grin

Agree with the post about the environment changing. When I rented a condo in Bangkok about 20 years ago I had a nice view from the balcony. A couple years later my view was another balcony about 5 meters away. So maybe consider whether or not the neighboring area seems like it could be ripe for redevelopment.

We buy loose leaf tea and put it in cotton tea bags we buy from Amazon. We paid 10 USD for the 400 bags we purchased most recently: Cotton Tea Bags

These bags work well for filtering the sediment from red wine and port, too.

When I watched the series the first place that came to mind was the Miami for me as well. I never stayed there but visited friends who were staying there. Even back then it always seemed like a dump to me.

Found a site that mentions the Miami: Serpent Film Location.

21 hours ago, champers said:

Did you manage The Slits?

Saw them playing support for The Clash along with US punk band Richard Hell and the Voidoids. Late 70s. Viv Albertine was Mick Jones's girlfriend.

Ha ha, I was in San Francisco and my bands were nowhere near as big as the Slits. We did some US tours but were not that well known. We were lucky to even open for bands like the Slits. Saw them play at the I-Beam and it was a great show. A lot of amazing bands played at the I-Beam back in the day.

On 5/7/2021 at 11:28 PM, billd766 said:

They are OK but certainly not the first "all girl group" as you can see here.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_all-female_bands

 

I always liked the Bangles myself.

Pretty good list. I managed a couple of the punk all women bands on the list back in the day. Seems to be a few missing but maybe that is due to lack of Wikipedia articles on them and/or not being too widely known.

We have found a reliable seamstress but use her mostly for repairs. The only exception has been converting pillow cases into monitor covers. They came out very nice so we now have custom dust covers for every monitor and small TV in the house. She has a shop on the entrance alley from Chiang Mai Lamphun Road into the parking lot for Nong Hoi Market. Her shop is on the right hand side.

I've known a few execs that were posted to Bangkok by US or international companies. My guess is that their minimum outgo in Silicon Valley was $20,000 a month. From what I can tell their spending did not decrease when they were in Thailand. Most of them even had extra expense allowances, benefits, or other compensation that enabled them to enjoy the same lifestyle in Thailand. And this is not the top end of the scale. Of course not many people on this thread including myself fit into this category.

My condo in the US is paid for and my wife's house in Thailand is also paid for. Pre-COVID my monthly expenses in the US were about $10,000 a month but post-COVID it's more like $5,000. Our Thai expenses are around $2,000 a month. Once I retire I hope to get my US monthly expenses down to $2,000 a month and expect our Thai expenses to go up to about $3,000 a month. That would not include vacations and travel.

We don't drink but like to eat out a lot and travel. It's just a matter of what lifestyle you are comfortable with. A lot of the people I know live an expensive lifestyle that is just within their reach and very few of them are satisfied with a merely comfortable life. Some of these people may have a rude awakening upon retirement. However, some have saved and invested wisely and will be able to maintain their lifestyle.

Interested to know what people prefer in the way of Dijon mustard available here. When Carrefour was sold I stocked up on their items that I was partial to like Dijon mustard, olives, etc. I basically cleared the shelves of these items until they no longer stocked them. I have long finished all of these items except for the last bottle of Carrefour Dijon mustard. I do like the powdered Chinese mustard but would like to have Dijon on occasion.

The experience of my extended Thai family and the 30 baht scheme has been quite bad when it comes to major illnesses especially cancer. Treatments were started too late to save them. In two other cases they had to wait 6 months just to get an MRI. For simple things it has not been so bad except the all day waits at the government hospitals.

I have heard of people starting businesses and putting their relatives on the payroll to take advantage of group health insurance and social security. Sorry, but I have not verified this so don't have any details.

Supposedly the best of the bunch for blood pressure monitoring is the OMRON HeartGuide Smart Watch . A friend that works on this kind of tech at Apple tested it and said that it is very inaccurate. Apple has been looking at licensing such tech from Ireland, Japan, and Korea for the Apple Watch but they won't release a product unless the accuracy improves.

None of these devices can measure blood pressure. To measure blood pressure a cuff is required to stop the blood flow. It is possible for a smart watch to track your blood pressure using a bluetooth connection to get readings from a blood pressure monitor.

On 5/1/2021 at 8:19 AM, Pib said:

 

I think that is only when you have over $100K in assets (brokerage and bank acct balances).   But if you fall below $100K there is a $15 fee.    Like for me, I definitely have less than $100K with them and when starting an online domestic transfer it shows there will be a fee of $15....see partial snapshot below.  

 

 

Ah yes, thanks, forgot about that. There was even a time in the past that you could get 3 free wires per quarter (domestic or international) online or not if you had over $500K at Schwab. Still the $15.00 fee is not bad compared to Wise depending on the amount. The fee for Wise for sending $1500 has been $14.98 for a while. Of course I prefer to use Wise as I know the exchange rate ahead of time plus I can duplicate a previous transaction.

With Schwab you get 3 free domestic wires per quarter but you have to fill out the online form every time.

Did no one else read the title the same way I did? I.e. the plans are only 6% complete, not the runway.

On 4/23/2021 at 1:20 AM, KannikaP said:

Jethro Tull 1972.   LOL

Saw them 3 times at the Boston Garden back in the 70's.

1 hour ago, reflectionx said:

Anyone used OFX? Their rates for large amount are ridiculously good compared to the rest of the pack.

I used OFX for years before switching to TransferWise (Wise). Every time I have compared the USD/THB rates Wise has been better. I also maintain an account with InstaReM. Their fees are less than Wise but their USD/THB transfers take longer than Wise.

Should we say hi Coo

Or should it be bye bye Coo

Sing Coo Coo Ca Choo

In my experience cross trainers or ellipticals are more reliable and last longer than treadmills.

On 3/4/2021 at 3:02 PM, Don Chance said:

Here you go, come to Thailand!

Got my first jab at Walgreens in the US and everything is handwritten on the CDC card including my name and dob on the top portion and below the vaccine type, lot number and date. No sticker was applied. I asked about this and she said the sticker was put on my paper vaccine consent form. I also asked about how I would go about getting digital verification and she said the info would be entered in a CDC database but did not know more about it. The only ID I showed was my drivers license and my Medicare card. So, not sure how this can be linked to my passport. I did not give my SSN but I am assuming that they can get that from my Medicare account. Then I suppose my passport number can be accessed using my SSN.

Definitely not like Tyvek, that's used to wrap houses. In my response about glazing I was referring to laminating glass. However, that uses larger sheets or rolls. Doing a search I found references to possible usage in a vacuum press or a vulcanizing press. Seems like the silicone sheets are heat resistant so at 3mm thick it seems like a possible usage is to cut gaskets out of a sheet. Now you've got me curious.

Typically used for vapor/air barriers for glazing. In the US one can buy adhesive sheets or non-adhesive.

8 year old thread. Tevas are my daily footwear. I used to buy them at night market stalls and my understanding is that these were (mostly) factory rejects from Vietnam. You could get them for as low as 300 Baht depending on their condition. I bought several pair where the seams on the straps were not aligned correctly. Each pair has lasted at least 3 years so it did not seem (pun intended) to affect their wear. I'm still wearing one pair and have one unused pair left.

I second the advice to do a test print every week or so to keep your ink cartridges from clogging up. I find that most of the time my cartridges clog up if I am out of town for a few months. Just adding a drop or two of hydrogen peroxide to each cartridge and letting them sit for a while usually gets them unclogged.