Rogie

I hope it isn't catching on - it would be a shame if the 'Up to YOU' Thai culture is destroyed by do-badders. As part of my contribution to Ruskie-bashing, is it any wonder they're all mixed up? - half in Europe and half in Asia . . .

Understandable. You've said some nice things about GT, so allow me to return the compliment and say I will most definitely be looking OUT for the magazine of which you are the editor (I hope I have that right) on my next trip to Thailand.

I walk a tightrope, on the one side the so-called healthy option and on t'other side is the greasy spoon grub. Most of the time I eat muesli, with bits of freshly chopped fruit added, for breakfast along with mugs of tea and that's it. I have either milk (full fat 4%!) or yoghurt with it, and recently switched to a soya-based yoghurt which must make me very cultured as it contains S.Thermophilus and L. Bulgaricus. But when away from home I often plump for the 'full English breakfast' but even then hardly ever eat the fried bread. I had some at the weekend and it was like a trip down memory lane, but I won't be making a habit of it. The main problem with a cooked breakfast as I see it isn't the fats, it's salt. After a few days by the seaside over the summer staying at guest houses and eating the fried breakfast each morning, after a few days I took stock of just how much salt I'd been eating, salt in the bacon, in the sausage, in the bread or toast, salt in baked beans, and no doubt other stuff too. It was nice to give my tastebuds and blood pressure a rest and revert to my muesli once i got back home. The frybread sounds a lot better than fried bread. Pity about the croissant comparison though as I dislike those. Why? Well I think it's because they are seen as being 'continental', something those Frenchies eat and as you know we Brits are very insular and suspicious of anything like that.

Is frybread the same as what we call in Britain fried bread? Fried bread is just bread either dipped or soaked in whatever you cooked your fry-up in, so if for example you have cooked some bacon then that's the fat used to fry the bread, which is done after the bacon, eggs etc have already been cooked. Are these greens the same as what we call in Britain greens? Our greens are like a sort of cabbage but looks more like a cos lettuce. They're about a foot in length and a few inches wide. The leaves are fairly loosely packed and a very dark green when mature (the outer leaves).

Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper in typical 'coarse' language had this headline recently: Dirty Money: One in seven bank notes and one in 10 credit cards have traces of poo http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/dirty-money-one-in-seven-bank-1379439 Dirty Money: 90% U.S. Bills Have Traces of Cocaine http://open.salon.com/blog/somyr_perry/2009/08/20/dirty_money_90_us_bills_have_traces_of_cocaine I agree it does seem the ladyboys are disproportionately implicated. One reason might be most might not look very hefty, but the majority have not had a full sex change so are 100% man. They can pack quite a wallop if the have to, which means if they are challenged by a would-be pickpocketee they most likely will be able to escape. That might explain why fewer girls/young women do this kind of thing, but it doesn't explain why ladyboys seem to outnumber men. Perhaps if we take a late evening baht bus journey as an example: if you see a young man with tatooos and toned body hop on, unless you are very drunk or very green, you'll watch him warily. A ladyboy may well seem less of a potential threat to the majority of baht bus users - although ex-pats and readers of this forum will know better.

Look what the wind blew in . . .

Thank you Michael for a wonderfully honest snapshot of your life and family. If this is the one you are referring to TW, I couldn't agree more. Quotation from the Guardian article in the OP: Neither are the vast majority of gay, lesbian and bisexuals! Just as the man in Fountainhall's OP, after meeting a lesbian friend in a bar "started to question his beliefs and religious teaching", which flung him wholesale into a completely unexpected and quite astonishing direction - which could have ended in disaster - came out the other side a changed man, so too did fate completely change another man's life. I first read this account two or three weeks ago and it made such an impression on me I saved it as a bookmark. Andrew Marin was "the biggest Bible-banging homophobic kid you ever met", and it was absolutely clear (to him) that Christianity and homosexuality were incompatible. But over the space of three months, three of his closest friends told him they were gay. "One by one, each friend told him that they were gay - and he says the news came as a complete surprise". Those encounters challenged his comfort zone utterly. He could have beat a hasty retreat, and I guess most men with such a background would have done so; effectively a victory for their religious beliefs over tolerance and any effort to try and understand lifestyles different to their own. In his own words: "I didn't know what to do. I thought there was no way my theological belief system could ever line up with my friends' way of life, so I ended up cutting ties with them.". But Andrew Marin says that over the following months, he believed God was asking him to get back in touch with his friends and apologise to them. Here are a few exerpts. See the link to the BBC website for the full article. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15034651

Re: the God Made in Heaven posters. I can't read your mind obviously so have no idea to whom you are referring. I think all the regular posters have their Made in Heaven moments - those posts where we put our heart and soul into it. Perhaps in doing so we risk leaving many readers scratching their heads In bewilderment, but that's usually because that poster is genuinely interested in that topic, which does carry the risk he may not take the casual reader with him. In my opinion we have a good cross section of posters, each of whom has his own personality and lifestyle. That happens but in my experience 'serious' topics are rarely totally derailed. Things may go off on a tangent but usually they are just following a natural progression which is largely influenced by the various posters' own knowledge and opinions. Don't forget some topics get dozens of replies so it is only to be expected that the final post may bear little resemblance to the OP. If we were restricted to only relying on-topic in every thread, with the threat of being deleted if we deviated, then you are probably right, we would leave.

This is certainly breaking new ground as far as I am concerned. Being a Brit, I don't read the Onion although I had heard of it before. I assumed it was satire along the lines of Britain's Private Eye (a fortnightly magazine). Satire has a long history, probably as long as early man's first use of language, although it would have been more like teasing. The wikipedia page has a good intro: Satire, is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon. Just as we have black humour, so my impression just at the moment of this piece in The Onion is that it's black satire. I would be interested to read what other's think as does strike me as quite disturbing. The satirist is either very brave or very foolish, and as I'm still trying to absorb its impact, I'm not sure which.

Oh dear, the pheasant plucker's life is not a happy one (with apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan)

a. I assume that's the inbox where you get messages from the other part of the GT Board. It's nothing to do with the Message Board (which uses PM's which are accessed via the Messenger icon) as far as I know. I never get anything in my inbox, although other lucky members have. I have no idea why if you do have messages they are not retrievable - perhaps another glitch so that the Message Board isn't 'talking' to other bits of the site. b. Bob is right. Nobody else, as far as I am aware, can add a comment either. c. I have no idea why that's happening. I haven't heard of that problem before.

Don't worry, you exist all right. I think there's a bit of a glitch some where in the software so the 'scoreboard' as you so aptly name it isn't always right. Some while ago I commented on another poster not being visible as being on line when I knew he was as he'd just posted! He replied to say the same about me. He knew I was on line but my name hadn't appeared in the scoreboard even though according to my PC I was signed in.

Papa David's was ok, they did have an enormous choice of breakfasts but the quality was only average. My problem when faced with a big breakfast at very reasonable prices is I tend to overeat. For that reason an omelette with potato (preferably hash browns or sauteed potatoes rather than chips/fries) is a great choice. Perfect when rounded off with a mug of piping hot tea (make sure the water they use to make the tea is freshly boiled!).

This year's winner of ther Tour de France, the cyclist Bradley Wiggins has said recently that basically "there but for the grace of God go I" and admits the pressure within the cycling fraternity to do as everyone does is immense. So if your team is doing drugs, you either have to join in or 'get thee to a monastery'. Wiggins was grateful that the British team, of which he was a member, hadn't gone down the performance-enhancing drugs route. Plenty of people have weighed in on the Jimmy Savile saga. I don't have anything original to add, except perhaps to speculate why he behaved as he is alleged to have done. By all accounts he cynically exploited the innocence and naivety of young girls, there was no love, no attempt even to make an effort to give the girl at least a fleeting sense that he cared for her. No, if ever somebody fitted the expression "wham bam, thank you ma'am" (or more like, " . . . thank you Miss") it was Savile. It fitted him like a glove. Why should be have been so single-mindedly coarse? I suspect there must have been some childhood trauma in his life, abused by a relative or maybe a bit later on his heart was broken by a girl. He became a wrestler. He seems to have developed a hatred of women. Maybe he was a misogynist. Savile was a real contradiction: outwardly he was a bundle of laughs, kids loved him, a terrific ambassador for charitable causes. Inwardly he was cold, ice cold. Ice cold and scheming.

Pickpockets on baht buses would be out of a job if everyone made a point of walking along beach road at night. Be sure to have your Rolex (genuine - preferably diamond-encrusted) on display as well as your 2 baht 22 carat gold necklace and equally chunky and glittering bracelet. The young men and ladyboys on their motorbikes - usually with an accomplice riding pillion - really appreciate it if you could take the trouble to walk as close to the road as possible. Whilst you are being eyed-up by all and sundry, it may take you by surprise to be accosted by a young man or ladyboy who rushes up to you from behind and who must have been walking a few paces behind you. The newcomer is chatty, and seems so eager to please and whose company is so pleasant you suddenly feel quite lonely after he's /she's gone. Reaching your hand into your back pocket fails to locate your bulging wallet. Ever-obliging, you'd only walked a hundred yards or so from an ATM where you'd withdrawn 20,000 baht.

There seems to be quite a number of farm days depending on which country. Thailand has:- 1) a Farmer's Day, which was either 8th or 9th May this year 2) a National Rice and Farmer's Day which was 5th June this year 3) a Royal Ploughing Ceremony (coincides with Farmer's Day) - some history follows . . . In the ceremony, two sacred oxen are hitched to a wooden plough and they plough a furrow in some ceremonial ground, while rice seed is sown by court Brahmins. After the ploughing, the oxen are offered plates of food, including rice, corn, green beans, sesame, fresh-cut grass, water and rice whisky. In Thailand, the rite dates back to the Sukhothai Kingdom (1238–1438). During John Crawfurd's Siam mission, he noted on 27 April 1822 (near the end of the reign of Rama II) Keep it simple khun Pong. Nobody could possibly confuse your use of the word for as being the opposite of against.

I think it's a mistake to make up your mind (i.e. saying whether you like it or not) knowing what 'value' others have put to it. I do like this, the word I'd use to describe this Arab boy is insouciant. I don't really care whether he's 'worth' 15 bucks or 15 m bucks. I don't like the Rothko and I'd say the same whatever his supposed worth to the cognoscenti of the art world. Yes I do. Another Arab boy. I am a bit disturbed by the background though, which looks like an iron grating. I do hope he isn't in a prison. Very difficult to make out what he's thinking as his eyes are so downcast, or appear to be - the light could be deceptive. I can't sum this one up with a single word, it's a bit too intense. How come Bob gets all the fun? How about the rest of us?

Afraid not. Not something I wrote I hope! Good reference to Perdue. I hadn't heard of him before.

Well if it wasn't DEET what was it? One can speculate till the cows come home, but when two young women die in such fashion people should try their best to fully investigate all possible avenues. Just imagine how their family and friends must be feeling being told one thing and then being told, no, it wasn't that, it must have been something else. One common factor in these investigations is how long it takes for creditable answers to emerge. That might be explained in part by the complexity of toxicolgy tests, but it often seems there's quite a dragging of feet on the Thai side. I assume all known 'date rape' drugs would have been tested for, as well as a variety of insecticides including the one implicated in the Chiang Mai hotel deaths. It seems strange two healthy young women can die after an evening's drinking. I would have thought if it really was something in the drink, unless it was a deliberate 'poisoning' by an unknown hand, there would be many similar cases appearing, most of which were just a really bad hangover or awful stomach cramps or any of a range of acute symptoms. Acute symptoms but not fatal. I t seems they had drunk a cocktail with deet in it but it wasn't enoughto cause an accidental overdose. The explanation they were deliberately poisoned either in the bar or once they were back in their hotel has to be a real possibilty in my opinion. But why would they be killed? I've certainly no idea but I've read enough accounts of incidents in which westerners are targeted by locals and suffered the consequences. Young women walking alone along the beach late at night being raped and killed, men taking other men or women or ladyboys back to their hotel room and being robbed, etc. I don't want to come across as anti-Thai here but there does seems to be a section of Thai menfolk who do stupid things without any thought for the consequences, both to themselves as well as the victim(s).

I don't know the difference between cold type, letterpress or hot metal, so am walking on glass here. Are the bits of type all separate like in a game of scrabble, and you put them together to make a word like the picture in post #49? My guess is, just as a real life the chicken needs plucking to make it clean, and ready to cook, so the chicken plucker's job in printing is to go through all the type making sure everything's nice and clean, and if it isn't it's his job to clean it. If so, it must be a thankless, tedious task just as it must be plucking real chickens for Col Sanders . . .

That was a nice, thoughtful post. I would just add that visitors to Thailand need the right attitude. It's fine to let your hair down a bit but don't let yourself go (to the dogs). Michael is right, it doesn't matter what age you are, whether you are bald or have a thick 'mane', are tall or short, fat or thin, wealthy or just Mr Average. But let's be realistic. If you dress sloppily, can't be bothered to shave, get drunk and abusive, and generally behave like an arrogant slob, you might still find a few takers, but you will be deluding yourself if you think you are somehow better than 'them'. You will be despised. You might still have a 'good time', but please, just because there is someone out there who says he loves you, don't let your standards slip.

The trouble with uttering or writing so vehemently is your righteous indignatiuon will carry the majority of your listeners or readers but there will always be a minority whose ears and eyes prick up and in whom some kind of automatic reflex tells them it's all bunkum, surely the object of scorn has some redeeming feature. They listen to the music carefully trying to be objective and open-minded. I wonder if the writer of the Vienna paper had taken the trouble to listen to the violin concerto a few times. Just listening once, knowing you have to make an instant judgement in order to make the deadline for the morning newspaper, is hardly fair either on the composer and soloist, but also on the reviewer himself. It would be interesting to see how their artworks fare at auction in the decades to come. Short of a totally unlikely utopia in which extremes of wealth and poverty have been eradicated, as said earlier there will always be people with surplus money to spend. Here would be a good test: It wouldn't work with an aesthete but would with a banker-type: I wouldn't mind betting you come into their office and hang a classic painting such a Canaletto on the wall and ask if they like it. Most will say yes, and many will recognise it as a Canaletto anyway. Then do the same with a Rothko or something similar, asak them if they like it and they might of course nod their heads but more likely they'll mutter something to the effect they're not sure. Tell them it's theirs for say $1,000 and chances are they'll say "no thanks!" Tell them it sold at Christies a few years ago for $75 m, but it's theirs for a knock-down price of $50 m, his eyes'll light up and he'll get his cheque book out (well he won't as cheques are on the way out but you get the drift).

Let's round it up to $87. "Two Rothko's sir? We can sell those to you for $150, discounted price provided you pay in cash. The artworks are rather large sir, are you sure you have space for them on your walls" Certainly a tad more than two brass farthings. I apologise earlier for omitting the brass, it is important the farthings are brass ones. As there seem to be a surfeit of m's floating around (see Britishisation of American language thread), for me to omit the 'm' after the 86.9 was a monumental blunder. I believe there are websites devoted to scouting the 'net for just such slips, and by alerting their members giving them a chance to grab a real bargain, but TW got there first. Watching a short video of Rothko's son gave me a laugh, might even warrant a rare LOL. Apparantly the secret is to sit or stand (it helps if you are in awe) in front of your chosen Rothko and spend a long time contemplating it, thereby somehow absorbing its true meaning and significance. He was also supposedly a master of blending, or blurring, the sacred and the profane.

Or so I thought after reading one of his paintings sold for $86.9 Yes indeedy, his Orange, red, yellow painted in 1961 fetched that amount at an auction in New York back in May this year. http://www.bbc.co.uk...canada-18001432 I know I shouldn't speak ill of the dead, but when I saw the object of all the fuss I decided I didn't think it was worth two farthings to rub together. And just recently one of his 'works' (can't bring myself to call them paintings and more) got a nasty surprise. http://www.bbc.co.uk...london-19879650

The religious one has echoes of Harry Chapin's fine song ... Flowers are Red The little boy went first day of school He got some crayons and started to draw He put colors all over the paper For colors was what he saw And the teacher said.. What you doin' young man I'm paintin' flowers he said She said... It's not the time for art young man And anyway flowers are green and red There's a time for everything young man And a way it should be done You've got to show concern for everyone else For you're not the only one And she said... Flowers are red young man Green leaves are green There's no need to see flowers any other way Than they way they always have been seen But the little boy said... There are so many colors in the rainbow So many colors in the morning sun So many colors in the flower and I see every one Well the teacher said.. You're sassy There's ways that things should be And you'll paint flowers the way they are So repeat after me..... And she said... Flowers are red young man Green leaves are green There's no need to see flowers any other way Than the way they always have been seen But the little boy said... There are so many colors in the rainbow So many colors in the morning sun So many colors in the flower and I see every one The teacher put him in a corner She said.. It's for your own good.. And you won't come out 'til you get it right And are responding like you should Well finally he got lonely Frightened thoughts filled his head And he went up to the teacher And this is what he said.. and he said Flowers are red, green leaves are green There's no need to see flowers any other way Than the way they always have been seen Based purely on those lyrics, one might guess Chapin was an agnostic or atheist, and it seems likely he was. He died in 1981 tragically early, he was only in his late 30's. Here is what's written on his gravestone (courtesy of Harry Chapin wikipedia entry): Oh if a man tried To take his time on Earth And prove before he died What one man's life could be worth I wonder what would happen to this world