Aussiepeter

Thanks Lacessit. I suggest you chuck it in the fridge - I left a jar in the fridge in the family shop in CM in 2015 and was happy to eat it 3/2019 when I forgot to put some in my bag upon return to LOS ! It goes hard a bit, but still seems ok. I need to lose about 5kg myself. After beating cancer, I still like to ride track-work, on some thoroughbred horses that I and mates/family own. Now 74kg = too heavy. At the moment, my only indulgence is mid-strength beer. Most real jockeys never touch it - too much carb. I'm nearly six foot tall. Anyone got any real ideas, apart from no beer ? - I no longer have a prostate, the beers are my only pleasure, apart from Thai food and my half-Thai daughter ! I am going to try the celery thing though, sounds nice. Good luck to all LOS diet folk. Stick with it !

Don't knock Vegemite - when I married my Thai missus twenty years ago in CM she tried it and she said 'chem muk-maak' or, 'too salty', but since we returned to Oz she has now eats toast with Vegemite and avocado slices on it for breakfast, seven days a week and, has done so for the last seven years - I kid you not ! (Honest) - even I can't eat the stuff every day ! Wonder just what they REALLY put in it ? It's supposed to be made from left-over scrap beer hops ?

Absolutely shocked to see the ex GF on here ! I mean, what WAS she thinking ? I never could have believed that she would lower her very high standards by, oh my goodness, WORKING in a restaurant !  -  tut tut oh my goodness, - I suppose she is just keeping abreast of the times, - lots of young ladies take on second jobs now.

Don't know if they are still operating, but a place called 'Star Translation Service' just up the street a bit from the US Consulate and almost opposite the Muang Mai market are/were very good. Used their service several times and it was accepted by both the Oz and (the old one) UK embassies. About 250 baht a page. They were there for years, but I left six years ago. Good luck!

I can assure you that you traumatic depressurisation of an aircraft must be horrific. About thirty-odd years ago I guy I worked with was sucked/blown out, seat-and-all, then went through the right hand (starboard) inner engine of an American B747, somewhere near Hawaii. It was caused by a faulty cargo-door lock. His name was Michael. He was a doctor of the non-medical type - PHD in biochemistry or whatever. Brilliant man, but totally eccentric, (not unlike some on tv maybe) ? He came to work one day after some hi-so function wearing a dinner suit, no tie, but with one black patent leather shoe and one old slipper ! He had gone to the USA for a job interview at a major uni and got the job - they paid for the return flight, business class. Those who knew him well said that if you knew him, that was the way he would have liked to go, - apparently he was a bit of a showman !

As Langkawi has said, the courts in Thailand are highly suspect. Try this for size - and I am not making this up. About ten years ago I was enjoying a quiet beer on a Sunday night in a then famous Chiang Mai go-go bar. Quiet night, sat next to a bloke who turned out to be an expat from Oz. He explained that his Thai missus had convinced him to get involved with selling ya-ba, as her family had a connection. They made heaps he said, right up until they were dobbed in by a neighbour jealous of their lifestyle. He told me "the wife didn't have a lawyer, so she got 15 years, but I had all the money and got a very good lawyer and the judge gave me 12 months in jail". I asked him when he had got out of jail, to which he replied "I haven't yet - I've still got 4 months to go" ! When I sought further info, he told me his lawyer had made some sort of $deal with the boss of the CM prison, to let him out of prison at 1800 every Sunday night so he could get a feed of western food (and a bonk) on the strict proviso that he return, like Cinderella, before 2400 hours ! You couldn't make up stuff like this. Amazing Thailand. So liberated. 

I had the same situation as you with my Thai ex. - many moons ago. We divorced in Oz - neither of us went to court.

If there are no children from the union it is a rubber-stamp job, if both agree. You simply download the form, pay the fee and serve a copy on your soon-to-be permanent ex. Property settlement is a bit off subject, but contrary to what others may tell you, the Family Law Act in Oz was changed quite some years ago after a succession of greedy (mostly Phillipina at the time) ladies married old blokes (mainly farmers at the time) whose wives had died, then dumped them and sued for the farm so to speak. The law was changed to protect wealthy partners from gold-diggers and these days the court looks at exactly what each partner brought into the marriage, dollar wise. If she brought in zilch and you own a house in your own name and there are no kids, as a general rule you keep your house. It is a whole different kettle of fish if there is a child, or if you have, say, bought a property together. From the sounds of it, you don't plan on getting hitched up again to a Thai anytime soon. If and when you go to Thailand, pay the baht over there for a certified translation and go to the amphur, they will sort it and dirt cheap too. That's what I did. Good luck mate !

Plenty of 'em in Oz. We live in the bush these days (wifey likes quiet) and there are half a dozen in the local small town. They are only 1.2 mill baht here for the top V8 model. Spoke to a lady who has one - says it ain't economical but so far after a year has had no issues. Thai missus won't have a two door car tho.

It's like reading the story of my build - exactly the same problems ! I turned up one day and there were two workers building what appeared to be a chimney on the side of our house, right where the steps would be. It turned out that the builder had changed both the size of the turnaround/landing and the depth of the steps and needed this new 'box' on the outside to accommodate his new landing ! It was too late to change the steps back to the right depth for my size 11 UK ex-soldiers' feet as we had been to Maesai for a Non-O visa stamp, but I managed to get the landing back to size. They wanted to knock down the 'chimney' but I had them roof it and bung in a window and used it as a tool shed ! Yes eyecatcher, we loved Saraphi and if you are bored, you can view my old gaff only 50m from Wat Don Kaew, on the street with the (now covered) klong. Can't miss it - the wall has dozens of broken beer bottles set in cement on top - builders idea, not mine. Right next to the main water tower for the suburb. I reckon Cashboys place puts mine to shame, by the way. we spent 1.2 mill baht in 2008, sold it for 1.5 (worth heaps more but a fire sale) in 2013. It re-sold in 2018 for 2.4 mill. Cheers all, time for a lager. Gotta see the finished photo Cashboy !

Love your house Cashboy. Mt missus and I built a similar palace in Saraphi, Chiang Mai in 2008 and lived there for five years, before cancer sent us permanently to Australia. Had the same problems as you - I also bought a welder and spent hours after the workers left for days putting in extra welds in the roof. We had a Thai builder, but he was too busy with his mia-nois and fighting roosters to supervise his workers, so I had to rectify all the faults, but it turned out great, as I am sure your place will be ! I put terracotta red CPAC tiles on our place and it looked A1. I went back in March this year whilst in CM to take a look - I was shocked at what only 5 years could do in a polluted environment. The tiles on our old place were now almost black ! That and the latest Thai owners had painted it all bright red like a temple.

Good luck - the air wherever you are is clean as from the photos, nothing like what CM has become. Cheers. (PS, I am actually a Brit, (from where the Kray twins came from) but have lived in Oz for yonks).

Australian Paul (dutchman) who with his wife Nee ran the introduction agency in CM circa 2000-2005 called 'Just Thai Ladies' passed away earlier this year in Australia, aged 56. He went to bed feeling unwell and never woke up. 

I lived in CM for over 20 years and many close friends I met there have now died. Only found out about my good mate Ian (Blinky bill) this year, when in CM for dental work. RIP.