trainman34014

From the moment I open my computer everything on the screen is 5 to 6 times larger than it should be. No matter what tools I use I cannot bring things back to normal size. Too much colour too and even all my stored photo's are like colourblindness tests and all just grainy. Don't know why or how it began but any help appreciated.

Sorry if this is in the wrong section.

Thanks bluweyze. Got a car, so that might help. Like to check it out. Can you kindly point me in the right direction of this Baan Tawai. I got a map of Chiang Mai but hard to find with no clue where to look.

Take 108 (Hang Dong Road ) until you reach the very middle of Hang Dong and a set of Traffic Lights. Turn Left and just follow the road to Ban Tawai, it's only about 5 minutes and on the way you will pass a lot of wood shops that make furniture etc and some have the odd painting but in Ban Tawai village there are a few who sell paintings.

orang - "giant chicken and turkey farms".

I know everything is bigger in the USA - but just HOW big were these giant chicken's and turkey's?

I was once invited to a thanksgiving dinner at a private residence in the US and when I looked at the size of the Turkey that had been prepared I genuinely thought it was an Emu or Ostrich ! Never seen anything like that size in Europe so them US Turkey's is big !

I grew up in Petaluma but I do not eat Amy's Baked Beans

What is a socialist?

The one thing I learned in graduate school for my policsci degree was that labels are really only used by news outlets and politicians for the sole purpose of dividing the masses because no one has a clue what they really mean

I didn't grow up in Petaluma bit was fed on Baked Beans at least twice a week in England. These days I buy them from Rimping which seems to be the connection that keeps this thread running, but my teachings about Socialism were similar to yours. People who believe that a 'Socialist' is the opposite to a 'Capitalist' are blinded in some way. After all; Strauss-Khan is supposed to be a leading Socialist and he owns several homes in various glamorous Cities around the World and was recently staying in a $3,000 a night hotel in Manhatton. Isn't this much more like a 'Capitalist' would be living? Divide the people enough and they will believe anything.

A striped keelback , we get tons of them here. Non venomous , but the large ones will give you a good nip if cornered.

Chequered Keelback is the name and there are a lot of them around Hang Dong as they love water and usually enter your garden looking for small rodents,toads etc. Fairly harmless but as stated will give a hard bite so let it be or guide it out somehow. If you touch it too hard with a broom or whatever it will rear up like a Cobra.

When you see wrong being done, who you gonna call? The BIB? 5555555555.

Well that's the problem isn't it.. The police are behind most of Thailand's crime and calling them can unexpectedly create a chance of you being personally victimised... Vicious circle.

And those that say it's the same in the west? seriously, is it? Wake up.. Try and bribe a UK bobby while slobbering out of your car drunk.. And how many police are selling drugs, DVD/software piracy racketeering, running brothels, clubs and gambling dens? How many assassins are running around at election times in Europe, Aus or US?

Sure we have corruption in some aspects of law and order but don't ever compare it with Thailand's total joke of a legal system.

Agree 100%. Easy answer for people is to say 'It's the same everywhere', but it's not. I believe this is one of the top five countries in the world for corruption and it's hard to see how it's going to change when the kids are brought up on a diet of dishonesty from their parents and being told that they can never be 'blamed' for anything they do wrong.

I have taken the public bus from Pattaya to Morchit a number of times and I try to get a seat up the back because one time when i did sit up the front I was constantly looking at the road and at how close the driver would come to other vehicles.

Nerve wracking to say the least.

Thailand is still relatively safe however compared to places like Saudi Arabia or other Gulf countries. Driving in the Gulf states is a real eye opener.

Actually; it's safer to drive in most of the Gulf states with your eyes closed !! Probably more chance of staying alive.

English lesson for the Terminally European: 'bathroom' is a polite word for 'toilet'. [ Also: 'wash room', 'rest room'. ]

If bathroom is the polite term for toilet then that makes toilet impolite.....INCORRECT...nothing wrong or impolite with the use of toilet...you'll see thousands of signs saying "toilet" all over UK ...unless you're implying that the British are impolite in which case (deleted expletive).

My Collins dictionary:

Toilet = a small room with a bowl-shaped fixture for the purpose of discharging wastes from the body

Bathroom = a room with a bathtub

So on Thailand's buses we see Toilets NOT Bathrooms.....

most of the time, they gave me a seat at the back where these toilets usually are.......

the smell's like hell ..........

Need to improve that too.

Doh !!!! Book earlier and you can ask for the seat at the front that you would like !

that's REALLY one of the things i lurve about living here ; people mind their OWN business

Mind their own business. I don't know where you live but all I hear is gossip and everything but minding their own business.

Well said; certainly in village life here people seem to spend most of their time talking about OTHER peoples business, normally concerning sexual gossip or other folks money.

If NCA don't go there; I don't go. They are the only Bus company in Thailand with Vehicles and drivers that can be trusted.

Make Don Mueang an airport hub for private jets

That is the funniest comment from Taksin , how many private jets are coming to Thailand ? He tried to attract wealthy people in here with his Elite card , a total flop ... There is nothing in Thailand to attract wealthy people , specially those who owns private jets , they prefer to go to Mediterranean in summer and Caribbean in winter. Its normal to promise the moon during campaign , Taksin isa good at it .

No; you don't get it, the idea is to make it a hub for HIS private jet !

I was collecting Mrs R, off the (2 hour late) Bangkok-Air flight, yesterday and happened to see that the last flight due-in was a TG arriving about 23.00. So no late-flights, out of Swampy, I'm afraid.

Yes, that was what I was afraid of. My flight lands in Bangkok at 11.39pm, so i'll be stuck till morning. Any idea how much the Bangkok Airways ticket is?

Last time I was at Swampy all night I got lucky and caught the 8am Bangkok Airways flight for 990 Baht but it varies from day to day depending on bookings. Desk opens about 6am.

Even with all your experience of living here and having done several deals before you still end up frustrated in such a deal. I think the point you have probably missed from all that has gone before is that you should have asked the salesman FIRST if he had the book BEFORE you started to negotiate a deal. I know it sounds simple in hindsight but that's life isn't it. Anyway; you've given us all a headsup and we can all learn from your frustrating experience so thanks for that.

My view on the 'Face' aspect is stuff it. Thai's might let it bother them but we are not Thai's are we !

More interested in the kiss. Will it be a full smacker, a kiss on the cheek or the royal hand?

Ladbrokes the bookmakers are actually taking bets on this and I believe the 'full smacker' is favourite.

I read somewhere that they won't actually kiss in the ceremony, because it's not allowed by the Church of England. That would be awesome if they scandalize the church with a full-on snog But I highly doubt it!

Hang on ! When I was daft enough to get married the Vicar said 'You may now kiss the Bride'. Always allowed in Church of England to my knowledge.

The 'Gross drunken farangs' are probably not in any fit state to recognise an attractive woman if they saw one, so why do the BG's need to be under 30 and eye candy? I think the bar owners have the right idea; employ cheap old slappers to keep the drunken clients happy. Meanwhile, those who are looking for a decent woman are far away from Loi Kroh that's for sure.

It's on live on TV channel 7 from 2pm Thai time. They are streaming the whole days action live from London.

Does this moo ban have security and if it does are they worth the name?

Do any moobaans have real security? They mostly have guards, many of whom often sleep most of the night and perimeter walls that are easily to get over. There may be exceptions but where in CM?

If you mean Watch Towers with Machine Guns, Razor Wire, Ferocious Dogs Et al the answer has to be no. However; the Mooban we live on near Hang Dong has a very large security team that do 24/7 2 hourly patrols throughout the village with checking in points in almost all soi's. We have 4 entrances, 3 of which are closed after 7pm and I can vouch for the fact that we have two men on the remaining gate that are awake all night. In the 15 years that the development has existed there has never been a burglary. Could be just luck of course but I put it down to the possibility there are not many poor people or drug addicts in the area.

It is indeed a strange April,weather wise.This time last year and the year before it was dry as a chip.Not complaining its lovely to see everywhere so green and the smoke season,thankfully, didnt really happen. Where is Get Lost to give us the rain fall figures comapared with past seasons ?

Don't know about comparative rainfall figures but I do know my lawns were half dead this time last year and I was forever filling in quake-like cracks all over the garden. This year my lawns are lush and the ground is soft and almost muddy to walk on. I hope 'climate change' comes back again at this time next year !

Does this moo ban have security and if it does are they worth the name?

Ohhhhh, you lot are terrible.

You are describing my 2nd favourite meal. If I'm ever on death row my last meal will be steak, eggs, chips. Oh dear me, I'm off to cook now. grrrr.

Would imagine your last meal on Death Row in Thailand would be watery rice soup and that's yer lot pal. That is; if there is a last meal !

Some people have kids.

Some big kids like Choccy too !!

get yourself a sugar glider the cutest thing you have ever seen and much more fun that a rabbit

Because it needs to glide I presume you have to build a fairly large cage?

No, Karaoke is NOT safe!

John Denver karaoke sparks killing spree

08 Mar 2008 A gunman in Thailand shot-dead eight neighbours, including his brother-in-law, after tiring of their karaoke versions of popular songs, including John Denver's Country Roads...

"I warned these people about their noisy karaoke parties. I said if they carried on I would go down and shoot them. I had told them if I couldn't talk sense into them I would come back and finish them off," he added.

And apparently The Guardian said:

Karaoke rage is not unheard of in Asia. There have been several reported cases of singers being assaulted, shot or stabbed mid-performance, usually over how songs are sung. Frank Sinatra's "My Way" has reportedly generated so many outbursts of hostility that some bars in the Philippines now do not offer it on the karaoke menu anymore.

And I remmeber the big story in the 80s of a very famous Hi-So architect who shot and killed a guy who was hoggin gthe microphone...

Karaoke is clearly extremely dangerous. If you absolutely must drunkenly sing along to Yesterday, use body armor.

No surprise here really. I've been wanting to murder people who can't sing but think they can for many years. Difference is, this bloke actually went and did it !

It's due to the Super Moon!

What is?

So all those small stalls I see with the odd English sign are paying fees? And who exactly is collecting these fees and what are they doing with them?