Silencer

-Had the Western wife and kids. Divorce cost me about $1M after 25 years together. I WAS the family "ATM". -Had the near "hiso" wife. She loaned me 1.5M baht for our house purchase in the US, had her own work, Mercedes, tons of other babbles. She had over 10M in her Thai bank account. Would inherit more. Never a penny to her family. I paid about 70% of our joint bills. No cost divorce after 9 years as the life she wanted did not align with mine. -Have super hot, younger gf (25 years age diff) the past 3 years. She does everything for me ("take care" goes both ways). Sure, I paid off her credit card (100k), am paying off her house expansion loan (15k/yr), and give 15k/month to her mom and dad a month. That's peanuts for what I get in return. She never asks for anything. Up to me if I want to buy a car for us, a house, she has no demands on my money but expects me to take care of her and mom and dad. Life is good, what are you on about? If you are a youngster, maybe not the ride you want, over 60, I'm living the dream, hot wife/friend/cook/maid/gardener/sex all on a tropical island, forever cash flow and having a ball. Take care me, I take care you, never seemed so good.

Thank you all for your suggestions, especially details on concrete roof construction using the pre-cast panels. I have since looked into SCG and VCON hollow concrete roof panels, which look like viable options. Spans would be 5m, 7m, in combination with sloped tiled or shingled roof. For other ideas, thank you also for mentioning the ceramic coated steel and bluescope/concrete new products. As background, my current roof quotes are about 1.1M baht for three hip style shingled roofs and this is why I am looking at other options. I'm aware of Bluescope and tiling options, I primarily wanted to get smarter on concrete options. Cheers.

The 25% represents that steel material costs are 25% of the total material costs. I don't know what the price increase is from say 6-12 months ago but do know it has gone way up due to Covid supply chain issues and now the war. House is one level 185m2, plus pool and parking garage.

Thank you. Yes, I understand the sloping would be minimal compared to another roof style, as long as it meets proper roof drainage requirements, that is fine. I was unaware of the pre-fabricated slabs, I will look into availability of such in my area.

I'm looking for information (proper design, cost vs other options, primarily) for building sloped concrete roof slabs (not concrete roof tiles) for a couple roof sections of a planned house build. If you have sources, or personal experience, in using this type of roofing system please let me know. I'm considering other roofing options but want to be informed before speaking with the builders.

I am receiving and reviewing current house bid estimates. "Precision steel" and "roofing structure" material costs are coming in at 1-1.1M baht. Total material costs of 4.3M baht, so yes, 25%.

I am not personally offended by the term, although tone and context does seem to make a difference in how I assess its use. However, I am rarely (I can't recall the last time) referred directly as a "farang", and never called that by name one on one. I have heard "many farang like this style" in a store when discussing home designs, which indirectly is calling me a farang. I'm Khun (name) to most people that know me and called no name by people that don't know me (eye contact and speak) or a polite "sir" by some. I see the term used most often when Thais are generically speaking of white foreigners and have heard myself referenced as such between two Thais (that don't know my name) talking between themselves, which does not offend me. To my face, hardly ever. Whether they call me "it" behind my back, I could care less. I can think of a lot of terms I would use, behind their back, of people I have met here, Thai and farang.

OP Story- I have no idea if there was some background with any of them, so no comment. Must be plenty of video available, and if as reported, grounds for assault. Dutch guy story- He needed to let the relationship go but if he wanted (or still wants) action on the motorbike incident. Post the video and story on FB. Will get quick action. Kicked in head for no reason story- So, police "handled it" for 20K payment (likely 30-40K payment by perp) to you. If we don't press charges against these types, they will continue acting this way.

You can tell a lot about a country by the friends it keeps.

I honestly don't know how they feel here. I suspect the ones that are against the war, or Putin, know their social media is monitored (locally, by the Russian Embassy) so I only see positive comments from Russian posters. Putin has called them "scum" and "traitors" and I would suspect their lives back home could be made worse if they come out as anti-Putin.

This reminds me of what I used to refer to as a "self-licking ice cream cone" type of event/conference. Most attendees were speakers themselves and any awards were primarily attendance awards, so you could justify attending this type of boondoggle another year.

Out of curiosity, what are hospital deaths recorded as after a road accident? "Blunt force trauma" (and no cause) or are they associated with a traffic accident but just do not get counted in daily/yearly statistics?

This is an excellent point. Go after ALL the tax havens and off-shore account arrangements that allow oligarchs, criminals and gangs, terrorists, corrupt officials, etc., to hide their often illegal gains from public scrutiny and tax evasion. The reality is that too many Western powerful figures/companies like these hidden accounts too and want them them "off-limits" from being dismantled.

Very tragic. RIP

...where they "were relaxing at home."

He needs to cut and run from this one. How many lovers had she had over the years, or will in the future, in between "his yearly visits."

My guess (and that is all it is) from this picture it looks likely the right front wheel of the bus hit one (or all) of what appear to be 3 small concrete barriers outside the right lane which caused his tyre to blow...leading to the subsequent accident. If so, he clearly drifted outside the lane, for whatever reason.

Continual road awareness (as it changes constantly), in all directions, is not taught/learned here. That is the only way you might survive on the roads here without an accident. However, in this case, even the eyes forward approach failed. RIP.

All these little outcomes are recorded by embassies to go into their 'Thailand books' for the year, available to interested government departments to review for various policy decisions.

Thanks Vlad for recognising the sovereign nation status of Taiwan. Someone is not happy about that news though.... Good catch.

Of course it's not ALL Russians that are to blame for the war, just as not ALL American's (or any country) are to blame for their government's decisions. However, they are 'generally' to blame for allowing Putin to keep power and expand his authorities and control over the years in lieu of an increased standard of living (mostly from oil/gas profits). We can debate democracy vs authoritarian systems endlessly but the real difference is in a true democracy the citizens can change those in leadership if they don't like what they are doing. Russians say they can, but that is not really the case, and many Russians support Putin anyway. We forget that many former Soviet states, and many states across the globe, had to violently overthrow their government to achieve democracy. Russians did it with the Czars but not with the current authoritarian system that replaced it. So, I don't blame the 'average Russian tourist' for the current situation but they share some responsibility for letting Putin be the person he has become.

No comment.

And then what....In a prolonged insurgency campaign, drip by drip, death by death, for years. Meanwhile. Russia becomes an economic basket case. Is that the big surprise?

There is a rather simple (simpleton?) solution if we agree that 1) Russia has legitimate security interests and 2) Ukraine deserves the right to its own future and has security interests of its own. 1) Allow Ukraine to join EU (for economic future) 2) Allow Ukraine to either join NATO or sign bi-lateral mutual defense agreements. 3) In return, offensive based military systems (missiles, long-range radars, etc) are prohibited to be installed in Ukraine. So, no threat militarily to Russia but it will have guarantees to be protected if invaded. 4) Finally, we have the issue of the Donbas (and Crimea) regions. That will require negotiation. One solution can be semi-autonomous provinces, that are mostly self-governed, but other outcomes are possible. Both sides give up something but achieve their STATED goals. However, I do not believe Putin wants a reasonable solution....his goals are much bigger. He likes being surrounded by autocratic lackeys on his borders.

Bring it on...its been "freezing" here in Samui the past week.