Oswulf

Slightly confused by the title of this tread. I'm pretty sure it was "Mr. Alastair Cooke"- not "Miss".

Anyway, I greatly enjoyed his weekly ramblings on Radio 4 on a Sunday morning.

I was, however, greatly shocked by what happened to his body after he died, and here I quote from Wikipedia:

On December 22, 2005, the New York Daily News reported that bones of Cooke and many other people had been surgically removed before cremation by bodysnatchers working for a tissue-recovery firm. The thieves allegedly sold the body parts for use in (among other things) dental and bone implants. Ironically, the cancer that Cooke was suffering from prior to his death had spread to his bones, making them unsuitable for transplant and implant therapies.

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

It's a sad, sad world we live in.

I need some work done on my teeth (fillings and caps...cracked tooth)

Does anyone know of a good cheap place (can those 2 words be used in a sentence ha ha)

Thanks

Ritti

Not the cheapest (but still a fraction of the cost in the West), and very good (far better than I ever experienced going private in London): http://www.asavanant.com/

After several false starts I was able to track down the motherboard manufacturer, and then identify the chip for the Ethernet device. Then I was able to download the appropriate driver.

Support from HP has been pathetic, and the motherboard manufacturer (Asus) doesn't even admit that they manufacture the particular motherboard on their website.

At least Intel's website is helpful.

(As for the suggestions of using HP's chat service - every time I've tried it fails to work.)

Thanks for the advice. Issue resolved.

There is no driver installed whatsoever - Windows XP SP2 fails to recognise the device.

I can't buy a separate Ethernet card - there's a sticker on the back of the PC that says opening the back invalidates the warranty.

My only slight satisfaction from this whole affair is that they sent me a "Customer Satisfaction Survey"; they scored 0/10 - not that that will make any difference to me.

Last week I bought a high spec HP Pavilion a6185l PC. Since then I've had nothing but grief.

The computer comes with FreeDOS installed (totally useless, of course), so I installed a legit copy of Windows XP SP2 plus all the drivers available from the HP website. The video driver failed to install, so I was left with a sexy widescreen LCD display in 800x600 mode. Repeated emails to HP failed to resolve the issue. They said it was a hardware problem and I should take the PC in for inspection. I eventually solved the problem myself by loading the drivers directly from NVIDIA (a six hour download, but whatever ...)

Then I needed the Ethernet driver so I could network my new PC ... and they tell me there isn't one available.

I haven't asked them yet about the absence of sound.

HP's support is totally and absolutely f*cking useless.

Should I just return my PC to the store tomorrow? Or does anyone have any suggestions how I can get the missing drivers?

UTL is an excellent school for the serious learner of Thai.

You study either 4 hours/day (mornings) or 3 hours/day (afternoons), 5 days/week. Each "module" lasts about a month. Reading and writing is introduced in module 3. From module 5 there are daily homework essay-writing assignments (at first I was spending 3 hours/day on the homework. This came down to about an hour by the end of module 6).

Class sizes are small. I wasn't ever in a class of more than 8 students (though some classes had up to 12 students).

Most of the students are Korean and Japanese, so you're forced to use Thai to communicate with them (unless you speak Korean and Japanese). I see this as a plus. (And there aren't to many missionaries - another plus.)

The school is in the Times Square building on Sukhumwit, between sois 12 & 14. Closest BTS station, Asoke.

The UTL website is at http://www.utl-school.com/english/home.php

Tapas Cafe, on a small subsoi off Sukhumwit 11 (first turn on the left as you head down the soi, then follow the road around) serves paella twice a week - Friday and Saturday night at 8 p.m. if memory serves me right. Their website is http://www.tapasiarestaurants.com/

Have you noticed that in the magazine and on their website they promote the three new add-on packages - but don't give the prices? Basically, they want you to 'phone up, then give you the hard sell.

Anyway, in the interest of saving people a 'phone call, the costs are as follows:

Price for Platinum package customers

- HBO Package 150 Baht

- Discovery Package 120 Baht

- Disney Package 100 Baht

All Package 299 Baht

Price for Gold package customers

- HBO Package 220 Baht

- Discovery Package 190 Baht

- Disney Package 170 Baht

All Packages 490 Baht

I'd second the Health Oasis Spa recommendation. The accomodation is simple, with fan and aircon rooms available. And, OK, there's a lot of New Age nonsense that you're supposed to swallow (e.g. boxes with batteries which "rid your body of worms"), but if you want supported "fasting" (actually involves drinking lots of diluted fruit juice, pills and cups of mud several times a day) and regular, self-administered colonics, it's fine. They also do "proper" fasting, but that's not the norm.

The website is at http://www.healthoasisresort.com/

It's not cheap by Thai standards, but is quite a bit cheaper than a 5* spa.

Oh, and it has a swimming pool, which is good because the beach isn't very good for swimming (too shallow and too many rocks).

Have a reasonable breakfast in the morning, and then nothing ( except for a few very light cups of coffee ) till evening.

Basically, you're keeping your body in "starvation mode" - it's trying to preserve its reserves. If you're serious about losing weight, it's better to eat a lot of smaller meals through the day (say, 5 or 6 meals a day at regular invervals). This keeps your metabolism up, rather than encouraging it to lay down fat/preserve what fat you have because it thinks you're starving.

Went to emmigration last week - was busy with 45 people before me but after 2 hours+ wait the actual renewal of my investment visa(based on condo) went smooth.

For what it's worth, I had a similar experience a couple of weeks ago at Suan Plu. Renewal of Non-Im B based upon 3 million Baht deposited with Krung Thai Bank. Two hours of waiting (the seats are really hard), then 40 minutes to process the application. (They had problems finding my paperwork because I'd got a new passport a couple of weeks previously.) The only paperwork I forgot was copies of my various bank books.

Basically, a doddle.

For me, allopurinol (generic) (a.k.a. Zyloprim or Zyloric) works well.

From Boots (I don't want to buy a cheap fake), the 100 mg tablets are 800 Baht/100, and the 300 mg tablets are 2000 Baht/100.

Well I bought recently (from hospital prescription Bangkok hospital and St Mary hospital in Korat) Alopurinol 300 at 500 baht/100 pcs.

Yesterday I went to Boots and I checked the supply list:They don't have alupurinol 300 on their list but Alinol 300 at 380 baht/100 pcs.Lady told me it was the same.On the list they wrote:Alinol(alopurinol).

Good point. The generic versions are cheaper. The prices I quoted were for the branded Zyloric.

Maybe a little far for you - it's actually just outside Ayutthaya - but the food is excellent (mostly fish, prawns), and the view is beautiful.

http://www.chowprayahut.com/

Oh, and the English menu is very short - the Thai version is much more comprehensive.

For me, allopurinol (generic) (a.k.a. Zyloprim or Zyloric) works well.

From Boots (I don't want to buy a cheap fake), the 100 mg tablets are 800 Baht/100, and the 300 mg tablets are 2000 Baht/100.

If your symptoms are mild, start with 100 mg/day, and work up slowly.

If you get any sort of rash, stop immediately. (In theory you can restart with 50 mg/day after a couple of weeks, then work the dose up, but I'd recommend doing so under the supervision of a decent doctor.)

When I tried Atkins, I was almost immediately in agony - I needed to up my dose to six times the norm. I won't be trying low-carb diets in the future.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor - if in doubt, or you have unexplained symptoms, talk to a proper doctor.

Can anybody help with infomation about getting to Ayutthaya from the airport?

My plane doe not arrive until around 10.30pm and I would like to head straight from the airport to Ayutthya.

Do buses or trains still operate at this time of night or would it better to take a taxi? If taxi how much?

From Ayutthya I would like to head to Kanchanaburi.... what is the distance between these towns? What is the best way to get there.

After Kanchanaburi I would like to head north to Chang Mia. Is it easier to go back to Bangkok and fly as my time is limited and I have read that taking trains will waste a lot of time , is this true?

many thanks for your help in advance.

From the airport to Ayutthaya, take a regular taxi. (Go down one level from arrivals, then out of the building for the taxi ranks. It's not signposted very well.) The official fare is 1,000 Baht - though you might have to haggle a little. The trip should take about 1 1/2 hours at that time of night.

From Ayutthaya to Kanchanaburi, you can do it by public bus. You might have to change once, depending on the route. Otherwise, speak to your hotel/guesthouse, and they can probably arrange a car and driver. It's about a 3 hour trip by bus.

Personally, I'd do Kanchanaburi first, then you can easily catch the train from Ayutthaya direct to Chiang Mai. Travel overnight and save yourself the cost of an hotel room/gain an extra day of holiday. (That said, the trains are often a couple of hours late, so be prepared to wait.)

If you really want to do Kanchanaburi to Chiang Mai direct, you've got a longish trip from Kanchanaburi to Bangkok, then got to get across town and out to the airport. It really doesn't make a lot of sense.

How about reversing your trip? Possibly one night in Bangkok (or the expensive airport hotel). Fly to Chiang Mai. Overnight train to Ayutthaya. Bus to Kanchanaburi. Then back to Bangkok by rather quaint, slow train, or faster minivan.

I found out that he had been viewing porno because when I clicked on IE, the homepage had been shifted to a porn site plus they were numerous other sites stored in the favourites list. I have changed the homepage backed to msn home and also deleted all the porn sites from the favourites list. I could not use the eraser prog but managed with the ccleaner but not sure how thorough it was.

I am not a "holy" or a strict moralist but the problem was that some of these sites were totally sick such as sex violence and beasility. I know that a young guy has hormonal surges but I am worried about this and that why I was wondering whether I should talk to him (though I know I ain't the right person to advise" or should I subtly mention it to his dad. He has been a very nice and helpful kid but just concerned.

Any advice of totally getting rid of all traces would be helpful plus what i should do with this kid.

This posting puts a different perspective on it. I'm 99.999% certain the kid didn't change your home page or add the porn favorites. He (and you) were the victim of some hopeless security holes in Internet Explorer which allow malicious websites to change your home page and favorites. He may have visited a porn site, but equally may have visited "fluffybunnies.com", "cutekittens.com" or "americanapplepie.com" (should such sites exist - I haven't checked). Any site (if you use Internet Explorer) can make these changes.

Ccleaner is very thorough. Your PC should be restored to a suitably "holy" state.

And if you want to talk to the guy, simply tell him it's wrong to use other people's computers without permission. No need to mention the specific sites. The links you see are those chosen by the dodgy website he visited, and are not a reflection of his personal preferences. He'll be sufficiently embarrassed by your confrontation; it won't happen again.

And in the longer term, ditch Internet Explorer and use Firefox or Opera as your browser. (They're both free and don't have the nasty security holes of IE.)

How do I remove all traces of this on my hardware. Are there any reliable softwares, etc. Also should i tell his parents about this?

Try CCleaner - http://www.ccleaner.com/ It does a great job of removing almost all traces of indiscretion - though it won't defeat a full forensic examination. No commercial product would. It's free.

As for telling his parents, why? Weren't you an over-sexed teenager once?

Can I abbreviate March as นี. or must I abbreviate it as นี.ค.

The reason I ask is because no other month of the year begins with น.น้า สระอี (the closest one is นิถุนายน). Has anyone ever seen March abbreviated as นี.?

This is a bit like asking whether one can abbreviate "February" as "F." because no other month begins with that letter. Abbreviations are established by usage, and the abbreviation for this month is มี.ค..

It is supposed to be illegal to ride motorbikes on the pavement

Actually, last time I read the Thai "Highway Code" it's legal to ride motorcycles on the pavement, as long as the road is congested.

Haha. Not sure if that's a joke, but it would not surprise me at all

Is there really such a thing as the Thai "Highway Code" ? Is there an english language version ?

Is it legal to ride a motorcycle in the wrong direction down a main road ? I'm very curious.

It's not a joke - but it's only in Thai (though people doing a driving test do get a brief glance at an English translation).

It's not legal to ride a motorcycle in the wrong direction.

And I'm sure you're very curious, too.

Nationwide VISA debit card continues to give onshore rates.

27 Feb - small purchase - 69.852

[quote name='RHCP' date='2007-03-02 20:47:05' post='11741

It is supposed to be illegal to ride motorbikes on the pavement

Actually, last time I read the Thai "Highway Code" it's legal to ride motorcycles on the pavement, as long as the road is congested.

This sounds like great news for the motorcycle riders. Presumably the government will be building suitable shelters for them off the pavement so they aren't exposed to the sun and rain day in, day out - somewhere they won't have to breath in exhaust fumes all day. And it will undoubtedly provide toilets for them, too.

These guys provide an essential service, yet currently have awful working conditions, and work for a pittance. I'm glad to see that the authorities are giving them their full support.

Oswulf were your transactions for bill payments or ATM withdrawals - and if the latter then which type of card?

Two were purchases, the third a cash withdrawal - all made using a Nationwide VISA debit card.

Looking at my last few transactions, the rates were:

26 Jan 70.332

27 Jan 69.974

29 Jan 69.974

I'm pretty sure that these are the on-shore rates.

Opposite her work is an English Language school.

Not all English Language schools are created equal. Schools with Thai teachers will be cheaper, but student progress will be poor since (almost all) Thai teachers can't pronounce English correctly and have a poor grip of how English is actually used.

I would suggest that she heads to AUA which only has native English speakers, and is slightly cheaper than other similar schools because it's a not-for-profit organisation. (It also has a smaller proportion of alcoholics, sex fiends and drug abusers than other schools, in my experience.)

Thirty hours costs 2,400 Baht.

http://www.auathailand.org/

(And no, I don't work for them.)