richardjm65

A troll stool pigeon - now that's a new one. Congratulations.

Tapping them gently on the ear with a '45 seems to work.

I'd suggest that somewhat more sober-coloured clothes might be more appropriate during the mourning period. Or, I noticed this morning, that the Tesco Lotus staff are wearing a small, discreet black ribbon bow on their sleeve. That should show your sympathy quite well, without plunging yourself into an all-black outfit.

You have to ask them to enable the ATM card for internet use at the bank and they will do it.

I did and I've used mine to make various payments in differnet countries over the internet. I ordered something from a US company and a few things from Lazada and it worked without any problems.

This is just the regular Kasikorn savings account ATM card which doesn't even have a name on it.

Good advice - will talk to Kasikorn on the matter.

I tried to use my Kasikorn card to book a short holiday on Koh Chang. The card works fine at the ATM, but three attempts to pay for our holiday in advance all failed. So I had to use my UK bank card, which was accepted. I wondered if this might have something to do with a foreigner having a Thai bank account. I now await a statement from the UK bank to see what the exchange rate works out to be. My bet would be that it's lower than the official rates. The local payment agency also advise that I'll be charged an additional 3% for using a foreign Visa card!

C'mon, guys, let's just put it down to youthful high spirits - a bit of a laugh........

hope you feel better after a sleep, the best tonic after alcohol !!!!!

Just a bit of sarcasm, dear boy, just a bit of sarcasm.

C'mon, guys, let's just put it down to youthful high spirits - a bit of a laugh........

Oh dear.....how terribly sad.

Some additional info would be useful. Is this a hobby thing, or do you intend to seriously farm hydroponically? I mention this because if you're going commercial you'll need to decide your crops, power supplies, possible greenhouses, water supplies and supply and back up systems. I've done it as a sort of hobby, but abandoned the idea when I got a handle on the investment required to go commercial.

There's also the most important question of who you're going to sell to and how you can maintain your supply to the customers once you've convinced them that you have a first class product line.

And yes, welcome to the forum.

If you might be there for a few years and you have the means, it might be worth getting the inside of your roof spray foam insulated in addition to whatever secondary glazing you might decide on. When the time came to replace our tin roof up here in Issan, we replaced tin with tile and had the entire roof under surface spray foam insulated, then replaced the lightweight ceiling with proper ceiling board. Magic! The best money I ever spent in Thailand, with benefits from heat/noise insulation, leak-proofed the roof (warranted for 10 years) and effectively thief-proofing the roof. My electricity bills dropped by a lot too.

PM me if you want the details of the firm we used

I had a similar problem when I lived in Bgk. After trying (supposedly) heat proof and sound reducing drapes (curtains), I finally had secondary glazing fitted, which was basically a second set of fairly lightweight sliding doors with an air gap of about four inches. They were well sealed around the edges and were most effective. Using the thickest glass available, they did the job well. The alternative, I suppose, if finance is not a concern, would be to replace the sliding doors with double-glazed sealed units. The Thais are not experts at this though.

Call Everest! Or do the secondary glazing.

Long, long ago, the British military used to issue a medal called 'the long service and good conduct medal'.

The cynics amongst us thought it would more truthfully have been awarded for '12 years of undetected crime'.

Any similarities here?

Hi Robol

You are only 57 mate you got a long way to go, wait till you are 75 at least and go from there, just enjoy your selves. I am 72 and I have never thought about it, my wife has our house and little shop and plenty relations but my old Dad used to say to me, never trust relatives and never lend them money or give them a job, they will shit on you. It is quite true with some of the things I have seen and heard what relatives can do, you pop off and they all come out of the woodwork.

But I will put my couple cents in. You say she has dual citizenship which is true if she has Aussie passport. I would personally make my goal to live in Aussie when the time came as she will or should have the facilities available to her and you if you age well together and settle in a home care place up in the North Aussie for warmth. In these places you would make good friends and if you go first I do not think your wife would be lonely. Stop worrying now your to young just enjoy. Best of luck and Long Life.

My wife is younger than me and we have been married for a long time.

Of course I wish to ensure she is well provided for when I am no longer here.

This does not , however, mean she will have unrestricted access to Capital. If that were to occur I have no doubt her relatives would ensure she was left with very little.

Structure your will and assets so as to ensure on going support for your wife and this may include the future need to fund long term care. The financial arrangements are probably best arranged outside Thailand .

Good advise is essential when setting up the arrangements.

Rather like Sceptic11, I've been with my wife for many years, though actually married for only 9 of those years. At 70, and in indifferent health, I wished to make provision for her, (she's now in her mid-40's), and having managed to get my financial situation sorted to my satisfaction, I felt it time to commit those wishes to paper, having seen all too many widows or girlfriends left with nothing after having invested years into the relationship.

To leave her with a lump sum made no sense - she'd be ill-equipped to deal with all the new friends, plus family, who might want to share/borrow/con their way into the inheritance. So, I am still working on a bomb-proof scheme to ensure that she immediately gets access to my Thai assets. Overseas assets, however, are planned to be passed to her at a fixed amount per month, for a period of (say) four years. Not really enough to make it that interesting for the scavengers, you understand. After four years, once the assembled have become accustomed to her not having a disposable fortune, the balance of my assets will be passed to her in the hope that she will, by then, be confident in handling what remains.

I know of a couple of guys up here in Buriram who specialise in taking care of such matters, including pension entitlements and so on, but their expertise is more especially with Brits. PM me if you want their details. I'm just one of many satisfied customers of the guys I'm now happy to call friends.

Following the offered advice, I called my pulmonologist and have an appointment for Monday - a three day admission for a bronchoscope. Perhaps the bleeding will have stopped before then, I do hope so.

Symptoms - a few days ago I spotted blood in my sputum, bright red which over the last 6 days has darkened considerably. Cough required to get a hook on it could be described as thin and a bit shrill. Naturally, I'm concerned, but would like to know what tests I may expect or should ask for. I have moderate COPD and do not smoke. This happened once before and the pulmonologist surmised it could be a ruptured blood vessel, but I don't recall the amount of blood being so noticeable or lasting so long.

Another thing that might or might not be in the mix is that I concluded a year of treatment for DVT about 6 months ago - is it possible that this could be a minor pulmonary embolism? There's one other thing, a gallstone attack which began within a day of the blood appearing, though I don't see how that could be connected. I appreciate that this could be a symptom of other more worrying possibilities, so a check up is a necessity, but what checks? I've stopped using the baby aspirin to see if that has an effect. I also recently changed one of my COPD meds from a salmeterol/fluticasone to spiriva, as I believe the former might have been responsible for hoarseness and voice loss. That seems to have improved.

There's no pain or discomfort (other than the cough) and lethargy, fatigue and sore eyes. Any wise words?

The little multi-colored balls is an indication that they are coated to provide a timed release of medication over a period of time - crushing in food directly screws up the planned timed/dose-delivery.

The capsule gel is designed to dissolve in the stomach acids when food is present and so pass into the intestines in one fluid movement.

Taking such medication apart for your ease does not seem wise.

A towel wrapped cat with a thumb in the jaw to prevent biting while the capsule is pushed home, followed up with a small squirt of cod-liver oil etc via a no-needle syringe completes the task.

Cuban, I take your point, and will try to call the hospital today to confirm that that is the case. The little balls in the capsule are all of one colour - white, and they're almost impossible to crush

As well as our own ease of med administration, it's also the cat's - she gets very distressed during the procedure. However, we have managed two days of dosage now, today's being eased slightly by smearing a little butter on the capsule, which seemed to lubricate its passage.

In the meantime, I'm sure that the wounds on my hands are merely superficial - no surgery or stitches required.

As long as the poorly educated youngsters continue to be indulged and supported by their mothers/sisters/aunts/girlfriends, they'll continue to believe that the world owes them a living. We know that employment opportunities exist, and so do they, but as long as there's fuel for the 'bike, a bit for either alcohol and/or drugs, where's the encouragement to get up and make an effort? A bit of inter-village violence is simply normal fun. Unfortunate if someone gets killed, but that's how it goes.

I know of families nearby who are exclusively supplied with their needs by their mothers who, oddly enough, are living with foreigners. These young, able-bodied guys are able to spawn kids in the certain knowledge that they will be provided for, without any useful input, (other than sperm), to the family well being. Questioned about it, the supporting grandmother will say 'what can I do - they're my sons and my grandchildren - if not me, then who?'

Johnny foreigner will foot the bill.

Johnny foreigner will foot the bill.

Every so often the worm turns, or the farang grows a spine.

Just pray you dont find yourself in the situation at friend of mine found himself in,

"you are not my father, you can not tell me what to do"

was what was thrown in his face by an ungrateful loser.

Farang says correct, nice knowing you good luck and good bye, and goes to collect his things and move on.

At that moment his mrs had to make a choice, the gravy train was about to pull out.

Result, loafer banished to live with grand parents.

The sad part is that, having been put in his place by the ungrateful youngster, and threatening to move on, and although that ungrateful, sullen, resentful youngster has been banished to the grandparents, the mother will, undoubtedly, continue to send money to support him. Money, (need I add), provided still by the foreigner.

No wonder so many Thais call us stupid.

The med capsules contain tiny round balls. I opened the capsules and tried crushing the contents but this resulted in shrapnel everywhere. I halved the capsule contents and tried to mix one half with a bit of milk, but they do not dissolve, so tried to crush them with a teaspoon and will see if she'll take that. The other half I mixed with a little butter - took about an hour to crush them into the butter but it was eventually smooth enough, though a bit gritty. This I spread on her paws, and as I post, she's busily licking that off. No trauma, no protests, no sulking or sneering, so perhaps a good result. We'll see if she takes the medicated milk tonight.

I hope it works. Wife and I come close to divorce whenever our joint efforts to get meds down the cat's throat fails, and we're both tired of the stress. Hope the butter idea helps other cat people.

Just returned after a bad drive from Lahansai - Nangrong (some flooding but not too bad), then the 24 to Prasart, (not too bad), then right towards Kap Choeng where there were bad floods for about 5 miles. After that, more or less clear. One benefit though, no queue at immigration to do the 90 day report.

Normally I use the 224 but decided not to risk it, so took the longer route. Anyone know what the 224 is like?

Thanks for those suggestions. We did try the plastic pill placer device and were congratulating ourselves on a job well done. And then, ptui, she spat it out and sneered at us. Next step is to try dissolving the capsule contents in milk/tuna water and see if she'll accept that. Failing that, she's partial to butter, so maybe Sheryl's suggestion might work.

Stay tuned for more.......

We today took her to the University Animal Hospital at Khon Kaen, (a hard 554km round trip), where her blood was tested and she was x-rayed. Seems there's some sort of growth in her nasal passages which they think might be cured with capsules, (once a day), which seem to contain tiny round balls, but I can't be specific on the actual med. Now we have to figure out how to get those down her throat - she won't abide pills. Apparently, the medication cannot be given via an injection, (which she will tolerate). Anyone have a surefire method of getting capsules down a cat's throat?

DVT is no small matter - although it is frequently, (and rather casually), referred to as 'economy class syndrome'. In my own case, I had not been on a flight for several years, so it had nothing to do with flying. If your leg feels swollen and a bit hot, and there's a bit of an ache, get yourself to a hospital. The procedure then will usually be blood tests to establish INR and also to check if there could be nutritional deficiencies. In my case, I was lacking potassium. So, in my hospital bed, I went onto an intravenous drip to re-hydrate, which was supplemented to replace potassium, and when that was accomplished, the next step was a Doppler ultrasound scan to locate and quantify the size of the clots.

That done, a foot to thigh compression stocking was the next step, with instructions to sleep with the affected leg elevated. Next, virtually painless injections of Heparin in the belly button area for a few days before switching to Warfarin tablets - the reason being that Heparin has an almost immediate effect, whilst Warfarin takes a little time to become useful. At this point, it's important to understand that the meds provided do not do much for the existing clots. They are really to thin the blood to prevent further clotting. The body's own defence system is supposed to deal with the slow assimilation of the clots.

This is the high risk period, because if the clot, or parts of it, break free and travel on through the circulatory system, it fetches up in the lungs, where it causes something called a pulmonary embolism, which, if you're unlucky, could be fatal.

Since you are now on Warfarin, the most important thing is to establish the correct dosage, which is ascertained by frequent blood checks. If your blood is too thin, you have a problem. If your blood is too thick, you also have a problem - this is the reason for those checks and the doctor will adjust your Warfarin dose according to your INR results. This is crucial.

You may expect, if all goes well, to be under treatment, with repetitive checks, for about 12 months. From thereon, as David has said, the veins never quite recover their original integrity and elasticity and you should pay particular attention to proper and adequate hydration, a healthier diet and some modest exercise to prevent the possibility of further incidents of blood pooling in the lower limbs.

DVT is a serious condition - do not ignore the symptoms.