jesimps

My 50-odd year old Thai missus is the same. She also dyes her hair in the shower and as you'd expect, the tile grout ends up the same shade of black.

I'd have volunteered to do the job, with pleasure. In my opinion, anything that bites, stings, poisons or eats you should be put down. At least make these dangerous breeds illegal, in fact all breeds wandering around the streets unsupervised should be dealt with. That goes for the horrible creatures around my community which have owners (some are farang), which wander around messing on my outside grass verge, barking half the night, chasing motorbikes and intimidating pedestrians.

You're lucky he didn't drop a nut on you.

These days it would be very unusual to see a person's ethnicity mentioned in the news, especially if that person had committed a crime and it would help to find them.

You can fly under the radar for doing most things here, offering violence to locals will cause a sihtstorm, as the Swissies have discovered. These idiots were very fortunate that there wasn't a crowd of motorbike taxi riders or doormen around to dish out some Thai instant justice. Just being offhand with someone can cause that lot to kick off.

Correct! I tend not to venture out between 12 - 22nd unless early morning or after dark and keep away from Pattaya City Centre. But there again, Songkran lost it's magic for me on the first and last one I attended in 2007.

I resemble that remark! Us Brits have been quiet lately.

Full of factories, no entertainment, the town of a million traffic lights. No thanks! I'll remain just outside of Pattaya.

That has my vote.

The Swiss are always "eccentric", the ones I've met here anyway. I don't mind, keeps the heat off us Brits.

Have you tried doing a reboot?

I wish the UK was a bit like Thailand and get rid of those who abuse our hospitality summarily. Our country our rules seems a sensible motto to me. I can't stand ingratitude.

At the condo complex where I once lived I reckon over half the condos were rented. Also, a lot of the owned condos were used as weekend retreats by the Thai tourists making it difficult to find a parking spot on Saturday and Sunday. Condo parking spaces ought to be for people who own the units and live there continuously. Difficult to enforce though.

“If you know London, there is so much knife crime and robbery. You don’t feel safe walking the streets and it is not getting any better. Here in Thailand, people will leave their keys and bags on their bikes. You don’t have to look behind you when you’re walking home at night and women will walk at night alone.” ....and we all know why that is, don't we!?

I've run across the Swiss three times since I arrived here. The condo where I used to stay had a Swiss family, man wife and child, all were as mad as hatters and used to cause pandemonium around the condo. Even the little girl who was about three. Then the village I moved to had a Swiss guy married to a Thai, who every time he had a couple of beers, wanted to fight the world. He ended up in a road accident in which he killed a man and his wife on a motorbike and sidecar. At the house where I live now, I heard a commotion on the track outside. On investigating I saw a Swiss guy who lives across the way running alongside a builder's truck shouting threats and obscenities and kicking the side of the truck! The same guy used to drive like someone possessed, leaving a huge cloud of dust behind him which of course all settled across my property. He had several ups and downs with neighbours, but has now left. Now these two recent reports. Are they trying to take top spot from us Brits?

They do and they show utmost disrespect for the country in more ways than one, with protests every few days and appearances in the media decrying our country and it's history. I think there should be severe penalties for disrespecting someone's flag, it's an insult to the people of that nation and the penalty should be deportation at least.

Thailand can join the west who've also let in too many troublemakers. Once it happens, it's almost impossible to put the genie back in the bottle.

Deport him! Too many people offering violence in countries that have been kind enough to let them stay and getting away with a slap on the wrist, sometimes not even that. If it were up to me, I'd give him a jail sentence and then deport him. Lefty solutions like holding a candlelit vigil outside his house, group singing "Cum Ba Yah", having a protest march or handing out leaflets would be water off a duck's back to thick skinned bolshy types like this guy.

So the choice is move back to UK, get free medical treatment if I'm prepared to wait a long time, but can't afford a decent day to day standard of living, or stay here, self insure because medical insurance is beyond my means (80 yoa) but have a decent standard of living. From what I see of the UK on the news, it isn't the same place that I left 17 years back and looks like it is only going to get worse. If I end up begging on the street, at least I've got the weather for it here. theIf I finish up begging on the street, at least the weather's better here.

Also if you're a Brit, there are several boxes. Make sure you click the right one, I was once rejected and it was because I made the wrong choice.

The first one worked for me when I did my 90 day last week.

Our first washing machine here gave us lots of problems and I had to make several trips to their spares shop. Since we got rid of that, we've used Electrolux which has been trouble-free.

About 17 years back just after I'd arrived here, I was drugged on Beach Rd Jomtien. I mistakenly let a local "lady" who I'd not long met buy me a bottle of beer from a 7 eleven which she handed me opened. Yes I know, she saw me coming, but I was already well oiled and she was a bit of a babe. Better men than me have fallen for this trick. Anyway, she must have been stood behind me earlier when I'd made a withdrawal from an atm, because my account was a couple of hundred pounds lighter when I checked the next day. One of those lessons in life that costs you, but in my case was cheap in the long run.

Or the place near my house that sometimes plays loud bass-heavy music from 4am to 8am. What's the mentality of a head banger that does that?

I assume that by making such a definitive statement you went to his building to check.