BeerBelly

Motivation Last night I went to Walking Street and ran into Bushcraft at Le Pub. He hadn't seen me in a while and the first thing he noticed that I had lost a bit of weight. After assuring him my weight loss was by choice, he congratulated me on my success so far. Thinking about it this morning, I thought it might be a good idea for me to share my motivations and experiences along the way. This could be an extremely long post, so I will try to break it down a bit to make it more digestible. First off, I want to discuss my motivation. I was diagnosed with type two diabetes years ago and have been on medication ever since. The two main medications are metformin and glyburide (glymide here in Thailand). From what I understand, metformin is supposed to increase your insulin sensitivity allowing your blood to clear out glucose more efficiently, and glyburide makes your pancreas create insulin. I'll be honest and admit I hadn't really been tracking my blood glucose much and just kept taking the medication I was prescribed, but then something happened. Back in June/July 2020, I started waking up just about every day with numb hands and fingers. At first, I thought this was just poor circulation, but the more I thought about it, I figured it could be the beginnings of diabetic nephropathy, so went out and bought a blood plasma glucose monitor. Basically, this is the device where you insert a test strip into it then prick your finger and place a drop of blood on the strip and it will tell you how much glucose is in your blood at that time. My fasting blood glucose was high...very high at 206 mg/dL. For reference, 80-100 is normal, 101-125 is pre-diabetic, and 126 and above is diabetic. While on medication for diabetes, it should be less than 140. This was a wake up call for me that I needed to do something to control my blood sugar. The most direct method would be to reduce carbohydrates from my diet. Less carbohydrates in, then less glucose in my blood. I've attached an image to show how quickly my blood glucose dropped. In less than two weeks it went to nearly the "normal" range. At that point, I was worried that the glyburide could cause hypoglycemia, so I stopped taking it. But after quickly rising and looking a bit erratic, I started taking it again, but at half the dosage I was before.

Even if plated with gold, they tend to rub off through use.

I saw Mr DIY has Christmas trees on display now as well.

Correct. I went to a National Park a few weeks ago. I don't think there is wide spread national park closures. Having said that, I know in the past, Koh Phi Phi Lei was closed to let the reefs heal. This was from before Covid and is probably still going on.

I saw another story about a plane load of Chinese tourists coming to Thailand in early October. From what I understand, they will go to Phuket. They will have to do the 14 day quarantine and have the insurance. They will have longer visas. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Just saw this on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thailandprd/photos/a.251619424861479/3622457427777645/?type=3&__xts__[0]=68.ARCV8_jSiCs2Raxn1Yke2xtVPRVINJIxBoAa86IoOzViucQ19GiBHzVPjwXReC0D4TWWnSuu30xi_6gZOHxyVyY8Hg4EJzReI64vYubHsuaJ3q02uijPgi0LREfVp5kcFJ0HlI_3mfEKT2MRGhGXtUmCRCnYMsjiTgO72LoimoJP4byWJ-P6zEri8RRM7-GQm9C-6yH2GDUKAv-bbUfWeO-kfWXThGhvVYYqhGapltD0pSe5ECTqHcxZR0QT4aZgsNuf37vQeqv_CQpFb5PFAiHQHt37R7A-XZ-lHqqri0hlOuHZhSyfeDMp4K5oOaPiWnOMGy3zw-tpSFkTypFJSebnxlQ8bQ-1Kw4c1YGLKqF8CrEpjUA-0QHG&__tn__=-R There is no indication of any relaxation of the quarantine, but at least it's a start. Good news for folks in New Zealand, Australia and Singapore.

I think most of those who cannot find work will return home. Many of the Pattaya workers already go home to "help on the farm" during planting and harvesting season of rice.

I'm sure for many of the staff whether PBG re-opens or not is not important. They will move on and hopefully find new jobs elsewhere. If PBG re-opens in 5-7 months time, they will have already settled into their new lives.

Not car related, but can you tell me how much Jetts Fitness charges?

I recall this being discussed on Pattaya Talk years ago. It may have been EvilP who said that "American Breakfast" was the term used for the breakfast served to American GIs way back when. The hot dogs probably came about because when a pork breakfast sausage was described to the Thais, this was the only think they could think, had experience with, or had available.

I went in November, and enjoyed it.

If he saw it fall out of your pocket, why didn't he give it to you sooner?

With a name like 3Bz BurritOz, I always assumed the Oz meant the owner was Australian. I've had it three times, one time at the brick and mortar shop, and for me it was three strikes and now they are out. They have an issue with taste IMHO. The first time I could taste nothing but cumin. The last time, everything was terribly over salted. I don't think they follow recipes and I don't think the cook is consistent nor knows what it is supposed to taste like.

They will start digging on Walking Street soon. https://pattayaone.news/temporary-disruptions-set-to-begin-soon-in-walking-street/

I'm specifically referring to them saying Europe would become uninhabitable after a 2-4 megaton explosion. First, no way to get a thermonuclear explosion from pouring molten radioactive metal into water. Second, a 4 megaton explosion would not render Europe uninhabitable.

I really enjoyed the Chernobyl series, but you have to realize it is neither historically accurate nor scientifically accurate. They greatly exaggerated the danger. For some reason they pretended you can make a multi-megaton bomb from just melted metal and water. It's just not reality. They pretended a hole in your boot could kill you. This was not reality. They implied a pregnant woman could lose her baby because she was near someone with radiation burns....nope. But despite all these times they took me out of the series to express some bullshit "science", I still very much enjoyed the movie/series.

As much rain as Thailand gets, it's a wonder how it's possible there can be a water shortage. This is just poor mismanagement of resources. We are not living in a desert or arid region. The average annual rainfall is 1117.6mm, that's a little more than Washington DC and about double what London gets (583.6mm).

Hmmm... I know it's not the impossible burger, but I heard the Beyond Burger was close. I don't want to try it as a healthy option or anything. I just want to try it to see if all the people "who can't tell it's not meat" are actually lying.

It's not too early to say that this is a fad, though I would try it if it were available.

It's hard to believe anywhere in Thailand can have a water shortage. With as much water as we have been getting, there is no reason the reservoirs should not be full. Sounds like it is just complete mismanagement of resources.

I have a range of Thais that come into my place to eat Mexican. I have a father/son couple that love Mexican food that come in fairly often. I also have Thai wives of Westerners that like Mexican. On the flip side, I have the reluctant Thais that are only coming because their boyfriend/husband wants to eat Mexican food. Generally, the Thais that are coming specifically to eat Mexican are higher educated and have good jobs. They tend to have done some international travelling and enjoy experiencing food from different parts of the world. Those that are reluctant, usually end up eating, and enjoying, quesadillas. Since many Thais are familiar with pizza and a quesadilla is like a Mexican pizza, they are happy with it. Even on occasion, some Thai girl will try to broaden her pallet and test some of the other offerings. The soup is popular, but so are the tacos. One Thai woman comes to mind who really loves Mexican. She drags her Western husband here to eat Mexican food. She works nearby and she will sometimes come alone on her lunch break as well.

Yes, it's the fees that turned me off. They charge fees on both sides of the transaction and fees on top of fees as well. There is the BizPaye profit fee, then the BizPaye additional profit fee, then there is VAT. Another thing that turned me off was fees on the cash side as well. As mentioned, there is an option to charge only a percentage though BizPaye and the rest in cash. Yet the entire amount is charged fees.

Are you finding enough places that accept Bizpaye to make it worth accepting it?

Not exactly. If each Phil and I ONLY had 300 baht to our names, I could buy ingredients to make food for him, and he could buy beer to sell to me, but then neither of us would be able to buy from the other. If we each at 600 baht, then I could spend 300 baht for ingredients, the he could come spend 600 for food at my place leaving me with 900 and he with nothing. So I could NOT go drink at Le Pub because he couldn't stock my drinks. If we each at 900 baht, then I could spend 300, leaving me with 600, and he could come eat at my place leaving him with 300, and me with 1200 , he could then buy beer to sell to me leaving him with 0, until I spent 600 there. In the end, we'd each have 600, 300 less than we started with. I think this is the scenario you are talking about and since neither of us are super poor, it's a more accurate example. However, I think a better analogy would be the use of credit cards. If neither of us had any money, we each could buy from our suppliers with credit cards, then pay each other with credit cards as well. I would owe 300 on my credit card, but would get 600 from his netting me 300 baht (ignoring all fees), but then when I went to his place and charged my beers on my card, I would be back in the hole 300 baht.