simon43

The UK police would have a much easier job if our politicians actually listened (and acted) on the wishes of the majority of citizens.

I was born and raised in Leicester (UK) in the 1960's, when immigrants from south Asia started to arrive, (the city already had immigrants from the West Indies, and they had integrated well). The new immigrants from south Asia - Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist etc all integrated well. The immigrants who refused to integrate were the Muslim immigrants, and that has been the case ever since. Their religion of peace (excuse me while I die with laughter), their appalling treatment of women and girls, their hate of dogs and pigs, their cruel method of killing animals for halal meat... I could go on and on. I have no issues with individuals - it is the religion and its laws that I despise. Ask a Muslim where his priority loyalty lies - to Britain or to Islam... We know by now that they will never willingly integrate into British society, and laws should be passed (and imposed) to assist Muslims to integrate. Ban Sharia courts, ban the hijab, ban the building of new mosques and reduce the number of mosques already existing, require every Muslim in Britain to affirm their loyalty to the UK - and video record this in case they commit any act against UK law. Am I right-wing? I certainly don't think so.These riots no doubt include far-right thugs, but the majority are ordinary British citizens who are sick and tired of being second-class citizens in their own country.

Yes, that happens of course. But in my 'test' in the hardware store, we engaged in conversation about my plans for this wire (making an antenna) - so the Thai man certainly wasn't bluffing. Also, my post is nothing to do with boasting that I speak Thai. Posters who made these kind of comments have totally misunderstood the reasons for this thread. It is to do with how the brain makes linguistic assumptions that can render understanding impossible, until the person 'clicks' that you are speaking Thai, not English.

Right, I was out and about this morning and I went into a hardware store. Speaking only Thai, I asked "Do you have 100 metres of single-strand copper wire, 1.5mm diameter, with black plastic insulation?" The Thai man looked at me blankly and asked in English "What do you want?" So I repeated my phase in Thai, at the same pace as I just spoke (ie normal speaking pace). You could almost see the light-bulb light up in the guy's brain 🙂 He smiled and showed me his choice and wire, asked more questions about what I planned to do with it and - as you can see - I walked out of the shop having had a successful conversation!!

I'm sure that there are many foreigners who think that their Thai language abilities are better than they really are. However, I'm pretty sure that my Thai is very good, as demonstrated by the 99.99% of Thais who have no problem to understand me immediately when I speak Thai 🙂 What is also clear is that you do not understand my very dry, very British SoH!

Are you suggesting that my spoken Thai is accented?!! I can speak Thai as good as Churchill speaking French - even a little better!

Perhaps 'annoy' is a tad too strong, but it does give me an opportunity to demonstrate my warped sense of British humour by slowly saying "Do you speak Thai?". Perhaps I can rub it in next time by slowly saying "Are you from Burma"? 🙂

I'm not talking about 'pidgin' Thai. This is a question for those of us who can speak Thai to a high level. I just had one of those experiences, at a hotel on Koh Lanta. I wandered in and asked if they had any available rooms and what the price was. The reception lady looked at me completely blank. I repeated my request and got the same response. I therefore said in slowly-spoken English 'Do you speak Thai?'. (Actually, I was 99% sure that the woman was Thai, and this was my way of winding her up!). Yes, there are many Burmese working in Thailand, but I was pretty sure that she was Thai. Anyway, the only way to complete my transaction was in English... The point being, I'm pretty sure that she didn't understand my spoken Thai was because her brain didn't expect a western foreigner to speak Thai. The hotel had many Swedish tourists and I'm sure the poor lady was trying to decipher my utterances as some form of English spoken with a thick Swedish accent!

I did, but I redeemed myself by sending the money on after I left in a hurry 🙂 I was staying at a luxury hotel in the centre of Amsterdam (in the days when I had $$$). Unfortunately, I maxxed out my credit card the previous evening on some expensive hookers! My Mazda sports car was in the underground car park and I feared that the security door of the car park wouldn't open until I paid my bill. Luckily, it did open and I left in a hurry, then contacted the hotel once I crossed into Belgium and explained that I had forgotten to pay my bill and I arranged to sort out payment. Anyway, it was money well-spent (The hotel, not the hookers.... I think!)

Well, I can maybe understand if you threw the crispy chicken skin - in the bin, not at the staff! The only healthy part of KFC et Al is the chicken meat (and that is stretching a point...)

No

Lol, that's me planning for the future...

I'm 65 years old, but it seems that some others don't consider me as old. My last job was teaching kindergarten at an international school, when I was 63 🙂 But my Thai nieces do address me as 'loong Simon', which is a little better than 'papa'!

To be honest, she sounds like my ex #3. A good girl, no known father, looked after her mother and (real) brother, worked hard in a camera factory, no tattoos, no bar-work etc. She was cute, pretty, always checking if I was ok, but the sex and intimacy was totally lacking. She would grit her teeth during sex! We knew each other for maybe 15 years off and on, and finally we legally married. But within year we agreed to amicably divorce because we realised that we were much happier as close friends, but not as BF and GF or husband and wife. Nowadays, she is the only Thai woman that I trust, and she will look after me in my dotage without complaint. A true friend, but definitely not a GF or wife!

If you refuse to pay the import tax, the item will not be returned to the sender - it will be destroyed. This happened to me a few weeks ago when a friend in the UK sent me a free GPS antenna (no payment from me). Unfortunately, he sent it by courier >> big mistake! I asked the courier to return it to the sender, but from previous experiences I knew they wouldn't.....

[quote] As you know there is not a day that passes without a random little French guy or American asking you what British food is like. It can happen multiple times in one day. ... [/quote] Nope, never ever happened to me....

I never give a second thought about speaking Thai. I'm in Thailand, so I speak Thai. When I'm in Laos I speak Lao. When I'm in Burma I speak Burmese 🙂 Thai's never give me a second glance when I speak Thai, although occasionally they compliment me. Since I avoid most 'farangs' like the plague, (with exception for those few who are not mad, drugged up or of a criminal nature), the need to speak English rarely arises....

Yes, considering the many years I've been taking Alfuzolin, it's no doubt an allergy 🙂 I think there are some antihistamine medicines that don't make you drowsy. Is there a particular medicine that I should look for?

Thanks - seeing a competent doctor is not an option in a rural area - my first point of call (for many years) is Dr Google. (Actually, not quite true - I value Sheryl's advice way more than Google). I guess that opening up the prostate vessels has a similar effect on my nose!

I take 1 Alfusolin every day to counter my BPH, to help me to pass water. If I don't take this medication, then it's difficult to pass water. But unfortunately, (and I think Alfusolin is the reason), I suffer from absolute torrents of runny nose mucus, as well as sneezing. These are known side-effects of Alfusolin. The amount of mucus is high, dripping out of my nose 🙂 So I take anti-hystamine to try to stop my runny nose. But many anti-hystamines make you drowsy, and since this medication apparently narrows the blood vessels in your nasal passages, could it also be countering the effects of the Alfusolin? Advice please as to how to keep my uretha open and my nasal blood vessels closed!

Hellooooo! It's a hospital. Sick people go to hospitals where the staff have to breathe in their germs and airborne bacteria. If I were a doctor I'd be wearing a hazmat suit every day!... 🙂

This is a clean room - that handsome guy is me many years ago when I was a space flight hardware designer 🙂 After that career I became an ice-cream salesman...

Biden is just a typical example of an older person who is losing their marbles. Dementia diseases stands at #7 out of the top 10 causes of death - so no surprise that Biden is not all there. Like many with dementia, he can't reason logically and needs a third party to take action on his behalf. Time to retire.

Hi, how did you dig out your first post on ThaiVisa? I think my profile messages only go back a short time...

Beat you by 18 months 🙂 Such a lot has changed with this forum - and mostly not for the better...