fforest

The Australian dollar finally cracked 20 and the Euro cracked 33...The Pound is just a quarter point away from cracking 36....

The Dollar seems to be weak but holding firm....

1 hour ago, Washedup said:

On my last trip i really enjoyed the frozen meals from 7/11,  exceptional value and service..great value. I also treated a bg to a pizza slice 

Good job Sir....Treating a girl to a pizza slice is well beyond the call of duty......

41 minutes ago, Stillearly said:

If you don't know what something is look it up .... not exactly rocket science 

Good idea....

Not a bad deal from the beer hub considering Indian food In Pattaya is not cheap...

1 minute ago, Captain_B said:

There is a percentage of the UK population that cannot afford to travel. That perventage is slowly increasing.

Sent from my SM-J610F using Tapatalk
 

Good bye Thailand Cambodia Vietnam....Hello Blackpool.... 

And its good to see a beer going for under 50 baht again...Many bars on Soi Bukow are taking the piss and charging 55 baht for a beer now...This is outrageous....15 years ago I was only paying 40 baht for a beer......

Any meals that cost above 99 baht scares the hell out of the gourmet dinners on Soi Bukow.....

4 hours ago, KhunDon said:

I got scammed in an Esso petrol station in UK, many years ago. The staff, who were of Indian persuasion, were using a hidden card reader and were taking money from peoples accounts. Hundreds got done, but thankfully the petrol company paid everyone back what they lost. The station closed and opened again by BP. 

Luckily, I had a separate account for Visa debit card use and I only kept a couple of hundred in it at any time, so they didn’t have access to the rest of my accounts. 

As for being worried I can be traced, I don’t really care. My iPhone can be traced to where I’m standing at any given time, who I phone is traceable, my car SatNav records my journeys, my car SOS System sends out my location in the event of an accident, no matter how small, my postcode tells everyone where I live, my email is traceable via my internet provider etc, etc. My car registration can be recorded and traced any time I use it on A or B roads and motorways, CCTV cameras can follow my movements in most towns and cities in the UK, the list goes on.

 No matter how hard you try, sooner or later you will be recorded doing something that can be traced. 

Facial/gait recognition is already on trial in some places in the UK and is probably going to be rolled out across most cities in the UK very soon.

I have no doubt that soon, your employer will try to microchip you (already happening in some places) so they can record various things you do during work time. 

Give it 20-30 years and personal microchips will possibly be in everyone, so no need to carry money or ID, it’ll be in the chip in your arm and that chip will probably be traceable, no matter what cave you decide to live in.

Does any of the above bother me, nope, not in the slightest. 🤔

 

Well if you dont mind getting mico chipped like a dog up to you.....But mass numbers of people dont plan to get chipped EVER no matter what, even if it hastens the end of their days here......

1 hour ago, RR007 said:

Gotta say seeing I work heavily in finance but  I'm very much a cash man. Theres no agenda to that and I dont stick to it religiously but I've always got a bundle on me in the UK if I go anywhere outside of my home town.

I use Clarity card to pay for some stuff but invariably pay it all off from one of my Halifax accounts when its due. I never ever come Thailand without £3000 in folding "just in case"

I had an incident in 1994 In Thailand bear in mind pre internet and pre easy communications etc etc where suddenly I had no ready cash to hand. Wasn't my fault entirely down to Barclays at the time which did get sorted 72 hours later but like all Brits I was 6000 miles from home with no access to my cash....I was signing food slips at the Flipper to keep me going

I never forgot that 3 days hence my 3k bundle hard cash on trips. (I churn it once a year through bank to get withdrawal slips )

I hear you.....I went out to Koh larn one day alone...My money pouch got lost in the sea when I was swimming..I had 10 baht left on me and thats bloody it....I had to beg some Thai people for 20 baht to catch the ferry back...Let me tell you I felt lower than slug shit begging for 20 baht....

I could not even afford 10 baht for the baht bus home or even a small bottle of water from 7-11....Man that was the pits..... 

4 minutes ago, john luke said:

I think there is a flaw in the logic of the above post.  Let me give an example.  I do most of my supermarket shopping at two of the larger supermarkets in UK, Asda and Morrisons.  Without exception I pay with a credit card.  The til receipt shows the items I have purchased plus the last four numbers of my credit card.  My credit card statement shows the name of the Supermarket and the total amount I have paid.  The card issuers therefor have no idea what I have purchased but know I have purchased goods from the named supermarket.

I can see your point regarding there being a record of every purchase.  The main implication of that in my view is that it could have an impact on cash in hand jobs and hence an inflationary effect as the correct amount of tax would have to be paid.  Perhaps an old Scottish Tradition which attracted the attention of HMRC some time ago, where for example Mr X was good at painting and decorating and Mr Y was a plumber and kitchen fitter.  Mr X painted and decorated Mr Y's house and in return Mr Y fitted a new bathroom for Mr X.  The courts deemed that this was an activity which effectively was generating income for the parties and successfully claimed tax.

I don't think that cash in hand would be totally eliminated and think it will probably develop into what was a cash job being done and the recipient paying for the contractor's groceries for example for a month or buying him/her a new TV.

The other creative area that I am aware of is where a merchant offering goods or services which are not socially acceptable (perhaps a strip club, brothel or viagra/sex toy seller) wants to conceal his true business a name such as 'Enterprise Sales' is created and credit/debit card debits show that as the name of the trader.

I think at the moment that it is a step too far to link privacy issues with going cashless.  Whether it will be the same in 20 years time is perhaps less certain.

Your thinking is correct as far as how things are in the present....

But The people at the very top are not messing around and they play for keeps and they plan looong term....It would be almost unthinkable that a surveillance state would not be keeping complete records on all purchases.....

The media gushes constantly about how wonderful going cashless will be....They keep moving this forward one day one inch at a time.... 

2 hours ago, Sir_Fondles said:

Why would it concern me ?

Well if you dont mind loosing your freedom I guess it should not concern you at all....

You dont have to be a rocket scientist to see if there is no cash there will be a record of each and every purchase you make your entire life.....If this fact does not concern some one they had better check to see if they even have a pulse...

The implications are staggering....

Maybe the new social czars will decide you have been drinking to much beer so for the next year your card only can buy one beer a day any where in the world   as punishment....

Need I go on.... 
 

16 hours ago, Sigi said:

Triad gangsters from China in white shirts attack demonstrators:

 

 

 

Triad gangsters from China in white shirts attack demonstrators:

A few things here....

Why would the Triad gangsters be in Hong Kong kicking some protesters ass?.....The answer is $$$$$ and lots of it....
You see the mainlanders would never lower them self to inflect brute violence in Hong Kong...It was just thoes horrible bad bad bad evil Triad gangsters....lol

On 7/6/2019 at 2:35 AM, dcfc2007 said:

Surprised the Chinese haven't launched a more brutal crackdown.

Dictators have been evolving away from using clubs and guns for decades now.....Death by a thousand cuts is the new way.....

Death by a thousand cuts is exactly what the junta has been doing for years in the take over of the Thai economy...

17 minutes ago, Sir_Fondles said:

Trolley ?

Trolley Streetcar what ever you want to call it...

I like the darkside....But having a motorbike is mandatory to get around there,the baht bus service over there is lousy.....

Being a American I just cant seem to relax into this driving on the left thing after years of trying...lol.....So I try and avoid motorbikes....

If they ever build a trolley out to the darkside to meet the high speed rail I predict there will be a huge increase in farang business there...

So if you owned a food court that was jam packed busy every day.....What would you want to change about it?....Me I would not want to change anything...

I bet they will be making some modest changes but sneaking in some price increases ......

I only ever bought the Cow-mon-guy and that has been 50 baht like forever.....So I will be watching this price....

11 hours ago, Lanzalad said:

Just seen this in FB:-

Steak & Co and Smoking Joes up for sale.
The exodus continues

Well they use to have some pretty good/well priced, daily specials there but they did away with them a few years ago....

I am sure they have great steak there( never ate steak there myself) But Soi Lenki is ground zero for cheap charlies so I can see how it could be a challenging environment for a high end steak house... 

1 hour ago, forcebwithu said:

Beach Rd has the same set up, but can't cope with the volume of water. Same as the silly water channels they built into the low points on Beach Rd with the misguided hope the rain water would ignore the physics of volume vs sq cm area and conveniently drain into the channels rather than rip embarrassing channels through the beach sand to the sea.

They have made the beach so big I dont see how making any sort of drainage to the sea would even be possible now.......I think the back-hoe drivers will have steady work for years to come filling in the canyons after every major rain...