doctormann

This one is maybe for Crossy. I have a circular 32W fluorescent light that has suddenly failed. Over the years I have had several fluorescent lamp failures but nothing like this one. No flickering or flashing as is often the case when the tube or starter fails - this one just quit suddenly, when in use, and now seems completely dead. ChatGPT, for what it's worth, reckons that the ballast has died. A replacement from Lazada costs almost as much as a whole new light fitting so I'm considering converting the fitting to use a LED module. Any thoughts? Probably a simple job except that its going to involve a very long stepladder ladder (cathedral ceiling) and at my advanced state of decrepitude I don't do those any more! I'll have to find a volunteer.

I think that earthworms - if that's what they are - are hermaphrodites so it probably wouldn't matter.

So, probably not going to be available to non-Thai citizens?

Yes, also irrational!

Jomtien Due Date 03 June Reminder received 07:11 today Submitted 07:30 Approved 08:58 Next due date 17 August Seems to be working well.

My TTB ATM card has been declined by my local KTB machine lately. No message - just goes through the motions and then cancels the transaction. Still works fine in the adjacent GSB machine though. I don't know if this is related to this photo ID thing. I did receive an SMS from TTB - only in Thai and Missus can't make head nor tail of it - which I think is relevant. I'll try phoning the TTB help line, which i'm sure will be of no help. Probably have to go into the main branch in Pattaya. A long way from me, unfortunately and it's hot out there!

Yes, maybe I'll trek down to the bank. As you say, this may avert problems further down the line. I have another account at K-Bank so maybe I should do that one as well.

I just got a message from TTB bank. Only in Thai and my missus can't make head nor tail of it. I think that it's something to do with the requirement for photo ID for transactions over 50kBaht. Does anyone know if these new requirements apply to transfers INTO a Thai account or only to transfers OUT? I do a 65k transfer from my UK bank to my TTB account every month, to keep Immigration happy so, if the requirement does apply to transfers IN, I shall have to get this sorted out pretty quickly. I suppose that I may have to visit my nearest branch - but it's nowhere near me and it's hot out there! Before anyone suggests phoning them I predict that this would be a total waste of time!

OK, but how would you pay 'offline' in the first place? Maybe I'm missing something. I shall wait one more day and if there is no progress I shall cancel the order.

Here's a new twist - to me at least. A few days ago I ordered an item from Lazada - only something cheap. On this occasion, I had to pay by debit card as COD was not available. The tracking status still says 'seller to pack', even though we are now past the last scheduled delivery date. The seller sent me a message that makes no sense to me at all: 'Please DO NOT transfer money offline.' No idea what this means. Order was confirmed and the sum has been removed from my bank account as is the usual way when paying by debit card. The seller is now not responding to chat! I seem to still have the option of cancelling the order - but not sure how i would get the refund.

Yes, if you have a new extension then you will need to change the 'permitted to stay' date on the TM47, otherwise an error message will pop up. Easily corrected.

For subsequent applications you don't need to manually fill in all your details. Just type passport number and nationality and then click the looking glass icon. All the TM47 fields will then be completed for you.

Try this one instead: https://tm47.immigration.go.th/tm47/#/login

Not my experience - usually takes at least two weeks. Mind you, our local postal service is terrible! Going in the other direction, you might get a 5-day delivery time if you use EMS, which is expensive. Registered airmail is a crap shoot - can be as fast as EMS if you get lucky but often seems to get stuck at Suvarnabhumi, waiting for the appropriate mail container to fill up. 2 weeks seems more typical. This from Thailand Post:

Just do it online. Anything that requires snail mail from UK to Thailand, or vice versa, seems very slow and unreliable. A recent letter from my UK bank took over six weeks to reach me! Even using registered mail to UK seems not totally reliable. I sent a registered letter to IPC at the beginning of March - never appeared on the Royal Mail tracker, even though it was actually delivered. Unfortunately, when dealing with gov.uk, you often seem to get the choice between phoning them - and getting put on hold for ages - or using snail mail and waiting a few weeks for a response. Why they cannot set up a secure electronic mail system just defeats me. We are in the 21st Century after all!

Maybe 500 is the top of the calibrated range so anything higher just tops out at that value?

Well, you know what they say - 'If it isn't broken, don't fix it.' It wasn't, but they did and now it is!

Here's a useful table:

This may not be helpful but... My banking app - TTB Touch - allows me to scan the QR code on my PEA bill and pay that way. Do you have BBL app and does that offer the same facility?

Does it maybe work with a UK mobile number, as provided by GiffGaff? That might also help with receiving an OTP via SMS.

I certainly hope so as it would make a bit of a nonsense of having an international account in that case. I just hope that they don't start to demand some silly amount of deposit to keep the account open. At present, it only requires the account to have a two-month average of at least 2k GBP but there is a monthly fee of 40 GBP when the balance is that low. If I transfer my current on-shore account and have my pensions paid into that account there will be a substantial amount in there - but I doubt if maintaining the account will be free.

If a UK passport be very careful as the UK passport office will be on strike for several weeks so the chances of replacing a damaged passport are slim to none!

I think that this is not a problem so long as they don't staple the data pages. However, your passport will rapidly get a bit ragged anyway if a lot of staples are added and then removed. Since we have had on-line 90-day reports this has been less of a problem. I always used to ask the IO to not use a staple to attach the latest 90-day receipt to the passport - sometimes worked! I keep my passport in a cover anyway - this has pockets so I keep TM6, TM30 and 90-day receipts in those.

Same here. I've had Barclays current and savings accounts for 60 years and both will be closed at the end of August. I'm currently trying to find out if they will let me keep my IoM international account - if so, I shall probably use this for pension payments and transfers to one of my Thai accounts. This is not ideal though as the international accounts is not cheap to run. I may have to think about opening a Wise multi-currency account - with the associated problems of proving international transfers to keep Immigration happy.

Jomtien still have their cataract surgery package running. https://www.jomtienhospital.com/en/phacoemulsification.html This is the procedure that I had done on both my eyes, just about a year ago now. Single vision intra-ocular replacement lenses so I need glasses for close work. Not a problem for me - been wearing glasses for a very long time anyway. The cost was indeed 39,000 Baht per eye with with very little in the way of extra payments. I was delighted by the results.