Darrel

some posts get removed by the powers that be because they dont cut the mustard.

1984 in fact.

Indeed. In fact you can be an MP and defraud the UK taxpayer of virtually unlimited amounts for years on end and get the penalty of .......... nothing at all.

My primary bank is Etrade. They don't even know what SWIFT is. but that is Ok.

It's really rather funny. The banks in the world's biggest economy have no idea at all about international banking.

SWIFT is the system they all use, even if they dont know the name. (Europe is, of course, years ahead with IBAN.)

In Europe I receive payments from US clients and they always have so much more trouble initiating them than any other client anywhere in the world, including third-world countries.

In fact for US clients we usually resort to PayPal as it is the only thing that they can manage.

And 10 years ago they were predicting the death of Walking Street. Today it is stronger than it ever has been. In 10 years time they will still be predicting the death of Walking Street and rather than trying to push the sex to the outskirts, there is more chance of Walking Street being listed as the only permissible area to put on sex type shows.

I'm curious. Did you ever know Walking Street 20+ years ago? Today it is a pale shadow of its former self. In fact not even a shadow. More like a shopping mall for families than anything else, which is probably why it's full of families taking an evening stroll.

So yes, it will still be there in 10 years, but it will probably be even more boring (and expensive) than it is today.

Five times the price of a ZTE Blade? Can it possibly be worth it?

Anything over 1000 THB per month is too much, IMO. I don't care how fast or reliable the service, 1000 is the limit for me.

I think that the point is that it's all crap, no matter how much you pay. So you may as well pay less and get cheaper crap.

Personally the place I'm currently staying in pays about 600B for 4Mbs. And it's crap.

"I am with TOT in Pattaya."

Aargh! The world's most horrifying 6 words. TOT bring a totally new meaning to the word "dire".

" I pay 2,675 per month"

Wow! Is that some sort of joke?

If the person cannot be found, checks will be made and if discovered living outside the EEC will be extradited and face a mandatory 5 year prison term or could be imposed to serve the prison sentence in Thailand, a term of 25 years.

Haha. I think you've been drinking too much beetle juice.

shortcrust mutton pies, brown sauce, haggis, tripe

Just had the most bizarre mental image of the sort of restaurant that would have all those on the menu.

That's the point. They don't recognize the sentiment of someone putting 'Jedi', which is why if you really don't care let them know. Religion is not an important part of British life which is the way it should stay. However when more money is put into things life 'faith schools' the government needs to know that most people are not religious.

I am not religious (though I am nearly a Buddhist, apart from the religious aspect). My reason for putting what I do is purely and simply to annoy the government and its minions. If I were to put "agnostic" or "atheist" or even "none" I would be playing their game, and I'm not prepared to do that.

It's not really opposite Diana Estate,

You are absolutely correct. It's nearer to Chaba Hut. Diana Estate is a hundred yards or so further south.

Not easy to describe the actual location as the market is the most memorable thing around there.

When I opened my account with Kbank in Central Festival (which took barely 15 minutes) they gave me all the details for SWIFT transfers. They know all about transfers for condo purchases.

And yes, for telegraphic transfers there is hardly any difference between the rates the various banks offer.

I detest all webmail with a vengeance. All of them are incredibly time-wasting and the more dodgy your connection the more time you waste. I have better things to do with my life.

Gmail works perfectly well as an IMAP or POP service with all standard email clients and as far as I'm concerned that is the only way to use it or any other email service. Webmail may be a suitable replacement when your own computer isnt available but that's all.

Such an awful way to end a short life.

I happened to look at to the VT7 and I saw that only that wing which is nearest to the beach has "life" (light), the other two wings were completely dark and empty.

I do not know wheter this is because of the 49/51 % rules or the bad reputation during the building process.

VT7 is an interesting building, and not just because of the legal controversy.

In the front wing sticking out towards the sea just about everything is sold, apart from the 3 columns nearest the side wing on the Pattaya Park side. This front wing contains all the 48sqm studios in the building. These 3 columns nearest the other two wings (and indeed the other two wings) are not nice because the balconies are overlooked by the other wing (quite seriously overlooked actually: from the front wing balcony you can see right into the other rooms on the side wings which are just yards away and could easily hold a conversation with the occupants of 20 other units). On top of that you have the fact that the units in the two empty side wings are all very long and thin making them rather dark and hard to fit out (except for the rather nice corner units, a few of which have sold). Combine that with the fact that they are large and hence expensive and it is no surprise that virtually none have been sold. I could see them hanging around for ever, especially as the farang quota will probably have all gone in the units in the front wing, many of which have very nice views indeed.

I wonder why they ever designed it like that?

Oh well, I started out in good faith, got as far as 3rd Rd/Klang, got bored with all the closed shops and walked back to Soi Buakow. I will try again in the daytime.

3rd Rd and Klang after about 8pm at night seem so deserted and empty compared to 2nd Rd and Buakow.

the prices are going up fast

Really? I would say they are falling in Pattaya, at least the prices of condos that actually sell, as opposed to those that are just for sale and have been for ages.

And if the government introduced a rule limiting condo ownership to just a couple of units per person the asking prices would collapse completely. There are far too many people owning 10, 50, 100 units and this artificially inflates prices. Not a healthy market at all, I think.

Is there any particular reason why people use vague terms like "not expensive" rather than just saying "noodles are 40B" or "our meal for two came to 200B" or whatever?

I might walk up to this place tonight, if it isnt raining. I have happy memories of a great Vietnamese place in a food court in Manila, run by Vietnamese nuns. That was back in the days of the boat people. It was about the only food within 10 miles that had what I would call "proper" flavour ie flavour that bites back. No shortage of that here, thankfully.

. its a big pond account in oz,

In common with many ISPs Bigpond require you to connect via dial-up (or via their ADSL) from time to time to prevent the account being put on hold. I think you can (or could) also pay them some sort of fee.

The obvious solution is to stop using Bigpond email and to get a free Gmail account.

Several PCs around 10,000B in PowerBuy Central Festival this morning, and an acceptable eMachines one for 8750B. Certainly adequate for the usage the OP mentioned. Email, surfing and watching films makes no special requirements on a PC, unless perhaps you want to watch HD films on a home theatre in which case it might be advisable to fit a dedicated HD video card with HDMI rather than use the one on the motherboard. It could always be added later anyway.

the major flaw being the battery life.

That seems to be a universal problem with smartphones. I think that you have to assume that you will recharge them at least once a day. I tend to plug mine into my laptop whenever I'm at home as that way it charges and also stores my downloaded BBC radio programmes automatically. It still works as a phone when connected on USB.

I wonder just how many people may have after buying a small screen smartphone come to the same conclusion ?

My Blade has a 3.5in screen (and its a very good OLED one with pretty high resolution). I certainly wouldnt want anything smaller but by turning the default font settings up a notch I find that I can use it for most purposes without my glasses, and have no trouble with my glasses on using it to read whole ebooks or glance at websites. I wouldn't use it look at websites for long though, even though it does have a zoom function, but I cant imagine that being any different until I got up to tablet-size screens like the iPad.

So I would say that 3.5in is the minimum practical size.

Some of the topics I rail about most often:

>>> Thailand not going Nuclear

>>> MSG (is it ok to poison a few, because the majority don't mind MSG?)

>>> deadbeat dads

>>> abandoned dog problems, noise pollution

I'm with you on the dogs and the noise.

I think that it's probably better if 3rd-world and/or unstable countries dont have nuclear technology. Most of them could do quite well with hydro and solar power and at least if they screw it up it probably wont release anything toxic.

There are far worse things than MSG in all our food.

I dont even know what a deadbeat dad is. Nor do I care.

None of which has any bearing on the simple fact that not all Thai banks are as bad as you think yours is. If you dont like yours, just change.

The information is confidential. No reason to fill it in, the information will not be shared with other departments.

So there are people who actually believe the government when they say things like that? I'm amazed. I wouldnt believe the UK government (or any government for that matter) if they told me that Tuesday comes after Monday.