CygnusX1

Not in Montenegro where I am right now. A rather more laid back country than Germany.

After reading this, I concluded that the Australian Prime Minister had become a transsexual, which given his general Woke attitudes, wouldn’t have surprised me. I then realised that I’d carelessly skimmed the first 2 paragraphs of the article.

I’m nearing the end of a 3 month trip through Italy, Croatia and Montenegro. In the places where I’ve been at least, it’s been a cooler summer than usual, with only the last 3 days being the first really hot weather. I think the fires in Montenegro, where I am now, have had more to do with consistent moderately strong winds. Now that those winds have abated, the fires have been brought under control. Incidentally, although the air quality here is currently rated as ‘poor’ due to the fires, visibility’s still far better than it is in Jomtien on an average day of the burning season.

I’m nearing the end of a 3 month trip in Europe, the last 2 months of which have been in popular sunny beach towns in Italy, Croatia and Montenegro. Thailand’s way cheaper than Europe, especially where it really counts, the price of accommodation. It’s also the case in capital cities - a $100 a night hotel in central Bangkok is so vastly superior to a $100 a night hotel in a typical European city that the contrast is comical.

I hate beach chairs, and never have and never will pay for one, but I have to accept the fact that heaps of people love them. These sections of chairs, seldom fully occupied , are partly responsible for the crowding on the free stretches of beach, and most people on a packed free stretch would clearly like a bit more room. Europeans really love their all too short summers, which I think does give a lively atmosphere on the beach promenades, despite the unwelcome crowding on the beaches themselves.

You’d certainly dislike the beaches in Croatia and Montenegro where I am right now. Pattaya and Jomtien beaches during the busiest part of high season are almost entirely bereft of people in comparison.

Very lucky they were decent enough crims to only take cash from his wallet, not his plastic cards. I’d regard losing 7,000 baht cash as a trivial matter, but losing even one plastic card would be a huge headache.

Yeah, when I said that I was prepared to be disappointed, I meant that I was preparing myself for Trump to go back to being Putin’s buddy. I didn’t mean that I was expecting India to become even greater mates with Russia. From your post, India looks like a lost cause, makes me feel sick to see Modi’s sycophancy over one of the most evil individuals to have ever drawn breath.

Up until now, I’ve consistently described Trump’s tariff war as insane, but this does seem to be a genuine attempt to increase the effect of sanctions on Russia. If other countries were to follow Trump’s lead, maybe India would be forced to stop financing the invasion of Ukraine by importing Russian oil. Maybe Trump’s finally beginning to understand the unmitigated evil of Putin? I’m preparing to be disappointed though.

Thanks for that, hadn’t heard of those. After doing a bit of reading on the internet, they do seem to be way more complicated to set up than a user ID and password, and I’d be scared that I’d lose access to important accounts if I mucked something up - I don’t even know how to scan a QR code! From what I’ve read, I’m unclear if you need a different authenticator app for each account. You can apparently install them on more than one device, in case you lose your phone or tablet. As for passkeys, I’ve just read up on those as well, and it seems you’d need a degree in computer science to figure out how to use those. I know I’m clueless when it comes to computers and smartphones, but I’m an expert compared to my sisters - at least I use a password manager secured with an extremely strong password, which is completely beyond their ability.

Useless for me, I’m in Montenegro, where my Australian SIM doesn’t work. Whoever invented this diabolical 2FA had zero concern for travellers (luckily Hotmail has played nicely so far, but I’m unable to log into my superannuation account, again luckily don’t really need to).

It wouldn’t bother me if I were served by a bloke wearing a dress. I might get into strife with the law for not using his correct pronouns though.

You’ve drawn attention to a double standard here, but it’s a double standard that exists for a very good reason. An adult man would be vastly less disturbed by the idea of a saleswoman helping him into a pair of tight jeans than a 14 year old girl would be disturbed by the notion of discussing the technical details of a prospective bra purchase with a man.

Great idea, have each of the 10 or so occupants of each baht bus drive his or her own car, that’s going to fix Pattaya’s traffic congestion!

I have fond memories of Leisure Suit Larry’s age verification questions, though the questions would have to be changed, otherwise anyone under 40 would be declared a kid.