gerryBScot

Thx as always Sheryl. Very reassuring.

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Yesterday at Bangkok Hospital in BKK i had a Doppler ultrasound which showed normal values. I'm just interested in getting a bit more information.

Basically I have a chronic wound on my left foot arising from surgery nine months ago in order to excise necrotic tissue in my foot; it's 99% healed but recently I had some swelling on my left ankle, distal side; my local doctor treated this as tendonitis and prescribed anti-inflammatory meds. I wanted a second opinion as I was fearful the swelling indicated the beginning of cellulitis necrotizing fasciitis or some other nasty.

The podiatrist at BH advised he could see no problem after carrying out various tests. He suggested I have a Doppler Ultrasound to eliminate Deep vein thrombosis so I went to a different section for this. I saw a surgeon who opined that DVT was very unlikely but agreed to do the ultrasound.

Here's my query ; the only part of my leg which was scanned was from the left groin area to the left knee cap. Is this adequate? For instance would this detect any problem below the knee cap and in the calf area down to the ankle? Also would it not be necessary for them to compare blood flow in both legs in terms of an accurate evaluation?

Would welcome any comments may thanks

These proposals will result in fewer NES teachers working in Thailand. This is what school management bodies actually want. I imagine they have lobbied the ministry for this - what they get are proposals dressed up in the language of improving overall quality but which effectively close the door on non-education graduate NES teachers. This will enable significant cost cutting. It has nothing to do with quality of course. The reason why the standard of English is so low in this country is because many school managements are not actually committed to ENglish language learning or anything that equates to an educational/learning experience for student - they use English and increasingly Chinese simply for marketing and to get students enrolled. These changes will enable schools to justify to parents the employment of cheaper options like more Filipino and Indian qualified nationals. Hell I've even heard of some schools producing fancy DVDs in order to showcase the teaching abilities of non-NES teachers.

I'm fine with this as I'm not in anyway opposed to non-NES being deployed as English teachers, and know many to be outstanding educators.

But i think the real losers as always will be the children and the parents. Perfectly reasonable for parents to want to send their children to schools where they can become proficient in languages and indeed sports and the arts. Only problem is, err, they don't learn English or whatever. These proposed changes won't mean kids get a better educational experience or learning outcomes - they'll mean more profits for the schools and a delay in Thai parents being able to get their kids a decent education for another generation.

there are no real alternatives. The mob keep on moving with different locations every day-beside the 7 permanent. As it seems mostly ministeries and govmt. buildings are targeted: there are a fair lot just east of the river near Ratchdamnen/Phan Fa-which could block all roads east.

WHY did you not simply TELL where you come from? Maybe there are buses stopping NOT in Pinklao, but at the south-Ram 2-from where you could easily move into expressway

Thanks asanee for this. Coming in from Ratchaburi. I drive. You reckon it would be feasible to drive and use the expressways?

Bruce Mangosteen....... sounds as if you are using textbooks like English Time and Let's Go, both published by Oxford University Press, ?

As I recall there is not much happening in P Besar beyond a physical border crossing. There are few trains. Once got a taxi from there to Perlis where we got boat to Langkawi; can get a boat there from Satun in Thailand. If you are looking for onward ground travel from Hat Yai airport, best to head for downtown Hat Yai - all the coach and van services/connections are there, both for Thailand and for Malaysia.

I've got a doctor's appointment Thursday at Bangkok Hospital in Phetchburi; will be travelling into BKK from the west by bus getting off in Pinklao area. Best to jump in a taxi from there I think. Any known issues with crossing town or any alternatives recommended? Many thanks

I think your problem will be getting from the park entrance to the "heart" of the parks; in Khao Yai, Don Inthanon and Kaeng Krachan it is a considerable distance and I don't know if there is any public transport; there is nothing in Kaeng Krachan and it is about 15 km from the entry to the first camp site, a beautiful walk but I wouldn't fancy doing it carrying supplies and a tent! Also most of the roads in are uphill. I'm sure some one will give you a lift but you might have to wait. I've also heard that many of the bigger parks have recently started charging 400 THB entry for foreigners.This time of the year I don't think leeches will be a problem as everything is pretty dry at the moment. Bear in mind it is pretty cold at night right now. You should be able to get food in the restaurants in Khao Yai and Doi INthanon but you should definitely think f avoiding them all at weekends! Good luck

An alternative might be to use a freight forwarder - Amazon will ship your goods to a US-based forwarder who will then forward it on to you. Amazon are happy to do this with certain provisos. If you use AMazon Prime your goods may qualify for free shipping within the US to the forwarder. Your forwarder will then freight to you and will offer a range of options. In real terms I am not sure on an order of this size if it will result in significant savings.

There are undoubtedly many fine Filipino teachers working in Thailand, my wife included - dedicated, qualified, experienced, professional, real assets. There are also some dogs. But this is equally so with native speakers. Being born a native English speaker is most certainly not a qualification to be an English teacher.

Schools in Thailand, in my limited experience, treat people like trash - doesn't matter if they are Thais, Filipinos or whatever. They will do anything to save a penny. They will do anything if they think they can get away with it. Your average staff room here is hardly organised in the way it is in the so called developed world. Management here does not expect to be challenged and rarely is. So what the OP talks about is run of the mill day to day life in a Thai school.

I would suggest you take a trip to the hospital to get your cut checked out especially if the skin is broken and you have a wound. If it is just superficial I suggest you get some blue alcohol and clean it and also apply some iodine to it. These things get infected easily in tropical weather so a precautionary course of antibiotics might be recommended. If you get a fever or develop other symptoms don't hang around, get medical help.

I'm happy for you BB. Don't bother too much about close friends and their thoughts. Real friends will be happy for you. Just try to be open minded about the religious angle - I found calling it spiritual helped as religious did and does my head in!

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I dislike some phrases, such as if you sit in a barber's chair long enough you'll get a haircut.

Delighted to hear you have a mainly positive experience in the rooms so far. At the risk of sounding as if I am teaching my granny how to suck eggs, I don't think this saying means you should never go into a bar or wet place again. It means you shouldn't hang out in them. The advice I got was if I have a good reason to be in a wet place, then go - like to meet friends. However if you are making the pub your prime social outlet then you significantly increase your chances of drinking again; plenty of alternatives to bars for socialising - you'll probably start drinking a lot more coffee! I would advise you to avoid other people's piss ups as they might inadvertently become your next relapse. I go out to events and functions in bars and hotels and never been bothered about the drinking. In fact the first wedding I went to sober, I realised that there was no one at it who was hammered in the way I would have been had I been drinking! Keep well and strong.

I am a compulsive gambler and alcoholic, in fact addiction, obsession, delusion, compulsion have been my life. I haven't gambled in almost 11 years, alcohol free for over 10, gave up smoking about 8 years ago. I am lucky to be alive and grateful for the life I have today.

With gambling it is much simpler to hide the consequences from those that might be around you - you know, get the mail so your loved ones don't get to see the bank statements and credit card bills. As a drunk it is virtually impossible to hide the behaviour - I directly affected everybody around me when I was pissed. In the insanity of it all I had a rule - I never drank and gambled at the same time! I really kept to this rule religiously - I am giggling as I write this because I used to think drink affected my judgment! I hope the irony of this isn't lost - at that time I had huge gambling debts.

At the end I could not stop. If I had money I had to gamble - winning was the only solution to my chronic indebtedness. Unfortunately I had a couple of big winning days in the 20 odd years I was at it. DIdn't make the slightest difference. WHen I won I gambled bigger and lost more.

Most of the women I knew who were compulsive gamblers were either on the game or "kept" and that was the price they were prepared to pay for a stake.

I couldn't stop on my own. I saw a counsellor and was in action after our meeting. I did quit thanks to Gamblers Anonymous but it took me a long time and a lot of damage to get there. I trashed a lot of people and institutions for money. Was lucky to avoid jail. Near the end, having just blown a month's salary in 24 hours, I was trying to negotiate an increase in my overdraft of about £500. I told the person from the bank about the total extent of my indebtedness, 7 maxxed credit cards - I was honest. She asked what the problem was: I told her I was a compulsive gambler, probably the first time I had acknowledged this to anyone. SHe asked me to hold and a few minutes later came on saying they couldn't do it but that they could offer me a loan for a ridiculous amount of money........I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

I wouldn't begrudge anyone a bet or a lottery ticket. It's fun, it's exciting. But for some of us, and most importantly for me, we can't do it in any shape or form. I call it a disease but I'm not passing responsibility for it to others. I call it a mental illness - but psychiatry and medicine would never have stopped me. Other compulsive gamblers helped me to stop and I am ready and willing to help anyone out there who wants to stop but can't.

I once joined 2 forums about GA to ask a few questions as I also have an addictive nature. Both of them banned me for telling them how much I had won. I guess it's like someone going to AA and telling them how much they're enjoying drinking.

Neeranam I've been living in Thailand 5 + years now and in consequence of this am out of touch with GA; I think there is a meeting in Patts but that is too far away for me to get to. My point is I am not sure about what GA's current approach is.

I can only speculate as to why you might have been banned and so whatever I say comes with a disclaimer as I don't know any of the circumstances. Basically GA discouraged people from talking about "amounts" as it was considered to be unhelpful. If, say, you have 500,000 and gamble and lose it, it is the same as having £100 and doing likewise. The problem is if people talk about amounts then the players who play for smaller amounts might think they don't have a problem.

A second reason would be to discourage what might be called "big shot-ism" or perhaps better known as "big shit-ism"! Part of my personality as a compulsive gambler was a need to be a "big shot", have a big wad of money and to be able to splash it about for everyone to see......the word "w**ker" springs to mind as I laugh at the memory of how life once was. In my previous existence I was very popular with a certain type of woman in Thai beer bars! Slow horses and fast women, indeed! I can laugh today but it was a truly grim existence.

So basically in terms of recovering from this addiction it helps to disregard the amount of money involved: by definition we will gamble whatever we can earn, beg, borrow, steal - it is different for each person. I must say I agree with the approach and it undoubtedly helped me.

Thanks for that. Will get True to check it out.

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I got CTH installed a couple of weeks ago and I am very pleased with it. It's coming in by cable and that means no atmospheric disruption to the signal. The quality of the HD is simply fantastic. I get match commentary in English and not concerned about pre and post analysis.We've kept one True box but it is coming in by dish but almost unwatchable due to atmospheric conditions. I think I'll get rid of the remaining True box next month.

I am a compulsive gambler and alcoholic, in fact addiction, obsession, delusion, compulsion have been my life. I haven't gambled in almost 11 years, alcohol free for over 10, gave up smoking about 8 years ago. I am lucky to be alive and grateful for the life I have today.

With gambling it is much simpler to hide the consequences from those that might be around you - you know, get the mail so your loved ones don't get to see the bank statements and credit card bills. As a drunk it is virtually impossible to hide the behaviour - I directly affected everybody around me when I was pissed. In the insanity of it all I had a rule - I never drank and gambled at the same time! I really kept to this rule religiously - I am giggling as I write this because I used to think drink affected my judgment! I hope the irony of this isn't lost - at that time I had huge gambling debts.

At the end I could not stop. If I had money I had to gamble - winning was the only solution to my chronic indebtedness. Unfortunately I had a couple of big winning days in the 20 odd years I was at it. DIdn't make the slightest difference. WHen I won I gambled bigger and lost more.

Most of the women I knew who were compulsive gamblers were either on the game or "kept" and that was the price they were prepared to pay for a stake.

I couldn't stop on my own. I saw a counsellor and was in action after our meeting. I did quit thanks to Gamblers Anonymous but it took me a long time and a lot of damage to get there. I trashed a lot of people and institutions for money. Was lucky to avoid jail. Near the end, having just blown a month's salary in 24 hours, I was trying to negotiate an increase in my overdraft of about £500. I told the person from the bank about the total extent of my indebtedness, 7 maxxed credit cards - I was honest. She asked what the problem was: I told her I was a compulsive gambler, probably the first time I had acknowledged this to anyone. SHe asked me to hold and a few minutes later came on saying they couldn't do it but that they could offer me a loan for a ridiculous amount of money........I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

I wouldn't begrudge anyone a bet or a lottery ticket. It's fun, it's exciting. But for some of us, and most importantly for me, we can't do it in any shape or form. I call it a disease but I'm not passing responsibility for it to others. I call it a mental illness - but psychiatry and medicine would never have stopped me. Other compulsive gamblers helped me to stop and I am ready and willing to help anyone out there who wants to stop but can't.

I bought a Triton at Union about 4 years ago with 5,000 km on the clock, 100,000 km later it is running like a good thing; never had a problem with it; never had any problems in the few dealings I had with Union; got all the paperwork, the radio, the remote for the radio. Very pleased with everything. You can download their list on the www. SHould be easy to understand as a lot of it is in ENglish. Good luck

I stand corrected...thanks! Good to hear the labour court operates so well and fairly.

In most jurisdictions in the world there is usually some difference between the law and reality. In Thailand that gap is often very large. It appears contractual responsibilities are not worth the paper they are written on. Whatever Thai laws says is a nicety, there is little guarantee you will get it if you sue. You may end up getting nothing and a major headache as well as legal bills. Be careful about bad mouthing your employers in public as they may pursue you for criminal defamation, if anything you say can be construed as harming their commercial operations. Why don't you simply cut your losses and move on....much less grief?

As a teacher and a parent nothing surprising in the OP's post. I feel for the parents and I suspect that in time my kids will go to the UK for their edumacation. However my big sister who is a big shot in edumacation in Scotland advises that the scene there and in the rest of the UK is not so good either. In addition to the usual concerns about loss of face I think an equally serious problem in Thailand is an ability to distinguish quality from quantity: lots of classes of mindless boredom, copying one's textbook into one's exercise book for 45 minutes, for example, equates on the basis of quantity to quality. Little attention is paid to how children learn. I am amazed by the emphasis on rote learning. It has been an eye opener working in the system. I feel for the kids - they really want to learn but the system lets them down. It's truly a sad state of affairs.

Thanks much appreciated

I'm giving this a bump in the hope of drawing it to the attention of people who might be able to advise but who haven't seen it. Many thanks.

I was checking the possible import duty on a lens bought online in Japan. I am a newb in these matters. Anyhow from looking at the Integrated Tariff Database of Thai Customs it appears there is an Asean - Japan Free Trade Agreement in place which exempts camera lenses from import duty at the moment. Can anyone confirm or otherwise? Sounds too good to be true - if you have any knowledge about this please share. Many thanks..\

mooro_uk that is great news and I'm glad you can appreciate the benefits of sobriety so quickly. There is no reason why it will not continue to get better so long as you keep sober one day at a time. In AA I have heard members talk about relocation, as a means of trying to solve your problems, as a "geographical". Your experience bears out the general rule that "geographicals" just don't work, people start drinking again at some point because when you travel the first thing that you pack is yourself and of course if you are a drunk you are your biggest problem!