Toolong

I enjoyed reading this post, GG. It's lavishly nostalgic, on your part and mine too, for times to which I can - though a tad younger than yourself I think - relate quite a bit. ???? Of distinction for me is the (unexpected & humorously & strangely challenging!) notion of one recollecting INsignificant experiences in old Asia, rather than significant ones. Well, I've got plenty of those. But none I could tell as well as you do.

Beautifully laid out...????.....in more words than I would have had the stamina to type! Seriously.......you've nailed it, re Wissanu. The guy is certainly high up there in my ranking of most descipable junta hustlers. Good call. I thank you. ????????

The final sentence of this Daily News piece is curious.....and amongst other things......bristles with a kind of menacing vibe (imo). ???????????? Something 'lost in translation' here? Author's own views ambiguously expressed? Dark days in the LOS, by golly. To be more specific about why I think so would be too unwise.

Sustainable, top-end cocktail supply lines being, of course, the imperative, by whatever means! Chok dee & bottoms up!

Lotus had Lillet Blanc? My local Lotus (large, not mini-Lotus, by any means) has no such exotic delicacy. Nor does it have pitted olives. Or vermouth (my preference). Not exactly martini-friendly. (Plenty of pesticide-riven cabbages though.) Martini's aren't an easy call around here. Requires creativity.....at the expense, perhaps, of authenticity. Oh well. But anyway....enjoy. ????????

Some people can be arrogant and pull it off in a way, as some exceptional quality about them excuses their swagger, sometimes - even often - to the point of being something that endears them to people even the more for it. (Think Muhammed Ali...????????) But Prayuth, you pathetic man-child, you never ranked in that category....at all. In fact, at all times, you were just the very worst kind of everyday arrogant p***k without a single redeeming quality about you that could charm anyone beyond the fawning media hacks you courted and despised simultaneously in such a sickening way for 9 f*****g years. Adios MF. (For now anyway.....until constitutionally & legally you can be retroactively busted for grabbing power, like the little gangster you were & are, on behalf of the other gangsters you served like an errand-boy.) (With John Cleese French accent : 'I fart in your general direction!'......and I mean really, without the humour. )

With respect, bannork, I reckon Mr Pita & party have weighed up long-term, substantive values of each option and figured the possible outcome for Padipat that you mention won't actually happen, in which case the dep' speaker's role is worth more to them. But I personally don't honestly know much about the benefits inherent in having places on parliamentary committees. (Maybe you do know.) Just assuming that Pita does know, anyway. Hoping so, anyway. ????

bignok, I can't tell how serious you are about this. There's at least a little element of tongue-in-cheek, casual playfulness about your post, I reckon ????. I could be wrong. Forgive me if I am. But anyway, I kind of like it all the same. ???? As for any suggestions from me, I won't get too seriously into it....but neither am I kidding entirely..... So...what's your 'thing'? Travelling, by the sound of it. Fine, but if you can't for any reason do that, or find enough friends whose company is sufficiently satisfying, how about dedicating some effort into becoming just amazingly bl***y good at something? Something that already interests you. For example...I like a drink. Being a working-class fella, I likes me beer. But I like the occasional treat, like martinis. So I figured I'd become a master of the martini. Not only am I now the best maker of martinis this side of the Rio Grande, I rather cockily will take every opportunity to say so......like now. But point is.....I get a kick out of thinking myself so uniquely good at it! It fulfills me to a (very limited!) point that makes life a little more interesting. Which is what you seek right? Ok....I'm being a bit tongue-in-cheek playful myself.....but beyond that, come on, bignok!....only YOU know the answer to your posted query.....and you know it. ???? PS: I will btw reveal no trade secrets re my martinis. You got your classic martinis.....and then you got mine. Chok dee.

I can't over-praise this piece. ????????????????The author displays very authentically, not only their own angst & revulsion at it all, but mine too, very precisely ????, and I would even like to personally thank them in particular, for bringing up Akanat Prompan. This vile individual was one of Suthep's and the 2014 coup-plotters most contemptible characters and to see him smugly parading alongside the other coalition gangsters summed up....to me.....all that is truly effed up here.

I ought to know better at my age, to display such contemptably small-minded, bitter, rather childish, immature emotion towards this......but frankly....the problems this PM and the vile crew he and his party have bunked up with for the sake of self-interested gain & power may have, will only give me some (hopefully many) moments of joyful entertainment in the coming months & years. F*** 'em. Each and every one of them, today parading so proudly and 'dutifully' in their white, beribboned, hi-status costumes. What shameful vanity. Grotesque. ????

Place your bets, ladies & gents....mines on Srettha disqualified soon, Prawit the Toad as new PM, Anutin as dep' PM. Extra bet on Thaksin succumbing fatally to 'existing conditions' before the year's out. (Note how quickly & clearly the news was made public that Thaksin was not at all in good shape. That now widely-known 'fact' will prove handy when it's time to take him out, terminally.) All hideous farce. I love you Thailand, but you're breaking my heart. I once hoped you were better than this, but you're not. But some Thais ARE better than this, and I'll allow that to keep a little faith alive in me. ????

Very interesting comments, soi3eddie, thank you. ???? Yes, I also feared there might be the issue of problems arising if one wanted to take 99.99% bars out of Thailand. (But then, there are also probs taking the 96.5% bars out too, aren't there? I dunno for sure.....I need to familiarize myself with the laws about that.) And like you, my motivation for buying the gold was as a safety option in case the SHTF & banks went under, not so much as a way to make money. And as you say, it's easily sold. Thanks for your reply. Helpful. ????

What rubbish! Either intentional media hustle or blinkered, ignorant waffle. There IS NO 'democratic' principle for which the MFP might be accused of ignoring for their own self-interested gain, at any expense of 'democracy' This whole sh*tfest exemplifies the truest opposition to that which the term democracy ever stood for. I pray MFP stay prepared to - momentarily - die on the hill of principle on which they currently stand, because before them, in turn, lies political resurrection and great reward.... for them and for the nation.

It ain't Buddhism, not really......it's become just a local cultural way of life.....(hence the impression showy wealth at temples seems to have on Thai 'worsippers', especially those temples supported by rich Chinese/Thai local 'devotees'...but if sometimes some real charity or benefit is going around, FWIW, then hey, that's cool. (Maybe.) But the whole 'institution' here has as many bad apples just in it for the hustle, as it does those of purer virtue & intention (& credit to the latter!), which means that there are still some temples run on more sound buddhist principles (as it pertains to honesty, virtuous commitment to its precepts, etc) around. Ps...meant to add it's not just 'around Bangkok'. It's spread everywhere. Ironically, Thailand is no longer (if it ever was) an ideal place for the foreign seeker of experience & understanding of authentic buddhist principles. (Ok, full disclosure.......I admit I'm a bit biased.....my Thai stepson donated 10k to a local temple at xmas. 2 months later that temple was national headline news for corrupt, outright abuse of donations for personal gain ( many, many millions of baht!)......gold jewelry & bullion buried underground! I kid you not.)

I'm no Rockefeller, but just bought some gold bars on advice from very reputable place in Yaowarat, at the 96 point something purity. 10 baht, weighs approx 2 kgs (?). So someone on this thread mentioned that 99.9 purity gold bar was good to sell worldwide, but sold here only by the kilo in bars. ???? Anybody with thoughts on that?

Politics as pure, distilled moonshine. 'High crimes & misdemeanors' is the name of the game and it's the only game in town. Interesting word, 'misdemeanor'. It's actual definition is 'minor wrong-doing' (according to the Websters Dictionary site I just accessed to check the spelling), and am therefore wondering who might be thought to have commited the high crimes and who are responsible for those apparently less serious misdemeanors. But I see no distinctions, when all of this horrid sham is squashed together in one vile-smelling pile of s*yte that it is........to make that call. From the apex of TH power....to all the morally sick, equally responsible, unprincipled SOB's doing the apex's bidding, seeking self-gain at ALL cost, I now sadly bear witness to the the most truly tragic turn of events I've seen in my 3 decades+ here. ????????????????

Well said. For my sins, I admit I once viewed Thaksin with mostly favourable regard, he being the head of the only political party - movement even - that offered the more progressive, transformative type of agenda. That said, I did at the same time keep a big chunk of cynical scepticism in reserve, in case he was in fact just what so many people said he was. (An oligarchic narcissist hustler) And so it is proven now beyond doubt that my faith in old squarehead was a house of cards. He is/was what they said he was. Though he may achieve that which he wants, which is simply gain of any kind for his benefit and his benefit alone, he's played a bad hand this time. The hand that will write the history books and not look kindly on him. He has....they have (PT)....run through the jungle in a kind of giddy panic to grab power of any kind and have fallen upon the sharpened bamboo stakes set long ago in ambush. But skewered to their fates maybe, they'll still enjoy that power for a while. The laundered flow of cash. Rake it in. Too intoxicated by it all to care for principles & integrity. Gotta give it to the Thai estab' machine..........they know how to hustle their way thru, now & forever. Subordinate not to democracy, nor any other perceived threat to their dominance. Dunno what else to say. ????

You sound like a fine fellow, cliveshep. But the compliment provides no help re the advice you seek. I'm in a very similar situation, though one significant difference is that I've lazily put off sorting out an 'official' will, unlike yourself. And perhaps that is due to having stepchildren (my Thai wife's kids) who would help enormously in the event of me kickin' it. And that's one of the points of the matter I'd like to get to, re your own situation: if your wife has people that both she & yourself really trust, and who can be relied upon to help her out, with organizing stuff and just moral support, things will be much easier to deal with, re your own 'pre-death' fears. But as to the actual means by which your corporeal remains are disposed of, that's a toughie. My Thai wife may want, for my sake, wish to comply with my wishes.......that I be placed in a casket and with last goodbyes said, burnt to ashes in a single day, without a big deal & the traditional week-long rituals that I find incompatible with my own understanding of things, etc......BUT, I know it would trouble her greatly if I insisted that it be so. Thais are so bound by their cultural norms. Unless I am mistaken.....in which case I hope you'll forgive me......your wife may deep down prefer a ceremony that accords with cultural norms here. As to the cost and local 'institutions' making capital out of your demise at your & your wife's expense.....there's not much - imo - you can do about it, but one thing I personally do plan on doing myself is arranging to see the head monk at my local temple to see to what extent my own wishes (which appear to be much like your own) might be carried out. Quickly. No week-long stuff needing to be paid for in crippling amounts, just for chants in the evenings! Good luck. ????

'.....does not takes sides in politics.' Laugh or cry? I mean, what do you do with s**t like that? I ask again, just what the flying f*** do you do with BS like that? Seems like with everything I've wished for during this post-election jazz, the opposite has happened. Dare I wish that MFP - to a man - tell PT to go ***k themselves and stick their PM vote up their derrieres? Probably not. But I just did. ????

Mph?! Impressive. And I imagine it might have been capable of those speeds for some distance, depending on how efficiently the cooling system was keeping things stable. Know what you mean about fairings and have the same view, though indeed the fairing in the pic does seem to really enhance the looks ????. (Might have made things get a bit hot down there in Bkk traffic, I daresay, but.....)

A bit of light-hearted banter over breakfast...... Me: "Knock knock." Sereepisuth: "Who's there?" Me: "Go **** yourself!!" (I do apologize. I couldn't help myself.)

What a sad, tragic circus of knaves & fools. The last dance of the political robber barons, doing a jaunty, mocking jig around they who voted for much, much better and thought they'd got it. This is not even politics at its worst, because it's not politics. It's something else, something too undefinably hideous.

'Ton up'? Mph or kph? Not bad for a 250. I'm no expert, but imo, in this pic, you can kind of see the evolutionary shift in bike design going on at the time. (The look of this bike reminds me of the 90's Suzuki Katana, which was, I believe, quite 'ground-breaking' in its way.....but like I said, I ain't no expert.)

Don't forget 'kor lor song'....stamped doc from ampher office to confirm you're still married. Where I am, must be no older than 48 hours (or is it 24?) from issue to application for visa (extension). But maybe that's already on your list of instructions. Tbh, imm offices differ in their requirements in little ways, though 'generally' the same. You'll just have to go through the experience to know exactly what they are. (ie......at my IO all copies must be portrait A4, not landscape. Landscape is utterly unacceptable, for reasons only they know. ????)

David Omand....sorry, SIR David Omand....is weaving big (massive) UNtruths and tiny truths into a thick fabric of deceit & diversion. In order, of course, to help along a (poorly conceived) strategy of misinformation & disinformation that accords with UK/US hoped-for outcomes. And then one sees it's in the Daily Fail. It just keeps on comin'. ????