Bday Prang

Strange quote from the GF if you ask me .... "I don't believe he was suicidal" but then she says " i don't think he should have been left alone in "the state " he was in... What state was he in exactly ? Only a bit homesick based on what she has said. If it had been me, I would have expected my mrs to say something along the lines of " there's no way he would ever have contemplate suicide no matter how wasted he was ! I just asked her now and she confirms that is pretty much exactly what she would say Maybe he had prior history of suicidal tendencies, Also a bit strange that he travelled so far just for a face tattoo, All the way to Thailand , alone ! Bet that went down well with his GF Much more to this than meets the eye "Normal" people do not just get drunk and become suicidal, generally speaking

Yes, but by a totally independent third party if they can find one here

Unless she visited him in the police station she could not possibly be the last to see him alive

Not suggesting a video of a suicide should be shown to the public, but if there's nothing to hide, allowing an other independent authority to see it would certainly remove the need for further speculation and would presumably exonerate the police involved. On the other hand.....

It wouldn't be such a fun place to live though, It would just be a hotter version of any other western country. I'm quite happy with the way things are here. I was even happier 25 years ago

Alcohol advertising in the UK is already not allowed to target or be seen to target under 18's nor may adverts feature anybody who appears to be under 25, doubt its much different in any western european countries. This was not the case when I was growing up but I don't remember there being anymore alcoholics then than there is now. although I'm sure there will, of course, be some "official statistics" somewhere to prove me wrong. Alcohol advertising is generally not intended to promote the consumption of it by non drinkers it is more about attracting the existing drinkers of other brands to switch to the product being promoted and that's the essence of the legislation here, protecting the established monopoly in other words. People are less likely to switch from "Chang, Leo and Singha" if they are not aware of the alternatives As for ciggies, I don't remember the last time I saw an ad for them either in the UK or Thailand, but the UK definitely introduced the current plain packaging for cigs well before Thailand did

Alcohol can be advertised in the UK subject to what most would consider "sensible" regulation IE not targeting young people for example. It can also be advertised on facebook (apparently) I am neither a heavy drinker nor an alcoholic, nor am I ignorant of the potential damage it may cause to certain individuals. Most people posting on this thread are aware of the real reasons for the legislation, the bias you mention is against the overt hypocrisy You can discuss this at length during the next meeting of the temperance society with other like minded people There is a very thinly veiled advertisement for "Regency" shown regularly on Thai TV complete with a health warning

Simple really , I asked the question in the hope that somebody, better informed than me , might have been able to provide me with the answer. You state above that you would not wish to be there, and neither would I, I am interested as to why anybody would choose to study there. For example maybe there are specific courses offered there that are not available elsewhere, or maybe Thailand has some sort of bi-lateral agreement with Sudan? I don't know, so I asked. You are correct can't unread it However the question was not directly addressed to you, so why attempt a scathing reply to it, if, as you confirm above, you simply don't know the answer ? A dignified silence would have sufficed, It has for everybody else.

I found it hard to believe too but that's what it said in the OP's linked article, Muslim students from the south apparently in the case of Thais, I have no idea why Americans are there but you're probably right about the Spooks and exploitation of resources

If you consider it a redundant question why not just ignore it. ? Looking elsewhere might just have have helped them avoid their current predicament So are you saying that the Thai students went all the way to Sudan to learn English and Arabic in order to become translators,? theoretically possible, maybe, I suppose, I was not blaming any government nor accusing anybody of "folly"

Could not agree more, and I loved your description of the guy.. "nativity play beard" lol I know just the sort of tw@t you mean, Not sure we can put all the blame on the boomers though, many of these snowflakes develop their self entitled "woke" narcissistic personalities at the lower end "universities" whilst studying for their useless degrees. I find it quite refreshing that Thailand has not yet sunk in a quagmire of human rights and wokery, something that those coming here need to bear in mind. Regardless of the rights and wrongs it is what it is

I hardly think the "authorities" anywhere are expected to provide a welfare service for every drunken holidaymaker, the police however do thoeretically have some responsibility for those who have been arrested and are in custody. Regardless of that there are numerous stories of people mysteriously dying whilst in police custody here, some of whom were of the of the highest social status and I believe at least one of which was alleged to have fallen from an upstairs window! So it's not surprising that drunken young tourists have "accidents" too if they step out of line and unlikely that any police will be having any difficulty sleeping tonight. I have no idea what exactly was captured on CCTV but there seems to be a bit of vagueness surrounding that to say the least, If the guy was totally out of it and aggressive it's a possibility that he might have landed a few punches himself, if he had got lucky and sparked out a senior officer in front of his subordinates, the loss of face could well lead to severe, "extrajudicial," consequences and I'm certain the sort of police who would resort to such tactics are well versed in covering their tracks The last I heard, in the UK there were about 800 police officers currently under investigation, many for serious sexual assaults and that was just in the Metropolitan police force. We have to remember where we are, and the fact of the matter is, that the police here operate under completely different rules to those in western countries, those who can't accept that should stay away. it's well known that there are more than a few really "bad apples" out there Rightly or wrongly that's how it is, There is no independent police complaints commision and no legal aid funded human rights lawyers to take care of things, and nobody in authority here really cares at all

What a lot of uk residents are not aware of is that there is a massive "green" surcharge on their electricity bill of more than 25% which is to subsidise all those useless glorified windmills that are normally stationary due to lack of wind or too much wind, It'snall part of the government's ridiculous "net zero" ambitions which will ultimately bankrupt the country and be responsible for power cuts in future winters

you'd definitely get a record for that, albeit some sort of, indecency related, criminal record

Its at least 2mm less than 1mm would be akin to piano wire or a guitar string would it not? I bought some identical stuff recently and it was sold as 2.5mm but my vernier gauge says between 1.9mm to 2.1mm for the bits I could be bothered checking out of interest.

It really depends on one main factor, that being the load bearing capacity of the ground beneath the concrete is it solid and stable , or spongy and soft. ? If as you say they are redoing an old existing driveway that's already cracked its likely that the ground is already well compacted from years of use and therefore further settlement is unlikely (its also advisable to break up the existing concrete in to even smaller sections prior to placing the new concrete to help prevent any further movement and possible "shadow cracking") This is really a classic Thai solution to a Thai problem in so much as its probably actually cheaper to do the job on the cheap twice rather than pay a fortune doing it properly once. The reason for this being the price of bringing in a machine to properly compact the original ground and the price and availability of the "real" reinforcement that would be required The steel mesh shown in the photo is a little on the "light" side but good enough for what it is probably actually being used for, I think it costs around 1500bt for a 50m x 2m roll so its quite cheap and can always be "doubled up " if required. I've seen heavier gauge mesh advertised at Thai Watsadu (at heavier prices) and it all comes in rolls Its quite difficult to get it really flat so there is no point in being too pedantic regarding at what level within the slab it is situated, the main concern (obviously) is that its not sticking out of the surface ! If the ground is solid, the concrete is only acting in compression, as it transmits any imposed loads straight to the ground below, concrete is very good a resisting compressive forces, actually no reinforcement would be required at all , and the concrete required for parking an average car would only need to be about 50mm thick, proof of this being that many houses in the uk have their driveways constructed of 40 to 50mm thick unreinforced precast concrete paving flags although the fact that they may only be 60cm x 60 cm helps to mitigate any cracking from any slight settlement. and in the case of using an in situ slab I'd recommend a minimum of 75mm (100mm would be better) If using in situ poured concrete on strong ground, the steel mesh is only really used to prevent any cracking which may occur as the concrete shrinks slightly whist curing, and to resist any later cracking due to expansion and contraction as a result in changes of temperature. If the ground below is weak then different forces are acting on the concrete when weight is applied, primarily tensile forces, concrete is not too good at handling tension, as can be seen when a guy karate chops a (unreinforced) concrete slab in half He would not be able to do it if the concrete was reinforced, as steel handles tension very well, So in the case of weak ground, a minimum of 150mm thickness of concrete would be more usual and significantly more steel would be required and the cost would increase vastly, A flat sheet of mesh with 10mm bars at 150mm centers each way would cost, I'm guessing, around 4000bt for a standard 2.4 x 4.8m sheet with probably 2 layers required, mesh like that might take a bit of finding too, it wasn't readily available at homepro last time I looked

Khartoum University presumably must have a very liberal admissions policy, and I suppose there is still the "kudos" of an overseas education when they arrive back in the village . Still seems strange to me,

I really can't imagine why any Thai nationals would be in Sudan in the first place, the linked article even mentioned students. What did they have to go to Sudan to study that could not be studied elsewhere,?

There is no "arrival card " anymore Tm6 forms are no longer used, at airports. It was hardly an accident either , she knew what she was doing, I watched her look through my entire 50 page passport, literally every blank page ! I generally avoid the female officers, but it was unavoidable this time

In my opinion , engaging in violence or getting arrested is not necessary indicative of either being a criminal or "having mental issues" However committing suicide , if that's what happened, is irrefutable proof of a serious psychological problem

Even more annoying, I arrived back from UK last month with a brand new passport, immigration stamped me in on page number 6 !! Pretty much as expected but why on earth do they do that??

nobody likes a snitch

I'm sure once the OP's feelings are more widely known the entire country will change , just to suit him

not "photo shopped" but I did get the mrs to give it a thorough clean beforehand

Well lets keep it real Eh? we are talking "Issan" after all lol