UncleDonald

Maybe after all these years the birds are running behind schedule.  Maybe if you wait until October or November....either this year or next. 

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Uncle Donald thanks you for this wise reply.

On this date October 22 1918 Doctor T. Heyward Hayes reported from Bangkok that the unhealthy state of his rose garden was resulting from the same atmospheric condition that was fostering the bird flu epidemic, then in its third week. In Penang 217 people died of it in the previous seven days.

This morning Uncle Donald got up before six to make an Important Phonecall. He went up on the roof. It was quite pleasant up there, the sun rising over Cambodia, the sky a little blue and the concrete cool to the touch. His phone provided a long cheerful message in Thai telling him that his service was disconnected. He considered how the bird flu coming to Bangkok mid October 1918. The Thai authorities say it gets worse with the cool weather. Today the sun will be at its maximum altitude, 65.5 degrees, at 2 minutes past noon. Birds follow the sun.

Based on my own experience and the previous post, I believe that BOA refuses to offer this service now, and does not accept Bangkok Bank New York as a valid transfer bank.

OP requests closure of this topic, will try again another day. Thanks

This merry crew, diverted from masturbation jokes, sallies forth behind "Sir Burr" who trumpets almost perfect misinformation...

This topic was closed after several posts which were tasteless to say the least and assumed incorrectly that the point of the original post was to generate such a response. (Naive on the OP's part, perhaps) The closure itself was similarly tasteless given that the thread is directed at those who indicate an interest in medical topics.

Uncle Donald's purpose, had there been any sensible response, and the thread had continued, was to bring some attention to an issue that may prove somewhat more important than some others in this forum, that is the likely transmission path of viral infections, a matter that may prove of interest to many in the near future, given the progress of avian flu less than an hour air time from Bangkok. At present government response is as might be predicted from current leadership, here and elsewhere, of the "command and control style" (Tamiflu, quarantines, etc) and it is Uncle Donald's view that this approach will not suffice and may even be completely ineffective. On the other hand most people are very much unaware of day to day activities that aggravate viral transmission. Do you think about that ATM machine? That BTS strap? Do you know the best way to protect yourself and your family during an epidemic? Do you know what happened in Bangkok in October of 1918, the last time bird flu came to town? Uncle Donald suspects that once again central governments and M16s may not be the key. Wiser advice has long been available in Thailand, and the people for the most part will recognize and respect it when it comes. Meanwhile, some discussion of the topic would certainly seem to be in order.

This was the drift of where we were going, not adolescent sex talk. But, boys, maybe you're not interested this year....

Please provide useful details.

I'm buying a condo, already put a good chunk of money down, my longtime Thai gf offered to take on the mortgage at the very nice local rates of 3 or 4 percent (for the first three years). Will Thai banks consider lending on jointly titled (Thai-fahlang) property? I'm happy to sign on for the mortage too.

My transfer was deducted from my Bank of America (BOA) account on the 3rd of October. Looking at the transfer page, it shows the transfer is still in process. I am thinking it will be complete by Saturday.

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I've followed all the instructions, a lot of trouble setting this up, and my transfer for $1700 failed last week. An earlier small one succeed with some strange and rather large fees. The jury is still out on this idea as far as I'm concerned. Please keep up the banter, Richard, we all need to get this resolved.

What I was really trying to show was the hypocrisy of one drug being relatively harmless but illegal, whereas with personal experience I know the nightmare that the legal one causes.

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....It's certainly not will power, nor intelligence, nor environment. Nobody really knows,

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As any lawyer knows, the statements of experts that begin with "certainly" are always the most doubtful

This is a very interesting post. The topic of body fluid management is a good one. We've had some related discussion at:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=45522

Uncle finds that a little diuretic once a day helps a lot with fluid, but since he has also cut beer intake it's hard to separate the influences. However the combination is certainly magic when it comes to blood pressure; about 20 mm reduction in a week or so.

Acclimatization and development of best habits is a key to living in Thailand.

Uncle Donald noted that his was slightly elevated on this particularly sultry morning in Thonburi, figure 1. Fearing an abnormality, he asked a kindly seeming passerby if she would indulge his scientific curiosity, figure 2. Significance of this disparity are not known at the present time.

All of these substances are a matter of having tommorrow's fun tonight.

The gym suggestion is sound, here is a graph of Uncle's blood pressure (systolic, red) and daily beer consumption (purple, ounces) following a regime of gym workouts and (mostly) abstention. According to the British Hypertension Society, this should cut cardiac and stroke risk by fifty percent. Notice that one has to suffer through a little delay before the good news begins.

Uncle Donald, puffing his way up the BTS stairs and not caring to have a stroke while yet in his youthful sixties, decided to experimentally adjust some habits, and some other non-directed stuff, with these results. Red is systolic, green diastolic, purple daily ounces of beer consumption, and an index of weight at the top.

Are you doing anything about it?

Health insurance may be mostly a bogus marker for the hope, comfort, and general sense of meaning that seems so absent in contemporary life and which may be sometimes felt acutely here in the far reaches of the empire. At least in America, business and politics have joined forces to create a fraudulent, expensive, and sloppily run system that generates more misery than it cures. Fortunately good medical service can be obtained in Bangkok at about 20 percent of the price in the US, and the error rate may be even a bit lower. Self-funding is the way to go.

Uncle suggests that the search for comforting and reliable relationships, avoidance of motorcycles, along with deposit of ones hopes in areas other than personal longevity is the Rx for most of us.

Good Point, The Aircon may work better with the windows closed    Is the thermostat located near the window ?

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This is the brilliant observation Uncle has been waiting for. Thank you, Mattnich.

Bangkok, September 12, 7 am

Purchased a month ago as a reconditioned 12,000 BTU unit, it is currently inoperable, with defective thermostat suspected. Fortunately, with night time temperatures at 26 or so and humidity declining to 68% from close to 90% a few days ago, a fan suffices.

Bangkok September 8, 2005

1 am: Both marginally comfortable all night with ceiling fan set "low". Temperature 27, Dew Point 24; Enthalpy 88 kilojoules and moisture 22 grams per cubic meter air, about two pints in the bedroom. Conditions in Miami very similar. Agree with comments best to avoid aircon.

7:30 am: Seems pleasant enough to me. Wife cold in shower, "Brrrrr!" pronounced "Euuuuuu! (falling tone). They be winter coming!".

10:30: Wife claims big hurry, but stops at open market and handles mangos and talks to fruit lady for 10 minutes. Very muggy, standing around waiting, uncle sweats a good deal. Don Muang temperature 30.0, dew point 27. But this is probably higher by 2-3 degrees compared to downtown. Look into this.

I am planning to visit Thailand for three months in January. Is there an effective vacination against bird flu?

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covered earlier in post:

There currently is no vaccine to protect humans against the H5N1 virus that is being seen in Asia.

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Partly correct, but the current vaccine that is being tested aims at this particular strain. Meanwhile critics point out that it won't be effective for the strain that is being carried by migrating birds from China to Europe. Which will combine with highly transmissable flu first?

UncleDonald - with events like this you should consider starting a blog 

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Why thank you, Rio, I knew that there would be some folks from places like Nongkai and Bristol UK who would enjoy it. Do you think I should interweave some themes from my prostatitis or is the aircon stuff enough?

Bangkok, Tuesday night, September 6

9 pm: Very muggy, turn it on

10 pm: Wife cold, turns it off

1 am: Wife "hot" but too sleepy to turn fan on

7 am: damp, sticky; turn it on, get blanket

8 am: everyone happy

Unfortunately the government here has taken the "official position" that bird flu has not been transmitted between people, in spite of the fact that the most famous medical paper on the subject published in the NE Journal of Medicine this year says the opposite in documenting a family case here in Thailand. The article was coauthored by half a dozen or so Thai doctors, who apparently were not willing to stick to the party line.

These pandemics usually come to town for one to two months. One conclusion from past records is that though the fatality rate for known cases of the severe form may be high (1918 maybe 10 percent) many people, perhaps the majority, don't come down with it in the first place. Amazingly, the experts don't seem to know whether this is some natural immunity or contact avoidance. My bet is mostly the latter; if so the most important thing for the individual or family may be preventing anyone in the family getting it. Think of it this way: if you didn't get the (ordinary) flu last time it came around, (its contagiousness was probably the same as the dreaded impending pandemic, it just didn't kill people) how can you duplicate the performance this time?

Spent some time reading about the impact of the 1918 pandemic in Thailand in the daily English-language newspaper for Oct-Dec 1918. (Believe it or not, there was a very good one published in BKK). About one percent fatalities, but not as much panic as you might think, I'd side against the bellicose response. Got some ideas on this, will post when I get a chance.

Been around Thailand for 45 years, never seen it but know it does happen when the lid comes off. Many years ago an international flight crashed taking off from Don Muang and there was a shocking scene as village folks tore through the bodies grabbing rings, wallets, etc. Resulted in a lot of soul searching among the Thai. Suppose if you look at European history you'll find much the same, often dolled up as heroics. Not to speak of movies and computer games. Makes one hesitate before doing rash things like kicking the sides of cars that don't heed pedestrians.