Roi Et Expatriates Newsletter

July 2013 Issue 33

CONTENTS

Editors Thoughts

The Real Danger

Pension & Income Letter

Restaurant Review

Foreign Currency Exchange Rates

Coffee Break Quiz - June Answers

Coffee Break Quiz – July Questions

Local Football

Letters to the Editor

Humour

For Sale

Roi Et Map

Isaan Newsletters & Website

We have a mixed bag of items again with the majority of space taken up by our regular contributors. That is of course excellent news, however, a few more articles from other readers would not go amiss.

We are halfway through 2013, that's almost unbelievable. It certainly seems a very short while ago that we were welcoming in the New Year. The decision to provide Roi Et Province with a large new Big C, store is good, although personally I do not frequent it, must be a sign that further expansion is expected imminently.

Other obvious signs that you cannot fail to notice are the number of new buildings being constructed around the city. Shop houses sprouting up like mushrooms plus numerous refurbishments that have been completed or are work in progress. Having said that there is much to do if Roi Et City is to show it welcomes visitors, not least the terrible pavements. The bus station also leaves much to be desired and not just the paving. It certainly cannot provide a welcoming impression of a thriving city to new visitors. It begs the question; What do they think of the bumpy road and on seeing the dilapidated state of the terminal when surveying the scene upon their arrival?

The bad news is of course that we now only have Nok Air offering a service from the local airport. There have been quite a number of local airline services over the years, seemingly coming and going with monotonous regularity. Let's hope Nok Air are in it for the long haul and are at least breaking even on their present services. With times being hard, business decisions will always prevail over, 'it would be nice to'.

British Ex-pats, who currently face paying for care if they live permanently overseas, are set to be given guaranteed access to free NHS healthcare, but only once they have paid 10 years of national insurance contributions.

We definitely have a problem with the delivery of this newsletter, without question. It is circulated in small batches so as, hopefully, not to cause a problem with Yahoo. However, the number of readers who do not always get a copy or never do is increasing and I keep meeting 'ex readers', they have not had a copy for over a year!

What is going on I do not know as no 'delivery failure' notices appear in my inbox. Strangely after sending out a circular recently ten 'delivery failure' notices popped up in my inbox. If you do not receive a regular copy please let me know and I'll mail one directly.

Keith [email protected] THE REAL DANGERS

In Roi-Et, the site of police roadblocks seems to be becoming more and more common and widespread. However, the primary reason appears to be checking insurance, licences and fining motorcyclists for not wearing a helmet.

These are of course, traffic offences, while the non-wearing of crash helmets is potentially dangerous for motor cyclists and their passengers, However, such offences are unlikely to place the lives of law abiding road users at risk. Far more serious offences appear to be going unpunished and are usually ignored and/or condoned.

1) Traffic light jumping: Jumping the lights before they turn to green or racing through a light (midway. Editor) after it has turned to red. (A policeman once said, after my car had been hit, to be careful as not everyone stops for a red light! Editor) 2) Making right turns across the face of on-coming traffic. 3) Using mobile phones whilst driving or even more bizarrely, reading and replying to text messages. 4) Motor cyclists tearing up the wrong side of the road because they are too lazy or impatient to cross over to the correct side of the road. 5) Boy racers who race each other on the roads at high speed, weaving in and out of cars and playing games. 6) Motorists and motor cyclists (often. Editor) driving while totally inebriated. 7) Motor bikes with up to four, five or even six people aboard. 8) Frequently pulling out from a side turning without looking. 9) Doing, barely, 'U' turns at traffic light junctions to avoid waiting. (Nearly hit one who did it after my lights had turned green and the traffic was moving. Editor)

Many road users bemoan the dangers of the roads, not because of their own driving but because of the unpredictability of road users around them and the ease of which it is to break the law without recourse to even a warning.

Until there is a considerable tightening up on serious road offences, the familiar “meee-maaaw, meee-maaaw” of Ambulances will continue to be as familiar a sound as the nauseating advertising vans and their loudspeakers.

Andy Galbraith Pension & Income Letter

It is understood that Thai Immigration have notified all Foreign Embassy’s and Consulates that the validity of the Pension & Income Letter has been extended to cover a period of 6 months.

That is a tiny move in the right direction although what benefit that offers remains a mystery? It does not provide the result the UK Foreign Secretary was seeking when here a short time ago. If and when the need for more than the original letter becomes a requirement then it will be welcomed by one and all.

Social Network Scams

Facebook users who've clicked viral links such as 'Click This if You Hate Cancer' could be in for a nasty surprise. The links - and others such as 'click this picture and see what happens' do nothing except make cyber-scammers rich. Once the pages have collected huge numbers of 'Likes', they are then sold for cash, to other businesses who use them to make their page appear popular.

A blog post by Daylan Pearce, a search-engine expert at Next Digital in Melbourne, explains how the nonsense posts scam works and shows how the pages are sold on. The posts images with captions such as 'Like if you can see the tiger,' or 'Comment and see what happens' are used to build 'Likes' and 'Comments' for pages. Once a page has collected thousands of likes and comments, it will appear higher in people's News Feeds on Facebook - 'Likes' are the 'currency' of the site, as it were.

Pages with 100,000 likes can be sold for $200, according to adverts unearthed by Pearce. Pearce explains in a blog post, 'The Facebook 'Like' algorithm is Facebook’s way of dictating if content is of any value to users. The more likes/shares/comments it gets, the more exposure to certain people and the profile it belongs to, will get both short term and long term hits.

All these metrics contribute to a users ‘edge rank’ – the score your profile is given that dictates how your page interacts with other profiles on 'Facebook.' 'Within 3 days a post like this one has 70,000 'likes' and someone somewhere is about to make a nice little profit by selling the page to a business wanting some quick wins. The buyer then changes the page details. Instant fan-page with a big following, lots of 'likes' and an in depth 'edge rank'. David Emm, senior security research analyst at Kaspersky Lab, says, 'Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are increasingly becoming targets for cyber criminals. The main reason for this is the trust that people feel whilst socialising with their friends online. People are much more likely to click on a link shared by a friend and this inherent trust is something cyber criminals prey upon.'

'Over the past 10 years, we’ve seen incredible growth in the amount of personal information people will voluntarily share and cyber criminals have naturally ‘followed the money’ by creating scams specifically targeting social networks.'

Huapree Restaurant

This month, I thought that I would review a restaurant that may not be known to many. It makes a change from the "circuit places" where everybody goes.

Huapree Restaurant is just off the Maha Sarakham Road heading out of town. To find it go past Makro and turn right at the next set of traffic lights, where the big furniture shop is on he corner. The restaurant is about 80 yards (75 metres) down on the left, directly opposite Biz's Coffee Shop. There are several trees outside that largely obscure the front.

Parking is limited to the street, that is well lit so it should not present too many problems. The road is not too busy so again easy to park and relax. Your car won't be towed away or anything like that. (Never known anyone to have a car towed away for any parking infringement here. Now you can have a chock chained to the front wheel though, until you pay a fine. Editor)

The restaurant is not that busy but several "government" office workers seem to frequent the place. Farang visitors are rare! The restaurant is spacious and the table and chairs are quite good. I do like a proper seat. I hate plastic chairs!

The décor is clean and open spaced. The walls could do with some pictures or other form of decoration. Having said that, it's OK. There's a nice bar there but I have never seen anyone sit there. The toilets are clean and easily spotted. No embarrassing questions like "Where's the John please!"

The food choice is 100% Thai but the menu is printed in English and Thai. Phew - you can choose your own food without a translator or girlfriend assisting. The prices are very reasonable. About 90 baht a dish for basic Thai rising to 150 baht for specials. Drinks are "Thai priced".

Heineken 90 baht Singha 75 Leo 65 Chang 60

There is a good selection of wines and you can bring your own whiskey etc.

Service levels are good and the waitresses are very attentive. The dishes take about 10 minutes to arrive. More than OK. Gives you time to play Facebook on the free WiFi. The code is 081 872 1414. That is also their phone number if you want to make a booking.

The plates are crockery and the utensils do not bend when used, always a plus.

I've visited the restaurant three times in the last two months. On each occasion the food has been very good. My last choice was an Indian sauced prawn curry. I had this with rice and a pork soup. The lady had prawn soup and a spicy salad. Two beers washed down the dishes nicely and at 620 baht the ATM card stayed inside my pocket.

For the smokers out there, the restaurant has provided a nice seating area and sand buckets for your use.

To summarise:- • The foods very good. • Excellent service • Cheap beer • Free WiFi • OK parking

I recommend this restaurant. Just the place for a nice quite meal for two. Don't expect crowds, just expect nice food at reasonable prices. (They do get dinner parties there, I've seen parties of 12 or more on occasion. Editor)

Till next time.

The Secret Restaurant Reviewer. PS - It could do with some nice background music.

Foreign Currency Exchange Rates

Since last month there has been a positive change in how much you will get for your US dollar, pound sterling and euro although it is not all good news. The rates peaked in the middle of June and then promptly started sinking again. However, that is to be expected as the very rapid rise was unsustainable.

At present the US$, £ Sterling and Euro are taking a breather having lost a lot of their gains this month. At the time of writing the FX rates are as follows: US$ 31.19 a gain of 6.55%, GBP 46.60 a gain of 4.72% and the Euro 40.70 a gain of 8.45% all since the end of March.

The exchange rates are now not too far from what they were at the end of last year and that is relatively good news.

Coffee Quiz - Answers for June

1) Famous People: Who did Adolph Hitler marry just before his death? (Eva Braun) 2) Sport: What does the abbreviation “TMO” mean in rugby? (Television Match Official) 3) Food & Drink: What desert do Americans traditionally eat on Thanks-Giving day? (Pumpkin Pie) 4) Geography: What weather record is held by Death Valley in U.S.A.? (Hottest recorded temperature on the Earths surface) 5) Science: Which form of transport was invented by Sir Christopher Cockerall? (The Hovercraft) 6) Thailand: In which year did Siam change its name to Thailand? (May 1949…it was agreed to change it in June 1948) 7) Music: What group name was the abbreviation R.E.M. short for? (Rapid Eye Movement) 8) Crime: The first Morse code message helped catch which notorious murderer? (John Tawell) 9) At the Movies: In the movie “Bruce Almighty” with Jim Carey, who played the role of God? (Morgan Freeman) 10) Historical Dates: In which year DID Mark Chapman murder John Lennon? (1980)

Coffee Quiz – Questions for July

1) Famous People: Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. Who was the second? 2) Sport: Jackie Stewart was a world champion at two entirely different sports. One was obviously motor racing. What was the other? 3) Food & Drink: Which fruit was issued to British sailors eat to prevent scurvy? 4) Geography: What do San Marino and Lesotho have in common? 5) Science: What was the name of the first mass produced motor car? 6) Thailand: Translated, what does the name “THAILAND” mean in English. 7) Music: Which theme song, written by Reg Presley was a huge hit for Scots group “Wet Wet Wet”? 8) Crime: Who is in the news recently for whistle blowing on American intelligence for their alleged snooping on private lives? 9) At the Movies: What was Alfred Hitchcock's last movie titled? 10) Historical Dates: In which year did the Berlin Wall finally start to be pulled down?

This is not a competition but simply an example of the standard of quiz questions which would be asked should we manage to get a quiz night off the ground. Use of Google, reference books or search engines would not serve any purpose as the questions are simply to assess your own general knowledge.

The answers will be printed in the next issue of the Expat news or please submit your answers to my e-mail. I will check and send the correct answers together with your mark.

E-Mail me (Andy Galbraith) at andygalbraith @yahoo.co.uk

Local Football

Roiet United vs Amnat Charoen Town 3-0 (Sunday 2 nd June)

REUTD’s starting line-up, from l to r: Chinnakron (1) - Chawalit (20), Kanyuka (6), Chettha (2), Songsak (15) – Diego (7), Teerapong (4), Weerawong (8), Suriyen (23) – Kittisak (13), Worasin (14).

REUTD completed the first half of the season with an emphatic easy win against Amnat Charoen Town (“ACT”). The White Squirrels laid the visitors’ goal under siege right from the start and created a number of chances in the early minutes. A couple of good opportunities went begging, then the ACT keeper produced an absolute miracle to parry a dangerous free kick from outside the box.

However, there was very little the visitors’ keeper could do about 20 minutes into the game when Suriyen headed the ball from about 15 yards out, following a Diego cross. The ball seemed to be going about one yard wide off the post, however, the ACT’s Number 5 made sure that REUTD got the lead that they clearly deserved, by heading the ball into his own net.

The White Squirrels doubled their lead with a handful of minutes to go before the interval. REUTD got a free kick on the right side – as usual Teerapong took it and put in a low cross into a crowded penalty box. Diego ran across the box from left to right, outpaced his marker and poked the ball in at the near post.

The second half was pretty similar to the first one, with REUTD firmly in control and the visitors in damage limitation mode. The third and final goal of the game came just before the 60th minute as the ACT keeper stopped a Roiet attack on the edge of his own box by kicking the ball upfield. Sadly for the visitors, his kick lacked in power, thus the ball was easily controlled by Kittisak about 30 yards out. A simple looping shot by REUTD’s No. 13 was all it took to see the visitors’ net bulging again. Three goals up, the hosts took the foot off the pedal and very little worth of mention happened after that.

The only negative note for REUTD was that Patrick Kanyuka was sent off towards the end due to two yellow cards, which earned him a two match suspension.

Amnat Charoen Town vs Roiet United 0-1 (Sunday 9 th June)

REUTD’s starting line-up, from l to r: Chinnakron (1) – Songsak (15), Chettha (2), Chakrid (32), Jae Won (19) – Diego (7), Teerapong (4), Weerawong (8), Suriyen (23) – Kittisak (13), Erivaldo (9).

When this season’s fixture list was released, the Thai League decided (Buddha knows why) that the return legs would be played in reverse order. This meant a trip to Amnat Charoen for REUTD, only seven days after playing them in Roiet. Whatever. The match was played on a pitch whose surface would by far be more suitable to potatoes than to twenty-two men chasing a round ball.

Against an opposition that is totally worthy of its second-from- bottom league position, REUTD struggled to find some momentum in the first half and were in fact lucky not to be one goal down at the interval. Yours truly understands that - following such a below- par performance in the first half - some harsh words were aimed at the players in the REUTD’s dressing room at half time. As the saying goes, what happens in Amnat Charoen stays in Amnat Charoen…. and whatever was said behind closed doors will remain a mystery anyway the Roiet United team that came out for the 2nd half seemed fired up and intent on taking the three points home.

The visitors created chance after chance and even going one man down (due to Chetta’s sending off after 60 minutes) didn’t seem to deter them. The only goal of the game came with just under 20 minutes to go. Teerapong takes a corner kick from the right, ball right in the middle of a crowded box gets headed away by a home defender but Suriyen collects it and rifles it in from about 15 yards out.

The only negative note of an otherwise positive day was that this turned out to be Jae Won’s last match for the White Squirrels. This Korean midfielder is a thoroughly nice chap and yours truly was genuinely sorry to see him leave the club. However, a small dip in his form a couple of months ago led to him being dropped from the starting eleven, which affected his confidence so in the end the club decided to let him go. His No. 19 shirt has been taken by Borja Calvo Sanchez. A product of no less than Real Madrid’s academy, Borja can play on either wing and is probably the most prominent of the club’s recent signings.

Roiet United vs Sisaket United 0-0 (Sunday 16 th June)

REUTD’s starting line-up, from l to r: Chinnakron (1) – Jirasak (24), Visit (26), Chakrid (32), Worasin (14) – Diego (7), Teerapong (4), Thongchai (10), Suriyen (23) – Jose’ (29), Erivaldo (9).

This match saw REUTD consolidate its place at the top of the table, despite a less than convincing performance. Truth be said, to quote Jose Mourinho, Sisaket came and parked their team bus in front of their goal (it was Tottenham’s negative attitude that annoyed The Special One some years ago, not Sisaket of course) but Roiet United still have enough quality in their team to dispose of mid-table fodder like Sisaket United.

REUTD’s starting line-up included several changes from the last match due to injuries, suspensions and non-eligibility of players for a number of reasons. The home fans had the opportunity to see the recently-signed striker, Jose’ Maria Diaz Munoz, in action. Jose’ is a Spaniard who played in Hong Kong before joining Roiet United. He didn’t have the chance to open his personal account in this match but I think he will do well for the club.

From a fan perspective, it was also great to see Thongchai back in the team for his first start in over three months. After a lengthy spell on the sideline due to injury, the club needs all the scoring power they can get if they really want to have a serious shot at promotion to Division 1 this season.

Thongchai is a striker so playing behind the front two (as he did vs. Sisaket) is not his natural position. The team now has a wealth of options in almost every department so all the players will have to get used to competition.

The match in itself was rather eventless, despite numerous attempts by the referee to liven it up by infuriating the home fans. Anyway the Roiet intelligentsia would be upset if I rabbit on about the ref so my lips are going to be sealed from now on. Kalasin FC vs Roiet United 0-4 (Saturday 22 nd June)

REUTD’s starting line-up, from l to r: Chinnakron (1) – Jirasak (24), Kanyuka (6), Chakrid (32), Songsak (15) – Diego (7), Teerapong (4), Suriyen (23), Thongchai (10) – Kittisak (13), Erivaldo (9).

REUTD made the short trip to Kalasin with due caution as the reverse fixture at home last month proved to be no stroll in the park for the White Squirrels. As the game started, both teams seemed more intent on stopping the opposition rather than looking for attacking options. After this initial 15-minute phase, the visitors started exerting some pressure and the deadlock was broken halfway through the first half.

Teerapong took a free kick from the left side, near the byline. The middle-height cross was met by Erivaldo, who nodded it in at the near post from inside the 6-yard box. The lead gave REUTD a massive confidence boost so the 1-0 lead at half time turned out to be thoroughly deserved.

In the second half the visitors kept playing the passing game with increasing fluency, which Kalasin found difficult to adapt to. The second goal came around the 60th minute in controversial circumstances. A good move on the left side was followed by a pass forward for the totally unmarked Erivaldo. The Brazilian chested the ball down and advanced towards the goal, only to be brought down by a Kalasin defender as he was about to enter the penalty box. Erivaldo went down inside the box but did the clumsy challenge start outside? Was it a penalty or just a free kick? After watching it in slow-mo a few times I have to say that it’s probably the latter. Probably. Anyway Erivaldo duly converted the penalty, sending the keeper the wrong way and giving the home team a mountain to climb with half an hour left on the clock.

Kalasin’s mission was made impossible a few minutes later when Diego was recklessly felled on the left edge of the box. Second yellow card and early shower for Kalasin’s no. 27. Teerapong served yet another inviting free kick, nudged by Kittisak for the unmarked Erivaldo, who thus got the first hat-trick for the club by nodding the ball in from 5 yards.

The scoreline got embarrassing proportions about 5 minutes from time when, following a rapid counterattack, Worasin (no. 14, who’d come on for Kittisak) exploited a failed clearance at the heart of Kalasin’s defence and side-footed the ball in from 7 yards out.

After 18 games REUTD seem to be on the way to a third consecutive championship title. The teams behind, namely Ubon UMT and Nong Khai FT, are currently just too inconsistent to mount a serious title challenge. The White Squirrels have also made some interesting signings so now the squad seems well equipped to go into the promotion play-offs with enough strength in depth and to make it into Division 1 at the third time of asking.

Anyway as of the 28th of June the league table looks as follows:

Team GP W D L G Diff Pts Roiet United 18 12 4 2 29 40 Ubon UMT FC 18 10 4 4 9 34 Nong Khai FT 18 8 8 2 11 32 Udon Thani FC 18 8 4 6 10 28 Surin City 18 6 10 2 5 28 Kalasin FC 18 7 6 5 2 27 Maha Sarakham Utd 18 7 6 5 1 27 Loei City 18 6 6 6 2 24 Sakhon Nakhon FC 18 7 3 8 -9 24 Sisaket United 18 6 4 8 -1 22 Chaiyaphum FC 18 4 7 7 -1 19 Nakhon Phanom FC 18 3 9 6 -6 18 Yasothon United 18 5 5 8 -3 17 Nong Bua Lamphu FC 18 3 8 7 -10 17 Amnat Charoen Town 18 3 5 10 -20 14 Mukdahan City 18 3 3 12 -19 12

By: Our Football Correspondent

Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor, Re: May restaurant review and apology

To the restaurant reviewer of 101 Pizza I would say that there is really no need to apologize for an honest review and to do so brings into question the validity of your original review.

Do not be bullied, stand your ground.

John Lavin Dear Editor,

June response to 101 Pizza review by Tim Hope

To begin I would like to state that I have never eaten or entered the 101 Pizza restaurant so I cannot comment on the food or the furnishings.

I will comment, however, on a letter to the editor in the June issue by Tim Hope complaining of a review of the 101 Pizza restaurant in the May issue.

Complaining bitterly about a review of a restaurant that you obviously like comes across as sour grapes and will not contribute positively one iota to the reputation of that business in my opinion. Explaining to the reviewer the difficulties of doing business in Roi-Et or anywhere else for that matter is irrelevant. The reviewer did not choose to start a business in Roi-Et.

I have read the review again and did not detect any abuse whatsoever from the reviewer, in fact I did not find it that inflammatory at all. I am somewhat bewildered by all the fuss on this subject.

The reviewer was simply commenting on his experience at this particular restaurant and did not come across as you accuse him, of being abusive or wanting to put someone out of business. If the review is incorrect their clientèle will not abandon them, however, if it is accurate then the owners can use the review constructively by rectifying the areas at fault.

The restaurant business is not an easy one to succeed in and requires constant diligence in all areas. I myself have frequented a restaurant in Toronto for the past 30 years and the reasons for doing so are the food is consistently well prepared, reasonably priced and served by pleasant and attentive waiting staff. The place is clean, updated every so often and is always full.

If you are ever in Toronto be sure to visit the Jerusalem restaurant on Eglinton Ave a couple of blocks west of Bathurst St. And no, I do not have financial interests in this restaurant; I bring it up merely to illustrate the ingredients of a good restaurant.

John Lavin H u m o u r

Irish Catholic Confession

Father he said, 'it has been one month since my last confession. I had sex with Nookie Green twice last month.'

The priest told the sinner, 'You are forgiven. Go out and say three Hail Mary's.'

Soon thereafter, another Irish man entered the confessional. 'Father, it has been two months since my last confession. I've had sex with Nookie Green twice a week for the past two months.'

This time, the priest questioned, 'Who is this Nookie Green?'

'A new woman in the neighbourhood,' the sinner replied.

'Very well,' sighed the priest. Go and say ten Hail Mary's

At mass the next morning, as the priest prepared to deliver the sermon, a tall, voluptuous, drop-dead gorgeous red headed woman entered the sanctuary. The eyes of every man in the church fell upon her as she slowly sashayed up the aisle and sat down right in front of the priest. Her dress was green and very short, and she wore matching, shiny emerald-green shoes.

The priest and the altar boy gasped as the woman in the green dress and matching green shoes sat with her legs spread slightly apart, but just enough to reveal that she wasn't wearing any underwear.

The priest turned to the altar boy and whispered, 'Is that Nookie Green?'

The bug-eyed altar boy couldn't believe his ears but managed to calmly reply,.... 'No Father, I think it's just a reflection from her shoes.'

Another Idiot

Idiot Number Seven Arkansas: Seems this guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he'd just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back knocking him unconscious. It seems the liquor store window was made of Plexi-Glass. The whole event was caught on videotape. Yep, here's your badge.

Not too much has changed over the years We hang petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. ~Aesop, Greek slave & fable author

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber. ~Plato, ancient Greek Philosopher

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river. ~Nikita Khrushchev, Russian Soviet politician

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it. ~Quoted in 'Clarence Darrow for the Defense' by Irving Stone.

Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel. ~John Quinton, American actor/writer

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. ~Oscar Ameringer, "the Mark Twain of American Socialism." I offered my opponents a deal: "if they stop telling lies about me, I will stop telling the truth about them." ~Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952..

A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country. ~Texas Guinan. 19th century American businessman

I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. ~Charles de Gaulle, French General, politician & President

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. ~Doug Larson (English middle-distance runner who won gold medals at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, 1902-1981)

Thai Humour

A Thai mother-in-law walks into her daughter's new house in the village and finds her Farang son-in-law furiously packing his suitcase.

"What happen?" she asked.

"What happened? - I'll tell you what happened!

I sent an e-mail to my wife Kung saying that I was coming home from England today. I got here and guess what I found? My wife, Kung, yes your daughter, in our bed with a Thai gentleman! This is the end of our marriage and I am leaving Thailand forever!"

"Relax, relax!" says mother-in-law, "Mistake, sure! Something is not right about this story. Kung never would do something so stupid! Wait ... I check to see what really happen."

Moments later she comes back with a big smile. "See, I told you there must be simple explanation .... Kung never receive your email." For Sale

Surplus to requirements. An Electrolux free standing gas cooker. Oven and hob, wok adaptor, bbq spit, etc. Redundant since moving to a new house. Complete with manufacturers instruction booklet. Very clean and in excellent condition. Sensible offers please. Call 0861 077683 English or 081 964 9368 Thai and English.

Roi Et Map

Here's a link to the Google Map of Roi Et: https://maps.google.com/maps? f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=Unknown+road&geocode=FTL09AAd_cotBg&sll=16. 05301,103.664889&sspn=0.013981,0.026157&vpsrc=6&hl=en&mra=mr&ie=UTF8&ll= 16.056289,103.658388&spn=0.013981,0.026157&t=m&z=16

Isaan Newsletters & Website

For those who would like to read more about Isaan then you can do so by clicking on the new link below. You will also find Roi Et Expatriates Newsletter there as well as those for other cities. Additionally there are links to many other sites too. Direct to this months issue: http://isaan.com/forum/index.php?topic=4870.0 To all issues: http://isaan.com/forum/index.php?board=34.0

If you have made it this far then hopefully you enjoyed reading this issue and found it informative too. Therefore if you are not already registered to receive your monthly copy click on the link below and send your name, country of residence and email address, if different from the one you are using now. Your mobile number too.

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Editorial contact; : mailto:[email protected]?subject=Roi Et Expats Newsletter

S m i l e !

Editorial Disclaimer The opinions of contributors are not necessarily those of the Editor.