BangkokHank

Whenever my wife is on a diet, she cheats. She hides chocolate around the house, then she shags other men.

Yes. That's him. Thanks very much. I didn't know who he was.

If the market would be able support higher hotel prices, the prices would already be higher. And when the market is able to support higher prices, the prices will rise. For being a billionaire, this guy is not very bright.

I watched a brilliant interview about this on Instagram last night. A guy said something to the effect of, "You don't get your own pronouns, just like you don't get your own prepositions or adjectives. If you get to choose your pronouns, I get to choose my adjectives. I identify as handsome and brilliant - and that's how I demand to be addressed." The bearded young woman who was being interviewed with him was left speechless.

And what about you? You weren't able to keep your trap shut. I just hope you're fully vaccinated.

I am about to renew the lease on my condo. Today I asked the building manager what would happen if I signed a three year lease and left after one year. She said I would lose my deposit. I asked if I would have to pay for the other two years of the lease. She just laughed and said of course not. I suspect that this is the norm in Thailand - and in the rest of the world. As I said, that's what security deposits are for.

As an example, I was able to use the Vivino app directly on this picture, which I hadn't thought of before. The app gives it a rating of 4.3, one of the highest ratings I've ever seen, especially for a wine that is not that expensive. This result is from 75 ratings, which is something else that needs to be considered, just like with hotels. (The more ratings the better.) And people who are usually experts in wine also give detailed comments about each wine.

You wore your mask and yet you still got sick. What does that tell you about the benefit of wearing a mask?

This is what I was going to suggest. With this app, you take a picture of the label on the bottle of wine. If it is in their database (and most wines seem to be), then the app will pull up a rating from people around the world who have rated that particular wine. So my strategy is to go to the supermarket and point my phone at the bottles, one by one, starting with the cheapest ones, until I get an acceptable combination of price and rating. Something around 3.8 on a scale of 1 to 5 is good enough for me. After that, each incremental increase in rating costs a lot more than it is worth to me.

Yes, finish me off - and not in the good way.

You think you are right and they are wrong. Would you believe that they also think that they are right and you are wrong? Or do you maybe think that they know that they're wrong but they like spouting wrong opinions just to upset you? So then what is the solution? For you to be able to speak but to silence them? How would you feel if YOU were silenced and only THEY were allowed to speak? Would you continue to post here?

Funny you should mention having to buy insurance. I wanted to get a safety deposit box at a bank at which I have had an account - and been a good customer - for 10 years, and they wanted me to buy life insurance for which I would have to pay in 500,000 baht a year for five years! Ridiculous, and even more so for someone like me who doesn't have any dependents. I (jokingly) suggested to the bank employee trying to sell me this useless insurance that I could marry her and name her the beneficiary of my life insurance. She thought that was a good idea. I then went to another bank in the same mall. That one would have been willing to rent me a safety deposit box without the need for buying insurance, but they require a work permit for me to open an account, which is a requirement for getting the safety deposit box. And I'm on a retirement visa, so I don't have a work permit. Anyway, I'll keep trying to overcome these obstacles, which are all part of the challenge of living in Thailand.

I think he meant free speech. Why are you afraid to hear opinions that differ from yours? Can't you just refute them?

No. That's what the security deposit is for. If he breaks the contract, he can lose the deposit. That's all.