HAPPYNUFF

Waywoke and Alactricity......Thanks  for  advise..  Yep  ..  first thing I did was  check tyre pressure, b4 leaving  dealers shop.  29 PSI  as I told them. Had Michelins   when bought the pickup new, a very very good tyre, not even half used, but side walls starting to crack.., however  as   my mileage per year is minimal, (49,000Kms in  8 years, )I  didnt  think it reasonable to pay 5000 per tyre  that was   not even going to be half used. so paid 4000  for Pirellis, and can   b uy   more , sooner, next time, instead of waiting 8 years  .And yes,  despite  some Thais  even deriding Maxxis, I had more good comments than bad  about them,,   was tempted to go that way,  but  the wife is one of the negative ones towards them, and the boss speaks, I  cower.

I have  had  four occassions  to    be treated at a private hospital here,. Each time for  minor day surgery only.    Each time, after being discharged, I was escorted to the cashiers  desk  and "guarded"   till payment in full was made.

Do  we really expect, in the future, some  tourist  after being treated in a Thai hospital, and  he. or she. stating they cannot pay, being told by the ever friendly hospital staff,  that its no problem, off you go,   the  300 baht  you paid on arrival here,( part of this )will be used to pay your  bill.???? More likely  the hospital will make a claim   to the government  for the amount owing, yet still pursue the patient, double dipping.

Ive  made my  fair share of adverse comments about Thais,  but Ive  made  more about my own countrymen.

I have also  experienced many incidents of kindness, and generosity from Thais, and had some   really  funny experiences. By that  "funny"  I mean  hilarious.  I especially recall, one day in a department store, I noticed a middle aged Thai man   actually scowling at me. I   kept looking over to him, the scowl remained.   To this day I dont know why, but I  smiled at him.   A big beaming smile. It was just involuntary on my part.       To my amazement,  he smiled back, gave me a  laugh and waved and walked off.  

As for my wifes married daughter, some years ago I heard her speaking badly to her mother.  I ripped into her and told her  if she ever spoke to her mother like that again she would  eat her meals standing up for a long time.   Both her, and her husband,, now appear terrified of me,  Im an old man for goodness sake,  but there is respect there, both ways now.

All very nice,  especially  the war ribbons,   maybe for fighting off the headmaster in the cloakroom, however as the saying  goes,

beauty fades, stupid lasts forever.

My experience, in days  past, teaching  converstional English, free of charge I add, was   there is a grave shortage of intelligence in the teaching profession here.

What the minister meant, of course ,when he stated these funds will go towards Thai tourism, is that he wants  the money to send his wife, his and her parents,  cousins, uncles, childfren, and assorted hangers on  , on a   extensive, expensive world tour, to broaden  their oulook on life, and let them see how lucky they are to live in wonderful, clean, honest  Thailand.    Im sure the little general and the watchkeeper   have similar plans.

billd766,  12.4 degrees,      ?    your living in paradise..   9 degrees at  7am here in   outer Korat last 2  morns.  Id like a heater in my pickup for Christmas next year.

I assume  the U.S. of A  has  the equivalent of  a  Mental Health Act, similar to in my country.

Why not just  declare him insane, as he obviously is, and incarcerate him, forever, in a mental institution??

Well,  after finding more reviews,  mainly from Australia, where    all  lauded  these tyres, I   bought them..      Final cost worked out at 4ooo baht each,, balancing and fitting extra ???. However  I get two years  free   tyre rotation and  balancing   with the deal.

The    reviews  I found   where from guys  owning  various types of pickups,   most comments   stated  they were quite good as all terrain tyres.  Ive found them   to have a" soft" feel  when driving, and a slight tendency to wander a bit on the road, otherwise , happy.

Thanks for all the replies.

Similar  to Giddyup, posted  6th Jan,, my   computer is   so slow , both  to  start,  and   search..Its a Lenovo Ideapad 330S model.

I  am    not too switched on  with   computers,  just a basic user,   so have no idea  what     speed   or whatever its using. I regularly    delete old  messages, clear history etc.

I  do however  know of two other  guys who have  the same make, but not same model, Lenovo  computer, they

also   complain of   the same problem

Some weeks ago,   there was a query  about start up speeds,  and  many  replies as to how to fix this,

I have searched the forum  but can no longer find that entry,, can     you guys advise me,  many thanks.

Please read my original message AGAIN..  First time I supplied  HIS number,  on several attempts actually.  I finally supplied my phone number on   later attempts.  Never received any SMS  on either..   OK, Got that???

A mate  does not have a computer, and has no idea how to use one, at this stage.   As  there is no   mail to or from  Thailand to his country I tried setting up  an account  with Google for him.

So my name would not appear on any message he will send, I swirched my  computer to "guest" status.  Followed ALL the instructions on how to do this, and supplied his phone number, as required.  Entered details. Received the  reply that  a SMS message would be sent to the phone number provided, giving a 6 diigt code, which I would then enter into the application detail area. Never received message or code.  I put the phone number in with the Thai  Internatjonal Code prfix, and being a mobile number , I even entered the ZERO that precedes the  normal number.  < As this didnt work I tried different  ways to enter the number, on subsequent  attempts.   Never did get a code number.      In desperation, I  came out of "guest" setting and tried again,  even gave  a different phone number (mine),,  again,  reply that I would receive an SMS with code.....Never did......I sent off two queries/complaints to  2 different help area of Google,,,no response there either.  What am I doing wrong??

Im just off to   buy  my gin  and  a carton of that stuff  called beer in this country.  I usually  stay around the house, got enought things to do to keep me busy, the wife, of course, being a typical Thai, has to go the marketys at least twice a day.  I spray her with Dettol  when she comes home..   Told her  I am considering  putting the garden hose over her as well.

I had a very good friend   from the U.S.  who  was worth a considerable sum, due to savings, and  two very generous pensions.

He was in his early sixties when he met, and later married a 20 year old Thai girl, who had worked  in the hotel of a friend.  On  taking her   to the U.S. for a holiday,  the  U.S. Embassy  then insisted   she must change her surname to his before they would issue  a visa. This was done.   Before leaving on holiday, my friend bought land  and built a very large  house on it.  As, then, because of having a farang surname, the wife couldnt  buy or own land,  this was  put in the mother in laws name.  Off they went to the U.S. for several months. On return to Thailand,  my friend was approached by a Thai man, who proceeded to haggle over the price  he wanted to pay for the house the mother in law was supposed to ow.n  It turns out, while   they were in the U.S.  , the dear old soul  had proc eeded to sell the house, as was her legal right.  By threats of cutting off the very generous monthly allowance my friend was  giving both the old soul, and a lazy good for nothing brother of the wife, the sale was stopped.  My  friend then proceeded to build another, much smaller, basic house next door to the original, and re,located  mum in law into that, after, somehow, getting  both land plots transferred to his wife

p.S.  My friend died some years later, sadly, he was a good man.   The wife promptly  took on a worthless poor  Thai  as her" companion",

and  still retains the right  to some part of   my friend pensions.

Not long back from a trip to Pattaya,  walked around looking  in the bars, had a couple of beers....I thought my wifes  mother and all her mates     were occupying the bar stools, Im not saying they were old mind you. !!     I even saw  one I recall from years past, when she   looked after a local bar during the  day, as she was past her prime then, now she had on the red silk dress and fresh lipstick,   that made me   get a double  whisky to revive me.   But hey,  the  posts on You Tube show them as young, vibrant, beautiful, it must be just me thats wrong.

A bit off topic I know, but   Hey,  my wifes son in law  was  conscripted for  the national service   some years ago,   after 2 months in training he was granted leave, returned home,  two months service, two medals on his chest... I told him if  he completed the full  two years    he better get a bigger chest.

  Been reading  more on Pirelli..  Found  reviews,   mainly from Europe and the UK...     Most agree a dreadful tyre in the wet

This was for various types of Pirelli.  Im surprised.     Will  look at   what others here  have recommended.   Thanks all.

OK..   Need new   tyres for my Toyota Pickup.   Presently have Michelins, fitted  when  car new, 

8 years ago. Only done  49,000 kms, but side walls starting to  wear.   My dealer has heart attack every time

he sees them.  Replacement Michelins, cost  around 5000 baht.   Have been offered  Pirelli Scorpion ATRs 

at  3890.   I  always thought Pirellis  to be  very good, though never bought same before.  Whats the general

opinion on them.   I  dont use the  car much, as you see by the low  Kms.

I  have previously told of my  sad experience when  bringing in  some  personal items,  by air freight..  But to make some aware, this is another incident that my wife and I   were aware of.

We were at the Customs area  at Sookie airport, going thru the hassles, when  my wife  started speaking with a Thai lady who  had just returned from Germany, where she lived, with her farang husband.    She had bought some items  back, for their second home here.

The poor woman  didnt  know what was required and was looking distraught.  She explained to my wife some Thai, whom she had assumed was some sort of official, had told her she needed to pay 40,000 baht, being fees,  customs duties  etc.  She had given the man the money some hours previous, and was  still waiting. My wife decided to help her, and together they left to make inquiries as to  where the man was, and who was he.    No one had any idea as to what she was talking about, or who the man was..    At least  I didnt get ripped off that amount.    I must add   a Thai  guy did approach us and offered to help. He wanted 200 baht.   He  did assist me in getting the  fees(?)  (bribe)  demanded by  Customs down considerably, and I gave him 1000, and that was a saving.

OK,  thanks  for info re  nookiedelights.  Have downloaded   his product list and contacted him.     Will have to  do another  search of Suraneee rd for Korat  "chef"

I agree with   others here...      Get a couple of  half breed dogs.  We  have two of them,,, and two little barkers   the wife  likes.

The big dogs   are not only good for security from  people   but will   take  to snakes and other crawlies.    Dont let other people feed them, they will get too  complacent otherwise.