ChiFlyer

I had never heard of Gary Clark Jr. prior to tonight  Jon Stewart had him on as a guest. I looked up some of his music. Jesus Christ the man can play the guitar. We are talking about Hendrix level talent here. IMO.

Catfish Blues

@Lirchenfeld you might like this one I think. "This is who we are".

21 hours ago, Nightcrawler said:

For me, I can't say I hate, genuinely hate any Nationalty. Although I do find certain traits exhibited from various nationalities annoying at times, but they are usually petty. 

I think what is meant is about elements of different "Cultures or Religion" " usually inherited at birth.

Whenever this happens, it usualy eminates from the comparisons from our own culture 

I hate everyone collectively 😁😁

Well said.

To talk a little to some of the previously mentioned nationalities.

I found the Chinese people in HKG to be gracious and polite. The Chinese from the mainland, not so much.

I worked in India for close to a year. I dislike the food. The locals treated me well, but they were a little intolerant of other beliefs and the men were very sexually biased especially against other cultures. I was told numerous times by educated co-workers that all Thai and Filipino women were whores.

In case you have never worked in India, it is advised for a Westerner not to drive there. My company hired a driver for me, probably a good idea. We are going down a road one day and the driver notices that I am looking at a particular woman driving a bicycle. He asks if I think she is pretty. I say yes. He comes up along side of her, grabs her ass, and knocks her off her bicycle. I yell out "don't do that shit". He gives me a this guy is no fun look.

I was married to a Filipino woman for close to 10 years and spent a considerable amount of time in the PI. Their culture at least toward foreigners (their word for Farang) is so passive aggressive it will drive one insane. It once took me one year to close a bank account.

Japanese people have always been polite with me, but there certainly is a wall.

Barbados (Bajans) - see Japan.

I guess I hate grumpy old Farangs (including myself) the most. 🙂 

Tortilla Pizza

This is a no mess - no fuss quickie that is on the table in 1/2 hour and tastes surprisingly good.

https://www.splashoftaste.com/tortilla-pizza/

The author wrote this to be veg. I declined to do so.

The pizza sauce and pepperoni that are available on Lazada are both quite tasty.

Pizza Sauce

Pepperoni

I bought Mission Tortillas and Pizza Cheese at Villa Market. I grated some Pecorino Romano to use instead of Parm. I baked the pizza in the oven for 6 minutes at 220 C. The longest part of the prep is waiting for the oven to come to temp. Do not use a heavy amount of the pizza sauce or you will have soggy pizzas. For a 10 inch tortilla a little over 2 TBSP of sauce works well.

Make sure to let the pizza cool for a few minutes coming out of the oven, or you will burn your mouth with the molten cheese. This is harder to do than it sounds as the pizza smells really good. Both the Mrs and I got singed. Surprisingly, she really liked the pizza and she is normally not a fan.

Day 7 - Work Completed and Water Refilled

The crew finished up the pool work today and I am overall happy with the net result.

The wall was "painted" with an acetic solution. The result was not perfect, but overall a decided improvement. Will the improvement hold up? We shall see. About 1/2 hour after the wall was completed rain started up again. 

After a few hours the pool was refilled. This was a little costly as it required 8 larger water trucks at 800 per truck.

Like I said I am happy enough with the job. Here is a night time shot of the finished product.

The regular pool maintenance guy stops by tomorrow to check out the water and reset the various timers for the reflection wall flow. We have been advised to stay out of the pool water for 3 days due to chemicals having been added.

I have enjoyed the "Game of Thrones" prequel "House of the Dragon" so far. S02E01 is scheduled to be released on June 17th, 2024 (Thailand Time). It will be an 8 episode season. I would assume that it will be immediately available on IPT as well as HBO.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/house-of-the-dragon-season-2-sizzles-with-2-dueling-trailers/

Day 6 - Continued Clean up from the grouting work

The crew put in a half day today after things dried out somewhat from yesterday's rain. The grout work is cleaned up and all eyes are on tomorrow, when the wall cleanup will be done, weather permitting. 

I think my apprehension about the wall clean up was in part due to some Thaiglish problems between me and the Mrs. We shall see. She does attack at times to make sure that I know she is on my side.

Forgot to take a pic today.

Day 5 - Rain - and some new considerations.

Not much got done today due to the rain. Still the grouting is nearing completion and looking good.

Next major item is the reflection wall, which requires a sunny day. The owner/manager seems to be backing off of his statement that the reflection wall can be made to look like new. The Mrs is giving him an earful about that. He has agreed to give said wall a vinegar treatment.

https://aseannow.com/topic/876376-thai-lime-scale-remover/

His crew has done a little of this on one area and the results are good enough IMO. In the event that I am not happy with the end product, I will not refill the water and look for someone to try the
@forcebwithu 's muriatic acid solution treatment.

We shall see.

13 hours ago, forcebwithu said:

I just remembered another option for solar heating and that is a simple solar pool cover. I used one when I had a pool back in the US and it worked reasonably well, even in the cooler climate of Wisconsin.

I expect it work even better here as it would help retain the heat in the water during the cool nights, as well as provide increased solar heating during the day. Two other benefits would be reduced water loss due to evaporation and keeping the wind born crap out of the water.

I have looked into this. One costs about 10 K in Thailand. We shall see. Nice looking pool lady. 🙂 

Dear Lord -> the pussies of the Midway team's management strikes again.

Da Bears traded Justin Fields to the Steelers for a 6th round draft choice. Fields was a starting QB1. Da Bears hold the #1 draft choice in the upcoming draft and will take the highly touted Caleb Williams out of USC. Williams is being touted as a generational talent, who has never taken an NFL snap. Fair chance he is a bust. 

The Bears saved a few short term nickles. They probably could have gotten much better value for Fields in October after the first wave of NFL QB injuries had occurred. Or also needed him desperately to fill in for the injured rookie.

grumble, grumble

Day 4 - Late Morning - Grouting Continues

Hmm - looks like they have added a new guy. See the green shirt near the top of the foto. Appears to be a supervisor type.

I watched a movie that I liked this afternoon.

"In Bruges" 2008 IMDB 7.9.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Bruges

Excellent crime drama IMO.

Colin Farrel and Brendan Gleason (Mr. Mercedes) are the leads. These two actors pair together in an excellent manner. They reunited in the 2022 movie "The Banshees of Inisherin" IMDB 7.7, which is also excellent.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Banshees_of_Inisherin

Both movies are recommended.

8 hours ago, Jambo said:

Beware, watching this film. It could affect your pocket.

Following such a positive recommendation I decided to try to find this film.

Firstly I searched on Netflix but they did not have it available. Then I tried Prime video as I have an account through Amazon. I do not watch a lot through Prime and never films that require an additional payment. Up came this film available for free for 7 days through a streaming service which included the word "Chanel" in its name. 

The film starts to load as a message comes up on my phone telling me that I had subscribed to "Channel" and my first monthly subscription  will be deducted through my bank details already held in my Prime account after 7 days!

f**k that!

 I spent the next few minutes cancelling my "Channel" subscription then started to watch the film as entitled by my 7 days free period. 😊

I am sorry but we must have very different views on what constitutes a "masterpiece". I have nothing against a film containing a high degree of violence. For instance, "Pulp Fiction" is one of my favorite films with a lot of violence but you find yourself cheering for the bad guys. I have never watched a Tarantino film I haven't liked.

I gave up on "The Place beyond the Pines" after the young policeman started to go to pieces. I just didn't care enough whether he got over shooting the character played by Ryan Gosling. The Ryan Gosling character was impossible to relate to because he had absolutely no redeeming features. He was a complete violent waste of space and there was absolutely nothing to like about him. I simply had enough of watching him and thus when he was shot dead by the policeman I gave up on the film.

I don't believe I have ever watched a film before that didn't feature a single likeable character. Maybe the female shrink excepted? 😃

 

With regard to the cost issue, I use IPT to download videos. This gets me all sources at no per video charge. Several of us who live here in Thailand use this service. I do pay a few hundred USD a year for VIP service. I am a heavy user. It is up to any user what kind of commitment they want to make financially. 

IPT (a bittorrent supported service) is probably technically illegal in some countries, but nobody seems to give a shit. If anyone has interest in trying IPT, please PM me. IPT requires that you are invited by an existing member in good standing. That I am and I receive no financial benefit from inviting other users. I have over 50 invites to share. Please be aware that if I do not know someone through board interactions, I will be unlikely to share an invite. My account could be jeopardized, if I invite someone and they stir up shit.

On 3/11/2024 at 12:19 PM, Glasseye said:

I just started watching "Slow Horses" on Apple TV +. Brill, so far.

Good show. I have one episode left in S03. The Gary Oldman character (Jackson Lamb) is great.

I first noticed Oldman in his roled as Sid Vicious in "Sid and Nancy". In Oldman's words ->

The 1984 production of The Pope's Wedding had been seen by director Alex Cox, who offered Oldman the part of musician Sid Vicious in the 1986 film Sid and Nancy. He twice turned down the role before accepting it, because, in his own words: "I wasn't really that interested in Sid Vicious and the punk movement. I'd never followed it. It wasn't something that interested me. The script I felt was banal and 'who cares' and 'why bother' and all of that. And I was a little bit sort-of with my nose in the air and sort-of thinking 'well the theatre—so much more superior' and all of that." He reconsidered based on the salary and the urging of his agent.

On 3/11/2024 at 10:32 AM, Pumpuynarak said:

I'm currently on Season 3 and i'm quite enjoying it, trouble is for me i have to concentrate on what is being said to ensure a complete understanding lol

I have watched the show through s06. I agree that it fell off after S04. I will give S07 (last season) a try. I hear that the Bobbie Axelrod character (Damian Lewis) returns for half of S07. That character was not part of S06 (he needed a break for family time). I did not care for S05 or S06 all that much. Love the Wags (David Costabile) character.

1 hour ago, Scottie said:

I still can,t get into my account.

I would suggest contacting one of the PA Admins. They tend to be pretty good to work with.

11 hours ago, Toy Boy said:

I've been living here for 20 years and swimming almost every day, and I'd never bother with a pool heater. For the few weeks of the year when the water might be a bit chilly for our tastes - and this 'Winter' there wasn't a single day in that category as far as I'm concerned - it's much more economical to just buy a wet suit.

Or just take the philosophical view and embrace the joys of cold water swimming, it's been proven to have many health benefits...

...including improving your libido, so the missus will be happy, lol.

Noted and disagreed with. 🙂 

4 hours ago, KhunDon said:

Could you possibly breakdown the Thai government fees of 12,000 and  tell me what they are for. Never heard of that one before. 

Are the association fees for upkeep of roads common areas like gardens etc Within the gated community?

Cheers. 🤗

The Thai government fees (I could have said this better to start with) are the bill for the annual Accounting work related to the company that owns the house we live in. You probably know this already, but a Farang can not own a house or property directly. The way around this is to form an LLC that owns the house and we in turn own shares of the LLC with myself appointed as the only shareholder with voting rights. A Thai LLC must file annual accounting reports with the government. 

I considered putting the house in the Mrs name, but in the unlikely event that I outlive her I might end up living in a cardboard box under the overpass where Thappraya meets Second Road and Phratamnak. The druggie who has been living there for years might not send over the welcome wagon. 🙂 

The association fees cover everything you mentioned as well as Garbage service, very good security teams, a fitness club, a very large common area pool with lots of kids stuff, and some other things I am probably forgetting at the moment. I just looked up the Association Payment and it was actually 18,900 for the entire year. They give one the option to pay monthly but that ends up costing about 2000 more, so I just pay it for the year.

34 minutes ago, forcebwithu said:

When the pool is full have you ever tried the quick access method to the pool from that window? 

I am going to give you a solid NO to that q. I would probably break a leg just trying to get out through the window, not to mention where things would likely go from there. 🙂 

Early Day 3 for the Pool Work

Well they certainly came with enough manpower. They actually tried to come out yesterday (Sunday), but Security would not allow them access to the overall property. Evidently there is a no work on Sunday rule that I was unaware of.

1 hour ago, forcebwithu said:

@ChiFlyer, weren't you at one time thinking of going solar for a pool water heater? I would hazard a guess at this latitude it would be a lot more cost effective than an electric or gas pool heater.

That is a possibility. I will get back to looking at this in the fall. I really do not need a pool heater until Loy Krathong or so and it is only needed through Chinese New Year of so.

I have to say that it has been a somewhat expensive month to be a homeowner out our way.

The association has had some water supply problems that they are blaming on PWA. We have had to buy 1500 THB of water to keep out tanks operational.

At the same time both the pool and house water pumps went out. Cause and effect? Maybe and maybe not. The house is over 10 years old and these pumps have never been replaced before. 12000 THB.

We had some light maintenance done with regard to some electric work. 8000 THB.

Due to changing our internet service (had to do) we had to replace two of our CCTV cameras. 4000 THB.

Like I already said the pool work is 50,000 THB.

Annual accounting costs for home ownership with Thai government 12,000.

Annual association fees 18,000.

That's over 100,000 of unplanned to some extent expenses. The message is -> if one wants to become a house owner, be prepared to cover a buffer.

The upside is that most of these fees should not be recurring, except the annual ones.

A downside is that the estimated cost for a pool heater unit is 200,000. Not sure if I am going to do that and would not need until after Loy Krahthong. Also need to start thinking about a new car (probably about 2M).

Other people are worried about getting food on their family table and I am bitching about my budgeting problems. Shame on me.

I really do not follow college basketball that closely, but have enjoyed March Madness over the years.

The brackets will be set tonight (March 17th) at 6 PM EDT.

Any interest in having a pool here? I would be willing to help out with the admin. I would suggest a minimal entry fee of say 1000 THB, with winner takes all. If this goes against board policies, all apologies.

8 hours ago, Glasseye said:

 

So.... If going down to Jom beach for the day should be easy getting down there, but coming back might be hellish ?

Would waiting until 8 or 9 pm make it doable ?

 

Now that I am thinking about it I wouldn't be using Suk anyway (I think). Baht busing it.

I would suggest taking a look at Google Maps. Their direction screen will show one where the congestion is.

My experience was very much like what FBW described. It took a couple of minutes and I was on my way again.