England doing well

As of last night England sit top of their world cup qualifying table. Four wins out of four games!

New manager Capello must be doing something right, lets hope this carries on next year.

Thailand v Cambodia

Today saw fighting between Thailand and Cambodia at the disputed Preah Vihear temple. The temple is on the border and has been disputed for decades. In the 60's the UN gave the temple to Cambodia, but the area around it was never decided.

Over the last few months, the Thai's and Cambodians have been ramping up the tension by moving in large scale armed forces. There was a skirmish last month which resulted in wounded on both sides. Today it erupted big time. Two Cambodians were killed and ten injured, the Thai's suffered ten wounded and had ten taken prisoner.

What worries me is that both countries don't like loosing face so will not back down, also both goverments could use this to divert attention from their respective problems. Also both sets of soldiers, particually the Khemar's are good fighters, the Thai's have some exceptional special forces and the Khemar's have kicked the US's as in the not to distance past so you'd think they'd cope with Thailand.

Lets hope everything sorts itself out.

More Elizabeth

This picture is of Elizabeth playing in her new sand and water pit. She loves the outdoors and kick a proper fuss up when its time to come back in.

Thai protests get deadly

The following is from the BBC website, they say it better than me:

Protesters seeking to force the Thai government to resign say they will continue their demonstrations, a day after violent clashes in Bangkok.

The People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) has accused the government of having blood on its hands, a day after two people died in violent protests. More than 400 people were injured in the clashes. The streets around parliament were quiet overnight after the military deployed unarmed troops to help police. The demonstrators were attempting to disrupt the inauguration of the new government, which they claim is being run by proxies of the ousted prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

The protesters barricaded the building and trapped lawmakers inside for several hours as police outside fired volleys of tear gas in the crowds to try to clear the area.
The new prime minister, Somchai Wongsawat - who has refused to quit - was forced to climb over a fence to escape. Mr Somchai, who is Mr Thaksin's brother-in-law, has sought to calm fears of further unrest, telling foreign ambassadors that the government will "resolve the domestic problems through the democratic process", the Agence France Presse news agency reported.

I'm still struggling to understand PAD, they are intent on messing Thailand up. Seriously, they want to take the vote off the common people, because they are not clever enough to use their vote. WTF!!!!

Thats like UKIP saying northerners cant have a vote because they wont use it properly (not vote for them).

Elizabeth's Party

Last year Elizabeth was a little too young to appreciate her first birthday, even this year she wasn't sure what was going on, but in Elizabeth style she just went with the flow and really enjoyed herself.

I did the english food and Nuch made some excellent Thai food that went down very well. Altogether there were a dozen kids and even more adults. I hope everybody enjoyed themselves. I did, even though it was very hard work.

Elizabeth is 2

Time is flying by at the moment, the day after we moved Elizabeth had her 2nd birthday.

We bought her a wendy house, a see saw, a slide and sand and water table. Now we have moved house we can put these things outside and Elizabeth can play with them when she wants to.

Elizabeth is a lovely girl, i'm sure all parents say that about their children. She is well balanced, has good manners and seems to be quite bright. I like to think Nuch and I are doing a good parenting job and with the help of my Mum, Elizabeth seems to enjoy her lot.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PICKLE xxxx

Moved again again

Today we moved house again, this is three times since I came back to the UK. I must admit i'm getting very bored with the whole situation and hopefully this is the last time for a few years. If any one would like my new address, just drop me a line and i'll send you the details.

New Thai PM

Thailand has got yet another new PM.

PM Somchai was sworn in the other day and you would think everything would now be rosy in the house of Thailand. Sadly Somchai is the brother in law of the ex disgraced PM Thaksin Shinawatra who is currently slumming it in the UK.

PAD have said that they aren't happy with the appointment and will keep the protest going, in a fairly significant move, the King of Thailand as has endorsed Somchai which will be a relief to him.

So its more watch this space until the next instalment.

Thailand - Arse - Elbow

The latest goings on in the Thailand political circus have reached new heights of ridicule!

Celeb Chef "Samak" gets the boot

Earlier this week, PM Samak was forced to resign over a curve ball issue. It seems he had received money for doing a cookery show, when you hold public office youre not able to participate in other paid work. So it seems he had to go. PAD must have loved this!

Then today, low and behold, Samak's Party (PPP) try to vote the bloke back in as leader and then defacto PM. Just when an impass looked even slightly possible, they go and revert to type. Let Samak go and pick an unblemished, non Thaksin PM, then call another election to shut PAD up.

Thailand is beginning to see a downturn in tourism, that is the last thing they need at the moment, but while the country is unstable and the Baht is poor on the exchange rate front, tourist will keep away.

Luckily at today vote, there weren't enough MP's to form a quorum and the vote on Samak had to be posponed.

Come on, someone in Thailand sort this mess out.

National disgrace

On the radio this morning was an article about a british soldier who had been on injury leave from Afghanistan, he had tried to book into a hotel in Surrey and once they found out he was a soldier refused him.

He had to sleep in his car and drive back home the next day. Now Coporal Stringer is back on active service in Afghanistan and his local MP is taking up the matter.

Yes, the hotel may have had problems with pissed up squaddies in the past, I would have thought any young blokes on a night out can be rowdy, but to turn a member of the armed forces away is disgraceful.

The hotel is called Metro Hotel in Woking Surrey, until they give an explaination why the soldier was refused a bed then i would urge no one to stay at that hotel.

Update

The Hotel has apologised and blamed a junior receptionist for the incident. Pretty big of them!