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Is it possible to request the procedure without being fully sedated? Thanks

I know that Sheryl has disagreed with me before on this subject, but in my experience, yes. There are three options:

(1) Full sedation (general anaesthetic). You're totally unconscious.

(2) Twilight sedation. You're still conscious and can move when asked. You may have some memories of the procedure.

(3) No sedation. Only for the toughest (or most foolhardy).

I've personally had the first two in Bangkok. The first at Samitevej Srinakarin. The second at Vejthani. Both were fine - apart from the embarrassment factor of remembering an incident where there was a sudden cry of "stand back" at Vejthani. I'll leave it up to your imagination to guess what was pouring out of me at the time.

With Vejthani (with twilight sedation) I was also in the difficult position of having to argue about the bill once I came around. (In the end they admitted they'd overcharged me on a couple of items - several thousand Baht.) My impression (though I'm not 100% sure) is that I was much more quickly compos mentis after the general anaesthetic at Samitivej.

I hope you fully appreciate that there's no way that using the English alphabet can represent the sounds of the Thai language accurately,...

is no more true than claiming that there is no way that using the Thai alphabet can represent the sounds of the Thai language accurately.

What you write is, of course, incontrovertibly true. The sounds of any language could be represented by any set of arbitrary symbols. I stand corrected.

I should, perhaps, have written what I was really thinking at the time, but didn't for fear of offending the OP. This was along the lines of "You have asked for a translation which shows that you know nothing about the Thai language. You have no chance whatsoever of being able to pronounce the translations accurately based upon some English alphabet representation of the phrases. Assuming you're a native English speaker you won't be able to pronounce some of the consonants correctly - even if you understand the difference between "p" and "ph" - and that "ph" isn't pronounced as in words like "phonic" or "photo". And some of the vowels sounds are going to be totally alien to you, too. I also suspect that you don't speak a tonal language, and even if you do, it's unlikely to have exactly the same tone profiles as Thai. You also need to bear in mind that Thai people for the most part are exceptionally unable/unwilling to understand foreigners speaking their language with dodgy sounds and tones. In other words, your request was rather naive, and in short you're unlikely to be able to communicate what you want with the Romanisations presented here.

Fortunately, Whisky isn't the aggressive/dominant type. My partner specifically picked him from the litter because he wasn't forward. Now when I walk him he lowers his head in the presence of other dogs nearby and never barks at them.

One of the problems I have (and this relates to the "pestering") is that my partner is typically Thai and isn't interested in having a well-trained dog - he's more of a plaything. That means, for example, Whisky is used to getting a treat after breakfast and will bother me in the morning until he gets one if my partner is at work. (It starts with just sitting beside me. Then he'll put his head on my lap. Next comes the pawing followed by licking. And then the pathetic whimpering.) He'll "sit", "come" and "home" - but not reliably. Certainly couldn't let him off the leash outside the home. I have no illusions that things will be any different with a second dog.

I'll freely admit I'm not a "dog person" - never had one as a child and never wanted one. Brought up to believe that they are dirty and unhygienic. It took a lot of soul-searching to agree to get a dog. And it's a decision I haven't regretted for a moment. (Well, possibly apart from the time I came down in the morning to find large areas of wallpaper stripped from the wall.) I really love Whisky. And at the moment I'm trying hard to convince myself that I can handle another dog. My heart says "yes", but my head says "no". It's a struggle.

As western economies rebound, which they will, the money invested in emerging markets will recede.

Absolutely not. As western economies rebound it will be "risk on" meaning increased investment in riskier areas such as emerging markets.

Could you tell how it is pronounced roughly using English alphabet? Or a link where I can see it myself because google translate can't translate the first phrase.

I hope you fully appreciate that there's no way that using the English alphabet can represent the sounds of the Thai language accurately, and that the representations others have posted don't include tones which are pretty much essential for a Thai person to understand what you're saying.

In short, I think what you're asking for is not going to produce the results you hope for.

And how many people died or got sick from massive doses of the extremely hazardous Vitamin C that Linus Pauling suggests?

None, because the body simply eliminates it in urine.

Large doses of A & D vitamins, however, are incontrovertibly dangerous, and people have died from taking them to excess.

My partner would dearly love to get a second dog. (Our first one, Whisky, a former street dog, is now coming up to three years old.) I have my reservations. I'm the one at home all day and have to let Whisky in and out a couple of dozen times a day. I'm also the one who usually walks him. How much more work is having two dogs, rather than one?

- Will the two dogs usually come in/go out together?

- How easy is it to walk two dogs at the same time?

- Will there be twice as much pestering for treats?

- Will they entertain each other, so requiring less attention from me?

A blogger I follow has suggested that getting a dog for your dog can be one of the best things you can do in life. Why? What are the pluses? At the moment I just see minuses.

Any thoughts or experiences shared will be much appreciated.

QE started 2009 in the UK, interest rate cuts were the main factor in the collapse of Stirling from mid 60s to mid forties in Feb 2009

I think your memory may be failing you. It peaked around 56 in 2009 - not the mid 60s.

Incidentally, I don't think interest rate cuts were a significant factor. There's been a long term decline in the value of sterling against the Baht. See, for example, http://postcardsfromthailand.com/2011/01/sterling-worthless/

Can someone please explain to me why the election commission has any authority whatsoever over the rice pledging scheme?

It doesn't. However, since an election has been called if the government wants to raise cash (or do anything that would impact the next government) it must get the approval of the electoral commission.

If a person hears noises that nobody else could hear without definite or identifiable physiologic or anatomic abnormality, psychosomatic cause will always be included the differential diagnosis. I'm not saying that it's the most common cause, but that it's very difficult to be ruled it out.

Oh, come off it. You're just twisting your words now. If you really meant psychosomatic, why would you write "psychosomatic disorder then not much can be done about it". If it is indeed psychosomatic, then counselling or psychotherapy could help. Just man up and admit you made a mistake.

psychosomatic disorder then not much can be done about it.

Uh. No.

Do you suggest otherwise? Other than Valium or Haloperidol?

The problem was the word "psychosomatic" meaning, basically, "all in the mind". Just the wrong choice of word.

Probably doesn't matter what is published, to the closed mind it just doesn't exist.

*A study by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2008 showed “high-dose injections of vitamin C reduced tumour weight and growth rate by about 50 percent in mouse models of brain, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers”.

I prefer to think of myself as analytical, rather than having a closed mind. Let's just look at the first of your references about vitamin C reducing tumour weight. An NIH description of the research (http://www.nih.gov/news/health/aug2008/niddk-04.htm) says:

"your body prevents blood levels of ascorbate from exceeding a narrow range"

In other words, however many oranges you eat a day, or however many vitamin C tablets you pop, the level of ascorbate in your body remains virtually constant. The active ingredient in the tablets is simply pissed away.

The scientists had to inject vitamin C to have an effect upon tumour weight.

And let's remember this research was done on immune-deficient mice, so the relevance to human beings is questionable.

The article also refers to previous studies:

"researchers reported no benefit for cancer patients taking high oral doses of vitamin C in two double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials"

In short: the evidence simply isn't there.

psychosomatic disorder then not much can be done about it.

Uh. No.

BTW - Vit C and colds - myth!

no it works well, just there is no money into in it, read Linus Pauling (2 Nobel prices)

Yet neither of his Nobel prizes was in medicine (they were in chemistry and peace).

There's not a shred of scientific evidence that vitamin C can do anything for the common cold - it's just wishful thinking.

He also claimed vitamin C could cure cancer. It can't. He was a deluded quack - one of the greatest.

Quote: "There's not a shred of scientific evidence that vitamin C can do anything for the common cold - it's just wishful thinking".

Why does everything have to be so black or white, either it works or it doesn't, and this is one of the main points of my "argument", because I believe there is middle ground and there are shreds of scientific evidence about vitamin C being beneficial, and I quote the following:

Feb. 13, 2013 "According to an updated Cochrane Review on vitamin C and the common cold, vitamin C seems to be particularly beneficial for people under heavy physical stress. In five randomized trials of participants with heavy short-term physical stress, vitamin C halved the incidence of the common cold. Three of the trials studied marathon runners, one studied Swiss school children in a skiing camp and one studied Canadian soldiers during a winter exercise. Furthermore, in a recent randomized trial carried out with adolescent competitive swimmers, vitamin C halved the duration of colds in males, although the vitamin had no effect on females.

Regular doses of vitamin C of one gram per day or higher have reduced the average duration of colds in adults by 8% and in children by 18%".

So, the evidence might not be overwhelming, but there is evidence of vitamin C being beneficial in some cases, and why can't this just be accepted. My stance has been that we do not know the full picture and that there are grey areas. And all the time that these grey areas exist, there is never a truly "black or white argument".

Perhaps you'd care to provide a source from a serious, peer-reviewed scientific journal for your assertion that it's beneficial.

Something like "The above story is based on materials provided by Helsingin yliopisto (University of Helsinki), via AlphaGalileo." doesn't really cut the mustard.

BTW - Vit C and colds - myth!

no it works well, just there is no money into in it, read Linus Pauling (2 Nobel prices)

Yet neither of his Nobel prizes was in medicine (they were in chemistry and peace).

There's not a shred of scientific evidence that vitamin C can do anything for the common cold - it's just wishful thinking.

He also claimed vitamin C could cure cancer. It can't. He was a deluded quack - one of the greatest.

Also, Vitamin D was added to milk in the USA & UK in the 1920s by Government directive.

Vitamin D is naturally produced by the action of sunlight on skin. In the 1920s there was a rise in rickets caused by poverty - people living in cramped housing conditions with little natural light. This is no longer the case for most of us, so there's no need for such vitamin supplementation.

However, there is a problem in the UK with Moslem women whose tribal beliefs mandate they are wrapped up from head to toe, so now vitamin D is added to chapati flour.

Just a warning! If the death of her last puppy was from Parvo, it's a very contagious and deadly disease especially in young puppies and has a long "shelf life" even after the pet has been removed

Puppies should also be vaccinated against Parvo at 6 weeks old. It doesn't give 100% protection, but it's way better than nothing.

Thanks, HardenedSoul. Just the clue I needed. The SpXZone website gives a list of stores selling them, including one on-line store.

I'd second http://www.bangkoknotary.com. A few months ago I checked the prices for notarisation from various law firms around Bangkok. All were pretty much the same at around 1500-1800 Baht. However, rather than having to go to the firm's premises, with this firm they sent someone to meet me at my local Starbucks. Much more convenient and saved me few hours' travelling time.

Just having a casual glance at that ... it looks photo shopped.

Just look at the pixelation around the tattoo.

That's not pixelation. It's a .jpeg artifact caused by reducing the quality of the image to make a smaller file. My best guess is that it is genuine, not photoshopped.

Sorry. Not Tokyu - Isetan.

Any ideas where I can buy a heart rate monitor in Bangkok (or through a Thai company on the Internet)? Previous postings here have suggested large department stores. I've checked out my local Robinson and The Mall - nothing. And today I girded my loins and went into central Bangkok and tried Siam Paragon, Zen and Tokyu - zilch.

I would love to get this for someone as a Christmas present, so a definitive response would be much appreciated.

Thanks.