khunandy

Try plain old Listerine (the mouth wash) ..seriously, either rub on or put in a spray bottle and squirt around door frames and under tables...they hate it

First turn off the pressure (if any) for sex. Then talk to her. She's certainly no dummy and recognizes a problem here. Gently ask her leading questions, like "Are you happy honey?" to help her open up. Ask her what she believes a solution might be. Try to develop a plan together. If she is unresponsive, you likely have a major issue to confront.

"I always thought that a child brings a family closer together rather than tear it apart." This statement worries me, possibly suggesting problems in the marriage prior to the baby's arrival. A baby may or may not bring a family closer together - depends largely on both of you striving to obtain that result. A new baby brings new challenges to the healthiest of marriages.

Be cool. Good luck!

Thanks for your reply. I've had a while to try every tactic and have come up blank. There was a problem before the unexpected pregnancy (she expected it, but not I) and we were on the verge of separating. Now we are more peaceful at home now (because I won't allow fighting in front of my son) but there is very little love between us. I would like to resolve this issue so that it won't snowball into something worse. Her being Thai (or maybe her being her) makes it difficult for her to open up or show emotion when she is upset. On the surface we would look like any other happy couple except happy couples are usually expressing affection towards each other behind closed doors. It is too early to tell what she will be like long term so I am hesitant about taking my boy and leaving her (except the thought has crossed my mind). I would hate for my son to not have a mother, but I would equally hate to stay in a stale, sexless marriage. She is making plans already for our second child and it is confusing me. I asked her today "how can we make a second child if we don't practice first ?"

She says she loves me with a non convincing tone, or maybe I'm being paranoid.

Anyway, I'm male. I need sex from time to time. I would hate to lose my son over the issue though.

I would go and get some relief from a working girl, try a soapy massage or something to release that frustration. And dont feel guilty about it.

Coming home with a happy demeaner will have her wondering what is going on, a man cant think straight when he has a full balls.

Khun Andy

(Offshore and not thinking straight)

I thought I was reading some sort of Thai Dr Zuess

Another arrest warrant issued for Thaksin

By South East Asia correspondent Karen Percy

Posted 4 hours 26 minutes ago

Thailand's Supreme Court has issued another arrest warrant for former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra after the deposed leader failed to show up in court to face a second corruption case.

Mr Thaksin is charged with granting a government-backed loan of about $143 million to Burma which was then used to buy materials from his family's telecommunications company.

Mr Thaksin is living in exile in London after fleeing another corruption case last month.

Arrest warrants have already been issued for him and his wife, Pojaman Shinawatra, after they jumped bail last month in the midst of a trial involving a controversial purchase of government land in Bangkok in 2003.

A verdict in that case is due to be handed down tomorrow.

Pojaman has separately been convicted of tax evasion and sentenced to three years in jail

calm down sexpats.. go withdraw one more 1thousand baht note and get over it.

There there little cheese, go and buy a bottle of baby oil and get in front of that mirror in the gym. See how young and buff you are....that's better now isn't it big nose?

I came after working in the Gulf of Thailand. I stayed after meeting my wife and I remain because I like living up country where the clock is running 15 years (or more) behind the times.

I will continue to stay because I can get out any time I choose (if that makes sense).

I believe my wife's fiancé visa started from the day she entered Australia, the entrance into Australia had to be before the planned wedding date. Although her visa was for 6 months.

Once married we had to show the paperwork to the immigration office where she was then issued with the 2 year multiple entry visa.

You could also start hiding chunks of blue vein cheese around the house and in their bedding

"Doing my own thing" is something I plan to do soon, just after my new car gets here in about 3 weeks. I've already told my wife we'll be doing a lot of driving around touring Thailand, something I have been wanting to do for a long time. We'll go for a week or two at a time, every month or so until that becomes old.

That reminds me, when I bought a car and put a GPS in that gave me the confidence to get off my ar#e and get out and about without dragging my wife with me...boy, it made a lot of difference just not feeling sort of trapped into whatever my wife was doing, the family thought it was a bit weird but liked that I was wanting to explore.

Just being able to press "home" on the GPS wherever I ended up was a huge confidence builder, I have found really nice places the family didnt know about.

whats going on. maigo sympathetic to the plight of the farang upcountry!

no offense but building a house upcountry is inviting the family to come live with you!

I disagree, depends on the size of the house and the standards you apply. What makes you think they don't have their own houses?

When my mother-in-law looked after our place it was a mess when we returned, not purposely but just kept in "rustic standard".

I think she couldn't be bothered to stay when it was pointed out to her that keeping a farang house is hard work, she moved home ....50 metres away

3 in 1 birdy coffee....yuk!!!!

There is an ROV course in the Phillipines for about 5000GBP, i looked into it but after doing a lot of research it seems as if lots of people have done it and cant find work. From my research a 8 month HNC course in Electronics or Mechatronics would be better.

http://www.subnetservices.com/rovcourse/

I have been in the ROV industry for over 10 years, if you have no relevant trade experience (Electrics, Electronics, Hydraulic or Mechanical) I would consider the HNC course a better option than one of the shoddy ROV courses.

About the only thing the ROV course are good for is networking or as an introductory course post Navy or Airforce.

Just a few lines about cohabiting with the Thai in-laws.

Before our house was built my wife and I used to stay at her grandmothers place on my visits, this wasn't a hassle and privacy was respected but I found it too close for me. Always been hassled to come a meet and greet etc. I loved the mealtimes when everyone would relax and swap a few stories (wife translating).

When the house was finished I claimed upstairs as a no go area for in-laws, all the socialising is downstairs...this works fine and I can opt in or out of whatever is going on. The constant visits from in-laws started to wane after a few months and now we have a good balance of family, social and private times.

My wife also enjoys "time out'

I wouldn't worry too much about it, it is an easy thing to get paranoid about.

From my experiences Thais will turn a 2 minute conversation into a 20 minute talk-a-thon to fill up a period of time, they love a good yarn and spicing a story up for entertainment value.

Slanderous conversations are kept in low conspiratorial tones with much "lip pointing" and "eye brow raising". It isn't hard to pick up that vibe when it is there. Most of the time when I ask my wife for translation of the local dialect the topic has hardly been riveting.

Look for the body language.

There are "haves" and "have nots" everywhere in the world. I don't have a problem with minor scams from the "have nots", it teaches me to be on my toes. Whenever i get caught by a minor scam, be it a 15 baht egg or a farang price to enter a zoo, I don't jump up and down I just wise up.

Now, the "haves" scamming the "have nots" is a different kettle of fish and I suspect more widespread with more dire consequences for the "have nots'

They are the crowd I would like to see strung up by the nuts.

Hi everybody,

I trust the wife. Don't know her family very well. Mum and stepfather need to build a house cause they are currently living with stepfather's parents and they don't get on.

Mum likes her drink so has fallen out with everybdy that they have tried to live wth.

So..it up to me to fund the house. How much does it cost to build a small place for two in Isarn?

Wife already has the land.

Any thoughts?

Scholes,

Lots of undercurrent pressure for wives of farangs to build up family assets. As far as building a house for the in laws, I would make it VERY basic, whatever you build will deteriorate from day one with a hard drinking women at the helm.

No fancy bathrooms or kitchens etc, just go for a shack on stilts mate....be strong about it too..its your dosh and it takes firm resolve not to be sucked into financing a show home. Funny thing is that this firmness gains respect rather than scorn.

About 100, 000 should put a decent roof over their heads and if they don't seem to appreciate your gesture you may have a heads up on what sort of people they are.

Khun Andy

One from the bedroom and the other from the lounge room

Phone cam doesn't do it justice, the fields are beautiful at the moment

I recently watched an election process for our village and town, what a farce..200 baht from one candidate and then the anti was upped to 300 baht by another which caused outrage from the first candidate...spies hiding in bushes trying to take photographic evidence of vote buying to render the other candidate ineligible to stand for election..the whole thing was a joke and my wife and i decided to clear out for a few days.

The expected candidate got in (500 baht a vote in the end) and in the fickle Thai way her popularity plummeted overnight (Thais don't like winners it seems).

There was no voting promises about fixing roads or improving services, just a pure and simple corrupt election at grass roots level

If at first you don't succeed etc etc.

Thought I would add my experience here as I now have a good bore supplying our needs.

Last year we had a local driller come in for a "no water = no cost deal, he was very confident of finding good water at a fairly shallow depth, we are in a river valley. Everything was fine for 10 metres or so then he hit granite, that granite went for 50 metres until he ran out of drill string. They worked pretty hard for no real result and I would have paid for fuel but they pulled the PVC casing and scurried off in the night never to be seen again.

We decided to try again this year as the village supply is next to non existent now and the gardens are suffering etc. We engaged a bigger drill rig also on a no water = no pay deal, the contractor picked the spot to drill and away they went. It wqs exactly the same scenario as the first attempt, 15 metres of clay then granite for 40 metres until they also pulled up casing and started to pack up.

I offered to pay 5000 baht for fuel and time so far if they had another go further down the block.

They spent a lot of time water divining and picking the next spot and started again. This time they hit shallow water, 10 - 15 metres I think, they pushed on and then a lot of small river pebbles started to come up with the drill returns ( an old river bed I am thinking) the pebble returns lasted for a couple of metres then hit granite and stopped. total depth about 40 metres.

He supplied a 1 HP Franklin / Shaefer submersible pump for 14000 baht (later seen for 11800 baht ) and we pumped for 8 hrs at 4000 - 4500 litres per hour with loss of volume or pressure. I was very happy. The water was a bit murky for the first couple of hours of pumping but gradually cleared up. It tastes good and doesn't smell so that's a bonus.

I now pump that into a 1500 litre header tank which gravity feeds through a charcoal filter into our 20,000 litre storage tank. An on-demand Hitachi pressure pump then draws on this tank for domestic use.

Cost of drilling : 35,000

PVC, Electrical cabling , pump ,valves etc: 22,000

Incentive: 5000

As a footnote:

I was reluctant to draw power from our domestic supply as we only have a 15 amp supply as it is. The wife arranged another 15 amp supply from the power mob which was connected yesterday for 6000 baht, this included the meter deposit

(2000 baht) The same deal you get for temp power when building a house. In this case we told them we needed it for water to farm a few acres.

Just a final comment, When we were trial pumping the builder who is building a small shop for us came and said "water finished' I groaned and my heart sunk until he explained it was our domestic storage tank....no problem fill it up from the bore..talk about timing :D

I live about 30 kms from Chum Phae, Khon Kaen. Does anybody know where I can get water tested just to see what I have got?

Khun Andy

Ah... the Metropole buffer lunch. A well kept secret. What a feast (5 course) I have for just 175 baht (++). And a glass of wine 95 baht (++). Check it out you all, you will be surprised ....

Where is that located?..is it every day, I am in town with some fussy farang eaters and this might be an answer for me

I think farang buddhists 'think too mut'....seriously!

Why this has to be anonymous goodness knows.

Might as well advise him to do it anonymously. Unlikely he will do it otherwise.

And really, why not anonymously? There is still a chance he is wrong.

There are so many people, understandably, who really dont want to 'get involved" that to take on an anomymous identity isnt such a bad thing, UG...weigh it all up, make you call inside your head and just do it either way or hand it over to someone who will.

I remember reading a thread on here about a guy who got bitten by a venomous snake, and he posted a topic asking other posters whether he should go the doctor or not.

I thought that was the stupidest question I've ever read on here.

Now it seems people have to rely on other posters to decide whether they turn in a suspected peadophile.

It might also be worth remembering that if the guy is reading this thread he will up and dissappear whilst you are still twiddling your thumbs UG.

Turn him in, if he's innocent and you cause him an inconvenience then I would say it's worth the risk.

Of course be as sure as you possibly can be first and do it anonymously.

Pity it is such a serious topic but congrats on 400 posts...see you in one more

I just went on the interpol website (didnt even know it exists) thats a pretty concise set of images, if you know the guy , you would know it is him....

Heard an interview with Interpol spokeswoman on CNN tonight she said the man was shown in approx 800 images abusing SE Asian boys who appeared to be between ages 6 and 10. They also said there is a link on the Interpol website to report possible sightings and identities and you can do so anonymously.

Thank you. This is the kind of information that I need.

The only thing is, the picture looks exactly like him, but I bet anything that it isn't and I don't want to cause him problems for something that he didn't do!

I sympathise with your predicement, it looks like him but you are not sure!!! Similar thing happened to me about 10 years ago and I baulked, my brother didn't and informed the authorities immedietly. I still feel guilty for not initiating action myself and my brother still feels guilty for dobbing the bloke in.

The winners are the previous victims and the possible future victims and that should be enough to convince you to follow your true gut feeling.

Some times you have to be measured as a man.....if it isnt dangerous to yourself put it to him and I will guarentee you will have your answer in his eyes in a nanosecond.