toloman

I work for a EPC company and around 20 years ago I had my first involvement with arbitration and my diary turned out to be a key component in the company limiting their loses. So a pat on the back for me and it was onward and upwards.

I have to say though, I was not a willing or a diligent diary keeper in the beginning, but it is a company requirement.

I have been recording my thoughts in diaries since the 1970's. I write in mine every day. I am a writer anyway and authored 12 books. I am currently writing my thirteenth book which will be on amazon sometime this year. My last book which is on amazon.com was called The Mean Streets of LA: Taking Out the Trash. The book based on my experience of working with an hispanic barrio gang in the late 1970's.

whats new, married with kids and screwing a druggie on the side, not happy enough with a well to do hubby, nice house, well financed, needed a bit of side action to keep her occupied while he was away working, nothing new at all for some thai women, they simply cant keep their legs closed, marriage means nothing but then many thai men are the same

Agreed........They are just different to not only western females but other asian females!.....

I have been living in Thailand 18 years and have been married to my Thai wife for 27 years. So many marriages here are shams though. So many guys being ripped off it makes my head spin

. Because so many of my friends have complained over the years about being ripped off I composed a song to be sung to the tune of Mr. Tambourine Man that goes like this:

Say Mister A.T.M man, give some cash to me

I am young and Thai and sexy,

I have a great big family.

My mother's sick, my buffalo too.

My grandma's going nuts would you care to see my butt?

Say Mister A. T. M. man give your cash to me.

whats new, married with kids and screwing a druggie on the side, not happy enough with a well to do hubby, nice house, well financed, needed a bit of side action to keep her occupied while he was away working, nothing new at all for some thai women, they simply cant keep their legs closed, marriage means nothing but then many thai men are the same

Agreed........They are just different to not only western females but other asian females!.....

I have been living in Thailand 18 years and have been married to my Thai wife for 27 years. So many marriages here are shams tough. So many guys being ripped off it makes my head spin

. Because so many of my friends have complained over the years about being ripped off I composed a song to be sung to the tune of Mr. Tambourine Man that goes like this:

Say Mister A.T.M man, give some cash to me

I am young and Thai and sexy,

I have a great big family.

My mother's sick, my buffalo too.

My grandma's going nuts would you care to see my butt?

Say Mister A. T. M. man give your cash to me.

A whore by any other name is still a whore

and nothing wrong with being a 'whore' if you want to be. Time we got over this antiquated notion of sex, people do it all over the world. If some want to sell it, then good on them.

It isn't the 1800s any more.

reminds me of the story of the little boy who approached a sexily clad woman on a street corner who asks: "are youa prostitute?" "No," she answered, "I am a substitute. I only work on weekends."

I would check your drain covers as it is the most easiest way that they can move from condo to condo. You keep your condo clean but that does not mean your neighbours are doing the same. Also keep your eyes open for little almost 1cm brown/black cocoons as these hold the eggs of the cockroach. Keeping cockroach numbers down is an uphill struggle and will never really be achieved. Just keep cans of the bug spray on and and maybe put bleach down the drains and hopefully this will give you some peace of mind.

cockroaches like to eat sweet things, the same as ants. put six teaspoonfuls of baking soda and six teaspoons of confectioner's sugar on a flat plate or tray and sprinkle some water droplets on the misture to make it moist. when they consume it, the baking soda explodes their stomach and they are hgoners. I use the same mixture for ants that kept getting in my house. At the end of the week, millions of dead ants and no more problem. Check it out on google.com

it's one of the great shames in Thailand that it does not look after it's own citizens and a great shame of parents who abandon them and almost a greater shame that family planning is as rare here as a flying Naga

For the past 18 years here at Tree of Life House (Buriram) , a registered Thai NGO, we have taken in orphaned, indigent and abandoned children. We raised 69 children over that time. We refused from the beginning to take government money. Instead we raised the needed funds through our friends and more than 870 volunteers from over 50 countriies and from my teaching, royalties from my books and pension. Now we are down to only 2 children other than our own living with us. However we are now focusing on building a sports center at the Wat Ban Yoei Sakei Elementary School which will be shared by 12 schools with a total enrollment of 2,236 children between the ages of 4 and 16 (kindergarten through grade 9 - (M3.). A lot of kids have benefited and many have graduated high school and university and are on their own. We let them know we do not want them to support us but to do one up by helping someone else who is needy..

Kruu Noi is Thai and she was looking after them.

Family planning sounds good, but when young people are hot for each other they sometimes forget. In the west millions of abortions are carried out every year. In Thailand it is illegal( but still happens) and taboo as it is seen more as baby killing than just a "mistake" as it is in the west.

Really bad karma for the Thais to have an abortion, they would rather give birth and adopt out rather than killing the unborn child.

So thousands of orphans is the result.

Kruu Noi got desperate and turned to the money sharks. It nearly always ends up like this from what I have seen. The sharks and the high interest rates are a slippery slope.

Yes I know and abortion, medically supervised, is part of the answer as is education etc. there is NO bad 'karma' for abortions carried out early and there is always the 'morning after' pill. It is twisted logic for Thais to have unwanted babies and it is not 'killing an unborn child' it is ejecting an unformed foetus which has NO LIFE of it's own.

very sorry for Khun Noi nonetheless and hope this angel get's support form some rich Thai who wants to make REAL merit

Well I am never right, never

Just for fun!

After nearly 27 years of marriage, three children and now 2 grandchildren my Thai wife still insists on telling me how to drive. I reminder her that she drives like a Bangkok taxi driver and that she could star in a fast and furious movie. I even offered to open her a driving school so she could vent on someone else. I often remind her, I have been driving for 52 years. You make the best Tom Yam Kung. I never tell you how to make it is perfectly delicious so why do you have to tell me how to drive, what to wear, etc.

In commemoration of ANZAC Day I would like to share this poem written about a young ANZAC soldier who lost his life in battle near Gallipoli in the fall of 1917. Godspeed to all my Aussie and New Zealander friends., on this momentous memorial day.

I wandered thru a country town, ‘cos I had some time to spare,
And went into an antique shop to see what was in there.
Old Bikes and pumps and kero lamps, but hidden by it all,
A photo of a soldier boy – an Anzac on the Wall.

‘The Anzac have a name?’ I asked. The old man answered ‘No’.
The ones who could have told me mate, have passed on long ago.
The old man kept on talking and, according to his tale,
The photo was unwanted junk bought from a clearance sale.

‘I asked around’, the old man said, ‘but no-one knows his face,
He’s been on that wall twenty years… Deserves a better place.
For some-one must have loved him, so it seems a shame somehow.’
I nodded in agreement and then said, ‘I’ll take him now.’

My nameless digger’s photo, well it was a sorry sight
A cracked glass pane and a broken frame – I had to make it right
To prise the photo from its frame I took care just in case,
Cause only sticky paper held the cardboard back in place.

I peeled away the faded screed and much to my surprise,
Two letters and a telegram appeared before my eyes
The first reveals my Anzac’s name, and regiment of course
John Mathew Francis Stuart – of Australia’s own Light Horse.

This letter written from the front… My interest now was keen
This note was dated August seventh 1917
‘Dear Mum, I’m at Khalasa Springs not far from the Red Sea
They say it’s in the Bible – looks like a Billabong to me.

‘My Kathy wrote I’m in her prayers… she’s still my bride to be
I just can’t wait to see you both, you’re all the world to me.
And Mum you’ll soon meet Bluey, last month they shipped him out
I told him to call on you when he’s up and about.’

‘That bluey is a larrikin, and we all thought it funny
He lobbed a Turkish hand grenade into the CO’s dunny.
I told you how he dragged me wounded, in from no man’s land
He stopped the bleeding, closed the wound, with only his bare hand.’

‘Then he copped it at the front from some stray shrapnel blast
It was my turn to drag him in and I thought he wouldn’t last.
He woke up in hospital, and nearly lost his mind
Cause out there on the battlefield he’d left one leg behind.’

‘He’s been in a bad way Mum, he knows he’ll ride no more
Like me he loves a horse’s back, he was a champ before.
So Please Mum can you take him in, he’s been like my own brother
Raised in a Queensland orphanage he’ s never known a mother.’

But Struth, I miss Australia Mum, and in my mind each day
I am a mountain cattleman on high plains far away.
I’m mustering white-faced cattle, with no camel’s hump in sight
And I waltz my Matilda by a campfire every night

I wonder who rides Billy, I heard the pub burnt down
I’ll always love you and please say hooroo to all in town’.
The second letter I could see, was in a lady’s hand
An answer to her soldier son there in a foreign land.

Her copperplate was perfect, the pages neat and clean
It bore the date, November 3rd 1917.
‘T’was hard enough to lose your Dad, without you at the war
I’d hoped you would be home by now – each day I miss you more’

‘Your Kathy calls around a lot since you have been away
To share with me her hopes and dreams about your wedding day.
And Bluey has arrived – and what a godsend he has been
We talked and laughed for days about the things you’ve done and seen’

‘He really is a comfort, and works hard around the farm,
I read the same hope in his eyes that you won’t come to harm.
McConnell’s kids rode Billy, but suddenly that changed.
We had a violent lightning storm, and it was really strange.’

‘Last Wednesday, just on midnight, not a single cloud in sight,
It raged for several minutes, it gave us all a fright.
It really spooked your Billy – and he screamed and bucked and reared
And then he rushed the sliprail fence, which by a foot he cleared’

‘They brought him back next afternoon, but something’s changed I fear
It’s like the day you brought him home, for no one can get near.
Remember when you caught him with his black and flowing mane?
Now Horse breakers fear the beast that only you can tame,’

‘That’s why we need you home son’ – then the flow of ink went dry-
This letter was unfinished, and I couldn’t work out why.
Until I started reading, the letter number three
A yellow telegram delivered news of tragedy,

Her son killed in action – oh – what pain that must have been
The same date as her letter – 3rd November 1917
This letter which was never sent, became then one of three
She sealed behind the photo’s face – the face she longed to see.

And John’s home town’s old timers – children when he went to war
Would say no greater cattleman had left the town before.
They knew his widowed mother well – and with respect did tell
How when she lost her only boy she lost her mind as well.

She could not face the awful truth, to strangers she would speak
‘My Johnny’s at the war you know, he’s coming home next week.’
They all remembered Bluey he stayed on to the end.
A younger man with wooden leg became her closest friend.

And he would go and find her when she wandered old and weak
And always softly say ‘yes dear – John will be home next week.’
Then when she died Bluey moved on, to Queensland some did say.
I tried to find out where he went, but don’t know to this day.

And Kathy never wed – a lonely spinster some found odd.
She wouldn’t set foot in a church – she’d turned her back on God.
John’s mother left no Will I learned on my detective trail.
This explains my photo’s journey, of that clearance sale.

So I continued digging, cause I wanted to know more.
I found John’s name with thousands, in the records of the war.
His last ride proved his courage – a ride you will acclaim
The Light Horse Charge at Beersheba of everlasting fame.

That last day in October, back in 1917
At 4pm our brave boys fell – that sad fact I did glean.
That’s when John’s life was sacrificed, the record’s crystal clear
But 4pm in Beersheba is midnight over here……

So as John’s gallant spirit rose to cross the great divide,
Were lightning bolts back home, a signal from the other side?
Is that why Billy bolted and went racing as in pain?
Because he’d never feel his master on his back again?

Was it coincidental? same time – same day – same date?
Some proof of numerology, or just a quirk of fate?
I think it’s more than that you know, as I’ve heard wiser men,
Acknowledge there are many things that go beyond our ken

Where craggy peaks guard secrets ‘neath dark skies torn asunder,
Where hoof-beats are companions to the rolling waves of thunder
Where lightning cracks like 303’s and ricochets again
Where howling moaning gusts of wind sound just like dying men.

Some Mountain cattlemen have sworn on lonely alpine track,
They’ve glimpsed a huge black stallion – Light Horseman on his back.
Yes Sceptics say, it’s swirling clouds just forming apparitions
Oh no, my friend you can’t dismiss all this as superstition.

The desert of Beersheba – or windswept Aussie range,
John Stuart rides on forever there – Now I don’t find that strange.
Now some gaze upon this photo, and they often question me
And I tell them a small white lie, and say he’s family.

‘You must be proud of him.’ they say – I tell them, one and all,
That’s why he takes – the pride of place – my Anzac on the Wall.

By Jm Brown

The Festival of Death is about to start and the main concern is about dancing provocatively! The banning of throwing water on all roads would surely virtually completely stop any deaths of injuries. Playing Songkran on set aside places and closed streets is the answer. How many families will loose a loved one? A son daughter gone forever. The statistics are giving out over the 10 dangerous days are given out like a competition. The North wins every year as they do with the incidences of lung disease from the smog. Stupid as stupid gets..

For the past two years, Buriram United Football Club has hosted the largest crowds for Songkran at I-Mobile stadium. Plenty of new parking is available and the local police will be on hand to direct traffic. As a result activity is primarily centered in front of the stadium with rock bands, dancers and loads of water splashing and kid-oriented activities, food vendors etc. Last year's crowd was somewhat over 50,000 participants. This year several new restaurants (fast-food places like KFC and MacDonald's) , a very nice Japanese restaurant and coffee and ice cream shops galore are now open. If you would drive around Buriram during that time most of the streets were empty except for small children with squirt guns and buckets. Nicer this way and certainly a heck of a lot safer for everyone. Thank you Newin and Karuna!

As you are asking about farang guys in isan, moving to the Isaan forum.

Yes we have some young farangs here in Buriram: Football players, English language teachers and Mormons. Always, mormons. Otherwise just visitors and football fans, Buriram Circuit racing fans. And then a few of us older guys who are still young at heart.

What "investors"? These are State projects.

It is about time. All I ever see on projects in Thailand is delays delays and more delays. One after another. Thailand is long overdue for establishing a unit train system. Tracks--- double tracks running in opposite direction like those in Japan. Japan has had a unit track railroad system for a long time and it improves delivery time and freight efficiency when trains don't have to constantly move to a side rail to let a train coming from the opposite direction to pass.

Unfortunately, it is a risk we take living in the tropics.

Just yesterday, a Moo Keow ( green snake ) the largest I have ever seen," jumped " off of my roof and only missed landing on me by about two feet.

They are very poisonous.

I still can not understand how it even got up on the roof, or why.

Sometimes only luck keeps us alive.

I wish you all good luck!

P.S. very sorry to hear about your dog.

The name of the snake is ngu keeow doke maak. The flying tree snake. It is venomous and aggressive. It, unlike the other varieties of green snakes has black and white dots along both sides and is slightly brighter green than the other green snakes Four distinct varieties depending on what part of Thailand you live in. There is a particularly dangerous green snake called the Ngu Keeow Haang Dang--- which has a bright red-tail. It can be a fairly good-sized snake as well --- It is a viper. II have seen them frequently in palm trees and on banana stalks The other Ngu Keeows, with very small heads (more like a lizards head) are only mildly poisonous and with pencil thin bodies and subsist primarily on insects and very small rodents and birds..

Get the facts right; this compound cannot have been dated 16th/17th century B(efore) C(hist) as the Khmer empire itself itself had its heydays +/- 1'000 years ago; otherwise Muang Tam would predate Rome

Muang Tam was built about 100 years after the Khao Panom Rung Castle some 5 kilometers up the mountain (volcano). So it dates from the late 12th century AD. My best friend and trustee (Folke) for our foundation lives directly behind the Muang Tam. Great quiet place to visit, small village atmosphere, friendly people.

So she barely passed the Uni? The saying is true, pretty face does not need a brain

Ok just kidding, may be they should employ ONLY pretty girls and there will be no conflicts or quickly resolved

Her academic average at Thammasat is actually very acceptable. The score of 76.4 is above average. Thammasat has a pretty fair program.

A big man huh!

No a sadistic bully.

Slapping those girls around their heads is appalling.

Prosecute the swine.

I spent a lot of years in teaching in rural Texas school districts, including being the director of special services/discipline for a rural migrant school district with a seriously dangerous barrio named Villa Coronado which had its very own Hispanic gang. After a few years I left teaching in the USA and headed overseas. While in the USA If I came across a teacher who hit a student who was engaged in attacking the teacher physically the teacher would be completely exonerated. On the other hand, if a teacher struck a student as a means of disciplining a student for failure to do their homework he or she would be out on their butt.

In the three years I was there I faced down parents with guns, and students with knives and received numerous threats of bodily harm. I was in court 94 times during that three years. The superintendent nicknamed me mugroso harry (dirty harry). The only student I ever hit had just stabbed me in the upper right arm and I hit him hard to try to protect myself from being stabbed again. He was only nine years old at the time.He was expelled, 8 years later he murdered a convenience store clerk during the commission of a robbery. He was tried as an adult at 17 but received life in prison without parole. He is still in prison. If he had been 18 or older at the time of the murder he would have received the death penalty. Looking back on that incident with him I am glad I hit him. I went to the hospital and got several stitches In the case of this teacher (on Thaivisa forum) however he is way out of line and the principal is a wussy. Thai's protect their own. The teacher should be dismissed and I would seek to remove the principal as well.

It was talked about that he'd bought a large piece of land opposite the stadium to build the golf course. He's just taking his time and finding a top course designer, hopefully.

Newin already owns the land opposite the I-Mobile Stadium. It is part of his gravel pit company. It would be great to add a PGA level golf course in Buriram as it would generate a lot of use. Buriram has become the destination of football. and of car and motorcycle racing (Chang International Speedway) the number of fans has grown exponentially. The number of tourist buses from all over Thailand attest to that. New T-shirt sales for the team are incredibly high and shoppers have to wait in some pretty long lines.The city of Buriram itself is prospering big time. with new businesses and hotels cropping up all the time. Even the highways in and out of Buriram are vastly improving. I have lived in Buriram now for over 18 years as a teacher and orphanage director and we love it here. There's no place like home. Ya'll come now, ya hear?

For what its worth to Aussies; just that head marking on the striped Kukri is a bit like juvenile brown snakes here and even when 200 to 300 mm long they are deadly like their parents.

Don't know at what age that head marking goes.

Just saying.

It is a a house striped kukri ( ngu gnawk long lai) Latin name: oligodon darsolateralis) and it is absolutely harmless. Go to a Se-Ed bookshop or Asia books and ask for Lai Gnu Thai unfortunately it is all in Thai but descriptives and photos are included, toxicity etc, location....

Buriram: Ray Hotel, , NP Hotel, Klim Hotel. Tulip Hotel. Tulip is a bit pricey but the food there is excellent. Ray has a good swimming pool and a great work-out hall with trainers.

You have identified a hazard at your home, which is good, however it looks like you are putting the cart before the horse, the first option in the control of that hazrad is Eliminating the hazard—physically removing it—is the most effective hazard control.

I would suggest you look at something like a sonic deterent http://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_nkw=sonic+snake+repeller

Then look at removing the type of things that would attract the snakes, e.g tall grass, rocks and debris anything that they would hide under, most importantly anything your kids may lift up when they are playng and exploring around the yard etc..

educate your kids about the danger of snakes and what to do when they see a snake etc...

You then should look at an action plan, if someone does get bitten then as stated by aussieroaming know what hospital has anti venom.

this is a good site as posted by expat brit http://www.healthdir....au/snake-bites

Good luck and lets hope you and your kids dont get bitten

We have killed more than a hundred snakes on our property in the past 18 years. We live on the edge of the city. The problem is compounded by a neighbor with about 1 acre of yard across the street from our location that has never been cut. I was bitten by a striped bronze snake about 10 years ago. Luckily he struck the end of my big toe that had a callous on it, I was able to treat the wound and it healed quickly. My advice for those with seeing snakes on their property is to purchase a copy of the snake book Ngoo Thai Lai Chanit (sorry but it is Thai only). There are clear photos showing 182 species off snakes in Thailand. Each photo is accompanied by its category and lists the category and level of danger and other such information. The book has diagrams under each photo of the snake species with general locations and regions of Thailand where the species are located. 90 of these snakes are venomous, many are only mildly so. If the diagram indicates front fangs it is highly venomous.Two more are constrictors which kill by squeezing its victims. My friend was a snake handler who did twice daily shows at Ta Klang Elephant Study Center in Surin Province and I spent a lot of time with him. Last fall when I went by to see him I learned that he had just died a week befire from a cobra bite.

LA is and always has been a very dangerous place to live thanks to the rising numbers of gangs and the related damage they cause. From 1978-1981 I worked in a school district in south San Antonio Texas that was developing similar problems. There was a barrio named Villa Coronado that was particularly bad. Many of the students in our rural school were Mexican migrant workers' kids I worked in intervention through the school and liased with the juvenile authorities and courts and police. Sixty of the students were on probation for various offenses including truancy and I was tasked with making sure they were in school. The local judge even came to visit the school in his judicial robes. During the three year I was there I was stabbed in the upper arm, had the back of my leg calf ripped by a dog sicked on me by a gang member, suffered a punctured eardrum and had a double barrel shotgun thrust under the bridge of my nose and when I was at a school board meeting had a volley of shots fired through the window in a driveby incident that caused all of us present at the time to hit the floor to keep from being shot. Three of the kids I worked with ended up with life without parole (they were all under 18 at the time of their heinous crimes but were convicted as adults since each case was murder committed during armed robberies of convenience stores. If they had been over 18years of age at the time of their crime they could have received the death penalty. As a result, years later I did some more than 1,000 hours of major research of juvenile gangs and related criminal activity. Both the San Antonio Police Department and the LAPD gang task forces provided me with a tremendous amount of information which was supplemented by numerous newspaper articles. I ended up writing the novel The Mean Streets of LA: Taking Out the Trash (Amazon, June 2010) which focused on a number of violent Los Angeles Hispanic gangs affiliated with the Mara Salvatrucha MS13's. There is no solution that has been able to reduce the gang influences. Now awaiting word on whether the book will be used to make a movie.

"Only 44 percent of Thais help strangers, and only 14 percent do volunteer work."

Show this to some of the bar girls and jet ski scammers and see if they are embarrassed for their lack of generosity.

In Buriram Province there is an effort underway to create a sports complex located at Ban Yoei Sakae School for eleven rural schools next to the Huay Talat Reservoir on the road between Buriram and Prakhonchai to share free of charge. This includes a dining hall, indoor sports building, a bathrooms and showers facility and two football fields. For details check on SabaiDee Buriram Magazine. A number of foreign volunteers as well as local Thai's have been involved.