3STTW

Thanks, I'll take a look tomorrow.

Any recommendations in the Pattaya area?

After his daughter was fired, I said to the missus - "How long before Thaksin needs urgent medical treatment abroad?" And a week later... here we are. Given that he has been denied permission to leave in the recent past, I suspect he was handed his passport - along with a Foxtrot Oscar and don't come back. Question is, what did Thaksin do to upset Hun Sen? Leaking the phone recording was clearly an act of political assassination - but not one which would gain Cambodia any advantage in the border dispute. With Paetongtarn gone, Hun Sen would have known the Shinawatra dynasty was effectively finished. And what now for all the movers and shakers who facilitated Thaksin's return? And the party which despised Anutin's cannabis deregulation has just voted its architect to be PM. You couldn't make it up. Ooh, the intrigue...

I get the impression that the article is supposed to give hope (again) to the tourists and expats who have been complaining about Thailand's alcohol policy for decades. We've had rumors of deregulation which would have allowed everyone in TH to finally enjoy a decent beer without paying stupid amounts of money, Nope, the general monopoly still stands. Then we had the tax reduction on wines, etc. Despite the cut, prices have been rising steadily ever since - especially in restaurants and hotels. Supermarkets are still charging US$20 -30 for cheap Australian plonk. The idea that any price reduction would be passed on to the consumer was always pure fantasy anyway. Then there was the proposal to get rid of the inexplicable 14:00 - 17:00 sales ban - the most ridiculous alcohol restriction on the entire planet - nope again. They keep harping on about how they're modernizing the alcohol policy to attract more tourists, yet it always stays exactly the same. Literally, nothing has changed in 20 years.

You might want to post your budget/month too. There's a lot in the gated villages but they can be a bit pricey.

I think we can agree that Thai beer ain't the best in the world, but I'd still prefer it to most of the piss they serve in USA or Australia. The place I buy it is usually pretty good, he has a high turnover and the warehouse is covered and relatively cool. No complaints over the last 6 years.

I could V-groove it with a CNC, if that's any help. I have a laser but it would probably blast through it.

What the heck is going on with Chang Classic in cans? We just topped up the drinks fridge with a couple of slabs and every single can is skunked, They all smell like stale sherry and taste foul. The date stamp suggests they were made on 01/25 so they should be okay. I'm used to getting the occasional skunked bottle in bars but, up to now, the cans have been pretty good quality.

I have been in this situation and if it weren't for the defamation laws in TH, I could go into intricate detail about my dealings with UPS. So, without the profanities, UPS Thailand isn't UPS - they're a local handling agent. If you complain via their US headquarters, all your correspondence will be routed to UPS TH, so you end up at square one. In my case, I went to the receiving port customs office and registered myself as a temporary importer - all you need is the AWB along with your passport, proof of address, visa, as you would with any immigration dealings. The paperwork and so on took about 40 mins and I had to pay a fee at the cashiers desk. Once I had the paperwork, I scanned it and sent it to UPS TH and the shipment arrived a couple of days later. What confounds me is the fact that this was documentation. It may be that the customs have opened it and seen values in excess of $2,500 and deemed it to be a financial instrument - i.e. of value to the recipient and perhaps an attempt at nefarious naughtiness. The fees that you are being quoted seem to be vexatious and I would get your lawyer to contest them. In short, I will pay significant amounts of extra cash to avoid my imports getting into their hands. Their competitors in TH are bound by the same rules, but they are way more responsive and helpful.

I while ago I got interested in manufacturing LiFePo batteries for renewable storage, I got in touch with a distributor in CH and they quoted me prices for 3.2V cells and I was shocked how cheap they were. I'm talking about cells made by BYD, EVO, etc. Obviously I ended up on their mailing list, so now I get almost weekly sales alerts - and it's almost as if they can't get rid of them fast enough. For a couple of reasons at the time I gave up on the idea, now it seems like a real possibility.

I bought a Coleman Xtreme 5 66L from the Suzuki place at the marina. Awesome, keeps beers cold for a week outdoors. IIRC, I paid about Bht5k.

I would contact www.thaicarpenter.com or www.siamwoodworker.com and ask them for local contacts. They may be able to turn the spindles themselves. There are many DIY woodworkers in TH - but not many of them subscribe to this forum.

Internalising markets, whether in a sole country or a cartel, has been proven, many times, to be a disaster. Thanks to this policy, the EU is so far behind in terms of economic flexibility, energy production and technology, it can no longer catch up. The EU model was predicated on a "United States of Europe", in spite of the introduction of the Euro, the bloc has failed to introduce a common taxation framework and establish a bank of last resort. The ECB is basically a dead flogged horse that has no power to exert the fiscal controls necessary to moderate the EU's diverse economic structure. And that structure is literally falling apart, on the news, every day. Since Brexit, the UK economy has diversified and expanded into numerous global markets. The banking industry is regretting their move to Paris and Frankfurt and are moving back to London, there's British seafood products on sale in Japan at $100/kg and the "beleaguered" car industry is doing just fine. And so on. The only thing that will scupper this success is the Labour government and the incoherent net-zero ideology of the fu*kwit Ed Milliband. With UK energy prices approaching 4x it's neighbours, that genius has just denied the UK any chance of leveling the playing field by cancelling the UK's only energy safety net. With a net global emissions reduction of about 0.001%. Stupid c**t.

Back when I were a lad (groan), you could get an Interail ticket and travel free around Europe for a month for ~110 quid. I did it four times from age 15 - 18 and I leaned more in those 4 months than my entire school career. Travel broadens the mind isn't just a cliché. And this all happened before the Treaties for Maastricht, Lisbon, open borders and the introduction of the Euro. The EEC was just a price fixing coal and steel cartel. In terms of mobility, my youth was diametrically opposite to the youth of today who have suffered years in lockdown, resulting in a generation of meek, fragile daisies whose only salvation in life is government benefits. So, yes, youth mobility is important. As far as the UK rejoining the EU, it's not going to happen. The EU economic model has collapsed - in exactly the same way that economists were predicting 15 years ago. Germany's manufacturing core has imploded and the French are on an express train to bankruptcy. The only reason why the EU would accept the UK back into the fold would be it's deep pockets and, thanks to Covid, those days are gone. Any hope that the UK economy is going to regain it's foothold is being rapidly deconstructed by Starmer, Reeves and Milliband with their boneheaded Marxist whims and their penchant for ideological policy over fact-based economic sense.

Just been checking out the ECMWF forecast and they're predicting winds changing to south westerly over the weekend and a distinct drop on rain/humidity from Monday. Normally I hear the Thai Met Office calling it a few weeks in advance. Maybe it's a blip?