Hi Guys & Gals


A few who know me will know i left to work in Bangkok Thailand.....


Well it looks like mother nature has chosen for me to return to Europe !!! Work is under 2.5m of water now, many of the basement areas are destroyed.

we have been told today we will be paid till end of the month then our contracts are terminated, as the flooding has sufficiently destroyed the whole campus to demand a total refit !! and that may take years, it was in the middle of a 3 year upgrade as it was. but electrical system and comms (computers, fiber optics) are all fooked

A brand new 5 axis mill has been destroyed over £250,000.00 gone !!! it was still sitting on its pallet waiting to be installed

The city is devastated in areas, but others untouched, over 200 dead, bodies (human & animal) have been seen floating in the storm water

Personally my home here is "safe" at the moment but we have moved everything to the first floor to try to protect our belongings, but amid tragedy there is sights of pure selflessness as you can see from the pictures some who have lost everything still having time to help those less fortunate see attached pictures. and a link to the youtube video of the brave souls trying to protect their local area !!


flooding video



access road


car park


entrance


yuk


from the air


cats


friends


compassion


Take care

bad news on all counts fella, hope your well, still think that centepede is a beast

Sorry to hear that news mate - that looks pretty bad

but what the hell is this?


yuk

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Originally posted by mookaloid
Sorry to hear that news mate - that looks pretty bad

but what the hell is this?


yuk

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quote:

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Originally posted by mookaloid
Sorry to hear that news mate - that looks pretty bad

but what the hell is this?


yuk

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Its a Giant Asian Centipede !!! and supposedly quite common, but I haven't seen one quite as big in the flesh thank god !!!!

But I can tell you if I see one swimming towards me, im doing a moses but not walking on water I will be running...

with the water rising we are told to be on the lookout for fresh water crocodiles roaming about too !!!!!!

And knowing some of the locals they are probably grilling that thing, heathens, and deep fried cockroach is considered a delicacy here too, pass the barf bucket please !!!!

quote:

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Originally posted by Steve Hignett

quote:

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Originally posted by mookaloid
Sorry to hear that news mate - that looks pretty bad

but what the hell is this?


yuk

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Lunch...

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quote:

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Originally posted by mookaloid
Sorry to hear that news mate - that looks pretty bad

but what the hell is this?


yuk

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Awful news on all counts. Bangkok is a great city - I thoroughly enjoyed my time there last year. The locals in some cases don't have much to lose but that'll leave them with nothing.

Not good at all. I wonder if my tailor (bargain!) is affected?

Thats such a bugger.

I was in Bangkok only 4 weeks ago. Such a loveley city/country. The river was almost at bankfull when we left.... Feel sorry for the Thai people, all of them seemed so friendly and did not deserve that!

I dont watch much of the news, but has this had much coverage? Seems serious!

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Originally posted by Hector.Brocklebank
But I can tell you if I see one swimming towards me, im doing a moses but not walking on water I will be running...

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quote:

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Originally posted by loggyboy
I dont watch much of the news, but has this had much coverage? Seems serious!

quote:

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Originally posted by Hector.Brocklebank
But I can tell you if I see one swimming towards me, im doing a moses but not walking on water I will be running...

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Im no bible basher, but dfidnt moses part the water and Jesus walk on it?

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quote:

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Originally posted by TimC
I'm afraid that the answer to both is 'No.'

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This issue has had lots of coverage in Asia, but in the "west" its not really covered in detail, BBC news is carrying the story but not in the way it would with a domestic story.

And to be honest I think the "Thai" government are trying to keep a lid on it and play the disaster down (and it is a disaster) for ONE reason, and that reason is that this issue was "manufactured" and allowed to occur purely through mis-management of the water system, and through corruption/greed.

The water is storm water but it was allowed to accumulate further up in the north of the country in the two main dams, now common sense dictated that around July/August time they "should" have been continually and gradually releasing water from the then full dams as this was just the start of the rainy season here in Thailand this would have allowed them to drain the water from the country slowly into the ocean, if this had occurred it would have also hidden the corruption issue very well !!!

But through miss-management they decided that they would not release the water until 2 weeks ago when they reached an "oh f**k" moment in finding out if they didn't release pressure from the two main dams that they were in danger of natural breach through over pressurization.

At this point they began dumping water fast... TOO fast and the result is that the stored water that was released in conjunction with continual & heavy rainfall that just too much water has accumulated throughout the country and that water all naturally flows to Bangkok.

This normally would be fine, but through corruption they reckon that 80 to 90% of the natural flood plains in and around Bangkok have been drained and developed, with permission for this being granted in protected areas through the "brown envelope system" this and the water way guys (them that farked up the dams) did not implement the de-silting program of the canals and river system early enough this year.

This has led to one thing, the ordinary people of this lovely city suffering (and yes dying) while those that caused it are sitting in their penthouses saying "external factors conspired against us in extraordinary circumstances" yes those circumstances were that said head honcho had his head up his but !!!

To top this the recently elected Female minister has been caught on camera screwing her face up at having to walk over duck boards in a flooded area while all the "normal" people are (obviously) being made to stand to in a few foot of water, Wai'ing her.

C**TS the lot of them but I suppose that's governments the world over.....



[Edited on 19/10/2011 by Hector.Brocklebank]

We suffereda bit with that too - but not quite aqs badly as you. I'm in Saigon, Vietnam. I work in the financial district so wasn't really affected but some of our clients in the more distant suburbs and a few of the staff that are in satellite towns had some property damage. A few people have died and quite a few more injured....

Glad to say I've never been confronted with a centipede as big as that but I have seen a few nasties...I've even eaten some of them!

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Originally posted by tomprescott
We suffereda bit with that too - but not quite aqs badly as you. I'm in Saigon, Vietnam. I work in the financial district so wasn't really affected but some of our clients in the more distant suburbs and a few of the staff that are in satellite towns had some property damage. A few people have died and quite a few more injured....

Glad to say I've never been confronted with a centipede as big as that but I have seen a few nasties...I've even eaten some of them!

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If you "google" GIANT ASIAN CENTIPEDE in images you will come up with plenty of them here.

I was given "soup" at a wedding reception earlier in the year, for the life of me it looked ,tasted & had the texture that looked 100% like chicken, I was merrily hoovering said chicken soup, until I was asked how my "shark fin" soup was !!!!

It nearly came back up I can tell you.

From then on, I asked "whats in it" before eating again.

I have a bit of a phobia of spiders (I know, I'm a big girl), but that centipede is worse than any spider I can imagine

I've had a few interesting dishes whilst I've been working in China, possibly the worst being some kind of frog casserole, heavily laced with chilli peppers. The frogs were just little bags of skin with bones in, pretty much no actual meat it was quite literally a "crunchy frog" for the Python fans. Fortunately the large amount of chilli disguised whatever taste they may have had.

I hope things get better for you and the other unfortunate people in that part of the world.