electric

I'd be more concerned about the amount of jet exhaust I'm inhaling at all airports.

Good ventilation is the key to smokers rooms. A 2" gap all around at floor level, and a couple of jumbo exhaust fans in the ceiling extracting the air to outside ..... job done.

Anyway, if smoking at the airport is banned, no problem. I hope they make an effort to put decent signage to smoking areas. 

Smoking is still a legal pass-time, and airport staff will go nuts with pax asking "Where is the smoking area now ?"

I can just see the headlines

Bangkok destroyed in failed experiment.

Vendor who stored rat poison in molasses containers suspected

Not in Thailand, stayed in a little country motel one time, and about 10pm the moaning groaning from next door started up.

My first thought was, what pay-per-view channel is this guy watching ?

Couldn't find it on my telly, but then the adjoining wall starting to vibrate alarmingly.

I'm sure their bed was up against the same wall that my bedhead was touching .... you know, like 1" of plaster board  seperating us. At least that's the way it felt like when I put the empty glass cup up against the wall.

Anyway .... someone next door were getting their jollys big time. And not for a short time either, I should add. Bastard .... I thought.

Next morning I heard their door slam shut, so being a nosey-parker, I had a peek through the curtains. Had to be the Boss and his fire-cracker 25yo secretary, who decided she wasn't staying in the mail room for too long.

Charming couple, I thought. Perhaps I should introduce myself. You know .... feel free to knock on my door tonight at 11pm if your mini-bar runs dry, or something equally suave like that.

What's the point of my post ? Nothing really, except it might bring a smile to some expats who've had a screamer girlfriend .... or a bedhead too close to an adjoining wall.

This Thai team has already done a visit to the South Pole, so this northern visit should hold few unknown challenges weather wise.

A foundation sponsored by Princess Sirindhorn is funding this expedition, so I guess they've got good intentions, but it's difficult to know what they hope to achieve in 3 weeks that has not been thoroughly researched already.

If they find a couple of BigC bags floating at the North Pole, I guess that will justify the trip very nicely. 

Vern v Elon ?  It's mildly amusing in so many posts, depending on the posters thoughts about either character.

Good guy gets called Vern or Elon. Bad guy gets called Unsworth or Musk.

Parked kerbside right outside a nice restaurant last night. A Thai lady came out of the restaurant. Tap on the side window.

Politely, but very firmly "Cannot park here."

My wife explained that there were 4 of us, and we had planned on eating in her restaurant, which was true.

Big smiles. "oh .... ok ok .... park here no problem ok ok ok. "  55555555

She turned out to be a very charming host, and she later explained to the girls that they try hard to keep the 2 parking spots for customers, but mostly it was a losing battle.

The kids were found by the incredible efforts of the rescue teams. Nobody really doubts that.

What this guy predicted on Day 6, was that the kids would be found by Monday Day 9.

We live in a country that's right into superstition and beliefs that many of us simply don't understand. In that context, he offered plenty of Thai's some spiritual hope in a deteriorating situation.

He turned out to be right. 

I don't believe any of the superstitious beliefs that my Thai family shares, however, if it works for them, then that's ok by me.

I think it's wrong to ridicule this guy for being right, just because we don't believe his particular faith.

I imagine the kids would be quite terrified by this ordeal. The spot where they are waiting would be absolutely pitch black. So black, you literally can't see your hand 2 inches in front of your face.

That's really scary for most people that get the opportunity to temporarily experience it, but of course, then the lights come on again.

Here the kids most probably have flat torch batteries by now. It will take enormous self control for this group to keep their wits until rescued.

I hope there are some professional trauma counsellors on standby at the cave entrance.

Hang in there kids and coach.

Another sad story of an expat checking out in a far away land. RIP

I'm a bit intrigued by the need to highlight his former occupation in the headline.

Does it make any difference ?

From the OP ....

commuters have called on the company to provide more long-range information so that the public can adjust their plans and avoid extended delays, especially during rush hours

Yeah right. The above is the first thing that crosses your mind while standing in a packed BTS train that hasn't moved for 15 minutes. What a load of BS

"golly gee whiz old chap .... I wish I had adjusted my plans for this train trip."

More likely you'd be thinking "Geezus ... why can't some prick push the GO button and get this bastard moving."

These mediums just need to get a bit more savvy.

If they start selling amulets, or fortune cookies, or pieces of unusually shaped timber, or deformed small animals, or over priced special lucky number lottery tickets .... then everything will be hunky-dory.

I'm a fan of VAR. One area where it could be used to enhance soccer, is to clean up the farcial stage acting for fouls. A couple of yellow cards here and there, and players would soon get the message.

A few nights ago in a match an attacking move was thwarted in the box. As all players started running 50m back up the pitch to get into position, a defender gave an opposition guy a pat on the shoulder as he ran past ... probably with a comment like "stiff shit on that move old chum"

The guy whose shoulder had just been patted immediately went down like a bag of wet cement, as though Mike Tyson had king hit him from behind.

Was a pitiful sight. To see a full grown man fall over from the wind of another player rushing past him.

The ref saw it, gave no foul, and I'm pretty certain he said "get up you fairy", although in another language it could have been something entirely different.

VAR could really help to clean this nonsense up.

Maybe the pineapple growers could have a talk with the durian growers regarding marketing strategies for their fruit.

Whilst I feel sympathy for the pineapple growers who are now victims of their own success ie. having produced way too much fruit, it's a bit of a stretch to expect Govt organisations to automatically bail you out.

Of course, this also happens in many other countries, not just Thailand.

Farming is a business. Good years and bad years are part of the deal.

Now, what's the number for that Chinese guy that recently made durians so desirable to Chinese consumers ?

4 hours ago, worgeordie said:

Will be interesting to see how the Chinese made trains

fair against the Siemen's Turkish  made one's,for reliability,etc,etc.

 

regards worgeordie

An interesting question, and I guess only time will tell. I don't know anything about train manufacture, so I Googled Changchun Railway Vehicles out of curiosity.

They're certainly not a new kid on the block. Been producing metro rail cars for China and export for 20+ years, so presumably know what they're doing.

Also, they have a technology transfer arrangement with Siemens, so there may be some commonality of tech and electronic stuff with the Turkish made and Chinese made rail car sets.

What a waste of a really good headline.

Would have been perfect for April 1st

Actually .... Thailand could be in with a real chance here. Apparently both FIFA and Thailand have some considerable expertise regarding brown envelopes.

Thanks for your replies guys. All depends on what package you have with True I guess, and whether you have an android box.

The last 3 hours each day of The Masters couple of months ago was broadcast on free to air Thai TV. Think it was CH33 or CH35. (3am till 6am Thai time)

Doesn't seem to be the case for the US Open.

Anyway .... seems that Shinnecock Hills is sorting the men from the boys this year.

Anyone know if US Open Golf is being broadcast live on Thai TV ?

If yes, what channel & time please ?

4 day event starts around 8pm (Thai time) this Thurs 14th June

I think it would be useful for the recycling industry of any country, to explain to the citizens exactly what happens to our "recycled waste"

For decades, I've been dutifully separating what I believed to be recyclable stuff from normal rubbish, as I thought I was doing some good.

I confess that I'm now quite confused about the whole recycle industry.

A little while ago, an investigative journalist in Australia dropped a GPS tracker into a "recycle plastics only" bin in a big shopping mall. A week later, his film crew followed the tracker to an open landfill site. Jeezus .... how can you win ?

Also, it's hard to be a believer in recycling when I put all my little empty baked bean tins in the recycling bin, when next week the Govt sinks a couple of obsolete 5,000 tonne destroyers as fish reefs !

So .... perhaps our shopping habits may change a little if we honestly knew where our recyclable stuff was actually going.

Every so often we give the MIL a big big bag of empty plastic water bottles, which she takes to the local recycle guy. Do they get turned into new water bottles ?

I have no idea, but the guy has an absolute mountain of squashed plastic water bottles on his property. I thought this stuff was recyclable ?

14 minutes ago, drgoon said:

They should follow Norway's example. 

 

But...  of course they won't. 

What happened in Norway ? Genuine question.