I have noticed that a lot of my customers come from certain jobs. Like Taxi Drivers, Policemen, Airline Crew or Armed Forces. Where did you come from? I was an Aircraft Ground Engineer for instance.

Retired Military 24 years, worked for the army as a contractor for seven years and worked for the USAF AS a civilan employee untill I retired last july for the last time.

17 years military, now a private contractor in a similar field. The travelling in the military made it easy for me to become an ex pat, wherever I stash my kit thats my home. My lifestyle also keeps me from getting bored, appt in Bangkok for good living, peaceful house in issan and there is always work for that oh so important money and the stimulating chat.

Travel the world, meet interesting people and...

As over 50% are either 'Proffesional People" or 'Other', I think this poll is not specific enough and proving little.

Dave (Proffesional ?)

I guess Dave not so Dude is right, not enough choices and why would a airline pilot come here?

I was a male go-go dancer in a gay bar for most of my working years.

I always loved the civilian-military men/contractors who couldn't wait to tell you how many pensions they would collect at the end of their fuc_king the system careers.

Why indeed, Fred?

I was a male go-go dancer in a gay bar for most of my working years.

I always loved the civilian-military men/contractors who couldn't wait to tell you how many pensions they would collect at the end of their fuc_king the system careers.

Why indeed, Fred?

sounds like a little bitterness there. anybody could have done the same if they so disired. maybe you screw up your chance.

Not sure why you took it personally.

Bitterness is not the right word. It was more disgust. Like when is it enough? How many ways are you going to screw the system? It was the sheer pigishness of it. Not everyone could do it, cause they don't desire it. Not everyone's a pig.

Why would it make you so happy if I did mess up my chance?

As over 50% are either 'Proffesional People" or 'Other', I think this poll is not specific enough and proving little.

Dave (Proffesional ?)

Professional, 1 F, 2 S's No I wasn't a teacher!

TBWG

I’m worked as a contractor for KFC assassinating chickens and a privet for pizza company, until I meet Ronald who has some work for me in the kitchen dripping sweet and blood in a hot room. But now I’m suited up nicely for a hot chick named Wendy who give me shivers.

over and out.

I better get out of this

I would not call it screwing the system but working within the system. I shure would not call people Pigs if I were you. Some people might take it the wrong way. Hope your next round of golf sucks.

From labouring in London to running bars in Mallorca to investment banker and then to bars and other stuff in Thailand. Now mostly out but considering future options.

I don't see what is wrong with this privateering thing ? I know some guys who were in the forces and set for a long career but who decided that the shit pay wasn't worth it and the lure of, at that time, loads of cash, was attractive.

You could say the same about oil workers today or back in the 70s and 80s in and around Aberdeen.

I know ex navy guys who pull in good 5 figures a month and do work from Venezuela, Nigeria, the sandpit and offshore in SE Asia. Maybe not easy but lucrative.

Personally, I'd have done a few things differently and with just a couple of minor alterations I'd be sitting here with £20m plus easy (and I don't mean going back in time and winning some form of lottery or backing certain shares). Sometimes when you are in the middle of something you don't realise that it might never be like this forever and the real astute and sometimes lucky ones are those who either chop and change or forgo a good lifestyle to pile it all away. The fact that they benefit from that later in life is to be admired, not envied or cause to belittle them.

The biggest thing I would advise anyone starting out in life is to keep everything in your name. Buy your property in your name, not shared. I am not on about the ex wife getting half or anything but I had my ex wife refuse to sign papers on our property for years (though I know she was not native English) so that opportunities passed me by as I could not release the money in the property. Naively and as she put down 50% of the deposit, I agreed to buy our biggest property in joint names. She paid half of everything and there was never an issue of her getting less than half but the bastard lawyers just egged her on to drag it out and in the end I lost a fortune through deals I had to pull out of and could not get into. A friend who missed out on most of the property boom got in at past half way and still, on one property, has made enough to get out of the banking game and set up himself for life. I've lost perhaps 10 or 20 times that. Where's the sleeping tablets ?

It is really not possible to do a poll on occupations, too many different types of jobs are available.

As for me I worked as a Nurse Anesthetist for 45 years in the States, retiredand moved to Thailand in 05 and have loved it here. Sold my condo in Bangkok and full time in Banthago.

As for me I worked as a Nurse Anesthetist for 45 years in the States,

We got a couple here Ron, just talking to them sends you to sleep.

i was one of the dozen gardeners of my [then future] father-in-law. then i married one of his daughters and now we live happily ever after in Thailand.

p.s. i wouldn't have minded to apply Sharia law and marry my wife's two younger sisters too. the youngest one has even bigger (.)(.) and a bigger (_!_) than my Mrs. but due to strange reasons my parents-in-law opposed my plan

Well I'm one of torrenova's oil & gas workers but never out of Aberdeen (been there once to get my offshore ticket and that was enough). Worked out of the USA, Venezuela, the sand pit (Bahrain - enough to know I intensely dislike Arabs) and, since 1992, S. E. Asia. Worked 24 years as staff before I parted company with my employer and there lies my one big regret. I am now an independant contractor, job security almost nil, no pension (except what I accrued during those 24 wasted years) but I am earning six times the dough tax free .

Not in Thailand yet but the next trip will be looking at property with a view to buying a home base. It's all very well living the nomad's life with your entire world fitting into a suitcase but it's nice to have somewhere to call home.

i was one of the dozen gardeners of my [then future] father-in-law. then i married one of his daughters and now we live happily ever after in Thailand.

p.s. i wouldn't have minded to apply Sharia law and marry my wife's two younger sisters too. the youngest one has even bigger (.)(.) and a bigger (_!_) than my Mrs. but due to strange reasons my parents-in-law opposed my plan

Hummmm, how would you know that? Sleepwalker?? Spy??? Peephole???

It's always the younger one's who has the bigger "(.)(.)"

( Too funny )

Oooh...I'm one of those nasty retired military guys. After numerous deployments doing the things that many of my fellow countrymen are too scared to do, I called it quits and retired also. Started my family just as I was leaving the service four years ago and returned to LOS. Now I'm kicking sand in the ME wishing I was at home in LOS with my kids. I'm making really good money BUT in order to obtain our goals we must make a sacrifice, soon my new house will be done and I will be a full time daddy again.

Everyone has a story, just some are more interesting than others.

I have noticed that a lot of my customers come from certain jobs. Like Taxi Drivers, Policemen, Airline Crew or Armed Forces. Where did you come from? I was an Aircraft Ground Engineer for instance.

I have been a painter most of my life, pictures not walls. Though I did spend around 5 years training and working as a plastic surgeon in Sidcup, uk. Loved the work, very creative though some of the punters were somewhat stunned by my passion for the cubist style. Told them to keep the bandages on for 6 months while I shot off to Thailand. Have noticed one or two ex customers in the farang connection.

I was part of the vast right wing conspiracy Bill and Hillary loved so much and one of the military/industrial thiefs.

I ran some defense contracts in the Middle East and around other parts for lots of years and then retired to lovely LOS, where I enjoy just driving around looking for motorbikes to run off the road.

I was a freelance victory monument builder, no questions asked, pay me cash and I will bung one up for you, what war? Then I moved into sound effects, made millions by selling 'boing' noises to TV companies in the last place I built a monument.

There's no choice for Green Beret, SAS sniper, astronaut, fighter pilot or nuclear submarine captain. Most of the farangs around here won't be able to vote!

Which war ? There have been so many.

If you mean the big one in Europe in the fortieth I guess I mostly wet my nappies and listened to the american bombers who had been hit coming back from Germany gathering for the return trip to GB over the southern part of Sweden. I still remember the sound every night. Some of them decided that enough is enough and took a holiday i Sweden instead of going back for other raids.

After that I went to school an became an mechanical engineer and worked mostly in Sweden.

Military service for no more than a year.

My first marriage in Sweden lasted for 25 years. 2 grown up children who like to come visiting even though it is far away.

A lot of adventures hitchhiking and biking (pedalbike) through all of Europe including the eastern part except for the USSR during the years from 1957 until 1995.

In 1995 I was sent to Malaysia for work. First time ever in southeast Asia. I met my current thai wife when I was touring around after a trip to Kuala Lumpur.

Finally I retired with her to Buriram. I have had a good life and I am not twisted and I am not bitter in any ways that I am aware of.

I'm curious about the "professional" category. Lots of "financial" adviser types that one meets and yet if they were as brilliant as they say and their respective investment tips so great, how come they don't have a pot to piss in? I wonder how content architects or civil engineers would be in Thailand, having to reconcile themselves to the daily visual assaults upon their professions?

Excluding nurses, I have yet to meet any health or pure science types that have retired or moved to Thailand. Never come across someone that was published in professional journal, or is just plain brilliant when it comes to outerspace and light waves and all that mumbo jumbo that I can barely understand. You know, like a wacky professor, that one is sure to meet in some coastal town in the USA or or in the Carribean. They just aren't here.

The foreign physicians I have come across, give off that vibe of having done something notorious in their pasts, sort of like botching a lot of surgeries, being an alcoholic or inappropiately touching a patient. the one "lawyer" I met had been disbarred years ago for taking escrow monies and he had rotted teeth.

I dunno, seems to me that the only happy normal people I have met are the ones that worked for a long time in a skilled trade or military and are just looking for some peace after decades of scrambling. They all seem to have wives or long time girlfriends too.