Shilo

That certainly isn't what's happening in the London market. Unless the Russians saw this coming and switched from rubles to dollars/baht 10-12 months ago... then they are holding rubles with half the old value and or buying Jomtien condos at twice the old price... assuming that they can even get their money out of the Russian banks. From my condo window I can see the area of Jomtien that many of us expats has started to call "Little Russia". The lights are still on but I'm guessing that the mood over their is very very sour. Russians Are Flooding Out Of London's Housing Market As The Ruble Crumbles Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/russians-are-flooding-out-of-londons-housing-market-as-the-ruble-crumbles-2014-12#ixzz3MFkLZ7kE

With numbers like these... Pattaya should be looking to get tourists (any tourists) from anywhere: Top 10 source markets for Association of Thai Travel Agents’ January to October at Suvarnabhumi Airport

Many of us remember what happened to Thailand in 1997 but if your interested in where this ruble story might be headed take a goggle "Russian ruble 1998". In some ways Russia is better off today then it was back in 1998 after years of benefiting from strong oil prices. But that ship has turned.

The bad economic news coming out of Russia just got a LOT worst... Last Thursday they raised interest rates from 8% to 10.5% in hopes that it would attract foreign investments into it's bond markets and strengthen the ruble. It didn't work...the ruble dropped another 10% against the dollar on Monday. So overnight the Russian Central Bank raised the interest rate again to 17%, the result: The rouble opened 8% stronger on Tuesday briefly falling below 60 roubles to the dollar after Russia's central bank raised rates by 650 basis points to 17% at 1am. However, in a worrying sign for the Bank of Russia, the currency remains volatile quickly erasing most of the morning's gains and snapping back to over 63 roubles to the dollar at the time of writing (just over 1% above Monday's close). Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/rouble-strengthens-after-russian-central-bank-hikes-rates-2014-12#ixzz3M3GPECRl Why does it matter? IMHO the Russian's currently make up about 30% of the tourists at any time of the year and 50% of the condo sales. Again, that is just my personal wild guess. Pick any % you want but I think everyone would have to agree that if the Russian dog is suffering then the Pattaya tail is going to feel the pain.

Inflation is rampant in Russia, and the collapsing value of the rouble has triggered panic-buying and food-hoarding among ordinary Russians. Food prices in Russia will have shot up by 25% over 2014 as Russian's confidence in the country's future starts to evaporate, according to the Association of Retail Companies (ACORT). Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/price-inflation-in-russia-as-people-hoard-food-cash-2014-12#ixzz3LbwKdhXJ

Off hand, I would suggest finding out the name of a bank that has branches close to her father's home and opening an account here in the same bank... make a deposit here in the new account before you leave and a withdrawal there once you find the truck. Otherwise, take your question to your current bank and ask for suggestions... through they will no doubt suggest the wire with the high fees. Good luck

I called Sophon yesterday after going 2 days without access to YouTube... The girl said that they would try to fix it from the office and call me back. One hour later it was working, she never called back but 2 service guys from the office showed up at my door about 10 min.'s after it started working again. Bottom line, everything is back on track, Sophon continues to be pretty good about correcting problems in a timely manner (even if there is some small issues with communication) and overall I'm still getting better service then I had back in the day with either TTT or BBB. Thanks

Is anyone else having a problem accessing Youtube? I'm using the Sophon Broadband (Fiber-Optic) Network and have been getting a "Server Not Found" message for the past couple of days... Everything else seems to be working fine. And on a sidenote: My 6 month contract for 10 Mbps of download speed that cost 7100b (or 1183b per month) is coming up for renewal. I've been using Sophon for the past couple of years without any major complaints. Very few outages and pretty good customer service from the local office on Pattaya Tai. But before I renew for another 6 months... any other recommendations for faster speeds or lower costs with decent reliability? Thanks

While the re-sale market is a big issue... the bigger issue is who will buy all of these new units popping up all over Jomtien.

Again: On the other hand it seems that the law enforcement agencies of 2 different states, the DA offices and the Child Protection Agencies came to the same conclusion. So I'm inclined to agree with the folks charged with protecting the kids over the ramblings of TMZ.com

I would expect even a low paid lawyer to do his job and defend his client... that's how the system works so it's proves or disproves nothing. On the other hand it seems that the law enforcement agencies of 2 different states, the DA offices and the Child Protection Agencies came to the same conclusion. So I'm inclined to agree with the folks charged with protecting the kids over the ramblings of TMZ.com

Just for the record.... speaking for myself: I'm not trying to defend the man, his actions or take a position on one side or the other of the corporal punishment debate. But I am trying to take a stand against a man possibly being railroarded resulting in the loss of his reputation, career, and perhaps freedom over a incident that could be nothing more then a corporal punishment incident that went wrong.... As for the "other" example of Peterson's abuse of a child: The NFL star's attorney, however, swiftly knocked down the second complaint. "The allegation of another investigation into Adrian Peterson is simply not true," Rusty Hardin said in a statement to PEOPLE. "This is not a new allegation, it's one that is unsubstantiated and was shopped around to authorities in two states over a year ago and nothing came of it. An adult witness adamantly insists Adrian did nothing inappropriate with his son. There is no ongoing or new investigation."

So the lynch party's position is that Peterson "attacked" his 4 yr old son while yielding a potentially lethal "weapon" with the intent to cause bodily harm. And that there is no way that the episode could not be a case of corporal punishment discipline that got out of hand.... Did he do something wrong? Hell yes. Should he be punished... probably, or at least be exposed to counseling. Is there clear evidence that this is a case of a premeditated assault on a preschool minor with intent that should result in destroying a man's career... I still remember some of the whoopings I got from my grandmother when I was a kid... and yes, from time to time she drew some blood or left some welts. Was she right or wrong... hell I don't know. Back then she was just another grownup standing in line waiting for her turn behind the school principle and the nuns in the classroom. Just because we don't agree with someones methods doesn't mean that we can jump to conclusions about their motives....

Just to add a little balance... The full text of Peterson's statement about the indictment in Texas: My attorney has asked me not to discuss the facts of my pending case. I hope you can respect that request and help me honor it. I very much want the public to hear from me but I understand that it is not appropriate to talk about the facts in detail at this time. Nevertheless, I want everyone to understand how sorry I feel about the hurt I have brought to my child. I never wanted to be a distraction to the Vikings organization, the Minnesota community or to my teammates. I never imagined being in a position where the world is judging my parenting skills or calling me a child abuser because of the discipline I administered to my son. I voluntarily appeared before the grand jury several weeks ago to answer any and all questions they had. Before my grand jury appearance, I was interviewed by two different police agencies without an attorney. In each of these interviews I have said the same thing, and that is that I never ever intended to harm my son. I will say the same thing once I have my day in court. I have to live with the fact that when I disciplined my son the way I was disciplined as a child, I caused an injury that I never intended or thought would happen. I know that many people disagree with the way I disciplined my child. I also understand after meeting with a psychologist that there are other alternative ways of disciplining a child that may be more appropriate. I have learned a lot and have had to reevaluate how I discipline my son going forward. But deep in my heart I have always believed I could have been one of those kids that was lost in the streets without the discipline instilled in me by my parents and other relatives. I have always believed that the way my parents disciplined me has a great deal to do with the success I have enjoyed as a man. I love my son and I will continue to become a better parent and learn from any mistakes I ever make. I am not a perfect son. I am not a perfect husband. I am not a perfect parent, but I am, without a doubt, not a child abuser. I am someone that disciplined his child and did not intend to cause him any injury. No one can understand the hurt that I feel for my son and for the harm I caused him. My goal is always to teach my son right from wrong and that’s what I tried to do that day. I accept the fact that people feel very strongly about this issue and what they think about my conduct. Regardless of what others think, however, I love my son very much and I will continue to try to become a better father and person. Personally, I'm prepared to give the guy the benefit of doubt. There are two sides to the argument on corporal punishment...

Last Call... 16 players so far... season starts on Thursday.

We're up to a dozen guys... still time to signup for anyone else interested in playing this year'

7 players so far

You can video chat with Line (I've done it a couple of times with a lady friend) at least from Thai phone to Thai phone... but the "quality" sucked.

The 2014 version of the ESPN NFL Gridiron League is up and running. Rather then rehash all the details for getting a team organized, I'll just post the link to last year's thread that pretty much has all the answers for most of the questions: http://www.pattayatalk.com/forums/topic/61514-2013-nfl-gridiron-league-open/ The main points: It's a form of Fantasy Football. It's FREE We generally get about 25-30 guys each year in our league. And it is VERY competitive. We've had guys from our league break into the top 100 on the ESPN site. Note: that's the Top 100 out of about 250,000. Everyone is welcome to join..

I must be slipping... this is the first time that I can remember when anyone beat me to the punch on setting up a team- I'll start a new thread for this year's league that I'll toss on several of the boards. But in answer to your question about setting up 2 teams. That is something that ESPN started last year. I had 2 teams Shilo72_1 and Shilo72_2. I'm guessing that you set up 2 teams and deleted the _1_2 so they both have the same name. To be honest, I don't know if you can rename or delete them. You could try sending an email to the site support guys. Personally, I kind of enjoyed having 2 bites at the apple last year and will probably set up a second team before the season starts. Through if last year is any gauge it won't matter. I tend to have a pretty good idea who I want each week and through the year there wasn't much difference between the two teams. Thanks for the heads up that the Gridiron is up and running. Past experience says we should end up with about 25-30 players and a VERY competitive league.

I guess it's time for a Fantasy Football update... the NFL's first preseason game is this weekend. Sidenote: I tossed together an EPL squad this past week and expect another mid-table finish. The FLB league is up and running with about 15 teams listed so far. The 10 team draft league that was the topic of this thread is still alive and well. We started with 10 teams on the ESPN site and still have all of the original guys. Our draft will be towards the end of Aug. and I can only dream of getting another solid team like I had last year. Some time in mid-Aug I expect the ESPN site to open up the Gridiron game again. When that happens I'll be starting a new thread to let everyone know that it's up and running. That one is open to anyone and I try to post an invite thread on most of the boards... Lastly, if anyone has an open slot in their existing NFL fantasy online draft league or wants to take the lead in putting a new one together and is looking for players... I'd be interested in joining and could maybe bring a couple of guys along with me. I'm already running two leagues so I'm not interested in managing another new league but I'm open to joining another league if someone esle wants to do the grunt work- For all of us who love football in all of it's shapes and sizes.... the drought is almost over

This is how it worked for me when I linked my Fidelity account to the New York branch of Bangkok Bank. I didn't need to give any info to Fidelity or to the Bangkok Bank about the size of the test transfers. They just went through and everything was in place... One other thing that I did do that might help.. Once I set up the linkage between the two accounts I applied online over the Bangkok Bank website to have email alerts set to my cell phone each time a transfer went through. So I got the email alerts when the "test" transfers happened (with amounts) and each time I have used the system since then.

The question of "What is the average income of Thais" comes up from time to time... so I thought I would share the latest data. Studies show that on average, a Thai person earns Bt25,405 a month and spends Bt19,259, or 75.8 per cent, on monthly expenses. Also, debts average at Bt159,492 per household, so at least Bt6,144 needs to be saved per month to cover debt payments. http://www.nationmultimedia.com/business/Rising-debt-likely-to-keep-households-in-the-red-30235089.html

Sent you a PM

New Rental Prices Just wondering... are these prices higher or lower then what you have had in the past?