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Viagra? Cialis?? Good luck to you guys.

I'm talking about hypertension, cholesterol medication. Maybe something to clear my smoker's lungs from the CM pollution. Thank goodness I don't smoke.

However, I have a wonderful cure, and I'm no longer sneezing and no runny nose or cough. Can't beat the clean air on the Gold Coast!

I've checked out a few pharmacies in Chiang Mai, and ALL are more expensive than in Australia which amazed me. I'm talking about

otc prices and not with health benefits.

The cheapest in CM is the pharmacy at Mee Chock Plaza, exactly opposite McD's as you drive in. Good English, best prices.

you're so right about Thais and water management.

Every day I see the gardener next door watering lawns in the heat of the day, instead of before 8am and at dusk, where the majority of the water will not evaporate.

In Australia, even the toilets have a choice of 'big' flush or 'small' flush, depending on the use. It saves a couple of litres per use, and it all adds up.

Hopefully the thunderstorms forecast for next week will bring some rain.

I'm due to fly out this afternoon on AirAsia.

Just wondering if it's likely they'll stop flights as they have done recently.

Visibility is certainly R.S. this morning.

I live in a gated community where you need a keycard to enter and exit by car. If you don't pay your fees or dues, you don't get a keycard. Problem solved, unless you don't have a car.

We have the same set-up, but the problem is that owners all paid when the remote keys were issued, but now a year later 17 (all Thai) have defaulted on their maintenance. So unless you change the keys every year, an expensive proposition, it's very hard to make them pay. I can see the writing on the wall, now that 17 out of 39 have defaulted, the rest will start to drop out as well, myself included. These bloody free-loaders want all the facilities like street lighting, road sweeping, pool maintenance, security etc, for free. They just don't seem to grasp how quickly a village will go downhill once it's not maintained, which of course affects property values.

Is it possible to change the code, as they do in hotels, and only financial members get the new card and code?

This morning's excuse for 'dawn'.

I think most of us who live here day in and day out understand that our interactions with Thai folks form our opinions and feelings about the Thai. Even simply observing Thai behavior without close interaction can cause some to form strong opinions.

What would really be interesting is to ask this question of TV readers who spend little time here in Thailand. I know that there are a number of readers who visit for a short time each year or who are contemplating a move to Thailand. How has reading TV affected your view of Thailand and its people?

I checked out the web site for CEBU. It was so totally full of whingers, moaners, complaints about everything, that I decided I'd come to Thailand.

Join TV

Guess what?

I can't see why most of these folk even stay here.

Yes, I've been duped and there's a possibility that my new car will be lost to me; however it was my own stupid fault, trusting my friend enough to register the car in his name.

Now he's used it as surety for a large loan

It may come as a surprise to find that other countries, or at least their newspapers, also have suggestions to make about the military takeover here.

While folk are getting their knickers in a twist about who the USA may or may not invite to their dinner table, there are a great many other countries which also have a view.

The latest UK "Guardian" has an interesting editorial, suggesting that the takeover hovers between farce and tragedy, reminiscent of Vichy France's "travail, famille, patri".

Certainly things whizzed along in the first weeks of the takeover, with a number of people with their fingers in the till being taken away, and the editorial commented on the farce of 'impeaching' a Prime Minister who was no longer in power, by an assembly who did not have the power to impeach.

To quote: " The tragedy, as this drifts on, is that Thailand is wasting time that it can ill afford. Its economy is faltering just when it most needs growth. The attempt to fix the country's political future should be abandoned. A return to democratic rule is overdue."

In the North, things do not seem to have changed. Regional airports are closed due to choking pollution and poor visibility: hospital admissions have gone up with respiratory and cardiac problems, most people are wearing facemasks: the police seem to be ineffectual in controlling motorists and motor cyclists, who break every rule there is. I won't even start on the abysmal Immigration offices the expat community has to tolerate.

Does the North have any representation in government?

Well no, no one except for those who are in the government has any representation - that is the nature of a junta government!

Given the fact that the north was, and still is the centre of the former (elected) governments power base, then I should imagine that the chances of them having any representation in the near future are very slim indeed.

That said, I had cause to call in to Chiang Rai Immigration office (which is about as far north as it gets) last week, and they were quick, efficient and very pleasant. In fact the only irritation was from the noise of aircraft landing and taking off from the adjacent airport, which was most definitely open!

F.Y.I. I did say "Regional airports". CNX is an international airport. Regional airports must have clear visibility of at least 5km.

Good to see a positive report about CMI.

We rented a house in QLD a couple of years back. it was like a sauna!

I got onto a wholesaler and had some 150mm insulation supplied (the minimum required for the tropics).

Installed this and it made a huge difference. Daytime room temp went from 45C down to low 30s.

A pity the land lady didn't pay us for this, 6 months later.

If they get swine fever and die or one of the many diseases that pigs get,

or just simple from over heating, you will definitely loose money.

regards Worgeordie

Your money will not only be LOOSE, but it will be LOST.

Sounds tough, but folk here seem so sweet, and it's almost painless as they extract the money.

Bugger being passengers, when are they going to stop them riding motorbikes to school. Everyday I take my daughter to hers I see kids as young as 10 riding bikes passed traffic cops who don't blink an eye.

Here in Chiang Mai, I see 10 year old kids DRIVING motor bikes, and never have I seen anyone riding a bicycle.

Less than half use a helmet.

Chiang Mai University does not set any sort of example, as so called 'educated' students haven't got the brains to use a helmet.

G'day

I'm on 3BB here in Chiang Mai, which is unlimited. Only the speed is the factor determining payment, and mine is 10Mb and it costs ฿ุ630 per month.

I have ABC radio and community radio from Australia going a lot of the day, and afternoons and evening I stream UK TV and also Australia + which has decent programs on in the afternoons/evening.

If I want more up to date news, as Melbourne/Sydney are 4 hours behind Thailand, I go to ABC Perth, which is only 1 hour behind. If you're a 'Makka on Sundays" fan, Perth is the way to go.

At least you don't have men in black campaigning against using condoms.

The Filipinos are brainwashed into believing they are forever damned if they use them, and at the University I worked at in Papua New Guinea, the sisters at the student health clinic refused to issue condoms, even though they had boxes of them in storage.

We can't entirely blame the education system.

how about in Thailand. what are they taught in schools?

No Name Durian ice cream blocks from various sites around Thailand. Yabba Dabba Do !!!!!

Just one of my many secret addictions !!!

I bought 4 tubs of yellow ice cream for my kids at the first airport we landed at in Indonesia.

I handed these out, and the airport crowd had a good laugh as four kids all screwed up their faces and spat out mouthfuls of Durian icecream into the nearest rubbish bin.

I had no idea they put such stuff into food!!!

Don't assume that there will be ANY insulation. There almost never is.

Errrr, Aussies are not generally aggressive people, especially when drunk.......

This must have been an exception.......

RIP, Sanya Khlueawaengmon.

Hope the man that killed you gets what he deserves.

Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.

The concrete poles are not up to the high tech wizardry hanging from them.

I'd only been in Chiang Mai a few weeks, when a strong gust of wind roared down the street in front of heavy rain.

A whole row of these concrete poles were bowled over, taking hundreds of cables and a transformer with them. The cables were so dense that they acted like a sail.

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Hopefully everybody will call him (the Colonel) when they have to pay for free services.

This is maybe the only way to get it stopped.

The Colonel will be too busy for taking calls from foreigners. He made his appearance saving statement and it ends there.

The last time this issue emerged it resulted in "removals" from the Patong office.

Corruption needs to be confronted !

Last time I applied for Residency Certificate in Chiang Mai, I was hit for ฿500.

I don't think the illegal payments are restricted to only one office.

A friend of mine returned to Australia with breathing difficulties. He had a good check-up and chest X-rays and his doctor told him to immediately give up smoking.

The snag was that my friend had never smoked in his life!

The city he'd been living in was Jakarta, and in 3 years there I NEVER saw pollution anything like the gunk/dirt/smoke that we're getting here in Chiang Mai right now.

As unregulated/unchecked diesel powered vehicles still operate here, along with the smoke pollution, it does not look good.

I think you'll find that "unregulated" diesel-fuelled vehicles operate not only in Chiang Mai but nationally and world wide, this has nothing to do with diesel.

1) diesel is included in the mix that we're breathing. It's probably the most dangerous of them all, as the fine particle are carcinogenic..

2) There are a good many cities where diesel powered vehicles are not permitted. Go over to Guangzhou and check it out. Even the motor bikes are all electric now. They know they have a pollution problem and are doing something about it. If the guys in charge made the time to visit here, things might happen.

3) I used the word 'unregulated' specifically because vehicles are meant to have exhaust emissions checked at each annual registration.

4) They are unregulated here for the obvious reason is that it's worth their while NOT to do so. I've watched the bay where they go through, and the emissions tester is not used. Haven't you ever had the joy of following a song teaw?

There's a nice ice cream shop over the river. on the corner of the street which runs down to the British Council/Consul

I have no positive experience or comments on magnets or copper for arthritis. In my opinion, you would be just as well off buying an amulet from one of the vendors outside Big C.

I do have one word for you - turmeric (or tumeric). The yellow powder used in cooking has some incredible properties that are beneficial to those with arthritis. I used to try whatever I could for pain relief, but after using turmeric every day for a year in my breakfast (it has little,if any taste), I am pain-free, no longer take glucosamine, and can do deep squats and back to a stand with no pain. Almost free. If I had the urgent need to, I could probably use a Thai squat toilet without fear of falling in or not being able to get back up.

Sounds interesting. I've been using glucosamine and also fish oil which had been quite successful, but don't know how things would go back in a cold climate.

I'll give your idea a try, but I'll leave the 'missing toilet seats' well alone!

A friend of mine returned to Australia with breathing difficulties. He had a good check-up and chest X-rays and his doctor told him to immediately give up smoking.

The snag was that my friend had never smoked in his life!

The city he'd been living in was Jakarta, and in 3 years there I NEVER saw pollution anything like the gunk/dirt/smoke that we're getting here in Chiang Mai right now.

As unregulated/unchecked diesel powered vehicles still operate here, along with the smoke pollution, it does not look good.