richardjm65

Oh dear! Poor old gravion, first the shaving cuts problem, now this. My advice here would be to actually reduce the frequency of your clothes laundry and similarly reduce the number of showers to, perhaps, one a week. Next, embrace a diet rich in raw garlic and sator beans. Stop brushing your teeth and ensure you begin each day with a good gargle of lao khao. Be sure to swallow the lao khao. After moving your bowels, press on with your day without using either the bum gun or toilet tissue. Shoes should be worn until they fall off naturally. Finger and toe nails are best left to their own devices, in my opinion. Got a comb? Chuck it out and grow your hair fashionably long and tousled.

"Now", richardjm, you may ask, "how does this help deal with people who say I smell?" Good question - you will smell and look so appalling that people will naturally leave a healthy distance between you and them. Think how this benefits you - no more pressing crowds at bus stops or on the skytrain. Only the most determined of the ladies of the night will approach you, thereby saving you money. You'll be saving even more on laundry soap and fabric softener too and, who knows, you might also collect a few baht from the generosity of passing pedestrians. Vendors might tip you to stay clear of their pitch. As I see it, you're already half way there and need only a few well meant tips from TV volunteers to further enrich your life. Don't view your personal freshness as a challenge, instead view the lack of it as a financial asset. And, by the way, check out of that ghetto - it's way too up market - find a nice cardboard box in one of the quieter sub-sois of Klong Toey. Good luck, old chap.

Now me, I take a tip from the Thai lads, which I'm happy to pass on to the wise amongst you. Simply take two one baht coins and place them between thumb and forefinger. Then, using one of the mirrors on your 'bike for guidance help, (this is what they were put there for), pluck the offending hairs out one by one. Do your nasal hairs and spots at the same time, why not? Should you grow tired of this, or be interrupted by a sudden, forward, unexplained surge in the traffic, simply replace the coins in your ears (that's what they were put there for) and continue your ride until the next occasion to continue your grooming occurs. Note that this method requires no blade, no lotion, no foam, no after shave, no electricity and, best of all, causes no facial cuts. Should you notice a certain dullness at the edge of the coins after a year or two, simply turn them over and continue with the other side. In cases where ear wax build up is suspected of dulling the coin edge, simply spend the coins and replace with two fresh ones. Easy - eh? Another advantage to this method is that you don't have to be anywhere special to do it. Night or day, rain or shine, Sukhumvit will do equally as well as Silom.

My wife often says that she is impressed by the way I have adopted Thai ways in my day to day life. Frankly, I am a little surprised that none of the brighter TV members had spotted this as a solution to the OP's problem. Come on chaps! Wake up, look around you and take note - many of our so-called problems could be solved if we just paid some attention to the teachers that dwell amongst us.

Next week, my take on anti-perspirants and de-odourants.

If that ain't the case then maybe someone else was right that Loz is starting the weekend holiday with too many beer before he posted this topic.

At 7.56 in the morning? Hmm.

Sorry Loz - your posts are usually lucid, well presented and interesting, but I'm missing the point here. Can you elucidate?

I also cringe at pidgin, but sometimes it really is the only way to communicate. What I do find unnerving is the native English speaker who continues in pidgin even when he's speaking to a fellow countryman. He's all "him speak me", uses only one tense and frequently repeats words for emphasis such as "him go market work work work". If they carry the habit with them when they go home, they'll probably get extra handouts for being aliens.

If you were offended by the silly and harmless humour of Thaddeus and Totster, I have three quotations for you (which will hopefully be allowed by the political correctness police).

1) What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist. (Salman Rushdie)

2) Good taste and humour.....are a contradiction in terms, like a chaste whore. (Malcolm Muggeridge)

3) My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world. (George Bernard Shaw)

Make any sense?

Tywais already mentioned Ansell Adams (I have some of his work on my walls). For sheer genius when it comes to sailing boats, try the Beken family's work - think they got started in the 1880's. You could look at some of their work on www.beken.co.uk or google Beken of Cowes.

O.K., guys, thanks for the useful input. Lacking the 1,600,000baht (and having noted the caveats in that respect), I'll stick with 800,000 in my own account. It's always worked in the past. Thanks again.

This must have been addressed before, but I cannot trace it. Is it permissible for the 800,000 baht (seasoned for 3 months prior to visa extension date for visa extension based on retirement), to be in a joint bank account with one's wife, or must it be solely in the name of the applicant for the visa extension? Thanks for any help in this respect. (For various reasons, I prefer a visa extension based on retirement rather than marriage).

Bumpety-bump, over the dog,

Dog die

Mai pen rai.

OLD IS WHEN

you go to a go-go bar and watch the Rumble In The Jungle fight (for the nth time) on the silent TV and ignore that gorgeous pole dancer who's got her butt rotating just about in your face!

Years ago (again), seeing two very obvious ladies of the night leaving the apartment next to mine, each of them wearing just one high-heeled shoe. My neighbour had taken two hostages the previous night and had slept in later than usual and his maid arrived, (a homely soul) and much in love with him, and had taken offence and tossed just one of each pair of shoes over the balcony. The vision of these two lovelies limping down the balcony corridor, each supporting the other, remains as one of my favourites.

Years ago, Soi Asoke, the humpback bridge over the klong - an antiquated Thai truck, desperately overloaded failing to make the climb and the load dragging the arse end down and lifting the front wheels off the road. The driver was crouched behind the wheel, racing the engine and pulling the wheel uselessly left and right. Clouds of diesel smoke, colourful language from motorists who were unable to get past in either direction, and this at the evening rush hour. Wonderful stuff.

Thanks for the input so far, guys. Thaddeus is correct, although there are heaps of good pies and suchlike now available, there is something quite special about the FB jobbies. I remember them from my youth and still have not found anything quite like them.

Can anyone advise where Fray Bentos Steak & Kidney Pies, Steak and Ale Pies and Chicken Pies can be bought in Thailand. Thanks, in greedy anticipation!

Our EKA electric oven model 648VE needs spare parts and a repair shop, but the original agent no longer handles this brand. Anyone know who does, and if so would appreciate getting the company details. Basically, either the temperature control rotary switch or the temperature sensor (thermocouple) is malfunctioning making our breadmaking somewhat haphazard. Thanks.

My Thai wife wanted to retain her Thai surname, so we compromised and used her Thai surname linked with my surname with a hyphen. The local Amphur accomplished the change, she was issued with a new ID card. Armed with that we then changed her name on DL, passport, bank acc., etc. I don't see why your wife retaining her family name should matter to the visa people - as long as you can produce a valid marriage cert (duly translated and notarised of course). But then who knows how the minds of the bureaucrats really work. Perhaps producing the child's birth cert would help. Would be interested to know how that pans out as one of these days I'll want to take my wife to the UK for a visit.

Thaddeus said:-

I see the speculation truck is still making regular deliveries.

I say:- As we predicted.

For jfchandler: We don't use brown rice flour, we use fresh cooked brown rice (drained of course) and mix that with a hard white flour in the proportion of 100gm brown rice to 400gm white flour, with 1 TBSP sesame oil, salt to taste (about 7-10gm/loaf), 1 tsp sugar to activate the 7-10gm of dried yeast dissolved in about 350ml tepid water. Bake at 180deg C for about 20 mins, remove from tin, glaze with diluted egg white, return to oven for an additional 10 mins, still at 180. That makes 1 loaf. Play around with proportions rice/flour according to taste but with too much rice, rising is affected. Time and temp depends on your oven of course. We use an electric fan-assisted job. PM me if you need more info as we've strayed into the cookery forum with this!

When we lived in Bangkok (back in the 90's) there was good bread to be had at some of the better hotels and at supermarkets (such as Foodland) which had their own bakeries and knew their target market. Up country, alas, this was not the case, so ignoring the rubbish bread sold locally, we started baking our own. No flour extenders, no preservatives, no sugar, no bread improvers, but all top grade ingredients. The word spread among the local foreign community and we found we had ourselves a nice little earner. Wish we'd done this right from the beginning - it would have been interesting. Our local customers are now quite blase about being able to get hot crusty rolls, wholewheat and sesame loaves, brown rice loaves, Italian loaves, burger buns and, yes, even plain white bread still warm from the oven. Surprising, sometimes, when an opportunity suddenly pokes its head up.

We moved up-country after the '97 financial crash ended my business in Bangkok. Eventually started making bread, rolls, burgers and pizzas for the local foreign community and the deal was that my wife copped all the receipts from bread sales whilst I paid for all the supplies, electricity, home improvements and so on. She learned from me how to make our bread products and now makes it all. She knows the business well and understands that she has a useful trade for when I'm no longer around. She also understands that the more she makes and sells, the more money there is for her to put in her bank account. I should add that from her receipts, she pays for whatever we need in the way of veggies, meat and fish from the local market. It seems to benefit us both - I pay for what supplies are needed - she has a certain financial independence and pride in her products. If she were ever to need additional funds, she has only to ask. I don't expect her to draw down on her own bank account which has now grown to almost 300,000baht. She gets a modest cash gift for her birthday and she does whatever she wishes with that. I have never regarded her as a possession, or someone who had to be paid to be with me. I think our relationship has within it mutual respect and affection and we both look out for each other. Pretty dam_n good, I reckon.

This is a repeat of the post I made on 7 May 2010 - it might be of interest to someone who is sick with Dengue or knows someone else who is.

I believe that Dengue is thought to be incurable though not untreatable, and apart from the usual medications to reduce symptoms there seems to be little that can help. However, I've read recently that papaya leaves have been shown to be effective in treating the disease. For what it's worth, (and I have no proof of its effectiveness), you use 5 good size fresh, washed and clean papaya leaves, chopped fine, and boil those in an open pan with a couple of litres of water. Continue to boil until the liquid has reduced by half, allow to cool, transfer to glass bottles (not plastic) and chill in the 'fridge. Dosage is said to be 3 tablespoons, 3 times a day. The liquid comes out brown-ish in colour and is bitter to the taste. It is also thought to be helpful in the treatment of some forms of cancer, but I can't vouch for that either.

It would be interesting to get feedback from anyone who tries this, with their comments on whether or not it was beneficial in relieving or curing Dengue.

My visits to Korat immigration have always been quite OK. I've found the staff pleasant and helpful. But, re your last sentence, are they moving again? If so, when? And where is Ban Don Kwian in relationship to the present office location (next to Toyota). I need to extend my visa before 2 July.

thanks to all who helped clear up this tricky issue.

while i have your attention, could any tell me if it would be cheaper to drink water or beer?

It WAS a tricky issue, wasn't it? Now, as to whether it would be cheaper to drink water or beer, that would rather depend on socio-economic-religious factors applicable at the time and place of need. And the time of day.