Douggie Style

being a shopping tragic, then eating something sloppy at MBK with the kids, other customers ferrying extra napkins over, picking the shopping bags up, helping order the right food...

being invited to restaurants and social functions all the time (that really have nothing to do with me)

lots of small presents including home cooked thai food from people I barely know

security guards chasing away touts and making sure taxi meters are turn on and instructions followed.

for what its worth,

i asked around, the consensus was pretty firmly from parties associated with the ex.

don't know if they were acting under orders or off their own bat.

nasty development, condolences & sympthies to those affected

Not believing is easy.

Constructing a belief system is not so easy.

For those without a religion, it would be most interesting to hear what your belief system is or isn't.....

If you could be so kind, can you add local images via the 'Insert image' button along the top or the 'attachments' at the bottom?

If I try to use the 'Insert image' button, it always asks for a http:// location and does not upload any file on my local computer.

cheers

I just gave it a try with a sample picture.

It did not upload from the 'My Pictures" folder but did OK from a different folder on a different drive. No idea why.

opalhort

nice picture, what is it?

A relative had a mild stroke entirely due to an undiagnosed cholesterol problem. It is scary how many people are walking around with a ticking time bomb yet otherwise feel great.

You are lucky in that you at least know you have a problem and are wisely doing something about it.

After that problem I looked at many websites and books & can recommend:

1. The Johns Hopkins complete guide for preventing and reversing heart disease by Kwiterovich, Peter

(this book has everything you need)

2. Fats that heal, fats that kill : the complete guide to fats, oils, cholesterol a... by Erasmus, Udo.

3. Dr Sandra Cabot, The liver guide

(it is related)

Plus get a good doctor who is willing to consider a holistic approach (drug and lifestyle changes) and who is experienced in this area.

Good luck

I agree with your subtle point, the US population should use their enormous stock pile of arms to overthrow the present dictator, why haven't they?

Democracy?

Exactly! Democracy provides the protection, the right to bear arms does not provide any protection against bad government in a mature democracy.

It merely provides a feeling of security in high fear individuals. A case where what may be desired by the individual is detrimental for the whole.

Well TLloyd, in regards to your first point:

A small town outside of Atlanta, Georgia, (USA) called Kennesaw passed a law requireing all citizens to own at least one firearm....Crime is waaay down sinced this law was passed.

The nation of Australia passed a law restricting firearms and the opposite effect occurred, go figure.

In regards to your second point:

A few years ago, local predators in Miami Florida had a brainstorm. They started carjacking & robbing tourists after they left the airport (usually driving rental cars). Why, you may ask? They were 100% certain that anyone who just got off of an airplane did not have a gun.

And the carjacking was done with a pom pom.....

In regards to your third point:

When Adolf Hitler was comming to power, one of the first things he did was sieze all firearms from the general population. This is also a tactic of most present day dictators. Sort of guarantees a smooooth transition...Hmmmmm.

I agree with your subtle point, the US population should use their enormous stock pile of arms to overthrow the present dictator, why haven't they?

Apologies if this was covered earlier (no time to read whole thread).

IMHE a full on, take no prisoners, frontal FOI assault, may be best bet. (If in doubt administrators tend to refuse, apply more pressure).

FOI everything, in conjunction with supporting letters to relevant parties (start with the Minister, Ambassador, CC: Newspaper editors).

Keep a time dairy of all corespondences.

Consider collateral attacks (eg many embassys have multiple departments with different FOI officers > DFAT, DIMA etc), ATO tax records, DIMA movement records, Customs etc.

Ask if you (or your rep) can view the file in situ (sometimes you see more such as hand written side notes)

If rejected, ask for specific written reasons why, be polite, often you will get more information.

Be aware the much quoted privacy defences are often misunderstood. Watch time lines, appeal if rejected.

Don't be afraid to lodge multiple or similar FOI requests, you may be lucky with different case officer.

Can't think of anything else now, good luck.

If this guy's so clean cut can he not get some kind of job? I normally don't give to beggars who aren't missing major body parts. Every baht he gets is a bhat some legless landmine victim doesn't get.

He has alot of options the truely needy in Bangkok don't have.

cv

sums it up nicely

IMHO both the intention underlying the words and how the party on the receiving end perceives those words has to be taken in account.

It is very well criticising political correctness, which at times verges on the ridiculous, however at the other end of the spectrum is when the words used do subtley put down the receiver.

This can certainily lead to a second class citizen syndrome.

IMHO, if unsure, it is generally better to be on the safer side;it all depends on context.

In regards to the above points and previous posts I am certainly interested in how Asian persons feel about being described as yellow.

PS: interesting topic

I am wondering as to wether the Australian Embassy actively looks up criminal records. If they do would this be at a state level or Federal level.

I am about to sponsor my wife and I have a colorful record in NSW. (No jail only fines etc) but I have BSE, drugs, and assaulting police from a foolish few years.

I have thought about saying no to a criminal record and taking the risk of them not checking on a state level in Australia as I am worried about it affecting the application.

Any thoughts?

Hi infusion,

Can you clarify:

1. Are you an Australian citizen or PR?

2. What are you sponsoring your wife for?

3. Where did you see the requirement for you (as sponsor) to submit criminal record checks?

If you want, I will run it by the office MA's and PM you the answer.

BTW another quick thought are any of the above excluded offences?

The member who contacted me and heads the agency has been banned already for spamming. I found this out after I made a post naming him and his company (which was deleted by the mods) I've been told by the mods not to mention the member name or his company name in my post.

I was told everything was above board. I think I even repeated it a few times in my above posts.

Once the money was paid, I felt I had no other choice. So instead of just breaking contact and losing my 12,000 .... I went along with what the agent said which didn't work. What would you have done?

Yes, I was hooked in a tricked. The warning is for everyone so they don't make the same mistake I did.

Kayo, after reading your last post, it appears that you didn't read mine very carefully.

I don't know what else I can say about this matter. I have copies of the emails, and pm's. I can not post them on this forum.

Maybe I'll create a website or something to inform people of this company. Although, I'm sure he will just try to change his company's name if I do.

Is he of the same nationality as you? Just thinking of a long shot, that if he was, you may have some method of action via home country.

Is this ladies only?

If not, just suspend my cyber genitalia for a second:

There are two equally as bad;

The first, a nice friendly lady about 19 ( I was 24), used to visit the tenant who rented the front of the shop. One day she asked me to drive her to her apprenticeship awards ceremony (she had no car), being flattered I agreed.

At the ceremony she was met by another female friend, they hastily got drunk and made very vulgar sexual comments about all the fellow male apprentices, while I was sandwiched in between them. It was pretty gross, worse than guys. This didn’t really upset me but certainly lowered my opinion of them.

A few days later she rang and said she would cook me a dinner for taking her and friend home. Didn’t think that much of it, just a friendly dinner for the ride. Arriving late, in work clothes, dropped into the closest wine cellar, picked up a bottle of the cheapest $4.99 sparkling spumante and in a flash of inspiration asked the checkout guy to relabel it with $15.99, to which he agreed with a laugh.

Arriving at the front door, I was met by both parents and the ‘date’ all dolled up, who were introduced as an accountant and lawyer. Being taken aback I said a big hi and handed the wine to the date, we walked inside to where a round table (she was an apprentice chef) had been set, full service, all hose knifes and forks, with some romantic candles.

At this point she said proudly ‘look Douggie’s bought a bottle’, opened the wine and gave a glass each to her parents saying, ‘my Dad is quite a wine buff’. He swilled it around, looked a bit constipated then said ‘mmmmm, interesting’..

They left, making a point of saying we are going out late, and we sat down to the meal. It began with heaped plates of fresh oysters then whole blue swimmer crabs, whole crayfish, salads, vegetables deserts, it was magnificently arranged with little carrot and vegetable sculptures, each dish surpassing the previous. She told me how long each dish had taken to prepare and that the ingredients alone had cost $70.

By this time I felt like a right mug but did my best to appreciate the effort and compliment each dish.

Anyway, the hints started with it’s ok to crash here, my parents are cool, their naturists!

She then broke out Dad’s good wine, with the huge meal, after dinner port etc made us both unsteady. She started to tell me about her karate lessons and how she could disable a man with one blow, I laughed. She snapped of a demo punch which fair square landed on the sugar plums. She apologised profusely, maintaining it didn’t hurt took some effort.

I decided to kip on the floor, after some hours of listening to her speaking about her love of naturism and other increasingly broad hints, I passed out only to be woken by her rumbling unholy snoring. About 5am I just couldn’t bear it any more and sneaked out, for some reason feeling quite guilty.

Wishing Maizefarmer a speedy recovery, hope someone is looking after his family & farm, his posts are always intelligent and worth reading...

lots..Guesthouse (learn a lot), Old Croc, BKKmadness,qualtrough, terry57, laulen, taxexile, occasionally even Rambo, Gracy(GracelessFawn), BambinA. The fights between Donz & others...lots of others all good.

Disagree with you Terry57 on humour..you got a great sense of humanuir but doesn't mean all posts have to be humourous, that's your speciailty let others fill the other niches, room for all old son.

A post from Ulyusses G re sad situation was most honest/moving this year (my opinion).

All good (gosh I need to get a life).

An unfortunate life... experience.

It just underscores the requirement to stay cool when dealing with CO's (anywhere).

Have you tried the local temples?

it's all instinct, however sometimes I notice the cracks in the ceiling....

It's interesting, in the last week or so, there was a study published (in our paper) which found the majority stayed with partners who made them feel good about themselves and cared for them.

As other posters have said there is a difference between the short term and long term (note: term not time!).

My g/f lives with me in Sydney. She is very close to her family and phones them at least three times per week.

Her grandmother died last month. When she was living in Thailand, my g/f spent a lot of time with her grandmother, but when grandmother died, my g/f took it all in her stride.

I think that I was more upset than was she.

Her parents are now well into their senior years and I'm wondering what impact their death will have on the family and particularly on my g/f.

She being just one of a large family, perhaps the burden of grief is shared equally amongst them and they don't outwardly show too much emotion.

Could it be part of the Buddhist teaching?

From my understanding it is, at times I have been surprised at the seeming resiliance..however you never know what is going on the inside.

Interested in how you experienced and dealt with death of a thai person who was, de facto, part of your thai family? Dukkha

My 25 year old daughter/step daughter died in the Tsunami, She was washed out of a dive shop on Phi Phi island where she worked. I cried my heart out for weeks. We are now 'parents' to her 9year old so I still get to see her everyday in the ways of her son, I wish she did.

I am so sorry for you..very sad.

(After further reading also extend thoughts to tom579 & other posters)

Had the same problem, with mosquitoes & cockroaches.

Solved 99% of the mosquito problems through installing a foam seal between the middle of any sliding doors (there can be quite a gap which is completely unnoticable), double checking each fly screen minutely and sealing all door frames with foam strip.

You may be surprised at the gap between a solid door and frame. Get someone to hold a torch on the inside to view for yourself.

You can definately fix the problem but need to run the foam seal and maintain the flyscreens and as posters above say cover the drains.

BTW, lots of cockroaches come in along the bottom door gap on the front/rear doors (fit with those bottom seals), the breeze blowing out attracts them.

Jeez, burnt plastic is a toxic cocktail...hope you find a solution fast...

The chimney from the house next door is the same level as our top level, they started to burn plastic, so I complained to everyone and anyone, then got a Sunbeam Therapeutics Model AC8800 aircleaner and keep the windows closed on that side - seems to work well but fliter needs to be replaced.

Can you physically reduce the smoke, new seals on the doors etc?

best of luck

Mark - sorry to hear about your problems. I don't think it would justify to tar all Thais with the same brush..

That being said, my advice is to cut your losses. You will never win in this situation and it could even get rather dangerous for you

Get out whilst your losses are acceptable

Good luck

Simon

With respect, I don't agree with the above advice at all.

Firstly this is your livelihood and investment, secondly you will find the same sharp business practises wherever you go.

IMHO if they are less progressive than you, you should spend some time using your chief asset - your reason.

There are so many good advices on TV, research them.

Secondly cultivate some Thai connections and leave it up to them.

Letting them get your goat is not wise.

Walk quietly and carry a big (Thai) stick.