Grumpy John

When dealing with despots and dictators there is no middle ground.  Observers can be arrested or worse shot like any other.

9 hours ago, IsaanAussie said:

I first came here to the village about 18 years ago. Behind the village was a large swampy area which almost flooded in the wet, it has been cleaned out to form the current reservoir and a system of klongs to handle overflow. The dam is low but still holds a lot of water but the klongs clear any excess so that the "speed" of the water is much increased and the ground water recharge is limited. The dam is clay lined to stop water permeation. 

I believe this is a problem that will get worse. The need to clear floods is obvious but the answer must be to send the water down not away somewhere else. Slow the water down, recharge drains in to the ground.

Man oh man, "18 years in the village".  How do you keep your sanity??? ????  I've only been in this village 7 years and a bit and I have crazy days where my brain almost explodes!  ????  

Back to the problem of water.  Fellow TVF user billd766 seems to be in an area that is far worse than you or I.  I've said to the wife why don't the village draw water from the dam on the other side of Khao Khiew...but she doesn't know!  A 5 kilometre pipe would be needed.  Seems strange not to take advantage of an existing resource.

An uprising, rebellion, bringing true democracy to the people will be measured by the number of dead bodies in the streets.  It always ends up that way.  If the Red shirts get involved maybe some of the dead will be those opposing an uprising,  rebellion,  bringing true democracy to the country. 

2 hours ago, billd766 said:

We live in rural Khampaeng Phet and for 6 or 7 months of the year we rely on the local government water supply. The other 5 or 6 months we rely on the water tankers who are usually on the road 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

 

The water measured below com from the Thai Met office 65 km away in Muang KPP.

 

The first dates below are from 01 January to 15 August every year and the second figures are for the year.

 

2017 1,328 mm              1,863.9 mm

2018 701.1 mm               1,135.3 mm

2019 309.9 mm             802.1 mm

2020 288.8 mm to 15 August

 

It goes lower each year and I log the weather figures from the Thai Met Office for KPP. The Bhumibol dam has received only 4,166 mm of rain since 01 January. The Bhumibol dam is at 31% of full capacity at 07.00 this morning.

 

http://www.thaiwater.net/DATA/REPORT/php/rid_dam_1.php?lang=en

 

So while some parts of Thailand are doing OK for water other parts are not.

 

 

 

I Watch the weather radar quite a bit and there seems to be some good rain weather blowing into PhiChit province from your way.  But that doesn't mean it gets to here!  Our situation is most of the rain for our area comes from the South East.  But going back 7 years we had a storm and I will swear the rain came from all directions.  Last year to much rain caused flooding.  I posted pixs on TVF last year.  About 6 inch in the shed and the house being slightly higher about 1 inch on the kitchen floor.  Mar said in the 55 years living here she never seen such a flood!  But water management is only a secondary issue around here.  Instead of taking advantage of the run off for family rice paddies down lower by building a dam in an unused gully it just goes straight into the klong! ????

43 minutes ago, scorecard said:

Family Mart is quite big in Vietnam, and 7/11 not so many stores. The FM operation is clearly run by a clever franchise holder, everything impresses the customer.

 

Maybe 3 years back I was lecturing in Ho Chi Minh City, I needed a new shaver I put the old one in my bag and at lunch time I went to the nearby FM, couldn't find any shavers. A very young smiley nicely groomed male employee came to me and reading from his smartphone screen he said 'I help?' 

 

I showed him the old razor, he instantly took out his smartphone and took a photo, quickly some data on his screen (I'm guessing he submitted the photo to a distribution centre or similar), then he quickly typed on his screen in Vietnamese and translated it to English 'today 5.00 afternoon, OK?

 

I responded 'yes please' I went back just after 5.00 pm, he quickly greeted me with 1 packaged shaver in one hand and a pack in the other hand, I took the pack. I bought other stuff and the same boy was waiting to do the cashier process. As I left he read from his smartphone screen 'come back teacher please'. (Nearby in that district there's 4 or 5 universities, all with many western lecturers.)

 

All indicators that the franchise operator is switched on.

 

In VN FM have a very big focus on hot snacks, a big variety of fresh sandwiches, plus small packs of typical fresh Japanese snacks, a variety of hot coffees and the other typical mini mart products.

 

In all their stores they have 3 or 4 tables and chairs for customers to sit and eat their snacks, always cleaned up very quickly. And all aspects of their stores always extremely clean.

"In all their stores they have 3 or 4 tables and chairs for customers to sit and eat their snacks, always cleaned up very quickly. And all aspects of their stores always extremely clean."  That's a bonus.  Would rather sit and eat in air conditioned comfort than on the steps with the soi dogs.

You probably right.  The flooding in China at the mo is part of it though. "Asia[edit]

During La Niña years, the formation of tropical cyclones, along with the subtropical ridge position, shifts westward across the western Pacific Ocean, which increases the landfall threat in China.^[25] In March 2008, La Niña caused a drop in sea surface temperatures over Southeast Asia by 2 °C (3.6 °F). It also caused heavy rains over Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.^[26]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Niña^"

The floods in China will be enough to put pressure on the global food market.  Not sure how much it will help mango producers such as the wife, but rice growers...I think they will see an uptick in market price.

13 hours ago, NeoDinosaw said:

and if the ferrari was only doing 79 mph and the motorbike was pottering along at 60 mph, there would not have been much impact - cedrtainly not enough to cause death

What!  You seriously believe that???  I sure as he11 wouldn't want to come off at 60mph!

6 hours ago, robblok said:

You might be having ok rain but what i read so far is that its even worse then 2019 this year. Many dams are still far from what they normally are water wise.

 

I do hope for more water for the farmers, but if there is not enough I hope they do give "normal" people water first (meaning water for consumption not farming).

Your probably thinking of water supplied by the big dams.  Our village water is 1/2 rai dam next to the wat and another up the hill on the Southside.  There is a village bore but no connection to any of the major dams. At our house we have 4 tanks and 4 ongs which hold around 30 thousand litres and one dam at the #1 orchard which is now 50% bigger so we can water the trees 5 times during the dry season. 

My wife has a strong liking for Aussie meat...  Does that make her a connoisseur?  ????

Lucky them!   The lousy government did bugga all for mango farmers.

I am resisting the urge to say "the Wuhan China virus is no more harmful than the flu"  but it could possibly be.  We know for a fact the oldies with pre-existing conditions are in the high risk category but can't we deal with them separately and let the rest of us get on with life.  

At 67 years of age I do have some concern about the Wuhan China virus being in the community, is it?, but the risk of catching it and dying is low.  On the other hand, If I was in a nursing home with a sick body I would be extremely worried about it.

So despite wearing a facemask and using hand gel at Makro the lack of social distancing whilst shopping and the fact what I just touched may have been touched by someone else with an infection (name one) is of some concern to me.  But the lack of new cases in the general population is reassuring to some degree.

I watched a video this morning about a virus situation from long ago: 

On 8/9/2020 at 3:49 PM, Tagged said:

Wholesale and around 30 baht a tree. I can not anwer if they have r2e2 trees. 

 

Found an old fb page of them. Try to call them 

 

https://web.facebook.com/pages/category/Shopping---Retail/ไร่บุญชูพันธุ์ไม้-247906835312963/?_rdc=1&_rdr

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the Farcebook link.