richsilver

Of course all that hassle would have been avoided if you simply had your passbook or a copy of your ATM card or your account number.

I think a person has to be responsible for a little care when doing something as important as banking, especially in a foreign country!

I sent an email to Foodland earlier in the week, asking them if they were really building a facility in Jomtien. They answered today and I'm sorry to report that their reply was neither positive nor definitive.

Here it is:

Dear Mr. Richard,

We thank you for your support!! The plan for Jomtien Pattaya still not
confirmed. We will annouce through our Central Pattaya store if the plan is
set.

Thank you for shopping with Foodland Supermarket.

Best Regards,
Raviporn T.

Are you really sure it is a Foodland by the Royal Hill, Chris? That would be good news indeed!

I stopped in at Tops Daily early this morning (across from the Jomtien Complex and next to La Bocca) to do a little shopping and all seemed normal.

Sometime after that, however, they disappeared and the place is now a FamilyMart! This is very disappointing as FamilyMart prices are much higher and they don't carry the same things. Plus, there is already a FamilyMart a half block away and we certainly don't need another one!

Someday we'll have a real supermarket (Tops, Foodland, Best, Villa, BIG C, Lotus) to serve the almost 10,000 condominiums at View Talay 2, View Talay 5, View Talay 7, Jomtien Plaza, Jomtien Complex...

Luckily the FoodMart is getting better all the time. The prices are much more reasonable than they used to be and they seem to be stocking more items. But it is still not a full-fledged supermarket.

I stopped in this morning to look at the store and was quite impressed with the selection and the layout (I did not actually do any price comparisons, however).

Upon leaving the store, I noticed a large A-frame sign near the street had blown over and grazed my car (it was very windy today). There were a number of large and small marks on the hood and the fender.

An employee in the parking lot noticed the situation and promptly summoned the manager who appeared in less than five minutes. He was very apologetic, had one of his employees take photos and assured me he would pay for any repairs through my insurance company or his (my choice). He also instructed his employees to address the other signs so they would not blow over.

I was very pleased with his response and will keep everyone posted with the results.

My CAT HiNet here in Pattaya is down as well.

I did my 90 day reporting this past Tuesday about 10:30 and I was out in 90 seconds! No waiting whatsoever!

It is my understanding that most tomato varieties will not do well if the temperature is routinely above 90 F. Since that's a common occurrence here in Thailand, that would go a long way to explaining why many of us have had problems setting the fruit.

There is a variety that was recommended on another thread called Tropic. It is designed for high temps and is available online. I have not had personal experience, however.

Be careful with the temp in your oven for granite and parchment!

I had a thick slab of granite which I used many times in my old oven at about 500 F. The new oven, however, will go to about 600 F. When I heated the stone to that temp a black tar-like substance oozed out of the stone (maybe some sort of sealer?). It made quite a mess of the oven and of course ruined the stone.

I also discovered that parchment cannot be heated that hot: it starts to burn.

Since many pizza recipes call for getting your oven as hot as possible, I like to crank it up. I have found that the pizza stone I bought at True Value does the trick.

I have read that it will officially be launched in Thailand next Friday. So that day it should be available online in the Thailand Apple Store as well as authorized Apple sellers like PowerBuy, iStudio, etc.

True Value stores sell a pizza stone from America. I bought at the Pattaya store last year and use it for bread and pizza.

I have an iMac running Mavericks and I would like to be able to run Windows from time to time using Boot Camp. But I do not own a copy of Windows and must purchase one.

Has anyone had any experience with a copy of Windows 7 purchased at TukCom in Pattaya or Pantip in Bangkok?

Where can I buy them? (The fresh ones here are not the same as in the US).

A friend of mine tried to open a new savings account at a TMB branch in Pattaya yesterday and they told him they were no longer opening new accounts for Americans because of the reporting requirements from the US.

I hope this is not going to extending to existing American account holders.

I second everything you wrote. My only completely Thai conversations seem to be with taxi drivers in Bangkok. Whenever I start to speak Thai with a local, they respond to me in English!

So if a recipe calls for 2 Tbls of kosher salt all I "have to do is put it in a mortar and pound it a little to get the texture that you want." How do I know the texture that I want if I don't have any kosher salt to compare it to?

Anybody had experience with the Siam Sunrise Language School in Pattaya?

Anybody ever seen kosher salt in Thailand? Many, many recipes call for it and I used to use it routinely in the US, but here I can only find sea salt which is not the same.

I've been an E-Trade customer for years now and have been quite satisfied. There are occasional glitches transferring funds to Thailand, but nothing serious.

"Well, the wife and I popped by ACD for dinner last night, and had a meal of various Thai food dishes that was quite good..."

I'm happy you and your wife enjoyed your meal, but I would guess that most diners would not be going to the Angel City Diner for Thai food. The restaurant promotes itself as "A true American diner in Bangkok." I think the place should be judged for its American food, not Thai food.

I was very much looking forward to the place opening when I first read about it, but I have read so many bad or mediocre reviews, that I have not bothered to go.

The only SAF yeast that my Makro (Pattaya) carries is SAF Gold which is for sweet breads according to their website:

"SAF-Instant® Yeast Gold Label is recommended for the following baked goods:
• Croissants
• Sweet Breads
• Danish
• Sweet Doughs
• Variety Breads
• Donuts
• Hearth Breads"

But they do carry the Fermipan Red which is what I use for bread baking.

The East Tapas lounge in the Complex does a very good buffet on Mondays beginning at 7.

I switched a couple of weeks ago and I'm running at much higher speeds (usually about 3 Mbs here in Pattaya).

I have had good luck with the Najomtien Animal Hospital on Sukumvit near Lotus. 083-615-8881.