johna

I had cataract surgery at Rutnin last year, treated as an outpatient total cost for two examinations and operation just under 70000 Baht

I am very happy with Rutnin,

You must take your passport with you on your first visit

China and Spain are taking around a billion $ of fish from these waters every year and, veto all UN resolutions that would curb their plunder of Somali natural resources. Somali having no effective government is unable to halt this plunder.

Brit, American, Danish, and French warships etc, patrol these waters but, don't really want to do more than shoo away pirate boats for fear of repercussions.

Interesting to see that Russians are working on board Thai fishing vessels, is this because Russians are now cheaper labor ??

To cut a long story short I tried repairing MS in add and remove, that failed so I restored my computer to an earlier date, as far back as I could and low and behold it worked.

So thats one headacre over.

I must move documents back and forth between my home and work place and MS is on all computers at work, so only using open office is not a practical solution for me.

My thanks to every one for your good assistance, its much appreciated.

just uninstalled "Live add on 1.3", problem remains the same

I could try reinstalling microsoft office but I don't think that would work??

Yes I can open a Microsoft word document with Open Office, thanks lopburi3

I tried right clicking on the document and click open, that gets me the message "Microsoft Word Not Responding"

I have problems with my antivirus, I removed Avast yesterday in preparation to installing McAfee which failed and I have unsuccessfully run McAfee Virtual Technician, at the moment I am waiting a reply from McFee technical support to resolve this issue.

I have not got a clue if MS Office has real time protection, windows firewall, automatic updates and, virus protection are all switched on but the technical side of PC are beyond me.

windows XP Home

I have tried to open some Microsoft office word and excel documents but, keep getting a Not responding message, I can create a word document but can not open it, any ideas??

The original book on Thai women is "A Woman of Bangkok" by Jack Reynolds first published in 1956.

My copy was a third printing in 1968, If you can find this book grab it.

More than one guy has to sign off on procurement, there's a lot more to this story than we are being told.

The Nation

The committee suggested the officials work with a more service-oriented attitude to the best of their ability. Following the complaint, the office issued a directive for officials to prostrate before any MP they came across, provide service with respect and with the utmost competency.

Super products have every thing you will need in your garden, navigate through their home page to garden tools, GARDENA system, and you will find hedge trimmers on page three.

http://www.superproducts.co.th

I have been quoted a price of between 70.000 and 75.000 Baht for cataract surgery with Toric lens, does this price seem right to you.

does it ever occur to these people that they are a part of the problem, you get the government you deserve.

I stood waiting for traffic lights to change at the corner Soi Asoke and up came a 40ish (Brit?) wearing, shorts,flip flops, and no shirt!!

I moved as far away from him as I could, why would I want to talk to an idiot dressed like this.

Another reason I don't talk to such people is we have not been properly introduced.

Why did you move far away from him? Was he gonna smack you or something?

Also he must have been an idiot because he had no top on?

His dress code showed a complete disregard for local custom, and I do not want to be associated with this type of person.

In her own words, this woman Walked down the steps and then ran across the road, so hardly "Doing a runner"

In bar owner Steve's statement, She did a runner and was caught at the beach.

So who do you and the other posters think is most likely telling the truth?

i think steve is telling the truth

we have a crime scene, lady is the prime suspect, she is frightened, she leaves the crime scene, starts running across the road ...... yep thats a runner.

btw a drunk woman, probably in heals is not going to run down the steps, its impossible.

Steve the bar owner was not there when all this happened, his account is hearsay and should be treated with skepticism.

Steve is not stupid enough to say anything that would contradict the police.

She was probably wearing high heels??

Police in general have no interest in looking further than the end of their noses in solving crime.

I pushed through the crowd and saw a tanned, gaunt man. His boots were worn and his sun-beaten helmet clean. The man had such a formal bearing that, despite the Stars and Stripes, I assumed he was French. I hoped the traveler spoke English, for I didn’t speak a word of French. I thought that they would be “a pretty pair of white men in Bangkok if neither one spoke the other’s language.”

He stepped up to me and said "Doctor Livingstone I presume."

Good news is written in white ink.

The heat, walking across the runway to the arrivals hall, the airport bar would accept foreign currency.

no traffic on Sukhumvit Road in the middle of the day, and every shop in BKK shut down for Chinese new year.

http://www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/3000-the...07.html?page=-1

"After negotiating with a detective - "he wanted the money in an envelope" - the family paid $3000 to have the charges dropped. Ms Smoel pleaded guilty to her charges - in order to leave Thailand - was fined $38 and placed on a good behaviour bond.

"(The detective) told us everything would be sweet and to enjoy the rest of our holiday," Ms Appleby said.

"We could've done like (Mrs Smoel) and fought the charges but he would've been there for quite a few more days. Michael was obviously petrified. There were big, big grey patches in what they were charging him with."

Michael left Thailand for Perth almost immediately. Ms Appleby suspected his drink had been spiked, and said the incidents were a warning for Australians visiting the tourist mecca.

"People need to know to watch out. You need to be with friends and they need to be watching out for each other," she said.

"You have to be careful of having a big night. It's a shame. I don't want to say don't go there, because it can be good, but maybe the bad publicity will make them clean up their act. People there say this sort of thing is happening all the time and Thai prostitutes will drop drugs into Westerners drinks.""

i highlighted the bit , she blames a thai woman for spiking her husbands drink lol

australian media is keen to blame the thai police. bias and shoddy journalism typical of australian media

Sure tourists do stupid things, but people in a legitimate tourist industry's know the best way to handle these things.

Is the Aussie Bar in Phuket so dangerous it needs bouncers and police for security? no I don't think so, it seems they are there not to resolve minor issues but to financially exploit them.

Why exploit tourist, because they are a soft target.

Thai police are paradigms of virtue, no bar girl would spike a customer's drink, every tourist who gets into trouble deserves to be locked up!!!!!

I stood waiting for traffic lights to change at the corner Soi Asoke and up came a 40ish (Brit?) wearing, shorts,flip flops, and no shirt!!

I moved as far away from him as I could, why would I want to talk to an idiot dressed like this.

Another reason I don't talk to such people is we have not been properly introduced.

I should imagine you would get them from the State Railway's of Thailand.

Aren’t these sleepers made from Teak? If so you can plain of the weathered outer skin and you would have brand new looking Teak, and that does not come cheap

I want a hand held GPS to determine Lat and Long only, anybody know a model, price, and where to buy in BKK.

Thanks

Same thing with me, so my wife apply's for credit a card and even though she did not qualify the bank gave her a card?

The bar owner Steve Wood said in a radio interview that he was thinking of suing Annice, for slanderous remarks he alleges she made against him.

Every thing Steve Wood says amounts to hearsay and should be treated with suspicion, Steve is not in a position to say anything against the Phuket chief of police!!

3AW Breakfast spoke to the owner of Phuket's Aussie Bar before he boarded a plane to Bangkok this morning.

Australian Steve Wood says: "I think she just rubbed the wrong people the wrong way,” when asked what happened the night police arrested Annice Smoel.

Wood says he wasn't at the bar when police arrested Smoel.

He says bar employees told him police saw Smoel's friends roll up the bar mat and place it in a bag. He says when police confronted Smoel 'she did a runner'.

Police later caught up with Smoel on the beach and walked the Montrose woman to the Patong Police station near the Aussie Bar.

Wood says he has been told the Patong Police Chief was in the station when police brought Smoel in and he has been told she 'verbally abused him'.

Wood says bar patrons try to steal the mats 'all the time'. He says bar staff usually catch would-be thieves and 'talk' to them about the attempted theft.

In Smoel's situation, he says it's different because police

<<SNIP>> but patents are a monopoly that distort the market and kill competition, Microsoft's market dominance allows it to absorb or destroy any software competitors.

I setup my own business. Not too many staff in the early days,

and we were up against two very big players in the market.

We needed patents to protect ourselves from those two large companies who

could copy our ideas and use their existing might to block us out from the market.

Patents also work for small growing businesses.

Patents are not bad if they adhere to the pre 1982 standard of "originality" but since 82 its out of control, and with the advent of "interlocking patents" with there attendant downstream royalty payments only the army of lawyers you need to negotiate these agreements benefit.

The UK press have picked up this story;

http://www.independent.co.uk

Stolen bar mat lands tourist in Thai jail

Associated Press

An Australian woman arrested for stealing a bar mat from a Thai nightspot appealed today for government intervention to allow her to return home, saying the theft was a practical joke.