Guderian

Cheaper down the road opposite the petrol stations at Talad Kwai, aka the Buffalo Market.

I buy these from Villa, not cheap at around 460 Baht/jar. I like to add extra jalapenos, too. The smaller (and much cheaper) version you can buy in cans stuffed with anchovies from Spain are OK, too.

I've not even received any preliminary paperwork here in South Pattaya, let alone a bill. Before the pandemic it was 7,500 Baht/year for my house, then two years at around 50 Baht, followed by about 500 Baht last year. I guess it will revert to the full 7,500 Baht this year, though I hope there are no nasty surprises in store, like a bill that's even higher again.

That sounds about as likely as electing an honest Thai PM.

As I understand it, the new drains they've laid are to stop the flooding on Sukhumvit in South Pattaya, it's always been the worst stretch of road for flooding when it rains heavily. Whether that actually works, or if it's all just been a waste of time and money, might become clear when the next rainy season gets going. It's also not obvious to me how the water that would otherwise be flooding Suk in South Pattaya is supposed to get to the big new drains they've laid under Thepprasit. They will eventually lay enough asphalt on Thepprasit so that it should all be nice and flat, but when it will be completed is anybody's guess.

Only around 3 years for me. You can do a quick calculation of the costs and benefits. Assume that the sun is bright enough to provide useful power on, say, 300 days a year, and that on average it results in peak output for 8 hours a day. These numbers are guesses and may well be very optimistic. That means you'd get 40 units a day for 300 days, or 12,000 units of electricity a year, which is worth about 70K Baht/year to me as my house is in a company name so I currently pay the higher tariff. So in just 2 years, I'd pay off the capital cost, sounds worth it. But how over-optimistic are my assumptions? Plus with the reduction in the commercial tariff, the saving would be more like 60K Baht/year if they extend it permanently. Any comments anyone, would be interested to hear how effective people who've actually installed solar panels find them?

So yesterday, not even a rocket launcher!

On my PC, there's a large advert for rooftop solar panels at the bottom of this article, 5KWs for 135,000 Baht. Is that a subliminal hint what to do next, lol?

Why have they hidden his/her/its/their (sorry, I never know which pronoun to use) eyes? Surely, as an influencer, he/she/it/they want as much publicity as possible.

The Thai word for oyster is หอย, pronounced 'hoy'. You should just ask any young Thai lady around the Walking Street or LK Metro areas if she knows where you can eat 'hoy', and I'm sure they'll fall over themselves to show you. As for a foot doctor, the Thais have a bit of an odd attitude towards feet, and I've never heard of a podiatrist here. Just try an orthopaedic surgeon at one of the international hospitals.

That's a bit mild-mannered. Why not say what you really think and wear one of these?

I'm sure Prince Andrew agrees with you wholeheartedly, lol!

Just another day in paradise,,, lol.

It would have been interesting to see a tourism Expo held there, with similar events held by, say, Vietnam, Bali, Cambodia and Sri Lanka, and see which one the Beijingers are most interested in.

Sounds sensible, and the end-result would be the issuing of of firearm licences in numbers comparable to the UK, lol.

So when will they investigate Anutin, after all he's a lot richer than Chidchob?

Yeah, I have to do the same thing, lol.

The big hardware/DIY stores should have them, I've bought them there before in places like Thai Watsadu or Home Pro. I've bought them in packs of five fuses, as you say, it never hurts to have a few spares around the place. Be careful what you buy, though, as they look pretty much the same but have different amp ratings.

That's where I usually buy it, I like their Aussie, US and NZ fillets. My favourite beef, though, is Argentinian, it has a unique flavour, but I've never found good Argentinian fillet steaks in the shops here, only in the restaurants. I had one in Patrick's in Soi Diana last Saturday and it was excellent, while a year or two back I bought one to cook at home from Foodmart and ended up giving it to the dogs. Villa also has decent steaks, though I prefer them from Big C Extra.

Has anyone seen photochromic sunglasses on sale in Pattaya? No need for prescription glasses, just ordinary 20/20 vision sunglasses but with the light-reactive colour. I bought some from Amazon when I was back in the UK but they're not very good, they don't go dark enough in very bright sunlight.

The picture's probably not much different in the UK. 50K Baht is about £1,200, and judging by all the stories of large numbers of Brits being just one pay cheque away from serious financial difficulties the situation sounds much the same, maybe 60% instead of 88%, but if you looked at the poorer parts of the UK you'd probably be right up there with the Thais. Also, 50K Baht will keep an ordinary Thai family going for at least 3 months, while £1,250 will hardly keep a British family going for even one month.

That applies across the whole city, but it's not quite so simple from what I've been told. To build something over 8 stories tall there are far more hurdles to jump than erecting a smaller structure, but it can be done as all the giant new buildings around the place attest. An EIA has to be carried out and approved, and I gather they're not cheap. Larger buildings will also probably be required to make a hefty contribution towards improving the local infrastructure, and maybe even having a green rooftop like VT7. For a company that can afford the megabucks needed to buy that piece of land, these are small beer, and no doubt they'd want to maximise their returns on the property by building big and tall. Think maybe the Hilton/Central Mall crossed with Copacabana, or a larger version of Terminal 21 with a casino attached.

I've seen some beautiful bargain houses for sale in the Ban Chang area, near St. Andrews School I think they were. What would worry me, though, is that with the plans for an enormous expansion of the nearby U-Tapao-Pattaya-Rayong airport in the coming years, the number of flights taking off and landing will also increase greatly as will the road traffic to Pattaya, presumably mostly along the new motorway. How is this likely to affect life in the town, will the noise from the aircraft become unbearable, and will the local roads be choked with Chinese and Russian buses and minivans?

I wanted to eat in Patrick's steakhouse in Soi Diana last night (Saturday, so very busy) so dialled up a Bolt taxi. They've fixed the map app now and it actually gives the correct route to my house, instead of sending the drivers off down a dead-end street the other side of the village boundary wall, so well done on that score. I went for the Comfort option at 108 Baht and, after a few minutes scanning around, the app came up with a driver on Soi Yume, a long way away but, knowing that things would be busy and slow, I'd started looking early. He took 25 minutes to arrive, but that wasn't a problem as we got to Patrick's just after 7:30 which was fine. Getting back home from Soi Buakhao was a similar story, though quicker as it was almost 10:00, so there were fewer people using the taxis at that time and we got a Ford Ranger in under 10 minutes. So the trick when it's very busy is to be flexible on the timing and start the booking early, allow maybe half an hour for a taxi to actually arrive at your gaff. If by chance one does come within a few minutes, then just be grateful and have an extra beer to kill the time when you arrive wherever you're going.

Last year they either sold or leased a tiny little piece of it to someone who opened a cafe/bar by Dongtan Beach, beside the last building before Pattaya Park, the oddly narrow, white house. I've lived here for 20 years and that was the first change I've seen to that piece of land in all that time.