drguid

I had an offer to teach in a Bangkok school but I told the agency I wouldn't re-sign the new contract as there's just too much uncertainty. Oh well, it was only one of those 35K contracts anyway.

I've thought about doing a PGCE (Secondary Chemistry) in the UK. I taught for a couple of years in Chinese universities and really enjoyed teaching, but after what happened there it's unlikely I'll ever want to go back.

I'm almost 50 now so I wonder whether the PGCE would be worthwhile. I used to work in IT. In fact I may or may not be starting an IT job next month, but again there's just too much uncertainty right now. I found IT's not an easy career either when you're approaching 50.

I've tried teaching online but the market leader (vipkid) are really picky and the others are shady (for example they want you to install Chinese apps) or they only pay by PayPal (which I don't have).

My saving grace is that I'm not broke like the majority of English teachers I worked with in China. To be approaching 60 with no pension at all would be truly scary.

What's wrong with these idiots.

I hope the Western media pick up on this and no foreign tourists ever go to Thailand again.

I expect the locals will begin getting restless, and the restrictions will be focussed on keeping order.

Western countries can't keep a lid on this virus, so Thailand's gonna have to do without tourism for a while. The Chinese won't come either, as it will be a pain in the ass going back to the motherland.

The Eurozone can't agree on a bailout. The UK chancellor is giving away millions to anyone who complains.

Markets haven't yet priced in that it's going to be incredibly hard to restart global travel, so the Baht is riding high for now.

Also it will take a few more weeks at least for countries without bailouts to start disintegrating...

The UK's had pretty much uninterrupted sunshine since the lockdown. I don't have the heart to tell the .gov this is probably why the infections charts are coming off the boil. This is probably why the SE and SW infections haven't been as bad as up north.

If they actually told people to wear masks and closed the borders then we might get shot of it by July.

I went on AliExpress and bought a consignment of PPE. I don't know why the government is blaming global shortages. There's plenty out there.

Untimately this crisis will cost the global economy every penny ever saved by outsourcing to China. Ironic, huh?

The USA has lifted their lockdown too early. The ugly headlines next week will scare governments around the globe.

Also Singapore's stats look really bad now...

I was due to teach in Thailand this month. My agency assumes everything will be back to normal by mid-June.

I told them where to go.

With a lot of travel insurance policies you can only buy them when you're in your home country. That was certainly the case with my backpacker insurance.

Yeah right. The Black Death lasted for 250 years.

I will buy more GSK and PNL (wealth preservation trust) when the current rally breaks down. For the long term I'm buying funds like Pictet Robotics.

The virus will go when it decides it wants to. But it's likely that the world has changed for a generation or two. I expect some countries will collapse into chaos as a result. Thailand is a likely candidate of course.

Thailand may reopen but who will come?

China's economy must be crashing and burning as Western companies cancel orders en mass.

Most Western countries are doing a terrible job of handling the virus (especially the UK). When I flew back from China in February all Heathrow had as corona defence was a few posters on the wall. There is still practically no testing, and half the population believes the WHO's line on face masks. Still workers in the major supermarkets have no masks, and there are still way too many people milling around (especially those in vulnerable groups).

I have no idea if I have/had it. I got offered a job in Thailand and would love to take it up as the thought of staying in the UK in the Autumn terrifies me.

I'm in the UK right now. It's pretty scary and I'm dreading the Autumn. I had a sore throat a couple of days ago. I was convinced I got the virus from the chip n pin machine in Sainsburys. I doubt the checkouts are ever cleaned in supermarkets. The only worker in there wearing a mask was an Asian. I got some backchat from a guy telling me that "masks don't work". I asked him where he did his PhD in microbiology.

Having said that I live on the seafront and it's good to see so many ordinary people taking the lockdown seriously. About the only people I see out are people in wheelchairs with many underlying health problems (I kid you not...).

I have some doubt about Thailand's figures. On the other hand viruses don't seem to like the climate. I had a cold once in Bangkok and it went in a couple of days. This might be bro science but if you look at the UK's stats the virus seems to be fizzling out in the SouthEast and SouthWest where we've been blessed with pretty much non-stop sunshine and unseasonably warm weather.

I have no idea where Thailand goes from here but tourism is effectively dead for this year and next. Thank goodness they pumped the majority of all that money from the boom decade into pretty hi-rise apartment buildings.

I fled my teaching job in China in January and fled to Thailand where I stayed for 3 weeks. Since then I've had a lingering cough which started in Bangkok. I thought it was due to the PM 2.5's but maybe it was covid. Who knows.

All I know is Suvunmarmi and Heathrow gave next to zero <deleted> when I passed through them earlier in the year. Suvunmarmi had a heat sensor and a person pleading with the crowds to walk past it one at a time. Heathrow had some warning posters.

Even if you could fly, Thailand will likely be a war zone by then.

What they need to ban is all the freelancers on my LINE suddenly getting in touch with me again.

Those apartment towers with pretentious names will be a monument to the folly of wasting decades of tourist income.

I would not like to visit a country with mass unemployment, hungry dogs/monkeys and the russian roulette of catching the virus on the flight to/from there. My time there in February was pretty bad and I still have the chest infection from the PM 2.5's.

The clowns in the Thai government are almost as the clowns in Downing Street.

I imagine air pollution is making things worse in Thailand. I got a cough in Bangkok and it's not gone over a month later. Who knows if it is/was covid - Heathrow gave zero <deleted>'s about my having previously been in China.

He doesn't look like he has underlying health problems.

Ha ha. Stupid country. It's not possible to get covid health insurance (at least from any UK providers).

I have a job at a Bkk school starting in May but I won't take it up. They're relying me to come on a tourist visa, do a risky border run and cover my own health expenses should I get the thing.

The school will probably be closed anyway.

It's estimated 40% of the UK's population have underlying health problems.

If we carried on as normal we'd see a bigger loss of life in Western countries than in WW2.

BoJo is starting to get it. Save the people first, then the economy.

I fled China (via Thailand) and now I'm back in the UK. People in the UK are gradually getting the message but my sister (a teacher) is still thinking... hmm I could go and private tutor these kids...

They still do not get it.

Anyway, I have increased my cash and food stocks and now I'm buying Personal Assets Trust (PNL). It holds treasuries, gold and all the 'last man standing' stocks. I am looking at silver and palladium but there is still more deleveraging to come.

I still hold a tonne of THB notes from when I fled China which I guess is marginally safer than GBP.

Personally I think GBP is now in serious trouble as helicopter money will be the only way to keep "but I have to go to work" people happy.

It is way too early to buy stocks given that markets suggest there's a 33% chance of Boeing going bust!