KhnomKhnom

I did the whole process from meeting and wooing woman in Thailand to living in America 5yrs to coming back to Thailand and living here now 9 yrs. That was before 9/11. I have also done green card for wife and 2 children, got children into usa, too, and back out and know how to surrender the green cards and why. American citizen male.

All this info is in my forthcoming book about staying married to a Thai woman.

Meanwhile, how can I contact you privately because the story is long and needs voice to talk it all out?

padme1922@hotmail

Most ladies who work at night are covered by a bar bouncer team or her own network of relatives, etc.

Never try to fist fight Thai men; they will leave you a pulp in the street. And will easily call for reinforcements if needed.

It is a simple system and the foreigner will always lose on street and in court. Pay up and get a taxi to your hotel.

Easy answer? Just who do we know of who

-wants to run Thailand again?

-wants to recover seized millions?

-has the billions to fund his/her private army?

-has buddies in Cambodia to allow private army training there?

-is ruthless enough to want to stage a civil war?

Gee, I don't know, and I am sure no one else knows.

This person is thinking of pursuing the situation with the Ministry of Labor. I don't know that he would wish to continue to work at the school.

The assertion that the students don't like him is false. The students were ask "What don't you like about Teacher X". The point is rather clear that the Headmistress and the Assistant do not like the teacher.

I think the teacher is contemplating 'wrongful termination'. When he asked if the school was following proper procedures in the termination, the reply was "We don't care about the Ministry of Labor".

The person asked me for advice and I am not sure. I have terminated people, but I've always made sure there was cause and that it could be verified.

The teacher has already lost his case. He may be able to win the completion of his contract, but that may be to the end of Oct. Otherwise, non renewal of contract is the discretion of the school. It matters not if the situation is fair, teacher evaluation is so flexible as to fit the school's needs.

This man should take a walk and forget it.

The only type of tourist who can think about taking a bike alone and running around in Burma (or Lao) should be large, strong, look like a fighter, and be very street smart.

When I fit that description, I toured alone all over Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, India, and Lao. Now that I look as old as I am and walk with a limp... no way now !

Just saying ........

I just wrote here that I have chased ghosts out of my usa homes. I explained. I said for you poisoned Westernized types not to make fun of Thailand due to your ignorance.

Then I cited Ronnie Reagan and wife as spirit believers and my computer blanked and my message disappeared.

I am trying again.

I tried two versions of D-Link combo router and WiFi and another touted brand. All three could not penetrate my concrete innerwalls of home.

Got a new 3bb router WiFi combo, in one box, and it works GREAT. Good WiFi all over and good performance overall...... 4 sockets. Cheap and 3bb sends two men to my house to make anything broken work again, will not take tips, and no charge. Satisfied customer in Nakhon Pathom.

Oh oh, another worthless father, another dead beat dad in the making.

YOU fathered them; you take care of them.

Take wife and kids back to America and your wife, THERE, will either return to loving or will fully hate you. But then you can deal with a decided situation in a country that forces dads to live up to their responsibility, another plus for YOUR children.

Be a man outside the bedroom, also, eh?

In a properly installed two wire electrical system in a Thai home, there is a minor reason to unplug all electrical devices when not in use and a very minor reason to keep them plugged in... other than convenience.

We use a Television set (tv) as an example...... 1 COST: When a modern tv is plugged in but turned off with the remote only, it consumes a small amount of electric power via the pilot light and some circuits "warm" so that the tv comes on via the remote fast. The amount of consumption cost is small but it adds up over all such appliances and over time. A modern home is likely to have 3-5 tvs, 2 stereos, air cond, computer, and the like all having their pilot lights ON and the appliance OFF. Unplugging these items stops that cost; also turning OFF the electrical socket strip to that item also stops that cost, but the power socket strip usually has a pilot lamp on it, too.

2. minor danger: Any electrical device can fail and start a fire via an accidental full or partial connection from the hot to the neutral which forms a path that runs through or near some material that will burn. This is called commonly a "short circuit" or a "leakage path" and involves heat created when the path has high resistance (i.e., is not a perfect short) and that heat can set fire to the surrounding material. This can happen with the wires sealed inside concrete walls or inside appliances or even worn extension cords, but it usually happens where there is lots of wear rubbing on the wire insulation or the insulation just gets old in any application, breaks, and forms a heated path. Of course, if there is no current flow through a danger point, like unplugging, then the fire danger is eliminated.

3. The very minor reason to keep them plugged in is that SOME appliances are designed to work best and live longest if constantly supplied with a small amount of electrics, even if turned to "standby" and pilot light on. Some argue a computer is best left on all the time for longer life and avoidance of the start up strain... if that is real. Some say same for refrigerators.

The final answer is that any appliance is safer unplugged; the amount of safety relates to the age and use of the item, older is worse, of course.

Lightning: In all cases of remote strikes, the off switch on most appliances will keep the lightning surge from going into the appliance even when plugged up. In the case of a direct hit or a very near miss, all bets are off. I have seen tvs and other items fried by a direct hit on a house EVEN IF UNPLUGGED totally. The EMF voltage of lightning induces voltage on all near-by metal items, all.. including the metal fillings in your teeth. However, even a very high instant very high induced voltage will not be a harm unless there is also at the same time current flow. The inside of a 5VDC tv system can easily have voltage induced and current flow happen because in that instant of the strike, some parts of the tv system are at different voltages which allows current to flow and burn out parts inside the tv. Unplugged does not always matter.

Same for computers.

Turning off and especially turning off an outlet socket strip is excellent protection from remote lightning (same for other type of power surges); unplugging is unnecessary but can not hurt except for the inconvenience.

Doing all kinds of turning OFF and also unplugging is not a fail-safe protection from direct hits. However, an unplugged appliance is safer in some unknowable amount.

There is another big question about what to do when the items are plugged in and being used, but you did not ask about that.

Saves money or so they believe. Lots of Thais including and especially Bars unplug their fridges at night.

One good way to get very sick is if the ICECREAM freezer storage refrig is off and allows the ice cream to melt even a little bit. Germs grow in that very rich melted cream and of course, is refrozen with the refrig turned back on, plugged back in.

You can see the re frozen part of the ice cream in the container because it is very different looking from the continuously frozen stuff in the same container.

thanks guys....this is my g/f parents house which has had a safety cut box fitted and a ground rod attached to both the washing machine and shower.....I am not going to have the whole house rewired to ground each socket but wanted to know how safe it is with a set up like this

I typed a long answer to this and that disappeared?

The Neutral cannot and must not be connect to grounding rod (grounding rod)

Neutral is a return path for volt / live through connecting appliances, this return is to make a complete circuit

if you connect neutral to grounding rod…….the result will be volt which is 230V becoming 115V

This region is 230V and 115V is seriously under volt. or Volt shorted to ground. …...

You can not obtain 115VAC this way. This is Thailand.

In a properly installed two wire system, you should measure 220-240VAC from the hot wire to a real earth ground.

In a properly installed two wire system, you should measure 220-240VAC from the hot wire to the neutral wire.

In a properly installed two wire system, you should measure about 10VAC from the neutral wire to a real earth ground.

Hugh, in a properly wired home electric system, your electrical breaker "fuse" box is metal and has the supply two wires coming in and other two wire pairs going out to all the rest of your home.

There is no real need to grounding the breaker box metal case, but if all is installed correctly, there is no harm.

If you did ground the metal case and IF there is any kind of mistaken leakage to that metal box, then the grounded box will just divert some of your incoming power to your box ground and waste power but keep you safe from accidentally touching the metal box itself.

It is much better to have all hot and neutral wires correctly wired.

Excuse my ignorance. But, could the Op sink a ground rod and connect it to the neutral in the safety box?

NO NO NO NO........... DO NOT GROUND THE NEUTRAL WIRE...... The neutral is the other wire in the pair of wires connected to your two-pin sockets.

The neutral wire is supposed to be grounded only at the supply, step down transformer mounted high on poles and owned by the electric company. One of several bad results of you grounding your home neutral is your ground may be "better" than the electric co.'s is.

In that case, you are providing a neutral grounding to all your neighbors on your side of the company's transformer; not good for you.

Note, your neutral is going through your meter and could be spinning faster if a fault current is present on the consumer side of the supply transformer. Thus your cost could be artificially high and you could obtain bad voltage on YOUR ground. Just do not ground your home neutral.

Separate rod for the shower isn't ideal, but it's far, far better than no rod.

Don't set the Safe-T-Cut to 'Direct' and you will be fine.

Yes a separate ground rod for the shower and washing machine is not the absolute best, but is a danger only if a person can touch both the shower water running and the washing machine at the same time. Even then, if the ground on both is real.... obtained with a 6ft to 8ft ground rod set in real earth* ... there should be absolute no danger. That slim danger is eliminated by wiring the two rods together.

The idea is the very slim chance that one of the ground rods presents a "better ground" than the other thus creating the chance for a voltage path.

*A potential problem never mentioned here is the rather good chance of your driving in a ground rod and it not touching earth...... note this situation.......

1. You drill through your stone or concrete floor and put the rod down there, but there is a chance that the earth has eroded away from that spot under your slab (pier and beam can be under there but dirt could have sunk away)....... then the rod just sits there not touching earth.

2. You drill through your concrete and tile outdoor floor that touches where your house bottom wall has the outdoor concrete against and surrounding that spot where you install the rod. Again, under the outdoor concrete slab, the earth may have sunk and your rod will be in free air although under the concrete.

Red China sells these mics for about 5 USD.

"Someone" probably in the MU head job was personally notified years ago of a MU prof selling grades. "Somebody" handed the problem off to lower level folks. No investigation; no remedial action.

The truth does not always make you free; sometimes it just means ducking effectively.

I wonder about the "suffering from hydration" but then I really read what is printed.

I see lots of Brits at bars that are really suffering from excessive hydration, but it is alcohol, so likely ok.

Being a well trained reader of scare stories in the news...........

I read "tonic" as "toxic."

Real humor writers need not worry about TV typists being able to tell funny stories.

Real humor writers' jobs are safe and secure.

Now my "two hammer" story... now THAT is funny.

Thailand is way over-due for large scale UFO sightings.

Doesn't happen here because Thai people know these are just ghosts and spirits and just pile more food on the spirit houses.

Only people in "developed" nations see UFOs.

Why?

My easy chair at my home.

My bed at home.

My computer Internet at my home.

But, do not come here, I have dogs.

I don't understand moving them to side roads which are narrower and would cause more problems. Why not have a lot to take them to and charge the owner for the towing and storage until they pick up the vehicle. If they don't pick it up within a time limit auction the vehicles.

Take car directly to smasher and sell scrap.

You need an Iron Man suit like Tony Stark's.

Yes maybe science can find a solution...clone myself perhaps...

Thanks for the humour, but actually this isn't a pub talk post. There is that saying "be careful of what you wish for". Well I now have it. And just 8 days later I am burnt to a crisp. The only saving grace is that she heads off to work each morning and I get the day time to recover. I am crazy about her...too crazy in fact...I feel like I have won the lottery every time she smiles at me...but I am fearful that I am just too long in the tooth to keep up.

It's a horrible feeling when you just want her so much but the body is fried. Youth is wasted on the young.

There is a chance that she thinks you want a lot. Time to discuss individual needs, the real ones.