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aarn

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    Thailand to develop improved cattle breeding

    in Thailand News

    Posted

    This is a somewhat unexpected report, as I thought Thailand had quite an advanced cattle-breeding industry, to say nothing of the cowboy culture. Maybe cheap beef imports have put everything on the backburner???

    I am a retired aussie farm animal vet. I saw a lot of charolais (?) blood infusion among local stock (Prachuap to Chumphon) during the last 15 years. Some of the beasts are monsters! Also tucked away down here are quite a few dairy cattle, obviously at least 50% holstein-freisian. No idea what their daily milk production would be, but they look sleek.

    For sure mum/dad farmers probably only pushing on with those skinny white things (which survive in the dry season), but there are fawking monster cows down here. AA

    • Like 1

    Retirement Funds - 800,000 Baht

    in Thai Visas, Residency, and Work Permits

    Posted

    My most recent attempt to renew annual annual extension, on the basis of retirement, was thwarted on three counts.

    This was using combined income/bank deposit method, at the DanSingKon office (Prachuap KK province), lte March 2013..

    1/. I did not provide the original documentation, upon which the income statement (from Australian embassy) was based

    2/. The funds in the bank to exceed a total of 800kB had only been there for 56 days!

    3/. I did not provided a recent rent reciept - although I had done this changing adress, five months previously.

    AND AND AND I would probably have been knocked back because there was only one (damaged) page left in passport.

    So SNAFU for me, but I guess the OP and others may be interested to know:

    bring as much documentation as possible to the locel Immi Office

    be prepared for all sorts of interpretations of the regulations (and beware: some translations of the regulations posted here are [informed] interpretations).

    Good luck, AA

    running Windows 7 and Linux on same laptop ?

    in IT and Computers

    Posted

    1/. Download the .iso file of your preferred linux distibution from distrowatch.com. The one I prefer is lubuntu 13.10

    2/. get a small program for windows, unetbootin, via sourceforge.net. Install the .exe file.

    3/. put an empty usb stick (2Gb or larger) into your computer, disconnect other usb devices, run unetbootin

    4/.select the disk image option (not the distribution option), and direct it to where you have downloaded the .iso

    5/. When complete, unetbootin will ask you to reboot computer. As it prepares to reboot, get into your BIOS -

    that is usually achieved by repeatedly tapping F12 key on boot-up

    6/. Select usb stick as operating system.

    7/. With Ubuntu-derivatives, a screen comes up asking you to choose from install (don't do this yet!), default option etc. Choose default

    8/. Then you can 'play' with linux, see if you really like it, and maybe install later.

    9/. Don't forget your wifi password.

    Good luck, AA

    • Like 1

    Wording of Bank Letter for Retirement Visa Extension

    in Thai Visas, Residency, and Work Permits

    Posted

    My most recent attempt to renew extension on the basis of retirement, got knocked back because I didn't provide a rent receipt - fair enough (yeah really???).

    Doing the combined money-in-bank + embassy statement of earnings, Immi officer (Prachuap province, DanSingKon) decided that I didn't have enough money 'coz she read the last line of income statement which was (annual income)/12 = monthly income. Asked for the original document, which I have, but how is an Immi official gonna understand an Australian Govt Taxation return notice?

    So I am fawked this time round but some words of advice:

    Immi officer said that bank letter is valid for one week;

    Immi officer also said money must be in the bank 3 months (mine was three days short) even for combined earning method, which is in contradistinction to what this forum has suggested (ie. no seasoning period for combined income method).

    Maybe Immi officer could have suggested 100baht donation to provident fund could rectify the situation, I dunno..

    Yes well no need to hang out the dirty laundry... So much easier stay in Cambodgiana pay $300/year and skip over the border when you need a blast of 7/11 or yellow/red shirt conflict. AA

    Outlook email phishing scam

    in IT and Computers

    Posted

    Yes this <deleted> phishing scam comes through every now and then.

    To assure yourself that you will never exceed the download limit, I suggest:

    regularly go to your 'deleted' folder and empty it;

    regulary go to your sent mail, and delete all the ancient stuff.

    Chhers, AA

    One for the antipodean members... Oz $ heading towards mid 70's. What to do?

    in Jobs, Economy, Banking, Business, Investments

    Posted

    I was in Oz November/December/January and the daily radio palaver from many insitutionally-based economists (IBEs***) was that the $AUD must decline in order to save onshore industries.

    Shutting the gate after the horse has bolted 'coz the remaining car manufacturers, and much associated infrastructure, will be offshore in four years...

    Of course such a decline may favour agricultural exports and the agrarian socialist tendency in still strongly represented in Liberal/Nats federal government.

    The halycon days - five years ago - of term deposit interest rates offered by larger Australian banks, are of course over. At that time ~ 6.5% was the norm, now 4% more usual,

    but no doubt those IBEs will talk it down further, bringing interest rates closer to the rates of Thailand and many western countries.

    The way I do the annual 'retirement' extension here, is having a combination of money in a Thai bank (500kB+) and income statement from the embassy

    (hoping my massive AUD$12k income [well below the dole] will at least equate to 300kB). It raises my hackles somewhat to see discussion of locking up 800kB+

    in a high-interest bearing deposit in Thailand, for the purposes of renewing the annual extension.

    I kinda thought we got the privelege to live here in our declining years provided we splash a bit of cash around the local economy, not lock it up.

    Maybe I am too naive... or a fool. Idol thoughts on a good drinking day, cheers AA.

    *** I had an understanding the economists/IBEs serve a function in the real world, now I realise that their main task is fuelling economic speculation.

    <Suitable punishment for winning the Ashes.>

    Nah, your lot lost them! Your lot won the first day (of what should have been 5x5 days of intensely pleasuarable armchair sportsmanship),

    then it turned to 20 days of mostly &lt;deleted&gt; through bad luck and gamesmanship. A least the BarmeyAs could still raise a cheer.

    Bus to PP via Kho Kong

    in Thailand Travel Forum

    Posted

    There are slow buses Ekamai - Trat travelling all the way along Sukhumvit. In Pattaya, the bus stops on Highway 4, near Thai Neua bus station (which is ~ 100m west of H4). Formerly these buses departed Ekamai about once perhour from 0500 until 1800. Not sure you can book a seat - just be at that highway bus stop and hail it to stop, there will be locals waiting, too. AA

    kernel 3.12-4 with Ubuntu 13.10

    in Linux

    Posted

    You can easily install the latest 3.12.7 kernel following this 3-step guide:

    http://www.liberiangeek.net/2014/01/daily-ubuntu-tips-linux-kernel-3-12-7-released-heres-how-to-upgrade-in-ubuntu/

    Then reboot: ($ sudo reboot) to check all is well.

    Then purge older kernels:

    ($ sudo apt-get remove --purge $(dpkg -l 'linux-*' | sed '/^ii/!d;/'"$(uname -r | sed "s/\(.*\)-\([^0-9]\+\)/\1/")"'/d;s/^[^ ]* [^ ]* \([^ ]*\).*/\1/;/[0-9]/!d'))

    Cheers, AA

    Bringing Mountain Bike with me from the UK

    in Thailand Travel Forum

    Posted

    Bring your own bike for sure, otherwise you'll have to muck around for a week to set another up correctly.

    Check with your airline - most non-budget airlines give you 20kg free luggage allowance

    (but the sneaky ones have a BS 'sporting goods' charge, and I think all USA airlines charge anyway).

    Just beg/borrow/steal a bike box from a bike shop, with some hex keys and a small shifter,

    remove pedals and front wheel, deflate tyres,

    lower seat post, twist handle bars, tape up box - too easy. Cheers, AA

    • Like 1
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