Etaoin Shrdlu

The irony is that John West Foods is owned by the Thai Union Group!

We have had a series of inkjet printers going back many years, primarily for the children to use for school projects and the like. The printers would sit unused long enough that the only remedy was to take them to the shop and have new printer heads installed. Our current inkjet/scanner, an Epson L4260, is the only one that we have had that has been able to successfully self-clean the printer heads after sitting for several weeks. As a backup, I bought a cheap Brother monochrome laser printer that I can use for documents so I don't have to worry about having to take a printer to the shop to unclog printer heads if I need to quickly print something important.

Due to local regulations and market practice, insurers based in Thailand in general provide less broad coverage than most European insurers and have sometime less professional underwriting and claims-handling attitudes. If you have a choice, you are usually better off insuring with an insurer that is not domiciled in Thailand. Bear in mind that April is an insurance broker, not an insurance company, so they could possibly place their clients' business with any of a number of different insurers, each of which may have differing underwriting standards and claims-handling attitudes. April Thailand will not be able to place your coverage with April France or any other offshore insurer due to local regulations. You may have to engage an insurance broker offshore since April France's website will re-direct you back to April Thailand if you select Thailand as the country of coverage/residence. You may wish to consider getting a quote from Cigna. I think their office in Singapore will provide medical cover for expats in Thailand. https://www.cigna.com.sg/individual-health-insurance/index

Your best option is to move on and find another job.

I'm fairly sure Nakhonchai Air provides bus service between Korat and Kalasin. Have a Thai speaker call 1624 and ask.

What Annie's may lack in quality, it certainly makes up in terms of longevity. I remember it from over forty years ago and an internet search reveals it is still in business, now in Sukhumvit Soi 7/1.

Being familiar with Thai officialdom, I take along everything I can think of that might be needed when visiting a government office. When I went to apply for my pink card, out of an abundance of caution I took all my documents with me, including the police book. They seemed happy and scanned everything. Took them quite a while to scan it all, but the process went off without a hitch.

I recall having to write my parents' names on the pink card application form when I got mine. I was not asked to provide proof, but had blue tabien baan, TM17 residence certificate, red police book and passport. The staff at the amphur scanned each and every page of all of them. I guess they got their fill of documentation.

Not familiar with that one. I don't think it existed back in the 80s and 90s.

It isn't even the Raja Hotel anymore. Annie's is gone, too.

For most foreigners with a pink card this is true. For those with permanent residence, the pink card's first digit will be an "8", which is also the first digit on Thai ID cards of naturalized Thai citizens. In theory, this should inform that the holder of the pink card does not have an end date to his or her permission to stay in Thailand. So far, my pink card has not been used to establish my status as a permanent resident, but perhaps in the future it may. Thailand is changing.

KLIM dates back to 1920 and was first made by the Merrill-Soule company in Syracuse, NY. Borden bought the company in 1927.

KLIM was produced by Borden back in the day. You know, Elsie the Cow. And Elmer, with his glue, made from casein, another dairy product. But nothing to do with Lizzie Borden, fortunately. Once upon a time, in an earlier millennium, Borden was my client and I visited a number of their facilities around the world, including a KLIM plant in Denmark. Tall towers with hot, dry air evaporating the milk produced by contented Danish cows. Or maybe it takes wocs to produce KLIM. But Borden eventually went belly-up and I don't know which company, if any, took over KLIM. Borden was a huge conglomerate with a large chemical division, but also owned Crackerjacks and many other consumer products. Strange that such an iconic company is gone.

Waiting for powdered bourbon.

Daughter going off to college in the US was also the reason my wife applied for a visa to visit the US. She had visited before, albeit on a single-entry visa, some twenty years before so it wasn't her first visit. During her interview she was asked almost exclusively about my status here, where I worked, etc. They asked her for my passport, which she did not have with her. Fortunately, she was approved.

The FDA determines what is a medication and what isn't. Many items that are sold in over the counter here would require a prescription in the US or may be banned. What is the active ingredient in the weight loss meds and how is classified by the FDA? Some general info on importing drugs into the US: https://www.fda.gov/industry/import-basics/personal-importation

Another thing to consider is Thailand's tax rules regarding permanent establishment. If your employer has revenue coming from Thailand, it may become taxable in Thailand if the company has an employee or representative based in Thailand.

The Thai Red Cross accepts blood donations from foreigners and actually encourages donation, especially from those who have O negative blood. Expats and tourists with O negative blood and who need a transfusion face potential issues here since O negative is almost completely absent among the Thai population.

Just think of it as an offering that is intended to convey positive sentiments. It kind of exists in the same universe as advertising copy that extolls a product as being "better" without stating what it is better than. Although it can be puzzling to try to determine exactly what a "good one" is, and may vary from person to person, I wouldn't waste too much time on it. I would be more concerned if someone parted with an "up yours!".

Many countries actually accept a Thai DL without an IDP since Thai DLs use English. I think most people don't bother to get an IDP unless they are going somewhere that requires one. Some car rental companies in the US insist on an IDP because there are several states that won't accept a foreign DL without an IDP even though the US is signatory to the 1949 Geneva Road Traffic Convention. Not being legal in one of those states could possibly void the rental car's insurance, so it is potentially a big issue.

Permanent residents are required to register with their local police station. When they do, they are issued a police book. These police books have red covers.

It seems that nothing is consistent. Last year I went to the DLT to obtain an international driving permit. In prior years they wanted a copy of my red police book along with the blue tabien baan and of course my DL. This time they turned away my police book and specifically asked for my pink card.

To my ears, the volume of content on streaming services seems to vary considerably. If there is music or violent scenes with explosions or gunfire, the volume is excessive, yet in the same movie the dialogue is often so low that it becomes difficult to understand. I have frequently wondered whether the streaming services like Netflix somehow degrade audio quality in order to conserve bandwidth when streaming their content. This article states that it is just inconsistent volume levels within the content: https://www.techhive.com/article/579229/streaming-tvs-invisible-annoyance.html. The article also mentions some solutions for specific types of TV or media players. I'm not entirely convinced and suspect that the audio signal is possibly intentionally degraded by the streaming service.

If you are a US citizen, the consular official will want to know about your status in Thailand and whether you have strong enough ties here to make it certain that you and your wife will return after a visit to the US and not stay and try to change her immigration status there. Your wife should take along your passport to show your immigration status and be prepared to answer questions as to where you work, how long you have been living in Thailand and similar. The stronger your ties to Thailand are, the better her chances of getting a tourist visa.