GinBoy2

My recommendation without a doubt, Air Fryer We had a halogen years ago, but the air fryer is way better

The other thing that comes into my equation. I just aged into Medicare so I don't worry about healthcare, When we lived in Thailand full time insurance was already crazy expensive. Now I'm not sure that I could even get insurance at at any price Unlike many of you I do worry about health insurance and couldn't deal with the risk of 'self insure' which is a nonsense concept. That will bankrupt you in a couple of weeks if you get seriously ill. My Medicare Advantage covers me for our annual trip to Thailand so I'm good with that

Ok @frantick one last food thing before we revert to money. The Thai ladies here love Storming Crab at Rushmore Crossing, and I do too. Their fresh oysters are amazing. Of course my wife is tasked with providing the Thai chutney and chili sauce!

I like that, I'm gonna work on my job title before the next disaster. But for today focused on the fact I got a damn FAA audit today. I'm kinda feeling I'd prefer that parachuting into enemy territory thing!

Not sure if someone put a slide rule in my hands today I could actually remember what to do with it. The Texas Instruments Scientific Calculator transformed my college life back in the day. From the day I owned one never looked at a slide rule again

I get this. I'm 65, and I still live a pretty active physical life, at home and work But I really don't want to eat that much anymore. I basically eat one meal a day at dinner. I 'might' get a snack during the day, but thats rare For whatever reason, regardless of what we are doing, our bodies just slow down

Now I feel a little sad Never held a gun, no secret agent, no crypto genius. Just a regular retired old crusty, albeit working as an airline grunt in my latter days I just gotta get an alter ego to compete! I have no stories of parachuting in to enemy territory to heroically rescue fallen comrades. Best I can do is get someones lost bag to them! So sad lol

Awful to say, but 'hopefully' he's just hooked up with some Thai 'honey', obviously isn't going to share that with the girlfriend or his parents back hone!

So this is another slightly off topic, but may be humorous, sad or just downright dark. I've been IM's with @frantick before his move to Rapid, I wan't him come work for me at the airport. I was telling him a couple of days ago the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally(google it) generally ends up with us shipping out a few dead bodies. Literally within 10 hours of my message to him, sure as shi++++t I'm shipping out the first one in the morning on the first flight to Minneapolis Middle aged men, motorcycles, alcohol, no crash hats, and general mayhem is never a good combo for life expectancy

I think we have strayed from @frantick money question!

They are really nice people. I work for United and if I fly down for free, my wife will call ahead and they will have everything ready for me. The lady's name is Tim, and she'll have everything boxed up ready for me to head back to DIA

Yeah they have kapow. My wife grows it here, but as I'm sure you aware the growing season is short. They ship it in from California. Thai Basil, you can get that in Safeway Oh if you want spicy, that Philippino store I mentioned before, they stock Vietnamese chillies. I never thought I would hear this from my wife, but she calls them 'evil chillies' since they are so spicy

Without wanting to delve into the mind of Bob, or whatever AI bot he is, made me think a little. Me and Mrs G were discussing a couple of evenings ago maybe returning to Thailand. Then we got in to the hassles for me. In the US Mrs G is a Permanent Resident, soon to be citizen. No 90 day checks, no money in the bank, apart from the fact she can't vote she looks just like me. I just don't think I'm ready for all that hassle again. Just bring in something looking like when Thai spouses go to the West and maybe I'll think again.

Actually non existent. There is a Philippino store on E North St where you can get some stuff, at a price I might add! What we do is make a trip to Denver every couple of months where you can get everything. Lao Market on Federal Blvd in Westminster and GW in Aurora are our go to places. Couple of ice chests and load up the car. You can do it there and back in a day. We normally do an overnighter since my daughter and our son both live in Denver Let me put it this way. Unless we eat out my wife never eats farang food, which probably tells you everything!

Good choice. We live over in Chapel Valley If you have a Thai partner in tow we can hook her up with the local Thai ladies

Can't help you on the banking questions, but where are you headed?

You really haven't lived in Thailand log enough. How many versions of Pheu Thai have there been? This one where you roll your eyes and accept you are in Thailand

To add to absurdity of my previous post Literally my son and his friends spoke Lao up to the school gates then switched to Thai. Then bizarrely, my son and a few friends who also spoke English, mostly lukungs, would congregate and talk away from the language police

Well it's one of the weird quirks of the Thai system. My son was born in Singapore, we spoke English, Lao and Thai at home, in equal I might add. When we moved to Thailand he went to a what I think was a top notch international school in Khon Kaen. Of course as soon as he entered the school gates he couldn't utter a word in Lao without getting his knuckles rapped Strangely it was fine for him to talk in English, which of course was his first language

Wow, looks good. I don't eat very much I think that would be my calorie intake for two days!

I think that is true, and ironically Vietnam has also strengthened the relationship with the US. The common theme of course is that both the Philippines and Vietnam oppose China in the South China Sea Whereas Thailand is viewed almost as a vassal State of the CCP

As much as I'd like to the believe that, ain't happening Any of us been around long enough see parties dissolved reformed under new name, It's the Thai way. My wife read the news, rolled her eyes and said "Here we go again" Expect to to see them back in a few weeks with a new name

It's really sad how Russia has turned out.. I visited Russia several times after the collapse of the USSR and St Petersburg is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. I thought at the time Russia was going to become a vibrant part of a democratic Europe. Well couldn't have been more wrong with that could I? Turn's out it became a mafia State, and in some ways I think it's worse than the old communist USSR, since is a one 'man' State, subject to his volatile state of mind. I'll add China. I lived in China at the end of the 90's early 2000's just as they were joining the WTO. I thought back then, as may did, China would end up looking like Hong Kong. Of course fast forward and Hong Kong now looks like any other mainland Chinese city Xi and Putin are made from the same cloth Troubled times my friends

Actually most Issan Lao write in transliteration. I've read my wife and her friend's fb pages. All Thai script transliterated Isaan Lao. I can figure it out by sounding it out, but I'm certainly not reading it. Thats the reality of Isaan, they had Thai imposed on them but underlying it, it's still Lao We went to Vientiene (boring place btw) years ago we were both fine with our Isaan Lao. Couldn't read a word of anything, but verbal was fine

For the US at least, Thailand has lost any strategic importance. Thailand is one of those 'roll your eyes' and go, whatever countries The US has bigger fish to fry, Russia in Ukraine, China threat to Taiwan, and lets not even start on the Middle East. So I suspect Thailand is consigned to some lowly bureaucrat working in a broom cupboard somewhere in the State Dept!