Building in Nontharburi/Pak Kret

[Roger Ramjet]

It is interesting - we've been watching this TV show on cable called "Mystery Diners" and some of the stuff that goes on in the USA with employees defrauding, stealing, lying and cheating is amazing! My wife said it is way more serious/illegal than the petty stuff that goes on in Thailand - The worst I recall in theft (attempted theft) from our project is a bucket of rusty nails and an old rusty shovel they threw over the back fence to pickup later (value 20 baht). On Mystery Diners, employees are stealing hundreds of dollars a night from restaurants/owners, setting up their own side businesses using their employer's stock and staff, stealing barrels of wine, etc. Crazy stuff.

Hello Max and Bee,
Good to see you're still with us. What's wrong with stealing a barrel of wine? That's actually called liberating, not stealing.
I guess people were not bought up the way I was. I even turned a pair of sunglasses into the police when I was a youngster.
I just wish they hadn't taken the best of my stuff when I needed it and then lied through their teeth about not stealing it. My first builder thought he'd get away with it and then when I produced Mr. Cheong's book with all the serial numbers next to the drills, saws etc he suddenly said he was just looking after them at his place, but he had no intention of returning them otherwise.
That police box has been a boon and worth every penny having it. I can now actually store my tools where they are supposed to be stored and not take-up space in the house.
I painted with a broad brush, but it is a bad trait that I couldn't imagine happening in the bush in Australia.

[Max&Bee-in-CM]

It is interesting - we've been watching this TV show on cable called "Mystery Diners" and some of the stuff that goes on in the USA with employees defrauding, stealing, lying and cheating is amazing! My wife said it is way more serious/illegal than the petty stuff that goes on in Thailand - The worst I recall in theft (attempted theft) from our project is a bucket of rusty nails and an old rusty shovel they threw over the back fence to pickup later (value 20 baht). On Mystery Diners, employees are stealing hundreds of dollars a night from restaurants/owners, setting up their own side businesses using their employer's stock and staff, stealing barrels of wine, etc. Crazy stuff.

Hello Max and Bee,
Good to see you're still with us. What's wrong with stealing a barrel of wine? That's actually called liberating, not stealing.
I guess people were not bought up the way I was. I even turned a pair of sunglasses into the police when I was a youngster.
I just wish they hadn't taken the best of my stuff when I needed it and then lied through their teeth about not stealing it. My first builder thought he'd get away with it and then when I produced Mr. Cheong's book with all the serial numbers next to the drills, saws etc he suddenly said he was just looking after them at his place, but he had no intention of returning them otherwise.
That police box has been a boon and worth every penny having it. I can now actually store my tools where they are supposed to be stored and not take-up space in the house.
I painted with a broad brush, but it is a bad trait that I couldn't imagine happening in the bush in Australia.

Hi Roger,
Yep we've got the police box, and that's the main reason the house has been ok while we are away. so definitely worth the $30/month.
Take care!!

[Roger Ramjet]

Just a quick update. All those dreams people have can turn to mush, which has happened in my case. The townhouse renovations are complete and it was ready for renting, then my brother-in-law died of AIDS, which left mother-in-law on her own (fat and over 80) in the small house at Sara Buri. And then the shuffling started, from one relative to another and each time she'd find a gambling "school" or manage to borrow money, so it was into our townhouse with her with a police Major General just at the end of the small soi. Everyone in the soi keeps an eye on her and we even took her to Koh Samet one time, where she just made a pig of herself on really nice food. So no income from there, but my wife doesn't mind as she's a total tax write-off, which on my wife's salary, she needs.
Meanwhile the pool stays empty, not through lack of funds, but lack of a pool company I trust to finish the job. Sigh. But the bright side was, without having to pay out for my daughter's education anymore, without the pool being completed and finally saving money I was able to go for the second dream, a Jag. That too was a disaster with just one being found in a disgraceful condition for 800,000 baht. He saw me coming I'm sure. So the next best option because I hate seeing an empty car bay was a small BMW. A number of options there, either the E39 5 series or the E60 5 series. And low and behold there are pages and pages of them on the internet, but finding them is a major task.
Finally yesterday I found one that had straight panels, no major accident recorded and no service log as it had gone onto the grey market service centres 2 years ago. Do not ask how I found out about that, lets just say a friend of a friend of a friend had access to the BMW mainframe that records every BMW that comes into Thailand legally and shows a complete record of the car if you have the chassis number or engine number, which we did.
The internal computer on the BMW said Do not drive, service required. Which is happening today, along with a few minor details I wanted fixed and my wife and I will pick it up on Saturday. And of course I will post many photos when it's home in it's new bay at the house.
Some small dreams do happen. I just hope nobody hits me, 10 airbags are hard to replace.

[Roger Ramjet]

Ah the small fixes, like replacing a worn leather panel in the front driver's seat takes two days and the rain seals on the back passenger side window will take another two days and as the dealer was going to replace the worn tyres with cheap Chinese crap I said I would get them replaced myself so my wife wrangled a discount of 50,000 baht out of him. We also have to wait for a rear number plate from the DMT as the other was lost somehow.
So the photos will be by the end of the week..........I'm willing to wait

[MGV12]

..........I'm willing to wait

But not long enough for this model huh! Yeh I know ... it wouldn't fit in the garage

[Roger Ramjet]

MGV12,
Way back when I decided I couldn't get two cars in the townhouse parking spot was when I decided to build the new house. My architect wanted a three car garage but I said two would be enough and room to potter around in. I might just be able to get most of that monstrosity under cover but not all of it, whereas I can fit the BMW into either bay. The second bay will take two full length cars, as long as ones a compact, but as you'll see in a few days, the 525 was designed to fit quite nicely under cover with room left over to open doors and a small amount of room left to unload groceries.
It's not a Jag, but it's the next best thing to it and the previous owner had the brains to only have the windows tinted 20% because it has rear blinds. I am now up to page 51 of the manual and am none the wiser on how the computer operates, all I know is I can set the satnav with few problems and all I have to do is remember the indicator stick is on the left and it's the top one, the bottom one is for cruise control and the right-hand one operates automatically when it rains, unless one wishes to clean off bird crap. I also know how to put it into sport mode and I know how the sequential changes of the gears work (the wrong way around). I might rest on my laurels at page 51 as it then goes onto voice control and I'm sure it won't understand Australian and I'll be stuck in the car all day, going nowhere just like Clarkson was with the Mercedes he tried out and that manual wasn't 200 pages long.
I wonder where I can top it out at 240 KPH, just to see how many horses have escaped. I wonder if Don Muang will let me use their runway as I can't spell the other one.

[Roger Ramjet]

The delivery date is now Saturday, meanwhile I've just learnt how not to turn on the HUD so my wife can't tell me I'm going too fast (page 84), but it should be good when on my own and with the new Radar Detector (old one returned as good as new) the coppers are going to have fun trying to get me for speeding. I also have a rear window block/blackout screen that slides into place for those annoying people who drive with their headlights on full beam.
Sunday will now be the day i post photos with it parked in my garage/workshop.

[schuimpge]

Ah the small fixes, like replacing a worn leather panel in the front driver's seat takes two days

Will it be replaced with pink flower wall paper to match your house?

[Ians]

Ah the small fixes, like replacing a worn leather panel in the front driver's seat takes two days

Will it be replaced with pink flower wall paper to match your house?

Now that is mean...

[Roger Ramjet]

Will it be replaced with pink flower wall paper to match your house?

Listen I'm having enough nightmares about what the bloody Thais will do without the comedians adding their two bobs worth. I was supposed to pick it up yesterday, but he keeps making lame excuses, the latest being he's having it serviced, when it already has been serviced at B-Quick where they put in the cheapest motor oil they have. I want that damned car, it's been on the grey market (unauthorised service centres) for the last two years, I want it into a proper authorised BMW Dealer for a full service, including changing the transmission fluid and for them to put it on their computer to see what's really wrong with it, and before that I want 5 new bloody tyres on it and they won't be cheap Chinese garbage..... how can you do that to a BMW?
I hate it when Thais try and do the "right thing" because it's always the wrong thing.
And a word of caution if anyone is thinking of buying one, make sure it has a service history with BMW, not with the grey market. The mechanics that work in the place I went and looked at must have all been sacked from BMW for using cheap Chinese or Thai replacement parts......and the used car dealer thought that was smart. Sigh.
He's bullshitting to the wrong people, my wife used to work for BMW and she knows what happens to dealers who use cheap Chinese or Thai parts, they are no longer BMW dealers. There are 4 German makers of BMW parts, especially for the model I'm getting, and that's all that will be going in it.
I'd really swear or get angry but all I'd get is that damned Thai smile or the deer looking into the cars headlights look. I want that car.

[Roger Ramjet]

The BMW. The sunlight was in the wrong place, you'll have too do with what I took.

[MGV12]

You bstd ... you have re-awakened my desire for BMW's and I am extending my garage in readiness.

I will take the 'delete rear wing' option but otherwise the car featured will do me:

[Roger Ramjet]

You bstd ... you have re-awakened my desire for BMW's and I am extending my garage in readiness.

Dear MGV12,
Four turbos or was that superchargers no less. I wonder what Sao will think and will she allow it??
My wife actually helped with the money and she thinks the ride is superb. My specialist, a Professor, sat in the car and as I went though all the gadgets she wanted to go out for a drive, which was quite short, but compared to her Nissan she said it was "just what she wanted and needed" and she would be telling her husband so, the moment she got home. Another scalp to my belt.
I should have bought it during my build and to hell with the cost at the time.
By the way I am not a bastard, I was at my mother and step-father's marriage and i presume my mother was married to the wife basher she divorced before that. No good bastard he was.
Be a mug lair, take the rear wing option. That's two old farts the Thais will be absolutely scared of when we are on the road and I wish I was in Australia because the Beemer would give the coppers a run for their money, unless of course they had the Marloo or the Bathurst editions, which I think they do.
It was probably the best buy of my life and if I had driven one before when I could have afforded it, I would have, but the V8's called and I listened in those days whilst my wife just complained I was never home, but I don't think I could have afforded it then, even on my consultant's hourly fee.
Perhaps you could train your wife to become a ch.......... no that wouldn't work, you want to drive it.
Good luck on that one.

[MGV12]

Dear MGV12,
Four turbos or was that superchargers no less. I wonder what Sao will think and will she allow it??

Some have a choice and others think they do

[Roger Ramjet]

Some have a choice and others think they do

Today the BMW officially becomes part of the BMW stable again. For those that don't know, BMW keep a detailed log of every car they sell and if you have a BMW key they can insert it in their machine and give you a detailed history (for those thinking of buying a BMW- if you can get the key).
Mine has been Missing in Action for the last two years as the previous owner got it serviced on the grey market....which means it's full of cheap Chinese spare parts that will wear out in 1/5th the time of a real BMW part, but cost 1/5th the price.
My major worry was the service history, which again starts today. The service manager and I sat down for an hour and worked out a strategy to get the car back up to full spec. Firstly the transmission fluid and brake fluid will be flushed from the systems and replaced. The handbrake pads will be replaced and the handbrake adjusted and finally the shock boots will be replaced.
It has brand new tyres, which I had put on. Toyo sport, as I've always had a good run out of them and they work well in heavy braking and the wet. I also got a bit of a shock at the dealer's when I looked at their recommended tyres at a cost of 245,000 a set of four. Rather like the massive single piston and double piston brake calipers at about the same price. But I did look at a recommended list of tyres for BMW and Toyo sport are on the list so I won't worry about their brand tyres for 245,000 and I'll stick with my 20,400 set.
Absolutely brilliant to drive and once I get the fluids changed I'll start doing proper services, on time, every time.