The Dark Lord

Mate, if mummy is on ice full time it will not be long before the son is discarded anyway. Not good advice but if he can wait he will undoubtedly get given the kid in the fullness of time as she gets progressively addicted to the stuff and loses interest in every other aspect of life.

sad but I have seen it happen too many times now out here in LoI

On 30/09/2016 at 0:34 AM, richard_smith237 said:

This question has multifaceted answers....  Its impossible to be correct because any answer generalises a whole society... 

 

What I can offer to this discussion is IMO the Standards of Parenting with specific regard to Child safety are significantly less through all facets of society in Thailand than in the West.

 

Poor kids on Bikes without any helmets, wealthier children in expensive vehicles without car seats, sat (or stood) on mums lap in the front...  There are those I know from well educated backgrounds who have car seats, but don't use the straps because 'little one' doesn't like it. 

 

My own Mother In Law suggested we take my Son out of the Car seat because he 'didn't like it'... 

 

 

Just like western parents in the 70's... Its not that they didn't care... they just didn't know... Standards, education and parenting techniques evolve...  We know more now than we knew 'then'....  

 

This is why I consider for those who are informed there is no excuse with regards to safety - Poor parenting definitely exists... but through the spectrum of 'Parenting Standards' as we evolve, standards are improving in the West and in Thailand... 

 

The Key issue for me when any 'parenting standard' is concerned is: Are the children cared, truly loved and in a safe environment....

 

(well... at least until I got in at 4am the other morning and my son required a nappy change... I'd put his pyjamas on back to front !!! = Parenting Fail !!!)...

 

 

I fully agree with your comments about children standing on mummy's knee in the front seat and not putting on safety seats because "little precious "does not like it however factor in the crass arrogance of some of these people who genuinely believe that the farang, whilst older and possibly more workd wise than them has no place to tell them what to do.

i have an ignorant inherited step son who lost his brother in a pretty horrific road accident ( u turn, night time, 3up on motor bike) which broke his mother ( my wife's) heart.

i therefore purchased a brand new car for all the family to use which he proceeded to assume was his, modified it and etc without permission. We even "invested" THB 10k in a baby seat for his newborn. 

I see the idiot driving with the the seat belt ticked behind him so as to turn off the alarm ( excuse being he has a sick stomach) the baby seat thrown into the corner with all the accumulated junk, never used, child standing on mummy's knee or ( even better) sitting on the arm rest between the two front seats watching the TV situated in the centre of the dashboard that idiot boy had installed to keep the kids occupied whilst travelling the four or so km between house and school.

when I blew my top and told them why, the face told me that there was no way he was going to take any advice, direction or instruction from a foreign git like me.

result?

he had the car taken off him and had to go and buy his own. What he does in that is exactly the same as he did in the "spare" car I bought but at least I bear no responsibility when he tries to clean his kid from the windscreen.

moral of the story, arrogance and ignorance are a bad combination, no matter how hard you try and give good parenting advice.

Perhaps Mr Croc has heard about the French delicacy.... Frogs legs.

3 hours ago, Stygge said:

Some two years ago a US magazine named North Korean dictator Kim Jong-IL the most handsome man in the world. North Korea made a big thing of it in propaganda and failed to understand it was a joke. And why would they understand that? To them it was just natural that the world recognized what a stud he was. In their world he was a Brad Pitt on steroids but for a non manipulated world he was just an fat cartoonlike funny looking guy with a delusion of grandeur.

Hey leave me out of it, I still favour nong nat

An excellent and uplifting article for which due praise is given however I do feel a tad aggrieved about the caning issue. Caring at my (UK Public School) was a regular event for most of us. At the time, not too well received by the recipients but as one gets older it seems to get the same "attention" you have to first locate an establishment that caters for such activities then pay for it dammmut!

life, sometimes is so unjust...............

Isn't that also known here as breeding........

• Well I believe that the TV program "Scorpion" is about as believable as his claims to be smart are. Entertaining? Yes, puerile? Yes,  Far fetched? Yes but believable, I'm sorry but anyone who self declares his importance is usually using porkies

maybehe came here for( delete as required);

1) Driving lessons

2) Etiquette lessons

3) multicultural assimilation experiences

4) Alternative culture tolerance lessons

5) Lessons on how to reduce unnecessary documentation

6) a good soapy

but hey I'm just a peasant with a slightly higher than average IQ which is not demonstrated by some of the decisions I have made since being here and therefore what the hell do I know?

oh and yes I am slightly rotund so I must be verging on stupid as one of our more enlightened posters has declared. 

Thanks

2 minutes ago, Wilsonandson said:

A bit sexist this award, what about woman of the year? Who is Thailand's woman of the year?

Nong Nat

16 hours ago, paddlinsteve said:

 

DL, your post struck a chord with me. I left KSA on final exit visa via the Causeway yesterday afternoon. It wasn't very dramatic; the Saudi passport guy just stamped my passport and handed it back to me. I had to force him to take my iqama.

 

Anyway, that chapter of my life is over. In a few days I'll fly from Bahrain to BKK to begin the next phase. If anything, the visa and extension game looks even more confusing and hard to follow in LOS than it was in KSA. On the other hand, with annual visa costs in Saudi going up to the equivalent of 25,000 baht for the coming year, it's going to be a lot cheaper for me in Thailand.

Well done, initially I liked KSA but after seven years of all the intolerance I was one happy badger leaving that dump. Did you ever hear the band "exit only" when you were there. Absolutely perfect .

LoS visa / extension of stay is child's play by comparison. Yes you do on occasion meet up with an awkward bugger but where in the world don't you?

Hi guys, I am here on a retirement extension of stay which comes up for renewal in Feb 2017. I have been a very good boy and done my 90 day check in as regular as clockwork but I did not realise that if I left the country I would have to apply for n exit visa.

whilst not the same it reminds me of Saudi Arabia where the authorities take your passport no discussion and if you want to go out of the country you have to apply for an exit /re entry visa without which you will stand no chance of leaving. I am sure members can understand the relief when you finally get the "exit only" stamp there.

how much is the Exit / reentry visa and how long before travel should you apply?

cheers and apologies for showing my ignorance

Indeed it was around 40 years ago when she captured not so much the hearts but the male "thinking thing" of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of teen aged males pumped up with all sorts of strange ideas. 

RIP Princess and may the force go with you!

what an appalling year for celebs it has been 2/3 of ELP off in one go Bowie, Quo, Prince ( like him or not he was terrifically gifted), George Michael who did for teen girls what the Princess did for the teen boys, the list is terribly long and immensely  sad and I just hope that they are in a far better place now.

I too am a bit of a Luddite when it comes to things technical concerning computers and would genuinely appreciate any advice or guidance as to how I can keep my internet activities private forum not just the ISP ( through a VPN such as tunnel bear) but also the over reaching claws of those who put themselves in charge. 

Dies a vpn still cut the mustard or is something more substantial required.?

SadlySpiderMike, you are absolutely spot on in your summation of the decline in tourism in what used to be one of the most sought after destinations for exotic ( and erotic) getaways. 

I am am happily married to the current Mrs Dark Lord who is an indig of these parts and we retired here about four years ago. The decline in standards that we have seen over this relatively short time is forcing us to reconsider spending our autumnal years here with me being increasingly hounded and her having to defend me or listen to my gripes about the state of things. 

Life is is too short to embrace all that bull droppings.

as my Father used to say "you make your bed , you lie on it" it I do not suppose that holds true as the clowns taking the decisions to make tourism figures fall ( in terms of ££ per tourist capita per day) will undoubtedly have already had their nest feathered and the pain will be shouldered by the ever forgiving masses.

shame!

How about corralling into this discussion the brainless inbreds who insist on sitting right up your backside with not only their mis aligned headlights but also their fog lights on making it virtually impossible to see anything.......

Not strictly in line with the topic but concerns the evil perpetrator of this most heneious crime, I recently noticed that True were sneakily slipping in two months bills on each invoice.

the current Mrs Dark Lord is not an Albert Einstein when it comes to figures and had not noticed. Got a few remaining months credit with those clowns before changing back to 3BB after having had a friendly chat with them.

It would appear from the varied responses that most TV responders on this article have missed the true villain of the piece. APPLE

Every time those in reds from Cupertino force a system upgrade they have messed with the iTunes and as a result have made it even more bewildering to operate even whilst sitting behind a desk with your laptop. Transpose that challenge into trying to get your phone to play the music you want to listen to (carefully hidden behind a bewildering array of irrelevant headings) as opposed to that which it thinks you want to listen to (first option) whilst carrying out your very important duty of safely transporting a collection of drug dealers, rapists and muderers between their new "homes" whilst at the same time dealing with the brainless morons that seem to inhabit the roads in this lovely country and you then are starting to get a basic understanding of PC Somchai's dilemma. 

Poor chap!

On 18/12/2016 at 0:26 PM, Deez said:

This will make all Thai girls want to get into porn..:P

And the problem there is?

On 18/12/2016 at 8:53 AM, Jeremy50 said:

This is awful, anyone without their 'head in the sand' knows this place is full of psychopathic nut jobs, with barely contained rage bubbling away just under the surface. I hope the ladies make a full recovery.

 

On the use of lights among the general driving population, why does everyone drive around with their fog lights on? This just as annoying and dangerous as forgetting about your high beams from time to time.

I fully concur with your point concerning the mindless morons who think they look cool by driving around with their China knock off halogen high intensity fog lights on or is it just another example of the "me me me" attitude that is prevalent in today's Indig driving population?

i could see a scenario though where after having driven several hours of gruelling life preservation hours on a long drive home and had many incidents each one increasing your resting heart rate just a little more. Then these two clowns leave their lights on full beam when it obviously was not necessary ( how did both manage to forget where the Hi/Lo switch was on their bikes?) come bowling around the corner lights on full beam and become the final straw that broke the antagonists ( and I am not defending him but just saying I have been close to where he must have been) back. 

I often undertake take lengthy journeys here in LoS and have on occasion been known to have to be restrained by an extremely harsh warning from the boss (wife) that irrespective of how right I am and how wrong somchai is, this is Thailand and you, as a farang,  will either get shot or in any case will lose out when Plod get involved. As my blood pressure recedes I try to explain that I was honestly just going to try to help him understand why it appeared I was so cross. Imagine if she who must be obeyed, was not with me, I might have lost it over such a triivial matter.

On 07/12/2016 at 6:02 PM, Shawn0000 said:

 

How about Encyclopedia Britannica?  According to a study by Nature Journal they fair equally with regard to accuracy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4530930.stm

 

What are these flaws that a smart guy like you can pick up on but the peer reviewers tasked by Nature all missed?

Dear Shawn0000,

sadly life ice is too short to get involved in what could easily become a nonsensical discussion. Wiki, I understand us updated by gen pop and as such us a prime target for is information, slanted information etc whereas the Encyclopedia blah blah has to meet certain minimum standards.

help me out mate work it out yourself

cheers

On 07/12/2016 at 5:53 PM, rijb said:

 

Did you learn that in Facebook?

No, it was one of those things called independant thought

33 minutes ago, bandito said:

 

Huh? How? You talking about the Euro, right?

Nope the good old ( everyone runs to it in a crisis) Sterling.

In my very limited experience of driving here ( previously drove in UK, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Singapore, Malaysia, Italy and most of N W Continent) the standard of driving hovers between crap on a good day and downright frightening on a bad day.

that has not improved any in the last few years but the number of vehicles on the road has.

that is most likely a major contributor to the road rage ( that I often succumb to much to the chagrin of the guvnor) 

I got mine to say she loved me this morning

Yet when I berate my wife's know it all son for driving with no seat belts on, kids roaming free in the car and even sitting on the centre console to watch the tv that the idiot installed, I know nothing. 

Well ill I will not contribute one sating to his funeral costs when, not if, the clever sod wipes himself and his family over the tarmac on some road somewhere. I told him as much as well.

6 hours ago, pookiki said:

I guess we will have to agree to disagree.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_people

 

Why do people like to use the vastly flawed Wikipedia as a reference point?

In my opinion it immediately flags them as not being as smart as they lay claim to be.