maipenrai

I'll have to check out that store - they have a big selection of used CD's in the Dasa bookstore just south of Soi 26 on Sukhumvit but they are rather awkwardly displayed; however, I have found a couple of good ones in there.

Oh, don't I know it - my own mother was becoming a hazard on our city streets as her dementia progressed - she drove a very distinctive vehicle and I was hearing reports of her erratic driving from friends and acquaintances; I took her to her doctor one day with other issues and had a word with him about this, and he had her license taken away - oh, was she pissed off about this and if she had ever found out that it was because of me I probably would have been disowned.

Got it now and you're right, that guy on the trike didn't look or even try to slow down - doesn't make it entirely his fault but I'd have much better self-preservation instincts than that even at home.

I also used the services of Maneerat to extend my visa exempt for 30 days on the recommendation of boydeste - I'd done it myself twice before Covid and the Russian Invasion with no real problems but this year I'd backed myself into a bit of a corner with timing - I would have had to extend on the 15th or 16th to fit in with my (also extended) departure date and of course Immigration was closed on the 12, 15, and 16 for Songkran. Boydeste told me that Maneerat could extend my visa at any time to start at the end of my visa exempt period and this is just what they did - all it took was a drive over to Jomtien Immigration for the photo, which I think they do just to prove that you were actually there in the office, and I found my own way home by choice - two days later and I am good to go. A little expensive at 4500b vs. the 1900 it would have cost me to do myself, but I simply don't have the patience to deal with the crowds in Immigration by myself any more and I consider the money well spent and will do it again next time.

I couldn't make the video play, but I would say agree with you not to assume anything, with the addition of the fact that if it is bigger than you, give it the right of way whether it belongs to them or not...

Nope - everywhere I went you could see them in use and the cops were not taking any notice of them; maybe if someone was really being an asshole with one it may have attracted the attention of the BIB but I never saw anybody get one taken away.

I don't know what brands of perfumes the East Indians and some of the Europeans are dousing themselves with here in my condo building but man, do those elevators stink sometimes when they exit them - not to mention the odd BO as well, dunno what smells worse - enough to make me gag sometimes.

Well, I guess I don't have quite as vivid an imagination as you have because I went out there some years ago and had a look around and it didn't cause me to have fits - it's actually a very tranquil setting, like walking around in a park; but then you look down at the ground and see all these tiny little bits of blue cloth and what look like bits of shells but they are actually pieces of human bone and you are walking around on them - kind of a sobering thought. And of course, there is also the tree they used to beat babies against to dispatch them - more unpleasant thoughts, such savagery from deranged people and I give the Cambodian masses credit for getting past this awful time in their history and being able to create a proper society again. Really, it is worth going to see stuff like this just to realize what man is capable of doing to their fellow man, but you can't dwell on it.

Very familiar to us colonials too, and Geldof made a whole career out of that one song, it seems...

We also had dire warnings in several online sources of stiff penalties for those caught with "water cannons", yet on the last day I saw a vendor of same walk right by a cop who didn't even look at him - gotta love it.

Maybe they are unnecessary in Australia but they are certainly necessary in my part of the world, unless you want your heavy truck to sit and run at fast idle all night while you are sleeping - this is what they did in my youth, it was common too see up to 15-20 trucks at some stops roaring away by themselves when it got cold because they simply couldn't afford to have them not start in the morning.

I'll do a copy and paste for you: This letter to the editor was printed in the Inverness Oran in Feb 2024. It was written by an owner of a Tesla EV in Nova Scotia and this can be found online. Her view follows: Columns and Letters Letter: First-hand EV owner's experience Last Updated: Tuesday, 27 February 2024 14:53 February 28, 2024 Dear Editor, I am writing in response to a letter in the February 14th publication entitled, “Benefits of Electric Vehicles.” My husband and I drive a 2021 Long Range Tesla Model 3. My hope is to shed some light on what it is like living in Inverness County with an electric vehicle. For a bit of context, I am not your run-of-the-mill naysayer. We’ve been driving an EV for the last three years, we are organic farmers, we lived in a fully off-grid, solar powered home for eight years, and we attended that big Greta Thunberg inspired climate change march in Halifax back in 2019. I feel slightly embarrassed about sharing this so publicly because I truly feel that we got duped by clever and persuasive EV/doomsday marketing. After reading Paul Strome’s letter, featuring all those key marketing points, I felt compelled to write in. Here is our electric car experience: 2021 – Rosy new car: Wow! This is great! – The car was more expensive up front, but it only costs about $14 to “fill the tank” and we can conveniently charge with our Level 2 charger at home whenever we want. That will more than make up for the initial cost over time, considering the price of gas! – No pesky oil changes and Tesla’s titanium shield under the car means no repairs due to rust! Great – more savings! – When going to Halifax, we need to recharge at the Enfield Supercharger. Recharging takes 18 minutes, but no big deal: bathroom break, stretch your legs, get a coffee; just minor adjustments to how we drove with a gas car. Not-so-nice realizations from year one: – The undulating, electric hum while the car charges for seven hours permeates our entire home and yard. Is that healthy? – Needing to exit the vehicle for 20 minutes at the Supercharger because it feels very unhealthy to be in such a high voltage environment while it’s charging. Rain, shine, snow or sleet – Everybody out! – Learning that every time you recharge the battery, the battery life decreases. It actually can damage the battery to charge to 100 per cent and it is advised that you don’t charge more than 80 per cent for day-to-day use. 2022 – One-year-old car: – Can still make it to Sydney and back, but we shouldn’t make many detours if we want to make it home again. Having to stop in Baddeck for two hours to “juice up” just to make the 40-minute journey home doesn’t make much sense... – Can still make it to the Enfield Supercharger when going to Halifax, but no detours. Stick to the highway or else. Christmas 2023 – 2.5-year-old car: Heading to the Valley Christmas Eve (outside temperature is -5oC). – “I don’t think we’re going to make it to the Supercharger...” “What the heck! We’re definitely not going to make it!” The whole family, plus two dogs, wandered around Truro for 1.5 hours, in the cold twilight while charging just enough to make it to the Enfield Supercharger. – With everyone’s spirits low, we wander around the Enfield Big Stop parking lot in the cold while the car charges for 35 minutes. Can’t bring the dogs into Timmy’s and staying in the car while it’s charging feels like every hair on your body is getting charged up too. – Charge up again at the New Minas Supercharger, just in case, because the wall plug at Grandma’s takes days to charge the car and we can’t believe how poorly the car is performing. Coming home after Christmas: – Leave Middleton. Stop at the Supercharger in New Minas for 10 minutes to add some charge. Everyone out into the cold! – Leave New Minas. Stop in Enfield to fully recharge for 35 minutes. Everybody out into the cold: Kids, dogs; everyone. It’s windy and half raining/half snowing. How wonderfully modern and convenient it is to drive an EV! – Make it back home with six per cent. Phew! January 2024 – 2.5-year-old car: – 10oC, but dropping, so range is dropping too. – Husband arrives at Enfield Supercharger. Relief! – Enfield supercharger is down. Neither the car nor Telsa phone app notified him; 9:00 p.m. on a Sunday. No indication of when/if the charger will turn on again. Car is at three per cent. Not enough power to keep the heat on, let alone drive to a motel. Other EV drivers there are all cursing their cars and their decisions... – After an hour of being stranded, the chargers come online again. – 60 minutes to recharge after going so low and it being so cold out. Two hours, stuck at the Enfield Big Stop! February 2024 (last week) – 2.5-year-old car – We are driving home from the airport. I’m driving my 2012 Toyota Matrix (680 km/tank). I have to go pick up the dogs from the boarder, just outside Antigonish. It’s too big of a detour for the “Long Range” Tesla to handle. – Even with that detour, I make it home first. The Tesla took 60 minutes to charge in Enfield. It takes longer to charge a cold battery, but surely they should be home by now... – My husband finally made it home. He crawled home, with the heat turned off, because he was trying to conserve power. Made it home with six per cent. We’ve looked into it: There is nothing wrong with our car. This is just the natural diminishing of an EV battery over time, combined with fairly mild NS winter driving. This is what range anxiety looks like! It is not, as Paul Strome so kindly put it, “for those drivers who have trouble paying attention to their fuel gauge.” Range anxiety means constantly paying attention to your fuel gauge and crossing your fingers and toes, hoping you’re going to make it! It’s leaving home with a “full tank” to go 290 km and worrying about not arriving! The February 14th letter features all of the dealership, government, and activist talking points. None of it is based on the real life experience of a rural EV owner. The “official range” of EVs is not based in reality. Only on the first day out of the factory (if it’s sunny, with no wind, temps between 15-20oC, on a straight stretch road with no hills) would our car ever live up to its range expectations. Speaking as a former climate change activist and current EV driver, I can only see EVs working if you live in a big city and never plan on leaving that big city. The last thing we should be pushing for is to phase out internal combustion engine vehicles by 2035 in Canada. Yes, we absolutely have to take better care of our planet, but EVs make zero sense in the real world. Hilary Mueller Mabou

I got my first Thai girl out of Orchard Towers on my way to Australia in 2002, and on the way back from that trip I made a side trip to Thailand and the rest is history....

And many people who have bought them have said they will not repeat the experience - lots of trouble with range, getting charged, abysmal service from the dealers who sold them, etc. - and this is from southern Canada, never mind the north where I live where you'll have over 100 miles between settlements and much colder weather - no EV in my immediate future. https://www.facebook.com/sten.linde.5/posts/pfbid0RYndzLpGKFQW5z8KxW8bLU2HWYrygTQzUva9Xj6CbrZtT9LrSbNHfUVKPfCWEjEtl

I like the song "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed" on the "Live at the Filmore" album - it showcases both of the guitarist's styles perfectly; also the shorter instrumental "Hot 'Lanta" on the same album. I think Dickey should be remembered mostly for keeping the band going after Duane's death, tremendous will and tenacity to take on this task after such a devastating loss...

I noticed this too in a couple of bars during my Songkran rounds - yesterday I paid 95b in a 2nd Rd bar for my Heineken and I know it's usually cheaper - the place was packed, too so I'm sure they did well. I started out by Central and walked down Soi 7 from the 2nd Rd end - seemed pretty busy all the way down but not quite as packed as it had been on Monday when I was last there; then I turned on to Beach Rd and walked down to Soi 13 - I didn't find the crowds quite as thick as I thought they'd be but the various music sources were loud enough to be physically nauseating so I went up Soi 13 and hung out on 2nd Rd for a while, blasting full pickups and baht busses - moving targets are always more fun and nobody seemed to mind, most returning fire if they could. I then took a beer break in the Chicken Coop and watched the action around there for a bit, thence to Cherry Bar for a while and eventually up to Soi Buakhow where things get a little foggy...

That's a good video - I'm glad there is a printed story along with it because I thought those bears looked a little different than the ones I have seen at home in Canada. One very lucky dog - I think I've mentioned before somewhere that huskies make great pets but are not known for their intelligence...

This reminds me of my old communications days when we often had to pull cables through underground ducts - we'd get the occasional dead arctic ground squirrel (generally referred to as "gophers") stuck in the ducts and sometimes had to use compressed air to blow the remains out - you'd want to stand well clear of the opening....

Oh, there's still plenty of weirdos around - my favourite, whom I have never had a chance to capture with camera, is the wild-looking character with the ponytail sticking straight out of the back of his otherwise-shaven head who is always charging around on the four-wheeled ATV - apparently he is a disabled German who can't walk, hence the 4-wheeler. And of course there are the tattoo-over doers, the guys who seem to have every inch of their bodies covered with some sort of symbol or other; it's like looking at a page torn from a child's comic book.

The swelling has gone down enough today to reveal that it is indeed four separate bites; they still itch a little but not enough to run to the pharmacy - I suspect ants too as I see them just about everywhere I go and I've had similar bites on several previous occasions.

I don't generally brush up to many plants over here so would tend to discount that theory, especially on the inside of the elbow; and if a centipede were to alight on me somehow I am sure I would know; my own guess would be a small spider or ant of some species - perhaps it landed inside my elbow from somewhere, and then got caught in the elbow as I closed it while drawing back the plunger on the water gun - I wish I had looked at the elbow instead of just casually brushing it with my other hand when I first felt the itch.

Just finished this one the other day and really enjoyed it - took a while as it is a big book, but very well written and filled with many personal accounts of those who experienced the conflict:

So I am out playing Songkran yesterday, just drawing some water from the tub and I feel an itch on my right elbow - I brush it and carry on and a few seconds later I feel another sudden itch with same response and then forget about it. Today I wake up and some creature has left big, itchy welts on the inside of my elbow: This is not the first time I have been attacked in this manner - same thing happened in Jomtien in February and has done so in previous visits, but I'd sure like to know what kind of creature is inflicting it - sure as hell ain't mosquitoes....