Rogie

A very good point. I too use an annual multi-trip policy and I know full well I ought to do that with mine, but somehow all those pages in very small type serve to put me off doing so. Most, if not all, policies have exclusions for 'high-risk activities' or require you to pay a higher premium, but some things are borderline so I've always intended to make a list of things I might do in Thailand that might not be covered should I have an accident.

Many gay men reserve the right to be outrageous from time to time . . .

Is there a specific variety of black pudding known as French? If so, how does it differ from the one we are familiar with in Britain? Very civilised.

Righty-O. Firstly let me get something off my chest: ". . . is not Kate Middleton’s increasingly visible baby bump. . . " to refer to her as such is wrong! It is ignorant and downright rude to refer to a married woman by her maiden name (unless she has declined to take the surname of her husband) so in this case not only is that wrong it is stupid. She is the Duchess of Cambridge. As for the diet referred to, yes I am familiar with it, and it does seem to have its fans. A female friend of the family announced she was 'on it' recently. I didn't quiz her as to its effectiveness. Maybe I shall next time I see her. There was an interesting programme on British TV back in August which I watched at the time and it definitely intrigued (I think is the right word to use) me. Basically the programme had a front man, the seemingly ubiquitous Michael Mosley, speaking with experts and proponents for two or three diets using the so-called power of intermittent fasting. The 5:2 diet was one of these and the one he fancied himself persisting with, should it come to that. Calorie-restriction has been touted as the way to extend life for a while now, at least I recall reading about it many years ago. That seems to work for laboratory mice, but what about us humans? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19112549 I think for the time being I shall continue with my daily intake of tumour necrosis factor, better known as a lovely ripe banana with the spotty skin peeled at the moment of optimum benefit.

Latest news from the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) meeting in Bangkok. Read more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21646863

The recent horsemeat scandal in Britain and some other European countries has made most people sit bolt upright and question the quality of the food they eat. There's nothing wrong in horsemeat, if that's what you really want to eat, and many countries have a tradition of eating it, although we in Britain do not. The problem is that the horsemeat has been found in cheap ready meals, the kind where the manufacturer is working to a budget set by the retailer. Some of these meat products are very cheap costwise and so corners have been cut, supply lines may become long and convoluted that's made it difficult to accredit exactly who's done what. I've decided to cut down on products where the meat is of variable quality and difficult to verify. I long ago stopped eating cheap and nasty sausages, although as the occasional thread on where can you get a good breakfast? will testify I am not alone in singling out the humble sausage as the main culprit in most fry-up breakfasts. Things like meatballs, tinned meats and ready meals such as lasagne and spag bol have been under the spotlight, and as one might imagine the easiest meat products for a fraudster to target are exactly the ones where the meat content is either a very low percentage of the meal (such as cheap lasagnes) or mixed in with other non-meat ingredients. So I am in agreement with Thaiworthy here. Processed meats and meals in general are often, sorry to say it, muck. I'm sure there are exceptions, maybe such as those very expensive meats you see in some delis - the posh Italian and German sausages but I haven't much experience of those.

For about a year I've been using 'cold-pressed' rapeseed oil instead of olive oil. It's a controversial oil in Britain with a chequered history and seems to polarise opinion. So far it seems ok but I haven't used it much lately for various reasons, whereas I used to use a lot of olive oil. I believe in north America it was known as canola oil. Many people in Britain don't like rapeseed and regard the vast fields of yellow as a blot on the landscape - others living in the country complain it gives them hay fever. I think I will continue using it as an experiment for the time being. I admit one reason for switching, other than for its supposed superior balance of omega fats, is because it's a British product. I'm snubbing a true Mediterranean product in favour of some snotty northern European upstart. Back to the original article in the NYT, I see a couple of experts are extremely sceptical, favouring variations on a vegan diet. I just hope they are wrong, so I am rooting for the Med. diet to be the winner as it appeals to me many orders of magnitude more than an austere vegan one.

I'd never come across monk chat until FH posted that banner. I hope you find one in Bkk TW. If you find one, please let us know how it went. I've always found the monks that speak some English friendly and approachable, but as I am not a Buddhist I haven't got any more out of it other than a pleasant exchange.

Good one Rich! Let's keep that to ourselves, the more people use it the more them mozzies will find a way to get us.

Thanks Abang for your great choice of singers. I wasn't meaning to criticise your choice of Tom Jones rather than Shirley Bassey. They are both super-stars. I agree better to spread the entertainment fairly. in fact I had no idea Tom Jones sung it in concert so that was an eye-opener for me. Barbra Streisand . . . look forward to hearing her soon . ..

Michael, I guess you meant to ask "Do we as a group discriminate against those that don't openly say, "I'm a Gay" or to those that refuse to label themselves?" I can't answer that question as I am bisexual. I don't go around wearing a T-shirt saying "Some people are bi-sexual, get over it" I see no need for that kind of thing as I am comfortable in my own sexual skin. However, if pressed I am happy to describe myself as bi-sexual, but would rather melt into the background, so to speak, but wouldn't go so far as to refuse to label myself. In the excellent topic Just a little family story (see link below) FH took us for a canter through 'high society', the lives of stars on the stage and in movies. It seems to me that many of those with money and position could flaunt themselves more or less as they pleased in private or semi-private, whilst the masses huddled together and got on with their ordinary lives (not stepping out of line so as to avoid any unsavoury gossip over the back fence). Societies now are a lot different to that prevailing between the wars and into the 60's and 70's. Therefore it may be more obvious now, but I suspect the numbers of men who would enjoy (If they safely could) sex with another man hasn't changed, just that more do so openly, with much less stigma attached. http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/topic/8567-just-a-little-family-story-in-the-form-of-a-quiz/?do=findComment&comment=63867

I well remember the Shirley Bassey version of I (Who Have Nothing), a top ten hit in Britain in 1963. For its size Wales turns out some great singers. I was rude to the Welsh in a recent post on another topic, so maybe I can make amends here. Go into a pub in Wales on a weekend night and sooner or later the vocal chords can contain themselves no longer. Others join in, and it makes for a great atmosphere.

The use of the term butterfly has been criticised on this Forum before. I don't like it either. I suggested pterodactyl but that term, hardly surprisingly, never took off!

The last time I sent an aerogram was to a friend in Burma. There was no internet and he didn't have a phone. The last one I sent must have been a few years ago, and internet shops are common in Rangoon now, although I'd guess they are still uncommon in rural areas.

Yes, I know si (pronounced 'see') is Thai for four. OK, hands up all those who say Rama 'four'? And now those who say Palam Si? As one happily falling into the first camp I have no intention of making a fool of myself by trying to be 'falung-clever'. Sorry to be somewhat dismissive, but I speak as a visitor; I think those of you resident in Thailand probably benefit from being a bit more streetwise so pronouncing roads etc correctly is perfectly reasonable.

It's quite a while since my last visit to a malarial area. The smell of DEET is unpleasant, but rather like cod liver oil (it's cheating to take the capsules!) if it makes you suffer you know it's doing you some good. Now it seems the best we can hope for is a false sense of security. Mosquitoes are clever but so are humans. A good example of that is sickle call anaemia, an adaptation to living life in an area where malarial mosquitoes are rife. But of course the timescale of humans and mosquitoes are vastly different. I wonder how many generations of mosquitoes can live and breed within a single human lifespan.

I haven't seen this film, and may never see it, but it's been shown at film festivals and at at least one cinema in Bkk (OP), and presumably far farther afield, so why the fuss? If there ever was a fuss. If there's been a fuss anywhere it's been shown then fair enough let's pause for thought and take that into account. But if not, why should we be the first?

Does anyone participating in this forum have female members of their family or friends who are in a same-sex relationship? I'm not trying to be nosy here, but it'd be interesting to know of their experiences, good or bad. I have no female friends who are in lesbian relationships, and the only (distant) relative, living in Australia, I have only met once and that was many years ago. I suspect her experience was far from unusual. She'd had two children with two different men, both of whom had done a runner soon afterwards, so her two daughters had never known a father. During my visit she was in a relationship with another woman and I understand they have since split up and she has a new girlfriend. It is not hard to see the reasons for her 180 degree about-turn. She was perfectly civil, but even though I was staying in her house, at her invitation, she didn't open up to me and I felt unable to broach the subject. It was a private thing and I wouldn't have felt comfortable intruding on that. As regards the presence of my relative's girlfriend, that was not a problem to me and it was clear the two children were living in a supportive loving home. Those are just the barebones of that particular relative. I have no way of knowing that woman's inner feelings and how she would self-identify her sexuality both past and present. When one considers the numbers of absent fathers, poor fathers and downright bad and even evil men, it seems to me that, especially as any lingering stigma attached to lesbians openly living together and raising children fades away, the numbers of lesbian relationships will see a steady increase. They may or may not involve children, but if they do, rather like in the video in the OP, the issue of suitablilty of raising kids is likely to find most people supportive. Not everyone will be of course but there will always be conservative folks who don't like the idea of two women living together, let alone raising children between them. If I was asked "what's better, raising kids as a 'single mother' or within a stable lesbian relationship"? that's got to be no contest. There is currently debate within British society concerning whether lesbian couples should qualify for certain medical procedures. Here is the outline: "Under an expansion of NHS-funded fertility treatment, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) will recommend that lesbian couples be offered six cycles of artificial insemination and, if that fails, IVF." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9872984/More-IVF-for-gay-couples-and-over-40s-on-the-NHS.html

Money-saving tip! Posters in previous discussions have said they spend a fair amount on their electricity bills owing to AC.

Re: the strawberry index Those prices quoted by FH look very high to me, targeting tourists and office workers. We still don't know what they cost in a traditional market in Chiang Mai. One if the tricks of the trade is always to make the product you're selling look attractive. Strawberry-sellers have it easy - a punnet of strawberries always looks a dream. And then there's cream . . .

I vote the axeman keeps his axe in its sheath

Why not set yourself up with a market stall in Bkk selling strawberries TW? Get Bob to buy them wholesale for you, arrange your own transport and as they are proven to be cheap and delicious just give them a healthy mark-up and watch them fly off the shelf.

Back in the bad ol' days of the Cold War, I sometimes pondered the awful consequences of MAD (mutually assured destruction) and bad dreams of missiles hidden deep below earth in silos being unleashed in an unwinnable war against the enemy. Then I would try and imagine a post-nuclear holocaust world in which mankind had to start all over again, assuming pockets of survivors being able to live through the so-called nuclear winter. Hopefully some libraries would have avoided destruction, maybe some technology and maybe the odd Nobel-prize winner or two, but how would we have managed? How many years would it have taken to get back to how we were before? That kind of awful scenario came back as I was thinking about the fate of Africa. A continent that has really had its ups and downs. I think we have to be careful in our consideration of timescales. Being able to witness so many changes in the world even in our brief lifetimes surely is something unique in mankind's long chequered history. When we look back on past centuries and even millenia it must seem like not much happened, and inmany cases that's probably true, but there must be many other cases where plenty happened, but owing to the passage of time and the loss of racial memory and any written record we know next to nothing today. A good example is Great Zimbabwe. I have never visited modern Zimbabwe but had vaguely heard of this old civilisation. I checked it out in wiki . . . . . . but then it came as a nasty surprise to come across this unsavoury fact; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Zimbabwe Here is an interesting map showing some pre-colonial African civilisations: Sorry about the small print size on the legend, but you don't need to be able to read it as the names of the various civilisations are clearly marked on the map. I haven't had the time to chase up any of the other ones shown on the map. I would expect there are history books devoted to Africa that would explore and explain these. I suspect it is a far bigger topic than any of us could ever imagine and maybe Bob touched on one of the reasons why they petered out when he said (my bold type) . . .: . . . as it's well known the industrial revolution really took off and thrived in places (towns!) such as Manchester where a critical mass of people worked and lived their whole lives. There must be countless other examples both pre and post industrial revolution. Bob mentions Japan. Then one thinks of 'ancient' Greece and Rome etc. Perhaps African civilisations were not too successful in forming and keeping the kinds of societies that are often the cornerstones of progressive thinking, leading to discovery and innovation. I'll leave it at that as it's all conjecture on my part, but suffice to say I cannot believe it has anything to do with genetics.

2 + 2 = 4 right, but there's no way you can compare the 'mature input' (I was going to write droollings but seems a bit harsh) of a 69-year old on GT, GBT or some others, with the scribblings of a four-year old still not out of nappies on that board. This is the 55th post in this thread You mean Praying to take the gay away doesn't work? By it's title it is implied it never was going to work. And indeed it appears it did not work in the case history mentioned in the OP. Maybe it has worked for some people, but on the whole I would be sceptical myself. To expect a gay man who has never felt any sexual attraction to the opposite sex, and who identifies himself as such, to be able to pray it away just doesn't seem credible to me. My guess would be that most if not all such gay men who choose to pray their sexuality does a 180-degree change have been pressurised to do so, either by the stresses and strains of living in an intolerant community/society or by the encouragement of some other religious individual or group. If the latter, what evidence do they have it works? True, Christians often say prayer changes things, but unless the person or church pushing this idea have real documented proof of its success they are hardly better than quacks and charlatans. Many people using prayer do so becasue it makes them more comfortable within themselves or makes them feel a better person (I don't mean better than others) - no harm in that. The problem is when prayer is used for selfish or unreasonable reasons. IMO praying to change your God-given sexuality is unreasonable. I have met many gay Christians, and whilst admittedly not knowing them so 'intimately' they'd share their innermost thoughts with me, I have never heard of any of them using prayer in this way. I would never go so far as to say prayer is utterly futile. As we all know the spectrum of sexual preferences is a very wide one so one might expect a religious bisexual person who wishes to banish his attraction for other men in favour of a 100% heterosexual lifestyle to stand a better chance of success, should he decide to pray about it. 'Success' or not, the worrying thing even then would be to ask why he thought it necessary to do that.

I've sent you a wink Abang. It should say it came from me; however although I am a member of the Message Board I have not registered a profile so it will be interesting to see what happens. I do not know why in your OP you just got a number, not the name of your amoureux transi Odd, unless your winker just goes by a number, as in Z909