ToddWeston

All the new ones I see are sh*t.

That hasn't been my experience - read the above seasoning link it's the most informative I've read.

I brought my 40 year old pan and also purchased a new one at K Village after a month or so the new one is almost as good.

It's not about "better" gays, or about "validation". It's about people who want to hang out with other gays or not. It's about choice, and it has nothing to do with quality.

Chill and relax.

Chilled and relaxed - just need to find the form where I can opt out of the club and not have the label of being part of a community

That was hillarious -sad but hillarious

Try Google " bed alarm Thailand ".

Maybe you can put some dim light in " strategic " places to help him see/remember

his surroundings?

Cheers - all I've been able to source is bed wetting alarms but I will keep looking.

His surroundings are fantastic and the Thai family are incredible with support - it's just the night we usually have issues and I'd prefer not to medicate him. He's precious and it's all about him at this point.

Great suggestion about the night lights - I'll action that tomorrow. Thank you.

It's not modern to put a label on who I am or with whom I wish to have has friends. It's also not about civil rights - I've got my licence and married to the man who will bury me or cremate if he gets his way.

If being part of this club or community makes some people better gays or happier with a label then so be it, a sense of belonging I suppose- I'll stick with my Masonic buds.

I don't "act" straight, I am a man who shares a bed with another man, I have zero in common with most of the sterotypes mentioned above except they are fellow humans.

If, because, I'm not clubbing with a group of other men who share the same sexual desires as I, doesn't validate anything more than a common interest it's not a community IMO.

Perhaps this requires a new thread as to not take the so called pink dollars off topic.

I'm busily preparing for the arrival of my brother due to arrive in a week who will be spending a month with us. He is 39 and has Down syndrome. This will be is forth visit to Thailand and my sister will be escorting him on the journey, he's a great traveller.

When we travel we often take a bed alarm, as he wakes numerous times in the evening and can become alarmed/agitated in new surroundings, we use the silent bed alarm that only alerts us

on a monitor as to not scare him if he does do a walk about.

My parents just informed me the travel pack bed alarm we have is broken and it will take weeks to replace, hence my query, does anyone know if one can be purchased locally ? I'm a Pharmacist and have many local pharmacist friends that I reached out to a short while ago and they didnt have the foggiest idea where I could get my hands on one and only suggested bed rails which are out of the question.

I have no issue with him sleeping with us as he does at home, but he's excited to have his own room here

Many thanks

"Thailand welcomes the gay community"? I thought people had realised that there's no such things as a "gay community" years ago. Outdated thinking - hardly a surprise from TAT.

I think most definitely there is still a gay community. I agree that gay society should not be limited to gay-only venues and I realize that gays do not share identical politics or values - of course. However, there are numerous social sites both online and realworld where the gay community exists - throughout the world, there are political groups and health groups that support the gay community.

While the gay community is not regulated to specific clubs or streets or cities - the community still exists -

Just because of what I like to do with my rude bits doesn't make me part of any community. I have nothing in common with skinny twinks, bitchy queens or muscle marys. I'm not a bear, or an otter or flaming queen. Drag queens leave me cold. Tom of Finland's images raise nothing for me. I don't think of myself as a "poof" or "faggot" or "queer" or "nancy". I don't speak with a lisp and and not limp-wristed. I don't have a "fag hag".

So, what, exactly, is the common factor that creates a "gay community"?

Well said, if I didn't tell you I was gay you'd probably never know, or in the case of one of our staff saying to us "you guys should be a couple you spend so much time together" and she worked for us for 4 or 5 years when she said it.

There is no such thing as a community unless you are talking about the gay ghetto in large urban areas IMO, it's just one more label left over from the older generation. It's almost as bad as the LBGT label, what do I have in common with a lesbian (no insult) or transgendered person (no insult)

So whilst it's nice the message Thailand is gay friendly I go back to my original comment it's just a tick by a marketing guru to say the gays are taken care of and we'll be the hub of gay tourism.

Thanks everybody for the replies. Where to start.

I finally got it to go. What did I do? After some ten+ tries, I finally decided, on the bank name option, to enter "other" and then hand type my bank instead of using the automatic pull down option, even though the pull down was 100% correct. Bingo, it finally went through. Either that or someone at the website finally woke up.

It topped up 50 baht but only gave me 30 days. I expect they'll give the extra 60 days (30 + 60 = 90) later today, I hope, as it's usually been the case in the past when I topped up while in TLand.

A1Str8, big thanks for that offer as I was pretty much needing it! Hopefully I'm set, but that's super cool to help a guy out like that.

Greensnapper, your words reflect exactly what I was feeling. I've found actual dtac air service ok, but their website needs lots of tuning.

Chrisinth, thanks for confirming it is indeed working. I was convinced it was wasn't.

lomatopo, wow if I knew all those options I would have been much better off early this morning. I think I am going to run through some of those codes later today and top this baby up so that I don't have to go through this again for a while.

Todd, that's a pretty good option I never knew about. You tried it yourself? I notice on their free trial option, they don't offer Thailand. I wonder why not?

Yes I've used it 20 times or so when I get an urgent text from the nieces and nephews - it's works well, no clue why the trial doesn't work I thought it did, perhaps IP outside of Thailand - could be wrong though. BTW when you're back in the kingdom I asked dTAc to extend my sim for a year so every time I top up I'm good, current expiry Sep 4th 2014.

Load Skype on your mobile and purchase the monthly plan for 10.49 euros unlimited minutes to Thai land lines and cell numbers.

Cell to cell I believe you're at the mercy of your provider and their rates - could be wrong.

Try this service perhaps $6.75 for 150 baht load.

https://www.aryty.com/RechargeThailand.aspx

I'm a sucker for happy moments.

Truly one of the best adverts ever.

Don't spoil the message folks - we should be so lucky.

Some parts of the Phillipines are beautiful, spent about six months in total travelling there at different times, never fealt threatened & I went to some relatively remote areas. Not going because of a terrorist action in one section of a city is similar to saying, I not going to the UK because of terrorist bombings in London.

For me it's more than terrorism, I used to frequently visit a mate there who was posted there then here in Bangkok. When I would visit I used to regret my decision deplaning and couldn't wait to leave- been to Boracay, Palawan, Cebu, Bohol and the rice terraces - beautiful is in the eye of the beholder - it's hard to enjoy the splendours of nature when you're starving (food is muck IMHO)

The London bombings didnt have numerous country's warning it's citizens not to travel to the UK whereas the PI is always on a list of regions to avoid, that coupled with all PI airlines were on an EU blacklist until very refently recently was also a major concern.

The good thing with my first hand experience I've managed to dissuade lots of friends making the same mistakes.

Just checked, Thailand & Phillipines have the same travel warnings

Guess it depends on your country of origin, both my issuing country passports warn against travel to the PI.

Doesn't really matter I'll never visit again .....

if the criminal souls would shoot each other, the Planet would be breathing much easily

Or they could just move to Iowa and take their chances ....

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3890291

Some parts of the Phillipines are beautiful, spent about six months in total travelling there at different times, never fealt threatened & I went to some relatively remote areas. Not going because of a terrorist action in one section of a city is similar to saying, I not going to the UK because of terrorist bombings in London.

For me it's more than terrorism, I used to frequently visit a mate there who was posted there then here in Bangkok. When I would visit I used to regret my decision deplaning and couldn't wait to leave- been to Boracay, Palawan, Cebu, Bohol and the rice terraces - beautiful is in the eye of the beholder - it's hard to enjoy the splendours of nature when you're starving (food is muck IMHO)

The London bombings didnt have numerous country's warning it's citizens not to travel to the UK whereas the PI is always on a list of regions to avoid, that coupled with all PI airlines were on an EU blacklist until very refently recently was also a major concern.

The good thing with my first hand experience I've managed to dissuade lots of friends making the same mistakes.

I am less inclined to ever visit again when I read news like this, not to mention the bus massacre.

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/news/story/1.1854626

Been there and never ever again.

Sorry can't contribute about purchasing a new hot tub here, however I have a beachcomber at home which I loved at first but have grown to hate. Mostly the bloody cost to keep it hot, which obviously wouldn't apply here, I also have a problem with the placement of the jets, I'm 180 cm and the wretched jets are placed about 5 cm to high and I've hurt my back on numerous occasions when we have them blasting on full power.

What sent me OTT, a neighbour designed and built his own concrete contoured (gunnite ?) then tiny tiles, he built it in-ground and also the pump and filters were in ground- major bonus as I can't hear a conversation when I'm taking a dip. It was designed to fit him as the store bought ones weren't large enough. He purchased the jets from a pool supply company and in all honesty it's better, easier to clean and came in at 1/2 the price I paid for mine.

I don't mean to take your post off topic but maybe something custom for the 145k may be more suitable than an imported hot tub.

Dear Lord - more psychological guff...

I assume it was written in the US?

It was and I read the entire article - sigh

My take away:

Russia bad

Too many males in prison

Men are confused gay or straight

Got my blood tests back.....being a bit paranoid the first one I looked at was HIV, negative!!

Cholesterol a tad high, Uric acid the same and a thing called LDL. Been prescribed water ( plenty ) healthy Thai food and exercise.

The Doctor said my bloods re my heart are better than his, every other function is perfect and I'm nowhere near the diabetes range.

Unbelievable.

Down side? I've got a parasitic infection, 5 days of meds to get rid of it.

TV member Forethat started a topic a few weeks ago on the subject of parasitic infections, it ended up that 6 out of 6 of his drinking buddies had a tape worm I believe. Apparently it's chronic here in Thailand.......well now you can add me to the list.

The Doctor didn't use the term tape worm though, he just said parasite in the bowel. A nasty subject but maybe some more of us should be getting checked out for it? Some of these parasites can cause serious damage.

Glad the tests came back so quickly, and now you're better able to control your intake.

Watch your uric acid, we don't want you getting gout.

Don't hate the messenger but try to avoid if possible;

Foods that are high in purine include:

All organ meats (such as liver), meat extracts and gravy

Yeasts, and yeast extracts (such as beer, and alcoholic beverages)

Asparagus, spinach, beans, peas, lentils, oatmeal, cauliflower and mushrooms

Get your water consumption up to 2 - 3 litres a day - the good news is if you google food that is low in purine it will help with your weight programmem as well. Lots and lots of good info out there on how to control uric acid.

Spot on with the parasite issue it should be checked often, can cause serious damage.

Get well soon Mark - we need more East Coasters here.

Those cooling fans I see that you add water may be helpful as well.

i like a strong cheese so what Kiwi cheese would you recommend ?

I prefer Mainland epicure aged up to 36 months - if you like blue soft cheese BiG C has Casino Bleu which is often 89 baht as they mark it down 3 weeks before expiry.