Posts Tagged ‘other’

It was seven-ish and I was sitting in a nice-enough room overlooking the front entrance to the pub above which I had just moved in. The pub was the Pig and Whistle on Soi 7 in Pattaya. Across the way was a big hole, which they were hoping to construct a hotel in and next door to that, right opposite me, was a small bar with one lady sitting on a stool outside it. Not that there was a wall there, it was open on two sides. The Soi was nice and peaceful, I thought. I also thought that I might go and sit in that little bar and talk to that woman, if my friend was late, because I would definitely see him arrive from two metres away, the width of the Soi.

So, I went to the bar in the pub at 19:15 to await my friend who said he would arrive at 20:00. It was much busier than thirty minutes earlier but not noisy and I sat at the bar. The first thing a barmaid did was say hello, give me a menu and step back. I did not really want to eat, I only wanted a beer as I assumed we would be eating together later, but I wanted to read the menu anyway.

‘A pint of Boddington’s', I said. It arrived and the girl started laying a place for me. I tried to explain that I was not hungry, but it was no good. Like in Spain, most people eat and drink at the same time. All the while the girl was smiling at me. Then she said: ‘You have room upstairs? My name Charli. What you want to eat?’. So, I gave in and ordered something and rice.

‘You first time in Thailand? You no can eat. Too spicy’, she said with a grin. ‘Oh’, I replied, ‘but I want to try. ‘I put only 50-50 for you’, she declared and went.

I struggled through that meal and it took a Boddingtons and a bottle of water. Charli had been accurate, it was too hot for first-time foreigners and she had reduced the chilis by 50%. I have always listened to a Thai’s advice on food ever since.

I changed seat to by the window to see what was happening as it was dark by 19:30 and I was curious. Within thirty minutes Soi 7 had changed completely. I could see hundreds of ladies and tourists milling about. I wanted to go out and join in or at least sit in the quiet bar across the way, but I’m ashamed to say that I was too scared, so I sat put, rivetted to the Pig like a rabbit in a hunter’s beam.

My friend arrived on time and after we had been chatting for an hour, he said: ‘Drink up, I have someone I want you to meet’. This was it, we were going into that mele. A waitress held the door for us and the noise and the heat were tremendous. Especially the noise. Every metre at least two or three girls would yell: ‘Hello, sexy man, you want a drink’. Trying to say no courteously to each call was impractical, so I just stuck close to my pal.

Luckily, we only had about fifty metres to stroll and we sat down in another bar. My friend said hello to several ladies and then said, this a girl I have been going out with for some time. I was astounded as I had never heard him talk about her, ever. She was gorgeous, but could not speak English, so I sat in the din in silence. Not for long through, as my friend said, I have a blind date for you and he introduced another girl to me who was equally beautiful, but with whom I could speak a little. She was captivating and I was captivated. The pandemonium seemed to pass away, but it was only because I was concentrating on my new friend. The four of us had the best time and the best food I had ever had in my forty-nine years of existence.

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Just where did a hybrid car get it’s start? Read on to find out. Hybrid cars are very popular for today’s car buyers and there are many reasons why that should be. But before you even think about choosing a hybrid car to purchase, you might want to know a little about the history of the hybrid first.

It is surprising, but hybrid vehicles were around even before gas-powered cars. In about the year 1665, a Jesuit priest by the name of Ferdinand Verbeist started making plans for a new type of vehicle. That vehicle or cart would be very simple, nothing complex. Simple was all he was interested in.

So Ferdinand planned out a car that would have four wheels and would run only on steam. It took about fifteen years of work for Ferdinand to go through with his plan. He laboured to perfect his dream car. But no one knows if he ever finished because there is no evidence that his concept ever came into existence.

Then in 1769, a man by the name of Nicholas Cugnot designed and developed a carriage that was powered by steam. This carriage really did work and it went at six miles per hour. This project was great, but it was difficult to get the amount of steam needed to make the car to travel any significant distance.

A break through in hybrid car development finally came when Robert Anderson developed an electric powered car in 1839. It was the first among its kind. The car was built in Scotland.

This electric car was a highly applauded innovation of its time. However, the only problem was that it was very difficult to recharge the car’s battery. Some pioneers came after Anderson, but they too had a hard time getting the battery recharged easily.

Eventually, in the year 1898, Porsche developed an electric and fuel combination combustion engine that was the first of its kind. The car was called the Lohner Electric Chaise and it could go for up to 40 miles just using its batteries.

Within a short space of time, pioneers combined both gas and a battery powered engines to power what would become today’s hybrid vehicle. In 1999, Honda made its jump into the US market. It came out with the Honda Insight, which was a lightweight two-door hybrid. Since then, hybrid cars have been evolving and improving into what we see on the market today. Hybrid cars are no longer just for the techies who think it’s nice to combine battery and fuel power to get them where they want to go. Hybrid cars began life simple, and they are still quite simple today.

Now hybrid cars are becoming more and more popular as people understand them more. Hybrid cars in the 21st century saw a boom in sales when the Toyota Prius came out on the market. It was the first hybrid with four doors that was marketed in America.

Soon after, the Ford Escape hybrid became the very first SUV hybrid ever made. So there it is in a nutshell, the history of the hybrid car – today’s modern auto.

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It seems that there has been a wane in consumer faith in the building and construction industry of late. This may be because of the scams shown on television or the bribery and corruption rampant in the corporate sector, but it is almost definitely the same motivation why so many are now carrying out home improvements by themselves.

And why shouldn’t they? A little knowledge of the technical aspects combined with an eye for creativity is often enough to carry out the home improvement on your own.

Why are people turning to DIY home improvements?

There are many people trying to pass themselves off as construction workers, although they do not have a lot of experience in construction or home maintenance and they are literally are out there right now practising, learning their trades on homes like yours and mine across the country.

Not surprisingly, homeowners are finding that the jobs are not being completed to their liking. Sometimes they are even pre-paying for services that do not get done or were not part of the plan.

You do not have to rely on and pay someone to improve your home. Why not try to do it yourself?

You can augment your home?s existing concrete surfaces using acid stains, acrylic paints, epoxy paints, and scoring techniques.

If you are tired of looking at dreary gray concrete, there are some easy projects if you are sincere about having a go at home improvement DIY, you can easily give your patio, driveway or garage a refreshing new look.

Attractive concrete work costs about double that of standard concrete, which is why many people cannot afford it.

However, there are inexpensive means to embellish concrete after it has cured, without having to pay expert tradesmen.

Acid-based concrete stains are becoming more and more fashionable for coloring concrete surfaces. They chemically react with the cement to create permanent color with a variegated or mottled appearance similar to that of marble. This results in a natural, stylish looking surface.

Water-based concrete stains are an alternative to acid stains but are much more user friendly because they are so much less dangerous. These stains do not chemically react with the concrete; they are absorbed into the porous surface and act like a dye. The big benefit of water based stains is the wide array of colors available.

If you want to venture beyond the basic staining of your concrete, think about using some scoring techniques to create patterns on the surface.

You can make your concrete resemble a tiled floor for instance. It is just up to your imagination. A mini angle grinder with a 4 inch grinding wheel is the ideal tool for this.

The key thing to remember when scoring is to draw the pattern on the concrete first and make sure you are happy with the way it looks because scoring is permanent.

Epoxy paints make an excellent coating for garage floors and cellar floors. Many industrial floors have epoxy coatings because of their hardiness and resilience to chemical spills as well as their appearance.

In recent years, however, it has become very popular for residential use with the availability of an growing number of different colors. This is not a complicated job, but the key to successful application is surface preparation.

Epoxy paints have also become available in a water based form making it safe for the DIY’er and perfect for indoor applications. They cost a little more than stains. For a 400 square foot area, you’ll pay out about $200 for the materials needed for this job.

You see? You do not have to spend big money to improve your home. You have the capacity to do it yourself. With some instructions and a little bit of work, anyone can turn dull concrete into a masterpiece of their own.

Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on several subjects, but is currently involved with Flowtron Bug Zapper devices. If you would like to know more, please go to our website at Indoor Bug Zapper

The indoor bug zapper is the best way of ridding your immediate vicinity of insects, especially the flying ones such as mosquitoes. The hand held bug killer vaporizes any insect from a mosquito to a gnat instantly on contact with a pleasingly loud, electrical ‘zap’!

However, this is not to say that the electric insect killer cannot be operated outdoors, as long as it is not too wet. It should be treated like any other high voltage electrical equipment. Keep the hand held insect killer dry and please do not use it while you are standing in water!

Models do vary a lot, but there are really only two kinds of electric bug killer: the battery operated bug zapper and the rechargeable electric bug zapper. Both are equally effective at zapping insects and employ the same principle.

The hand held insect killer resembles a ‘kids’ tennis racket, but with three layers of ‘strings’, which are in fact wires. The central network of wires becomes live at the touch of a button, while the other two grids, one on either side, are only earths.

When an insect is caught between the wires of the electric insect zapper, it creates a short, which vaporizes it instantaneously with a loud crack. The electric insect killer will kill other insects too, but they tend to fry rather than explode.

I have been using the rechargeable kind for more than five years and am extremely satisfied with the electric insect killer. In fact, the electric bug zapper has come a long way over the last few years. A fully charged indoor insect killer is powerful enough to last for several hundred swipes and will hold it’s charge, when unused, for weeks without any significant discharge.

The battery recharge unit will take intensive use for the best part of a year, although its ability to hold a charge for several weeks gradually diminishes after six or seven months.

The latest indoor bug zapper I’ve used has a main on/off switch, a light that comes on when it is activated (the brightness of this light also gives an indication of the battery’s strength) and an LED that comes on when it is plugged in on recharge.

The instructions on the wrapper say that it should be (re)charged for about sixteen hours. I usually put it on charge over night once or twice every week or two, although the hand held insect killer shows a marked increase in performance after only a couple of hours recharging.

The latest version I’ve seen also comes with a powerful beam called a ‘headlamp’. I have found this very useful when walking in the garden, but I’m not sure whether it’s meant to attract the flies in the dark so that you can zap them if you’re bored. You know, like an anglerfish.

I’ve used the headlamp on my electric insect killer for that too, but the beam uses a lot of battery power. All in all, the electric bug killer is a big asset to any outdoor event. The electric insect zapper is useful to ‘clean out’ your bedroom before retiring; it’s unbeatable for evening mosquitoes and it will clear a lunch table of wasps as well.

Have you ever heard of an indoor bug zapper? If not, or if you are interested in getting an electronic insect killer, just click one of the links to our website or blog.