|
Family Money: Getting
a fair share
By Leslie
Wright
Part 1
There’s a lot of nonsense talked in newspapers and on
TV about stocks & shares and markets, and the technical terms often
baffle investors. One wonders sometimes if the commentator is trying to
inform or to obfuscate, or just boost his own ego by impressing his
audience with his knowledge of technicalities.
So let’s start with the basics. As that wonderfully
droll poem says: “Today we shall have naming of parts.”
When an investor buys a share in say, Acme Products
Ltd., that is exactly what he has done: he has bought a share ownership in
that company.
He will have the right to vote on major decisions of
the company and to take a share in its profits.
However, the investor must take the good with the bad.
He may have bought a share in a company which will show no profits, and in
fact may even go into liquidation.
Whether this was because of bad management, an
unexpected downturn in the market, poor research, or - the most frequent
cause - inadequate operating capital, is beside the point. It is a painful
fact that about 50% of all new companies registered fail within the first
two years. And that is a global phenomenon, not just here in Thailand.
If you hold shares in a company which fails you will
lose your investment.
Private & Public
It is worth remembering that some companies are quoted
on a stock exchange and some are not.
Private companies owned by a family or just a few
directors are of course not quoted on the stock market.
These shares may, however, be given or sold to others
at the owner’s discretion, and at a price agreed upon by the parties. It
is a purely private transaction. You may, for instance, wish to give your
secretary, or driver, or maid a bonus to keep him or her loyal - and what
better incentive than some shares in your successful company?
If a small company were successful it might want to
expand by borrowing money initially from the banks. But after a while the
directors may want to expand still further or increase their own wealth by
selling some of their shares. While the company is still in private hands
the value of these shares will be difficult to agree and the market for
their sale will be small.
For these two reasons - raising capital and releasing
equity in the business - the directors may decide to float their company
on the stock market. This they can do by a new share issue.
Normally the directors will continue to hold the
majority of the shares; but to obtain a full listing the company must
offer at least 25% of the shares for public subscription.
Before the listing is obtained the company must ensure
that it is acceptable to the stock exchange. It will have to meet the
stock exchange’s criteria and will have to hire professional help to
achieve this, including accountants, lawyers, a merchant bank and a
stockbroker.
A major international stock exchange will require
extensive financial disclosure of the company affairs and the company must
have at least a three-year track record to be listed.
Floating an issue
A new issue of shares can be dealt with in a number of
ways:
* Offer for sale. A fixed number of shares are
offered to the public at a fixed price. If more people apply for the
shares than the number offered (termed “over-subscription”) either a
pro-rata allocation is made or a ballot taken.
* A Placing. This is often used for the sale of
a small issue of new shares. Shares are not sold directly to the public;
the company’s merchant bankers agree a price and sell the shares to a
number of institutions at this price. The institution may then decide to
hold or sell some or all of these shares into the market.
* A Tender. Members of the public tender for
shares, naming the price they are prepared to pay. When all tenders are
in, the merchant bank will agree the price at which to sell the shares.
All tenders at that price or above will receive an allocation.
When an already listed company wishes to raise more
capital for expansion or reduce bank borrowing, the company may make a rights
issue. The shares are offered to existing shareholders, and the
balance usually underwritten with a number of institutions.
A scrip issue is not an issue of shares
to raise more capital; it simply gives the shareholder more shares, e.g.,
4 for 1. Sometimes called a “stock split”, a scrip dividend occurs
when an investor is offered additional shares rather than taking a
dividend in cash. It is in effect a way the company retains more of its
capital.
Trading in the market
Once quoted shares have been issued they can be bought
or sold on the stock market.
Obviously the price will rise or fall with demand. And
this demand can be driven as much by the perception of investors of the
worth or potential growth of the company as by its fundamentals: its
capital assets (buildings & equipment), orders in hand, market share,
etc.
This can lead to speculative trading in almost
worthless companies - (remember the explosion and subsequent implosion of
dot-com companies recently?) - where the euphoria of greed carries the
stock price to dizzying heights only to drop to almost nothing when the
bubble bursts.
Traditionally, shares are bought through a stockbroker.
The London Stock Exchange for instance groups companies
into 35 sectors. Known as the FT All Share Index, the smaller grouping is
the FTSE100, the 100 largest companies on the stock market, often called
“blue-chip” companies.
In the US the Dow Jones Industrial Index similarly
tracks major ‘blue chip’ firms, while the S&P 500 Index tracks 500
leading firms.
Class consciousness?
There are several distinctly different types of shares
one can hold. These are:
1. Ordinary shares.
The shareholder is entitled:
* To a share of profit distributed as a dividend.
* The right to vote on matters affecting the company.
* In the event of a winding up, to a share of assets -
but it is worth noting that the shareholders do not take precedence over
creditors, who come second after the taxman.
2. Preference shares.
* These shares are given priority over ordinary
shares’ dividend payment, and in the event of liquidation.
* The dividend is usually a guaranteed amount, but if
the distribution to the ordinary shareholders is higher, the preference
shareholders do not receive the increased amount.
3. Convertible Preference Shares.
* The dividend paid is usually less than to
non-convertible preference shares; but shareholders have the option to
convert to ordinary shares at pre-set future dates and pre-set prices.
4. Partly Paid Share.
* Shares are paid for in instalments. This was a
feature of some privatisations. The outstanding instalment must be paid if
the company goes into liquidation.
5. Unquoted Share.
* A share of a private company which is not listed on
the stock market. Marketability of these shares is difficult.
Income and Growth prospects
Shares give the chance of increasing income and capital
growth, but carry a higher risk than government bonds or cash deposits.
The income you receive from shares is known as a dividend.
Typically this is paid every six months and after a full financial year.
The dividend amount depends on profits. The company
will not distribute all the profit; some will be ploughed back into the
company for further growth.
If a large amount is retained, it is usually a good
sign, as it means the dividend is well covered. On the other hand, if the
company dips into reserves to maintain a dividend then this is referred to
as an ‘uncovered’ dividend.
Investors’ dividend yield on the share will depend on
the dividend paid and the price paid for the share.
E.g., dividend 20p, price 500p, yield 20/500x100=4%.
However, if Mr B had bought the same share for only
400p his yield would be: 20/400x100%=5%.
You will note, therefore, that yields fall as prices
rise: they’re inversely proportional to each other.
Investors hope that their dividends will increase each
year, but there is no guarantee of this.
Hence, most investors - especially short-term
speculators - are looking for growth on the capital value of their shares.
In selecting a share, three measurements are normally
taken into account:
1. Dividend yield (discussed above)
2. Price/Earnings ratio
3. Net Asset Value
The Price-to-Earnings ratio - or P/E ratio for short -
gives an indication of how high the price of the share is compared to its
current earnings.
For example, if the earnings are 30p per share and the
current price is 400p then P/E ratio is 400/30=13.33. If the share price
reduces, so does the P/E ratio. So, if the price falls to 200 the P/E
ratio is 6.66. As the share price rises so too does the P/E ratio. So, a
high P/E ratio is indicative that earnings may be expected to rise or
recover.
As a rule of thumb, ‘par’ value in terms of P/E
ratios is inflation-plus-10. So if the inflation rate is 3% and the P/E
ratio is 13, the share price may be regarded as being at par value.
On the other hand, if the P/E ratio were 33 times it
could be regarded as overpriced, or operating in an overheated market
environment.
Conversely, if the P/E ratio were only 9 times
earnings, either the company is cheap, in trouble, or operating in a
depressed economy.
Only by further research into the macro-economic
situation as well as the fundamental value of the company would determine
which of these various scenarios was the case.
(to be continued next week)
Leslie Wright is Managing Director of Westminster
Portfolio Services (Thailand) Ltd., a firm of independent financial
advisors providing advice to expatriate residents of the Eastern Seaboard
on personal financial planning and international investments. If you have
any comments or queries on this article, or about other topics concerning
investment matters, contact Leslie directly by fax on (038) 232522 or
e-mail [email protected]
. Further details and back articles can be accessed on his firm’s
website on www.westminsterthailand.com
.
Successfully Yours: Onno
Kaphengst
By Mirin MacCarthy
Onno Kaphengst is a quiet and methodical German and is now
the guest relations manager of the Thai Garden Resort. However, this was not a
career path he had ever planned on and he never intended to end up in the
travel and hotel industry.
 Onno
was a country boy. One of seven children bought up on a dairy farm in coastal
Northeast Germany, as a child Onno spent his free time riding horses.
But like all of us, education was compulsory and the horse
was left in the stable while Onno studied. He was good at biology and
languages and chose a career as a primary school teacher. Following this he
then studied social sciences and law at the famous Wuppertal University in
Cologne for three years, but he never worked in the profession.
While on a vacation job in the Canary Islands he was
offered a job as a guest relations manager and that changed his life forever.
“When you are offered an island job as a student you go, “ he said and
laughed. And wouldn’t we all!
Of course, it helped that he was proficient at languages.
These days, Onno speaks five languages, three of them fluently: German,
English and Spanish, and admits to being passable in Dutch and Thai.
For the next six years from 1980 he was public relations
manager for two different hotel groups, where he enjoyed the perfect
California like climate of the Grand Canaries. His next career move was the
one that gave him his initial contact with Thailand. For the next two years he
took a job as resident manager for a German tour operator that had branches in
Thailand and Sri Lanka. This group offered him a transfer to Phuket in 1988
and he took it. The climate looked much like the Canary Islands. Onno spent an
enjoyable year there followed by another pleasant year in Sri Lanka.
But by this stage, Thailand was starting to exert its
influence in a much more direct way. Onno took a position as contract manager
of another German group, Meier’s Welstreisen, where he was responsible for
Far East business. He stayed with this new job for seven years, which saw him
enjoying the challenges of learning Thai, as well as learning to cope with the
Bangkok traffic!
After that lengthy period in the capital, it was probably
no surprise that when he resigned he returned to the lure of the perfect
climate in the Canaries. He was supervisor at the Liberoservice Airport
office, then manager of a car rental firm there. But the Canaries were now
unable to hold him and remembering the good times in Thailand he came to
Pattaya for a holiday in the middle of this year. This turned out to be a
serendipitous decision.
Onno met the new G.M of the Thai Garden Resort and ended up
being offered the job as guest relations manager there. The deal was quickly
done and Onno returned to the Canaries, sold his car and rented his house and
joined the new team at the resort in September.
Like Onno himself, his office is also methodical. It houses
an orderly collection of books - all in the different languages of which Onno
has complete mastery. Spanish, German and English. However, with his new
position, this does not give him as much time as he would like for his reading
habit. In the little time left over, Onno loves studying and reading in
Spanish and then spending some relaxing time at the beach. “What I love
about living here is the mentality of the Thai people and the beaches and the
food.” How often do you hear that opinion? Onno will never leave, now that
he has really found the place.
Onno has not finished his work studies either. His plans
for the future involve, “Learning more about the hotel industry. I come from
the tour operator side. Eventually I would like to move into sales and
marketing.”
Success to many people can mean some very different things,
but for Onno it means, “Achieving your goals in work. Seeing the results of
your daily effort.”
The most important values to him are honesty, flexibility
and sincerity. “Of course, you have to like people to be in this business.
It is important to keep the personal touch with the guests. The gap between
the general manager and the guest should not be too wide.”
Onno Kaphengst has found his ideal occupation a long way
from the law studies at Wuppertal University. For Onno, it is having fun in
the sun with people and at the holiday destination he loves doing it in.
Snap Shots: Nikon
F60
by Harry Flashman
The Nikon F60 is probably very representative of
“affordable” SLR (Single Lens Reflex) cameras around these days. These
include the lower range Minolta Dynax, the Pentax MZ-7 and the Canon EOS
300.
The first impression you get when picking up the Nikon
F60 is the weight. At 575 grams, this is no lightweight camera, being a
full 200 plus grams heavier than its rivals. For Harry Flashman, this is a
plus, not a minus. The weight is not such that it is too heavy, but it
does impart a good solid feel to the photographer. This feeling is
something that has been with Nikon models for many years and does go
towards their popularity and reputation as being rugged cameras.
 The F60 also fits very well into the average hand, and
the moulded grip in the body is excellent. Many camera manufacturers seem
to forget this important aspect. For example, the Olympus mju series are
great cameras, but do not feel “nice” in large male hands. The
controls are definitely user friendly, with a simple on-off switch on the
top, plus a rotary button selecting Auto, Program (P), Shutter priority
(S), Aperture priority (A) and Manual (M).
The camera abounds with features, the first being
Auto-focus, and Harry here must admit he has not been a great fan of
Auto-focus, but the F60 could change that. Whilst I have always felt that
AF was too slow, this one is most definitely not. My other gripe about AF
has been that in low light situations, many AF’s just didn’t work.
They would “hunt” backwards and forwards looking for the subject to
focus on, and invariably get it wrong. Not with the F60. It has its own
light beam in these problem situations and the AF sensor goes with it and
locks on the correct focus. Ingenious Mr. Nikon. Of course, with AF you
have to remember to use the AF lock facility if the subject is not bang in
the middle of the frame. The F60 AF lock works easily and without any
hesitation. Another good point with this camera’s AF is that it will
detect movement and “follow focus” when required. Also, in impossible
situations, like shooting through wire mesh cages, it tells you to turn it
off and focus manually!
The exposure mode control button covers ten exposure
modes, and certainly does make it easier for the amateur to use the
equipment more fully. There are dedicated programmes for Portraits
(shallow depth of field), Landscapes (deep depth of field), Sports (a fast
shutter speed is automatically selected) or Night Scenes. Whilst all these
settings could be set manually by an experienced photographer, the concept
is to make it possible for the amateur to take better shots. This is
possible with this camera.
The shutter speed can be set manually in M or S modes
and is done by rotating a thumb wheel at the rear of the camera. Again
this is a well thought out ergonomic placement, with the thumb naturally
finding the position on the camera body.
This same control changes the aperture when the camera
is put into the A mode. This same control wheel will set both shutter
speed and aperture when in the M mode, though you have to depress a
smaller button with the index finger at the same time to get into the
aperture selection. This control was not too easy for anyone with large
hands, or older people with less supple fingers.
Another excellent feature is the inbuilt dioptre
adjustment in the eyepiece. This allows more than one person to use the
camera without having to carry and screw on adjusting lenses. (Harry
wishes his older Nikons had this feature.)
Finally, and probably most importantly, the instruction
book was clear, simple and easy to follow. This made getting around the
camera a breeze.
Harry really liked this camera and feels that for 95%
of photographers it would be excellent, and for a “first” SLR it would
be perfect.
Modern Medicine: Broken
Bones
by Dr Iain Corness
Broken arms seem to be in vogue recently, with two of
my friends fracturing theirs. One fell off his bicycle, while pedalling to
get fit, and the other managed to get centre-punched by another motorcycle
while riding his to work. Neither has relished the experience, and both
have suffered pain.
Now whilst both suffered breaks, or fractures as we
medico’s call them, there are various degrees and types you can end up
with. Friend number one was the luckiest, suffering a “hairline”
fracture of his Radius (the larger of the two bones in the forearm). This
should be thought of as more of a “crack” in the outer surface of the
bone, just like you can pick up a drinking glass and see that it is
cracked, but not broken in half. However, it is still a painful condition,
and the extreme bruising that came out on the arm over the following ten
days showed the amount of trauma involved in stepping ungracefully off a
bicycle!
The treatment for this type of fracture is fairly
conservative. A splint for a couple of days to rest the arm, some
anti-inflammatories to reduce the swelling and some simple pain killers.
After three weeks, this type of fracture will be satisfactorily healed,
though it does take around six weeks for total healing.
Friend number two was not so lucky. Picking himself up
off the road he noticed that there was the end of a piece of bone sticking
out through the skin on his forearm, and as he so aptly said, “It’s a
scary feeling seeing your own bones!” Now this is a real fracture, with
complete division of the bone, and when it sticks through the skin we
called it a “compound” fracture. Raw jagged ends certainly
“compound” the problem!
Treatment for one of these is more than a simple case
of immobilization. What is called an Open Reduction under general
anaesthesia is requires. In other words, you are put to sleep, so that the
orthopaedic surgeon can get in and close the fracture. In this case, as
with most of these, it is also necessary to insert a metal plate into the
arm, which is screwed firmly to the two halves of the bone. This internal
fixation holds the bone ends together and a cast over the outside of the
arm then completes the physical treatment side of it. Of course, after
surgery it is necessary to have some fairly potent pain killers, and
generally we would prescribe some antibiotics as well.
Around three weeks, the cast can be thrown away, and
after six weeks, the patient can usually use the afflicted limb quite
well. With many of these, we also go back in after one to two years and
remove the plate and screws. All in all, another not fun procedure.
Sometimes, we actually fix the two halves of bone by
screwing an external plate through the skin and into the bone itself. This
is called “external” fixation and you don’t need a secondary
operation to remove the plate - but it does mean you put up with something
that looks like scaffolding around your broken limb.
My best advice is to avoid all fractures!
 Dear
Hillary,
There is a problem that I feel that I need to share
with you. We have still got the builders in. Did you read that? They
started in September and it s now November and they re still here!
Day Fifty and they’re still here nearly finishing
things. Not one thing is actually finished. One thousand two hundred hours
and nothing is finished. Seventy two thousand minutes and one lot are just
‘finishing off’ the front roof as another lot removes the back roof to
see why it is leaking. There are five skylight panels but only three have
been fitted and that was ten days ago. All the lights except for one have
been installed but the fuse box isn’t in place yet and the switches are
hanging out of the wall. They’ve put the kitchen cabinets in but the
cast units are wrong so they don’t fit and the tiles are having to be
removed which affects the suspended ceiling which can’t be put back yet
because the roof is leaking because the gutters are set at the wrong angle
so that the water backs up the roof during the monsoon and floods the
kitchen which has ruined the paint work which can’t be finished until
the tilers return and they have gone off in a huff because someone said
that their work is crap and the only way we can do the washing is by
setting the machine up in the loo which means that we can’t have a pee
whilst the machine is on and anyway we need the loo to wash up the cups
and saucers because we haven’t got any water in the kitchen yet and its
day fifty and they haven’t even linked up to the mains yet and you
can’t hear yourself think for the grinding and hammering and drilling
and the welding is beginning to affect my eyes and I can t breath and the
whole house is covered in dust and muck and has been for fifty bloody
days! And to cap it all, this old chap keeps hovering around me with a
broom just in case I drop some cigarette ash on the floor when you can’t
even see the sodding floor!
So what about you eh poppet? Sitting in some
hoity-toity bar dreaming of your Lamborghini Estate and dunking your black
pudding escallops in your Campari and soda or what ever it is you bloody
know it all lah-de-dah sex siren agony aunts drink who haven’t got the
builders in and talk about me behind my back saying that if he’d have
only asked me I’d have warned him about the builders before he came out
here, but he wouldn’t have listened. Thought he knew it all. Thought he
was mister big shot, “I know all about builders in Thailand cos I’ve
been around,” and saying well mister I went camping to Anglesey with the
Scouts when I was seventeen smarty- pants you re not so high and mighty
now are you?
Aren’t I? Aren’t I then? We’ll have to wait and
see won’t we? God, you are so smug Hillary. I can’t wait to hear what
the builders think tomorrow when I tell them just what sort of person you
really are!
Disgusted Merchant Banker (Retired)
Dear Disgusted Merchant Banker (Retired),
You should’ve damn well asked me in the first place,
shouldn’t you have, poppet? What do you want Hillary to do now - become
a poorly paid hod carrier and risk chipping my nail polish, or what?
Become the world’s fastest grouter? Take in your washing? Or perhaps
wipe your bottom? You bankers are all the same, but you see, now you are
retired you haven’t got the clout any more, have you? You can’t
threaten us little folk with mortgage increases, rising interest rates,
repossessions and poor credit ratings. All those builder chappies have
friends and relatives who were once turned down by the banks, and you are
copping it all, my sweet. But don’t despair, there is a plus side to all
this - you could have been a Disgusted Lawyer (Retired) and then everyone
would have hated you. Bar none (like the pun?). Oh yes, darling, thanks
for telling everyone I’m still a sex siren - you can blow my whistle any
day - you must invite me over for a Campari and soda - after the house is
finished, of course!
Dear Hillary,
I went out with some friends and spent some time in a
bar, somewhere off Soi 2 in North Pattaya, where we listened to a great
Thai band. Where do you go to get Thai music, and what is the name of the
song?
Muso
Dear Muso,
Are you pulling Hillary’s leg or what? How would I
know what the song was called? You didn’t ask me out, so Hillary
wasn’t there, was she? The one good thing about Thai music is you only
have to learn one song, as they are all the same, and all about being
broken-hearted (again)! Tower Records in the Royal Garden Plaza 3rd floor
have listening booths, so you can bore the salesgirl senseless by asking
her similarly inane questions.
GRAPEVINE
| Octogenarian
sex
An 80 year old man, a bachelor until last month,
has been turned away by a Pattaya sex therapy clinic even though he is
experiencing disappointment on the intimate front with his new 24 year
old bride. Dimitri Ivan Vlassov, thought to be a Russian, had informed
the clinic that he had serious sexual dysfunction coupled with memory
loss. A spokeswoman for the clinic denied they had abandoned the
therapy course on the grounds of advanced age. “We have taught this
man everything about pleasing a woman but his problem is that he has
forgotten he is gay.”
Spot on
Tourist Alan Geeson from Blackburn, 23, had no
money for bar hopping after his holiday cash ran out. He misunderstood
the rate of exchange and thought that one British pound was worth 598
baht rather than the more realistic 59.8. Having befriended a black
and white spotted street dog, appropriately named Spot, Alan asked
sympathetic fellow nationals to bet that he could join up with a
florescent pen all the inky spots on the animal’s back. The problems
began when the scratchy pen ran dry and Spot began to doubt there was
much in this episode to his advantage. Alan was taken to hospital with
a badly bitten arm and has been warned that betting on dogs is illegal
in the kingdom.
Thanksgiving feast
Celebrate American Thanksgiving in style on
Thursday November 23 at the Amor Restaurant situated in the soi
running between Pattayaland Two and Three. There’s corn chowder
soup, roast turkey and all the trimmings including cranberry sauce and
sweet potato pie, followed by authentic pumpkin pie. The inclusive
price is 500 baht and seconds will be offered to all. Not that you are
likely to need extra helpings at this establishment. There is no fixed
seating during the evening, and advance reservations are requested. If
you don’t happen to fancy the starter or dessert on offer, you can
choose any alternative from the tempting soup and sweets list on the a
la carte menu.
Yorkie’s Xmas dinner
Looking rather further ahead, regulars are already
booking their Christmas Day lunch at Yorkie’s Pork Platter way down
the Jomtien Beach Road, near Nangnual restaurant. Hosts Eileen and
Norman are offering a choice of starters, roast turkey or pork with
the usual trimmings (and their particularly convincing Yorkshire
pudding) followed by Christmas pudding and brandy sauce or sherry
trifle if you prefer. The cost is 600 baht or 400 baht for children
under twelve. Sittings are at 13.00 or 15.00 hours. Book in advance
when you are next out there buying some of those exceedingly fine pork
pies.
|
Bail hail
Reader AV wants to know why some farangs under
deportation can wait for their outward flight home in their hotel
whilst others sweat it out in the police cells. Thai law allows for
discretionary, temporary bail sometimes to be given to farangs under a
court deportation order provided that their sentence is finished and
all paperwork is in order. However, it is not a free service. The
typical cost is 50,000 baht, to discourage you from running off, but
most of this will be returned when you make the escorted journey to
the airport. Those interested in this particular arrangement are well
advised to get a lawyer to see to the small print. Unless, of course,
they are supremely confident when dealing with complex bureaucracies
which use a language they can’t understand.
Traffic havoc
Perhaps it’s all in the mind, but several readers
have commented how much more freely the traffic flows when the
computerized signals have broken down or have been taken out of
service. The most widely quoted example is on the main road from
Rayong to Pattaya, close to the Pattaya Country Club golf, where a new
found courtesy has taken root during the building of the new flyovers
which will be ready next year. Heavy lorries, which used to race
against a red signal, now approach most gingerly and have even been
seen to give way to smaller vehicles at the four way junction. Traffic
lights are here to stay for obvious reasons, but there is something
about them which brings out the worst in Pattaya’s driving public.
Turnoff classic movies
Following up on Grapevine’s absolutely pointless
crusade against repeats on Turner Classic Movies, a movie fan reader
has now completed the definitive research. So far in 2000, he writes,
Passage to Marseilles and Boystown (James Cagney) have appeared in no
fewer than four months and Now Voyager (Bette Davis) the same.
Amazingly, these same movies appeared five times each last year. He
claims that only one single movie in the past two years has been
screened just once on this channel: The Prodigal (Edmund Purdom). The
greatest number of repeats of a movie on TCM over the years is
apparently Ben Hur if you include showings on the previous TNT. Keep
rowing number 43.
International hotspots
From the wires. It’s reported in Poland that
schoolchildren have been selling each other fleas for the equivalent
of one dollar each. Under school regulations, children with an
infestation are entitled to three days off classes... Meanwhile in
Rumania, a female furniture terrorist has been jailed for six months
after admitting knifing settees in a city center store. She said she
was jealous that her flat contained only a table and four chairs.
|
Dining Out: HiBaChi
- Charcoal Grills
by Miss Terry Diner
HiBaChi is a new restaurant at Jomtien, overlooking the
water, 20 metres along the beach towards Pattaya from the Dongtan Police
station. Restaurateur Peter Dawson and his business partner Frank Price
decided that Pattaya could be ready for a slightly “different” form of BBQ
cuisine; hence the Union Jack and the Euro flag either side of a very
“Asian” sounding name. It is not, repeat not, a Japanese restaurant!
 The
surroundings are “homely” with padded cane furniture, raffia placemats and
red linen napkins. There is an inside section of the restaurant and some more
table settings at the side and beachfront aspects. With the very pleasant
weather at present, the Dining Out Team (enlarged to four for this evening -
reasons given later) decided to “eat out” under the stars.
The menu begins with some lunchtime specials (75-95 baht),
all charcoal grilled and served with rice or salad, and a choice of beef, pork
spare ribs or baby mackerel. Then there are the evening specials (135-190
baht) with a choice of three starters followed by charcoal grilled fillet
steak, pork medallions or grilled fish.
Into the menu proper and there are six starters (60-100
baht) including pate, chilled prawn and cucumber soup and smoked salmon. Next
up are the BBQ items which you cook yourself on your tabletop Hibachi BBQ.
There are 12 choices ranging in price between 45-110 baht including beef,
pork, chicken breast, bacon, liver, prawns, squid, rock lobster and even
oysters. The following page has Special Platters with either a meat, seafood
or mixed selection.
There are also Fondues (for two) on offer, with the beef
(360 baht) or the mixed (300 baht). From there it is into desserts (50-110
baht), then a page of Thai specials (35-130 baht) with all the usual
favourites. As you will have already noticed, this is not an expensive
restaurant, and the drinks echo this with beers around 45-55 baht and spirits
(all measured in doubles) commencing at 35 baht, but generally less than 60
baht for the usual standards.
As we wished to try all the BBQ items, we had brought in
the reinforcements to enlarge the Team for the evening. However, Madame chose
the evening special grilled fillet steak with grilled oyster starter, while
the rest of us chose a selection of BBQ items, including steak, chicken,
prawns and squid.
We sat back to enjoy the evening with some Singha Golds
(thanks Peter) and a very pleasant house white wine. Meanwhile, the BBQ cook
fired up the charcoal pieces and when glowing, heaped them into the hibachi
pan. The stainless steel hibachi BBQ top is then placed over the charcoal and
the whole outfit placed into a section in the middle of the table.
The staff then filled up a channel around the BBQ with
chicken stock and vegetables, and then we placed the items to be char grilled
on the top. We were off and running! The concept allows the juices from the
BBQ items to run down into the soup stock to make an interesting “steam
boat” to be eaten at the end.
Meanwhile Madame’s starter appeared - six small crucibles
with chopped oysters in a garlic and bacon “soup”, which we all tried and
declared fabulous. The steak then arrived, medium rare as ordered, along with
a salad which had a wonderful dressing “learned at grandmother’s knee”
declared Peter.
With the BBQ comes a dish with two sauces for each person
with a tangy honey and pineapple and another being a mixture of (we think)
Worcestershire, chilli, soy, garlic, onion and coriander. Very different, and
very good.
We BBQ’d, sauce-dipped, chatted, drank and thoroughly
enjoyed the experience at HiBaChi Restaurant. It is a place to go for a
relaxed evening with friends, and the dining style (BBQ or fondue) all lends
itself to this style of entertaining. It is a fun way of spending an evening
and definitely worth a try.
HiBaChi Restaurant and Bar, Jomtien Beach, telephone 303 088.
Animal Crackers:
Casso-whatty?
by Mirin
MacCarthy
 An
Australian cassowary is one large bird that you don’t want to tangle with.
It packs a powerful, lethal, kick with 12 cm long, sharp, dagger-like claws
that can rip open an abdomen in seconds. The claws are deadly weapons and
are even used by tribal people in New Guinea as spear points.
Habits
Fortunately it is only aggressive in the breeding season
and usually hides out in the rainforests and low swamps of northern
Australia and New Guinea. Cassowaries reach 1.7 m in height and weigh up to
58 kg when they are fully grown. It can also run at speed of 60 kph!
Despite their fearsome size and appearance, cassowaries
are solitary birds that are rarely seen in the wild. Surprisingly they swim
well and are sometimes glimpsed near riverbanks. Living up to fifty years
they have very distinctive booming call like a truck starting up, a guttural
coughing and shrill wails at night
Looks
Young birds are covered with fluffy, narrow, dark-brown
feathers that have a hair-like appearance. Their rather dull coloration
gives way to vibrant hues as they mature. The feathers become shiny blacks.
Their down covered necks are transformed to extravagantly colored deep blue
and scarlet skin by the time they are three years old. The wattle (a flap of
loose skin extending like a bib from the bird’s neck) will turn blue at
the base, graduating into a deep rose pink that hangs down like a pendant.
Crowned
The cassowaries crowing glory is a casque, a hard,
helmet-like structure made of keratin. One of the reasons the cassowaries
were thought to be related to dinosaurs is that very few vertebrates have
casques, but many dinosaurs did. The double-wattled cassowary’s tall and
bladelike casque is not merely decorative. The bird lowers its head and
pushes through dense forest, using the casque to clear a path through the
tangles. Cassowaries in zoos have also been seen using their casque to dig
up buried food. In the rainforest, these birds eat fruit that has fallen to
the forest floor, supplemented by insects, fungus, roots, leaves, plum seeds
and dead small animals.
Breeding
In the wild, male and female come together only briefly
during the August and September breeding season. The male makes purring
sounds to interest his mate, but if the female isn’t ready, she will fight
him off.
Footloose Females
The female lays a clutch of four to ten eggs in a
depression in the ground covered with dry leaves and well concealed in the
vegetation of the densest part of the forest. Then she goes her merry way
and leaves the male in charge. He incubates the large eggs for about 35
days, then takes care of the young chicks for another year before being
freed to his solitary wanderings again.
Vanishing Breed
Despite its speed, strength and high kicks there are only
a few thousand left in the wild. Cassowary populations were greatly reduced
when Australian sugar cane planters destroyed many of the birds, while New
Guinea natives hunt them for meat and keep them in cages so they can use the
feathers in clothing. Young cassowaries even walk village streets and are
allowed to play with children, although as the birds mature they are
banished to pens or released into the forest. In the early 1980s, about 20
cassowaries were considered a fair price for a wife in parts of New Guinea.
With inflation, who knows what it would be today!
Down The Iron Road:
Trains on steep hills
by John D.
Blyth
Introduction
Ordinary trains do not take at all kindly to climbing
steep hills! A hill which a motor car or (as we are in Thailand) an
overloaded ten-wheeled truck would hardly notice would bring a heavy train
to a stand in next to no time. Let us look at some of the reasons and how
the difficulty may sometimes be overcome.
In many countries the steepness of a piece of railway is
measured as a “percentage”, but I am more familiar with the British way
of showing it as a ratio between the vertical and horizontal, e.g. “1 in
50” meaning that for every 50 units on the level the line rises (or falls)
one unit; the unit can be any convenient length provided the gradient
remains constant.
Two main reasons exist for this apparent inferiority:
firstly the locomotive is usually pulling a far greater load, relative to
its nominal power, than its road counterpart; secondly the friction between
a steel wheel and a steel rail is far less - in other ways an advantage. A
number of ways are open to the engineer to get over this, but they are not
always practicable.
 The
rope trick: the winding engine that used to drag trains up the San Pedro
Incline on Spain’s Langreo Railway.
The Rack
An early British railway engineer, Blenkinsop, did not
believe that, even on the level, a locomotive could haul a useful load, so
on his first railway, in the Leeds area, he said, to one side of the running
rails, a third rail with teeth cut into the upper edge making a “rack”;
these teeth engaged with a toothed wheel mounted on the locomotive’s
driving axle, ensuring progress and no wheel slip. Even today rack railways
are not too uncommon in some countries, especially mountainous ones.
Rope Haulage
If the gradient is reasonably short, it may be preferable
to pull the train up the incline by means of a rope, operated by a winding
engine at the top. In a few fortunate cases the engine may be dispensed
with, and the ascending train be ‘balanced” by one, slightly heavier,
going down. The “funicular” seen in quantity in the city of Naples, is
an adaptation of this principle, with single passenger cars going up and
down, each on its own track.
 Brute
force! Two old North London Railway engines, flat out a special train, on
the 1 in 14 grade of the Hopton Incline.
Brute Force and Ignorance
This is my vulgar term for all the rest of the methods,
such as hopefully taking a run at gradient, using a second, assisting,
locomotive for part of the journey, or even spending money like water on a
diversionary route. All of these expedients are known to have been used in
recent times.
The Overall Scene
Modern motive power has not only eliminated much
assisting on difficult routes, it has also enabled a great deal of
acceleration to take place. Most lines in Britain can now take trains at 100
mph, many at 125 mph, and only in remote parts of Scotland and Wales has
little been done to speed trains up, due to the cost. Some lines, such as
the line from Exeter to the west, little can be done, ever, due to the
curvature of the line, first along the coast to Newton Abbot, and then the
grades and curvature where engineer Brunel carried out his disastrous
“atmospheric” experiment.
I shall deal with rack railways in the next two weeks,
first to show some of the mountain lines built “for fun” - i.e. for
tourists, especially in Switzerland, and the week after a very remarkable
rack railway built in Austria to exploit a notable supply of iron ore.
 A
mighty pusher! The famous ‘Big Bertha” that pushed trains up the Lickey
Incline in Worcestershire for over 60 years.
Rope haulage is rare now; indeed I cannot think of an
existing example. But it was quite common in coal mining areas in the past,
and even earlier, the very first trains to leave London’s Euston station
did so on a rope, to take them one mile to Camden. Later a real “brute
force” system was used: assisting engine on the front, with a slip
coupling, enabling it to detach itself from the main train, run ahead into a
siding, when a “trusted pointsman” would at once re-set the road for the
main line train to go by without stopping! An ancient line in Derbyshire,
the Cromford & High Peak, had two rope-worked inclines, each worked by a
very old winding engine, and a third incline, the Hopton, worked by
adhesion-only steam locomotives, two of them, rushing the 1 in 14 bank with
a small train following. And in Spain, on the Langreo Railway, it is only a
few years since a rope-worked incline was eliminated by a diversion and an
expensive tunnel; it was a busy coal-hauling line, and the expense was
justified.
Readers of this feature in the “Mail” can contact me
by letter to P.O. Box 97, at Pattaya Post Office, code 20260. All letters
welcome and answered.
Woman’s World: “Up
to you”
by Lesley Warner
As promised, here are some recipes to make massage oils.
These can be used for fun or therapy; “up to you”. Essential oils are
distilled from herbs, fruits, petals, bark, rind, sap, flowers, roots,
seeds, leaves and grasses.
Store your massage oils in dark bottles in a cool dry
place. Luckily for us living in Thailand these oils like to be stored in the
refrigerator.
A thing to remember is not go out in the sun for at least
6 hours after using any of these oils in your recipes: ginger, lemon, orange
and Bergamot, they can cause skin irritations if exposed to sun.
Always blend ingredients well, warm up oil before doing
any massage including your fingertips.
The basic recipe for massage oil is 6 teaspoons carrier
oil of your choice and 8 drops of essential oil of your choice.
Floral essential oils
Jasmine: rich, heavy, sweet, romantic scent
Lavender: fresh, heavy and sweet scent
Rose: light, sweet and floral scent
Geranium: heavy, fresh floral scent
Neola: sweet, floral citrus scent
Summer Rain
6-8 teaspoons rapeseed oil
6 drops of lavender
2 drops rose
2 drops jasmine
Night Dreams
10 teaspoons rapeseed oil
6 drops of chamomile
4 drops jasmine
2 drops rose
1-drop lavender
Soothing Sensations
10 teaspoons safflower
5 drops of lavender
2 drops violet
2 drops chamomile
2 drops frankincense
Blossom Groves
8 teaspoons rapeseed oil
6 drops of orange blossom
2 drops lemongrass
2 drops enroll
Spicy Essential Oils: tea tree, camphor, bay,
cinnamon, orange, sandalwood, ginger, myrrh, camphor, tarragon
Songs of the Orient
6-8 teaspoons rapeseed oil
6 drops of sandalwood
2 drops myrrh
2 drops jasmine
Spice of life
10 teaspoons olive oil
6 drops of ginger
4 drops jasmine
2 drops orange
Passage of India
10 teaspoons rapeseed oil
7 drops of sandalwood
2 drops orange
2 drops rose
1-drop cinnamon
Tea tree temptations
8 teaspoons rapeseed oil
6 drops of jasmine
2 drops tea tree oil
2 drops enroll
Woody Essential Oils: sandalwood, patchouli, cedar
wood, angelica, rosewood, yarrow, frankincense
Exquisite Sandalwood
8-10 teaspoons grapeseed oil
6 drops of sandalwood
2 drops lavender
2 drops rosewood
2 drops rose
Exotic Patchouli
10 teaspoons grapeseed oil
7 drops of patchouli
4 drops jasmine
2 drops rose
Forest Nights
10 teaspoons grapeseed oil
5 drops of rosewood
2 drops cedar wood
2 drops Chamomile
Enchanting Days
8 teaspoons grapeseed oil
6 drops of sandalwood
2 drops rosemary
2 drops neroli
1 drop lavender
Citrus Essential Oils: bergamot, lemon, orange,
lemongrass, orange blossoms, geranium, lemon marigold, lemon verbena, lime
Fall Harvest
12 teaspoons grapeseed oil
6 drops of bergamot
2 drops cardamom
2 drops jasmine
1 drop orange blossom
Geranium Potluck
10 teaspoons grapeseed oil
6 drops of geranium
4 drops coriander
2 drops rose
1 drop lemongrass
Echoes of the wild
10 teaspoons safflower
5 drops of orange blossoms
2 drops sandalwood
2 drops jasmine
Blossom Groves
8 teaspoons grapeseed oil
6 drops of orange blossom
2 drops lemongrass
2 drops neroli
Green Essential Oils: chamomile, basil, eucalyptus,
pine, rosemary
Wild Fields
6-8 teaspoons grapeseed oil
6 drops of chamomile
2 drops rose
2 drops rosemary
Crescent Moon
10 teaspoons wheat germ oil
6 drops of chamomile
4 drops neroli
2 drops rose
1 drop basil
Minty Fresh
10 teaspoons grapeseed oil
3 drops of eucalyptus
4 drops rosemary
2 drops peppermint
Oriental Innocence
8 teaspoons grapeseed oil
6 drops of orange blossom
2 drops rosemary
2 drops sandalwood
1 drop jasmine
Coins of the Realm: Renaissance
Auctions
by Jan Olav Aamlid -
President - House of the Golden Coin
http://www.thaicoins.com
From the 2nd till the 10th
of December, collectors and dealers from all over the world will get
together in New York City when the biggest coin show in the US for foreign
coins, not American coins, will take place. The coin show starts on Thursday
the 7th and finishes on Sunday the 10th.
The days before, during and after the coin show several
coin and medal auctions will take place. Generating the most interest for
Thai collectors and dealers will probably be the Renaissance Auction on
December 6, where there will be coins from all over the world, including 14
interesting lots from Thailand.
The
highest estimation is being given a set of three pattern coins from King
Chulalongkorn (Rama V 1868-1910). The coins were struck in RS 127 (1908),
and are 10, 5 and 1 Satang. Normally the 10 and 5 Satang were
struck in nickel, while the 1 Satang was struck in bronze. Seven
million of the 10 and 5 Satang in nickel, and seventeen million of
the 1 Satang in bronze were struck. These coins, struck in Brussels,
are not rare, and can be bought at very reasonable prices. However, the
coins in the auction are a “presentation set” struck in gold for
presentation purposes. Very few were struck, and were probably to be
presented to the King for approval. This was the second issue of decimal
coinage and the series continued during the reigns of King Rama VI, VII and
VIII. The estimated price for this gold set in proof condition is US$25,000
to US$30,000.
The second highest estimation, US$18,000 – 20,000, is
being given for very rare bronze plaquett from 1897. The plaquett
shows King Chulalongkorn (Rama V 1868-1910), and was made by the
chief-engraver at the Paris Mint, Henri Auguste Jules Patey. The plaquett
commemorates the King’s first trip to Europe in 1897. It is large, 245 mm,
and it is the same as the obverse of the medals struck for the same
occasion.
Two of the medals commemorating the King’s first trip
to Europe in 1897 will also be in the auction, one in silver and one in
bronze. The one in silver is estimated at US$5,000-6,000 and the one in
bronze at US$2,000-3,000. They are both 51 mm.
 Another
interesting medal in the auction is the coronation medal from King
Chulalongkorn, which was struck in 1873. King Chulalongkorn ascended the
throne in 1868 at the age of 15, but had his second coronation in 1873 when
coming of age. The estimate for this beautiful medal is set at
US$3,000-4,000.
The oldest coin in the auction is a copper pattern coin
from the reign of King Nang Klao (Rama III 1824-1851). The King wanted to
replace the cowry shells, used as small change, with copper coins. A
Scottish merchant residing in Bangkok, Robert Hunter, had the coins ordered
from England, one with an elephant and one with a lotus blossom. Both the
coins had the CS date 1197, and on the reverse it has the Thai inscription, Muang
Thai. Both the coins were minted in 500 pieces. When the King saw the
coins he was not happy, so no copper coins were produced during the reign of
Rama V. The coin in the auction is the one with the lotus blossom, in proof
condition, and estimated at US$2,500 –3,000.
The lowest estimate for Thai material in the sale is
given to two copper coins from King Rama V, US$850-1,000. One coin is a four
Att and one is a one Att from CS 1238 (1876). The coins are
not very rare, but it is rare to see the coins in un-circulated condition,
especially the four Att.
There are 5 gold coins from King Rama V in the auction;
also a rare four baht silver coin from King Rama IV.
If some of my readers are interested in receiving a
special print of the Thai section of the Renaissance Auction, please send me
an e-mail with name and address to [email protected] or pick up a copy at
the office of Pattaya Mail.
The Computer Doctor
by Richard Bunch
From Roy Brown, Pattaya: Please
can you help me? I have a Dell laptop and have had a new telephone line
installed so I can connect to the net. The telephone works well but not the
connection to the Internet. I receive about 70,000 bytes of data and then it
stops for about 15 seconds before starting again. A little inconvenient for
email but frustrating and impossible to use when listening to streamed data
like a radio commentary or using it for Internet telephone calls.
I have received a lot of help from both TOT and the condo
engineers in trying to solve this problem but to no avail, as they do not
understand anything about computers and the streaming of data. Is there a
cure as the internal telephone cable from exchange to condo is about 750
meters?
Computer Doctor replies: This is a fairly common
problem, which seems to be particularly prevalent during the rainy season
and particularly towards the end of it. Does your original telephone line
suffer in the same way? Does TOT provide both lines or is one from TT&T?
In a lot of cases, the condo engineers are responsible for the internal
cabling from the junction box of the provider to your outlet and in the
worst case I have seen so far had 73 joints, each one giving a weakness and
degrading the signal. You can check on the voltage drop between point of
entry and your outlet which will give some indication as to possible
defects, but will not be wholly conclusive.
If both telephone lines are giving the same results, then
you probably need to look closer to home in regard to the configuration of
your modem and dial up connection. Also, if you are using a PCMCIA modem and
this is from one of the cheap generic manufacturers then this too could be
causing you problems. Unfortunately on these circumstances there is usually
no quick fix, it is a matter of a process of elimination and where several
third parties are involved. If the problem is attributable to one of them,
then you have to get them to take ownership before any resolution can be
achieved. Good luck.
From Jenny Colville, Nongprue: I have a Toshiba
notebook, which is about 18 months old now; it was working well until about
two weeks ago when my daughter spilled some coffee over the keyboard. Now it
is impossible to use as many of the keys are stuck solid, and when it starts
the screen says key stuck. I took it to a couple of places in Pantip Plaza
but they were quoting between 15 and 20,000 baht, which seems rather a lot.
Can you advise please?
Computer Doctor replies: The cost does seem rather
high but is the damage limited to just the keyboard or have some other
components also become damaged? One thing with notebook PC’s is that in
the event of a part failing or becoming damaged, its replacement is largely
only available from the original equipment manufacturer. This often means
that the price is higher than a generic part for a desktop would be.
However, in your case, I suggest you contact the following company –
Chevalier OA (Thailand) Limited, Chevalier House, 540 Bamrungmuang Road,
Debsirin, Pomprab, Bangkok, 10100. Tel: 02 224 4570.
Send your questions or comments to the Pattaya Mail at
370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, 20260 or Fax to 038 427 596 or
E-mail to [email protected]
. The views and comments expressed within this column are not necessarily
those of the writer or Pattaya Mail Publishing.
Richard Bunch is Managing Director of Action Computer
Technologies Co., Ltd. Providing professional information technology and
Internet services which include: custom database and application
development; website design, promotion and hosting; domain name
registration; turnkey e-commerce solutions; computer and peripheral sales
service and repairs, networks (LAN & WAN) and IT consulting. For further
information, please e-mail [email protected]
or telephone/fax 038 716 816 or see our website www.act.co.th
Copyright 2000 Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, Chonburi 20260, Thailand
Tel.66-38 411 240-1, 413 240-1, Fax:66-38 427 596; e-mail: [email protected] |
|
