aarn

I also had a problem with myself pictured as naked santa (+ more), obviously very drunk.

Even though I took to the hard drive with a blow torch then a sledge hammer,

the neighbours 6 year old kids put it back together into two days and repeatedly emailed me

said pictures of self in red-capped natural glory.

This Xmas, rather than forego the santa wardrobe,

I plan to declare an electronic device-free zone. AA

I got a med cert (testifying that I was badly suburnt) from the adventist hospital in BKK.

This was 19 years ago. Walked in off the street, got hospital ID card, cert, and payed 100B total.

Worth a try, AA

Just don't go rippen pages out of your passport - the Australian interpretation is that the passport in a government document or somesuch,

and the 'holder' acts on behalf of the govt., damaging government property is a big no-no. AA

May be worth checking any connections for debris (usually insect body-parts) causing intermittent contacts. Unlpug cables of charger, check state of contacts, clean out ports with cotton bud etc. Cheers, AA

If chrome not working, try installing chrome canary, and then recovering your bookmarks etc. AA

Immigration may ask to also view those income statements upon which the StatDec was based.

Ergo, take StatDec, income statements and printout... plus all the other doc.s. Good luck, AA

This page gives an indication of seat availability

http://www.ktmb.com.my/index.php/2013-10-22-03-50-26

Sorry if this sounds like how to suck eggs, but check first whether you have 32 or 64 bit machine:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/32-bit-and-64-bit-windows#1TC=windows-7

64 bit machines can go faster coz can use more RAM, if it is installed. 64 bit machines can run 32bit programs.

Windows 32 bit can go faster if you insert an empty usb, follow the prompts 'make this machine go faster' or somesuch. AA

Bottom line is, only use ATM outside bank during business hours.

Kinda defeats the purpose of ATMs.

Banks are out to fawk us they don't give a shoot. AA

OP, the easiest way is as follows. Assuming you want to live in LoS, by obtaining an annual extension, on the basis of retirement, of a non-B visa:

1/. Easiest to communicate by correspondence with Brisbane consulate.

2/. Fill out application for visa form TM87 requesting single enrtry/90 day nonO-B reason being 'retirement'.

3/. Send proof of income eg. original of term deposit > $100k, pension statement.

4/. 2 x passport-type photos + your passport.

5/. $90 postal order, return prepaid envelope.

The consulate will approve/disapprove your application within 48hr, returning your passport with a visa which must be activated (ie. you must enter Thailand) within 90 days.

On entering Thailand, you will be given 90 days stay. During that time, you wanna open a bank account and deposit 800,000+ baht. You can apply for an annual extension of stay, on the basis of retirement, once you have had a bank balance of 800,000+ baht for 60 days.

Anyway this was the course I followed commencing May this year. No health certificates, no JP signatures required.

If you really want a nonO multi-entry ($220), then you have to exit the country every 90 days - lotza mucking around.

You can follow other threads here re. getting your extension on the basis bank balance + income statement from Australian Embassy, re-entry permits etc...

Cheers, AA

Sounds like the OP's wife was Jetstar-ed. My previous - and last ever - Jestar flight was cancelled (probably coz it didn't have 80%+ seat occupancy), and I was texted at 0230 with the flight due out at 0600. Options offered - 'full refund' (but get stung twice for credit card fees) or departure 48hr later, no meals/accom etc.

Arrive in Sydney, only transport option from domestic to international terminal (3km, can be walked but not with luggage) was 'Jetbus' - $5 thanks.

The food on the flight was - who knows, the menu was way overpriced.

Don't worry about 'China' being anywhere in your itinerary, this is the Asian century. I'd be more worried about anything associated with flying kangaroos or managerial elements named Joyce. AA

Just in case anyone is still following this thread:

Speyed female dogs have a lower incidence of mammary cancer (cf. unspeyed females).

They can't get pyometron, a truly disgusting and sometimes lethal condition.

And they don't attract all the local males,

which will smash windows, leap fences, and fight each other for a piece of the action.

The best dog is a neutered dog. AA

For a bit of background info, check the wiki page for CTVT.

I see a fair bit of it in female soi dogs in Prachuap.

Preferred treatment would be surgery + chemo, dunno what Thai vets charge for chemo.

Always a chance that the cancer has spread by the time the lesions become obvious,

but if nothing else at least get the tumor mass cut out,

otherwise flies will drive your dog nutz.

In male dogs it was easier to treat - just chop off the penis (sawing through the bone)

and sow some thin plastic tubing into the urinary tract, until the post-op swelling went down. AA

You can get all those cables/adapters from advice.co.th outlets, if not in store then 48hr wait for delivery.

The Thai company charges ~ twice what you would pay if buying from China via ebay, but delivery time is 10+ days. AA

Firstly, a great tool to remove ticks can be fashioned from any-old plastic spoon, just note the catching notch

as depicted in images such as www.ticktwister.com.

Second, and perhaps this is redundant info., in a former life your correspondent battled, on a daily basis,

the scourge of ticks toxic (where I was working) to doggies and moggies.

There was a lot of snake-oil on sale.

Do some googling to check the currently recommended products, not that anything will work 100% on all animals.

Cheers, AA

In my experience, usb sticks 32GB+ may take a long time to be 'read' by older/slower computers.

I would become impatient, start doing other stuff, and the usb stick then became unusable without

undertaking techy actions (like creating a new MSDOS partition table, then reformatting as FAT32).

May I humbly suggest to eigordo(19)38 to make do temporarily with a couple of 8Gb sticks,

and get a computer savvy friend to investigate further the 128Gb usb. Cheers, AA

DanSingKon Immigration Office refused two applicants I know of the 30day extension on the 30day visa-exempt entry.

This was in the past month. These two people were only offered a 7day extension.

So it seems Immigration is still in a 'transitional period' re. offering the 30day extension, in all offices, to all applicants. AA

Assuming you're in PrachuapKK province, have a look at yesterday's post concerning undertaking that task in Ranong (nearest border crossing)

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/767033-visa-run-ranongandaman-club/

Cheers, AA

AyG - concerning your audio problem, I have something similar.

No sound unless a cheap generic Chinese mp3 player is connected via a usb port.

Sound comes through earphones attached to the mp3 player, whether it is mounted or not!

There was sound from the computer, but maybe I connected the mp3 player when switched 'on'...

Linux - expect the unexpected, or maybe this is more evidence of the 'Asian century' AA

I agree the version-upgrade option maybe the road to ruin - only once (lubuntu 13.04 - 13.10???) did it work for me.

So maybe AyG could play with some of the LTS (long term support) systems based on Ubuntu 14.04 (which will be supported for 5 years)

(get them via distrowatch.com, install to a usb using unetbootin, for those that weren't aware).

If anyone is anticipating gremlins post-upgrade,

it may be worth generating lists of [most] installed programs pre- and post-upgrade:

open a terminal... $ cd /usr/bin

then $ ls

which will produce quite a listing, but not difficult to compare pre- v. post-

I want something that is not too counter-intuitive, sorry lubuntu but 14.04.1 broke this camel's back and you got dumped! Grrrrr...

I am only smart enough to use debian-based distributions, although the deb. mother-ship has an un-configurable (in my incompetent hands) network manager.

Anyway, linux lite performs very well for me,

and thumbs up for peach, ultimate, solyd... and deepin, as this may be the 'Asian century'.

Ahh linux, blood/sweat/tears all over the keyboard but the end result can be immensely satisfying.

Cheers, AA

Sounds like you have a legitimate multi-entry non-O, so the 'visa crackdown' wasn't going to create difficulties for you.

But only 10 farangs a day at present! Wow, a lot of 'facilitators' gonna be strapped for cash. Cheers, AA

As UbonJ says, (Brisbane is good) for rapid attention to all visa requests.

As many of my wiser (but not necessarily older) friends have said, nonO extended on the basis of retirement is less of a minefield than marriage visa.

The difference in terms of financial requisites is... the price of a reliable used car in Ozland? AA

A couple of days ago, there was a thread in this forum concerning Thai consulates in Australia. Brisbane is much more user-friendly than the others. AA

Might reset just by holding down both CTRL and ALT, and moving the mouse wheel. At least this works for some linux. AA

Maybe recycled oil used to cook the vegie delights, DNA testing is super-sensitive. AA