trucking

2 hours ago, emptypockets said:

Who is Shirley, and what has she got to do with learning Thai?

Surely you know Shirley ? She worked the lee shore at Shoreham.

20 hours ago, Purdey said:

Thais not only listen to you times, they listen to the context and can guess what you mean.

I bought a copy of the Fundamentals of Thai Language, read it, did the tests. Then read it again three times.

A friend said to me, Thai is all around you, on signs, billboards and menus. Try reading as it helps recognize words.

I learnt Thai from this book also. I had a Thai friend read everything for me which I tape recorded to get the correct tones. Then whenever I had 5 minutes , listen and repeat over and over.

I have nor seen this book around recently and they stopped updating it which was a pity as new vocabulary gets into all languages.

It is not essential to learn to read at first but as you progress it becomes clear that it is a no brainer and that being able to read will ne an enormous and indespensable help.

As an aside , many moons ago I was in a DK bookshop in MBK browsing language books when I chanced upon one written by a Colonel in the Thai army. Opening the book to page one there was a hand drawn close up picture of a womans open vagina with all the parts neatly labeled in Thai and English. Page 2 covered the mens ' bits '.

Page 3 then went to simple introductions and all was normal thereafter. I regret not buying that as a novelty item.

On 1/19/2026 at 7:39 AM, Evil Penevil said:

Majority of Jews do not feel safe in Britain and consider moving abroad, damning new poll finds

Right now , thanks to Netanyahu and Israel , jews probably wont feel safe anywhere , especially in Israel.

I have non practicing jewish friends in the UK and they feel entirely safe. Only the ones wearing fancy dress seem to attract negative attention.

On 3/21/2026 at 2:42 AM, Celsius said:

If a fat Russian woman were veering towards me I would be smashing that in no time.

Assuming you could find the correct oriface under the folds of skin. I guess you would have to follow your nose on that one. A bit like sex on a bouncy castle.

7 hours ago, Eloquent pilgrim said:

I’m a bit late to this party. I was hoping to see how you got on but realised that you cancelled and are getting a new passport in the UK.

I was ....... then they decided to have a war right in the place I was planning to pass through ( Middle East , Dubai ). Result is that although it is still doable , will have to be a non stop flight and as expected I can no longer do the round trip for 27,000 as planned , more like 38,000 with EVA .....and of course that could change.

So everything on hold for a month. If situation does not improve , back to plan A with VFS. Luckily I have a few months in hand as current passport still good for another year.

Got a 23 year old Vios that takes 91. No problems filling up anywhere.

It just goes and goes. Cheap motoring at its best.

1 minute ago, BritManToo said:

No, I'll end up homeless if I return to the UK.

If they were gonna give me free accommodation, food, entertainment and health care, I might consider it.

Just learn a bit of Afghani then pay for passage on a rubber boat....sorted.

It will eventually get demolished sure as eggs are eggs.

There will be no monuments honouring Trump.

18 hours ago, Thingamabob said:

I just can't see bombing resulting in regime change in Iran. It will take a huge number of boots on the ground to achieve that.

Historically , bombing other countries into submission has a bad track record with the exception of the nuclear bombs dropped on Japan.

As you say , its going to take boots on the ground to achieve regime change in Iran , and lots of them. Hardly going to prove popular with American voters.

I asked about this at my Bangkok Bank.

Even joint accounts need to go through probate before surviving spouse can access funds.

Tiresome and costly.

The bank staff just advised leaving my wife my ATM card so that she could withdraw the cash slowly after my death.

Not legal but that is what they said.

So instead , I got a decent safe , well hidden and secured and keep the bulk of my cash in it leaving only 100,000 in

the bank as a float.

Simple with instant access.

1 hour ago, JBChiangRai said:

Watching any petrol station in Thailand will tell you that the Thais think there's going to be a problem. They are hoarding fuel.

Drove to Bangkok today from Petchabun. Surprisingly , most gas stations had no queues. But just one had a queue of pickup trucks 200 meters long ?

Odd that unless others already out.

In our home town same. PTT long queue. Shell around the corner ...normal.

In any case the government should announce that filling up water butts on the back of trucks with gas is illegal. Seen that already

They might let it pass in an envelope with a little tissue around it. I still post envelopes to the USA but my order books have fallen off a cliff. Also experiencing non delivery of items sent obliging me to refund.The tariff calculations are so complicated that they have suspended accepting anything

larger than envelopes. If you live in a big city DHL etc might be a better bet.

This is not only Thailand. Many countries postal services have suspended accepting anything for the USA.

Great job Donald.

On 3/6/2026 at 11:40 AM, superal said:

Out of curiosity I just looked at one way flights from Bangkok to London . Most cheaper flights have a stop in the middle east and doubtful if they will fly but direct flights with Thai Air are sold out until the 21 of March and then they are 63,750 Baht one way , that's over £1500 . Also there was Norse air at over £5000 . Talk about a rip-off and jumping on the band wagon . How can they justify such massive increases ? Pure profiteering because of supply and demand and taking advantage of peoples predicaments .

As far as I am aware they are not incurring too many additional expenses . Shameful in my opinion .

A few weeks back I almost booked a return flight with Emirates to London for March 31st for 27,000 baht. Gonna have a long wait to see that price again.

2 hours ago, flexomike said:

what the betting line on how long this one will last?

If they kill him what then ? Will Iran roll over and give up or will they just name someone else ad infinitum.

It will just end up being whack a mole on a bigger scale.

Israel and the USA learnt nothing from Putins ' two week ' military operation. The up ramp is well lit. The off ramp is way off in the darkness.

4 hours ago, koolkarl said:

Democracy at work. Iran will end up looking like Gaza.

And Israel also. They will have more than a wailing wall before this is over.

What is it about Phuket that attracts all these low lifes from around the planet ?

Birds of a feather ???

My return flight with Emirates in May for 27,000 baht is pretty screwed now so nothing to do except wait and hope.