cliveshep

I've been just NNE of Bangkok for the last 7 years. For some reason when it rains it often misses us. Yesterday under 1/2 km from our home soi at 7-Eleven I was sat on motorbike it tee-shirt and shorts waiting for beloved who was buying bags of ice - our new freezer has no automatic icemaker just cube trays never enough. From nowhere a few drops of rain, and then a sudden howling gale, horizontal water and I was soaked and cold in seconds. We set off home and 100 yards down the road rain eased although behind us was still smashing down. At 200 yards our soi was dry. This happens a lot. Nevertheless, almost every day since October last year the weather.com forecast has given high percentages for rain and thunder storms and to be fair we get them at least every other day late afternoon evening or overnight so it seems the rainy season never left us.

Ok, called Singapore, lovely lady sorted it all out in a short efficient phone call, another new password and now everything is fine on all devices. Stayed with me until I was able to log on properly again bless her.

My computer got infected with ransomware and I had to format it. All my essentials were backed up onto an external HDD in a caddy so I thought hey, a pain but I'll reload clean and it'll get rid of the rubbish too. So I did. All nice and clean plus I bought Office Pro Plus 21 (don't bother folks, Office 10 and 16 are better) to treat myself. Running Windows 10 as it's an older Dell Latitude but then I'm old too. I've got Wise on that machine again, but I also have it on another all-in-one machine my wife uses, plus my smart-phone. Here's the point - I cannot log in. I couldn't log in on my old email, because at the time of ransomware I didn't have my email details on my wife's machine I decided to change to a g-mail address. Wise dutifully demanded proof of identity via my telephone number and identity via a photo of me clutching my passport emailed to them. Sigh but hey - TIT. So I sent it to them. That was Monday 20th, now still waiting for a response and I still cannot log in. Got an email confirming my details - that's it. So I emailed them Tuesday asking them to sort it out and including a screen shot plus my photo again Think I'll bite the bullet and phone them up and see if they do actually have customer service or not. Does anyone know if I can sign up again afresh and ignore the old account or will my details, email address and phone number still be on file and prevent it. It really is a pain as normally they are spot-on efficient at transfers, taking seconds only.

I see the thread has wandered off course, wondering what comes next in it's digressions - someone spills mango rice on their keyboard leading to a discussion of sticky rice versus normal and what type of mango is best? Currently bored, awaiting last of saved files being copied before formatting you lot into oblivion!

Can I suggest using a flat finish over your primer follwed by a couple of coats of gloss? Assuming you can buy flat finishes. But Thai gloss paints are vastly different to something you would find in the UK requiring the use of highly volatile AAA solvents where most UK paints thin or clean with parrafin or white spirit, aka "turps" or at a pinch petrol in the case of Hammerite when you don't have the proper thinners. And they do build up solidly very quickly. None of the paints are much cop against the 100% UV sunlight here of course or the heat. My beloved painted doors etc in exterior emulsion to my horror but actually the white stayed white and still looks good whereas n adjacent door in white primer and white gloss is a delicate shade of cream now. The emulsion painted door also wipes clean - something no interior emulsions here tolerate as they simply wipe off! Thailand certainly forces rethinks in many areas!

Right - update. Loaded Avast and let it do a full scan, it ran tghe whole night and was still chugging away this morning. When it finished it announced it had found a rootkit and would quarantine it and I must restart computer. Great I thought, told it to restart whereupon it started a full pre-boot scan. After another tedious hour it seemed to have frozen so I cancelled it and let the beast boot. Had to open Avast again and behold - no quarantine with the rootkit. Ran various including full scans during the day, in between I managed to transfer money via Wise (3 seconds!) from the UK, on the basis that this rootkit is unable to escape to the outside world as Avast continously blocks it very noisily so it cannot corrupt my bank. During the day it constantly tries to connect and Avast blocks it instantly with a full-volume gonging noise! Also I have piggy-backed a spare HDD via a caddy and a slow 2.0 USB connection to my laptop and am transferring across my pictures, home videos, folders etc and fresh app downloads. Once everything is solidly backed up I will format the machine and as suggested do a complete clean install. As also suggested it will get rid of all the junk and clutter, the only downside is having to run in circles to get all my banking details reinstalled.

Not a question of deaf ears friend, more one of trying to keep afloat with no cash on hand and needing to transfer some. It is not redirecting at the moment, on any browser but Windows has just done a security update so that might be hindering it. Currently scanning with the Sophos anti-rootkit programme - dreadfully slow and I'll probably have to leave the thing running all night!

I did pop in to Bleeping forum, someone with a similar problem was promised help, after a week he asked if help was likely to be forthcoming, that was almost a month ago and there has been no answer so I am not going to hold my breath for 5 or 6 weeks hoping someone isn't too busy or has popped his clogs or emigrated. I need to transfer funds from UK to my Thai bank tomorrow, once that is done I'll take off all my data and so on and then format and do a clean install as I can do that in a day or so. Malwarebytes says just about 3000 files and the Farbar programme lists the lot. At my age I should live so long to trawl through that lot. Ditto everything. So thank you all for advice and tips - hopefully my bank remains untouched and I can transfer funds safely tomorrow.

I'd love to use Defender as it is reputed to be the best rootkit removal tool, but like I said that option is not open to me. In Security under viruses Windows helpfully says this is managed by others - it isn't - and there is no option to turn it on. As for format and reload - I use the lappie for everything, thank ~God I just fitted a new optical drive if push comes to shove I can uses to save to double sided DVD's all my data - there is a lot! I fear that will be the route I will be forced to travel down!

I need expert help and advice - I'm only partially computer literate so one-syllable words would be best Here is the issue. I have both Opera and Firefox browsers and apparently Edge (cannot delete that somehow) and Chrome also somehow crept in. I use Opera most of the time, Firefox kept fairly clean for UK banking issues only so I absolutely do not want to fiddle with that. I have uninstalled and re-installed a fresh copy of Opera. I installed and ran AVG which found one virus it said it couldn't remove, I found the folder it purported to be in but I couldn't manually delete it either. It was a backup folder in Program files (x86) although I cannot remember the name. I uninstalled AVG as useless. I then downloaded and installed Malwarebytes Premium (trial edition) and ran that - it found 33 viruses and quarantined all of them. The problem was still there. So I ran it again - lo and behold another 7 viruses which I duly quarantined. The problem remained. I ran Malwarebytes 6 times in all, each time it found 7 viruses I duly quarantined, it as taken most of the day and the problem is still there. So I uninstalled that. Assuming it is a rootkit I tried to run Windows (now Microsoft) Defender. Windows helpfully tells me it is turned off, there is no button or link allowing me to turn it on so I'm stuffed there! Right - the problem is that whichever browser I use a command line pops up to open a website which instantly tries to install a programme. I cannot find it to delete it, ran CCleaner, Malewarebytes and AVG to no avail and cannot get Defender to run to scan for rootkits. I've toggled Malwarebytes to include rootkits - to no avail! Malwarebytes says the website address is: (I've deleted the https bit at the beginning for safety) xxxx://take-realprize.life/?u=lq1pd08&o=hdck0gl, the URL is 104.155.207.188 according to the Malwarebytes pop-up blocking it. Apparently it is a public IP address and owned by Google Cloud and located in Taipei, Taiwan. Can anyone please help out? How do I find where this thing has hidden itself. Clearly it is a command line somewhere that instructs connection to the site whenever I open a browser window. Letting Malwarebytes block it from connecting is only a short-term preventative fix.

Not retirement - based on marriage to a Thai. Been here 7 years now. End of! lol I did expressly state that.

Nope, English 747 cargo pilot. Sometimes airline pilot long-haul. Not saying more on him.

I read of a chap whose wife ran a restaurant and gave him breakfast. After he had done he carried the empty plate out to the kitchen and Immigration and Police grabbed him for working without a work permit. Sio given the utterly xenophobic and draconian rules these people seem to have when my wife suggested she open a noodle stall and I helped her I immediately looked up Work Permit regs. Seems unless you are a proper business a foreign husband on a non-imm OA annually-extended visa based on Marriage simply could not provide the necessary papers and a noodle cart seller most certainly could not. So I've seen farang working in the markets, one is a pilot who also runs his own food stall when not flying - how is this possible? Naturally as a 76 year old I cannot do too much but naturally a husband wants to help his wife but it seems the all-powerful Immigration Police prohibit this with silly rules backed up by severe punishments.? So what to do because I am well aware of high risks caught working by "taking my plate out to the kitchen" and being reported by jealous jobsworths and that game is not worth the candle? Any advice on legal ways to gain a piece of paper allowing me to wash dishes for my wife for example? I won't be paid of course, it's all part of our family life and income.

UPDATE: Wife bought a box of 80 Yorkshire Tea tea-bags. On the box is said in large letters £2.99 but it must have been a Yorkshire man selling it on Lazada because the price was a 100% markup. It is strongly flavoured and not to my taste but for those interested I think it might be an acceptable alternative to creosote for timber preservative. By comparison, 80 Tesco Red Label are £1.10 so almost 3 times cheaper AND you won't want to creosote the fence with it! No apologies to Yorkshire men - I am what Compo (Bill Owen (Dec. ) would have called a "Southern Jessie".

Paying tax on the value of goods is one thing, but Thai Customs have another string to their bow. I posted a parcel to my future wife from the UK, it contained 2 Tesco Valentine's Day mugs, cost 50 p each, along with some urgent documents. Thai Customs held up the parcel until customs fees were paid, assessed on putative value of the 2 china mugs, plus postage and packing plus who knows what because the final customs bill was over 4000 baht in 2011. As my fiancees family didn't know what was vital or not in the parcel and I hadn't told them they meekly paid the money and were shocked at the contents low value. But Customs make their own valuations and laws and that's it! Post something and Thailand Post will obey some faceless customs official taking the <deleted>, and refuse to deliver or release the package until the assessed duty is paid. Documents are NOT subject to import duty, and frankly two 50 pence mugs are way under the maximum exemption figure and 11 years ago 4000 baht was a lot. Frankly they are incompetent criminals is my view and Liverpool Lou can defend them all she likes but they are as described.

Actually it does not, it merely shows the charges were paid and nothing in it would indicate if the charges were justified or invented or if the "designer goods" were in fact her personal effects and wardrobe, which is what she claimed most angrily. When I moved here with my wife the law states that she is entitled to bring all her household goods and chattels in a container free of let or hindrance or venal customs officials. She could even bring the car if she wanted to free of charges. We actually bought our own licensed-to-ship shipping container and loaded our house into it. Venal customs officials in Lam Chabang then demanded not only 40,000 baht to release our furniture and possessions but demanded also that the container be returned to it's previous owner and not removed from the docks. Fortunately I had the purchase receipt for it. They have it all sewn up in their favour and even with a receipt who's to say it is real if challenged? Can be easily denied. Sorry but I have met Thai corruption in many officials and I'm frankly cynical about anything they say.

Yet more grist to the mill of anti-tourism to Thailand. Simply put if you are fairly wealthy with high priced goods and clothing - don't come to Thailand, you'll leave naked and broke. To quote a quotation I read recently where a Thai Customs Officer said they could impose punitive dues and a box empty except for air if they chose such is their powers. So I'd say go elsewhere or leave expensive goods behind along with your money. 54,000 for personal possessions if the woman was telling the truth is simply armed robbery by customs officers and shows Thailand to be a land of thieves and corrupt officials and a place best avoided - is that the real message TAT wants to show the world?

The cordless is a good idea but one would have to remove the recoil unit first. Might try that anyway when I pull the thing out to hoist it up to a working height (for me that is) to service it. But not sure 15 year old Chinese cheapies had electronic ignition anyway? Its a 7.5hp motor btw.

"I always dress like this," she declared as she satisfied her clients at 200 baht a kilo. I'm 100 kilo but she can't satisfy me for 20,000 baht - far too expensive even if she's looking most enjoyable!

And that is exactly what they got. They only got the passport page saying "Under Consideration" because at the time the 90 day report was sent in the extension had not been granted. They tell you to apply for 90 day report 15 days before expiry, just so happens that in doing that the renewal date was after the extension date. ah well, it's a 5 baht stamp only but they could easily have used the bar code to check my records if they were that anal about it. Too bloody lazy or incompetent or their system is not capable? And my office for Immigration is CW.

My last 90 day report expired 18th April '22 so 15 days or so before then on the 2nd April assuming no post office on Sunday I posted off the new one along with the umpteen copies of all pages in my passport as required. Naturally it was sent signed for and tracked, it arrived on the 4th April. On 5th April I went in to get the extension stamp in my passport having already attended the previous month with my wife and got the usual "under consideration" stamp, copied in with the 90 day report. So with their usual efficiency (sarcasm here) some 6 weeks later the 90 day report, so faint as to be almost illegible, dropped into my letter box today. I assume they cannot afford ink or toner for their printers or are simply too damned lazy to refill them? Handwritten in ball pen on the bottom margin was the legend "Please copy last extension of "viss" which is the I.O's version of "Visa" I assume. Now correct me if I am wrong on this or if they have changed the rules but my understanding is that the 90 day report of infamy is unconnected to the annual extension of the marriage-based visa? With this in mind I have scanned and enhanced their illegible 90 day report, printed it on a page together with a scan of the passport page showing extension (which the lazy sods could have found on their computer had they been that bothered) and a not suggestion they consult a Supervisor over whether their request was in fact a legal requirement now added to the annual extension exercise and also suggesting they added ink to their printer! Anyone know if they are now tying the 90 day report to the annual extension? At the time of issuing the extension the old 90 day report was still in date.

Well, I've ordered the GetSun carb cleaner and the brake cleaner and 6 litres of cheap 10w40 engine oil from Lazada, and I'm going to pump out/suck out the 4 gallon vor less of petrol in the generator's tank. Fortunately from my days of diesel yacht ownership when I was far more affluent I have a Pela Pump that will extract it effortlessly via a 1/2" hose and adapter, far quicker than the standard Pela 4mm tube used to suck out engine oil so emptying the tank will be easy. Also downloaded the manual from the manufacturers so hopefully can find all it's service bits! Got to find my spark-plug cleaning machine and carborundum dust somewhere in the dusty bowels of the workshop but it's will appear no doubt. Thanks for help and advice guys.

Great, thanks. You learn something new every day. Will get my wife to order a can.