smileydude

I understand where your coming from and I think its natural to have this kind of resentment because you have devoted a lot of time, effort and resources towards your step-daughter's upbringing. Basically you have been a great step dad and from the sound of things I think your step-daughter appreciates this. I don't know the circumstances of your wife's divorce but if her ex is a decent man and not a criminal or druggie it would be emotionally beneficial for a child growing up to know and keep in touch with her biological father. I commend your wife on that as it considers the concerns of the child before the parents differences. As for her your wife's ex not supporting his daughter to a significant extent I think thats between your wife and him and you have done your part but that does not include making decisions on your daughter's behalf. Be the bigger man and be supportive for only you know in your heart that what you did was because of unconditional love for your wife and daughter and that your daughter's happiness is whats most important. Your daughter being a smart girl I'm sure she knows who has given her this unconditional love and when she gets into Cambridge will think of you first and foremost. You are far more luckier then him as you get to see your wife and daughter everyday. He doesn't.

Starting to sound like potential hollywood movie fodder.

Its unbelievable how desperation and superstition can make people believe in such ridiculous rituals.

Nothing more then a rapist with a scam. Neuter him and throw him in jail (forever).

Since you don't know whether you contracted chickenpox as a child you could opt for a vaccination to play it safe as symptoms are more severe in adults but it might be a matter of protecting yourself a little too late as you might have already caught it.

Its a common misperception that if you had chickenpox as a child that you won't get it as a adult but this is not necessarily true.

Immunity from either naturally acquiring the disease or getting vaccinated is not guaranteed to be lifelong.

I don't know your age or past medical history so I cannot determine whether you are in a high risk group that justifies vaccinaton but

according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, clinical trials have demonstrated that varicella vaccine is 70% to 90% effective for preventing varicella and more than 95% effective for preventing severe varicella, so it comes down to cost benefit to you.

Some people think its better to try to protect yourself while others might think its a little too late for that. Depends on you.

Most of the reputable hospitals in Thailand like Bumrungrad Hospital on Sukumvit soi 3, Samitvej Hospital (Sukumvit soi 49) or Bangkok Hospital on Petchburi Road who have JCI Accreditation are more then capable of providing the vaccination. More importantly is to request a reputable drug like Varivax manufactured by Merck and globally as Varilrix by GlaxoKline Smith. http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/v/varivax/varivax_pi.pdf

Best of luck and hope you don't get it.

"Its a common misperception that if you had chickenpox as a child that you won't get it as a adult but this is not necessarily true."

Very true. I had it as a child and again around 29 years. Don't remember what it was like as a child, but I do remember it was pretty bad as an adult.

Same here. My mum told me I got it when I was less then a year old and I contracted it again from my daughter when I was 35. It was a week of being unable to sleep due to the pain and still have scars to show till today. Sometimes when you get it at too young of an age your immune system's reaction isn't strong enough to maintain lifelong immunity (weak B cell memory response).

Since you don't know whether you contracted chickenpox as a child you could opt for a vaccination to play it safe as symptoms are more severe in adults but it might be a matter of protecting yourself a little too late as you might have already caught it.

Its a common misperception that if you had chickenpox as a child that you won't get it as a adult but this is not necessarily true.

Immunity from either naturally acquiring the disease or getting vaccinated is not guaranteed to be lifelong.

I don't know your age or past medical history so I cannot determine whether you are in a high risk group that justifies vaccinaton but

according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, clinical trials have demonstrated that varicella vaccine is 70% to 90% effective for preventing varicella and more than 95% effective for preventing severe varicella, so it comes down to cost benefit to you.

Some people think its better to try to protect yourself while others might think its a little too late for that. Depends on you.

Most of the reputable hospitals in Thailand like Bumrungrad Hospital on Sukumvit soi 3, Samitvej Hospital (Sukumvit soi 49) or Bangkok Hospital on Petchburi Road who have JCI Accreditation are more then capable of providing the vaccination. More importantly is to request a reputable drug like Varivax manufactured by Merck and globally as Varilrix by GlaxoKline Smith. http://www.merck.com/product/usa/pi_circulars/v/varivax/varivax_pi.pdf

Best of luck and hope you don't get it.

He's most likely not in a normal state of mind. Someone needs to notify the Norwegian Embassy with a smartphone pic of him. Kindness by giving him money will only prolong his suffering at the hands of mozzies and possibly other various non-hygienic diseases. He needs psychiatric help and a ticket back to Norway.

And the Oscar for best special effects and female actress goes to.............

Common especially during floods to see snakes and other assorted animals climb up electricity poles and short-circuit wires.

We had a 3 meter python that cut off electricity in the Bangna area for a few hours.

I've found crispy rats in my breaker box several times.

Nobody's stealing Thai passports.

They're going to Thailand to steal western passports.

That's a different problem entirely.

Keep your eye on the ball.

Agree, now the next question is are Italian, Austrian or other western passports that easy to forge?

All conjecture as no sexual assault occurred. Would love to see your crime stats that "attractive" women are more likely to be raped. Lastly, I would say we disagree on what constitutes attractive in the first place, but I would imagine my standard might be significantly higher.

My point, which you skillfully avoided entirely, is that for a lone woman who is attacked and robbed etc. by a gang of men - the possibility of rape is a very real and terrifying certainty, whether or not it occurs.

I myself am a lone woman and was mugged, robbed and home-invaded numerous times in England. And it terrified me because of the possibility of rape.

Re; attractive, of course it plays a part in rape, for the obvious reasons that are related to sexual arousal in males. What constitutes attractive will obviously vary from person to person, but a highly desireable female means just that - she is an object of desire, willing or forced.

In either case my point remains unchallenged, it is terrifying for a woman to be chased up a back street by a gang of men and I can promise you that what she is most terrified of is not having her mobile phone stolen.

I admire your tenacity in trying to get your point across and I feel it is valid.

Problem is people who tend to disagree with others have this problem with agreeing to disagree.

I try to watch Yingluck's interviews in hope of seeing some signs of intelligence and the silver lining in the cloud (by absconding) but every time after about a minute into the interviews I just cringe and all hope fades due to the painfully halting english and scripted content that obviously shows she has no idea what she's talking about.

I lose a few IQ points every time I listen.

The Chinese spotted it first?. Hmmm interesting unfolding of events. So the conspiracy theory that Chinese fighter jets shot down the plane because they did not want to negotiate with hijackers in releasing imprisoned Uyghur dissidents might be carrying some weight? No one searched for the plane for 2 days. It has been suspected that the Vietnamese navy were informed of the incident by the Chinese and possibly a cleanup op done. With the Chinese involved I wonder if we will ever know the truth.

It would have been a lot less tragic if a car plowed into a group of politicians crossing the road.

Of course only the politicians died while the car passengers looked on in amazement at all the crap splattered on the floor.

RIP to all those killed and hope the elephant recovers.

I bet there are alot of disappointed politicians who lost the opportunity to a 30-50% cut.

Oh well I'm sure they'll find a way to pillage the state coffers just as sure as the sun always rises.

looks like a two-legged vermin to me

Unless directly behind that sliding door is aromatic smelling food I doubt animals would attempt to shimmy a door

It works both ways. Yingluck could be just as upset by having an evil brother using her as ticket to return home.

Maybe its time to go "Singapore style" and up the ante on capital punishment perhaps?

But then again under the Thai penal code, the death sentence can be applied to 35 crimes, including drug trafficking and yet we're still the hub of drug and human trafficking.

So its up to enforcement which is lax because the enforcers have their own hands down the honey pot so if capital punishment was seriously undertaken Thailand would lose most of its police force and high-ranking military personnel.

Not a bad place to start I think.

I don't see it happening on a large scale. For some reason western women in general tend to find asian men aesthetically less appealing when compared to western men finding asian women attractive.

Some Thai men can appear more sensitive and attentive to a womens needs with less machismo which western women may find appealing but the downside is these same men can be over-possessive to the point of smothering hyper-jealousy.

Cultural differences will usually kill off most relationshps that is why inter-racial relationships will never be common and we're not even talking about the parents getting along thing yet.

I think its great if women who are in their 40's or 50's can find companionship but with that market already quite limited in their home countries I think it will be even more restricted abroad.

My only concern is opportunists and gold diggers so tread carefully especially whenever dealing with someone much younger.

Malaysia would love for Thailand to be the hub of anything but success but lets not forget 2 out of 4 of the passports of dubious origins came from China. So is China the hub of crime also? I see the start of a blame game but at the end of the day Malaysian Immigration and Airport Security will have to take full responsibility for their failure. As for terrorism that is the responsibility of the world to fight.

Despite the cynicism reflected here on TV Thailand still has something to offer.

Just have to find our power players a place to stand and benefit otherwise they won't stop the ruckus.

Hey Smileydude you state that this is a list of corrupt projects

Rice pledging scheme

One tablet per student

Medical supply purchasing scandal

Steyr fire truck purchase

My information is that at least the first two items have not been shown to be corrupted so far. If you are a higher source of information then I have to assume that you are corrupt yourself. This is because you claim to know what the outcome of the investigation of the Rice Pledging Scheme will be because such has already been decided by yourself before before the investigation has concluded.

You sound like a lawyer wearing red shades.

In the past it was mostly petty corruption.

You could compare the span of corruption nowadays to a lake as opposed to a few drops before.

Most people are NOT AWARE of high level corruption because as in its name, its high level, you don't come into direct contact with it nor can you understand the complexity as corruption has been fine tuned so much to avoid the radar and the law at times.

You're not very well informed in this case. Do you recall why the Chatchai government was known as the "Buffet Government"? Do you remember why it took so many years to fill up Swampy and how those contracts would be re-tendered each time a new government formed? Do you not remember any of the previous agricultural subsidy scams? I too could go on and on.

How is it that everyone is so sure about how much corruption occurred at this time or that time such that they feel so confident in comparing their scales? Even the poster acknowledges this in his post.

Your point is taken. My point is not comprehensive. Of course high level corruption existed since the formation of constitutional monarchy type governments BUT Thaksin has taken SYSTEMATIC corruption to a whole new level.

Satish made a mistake and that is his problem now. He should not waste the time of such a truly wonderful person, who should not be dragged into these type of trivial and stressful personal mistakes, and '"put on the spot" in this way.

If you loved Thailand you would not pester such an illustrious person in his elderly frail condition, it is disrespectful.

Especially when Satish is simply receiving the justice promised him - all foreigners were clearly told to avoid protest sites and incendiary rhetoric, and Satish didn't.

Well is your point that the appeal for pardon system is wrong, in which case I think you should concern yourself with the thousands pardoned from the jails every year - or does overcrowding come in to it?

Or is your point that an illustrious elderly person should not be pestered with such minor matters, in which case I think you might be surprised to learn that most of those things would be handled by the Royal Staff.

Or perhaps you are miffed that not just the wonderful Thai people can avail themselves but those Alien foreigners are allowed to as well?

Or perhaps that you just do not like the guy because he believes Thailand would be better off without your precious corrupt and incompetent traitors in the PTP who have stolen from the treasury in huge sums and proven inept in about everything they touch!

I believe its none of the above.

Its just pure respect and love for his Majesty and what he has done for the country.

This is not the time to get the monarchy involved in politics. There is actually no time to do so.

Thai's have to solve the problem among themselves instead of behaving like spoiled children when they don't get their own way go crying to their parents asking them to take sides.

How can any monarchy fail to be involved in politics when monarchies themselves are political institutions?

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and by definition the monarchy is non-political.

Politicians here often bring up the monarchy as sort of a shield of virtue on their side when in fact that are trying to politicize an institution that is not meant to be political.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_monarchies