forcebwithu

Had a look out my window this morning to see what was causing all the noise at my next door neighbor's house. This is what I saw. My GF informed me the neighbor is building an outdoor restaurant as a way to help make ends meet. Reason #486 why it's better to rent than buy in Thailand. Fortunately I'm renting.

Nice dress. The wife will look great in it. I had to turn my VPN to have a look from Thailand. Without the VPN going I received "access denied" when I clicked on the link. Home Depot is another site that does the same. Never understood why companies restrict their customer base by doing this. Especially when it's easy to circumvent with a VPN connection.

Some would point the finger at the protesters as the main protagonists in instigating the violence, but a bit of searching on the internet calls into question that assumption. Using a keyword search on "hong kong protest timeline" found this article from Amnesty International. Patterns of repression: Timeline of the 2019 Hong Kong protests Mass protests arose in Hong Kong in April 2019, worsening from 9 June onward, initially over proposed legislative amendments that would have allowed for extradition to mainland China. The protests have continued at least weekly, and often daily, ever since. In response, the Hong Kong Police Force has frequently resorted to indiscriminate and unlawful use of less lethal weapons, such as tear gas, and has engaged in a clear pattern of unnecessary and excessive force during arrests of protesters. Police abuses appear to have steadily worsened over the course of the protests. The vast majority of protesters have been peaceful, but protester violence appears to be escalating alongside excessive use of force by the police. Protests at Hong Kong’s airport turned violent, and protesters have also broken into the Legislative Council Complex and vandalised Mass Transit Railway (MTR) stations. This violence has been seen to increase alongside the government’s failure to address public demands and the police’s consistent use of excessive force. Amnesty International has monitored events on the ground and through verifying photographic and video evidence that it has been sent directly and that has been posted online. An Amnesty International field investigation team in early September interviewed people with first-hand information of police abuses, including 21 people arrested during the protests, and also directly observed an indiscriminate and reckless police responses to protests during the evenings of 7 and 8 September. The overall picture is clear: The Hong Kong Police Force has committed pervasive human rights violations as a state actor in responding to the protests and is not in a position to investigate itself and to remedy the widespread unlawful suppression of protests. Amnesty International is urgently calling for an effective independent, impartial investigation aimed at delivering truth, justice, and reparation, as there is little trust in existing internal mechanisms and the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). When peaceful protests are met with tear gas and rubber bullets, escalation of the violence on both sides was inevitable.

Post from their FB page.

Map updated with a couple of new clubs. One that has recently opened (Sweet Queen), and two that will open in December (Golden Time, Baku Lounge which is moving to a new location). List of Pattaya gentlemen clubs and misc BJ/ST places currently included on the above map. There is also a separate tab that has a history of the updates to the map.

Good to know. If there's ever anything I really need, and Decathlon is the easiest place to get it, I'll come prepared to give them my garbage email address.

T21 last Saturday

I would put on a nice party for my friends, bank a portion of the winnings for a rainy day, but the bulk of the money would go into a trust fund for my grandkids college education.

Warning, this is painful to watch, but inspiring watching the woman rescue this poor Koala.

TIT, so it's quite possible store managers told staff to encourage sign ups. The Thai staff then took this to mean everyone needs to sign up for membership. Encountered something similar years ago. Buy a rice cooker, coffee maker, or other electric gizmo and the clerk would open the box, both to make sure it worked and to remove the warranty card. You were asked then and there to complete the warranty card. Most times they accepted the excuse I'll fill it out at home, which I had no intention of doing. A couple of times the clerk would insist the card be completed at the store and stated if I didn't do so there would be no warranty. Which of course is BS. Again, probably a case of a store employee misunderstanding instructions they were given on how to handle a sale. With Thai culture such as it is, the lowly employee would never think to challenge an instruction, or ask for clarification, with the result more grief for the customer.

Can't be arsed to take the time to fill out forms, even with fake info, to gain membership. If the store had something I really wanted, then it might be worth the time and effort.

You'll have to weigh the travel times and convenience of flying into Clark vs MNL. Traveling through MNL traffic to get from the airport to AC can easily add 1.5+ hours to your travel time. One thing that surprised me was the exchange booth at MNL airport, but outside the terminal offered the best exchange rate for THB to PHP. When I was there last month the booth gave 1.70 where booths in A/C were only giving 1.60.

I needed a sports item so went shopping at the Pattaya Decathlon store today. It used to be the only question asked when making a purchase was for a phone number. In the past I just gave them a fake phone number and completed my purchase with no further hassle. Today they didn't ask for a number, but instead asked "are you a member". Some stores offer membership cards, so a simple "no" to the question is usually sufficient to complete the purchase. Not Decathlon though. Seems you now have to be a member to make a purchase from their store. I'm aware of a few stores that require membership in order to shop at their stores. Most will offer some type of discount in exchange for giving up personal information to gain membership. Not so with Decathlon. Seems to be a very one sided deal with this store. You give them your personal details, and they'll let you have the honor of shopping at their store. I've very protective of my personal details, so Decathlon has lost a customer. Wonder how many other potential customers they have lost because of the membership requirement?

I had Lasik done about 20 years ago. Best thing about the procedure, there were no glasses to fog up when walking in from a Wisconsin winter into a steamy strip joint.

Only hours to go to the big event. Curious to see if the count down timer stops at zero, continues on, or self-destructs taking any posts with it into internet oblivion.

^^^ In this situation the goons in green are guilty of escalating a non-threatening situation into violence.

Xmas tree is up at T21 The race course is set for the Hello Kitty run later today.

A couple of pics of the WIP at Fat Coco.

Retaining walls going in at the Buakhao/Soi 15 construction site. Site on 3rd Rd near Klang is now up to six floors. Google Translate couldn't make much sense of the Thai sign at the construction site, but according to my TGF's translation the building is for some sort of business.

It wasn't the street cleaner that was set on fire. Different person, different day.

I've not seen any news reports that he was set on fire after being hit by a rock.

And rumor has it this will be Babylon 2.

They're getting the land cleared and prepped for something new next to Nirun.

I do the same, and they suffice for reading a menu or how much I owe. If you have astigmatism, then the generic, throw away glasses will cause eye strain if you read a book or work on a computer for any length of time. To correct for astigmatism, you need prescription glasses. Thus a broken frame is cheaper to repair than buying a new frame that will fit your prescription lenses. On a side note, I tried buying a frame and lenses from one of the Charoen outlets. Learned from that mistake. Frames only lasted about four months before the frame coating started to peel away. Tried to replace them under their one year guarantee, was told they hadn't broken so no replacement. Saw the garbage bin just behind the counter and chucked them into the bin and told the clerk that's what the frames and their guarantee was worth.