moebius

I cant remember a topic being iced in the sports section torny and in theory this one crosses the line, but it lives still.

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Probably because it's actually still on topic to its topic!

Holy **** it hasn't been hijacked!!

Really, as a relative newbie here, but a long time member of many professional and interest-oriented forums and newsgroups, I can say I drop off a topic as soon as someone starts waving a flag or ranting some personal bent which hijacks a thread.

Quite simply, most forums that have information and exchange as one of their principles have moderators who simply 'delete' OT posts, thus preserving the topic. I have no problem with that.

What I do find discouraging is the topic dying because one or two or five or more posters hijacking a thread because they have a knot in their pants over issues they obviously don't know how to direct elsewhere.

Forums survive by their relevance to their participants. IMO

I make my own sandwiches.

Stuff everything I can in between two soft things and add some gooeey stuff.

When in China I called it Chinese food.

Here I call it Thai food.

But I grew up near the US so that might make it US food.

Though my roots are somewhat UK, so maybe UK food.

Possibly even indigenous.

However, if it ever ends up in a fast food franchise it will definitely acquire the generic qualities of a US food corp.

While I advocate saving and relocating versus killing I do find most snake I've had to be a little oily if cooked any other way than on the BBQ or grilled over a fire. Leave the skin and use high heat. The louder the sizzle the better the taste.

If frying, skin first, cut and fry in a (little) clove, if available, and salt in vinaigrette instead of oils or butter. If the snake is somewhat underfed this works really well. If the snake has recently fed and is quite plump go with the barbie or grill. If you happen to have beef bouillon cubes you can make a tasty soup too.

How will I recognize anyone?

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I'm the farang guy with fake brandname clothing. Can't miss me.

I live in an apartment building south of Silom (Bangkok Gardens) which is full of farang families from all over the globe. Lots of farang women, single and married, lots of children, and what I see is it's really a family oriented setup here. It's a fairly open and international environment which I enjoy. Quiet street with some ammenities across the street and nearby, a 30-50bt cab ride from BTS, scheduled van from building to different locations throughout the day, small 'international' school on the first floor. It's a nice little oasis from 'bad ol' Bangkok. And the support (child care, swimming lessons, activities, family networks) is well done. Nice setup here.

Maybe you can find something else near Nana. But talk about walking the edge back from work: "honey, I'm just going to stop off for a beer" could become a litany! Thai people are very friendly, especially the girls, and you could find yourself spending that 'saved commute' in the company of always smiling faces. Something which can be very attractive when feeling down about your work or homelife.

Quite frankly the pollution here isn't so bad. On hot and humid days standing at roadside you get snuffed and stuffed, but the wind blows and I wouldn't rate it as bad as say Guangzhou or Mexico City. If I were you I'd worry more about the adjustment to the heat and humidity. Realistically, most people don't make a full adjustment in the first 3-8 months unless they like heat.

A lot of it comes down to the strenght of your relationship - honesty, communication, interests in spending time together and how you spend your free time - and, honestly, your moral fibre. Not much different than areas in NY but cheaper, friendlier, and in many ways more alluring.

BK is a great launching point for travelling in and out of Thailand. And probably one of the smoothest transition cities to begin overseas living. It has a wide berth of western ammenities and the beaches are great sanity savers. We spend almost all of our spare time somewhere out and about. Without that we may as well be living anywhere.

The move could change your life. Perhaps for the better, perhaps for the worse. There are no guarantees. I personally think exposing your child to the world at a young age (and yourself as well) is the way to go. Much better than growing up in an eggshell.

And in many cases it does lead to opportunities elsewhere.

Bear in mind living abroad is not the greatest move for homebodies. But dare to live the dream.

If the dream is together, all the better.

ps: If you mind your Baht its a great place to save money.

hmmm...just about every time I ever had to swim I had my clothes on.

Couldn't get undressed fast enough before I hit the water.

Well before this topic goes the way of the "Why do you stay" thread I'll poke in here a bit.

While i'm not big on McD's pies I'll note that many westerners coming to SE Asia (myself included) find adjustments to be made in the 'time and scheduling' department.

It's just a matter of priorities really. I experienced 'lack of planning' and 'last minute notification' perhaps hundreds on times in my first year in China. When things 'have to be done on time' you really have to ride just about every angle to make sure it gets done. Sometimes to my own benefit. I didn't have give marked oral english exams to my non-test-year classes because first the school said 'no need' then 'must do' then 'no need' to 'we'll inform you' right up to the weekend before test week. (mei wenti - no problem)

In Thailand I've seen the same, but because I make allowance for it now (my own mindset - mai pen rai - no problem).

Sure I get a little panicky when my favorite bbQ guy runs out of chicken before I get to him and I have to settle for less. Sure I hate Morning Glory as a vegetable because I can't remember the words for 'something else.' Sure I'm a little offset that I have to make multiple visits to some businesses and institutions or wait 'longer than usual' for some things I'm used to having on time or in shorter waiting periods...etc etc ad nauseum....

But the positive thing is it really has lowered my blood pressure overall, I'm not as driven as I was before and I think I'm healthier for it. I still get things done, but not at 200km per hour, and multi-tasking takes on a whole new meaning. (No biggee...)

Y'know, a lot of it is just about letting go...

(...okay, now back to Iraq I imagine)

Yeah...close this topic and start one with simpler language in the thread header.

And on that note, let's talk about love and the pursuit of love!

I was working happily in rural China teaching English. Came here to take a TEFL course because a lot of teachers I know encouraged me to see a bit of Thailand. Fell in love with an expat from Singapore, went back to China where my school had changed hands (and my contract), quit that, came back here and have been living with her for the past four months. If it wasn't for her I would be back to China on the next flight out. Not a negative...just a preference.

Yes, Thailand is a cool place to hang out. Nice weather, nice people. If it wasn't for the paper jungle I'd probably be working till our departure. In the meantime we travel a lot, I'm looking into doing some volunteer work in Bangkok somewhere near the BTS that is somewhat flexible and leaves me weekend free. If we can manage to see most of the Thai historical sites north, east, south, and west of the country before we leave then all the better. Thailand is a great place to travel out of as a base too. Good location.

We'll come back time and again to visit the beaches and some friends.

So now you know why I stay here.

Yeah yeah...

but can they make sticky rice and do they like to watch football.

Let's get down to businesss boys. Pretty faces, pretty pictures...what about living (together) skills after the 'wow' effect!!!!

Quite frankly I've felt safer in China and Thailand and Malaysia and Singapore than any place I have even been in North America.

Robbery I can understand. It's just economics.

At least here and abouts I can go out for a drink without wondering if someone is going to 'kick my head in' because they don't like the way I look.

One cannot tell a fool what experience might teach them.

Were these women Ozzie citizens?

If not, did they have visas, work permits etc?

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Are The Auzzies giving out work pemits for whoring now Dam good idea

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Does that make them any less dead?

IF guilty, why not also make them pay up to support the family back in Isaan.

Note IF guilty.

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Note: if they can find a job in jail or come from families of means.

I don't agree with the death penalty, but they do have it here and drug pushers are given it, so why not someone who kills two people?

On the Aussie Dope topic, the general complaint was that the sentence - (also not capital punishment) was too tough.

Dunno why we all don't just go off to Law School, have a career in the legal profession then become High Court Judges.

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Yeah, people ask me that all the time.

But as someone who almost ended up in lawschool twice I do find it intriguing the 'checked-in' baggage weight and the 'confiscated' weight have not been published in the media. That, to me, a relatively ignorant bystander in this case, is relevant and I haven't read it anywhere.

Anyone have any sources on this?

How about:

The Chaos

Dearest creature in creation,

Study English pronunciation.

I will teach you in my verse

Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse

I will keep you, Suzy, busy,

Make your head with heat grow dizzy.

Tear in eye, your dress will tear.

So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,

Dies and diet, lord and word,

Sword and sward, retain and Britain.

(Mind the latter, how it's written)

Now I surely will not plague you

With such words as plaque and ague.

But be careful how you speak:

Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;

Cloven, oven, how and low,

Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,

Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,

Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,

Exiles, similes, and reviles;

Scholar, vicar, and cigar,

Solar, mica, war and far;

One, anemone, Balmoral,

Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel

Gertrude, German, wind and mind,

Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,

Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.

Blood and flood are not like food.

Nor is mould like should and would.

Viscous, viscount, load and broad,

Toward, to forward, to reward.

And your pronunciation's OK

When you correctly say croquet.

Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,

Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous clamour,

And enamour, rhyme with hammer.

River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb.

Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.

Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Large, but target, gin, give, verging,

Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.

Ear, but earn and wear and tear

Do not rhyme with here but ere.

Seven is right, but so is even,

Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,

Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,

Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation - think of Psyche!

Is a paling stout and spikey?

Won't it make you lose your wits,

Writing greats and saying grits?

It's a dark abyss or tunnel:

Strewn with stone, stowed, solace, gunwale

Islington and Isle of Wight,

Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough?

Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?

Hiccough has the sound of cup.

My advice is to give up!

Dr. Gerald Nolst Trenite (1870-1946), a Dutch

observer of English

ehhhhhhhh m i cant go there sorry i think i amnot adult prosper

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Well, if you were born in 1985 like your profile says then I think you can. How old do you have to be?

Anyway. Bring a friend to protect you from all the guavas!

3)Inadequate or poorly constructed sub -base this is the stone under the layers of asphalt (usually 3 but can be 2).

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On the majority of up-country roads, you see very little stone used for the sub-base. It appears generally to be compacted clay which is just the right side of useless.

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Don't you just LOVE a smart arse who knows nothing.

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Me thinks he/she's on his/her way out before he/she is really in?

Inconsistency of the underlying material and subsidance I reckon but I could be completely wrong.

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101 posts and most of them total crap. Do we really need this sort of person?

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I'm confused now. Are we talking about the 'smartarse', the 'smartass', or the 'smart ashphalt?'

Okay okay...I should get out at least once in a while in Bangkok. May as well coop up with a bunch of guavas...never been to Soi 22.

Is there good sushi there?

Well - I don't fall into the categories above & I'm doing pretty well here - thank you very much - 2 houses, good savings, high income & a bunch of Thais working for me in a succesful software business.

Been here over 5 years too, so I even fill his qualifications to make comment.

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You're not bitter or suspiscious. I think that disqualifies you on technicalities.

Bought locally bred lamb a couple of years back, at a "King's project" farm in the Rayong province...

monty, where specifically was that farm? name? any directions?

I'd be keen to try that one myself.

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I had local lamb in Rayong last year at a Thai restuarant in the big mall on the main road (sorry...didn't get the name).

Pretty tasty.

I hope to be visiting my friend's turtle farm next month near there. He's a food produce guy. I'll ask.

(jotting in phone calender...)

As a Canuk, you obviously like skating on thin ice.

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Canuck! Canuck! Canuck!

geez...would you guys spell it right already!!!

Okay...now go back to your slinging. I feel much better...

I have always wondered how a foreign teacher can be able to teach primary school pupils without any verbal link existing between them. How on earth does one begin to teach when there is no way of communicating with each other?

In the case of secondary education where the children may have some knowledge of English,this I can understand, but primary school? In a distant village where even the Schoolmaster let alone the rest of the village cannot speak English? How can this be done?

I am not in education myself so I do not know,there must be a satisfactory answer to my questions.

Back to the main theme, I can only visualise young people with a strong sense of adventure. For them it will be a transient phase of their life nothing to expect other than a survival exercise.

I could understand it if there was a prospect of permanence,not a 3 month at a time thing. Neither the pupils nor the teacher will take the thing seriously.

One final point, if they could make arrangements for the spouse of the teacher to accompany him/her then things might have a better chance.

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Well I am a big proponant of contextual teaching. Making connections visible and audible then trying to place usage into everyday living is difficult, but you get better at it as time goes by.

Many of my teacher friends beat this into my head over the years. And last fall Dave Hopkins, TEFLInternational, demonstrated this for me wonderfully just last fall by teaching our class primary colours in Portugeuse, greetings, etc.,...basic foundations. It also demonstrated to me the value in taking courses to improve one's own teaching methods.

So, if Thailand develops a rapid advance-aging cloning program I'm sure I could swing the production into China and also get them a couple of hundred thousand or more of Dave's t-cells while he is marking students.

As for retention, well that's an ongoing debate. One does have to use the language to improve. But early years exposure to second (and third and fourth) languages does improve the odds if Thailand is actually thinking of bilingual education.

I agree with you on the permanence and the spousal arrangements. Many schools can't afford dual visa fees etc....there should be more incentives from the government itself.

Or I could lie the fridge on its side.......

Hey ! You really are are Microsoft Engineer

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Yeah sure, then Microsoft will make it an 'industry standard' and all the beer makers will have to put a 90 degree top on their bottles.

...and I just learned how to slap open the twist tops on my PowerBook...

Titanium...gotta love it...

hmm....messed up my tags. Sorry folks...

Anyway Rumpie, I don't take any offense to your comments as the derogatory generalizations here are abound and aplenty. I'm just a little touchy about backpacks....I love my backpack.

er...

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Funny how just the word 'backpacker' can really set many off here

I've been a backpacker, and hired a number of them as teachers in the past. Just people, is all, in my view.

Frankly, I might be more suspicious sometimes of the 'luggagepackers'

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Hey hey...now you're slagging my luggage!

...wait a minute! I don't own any luggage!