nongsung

Mukdahan

my 90 days (and renewal of visa) are both up for this Friday. I don't like doing the 90 days and the renewal even more; the bank, the copies, the photo's, the signatures, the sawadees and forced smiles (mine) drives

me up the wall. Can't handle the red tape very well and the wife has a hard time to keep me in line.

But so far 7 years of three-monthly visits went ok, but these new questions...

If I'm presented with this form I'll refuse to answer them, feels like the camels straw. The wife says 'no problem, you don't have a car, you sometimes visit the 7-11, you don't use social media (which is true) and you don't have any friends because you are an <deleted> (might be true).

But still I have a huge problem with the fact that these questions might be even asked...

My Thai wife lived with me in Belgium and before she was even given a visa there was some serious investigation prior to that (and rightly so). Separate interviews (to compare her and my answers) and background checks on my financials and for both a criminal check; I can fully understand that.

After that she got a 1 year visa but had to report on a 90 days basis. No paperwork, you show your Dutch skills and they work on the computer a bit and you can go. One year later she got a 5 year visa...

That's what should happen here in Thailand; check the crap out of us, give us a 1 year visa with 90 days reporting and if we have been good boys give us a no-nonsense 5 year visa.

Will see how it goes Friday...

regards,

Nongsung

Well, I'm married to my Thai lady (married in Europe) and we live in Esaan since

a couple of years. My wife's sister couldn't take care of her kid and we couldn't

adopt her with me involved. You need some kind of form from your Embassy and

there is a cut-off age (I think something like 46yo) and I'm older...

The Amphur helped my wife to have the kid registered on my wife's name. Both the

father & mother signed documents and my wife was checked by a psychiater

and after some months the papers came through. She is legally my wife's child now.

She (the kid) lives with us, speaks great English (better than me), is smart en

very loveable. Soon we are going to apply for a passport for her and hopefully there

will not be too many problems...

So, although we are married (but not in Thailand) and my wife does not carry my

last name it seems possible to 'adopt' a child. The Amphur kindly instructed my wife

to let me stay home; it only would complicate matters,

Regards,

Nongsung

Anyone experience with a Inguinal Hernia and local anaesthesia?

Yep, yesterday the local hospital (Mukdahan) confirmed that I have an Inguinal Hernia and they pushed

to have surgery this week. Three days in hospital & 43K Baht.

Problem is; the level of English of the doctor was very poor and I haven't even

seen the surgeon (who is only in on the day of the op). The wife translated bits and pieces

but I feel far from comfortable. I'll probably go for a second opinion but I need a doc that

agrees to use local anaesthesia. I don't want to go 'knock-out' and because of the possible

side effects of a spinal (sudden low blood pressure) and a heart condition I wouldn't want

that too. Willing to travel where I can get an adequate opinion. Any idea's?

Would love to see a restaurant in Mukdahan but the food should be better than the stuff I can cook myself.

As with a lot of these restaurants the quality is kind of 'home made', well I don't want to travel all the way

to find out that I (even I) could do better. Since Big C, Makro and now even Tops it's a lot easier to get some

nice steaks and other things that makes up a fine Western dish. So you should probably beat all the 'home chefs'

with something out of the ordinary. But if you can do that then I'll probably be your first (and returning) customer.

I know what you mean, there's one in my village too, although 'only' approx. 70+

Cheeky smiles, some 'accidentally' showing of flesh and never wears a bra.

You can see she was a bit of a stunner in her early days and like you I'm

in my 60's. She's in my age bracket!

But, a small community and a marriage (both) prevent pursuing my naughty

ideas.

That's scary

Yes, it is. Booked a hotelroom in Khon Kaen (Agoda) and received the confirmation in my gmail account.

Driving in Khon Kaen I used Google Maps and the hotel showed up with my booking info...

Scary stuff...

The road to our village is a complete disaster; the top-layer is already gone for years and the (big) holes were

'fixed' with cement lately. Now we have enormous bumps of hardened concrete, holes and a lot of debris;

it is just dangerous to go there on your bike.

Result: two motorbike crashes, one young guy split his skull and will never be the same anymore and just

this morning a young schoolgirl crashed her bike and broke her hip.

What is our village headman doing? Well, nothing...

hi,

just Google e-Buono Bangkok

regards,

Nongsung

Battery warning after 13 hours, there is no way my IQ phones gave me that kind of battery life.

Having a Zenphone-5 problem I wanted to move some music from an SD card in my laptopcard reader to my phone....My Zenphone-5 can not connect to my laptop (Win-8.1, Classic Shell) Computer won't recognize the device.

First of all, with all my past Android 4.2 phones, one would first have to enable "USB Debugging" in Settings: Developer options.

It seems that in Android 4.3, "Developer Options" is no longer listed under "Settings"

After a frustrating search, I found there was an app on the phone called "PC LINK" that must also be downloaded onto the computer being used: www.pclink.asus.com The phone app has a submenu that lists USB debugging but the options are confusing.

One is supposed to open the app on the phone and on the computer simultaneously and be able to connect. I could not make it work no matter what I tried...true hair pulling experience. ASUS has some pop-up instructions with the pc download but they are poorly written and make no sense. When I open the PC LINK program in my laptop, it is completely unresponsive. I finally gave up and uninstalled it.

Why oh why do they insist on making formally simple and understood processes more difficult.

Ideas anybody?

Step 1: Go to Settings.

Step 2: Click About.

Step 3: Open Software information.

Step 4: Tap Build number continuously until a pop-up hint informs you that youve entered the developer mode.

Step 5: Return to Settings.

Step 6: Find and open Developer options.

Step 7: Select USB debugging and click OK.

After these seven steps, the USB debugging is enabled successfully.

Regards,

Nongsung

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OK, and now it happens to YOUR daughter (God forbid)...

If you as a parent can buy your way out.... you will (I will)...

And YOU would allow your 16-year-old daughter drive a car.

No, I wouldn't but suppose she just took the car, I would buy my (her) way out, just like you...

OK, and now it happens to YOUR daughter (God forbid)...

If you as a parent can buy your way out.... you will (I will)...

Stay home next time like most of us try to do. Sorry about your bad experience , try Isaan next time.

Sent from my GT-S7500 using Tapatalk 2

Well, even Isaan isn't safe... orange coloured water that ruins your clothes...

give them nothing as you will never get anything from them........if you need a small job doing around your house or land they will wont paying, you will get nothing for free....funny about 6 years ago the wife said we should help them build a new bedroom for the in laws....so I thought ok what the hell...paid for the materials etc came to about 250 pounds.......got the materials delivered......went around about 6 weeks later, thinking the new bedroom would be finished.....all the materials were still in the same place as 6 weeks earlier, I said how come they haven't built the new bedroom........the wife said we have got to pay them 200 bht a day to build it.........guess what.......the materials are still there......they want 200 bht a day to build their new bedroom..well for me the materials will still be there in another 6 years.....very selfish and ungreatful ..................I don't wish them any harm.....but I wouldn't turn the hosepipe on.............

Well, FIL keeps our grass tidy, comes over when I (again) fail to understand why the water pump isn't working

and brought me to the hospital when I was feeling unwell (wife was not home). No, I can't fault them other than that they are Thai :-)

They live across the road... They are respectfull, nice and hard working people. They had to understand that I need my privacy from time to time but it never was a real problem. Wife cooks for me and eats with her parents, it' a bit give and take. I do not support them but around Christmas I usually have nice gift for them (money). That goes straight to the bank. If they spend some it's always spend wisely.

We can't communicate; my Thai is as bad as their English, we communicate often with the help of either my wife or our adopted daughter. Life ain't easy in the sticks but not bad either!

Well, it looks I have contracted Dengue this week. Three days fever, some joints hurt like hell, completely without energy, headache, eye balls hurt, dizzy, you name it. Three times bloodwork shows the PCT going down from 25 to 20 and today 18. WBC going down as well. The doc thinks it could well be Dengue but

their equipment can only detect it from day four or so. And, it's rampant in our area...

Meanwhile I'm pretty sick but hydrate, hydrate, hydrate and hanging in there...

Woke up with a rash over my upper body, no fever but almost all other complaints are still there. Bloodwork done at the local hospital and two hours later Doc says 'I don't think its Dengue, it's some other type of virus.

Bloodwork tomorrow if still feeling not ok. But, MIL dropped by and investigated me and she said something along the lines of 'he is sick with the bubbles'. And to her opinion the rash is not a Dengue rash.

I guess they have more knowledge than me... She came minutes later with tree bark that my wife is cooking now. Tonight I have to wash myself with it. And, my daughter fell ill this afternoon with fever, headache and pain in her eyes. Wife isn't feeling well either.

So maybe it's not Dengue after all...

Regards,

nongsung

Well, it looks I have contracted Dengue this week. Three days fever, some joints hurt like hell, completely without energy, headache, eye balls hurt, dizzy, you name it. Three times bloodwork shows the PCT going down from 25 to 20 and today 18. WBC going down as well. The doc thinks it could well be Dengue but

their equipment can only detect it from day four or so. And, it's rampant in our area...

Meanwhile I'm pretty sick but hydrate, hydrate, hydrate and hanging in there...

It wasn't the power outage that killed my Mac Pro, it was the surge that fried a main board as soon as the power returned.

All my Mac's (mini, iMac, MacPro) are behind a Ups.

Learned this lesson the hard way, like you...