3STTW

In a lot of countries, you don't get your money until you've removed your card, which seems way more practical to me. I admit that I have left my card in an ATM twice in Thailand - and in both cases I'd become distracted because I'm used to getting my card before the cash. In spite of the derogatory comments, it's not dementia. Thieves and pickpockets have been using distraction for millennia, so the key to keeping focus is to have a mantra or a mental procedure and you train your brain to "tune out' until the procedure is complete. When I leave the house, I have 'TMLKP', my missus is always late and she tries to distract me with "have you seen my bra?" or "where's my lipstick?" etc. I just tune it out until I've ticked all my 'TMLKP' boxes. I used to be a scatter-brain which isn't good when you travel extensively for a living, so I started using these "mantras" in my mid 20's and I've never since forgotten my passport, left my wallet anywhere or left my kids home alone at Christmas.

Nasty chip on your shoulder you have there Sluglord. Just about everything you said above is either untrue or just plain old filthy, racist trope. There is no question that the Philippines is poorer than Thailand. Filipinos come to work in Thailand for two reasons; a) so that they're geographically close to home, or b) they're using Thailand as a springboard to get better jobs in countries which pay far higher wages. The only other possible reason is there's a demand for well educated, English speaking manpower that isn't afraid of hard work.

On the contrary, when I had a Thai girlfriend I had exactly the opposite experience - I got scalped everywhere and I have no doubt that she was either colluding in the scam or didn't want a 'loss of face' confrontation. My Filipino wife scrutinizes every hotel and restaurant bill - but plays the idiot, it's not long before you get the "oh solly" and the bill comes back several hundred Baht lighter. It doesn't happen a lot, but enough for it to be a reason for being skeptical.

Given that applies to just about every Thai girl I've ever met, I fail to see the point. You can go to any upmarket district in the west and find chicks pulling the same chain.

I'm married to a Filipina, we've been together since 2010 and lived in Thailand since 2015. Up until a year before I met my wife I was in a long-term relationship with a Thai girl. For context, I've worked in SE Asia since 1996 and been in relationships with girls from all those countries except Cambodia and Malaysia. Personally, I have many reasons why I would never marry a Thai, I figured that out a long time before I met my wife. You often hear people say "all Asian women are basically the same", and in many ways they are but the differences lie in their values and priorities. For example, Filipinas value a loving, secure relationship far more than money, they are inveterate home-makers and they like planning for the future. Basically the opposite of you-know-who. There's a lot of them everywhere and their networking capabilities are astonishing - they literally invented the 'jungle telephone'. When we moved to Thailand my wife didn't know anybody. A week later, on the day our container arrived, I got home from work and there was a bunch of Filipinos partying in the house. They'd literally unloaded the entire container into the house, furniture and all, unwrapped everything and flat-packed all the empty cartons in the front yard. All the bedding was washed, kitchenware and crockery cleaned and they were all acting like it was a day at the beach. I've moved house more times than I care to remember, so this was like my worst nightmare being rubbed out by a bunch of happy smiley people.

I've got a couple of electric awnings and I want to replace the fabric which is looking a bit threadbare. Anyone know where I can get replacements or get them made in Pattaya area?

Apparently those Hitachi pumps are the biz, my buddy up the street has just had one installed and he's over the moon with it. I bypassed my Grundfoss pump when I discovered that the city pressure was way better (and it doesn't surge). But with drought coming I've got a new tank and a Hitachi pump is on the list.

I've had all sorts of algae in my pool, the worst being black algae which roots into the grout. I got rid of that a while ago and control it with Black Advance and I try to keep the pH down around 7.2 - 7.4. Now I've got some greenish stuff which sticks to the surface of the tiles. I ran a Black Advance cycle (apply, leave pumps off for 72hrs, vacuum) and noticed that the vacuum didn't remove it. So I ran the robot and that picked it up pretty well, when I rinsed the robot filter it looked a lot like normal green algae but it was kind of gritty - but it also stuck itself all round the sink, I literally had to take a scouring pad to it to get it off. Anyway, 3 days later and the algae is back on the pool tiles. The start of this was around the time I did the 6 month flocculent treatment (Clear Advance) in late November. It's been really windy recently so that may account for the grit, but Black Advance normally kills off all types of algae. Any ideas?

The Swatch Group are the only authorised service agents for Omega in TH. We have 3 and we always use them, either here or in Singapore.

Thanks, got it.

Over the last week there's been live music playing in the area and the missus feels like she's missing out - but we can't figure out where the venue is. Any ideas?

The whole plan has been binned. There was no way the Thai's were going to tolerate it - and certainly not any other foreign tourists. Other than that, it would have been constitutionally illegal under Thai law anyway. In other news, I hear that China's attempt to prevent Thai media from discussing Taiwan has also been given the middle finger salute.

Nice. What you have there is pretty much what I have all around my modest hutch. I have quite a few 45° miters and the joints are getting hard to find, last time I was at Hardware House they had the inside miters but not the outers. Still, I agree with everything you say - no fuss, clean lines and ridiculously easy to install.

Don't go there. It's zinc plated steel and once the water gets in at the end-cuts, it rusts and drools reddish stains down your walls. I know this because I just helped my buddy renovating his 3-bed bungalow, the PVC guttering from Hardware House was cheaper than the paint to redo the exterior walls. It's also significantly heavier than PVC so you need extremely robust pelmets to attach it to.

Having owned a couple of recording studios, I can give you plenty of advice but you will need to provide more info. First of all, "soundproofing" a condo will be next to impossible, so... 1. Is the treatment required for containment of exclusion? 2. Acoustic treatments are frequency dependent - so is it the neighbor's sub-woofer banging away, general TV noise/loud chatter, or high-pitched noise? If it is the neighbors making a racket, remember that you can file a police complaint. In my experience, the RTP tend to take these issues seriously if you're in an urban/suburban location. As mentioned above, it helps if you can provide some evidence along with a journal of events but there's no need for an SPL meter because most cops aren't going to know the difference between a dBu, dBm or a dog barking.