sheepshank

My daughter's initial consultation was via a one hour Zoom call during the Covid lock down time where it became obvious to Dr Mason that she was suffering from ADHD without any need to go through the computer generated diagnostic process.

He produced a report for my daughter to take to a third-party MD after lock down was terminated.  The MD issued a prescription for the appropriate meds based on the written report combined with a face-to-face consultation with my daughter.

Hope this helps. 

Dr. Mason diagnosed, my then, 19 year-old daughter with Inattentive ADHD a couple of years ago when Thai psychiatrists were diagnosing clinical depression from the same symptoms. We went along with Dr Mason's diagnosis and my daughter has been obtaining Ritalin under prescription ever since. I dread to think how she would have ended up taking anti-depressants instead!

Recommended.

Yes, parked at level 3, rode the escalator to level 5 and breezed through the procedure in the Vaccination Hall, with my step-daughter acting as translator, whilst I smiled sweetly from behind my face nappy and signed a couple of forms which were in Thai.  There was a choice of Sinovac, Astra Zeneca and Pfizer.  The whole experience was an absolute delight!

COVID booster update:  I pitched up at Central at 1025 this morning for my 3rd jab; and I left to return home at 1045.  The whole process, including the obligatory 10 minute wait after the jab, took only 20 minutes. At no time was there a queue at any of the admin desks and I just sailed through.  I'm well pleased!

The only difference compared with the previous two visits last Sep and Oct is there is no hard copy issued and the details go on the app.  

Earlier this year I was keen to obtain a tablespoonful of milk Kefir grains so that I could brew up a supply of Kefir milk for use as a starter culture when making cheese.

I wanted probiotics, and I thought they might be available in Bangkok, so I did a web search for "probiotics Bangkok".  There were a couple of likely looking "hits" among all the dross.  I emailed both sites introducing myself and asking for information about their Kefir.

One site didn't bother to answer my email, but the other site, run by a lovely lady called Halima and her partner Kurt, quickly came back to me with all the information I needed and a few days later I was the new custodian of 15 gm of live milk Kefir grains.

It cost me 450 baht, plus 189 baht for shipping.  That may sound expensive to some, but I received my grains from a reputable source, in a very short time-scale, with minimal effort on my part. GIYF (or yahoo in my case).

^^ possum1931 - The percursor to a pancake is the batter that you make up, hence add one level teaspoon of baking powder per 225 gm of all purpose flour according to the general rule I posted above when making pancakes. I also use soda water in my batters to help them fizz up.

Suet is the name given to the hard fatty tissue covering the kidneys of cattle and sheep. It may be rendered down and used in place of other culinary fats to make suet-crust pastry, dumplings, spotted dick and other steamed puddings etc which are lighter and airier than they would otherwise be. If using all purpose flour to make any of the aforementioned dishes which require suet, add 3 level teaspoons of baking powder per 225 gm of all purpose flour according to the general rule I posted above.

^^ ramrod45 - I know what you mean about whipping cream not staying fresh for very long after being opened. I've always thought that the standard 1 ltr size availble in the supermarkets is too large for occasional use and the manufaturers would help us all by offering a 500 ml size as well.

I only ever buy whipped cream when I see the fresh stuff reduced to approx 40 baht a litre container on, or just before, the "sell by" date. I then take it home and whisk it all up, tip the reslting mess into two plastic containers and store them in the deep freeze. They'll keep for a few months and then I've always got the amount I need on hand ready for the next jam and whipped cream sponge.

^^ RabC - no I don't touch SR flour either. I just add the recommended amounts of baking powder to all purpose flour to obtain the raising characteristics of SR flour in things like whisked sponges, steak and kidney pudding and bisciuts.

The genral rule is for each 225 gm of all purpose flour add level teaspoons of baking powder as follows:-

scones/bread 4

fruitcake/sponge/steamed pudding 3

shortcrust pastry/biscuits/batters 1

A bit OT, but in answer to RabC at post 49; my Isaan kitchen is like a furnace all year round but I still manage to knock out stacks of pukka "Cornish" pasties for me and my mates. The secret is you don't need to keep your kitchen at 18 deg C, you need to keep the pastry you are rolling at 18 deg C, which is a whole lot different. So, make your shortcrust pastry in your usual way, then wrap it in clingfilm and bung it in the fridge for a couple of hours to let it harden up. I often leave pastry in the fridge overnight and roll it out the following morning.

When you are ready to make your pasties, remove the block of chilled pastry from the fridge, unwrap the block and cut off enough pastry to make one pasty. Re-cover the block and return it to the fridge. Place the lump you have cut off between two sheets of waxed/silicone paper on a clean chopping board and roll out the pastry to your desired thickness.

Carefully peel off the top sheet of paper and put it to one side. Turn the bottom sheet over (with the rolled pastry attached) and place it face down on a second, floured, chopping board. Peel off the lower sheet , place the filling on the rolled out pastry, fold and crimp as normal and slide the pasty onto a baking tray.

Repeat the process as many times as you like depending on the quanitity of pastry/filling you have. The thing is you can re-use the sheets of paper until they rip/disentigrate then you tear another sheet off the roll an continue.

Ah! I understand now. Although the best Alfredo sauce is made using "heavy" cream, you can make a good substitute by melting butter in a saucepan then adding ordinary whipping cream. Add salt and pepper to taste; bring the mixture to the boil, then simmer gently until the required degree of thickness is achieved.

If by "heavy" cream you mean "thick" cream, or as the Brits call it, "double" cream, rather than "whipping" cream, which contains less than 40% milk fat; yes, you can get it in Thailand. TOPS supermarket chain sells Bulla brand thick cream (45% milk fat), imported from Oz. I think the price is about 120 baht for 200 ml.

Just for the record cfhebertjr, forum member afarang took his etan to a better place some years ago and he is no longer of this world, RIP. So Id be very surprised if you were to receive a response to your erudite comment from him.

Signed: fellow etan driver.

My 12 year-old daughter crossed over the school quadrangle to the Mathayom side at KKVS this year having spent 1 year in Kindergarten and 6 years in Prathom and I am happy to say I am in complete agreement with Neeranam when he says Prathom is “very good” because, it is.

Where I beg to differ is with regard to the cost of the education at KKVS which he calls “remarkably overpriced”. The websites for 3 of the 4 bilingual schools in Khon Kaen list their scale of fees; the only school which doesn’t is KKVS but never mind, I can refer to my recent bills. So, here is my best estimate of what it would cost a parent to send a P1-6 student to each of the 4 schools for one semester this year (not including non-refundable registration fee) based on the information promulgated on their websites:-

Patanadek – tuition 50,000 – extras included in tuition (no school bus) – total 50,000

NEBS – tuition 50,000 – extras approx 13,000 (incl school bus) – total approx 64,000

Mataneedol – tuition 58,000 – extras approx 16,000 (incl school bus) – total approx 74,000

KKVS – tuition 69,840 – extras 20,340 (incl school bus) – total 90,180

NB: If parents have wildly differing figures for any of these schools please post them so that the record can be put straight.

KKVS is relatively expensive but not “remarkably” so when you consider what is on offer for the price. Note that KKVS is the only bilingual school in Khon Kaen to offer an education from pre-Kindergarten up to Mathayom 6 with appropriate educational and recreational facilities to match. The other three schools stop at Prathom 6.

The school is expanding and a new classroom block is under construction to cater for the ever increasing school roll. Where there used to be one class for each year, there are now 2 classes for some years to keep the teacher/student ratio low. Core subjects in Mathayom are “streamed” so that the brighter students are not kept back by the slower learners, and the slower learners benefit from small class sizes and the consequent extra attention they receive from the teaching staff.

All members of the teaching staff are qualified in accordance with Thai MoE requirements and a large proportion of the NES staff members have been teaching at the school for longer than the 7 years my daughter has been there to date. Staff turnover is low which helps to make a child’s education more stable.

I accept Neeranam’s contention that the Mathayom side of KKVS has not been as good as the primary, but in the past they haven’t been too choosy about who to accept in order to get b*ms on seats. Those students who don’t make the grade for Satit or Khon Kaen Wittayayon EP etc at M1 or M4 are often enrolled at KKVS because their parents have run out of other options and they can afford the fees required to keep their loved one off the streets. I know for a fact that some students arrive there, after 6 years Prathom elsewhere in the city, not even knowing their 2 times table or even being able to communicate coherently in either Thai or English. What is that they say about sows’ ears and silk purses?

From this academic year 2014/15 onwards KKVS is teaching and examining the three core subjects, English, Maths and Science under the auspices of the UK-based educational organization, Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), which is the world’s largest provider of international education programmes and qualifications for 5 to 19 year olds.

Over 10,000 schools in 160 countries are signed up to CIE and their qualifications are accepted world-wide. CIE coverage of all three core subjects at KKVS applies to P1-6 and M1-3 for the time being. M4-6 coverage is currently limited to English only but the aim is to include additional subjects in the future as those who have been educated under the CIE system move up to senior Mathayom level. The bulk of the remainder of the curriculum is taught in Thai to Thai MoE requirements.

I’d like to add here that when KKVS was inspected by the MoE audit team (English readers – think OFSTED) last month, the school was awarded an excellent (same as OFSTED – Outstanding) rating which is the highest award they can give. So the school must be doing something right!

Winds of change are blowing through the school following CIE accreditation. The parents of those Mathayom students whose performance is considered to be below par have been warned by the management, in writing, to the effect that extra effort is required on the part of those students in order to achieve a pass mark. What happens if they continue to perform below par? I have no idea how tough the school will get, but brown envelopes thick with legal tender notes, passed under-the-table, wont answer the problem at KKVS.

I hope that CIE accreditation will make the school an attractive proposition for those parents of more able children who desire an international school education for them but are put off by the huge outlay. What I think we have here is “bilingual-plus”, a halfway house between bilingual and international and I suggest that the fees thus represent excellent value for money.

In summary:-

“The Primary is very good” – agreed wholeheartedly

“Secondary is not” – agreed, up to a point; but the outlook is improving for those who are prepared to study hard, with CIE now onboard

“Both are remarkably overpriced” – I submit, not when compared with international schools, which is the comparison we should be making because KKVS is not just another bilingual school. It is the only CIE accredited school in Northeastern Thailand.

On first reading the OP I realised I had everything needed either in the fridge or growing in the garden. I whipped up almost 400 gm of home-made Boursin, using 2 litres of Foremost Plain Milk in less than 2 hours. Then I enjoyed it for lunch with some freshly baked bread and a glass of Boolaroo Chardonnay... mmm.

I need to offload 1.5 kg of Casino Tartidou and Kiri garlic and herb cheese because it just doesn't taste as good as it used to now that I am eating the "real deal".

Many thanks for posting Jaiyenyen.

PS: I have subsequently used Foremost "Yummy" Rich Plain Milk and I could detect no difference in the end product.

A clean linen tea towel is a good substitute for an old tee shirt when straining off the whey.

1/4 cup of lemon juice is approx 60 ml which is exactly the amount I managed to squeeze out of the lemon that I picked off my lemon tree for the job.

The cheese definitely improves if left in the fridge for a couple of days and it is still OK over a week later.

My step daughter had a medical for a student visa for Oz just 3 weeks ago at AEK hospital in Udon. The cost was 3,500 baht. I dont suppose the price at the other accreditted centres will all that much different. Hope this helps.

Hi slk350,

Thnx for the reply. I don't make the operational decisions regarding our cane cultivation because I know nothing. I just pay all the bills promptly, accept all the receipts graciously and hope that the receipts are bigger than the bills. I like the idea of doing at least some of the weed control by hand and I will impress upon SWMBO (that is - She Who Must Be Obeyed) of the need to weed a test area by hand next growing season for a comparison.

We have a few rai of cane planted outside the back door of our home in Chaiyaphum and it would be an ideal area to try out weeding-without-chemicals in order to determine the total amount of manpower required per rai.

After recent experience outlined in my post above I really don't want to use any more chemical herbicides than are absolutely necessary for weed and grass control.

Bon Voyage and have a stein of proper beer for me when you get there. Cheers.

Hi Canada,

"Chuffed" or "chuffed to bits" is slang for "to be very pleased, proud, or happy with yourself" - courtesy of the www.urbandictionary.

Back to sugar cane yields. Watering is not done as a regular programme and is only undertaken 5 to 6 weeks after the last heavy rainfall. Yes, we have bore holes, large and small, strategically placed on our plots; and yes it is done Thai way as you describe above. It's a bit harry tait but it works!

Hi Nokawou,

FYI 1 rai is 1,600 sq mtr, so there are 6.25 rai to the ha. Hope that helps you to compare what an advanced country using irrigation is achieving compared with us in Isaan. I'm quite chuffed that my >12.5 per rai ie >78 t/ha, without irrigation, compares favourably with your break even point of 80 t/ha.

Hi Canada - "Chaiyaphum....irrigation canals?" Yer gotta be 'aving a larf ain't ya. Nah, nuffink so Ritzy as klongs where we are. There is no surface water to speak of for miles around, it's as dry as a bone most of the year. If it doesn't fall out of the sky then we have to pump it out of the ground. OK, it adds to the input costs but it's necessary if we want to keep the yield up and make the crop attractive to a middle-man.

slk350 - I am very interested in what you say about keeping grass and weeds under control by employing people to do the weeding and without resorting to chemicals. My annual herbicide and spraying labour bill is astronomical. And, as we all should know, the stuff is extremely harmful to humans too. One of our two "permies" spent 2 months in hospital late last year suffering from blood poisoning caused by incorrect handling of herbicide whilst he was working for my FIL. He's OK now but he was in danger of losing both his feet at one stage.

My FIL himself (a fit man in his mid 60's) was sadly taken from us suddenly only a month ago after he undertook the weed control duties that he had previously delegated to the hospitalized worker: cause of death - blood poisoning. It's nasty stuff, so be careful out there. And it sounds to me as though weeding and grass control by hand may be a good bet if the labour is available. I'd far rather put more money into the local economy than hand it over to the shareholders of Bayer or Monsanto.

I'll start this post with a disclaimer - I am not, nor ever have been, a farmer - I am more of a bean "counter" than bean "grower". But I support my wife's sugar cane enterprise because I see it as being less risky, and potentially far more profitable in the long term, than leaving the funds to stagnate in an offshore deposit account.

We've got 110 rai of cane at various stages of the 3-4 year cycle on land which has been either purchased, or rented, in Chaiyaphum. The most recently planted plot of 39 rai has yielded a net cash return to me of 390K baht versus a total 1st year input cost of 345K baht.

I don't know the weight of the crop because it is still in the ground but it must be considerably more than 10 tons per rai. I am however, 100% certain about the cash yield because the quota holder has already paid it into my bank account. Now, where has that colour brochure for the Kubota B2440 got to? Happy Days!

Hi Patongphil

I am the father of a Luk Kreung who has been educated at KKVS for the last 7 years and who will cross the school quadrangle from Prathom to Mathayom in May. If you have specific questions to ask please PM me and I'll do my best to answer them.

Hi Eamon,

If you do a web search for quote i.service khon kaen unquote you'll find the facebook page for the local apple authorised service provider. The facebook page has a map (in Thai) showing where they are and their land line telephone number appears further down the page. They don't have a web site as far as I can tell.

I bought my young sprog an apple product at Power Buy in Central Plaza at the weekend and the guy who served me recommended the i.service centre in preference to the apple studio as first port-of-call for apple repairs and servicing. Hope this helps.

I brew my own and it tastes bl**dly lovely

hi thailand, I'm pleased you've managed to find some canned chickpeas, that's waay better than paying OTT prices for the ready made product. The McGarrett dried ones at Tesco come out even cheaper if they are available in the Phuket branch/es (I am in Khon Kaen).

There is no need to buy your sesame seeds crushed, even if you could find them. The whole seeds are widely available in most Thai market places and they are very cheap. They are called "ngar keo" (please excuse my poor pronounciation as I am receiving conflicting reports from various family members and as we are in Issan the pronounication could be different compared with the south.

Once you have found your "ngar keo", toast them in a pan over a medium heat then crush them using a pestle and mortar before adding them to your chickpeas with the other ingredients

Trust me, I've been making hummus for years in Thailand using basic, readily available ingredients, at rock bottom prices. There is absolutely no need to pay "silly money" for hummus if you know where to look for the ingredients.

Good luck!