GinBoy2

Only one for us, watch it every year.

Dengue sucks, had it twice Both times I felt like my head was going to explode, and those bone aches thought i was gonna die. Is there any evolutionary reason mosquito's even exist other than to cause havoc

This must be a new thing I've never flown on a business or first class ticket that didn't give you lounge access. But things change and the airlines gotta make a buck somehow And I should add, when I said you always get lounge access with a biz or first ticket thats International. In the the US even if I have a first class ticket I need to be a club member to get access to the lounge. I can can happily recoup my annual United Club membership in free drinks! lol

Well of course you will be able to use the Business lounge of the airline you ultimately chose in BKK. Not sure what you mean about when you get to Paris. You'll only be able to access the lounge if you have a business class connecting flight

I'm assuming this kid isn't your's and you're the stepdad Can't believe that a Doc in the UK wouldn't prescribe medication for the symptoms you are describing, better than smuggling it in!

It'a fools errand going down the 'how many people are gay' rathole. Nobody get's 'converted' it's just who we are, so 10% 20% it doesn't matter. Like I said in an earlier post, in my teenage years, my most formative my best friend was gay. Did he covert me, or equally importantly did I covert him? The answer of course was no, we both grew up to men happy in our individual sexuality, and shock horror we could still be best buddies

Well we're with you on that. We're both working on Christmas day, but we talked about this and Mrs G is gonna cook my favorite Kai Po Lo (aka sweet eggs) and I'm going to make a Sopapilla (Mexican Cheesecake) for dessert

All I would say is beds. The bigger the bed the better. We have stayed in hotels where the beds are so small, you can't get your space. In both our homes in the US and Thailand, we do King size. MrsG is a terrible sleeper, she writhes around causing chaos. I get into bed assume the position and don't move. If I had to sleep in a bed small enough that her writhing around would bother me, I'd be in a separate bedroom too!

Good point, you don't find a lot of cranberry bogs outside of North America

Well if they are, they better be pretty fertile. Out of all the foreigners resident in Thailand there is only something in the order of 200K from western countries. So boyz to achieve Bob's theory, you all better be fathering a couple of hundred kids!

Well back in the day very few of us had real sex ed, thats why Dad's porn was sex ed. Thats why kids free access to today's porn is dangerous. I have two daughters and one son, and I think me and their Mom's had pretty frank discussions about sex at the appropriate age. But they are all old enough to be before the internet porn revolution, so they never had access to any of what todays kids can be exposed to at a really young age, and I say young not appropriate age! Thats why I say, I'd never want restrictions on what adults can see, but I have evolved to say restrictions on what children can see is needed, and parents can then have those conversations

Parsnips are odd in the US, really depends on ethnic family background. I'm hispanic, I'd never eaten a parsnip in my life, maybe seen them in a grocery store, but my ex wife, full bloodied white family were probably stowaways on the Mayflower, she cooked them. Can't say I'm a total fan, and probably wouldn't cook them for myself, and my Thai wife most certainly wouldn't eat them. But not bad as part of some roast meat dinner

My thinking on this has evolved. I'd say not a male on here didn't as a youth rummage through Dad's sock drawer to find his secret stash of porn, it was for many of us sex ed But was different, it portrayed a stylized version of 'regular' sex'. Even the teenage male brain I 'think' got that. Compare that to todays online porn that any kid can access. Todays porn doesn't represent that stylized porn of regular sex, it's often more violent, more degrading and extreme and thats unfortunately what a lot of teenage boys now accept as 'regular' for their sex ed A mature adult brain can see the difference between reality and fantasy, not so sure a 14-15 year old boys mind can tell the difference

That explains my colonial confusion with the name

I'm American, but a total Anglophile spent several Christmas' in the UK. I'll list the No's; Turkey, can't stand it. I hate it for US Thanksgiving, dry and tasteless Lack of turkey rules out the cranberry sauce Christmas pudding, needs lots of alcohol poured over it to make it worthwhile Mince pies, I'm on the cusp. I have an English friends wife who has made some fantastic ones, then I've bought some online which were terrible On the Yes side; Roast potatoes English stuffing, that paxo stuff, which I don't think is anything really like real stuffing but I like it Brussel sprouts are a given Rutabaga, your swede. It's considered a bit of a poverty food in the US, but I love it Pigs in Blanket. Is that a UK thing? I always thought of it as American. Gravy, well is the Pope Catholic!

So the original topic was TV with homosexual content. Well nobody forces you to watch anything, if a gay character or plot doesn't offend you in any way go ahead, although I hardly see a TV program suddenly changing you sexual life preferences and turning you over to the 'other team'. If you are that worried about the profound effect it will have on your sexuality, well just go watch Fox News for the rest of your life, you'll be fine. Even Downton Abby had a gay character, but I don't somehow see the period drama crowd suddenly turning rabidly homosexual!

Well I can probably count the number of times I've had sex with the intention of procreation on two hands With both my wives when we decided to have kids, I thought, Yay off to the races! All three times, fertile damn young stud I was they were pregnant within a month!

Hmm might be right there To quote George Smiley 'The zealot is always hiding a secret fear'

It's funny how things have changed since I was a kid. I think most of us here are of an age when in our youth the reactions to anyone being gay was totally different. It never bothered me in the slightest, in fact my best friend in HS was gay, I knew it, he knew I knew it but it never affected our friendship. Of course back then it was a secret never to be discussed. Now we're both hispanic, and back then it was a real no no in our culture, and we never talked about it to anyone Years later, a mutual female friend called me, and said "did you know **** is gay?" I replied "of course I do, I've always known" But that was the level of secrecy back in the day, didn't live in New York or San Francisco, but rural California Central valley just didn't accept that men or women could be gay. Thankfully, for the most part people have evolved, with some exceptions just read this thread. My friend after he came out has had a lifelong relationship, adopted a son and now has two grand daughters

I must admit that was the unfortunate scenario that was going through my mind

Well, couple of thoughts. Firstly I'm American, so it doesn't affect me, but it's kinda made me feel somewhat more kindly towards USCIS! But on a serious note I'm assuming this shuts down any hope of most UK retirees in Thailand ever taking a family back to the UK, should circumstances ever make them need to repatriate?

You are a little enigmatic 're history' I'm American so have no clue about the UK visa system, but you also don't say what visa she is applying for! But all I would say is make sure you understand the issues regarding 'history' and that they have never been glossed over in a previous application. That is the kiss of death for any farangland visa application

Sorry, simple answer to the question is No

I've had dengue twice, both times extremely unpleasant thought my head was gonna explode. Both times started off feeling like a cold for a few days, them BAM woke up feeling like a helicopter had landed on my head. Not sure how the transition to hemorrhagic dengue works, but it's odd that this poor fella transitioned so fast in a taxi to the airport. For most dengue you just retire to a very dark room, tons of ibuprofen and tough it out

Yeah I was. This is an ongoing issue with all the virtual addresses. Financial institutions have over the past few years become increasingly good at detecting CMRA addresses, regardless of whether they 'look' like a regular street address, and look at the multitude of threads that have been on here regarding banks, brokerages dropping folks due to a lack of a physical US address. It's the same with VOIP phone numbers, they look real but many banks will detect them and they won't work for 2 factor authentication. So my recommendation for Americas Mailbox was that it works great for screening and forwarding mail, does enable you to become a resident of a tax free State fairly easily. But they like ALL the CMRA forwarding services run into the issues I highlighted above