Rogie

I think that's great to see and hear about(or understandably just hear about in Bob's case) so many lovely young men. The pride you all feel for your special friends is heartwarming. Alas I cannot add mine to this thread as I no longer have a Thai boyfriend.

I could understand an organisation like the Tea Party if their natural 'home', in this case the Republican Party, was wishy-washy / just a little right of centre, but reading that last post the current incarnations of Republicanism come across as obnoxiously right-wing. I would like to think that the 'man in the street' Republican voter is nothing of the sort and is a jolly decent fellow. So why the need of the Tea Party? Does the Tea Party reflect the views of Joe-average Republican or is it some awful monstrosity that has risen out of the depths and is thrashing around happily causing mayhem without the need for accountability?

The adverts that intrigue me are the ones that show a before and after shot. This might be for a weight loss programme, showing a dreadfully overweight individual on the left and sporting the svelte new-look on the right. That must be very tempting for advertisers to 'doctor'. Other examples might be an ad for hair restorer for men facing male pattern hair loss, or for firms undertaking plastic (cosmetic) surgery or dental work. Just as wrinkles could be airbrushed away, presumably the opposite trick could be perpetrated - the 'post treatment' photo could be genuine, but the 'pre', showing lots of unsightly wrinkles in the wrong places, skillfully added by sleight of hand.

Taken from the Grauniad article quoted above: Ah, Plan B - the answer to all our woes! Britain's Chancellor is being urged to change tack in order to stimulate a very sluggish economy. Rather like a dodgy bit of prestidigitation, guess what he might conjure up out of his sleeve? Why, Plan B of course. . . Nice interweaving comment here from Fountainhall: It seems the Tea Party are being rather vocal in this debate. Can anyone explain in simple layman terms what the 'Tea Party' are and what they stand for?

Whereas Gaybutton would surely be on pole position to make a 'go' of this business proposition if you could entice him to leave Pattaya, hang on a bit, there is another worthy contender, none other than Thaiworthy, who's moving to Bkk in the near future!

It's very easy for journalist's to get all indignant from the comfort of their office, but I found this article fair and balanced. Andrew O'Hagan, writing in Britain's Guardian newspaper recently: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/22/no-stomach-starvation The article refers to something called Plumpy'nut; not familiar with it I looked it up (using a link conveniently provided in the above article): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plumpy%27nut _______________________________________________________ Not to invite comparison in any way to the plight of children in East Africa, but I was surprised to come across this article detailing a rise in cases of rickets in parts of Britain: Cases of the crippling children's bone disease rickets are being seen in Cardiff, BBC Wales has learned. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-14256950

I agree, and whilst I am not the world's greatest debater, I love contributing. Many of them were fun to do and many others made me reflect on my own experiences before hitting the keyboard. Others made me gen up on my facts before posting. Rather like chess, or even a game of scrabble, where one's mind is racing with the endless possibilities open to you, I find writing similar as very often when I start a sentence I don't know in my mind how it will finish. But if you don't start the sentence one thing is for sure you'll never finish it! I know it's not that marvellous a word - 'lurking' - but for any of our readers out there who have yet to take the plunge, what's stopping you? If you're reading and not contributing, as Michael implies, you're really not getting the best experience. Some of my contributions have been pretty mediocre looking back, but I can think of only a few I regret making. Just as chatting with a group of friends, tossing ideas back and forth, or having a good old argument, is much better when done with humour and with respect for others, so I would argue the best results are obtained on message boards when you treat the contributions of others in a way you would like to be treated yourself.

I am sure that is true in many countries, but certainly not in the UK. ASH, Action on Smoking and Health, was formed in 1971. It's a 'campaigning public health charity'. http://www.ash.org.uk/home They have recently issued a report - Tobacconomics http://www.ash.org.uk/information/tobacco-industry/conduct/tobacconomics We talk about 'peer pressure' an expression that's more often used in conjunction with younger people. So to say, as Fountainhall already has, that peer pressure plays a significant role in a young person's mind in determining whether he starts smoking or not, is absolutely right. It can also work the other way. Whereas until fairly recently (the 1980's) in the UK smokers had the upper hand, the ball moved over to the other foot some time ago. Many reasons for that (ASH being just one example) of course but let us not forget the power of peer pressure. Unless he is in a group with other smokers, a smoker, surrounded by non-smokers, would I imagine, feel quite uncomfortable or at least feel conspicuous, smoking in public in a way he never used to. The average non-smoker is now much more likely than he once would have been to make his disapproval felt should a smoker intrude into his perceived 'air space'.

There's a short (minute and a half) video of Room Club if you follow this link: http://www.gaythailand.com/forums/topic/5893-room-club-pattaya-gay-hotel/

Yes indeed. You've really got to watch out for those street food vendors these days - it's only too easy to choke on your noodles!

And so is the tale of retired

I think we would all agree this is a tricky area. Some of us like to dot all the I's and cross the T's and have it all worked out in our mind what is going to happen. Others either through preference, shyness or inexperience leave what happens later to chance. As we all know, even when bedroom activities are perfectly choreographed (in your mind) beforehand, things don't always work out as hoped. Everyone with reasonable experience of offing boys knows many of them simply want to be in and out of your bed with the minimum of exertion whilst extracting the maximum gratuity. The way these boys can 'cheat' us lovable oldies is beyond my comprehension. :

I agree, on this evidence, it's not straightforward! There's a very important comment right at the foot of that document: It's all down to the interpretation. What happens in a pathology lab is the 'lab tech' does all the hard work and leaves it to others to interpret the results he produces. The 'others' could be an experienced senior laboratory scientist or a clinician. Some labs take it upon themselves to interpret a result and some leave it to the clinician (a medically qualified person). If I was running a lab doing this sort of test I would ensure the diagnostic criteria were calibrated against a number of known positives. Known positives from amongst your resident population. Experience will determine whether the pattern seen in any one WB strip is consistent with that seen in known proven positive cases. If the person interpreting cannot do so with confidence he should request a repeat, perhaps also discretely satisfying himself the lab's quality control(**)is impeccable. What happens if a person being tested for HIV was infected less than 3 months ago? I've no idea what his WB would look like. Presumably he would give a clearly (ultimately false) negative result or it would be equivocal in which case he'd be told to submit a repeat sample at some future date. I must add I have no experience of WB or indeed any HIV diagnostic tools, hence my responding in a very general way. There is without doubt many complexities in this procedure (WB) I am unfamiliar with. ** (Quality control has two forms: internal and external: in the latter case, samples are distributed from a central authorised source to participating labs and the result(s) returned to it. Only the distributing source knows the correct result, in this case +ve or -ve. Any lab regularly producing 'wrong' results will be investigated).

Yes indeed, after reading all that I'm feeling a bit bored with plain Mister today - maybe I will dig around my home village and see what I can come up with. Old Giorgio was a bit of a greedy guts: in addition to His Tremendousness, he was also His Highness Giorgio I, and the Prince of Seborga. Be interesting to know if there was an heir. . .but even if there is a Giorgio II somewhere out there it would be his jolly rotten luck to an unassuming, reluctant heir - probably pretty UN-tremendous in fact. How about Her Voluptuousness? - would have to be a woman really, don't think many men would fit the bill; the late George Melly maybe, or Barry Humphries (but he's already a 'Dame').

I'm confused why discussion of the election should be forbidden. The key wording seems to be (as quoted in a previous post) "internet users are warned not to violate electoral laws by making comments in favour of or against any political parties online after 18.00 hrs of 2 July 2011 until 4 July 2011 . . ." Especially as exit polls have been released and publicised as soon as the voting finished at 3pm, it would seem to me in order to post about the election on this Forum provided we remain neutral in any comments we make.

Good article in Britain's Telegraph today (as I write). Here is an extract

Shouldn't be too hard to conduct some objective assessment here. Maybe some of you recall at school where the biology teacher asks you to go home and ask all your relatives if they can roll their tongues or not. Oh well, maybe some of you never got round to that. How about setting your Thai friends a tongue twister. Courtesy if Wikipedia I found this: "ชามเขียวคว่ำเช้า ชามขาวคว่ำค่ำ" Chaam khiaw kwam chaaw, chaam chaaw kwam kham - The green bowl is upside-down in the morning, the white bowl is upside down in the evening.

Oh dear, CAPITALS - looks like I've severely tested your patience HeyGay. Well actually your info and my info were both correct! I got 'my' info from a message on Baht Stop that said they'd be back on line 'by the 30th'. Today's the 29th, so the info Baht Stop posted via myself on this message board proved right.

A most excellent analysis made by Fountainhall, KhorTose and Bob. I seem in an 'existential' mood tonight so please forgive my musings, perhaps brought on by Bob's rather dismal but apt (see below) use of the word morass. Greece is in the grip of a 48 hour general strike - watching the riots in Athens on television as the dire political situation in that country deteriorates, one is struck by the incomprehension felt by the average (non-rioting) man in the street. Those Greek citizens interviewed by the BBC wondering what they did to deserve this. They just got on with their everyday lives as they have always done, and then whoosh, the rug pulled out from under their feet. One can understand the various feelings of the people . . . rage (the rioters), anger, disbelief, puzzlement, denial, apathy. Who is to blame? I wonder what these same people were thinking not so long ago. They knew their country was in trouble, but did they know to what extent? It would seem likely to me most people (other than the politicians entrusted with sorting the mess out or a hardcore of troublemakers) just got on with their daily lives . . .a shrug of the shoulders perhaps or a dismissive wave of the hand at the government. "It can't be that bad, can it?" But it is. . . and it isn't going away. It's all a terrible nightmare. I wonder what the average Thai is thinking as he contemplates which box to tick in four days time. Has he thought beyond the weekend to the months and years ahead? If so, has he really any idea how it might all unfold? Does he feel empowered and optimistic his vote will go towards changing the system for the better, or does he feel a dead weight in his stomach that whatever happens he'll be swept along by events way outside his control. A victory for democracy or yet another defeat? 1932 - an awful long time ago - it must seem almost meaningless. I expect some of those feelings the protesters in Greece (I use the term protesters to include anybody taking to the streets, rather than rioters which although the focus of news media is not a fair description of how most people behave) are now showing must have applied in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand last year in April and May's protests. At the end of the day the genuine/peaceful protester's worst nightmare must be that it is all in vain. Nothing he can think, nothing he can do and indeed nothing anybody can do can make a real lasting difference. Morass 1. (Earth Sciences / Physical Geography) a tract of swampy low-lying land 2. a disordered or muddled situation or circumstance, esp one that impedes progress (Collins)

Should be back by tomorrow 30th

This is what appears at the foot of the message screen you refer to in your post #2 above Michael: Invision Power Board v2.1.7 © 2011 IPS, Inc. Is that what you are referring to? If so, then anyone with malicious intent can see that and will know instantly if the site is easily hackable or not. Usually I would agree! But the title of this thread Baht Stop is down, is a lot more respectful than Another one bites the dust, much as we all love the Queen original.

I fall somewhere in the middle, between you two guys. In fact it was Bob on Gaybutton's forum who effectively encouraged me to get this trilogy. Like Fountainhall, I did feel the 'strange' names and towns are a slight drawback, but I expect I am not alone in doing this - whenever I come across a name not essential to the plot I just skim over it. Rather in the way I do when reading an article or message board post featuring several long-winded (to me at least) Thai names. Unless the name is one I feel I ought to memorise (eg. Yingluck!) I just gloss over it. My reading strategy for 'thrillers' is to pack them in my bag and read 'em on holiday. I ration myself to one Larsson book per trip. So far I have been to Thailand twice since buying the trilogy so am 2/3 of the way through. Like Bob I was soon swept along and very much enjoyed the first two. Probably my most serious dislike are the large numbers of coincidences in the plot. I guess most thrillers rely on that to a degree so maybe I'm being too fussy. Still good books though. Thank you Rainwalker. I checked your recommendation out. Here is a link to a review in Britain's Guardian newspaper. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/18/windup-girl-paolo-bacigalupi-review and here is a snippet taken from that review:

If there's any farting going on around here I'd say the smell came from that link you so gratuitously supplied Mr HeyGay. I've only read that blog once but that was enough for me! Others who love gossip and reading the views of a ridiculously opinionated person may well love it. Not for me though. I get my kicks on Route clickety click - good 'ol Baht Stop - or did . . .

Trying to scare him away? Come on now, how often does that sort of thing happen? All right, better to be safe than sorry so perhaps a few 'horror stories', no matter how unlikely, are preferable to giving the impression to a first-time visitor he's just landed in Paradise where everything will be just marvellous. The OP hasn't asked for specific advice about offing anybody but maybe it is relevant here. A boy offed from a go go bar or host bar (assuming he's not a freelance) will be known to the bar and his id known. Compare that to a person taken to your room arising from a chance encounter on Walking Street (in Pattaya), the beach, a disco or wherever. Such a person is 100% anonymous. You get the idea. I would say that provided you keep your wits about you, do not get (obviously) drunk and NEVER take any drugs or accept any drinks or food offered you by people you've just met, you should be fine.