Maybole

Malt Whisky

Back in 1978, I was walking down a main street in Malacca when I heard a voice crying behind me "Sir, Sir, I can help you. Come to my shop". A middle aged Chinaman rushed down the street behind me and took me by the arm and started to guide me back along the street. Curiosity took me and I followed him back about 100 metre, up 2 flights of stairs and into a studio type room. He explained that he had seen me out of his window passing by and thought that I was in grave need of his services. He was a Wigmaker.

My granddaughter had the same problem and needed extra tuition . She caught up in about two years.

Ironically it was Tiger and he is a ginger tabby,-a tiger lookalike.

This evening after a meal outside in the garden, I was enjoying a beer and had just topped it up to the brim, when one of our cats, a large, robust but very friendly 2 year old tom jumped up, firstly on to my knee and then on to the table. He sniffed around the remains of the meal, which being spicy he declined, then sniffed my beer. I did not react immediately believing that he would turn his nose up at it. To my astonishment, he proceeded to lap it up for about a minute and then apparently satisfied, jumped back down,this time on to Sister-in laws knee and demanded a petting. He always did prefer women. I have never seen a cat drink beer before, has any other member seen this behavior?

Probably a waste of time. She is a dumb woman who will know nothing. The real culprits will be a Chinese gang over the border in Laos.

A superb dram, but where can I buy it in Chiang mai?

Just confirm your PS. My wife has her Thai Passport in her Thai name, but her UK one in mine.

A few small roaches have appeared in the kitchen. Wife and Sister-in-law being Buddhist refuse to let me kill them, they must be caught and dumped outside. I have tried to deter them by washing floors and the like with dilute Dettol, then vinegar and finally bleach. All have failed. Recommend a non-lethal chemical which will keep them away.

Panic over. Jo's Bakery has resumed normal production. Alles in ordnung ist.

I had that happen to me many years ago on a train to Butterworth, en route to Singapore. I had just finished a meal in the restaurant carriage, and a man with an American accent sat down opposite me and started a conversation. He drank three large beers in quick succession and as we drew into Had Yai station excused himself to urinate. As the train pulled out again I saw him on the platform waving to me.

Two suggestions for out of town visits:- Wat Umong and Sankampaeng Hot Spring.

Making a vice illegal only drives it underground. This results in further abuses. Legalizing and strict enforcement of laws reduces crime considerably. As an aside, every Friday night in a room behind our village shop a card school convenes and is ignored by all.

Please explain what a @moving blanket@ is. Is is an exclusively American term?

Go to Google maps, centre it on the village and from the "nearby" button select "Hotels"

Its not the chicken(s) that bother me, its a damned Koel that starts calling at 4am!

Mystery solved. Fakmoo "ฝักหมู" is a Chiang mai dialect word for ฟักเขียว which translates as "Green Squash"

Getting rid of the evidence?

It has always puzzled me why a bus company cannot set up a battery exchange at each end of a route. the batteries could be on trolleys and slid under the bus and exchanged for the depleted one which could then be recharged.

I have tried, using flour and yeast from Rimping, but cannot get it to rise properly.

I cannot find a precise thread for this. I am posting in Chiang mai because I want local knowledge only. My regular source of Wholemeal bread has had to stop production, hopefully temporarily, and I am finding it difficult to get proper European style wholemeal bread. Makro and Big C only sell Thai bread which is far too sweet for my taste, Nana and Rimping are usually sold out before I can get there. Recommendations please for a European style bakery, preferably to the south side of Chiang mai.

Eliminating the rivals.

So do a lot of English who still think they have an empire.

It is a hard smooth skinned spherical fruit like a very big Granny Smith.

Name in English please. Sister-in-law was cooking this vegetable today but could not tell me what it is. In Thai it is "ฝักหมู" which Google tells me means "pork pod". This makes no sense. Does an English language name exist? Caution! It may not be Thai but a Lanna dialect name.