If you can help, fax Harry Flashman at the Pattaya Mail (038) 427 596 or email [email protected]. Harry knows Ryan personally and will vouch for the fact that he is totally house-trained and understands the need to keep darkrooms spotless!

Perhaps next year all those people like my Mum will be able to take a sea cruise after all!

The great thing about being a food writer is that you get to practice on the raw material at least three times a day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner! Every mouthful can be rewarding.

This week the Dining Out Team decided that it was not a five star restaurant that should be graced with our presence, but rather we would look at a more “budget conscious” eatery. It was with this in mind that we approached a very small roadside stall next to the Royal Garden Plaza and across the road from the El Toro Steakhouse on Pattaya Second Road. Was it safe? Would we die? Was the food any good at a typical roadside eatery?

This one was run by a family. It was obvious that “Mama” did the cooking and serving, while “Papa” was more into opening coconuts and “lukchai” attended to the washing up and cleaning of tables. The division of duties seemed to work, as everyone appeared happy and Mama greeted us with a broad, if somewhat gappy-toothed grin.

Lukchai had been industrious and the tables were clean. Seating was on plastic stools, generally a little low for the taller farang team, but the restaurant was well patronised by the local population. D้cor is best described as “minimalist”, while those less romantic might question its very being.

On the laminex top tables there were containers, capped with the obligatory fly cover, of nam pla, chili, sugar and vinegar, plus other containers of chopsticks and Chinese spoons. Reading material was plentiful for the diners, unfortunately being Thai newspapers, but the pictures, it was noted, appeared to be multilingual.

The menu is not the usual written variety, but the choice of dishes is done by the time honoured peruse and point method, though Mama managed to handle Miss Terry’s atrocious Thai and still keep smiling.

Madame chose the Kwiteo Nam Moo Daeng Sen Lek (thin noodle soup with red pork), while I pointed at the Kai Yat Sai (Thai omelette) and accepted the fried egg that Mama suggested be taken with it.

The soup was freshly made to order on the spot, from a steaming boiler of stock, with added green vegetables, fresh bean sprouts, minced pork and the red pork slices. With some additions of fried garlic and coriander and a goodly sprinkle of pepper, it arrived on the table with a flourish. My dish items were pre-cooked, and both the omelette parcel and fried egg arrived on top of a decent sized serving of steamed white rice.

With no wine list, and not so thirsty, Madame gave beverages the go-by, but I plumped for Coca-Cola and a bottle complete with straw was served.

We added the sauces to taste, though I politely refused the proffered chili sauce for the omelette. The omelette was very tasty, the egg yolk just fluid as I like them and there was more than enough rice to fill my available lunchtime stomach space, though I did have some of Madame’s noodle soup which was excellent, but I would have added another ladleful of nam pla for my own personal taste.

During the lunch, Mama made a point of coming over and saying “Aroy?” to which I could honestly reply, “Yes. Aroy!” Mama rewarded me with another of her beaming smiles.

I asked how much and then it was my turn to smile. The soup was 20 baht, the omelette, egg and rice was 25 baht and the Coke 10 baht. For 55 baht we had consumed lunch for two that was flavoursome, nutritious and quick. What more could one ask for from your local fast-food outlet?

Thank you, Mama. We’ll be back! You should try it too. (Footnote! Next day - no tummy troubles!)

by Mirin MacCarthy

Have you ever been roared at by a man-eater with fangs four inches away from your face, as it reared on its hind legs to lunge six feet tall at you? Have you felt spittle & foam from bared teeth fly in your face from a ferocious beast determined to eat both you and your camera? Would you stand there calmly clicking away, or would you back off even though you were separated by heavy gauge steel wire? Would you agree to the owner / trainer’s invitation to join him in the cage with the beast from hell? Two guesses what this intrepid reporter’s response was.

There were two of the creatures, certain man-eaters. They were Anatolian Shepherd dogs. This is a complete misnomer because they don’t shepherd anything and who has ever heard of Anatolia? They are actually fierce Turkish mountain dogs that guard and protect sheep and goats against wolves and attacking marauders. They certainly don’t herd sheep, but will fight to the death to kill their predators. These dogs are seriously savage yet surprisingly loyal and devoted to their owners and immediate family and animals. They definitely do not tolerate strangers but attack first and ask questions later.

It is possible to see photos of them standing placidly. (I suspect these have been taken by their owners with a telephoto lens.) In pictures they appear to be regal yet docile, believe me this is deceptive. If you can get close enough to them without fleeing you notice they look like a cross between a huge Labrador and a small lion, with a majestic cream coat, black muzzle, thick neck fur like a mane and a curiously curled tail. Friendly they are not. I have been closer to “tame” leopards and tigers without being scared!

Turkish mountain dogs were bred and recorded in Babylonian times as protectors. They stand tall, at least 29 inches at the shoulder and weighing 150 pounds. Turkish and Afghani shepherds today give their dogs massive iron spiked collars as a protection against animals that grab for the throat. A chilling thought! What are the wolves like over there?

These dogs are not house pets. They are only happy when they have a job to do. Edward Gibson of U.K Kennels had these two and gave me the invitation I should have resisted. He is going to breed from his beautiful pedigree bitch and dog and sell the pups next season.

I have put my name down for one. Hey I’m not stupid, I think I can teach a six week old puppy not to eat me, my husband, cats or birds. All my problems solved in one dog with an important job to do of guard companion. There won’t be a kamoy within running distance of my house ever again. I can’t wait, but I am not so sure the neighbours will be so thrilled.

Put your name down for a guard companion pup if you are game. You can talk to Edward Gibson at U.K. Kennels Phone (038) 412 189.

In the 1800’s it was very fashionable to have your head examined by getting your local highly skilled Phrenologist (cranial bumps reader) to tell you what your future trade or calling should be. In fact, many employers made it compulsory that a Phrenological reading be done as part of pre-employment screening, it was so highly thought of. So what happened to Phrenology? Was it based on scientific fact and where are the corner-store Phrenologists today?

Phrenology was actually born within science. Austrian physician Franz Joseph Gall is accepted as the father (?Phather) of Phrenology, even though he did not coin the term. It was just over 200 years ago that Gall put forward the notion that different mental functions are indeed located in different parts of the brain. This was pioneering stuff, and he was correct.

His next step was to state that man’s moral and intellectual faculties depended on the organization of the brain, which he considered to be the organ responsible for all the propensities, sentiments and faculties. From there it was an easy step to propose that the brain is composed of many particular “organs”, each one of them responsible for a given mental faculty. He proposed also that the relative development of mental faculties in an individual would lead to a growth or larger development in the “organs” responsible for them. All sounded fairly feasible - after all exercising your arms produces bigger biceps.

The next part of his hypothesis was the crux of the new “science”. Gall proposed that the external form of the cranium reflects the internal form of the brain, and that the relative development of its “organs” caused changes to the form of the skull, which could then be used to show the particular mental faculties of a given individual. We do know that form follows function, so where did Phrenology go from there?

Gall then spent considerable time to “prove” his theories. Friends, associates, relatives and in fact anyone who would sit still long enough were measured. He then selected people with differing personalities and tried to correlate certain particular mental faculties to bumps and depressions on the surface of the skull, its exterior forms or relative dimensions. From there, he produced the first topographical maps of the skull, with areas marked out to correspond with the internal brain “organs” and so the “science” was born. Gall was helped in all this frantic mapping by Johann Spurzheim (1776-1832), who later helped him to extend the so-called phrenological model and spread it to Europe and the USA.

In the early 1800s, Phrenology flourished. The maps, and the fact that you could actually feel the bumps really brought out the bump readers. It was no giant step of faith. The bumps were there.

The maps included such areas as “Amativeness”. If it was small, it meant “old maidenish and particular; total want of sexual feeling”. Medium bump signified “very apt to become enamoured, but inclined to be inconsistent.” While those with a large endowment (of the knob on the noggin variety) showed “extreme passion and blind sexual attachment.”

Of course, the Phrenologists had to live and the fees could be quite high for a consultation. A quotation from a price list of the day read, “For marking down the Sizes or Powers of the Organs, or for selecting from this book the proper Character, and pointing out the Trades, Callings, and Professions best calculated for a young person to follow; also for showing the Combinations of the various Faculties, and the influence which one Organ may have upon another, including the Temperaments and how to improve or decrease those Faculties which may be too small, or too large - 2s. 6d. and 3s. 6d.” What a bargain for two and a tanner! How one increased the faculty I am not sure, other than perhaps with a swift blow with a hammer.

But not everyone was happy with what was read in their bumps. It is reported that one Napoleon Bonaparte was far from pleased because Gall’s interpretation of his skull “missed” some noble qualities he thought he had.

Slowly the advent of the “get rich quick” brigade also took some of the gloss away from the art of bump reading, with the (almost) final knell being the inability of the scientific community in the early 1900s to duplicate the work of Gall and Spurzheim.

But there was still money to be made from Phrenology, even in the 1930s, when Henry C. Lavery, a self-described “profound thinker” of Superior, Wisconsin became certain that phrenology was true and he and his partner, Frank P. White, a businessman who had taken his life savings of $39,000 out of stock in a local sandpaper manufacturer (the 3M company!) to finance the venture, announced the invention of the “Psychograph.”

This machine consisted of 1,954 parts in a metal carrier with a continuous motor-driven belt inside a walnut cabinet. The subject sat on a chair connected to the machine and the headpiece was lowered and adjusted. 32 probes touched the skull which then sent low-voltage signals from the headpiece and the machine stamped out the appropriate statement for each faculty or bump. These little devices proved to be very popular in cinema foyers and the like and in the mid 1930s were great money spinners for the entrepreneurs. But by this stage, Phrenology had become a parlour trick, rather than considered to be scientific or factual.

However, there are still adherents and extracts from a recent Phrenological reading on the bust of Julius Caesar revealed the following - “Cautiousness” is negative, “Destructiveness” is very wide showing brutal vindictiveness and negative “Veneration” shows all moral values will be down trodden. They got Big Julie in one!

The Great Western Railway laid claim to a long-standing speed record, of 102.3 m.p.h., achieved by the locomotive No.3440, ‘City of Truro’, when working a Plymouth Docks to London ‘Ocean Mails’ special train on 8th May, 1904. The Company occasionally allowed professional writers on railways to ride these and other non-passenger carrying trains and so it was that the late Charles Rous-Marten was on the train this day. He was well-known and admired for his writings on locomotive performance and speeds, and it was not until years later that some people began to question aspects of thus run. I will come back to some details in a moment.

Let me say at once that I did not believe the speed then - and I don’t now! Why? A number of reasons, not all of which I knew or understood in my teens. Although only a year old, the locomotive was pure Victorian practice; it had no superheater which heats the steam and makes it do its work better and with economy; it had old-fashioned flat ‘slide-valves’, which need more power to move than the later ones; the record speed claimed was not approached, let alone exceeded for another 30 years; and it is known to me that at least two deliberate attempts to equal the speed have been made in recent times, with really modern steam locomotives-and both failed! Again, Rous-Marten was trying to do something not only difficult, but even harder at very high speeds... he was taking continuous record quarter-mile posts of the stopwatch readings for each quarter mile. Sit in your office and try that, and make a note of the results for history and remember that at over 102 m.p.h. the readings have to be taken and the watch restated each 9 seconds or less. Also, in these times when a digital watch with a ‘stop’ facility, reading to 1/100th of a second can be bought almost anywhere, it is easy to forget that in 1904 the best would only read to the nearest 1/5th of a second; there are limits too, to the quickness of movement of the human finger!

“G W R” 3440 - Reading 1958

Rous-Marten’s times for the quarter miles on the section concerned have survived and been published. The last four give speeds of 92, 96, 98 and 102 m.p.h. - a curious pattern of 4, 2 and 4 m.p.h. acceleration and this makes the final quarter, when acceleration would be reducing as the maximum was approached, very suspect, especially as the gradient was at that point becoming less steep.

The Norddeutsche Lloyd Liner ‘Kronorinz Wilhelm’ dropped anchor in Plymouth Sound at 8.00 a.m. on the morning in question; big ships were outsize for the modest Millbay Docks and all traffic had come ashore by tender. The mails from New York were particularly urgent, and these were sorted and loaded to the five vans of the special train in time for a 9.23 a.m. departure. Driver Moses Clements of Exeter was in charge, and Inspector Flewellyn rode on the locomotive as well.

Clements, said to be a ‘very smart man’, ran this light train over the twisty and fearsomely graded section to Newron Abbot, 31.8 miles, in 36 1/4 minutes, a time seldom bettered for many years. Part of the line thence to Exeter was then single line and speed was limited, and after a very slow passage of Exeter station and then a fast climb to Whiteball Summit, named after a ‘pub’, the ‘White Ball’, the fun began, with the result I have already described. Average speed thence to Bristol was almost 73 m.p.h.; at this point one van was detached and the engines changed with a ‘Single-wheeler’ to the design of William Dean going forward. The change was done faster than I have ever seen and in less than four minutes No. 3065 ‘Duke of Connaught’ was on its way; to London there was just one out-of course slowing, where the Cricklade Road Bridge, 2 miles east of Swindon was being renewed.

The actual maximum speed claimed was suppressed by G.W.R. authorities for years, until 1922 in fact, for fear that the travelling public might be afraid of going so fast by rail. Twelve years later the figures were call into question by correspondents of the writer the late C.J. Allen and in 1954 by the late O.S. Nock. Allen did not make a guess as to the real maximum, but Nock did, and so did Peter Semmens in a book on the life of this famous locomotive; here he exposed for the first time the hard facts of old stopwatches and the human fingers that operated them. Both these writers award No. 3440 a probable maximum of just 100 m.p.h. Your present writer is harder! - he says ‘Not proven’; I do not think we ought to guess too high on such a fact, and I give 98-99 m.p.h. as the highest I would accept.

‘City of Truro’ is still with us. Withdrawn in 1931, it was found a home in the small railway museum kept by the L.N.E.R. at York and it stayed there (other than being evacuated between 1939 and 1945). In 1957 the impossible happened - the Western Region of British Railways asked for it back (covered by the agreement when it went to York first); it was then overhauled at Swindon works and was made available for working special trains, and my picture taken in 1958 shows it on such a duty near Reading. It was again withdrawn in 1962 to be placed in the new G.W.R. Museum at Swindon. But again in 1984, it was taken to the workshops of the Severn Valley Railway, one of Britain’s ‘preservation’ railways run in part by amateurs. Here it was once more prepared for service and has since then been available for light special trains, on which it continues to be a great favourite.

As it approaches its 97th year, it is good to know that, so far, there are no further plans to condemn it to more years, ‘stuffed and mounted’ in a museum. It is, I know, an Edwardian engine, just, but there is nothing on it other than the boiler that could not have been fitted when the ‘Old Queen’ was still on the throne.

Much of what goes before has been checked from an excellent book by Nigel Harris and published by the Silver Link Co. If there is any more my readers wish to know, it is very likely in this Collector’s Item book.

Last week I had the pleasure of going with the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand to Cambodia.

Our program was very tight, and our organizer and guide, Don Philipe, did not give us much time in the markets. First day we paid a visit to the Russian Market in Phnom-Penh for 1/2 hour, and one afternoon we went to the Central Market Hall, also called the Great Market, for a couple of hours.

French Indo-Chinese Piastre from 1897. These can be found in the market in Phnom Penh from 6 to 9 US$. Fakes for one US$ or less.

Of course, I had to look for coins. Unfortunately, when we made it to the Great Market, it was closed due to Chinese New Year. But in the neighborhood there were several stores selling silver and other products. Some of them had some coins for sale, and if you want to build up a reference collection of fake coins, this is a good place to start.

I saw several of the 1 baht RS127 (1908) for sale. This is the coin struck for King Chulalongkorn in Paris, and I wrote about it in Vol. VIII No.4 this year. There were two different kinds of fakes or copies that I saw in the Great Market. The first one I saw was a very bad fake that most collectors would have no problem identifying as a fake. It was struck in copper-nickel, not in silver as the original. It was also thicker than the original.

The second type was a much better fake, probably struck in silver. From a distance, it looked like a real coin, but I did not like the patina. Studying the coin with a loupe, I was sure it was a fake. I asked for prices. The lady in the shop had noted my loupe, and asked if I could see that the first one was a fake, and fakes she was selling for one US $. The second one, which she told me was a genuine piece; here she needed US$60. I tried to tell her that the second one was also a forgery, and if it was real the price would be at least 3 to 4 thousand US $. Well I wanted to have the “nice” fake as a reference coin, and we agreed on US$20.

From the same shop I also bought some fakes of crown-sized coins from China, England, French Indo-China and Japan. They were one US$ each, but she gave me 25 pieces for US$20. From this group of “rarities” there were coins listed in the catalogue for as much as US$5,000, a Chinese dollar of the Republic-General Issue struck in year 16 (1927) in 480 pieces. The one I bought was in copper-nickel, not in silver as the original would be, and probably struck in thousands. In my group of fakes there were also cheap coins like the French Indo-China piastre catalogued in Very Fine condition at US$10.

In another shop, I looked through some junk boxes and picked out some minor coins. There was not too much time to study the coins, as I wanted to see some more of the stores. I bought a handful of coins for a few dollars and thought I had done a good deal. Among the coins I had noted a Thai 1/4 baht from RS127 (1908). The coin is listed in the Thai catalogue at 8,000 baht, so I thought I had done one good deal.

In the last shop, before having to return to the hotel, I bought some real French Indo-China piastres from the period 1906 till 1922. Most of them were almost uncalculated condition. They had been found in the ground, and still not cleaned. This made me happy, as most coin collectors do not like their coins cleaned. I paid from six to nine US$ each, and with a catalogue value of about 20 US$ each, I was happy with my purchase because these were real coins.

Back at the hotel, I wanted to study the 1/4 baht I had bought in a hurry for less than one US$, with a possible value of 8,000 baht. And looking at the little coin through my loupe, I realized one shopkeeper close to the Great Market in Phnom Penh had made a better deal.

G’ Day Pattaya, Fitness Tips this week is very simple - a few short sweet tips from the land down under.

Contrary to popular belief, raw vegetables are not always more nutritious than cooked vegetables. It is true that cooking, especially prolonged boiling, does reduce the vitamin content of vegetables, but carotenoids, such as the beta carotene in carrots are more readily available if the vegetables are cooked or even highly processed (chopped, pureed and heated).

One recent study found that those who ate cooked, pureed carrots and spinach ended up with three times more beta carotene in their blood than those who ate the equivalent amounts raw. One reason: processing breaks down certain chemical bonds in the vegetables and releases the carotenoids.

Another study showed that people consuming 37 grams of tomato paste a day had more than twice as much Lycopene (another carotenoid) in their blood than those eating 400g of fresh tomatoes a day. Gram for gram, processed tomato products (such as in sauce, pasta or juice) contain 2 to 10 times as much available lycopene as fresh tomatoes.

The bottom line is that if you eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, raw and cooked, you’ll get all the carotenoids and other nutrients you need.

Type 2 diabetes is a disease that affects nearly 1 million older Australians (tot. pop. 18+million) and costs the nation $1 billion annually, yet around 50% of sufferers are unaware they have the condition.

Early diagnosis of this debilitating disease is crucial as leaving it late and poor management of Type 2 diabetes can lead to serious complications, such as heart disease, kidney failure, stroke, blindness, gangrene - thus possible related limb amputation, impotence and ultimately death.

Symptoms are; blurred vision, thirst (chronic), frequent urination, feeling tired and unwell as well as slow healing wounds. The slow healing wounds frequently goes unnoticed or is dismissed as signs of aging.

Type 2 diabetes is more common in people who are overweight, have high blood pressure and who have a family history of the condition. If diagnosed in time, it can easily be controlled with medical treatment and regular exercise.

Try this website for more info: www.defusediabetes.info.au.

Garlic should not be crushed or exposed to heat, as it destroys the nutrients. Cut garlic up in small slices and add to your cooking only after they turn off the heat, or take slices of fresh garlic with your meal (much like a tablet). As garlic can cause gastric distress or contact dermatitis in some people, you should always take garlic (fresh or processed) with food. Seems a little radical, I know, but for the nutrient vale of a food like garlic it is more than worth it. Final thing on this is that I am sure that you all, especially on a night like last Monday (Valentines Day), ensured that your partner had just as much Garlic as you did.

Carpe’ Diem