The week that was in Thailand news: 2020 gets off to a flyer but 20/20 vision is lacking: Will lessons be learned?

[rooster59]

The week that was in Thailand news: 2020 gets off to a flyer but 20/20 vision is lacking: Will lessons be learned?

 

 

As a schoolteacher I always stressed to my students the value of making mistakes. We all mess up from time to time, I advised sagely, and we shouldn't be afraid to make mistakes. It's part of growing up.

 

The key was to learn from them and make sure that they were not repeated. I would only get cranky if they erred again in exactly the same way whether it was schoolwork or life in general.

 

For that there was no excuse and punishments and chats with parents beckoned.

 

For this columnist most of the mistakes and lessons I have learned have involved the roads and relationships with Thai women. I have somehow survived both by the skin of my still largely intact teeth.

 

In Thailand this week as the nation got off to a veritable flyer of interesting news, it was clear that many people had not learned their lessons (though it was a moot point as to whether they were making the mistakes for the first time!).

 

Many folks - Thais and foreigners alike - clearly don't enjoy the visual acuity of 20/20 vision - and might not have the mental acuity to last 2020 either.

 

I don't want to blame a victim of a terrible event but the demise of 51 year old Gary McLaren in Pattaya on New Year's Eve beggared belief. The lessons he should have learned about playing with fireworks as a kid or doing silly things while happy and drunk could have saved him.

 

Instead the likable man, by all accounts, found himself leaning over what was effectively a ticking bomb that he had just lit. The result - caught on mobile phone for a slathering world - was horrific. Rooster was left staring at a computer screen and a Line account wondering what on earth I could say to Jasmine who Gary was due to marry on January 17th.

 

She said politely that she preferred not to talk and I wished her well though I'm sure that sounded hollow. There was no need to press for details; what a huge footprint we leave on social media these days.

 

Like many posters I was left to ruminate on my experience with and the lessons hopefully learned concerning fireworks. As a primary school nipper we used to take one each to class in our satchels, a donation for the Guy Fawkes' bonfire night: "Here Miss, it's a Roman Candle, my six year old younger brother has got a rocket in his bag!"

 

British society in general learnt the hard way as public displays took over from the back garden idiocy that was parents and children celebrating November 5th. The yearly injuries had been horrendous but subsided as the public became more aware of the dangers.

 

I did all the silly things with bangers and emptying out gunpowder. These days I would not go anywhere near a firework. Asia saw to that.

 

In India I witnessed people throwing them at each other at weddings. In Thailand someone at Loy Krathong aimed a rocket at me at Chula uni. It burned a neat hole in my fake Lacoste shirt that I kept for years as a reminder not to venture out during Thai cultural festivals. I went to the Pattaya International Fireworks event in 2018 - and cowered in my beachfront hotel like a wussy pussy.

 

Fallout from the death of Mr McLaren - well known on the MotoGP circuit - was predictable. Thai media Amarin TV had some gruesome graphics and some tearful interviews. What was completely lacking was any police crackdown on the sellers of these "400 baht bombs" widely available in the streets, shops and online crannies of Thailand.

 

Some may say that would be the action of a nanny state they were glad to leave behind - my contention is that one can learn an awful lot from one's grandmother.

 

Azusa Uchida - a notable Japanese lady who is the wife of a businessman stabbed in a robbery near their house in Ekkamai in Bangkok - was determined that others should learn their lesson about being careful on the mean streets of Krung Thep at night.

 

She made my day with her positivity and refused to blame Thailand as so many hard-done-by curmudgeons with an ax to grind are wont to do. She told me the family will stay but be more aware and more careful in the future. Her eldest daughter wanted the two thieves strung up - hopefully plod who did a good job in snaring them will present a watertight case and the courts will act appropriately.

 

Uchida-san may have lived but the death penalty was given a couple of years back when the victim of a phone snatch died. This crime, not because it was directed against an innocent foreigner but because the victim was just an innocent HUMAN, deserves at least ten years rice gruel.

 

Thailand needs to learn the lesson of the leniency shown to serial killer Somkid the other week and act appropriately.

 

While the drinking of alcohol played its part in most tragedies this week, it was clear that the Thais - and the authorities - had learned nothing from the past when it comes to DUI.

 

I shall put aside the absurdity of calling the New Year period on the roads the "Seven Deadly Days". We all know that every single day is deadly in Thailand and the self-serving smoke and mirrors of concentrating on New Year and Songkran statistics does no one any favors. One minister wisely refused to celebrate a slight lowering in the carnage year on year.

 

About 20,000 drunk drivers were hauled into the courts nationwide and a judge in Kalasin needed to bring in judicial reinforcements to cope with the numbers. Naew Na claimed that nearly all the miscreants - fined 2,500 to 5,000 baht each or thrown in jail if the relos didn't have the readies - were first time offenders.

 

That I found hard to believe. Few drink drivers learn their lesson unless they are banned for a long time (which is enforced) and fined so that the pocketbook stings.

 

And shamed, yes, thoroughly shamed as that is something sorely lacking in Thai society when it comes to DUI. Let me explain; back in the mid 1980s I was teaching English to many Japanese "salarymen" in Bangkok.

 

They told me about what would happen to them if they were caught drinking and driving. Even with my British background it seemed unbelievable - loss of job, shame from society and relatives. Some even intimated they would need to get out a large knife and do something to their abdomen.

 

We all know that the Thais and the Japanese - despite being broadly referred to as Asians - are almost polar opposites when it comes to obeying the law. The Japanese exceed Germanic levels when it comes to law abiding, while the Thais see the law as a trifling inconvenience to be avoided wherever possible. Thirty five years after my experiences with the Japanese in Bangkok the Thais continue to die needlessly. Time's up.

 

Such death befell a 12 year old boy in Mrs Rooster's backyard of Loei. We are well aware of the treacherous nature of some of the mountain tracks in that province. So why did a family allow fresh-faced Withaya to kill himself behind the wheel of their pick-up?

 

Well I'll tell you why. It's because they were proud of him being "geng". And didn't want to upset him in case he threw a preteen fit.

 

Now they have no son. Frankly I hope they don't have any other children with which to learn their lesson. Meanwhile a road safety expert said it like it is (with a little help from Rooster's headline writing abilities) when he said that letting children get behind the wheel was tantamount murder. I chipped in my calling the Thai attitude "laissez-faire".

 

Well said Phrommin Kanthiya, but we're both shouting at the wind to stop it blowing as politicians and plod continue to "fiddle" while Thailand burns.

 

Some posters have told Rooster to button up, you can't change anything, it's their country. Rubbish! I refuse! I can be a voice for change and though I may be only a resident I have invested my entire adult life in this country, I love her to bits and no one is more patriotically Thai than me! So stick that in your pakkhama and smoke it!

 

Learning one's lesson and "The Darwin Award" seem to go cap in hand and a theme is developing on Thaivisa about dumb criminals and those who ought to slice off their manhood as a service to man.

 

Mentioned in dispatches this week was Seuppong in Sisaket who went back to the same gold shop he robbed to get a good price for his loot. The owner recognized him immediately while plod was surreptitiously called. Then there was an Italian who arrived in Bangkok with a 500 million baht diamond encrusted gold watch in his carry-on and expected to sail through Nothing to Declare.

 

He might have looked more like a bona fide tourist if he hadn't had an onward ticket for the same day. Duh! Now he faces a 61 million baht excise bill just to get his watch back. A senior government minister carrying a little extra girth was probably chuckling into his friend's Rolex. Hopefully that porker has learnt his lesson about wearing anything fancy for a photo shoot.

 

Tragedy struck in the Kaeng Krachan area of Petchaburi when four young men drowned after their canoe capsized. As a safety expert at an international school I used to tear strips off children if they were so much as standing at the side of a lake without a life jacket on - well before they got on a boat. Mind you I went to seminars and learned from professionals about the dangers of crossing open water.

 

I wonder if anyone had told the Kaeng Krachan guys about consequences, he asks rhetorically. Posters wondered how they all could die. Could they not have clung to the hull? Did people on the shore not hear their cries? I don't know what happened but people drowning have a tendency to kill their rescuers. And if there is one thing I learned from my training it is this:

 

Drowning is an almost silent death.

 

Down in Phi Phi a shopkeeper called for jail terms to help foreigners learn their lesson after ten had stolen from his premises in 2019. The latest was a rotund lass who made off with a cap. Two he had caught red handed were simply made to pay for the items and given warnings. No deterrent at all to engage in a thieving holiday. The forum bashers came out in droves to bang on about Thais engaging in most of the villainy, locals who "wai" after a "500 baht fine and a slap on the wrist". Nonsense. In my opinion, Thailand has gone too far in appeasing tourists.

 

The police in Pattaya were very kind to a woman - now was that a London accent I heard? - who was on the back of a motorcycle that a Thai man had said was stolen from him on Beach Road. The foreign rider scarpered. Now it's important to hear all the evidence, not jump to conclusions and not be swayed by stereotypes. Nevertheless, I'll go out on a limb and say that was a "slapper" and her old man wears gor blimey trousers and is a feckin' tea leaf.

 

As in all weeks on Thaivisa the tragedy and the seriousness was more than balanced by the sheer, unadulterated titter-fests. Far and away the winner was the municipality who thought they were behaving sensibly by erecting ten signs that said in Thai: "If you're drunk, drive slowly". The story hit Japan whose denizens had a collective guffaw. An old lady in the area and the official behind it defended the idea.

 

They are going to drink anyway, so slow 'em down was their message. May the Lord Buddha help them as they know not what they do. But the tragedy amid the humor is that when it comes to Thailand and the roads, there is an element of method in their madness.

 

Drama of the week was the hilarious story that Thai TV were blurring out plastic bags on the soaps like they do with fags, booze and guns (and like they don't do when the Isaan maid gets her deserved slap for being too dark skinned). The bags were now the new Public Enemy #1 after the January 1st D-Day to limit their use.

 

An environment ministry rep said they didn't have to do that - just cut the bags out of prime time where possible. A Thai Rath poll suggested that 80% of the population thought the government was barking. Only 80...they're slipping!

 

Horrendous crime was never far from the Thaivisa news pages. A former soldier jumped 18 floors after murdering his ex and slashing out at his mother-in-law. In Nakhon Sri Thammarat - a place in southern Thailand that I used to refer to as the murder capital of Thailand before I realized everywhere is - a man was killed after intervening in a roadside disagreement after a woman was rear ended.

 

I have to admit I have been there but lived to tell the tale.

 

Finally, this week I paid a courtesy call on the first wife at the house I bought for her twenty years ago in Pathum Thani. She likes to see my kids from my second marriage and is always delighted when I show up without their mum....

 

A while back I gave her an expensive bicycle thinking that it would be good exercise in her dotage. There it was under an awning, covered in dust and rusting with flat tires.

 

What happened I said? Can't be repaired she said. Why?, I said. "Because the inner tubes have rotted, you'll have to throw it away...." What is it about Thais and maintenance? What is it about gleefully throwing something away that can be repaired? Why do I give nice things to people only for them to be ruined?

 

And why haven't I learned my lesson?

 

Rooster
 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2020-01-04

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[Samui Bodoh]

58 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

Learning one's lesson and "The Darwin Award" seem to go cap in hand and a theme is developing on Thaivisa about dumb criminals and those who ought to slice off their manhood as a service to man.

Normally, I like to read Rooster's column on Saturday afternoon; it is a gentle glide into my Saturday evening. However, today I am livid! Outraged!

 

Twice this week I have seen Rooster get the Darwin Awards wrong (twice!!!), and I consider it a slight against gruesome comedy and crime against inappropriate laughter! It is a bloody disgrace. If he were Japanese, that belly-cutting thing mentioned above would be highly appropriate. If he were Canadian, he would be forced to wear a helmet 24/7 to prevent self-harm.

 

The Darwin Awards are NOT for dumb criminals.

 

"The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it in a spectacular manner!" (darwinawards.com/)

 

In case it is not clear, the operative words are "remove themselves from it (the human genome) in a spectacular manner". Or, to put it more simply, you have to die to get an award. And die in the dumbest way possible.

 

The Darwin Awards are for those truly, truly special people; using the name for common stupidity is a disgrace and should never be repeated.

 

 

Will lessons be learned?

 

 

 

[Jane Dough]

3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Normally, I like to read Rooster's column on Saturday afternoon; it is a gentle glide into my Saturday evening. However, today I am livid! Outraged!

 

Twice this week I have seen Rooster get the Darwin Awards wrong (twice!!!), and I consider it a slight against gruesome comedy and crime against inappropriate laughter! It is a bloody disgrace. If he were Japanese, that belly-cutting thing mentioned above would be highly appropriate. If he were Canadian, he would be forced to wear a helmet 24/7 to prevent self-harm.

 

The Darwin Awards are NOT for dumb criminals.

 

"The Darwin Awards salute the improvement of the human genome by honoring those who accidentally remove themselves from it in a spectacular manner!" (darwinawards.com/)

 

In case it is not clear, the operative words are "remove themselves from it (the human genome) in a spectacular manner". Or, to put it more simply, you have to die to get an award. And die in the dumbest way possible.

 

The Darwin Awards are for those truly, truly special people; using the name for common stupidity is a disgrace and should never be repeated.

 

 

Will lessons be learned?

 

 

 

There's been some evolution in the Darwin Award. 

 

It is now broader.....

 

Rooster

[Samui Bodoh]

6 hours ago, Jane Dough said:

There's been some evolution in the Darwin Award. 

 

It is now broader.....

 

Rooster

Evolution be Damned!

 

On the sixth day, God created the Darwin Awards.

 

On the seventh day, She laughed.

 

 

[canuckamuck]

I thought the people of Darwin had a fondness for halfwits, and gave out awards to their favorites.

[bluesofa]

 

17 hours ago, rooster59 said:

What is it about Thais and maintenance? What is it about gleefully throwing something away that can be repaired?

While quite a lot of Thais will throw away repairable goods, not all are the same.

 

Thirty years ago, my first Thai wife was a repairer, not a chucker.

She was motorcycle mechanic - out of necessity. Her Thai husband repaired motorcycles. When he became an alcoholic, she learnt to repair bikes in order to run the business he'd attempted to run into the ground.

(It was from her I learned the Thai for spark-plug - the translation meaning 'candle head'. Great!)

 

When in the UK our hoover stopped working, I took it apart and checked it with my meter.

The winding on the coil had gone open-circuit - the wire had broken inside it. I found out the price for a replacement. My wife was horrified at the cost.

She unwound the coil until she found the break in the winding. She soldered it and successfully rewound the coil.

The hoover went on to work for years afterwards.

[wotsdermatter]

17 hours ago, rooster59 said:

thrown in jail if the relos

First, what are relos?  Having reviewed all of my extensive resources, I have been unable to determine the meaning of the word.

 

 

17 hours ago, rooster59 said:

chipped in my calling the Thai attitude "laissez-faire"

"To err or not to err, that is the question?"  Is it, "...my calling ..." or "...by calling...". A slight typo or not?  Just curious and asking clarification because it can make a difference as you are aware.

17 hours ago, rooster59 said:

after ten had stolen from his premises in 2019.

However, in the report as written and as recollected by myself, the shop owner used Thai logic by saying "...about ten...".  Possible he was not sure due to lacking a good Rooster style education and not being proficient in keeping accurate count of proceedings because one year is a long time to recollect such events.

'nuf sed - from Canada, at the moment.

[Jane Dough]

38 minutes ago, bluesofa said:

 

While quite a lot of Thais will throw away repairable goods, not all are the same.

 

Thirty years ago, my first Thai wife was a repairer, not a chucker.

She was motorcycle mechanic - out of necessity. Her Thai husband repaired motorcycles. When he became an alcoholic, she learnt to repair bikes in order to run the business he'd attempted to run into the ground.

(It was from her I learned the Thai for spark-plug - the translation meaning 'candle head'. Great!)

 

When in the UK our hoover stopped working, I took it apart and checked it with my meter.

The winding on the coil had gone open-circuit - the wire had broken inside it. I found out the price for a replacement. My wife was horrified at the cost.

She unwound the coil until she found the break in the winding. She soldered it and successfully rewound the coil.

The hoover went on to work for years afterwards.

My first wife was very good at winding...me up mostly.

 

Once I found that the car - that should have been run about 900,000 kms was registering 600,000+.

 

She had learned that you could wind back time too.

 

Rooster

[bluesofa]

4 minutes ago, Jane Dough said:

My first wife was very good at winding...me up mostly.

 

Once I found that the car - that should have been run about 900,000 kms was registering 600,000+.

 

She had learned that you could wind back time too.

 

Rooster

She must have been listening to Cher: "If I Could Turn Back Time"

[Jane Dough]

34 minutes ago, wotsdermatter said:

First, what are relos?  Having reviewed all of my extensive resources, I have been unable to determine the meaning of the word.

 

 

"To err or not to err, that is the question?"  Is it, "...my calling ..." or "...by calling...". A slight typo or not?  Just curious and asking clarification because it can make a difference as you are aware.

However, in the report as written and as recollected by myself, the shop owner used Thai logic by saying "...about ten...".  Possible he was not sure due to lacking a good Rooster style education and not being proficient in keeping accurate count of proceedings because one year is a long time to recollect such events.

'nuf sed - from Canada, at the moment.

Apologies. That should be "rellos" Aussie slang for relatives, an acceptable Scrabble word. Relo is not...

 

By calling. 

 

Yes, it was something like nearly ten....translating Thai  when it comes to numbers is a daily headache for me on TV. Their approximations can still be confusing to me. Like "roi kwaa baht" is it 120 or 120 or...and "nap sip" is it ten fifteen or "more than ten"....

 

Sorry for the errors - my blood must be Type-O.

 

Rooster

[bluesofa]

29 minutes ago, Jane Dough said:

Apologies. That should be "rellos" Aussie slang for relatives, an acceptable Scrabble word. Relo is not...

 

By calling. 

 

Yes, it was something like nearly ten....translating Thai  when it comes to numbers is a daily headache for me on TV. Their approximations can still be confusing to me. Like "roi kwaa baht" is it 120 or 120 or...and "nap sip" is it ten fifteen or "more than ten"....

 

Sorry for the errors - my blood must be Type-O.

 

Rooster

Are you positive about your blood type?

[HappyinNE]

7 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

Evolution be Damned!

 

On the sixth day, God created the Darwin Awards.

 

On the seventh day, She laughed.

 

 

Rooster,

I had just read this late Darwin Awards.   You might be interested.  Has the definition.

 

• THE 2015 DARWIN AWARDS ARE HERE !!

  The 2015  Darwin Awards are finally out. T he annual honor given to the persons   who did the gene pool the biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily stupid way   Last year's winner was the fellow who was killed by a Coke machine   which toppled over on top of him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out.   This year's winner was a real rocket scientist... HONEST!   Read on...And remember that each and every one of these is TRUE. And the  nominees were:   Semifinalist #1 A young Canadian man, searching for a way of getting drunk cheaply, because he had no money with which to buy alcohol, mixed gasoline with milk.. Not surprisingly, this concoctionmade him ill, and he vomited into the fireplace in his house. The resulting explosion and fire burned his house down, killing both him and his sister.   Semifinalist #2 Three Brazilian men were flying in a light aircraft at low altitude   when another plane approached. It a appears that they decided to moon the occupants of the other plane, but lost control of their own aircraft and crashed.. They were all found dead in the wreckage with their pants around their ankles.   Semifinalist #3 A 22-year-old  Reston , VA , man was found dead after he tried to use   octopus straps to bungee jump off a 70-foot railroad trestle. Fairfax County police said Eric Barcia, a fast food worker, taped a bunch of these straps together, wrapped an end around one foot, anchored the other end to the trestle at Lake Accotink Park , jumped and hit the pavement. WarrenCarmichael, a police spokesman, said investigators think Barcia was alone because his car was found nearby. 'The length of the cord that he had assembled was greater than the distance between the trestle and the ground,' Carmichael said. Police say the apparent cause of death was 'Major trauma.'   Semifinalist #4 A man in Alabama died from rattlesnake bites. It seems that he and a   friend were playing a game of catch, using the rattlesnake as a ball. The friend - no doubt a future DarwinAwards candidate - was hospitalized.   Semifinalist #5 Employees in a medium-sized warehouse in west Texas noticed the smell   of a gas leak. Sensibly, management evacuated the building extinguishing all potential sources of ignition; lights, power, etc. After the building had been evacuated, two technicians from the gas company were dispatched. Upon entering the building, they found they had difficulty navigating in the dark. To their frustration, none of the lights worked.  Witnesses later described the sight of one of the technicians reaching into his pocket and retrieving an object that resembled a cigarette lighter! Upon operation of the lighter-like object, the gas in the warehouse   exploded, sending pieces of it up to three miles away. Nothing was found of the technicians, but the lighter was virtually untouched by the explosion. The technician suspected of causing the blast had never been thought of as ''bright'' by his peers.   Now, the winner of this year's  Darwin Award (awarded, as always,   posthumously):   The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering metal   embedded in the side of a cliff rising above the road at the apex of a curve. The wreckage resembled the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. Police investigators finally pieced together the mystery. An amateur rocket scientist.... had somehow gotten hold of a J A T O unit (Jet Assisted Take Off, actually a solid fuel rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport planes an extra 'push' for taking off from short airfields. He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and found a long, straight stretch of road. He attached the J A T O unit to the car, jumped in, got up some speed and fired off the J A T O! The facts as best as could be determined are that the operator of the   1967 Impala hit the J A T O ignition at a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash site. This was established by the scorched and melted asphalt at that location.   The J A T O, if operating properly, would have reached maximum thrust   within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to reach speeds well in excess of 350 mph and continuing at full power for an additional 20 -25 seconds. The driver, and soon to be pilot, would have experienced G-forces   usually reserved for dog fighting F -14 jocks under full afterburners, causing him to become irrelevant for the remainder of the event. However, the automobile remained on the straight highway for about   2.5 miles (15-20 seconds) before the driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4 miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125 feet leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock. Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable. However, small fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted from the crater, and  fingernail and bone shards were removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion of the steering wheel.   Epilogue  : It has been calculated that this moron attained a ground speed of approximately 420-mph, though much of his voyage was not actually on the ground.   You couldn't make this stuff up, could you? .......AND PEOPLE JUST LIKE THIS ARE ALL AROUND US, BREEDING &  VOTING!!!......SCARY THOUGHT, ISN' T IT ?!!!

  .

   

   

   

   

[mikebell]

22 hours ago, HappyinNE said:

AND PEOPLE JUST LIKE THIS ARE ALL AROUND US,

BREEDING &  VOTING!!!

But, in Thailand, their voting is irrelevant..... actually, so is their breeding as they abandon their babies at Morning Sickness time.

[Mark mark]

Year re the fire works death, I did not comment at the time, in respect for Gary, ... But Yearrrr ! bending over, face first, to a half KG fire work !!!! .... That HAD already been it !!! ....  as the posters on the blog, which is now closed, and you R, said ... Totally Crazy. .... A bit like looking down the barrel of a gun, and pulling the tiger, to see if there is a cartridge in there !!! ...

 

I have seen and done fire works since about 5 ? Like for about 60 Years now, and YES, the ones that go "Woosh" are the most dangerous, as people have less respect for them ! ... and do, often do what Poor RIP Gary did ... look in to them ... or accidentally point them at some one else ... before the occasional faulty and slow fuse, some times finally does get there, ... and sets them off, just a bit late !

 

.... The explosive ones though, ARE respected, as every one knows that they explode !!! ... So apart from the odd finger from overly brave young boys !!! They usually do not get the family ! ... 

 

"Pretties" and "Bangers" .... Have you ever been stuck in between the open Box of $50 worth of Fire works, .... and a Jumping Jack, lit some where else .... but jumping the distance back, to the box !!!  ... goes in to it, ! and sets the Whole <Deleted> lot off !!! .... Like Spectacular ! But Dangerously Frightening, ... and also a very quick end to Guyfawks Night !!! - Right ! 

 

... We used to have what were called Flower Pots, ... a "Pretty", that went Woosh ! ... but also had about 4 Bangers in it's base, that went off after the Woosh had Finished ... some times igniting a bit late also ! .... They always were a Great Danger to children ! who ran in to pick it up, when they thought that it was finished !!! ... But then it would explode !!!

 

... Around here they have just about totally phased out fireworks on Loy Katong, which I must say IS REALLY JUST BLOODY GREAT !!! ... And here, just a bit up country, ... they HAVE been seriously phased out. ... Like it used to be dangerous to go out, ... especially if you were White, making you an obvious and far better target right ! R .... And a tragedy for your ears even at home ! ..

 

But now here, they ARE OUT. The spent chemicals polluting the soil, and waterways being the official reason, ...  and well yearrrr ... Loy Katong, ... Saying thanks to the Water Spirit ! ... Yes nice not to pollute it ... very Much now !!! Right.

 

Yes, I can not disagree with you on the road toll situation though unfortunately R, ... I just do not go out on Christmas or New Year now !!! ...

 

Have a nice new Year R, and I hope to also continue reading you ... "What's on, well happend, in BKK" column also.

 

- Thanks.

 

Mark mark, ex Soi Don Tong Larn, doan the end of Soi Yipsong, back in the ? 80's ? when it still was there.

[Jaggg88]

On 1/4/2020 at 9:23 PM, Samui Bodoh said:

Evolution be Damned!

 

On the sixth day, God created the Darwin Awards.

 

On the seventh day, She laughed.

 

 

and on the eight day she declared she is Sapiosexual ????

[edwarda909]

I  started reading the post, but halfway got turned off by the recitation of individual events except for the major space given to fireworks, so I don't know if the writer dared to mention the lenthening of the smoky season up here in the north- already we are having more unhealthy air quality  days than otherwise. People, including myself, are looking at abortin their current stay here as well as the feasibility of cnsidering CM s a long term retirement option.  Where is the vision to address this?