rossmore

I've been an addict of the London Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword for many years. and have recently started to tackle The Times, with only middling success so far. Is there a forum member with similar interests who would enjoy metaphorically knocking heads together occasionally especially about The Times.

My Email is [email protected], and I have both Yahoo and MSN Messenger. I live in Bangkok btw.

Does anyone know of a QUALIFIED HYPNOTIST in the Bangkok area ?

Easy to find in The UK but not here. Maybe a clinic or hospital somewhere. I don't want a 'mor-du' type who will take the opportunity to make a farang into a serial killer or suchlike, just someone who can finally help me stop smoking !

One of the main reasons that the level of English teaching is so dire, is that the education authorities wish it to remain thus. This partly explains the ludicrous constraints placed on native speaking teachers. Another example of befuddled Thai nationalism. This ignorance keeps the 'working classes'in their place. The affluent families who pull all the economic strings send their children out West to become fluent English speakers, and thus secure their social and financial position.

Allowing the 'proles' to become English proficient is dangerous to the current social structure here. Cruel, sad, and in the long run in this fast changing world, a dead-ender.

The Nation now has by far the best group of columnists on all subjects, and I believe it is attracting more and more readers. The Post 'Postbag' used to be very large but seems now to be down to a daily handful of letters. By contrast, The Nation 'letters' page is now a virtual pageful when up to not so long ago, it was almost non-existent at times. There must be some significance in that. A hard hitting stimulating paper now, while The Post, still informative, seems to have gone soft. Understandably, as we know what happened to the editor a while back. Congrats to The Nation for standing its ground.

By the way, just what is wrong with the lay-out that one of your contributors complained about ??

Villa have stocked Branston for years at all branches. During the '90s crash it was around a fiver for a small jar !