briley

Same problem, you can't even get the world service sport on the internet on Saturday's any more.

I did have a work around, I found a proxy based in the UK, using proxy4free, and put it into internet explorer. Then Radio 5 thought I was in the UK and it all worked well.

Went to the UK and on my return all had gone pear shaped, no radio 5.

Incidentally Radio 5, the UK version is

http://www.bbc.co.uk/support/staticram/fiv.../surestream.ram

Whilst the international, non-streaming sport is

http://www.bbc.co.uk/support/staticram/fiv...estream_int.ram

You can put these links into Internet Explorer and it should open up real player, but the UK version sticks at connecting..............

Added:

As and extra my wife much prefers the football on the radio to the TV, she says the pictures are better.

The only time I tried it the shop said they'd have to add 8% to the bill as they never paid the VAT in the first place, then I could get the 7% refund.

Go figure, as they say.

If it has got red and white on the edge of the road park on the pavement and save yourself the 400 baht fine.

Just something that makes me a little angry

Have to agree it was a bad hair day.

we got bounced by Qatar, got a lovely hotel in London, day and Hotel in Qatar (what a boring town) and a free Lon-bkk return ticket only - the tax to pay.

But when things go wrong boy can they become shambolic.

It's easier and cheaper to use the ATM - maximum is about 25,000 baht and with nationwide no charges.

If you need more take the nationwide debit card into Bangkok bank and they'll transfer hundreds of thousands into your bank account.

Doing it this way you get the best exchange rate, least cost and the money instantly or faster.

As an intersting aside the money is both in your hand (or bangkok bank account) and in your nationwide account for 24 hours so you get interest on your money twice. Mind at Bangkok bank's rate that only makes you a profit of 27 baht on a million transfered - just enough for a small, cheap, beer.

At last Lopburi3 gives the correct answer - most of the others are far too complex.

I think Hull will give you a non-imm visa with no proof, other consulates in the UK insist you show a bank statement with a balance of 800,000 baht in £ - about £11,000.

Liverpool (wrongly) insisted on double that amount to issue my wife's non-imm visa.

To get your extension of stay you should get a letter from the British Embassy/consulate. Simply take them proof of your pension, statements etc. If your income is not pension it does not matter to the embassy but always use the word pension to immigration. If around £1,000 a month or more then that is good and you do not need any money in the bank, but see later. Embassy charges an arm and a leg for the letter (£25??) and in Chiang Mai you get it next day.

You give a photo-copy of that letter when you go for extension of stay - and keep the original for next year. Yes you must have a Thai bank account, I just did my renewal with 21,000 baht balance but suspect I was a little luck. Suggest you make that a bit more! The money can come as cash via an ATM since immigration do not require this bit of money to have the FTT entry - your pension is enough.

Incidentally if you take your debit card into the bank - they will swipe it and credit your bank account as a foreign transfer - well this always works for me with a UK Nationwide card, Bangkok Bank in Chiang Mai and no apparent limit on the ammount you can transfer provided it is inyour UK account.

Finally don't forget you must be in Thailand to renew your extension of stay, that is in the 30 days before it runs out. Your renewal date will be the date you last entered Thailand when you make your first application. That's a complex sentence!

Just recently discovered,

No parking sign with the slash one way is no parking on even dates, the other way no-parking on odd dates.

Your local imigration office will give a letter of residence if you take photocopies of passport and visa and copy of your rental agreement (or house ownership papers)

And it is now free

(plus photo's -2 forgot that as I did when I got my last papers)

The figure of 6700baht given by the OP looks awfully like the tax on that ticket - might also include sceduled airline failure insurance that is about 60 baht?

Also you must make sure that you are sharing at least on drive on the machine, else there is nothing to see.

Supose I might add the the UK supermarkets can do similar things.

Ever wondered why some item is so expensive in, say, Asda? Look after the statutory 28 days and it is suddenly BOGOF, or 50% discount etc etc.

I just find Tesco Lotus just so blatent in their irregular 'sales'

Just been looking - and all the prices I can see for flights are valid until 31 March.

So hold on a bit!

I'm getting irritated with Tesco Lotus.

Last year I bought 4 ceiling fans. Two weeks later a friend laughed at me as they were in the sale at 50% discount - so I wandered down to Tesco to find the 'sale' price was MORE than I had paid. They were listed as 1860 baht, 50% reduction to 930 baht. I only paid 920 baht as the full, undiscounted price.

Now they are doing it again this year, an electric cooking pot is reduced by 30% to 919 baht, exactly the same as I paid for the non-reduced item. They'd even left the non-reduced price sticker on the pan to contradict their reduced price sticker!

I know this happens elsewhere but I really do think Tesco is begining to go beyond the limit these days and hope others will take 'sale' with more than a pinch of salt.

You can book a ticket up to twelve month in advance but most airlines only release the cheaper tickets about 3 months in advance and then only in dribs and drabs.

If tickets on a flight are selling well then they won't sell any discount tickets, if selling badly then lots of cheap tickets. The airlines employ high quality mathematicians to work out the supply of tickets to optimise their profit.

Don't forget Easter is 16th April this year so flight back to the UK in the week 16-24th April will be heavily booked.

Just tried Egg - no problems and you do not need an active X control (unless you use their money manager and then only to see other accounts)

Sometime clearing your Internet cache can help, or remove any cookies from Egg?

But mine's a genuine copy

Parts of this report are true .............

As from 14th February 2006 any card that is chip and pin enabled will, in the UK, have to be authorised using the PIN - if not the retailer takes the loss if there is fraud.

But cards that are not Chip and PIN enabled should still be fully usable.

Having said that the banks hullabahoo in the UK and the general poor state of education of cashiers in the UK does mean many people with valid cards will find shops refusing them.

As an aside to this if your card is fraudulantly used with a PIN it is impossible to prove you did not use the card or divulge the PIN to someone else - unlike the case with a signature. So effectively the UK banks are saying if a PIN is used fraudulantly it is your problem, if a PIN is not used, and it is fraud, it is the shops problem.

Not free, costs 3 baht a call (normal phone charges) and you are cut off after 2 hours.

Otherwise yes it is free and a good deal, I always got a good connection, but now have ADSL so ...............

For Maesto AFAIK no UK bank allows international transfers without either phone or personal appearance to confirm - I know other coutnries banks use books of numbers etc but they don't seem popular in the UK (Nor did I like them!)

But NATIONWIDE - I can't shout it loud enough. If you can open an account with them then ATM withdrawals are absolutely free - no surcharge no 2% on the exchange rate nothing.

If you want more than the ATM limit walk into your Thai bank and give them the card and ask for the money to be put into your account - appears to be no limit (I know it has been done for 600,000 baht in one transfer) and no charges at all.

As a bonus at least Bankok bank on Suthep road, Chiang Mai (maybe other banks) will mark it as FFT in your book.

Sort of could take offence at the maligning of the UK banking system.

The main UK banks have had internet sites since - well I've been using internet banking for at least 10 years.

All UK banks offer internet banking and I'd be prepared to bet all allow any type of transfer, bill payment, etc. within financial limits, say max transfer of £50,000.

No UK bank allow international transfers using only the Internet, all insist on either written instructions or telephone contact. For example using Cahoot (meantioned before) you have to phone with your instructions (takes under 2 minutes) and they phone you back on your registered number to check the transfer is genuine. Any bank that did not do checks like that risk being taken to the cleaners as they have (so far) always paid for any internet fraud.

BUT for non-UK residents it can be quite difficult to open a UK bank account unless you go via their head office and deal by mail or person.

I use google search engine and occasionally want to go to the advertised, paid for, link on the right hand side of the page.

But everytime I try that I get page not available. Once I strip all the google stuff from the address I can get the page I want.

I curious to know if others get the same problem? If it is a general problem then google must be losing a lot of revenue!

To take up Paul-s and his gulf air flight with a tax of £96 I just did a quick check of lastminute and got the following:

Royal Jordanian tax and fees £115

Aeroflot £78

Lufthansa £160

Emirate LHR £41

Emirates LGW £39

My point is that these taxes are NOT just LHR tax, but all the airports you stop at. Note Lufthansa has to pay Frankfurt tax for 2 landings and 2 take offs for the trip, another expensive airport whilst Dubai seems to make no charges at all for Emirates.

That is, unless you think LHR charge different taxes to different airlines?

If you have owned the bike for 12 months in Thailand you can import it into the UK - but to get it registered you must pass an MOT.

That includes the emmission control part - but there is an exception for import vehicles. If you can prove the emmission control regulations in the country of manufacture then the bike only has to meet those standards and not the UK standard.

Mind finding your little MOT shop that can find that regulation and getting proof of the Thai regulations could be hard. I have never managed it for a car imported from South Africa.

As an aside,

If you are non-resident for tax purposes in the UK then the UK is a very good offshore financial centre, good interest rates and low taxation.

But if you are UK resident for tax purposes then offshore accounts have little benefit as you get lower interest rates and you still have to declare the income - the only benefit is you pay the tax later.

There are many other senarios - some that make investing in the IOM etc a good idea - but it is not an inevitable good idea.

Thanks Lopburi3, exactly what I wanted to hear.