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rickudon

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Everything posted by rickudon

  1. The main problem with lockdowns is they were all started too late. The aim of a lockdown should be to stop the disease spreading rapidly, but little point when there are multiple cases everywhere. Having said that, whenever lockdowns started, infection rates soon began to fall. Also, hard to provide adequate health services when bodies are piling up in hospital corridors. Early, targeted lockdowns would have slowed the spread and allowed area with few or no cases to operate normally. I saw what was happening in China and took precautions in January 2020. Air travel was to blame for the spread of Covid world wide in the first couple of months in 2020; countries like the UK carried on as if nothing was happening, then panicked (blame the government). Eventually, nearly everybody caught Covid, but those who caught it later had the advantages of vaccination and less severe strains. In 2020, the death rate was around 1%, without any lockdowns or other restrictions, the global death toll would have probably exceeded 10 million in that year alone. The first step in all outbreaks of serious disease is quarantine, that has been the case for hundreds of years. Prevention before cure. Forcing all businesses to close was perhaps to Draconian, but efforts to decrease human to human direct interactions should have been heavily promoted.
  2. Not underground, but on the main road near us in Udon Thani, they have recently replaced the power poles with much thicker and taller ones and substantially thicker wires, so overloaded trucks can no longer snag the wires.... Also probably a substantial increase in capacity. Got to charge those electric cars....
  3. The one kg Horeca cheddar blocks are quite acceptable, and better than the mild cheddar sold in UK supermarkets. Also similar in price to the UK. Do miss a bit of Wensleydale or Lancashire for a change, but costs 3 times as much as the cheddar. My daughter here in Thailand likes cheddar, adds it to here noodles.....
  4. I have a friend who retired to Thailand at 60, from the UK. Unfortunately he didn't have a company pension, only a personal pension (which usually totally fail to live up to their 'projected' payouts; my ex-wife paid into one for 15 years, and ended up with a pension of 650 GBP a year....). He had to draw down until his state pension kicked in, UK state pension isn't generous, and that is frozen while in Thailand. He reckons he has about 5 years left before the personal pension runs out, he is only 71.
  5. Just because scientists do not fully understand why ocean temperatures have been at record highs for the last year, doesn't mean that human caused climate change isn't happening. Weather, climate. vulcanism and many other factors are all subject to chaos - the results you get all come down to probability, and not the same every time. But trends do tell you where things are going. The climatic changes now happening are having hard to predict outcomes, like rain in winter in the Arctic - this has a catastrophic effect on the snowpack, stopping grazing animals reach plants beneath the ice which then forms, and changing albedo (causing more warming). Caribou herds are rapidly shrinking, some by more than 90%. And this is just the start. Sit back and do nothing, and yes, the global civilisation will start to break down. Mass extinction? To hard to predict, but could happen. Or, we can try to undo some of what we have done. But little hope of that, going by so many of the dolts on here....
  6. Of course it has been compromised. Udon thani general hospital had all its patient records locked by cyber criminals for months (maybe still are, i will find out next week). They couldn't afford to pay the ransom demand.
  7. 94,000 users a year. How is that going to be economic, equals about one flight a day!
  8. William and Kate are so anodyne that most younger people in the UK couldn't care less whether they became king and Queen or not. As for King Charles, yes he has strong opinions, but he cares about the UK and the commonwealth. If he refused to agree to some stupid new law, good for him, current government are a load of idiots.
  9. Interesting map, the area with the least fires is NE Thailand. Isaan is showing the way!
  10. She doesn't pay VAT. Her annual turnover is under one million.
  11. Scuba, The Mastercard exchange rate may be 0.5 baht lower than Wise, but Wise also has a fee .... that usually cancels out the difference. Clarity doesn't add any on top (but you will be charged interest if you do not immediately pay it off). The 3 Krungsri branches i have used for counter withdrawals in Udon Thani do not charge a fee. I once tried Siam, and they ripped me off. Hopefully Krungsri branches everywhere are the same, but, TIT (just had to get that in !)
  12. When i first came to live in Thailand, every night sleep was disrupted by dogs barking in the street. If i had a gun, i might have used it. One night, i heard a gunshot. we got about a week of peace after that. Even Thai's patience snaps. Eventually one dog returned, limping. But they were a bit subdued after that. On average we would see one dog/bike attack about once a week. Eventually a woman was injured when she fell off; the Puijai baan then ordered all dogs to be locked up at night. Now barking is about 25% of what it used to be. Still get dogs around in the day and too many bins ransacked.
  13. started statins in late 2021, first foot problems May 2023. In April 2023 was in UK and no problems then, lots of walking.
  14. Halifax Clarity card is 0% commission, but as the payment is processed by Mastercard, their will be the Mastercard exchange rate fee. I used my card on Monday, and the pending rate was 45.1xxx. Sure they company that took the credit card payment didn't do dynamic conversion to GBP for you? Whenever i check Wise rates, once you take into account their exchange rate and fees, Clarity nearly always cheaper. Cash withdrawals - at Krungsri, i do a counter withdrawal and avoid the ATM fee.
  15. My wife runs a shop. She has to pay for various licences, or opt to do accounts and pay VAT. She pays for the licences ( at least one of which is self declared turn over related). She obviously chooses the cheapest level. Their are no real accounts, most is cash purchases. She doesn't even know how much profit she makes! She isn't registered for income tax; but i doubt if she makes much more than 10,000 baht a month profit.
  16. A year ago in Udon Thani an electric car was still a novelty. Now, doing the morning school run i will see some every day.
  17. A question about frequency of taking Atorvastatin. I am on 10 mg per day, but hospital can only provide 40mg tabs. They say cut into 4, but this is difficult to do, cutting into 2 is easy though. Rather than every day, can i take 20 mg every other day? I could buy different size tabs from a pharmacy, but the 40mg tabs are really cheap from the government hospital (less than half the price). I am also beginning to experience some problems with my feet. Seems to affect my metatarsals, feel dislocated in the mornings, then gets better after walking a bit, but get pains if you walk a lot.....
  18. I live in Udon Thani. I like the parks. We have 3 urban parks, and all are infinitely better than most in the UK. Many years ago UK parks were OK, but 30 years of cost cutting has left many parks with no permanent staff, just a contractor with a mowing machine. The only things there are grass and a few trees. On my very first day in Udon, i walked through a park, and fell in love.... Other attractions - Chinese temple, Sino-Thai friendship centre, both free to visit. UDtown, also very attractive water features and vegetation, and at Halloween, Xmas, Chinese new year also have some nice displays for the kids. Rural areas just a few kilometres from the centre. Could do with a few big hills though, rather flat.
  19. Pollution. Heat. Humidity. Dangerous roads. Four reasons why bikes are a bad idea. Not that keen on walking in those conditions any distance.
  20. Not many volunteers for this job. Make a mistake, and it is desecration of a holy book. Penalty in some countries - death (assuming a mob doesn't lynch you first).
  21. It already exists, called an Agent....
  22. Heathrow arrival queues are horrific if you have a visa, Last year travelled with some Thai family members (first UK visit) so stayed with them in the queue. One hour later not even half way to the desk. I collared a border force officer and explained i was in danger of collapsing, and got us all out of the queue and processed in a couple of minutes. As for the other visa people, i guess UK will not be a preferred choice this year.
  23. Before i got married to my Thai wife i was advised best to do it in Thailand. Much simpler and and no need for Embassy verification etc. Just get married at the Amphoe (not a ceremony, just sign some docs), and get a marriage certificate and a Kor ror 2. Then get a new KR 2 each year before extension (issued by amphoe on demand, about 20 baht). No problems with them docs at extension time.
  24. That is being pedantic. Ignoring ice, less than 1% of water is 'fresh', and a lot of that is already polluted to some degree. You take water from one place, you affect life that was living there. Many parts of the world already use the majority of their freshwater for human related needs (think Colorado river).
  25. Southern Spain is only green if they irrigate, rivers drying up. Same problems in Amazon (lowest water levels ever recorded). Lake Chad drying up, Aral sea already a shadow of itself. The greening is only because of 2 things - One - More CO2 means plants can grow faster, but not necessarily better. Two - many arid areas are being turned into farmland, and irrigated, means more green but the water is fast running out.
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