BKKBike09

Yesterday, there was an individual of the same name showing as a PE teacher on the web site of an international school in Bangkok. Not on the web site today. Innocent until guilty etc, and for every bad apple there are probably 99 decent hard working teachers who get tarred by the same brush.

On the WX not improving - I posted earlier the METARs for the time period in question. Here they are again: Fog came and went pretty quickly, as is often the case. Melbourne regularly has fog, being on the coast. So there'd be a reasonable expectation that this wouldn't sock in the airport for the whole day. Plus Melbourne has CAT IIIB ILS (albeit only on one runway) which allows for min rwy viz down to 75 metres. Even when the METAR stated FOG (briefly), the reported viz was 200 m. Not sure why "SQ would have followed what QF did"; presumably TG would have had that option. I've never said that the TG captain didn't make the correct decision and I never would: I wasn't in the cockpit. In my original post I also made the point that you need to know TG company policy on WX diverts, which I don't. To me, this is all just a look at how different carriers may deal with a certain non-urgency situation.

True. I looked it up and Melbourne has CAT IIIB with 75m RVR and 0 decision height, but only on one runway (16). So extended fog can cause a lot of problems with extended spacing for arrivals and departures. Even if the plane / crew are CAT IIIB capable, landing is the easy part. Taxying to a gate in thick fog at a big airport is probably more stressful. Melbourne does have 'Follow Me' service I believe - basically a van that leads the way.

It's not hindsight. The SQ and QF (and likely others) elected to hold and then continue on to Melbourne. None of us know why the TG flight elected to divert. Diversion isn't a lightly taken decision; adds considerably to airline costs, amongst other things. Melbourne has a CAT IIIB ILS which allows for landing with a 75 metre RVR (Runway Visual Range - basically what you can see on the ground) and I believe 0 decision height. Since Melbourne, being coastal, does have a propensity for fog, logically one would assume international flights going there would use CAT IIIB capable aircraft and suitably trained crews. Also, as any pilot should know, fog often develops and dissipates pretty quickly. Morning fog (which this was) usually burns away pretty quickly. And indeed on that day, it did just that. You can see from the WX data that visibility fell off quickly (from '9999' which is 10 km down to 1.5 km to 200 m at 7.30 am and then up to 1.2 km and 7 km by 8.30 am). BTW - you keep referring to 'FAA' regs. Thailand actually operates under EASA (Europe - a complete PITA compared to FAA but that's a whole other topic), and Australia is CASA.

It took that TG flight a further 60 minutes flying time for the diversion to Sydney. So they must have had enough fuel for that + mandated safety margin. Meaning they had the endurance to stay in a hold for 30-40 minutes and then continue on to Melbourne (which is what both the SQ and QF flights that arrived at that hold at the same time as that TG flight elected to do). So. Three flights faced the same conditions. Two stayed in a hold. The TG diverted.

Here's another one that chose to hold at exactly the same time: SQ from Singapore. Only spent 30 mins in the hold.

Need to know what the WX was at the time that caused the diversion (historic aerodrome forecasts - METARs - for 28 Jan at YMML). Also need to know TG company policy on diverting. The TG flight was in the hold to north of Melbourne for one orbit and then went off to Sydney at 2047 UTC. A QF flight from HK entered the same hold very shortly after (2051 UTC) the TG flight departed and then held for 40 mins before continuing on to land at Melbourne. TG QF

Both need to attend if child is under 20, according to MFA web site, unless the non-attending parent gets a letter from district office saying that he/she consents to the child having a passport.

In Bangkok (and on MFA web site is says everywhere) they require both parents to attend if the 'child' is under the age of 20, unless a parent that doesn't attend provides a letter of authority allowing their kid to have a passport, which letter has to be issued by the district office where the parent's ID card is issued - can't just be any old letter ... Which can lead to the ridiculous situation whereby a 19-year old, living independently overseas, can fly solo into Thailand on a soon-to-expire Thai passport but then needs parental authority to get a new passport to fly out ... (I speak from recent experience) They take the photos at the passport office using a professional grade digital camera. It all looks very efficient (in and out in 15 mins if you book an appointment) until you start to consider how much money was wasted to buy 1,000 or whatever cameras, 1,000 fingerprint scanners, 1,000 printers, 1,000 computers, 1,000 tables and chairs and then to pay wages of 1,000 passport processing staff.

He may be an attention seeker, but in that case the passive aggressive shouty man has succeeded in adding 50,000 subscribers to Dr K's YouTube channel in 24 hours. Impressive! 'Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind' and all that. Yesterday - 2.28 million Today - 2.33 million

Yes. Indeed. When there were only two of them - a man and a woman - they made no comment about the filming and the guy sat at the piano. It was only when more of them turned up that the fuss really began. I suspect you may be right. Edited to show another example of 'racist Britain'. Potentially a case for Home Office to rescind their leave to remain - if they don't hold UK nationality - on grounds of activities incompatible with their visa status. The shouty guy is working in the UK in the education sector. Back to my original question: what if this happened in Thailand? I don't think the Thai authorities would look kindly on a foreigner posting negative stuff online about Thailand and Thai people ...

I would hazard a guess that if a foreigner of any nationality starts shouting at a Thai person in a public place, demanding that they stop doing something that is perfectly legal, the situation would escalate very rapidly, with a distinct possibility that the shouter would run the risk of being assaulted. Furthermore, I highly doubt a Thai policeman would tell a Thai person that they can't say to said foreigner "this is Thailand. This is not [name of country]"!

Who cares about his sexual orientation. He already has a life. Rather more successful than yours, I suspect. 2 million plus subscribers on YouTube. The ridiculous antics of the Chinese group have now been watched by 7 million people on his channel alone.

The British guy was very rude? He spoke calmly and reasonably throughout - unlike one of the Chinese group who started shouting for no reason. If these Chinese people didn't want to be filmed, then just move out of the camera shot. If this was some sort of staged attempt to show 'racist Britain' it backfired miserably. This incident has gone viral on a global scale: these foolish people have achieved the exact opposite of keeping a low profile. Fools.

So. A group of Chinese people wearing matching red scarves and waving little Chinese flags stand around watching a guy play a piano in a public place (St. Pancras Station) and, after about 10 minutes, demand that the piano player 'stop filming them because they didn't give permission to be filmed'. He responds that it is a public place and that if they don't want to be filmed, they can move along. They get more and more upset and try and get the police to act on allegations of 'racism'. I suspect if this was in Thailand and a group of Chinese (or any nationality) demanded a Thai person stop filming them while the Thai person was playing music in a public place, the reaction might be a little different. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65iwnI2hjAA

I think crack reporter Puntid got "1000 Superlative Adverbs & Adjectives And How To Use Them" for Christmas.

Depends on what you need and how quickly - a retinal specialist, a corneal specialist etc. For a routine check up or for surgery? However if you are experiencing sudden onset visual defects, go to the nearest opthalmology department without delay today.

I expect it will soon be the case elsewhere. I usually rent from Hertz at Heathrow (invariably the cheapest of the brand name firms located on airport). Last few times they've had dozens of Teslas / Polestars lined up going nowhere fast. Hopeless rental choice for most people. Plus the excess is waaay more than for an ICE (thousands of pounds). They're so not in demand that at one point they were telling renters in the confirmation email "if your preferred vehicle is not available you may get the chance to experience an electric vehicle" or some guff like that i.e. "we're desperate to get these in use so we may try and dump one on you". Rental prices for Hertz Polestars in UK have plummeted, too. To keep on thread: I don't know if Hertz in Thailand currently offers EVs?

Isn't that quite painful?

I smell Tory desperation, since overseas voters have historically tended to vote Tory. Since I still own property and pay tax in UK, it's about time taxation without representation was brought to an end. Deciding who to vote for is the challenge: PM Starmer, no thanks.

About 1,600 Americans are dying of COVID each and every week right now... adding to the COVID total deaths in the U.S. of about 1.1 million. Just how exactly is that "commonsense" for anyone? Many of those deaths could have been avoided, if only people had kept current on their vaccinations and followed sensible precautions like masking and social distancing. It's certainly commonsense for anyone under the age of around 60-65 who doesn't have any underlying health conditions. ... And this latest surge is clearly not a concern for most people. Here's what CDC said last week: "COVID-19 infections are now causing severe disease less frequently than earlier in the pandemic. Infection levels measured using wastewater and test positivity, which capture both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections, are higher than the year before (currently estimated as being ~27% and ~17% higher, respectively). Wastewater viral levels, in particular, have increased rapidly over the last several weeks. By comparison, measures of COVID-19-related illness requiring medical attention, such as emergency department visit rates, have also increased, but to a lesser extent and remain 21% lower than they were at the same time the year before. Furthermore, the number of COVID-19 hospitalizations are 22% lower than observed the year before, and the percent of total deaths associated with COVID-19 are 38% lower." https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/whats-new/JN.1-update-2024-01-05.html As per the topic - the US may be starting its second largest surge ever, but it's no cause for panic and alarm, especially for younger folk.

Should read: Commonsense Has Replaced Alarm in the Newest COVID Surge

Depends a bit too on colour of the car. Dark colours tend to show chips and scratches more than Thailand's favourite colour, white.

If it's free, take it. If it's going to cost THB 20K, leave it. Or just do the front of the car to protect against chips. The coating doesn't last that long, though. Couple of years. Speaking from experience. If you don't do it, just get the car professionally polished and waxed (kat - kleuap) once a year - I had a CRV and local Honda dealer would do that when it was serviced, cost a thousand or so I think. They always did a really good job and the polishing got rid of all the little scratches etc.

Are those actually power cables? Typically the really messy cabling is for phone / TV / Internet. The dozens of different companies offering these services often piggyback onto the MEA / PEA power pylons. Usually they also don't pay for this, so they just string their cables wherever they can. Same applies to using footbridges etc. Obviously some leakage from somewhere but presumably not a full dose of 11kV ...