vintner would up sticks and move to Thailand. Many wineries are family operations going back some generations, no compelling reason to move.

Loved the crack about Thai insomnia, Rooster. Spot on, Thais can sleep on a tiled floor with a TV on maximum volume.

How much was the "Two Hands" in baht? McLaren Vale does produce some very good Shiraz, I remember one called " Squid Ink." $72 a bottle, hate to think what it would be here.

Other posters might like some background on wines from Australia, if you don't there is nobody twisting your arm to read what I post. My point is it's a mass-produced wine. Paying 600 baht for it is complete BS.

Agree 100%. It was two years before I moved from casual to committed.

Yellowtail is a mass-produced irrigated wine from Yenda, near Griffith. IIRC, made by the Casella family. The truly great wines in Australia are those that are sold from the cellar door or selected outlets, they will never see a supermarket shelf. They will never make it to Thailand either, the duty would be crippling.

Wolf Blass is a blender of vintages from small wineries, selling into the budget section of Australia supermarkets. A wine snob would turn their nose up. Having said that, they do make some very drinkable reds.

Australian wines that would be classed as barely drinkable there are priced outrageously here, so I don't bother. Jacob's Creek for 700 - 800 baht a bottle, spare me. Thai wine is dreck, for two good reasons. The first is air pollution. Smoke taint on grapes ruins a vintage quicker than anything, as Australian vintners find out every time there is a bushfire season. The second is technical knowledge. Wine analysis is a very specialized and niche industry, and dedicated laboratories are few and far between. There are only two such facilities in Australia, I doubt there would be any in Thailand. If a wine-maker here has a stuck ferment or smoke taint, I doubt they have the knowledge or tools to measure them accurately. If you don't measure it, you can't control it. I've tasted Thai wines a few times, they invariably are out of balance on acidity, tannins, residual sugars and fruit. Yet to encounter one I would call drinkable, let alone supernacular.

Beautiful, and probably harder than diamond.

An inverter is quieter, Daikin should win out because they have been making them longer than the other brands. Personally, I have found Mitsubishi to be ultra-reliable. AC noise doesn't bother me, it drowns out the dogs, cats and roosters. I have a Haier at the condo, a Samsung and two Panasonics at the house. None are the inverter type. The Samsung and Haier have not given any problems, the Haier is probably the noisiest. The Panasonics have some kind of circuit board problem, had an aircon technician called out several times.

Your post reminds me of a situation I had. A couple of years ago, my GF and I had a clash of beliefs. Our dog developed terminal cancer, it was pitiful to see him trying to drag himself around. I wanted to have him euthanased, she didn't. Buddhist belief. After a day or so of arguing, I said, OK, I am going back to my condo. I will not come back to the house until he is euthanased. If he dies without euthanasia, don't expect to see me for a long time, if ever. Do not come to the condo either. After a week, she phoned me to say he was gone. She had a vet put him down. She was very upset, saying she had done a bad thing. I think I managed to convince her what she did was merciful.

Are you OK? Your post is one of the shortest I have ever seen from you.

A thread that is a magnet for bitter Westerners. I suppose they reap what they sow. I believe my GF is grateful for what I have given her. If she is not, she's a pretty good actress. I get respect from her and the family, if I did not I would be gone. IMO the key to a good relationship here is setting boundaries. Thais live in the present. It's a strength in one way, because they don't hark back to the past like we do. OTOH, it also limits their capacity to plan for the future.

The corruption in Thailand does not affect me in any way, I would not know if the same in Australia does because I am not there very often. IMO corruption in Australia is just more subtle and more difficult to detect. No-one can tell me a Prime Minister's Department that is staffed 90% by consultants with links to coal, gas, and oil interests would be impartial, and not corrupt. The result is predictable, domestic consumers paying through the nose for electricity, while said entities make record profits.

If you want to talk about bogus claims, I suggest you start a new thread. See how many posters you attract. I would not deny there are bogus claims. Having said that, your post is classic look over there. You've been given the evidence of bad faith acts by insurance companies you asked for by two posters, and I fail to see how being an Employer Director of a super fund assists your understanding of the insurance industry. Perhaps it's an attempt at argument ad vericundiam.

I must admit I had forgotten about the Royal Commission. But then, there's so many of them it's hard to keep track. Fat chance of that kind of inquiry getting any traction in Thailand.

I used an agent for a few years, until I understood I was assembling the paperwork for them, all they were doing was speeding up the process at Chiang Mai Immigration. Which could be a real bunfight back in the day. I dispensed with the agent's services, which saved me 7000 baht. Waiting 3 hours instead of 1 hour, my time was worth 3500 baht/hr, at least that's the way I thought about it. When I moved to Chiang Rai, the time spent in attending Immigration shrank significantly - I am usually finished inside an hour. IMO the poster you are responding to misses the point - it does not matter whether one is employing an agent or not, AFAIK all foreigners have to attend Immigration to apply for their annual extension. I put said poster on ignore quite some time ago.

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/insurance/what-to-do-if-your-insurance-claim-is-rejected https://www.dougterrylaw.com/types-damage-bad-faith-claims/ Insurance claims may be denied for good reason. They can also be denied because the insurer is acting in bad faith. An example of bad faith was in the Black Saturday fires in Victoria of 2009. Insurance companies were refusing claims for total loss because house chimneys were still standing. The CFA fixed that by taking fire trucks to destroyed houses, and knocking the chimneys down. My son was a CFA crew member at the time. I was told by an insurance executive ( not a guy at a bar ) that claims departments have incentives for employees to deny claims, I assume that meant performance bonuses. Make of that what you will. Those big buildings insurance companies live in and own - they didn't get to be that big by making a loss. You may be having a good run on claims because you are dealing with a reputable company. Permit me to doubt they all are.