mfd101

Better remind the admiral not to head into the Tsushima Strait.

The problem with learning by your mistakes is that it can be very costly. As we see regularly on this site: some people get themselves into really quite awful situations from which it is very hard to extricate themselves, and at great cost of all kinds.

On 10/6/2017 at 9:08 AM, bert bloggs said:

that ar-sehole Heath who led us into the "common market" knowing full well that it was going to become what it is today

Clearly he was quite farsighted in any case.

2 minutes ago, BritTim said:

Actually, it seems a face saving solution was found. There is no evidence that the OP showed lack of respect, or raised his voice. He pointed out, quite reasonably, that he could scarcely be expected to be aware that he had been given incorrect advice, BY OTHER OFFICIALS,  in past years. The senior official seems eventually have agreed with him, and the compromise was not to insist on seasoning of funds in the bank account.

You may be right, but that's not how I read the OP's comments. What seems to a 'Westerner' a perfectly reasonable response in an awkward situation is not always accepted that way by Thais, particularly by those in authority. FACE before logic.

If you had adopted the attitude and appearance of believing that it was all YOUR own fault and not theirs, you might have received a better result.

Save THEIR face and YOU can release a tirade in the car on the way home.

53 minutes ago, sanemax said:

No alcohol day doesnt mean no immigration office open day

But clearly the 2 are associated in some people's minds. If alcohol's off, can anything else be on?

[I must admit my partner thought the same last night when I read that today was a no-alcohol day.]

Kap Choeng open today. I was there at 0815 this morning. Very few customers. They all turned up yesterday, thinking that today would be closed ...

55 minutes ago, GarryP said:

There are generals who don't support Prayuth or the coup. They are not disciples of Thaksin either. They simply believe (and I agree) that the armed forces job is to defend the country but that it should have no role in running the country.  Prayuth and his ilk are simply limp dick megalomaniacs, who are trying do do something they are not in the least qualified to do. 

So where are these virtuous generals? It would be nice to hear from them from time to time!

All the arguments about rights, democracy, the people have voted etc etc are just hypocritical hogwash, whether in Catalonia or Scotland or Kurdistan or any of a score of other wouldbe indepen-dentists trying to draw the teeth of national unity.

And they are so because they won't accept the logic of their own arguments that should in theory apply at all levels - not just the national or ethnic identity levels but the city or village or suburb or indeed individual levels. So if a Scottish city, say Edinburgh, decided by vote of its people - as is their moral right - to remain part of the UK while the rest of Scotland voted for 'independence', would La Sturgeon accept that outcome? I don't think so. And if a suburb of Barcelona voted - as is their moral right - to remain part of Spain, would the Barcelona city council accept that outcome? I don't think so. And if I, Jock MacTavish of Glasgow, decide, as is my moral right, to assert my own individual sovereignty and refuse to accept all other people's laws, would anyone else recognize & accept that? I don't think so.

So enough of the moralizing claptrap. It's about power, relative power, and only that: who has it, who wants it, who's likely losing it, and who's possibly gaining it.

Sociologists tell us that power, and the capacity to make & implement decisions, is becoming more regional as a result of modern technology, globalization and the constant movement of resources. In this scenario, the nation-state is slowly retreating towards irrelevance. That's fine by me - what did the Thai government (any of the multiples of them) ever do for Surin? On the other hand, how will human beings coordinate global issues - climate change! - when there are not 197 countries but 300,000 (or whatever) sovereign entities?

There are more variables involved in forecasting tomorrow's weather than in forecasting next year's or 20 years down the track. Which means that tomorrow's forecast has a greater chance of being inaccurate than next year's. Which makes Gore's life easier than he deserves ...

So here's some perhaps rather more reliable figures for our own beloved tourist hub's place in the world pecking order:

28 minutes ago, tomwct said:

England has an extradition agreement with Thailand, so if Thailand requests extradition she'll be returning home!

No, that will - ultimately, if pursued in law (ie an appeal) - be for a British judge to decide. Given the circumstances, she's unlikely to be extradited to Thailand, whether by the British government or a British judge.

3 hours ago, Shiver said:

I guess now that they've given a heads up, you can follow progress on one of the online Met sites for your local area.

 

Even if they did give specific predictions I wouldn't put too much weight on it, as the accuracy is limited to the amount of data points they can process in a timely fashion to keep updates reasonably fresh.

 

A few years ago we had a small part of the city centre blowing in windows and a KFC sign land on half a dozen parked cars (enough to kill any occupants were it not that they were all huddled up in the bricks and mortar building instead), branches everywhere, concrete and metal posts level on the ground...the usual.  A couple of hundred metres away in any direction it was just a heavy storm and a couple of temporary outages from power lines.  I don't think there are any systems out there with enough granularity of data to say that part of one road is safe and part is not, so we have to accept our responsibilities.

Yes, and Thailand is a small country in any case so, from a forecasting point of view, there's mostly just The South, The North and The North-East. Oh, and Grung Thep.

7 hours ago, citybiker said:

There is no tangible evidence to support your argument that Brexit is a lose-lose situation, that’s simply rerun of project fear, which blatantly failed.

Yet again to emphasise the point that Brexit is unknown territory to all, HMG, Businesses and the electorate alike.

The EU is acting like a gold digging ex wife, it’s losing it’s 2nd highest net contributor & simply attempting to recoup its loses as they know the other MS, some more than others will start paying more for the privilege of being part of ponzu scheme otherwise named as the EU.

Part 4 of the talks & still no concrete progress, UK wants trade talks & the EU only want fiscal clarity of how much they’re trying to screw the UK for what they can legally obtain, which is once the UK has left is nowt, zero, nada SFA.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

This is scarcely an accurate picture or understanding of reality.

The fact that 51% of those fearless Brits who bothered to vote did so on behalf of British 'independence' [whatever that could possibly mean in today's multicultural & globalized world] does not mean that the reality of Brexit will not be a lose-lose outcome for all parties - strategically, economically, financially, culturally, militarily. A world-changing disaster all round, and whistling in the dark won't change that.  How it pans out 20 or 30 years down the track is anyone's guess but there won't be too many winners in the meantime.

As to the EU screwing the UK for what it's worth, the latter has already recognized that it will have residual obligations to pay for some years after its departure from membership of the club. What is being negotiated is precisely what those obligations are & how much they amount to.

1 hour ago, ELVIS123456 said:

Slowly, surely, step by step - the world is going to be all 'right'.  

The days of the loony lefties and socialist bureaucrats are coming to an end. 

 

If you dont think the western people dont live in a looney left wing world, then answer this question:

 

Are they teaching toddlers in our Govt schools how to shoot a gun?

Or are they teaching toddlers in our Govt schools about 'gender issues' ??

 

Of the 2 options you provide, it's difficult to tell which is loonier.

3 hours ago, BuaBS said:

It's about Chinese Thai vs real Thai ... you know , the people you see on the street , at the market ,...

So a Chinese Thai who's lived here all his life and whose grandparents emigrated here is not a "real Thai"?

(Noting also that "real Thais" themselves emigrated from southern China around 1000 years ago ... )

1 hour ago, BuaBS said:

Prayut looks more like a Thai than this Chinese face .

A nice racist comment. Do you ever think before you speak?

1 hour ago, StayinThailand2much said:

She's certainly not a Christian. She was in cahoots not only with the East German communists (SED), but also with East Germany's secret service (MFS). She was not only allowed to study at East German unis, but was even awarded a doctorate for quantum chemistry in 1986.

 

Mind you, no-one, who wasn't thought of being a '100% follower' of the communists, was allowed to go to university in East Germany, and most had to join the communist party in order to become teachers, assistant professors, etc.

 

She only joined the CDU in 1990, cause she thought that this party would take her to power quickly. (See her pic from the 1990s.) 

Oh no! And perhaps she wasn't even BORN in Germany!

Why not talk to them?

So a great deal depends on what makes you live (extrovert vs introvert). As one of the latter I would say that most of rural Thailand - or indeed rural anywhere - is for introverts, and anthropologists. I have a large library of books (and now a large house designed to house them), so I can go anywhere & live quite cheerfully inside my head.

But most people are not like that. They require 'diversion' to get thru the day ... I imagine that Roi-Et is like Surin in that respect. Not much of it around - just the chooks laying, the mua giving birth, the occasional snake, frequent drunkards to avoid, lot of gossip (particularly about 'rich falang'), low-variety diet ...

So why not go and 'visit' the family for 2 or 3 months? Nothing like staying with the family - or they near you - for working out what you can cope with!

I lived on the family farm with my partner for some 16 months while our house 40km away was being built. I learned a lot of what I like and don't like about them, and thus about myself. Since we moved in to the new house in March I've learned that it's a bit too far away when we have an emergency we need them to help with (leaking roof) and a little too close for comfort at most other times ...

12 minutes ago, PatOngo said:

Can we see some finger pointing photos PLEASE!

There was one yesterday. They were pointing at the car. The car was looking crestfallen & was about to wai.

2 hours ago, terryw said:

If the EU completely reject her proposals then it will be further evidence that they want to impose a deal rather than negotiate.

Nothing surprising in that. They're in the driver's seat, strong & - so far - united. The Brits are weak, confused, divided & suicidal.

4 hours ago, berybert said:

If straight people stopped giving birth to gay kids then there wouldn't be a problem. So  the blame lies entirely with straight people.

True, but the problem is that they won't admit that people's sexuality is (mostly) something you're born with.

A way to handle that is to ask (in any particular instance): So at what age did YOU decide to be straight?

As with the collapse of the all the Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, the first you know that something is happening is when there's an official denial that anything is happening ...