monsieurhappy

Gazza seems to be the only one to have come up with a logical solution! My battery would probably be well topped up if I was using the truck every day for 20 - 30 mins. but I'm not. I am making smaller journeys and I don't leave the engine running when waiting for more than 2 mins. I go up the road to a restaurant, stop. Back down the road to a bar, stop. Round the corner to the store, stop. This will take a lot more juice out of a battery than goes in! As for people making short journeys with no problems in Bangkok, well a short journey could be half a mile but take 30 mins. to make it giving the battery plenty of time to charge. Please don't post any replies about changing my lifestyle either, I doubt if many of you who live out of town would walk to the nearest bar.

When beer tastes so good as most English beer DOES, you don't have to freeze it. It's only the cr@p from everywhere else that has to be chilled to hide the lousy taste!!

I watched the qualifying, a bit tedious I thought. Surely the producer could pick out individual cars and give us a chance to see all teams during qualifying except concentrating on the better ones? Then the sprint race - spoilt as usual by TV adverts. A 30 min. race doesn't have to be split with 3 commercial breaks, does it ?? I lost interest and never bothered watching the main race. They can televise a full 45 mins. for a footy match without interuptions, so why not a 30 min. GP race? Are they extracting the urine or what??

We wait with baited breath to see if this is as good as it's being advertised. I hope it is as it will keep GP racing on the TV over the winter and give F1 the kick up the backside it needs.

I have a Toyota 3 litre diesel truck. I only seem to be making short journeys right now so would like to buy a b/c to keep the battery topped up. There is shop across the road from Foodland on Pattaya Klang that have a few in stock but as I'm not electrically inclined I'm unsure which to get. I would really like an automatic b/c so I don't have to set any dials or such and none of these seem to be that type. I don't need a quick charge up so does it matter which one I buy, or do I have to get one designed for the bigger engine? Any advice appreciated, also anyone know another shop to buy b/c in Pattaya?

The Thais couldn't cope with knowing how many seconds they could sleep before having to move off on the RED!!

We can now get Old Speckled Hen in Pattaya. It's not the best of English beers, but it makes a much needed escape from all the crap that is called "beer" or "lager." Out of the "beers" mentioned, Chang etc. I personnally choose the one I think my pallette will appreciate at that time, the only exception being "Heinekrap" This "beer" I'm certain has been invented for people who cannot tell the difference between Gnats P!ss and sea water or who want to put so much ice in their glass that 1 bottle will last 3 weeks! So it's Old Speck for me right now, with draught Guinness coming 2nd. When I have to drink lager, it's a toss up with Leo on a winning streak ATM.

My friend seems to think that lorries doing long distance work in Thailand ( don't know about local trucking ) are NOT allowed to pick up return loads. He says this is to keep 100's of truck drivers employed. Doesn't make sense to me because this would help in 2 ways. 1) Ease the amount of lorries on the roads 2) Save diesel. The spare drivers this would create could be used as co-drivers/drivers mates, their wages would still be less than the cost in fuel. Anyone know if this is correct?

You can have a "Big Bang" any night, why wait till November!

There's nothing new in girls riding side saddle on m/c's. The Italian girls were doing just the same thing back in the late 50's.

I think you mean it'll be started before Beach/2nd Rd. are paved, but as almost everything else in Pattaya it'll probably never get finished!!

Thanks for your reply smb, I really wanted someone to tell me if it was truely available in my area as a lot of people say it's not. Also I wanted to know if CAT made it difficult to access international sites any better than dial up which again I'm hearing is the problem. How do you find the response when accessing int. web sites - fast or slow. I was also looking at no more than 1500 baht per month!!

Does anyone in the Siam Country Club Rd./Mabprachan Lake area use ADSL? I have a TOT phone line and according to the Loxinfo website I can receive broadband in this area. What is the quality like? I access mainly UK sites, is this a problem? Can anyone tell me which to go for, costs and quality? Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

quick quiz what is the diff between a larger and an ale (all beers fall into these two groups)????

I think it might be that a lager has gas in it and an ale doesn't.

That can't be true, they both make me FART !!

Not so with the building trade! The guy across the road is having some work done and the builders turn up at varying times. When they're all there, there're 3 trucks, a m/c & sidecar and 2 m/c's. Along with the builders, there's their wives, kids and dogs. Then they take it in turns to work and sleep.

I thought Heineken was low end, can't get much lower than that cr@p!

All depends on what you call cheap and when you want to go, try these:-

http://www.emirates.com/th/index.asp

I've just been outside to measure the depth of my pool - deep end = 1.89 mtrs. shallow end = 0.89. Because we had some rain yesterday, it is about 3 cms. over normal. Please don't tell City Hall as I don't want them pouring cement in to bring the depth down to 1.70 LOL. I have light blue tiles with the obligatory dolphins in dark blue and dark blue tiles around edge of pool. I have seen the ones with dark blue tiles but think the light ones make the water look cleaner.

Two points here - 1. If no kids are likely to use your pool, you might want the shallow end a little deeper.

2. If you have sand wash around the pool side, make sure the water does NOT come as high as the s/w because it is difficult to clean. ie. sometimes a black algea type stuff sticks to the pool side.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the replys guys. My wife asked the pool man today why he changed the timings, all she got in reply was a stupid shrug of the shoulders and a silly grin. He as sinced changed the settings back. As Monty said, if you 've had no problems for more than 2 yrs. why change the settings? Actually, I think this pool man is new to the job and knows less about it than me! and I know sod all! The amount of different pool men we've had in the last couple of months, I wouldn't be surprised if it's a different one again next week.

My pool is about 10 x 5 metres, kidney shaped, 0.85 mts. shallow end down to 1.80 deep end. It's been fine for over 2 1/2 yrs. Now this new pool-man as increased running time for filter. Before it ran 2 sessions of about 4 hrs. each, now it's 2 sessions totalling about 11 hrs. What time do others run their filters and is there any need for this increase?

Hi,

I have a savings acc. with Bangkok Bank and get interest twice a year - June & Dec. Not sure rate of interest though. I'm here on retirement visa so I don't pay any tax. In my passbook it doesn't show any tax deducted, only int. received.

Green/black pattern, wide stripes across its head. A bit of googling suggests 'Chrysopelea ornata' or Golden Tree Snake. Is there any other snake with similar looks or can I assume that this is what I am dealing with?

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Although your pic is in b/w it looks very much like the one I get often in my garden. As far as I know it's a tree snake and it's harmless, saying that I'm terrified of snakes but I wouldn't harm this one, just like to know if it's there in case I put my foot on it. We had one in the mango tree for weeks, then one day it's just hanging there. It looked like it tied itself into a knot and couldn't release itself so it died.

I have the same problem, ie. visa dated 22nd Nov. passport runs out 14th. Nov. 2006. Does this mean you lose almost 1 year of your passport?

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Your from the UK right?

UK citizens recieve a credit of up to 9 months on their new passport if the old one has not expired. See below extract from the UKPA website.

To encourage customers to apply early we now offer a facility that enables applicants with unexpired validity in their old passports to receive a credit, up to the nearest whole month (minimum of one month, maximum of nine months) in their new passport.

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Correct! Thanks for your reply,so do they just tack an extra 9 months onto your new passport?

My passport expires 14th. Nov. 2006 I need a new passport before 22nd. Nov. this year for visa, so I have to apply for new passport about Oct. Can I get new paasport more than 1 year before old one expires?

I have the same problem, ie. visa dated 22nd Nov. passport runs out 14th. Nov. 2006. Does this mean you lose almost 1 year of your passport?

For UK Citizens...............Why tell the 'DHSS' you are living in Thailand in the first place??? Just have your weekly pension paid into a bank account in the UK, and withdraw it once per week from an ATM in Thailand!!! The DHSS will be 'non-the-wiser'. And they would never find out, and that way you will get your pension increase just like everybody else in the UK. And if for some strange reason they ever did find out, and believe me they wouldn't unless somebody 'grassed', you could just act ignorant to it; "well I didn't know you couldn't do that Mr DHSS sir". 

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You're right and it works for a lot of people, but I'm worried as to what will happen in future when all our details are on the back of one of those new smart ID cards they're going to introduce. How much information can they glean? What happens if you have to renew your passport at the UK embassy for instance, surely this info is recorded somewhere? I've never had much faith in the European Union, but after all we've paid in I think we should get something backand that means parity with the rest of the EU.