markwhite

254 is not going to make it - you have to deduct MPs who join the government, upto 35 of them. These MPs can't vote in no confidence motion and the opposition can easily win the majority and oust the government. Anything below 270-280 is unsafe.

And the reported existence of vote buying again. Apparently there will be more news on this tomorrow when red cards start to be handed out. I believe it could affect the number of seats held by various parties.

especailly at night

how do you cope / deal with them???

A pop-open umbrella: keeps the rain off, keeps the sun off, and has scared off any dog I've had to brandish it at so far.

Your local immigration office is another source for this letter,

usually FREE.

Some immigration offices (mine included) only issue to people who are registered with them for visas (and possibly other things like WPs) that require 90 days reporting.

I would think that a baby's size is determined by a number of factors - DNA, for one - imagine a man with a husky bone structure and a petite woman...

I would've thought genes have just as much chance as coming from a petite mum, and there are a substantial proportion of those in Thailand, which is what I was getting at.

But it wasn't really that important. Just a throwaway observation that has nothing to do with the original topic...

I'd like to buy a couple of reindeer. Has anyone ever seen them for sale in Thailand?

I heard these guys had a load of them. But maybe they've done something with them by now...

http://www.edible.com/shop/browse.php?cmd=...mp;productId=35

C-sections are more common here because the average Thai woman is smaller.

I was thinking that, but then I wondered: aren't babies here generally smaller too?

I would like to 'Register' with the British Embassy, as a Brit. living in Thailand. It would seem that their online registration system is out of order presently. Anyone else 'registered' recently?

I registered a few months ago using the form you mention.

As for benefits - well you need to be registered with them to get a letter proving residency (for driving license and car ownership if you are not on immigration's books because of the visa you have), but that's maybe it. Others might also see it as a way that your government can keep tabs on you for whatever reasons.

Yes, I do know that I am not the most sociable person around here but how many friends do you have here in Thailand.

After two years, but only 6 months settled in one place, there is one farang I consider a good friend who's now on Koh Pha Ngan so we see each other occasionally. There's an old schoolfriend in Bangkok I kept in touch with when I first got here but that's fizzled out, and a couple who live on Koh Pha Ngan who I'd say are acquaintances.

This isn't new for me - in the UK I probably had 3 or 4 real close friends who I never fell out with and always enjoyed seeing, and loads of work colleagues, drinking buddies and friends of friends who I would knock about with, but without considering them to be true friends.

I suppose it's where you draw the line though. Some people might consider anyone they've spent more than 10 minutes with to be a friend. My true friends are those I'd drop everything to help if they needed me, and who would probably do the same if I needed them.

Is it me or he may want to lighten up his schedule and proceed with a cesarean anyway?

I attended the birth of our son with no problems. There was also a time when my wife was...er...rather keen on having a cesarean but the doctor encouraged her not to, without telling her she could not.

If you're paying for the birth, I can't see why you should not get what you want. Within reason of course.

I may be incorrect here but I think that in Thailand the husband is required look after his wife and that is the reason it is easier for her to obtain permanent resident status.

Ah okay - so it's pretty much the same as applying for PR, but maybe the criteria are different with it not being expected that the farang woman is the main income earner?

"Foreign women who marry Thai men already have this privilege."

Can anyone confirm how this works right now for a farang woman marrying a Thai man?

Do they have they have to go through some application to get Thai nationality or is it automatically granted (somehow?) at the time of marriage?And how does this affect visa requirements?

or even just plain old stir fried with egg,& soy sauce.

Or with egg and a teaspoon or so of fish sauce. A nice side dish with Kooa Gling Moo.

So, is the white box really compulsory, or is there a way around it?

IME, compulsory and no way round it.

And if you send a parcel as a 'small packet', my local post office insists it is not sealed (with the string and sticky tape) before the weigh it. I have no idea why.

Normal the Acer laptops having an "hidden Partition" with the whole software which was coming with the Laptop.

Usually Alt + F10 at POST for Acers, but you might need to 'Enable recovery boot partition' (or something like that) in the BIOS first.

I guess that is the nature of the world and I am not going to pay 5000 baht for him to eat dinner with me

Well you could change the way that works. But it's up to you - not the world.

I don't know these people do it everyday. So, I am sort of cynical towards them like "What is wrong with you that you can come here everyday and do this?"

Everybody is at a different stage of personal development as a result of all of the influences they've experienced whilst maturing - social, education, peers, etc.

My wife recently gave the example of her sister who had a minimal education and has always lived in a small village, rarely leaving it at all. She's recently bought a washing machine and we were talking about why she doesn't do laundry for others to supplement her income. My wife said she probably would have no concept that people pay for this as she's never seen it done and has only just made the move from washing by hand to a washing machine, and doesn't have the mental skills to figure out how to do something that she has no existing concept of. That sounds harsh but I'm struggling for more appropriate words.

You appear to have had an education encouraging you to question stuff (you said this in a previous post about people bringing up kids in Thailand), you've used this either to generate a significant income or funds for yourself (in another post I think you said you were 'rich', and here you say you would pay 5000 baht on a meal which is not something poor people do) or you've come into money through some other means. I don't think it's unfair to assume you've had more life experience in some ways than, say, my wife's sister - you've seen other ways of living and can use that knowledge to compare different ways of living and maybe learn from them. Which is what you're asking here.

But as you've pointed out, you are 22 and you have a lifetime of maturing in front of you. Not that I'm singleing (sp?) you out as I'm 39 and also have a lifetime of maturing in front of me, and I think everyone is in the same boat and learns at different rates, or sometimes not at all.

I found that with maturity I am losing that cynicism but there are some things I still feel confused about, or get angry or a little depressed about. I don't blame people for not knowing what I know, but then I don't think that knowing what I know makes me anything out of the ordinary. Ultimately we are all just people trying to find the best path in life and making mistakes as we go as a part of learning what is 'best' for us. Some people have a head start because of their upbringing; others don't. Some learn everything they can and continue living there lives in a way which confuses others, so appearances can often mean nothing.

I found this interesting as one (of many) explanations about the stages people go through as they develop. It won't suit everyone's viewpoint, but that's just how it is:

http://www.cook-greuter.com/9%20levels%20o...te%201%2007.pdf

Why don't people just go in a bank and take a Cash Advance on their credit card?

*If* credit cards here have the same sort of way of dealing with cash advances as those in the UK, they might be limited to being able to drawdown a certain percentage of the credit limit as cash. My ex-employers had accounts setup to ring alarm bells if more than 50% of the balance on a card was made of cash advances - either a few large ones or lots of little ones.

Having (an) affair(s) whilst you have relationship is right or wrong??

I've voted 'wrong', but that is only my choice for my life. It is none of my business what anyone else wants to do with their life.

Yes, exactly same question from me. What is wrong with pointing?

I'm killing a few minutes trying to answer our question, though I'd love to hear from others.

From a few 'answers' websites, I can find:

"People don’t like being pointed out in a crowd for the most part, therefore it is considered negative behavior and socially unaccepted in general."

and

"It's like pointing a firearm, a person would believe you intend them harm. Pointing a finger is similar in many cultures. Also in cultures it is desired that a person act in a manner in-which they do not stand out. Pointing at them removes the harmony of the whole and points them out as an individual, which can be an invasion of privacy."

Which I can understand, though it's difficult as I don't feel it myself.

"If you see two people arguing and one of them repeatedly pokes his/her finger towards the others chest, this looks really rude and aggressive."

and

"The gesture itself is a bit agressive and (if you’re standing close) invasive."

I'd agree with, but that's more of a 'finger-stabbing' than indicative pointing which I believe this thread is concerned with.

"because it just is.would you like it if i point at you? how would you feel.?"

Well, the first part does nothing for me. If it's a 'that's him over there' point I would think it's perfectly appropriate. If it's a 'I want to bring attention to a physical defect I find amusing' sort-of point, then it's the pointer's problem for being juvenile.

Which brings to to the best reason I could find so far:

"I think, as with most issues of etiquette, it’s simply a matter of context. For instance, if I tell my waitress that I want to buy a drink for a woman on the other side of the restaurant, I don’t think it would be considered rude for the waitress to point me out when delivering the drink.

If, however, you are walking though the grocery store with your six-year-old son, and he points at someone with an obvious physical or mental disability, or some embarrassing trait—that, I think, would be considered rude. Especially if it is accompanied by the six-year-old voice (same decibel level as a jet engine) saying, “That woman has a huge butt!” Not that I’m speaking from experience. Actually, I am.

So the OP is right—it’s rude because our parents didn’t want to be embarrassed by the social ineptness of children."

So I can understand why some people have been told not to do something that might cause embarassment to parents and it's meme'd it's way from there. Though I think that would be a shame if that was all there was too it - people needing to control their kids to stop them voicing their opinion :-(

I'd prefer to hear a better reason.

I won't be taking my old books back to the bookshop where I bought them from so they can make a few pennies' profit

Okay...

So you're being critical of me in a sideways fashion. I had thought about giving all the books I have to Sean, including the 1000 baht worth I can cash in at the other bookshop. I know I can find books I want there because of their wide selection, and get the idea that the current library supplies are quite low. But it's an assumption.

So I'll have a look at Sean's library and see what he's got. If he's not got much of what I read, I'll part-chop my books so I have something new to read and donate those books to the library when I'm done with them.

You had a fair point Captain, and the same did occur to me while I was writing that I could do just as you said. Though the bookshop's profit is not of interest to me, so the delivery of your point read as unfairly barbed.

Pointing seems to be accepted behavior in Thailand or is it considered as rude in Thailand as it is in the West?

I'd not come across the 'rude to point' thing until a friend of mine remonstrated me for pointing by saying "Monkeys point". But then he was a very arrogant person at times. I did manage to restrain myself from advising him that monkeys will knock his teeth down his throat if he talks to me like that again, though it was tempting to do so.

So why is pointing rude? Do you mean pointing at things or people? Always or in certain circumstances? Enlighten me.

When I saw your last post about supplies dwindling I did think of a book shop in Bangkok that does a 'buy back at half price' as a way to keep customers coming back, stock levels highish and still turn a profit.

I prefer your idea though. Mostly 'cos it'll be cheaper for me to get a read once in a while :-)

I've got 6 or 7 I'm done with that I'll bring when I come over. I've got another few but they're going back to the aforementioned shop to get part-chopped first

in Chaweng, Koh Samui last year for NY and we spent 1200$ each or more. We had to stay in an expensive hotel coz it was the only one we found who had vacant rooms after looking for hours. What a nightmare!

We had to stay in an expensive hotel in Nakhon last NYE - 700 baht it cost me! I would've been happy at the Thai Hotel for 140 baht, but my wife just wouldn't have it ;-)

I came here about the same time as cm-happy and had all these grand ideas about touring asia using Thailand as a base station. I took a couple of holidays but always felt like i wanted to be back in thailand instead.

Where i live there is almost no pollution, no hassle and smiling faces everywhere. Why would i even consider living somewhere else?

Pretty much the same as me mate.

Thailand was going to lead to Laos and India at the start of a few years off work, but after a few months here I was enjoying it so much I didn't want to leave. I'm now married with a son and living in a small moo baan well away from the typical tourist areas.

I'm 10 minutes from the beach, can see the local mountain from the back of my house across views of rice fields and even a little bit of old forest amongst the rubber plantations. I've learnt to ignore next door's dogs when they go ape, my meditation practice is going very well with the lack of distractions (only Thai television!) and I take each day as it comes. I like the Thai easy-goingness and try to learn from it rather than trying to still live my goal-orientated, money-career-success-driven Western life. Well, mostly I do anyway :-)

I don't think a day goes by without me learning something about myself, my wife, my son, or where I live. Which is great :-)

"a week or three"... are there that many newspapers available at your place that you can use the daily cartoons as a substitute?

Or alright then...I don't read Thai Visa for a week or three :-P

The nearest English newspapers round here are 30km away anyway ;-)

I'm getting tired of certain members constantly posting negative things. jingjing really really I am. are they just trying to troll or genuinely unhappy about so many things, including themselves.

If you have love for yourself and happiness in your life it is easy and natural to want to share that with other people.

I've had to accept that people who use vitriol and nastiness in their posts might feel the same way, but for opposite reasons.

I've been an a*se at times in my life. I've been very unhappy and at times I've taken that out on myself and loved ones. It took me a long time to see the other side of the coin and I had to mature a lot in the process. Everybody goes through that process and some take longer than others, or have a more painful time doing it. I try to remember that if I do get an unjust response to any of my comments, though sometimes they will buzz round in my head for a while before I remember how important they really are.

Sometimes I feel that TV would be a more welcoming place if there wasn't so much bigotry and derision here, but the moderators do what they do with warnings and bans and the sponsors are presumably happy to be associated with the diatribes that happen on here, and so it continues. When I find the noise/signal ratio too silly, I just don't read for a week or three and find it bothers me less when I do want to come back.

reminds me of the story about the monk who accidentally stepped in a load of doggy poop with his sandals. He kept moving from temple to temple, complaining each time that it smelled like doggy poop. Until realizing that he carried the smell with him on his own sandals.

You're talking about people who are not happy living in Thailand and are vocal about it on TV, yes?

Or maybe you're talking about people who get tired with some of the negative comments that appear on here.

Either way, the answer is the same: they need to find a better way of dealing with it.