tropo

On 11/17/2020 at 5:24 PM, johng said:

"First Optic"   is   still my  recommendation.

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@12.9207523,100.8784939,3a,66.8y,252.5h,84.07t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sGKzrOf_HyqWBCayQ6RV73w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

 

Euro Optic is still my recommendation. It moved to Royal Garden Plaza (2nd floor) several months back as it was cheaper rent than the roadside shop on 2nd Road. Unfortunately, staying in business now is a challenge.

7 hours ago, Peter Denis said:

A recent case where IO showed leniency was when a friend of mine applied for his 1-year extension of stay based on his original Non Imm O-A Visa for reason of retirement.

He didn't realize that when using the money-in-bank method IO now also requires a 12-month statement of the bank proving that he did not went under the 800K/400K tressholds during the 12 months preceding his application.  But his local bank branche could only provide a 3-month statement and it would take at least 5 days to get the bank HQ 12-month statement. But since he applied 2 days before his permission to stay expired, he would not be able anymore to get that 12-month statement in time.  Of course, he did have his updated bank-book which clearly showed that he never went under the required tresshold, but still he did not meet the 'administrative requirement for the 12-month bank-statement'.  

In his case IO provided leniency and did approve his application for the 1-year extension of stay even though 'technically incomplete'.

Similarly, when e.g. an 80-year old cannot meet the requirement for the mandatory thai IO-approved health-insurance when applying for the 1-year extension of his Non Imm O-A Visa for reason of retirement.  Since such insurance can only be subscribed to if you are under 76 years of age, it is not possible for the 80-year old to get such insurance.  In such case the local IO can provide leniency, but since it is a 'serious' non-compliance, divisional HQ would have to provide approval to the decision to accept his application without that mandatory insurance.

Well, these people were very fortunate to have had some leniency applied, but unfortunately stories of the IO's requiring expats to jump through hoops, making their application process nothing short of nightmares, are more common.

Either way, the IO's will use their discretionary powers any way they see fit. Whether you agree with their decisions or not, based on your ideas of when they should use their special powers, is irrelevant.

I believe they are making the process of extensions based on retirement and marriage more annoyingly complicated to entice more people to apply through agents. Last time I got an extension they told me point blank that next year I need 800k in the bank. They didn't even suggest a monthly income method was a possibility.

Business is very slow right now, so they are becoming even more helpful than usual. They actually canvass for "customers". I won't mention the IO, but she suggested that one person who used an agent to obtain his extension come directly to her next time, and it would save him money.

41 minutes ago, Peter Denis said:

I seriously doubt that IO not meeting the laid-out IO regulations is part of the 'special consideration' the office head has.

That special consideration is meant to provide leniency in certain cases, but surely not for ignoring that the required financial funds were depleted.

 

Where did you get your information on the guidelines on how they should use "special consideration"? Could you give an example of a "certain case" where they provide leniency?

21 hours ago, Pilotman said:

I am not suggesting that anyone uses an agent to circumvent the law, merely to make life easy for yourself and remove the uncertainty. 

It's not circumventing the law at all. It's is done by "special consideration", which is at the discretion of the head of the immigration office you visit and signed off by him/her. They have that right. It is not necessary to use an agent. It also waives the need for the 400k minimum balance to show at 90 day reports. By doing it this way, you actually become a VIP of sorts. You actually see immigration officers being super friendly and smiling, a rare thing on the main floor LOL.

On 6/24/2020 at 12:53 AM, SePl said:

Hola, I am also drinking kefir but wonder what to do now that i have too many grains ? should i freeze the ones that i don't need ? or do you just throw them ? Cheers.

Freeze them for backup stock, and eat the rest. You can also make a smoothy with them. What about helping out your fellow humans on this thread that are looking for them? You could give them away, but do not destroy them - that's a crime.

On 6/7/2020 at 11:51 PM, gamesgplayemail said:

 

yes if it is sour it contains the bacteria, SURELY !

 

It surely will, just as yoghurt, sour milk and buttermilk have bacteria. That doesn't make it kefir. Milk will sour on its own without any external bacterial seeding.

On 6/14/2020 at 6:05 PM, sirineou said:

It is not  a troll post at all. I asked a honest question. to which I did not receive an honest answer. 

If anything I was trolled at by an answer that did not answer my question but instead endeavor to point out the difference between the words KEFIR,and Kaffir even though in my question i indicated that I knew the two thing were different but did not know how. I said :

"please forgive my ignorance .

but what are kafir grains? I am familiar with Kaffir limes and the leaves we use in soup  but not familiar with kafir grains 

I tried googling it but it was confusing, Is it a fungus  you grow?  "

I even was polite enough to ask  forgives for my ignorance. a courtesy  not returned to me. Yet you have the nerve to accuse me of being a Troll. 

Then another smart ass poster endeavor to  accuse me of laziness  for not googling it, 

" And you still don't have google, right ?

People..."

even though I clearly said in my post "I tried googling it but it was confusing, Is it a fungus  you grow? "

So to all above I say "Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones" . and urge you all to apply as much effort in your reading skills as you do in Kafir grain growing . What ever it is.

The spelling correction was all you required to search for 1000's of articles, listed on a Google search (or Bing or any other search engine).

This thread assumes readers already know what kefir is and was started in 2011 to help people find them. Find out what they are, then if you have specific questions about brewing it or need to find them, don't hesitate to ask.

On 6/9/2020 at 12:36 AM, scoupeo said:

Can I know what happens here ?

The kefir grains have converted lactose (milk sugar) to lactic acid. The resultant lactic acid has caused the milk to separate into curds and whey. The further you let this process continue, the thinner your kefir will be. The photo shows about the maximum level of separation. The clear fluid is called kefir whey and it is not very sour. If you let this process proceed too quickly, then the kefir will not be very sour. 

The most important thing to do is to stir often. This increases lactose to lactic acid conversion and slows down separation, yielding a thicker and sourer finished product. It's hard to remember, so I use a timer to remind me to stir at least once an hour. If you're going out for some hours, it's best to pop it into the refrigerator until you return. If you don't, it could be completely separated when you get home. I also leave it in the refrigerator while sleeping. The most important thing is it's sourness, not thickness. It needs to be very, very sour. My kefir approaches the sourness of a squeezed lemon.

If your kefir still tastes a bit sweet after it has separated, not to worry. Put it in the fridge for a couple of days and stir often. It will sour up and thicken up too.

Good luck!

On 6/8/2020 at 7:41 PM, sirineou said:

I realise 

 

Thank you for the spelling correction, but I still don't know what it is.

But at the very least , when at parties I would be able to impress everyone with my new found spelling prowess 

This is the strangest place for troll posts. 

On 5/31/2020 at 10:11 PM, redwood1 said:

Sorry some of us just will not accept this forced to eat alone insanity...

Ate at 2 other restaurants this week, both on the same table without screens.

Reef Cantina (Mexican) and Zen (Japanese).

4 minutes ago, gamesgplayemail said:

 

I disagree because you are wrong !

Who decided that kefir needs to be thick ? this is idiot.

If your milk with kefir grains is sour, it means that it it kefir milk ! nothing else !

 

Yes my kefir is also not creamy but it is very sour and it is the proof that kefir has been eating lactose ! try to prove otherwise ?

My kefir is always in the fridge and it's not bitter at all, this is pure BS.

 

yes my kefir is very very sour by keeping it in the fridge and adding new milk everyday, and only low fat milk.

 

You should try to think instead of repeating what is written and repeated by idiots all over the world ! Did they experience anything ? of course not !

Most people are just like you, drinking daily kefir since 10 years and not even knowing this !

You cannot brew kefir overnight in the refrigerator. You will have a very limited lactose to lactic acid conversion which requires temperatures above 15c. Please don't come in to this long running thread, despelling nonsense and flaming.

The only point you are correct on is that is doesn't matter if the kefir is thick or thin, but the thinness should come from producing kefir whey, not from pure, unfermented milk. What you're drinking is partially brewed kefir, with emphasis on partially as most of it is still milk.

On 6/4/2020 at 1:59 PM, samtab said:

hello, my kefir is more liquid than creamy and I do not like to drink creamy kefir, is it wrong ?

i brew it mostly in the fridge and keep it out only few hours a day.

Everybody is talking about creamy kefir as if it was a rule, but i think liquid kefir is easier to drink, just wondering if it contains all the bacteria ?

of course it is sour (more than some of the creamy kefir that i tried) and I am ok with it.

please confirm that it is ok to drink liquid kefir ? thank you so much.

You are doing it right. As long as it is very sour, it is good. It doesn't really matter if it is thick or thin. To get kefir as thin (liquid) as possible, brew it until no more kefir whey separates in the jar. Keep it out in the heat longer and stir often. You should be able to brew it until the jar is 50/50 whey/curds. Leave some space at the top of the jar or it will end up leaking all over the bench as the whey pushes the curds up.

On 5/8/2020 at 11:28 AM, simon43 said:

I leave my kefir milk outside the fridge, and drink it all the next say after the grains have thickened the milk.  Occasionally I store excess kefir milk in the fridge for a couple of day.

 

As far as helping the stomach, being a science teacher, I should more accurately say that it helps the small intestine to efficiently perform its process of energy and nutrient transfer from digested food inside the gut and to the adjacent blood capillaries.  Your gut needs 'good' bacteria to operate correctly, and kefir milk has those good bacteria.

 

There is also a lot of scientific evidence that a healthy gut improves one's overall immune system.  I make no claim that drinking kefir milk will protect you against Wuhan Flu, other than that having a healthy immune system does provide increased protection against pathogens.  But I have not been ill in any way for the past few years, no colds, flu, stomach problems etc etc, and I live in less than optimum sanitary conditions in Burma and Laos ????

You say you haven't been sick for the past few years. Does this coincide with your kefir consumption. Were you always sick before you started drinking it?

I can most definitely say my digestive system works far better, and bowel evacuations last seconds rather than minutes. I cannot make any comment about colds or flu protection as occasionally I will get it, but not often. I can say that if I do have an upset stomach from something I've eaten, a few glasses of kefir quickly fixes it.

5 hours ago, hotandsticky said:

 

I think they probably did.

 

The government certainly didn’t say one person per table - it was a case of that restaurant’s interpretation of social distancing.

 

 

I agree with the OP and, whilst I would not have told them where to stick their restaurant, I would not accept this ‘new normal’ interpretation from a restaurant.

Nonsense. Each restaurant is given a maximum number of diners allowed inside at any time, and it's calculated by the number of tables in the restaurant. All shops in the mall have a maximum customers allowed inside at any time and the number is displayed at the entrance. My hairdresser even had a maximum allowed inside the salon, which was only 4.

10 minutes ago, stevenl said:

 

Are in the US mail in ballots and absentee ballots the same btw?

How would you suggest absentee ballots should be sent? Carrier pigeons?

1 minute ago, simple1 said:

Fair enough, but really a defection as we are talking to national Presidential elections. trump's claim of extensive mail-in voter fraud is total rubbish including his other ridiculous claims e.g.

 

As MIT elections scholar Charles Stewart and National Vote At Home Institute CEO Amber McReynolds, two leading experts on voting by mail, said in an April op-ed, those figures come out to 7.1 cases per year nationwide and an average of three convictions per state in the past 20 years, accounting for just 0.00006% of all votes cast in that time.

 

Some hair splitting, but a good investigation into factual info.

https://www.businessinsider.com.au/twitters-first-fact-check-on-trumps-voting-tweets-was-misleading-2020-5?r=US&IR=T

 

 

I showed cases where people were caught and convicted. This is probably the tip of the iceberg... and with the level of hatred for Trump and desperation to remove him, it could be done at a very high level and change the balance in some close states.

46 minutes ago, Phil McCaverty said:

How do you know its a "he"?

 

Admit it, you have no idea who the fact checker is or their political leanings.

How do I know it's a "he"?

I already stated his name in a previous post that you were too lazy to read.

Yoel Roth looks like a he. What do you think?

36 minutes ago, simple1 said:

You're making the allegations, the onus is on you to back up your accusation with factual info from credible sources. if you decline to do so one can only come to one conclusion; you've got nothing.

Done. The evidence you wanted to see that you could have easily found on your own but were too lazy to search for - in a post just above... choosing instead to believe the BS Twitter "fact-checking".

What is your onus? To believe everything you read?

7 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

You are not paranoid, they really are watching you

Dude, I'm Australian and definitely not paranoid about what goes on in US politics.