Bredbury Blue

My 2-year licence expired middle of this year but as i understand it, due to Covid-19, there is a Grace period until 31.12.2021 for renewing the driving licence.

Using SLT Smart Queue, i just tried booking an appointment first at Bangkok's DLT Phrakhanong Sukumvit 62 and then at DLT Samut Prakarn.  The earliest appointment booking spot that is free at either place is in March 2022!!!

Anybody had any luck either just turning up and applying on the day or just turning up and getting an appointment for a short while later?

2 hours ago, drtreelove said:

I understand. Its true that sometimes the situation is such that you are faced with choosing the lesser of evils due to poor original planning for mature tree size.  You may be stuck with either tree mutilation or clear cutting.  

 

But for others who may be planning and planting their landscapes, its a good heads-up to always consider the eventual size of the trees you are considering. Get informed and choose wisely. 

 

 

Wise words. We bought the house from someone with the tree planted too close to the house and right next to cables / wires requiring the trimming. We have also planted trees on an additional house plot we bought to extend our garden, and as trees grow they need trimming. If we had loads of land and no complaining neighbours we could probably let the trees grow untrimmed.

53 minutes ago, drtreelove said:

I'm sorry to hear that. 'Chopping them back' violates best management practices and destroys natural form and beauty.  'They grow back so quickly' because its a natural vigorous growth response to the loss of foliage and capacity for essential photosythesis of sugars to support life of the tree.  Moderate crown reduction, size and safety managment can be achieved with proper  pruning practices, while maintaining BMPs for tree health and structural integrity.  

Why Topping Hurts Trees (2018_05_25 14_55_25 UTC).pdf 188.43 kB · 0 downloads Why Topping Hurts Trees_thai (2018_05_25 14_55_25 UTC).pdf 376.57 kB · 0 downloads

No don't be sorry to hear that. It's worked pretty well for 18 years. It's either trim the trees or cut them down as they are close to the house, near wires, allow access on to low roof for rats to gain entry to downstairs ceiling, etc. - we choose trimming over cutting down.

35 minutes ago, islandguy said:

My wife says it is very poisonous. Not surprising as oleander and plumeria are also poisonous. Perhaps learning that as a child influenced your wife? Also, people vary in how they react to a particular strongly scented flower.

Perhaps, or it's because another tree common to cemeteries in her childhood (strong smell helps mask burning smells / deceased)

47 minutes ago, drtreelove said:

And do you know this intoxicating fragrant flowering tree, in full bloom for the last two months or so, all over Chiang Mai, widely planted in road median strips, like along  the 1001 between Raum Chok and Mae Jo.  

 

  ปีบ pip (Central) Sounds more like ton peep or beep. 

Millingtonia hortensis species page - THAILAND NATURE PROJECT

 

Last week I saw the largest specimen I've seen, at the admin bldg on the McKean hospital property in Chiang Mai. 

Have 'beep' or Indian cork trees is our garden. Like them a lot. We chop them back when they get big but they grow back so quickly.

On 10/27/2021 at 5:48 AM, drtreelove said:

 ตีนเป็ด tin pet

 

Alstonia scholaris species page - THAILAND NATURE PROJECT

 

Alstonia scholaris - Wikipedia

Thanks a lot, that's the one.

So many names for it:

Blackboard Tree, Devil Tree, Indian Devil Tree, Milkwood Pine, White Cheesewood. And 'tin pet' (Duck feet tree) in thai.

Loads in bloom right now in my mooban, but the closest is say 200m from my house and we can still smell it. Such a strong smell. I don't mind it, my wife hates it.

21 hours ago, Anticloud said:

For now it's แมคกราซ but my wife would really like แมคกราธ. It's McGrath and has a "th" sound. She would prefer แมคกราธ. I didn't catch this last year when my work did taxes, as I cannot read Thai.

Asked my wife to pronounce the two versions above - pronounced the same. 

Made me wonder about when we first arrive and our name is first translated in to Thai. I guess for most of us it must be when we first get our first WP. I may have asked someone to read out the translation to me (I may not have). As English people pronounce my name differently (my surname is a well-known place in England but people pronounce it differently), I'm not too concerned about the Thai version I was given - it's roughly correct so it's ok with me.

Based on the 2 versions given being pronounced the same, I'd probably stick with the version you were given if I was you. 

On 10/14/2021 at 6:48 PM, digbeth said:

Frangipani is taboo to keep around the house as the name 'Lantom' means 'sad' and associated with funeral in many culture but is probably due to the fact that the tree is very sappy, it has since been renamed 'Leelawadee' and often seen planted in many beach resort, the flower also taste good deep fried in batter 

Just asked the wife has she ever ate it and she looked at me like I was crazy. She says the flower is poisonous. Also it used to be grown only in wats / cemetery as it can 'absorb the smell of bodies but in recent times has become popular for gardens.

Wiki says

"The Frangipani is, in fact, poisonous, but only if you eat an entire flower will you begin to feel sick. Frangipani possesses a milky sap which is mildly poisonous."

Also read it's poisonous to dogs.

This tree flowers (correct term?) this month and the smell is intense every where in my mooban currently. But what type of tree is it (English and Thai names)?

Thanks for your replies...wish I knew of this a few years back.

Are TWO-year Work Permits possible?

Every year we renew my ONE-year WP for my own very small Thai company.

Thai friend of my wife told my wife that her chinese husband gets a TWO-year WP.

1. Are TWO-year WPs available (or is my wife being misinformed?)?

2. What's the different criteria for a ONE-year WP and a TWO-year WP?

Can't answer your question but yes it seems strange. Could it go back to the fact that surnames / family names are relatively recently introduced in to Thailand so previously everyone presumably would have been known by their first name.

To be honest I find it no stranger than the American way of addressing correspondence as Hi Brown and not Hi John or Hi Mr Brown if my name was John Brown. To me Hi Brown is incredibly rude, but not to Americans but why are they taught to do that?

I started using Anki just over a month ago. I find it slow and/or a bit of a chore to add cards, there's 168 cards now. Anki has proved to me that I do forget words, and that certain words just do not stick (I fail to remember them every time they come up).

At the weekend I thought I'd have a go at downloading and using someone else's deck, a deck of 3000. I've found I'm knowing about 50% of those cards and it's amusing to just use the deck to test myself.

Which helps more in the long run, do your own as you come across words or use someone's deck, I don't know.

Whichever way, it proves I still have a lot to learn.

I watch vids, listen to podcasts, read books, do Anki, speak with the family. Sometimes I feel like I'm just not getting there then other days I'll listen to something in Thai and be chuffed I follow it and know most the words. Learning thai is a marathon.

21 hours ago, KeeTua said:

Valid point but personally it's been years since I've used a Thai dictionary one reason is the text in my dictionaries is too small for my aging eyes and looking up words on the Internet is just easier all around and you can get audio too if desired. I think learning to type Thai for better use of online dictionaries is more important than learning the correct order of the characters. Learn both if you have the time and desire.

 

Speaking of dictionaries my current go to favorite is: https://www.thai2english.com/
I've recently started to use https://thai-notes.com/dictionaries/haas.html which uses the Mary Haas dictionary database for the back end. A forum member created the site and very nicely done.

I would agree with that. Using online dictionaries / translators has meant i have had to learn my way around a Thai keyboard (so bloody small on my phone).

My go-to is thai-language.com and google/translate, but if i'm not happy or convinced with what they shows i go to thai-notes.com/dictionaries/predictionary or www.thai2english.com.

31 minutes ago, katana said:

 

It does if you want to look up words in a Thai dictionary.

True if using a book dictionary, but I guess most of us these days use online dictionaries so there is need to learn in the order of kor Kai, etc.

1 hour ago, itsallmedia said:

I've started the first section of Banana Thai and I'm not very keen on the delivery for certain parts. As I'm learning the letters, she uses examples with letters that are not taught yet and completely confuses me. I will continue the course until my month is expired then will switch to something else and just use the videos to learn the alphabet (albeit with a ton of jumping around videos).

Sorry to hear that:

1. I used the lessons in the brilliant old book ‘THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE THAI LANGUAGE (Fifth Edition) by Stuart Campbell and Chuan Shaweevongs’ to learn the consonants, vowels, tone rules, etc. I bought the book years ago and I found it online here

http://www.lyndonhill.com/FunThai/CONTENTS.html

2. After I knew a bit about the basics (consonants, vowels, tone rules, etc.) I searched around for youtube tutorials I liked. Funnily, I found this English guy Phil to be the best (he explains reading over about 20 tutorials and uses his Thai wife to pronounce the words in Thai – it works well). His website is http://phil.uk.net/tutorials/index.html

The YouTube videos are here: Learn To Read Thai Video Tutorial 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZuOB_HFIhQ

One important thing i learned was not to learn the order of consonants in the order they teach them in schools (as it makes no sense), but instead its better to learn the consonants by high class, middle class and low class as per Stuart Jay Ray's map of the mouth (attached). I learnt the middle class line first (left vertical column) then hign class (2nd from left column), etc, until i'd memorised that chart - took a while but i found it invaluable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSiwUCCIhPY

Don't give up i think is the answer. I've been learning off and on for decades and never got anywhere, but since the turn of this year i decided I'm going to crack this bloody language and everyday i learn a bit. I change often my approach. I'll be in to someones videos and then i'll switch to someone else's videos. Then i'll read more and/or learn more words. Then i'll start watching vids again. I think anything helps. About a month ago i started using Anki cards - its very time consuming but by using them i've proven to myself that i learn words then i forget a lot of them so hopefully using Anki cards will help me retain the vocabulary i learn.

cupdf.com_thai-consonant-map-20-stuart-jay-raj.pdf

According to Richard Barrows Twitter message and the message in Thai (got the wife to read and confirm it), grace period till end of September 2021 now extended till 31 December 2021.

6 hours ago, Bredbury Blue said:

Thanks for the Kruu Momm videos suggestion. Watched the very first one on mamma noodles yesterday. Was able to follow most of it if I slowed it down to .75 speed. A few words I didn't know which I picked out. A good exercise. I'll try more of them. 

 

She used a term of death day (wan daay) when talking about mamma. I didn't get it so I asked the wife who at first didn't get it. Turns out she was probably meaning expiry date (using a jokey term maybe?). That had me totally confused for about 10mins. ????

I thought I'd struck lucky with kruu momm, as she talks a level I can follow most of and the words she uses I don't understand I can pick from the captions, but it seems only the first of vids has captions and none of the others which is a pity. 

2 hours ago, KeeTua said:

In that video the phrase เป็นสินค้าที่ไม่มีวันตาย is used in the sense that mamaa noodles is a product that's never going away, they are immortal.

That makes more sense, thanks.

19 hours ago, Aforek said:

I have learnt to read thai ( and also the fundamentals of the language  ) with this Bible , very good book, and now I can read easily, ( doesn't mean I understand everything but I have a very big and good dictonnary and I note new words  ) 

I know " learn with mod ", good but it doesn't explain the basis of the language as the fundamentals of Thai language does

now I read this , with Thai subtitles and slow speech with VLC if needed

 

Advanced Thai with Kruu Momm - YouTube

 

Thanks for the Kruu Momm videos suggestion. Watched the very first one on mamma noodles yesterday. Was able to follow most of it if I slowed it down to .75 speed. A few words I didn't know which I picked out. A good exercise. I'll try more of them. 

She used a term of death day (wan daay) when talking about mamma. I didn't get it so I asked the wife who at first didn't get it. Turns out she was probably meaning expiry date (using a jokey term maybe?). That had me totally confused for about 10mins. ????

3 hours ago, Smithson said:

Currently I am on a non-O spouse visa with a work permit through my business in Bkk. The visa is not is not issued in Bkk, it's in a neighboring province where I live. This year I want to switch to non-B.

I used to have a non-B with a work permit through my own company. It was the chief of the local immigration office who said to my wife when we were renewing one year, why are we making it difficult for ourselves having a non-B when it be easier/better to have a non-O; we changed to non-O next extension time. So why do you want to switch from non-O to non-B - what's the benefit? 

See the attachment about working in different locations on your work permit.

Thailands New Work Permit Law_NARITLAW.pdf

20 hours ago, Misty said:

And then Immigration needs to see a ton of paperwork, the original passport and work permit

It is not always necessary to show WP at Immigration.

As I'm in the process of extending my WP (received extension stamp this week) I asked the lawyers.

WP can be extended without you attending the Labour office in person but as noted above L.O. need your medical certificate, your tax payment receipts, company documents, etc., your passport and WP book. So if in the country possible to do without you attending.

Your visa cannot be extended without you attending in person.

If your annual visa expires then automatically your WP expires.