For those of you who have lived here for years?

[Hummin]

6 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

Yes but I don't think these two experiences, which should have been a spiritual wake up call, will initiate any fundamental change in him, he has, on a material level no need or desire to change. He is a millionaire, happy, successful in his business and private life, likable and courageous. This shock will fade, his humour will plaster over his existential fear, he said to his surgeon, "If I can't take it with me, I'm not going" but who knows where he really goes when he sleeps.

70 is a nice age to die with your boots on, or 75 for that sake. As long you do not leave behind kids any age is good. You wouldnt know, and thats a comfort. Sod for the relatives and loved ones, bit everyone has its time to go

[soalbundy]

Just now, Hummin said:

70 is a nice age to die with your boots on, or 75 for that sake. As long you do not leave behind kids any age is good. You wouldnt know, and thats a comfort. Sod for the relatives and loved ones, bit everyone has its time to go

What happens to the avatar of 'me' is of no consequence but knowing that you are the immortal screen on which the avatar acts out its life and not the avatar itself brings about the peace that is our essential being. No doubt he will live to be 90 if he can give up his extreme fitness regime, I think it's his way of pushing away the boundary of his mortality but then we all have our methods of coping.

[thaibeachlovers]

On 7/15/2024 at 1:00 PM, save the frogs said:

screwdrivers can actually be used to attack someone.

why would anyone travel with one anyway?

and they're cheap to replace and easily purchased anywhere.

if this is an excuse to travel less, it's a silly one.

 

A pencil can be used to attack someone, a pen can be used to attack someone, but they won't take those away from you. Do you even know what a 2 inch stubby screwdriver looks like?

 

Nice try but no cigar.

[thaibeachlovers]

10 hours ago, soalbundy said:

What happens to the avatar of 'me' is of no consequence but knowing that you are the immortal screen on which the avatar acts out its life and not the avatar itself brings about the peace that is our essential being. No doubt he will live to be 90 if he can give up his extreme fitness regime, I think it's his way of pushing away the boundary of his mortality but then we all have our methods of coping.

I don't recall you posting on the God thread, but with that belief you would have been at home on it.

[thaibeachlovers]

9 hours ago, Chris Daley said:

Its a bit different for me than the spoilt tw@s in this forum.  I had no money at all.  Nothing.  But I remembered I had a premium bond.  So I cashed it in and got the 700 fot a flight.  After I arrived I started working 12 hour days and have not stopped for 8 years.  I wake up in the dark and I return in the dark.  I work 5 days to live 2.  And sometimes 1 of those is taken away by the vile cretins at wotk. I have nothing but hatred.

While I have never had no money at all ( except for one unfortunate episode where my fiance had all our money on holiday in Sydney, got in a huff over some silly thing and took off, leaving me to wonder how I was going to get back to the hotel ), I have worked for what I have. A 5 day week would have been nice. In London I worked 3 weeks in a row and had one weekend off in a month. That had to stop because the government legislated on legal hours of work. My first job was on a dairy farm which is a 7 day a week job, and I worked 84 hours.

 

Cue the 4 Yorkshire men.

[thaibeachlovers]

19 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

Choose an end date and make the most of life until then

When posting on here is about the most I'm capable of making, the only thing that stops me doing it myself is that I might mess it up and be worse off.

[susanlea]

5 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

While I have never had no money at all ( except for one unfortunate episode where my fiance had all our money on holiday in Sydney, got in a huff over some silly thing and took off, leaving me to wonder how I was going to get back to the hotel ), I have worked for what I have. A 5 day week would have been nice. In London I worked 3 weeks in a row and had one weekend off in a month. That had to stop because the government legislated on legal hours of work. My first job was on a dairy farm which is a 7 day a week job, and I worked 84 hours.

 

Cue the 4 Yorkshire men.

Why can't you save your pension go Thailand once or twice a year?

[thaibeachlovers]

On 7/15/2024 at 12:09 PM, thaibeachlovers said:

I used to love flying till 9 11. The stupid regulations brought in after that ruined it as enjoyable experience.

 

NB not all the regulations were stupid, but having my sewing needles confiscated is stupid.

 

I also had a 3 inch stubby screwdriver confiscated because i might have used it to unbolt the seats! I kid you not- that was the reason given. The moron didn't even know that seats are not secured by screws.

Apologies. It was actually a 2 inch stubby screwdriver. I don't think they even make a 3 inch one.

[save the frogs]

1 minute ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Apologies. It was actually a 2 inch stubby screwdriver. I don't think they even make a 3 inch one.

why do you need a screwdriver with you at all times?

[KannikaP]

1 minute ago, save the frogs said:

why do you need a screwdriver with you at all times?

And Phillips or Flathead, or Posidrive? 555

[susanlea]

2 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

why do you need a screwdriver with you at all times?

To screw people over?

[thaibeachlovers]

1 minute ago, susanlea said:

Why can't you save your pension go Thailand once or twice a year?

LOL. Do you think I wouldn't if I could? You must have a strange idea of how much we get on the pension in NZ. By the time I pay rent ( which just went up $10 a week, but my pension didn't ), pay for food ( which has increased by about 25% in reality but my pension didn't ) I have barely enough to use for living expenses like having to own a car as there is no public transport, and I better not get mildly sick as I can't afford the public health service charges ( no NHS here ). The only way to get free health care is to arrive at hospital in an ambulance, and the ambulance costs.

 

If they gave me the pension in Thailand I'd be about 50 % better off than here, as long as I didn't need hospital treatment. I'd have better accomodation for starters and I wouldn't need my own car.

 

[susanlea]

1 minute ago, thaibeachlovers said:

LOL. Do you think I wouldn't if I could? You must have a strange idea of how much we get on the pension in NZ. By the time I pay rent ( which just went up $10 a week, but my pension didn't ), pay for food ( which has increased by about 25% in reality but my pension didn't ) I have barely enough to use for living expenses like having to own a car as there is no public transport, and I better not get mildly sick as I can't afford the public health service charges ( no NHS here ). The only way to get free health care is to arrive at hospital in an ambulance, and the ambulance costs.

 

If they gave me the pension in Thailand I'd be about 50 % better off than here, as long as I didn't need hospital treatment. I'd have better accomodation for starters and I wouldn't need my own car.

 

Is NZ rent really high?

[thaibeachlovers]

10 minutes ago, save the frogs said:

why do you need a screwdriver with you at all times?

To use on screws of course, but I never said I have one at all times. I only needed it while traveling.

 

You are very fixated on minutiae, when that was one example of why flying is no longer enjoyable. I have a list of other things that make it less enjoyable than it used to be.

[thaibeachlovers]

3 minutes ago, susanlea said:

Is NZ rent really high?

Are you kidding? People are living in garages or cars, and families are living in motels ( paid for by the government ) as there is a shortfall of many thousands of houses, and they still let thousands of immigrants in every year- madness.

[thaibeachlovers]

11 hours ago, soalbundy said:

Yes but I don't think these two experiences, which should have been a spiritual wake up call, will initiate any fundamental change in him, he has, on a material level no need or desire to change. He is a millionaire, happy, successful in his business and private life, likable and courageous. This shock will fade, his humour will plaster over his existential fear, he said to his surgeon, "If I can't take it with me, I'm not going" but who knows where he really goes when he sleeps.

Millionaires can do whatever they like ( within reason ), it's peasants like myself that lose most of their money to the wrong women and end up on a pension because of it that suffer now.

BTW those were supposedly "good women" not bargirls. I rarely got ripped off by bargirls, but the two women that said they loved me ( for real ) ripped me off something awful. Moral of the story, don't trust women and don't get married.

[soalbundy]

11 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Millionaires can do whatever they like ( within reason ), it's peasants like myself that lose most of their money to the wrong women and end up on a pension because of it that suffer now.

BTW those were supposedly "good women" not bargirls. I rarely got ripped off by bargirls, but the two women that said they loved me ( for real ) ripped me off something awful. Moral of the story, don't trust women and don't get married.

He's been married to his schoolyard sweetheart for 50 years.

[susanlea]

30 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Are you kidding? People are living in garages or cars, and families are living in motels ( paid for by the government ) as there is a shortfall of many thousands of houses, and they still let thousands of immigrants in every year- madness.

Go live in Thailand.

[KhunLA]

53 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Millionaires can do whatever they like ( within reason ), it's peasants like myself that lose most of their money to the wrong women and end up on a pension because of it that suffer now.

BTW those were supposedly "good women" not bargirls. I rarely got ripped off by bargirls, but the two women that said they loved me ( for real ) ripped me off something awful. don't trust women and don't get married.

One does have to live with one's choices, or not.   Do agree with the 'don't get married', though have done so, fairly happily, 4 times.   

 

3 didn't work out as planned, but no major regret, or losses, and not much (financially) vested in those.  Hence the escaping free, financially.

 

#4, I'm all in, but better choice, not repeating same mistake ... short courtship, early marriage (2 yrs / 2yrs / 11 weeks ).  8 years living together, now 10 yrs more married.  Her involvement with our investing has earned as much as my direct financial contribution.

 

Moral of the story ... 'chose wisely' ... worldwide.   Safest way (financially),

DON'T GET MARRIED   Simply complicates things legally when you realize you made the wrong choice.  

 

Rule #1 in any relationship, personal or business, never invest more than you can lose.  That uncommon common sense.  We can repeat it so many times, but the you kids (not my daughter of course) just don't listen 

 

Live & Learn ... or not

 

As our parents said ... 'Do as I say, not as I do' 

[soalbundy]

57 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I don't recall you posting on the God thread, but with that belief you would have been at home on it.

 I've studied the philosophies of Buddhism and Hinduism as well as modern physicists examining consciousness for over 30 years, they all seem to basically align, spacetime exists but isn't fundamental, consciousness is the basis, the absolute, although the 14th century German Christian mystic postulated that beyond consciousness was the void of nothing. Buddha was right I think when he said there is no self, no doer of action and the world is empty because nothing exists in and of itself, everything relies on everything else for their temporary brief manifestations which manifest within the field of consciousness. As the Indian sage Nisargadatta said, "You are not the body nor are you the mind, there is nobody", it is a mistake to think of yourself as a person but rather the true self is a localization of the absolute which, as the NASA physicist Tom Campbell (my big T.O.E) wrote, is itself evolving, we, as avatars, exist in the data stream of consciousness to lower its entropy, this is similar but more extreme than the cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman ('The end of Spacetime') who as an emirate at an American university is producing mathematics and computer simulations with his international team to show that everything is made up of agents of consciousness and the reality that we perceive is only 'eye candy'. All seem to converge to one basic idea, only consciousness is real. Again, Nisargadatta said, "That which is real does not change, that which changes is not real". Through deep introspective meditation one can come to the conclusion, inside you are emptiness, nothing, outside you are everything. The direct path to awakening was proscribed by the revered 20th century Indian sage Ramana Maharshi as to simply meditate on 'who am I', the question won't result in an answer but is designed to dissolve the questioner.

[scubascuba3]

3 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

LOL. Do you think I wouldn't if I could? You must have a strange idea of how much we get on the pension in NZ. By the time I pay rent ( which just went up $10 a week, but my pension didn't ), pay for food ( which has increased by about 25% in reality but my pension didn't ) I have barely enough to use for living expenses like having to own a car as there is no public transport, and I better not get mildly sick as I can't afford the public health service charges ( no NHS here ). The only way to get free health care is to arrive at hospital in an ambulance, and the ambulance costs.

 

If they gave me the pension in Thailand I'd be about 50 % better off than here, as long as I didn't need hospital treatment. I'd have better accomodation for starters and I wouldn't need my own car.

 

Sounds like you are better off in Thailand and if medical costs get too much pull the plug, seems your life is miserable in NZ anyway

[susanlea]

10 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

Sounds like you are better off in Thailand and if medical costs get too much pull the plug, seems your life is miserable in NZ anyway

I agree with you. Sell car, go Thailand.

[soalbundy]

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Millionaires can do whatever they like ( within reason ), it's peasants like myself that lose most of their money to the wrong women and end up on a pension because of it that suffer now.

BTW those were supposedly "good women" not bargirls. I rarely got ripped off by bargirls, but the two women that said they loved me ( for real ) ripped me off something awful. Moral of the story, don't trust women and don't get married.

If you are unhappy in a situation there are only 3 options, (1) change it, (2) leave it, (3) accept it without internal complaint, anything else is madness. Those are not cliches, the ego needs enemies to fight which results in tension, the ego isn't real per se, it is a collection of indoctrinations and societal norms bundled up as a package with the mind and determines the 'me', once the 'me' is seen for what it is, an illusion, you can become the non judgmental observer of 'what is'. As Shakespeare said, "nothing is good or bad, only thinking makes it so." It is my belief,and that of many wise sages, that you are an independent unit of consciousness that has identified with its avatar, it is covered in  layers of ego, thoughts and fears, once these layers are stripped away it will realize its full potential and act accordingly, only then will things change for the better, you will find peace.....sorry for the sermon.

[Hummin]

5 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

If you are unhappy in a situation there are only 3 options, (1) change it, (2) leave it, (3) accept it without internal complaint, anything else is madness. Those are not cliches, the ego needs enemies to fight which results in tension, the ego isn't real per se, it is a collection of indoctrinations and societal norms bundled up as a package with the mind and determines the 'me', once the 'me' is seen for what it is, an illusion, you can become the non judgmental observer of 'what is'. As Shakespeare said, "nothing is good or bad, only thinking makes it so." It is my belief,and that of many wise sages, that you are an independent unit of consciousness that has identified with its avatar, it is covered in  layers of ego, thoughts and fears, once these layers are stripped away it will realize its full potential and act accordingly, only then will things change for the better, you will find peace.....sorry for the sermon.

Depression is an hard nail to conquer, and it starts with admitting you are depressed, and then slowly change your pattern of doing things, and how you thinking. For some medicine is a great help as well. This is not ment to diognose thaibeachlover, but in general speaking

[scubascuba3]

5 minutes ago, Hummin said:

Depression is an hard nail to conquer, and it starts with admitting you are depressed, and then slowly change your pattern of doing things, and how you thinking. For some medicine is a great help as well. This is not ment to diognose thaibeachlover, but in general speaking

My father is depressed, understandable as he has Parkinson's and his health deteriorates every day, a slow torturous death, so sometimes there's nothing you can do

[susanlea]

13 minutes ago, soalbundy said:

If you are unhappy in a situation there are only 3 options, (1) change it, (2) leave it, (3) accept it without internal complaint, anything else is madness. Those are not cliches, the ego needs enemies to fight which results in tension, the ego isn't real per se, it is a collection of indoctrinations and societal norms bundled up as a package with the mind and determines the 'me', once the 'me' is seen for what it is, an illusion, you can become the non judgmental observer of 'what is'. As Shakespeare said, "nothing is good or bad, only thinking makes it so." It is my belief,and that of many wise sages, that you are an independent unit of consciousness that has identified with its avatar, it is covered in  layers of ego, thoughts and fears, once these layers are stripped away it will realize its full potential and act accordingly, only then will things change for the better, you will find peace.....sorry for the sermon.

Pooing the bed is probably bad no matter how you think.

[soalbundy]

1 minute ago, Hummin said:

Depression is an hard nail to conquer, and it starts with admitting you are depressed, and then slowly change your pattern of doing things, and how you thinking. For some medicine is a great help as well. This is not ment to diognose thaibeachlover, but in general speaking

Yes, my cousin is bipolar since his teens, now as an old man he has discarded his medication after engaging in mindfulness meditation, his big breakthrough came when during meditation he tried to find what it was that was depressed and couldn't find it, he has improved tremendously and rarely has an attack.

[susanlea]

8 minutes ago, Hummin said:

Depression is an hard nail to conquer, and it starts with admitting you are depressed, and then slowly change your pattern of doing things, and how you thinking. For some medicine is a great help as well. This is not ment to diognose thaibeachlover, but in general speaking

I think it is related to expectations. Robin Williams had high standards that his body could no longer live up to. So you either adjust your standards or fix the body if possible. Attaching your happiness to small things works better than big goals.

[soalbundy]

Just now, susanlea said:

Pooing the bed is probably bad no matter how you think.

depends who you are with at the time, otherwise it is merely a cleaning up operation.

[Hummin]

2 minutes ago, susanlea said:

I think it is related to expectations. Robin Williams had high standards that his body could no longer live up to. So you either adjust your standards or fix the body if possible. Attaching your happiness to small things works better than big goals.

It is first of all knownledge, and being able to do changes. Robin Williams was also an addict of stimulants, and probaly used medication to, so,