Godolphin

First off, my favorite store-bought mayonnaise in thailand or anywhere, for that matter, is Kewpie brand in the blue bag. It's got 13 percent egg (i think kraft and hellmans have 8 or 9 percent) and absolutely no sugar. But it has to be the kind in the blue bag.

As for the question of which is superior: homemade mayonnaise or store-bought, i think the 2 products are so divergent that comparing them is pointless. If they didn't share the same name, it wouldn't even be an issue. homemade mayonnaise is more like a sauce and the commercial stuff is more like, well, mayonnaise.

Appreciate what you're saying, but you can make your own blend according to taste.

For example, you can make it more than 13 per cent egg, you can put in anything which enhances the flavour of the mayo.

You want salty, add more salt, you want spicy, throw in some chilli or cayenne or tabasco or whatever, you want tangy, a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice, etc.

You would be surprised how good a home-made mayo tastes as opposed to some of the preservative, sugar and cheap-oil laden expensive commercial alternatives.

I haven't seen kettle bells around Thailand for sale, but standard dumbbells are easily purchased. I've seen the typical cast ones ranging from 1 to 7 kgs. available.

Why would you be too old at 55? If you haven't been doing any sort of exercise for an extended period of time, just start slowly and work up to the number of reps you hope to achieve.

BTW, are 55-year-old Danes different than other 55-year-old people? Just wondering why you specified your ethnicity.

Couldn't agree more. 55 is not that old. I am 58 and do free weight training three times a week and feel/look much better for it.

Set an objective, start slow with low weights, gradually increase your weights/sets and in a few weeks you won't know your old self.

Make sure you work all muscle groups regularly.

I agree with the poster who said make your own.

Easy, plus you can experiment until you come up with the right combination of flavours for your taste.

Have you seen how much sugar goes into the expensive commercial products?

They have a right to do what they want to do within the law.

Anyone who has looked at the events last year and thinks it is all over is delusion IMHO.

Despite populist posturings by Abhisit a lot of Thai people are justifiably pissed off that there is so much wealth in the country going to criminal networks of capitalists, the military/police, and others who control the nation.

They want their share and who can blame them?

The genie is out of the bottle and so many Thais now realise that they have been hoodwinked for centuries.

I am not a Thaksin supporter but you don't have to have much imagination to realise why so many of the poor liked him. And, yes, I know he is/was an arch-manipulator.

You only have to look at the dozens of stories every year highlighting corruption from the very top of Thai society right down through to the bottom to realise how widespread corruption is.

Check out the Wikileaks stuff on what some of Thailand's neighbours think of the corruption factor.

The military control everything in Thailand. They overule governments,parliamentary process, independent legal process, democratic elections, the national budget, foreign policy and a lot more.

I applaud the poor of Thailand standing up to this emporer's new clothes farce which so paralises everything in their society.

Good on them for having a go against a system so manifestly rotten from top to bottom - right through the government, the judicary, the military in particiular, the police (organised like a Mafia gang), the education system and other institutuions which can't really be discussed here.

If I was working on a building site for less than 200 baht a day while living in a hut I'd want to have a go at the system which justifies this too.

If you go the Dr Mercola site

<deleted>??

<deleted>? Well he is an American guy who has a website specialising in alternative health and yes, he does make a dollar selling his range of products.

He may very well be a charlatan for all I know but he does raise some interesting points.

Not the least are his views on corn syrup. After reading what he and others have said on this subject I think there are grounds for concern.

I'd rather read stuff from him than blindly following the agribusiness monopolies who are selling crap to the public.

I was surprised at the amount of sugar in the US Heinz ketchup. I notice it's a mix of sugars from corn syrup. I guess they can control the sweetness and volume better than with cane sugar and it's probably cheaper. At any rate, since ketchup is not a substantial part of my diet my selection criteria is based on taste rather than calorie count or nutritional value. And I like the taste of US bottled Heinz ketchup.

I have read where that corn syrup is a particularly nasty 'food.'

If you go the Dr Mercola site you will see some very disturbing findings about this insidious substance.

Fantastic photo.

Speaks volumes.

An evil regime in the same league as North Korea, Zimbabwe and Iran.

My Aussie one, delivered from Amazon US, works fine.

I suppose they will be continuing to call for 70% of the voting population being disenfranchised because they are too stupid and poor.

Let's see how many of them end up in the slammer.

No offense mate but why would you want to eat Nabisco Snackwells Cookie Cake in Thailand of all places?

Nostalgia?

Talk about too little too late!

I'm shocked, horrified and deeply offended that there would be, in Thailand, a country founded on jai di and jai sabai, any possibility of the counterfeiting of branded items.

I'm so upset that I may write a letter to city hall. I'm sure that will fix up this obviously isolated and regrettable incident.

two katoey doctors!! wouldn't that raise a few alarms in the victim's mind?

The victim was a katoey!

Moral of the stories?

That Thais do life differently to falangs is abundantly clear in many ways at all times.

Falangs may not like it but their constant anguish at things being different will do nothing to change it.

Could I just ask what you have with them? Or do you just eat them on their own with coffee or something?

Either way, they look very appetising.

I won't be eating that shit

Great stuff.

More please!

Makes you laugh does it not?

I mean, here is a place awash with prostitution, drugs, criminal gangs and other nefarious activities and they arrest a group of people for gambling.

Sheesh!

You could also go to any of the huge number of vendors who will sell you compressed CDs with 12 or 15 albums on one disk for $100 baht and listen to them on a cheap cd player which may cost you as little as 700baht upwards.

This is a great thread and dispels the negativity which we see so much on Thai-falang forums IMHO.

I love it when you are on a motorbike or just walking and a truck comes past you with a crowd of Thai construction workers sitting in it after a days work.

Men. women, some old, some young, fatigued after their long day on a job which may get them 200baht, if that.

Just smile at them and you will get so many beautiful, sincere smiles back.

Salt of the earth.

Maybe what our ancestors were like a couple of generations back.

Again, khop kun mak mak.

zzaa09,

I know you've been thanked for your fascinating contributions but I can't resist saying: well done, good on you.

A picture is worth a thousand words and all that but some of these pictures are works of art and they help us understand a lot more about Thai society than a lot of wordy books.

I am particularly interested in the war ones. I take it that some of the photos are of the Thai/Burma Railway of WW11? Being an Aussie I couldn't help noticing the slouch hats.

More please. You are doing everyone a service.

Unfortunately, many do like to label all Pattaya residents as scum.

Some are almost maniacal in their hatred.

Ah, but here's the rub: they are jealous and are projecting their wants, desires, their bad sides on to Pattaya residents.

They can say, in their shitty little lives lived somewhere else in the Kingdom: well my life might be crap but at least I'm not one of those sex addicted/perverted/loser types who congregate in Pattaya. It makes them feel good and morally superior.

Let these finger-pointing moralisers examine their own lives for a change

In Australia, ALL eftpos (debit) transactions require a PIN. They NEVER require a signature. This has been the case for over 10 years in Australia.

It appears that Thailand has some work to do BEFORE they get close to being considered a 2nd world country.

I will not use any eftpos (debit) unless I use my PIN. I will refuse to sign any document on a DEBIT payment (fear of forged signature).

Don't think so mate. My credit union debit card is a signature one. I used it today. I live in Melbourne.

^I, for one, marvel at how helpful and professional and generous you are in assisting people on this forum Sheryl.

You are really much appreciated by us out here in cyberland.