Bday Prang

Well according to the linked article they now have 1000 doses of a new vaccine, and will now decide who deserves it . I wonder how that will assessed ? Probably according to wealth / influence Reading between the lines it looks like they don't routinely use the smallpox vaccine anymore as there has not been a case here for "several decades" that does not seem very sensible , have other countries stopped vaccinating for smallpox?

Could just be a consequence of using sub standard or out of date smallpox vaccinations in the first place, or perhaps the people used in the test had not even actually been vaccinated. Could even be a made up story. I could not imagine anybody here actually volunteering to be infected with monkeypox Or is it just another "expert" raising their profile with a bit of doom mongering?

It boils my pi$$ when I hand over the cash and they try to give the change to the missis

There is no obligation for monks to be vegetarian or to refrain from smoking, That is your own incorrect interpretation

No it is not, why would you post rubbish like that?

not true at all you should stop posting rubbish

But many jokes that mention race are not racist or toxic to anybody except people like you There is humour in everything even death buy you need a sense of humour to appreciate that

Its a matter of degree in my opinion as a member of a lynch mob yes as a concerned politician seeking an effective immigration policy then no

Well it certainly diminishes the meaning, but once labelled as such rightly or wrongly there is no going back , no opportunity for denial, guilty until proven guilty that is how woke lefties seek to silence

One thing that should be taught is Not to scream toxic insults like "racist" at everybody who disagrees with one's own extreme views

Its virtually impossible to discuss immigration rationally in the Uk as any changes required all involve stronger regulations and stricter enforcement. Anybody , politician , or otherwise that dares to suggest this is immediately labelled as a racist and effectively silenced. That the reason the UK immigration situation is disaster

The only bit you got wrong was the bit about journalism Modern day left leaning MSM would have Villified and silenced him,

some times a change of strain is as effective as a tolerance break (and it's always more fun)

(Bangkok Bank) Machine swallowed my card on a Friday night my account was opened in Khon Kaen years ago but I'm now in Surin so I went to the branch in Robinson which is open on saturday's and after a bit of hassle due to me having a different passport than the one I had 30 years ago they gave me a replacement card there and then. I needed to produce my passbook too , If i remember correctly I think I informed the Khonkaen branch of my change of address , not sure if that had any bearing on their uncharacteristic helpfulness and efficiency. I also make a point of never taking the missis along when dealing with the bank, I noticed a long time ago that when she accompanied me I'd become invisible to the bank staff. Not only frustrating but often counter productive as the bank staff find it very easy to fob off one of their own that they feel "superior" to, and my missis was always very reluctant to contradict or question what the "socially superior" bank employee told her, Fortunately I can speak enough Thai to make myself understood, but I have learned that sometimes it actually pays to act daft, many of them can actually speak some english despite initially saying they can't especially at manager level and even out in the sticks I think many of them are actually terrified of speaking english, especially to native speakers, for fear of making mistakes and losing face , and I'm rather thinking that my attempts to converse with them in a level of Thai befitting a Ten year old probably makes them think I'm retarded and puts them at their ease

The stoner stereotype was , unlike other stereotypes, never based on fact , but was based on government "reefer madness" propaganda. The origin of such can be traced back to one man "Harry Anslinger" he surely has a lot to answer for

If its only 60 sq meters why not try doing it your self its not rocket science

yeah I have also had the oil treatment scam tried on me also the brake / clutch fluid scam. I have never in my life changed the brake fluid in any car that I have owned. Years ago the missis had a nissan NV a small pick-up with a 1600 twincam engine cracking car and really nippy The recommended oil change interval was every 5000 km !!! lol as if , Luckily I bought it second hand. and so disregarded the "advice" so there was no warranty to worry about It had covered nearly 300,000 km with no issues when i finally sold it

I haven't looked into but I imagine its pretty much the same every where regarding the franchise set up of main dealers, As you have said there are many badly run, either due to incompetence on one hand or malpractice bordering on fraud on the other. I recently took the wifes honda jazz for a service and was quite surprised to be charged about 1000 baht more than normal, I asked to see the receipt , they were very evasive , insisting that their was no point "as it was only written in Thai" I literally had to pull it out of the the guys hand ! I read the first few words out aloud as I worked my way down the list of work done and I could see he was looking a little uneasy, It took me about 30 seconds to see that they had charged me for 2 oil changes !! He did a good impersonation of being shocked and surprised and quickly disappeared into the office returning 5 minutes later with a new (correct) receipt accompanied with a copious amount of " Wais". 2 minutes after that a manager appeared , more apologies and more wais and a remark about "computer problems" You cannot trust any of them in my opinion, The best solution is to build a relationship with an alternative mechanic as you seem to have done. It may not be possible to use them for servicing due to warranty constraints but its always good to have a second opinion if major repairs are "required"

Fortunately I have friend in the UK who makes a living doing this kind of work , The codes that are spewed out by code readers often do not indicate accurately the nature of the problem Generally speaking further diagnostic work is required. I used to own a vauxhall vectra and lost count of the number of false alarms the system would throw out One time the car was put into "limp home mode" by the system, the resulting code advised that the engine management computer required replacing, (ouch) The actual reason was a badly corroded terminal at the reversing light ! (phew) Imagine what opportunities this presents for an unscrupulous dealer

Behaviour Not generally appreciated by any immigration officer I would imagine, and probably the reason why they gave you a hard time.

Well English is my native language, and I can tell you that "AAA" "A+" "Grade A" Are abbreviations that indicate "Quality" It is not a descriptive that is unique to weed, It is used in many situations from school reports to ceramic tiles for example. When it is used in connection with cannabis it cannot be relied on as a definitive indicator of strength or quality due to the dubious nature of the people involved in the drug business I'm a little curious why a career soldier of 28 years experience is reading and commenting on a cannabis forum, I would imagine his only experience with cannabis would be throwing it into a furnace to destroy it and shooting the people who grow it I doubt very much that the new relaxed regulations regarding cannabis has affected the militaries attitude to soldiers using it recreationally

The "AAA" mark is embossed onto the mould that is used when compacting the weed, I seriously doubt it is part of any "QA" procedure. and I have never seen any weed marked as "BBB" or "CCC" In the same way every car battery is described as "heavy duty" It is in effect meaningless

Anybody with any sense would have expected this news, Its certainly one in the eye for the "reefer madness" brigade. It is also evidence that any further draconian regulations are not really necessary. As another member has pointed out there has been a novelty value which will have started to wear off, a result of this will be a further drop in "incidents". Even the gutter press has stopped their pathetic attempts to sensationalise the situation.

"Peanut Gallery" Thats a new one for me, I'm not actually sure what the phrase means but it seems a very appropriate way to describe the complainers Sad folk indeed

How did they "find out" about your girlfriend ?