plachon

Not bad, considering her portfolio was worth only a few thousand baht a couple of years ago. I wonder how she did it.

Must have been the holiday job at Macdonald's daddy got her. you gotta admire her fiscal prowess at that tender age, eh?

FWIW, every Isaan town seems to have it's resident pair of "Morons" (my wife's term for them too) on bikes, immaculately turned out and sporting natty helmets. I've been seeing them around for years and on the rare occasions I've seen them talking (proseltysing?) with folks, it nearly always seems to be in the smarter/higher income houses.Does this mean only the rich are worth saving or those with a bit of cash to their name are a softer touch for conversion? I've often wondered too, what their success rate is. I dare say that if they changed to selling vaccum cleaners or Amway junk they'd make a mint, as Thais can't resist a looplaw, cleancut, sooparb farang on a bike. They also speak first rate Thai I've discovered from someone who was cornered once.

OOOh xmas. Working. Will ring the parents.

My favourite memory of xmas is of sitting on the verandah at King Cobra in Mae Sai as my son was visiting his mother (real birth mother not my wife) over the river.

It was -2 degrees. He still talks about it. He crossed in a small boat with a rope. I had a hamburger, read a book, got a call from parents, didn't miss the turkey.

He was 12 that year. Had been HIV positive just over 6 months.

Thanks for the memory IT. Brought back one of my own from somewhere near the Burmese border in Tak province many Xmas moons ago. Bloody freezing the same and somehow got talked into by the guesthouse owner to go to a "party" occurring in a village nearby on Xmas Eve. Details v. sketchy about exactly what kind of party, but went along anyway with two other guests staying there - one an ultra-cynical Israeli and the other a London geezer who would have fitted right into the cast of Only fools and Horses.

We were taken in apick-up truck up a mountain then dropped off in the middle of bloody nowhere with a guide to lead us. Not a light to be seen, we scrabbloed down dale and up hill for what seemed like hours, but was probably about 45 mins, and eventually saw a light in the distance and heard singing. The israeli had been mumbling all the way, while the Cockney kept on going on about what would happen if a tiger attacked us. I kept their spirits up by saying i'd never heard of any tiger attacks the whole time I'd lived in Thailand and anyway, they were virtually extinct, while saying the Thais always know how to throw a good party with plenty of hooch. The guide kept strangely quiet the whole walk.

When we got to the village, we found there was a generator lighting up a meeting hut and all the villagers were seated in there watching some kind of show. It turned out to be a full-on nativity play with sheperds, angels, wise men, cattle, Herod, Jesus, Mary and baby Jesus all featuring! We were made guests of honour and expected to sit up the front row. Worse still, the food had already been eaten and the village it turned out was under the aegis of missionaries who were tee-total! So we had to sit there, smiling politely, gagging for a drink for about an hour before we could politely make excuses and leave.

Then we had to find our guide to lead us out of the village back to the pick-up. He was eventually located in alittle hut smoking opium, the crafty bugger. So he was bugger all-use for leading us back and it took us twice as long on the return trek, falling in several streams along the way, nearly half freezing to death. Meanwhile, the israeli was still moaning about the sacriligious entertainment while the Cockney was going "Oh my gawd, what was that sound? Tell 'er indoors I love 'er if a tiger bloody gets me. Saints 'alive, promise I'll never stray again if I get out of this alive". Just my luck to choose such company and the only dry Karen villlage for miles around to spend Xmas Eve, but made up for it the next day back in Mae Sot!

This year will be a much more conventional Xmas with the wife and daughter and a roast goose with all the trimmings (nowt's wasted round these parts after all!) Season's Greetings one and all and all the best for '04!

Plachon

bush and monica seen buying cigars at tobacconist in nana plaza

Then seen nipping round to the khazi behind the petrol station for a strategic piercing..........monica went in first and came out with a conventional nipple ring, followed by bush who came out with a pierced wee-WMD, which was later seen being flaunted on stage at DC-10 to much mirth. Needless to say, monica stuck with her cigar that night.

Moody Blues were great a few weeks ago in Ft Myers Florida.

I was going to fly to "brighton england" to see them a few years ago after seeing them do the Red Rocks concert and then in Ft Lauderdale, but a friend told me I would probably hate the place ( January) ( I hate cold weather) so I passed.

Pink Floyd would be interesting. Never saw them in concert, but how in the world to see them without orange sunshine and would it even be possible to do Ummagumma ( oops bad spelling)? 

Mr Vietnam 

Watch out for that Axe Eugene

hahahaha

Friend of a Friend will try to play at our Christmas Dinner “Wish you where here” acoustic guitar (spelt wong again).

Hope his is good. Maybe, me think, me sing a song with him.

Kan, I think you'll find it was "Careful with that axe Eugene". (Beware, pedant at work......Classic album, that one back in the days when Syd's input was still strong, if not wholly sane.........."I've got a bike, you can ride it if you like, it's got a basket, a bell, and things to make it look good. I'd give it to you if i could, but I borrowed it"..........And enjoy the "Wish you were here" chords over Xmas, mate, classic stuff.

not that I would believe all of the news articles as being accurate

No, it was Santa down that hole!

Funny, I thought that it was Fidel Castro that was fished out and presented to Georgie Jr as a Xmas offering on Sunday. The soldiers were disappointed to find they'd only caught the Ace of Spades instead, who can spill far more beans on past WMD benefactors than certain ex-Presidents and Prime Minsters would be comfortable with. Let's hope he's kept the receipts.

plachon

Thailand is only one place in a world of many so I do not need for what I cannot provide on my own. I also will not stay around someone else country stinking up the place if I cannot afford to do it right and respectfuly be at my own means.

Khun Spoutalot,

let me get this straight - the "little place" your drinking buddies are building for you out of the kindness of their hearts for their magnanimous provider is really just yours anyway then, the way you see it? As you're such an independent chappie who really could be swanning around any part of this little oyster at your leisure, why on earth did you choose Thailand to have a pied a terre, as opposed to Cannes, the Bahamas, Hawaii or some other sunny paradise? Carry on doing it "right", good sir, but please allow the rest of us to wallow in our own smells, which get nicely mixed up with the local pla rah odours, thank you v. much.

Yes 80,000 baht a week but this includes sanuk for the friends and drinks and

food and normally not at cheap places plus golf for the group and hotels, trips to islands, whatever when ever. I know it is to much but when you work 7 days a week and no time for sanuk at all to include not even a beer once in a while it is easy to go overboard a little. The favor will be returned in the future as I am considering retiring soon and my friends are already building me a little place to live (when I am not traveling) on their property at no cost to me.

It is in a very high cost area around golf courses and just a bit outside of town.

What comes around goes around.

Looks like you're heading towards becoming one of those Chinese / farang live-like-the-locals away from the 7 days-a-week rat-race people you despise so much? Just hope your friends like you as much when you're not spending 80K a week on them, Khun Loadsamoney Spendalot Knowitall.

I was in Chiang Mai a few days ago, and thought the streets looked pretty packed with grockles, though lots of bars and resturants were half empty or worse. I asked a few local shopkeepers how business was compared to this time last year and they mostly had tales of woe to tell. It was not so much that numbers were down they said, but just that the tourists were spending less. However, nobody I talked to was able to point out one, what seemed to me rather obvious point i.e that there are now far more small businesses selling everything under the sun than ever before. Shops, stalls, restaurants, massage parlours, bars, you name it, CM has the lot. Which is great for the buyer, as prices are cut throat and highly competitive, but not so good for the seller who in the past has relied on less competition to make ends meet. The logical market conclusion to all this is that the weakest will be forced out leaving only the strongest, but this being Thailand, there always seems to be a never ending queue of new small entrepreneurs ready and willing to lose their shirts in the market place. So the situtation may not improve for some time I'm afraid Georgie, farang master seller or not. And yes, I'm sure a lot of long term regulars and past-faithfuls will have been put off by the draconian visa measures but in place by Cap'n Shinsible this year.

Syd,

I have a suggestion.................trade your computer in for a manual typewriter and your microwave in for a charcoal stove. It'll solve your shocking problem and all the other stresses and strains of modern living in one fell swoop. And if you have a car, a two cow-pulled khwian is highly recommended for alternative means of transport. Believe me, it moves faster along the chonabot roads than the average speed of traffic in bangkok (which was about 8 miles an hour, last time I checked the Big Durian's streets).

Mr V , we chaps from UK have many great bands to draw back on , but the "Moody blues" are not amongst them.

Discuss.

Chon,

All my worst suspicions about Mr V are fully confirmed now he's come out with his penchant for the Moody Blues. I mean, you can just picture him in his 70s suit and long hair, looking like something out of Starsky & Hutch queuing up to see the Blues with his boyfriend, eh? while fastidiously saving his concert ticket and sticking it in his album along with others like Barry Manilow and the Bee Gees. "You can tell by the way he walks......."

Why buy property when you can rent? It makes no sense to buy. If you really want to buy, whats wrong with a condo? This elite card thing is a swizz, anyone seen a fake one yet?

If I could get my hands on one I'd put on a suit, pretend to be a V.I.P. and get a five year multiple visa, thats the only good thing about it!

Syd,

I suspect a suit would not be so effective as a golf bag and jacket bearing the logo of "TRT" in promient letters as a passport to that 5 year visa you crave. I'm sure the VIP status will also card the authorities you're also worth a bottle of Johnny Black or two down the club, which you're so graciously allowed to play "free" at.

I could live with that Butterfly only want to share the house with wife and family with a feeling of security not to be a land baron in Thailand.

You're welcome to share the house bodily and spiritually for as long as Khun Wifey puts up with you Bronco; just don't ever expect to see your name on the title deeds. And yep, renting makes far more sense in the current over-priced land and housing market, just awating the next crash in a soi near you................

You're joking, aren't you? The Nation occupying the high ground...they are experts at writing down to people. They couldn't get it up if they tried.

are you by any chance connected to the post?

Yeah, didn't you know, he's the tea-boy who's had designs on Trink's ample seat at the Post for many (well, at least several) moons.

Concerned's story gets curiouser and curiouser! Or horrendouser and horrendouser. And he says the bro-in-law's nocturnal gropings are the least of his worries! He's having second thoughts about moving out and thinks things could perhaps work out with the G/F, despite all the advice to the contrary posted. It's a tragi-comedy in the making, that could surpass even Bud's pre-arrival ramblings for human interest factor. The strange part is, I don't think the guy is a troll, so please Concerned, if you do decide to stay against the grain of logic, then at least keep us updated on a regular basis! I'm hooked waiting for the next juicy installment. Quack! Quack!

A six pack short of a picnic .

Or possibly a stubbie short of a six-pack?

Jeez-us H man! Reading your post made me squirm in my seat and wonder if "Concerned Farang" has to be the understatement of the year. "Stark raving shitting it Farang", it should read if you know what's good for you. Yeah, take the advice and get the ###### outta there fast, without leaving a trail. If you still have a trace of concern for the EX-GF, leave some appropriate antibiotics on the table, as she's probably going to come down with salmonella pretty soon. And don't let the family sweet talk you into staying, as they'll be as concerned about their meal ticket clearing off, as they are about their daughter/sister. Please do it bro., you know it makes sense.

Glad somebody has brought up the subject of Roger Irrelevant aka Bernie Trink. I too will confess to having avidly read his column before all else on a Fri/Sat, but don't go as far back as Lopburi and Bangkok World. But back in the early/mid 90s he was a good read away from the other depressing news or banal stories/columns elsewhere. However, he has been a on a long, slow ride to irrelevance and being out of touch with the subject he puports to cover. The only other regular contributor from those days, t'other Roger (the Bassethound) has also gone the way of Trink and endlessly regurgitates similar material week in, week out. Embedded unemployables, I guess is the politest way of putting it.

But I wouldn't go so far as to recommend their early/over-due retirements or god-forbid, sacking. After all this is the all-tolerant LOS we're talking about, and I think the Post's gradual squeezing down of Trink's column inches is the right and just one, as his abilities wither too. But I do wish he would stop printing letters written by himself in his favour. They stick out like sore thumbs. And who is standing in line to replace the old, grey men of yore? After all, the subject matter is as plentiful as ever, witnessed by this Forum.

Doc, dyslexia, so it would seem from this forum, rules ASU as well as KO. Tomy's still having trouble getting past Dr Seuss, so it would seem. Mind you, he could get many valuable lessons from the spelling, punctuation and grammar, if he'd only take the time to pay attention.

Well done you Angles! by the way. (And tuff luk the Ozies)

I've noticed that the Warrior, who took the first shot at Australians has gone to ground....A bit like the All Blecks the other night.....A real kipper, 1 eyed and no guts

yeah, most unlike Tutsi not to join in a good verbal scrum like this one. It's got all the usual suspects and I can guess which corner he'd be slugging from. He's either working hard at setting up his bar (when's it going to be ready mate?) or, his Mrs has finally got a flock of Peking ducks in the back yard and he's done a runner.

Come in Tuts, come in!

I shall never visit America (U.S.A.) indeed I suspect that I would be sent off for interrogation because of some innocent visa stamps in my passport.

I, like many other forum members, object to mr vietnam pooh-poohing British values. This is no place for American propaganda. Please, sir, visit some 'I'm a loud mouthed, brain dead American bore' site.

Thank you and good night.

Where you been then Wilson to worry about getting you ejected from the US? Regular visits to Afghanistan pre-9/11, Yemen and Somalia are quite easily explainable at Immigration. Trust me. Anyway, Cuba can be very nice at this time of year, esp. the cosy cabins round Guantannamo Bay.

PS Our greatest export is Newcastle Brown Ale (ask Clint Eastwood, who used to demand crates of the stuff be sent to wherever he was filming apparently).

Yup, another illustration of british intelligence. LOL!

In my drinking days though, it was Harp. God bless the Irish.

Mr Vietnam

"In your drinking days" - it sound like someone wasn't staying "sharp to the bottom of the glass". Start dribbling in your pint and singing "spar stangled spanner" then MrV?

The Irish deserve praise for Guinness, even Murphy's at a push, but never Harp. What do you reckon Rinrada, our resident expert on brews?

Thank you for so thoughtfully giving Britain, small case b status, but America (where's that I wonder, North or South?), Washington and even Iraq, upper case status. Personally, I can't wait for Village Idiot bush and Poodle blair to get down to business and come out with some more Alice in Wonderland lines about how well their little foreign escapades are going.

You're so welcome. Hey, America's people had to learn from the brits over long periods of time how to be servants. It's britains greatest export.

Mr Vietnam

Funny thing is though, you somehow changed from being a servile colony of Great Britain (interspersed by a long period of noble freedom in between) to being a colony of Israel. Wonder how that happened? I used to reckon that Israel was just an expensive state of the US, until a few years ago and realised that the boot is on the other foot (as Ariel Sharon let on not so very long ago, confirming some of Mahatir's statements).

PS Our greatest export is Newcastle Brown Ale (ask Clint Eastwood, who used to demand crates of the stuff be sent to wherever he was filming apparently).

Thank you for so thoughtfully giving Britain, small case b status, but America (where's that I wonder, North or South?), Washington and even Iraq, upper case status. Personally, I can't wait for Village Idiot bush and Poodle blair to get down to business and come out with some more Alice in Wonderland lines about how well their little foreign escapades are going.

I think the following sums things up well. Even if the Iraqi people by way of their new found 'freedom', democratically elect a government which in turn tells the occupying force to leave, the US isn't going anywhere... So much for all the hype about freedom and democracy in Iraq...

http://www.commondreams.org/scottie.htm

Scottie & Me

(formerly known as Ari & I)

White House Press Briefing with Scott McClellan

Monday, November 17, 2003 - 12:15 PM

by Russell Mokhiber

Mokhiber: Scott, Ambassador (Paul) Bremer said yesterday that U.S. troops will remain on the ground in Iraq even after the government is elected there. What if the (Iraqi) government asks the U.S. to get out. Would we get out?

Scott McClellan: I don't think that is the case. The governing council themselves said that they would expect that they would remain - that we would remain as invited guests -

Mokhiber: But let's say they ask us to leave -

Scott McClellan: The coalition forces, the security of Iraq is a very high priority. And we will continue to have discussions with the governing council as we move forward, and we will continue to have discussions with the new interim government once it is in place - about security matters.

Mokhiber: But the question is - let's say they elect a theocracy, against your wishes. And the theocracy says - like in Iran - get out. Will we get out?

Scott McClellan: Again, we will continue to have discussions with the new interim government -

Mokhiber: What if they don't want discussions? What if they just want us to get out?

Scott McClellan: The Iraqi people have indicated in a number of different ways, if you look at polls, if you look at the governing council representatives, that they want us to say until the job is finished. And part of that job is making sure that we have a secure environment for the Iraqi people. And we still have important obligations that will need to be fulfilled. That includes the security side, that includes the reconstruction side. There are an enormous amount of resources going into Iraq from the international community. All of us have a stake in seeing a peaceful and free Iraq come about. It is important to transforming the Middle East. The Middle East has been a volatile region. It has been a breeding ground for terrorism, and bringing about a free, peaceful, democratic Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will help transform that region for the better, bring about a safer and better world.

When you put a worm on a hook, boy, does he wriggle. Maybe this is why "President" Bush deserves a "worm" welcome in UK? I feel confident the guy will not be as cossetted and shielded from reality as when he was in LOS a few weeks ago. Feel sorry for QEII, though having him as a house guest in Buck Pal.