JamesPhuket10

Here are some possibilities: Eraserhead (1977, David Lynch) — While not strictly one-actor, it’s incredibly surreal, claustrophobic, and often set in a small apartment-like space. Lost Highway (1997, David Lynch) — Parts occur in a home at night, with disorienting identity shifts and a sense of unreality. The Tenant (1976, Roman Polanski) — Nearly all in one apartment, with the main character (Polanski himself) descending into paranoia and identity confusion. Repulsion (1965, Roman Polanski) — Mostly inside an apartment with Catherine Deneuve, where reality unravels in disturbing ways. Clean, Shaven (1993, Lodge Kerrigan) — Psychological descent, very minimal cast, unsettling atmosphere. Bug (2006, William Friedkin) — A paranoid two-person spiral in a motel room, but has that same intense, surreal, disturbing quality.

Good story. I have a story relating to stairs and doors in Konstanze Germany. 2006 After a long night on the booze with a friend we went to sleep, I was on the ground floor and the friend was staying on the second floor of the hotel. I woke up just wearing my underpants as usual, went to the bathroom and saw it had new soap and other items, I though that is strange as I had had a shower, how had they replaced the items in the bathroom I though. I then went back into the bedroom and all of my clothes had disappeared, I though I was losing my mind. I then looked at the door number and found I was on the wrong floor, I went down the stairs to my room and the door was locked. I had no choice but to go to the reception desk in my undies only, the woman took me back to my room and let me in, with a frown. She said where is your friend, and I said 'Oh Dr Maclean' (he is a doctor) in order to try and regain some dignity, she said let's check on him. His things were in his room, but he wasn't, so she looked under the bed just in case to see if he was there, we saw his suitcase etc but not the friend. So I had to check us both out and put the suitcases in the car etc. I drove down the road and found he was supping on a pavement table at a local bar, I could not drink as I was driving. The only thing I can think of as to why I was in the wrong room, in my drunken state I must have opened the door and gone up stairs to the toilet. What a night out though, it was great, something to remember.

Nudity is not allowed in shops in Thailand. 😃

Yes I agree, the potatoes in Makro are good quality and firm to the touch, I can not tell the difference between those and the ones I buy in the UK. Good for mashing, french fries and chips(English chips not crisps). Oh, and great in home made massaman curry with OZ/NZ beef (also from Makro).

I am on O2, I just use it to received text messages if I am signing onto UK bank apps etc, or other such things. I Have been paying £12 per month since 2022. No charge to received text in Thailand.

An 'amazing' individual you mean, I think you will find bar girls have similar personalities any where in the world, they want the money not the money provider. The problem is a very high percentage of farangs marry such women and are then surprised at how they are treated by that type of woman.

It is the way it is for many people but not all, but some people only mix in the ATM circle of friends and so think that applies to everyone.

I hated using ASM etc, I much prefer the higher level and specific language for Apple IOS, it is called Swift, it let's you get on with the application you are developing and not get bogged down with the code. It has build in system code for url manipulation, graphics etc, to do it in an assembler language would be impossible. The apartment is right next to Chelmsford Train station, new high quality apartments with good services. Two bed , two bath, large living room with balcony and good views. 80 sq m I know chelmsford as i had a restaurant 'Siam Cottage' in Moulsham street for 20+ years, I told it in 2018 thus luckily avoiding the affect of Covid on the business (but I never worked in it) and so I know Chelmsford well, my kids went to school here, New Hall School. I bought this flat as soon everyone will have to be at work five days a week full time, the working from home will not last and so the apartment is in an ideal for the 30 mins train ride to London. I will used Bersefords in Chelmsford as I used them a few years ago to rent out and manage a house. Maybe we are just getting older and so do not go on pub crawls but I can assure you it is just as vibrant as it was years ago as I can see from the apartment windows, especially the 'Original Plough' pub which it is packed on a Friday and Saturday.

You wrote: "It's somewhat insulting because it suggests that Thailand is a homogeneous population that thinks alike. It's not! People are still individuals with their unique personalities and behaviour.... even in Thailand." That is what I keep on telling people, no country in the world has not been homogenised into one mono type of person. I think a lot of people mix in a single circle of a type of person, maybe an uneducated group who are illogical, that would shape a person into believed everyone is the same.

Your theory and thoughts could almost be applied to any country in the world.

What do you mean claim back interest from Thai bank accounts, my interest is paid once a year into the same bank account by Bangkok Bank.

I do use the so called AI, I use ChatGPT daily, (AI does not yet exist) it is useful for looking up system stuff where I would have to troll though manuals to find the solution, so instead of trying to reinvent the wheel I add his code with mine. It saves a lot of time. ChatGPT is not capable of wring a full program though, but it is very hand with obscure info. I can't directly do any work to developing AI as that would need a team of hundreds of people and hundreds of millions of pounds. I do one-man apps which I can do from my development system at home, that way I am free. I am in England at the moment, I bought an apartment in Chelmsford which is a 30 minute commute into London, I am off back to live in Thailand soon, the rent via an agent will be part of my monthly income and an also act as an investment.

As you are sure Everybody is paying via what you can see on your 'Crystal Ball', can you tell me how I am paying for my Thai partner, she will also like to know where the money is I suppose which I am supposed to be paying her.

Believe me you would not want your worst enemy to have such a disease. I had it in 2019, the effects started a few days after returning from Thailand, it went on for five months, the pain was indescribable and constant, Co-codamol barely relieved the pain. At first they sent me for cancer scans as I was losing so much weigh each day, they could not work out what the pain was being cause by as the disease was almost unheard of in the UK at the time. After a couple of month the Tropical Disease Hospital in London found out what it was and yes there is no cure for it, you just have to bear the pain. I am currently seeking a vaccine in the UK before going back to live in Thailand in one month's time.

Yes this is a good example of the dribble I have a laugh with while reading comments on this forum. I spend many hours of the day designing/coding/testing the iPhone apps I make and every few hours I take a break to do something really simple and noddy as a sort of break from the 'work'. And so I come to this forum as there are all kinds of nutters here who make me laugh. "Carry on with the nonsense" would make a good slapstick Carry On Film title. 😀

Is Isaan in Thailand, do I live in Thailand, I think that is the simple connection. Whenever a person calls the other one a troll it means they have nothing else to say and have lost the discussion. What are the limits around Thailand which I should be interest in writing about, 50 miles, 100 miles. 😀

Yes, I spoke to the girls and expats many years ago, I don't expect for the bar scene to have changed now, the bargirls are there to make money you know from the customers, if as many do, get a customer for a decade or two they will do it. I know quite a lot of farangs in the past who did meet Thai bars girls and went to live in Isaan with them, so I can image there are more farangs married to Thais in Isaan than in other areas, as I can see a lot of farangs never come into contact with a standard Thai woman, so they buy them from bars.

Erm, you are wrong on all counts , I have been with my Thai partners of 20 years, she and I are very happy thanks, good fun on a daily basis. Both financially independent and so not a partnership based on money as many are it seems in Thailand and no 20 to 30 years age gap. I wrote about the Thai Isaan and farangs as the stories make me laugh, I think they are funny. 😀

I see your ramblings based on nothing are ongoing, you make me laugh. I spend the day programming and testing my apps and so when I need a break now and then to read something at a noddy level I can read your posts and laugh. I don't need to do the apps but it keeps my brain active and I learn something new on a daily basis, perhaps you should try something which keep your brain in gear as you seem to string words, thought and sentences together at random. Perhaps you should star with learning about grammar, punctuation, the formation of sentences and paragraphs to start with. 😀 No I did not contribute to my Thai partner in the purchases of her houses, she had the brains and drive to run her own tourist agency herself and so first bought the land and then built on it. I have income from a pension and property in the UK (I am in the UK buying one now), so my partner and I are both self sufficient re ,money, it also means we are not sponging off each other. I wonder how many farangs in Thailand would suddenly become surplus to requirements if they told their Thai wife then had run out of money, I can image a rat up a drainpipe scenario. You got rid of the UK property a long time ago, that means when you are sick and old and have to go back to the UK for free NHS treatment you will have no where to live as the price of property will be well outside of your reach, that was a good move I see. 😀

I suppose living in Phuket in a non-tourist area is different to being a tourist. The area is quiet, it has its own private park, outside it is busy during the rush hour but easy to get around the other times so I can do my shopping and things then. Kathu and is an easy to get around, after living there for a while the fun of the noisy areas like Patong and other busy areas are not fun any more so I go once or twice a year, when I go there I feel like I am on holiday as it is not like the rest of Phuket So I do not have to travel that far to do the daily things I wish to do. I am not sure what people mean when they say Phuket is expensive, do they mean expensive compared to the villages at the end of the beyond or compare to England for example. I have been in England near London for the past few months wile buying a property here to rent out. Comparisons, a three bed detached house in Chelmsford where I am at which is a 30 minute commuter belt area to London would cost £500k to £650k, the house I live in, in Phuket with thee bedrooms and two bathrooms cost 4.2million baht 15 years ago and are now selling for 6 million baht. I went to a restaurant near by a month ago with a friend, we had a one course meal each, she does not drink so had two cokes, I had a few pints of beer and the bill was £110 A beer in a pub costs £7.80 So as far as I am concerned Phuket is dirt cheap, my daily spend allowance in Phuket is about, 4,300 baht a day, some days I spend nothing, I would have to eat and drink all day long to spend that amount.

I have met many, many guys who did live in Isaan with a Thai wife, they were crying into their beer or meal while telling me how they had met them while the woman was working as a bar girl, she fell in love with him, he was the only one etc. The fact the women are 20 to 30 years younger than the farangs does not seem to cause any surprise to the farangs. Later on they moved to her village in Isaan, he bought a house ,car, paid for her family. The story ends a few different ways, the guy visited his own country for a month or two, comes back and the house has been sold and the wife was gone, he ran out of cash and was then kicked out, there are variations of this. I think they prefer much older men as they do not have to wait that long before they are dead and can then claim the rest of the farangs wealth. Before anyone suggests I am bitter and it has happened to me, no, I would never be stupid enough to think a woman 20 to 30 years younger than me could find any guy in the world desirable apart from the money of course, but it seems like a lot of farangs really are stupid.

You will be surprised how the technology is in Thailand. We had some land inspected by the a surveyor from the government land office in 2019, they have a satellite system, it points out exactly where the official marking posts were underneath the ground, they were spot on so if anyone tries to claim the land you call in the government surveyor.

I don't care what the tax rules are for farangs as I do not earn any money outside of Thailand, honest. 😇

Cheers, have a good day, I will get back to you tomorrow, I have done too much skiving over the last few days, I need to do a bit of work to make up. 😀 I will reply tomorrow.

I have a question if you don't mind. At what point during your stay in Thailand did the government freeze the amount they pay you from the pension?