Shiver

Or you could copy what the girl did and use a rental car, then if it all goes wrong just dump it (or sell it in a neighbouring country perhaps).

An ex-GF was once laughing so hard about a joke she just heard, and was struggling just to get her breath with the laughter. I was curious and asked what was so funny. The joke went something like this:

Two girls walking down the street chatting and giggling. A bald guy walking the other way stops them and says "You're laughing at me because I'm bald aren't you". The girls say "no, we were just chatting amongst ourselves". The guy says (and this is the punchline apparently) "ok, but you were thinking about it".

That was about 8 years ago, and the penny still hasn't dropped for me (English) as to where the joke is. If someone can explain it to me then it will get rid of one piece of misery I don't have to think about anymore. Call me slow, but this takes the biscuit.

I walked into a local restaurant/bar one day and they were all very surprised to see me. I asked why? I was told that they had been informed that I had both arms and both legs broken. I checked myself for breakages then gazed back at them. I asked who told them. "I don't know...." was the response.

"Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Acts of Beauty"

You get shafted sometimes doing that, and can feel like the world is against you, but if you can back up a little and take another look, there's invariably a great lesson being offered there for those that have eyes to see.

Luckily not I, though I can't claim it was from wisdom or foresight, it's just that I was skint at the time that anything like that might have been on the table, so I feel blessed that I had no money at that time (thankfully now recovered from that position to a reasonable degree), which gave me space to learn from the misfortunes around me to avoid duplicating the experience.

As for the topic of the thread, I just can't imagine what position someone would have to be in to decide to throw acid on another person. Cui Bono?

While we can only praise the admirable actions and empathy that the King displayed - full respect for that... I can't help but wonder if there are some readers here feeling a little disgruntled that they too donated a house and 200Kbaht and not get a TVF thread about them.

Sounds to me like the father thinks he's giving you a space in his territory/family and also believes you are abusing it (without consideration for who actually pays, as a westerner might).

I'm no expert in these matters, but my approach would be to define my patch elsewhere (even if it's a rented basic room) and ask the good lady if she wants to join you or not. The kid turd thing I would dismiss, and is probably just a final wind up after a bad experience and they're all being bundled together in your mind.

What I've always done (though I should say it hasn't worked out for keeping the relationship together, much to their cost in many ways, and mine emotionally), is I say "I take care of you, it's your job to take care of your family", give her the resources and let her decide how much of 'her' resources go to family. You might be surprised how frugal she can suddenly become.

In my own couple of cases, one followed the family wishes and 'ahem... suddenly' left for a suitor they found for her with more money (I had almost nothing at the time, but eventually rectified that as I had promised I would, but too late by then), and in the next one the family were firmly on my side as they saw I was a good provider and I sorted out a lot of crap for them (at arms length - I never wanted to become part of the tribe), but she found other ways to screw up, which weren't about relationship, but vice that these people get into. Both were obviously deal breakers, which hurt...

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't waste time trying to educate them in what you want it to be, just make your space how you want it to be without asking for permission, and let them opt in or out of 'your world'. For me that would be 'self > wife > family' (with a non return valve in that flow) and let her deal with the detail - she's got a lifetime of experience in that environment already, not your job.

The trouble with trying to get out of deflation is that it's controlled by a lever whose pivot point is near to one side rather than central, so you don't go gently from deflation to mild inflation, it tends to overshoot massively into hyper-inflation, and oops, end of yet another currency.

I wonder how much of what we hear/see that forms our opinions was manufactured rather than just reported as is?

It was my (not deeply researched, admittedly) thought, that religions were a personal thing, and not generally about violence to others. Qur'an and Bible seem to have a lot of crossover in their stories (as a non comprehensive example), though interpretations of both are legion.

We (I'm speaking as largely western observers), have fallen hook-line-sinker for the utter lies of our own 'perfect masters' that orchestrate this stuff at the expense of everyone else. We are victims of it too, though less so that those on the receiving end of a bullet or bomb, or their friends/families for that matter. I don't think anyone could justify to me how months old babies in another country as 'collateral damage' could in any way be spin doctored as a success in removing 'terrorists' (I don't mean Muslims, I mean the people instigating this kind of stuff on a mass scale).

If I lost a couple of million of my country folk and the 'opposition' (as projected to us) lost a handful, I would still be feeling pain.

I'm Western, and non religious, but I can try to stand in another persons shoes and see if I can understand the plight of more than one side - though it's a real nest of rats to untangle and not just a game of two sides.

A loss for one is a loss for all.

Hard to say with surety from those pics, but my guess would be he clipped the front of the Toyota with his rear as he was trying to squeeze his way ahead of it in the next lane, sending him into a spin.

The trouble with fast cars is they're built for survivability rather than repairability, with sacrificial zones, so damage is typically worse even if you don't end up upside down.

Do you have to take driving lessons when purchasing a car in this kind of performance bracket? Or do you just get the keys and allowed to go?

Seems the jobs they aspire to are about perceived status rather than what it entails to be good at those career choices.

I wonder if they would have said Policeman before May 22nd 2014.

I'm not a complete noob in financial matters, but after all those years I still don't understand why a low inflation is so bad.

I don't think low inflation in and of itself is bad. It's what causes the low inflation that differentiates it. After all, one feature of inflation is it being a stealth tax. It's a bit of an issue when there's lots of money being created and still the inflation rate isn't going up. That's a 'canary in the mine' signal of what's coming down the pike whenever an empire crashes (around about quarter past eight I think! - or maybe a century from now, who knows).

It's an incredibly contentious debate though, that has been going on for a long long time. I'm Austrian school (or is that Australian these days) rather than Keynesian, but at the end of the day there's always a common fly in the ointment - that there is always a 3rd party (Gov't related in one way or another), that tries to buffer the market to keep the right amount of money sloshing around to steer the economy. That operation has it's own costs, thus ensuring the need for more inflation.

As prices go up, the incentives to dodge the system increase as it passes different peoples threshold or comfort zone, and markets go underground, which means more Gov't rules to capture that, and so increasing their own costs and pushing the need for more taxes and inflation, until the weight of governance becomes a significant parasite (a 'good' parasite is one that can feed off the host without being noticed). Eventually the system collapses under its own weight. If you look back over many generations, it can be seen that there's a maximum load that will be tolerated (usually swinging around the 25-30% mark) no matter what measures taken.

I'll stop there as I'll get enough flak for what's written above already, and don't want to put lots of hours into a debate that isn't going to change anyones opinion.

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Give it a century and Bkk might remind you of Sydney.......................

Or like Venice, with floating market instead of Gondolas.

I wish I were able to explain that their dictionary is incorrect, and that Money, and Love are lost in translation. I wish that instead they'd just say they want Security. I guess it goes back once again to that old Pet Shop Boys song "I love you, you pay my rent".

I wouldn't have thought that those flimsy lanterns would be a problem for a jet engine. I have seen tests done on a Rolls Royce jet engine that managed to ingest a dead goose without problems

Yeah, but make sure you defrost it first.

(actually I think that frozen bird joke was in reference to a high speed train window screen rather than an engine).

[Edit]: This was what I was alluding to: http://www.snopes.com/science/cannon.asp

I'm not exactly well travelled (maybe 15 countries out of a couple of hundred - and mostly a tourist at that), but one thing that nags me is judging people by the flag they were born under.

We don't get to choose our birth place or initial nationality, but we can choose if we're going to be decent people or a complete [expletive]. I've met beautiful people by pure chance from all over the globe, often from countries that are not their own starting point, and never found that much correlation to where they were born (though our upbringing will have influence initially until we learn to make our own way).

Specifically, those that come from countries that are in mainstream media countries seem to be the kindest hearts of all. I don't proclaim to know why that is...just an observation.

While I kind of agree with the theme of what he's saying, I think he's going about it in a way that very likely would be deeply insulting to his target audience, and making a fool of himself.

Thinking back over the years, I've seen some truly stunning looking girls when in their natural state, only to silicone/tattoo/pierce/"covet the materialistic" their way into something quite undesirable (and I'm only talking about looks here, far from getting into learning what kind of person is behind the mask). I do get on my high horse about this sometimes, but in a way to try to convince them that they're beautiful already, and to consider the consequences, but my opinion is usually disregarded as fake (weird joke in there somewhere). The last girl I was with said 'she wanted my nose', and wanted silicone to build hers out. I did all I could to dissuade her (and I certainly wouldn't foot the bill for such an action), needless to say that relationship wasn't long lived. The body changes over time, but silicone doesn't, and tattoos distort - no backing out of either if you change your mind a decade down the road. Take a look at some of the older Hollywood stars.

I think if they went to the gym and ate well, they could be the best version of themselves. I say this as a middle aged bald farang with a little bit of a beer belly. I used to do what I'm proposing here, until I got to Thailand and realised that ATM is the trump card and that my appearance was a smaller percentage of importance to them (to my detriment and becoming lazy with it). My main selling point is being good heart/Jai dee, with a working ATM that has to be earned (you help me in whatever capacity you can, and I'll be helping you with your more sensible financial desires, but please don't sell yourself to me as a plastic blow up doll).

If I were looking for prize eye candy on my arm over everything else, I'd be changing relationships frequently. If they are looking for security for themselves and their family and a partner that is true but not a lottery ticket (even though I have reasonable financial resources, but that's my business to manage, not theirs), then I'd look deeper. When I see girls with a complex like this, I just think of "high maintenance". If I were back in UK where I come from then I'd say I'm looking for a "jeans and jumper" girl who is not afraid of breaking a nail. It's usually a bit warm here for that, so now it would be a "t-shirt and flip flops" girl, who might like to dress up occasionally for a special night out, but is also comfortable in her own skin to be able to shower and dress to leave the house as quickly as I would, without an hours worth of makeup.

I think I just turned that into a rant rather than staying on topic, so will stop now.

The day after the Dow Jones goes higher than ever before, and the Baht GAINS against the dollar - something seriously wrong !

There are a lot more digi-dollars in existence now than a few years ago, so even with zero growth perhaps the DOW has to increase it's numerical value to compensate(?). If it's just the best of a bad group of currencies then it may appear strong when actually they're all bad (relative differences sure, but in absolute terms it's a nasty dilution of purchasing power).

If you think of the price of gasoline/beer/cigarettes/sticky rice from half a dozen years ago or so, purchasing power for US citizens and Thai citizens alike aren't doing so great. I earn in EUR converted to HKD which is pegged to the USD (with wiggle room), before converting again to THB so I'm in the same boat but with an extra middleman.

I wanted to know about what papers are needed to open a business, but didn't know enough Thai words to express my intent. She didn't know how else to explain to me, so she switches over to English language, and proceeds to scour the paper dictionary I had at that time.... minutes pass.... "What is a Lick-and-Say?"

That put a spanner in my brain cogs. Eventually I went to look at the dictionary (obviously doing that trick of pointing to the line under her finger rather than what it's pointing at), and finally homed in on what she was referring to. It was "License".

There are some differences in understanding, that I think have been discussed here before, but for a recap, here are my two main biggies:

In UK if you flash your lights to someone, it is indicating that you are aware of them and giving way to them to let them out of a side road to the main road. Here is just means "be aware of my presence" so I have no way of indicating courtesy to say "you first", like opening a door for someone.

If I want to turn right, and I use my indicator as such, it seems to mean "okay, overtake me now", so that when I turn right there is someone on my right (usually past the centre line of the road) trying to kill us both. I don't mind what the use of lights are so long as we can all agree on what they mean.

Last accident (someone pulling out in front of me with their car when I was on a bike and I went over the top of the handle bars), luckily was immediately outside of a police box and they saw everything. Claim on their insurance and not mine (though gravel rash leaves it's mark), but all other parties could not be nicer to me after the fact, and the lady that was driving the car even helped me up the steps at the police station because I was incapacitated. Hard to be angry when they play nice, but better if it never happened at all.

My former boss in England used to say (in reference to "white van man" rage, if you can make eye contact with them in their rear view mirror, then they have to acknowledge you as a human being, then there will be no animosity. It worked. Two issues here though - tinted windows and non use of mirrors for rear view.

I remember my mum in the supermarket when I used to take her shopping once a week, and she'd push her trolley down the isle and suddenly see "Oh! Baked beans!" and leave the trolley in the middle of the isle, and I'd be "mum, think of people around you, you're blocking the thoroughfare" - never made a difference, so I was always trailing and managing traffic flow.

I see the same here, it's not just a Thai thing. If I drive a car here I tend to take it easy and go with the flow. If I'm on a bike I tend to duck and dive and do all the wrong things (undertaking, nipping between lanes when traffic is at standstill at lights etc since nobody else is working to the same song sheet...but, these days I've arranged myself so that I can do most of what I want within 15mins walk, but I see the same behaviour in pedestrians as well, with blinkers on, and they transfer that behaviour to the road). This isn't Thai bashing, it's just that people seems to be like that everywhere, except that in some countries you have to prove competence on the road first.

One last thing... I think at least part of the problem is that we have pedestrians, samlaw, tuktuk, trucks, cars, lorries, elephants, sidecars, all of which have different needs and behaviours, and all use the same road space (pedestrians can't always use the sidewalks since it appears that people treat the pavement outside their property as their own and you're forced to walk in the road). Try that on the AutoBahn (eek!).

Are our attentions spans so short nowadays we can only continue reading if the paragraphs consist of single sentences?

tl;dr (Too Long, Didn't Read).

They should have reduced it to zero.

A small reduction will not make one iota of a difference to those that drink and drive.

It will be interesting to see if the first person convicted appeals on the grounds that the rest of the UK is 80mg / 100ml.

I think it's worth having some kind of small limit.

Eg. Say you go out on a Friday night, and being responsible, you walk home. Next day you want to go into town to do some shopping, and have some small residual alcohol left in your system, that is legally currently considered acceptable. With zero tolerance it would be very disruptive to all parties.

I think if they put the focus on road safety this topic would get a lot less insults. It could also boost taxi/tuktuk business. So long as people know there is a lower/zero tolerance for riding/driving with alcohol over that period, and the police will be collecting their fees from you, then there would be time to plan ahead for your preferred festivities.

I mean I could stay in a friends house or my own (a Private zone), get absolutely loaded, and not be drinking in Public at any point, then get outside to my vehicle and be a huge danger to others and myself without breaking the ruling proposed above.

As for SongKran, how about a ban on talc or ice buckets to people on motorcycles who are not participants in the celebrations. I've had a scooter accident by being attacked with those and they just laugh at your injuries. If I'm in shorts and festive shirt on the side of the street then I don't mind being soaked, but if I really need to travel then I'd rather be left alone. One day festival would suit me (as a participant, that's my fill personally), not worrying about how I can get A to B without an accident.