McGarty

You hear of many drivers here of mini-buses and trucks taking drugs to keep them going. Maybe this driver was one of them. It sure sounds like it.

I have lost it on a couple of occasions and given a 2 finger salute to some real pain in the ass drivers. It is a heat of the moment reaction to getting all the sh*t some Thai drivers give you with their driving techniques. Luckily nothing has come of it so far.

Apparently they believe if an owl perches on a house then soon someone will die there, especially if there is already someone sick.

Whistling at night invites ghosts into your house.

No sillier than believing there's a sky fairy watching everybodies every move.

Philippine Eagle-Owl (Bubo philippensis)

That is how I heard it too. An owl is a sign of death for someone close by. Have to admit no-one did die though. But superstitions do flow deep within some communities.

A snort of Coke Zero up your nose will definitely make your eyes water.

Yes, this does sound very chaotic. Your main problem was in your house being so close to the fathers house. A few kilometers away would have made all the difference to you. It seems to me that if life was as chaotic as you describe then you were lacking someone to be in charge of event inside your house.

As to the rest of it, where do I begin?

Monks do smoke but they are not allowed to drink.

Gambling? That has happened at all funerals I have been to.

Partying? That is all part of the funeral. Music some dancing, Karaoke too.

Drinking? That is also part and parcel of funeral life. Some will get drunk others will not.

Food. Endless amounts of food. That means many of the ladies mucking in and preparing and cooking

Late nighters. You find those at many funerals. Many do not want to leave. Some drink and party until dawn then the new people arrive and it all begins again.

Crates of Whiskey? They are to be expected as are the bottles of beer.

Everyone wants to drink and talk and pay respects. Yes, there will be some hangers-on.

All those above are no real problem. That is how it is in many cases with village funerals. You expect to be invaded.

50000 Baht was not a fortune and you got the money back. The food, the drinks, chairs, tables, cooking utensils and pots and pans all had to be paid for. The monks also had to be paid. The cost of the cremation etc. Also no real problem.

Many people will have chipped in with money towards the cost that you may not have seen. They usually do. I chipped in 10000 at one funeral. At another I was asked for 5000. I did not really see that as a problem because I was part of the 'family'. You are also seen as one of the richer members of the family so others would come to you for handouts to get home.

I think you personally were ill prepared for what to expect for a village funeral. Next time you know what to expect

If you don't want to tell him, get his email, pass me the details send it to me and I'll send it to him. It keeps you out of the loop and hopefully saves the guy from coming under the blade.

If this were a reverse situation of a weasel foreigner you can bet that every Thai person from the small stall vendor to the banking clerks would be spilling their guts to the woman. It looks like Thai people tend to mind there own business if a foreigner is getting rooked.

One reason why these scammers are allowed to continue is because people stay silent.

+100

Bring the car along if it's 7 years or older, as you then need to test it there as well. Otherwise just the blue book is enough.

I read somewhere a few days ago that the LTD at Regents no longer does the vehicle inspections.

Interesting, hadn't heard anything about that. Last time I was there doing an inspection was June this year, so it's been a few months.

If that's true, then another option close to the OP, is to head out from Pattaya Klang, turn left on Sukhumvit nortbound.

Just after soi 34 there is a shop that does the testing and takes care of insurance and taxes. Here is a link to the location.

Guess it's the same shop that timekeeper mentions.

Supposedly there are more shops like this around, they all have a yellow cog on the sign, but this is the only one that I know the location of.

Downside with these subshops is that you have to hand in the paperwork one day and then come back a day or two later for pickup.

I went there this morning. Quick and easy. Car on the rolling road. Out in 10 minutes. Total cost 2,337 Baht for Tax, Insurance, Inspection. Inspection inluded was 200 Baht as is the 50 Baht service charge. I go back tomorrow and collect the documents. Took the car home with me.

Easy to find thanks to that link. Big sign outside saying Car Inspections.

Thanks for the brilliant link

Not everyone lives in Pattaya, BKK or other large cities. Many of us have also lived out in the sticks or often visit family out in the sticks. That tends to give us a different view of thai life to those who have never been out of the city. Some of us do have friends here and we talk and listen to each others experiences and learn from those or at least take note of the information for future use. Yes there is going to be a lot of bullsh*t about but better to be forewarned and then use your brain and your judgement in the future.

What % is crap? I would not like to hazard a guess but I take in the information and try to weed out the crap. Yet, this is Thailand and so many odd things do happen to people. We are at a disadvantage from not knowing the language too well and in many cases not having any recourse when things do go tits up. So that many of these stories may have basis in fact but be embelished like any good garden fence gossip can be.

Ex Aunty? So she is not a family member?

I would say to hell with it and spill the beans.She sounds a nasty piece of work all round. I would do it gently not maliciously and appraise him of the facts. Then leave it up to him to decide. I would rather be warned, wouldn't you?

Will this cause you great problems? Can you accept whatever may come your way if you do spill the beans?

Recently I had a situation where my g/f boss was on an internet dating site chatting up some Scandinavian man. This same boss already has a Farang boyfriend and is relatively well off from other foreign men she has coerced money out of.

I was asked to meet this new man. I agreed but told the boss and my g/f that I would tell this new man - if he asked me - that the boss is a two timer and already has a foreign man.

Now they have been together almost 4 weeks and I still have not seen this new Scandinavian. I wonder why?

I guess this is what you get when you have voted for relatively anti-immigration platform of a Tory government...a crackdown on, um, immigration...of all types.

Are you following the UK papers?

The populace are pretty annoyed about foreign welfare claimants - but little if anything has been changed by the latest government.

Given that I was a legal immigrant to the UK for a few years- and unable to claim one penny of welfare - I'm pretty sure that most of the UK papers with stories of 'welfare claimants' are just that, stories.

It is not just story. Where it is true that some come with no recourse to public funds, like those on specific visas, there are others that are entitled to some benefits, especially those who enter seeking asylum. There are also hardship payments that are paid.

totster

I agree with Totster. And there are those who come over and are given housing, white goods and benefits yet they have contributed nothing to the system. That is why they are queuing up to get into the UK.

Surely a better proposal would be to say that any spouse coming to the UK would not be eligible to any benefits for a period of say 5 years. If they divorced in that same time frame that the spouse be returned to his/her own country.

I am on TOT and with no problems at all.

TOT often say there is no problem when there is. Have you tried their Tech Support line they often respond better and take you through the steps to see what and where the problem is be it your end or theirs.

If you use YouTube to watch videos there is no risk of getting a virus.

You can get a virus from downloading a video from YouTube. But if you scan the file before executing it the virus / trojan should show up.Though I understand it is rare to get a virus or trojan from YouTube.

You should always check any programme you download for virus / trojans if you are not sure of the source.

This is a woman on a bike vs a 50 kilo dog. One of 3 dogs at that. You want her to stop the bike, put it on its stand, get off the bike and stand in the middle of the road saying, 'Nice, doggy. Good doggy?'.

Now u made me want to hug u MC! u know how i feel right put it this way, my BF visits me next time I want to stay pretty for him LOL!

You hug me while I kick the dog for you

That's good idea ok i hug u while u kick the dog for me when my BF isnt around and what next? what reward u would ask for?

Hmmmm.

You could start by rubbing something soothing into my sore foot (The foot I used to kick the dog because it's teeth are so sharp)............

Then, my being a Gentleman, I'd get you to stop at the ankle

If you are behind a Router, why would you need ZoneAlarm? System Care? What is that? You don't need that nonsense.

There is no answer to that, is there ?

Malawarebytes I do not use.

System Care, Zone Alarm and Avast. The latter two are essentials as no-one would be without a firewall and antivirus. System Care runs when I ask it to. So how is that too much crap??? How you think I might have too much installed is beyond me.

Most of my progs run on demand, not when they want to and I have my boot set up to load what I want the computer to load. Then I execute a prog when I want to run it.

I have been running ZA for over 5 years and it is only their latest version that is causing problems. If it is the way I have my computer running the same problems would occur with other firewalls too and it does not. The removal and replacement of ZA leaves my PC working fine.

Good grief! It happens to us all now and again, but all you have to do is STOP and look at the dog.

They were either playing (enjoying a chase) or looking for someone to bully. Once you stop they realise there is no 'fun' and/or you have not been bullied away - so they stop chasing.

I can't believe how many people out there think its a good excuse to spray something harmful in their eyes!

I carry pepper/mace spray when I walk my dogs as ONCE a dog owned by a Thai was determined to get at one of my dogs (didn't back down) and actually bit me. The next time I saw him (and he was after my dog again), I sprayed it IN FRONT OF HIM. Understandably, he didn't like the smell and ran away - with no harm done.

This is a woman on a bike vs a 50 kilo dog. One of 3 dogs at that. You want her to stop the bike, put it on its stand, get off the bike and stand in the middle of the road saying, 'Nice, doggy. Good doggy?'.

Now u made me want to hug u MC! u know how i feel right put it this way, my BF visits me next time I want to stay pretty for him LOL!

You hug me while I kick the dog for you

Good grief! It happens to us all now and again, but all you have to do is STOP and look at the dog.

They were either playing (enjoying a chase) or looking for someone to bully. Once you stop they realise there is no 'fun' and/or you have not been bullied away - so they stop chasing.

I can't believe how many people out there think its a good excuse to spray something harmful in their eyes!

I carry pepper/mace spray when I walk my dogs as ONCE a dog owned by a Thai was determined to get at one of my dogs (didn't back down) and actually bit me. The next time I saw him (and he was after my dog again), I sprayed it IN FRONT OF HIM. Understandably, he didn't like the smell and ran away - with no harm done.

This is a woman on a bike vs a 50 kilo dog. One of 3 dogs at that. You want her to stop the bike, put it on its stand, get off the bike and stand in the middle of the road saying, 'Nice, doggy. Good doggy?'.

And dogs sense our fear. We generally generate that primeval fear when some snarling, growling animal is approaching or chasing us. That essence of fear we give off seems to drive the dog on even more. The dog(s) need to learn to respect and fear us. For us to show them we are the pack leaders. With a pet dog we would do that automatically when we raise the dog from being a puppy. With a Soi dog it is different because they start to revert to their wilder state. Think of Dingos and Wolves. We are not in a position to train a Soi dog so we need to revert to using our power over them.

That power has to come from the threat of violence to the Soi dog or from actual violence to show the dog who is the Boss. Seems to me that is the only way here as owners do not seem to care much.

How to deal with the Soi dogs that attack / chase?

Most of the suggestions above will work. But never face the dog down unless you are very confident and show no fear.

Ultrasonics work.

Pepper spray works.

A baseball bat works.

Ammonia in a water gun works.

Poison works.

For a woman I would advocate using a method she is comfortable with at a relatively safe distance. To me that leaves 2 options. Poison or the ammonia in a water gun / pistol spraying at the head to get the eyes. A strong bleach solution should work also.

If you do not want to kill the dog with poison use the water gun method. Get a powerful water pistol. The rifle type are more powerful but not so easy to handle on a bike. Practice with the pistol with water only. When you have the knack, go for it. spray the *%$£"*

Personally I would go for the baseball bat or lump of wood method and give the dog a good hiding but I have been around big dogs most of my life, am a big guy and am more confidnt in that method.

Remember that if you are on a bike you need to be able to keep your balance while fighting back or have an accident.

Best of luck.... go for it !!

Not being funny here, but Google your needs.

TV series. I do not speak or read German but I googled 'german tv series torrents' and got quite a few hits. Isohunt came up and that is one good site I use regularly. There are many others listed but you will know your own preferences for viewing. So try with a google search as I used for starters until maybe someone can come up with more specific places.

Music. So many places including Pirate Bay and Isohunt.

Thai movies are also available on Isohunt and Pirate Bay but limited amounts. Try googling Thai movie torrents.

Have fun

I use the paid version, Extreme Security, and had a similar problem a few months back.

The slow down was while the disks were being scanned.

I have not noticed the problem lately.

Check and see what ZA is doing, on their control panel

Also look at the Task Manager CRTL+ALT+DELETE

to see what is hogging the cpu

The PC was so slow at times it practically stopped. Waiting for anything to boot up was an age in itself. Accessing the control panel, Zone Alarm itself or the task manager took too long. I got too impatient to bother to check the performance levels knowing what the problem had to be. Hence the deletion.

It was definitely Zone Alarm itself as the computer is back to normal speed after uninstalling. There may be some incompatibilities with ZA that need ironing out. Last major incident I recall (for me) was with AVG anti-virus and that was not resolved for some weeks so I removed AVG and installed Avast.

When you know your own system and how it usually functions then you instinctively know what has caused a problem, especially when the problems happen after an upgrade or installation of a program.

I do like ZA a lot. I have used it for years. I shall give them time to sort the problem and reinstall at a later date.

I did inform ZA of the problems too. If others do the same, presuming others have a problem, I do believe Zone Labs will rectify the problem(s).

On a side note I did do a full virus scan. Malaware scan. System checks also with System Care. No problems reported.

The very latest free version of Zone Alarm Firewall was removed from my computer this morning and my computer is faster as is my internet surfing. I updated several days ago automatically. This newer version comes from Check point and uses a blue icon on the toolbar.

It seems to me this version of Zone Alarm has some issues. If you have updated to the latest version ( v.10xxx) and are having internet lag and your computer has slowed down, try removing it and using another Firewall. My system must have slowed by 30%

Obviously this will not apply to everyone but might help some others.

I am using firfox 8 with no problems. In fact I have less crashes since I started using it. I have very few add ons so that is not an issue for me.

firefox has to be better than IE any day of the week too.

My Thai girlfriend snapped before I did.

Next doors dog kept getting onto my patio and shitting on it. Said dog is about the size of a rat / cat. We had asked several times for them to control their dog but to no avail. I even wired the bottom of the gate to stop the little sh*t getting in yet it still got through. Maybe when we went out to the shops or to take her to work and we never locked the gate. When we got back the neighbours dog had had a dump on the patio yet again.

The girlfriend swept up the offending dogshit and dumped it over the wall onto their nice clean patio. I could not understand what was said but the dog has been kept under control ever since and that was about six weeks ago.

The neighbours have not spoken to me since

Well done, girl

Maybe that darn rat sized dog will have a dump on my patio again now I have written about it

locally

i know there are websites in thai but its all thai to me

plenty of sites listed on that topic.

Thanks a lot for those replies. It does help a lot. Some are obviously a lot closer than going to the main office and they are not expensive :jap:

First thing seems to be to jump on the bike, pop down and see and take the car with me later if needed, especially in this current traffic.

Just go to Department of Land Transportation Banglamung.

Bring the car along if it's 7 years or older, as you then need to test it there as well. Otherwise just the blue book is enough.

Basic insurance is bought just to the right inside the entrance. With a receipt of insurance, head over to the desk on the left side opposite from the entrance.

They will give you a number to one of the tellers, that will receive payment for road tax and issue you with the tax sticker.

Cheers. That is appreciated.