DBath

6 hours ago, balo said:

Look left, look right, look left , look right, then run for your life. Works for me.

 

That approach works well in the US, but it can get you killed in the UK where they drive on the left side. ????

10 hours ago, balo said:

…. stay away from any conflicts and you'll live another day. 
 

Unless, of course, you attempt to cross the road!

4 hours ago, NRGF said:

Crossing a busy road in Thailand is always dangerous with or without a Zebra, its best to wait for a whole bunch of people to build up then cross together but try not to be the last one.

Very true, unless there happens to be a terrorist driving a delivery truck, like that guy in Nice, France! ????

9 hours ago, fredscats said:

The old guy was an idiot for thinking anyone would stop for him

You must be unbelievably dense.????

3 hours ago, RJRS1301 said:

How undignified

What exactly do you mean by 'undignified'? The word 'shat'? Or the young Thai jerk who kicked an innocent old guy down from behind?

7 hours ago, smedly said:

wish he had tried that on me

 

### coward picking on an elderly man

I’ve never liked cowards or chickens. 
 

He is a COWARD with an oversized capital ‘C’. And is the kind of person I enjoyed pounding back in the day. 
 

Oh, the good old days! 

35 minutes ago, ChrisKC said:

What I find surprising is that ALL Thai drivers are also pedestrians when not in or on their vehicle so they DO know what they are and why they are there!

 

Though from the use they are, I don't know why they are there!

 

It really is just about 100% of drivers that do not stop even when people, including schoolchildren, are on the crossing and often have to stay in the middle of the road while traffic passes on either side.

 

This is one of the traffic violations that irritates me the most and even more so when crossings are used for parking - anything!

 

And, as usual, no enforcement - ever!

RTP needs to hire more law enforcement officers and fewer brown envelope gatherers….

Why do Thais resort to this kind of blindsiding? BECAUSE THEY’RE CHICKEN. 

This is the second video I’ve seen where an unaware and unsuspecting foreigner was clocked by a cowardly Thai punk. 
 

If only the Australian dude had turned around to see what was coming, I’m sure that Thai would have tripped all over himself.

Probably would have shat himself as well!

“Golden palaces, floating markets, majestic porcelain-laid spires…you’ve never seen a capital city quite like Bangkok.”

They forgot to mention the well-place man hole covers that will swallow you whole while walking around the city, if you’re not careful. Oh, and the double-pricing, gauging and the arrogance and racism by some (not all) Thais towards westerners is also a delight. Also,  the crooked police / government officials and their brown envelopes!!

Don’t get me wrong, while I did enjoy my year-and-a-half living in Thailand, there were just a few things I found surprising - even comical. 
 

If I were still in my whore-mongering years or only visiting as a tourist, some of those things would have probably been much easier to overlook. 

5 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

What about the rights of a company ?

 

Does it not also have the right to protect itself? if employees refuse to take vaccine and there is a Covid-19 outbreak that will be extremely costly for the company if it has to shut down.

 

This: A company may be within its rights to set out within its health and safety policy that employees have taken specific vaccinations. 

 

 

My Son’s vaccination records were required at by the medical team at his school before being admitted. 

I’m sure if there were some missing vaccinations we would have been asked to have them.

This is for the protection of the others students, I’m perfectly happy with that. 

 

I have had to comply with my company's HSE regulations and comply with quarantine, vaccinations and PCR Testing - it is now part of the job, I don’t mind that if it means I can continue working. 

 

Of course, refusal to get vaccinated would mean immediate termination - I’m ok with that (the vaccinations being offered were Pfizer / Moderna).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course company's should have rights, just like people should have rights. I'm not going to get into a debate with you about how different companies would need to handle or even rebuild their procedures and policies, that would be both boring and fruitless. I don't think anyone should have the right to make a blanket claim that employees deserve to be terminated simply for not vaccinating or simply because some 'Captain Covid' here on TVF thinks they should be terminated for not getting jabbed. It's a lot more complicated than that. There will no doubt be exceptions made within certain LOB's, where covid could have a crippling affect on certain companies, but it needs to be handled on a case-by-case basis, IMO. 

Different countries and even different states and provinces have laws that will need to be rewritten and companies will need to re-evaluate their policies and procedures. It's not going to be resolved simply by executive order. 

And the statement made earlier by one member here that "sick days should not be allowed" for those who are unvaccinated that get covid, is frankly shortsighted, over-simplified and ludicrous and it only addresses a sliver of the solution.

Well, perhaps I was a little harsh on the old gal, sorry Thailand! Truth be told, my wife and I kind of got stuck there and the immigration laws and the environment were not suitable for the business plan we had hoped to implement.

For me really, a year-and-a-half was enough time to see what I needed to see and while I didn't see everything, I saw enough. I enjoyed our time there, but I don't feel the need to ever go back.

That said, I totally get what others see in the country it has a lot to offer - with or without some of the over-charging, the brown envelopes and blatant racism I felt at times from some Thais, but that's just my opinion.

1 hour ago, wwest5829 said:

Your arm comment reminded me of the tenis shot. Felt like cement was injected. Here is a smile for all reading. I hate needles. I mean it is a violation of my strang defense mechanisms … so, Mom worked as a receptionist in a hospital lab. Every time visiting home from college … in for complete blood work up (submitted in my deceased Grandmother’s name). Anyway, getting ready to do back to visit the “vampires” and Mom says loudly … we have a fainter coming back … hey! That only happened one time, Mom!! 

That's a great story, something this thread could definitely use more of, IMO. ????

2 hours ago, Captain Monday said:

Two very good friends lost in the last 4 years 

 

One was a walking time bomb with bad habits. By the way another lady from our company I don't know well was one of those super healthy types who works out constantly with strict diet and even appeared in regional Mrs. Fitness model contests. A super missus with washboard abs. Both collapsed from massive strokes and were dead within a few days nothing could be done. My other buddy was on a planned ride with three or four other guys on touring BMWs with helmets/full leathers/boots at their normal speeds on a dry road. He got a "tank slapper" and went down hitting a wall.  Died instantly. One dude saw it in real time they were talking on radio headsets. Said If he had gone down a short distance down the highway he would have slid into a field and probably walked  it off. So, you never know. You can take every precaution in the world, I'm not saying don't live your life far from it. People die crossing the street. 

 

I just do not see any downside to vaccination.

 

As for my wacky friend I don't worry about catching covid-19 from him but I do think he could benefit from the protections the shots provide from hospitalization and death if like anyone else in our age group he were to contract the virus. That is up to him, a choice. But the reasons for his rejection are completely irrational. Fear uncertainty and doubt. Feeding a conspiratorial nature, fueled by dodgy websites and "alternative" media sources. 

 

I imagine it must be hard to lose a close friend, not something I've had to experience recently, thankfully.

I did lose my dearest aunt last year due to a fairly routine heart valve procedure that her doctor recommended, which I thought could have been ignored - in retrospect, given the nature of her problem and that it wasn't even life-threatening - her heart condition, that is. She died on the operating table because there was "a complication" and I have this vision of doctors wanting to use for one of their latest practice dummies. I realize that may be a stretch, but I still can't get that thought out of my head.

Then there was the time when my youngest son had meconium asperation and had to be flown to Shand's hospital in Florida, so he could be put on an ecmo machine (extracorporeal life support). I went to the hospital every day and saw firsthand how stressed he was from them drawing blood from his traumatized little head. The woman who was the head of the department there wanted me to sign a waiver, so they could take more blood draws to further their research into his problem - when he was already being stuck like a pin-cushion. I mean, this woman was trying to strong-arm me and make me feel guilty for not allowing it - was not going to happen. 

I do think doctors often get a bad rap, but I have many other firsthand experiences with the ineptness that goes in hospitals and urgent care facilities. I expect more, I expect better, everyone should. One can say, "what does that have to do with covid and vaccines?" For me it carries over and presents a picture of the many ways I believe the entire medical profession and industry is a joke. From big pharma R&D all the way through to the doctors prescribing whatever drugs big pharma wants to push.

Most hospitals and urgent clinics are run like lean companies and most doctors don't even get paid what they're worth anymore. So, like your friend, I have my reasons, too. That you may or may not like them does not matter in my thought process.

I do agree that one has to live one's life and I also think it's important to take the proper precautions and weigh the risks, but I don't buy into some of the fearmongering that is common here on TVF. While it may be for a few others, for me it's not a matter of conspiracy theories or media sources. I'm pretty well-read and follow a wide and diverse range of media sources, from the extremely liberal to the extreme right. 

I like to march to my own beat and no one else's, that's just who I am. That's how I've always been and that's how I will continue to be.

That others might judge me or try to put me down to me because of it, is of no significance.

2 hours ago, Stupooey said:

Interesting you should mention Boddington's. I used to drink it a lot when I was a student in Manchester between 1969 and 1972, but was always disappointed when I could not find any out of term time. The reason, I discovered, was that the brewery reckoned the beer 'didn't travel', so they refused to take it more than 30 miles from Manchester. Some time later they were taken over by the giant Whitbreads, who of course had no such qualms about maintaining the quality of the product, so its availability became ubiquitous, including evidently Philadelphia PA, which last time I looked at a map was definitely more than 30 miles from Manchester! Boddies was never the same again, even though it was still being produced at Strangeways until 2005.

Very interesting, I didn't know that. And yes, Philly is definitely more than 30 miles from there! I was there in 1998, then in London for a spell around 2003, so it has been a while ago. I sure enjoyed my time there and the Lakes District was very pretty. 

2 hours ago, wwest5829 said:

Happy for your good health. If you were an American kid the DPT shot would have been administered before you had a memory. 1950’s in Southern New Jersey we were lined up and got both the Sabine and Salk vaccines. Applied for a college in North Carolina that required a Typhoid/Paratyphoid shot … severe reaction. Did not go to that college! Getting ready for international travel, Yellow Fever shot. Only ever took one flu shot … felt like I had the flu so passed on any future shots of that. Yeah, old enough to have been exposed to a number of virus but … getting in line for Pfizer shot. Appears that it will be looked for if I want to travel internationally sometime in the next two years.

Thanks. It was mid-60's and I can remember kids wailing because they were afraid to get the jab - terrified - and that struck me a kind of funny for some odd reason...

Seeing your post reminded me that in junior high my mom and I got a battery of 12-14 shots twice, so we could join my step-father who was working construction in Vietnam (so I mis-spoke on my previous post); both times we didn't end up going! I remember some had nasty side affects, typhoid was one (I think) and I just remember my arm feeling like it was going to fall off - couldn't even move it was painful for about 1.5 days.

I was lucky though, because at least I didn't end up with another dick growing out of my forehead (though that might have made some of my sexual experiences more interesting later on, I suppose).

I would likely be the same as you, if I were still traveling for work. Many of my ex-colleagues are getting jabbed in order to avoid a potential hassle with flight travel and clients. Personally, I would avoid it as long as I could, but that's just me.

1 hour ago, transam said:

Sunbeam, I had no say in Tuberculosis, Polio, Smallpox, measles, but I did in Tetanus, Herpes and a few others. And guess what, I am in my eighth decade, protected by those jabs.

Tell me, what jabs have you had..?

Who is ‘Sunbeam’. If you want to make a contest out of who has had the most jabs, I guess you win! (Shrug). 
 

I had ONE jab back in elementary school, I don’t recall what for, maybe polio. I only ever saw one kid in my lifetime that had it. So, I’m pretty sure I didn’t need that one either. 
 

I’m in my 7th decade and I’ve never felt better. In fact, I feel better and am healthier than I was 20 years ago. 
 

So, I guess you win the old age contest, too…WHOOPY for you!

2 hours ago, HaoleBoy said:

Shanghai's Fosum Pharma company is building out a facility to produce BioNTech (Pfizer) vaccine.  China will be giving this locally produced vaccine out as a "booster" dose over 2 doses of Sinovac and Sinopharm.

      https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Caixin/China-to-use-BioNTech-vaccine-as-booster-shot-sources-say

The problem is the mRNA vaccine from BioNTech is not yet "approved" in China ...

 

If your article had any weight then the Chinese people wouldn't need a "booster" dose to combat the Delta variant.

 

China is trying to confuse the rest of the world at this point so their local Covid-19 vaccines don't look bad.  Plus, China can continue to sell their Sinovac / Sinopharm to Thailand .... 

The trouble with any news that comes out of China goes way beyond just misinformation about covid and you are correct, this is just another one of their misinformation campaigns. It is nearly impossible to get any kind of 'straight scoop' out of the CCP's tightly controlled news media in China.

1 hour ago, Captain Monday said:

The relevance of the first paragraph is the relation to vaccine resistance. Three of my foreign friends here in particular are opposed to taking a vaccination for covid-19

• One guy (more of a contact who subscribes to  every conspiracy theory from Biderbergs to 5G ) is just doctrinaire anti-vaxX, and will definitely leave  and never return IF vaccination is required to extend a visa or enter Thailand.
• Another guy works, He is being forced by his job, and not happy about it even though he has the pre-existining conditions I described He wont quit or leave Thailand. 
• Another is an elderly retired woman. She will only vaccinate if required to extend her visa.

They are all concerned about the (vague) potential health risks but, I find it interesting they undertake other actions as a matter of course without worry or complaint that have a demonstrated clear risk such as riding motorbikes. Why is that? Life has risks and I guess we are all coerced in one way or another. I did not want to get my teeth straightened as a kid, I didn't want to go to college, I didn't want to do just about anything I was told to do. Most of it worked out for the best. As for the c-19 jabs not much of a choice except to resign and retire early. Then what happens and where can I live or travel? When I retire I intend to leave the US for good. For sure expat options and travel destinations will be limited for the un-vaccinated. Doesn't fit with my life plan right now.  I get all the other required and Doctor recommended vaccinations anyway.

 

As long as your acquaintance's actions don't harm you or anyone else, then I see no reason why you should care, other than you might be worried about them and would feel bad if something happened to them, because the things you mention are things they have a right to choose. If on the other hand you're concerned they might pass covid to you, it's your choice to 'cut the chord' or not with them. 

I ride motorcycles and I have for most of my life, since I was a young boy. I've put over 200,000 miles on various kinds of motorcycles - way more than most people. And except where it was illegal, I opted to not wear a helmet. You can call me whatever you want, but that was - and still is - my choice. I never had an accident and I'm pretty sure it was more than just luck that I didn't. People use to ask me, "Why do you ride without a helmet?" and my response was always the same, "Because I can."  I also never liked pulling up to a stop light and having the heat from the engine radiate off the pavement and make the inside feel like an oven. I've always been careful and tactical when I ride and have never been reckless (some of the 'wallflowers' on here will surely dislike that statement).

Some people have balls the size of boulders... "Sometimes you beat the bear and sometimes the bear gets you". I've never been one for the sheltered or coddled life that some people here try to project on a regular basis; and I detest crowd-followers.

As far as covid I know it's real, 100%.  If I had underlying conditions, I would probably move closer to the front of the jab line. Do I take covid lightly? Nope.  Do I go near or shake hands with people I'm not intimately familiar with? Nope.  Do I wear a mask? Yup.  Do I eat healthy and live a healthy lifestyle? Yup.  Do I have underlying conditions? Nope. Do I wash my hands frequently and use sanitizer? Yup. I rarely go out and when I do, I pose no risk to anyone else and keep my distance.  And the risk to me is minimal, IMO. I don't even remember the last time I had a cold - or the flu for that matter.

If I were to have to make a hard choice and get vaccinated, it wouldn't be that hard of a decision, if it's something I were forced to do, I would. If and when I see a good reason (one that suits me), I will get in line. 

Until then, I'm going to stay right where I am.

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

...The Chinese guys liked to fill a room with naked women, and maybe have sex with just one.

Not me...I like to have my cake and eat it, too!!

2 hours ago, jacko45k said:

Well despite what Bill Clinton says oral counts....

But only if they swallow...????

19 hours ago, rattlesnake said:

I will ask a simple question with regard to this topic:

If I do not wish to be injected with this product, should I have the right to do so, or not?

YES

21 minutes ago, Captain Monday said:

Compared to the extreme  FUD about so-called "long term side effects" of vaccines how many people consider the "risks" when they do things taken for granted such as driving, riding a bicycle, or eating bacon?  Walking in the US outside of major city center is extremely hazardous people try to kill me frequently.

 

My anti-vaxX friend here in Chiang Mai won't leave Thailand over his soon required injections but after ranting earlier this year he gets on a motorbike and rides 25 minutes to a dark Moo-bahn two or three large changs deep. He is overweight with blood pressure and asthma issues. You can't make this stuff up he is the last person who wants to risk covid-19! 

 

I drove for years only the pandemic forced me to secure a residence in the US. I'm car free but it seriously limits where you can stay and I have to be easy Uber distance to the airport I commute out of. Can't park there free anyway. I will never own a car again in the US. Easy way to meet irresponsible lowlifes with no assets and often no insurance.

If I need a car I rent.

 

 

 

Not sure about the relevance of that first paragraph, but I think I agree with you...

Were I to have lived in "the burbs" a car would have been required.  In fact, only in a major city would I even consider not having one. I enjoyed the challenge of seeing how long I could go without a car and was able to get by without one for almost 7 years - partly because I traveled every week and mainly only needed a lift to and from O'Hare.

Like you, I rented a car whenever it was necessary, but I rarely needed to do that. Being a road warrior during the week and all the associated air travel incented me to be a homebody most weekends. And that was fine by me, Chicago is a great city to live in, as long as you don't visit the south side and certain parts of the west side.

6 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

Been there, got the t-shirt. By far the best code is written on a Friday afternoon after the developers have had a bit of "lubrication".

 

Being in the rail industry means lunchtime drinking is well off the cards now although rail chaps are still expected to drink like fish after working hours. I do try to keep the tradition alive ???? 

One afternoon around 2:00 the finance controller and I stepped away for a few pints. At the time I could keep pace with any American when it came to beer consumption. Imagine my surprise (not to mention the bruising to my ego) when I’d only finished 1/4 of my mug and my client was already pouring his next one. 

Even when I picked up the pace significantly, he still “left me in the dust” as they say. ????

43 minutes ago, Yellowtail said:

 

I had the fist Pfizer shot a week ago and suffered no side effects.

 

The ‘fist Pfizer shot’? That sounds pretty painful…
 

Is that anything like fisting? I sure hope not, hopefully just a typo!