HAPPYNUFF

Sometimes, I have  loitered for hours, but I have yet to see a zebra crossing the road here.

As I have said to the wife, on more than one occassion........ "No dear, thats not  ground pepper  on the food, its fly poop".

Its OK, the twits are just exercising their right to die.

Used to always  go to Indian tailor  for many years,    great selection of material,  expert service,  and not expensive.   

Forget  his name,  but  opposite  Ambassador Hotel  on Sukhumvit Rd,,    If your on the  Ambassador Hotel side of the road,   cross over  on the overhead pedestrian walk       outiside  hotel,   turn right   on reaching footpath, and  his shop  about   5 metres   along.

A major  problem in law enforcement in this country is the laziness and inate stupidity, and lack of training, therefor knowledge, of our beloved, trusted, respected, and admired Royal Thai  Constabulary.

OK  fellow officers, form a circle, all face outwards,  thats    right,,, now its called covering ones backside.

My  wife and I have lost three dogs in the last  4 months.  All of them     adopted us after being abandoned  by  neighbours  who moved house.  Each of them  were  starved,  scared things at first, but came to be happy and loving. It  was  terrible watching them suffer.  The Vet. tried his best, but nothing he could do expcept help ease their pain till the end.

Well, dear me, Ive heard of hiding the pork sausage, but  this  lot  is beyond a joke.

As  the late Bernard Trink    stated in his column,   Thais   are puzzled about those things called "zebra"  crossings on  roadways.   All Thais know there are no zebras in Thailand,   so why bother stopping.

Havent had time to  read  all  the replies,, but why on earth are you applying for  that  useless OA  retirement class visa, that needs US $100,000   insurance, from a Thai company of all     places. and     for which the renewal/expiry date must exactly  match  your visa dates.annually.

Get  an "O" retirement in HK  if you can,  otherwise  just       come here,  after    purchasing a short term,,,say 3 month  US$50,000    medical policy, that all  arrivals must have.     Get a   30 day  Visa on Arrival,or   purchase a 60 day "tourist" vcisa in HK,  put 800,000 baht in a Thai bank,  and    a couple of weeks after arrival go to an Immigration office and apply there for an "O"  retirment visa..... No  insurance at all required (at this  time) and  let that 50,000  $  policy lapse.            If you want  health/medical insurance ,     do that later, not compulsory though. on O  retirement visa.

I have watched  Thais, and others,  taking   the  "test"  for drivers license, both   car and motor cycle, at my local  licensing centre.

The test  for a motor cycle license consists of  riding one  around  the car park area, cleared of  vehicles,   and a number of  red "cones" scattered about, which the rider has to navigate,  at whatever speed  he chooses, with  feet on the ground to balance.   One lap, of about  50 metres..Thats it.   That is after the   eyesight  and   reaction test inside the building.

For motor cars,   just  sit in the  stationary car,  show the instructor how  the  applicant changes gears,  uses the  brake and clutch pedal, turn indicator lights on/off.    Thats  it, no   actual driving of the vehicle........  It  appears  a slight  hand movement  of an envelope  assisted at times also., from comments made to me  by   applicants.

Anywhere off shore.

In my  young(er)  days, I always found it best if I got more than slightly drunk at home before I ventured out tom catting.  The girls always looked beautiful  then,  and as the night progressed, and I got drunker, they got even  more so.    It was just in the morning  I found myself lying next to a dog..     Pleasant and happy, but still a dog.

Definition of a lawyer...     Something  so low   it can walk under a snakes belly while wearing a top hat.

I also heard  that scientists  are now using lawyers in their  laboratory experiments, as there are some things even a rat wont do.

By   the   report  in todays  news that  some 200 tons  of frozen pork  was  found in a cold storage unit,   the man  was right, what  you say now   yellow shirt lovers??      "Its  porky pies  it was  going to  the shop for sale????"...... later.

Paul Henry is correct  in his statement.   I have previously read     the  Royal Mint, in Perth, Western Australia,  has the contract  to  print    all   Thai banknotes.

It sounds like you are in an impossible position.    One million  baht might sound like a lot of money, especially to your (Thai) wife,  but   to support the three of you, even  modestly, it wont last long with no other income.       Ok,, if you    can get a "O"  class  retirment visa,  which     does not require  the US $100,000  health insurance   an "OA"  c;lass visa does,  you would still need to  obtain  health insurance of US$50,000   to  enter Thailand,   you could    take that out for a short period of time and let it expire  after  , say, 3 months,   but  you  still need to   permanently keep  800,000 baht in a Thai bank, to enable you to   extend   even an "O"  retirement   visa, as  you are not   legally married, in Thailands eyes, uintil you get  your foreign  marriage registered here, which is   rather difficult and costly to do.,   that amount  could then   reduce to 400,000 baht, permantly left in the bank.    Frankly, I dont   think  what  you want is possible.    Just  what  country are you from, Ive never before  heard of an age pension ceasing on departure??

My   daughter is a supervisor with Australia Post,   she tells me  they have   acute   staff shortages due to the virus and eveyone is on  O/T  trying to keep up.     On line shopping has increased parcel post   dramatically   and   Australia Post is encouraging people  to have parcals   delivered to local post office for collection, and    postie  can drop   note in    recipients  letter box  advising them to collect,, as  posty cant   deliver  to housholds  direct due to volume. In addition,    between  Thailand  and  Perth  (W.A)    very limited  air flights.,  some Perth     outbound mail is being  forwarded to Sydney  for  overseas destinations.

Further to my previous post...  we  had   cement tiles on our house here, N akon Nowhere.   House is  about 20 years old.   Tiles had  lost their glaze finish,  didnt leak, just looked old and worn out  (like me).     and like    yours in the photo appear.     House is  2   big bedrooms,   big lounge, dining room, big kitchen, bathroom/toilet,  attached carprt.     All rooms are   very big.   Had the  lot replaced  with zinc aluminium roofing, with  insulation .    Cost of     roofing, 50,000  baht. Cost of labour  25,000 baht,    thats  old tiles removed as well,  company  threw in a  very large  wirly  bird  for  heat extraction,,,just needed to  instal   a few diagonally opposed  vents in the eaves to facilitate   air extracton flow.        House is much cooler  now, especially in the evening/night,   cement tiles held the heat before, now  by   7PM    roofing has  lost its  heat (I  got up and  checked it  few times)..   And talking  about labour costs   these days,    the builder (cousin of wife)   had to pay his top guy 900,  yes 900 baht a day, as he was    good  hard worker,  rest of his team demanded, and got 500 baht a day.

Back  in Australia, my  house   had cement tile  roofing.   Developed  leaks .    I thought it was     broken tiles,  Insurance   guy attended, an old retired builder.  Told me cement tiles  have a life of 20 years before glaze finish wears off  and become porous, and  on the average  house   tiles can hold nearly 2 ton of water   on  a rainy  day.      Had  it    treated,   Pressure clean,  2 coats of sealer, 2 coats of   special paint.  Dont know  the brands of either.  To make sure, I got up on the roof  and   painted the ridge cappings, which are  an extra cause of problems, with a product called "bond crete"   No more problem.      Here  in   Nakon Nowhere,   two Thai neighbours  had their  cement  tiled roofs   done.   First one didnt pressure clean, just sealer applied and  then painted.   Started to peal after 6 months...   Other neighbour  had  pressure cleaning,  sealer  and    special paint.  Dont know what brands he used, he  bought everything himself and had  guys do labouring, His total cost 70,000 baht, average size  house.  Across road from  us,  house, rented out,  now about 20 years old,  cement  roof is  absolutley u/s,  leaks    everywhere inside.  Owner wont spend money on   repairs. Tenants  very  upset.