briley

Our condo management do have the ability to get a court order to take over a condo who's owner is in arrears - mind they are not willing to go that far but the threat does keep the default numbers down.

Naming and shaming can also work, if management are willing. Generally getting condo fees paid depends upon the tenasity of the management in persuing the problem.

As others said look for a place that is in good condition, also look for a high % of farangs, not that they always pay!

I do remember reading somewhere about a 7 eleven and a Thai food hall, mainly aimed at staff but accessable for travellers.

I did find one in Singapore airport but it took some seeking.

Is there a 7 Eleven or equivalent convenience store in the new airport? I want to pick up a few groceries on the way up to Chiang Mai.

If there is, can anyone give us a clue as to it's location.

Thanks.

Fast4 increased their price between my post at 1423 and Trevor at 1830hrs. I had checked and was surprised at the price as I paid £6.99 a month two months ago!

Yes they are bad at stopping taking continuous CREDIT card payments, hence I always change it to Direct debit and then cancel the direct debit.

PS and to prove the change check this link

http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:mRfTW...t=clnk&cd=1

That goes to the Google cache of the page from 28th September - not sure if the link will work?

Do your own maths but I use

http://www.fast4.net/_files/dial.asp

for short-term internet, £5 a month unlimited.

The only problem is they cancel rather quickly so I change my payment method from credit card to direct debit after signing up (use the credit card as sign up isthen instantaneous) and just before the end of the month cancel the direct debit and e-mail fast4 a cancellation. They always try to collect the direct debit but never succeed!

La Casa has small helpings of very tasty food.

Last time I went I went home for some cheese and biscuits.

I can't see why counting the days is so difficult if all our comings and goings are on the computer - can't the computer do the counting for the immigration officer and say 'this bod 12 days only'?

I just sent my Thai telephone bill that the Irish Bank accepted

Only a year later did I discover it wasn't in my name!

If anyone can tell you the best time to buy tickets they must be clairvoient.

I watch the price and tend to buy a couple of months before the date. £430 for a 2 month trip is not bad, I've been looking at nearer £400 for a trip in October but I think Jan tends to be a bit higher.

Lot depends on whether you have to travel, you can hold on until Jan and if the fare isn't good enough then don't travel?

If you get a realy good discounted ticket the infant price can be more than 10%,

Often children's prices on discount fares are 75% instead of the normal 50% which does mean it can be cheaper for you to travel on the deep discount ticket and the child or infant to travel on a less discounted ticket but get a 10% or 50% fare.

Couthy - don't disagree with you, just I had problems.

But you reminded me that your temporary NI number is TN date of birth as ddmmyy then M for male F for female.

For an ISA you have to be UK resident, and if UK resident the DHS (or their current name) will give you a NI number.

Supposed to be very easy to get but when I tried it for my daughter I had problems that took a while to overcome. In her case no job until she had an NI number, no NI number until she had a job (that bit was untrue)

PS Resident in this case is resident for UK tax purposes, ie in the UK for over 183 days in one year or over an average of 91 days a year for the last - is it 3 or 4 years?

Taggart - I think you're mistaking the limit over which transfers have to be reported to the central bank/authorities.

AFAIK neither country has a limit on the amount you can transfer each year.

XP can read a multisession DVD but win 98 and before can't, nor off the top of my head can WIn 2000.

There is also a problem with definition of multisession as, to the best of my knowledge, there are two ways of making a multisession DVD and two flavour's of DVD that can't be multisession (Video and ISO). It is possible that you have made a multi session DVD using a method that can't be read by Windows.

Previous sessions are always there, but it seems that you can't read the linked directory structure - the computer has to read the first directory and then the link to the second directory and so on, the final directory struture should contain all the information to recover files from all the sessions. If the computer does not read the directory information it can't recover the files - but the files never 'go away' like they do on the hard disc.

There are programs that can recover individual sessions, but the one I use is not free and not worth paying for for just one or two problems

To get a result it is not difficult to convert 8mm to video, to get a **good** result is difficult!

I did all mine using a projector and a DV camcorder - but any camcorder will do.

Simply project the film onto a screen to make the smallest picture possible. Point the camcorder at the screen and record the video. Do it in the dark. The camcorder will also pick up the sound, and coughing and the projector noise but that adds to the ambiance?

To make a better recording feed the video direct from your camcorder to your TV card in your computer and the sound from the projector direct to the sound card in your computer and record onto the computer as though recording a TV program, but set the recording to be from composite/AV/SV or what ever it is called input.

The one problem you get is that the angle for the video is wrong since you can't get the camcorder and the projector in the same spot, the recording you make is slightly out of rectangular. You can reduce this effect by putting the camcorder as near in line as possible, above, below or to the side of the projector. Or you can project onto a mirror at 45 degrees to the projector and then reflect it into the camcorder - ie the camcorder and the projector are at 90 degrees to each other. I believe this works but haven't tried is as my 8mm film was so old that 'out of square' really didn't matter.

I then played about with the video using Virtual Dub (free from somewhere?). You can cut up the picture to make it square again, remove hairs in the gate, improve contrast etc. Given lots of time you seem to be able to do almost anything with the program.

Incidentally even the cheapest of TV cards can be used to digitise the video into the computer. The quality of the cheapest card is better than the quality of domestic camcorders and definitely better than the quality of my 8mm film.

I'm told the profit is in the credit deal most Thai's take when buying a bike, so the price is not negotiable as there is no profit in the price.

Just wondered if the key for retired2 is the word 'football'. Many stations can't stream sports as they only have the local rights to broadcast the game - eg try listening to live football, cricket or formula 1 on the BBC

If your log-in uses drop down menu's for password letter that have to be accessed using a mouse then keyboard loggers are defeated.

If not then change bank to one that is more secure.

Unless keyboard loggers have got a lot more sophisticated?

I find that sending mail from most Thai based SMTP servers get bounced by some recipients and just swallowed up by others, especially AOL.

Send and recieve via Gmail is by far the easiest method and allows you to move around, use any ISP in any country and it still works. But do set the port numbers carefully.

Seem to remember yes -

Going clockwise around the moat, before you reach Taipai gate there is a big photo place that can do almost anything.

Sorry but 400 baht is the fine and the police will show you the official list of fines for the different offences.

100 Baht is a bribe and I for one will never bribe, I pay the 400 Baht.

When you get to the airport sign the standard waiver to say you will not hold the airline responsible if you can't enter the country.

Except, rainman, 712,000 baht is 88,000 baht short of 800,000 baht so they will need 88,000 in the bank.

I heard that Hull's consulate is the grandson of someone who did a favour for the King and has been granted the status of honourary consulate in perpetuity - so they can, within the law, be a generous as they like!

Mind you might easily have trouble with the airline refusing to let you board until you sign a waiver saying you'll pay your return fare if refused access to Thailand etc etc.

Make sure you have a credit card as well, if you do get megga problems then you can always buy a ticket from Bangkok, and then cash it in when you get to Bangkok. I've never had to buy a ticket but have often had to sign a waiver.

That is the problem with asking airline checkin staff to act as immigration officers for every country in the world.