Gary

They were serious about shutting your phone off. They shut mine off. That was a couple of months after I duly registered my phone and SIM card at a True store. I kept getting messages that I had to register my card. I called the 1331 True service number FIVE times about the messages. FIVE times I was told not to worry because my number was registered. I called them yesterday and will admit that I was more than a little pissed off. After the sixth time I called them, the phone started working again. I told them that if I had any more problems that I would become an AIS customer. I have three True SIM cards and my every day user is the one with the problem. It appears that the other two have had no problems. This simple procedure has caused me a LOT of irritation starting several months ago long before any deadlines. Maybe this guy from True knew what he was doing. I used my backup phone to call them. I had to shut off the problem phone and then turn it back on when he told me. After the reboot, it worked again. He had also asked me what was the phone model that had the problem. It was my Galaxy S5.

I TRIED to read Ulysses and didn't get very far before I gave up. I much prefer the bang, bang action fiction books. I'm not the cerebral type. I don't care at all for porn but I do like fiction books that keep me interested.

I'm now into the Lee Child Jack Reacher series.

When I come in from the north, I stay on highway 331 and the only time I see highway 3 is when I cross it using Soi Chaiyapruk. Before using this route, the worst part of the entire 650 kilometer trip was driving on highway 3, Sukhumvit in Pattaya. That was before this tunnel construction. I expect it is even worse now.

I think if you want the peaberry beans, you are going to have to order them mail order. It's not difficult.

I continue to use Opera. It is much faster (for me) than Chrome or Firefox. I like Opera. It just takes one click to ignore the warning.

Try this link; https://doichaangcoffee.com/products

I had LMG Pacific health insurance. It had a guarantee that they couldn't cancel you because of age. That sounded pretty good. Unfortunately they said nothing about raising the premiums high enough to price you out. US Medicare is useless here in Thailand so I am now self insured. I use an upcountry government hospital and the costs are ridiculously cheap.

I often visit bars on Soi 4 and 5. The last time, I had to pay for my parking at the Jomtien Thani Hotel. I used to give the guard 20 baht and now he insisted on 40 baht. I don't know what they are doing along Beach Road but as of now, it is all torn up. If they are sacrificing parking, it is going to hurt the businesses in that area. There is a limit as to how far I will walk from a parking space to get to those businesses.

I have two 32 inch TV's. One is a Samsung and the other is a Sony. There will be no more Sony products for me. Like Apple, they like to make everything proprietary. The Samsung can use everything I have plugged into it.

It's just another hammer hanging over the people's heads. Laws in Thailand are written so that they can be selectively enforced. Make waves and the government and/or police can find a law on the books to make your life miserable.

I think someone must have Beach Road contract. They routinely tear it up for one reason or another. Corruption?

I suppose that he could get by calling it a large room or what it actually is, a studio. It is certainly not a large condo.

Most of the studios rent for 8 to 10,000 per month. The corner units go for 12 to 14,000 per month. I had my corner unit rented to a friend for 9,000 per month. Since he stayed for 5 or 6 years, I never raised the rent. Good renters like him are hard to find so I never rented it out again.

I would guess that you have to use the crappy iTunes to put the books in an Apple computer. I bought an iPod and couldn't put books from my computer into the iPod without that bloated iTunes program.

I'm not proud of it but all my books were stolen. I downloaded about 7,000 books by paying for the high speed downloads. No way will I ever read all of them. I use Calibre and it puts them into the kindle format.

I've been on a Dean Koontz kick for the past month or so. I have a Kindle Paper White and I read every night in bed until I'm ready to fall asleep. I love Kindle. Some of his books are a little far out but still entertaining.

I have an aversion to high rise condos. Elevator problems, worry about fires and long dark narrow hallways. My condo is in a five story building that has an open area in the center. The building is a rectangle shape with the condo units around the open center. I don't think I could live in a shoe box especially if I had a wife or live in girlfriend. Mine is 60 square meters. I have a separate bedroom with a big TV and a computer. The living room also has a big TV for the lady and her Thai shows. There are separate air conditioners and I very seldom use the one in the living room areas. I'm also within walking distance of nearly anything I want. Choose your unit and location carefully because you may have the condo for a long time. The fast growth of Pattaya and Jomtien may not go on forever.

I would guess that the moral politicians and police will drive our way of life underground. Most of the bars by then will have been closed. Tourist numbers at least for Pattaya will be drastically cut and the moral types will be encouraging family visits. With crappy Pattaya area beaches, tourists will find nicer places. The Pattaya we know will eventually only exist in our memories.

Against the advice of my expat friends, I bought a condo in Jomtien about ten years ago. They told me that I was paying too much and that I would never get my money back. I bought that particular unit because I liked it and wanted to live there. The exchange rate then was about 40 baht to a dollar. I enjoyed living there until I moved upcountry with my Thai wife. I rented it out for more than five years. After my renter moved out, I got it put back in good condition. I enjoy going down there whenever I get the urge and decided NOT rent it out again. It cost me 600 baht per month for maintenance. That condo is in my name and it is like a security blanket for me. It is a place to go if my wife should ever throw me out, one never knows. I certainly have no regrets about buying it. I had always hated renting and considered paying rent a major waste of money. Different strokes for different folks. I like having a home away from home. I can make the trip down there with some clothes in a back pack. It is totally and completely furnished including a washing machine and a computer,

Just listening in on the big bike rider conversations, they were of the opinion that the Ducati was very uncomfortable to ride in heavy traffic due to the amount of heat coming off the engine. No problems with the engine overheating though.

Ahh, Rocky Mountain Oysters. A guy went into a Spanish restaurant for a meal. The guy next to him had a HUGE plate full of meat. The guy told the waiter that he wanted the same thing. The waiter explained that the bull nuts were only available once a day because only one bull was killed and told the guy that he could reserve that meal for the next day. The next day the guy went in and the plate had a couple of marble size pieces of meat. Of course the guy complained and the waiter told the guy that sometimes the bull wins.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the Jolly Friar is the place a friend raved about. He said the fish and chips is as good as he ever had. He said the fish is actually cod and that an Englishman can easily tell the difference in fish.

I've purchased a number of items from invadeIT. Great service and questions quickly answered by knowledgeable farangs. I had two items that failed. One was an SSD and the other a 4 GB memory card. Both items were under warranty and invadeIT handled the warranties quickly and efficiently. This company remains my favorite online store. I have also purchased a number of items from Lazada. Fast delivery and everything was as described, The only problem with Lazada is communication. That was slow, sloppy and not very helpful.

I had over 50 purchases from AliExpress and was quite happy with MOST of the sellers. Unfortunately they have some thieves and AliExpress does nothing to help their customers. The buyer protection is good but the scamming sellers lie very well and if you are stupid and trusting, they are able to get away with their scams. The most expensive I ever bought was a $320 phone. The item arrived but it was defective. It was returned and when it came back, it was in the same defective condition as when I shipped it. It is a VERY long story and since I had paid with a credit card, I was somewhat protected. Bank of America took back the payment and the phone was repaired. I authorized payment again and within a month the phone died again. The last attempt resulted in the seller, Hong Kong Hi5 denied ever selling the phone to me. The phone had a one year warranty. they won because I gave up. Due to all my complaints, AliExpress was very aware that I bought this phone from the scamming seller but they refused to do anything to help me. I canceled my membership.