Guderian

Yes, you're thinking of Pastrami on Rye, which was very good. It closed down before Covid came to stay with us, I think the owner decided to relocate to Bangkok but I've no idea if he ever opened a shop there or if it was a success. It seems a classic example of a successful business in Jomtien, appreciated by the local community, that simply shut up shop.

Thanks, but that's a spreadable version, while I want the solid, sliceable one. If I want to eat a spreadable liver paste then I'd much rather pay for a proper French style pâté.

Even if foreigners can avail themselves of the new system, one story doing the rounds is that it will be restricted to people under the age of 65. So for the vast majority of retired farangs, you may as well forget about this and simply continue with the trip to the DLT office once every 5 or 6 years. One positive for us, though, is that the DLT offices should become much less busy if so many younger people are doing it online, so it might become even quicker and easier than it already is.

Thanks, I hadn't come across that site before, but as far as I can see they also only have spreadable liver sausage.

I know the ladyboys on Soi Bangla can be a bit aggressive, but I think he went a bit too far trying to protect himself... lol

Coming soon to Thailand?

Thanks! What make should I be looking for, imported or locally made?

Has anybody seen it on sale in Pattaya? There's plenty of spreadable liver sausage, BeLucky and TGM and so on, but that's not what I'm after, and I've never seen the more solid version on sale here. I usually bring it back with me from the UK, the Tesco deli version is fine: This is the sort of thing the Germans would call Braunschweiger, or maybe Liverwurst or Leberwurst: and the Dutch would call it Leverkaas: Has anyone see any of these products on sale in Pattaya?

The price of eggs has skyrocketed in several Western countries, he'd have been better off trying to sell them on Craigslist or Gumtree than chucking them at tourists, lol.

Have you asked your neighbours if they have a similar problem? If so, then it would mean it's a condo-level problem that the management needs to fix. If not, then it's most likely to be something specific to your place, possibly corrosion somewhere. As it's a condo, you should have on-site maintenance people who can try fixing it for you, though you might have to pay them.

I went through this rigmarole 10 years ago and it wasn't easy then, DWP was fine but HMRC seemed very reluctant to take any money off me. They gave me a list of outstanding years that I could pay for immediately, with quite a few of them this would be my last opportunity to buy them so I sent a cheque for over £8K and those years were credited to my NI record. They also set up a direct debit which would allow them to deduct the Class 3 contributions from my bank account monthly every year until my 66th birthday. Once it was all set up it worked fine, and two years ago when I reached 66 they started paying the state pension, which by then was over £9K even though I only had 30 years to my name, not the full 35 required to maximise your pension. I'd only been contracted out for 5 years in total so I'm mostly on the new system. My brother had over 40 years to his credit but had been contracted out all the time so his pension was actually smaller than mine. Of course, as I'm honest and they know I live in Thailand I haven't received any indexation. I knew that would happen, but it's kind of annoying when I actually paid good money for my Class 3 contributions, while for most people the years simply build up as a free perk of working and paying NI. Remember the National Insurance Fund that's also supposed to pay for the NHS, the biggest secret about which is that there is no National Insurance Fund, lol? It's all just a Ponzi scheme and becoming increasingly unaffordable for the cash-strapped British government as the number of new members declines yet they somehow have to support the large cohort of Baby Boomers.

A Thai robocop called Plod - only the Brits will get it, but that's hilarious! lol

Oh good. So now the 50-Baht widgets I order from China via Lazada should arrive in under a week, instead of it often taking several weeks. I knew there was a good reason to spend tens of billions on this rail link... lol

It's why I only wear cheap plastic flip flops here... lol

Good idea, that'll give the perpetrators plenty of time to head for the hills. The cops might even offer them a lift, lol.

Given how suicidally many of them behave driving motorbikes when they're sober, often with three young kids hanging on as well and not a crash helmet in sight, I should think a lot of people don't regard drunk driving as any more risky, just a Thai cultural norm in the Land of the Free.

It's not just Thailand, ministers in the UK are ready to bring back a Covid-style furlough scheme. Downing Street has lined up measures to shield key sectors including the car industry and other sectors that have been hardest hit by the US President’s sweeping tariffs. As well as effectively nationalising the country's last primary steel plant yesterday. The solution to every problem is for government to crank up the printing press and/or go on a borrowing spree, but that can't go on forever. Thailand had enough difficulty raising what money it has managed to (about half of the original proposal of 440 billion Baht) for the 10K Baht digital wallet scheme, how is it supposed to find the cash to underwrite the excessive debts of millions of people? It would have helped f they had bothered teaching them some basic home economics in school so they understood how to budget.

Go on.... point your fingers at him....you all know you want to.... lol

I've used Samitivej for a bone density X-ray scan and was very happy, I chose it as it had an offer on and was easily the cheapest hospital in the area for that procedure. I've not used Phayatai in Sri Racha, though I've sent Gavin a few e-mails in the past and he's always been very helpful. I have used Phayatai 2 in Bangkok, and it's fine. Personally, I'd say that there's not much difference and you're best asking about the prices as they both have special offers from time to time. Or maybe check out the individual doctors in each hospital in the speciality you want to see as they often focus on different areas of their chosen field. I needed to see a specialist at Bumrungrad and there were three recommended to me, but I couldn't choose between them until I checked out their areas of specialisation, and then one doctor stood out clearly as the best choice for my needs.

So how exactly does the entry procedure work with this new Thai bureaucratic idiocy? I assume you'll have something on your phone if using the app, maybe a QR code, or a paper printout if using the website on a PC. Will the usual Immigration cop issuing entry stamps also check the QR code (or whatever it is), or will there be a separate desk for that? How does this speed things up and make it more convenient for tourists? And we all know from the digital geniuses trying to pay their supermarket bills with their phones via a QR code that it can take several minutes before they find what they're looking for and get it scanned, and sometimes they fail completely and, after 5 minutes or more have to revert to cash or leave their shopping behind. Now imagine that situation translated to Immigration at Swampy with a queue of maybe a thousand people all trying to find and then scan some code or other on their dysfunctional cheap phones, and of course the ones who forgot or couldn't be bothered to do it who will presumably get a slap on the wrist and be led away to fill it in. This sounds to me like it can only add to the long delays, but hey, if Thailand wants to drive yet more tourists to other countries then it's up to them I guess.

Well the Fx markets don't seem to agree with him. Back in 1997, the Baht collapsed and at one stage you could get over 100 THB/GBP. Today you're lucky to get 44.

Lol

Big Don announced the tariffs just over two days ago, I suspect it might be a wee bit early for us to see their impact on Thai tourism.

You can just imagine it, driving along the 35 to head to Hua HIn - Phew! we've escaped the earthquake hazards! Only to be crushed underneath a falling crane or concrete beam.

Spot the oxymoron! lol