Fast Eddie

Head down to the main market at the bridge. Near the Sri Issan hotel, on the corner is a decent music shop.

This is the music shop that I usually use. They seem to have a reasonable enough selection of instruments.

I live fairly cheaply in Ubon, but am still comfortable enough and I wouldn't want to do it on less than 15,000 a month. If you don't drink you could maybe do it on 12,500. You really have to tighten your belt to go below that.

These are my unavoidable costs -

Rent + internet + bills = 6000 With a fair amount of searching and willingness to compromise on what you accept you could get it cheaper, but as a new arrival who doesn't know the area well, probably not.

Food = 6000 You could manage on less but you might not find it comfortable to do so.

Visa costs + cost of visa runs = 2000 a month Realistically as cheap as you can do it if you are on a tourist visa.

You wouldn't be living much of a life if you reduced your costs just down to the essentials though. For me to live a life in which I am doing all the activities that I want to do costs closer to 30000 a month really.

Chang Export for me over Leo. It's got a nicer taste to it.

I'm looking to get a cheap, but playable, second hand electric guitar to practice on. Can anyone give me some recommendations of good guitar shops in Bangkok for me to go and check out?

You can do it fairly easily in Thailand, if you want to. But it depends on what things you think you have to have.

I think Phadaeng Mansion has long stay rooms. My wife and I stayed there a couple weeks while looking for a home in Ubon. We enjoyed our stay and the staff.

Thanks. Something like this would be good, but i notice they don't mention a monthly rate on their website, just a nightly rate. I'll call in and take a look next week.

Ideally i would like to find something i can rent by the month. Does anyone else have any good suggestions?

I'm going to be arriving in Ubon next week, so my attention has turned to working out where i am going to stay. I will probably be staying for a while, somewhere between 6-12 months, so i am going to be looking for an apartment.

The one major requirement i have, is that it has internet.

I am looking to pay around 5000 per month. Can anyone give me any advice about the best options i have?

Hopefully i can get a few good recommendations to check out, which will make my life a bit easier next week.

It's pretty unlikely really.

Always an entertaining evening.

Best film - Heaven and Earth by Oliver Stone

Best book - The sorrow of war by Bao Ninh

I agree with everyones thoughts about Mclaren. He's the first England manager that has pushed me to the brink of almost wanting England not to qualify, so that he'll be sacked and not mess up the next world cup as well. I genuinely fear that if England manage to scrape into the European Championship, Mclaren will keep his job, and it will be four years wasted.

One of the biggest problems with giving a no mark like Mclaren the job, is that the England manager needs to be someone that the media, fans, and the players all respect. In football, you only get that respect if you have a history of success. Mclaren has acheived next to nothing in his managerial career, and everyone knows that he hasn't proved that he deserves the job, consequently as soon as England started to struggle the response from the media and fans was inevitable, and this puts pressure on the players who are probably looking at the manager and wondering if he's really got what it takes as well, regardless of what they say in public.

It all results in shaky, unconfident performances on the pitch. Mclaren isn't strong enough to quell the doubts and get the team to rise above them, and he's not strong enough because he's a no mark in managerial terms and has insufficient experience and respect.

He was unable to produce a Middlesbrough team that played good football, despite having money to spend, so it's not a surprise to anyone that he's struggling to do it with England.

He's worth 7-8 million tops, and that's accounting for the inflation in the fee that comes with apparently being English (although with no premier league experience, so i'm not sure that that should really apply).

If Utd pay 25 mil Munich will be pissing themselves with laughter.

Well, well, well. She is a busy lady, isn't she?

You're not the only one, read Simon43's thread below.

I've been scouring the forum at great length, but i can't seem to find the thread where Little Black Duck offers his hand of friendship and a hearty merry christmas to all the men as well. I shall await with baited breath....

Err i believe you posted that in the GAY forum Donz, and yes you were getting a great response there.

The gay forum loved his photo so much that Donz is now their gay icon.

That puts Donz in the same league as Kylie Minogue.

It puts him in the same league as The Moog as well, and we all know what happenened to him....

I don't know if the gay forum could stand to lose another of it's heroes. It could ring the death knell over there in my opinion....

I imagine it would be okay for some, not for others, but it's not unusual to find ten year age differences in developed countries where women have a lot of freedom choice without additional economic pressures to consider. It would appear that a lot of people find that to be quite viable. I would imagine the numbers of people would drop off quite sharply from there though.

It also has to be said that a twenty year age difference between a 40 year old and a 20 year old is somewhat more significant than one between a 70 year old and a 50 year old.

All other things being equal, i believe that young Thai women (like women all over the world) prefer to have relationships with guys not too distant in age from themselves, if a genuine loving relationship on their part is what they are after. I suspect there are few who would prefer a relationship with a guy 20 or 30 years older than them.

I'm with The Donz and Vanzam on this one. I'm sure there are instances in which genuine loving relationships with significant age differences do occur, however i suspect that they happen much less frequently than the denizens of this forum are likely to have you believe.

I would imagine that if the OP were to start this topic on a forum predominantly populated by young Thai women, she might get a better idea of how genuine and viable the majority of these relationships are.

Too many people get banned around here for trivial things. When too many people get banned a forum can often become somewhat sterile and lacking in entertainment, as it's often some of the bigger and more amusing personalities who get taken out back and shot when a thread veers off the rails. It becomes hard for them to make a comeback as their style is easily recognised.

I can't see how The Donz is causing harm enough to warrant expulsion, but then i've thought the same about others who have bitten the bullet. I guess all we can do is savour every precious moment that he is still with us

Brian & Michael - Matchstalk men and matchstalk cats and dogs

Never heard of it

Dear GracelessFawn,

You can deny what you are, but not what you do.

You are having a problem, when you wanna face it?

A, question, You think you live together?

You die alone GracelessFawn.....

That is your future when you keep on going like this.

A,

Ease up a bit mate. So she enjoys going out on the lash, as do a lot of people, hardly a need for professional treatment .

I tell you what Dr, come out on the lash with me in Bangkok and we'll see if we can cure your depressive pessimism. My services are free of charge .

^He's still injured now, i don't think you need to have any doubt about the legitimacy of the claims. Unfortunately he is very injury prone. I would also say that you don't need bottle to go out and play in a world cup, it's a dream come true for players.

To be fair to Kewell, he's had terrible luck with injuries in recent years. It's hard to play your best when your constantly injured.

Just cracked open another can of Special Brew.

It's very funny the way that people on this site are always looking under the bed for Scampy everytime a new character turns up on the forum