Ratsima

Still no flats. Been nearly nine months now. I've changed nothing. In fact, the rear tire tube is still an El Cheapo that I had to buy and install in the field.

I still think I just spent too much time at the wrong end of the "flats per kilometer" bell curve!

I'm about to purchase a condo in Phetchaburi. Most of the money I want to use is already here; transferred incrementally over the years from a US bank to Bangkok Bank and then on to a time deposit at Kasikorn Bank.

My wife called the Land Office in Phetchaburi. They told her that all they need is a letter from the bank saying that funds equal to the total purchase price of the condo were transferred by me from abroad to the bank. No mention of a foreign exchange certificate.

1 - Will Bangkok Bank be willing and able to look back into their records, total up the total amount transferred from abroad and issue such a letter?

2 - Will a letter from Bangkok Bank suffice when the funds to pay for the condo will actually come from Kasikorn Bank?

Furthermore, the Condominium Act states, in pertinent part: "...who brings a foreign currency into the Kingdom or withdraws the money from a non-resident Baht account..."

The Act clearly states that it is sufficient to withdraw money from non-resident Baht account. It would seem then that the only evidence required by the Act is proof that the account is a 'non-resident Baht account' and that the origin of the funds is irrelevant.

What am I missing here?

And, if you have a yellow tabien baan, that number is your tax ID number.

Since you don't tell us where you live, my GF in Korat just got a 1000 liter tank, pump, plus concrete pad, all for 7,500 THB ( of course this was after I bitterly complained about paying, 7,500 just for a 1,500 liter tank)

Where did she get it?

Hello All, Ratsima have you got your RAM and installed it yet?

Any problems??

rice555

Mission accomplished. RAM arrived via EMS in a day, installed in minutes and all is well. Performance improvement is significant. No more pageouts. Safari is, for the most part, behaving very well.

Would have done it long ago, but I always thought that this model of MacMini maxed out at 4GB. Turns out a late 2009 firmware update bumped that to 8GB. It needs it.

I had the NA procedure by Dr. Kanit in Chiangmai less than 24 hours ago. Now I'm home in Korat and able to touch type easily; something I haven't been able to do in some years.

The procedure was fast; about 45 minutes. The improvement, while not 100%, is significant. I can actually almost totally straighten my ring and little fingers. Dr Sumroeng had told me that he probably couldn't do anything with the little finger and would only do one finger per surgery because of blood circulation issues.

The NA procedure was almost painless. I did take a mild pain pill before sleeping, but it probably wasn't necessary. I have needed none today.

I am extremely happy with the improvement and with how easy it was to accomplish. Recovery has been fantastic.

The total cost, including meds (an antibiotic and three kinds of pain medication) was 4000 baht.

I didn't ask Dr Sumroeng about the cost.

You can make an appointment to see him via the Bumrungrad web site.

His personal page on the Bumrungrad site is here: Dr Sumroeng Neti

I have now consulted with both Dr Sumroeng at Bumrungrad (in person) and with Dr. Kanit (via email).

Dr Sumroeng told me:

• The procedure (open surgery) can be done on an outpatient basis with local anesthesia.
  
• It takes about two hours.
  
• I'd only need to stay in Bangkok one night.
  
• A follow up visit would be required in one week to remove stitches and lean some stretching exercises.
  
• I'd have limited use of my hand after a day or two and full use after a week or two.
  

Dr Sumroeng made no mention of needing a cast or extensive physical therapy.

After considering both options I have decided to go with NA. I have an appointment with Dr Kanit at his clinic, next week Tuesday.

The cost is 3500 baht.

Befriend a bunch of Thais on Facebook and watch them converse in text with each other.

Fine idea. I do have some Thai friends on FB....

So, where do you go to learn how to generate idiomatic Thai?

Idiomatic language is learned by listening and reading, and then parroting, the structures you get from native speakers. It can not be learned through the application of grammatical rules. You listen and copy, and use trial and error, gradually arriving at something that increasingly starts to resemble idiomatic Thai.

Assume, for the purpose of this discussion, that I am deaf and aphasic. When I listen to spoken Thai I hear no words at all; just an unintelligible buzz.

Reading is a different story. Where can I find written, idiomatic Thai?

So, where do you go to learn how to generate idiomatic Thai?

If I wanted to say, "Do you want me to call and book a room for you?" in Thai, I would have no idea where to begin.

The idiomatic Thai bears no resemblance to the idiomatic English.

When I asked my wife about the use of ให้ in this sentence, she suggested it might be better understood if the sentence were altered to be: Do you want me to call and book a room for Pim (or not)?

Thanks, Mole. Very clear.

It's fascinating to me. I was a linguistics minor at university, but this was in the 60s and haven't paid much attention since then.

The 1333-speed RAM will work just fine.

Nope. I learned the hard way that not all Mac models can downspeed RAM. I bought a couple of 1333s from a dealer here in Korat who convinced me they would work. They did not. When I returned them he asked me what sort of computer it was. When I said, "Mac Mini", he said, "OK. Not support." He was right.

I've ordered a pair of 1066s from Memory Today.

As I said before, "parse" does not mean "translate":

parse |pärs|

verb [ with obj. ]

analyze (a sentence) into its parts and describe their syntactic roles.

Thanks again.

A couple of questions:

• I understand Immediate Constituent Analysis, but I'm not familiar with the notation. Where can I look to figure out how to convert that to a tree structure? (Yes, I've read Syntactic Structures. )
  
• Where can one go to read genuine conversational Thai in order to learn how real people put sentences together?
  

Incidentally, I asked my wife. She prefers this: จะให้ฉันโทรศัพท์จองห้องพักให้คุณหรือเปล่า

(Never mind the first question. I got it.)

Interesting stuff. This is the sort of explanation that you don't get from any Thai language book that I've looked at. Thanks to all.

BTW, my wife is an attorney. I'm encouraging her to write with precision. That may explain why she spelled out โทรศัพท์, but it doesn't explain why she left out all those pronouns. In reality, I think she was just giving me some reading practice. So far, it's been a good lesson.

Shes asking if you want her to book the hotel room big boy

Why shes asking you in Thai if she knows you mai kow jai I dont know.

"Parse" doesn't mean "translate".

I understand what the sentence means, I just don't understand how you get there, structurally; especially with all the missing nouns/pronouns.

And, I suppose she's asking in Thai because she knows that I know how to read Thai, I just can't use or understand spoken Thai.

That sounds like the same kind of RAM I needed for my Mid-2010 MBP. I could not find it anywhere in Thailand (1333 only) so I had to get it from OWC instead (US based).

http://macsales.com/

Well, Memory Today has it at 1,590 baht per 4GB stick. OWC charges US$62.00 for a pair plus US$18.00 for International Priority Mail.

So, we're talking about a hundred bucks from MemToday vs. eighty bucks from OWC.

Now the question is: Did you get hit with customs duty on your OWC order?

Yes, Memory Today has that module and I could order and have it sent via EMS. However, their price for this particular module is inexplicably high. I was hoping for a better deal....

Thank you, Mole. Very interesting.

I don't use and am unable to understand spoken Thai, so I'm pretty much limited to what I read. The lack of nouns can be really confusing; especially when you are presented with a sentence in isolation like this.

The other day my wife sent me the following text message:

I want to buy a couple of 4GB SO-DIMMs for a MacMini. They need to be DDR3 PC8500 (1066). No one in Korat seems to have them. I will be in Bangkok next week.

​Does anyone know of a specific shop, preferably in the lower Suk area, that is known to have these in stock? I will be there only briefly for a medical checkup, so don't have time to travel far.

TIA

My wife finally found Dr. Kanit's web page at CMU: http://www.med.cmu.a....=200046〈=e

It is in Thai, but it does have his email address and phone number.