Fat is a type of crazy

Just now, Jingthing said:

Yeah like real life consists of only straight white men. 

See what you did there. I didn't say there should be no such characters. 

Seen excellent shows such as the American Queer as Folk and Tales of the city that happened to be based mainly on gay characters. 

I am noticing though there are a number of shows that have a range of characters, colours, sexuality, gender etc. that do seem to have been placed into the show to tick a box rather than being appropriate and relevant and helping tell a story. 

43 minutes ago, Freddy42OZ said:

Although I really enjoyed most shows when they were current and I was young, I've revisited a few of them and they are utter crap. 

Knight Rider
The A-Team
CHiPs 
Magnum PI
Miami Vice
etc etc 

It basically reinforces my opinion that old things are rubbish.


 

For what it's worth I thought they were all crap the first time around.

Lawn bowls is more an attitude thing. Has become cool in Australia last decade or so. Things like barefoot bowls nights. Cheap beers available. Could be fun and it is skilful. I thought you were eccentric but I think you make stuff up now. Each to their own. 

4 hours ago, KhunHeineken said:

Can you give a few examples? 

 

What is Australia doing right these days?  I think not much. 

Reasons to be proud of and care about Australia include the following:

Stable democracy- there are individual policies I disagree with but relatively free elections and a free press - becoming less common in the world - extreme views and parties still not part of the mainstream. You can still get rid of the parties that aren't cutting it as we saw with the Liberals being thrown out. Might be Labour next.  Labour tried some serious tax reform a couple of elections ago but the voters said no so what are you going to do. 

Fairness - rights for workers, freedom to protest, decent police force in each state, less corruption than other countries.

Government support - Help is there to those who need it.  Need better oversight but better to have it than not. Free or cheap health care in many situations. 

Economic opportunity - tough for the younger ones to buy a house but not hard to get employment and get ahead if you are motivated. Tax high but not that high. 

Environment - some bad things here but still have clean beautiful well looked after beaches and forests.

Prospects look good - more revenue mainly from mining than expected in recent budget update - debt is an issue due to some poor decisions and hangover from covid but most countries in the same boat.

Freedom - people talk about nanny state, can feel that way a bit with some regulations here and there that can seem over the top, but normally have safety of people in mind e.g. building regulations - road rules. I get annoyed at 40 km zones here and there but if you take it easy, no big deal, and surely better than having a free for all of speed and drink driving leading to much larger fatalities etc. 

That's a start. The bad things are there but they are doing things right too.

21 minutes ago, Sunmaster said:

I have to disagree with this.

To believe is to take something to be true without knowing for sure if it's true or not. "I believe the world was created in 7 days."
The essence of spirituality is spiritual practice, to go from mere believing to knowing through direct experience. 
If you know something to be true, why would you need science to validate it for you? It would be redundant.

You differentiate between believing and knowing. It sounds nice but trusting what you consider as knowledge is potentially seriously flawed of course. 

I am the guy working till 59 - then go on paid accrued leave - and retire. Not too long now. See what happens. 

Is that irony though. I think not. I think you didn’t like that one of your favourites, one of your apparent allies,  closed that topic.

You can throw all the statistics out you like saying Biden is doing a good job, and you'll likely be correct, but I think people will see an elderly man who is past his prime in some ways, and look for alternatives. If it's Trump Biden may still win despite the polls. If any one else it looks bad. 

14 minutes ago, ezzra said:

Australia is not what it used to be, since the labour government brought in nearly a million multi national of jetsam and flotsam, without prior planing for housing and social support, many are of poor, uneducated countries and background just so to serve and fill work positions that Aussies will not do any longer, and they're everywhere, ( i have been 2 weeks in a private Melbourne hospital and 95% of the staff, from cleaners to doctors were new comers)

The above might sound as elitist, selfish and a racist rant, but many, many Aussies are not happy with what the government doing and handling Australia's affairs for some time now...

But in your hospital example the fact is they simply don't have staff at the moment to do those jobs and so immigration is a good thing in that regard. But a reason they need more staff is in part the huge increase in population partly due to immigration itself. 

You'll notice they are decreasing immigration numbers. I have no problem with immigration as such and I think it brings many benefits. The financial benefits are likely skewed to the business owners though who get lots of relatively cheap staff and not to the average worker who finds so much more competition for work resulting in lower wage increases, difficulty buying a property, etc.

There are some things that concern me on the political correctness thing but this is not one of them. I think there's a reasonable argument to say that the date of Australia day did bring terrible things, and some good things to, to the indigenous population. It's not drawing a long bow to see why people might say a different day is better and may feel a flag has too strong a link with the UK. 

In terms of blaming baby boomers how many posts do you see here about the so called lazy indulgent young so it's the normal thing to talk badly about different generations. I don't blame young people wanting to blame someone for the high cost of everything especially property when wages keep going up below inflation.

 You get a say too because it is one of the most democratic countries in the world. 

There's a lot of reasons to be proud of and care about Australia so keep the good things in mind too. You posted recently about getting the age pension in the future- I don't get a cracker - but look at it in Thailand. Many examples that give us a good life so retiring in Thailand is an option. 

Like Chickens Legs it is hoped you are half joking. How arrogant could a person be after causing her family so many issues to dare taking the moral high ground on anything. Hopefully she is at least being financially responsible from now, or steps can be taken to make her be financially responsible if that is possible, so you can relax with the nice things you have. 

I got an email recently, apparently from a hotel I stayed at, saying I urgently needed to pay an invoice from a previous stay. I had prepaid in full and it was over 6 months since I stayed there. Not from the hotel. Did not click links or open attachments. Delete. 

It had a bad name in Australia back in the 80's and 90's for reasons noted above i.e. people would join and would sell stuff and look to get others to sell for them. The products were OK.

Many would try to sell to family and friends, or get family and friends, to join and sell on their behalf. They sold it as a way of having your own business so your dreams could come true. 

So you might get a call saying 'Hi. Long time no see. You want to come over for a drink'  .. you would go and get  the hard sell. 

There was a song by a band called TISM called 'Death Death Death Amway Amway Amway; that indicated how some felt. 

Not sure if Amway in Thailand in 2023 has a similar concept. 

3 hours ago, DrJoy said:

I have not seen even one officer of the Thai Revenue Dept who speaks even rudimentary English.

 

I have been to their head office on Paholyothin road, none of them could speak English.

 

 Even 2nd graders speaks better English than them.

 

How will they communicate with foreigners and tell them that their tax is due?

 

Their e tax filing website is in Thai only

Not sure that is that important. Same as other countries it is the individuals responsibility to lodge if appropriate. Most countries would not have etax site in multiple languages I should think. If you were picked for an audit the staff would likely have access to interpreters and translators.

Wouldn't stop them as noted above matching income to lifestyle. 

Tacky but worse things happen at sea

This one will cheer you up

Bela Lugosi's Dead (Official Version) - YouTube

Been disappointed many times by dishes such as a bland sweet tomatoey no chili Tom Yum. Need to tell them - some dishes I can say 1 chili or 2 chili and while you are at it no MSG no sugar no added salt no other mystery powders thanks. 

Last time we went for it was 2019 or so and it was initially a bit of a pain because they asked my girlfriend to get a health check which cost a bit - a few hundred I think - after she had had one a couple of years before. The upside was they gave us the three year tourist visa for three monthly visits. Then covid happened and after one trip to Australia that was that. 

1 hour ago, NextG said:

 

 

I don’t think anyone here of any standing would think that I’m a Troll. 
That would be somewhat ironic when so many complain about the world being too ‘politically correct’. So why complain when people speak plainly? Saying what they mean and meaning what they say. 
I speak from my perspective and you from yours. That’s how it works. To a lot of people, your penchant for tiny, childlike women would raise eyebrows. That’s just a fact, whether you like it or not. 

Bit of a troll as you get on one thread saying that people should be careful about talking about money, at the risk of making others feel bad, then you get on this thread and look for every way to make those who picked or apparently 'bought' a Thai girl, slim, brown, to feel bad. Like  they only took them because that's all they could get. At the same time trying to put yourself above the pack with all your claims of success with the women of the world.

Sometimes you make the odd good point about unpleasant sexism on this site but I think you undo it 5 fold with all your generalisations about people who might have a preference for thai ladies. This from someone who chooses Thailand and Pattaya as a place to live.