GinBoy2

A very good point

The issue of racial 'superiority' seems to be somewhat hard wired into us. I used to think this was just some vestige of European colonialism, which was completely awful and racist. But then I began to reflect on my own life. I'm a whitey hispanic, and if I don't open my mouth and speak Spanish I blend into white America. But as a kid, other hispanic kids would tease me for being too white, and the white kids would tease me for being too Mexican So I'm conflicted if this is a learned trait, or something from deep in our DNA

The whole story is past horrific What decent man does that to his wife or partner? The guy is a monster, as well as the guys who participated in the abuse I thought the sentences for the abusing men were crazy lenient But at least Pelicot himself will rot and die in prison

I kinda look it as why on earth would you want kids that old. Babies and toddlers are exhausting. There is a reason nature sort of designs us to have kids when we are younger. I got three kids my youngest born when I was 40, and I definitely noticed the difference in the 'effort' compared to my younger two. The idea of babies in my 60's, 70's to me would be horrifying. Slopping around the mall with rugrats in strollers, diapers, sleepless nights, yeah fun times in your mid sixties! I'm now much more content playing with the grandbabies, and when the diaper needs changing, "Here you go" Mom or Dad

Yeah I had a pretty happy childhood. Wasn't rich that's for sure, both my Mom and Dad were farm workers in the CA Central Valley. But I felt very loved, and as a rare thing back in the 60's, especially as an Hispanic I was an only child, so they poured their love into me. It was a happy time, all us kids played out in the street, and of course back then during the summer vacation you told after breakfast, "Go out and play" and you weren't expected to come home until dinner! My parents, especially my Mom pushed me hard at school and I ended up at UC Berkeley That said saw a bunch of school friends who were from less loving families fall to the drugs, gangs and ultimately prison. It's not a cliche to say that our childhood 'can' make or destroy your life

Hmm google translate is a wonderful thing, but it's a far cry from actually having a conversation. I'm a bit of a polyglot, I speak English, Spanish, my native languages, then Mandarin, Thai and Lao as my learned languages, plus a little bit of terrible French I've tried the translate app for languages I don't speak. They work OK but a far cry from actually having a conversation

Drop a pin in any city/town in Issan and forget about seeing many farangs. You can make it what you want, but won't be the Soi 6 world for sure I like Khon Kaen. Fairly cosmopolitan, infrastructure not bad. Decent night life, without the hooker shops and not bad restaurants A lot depends of course on language skills. In the tourist traps, hate them or not you can live without speaking Thai. Live upcountry and you better learn Thai pretty quick or you're going to find yourself in a pickle

Jeez three pages of total nonsense We're all human, I can disagree with the views and lifestyle of someone from my own country, but I don't think they are lessor, inferior to me. The English/Aussie thing, well you got some issues which deserve therapy

As stupid as it sounds, with endless posts from AI or deranged folks, I kinda enjoy a little human to human antagonism banter.. At least I think it's real not some bot churning out nonsense clickbate

OMG how many times do we have to go through this clickbate? Might as well resurrect the 'do you wai' threads! I hate myself for even responding to this

I wasn't trying to be negative, but more practical. I tried to tell my kids, unsuccessfully as it turned out, was something that can look great on 20 year old skin, may not be quite so great on a 50/60/70 year old body. Aging has a cruel way of tat's looking ridiculous Piercing, well get fed up with it, take out the hardware and soon enough you're back to normal. Tat's remember you live with them forever

Thats actually quite true I think. The young kids who work for me are at a total loss with mental arithmetic, and without the calculator on their phones go into a tailspin. I'm pretty sure most of us here are of an age when we recited multiplication tables at school, and did what I consider basic mental math. Doesn't work like like that anymore. As a high schooler one of my part time jobs was working as a cashier at a local store. Long before electronic cash registers, you did the math to calculate change in your head. A skill long gone I fear. One good solar flare to knock out the electricity grid, and we'll be back in the dark ages. So no, this is a problem not confined to Thailand, but given the Thai education system a little worse

My car insurance is cheaper. I talk to the young boys at work and what they pay is eye watering As you age you clutch onto the small things lol

You're a braver man than me to have ended up with four!

I've never experienced the OP's premise of a farang with western wife in tow leave for a much younger Thai woman. Seen plenty of older divorced guys fall for the 20-30 year old younger than them and it end in tears. At the end of the day, guys can delude themselves that a woman, Thai or whatever, is actually attracted to a man old enough to be their father

Now I'm totally confused. Is porridge different to what North Americans would call oatmeal? I've always believed oatmeal was one of the healthiest breakfasts ....and it hasn't killed me in the past six decades!

Well ain't that the truth. Humans aren't a one size fits all species. I think a lot, if not most all on here have been previously married in their home country. People can drift apart, that happens and hopefully not too acrimoniously. I met my Thai wife at work in Singapore. I'd already drifted apart from my wife, too much travel for work, and i delved into the workplace affair. Not too honorable I'll admit, but it happens. We aren't far apart in age, and she had grown up as a teenager in Chicago, so we shared a lot of cultural things, maybe with the exception of baseball. She's a diehard Cubs fan whereas I'm a Giants fan So on to marriage. We were OK in Thailand until our son went to college in Chicago and told us he wasn't coming home. So, only only reason we actually got legally married was to get MrsG a green card So I don't think the OP's premise is really valid. Marriage in all cultures is an up and down thing. Maybe cross cultures is more difficult, but in my case Mrs G was a bit of a hybrid so I've never really thought about it

She may just be taking a break. But if you have any health or health care questions she is the definitive go to person on AN to give you reliable information rather than the speculation from the other keyboard warriors. She unlike many, actually knows what she's talking about

Hmm have you noticed that half the world have tats? I sometimes feel I'm the only man on the planet without ink. When I was a kid tats were the realm of drunken sailors and women of ill repute. Today everyone gets them. I begged my kids, pierce what you want but don't ink it. Of course all three of them totally ignored me. So definitely sure tats aren't nowadays restricted to ladies of the night, and most certainly not mental illness, although maybe I'd go with social pressure or todays norms.

Simple answer is No I'll talk to my kids, if they will pick up which is rare, other than that I text

I had a co-worker that was headed for the show 90 Day Fiancee with his Columbian 'girlfriend' Prostate cancer kinda nixed that and the Columbian 'girlfriend' bolted But he said in all the pre show stuff they were groomed on the scenes that would be required to do. All fake crap that folks lap up, as sad as that is

So regardless of whether or not this is a bob_smith thing, which I also suspect it is. Folks have a fairly consistent style of writing. Anyhow one of the pluses of working for an airline is I travel for free. Just over a year ago we went to Panama City for a few days just because I could and I'd never been there before. I'm a native Spanish speaker so language wasn't a problem. Quite liked the place, food is great, climate OK, it was all pretty cheap, but obviously I don't know about living costs as a resident. But on balance I'd chose somewhere in Mexico. I have family in Guadalajara a city I love or one of the tourist cities before Panama

Well I'd suppose most here have had some failed marriage, and I'm one. Now mine wasn't a bar girl failure but an expat office romance. Not exactly honorable I will admit, but we're all human and fallible. Now my wife's cousin was a bar girl did end up with a Swedish guy. I think it is love, but she also just wanted to get outta the game. Now they just look like all of us, middle aged couple living their life, and just forget the past

I'd be more concerned to find out the cause of the blackout, Did you suffer any head trauma? I talk from a very recent experience. I was at work 3 weeks ago when I apparently got all tangled up in an aircraft tow bar and head butted the deck. After that I have snippets of memory. A co-worker drove me home, then my wife drove me to the ER. I sort of remember them doing a CT scan, then nothing. It was a concussion and brain swelling. Took a couple of weeks for everything to get back to normal, but scary as Hell. I'd be going to the Doctor before worrying about spy cams

So I've talked about my wife's cousin before . Lady of the night, no getting around that. Ended up hooking up with a Swedish guy and moving to Sweden. Sweden seems to be the soft touch for visas I kinda like Clas fun guy, obviously knows the history, her kids grandkids all seems to work. But she makes him happy, and she seems happy in some Godforsaken town in Sweden, so all good