GeoffH

I think the South China sea issue has been left too late for anything other than symbolic gestures and I think Taiwan is in an increasingly dangerous situation. If you'd asked me as recently as 5 years ago if I thought there was a chance of China invading then I'd have dismissed it without a thought but now.. now I am not so sure. It's only a guess but I could see them doing some sort of lightning attack without warning hoping to overwhelm Taiwan's defences, landing large amounts of troops before western countries could respond. I really hope they don't though, the Philippines are entirely too close to the war in that case and western foreigners could be placed in an difficult situation where civilian air traffic is restricted or limited.

I will take a cold shower if that's the only option but a heater (even if just to take the chill off the cold water) is better. It depends upon how much I'm paying, if it's a cheap room in a cheap resort (we're bringing the family) then ok I can live with cold showers but if it's western prices then I definitely expect a warm shower.

You're luckier than we are in Australia, here your principal residence (when it earns a capital gain at sale) is subject to the concessional rate of CGT at 15%, if it's an investment property then it's taxed at 30% (calculated after expenses related to the sale, ie the net sales price - previous property losses can be offset).

That one would have caught me as well... everything I've read has always said that a roofed patio is part of the living area of your house.

who owns a brewery

I agree with your example of Brazil but it is worth noting that even when governments do treat Covid with caution that limited resources can still see things getting out of control... like in India which currently has the second highest number of cases with numbers increasing strongly.

What's the deal with the squatters? Are they annoyed at you? Or your family? We've got squatters (at least I think they are, they might have 'rights'?) behind the tall concrete wall at the back of the lot (outside of the subdivision). There is a small but strong metal gate in our back wall which is normally pad locked from our side and SWMBO papa sometimes hires them to do small laboring jobs around the house and has taken left over food through sometimes after a party. We haven't really had any problems with them so far... touch wood. The relationship between you and your squatters sounds... err... rockier

I was in the middle of editing the post when my computer crashed... now I can't remember what I was going to say *sigh*

Not sure about the EU but in Australia if you aren't resident for 1 day more than half of the financial year you're automatically assessed as a non-resident (which can have some expensive tax implications).

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For vaccines where there is only one alternative that's what happens with me also but where there are competing vaccines of different types to prevent a disease my Doctor has always sat me down in his office and explained the differences. There are for example two types of Rabies vaccine (see link below if you're interested). https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/rabies-vaccine There are more serious reasons to choose one type of vaccine rather than another type however, the cold store Polio vaccine is safe to use anywhere but the oral Polio vaccine is a live attenuated virus and should not be used in some people and/or areas due to the health risk to those particular people (generally immune suppressed or compromised people should not be given live attenuated virus vaccines). As to the Covid vaccines we probably won't have much choice at first, maybe later after the rush dies down.

I have been putting vinegar on my French Fries for a few years now, ever since my Doctor told me that store bought Ketchup and Tomato sauces had too much salt in them (I still prefer ketchup though!).

This is true, and I'm more than willing to try. But Bisaya/Cebuano is surprisingly hard (and languages aren't my stong point) which is why I'm leaning towards Tagalog. You're from Canada... if we think of English as being Tagalog and French as being Bisaya then I'm just trying to learn the more common language of the country like someone learning English for Canada and not French.

I dunno... sounds pretty fishy to me

It is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen (seriously)