CygnusX1

I’m another one who has different glasses for reading and for the computer. Just showed the optometrist (in Australia) how far I sit from the computer screen, and the appropriate lenses were made. They work very well.

Never realised that I was getting myself into James Bond territory. I’ve actually been approached by so many Russians on Jomtien beach over the years that I had to learn the Russian for “I’m sorry, I don’t speak Russian!”

That doesn’t seem right. Not sure how it exactly relates to average wage, but according to World Bank website, net national income per capita in $US in 2019 was $8,940 in Russia, $6,069 in Thailand and $1,822 in India. Same rough ratios for GDP per capita in CIA World Factbook. Of course, that doesn’t account for the collapse in the rouble, or likely effect of ongoing sanctions.

Agree. Russians I’ve met on Jomtien beach have been gracious people, happy to try out their limited English. I’ve even been given food by Russians who probably have way less money than I do. Not their fault that their leader’s an evil psychopath.

Since NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, assume you mean something like if India, Nepal, Vietnam etc formed some kind of alliance. That would absolutely not justify China’s invading one of those nations. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the Turkey/Cyprus conflict, or if Turkey should have been sanctioned, it does not excuse Putin’s actions in any way whatsoever.

With no internal conflicts? I suppose Saddam’s torturers were pretty efficient in enforcing order.

That’s almost unbelievable!!

Huge difference is that whatever the horrendous mistakes made by US administrations, all of the major conflicts that the US has been involved in have been in countries already riven by terrible internal strife. It takes a special kind of evil to invade a peaceful, stable nation, only someone like a Putin or a Hitler being capable of that.

Lady next door to my apartment (in Australia) smokes outside on the common walkway, and the smoke often drifts into my place. Although it’s not ideal, I’ve never complained about it. Why? Because she’s a totally quiet long term neighbour who never plays music, and that is so wonderful that it makes up for her smoking a hundred times over.

I thought the glass floor was fantastic, really weird feeling. Yes, you do have to put on special slippers to avoid scuffing the glass. After catching the lift back down, you have to navigate a lengthy maze of souvenir shops. Can’t remember if it was cheaper to buy in advance. Now would be a great time to go, with no masses of Chinese tourists.

Even if it’s eventually reclassified as endemic, does that mean that all restrictions, such as those horrid face masks, will ever end? In an age in which we’ve become utterly obsessed with health and safety, I’m not so sure. Just look at the continuing airport security theatre 20 years after the 9/11 attacks. I think SARS 1 disappeared because it never became remotely as widespread as SARS 2.

But we didn’t have incredibly sensitive PCR tests back then. As the virus will never become extinct, new cases will always continue to be found, so I can’t see how it can ever end, unless we acquire some common sense, which seems unlikely.

A drunk driver goes straight through a stop sign without slowing down. A stoned driver stops at the sign and waits for it to turn green. I know, old joke…

Again, hope you’re right. My original point was that if we’d had the sophisticated tests we have now back in 1920, the 1918 flu pandemic would have lasted a lot longer than 2 years.

So, are you agreeing with Mr Derek that the pandemic will be over by the first half of this year, and things will be back to normal by then? Certainly hope you’re correct!

Even if you’re correct that the course of the current virus from China will roughly follow that of the 1918 influenza pandemic, the big difference is that back in 1920 there were no PCR or rapid antigen tests. Smaller case numbers found by these tests will keep the current pandemic going for many more years.

31% positive in 93% double vaxxed (over 12’s) in NSW, Australia.

If off-the-shelf orthotics work for you, that’s great, but I would have happily spent 10 times more on the custom orthotics that a podiatrist (in Australia) made for me many years ago, as well as on an updated set. They’ve completely fixed the severe knee pain I used to experience while running, due to misalignment caused by my flat feet. Although I’m not running so much these days, they enable me to still walk long distances, which is very important to me, especially if travel’s ever again possible in my lifetime - even on Mediterranean beach holidays I used to walk more than swim. As a bonus they save me money on shoes, as I no longer rapidly squash the inner portion of the foam of running shoes, but wear it evenly.

Mate of mine in Australia with rooftop solar reckons he often gets less from his feed-in tariff on bright sunny days than on cloudy days. He says reason is that there’s so much rooftop solar in his suburb that the grid can’t handle the amount of power produced on sunny days, and his inverter is automatically switched off.

That’s what happens with most respiratory viruses. You get a mild strain, a few sniffles, and behave as normal, mixing with heaps of people. I’m unlucky enough to get a more severe strain that confines me to bed for days. You don’t have to be Einstein to see which strain will spread faster. With the current virus from China, we’ve been trying to isolate the whole population as if everyone’s infected with a deadly plague, and so there’s been little selection pressure in favour of milder strains.

AQI of 12 currently in my place in Australia right now. Makes me feel slightly better about being stranded in the most boring country in the world for the next few years.

Great post. I’ve forwarded it to a mate of mine who’s very unwisely booked a trip to Thailand in March.

Yep, that huge block of unaccountably undeveloped oceanfront land between View Talay 5 and the Pattaya Park Tower would be a perfect casino location. Only way my Jomtien condo in VT5 will be worth more than half what I paid for it!

Very good point. I wasn’t game to tell my brother-in-law back in Australia (who has a law degree) what I’d done! The estate agent made the whole process so easy. Arranging to have my electricity payments auto debited to my bank account was way more complicated and time consuming for me.

When I bought my Thai condo 3 years ago, the super efficient estate agent drew up the sales contract. I made an appointment with a lawyer to review the contract. After taking a few minutes to read it through, he said it was all OK. When I asked him how much I owed him, he said forget it, no charge. Can’t imagine a lawyer in Australia doing that! The estate agent then organised the transfer at the land office.