billd766

Looks nice indeed, as I don't eat much bread (often go days without it), i buy a few loafs at a time at foodaland (bakery) and put them in the freezer. Just take a few slices out once in a while. If i ate more bread id certainly consider making it myself and making a healthy one.

Good work bild, just one question are they not a bit hard to cut or you get used to the bit strange shape ?

The problem is that it is a vertical bread pan but slicing it is easy as I use an electric carving knife.

At sometime in the future I will buy a proper slicing machine but as I have the electric knife and I mostly use it for the bread a slicer wouldn't get much use.

Handy for slicing bacon or ham but I don't do that every week or even every month either.

There is a wonderful smell in the house just at the moment as I have just made a fresh loaf.

Very tasty, warm fresh bread with lots of salted butter and some fresh ham or cheese.

Yummy.

Have a look on Ebay for one. I ordered one for my friend and cost about 600 baht delivered to the door and took a couple of weeks.

You really couldn't make up stuff like this even for a movie.

At least the Nation finnaly published a decent article about the situation

in the troubled provinces...thay almost rate a well done from me. And I must

agree with member Pib...Chalerm as PM would be very scary. The man

couldn't lead a troop of school kids on a tour of a candy factory let alone

govern....anything.

Perhaps you had better pray that nothing happens to Yingluck as Chalerm is the FIRST Deputy PM and as such is nominally in charge when Yingluck is off shopping somewhere.

If someting did happen to her just think how many Deputy PMs would be in the bunfight.

Actually Thailand has a lot of very good engineers spread across many fields.

What it is poor at is middle and higher management.

What it has a surplus of is corrupt windbag politicians with no knowledge of the real world with a penchant for ignoring advice (face don't you know) and immensly deep magic pockets which can never be filled.

What Thailand ought to do is sell its rice on the world market at the lowest price they can without getting into trouble and run a special offer of one free politician with evey 10,000 tons of rice bought.

That could fix two problems at the same time.

All bread is the same. If you have a bread maker (and if not, get one -- well worth it) you just put some water in the bottom, add the flour on top, make a small well in the middle and put in the yeast, then add the oil of your choice in each iof the 4 corners and turn the machine on, they come with different settings for whole wheat, small/large loaves etc

With experience you get to know the right amounts of water for a particular flour.

Variations involve type of flour or mixes of flour, type of oil, and you can always add garlic, onions or herbs to the mix.

I make my own bread in a bread machine using white bread flour which is all I can get out in the sticks.

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs honey (instead of sugar)

400 ml water

4 cups bread flour

2 tsp salt

3 tsp yeast

1 heaped tsp bread improver

Put in the machine in that order

Select loaf size

select crust control

push the start button

3 hours later

a freshly baked load hot from the machine

And thats magic folks

Sorry, I laughed but my coffee cup was on the desk so I didn't spill any.

hmm... I smell another get rich quick scheme like the coupons for the flood relief, with special coupon price of just 799 for a fan which can be purchased at 599 at Tesco's

But lets see, it might not happen, this time it might be a real coupon that has real value and not fake prices and additional service charges to many people in the program'??

Are you going to hold your breath?

Aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I am retired for 3 years and semi retired for a while before that.

During the last year before I retired while working in Enn Zed I put on a lot of weight eating western cakes, biscuits etc.

I came back and lost a bit bit I have put it back on due to enjoying my food. my wife is a good Thai cook and does the evening meal, I eat fresh fruit and toast for breakfast and I make my own lunch.

My sort of hobby is making my own Ham, bacon, pate, bread, roast pork and roast lamb. this morning I made sausage rolls for the first time and later I want to try making cakes too.

I figure at 68 I will die one day so I may as well die fat and happy than miserable as a skinny calorie counter.

There is a relatively simple rule to driving in Thailand for farangs, tourists or old timers.

When you get into your car, on your bike, scooter whatever just remember this

Every driver in Thailand is a drunken homicidal maniac, high on ya baa, possesser of no brain cells who is intent on killing you or maiming you at the very least.

he will pass you on the right or the left or if bigger he may try to drive through or over you, it is not a problem to him.

He believes most sincerely that it will NEVER happen to him and if he hits you or you hit him it is ALWAYS YOUR fault.

It rained for about 3 hours yesterday in south Phetchabun, "big raining" as Mrs PT2 so eloquently puts it. Anyway I made sure all my pots and plastic containers were in place to collect it.

Mains water , I dream about the stuff, only available for frontage road and down a few Soi's in this R21 town. If you want it installed you have to pay the water company, I was quoted a ridiculous amount of money some 7 years back now. We have survived on water from the ground via a pump and the 15L drinking water bottles that get delivered.

The rain yesterday has done wonders for the lawn!.

I am just the opposite to you as I do have mains water but the village is basically all frontage road so no problem there. On the other hand we live on a slope leading up to the Mae Wong national park at the back of the land and less than a metre down is solid rock and the last quote we got a few years ago was "maybe" 1 million baht and no guarantee. He was talking about diamond tipped drill bits etc so I said to 'er indoors, forget it. Only once in 8 years have we needed to buy in drinking water.

I now have a total of 27 ongs

These are 3,000 litres each fed in the rainy season from the roof of the house.

I have just gone back over the Thai Weather forecast average over the last 30 years and for that period from October to mid February the average was 288.2 mm compared with 153.3 mm last year and this year. About 53% of the average rainfall.

Where DO these people come from?

I am surprised. I Googled Agriculture Minister Yukol Limlaemthongand on Bangkok Business I found this information.

Yukol Limlaemthong appears to be the most qualified minister in the latest cabinet reshuffle by the Yingluck Shinawatra-led government, according to businessmen.

The former agriculture permanent secretary seems to be one of a handful of newly appointed ministers who truly understand what they have been assigned to do.

Mr Yukol’s working experience has been spent mostly in the Agriculture Ministry, with his capability in tackling the 2004 bird flu crisis one of his obvious achievements.

The new agriculture minister was also praised as a troubleshooter who was ready to give advance warning to the private sector once the crisis happened.

More importantly, Mr Yukol is one of the few new ministers the private sector wants to stay in office for a four-year term, said Pornsil Patcharintanakul, a vice-chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC).

There would probably be no shortage of water in Thailand if Thais were prepared to pay more for their water than for petrol (assuming all the profits were channelled back into water infrastructure!).

R21

Please, with all the respect to your qualifications and my unprofessional attitude towards the topic. But I realize there is a huuuuge difference in terms of water resources when we talk about large and pretty settled country such as Thailand which has a rain forest, mountains, large rivers and a number of lakes, tropical rains, huuuuge costal line, etc. etc and some middle east countries literally in the middle of no-mans land. And yet they manage somehow to provide a decent water supply to its populations.

And on the other hand Thais still cannot figure this out, letting people without any mains water supply for weeks if not months thinking it’s a normal situation. It’s not in my home country anyways.

Please, give me a break, but it sounds ridiculous from my point of view.

And if you think that it’s a matter of money - I tell you this. I just paid 300 BTH for 2 m3 of water which is not yet clean enough to drink and hardly could be used for anything related to cooking. I guess this is not cheap even in western countries ha?

In my opinion this has nothing to do with the lack of resources, but the lack of clever and profession management among Thais responsible figures. Like almost everywhere else in this country.

My mains water supply comes from the Mae Wong national park hills. This is great providing that it keeps raining.

However in

October 2012 92.2 mm of rain over 11 days from 31

November 2012 23.7 mm over 4 days from 30

December 2012 31 mm over 2 days from 31

January 2013 6.4 mm over 2 days from 31

February to date 0.0 mm over 0 days from 18

From 1st October to date a total of 153.3 mm of rain has fallen.

This is not my opinion just the dry facts.

If you can arrange a pipeline over 500 km long from the nearest desalination plant please drop me a line so I can change suppliers.

So Taksins sister is going to tackle global warming how? Certainly not by reducing Thailand's carbon foot print, which is clearly growing astronomically. Instead of the idiotic "get every Thai to buy a car program" Yinglick might have spent the billions wasted, on the automobile tax break, to quickly expanding the BTS and MRT.

Expanding the BTS and MRT does little for the rest of Thailand. There is more to the country than just Bangkok.

Is there? I thought I lived in the white area on the maps shown as unknown territory, Beware, here be dragons.

And I only live 65 km southwest of Khampaeng Phet.

I agree it isa matter of putting your foot down.

My 15 year old neice (who lives with us) needs a motorbike to go to the new school 25kms away at the start of the new school year. So yesterday we bought a new honda, in my wife's name (as no Thai I believe can own a vehicle until 21or 25 years old).

First though I set out the rules.

1. She has to go and get her licence.

2. If she goes outside the village she must always wear a hemut.

3. Nobody but direct family can use it.

4. It must be left at our house, Not other family's houses when she is not using it.

5. It is her responsibility to keep it clean.

Then she was told that breaking of any of the first 4 rules will mean no motorbike, other than for going to and returning from school, for a month. Second offence 2 months.

Now I await the outcome. hopefully what I have said will get through.

I think it will, because she came home last week saying a friend of hers was very scared to go home as another friend borrowed her motorbike and had an accident, where the bike was seriously damaged and could not be driven home.

I think if given the opportunity a set of rules is the way to go and they might learn there is penalties if the rules are broken which would help them in life anyway.

The op problem is a difficult one and there no easy answer

I have been here 12 years married 8 of them and I am still trying to get to grips with the Thai family way of life but one thing I have noticed and it drives me crazy that they don't seem to have much respect for your stuff when they come for a occasional visit to our house the kids are just wild we have a two story house a and they are up and down in and out of all the rooms bashing you stereo and furniture whilst the adult are sitting round eating and talking with not a care in the world .

Now I can tell you my wife is not happy about it either but after the mayhem has stopped and they have gone back home and we sit and have a quite ( I don't shout anymore its bad for your health) word her response is `` I know but what can I do they are family`` case closed

Now I understand some of this as we go to village now and again and of course its mayhem there as well in fact its even worse as there is more kids there and the house is always busy but of course everybody sits outside on the concrete patio on mats and and there is always many motorbikes there and yes everybody rides them to the local shop which is about 100m away its a free for all

Best of luck the op.

I live out in a village though fortunate most of my wife's family live in BKK. Having said that my son is 8 and he has friends come around to play on the computers.

The new one is MINE and while my son can use it, NOBODY ELSE is allowed on it and the other 2 are older models that they can all use.

In the house the rules are Daddy's rules.

I use a kitchen timer with a maximum of 1 hour on the computer and then off for at least an hour.

There is NO shouting in the house, if you want to shout go outside.

NO running up and down the stairs.

Before you go home pick up and put away ALL the toys.

Any problems Daddy rules on and my word is final.

If you don't like it tell your parents or anybody who you think might care.

If they come and whine to me the answer is that in MY house we use MY rules and I don't care what you do in your house.

If you don't like it, go home, nobody forced you to come here.

It has worked for me for years fortunately because my wife backs me up.

The Steed engine is completely different, it is water cooled and twin spark, but with less HP and lower torque and a chain driven, while the Virago has a shaft drive. The Steed is also a lot heavier and handles like a pig, I am told that the Virago handles well.

The 400's are popular in SE Asia made specifically for the Asian market

The 535 Virago I had went great. I only ver rode a Steed 600 once and was less than impressed with it though a few weeks ago I saw a beautiful one in white and chrome up in Kampaeng Phet. It put my dirty old Phantom to shame.

I know a bloke up in Nong Bua Lam Phu with a 400 custom - I think its a Virago - nice clean bike, well maintained, all the necessary docs inc green book and he's lookin around 85k for it. Might be worth a look if you're in the area..?

Now that sounds promising. Terrific medium sized bike those Virago's. I thought they came in 250 and 535. 400 too, ay!

250, 535, 750, and 1100. I bet the 400 is a Steed with a Virago plaque. Viragos are rare in Thailand. Grey imports only. There could be problems with spare parts. They're air cooled, but that shouldn't be no trouble. It's not the Sahara.

Honda has been promising to import the VTR250 officially for some time, price probably 144,000 Baht. It's a naked bike. Actually a lot more comfortable to ride than a Honda Phantom or the other plump pseudo choppers with small engines. It's not a mule, though.

http://www.motorcycl...ycle_Price_List

Yamaha made a fair variety of Viragos.

Yamaha made a XV125, XV250, XV400, XV500, XV535, XV700, XV750, XV920R, XV1000/TR1, XV1100, the XV400SCLX being the rarest of the breed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_Virago

My keyboard gets a stutttttter sometimes. I hope that the government one doesn't gat a stutter on 0s.

Think how much somebody can make hacking into the programme and moving money around.

Few boardmembers in that neck of the woods. mbox and I are down in Nakhon Sawan but IIRC he only has a 150 right now and I'm just slow. billd is up there, but he rides a 4-600(?)cc chopper. So that would give you an 'merican, anglishman, and austrian...with only one of them that isn't usually busy.

I got rid of the Yamaha several months ago as trying to start it was like the sound of several bags of spanners being thrown into dustbin. A mate up in Phitlok has it now and after spendin several baht on it he is more than happy.

I still have my old dog of a Phantom and I am also "looking after" my German mates Honda CB400. It runs as sweet as a nut but ridden hard the loudest noise is not the exhaust but 4 carbs sucking gas like it is going out of fashion.

I bought a Honda CB400 from

Road Machine

420/79

M9 Pattaya 3rd road

Nongprue

I was quite impressed with the service I got there apart from the fact I got his phone number wrong and he lost mine so I couldn't talk to him.

It was a bit tricky as I live 500 km away from Pattaya but other than that I am very happy with the bike.

Contact is K Chatree

089 936 7891

This is a good number.

It is on the corner of Chalerm Phrakiat 27 or 29, closed on Sundays.

I have no connection other than being a satisfied customer.

Ignoring all the bitters, at least it looks like they're going in the right direction with a single command approach

a single command operation system, with a provincial governor at the centre, would be applied in drought-hit areas to solve water-management issues.

Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadi said the Water and Flood Management Commission (WFMC) would formulate a flood and drought prevention plan and work with the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Department (DPMD) to find water sources and introduce a zoning system to adjust agricultural water usage plans.

Interior Minister Charupong Ruangsuwan said provincial governors and the DPMD would implement the single command system and survey each area's water needs.......

Previously after years of ignorance by all manners of governments water "management" was carried out by host of different departments as this cutting from the World Bank sponsored pdf shows

Rapid Assessment for Resilient Recovery and Reconstruction Planning

Water Laws and the Policy Framework

Thailand has many water related laws, administered by over 30 departments in eight ministries (Annex 8). There is no umbrella legislation to link these laws and codes, and consequently there is no legislative backing for any organization to undertake integrated water resources management.

In practice, this leads to erratic and ad hoc engagement between agencies. While many of these agencies are involved in managing the delivery of water, there is no single agency that has overall responsibility for managing water resources in an integrated manner. The absence of a modern, comprehensive water resources law is probably the most significant factor inhibiting the implementation of integrated water resources management (IWRM) in Thailand.

The current Water Policy has resulted in development plans for a number of river basins, but due to the lack of budget allocations, disagreements with local communities have led to the stalling of many of these plans. Additionally, administrative boundaries are often not drawn along water catchment or river basin lines, which leads to fragmentation of responsibilities and uncoordinated between different administrative areas, within a single river basin.

http://www.gfdrr.org...lood_2011_2.pdf

The problem is not the single commnad or the multi command system but purely the fact that politicians in general have no idea how to run any department they are put in charge of.

That said I wouuuuldn't trust this person, Deputy Prime Minister Plodprasop Suraswadito be in charge of a hole in the ground if I dug it for him and as for the rest of the incompetents in this government I wouldn't even give them credit for 10 baht.

So fra this year we still have water but I figure it will only be for 2 or 3 weeks more.

I have 27 ongs out the back but you try to explain to Thais that if they just pee leave it for 2 or 3 times then flush just once.

Show them roughly how much water is in a pee and how much in the cistern to flush that away. 5 litres.

Many times I have had a pee, left it, my wife comes in, flushes the toilet, has a pee and then flushes it again. I get soooooooooooooooo mad.

When the family come up from BKK they have NO concept of saving water.

Normally we have 5 people living here but at the holidays that normally doubles.