SantiSuk

*Spin the bottle and kisschase with the village girls in the local 'Wood' (small forest). Early to mid teens *Early more advanced sexual encounters. Groping the girl next doors magnificent boobs while deep kissing on her sofa when her parents were out. Non-penetrative experience until post university age *My 'gang'. A group of boy and girlfriends in our pre-teen and teen years. Completely non-threatning and no violence - just hanging out around the village and woods. *First record I bought - "Beatles For Sale" LP. Garrard automatic record player. *My father chasing upstairs and around the bed to smack my younger sister who was always naughty at bedtime ie noisy. *My sister's belief that me and 'my gang' were 'goody two shoes' *Pumping the local church organ and singing in the choir. Sunday school. *My parents' deep christian beliefs and the help my mother would give to anybody in trouble. I turned out as an agnostic but continue to follow my mother's lead in helping others where I can. My parents, other christians and our amazing local vicar (priest) were better for the village community than any social services provided by the state. I contrast what they did with the apparently inward-development approach of Buddhism. *Halloween. Knocking on doors with the gang and running away. Tying thin cotton to the knocker and knocking repeatedly from a distance. Staying at doors of likely suspects for treats. *Waiting down the road from the local church to collect money (small change) thrown out of cars of wedding parties after a marriage service - a local tradition *Learning to drive in my Dad's Ford Zephyr Zodiac with it's steering wheel stick gearchange. Failed 1st attempt as I struggled with the damn gearchange on a hill start and reversing manoeuvre. Had to retry via a driving instructor in an easy to drive Austin A40. *Watching Carlisle United home and away in my teens as they rose from 4th to first division. The most amazing acheivement in the history of British football at the time, according to Bill Shankly (revered Liverpool FC manager/coach in the 60s). *Holidays with a hired touring caravan. Annual summer fortnight touring around Scotland, always ending in Edinburgh and often visiting Britain's second only Indian restaurant before and during the explosion of foreign cuisines rescued the UK eating experience. *First foreign family overseas tour with a caravan. Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. An eye-opener and start of a love for travel *Family dinners. Always all 5 of us round the table. Good simple food cooked by my mother. Lots of talking and parental encouragement. Sometimes curries (my Dad having served as an Indian army captain in the 2nd half of WW2). Both parents and me/1st sister born Yorkshire. *Moving 4 times before university years. Doncaster to Southend to Carlisle to Norwich. Disruptive, but also great for ambition and perspective. Grew up quickly. *Overland drive from UK to India and back (the 'hippy trail') with two long wheelbase landrovers in my post Essex University years. Amazing. Great fun putting this together. Thank you OP. Have never explored my memories so intensively.

Nearly 4 years later I return to thank you for answering my questions of even longer ago. I'll be putting it to the test later this year or next. Got out of the habit of going "home" due to Covid and a full life here now.

My mistake. I thought the post had not worked the first time and pressed submit again. Haven't posted on this forum since ThaiVisa days. I guess you find all posts that do not accord with your own view as boring.

Should not pick on particular groups of people. A mask wearing rule should be applied to all people in specified high risk situations. Public transport, attendees at events where large groups congregate in enclosed situations. Those who have a specified health condition (which is what Thais typically did voluntarily before Covid - if sick they would choose to wear a mask to protect others - credit to them) My approach/attitude is based on personal experience of the effectiveness of masks in stopping the spread of bacterial infections. I have a lung condition called bronchiectasis (not the same as bronchitis). Sufferers are prone to pick up bacterial infections quite regularly and some of those can turn nasty. Prior to covid I would catch an infection that was unpleasant roughly 3 to 5 times a year and one of those typically would put me in hospital with a bad flu, pneumonia or worse every year. With the advent of covid I was a supporter of the Thai masking rules and wore them whenever outside. During (and since) covid I have had only one bacterial infection to speak of and that was easily cleared by standard antibiotics having not developed into the likes of flu/pneumonia. I am convinced that mask wearing has a significant effect on the reduction of serious bacterial infections (you will note that I cannot extend that determination to viral infections as I still get an occasional cold or runny nose).

Interested in any response. The concrete floor of my 15yo reserve/buffer tank (3m x 2m floor, 2m deep) is peeling scraps and could presumably leak one day. Thanks for posting

I recently (one month ago) had the denouement to having had a similar problem to yours - declining flow when pumping, poor suction when vacuuming and an obvious ingress of air in the system as evidenced by a frothy appearance of the flow at the pumps inspection lid. Also a noticeable thump had been detectable for a few moths when I switched the pump off. I should have attended to it earlier - the suction got so bad that I could not get the flow working through suction from the pool side alone and had to partially open the valve to allow water to come from the pool bottom to supplement flow and eventually even that was not helping enough. In the last couple of months before denouement i also experienced a slight water jet issuing up from the pump lid when I switched off. Then on the fateful day a month ago, when I switched the pump off, the thump from the system became a loud bang, the pump lid flew off about two feet high and I was partially drenched with water. The pump lid had cracked. The Emaux pump supplier, Swimming Pools Thailand said they had no experience of such a set of events. I was going to call Emaux but first looked up the internet, googling "water exploding from my pump lid" (or something along those lines). I found a relevant post by a pool specialist who said that air visible in the flow through the pump would have been a sign of a leak and the first place to look (and most likely culprit) would be the pump lid itself. If not there it could be any of the valves, the filter or pump itself. I sucked hard contemplating replacement of my entire system, but the internal contents of the pump room were only 3 years old (piping and main valves installed 12 years ago). I decided that if the pump inspection lid was the prime candidate I would replace that and see what happens. Bought replacement pump lids and seals from SPT and lubricated the seals heavily with silicone gel. Nothing else was changed but I did clean the reserve tank and the footer valve in there (it tends to need cleaning every month). With great trepidation I tried it out, this time facing well away from the pump. Success! The pump returned to a quieter operation with clearly better flow and only a bit of air in evidence. When I did my first vacuuming it was evident that the pump was sucking much stronger - back to as new in fact. Still not back to performance as new in terms of a small amount of air mixed in when viewed at the pump lid but the good suction and flow rate and the comforting soft noise I get when switching off now has persuaded me to put off the full replacement of valves, pipes filter and pump. I will watch carefully for deterioration and take action well before it all goes downhill again!

Picking up on this now old thread and avoiding the opinion fest on "the oldest profession", just to say that I think OnNut has net gained from the demise of the beer gardens cum pond at BTS OnNut and the increasing footfall in the Suk soi 50 entertainment alley (booze & food, rather than tugs & hugs) - opposite the Suk soi 50 car park entries for Lotus's OnNut - now that there are some good food options (nice crispy wood-fired pizzas, interesting selection of burgers and trimmings at Eazy Burger and the Japanese place on soi 50 itself (the latter seems to have recently moved out unfortunately?). Plus some bars where you can almost bank on being able to have a decent conversation with falangs and Thais (both genders) after 8pm - Cheap Charlies and the one to its right and left being in the forefront but there's two or three others which might have a good party vibe going on or some screened soccer on any particular night you call by. Just the opinion of an oldie (72) Brit expat who is glad he has a condo round the corner to mix with his Thai rural family existence in loveable Isaan. What do the younger-uns living here here think of SukSoi 50 alley?

I think maybe the OP is posting re the two beer gardens with food service right next to BTS on the outbound side. One had a pond in the middle. They vacated earlier this year AFAIK (irregular visitor to my condo in OnNut from Isaan during Covid).

We (me and my family from Sisaket Isaan) are supposed to be meeting up and staying with my Anglo-German nephew and his family at the Shangri-La Bangkok Hotel this Thursday and Friday night. The Shangri-La is on the river in the same area as the Mandarin, almost adjoining Saphan Taksin BTS station and just a couple of blocks west of Charoen Krung Rd. Bangkok Post last weekend were predicting that the Chao Praya would flood Charoen Krung Rd when the overload from the North arrives. They were talking specifically about Chinatown area. Knowing that area of Bangkok well (having stayed at the Shangri-La many times on business before retiring to Thailand 14 years ago and having owned a regularly-used condo in OnNut since retiring here) I would have thought that, if there is flooding in Chinatown, surely it will spread the few kilometers south and inundate those sois west of Charoen Krung Rd that contain Shangri-La and Saphan Taksin. Any thoughts? Has the Chao Praya overflowed into southern Chinatown before and did it get down to the area of which I speak? The hotel says 'we don't expect our area to flood' without giving specific reason for that confidence. They would say that wouldn't they.

I have no knowledge, but out of interest I entered 'variable speed pool pump' in Google and I got lots of Thai hits with adverts from Lazada et al. I'm based in Thailand so I get Thai feed from Google. You may have to add Thailand to that search string if your Google feed is still your mother country.

I have had good experience this summer with replacing 40 mg of atorvastatin - giving me the often-quoted result of muscle pain, exhaustion and sleep disturbance - by 10mg of the same plus 10mg of ezetimibe. The health threads in the UK are full of stories of people's resistance to statins but also stories that should tell you to keep pressing your cardio to get to an acceptable alternative by changing the statin or going for combinations with other lipid controlling meds like ezetimibe. Cost by the way - 250 baht for a strip of 10 (x 10mg 'Sandoz' of Japanese manufacture - equivalent to western brands) at my local pharmacy. More expensive than regular statins but worth it. Note of caution - the above conclusion is provided that my next - and first since the swap-over - lipid tests give the right results). I didn't know there were local generics; might give those a trial sometime once I've had confirmation from the blood tests.

Very useful for anyone facing a hip replacement op to read this thread. All the stories you hear are of people coming out of he op saying how wonderful it is they can walk normally again (even had those stories relayed by family members who were living more closely to my mother when she had the op 20 years ago). Kinda makes you think that you should be 'pushing it' on the stick-less walking to get to that state. Had my op at Bumrungrad a month ago. Paid an arm as well as my leg of course and all went smoothly and you gotta love the quality of their hospitality, but I'm going to take it a bit easier now I've read your story. Received a couple of sheets of paper on release with the same exercises I was doing in recovery for 5 days in hospital but no real guidance about pacing oneself, when to back off and warnings on the potential implications of pushing it too quickly.

I guess my concern if I were doing it to my system is how does one stop the pool not emptying its contents into your machine room, but if someone can address that then maybe I could be tempted to have a go. [Probably not - I'm too risk averse - I'm the sort that believes in paying for pros and having been a pro in another profession I have the resources to do that (but I would never knock those that have to or want to look for cheaper solutions]. I think my pump is a bit lower than the top water line of the pool - maybe you have to partially empty the pool in those circs but I'll bet the pool builders have some tricks to circumvent that. I am sure you need to fix the pump more steadily than you describe its current fixing status. You risk vibrations being pushed around the pipework and eventually compromising some seals (I would guess). I'd expect to build a concrete platform/block using formwork onto the floor to provide a stable base; should be within a decent builder's competence. Whether they are good at getting the alignment right is down to their experience/professionalism I guess. Alternatively the pump's input and output pipework can possibly be remodelled so that it reaches down to a pump fixed to the existing floor level. Emaux pumps have always done the job for me but no doubt Bagwain (an experienced pro who comments on this forum) will be along to tell you about something he believes to be better. As I understand it Hayward are good quality, but expensive in Thailand. I have a 90,000 litre pool (including reserve tank) and Swimming Pools Thailand advised me to use a 1.0 HP Emaux pump at the initial build stage. I got to thinking it was a little bit underpowered, so I upgraded to 1.5 HP when I replaced it after 10 years (the old one was by then leaking a bit past the main joint seal half way along the pump; could have tried new seals but wanted to upgrade anyway to ensure I got the right solution without paying for a second visit if new seals didn't solve the problem after 1st visit). As before - good luck!

Very brave of you (or do I mean foolhardy?????) to think you can fit a replacement pump given your limited knowledge of how pools work. I reckon the question you should be asking is. "My pool is in {insert area where you live}. Does anyone have a recommendation for a pool company/shop that will advise on an appropriate replacement and do a supply and fit?". If you lived in the northern half of Isaan I would recommend Swimming Pools Thailand. (Southern half and their travel costs get a bit chunky in relation to the size of the job - I do use them but my requirements have usually been for several bits of kit at any one time) Good luck, from another Yorkshireman in Thailand!

Yes consulting a specialist here in Thailand is good value. Even Bumrungrad you could expect to come away with a bill of less than 2,000 baht plus any imaging or other test procedures for an initial consultation with a leading practitioner. [major operations are no cheaper than the UK these days. 5 to 10 years ago I was several times pared back by my company-funded UK insurer with the comment that they were overcharging].