gerryBScot

We are going to apply for our Thailand born son to get a UK passport and register his birth etc. Once we get the birth certificate translated and duly stamped by official translator do we need to head to the MFA to get it legalised or will the Brit EMbassy accept the translation as it is. Many thanks

Hey Rucus that is fantastic, may I be the first to congratulate you, 24 years without a drink is awesome. well done.

yeah it's a good move until the camera develops a fault! lol ....

Yeah I use my Thai DL and works ID in the same way and got into CHiang Mai Zoo for local rates; I think my drivers license cost less than 100 baht, application, medcert, photos and phocopies and it's paid for itself many times over.

Yeah it's "grey" with a shop warranty and I was prepared to take the risk that involves for the saving. I am not a pro, so a camera is not mission critical and I have a little compact as a back up in the event I have to use the shop warranty and that involves being without a camera for a few weeks or so. I was very happy with the experience in the shop....they were doing brisk business and I didn't get a sense they were a fly by night operation. You pays your money and you takes your chance as we say back in the UK. I am really enjoying the kit and I am glad I opted for this model as a first step in dSLR photography. I was in Khao Yai yesterday and was using it with the 55-250 mm zoom to snap birds ....(prettty difficult and I can see me buying a 400mm lens in the next few months cos I saw some very rare birds and my results don't do the birds justice!) ....but great for learning how to manual focus and stuff. The store gave me a CD rom with the manual in English but good to get the online links.Many thanks

I wouldnt get worked up about it being 'grey' but obviously theres a savings with it being so. I bought a camera body through an authorised dealer & got the factory warranty but it only applies in the country in which I bought the Camera (not thailand), so if something goes wrong with the body, im either waiting until i go back to where I bought it from (I travel there a couple of times a year) or Im paying for it to be fixed.

Interestingly the lenses, all of which were made in Japan come with an international warranty.

anyway, most camera gear only offers 12 months warranty, at which time ur on your own anyway. Good luck with your new Camera.

Let me assure you I am far from being worked up !!!

Lovely to read your posts whichschool. Thanks for being candid and thanks for bringing me back to how it was. I did 3 weeks meditation as a drunk, I was of course not drunk during my stay in the temple, but this was one of the pitstops in my journey which so far has led me to AA and sobriety. Meditation undoubtedly helped short term but today as a sober drunk when I meditate, the quality of peacefulness I can obtain is infinitesmally greater than what I got as a dry drunk. I can get more from 30 minutes meditation today than from 18 hours 10 years ago. But sure, check it out. I had this debate too, am or am I not an alcoholic, it lasted for at least 30 years. The thing I understand today is it's only alcoholics who have this debate. Normal drinkers don't debate this question, they take it or leave it, and some times they drink too much but essentially they are indifferent to alcohol or rather it is good fun, as our AA literature says, alcohol means " ...... joyous intimicay with friends." Not for me. Today that is ok, I don't drink, I don't miss it, I don't need it, I don't want it and I have friends and a bit of a life. An AA saying and there are many of them: better being in the rooms of AA pretending you are than in a bar thinking you are not. Debate over for me. Good luck

Yeah it's "grey" with a shop warranty and I was prepared to take the risk that involves for the saving. I am not a pro, so a camera is not mission critical and I have a little compact as a back up in the event I have to use the shop warranty and that involves being without a camera for a few weeks or so. I was very happy with the experience in the shop....they were doing brisk business and I didn't get a sense they were a fly by night operation. You pays your money and you takes your chance as we say back in the UK. I am really enjoying the kit and I am glad I opted for this model as a first step in dSLR photography. I was in Khao Yai yesterday and was using it with the 55-250 mm zoom to snap birds ....(prettty difficult and I can see me buying a 400mm lens in the next few months cos I saw some very rare birds and my results don't do the birds justice!) ....but great for learning how to manual focus and stuff. The store gave me a CD rom with the manual in English but good to get the online links.Many thanks

To all posters on here and readers, I hope you and your loved ones have a great Christmas and New Year. For those trying to stop, not sure or struggling it is my experience, that January is a deadly time for drunks. Many of us get through the festive season and head out early January for further research. Keep posting, keep connected, don't give up giving up. Chok dee

I just bought this kit from Pix-One in Fortune Town, 29,800b including EFS 18-55m IS and 55-250m IS. Basically it is the EOS 500D packaged for the Japanese market; I guess the rest of us don't want a camera with the name Kiss on it! I have to say after 24 hours playing with it I am really pleased with initial results as well as the price. In fact I am relieved I didn't opt for a more complex model like the EOS 7D; it seems that has sold out in any event. However there are plenty of features and toys in the Kiss to learn so I reckon this is a pretty good entry level deal. Shop guarantee for 1 year. very happy with the guy who dealt with me. Just FYI. add .com to the store name

Fotofile have some tempting promotions for Canon EOS 500D and 7D kits at the moment. the lenses are described as having "no box". Is it what it means or am I missing something?! I am happy to do without the box! Please help

Just curious, is there any real point in my wife and I registering our Thai wedding with HMG in Bangkok? She's a filipina. As it is we are going to register our new born son's birth with the embassy and apply forclaim his UK citizenship and get him a passport, ouch, expensive huh, to register the wedding would be a significant additional expensive , ouch, ouch, so just curious is there any real benefit and if so what? Many thanks.

Intentions are perfectly honourable if the catch is of a high enough quality. However, I anticipate some trial and error may need to take place before this becomes a reality. I'm hoping the girls online are 'better' than the girls i'm used to meeting at 4am.

What rupey baby are you going to do to the ones that are not of a high enough quality!? perform some beastly sordid act on them and then what?! and what is such a debonair charismatic suitor doing out meeting girls at 4am? what are you expecting to meet at that time?! not sure there are many higher education institutes in the nana area!

I studied Thai at Nana Poly

Now studying Chinese at The York University (that's a Dubai joke, sorry)

SC

nice one cowboy

I think you'll be able to get the license with your non-imm o. also your wife should have a tabien ban, house certificate, with a wedding ceritificate that should be enough but I am not completely 100 % sure. I drive the basic 2.5 two door Triton diesel, two seats in front and a rear bench that can take three but probably uncomfortable on a long trip. I picked it up in Bangkok at the auctions about 6 months ago. It's a functional, low maintenance work horse with no frills and it does everything I want. Mitsubishi locally checked the car out for me and said they would honour the original five year warranty. never had any mechanical problems with it since and we've put about 14,000 kms on the clock since we bought it in June. The truck is plenty big enough. The only thing I don't like is the paintwork isn't brilliant....it's perfectly adequate but I drive along dirt tracks quite a lot with lots of vegetation and the body scratches very easily. get one with metallic paint if you are likely to be doing something similar. We didn't need any license to purchase the vehicle and both my wife and I are aliens, but both of us have work permits etc. of all the things we have done since being here, getting jobs, getting married, having a baby and all the paperwork involved, I can tell you the smoothest thing was buying the car and then changing the ownership details....amazingly straightforward in comparison with trying to get a marriage certificate. I'd seriously recommend you check out www.union-auction.com if you are looking for a manual pick up, you'll get access to a range of vehicles at prices you won't get elsewhere, auctions every saturday afternoon. you can download the catalogue on Fridays and see what is on offer and get an idea of prices etc. with the driving licence I presented a UK licence with the paper equivalent and work permit and it was issued immediately following a rudimentary colour blindness test. you'll need to bring a doctor's note saying you are fit to drive....this will cost 50 baht or less ! Any clinic will issue it and I'd be surprised if they say anything to you other than ask your name! Good luck

Intentions are perfectly honourable if the catch is of a high enough quality. However, I anticipate some trial and error may need to take place before this becomes a reality. I'm hoping the girls online are 'better' than the girls i'm used to meeting at 4am.

What rupey baby are you going to do to the ones that are not of a high enough quality!? perform some beastly sordid act on them and then what?! and what is such a debonair charismatic suitor doing out meeting girls at 4am? what are you expecting to meet at that time?! not sure there are many higher education institutes in the nana area!

Cowboy there are many ways to do it. If I had taken the approach the previous poster is endorsing I would be dead! I reckon my UK physician and cardiologist would agree with me. My problem was binging, almighty blitzkreig drinking sprees. I am also the type of alcoholic who used to get cases of red wine delivered because apparently a little glass or two is good for the heart, two or three bottles at a time with a brandy chasers....well a bottle by the bedside! You can't mix the grape and the grain!!! I tried for long enough to control it and all I ever achieved was letting it control me. A few drinks is beyond me, one is too many and 20 is not enough! Yup I am a loser! I am happy with not drinking one day at a time. That works well for me. However I love the idea of a spreadsheet! I would concede that AA can be a tough place at times but my experience of it is profoundly different to that described by the above. It works fine for me and countless others.

Cowboy that's exactly how I remember it. Horrible now with the benefit of hindsight and a little sobriety. Desperately trying to control it. I hated functions where heavy drinking was expected, like weddings with a free bar or the cricket club dinner or tour. I was really exposed in those situations to getting completely out of hand and being "discovered"! I wasn't a jolly drunk! Of course it was a lot safer just taking the supplies to bed and drinking myself unconscious.... which was my preferred option at the end. I used to think things like , well I wasn't too bad, when I went out and survived it without making the proverbial puddendum of myself but inevitably there was an out of control bender just round the corner. And that was one of the things I learned early on in sobriety, that when I drank I couldn't predict what would happen, like where I might end up, what I might do etc .... invariably I did stuff I wouldn't have done if sober.And I worked all my drinking life and Sundays were critical days in stopping at the right time so I would be sober enough to get up and get to work Monday morning. I used to think I could control it, of course the opposite was the case, it really controlled me. I am grateful to you for the reminder of what it used to be like.

I'm being told (wife) that your price is in the ball park, also if the rice is of last years crop it will cost more.

Thx good to know. they're decent people, the sellers, was just expecting a lot more off but what do I know about these things!

Recently my local dealer wanted to charge 1700b for a 49 kg bag of Triple AAA Pigeon Brand Jasmin Rice, this would work out at 1.4 baht per kilo less than buying it in small amounts, like 5 kgs. I thought I could expect a much more substantial discount for buying in bulk. Anyone out there able to enlighten me?

StreetCowboy as a recovering alcoholic and AA member I think few of us ever wake up in the morning and think I better quit drinking because it is not really good for me. There is no logical explanation for how we drink and the things we do when drinking, and we rarely make a logical, rational decision to quit and stick to it. We may quit short term until some trivial reason pops up and we find ourselves drunk somewhere we didn't quite intend to be...... And I did this thousands of time. Stopped and then started. It never got better, I never learned to drink like a gentleman...... and I don't know anything about you but I reckon it is not going to get any better for you. AA has worked for me and I would suggest you check it out if you haven't already done so.

Like the previous poster I'd recommend starfall . I use their material with G2 kids (6-7 yo) on a Saturday morning and it works well and the site is set up so you can do a lot of stuff online and there are pretty good downloads too. It's American but don't let that get in the way - it is very good.

Moved to travel forum, as not visa related.

Agree the best LHR BKK flight; you need to prebook the premium economy as it is very popular; I would be surprised if you are able to upgrade at check in as it is in great demand.

The best thing to see is the Death Railway Museum at the top of the Hellfire Pass and this is a considerable distance beyond Kanchanburi town proper, about 50 km if my memory is right, and it is worth spending a couple of hours. I would reckon it is the best museum in Thailand largely because it is run by the Australian Government's Department of Veteran Affairs and the curator, William, oozes enthusiasm. The museum closes at 4pm. The signage is outstanding, it really tells the story of the death railway and you can actually take a walk down into the railway cutting and walk along a stretch of the line and go for a fairly lengthy hike if you are interested. There is an evening sound and light show near the bridge in town which is probably the best comedy show in Thailand, its theme being how Thailand won the war and the heroism of Thais!!! The war cemetery in Kanchanaburi town is also worth a visit. The area is really beautiful and there is lots of grandiose scenery with forests, mountains and big lakes. For this reason you would be best with your own transportation. You might consider renting a car and while there are clear risks involved in driving in Thailand, I can assure you it is not a complete no no, depending really on your own attitude and confidence ...and once you have negotiated your way out of Bangkok it should be fairly easy .....everything is signed in English. Best wishes

I deeply resent Happy expiring my Pay as You Go credit when it is unused at the expiry date. Time to take my business somewhere else. What do members recommend?

JFK I am a veteran of a few months teaching myself and a couple of things I have learned in my short time may or may not apply to your situation. I was amazed by how restless my students were and I struggled with this. Spoke with my co-ordinator and he told me to get the kids to clear everything from their desks..... everything means everything. I begin every lesson with this. It works really well. I am no longer interrupted by banging rulers, pencils being dropped, and everything else they have.I get them to fold their arms and sit properly, introduce what I have to deliver, usually only a few minutes and then they can get ripped into it with as much noise and mayhem as they want. But you need to have your content ready. Second, I reckon for content you'll do very well to introduce a writing activity in your classes.... many older kids struggle with this because they were allowed to develop bad habits at the age of your kids; for instance they do not know how to form letters. I have developed an activity with some young kids called Karate Writing where we swing our arms around making karate chops and then I get them to write letter shapes using their fingers, so we do Karate "a", and make a few chops and then write it with our finger, and karate "b" etc; then we settle down to writing the letters with trace sheets. Armed with an eraser I rub out poor efforts and make the kids rewrite. Now you could link this type of activity to flash cards and other things. I also see real improvement in their writing.

Your post is good as it has triggered a lot of useful comment. Good luck and do come back with more issues!

You sound a bit like me, drank heavy until about 45 then started cutting back a bit, not a true alcoholic but the social aspect was the lure, talking to friends and mates over a few glasses and I still do this on ocassion.

The stiffy is one of the benefits of less drink since it interfers with testosterone production.

Good luck on your choices, I am a believer that alcohol can have a place in ones life if you are the sort who can drink in moderation.

I will be waiting for the slag on this.

Alcohol is only bad for you if you are an alcoholic!!!! No slagging. Good to hear people can recognise it might be harming them and recognise they can enjoy life without it. Good luck to yall