HauptmannUK

I agree that tattoos on women are a big turn off. Seeing older women with blurred tattoos on saggy skin is gross. Tattoos on men are a useful indicator that the guy is a mutton-head and to be avoided. Guys with good jobs don't plaster themselves with tattoos.

Strange story. Its not like there is any shortage of Russian speakers she could communicate with....

Saying 'hello' in Thai (สวัสดีครับ - sawat di krap) hardly qualifies as 'speaking Thai' since even foreign tourists straight off the plane can often manage that. If you said you'd engaged her in a political discussion in Thai then I might believe you. I speak reasonable Thai for over 30 years and whilst its true that some locals can be a bit wary ('you know too much') I don't ever recall an unwillingness to take my money.

Bizarre when a 30 day entry is free. Can't see it being a popular option......What has NZ done to upset Thailand?

Single entry Non-O is NZ$800 ! Very harsh on Kiwis wanting to visit a Thai wife or child. Surely will be preferable to enter on 30 day waivers and take two return trips to neighbouring countries?

A Camry or Accord will run fine on LPG. You need a tank, vaporiser/regulator, gas injectors installed in the inlet manifold plus a filling port and the controller and flow solenoids fitting. The system, with a tank of LPG, will probably add 100kg+ to the weight of your vehicle and you will lose some luggage space. The systems are generally reliable and you can switch over to petrol in the event of an LPG fault. Normally the car will start on petrol and then automatically switch to gas. This keeps the petrol injection system lubricated. LPG has lower specific energy than petrol so you will get somewhat lower mpg (10-15%) and the engine will develop slightly less power. LPG burns hotter than petrol but any vehicle manufactured in the last 15 years or so will have hardened valve seats so there should be no problem with valve seat recession. Much depends on your annual mileage. If you cover a lot of miles, say 15k+ km then you can make substantial fuel cost savings. At lower annual mileages it becomes hard to justify the installation costs and extra inspection and service costs.

BMW manufacture their engines in a variety of states of tune depending on the sales area, particular model variant and date of manufacture - hence you need to check in the supplied handbook and/or fuel flap sticker, as others have said. However all BMWs produced in the last 5 years or so will run perfectly well on 91RON. The engines are fitted with knock sensors which detect detonation and back off the ignition advance if its detected. Some models are fitted with wideband 02 sensors and Flex sensors and they would run a bit better on 95 under high load conditions.

No. 'Detonation' by definition means an explosive combustion ('knock') rather than a smoothly propagating flame front. So there is no such thing as 'slow detonation'. Lower octane fuels are more prone to detonation. Higher octane fuels have the unstable HC compounds refined out. Adding ethanol (E10/E20) increases the octane so Thai gasohol fuels actually have a real-world octane rating somewhat above their quoted RON.

Not all codes cause the MIL to illuminate. There are literally hundreds of possible faults - not all of them are costly to fix. This Honda (K series engine) is quite prone to faults due to split/perished vacuum pipes.

In reply to the OP.... Those screen captures you have posted are command codes from the ELM interface. In other words you are interrogating the firmware of the interface and NOT the vehicle's ECU. My guess is that you are using the wrong software with your ELM interface. That output looks like its from 'ELM Identifier' (software to identify whi่ch type/version of ELM chip that you have). To get codes and live data from the car I suggest using 'Torque Pro'.

Plenty of sprinkler systems around the world, often with recessed heads. My wife's condo in Pattaya has sprinklers.

Mat Armstrong - repairs cars. Known his dad Tony for about 30 years. Tony worked as a mechanic at our garage 20-some years ago and my son is a couple of years older than Mat and always kept in touch with him. Mat's YouTube channel is very popular.

Its reckoned around 67 million defective Takata airbags were made. Its actually the Takata PSAN inflator unit that's the problem. The chemicals inside (ammonium nitrate) degrade and the inflator can detonate abruptly rather than combust and inflate smoothly. This can throw parts of the inflator and shroud into the face of the occupant. The degradation is worse in hot climates. I part-own a sales/service car dealership in the UK and we always ensure recalls are done on used cars we offer for sale. We have to take cars to the franchise dealer - very inconvenient because there have been long delays on supply of some of these airbag units and we are reluctant to sell a car with an outstanding airbag recall. Honda, Mazda, Ford are worst affected but pretty much all manufacturers seem to have installed them at some time or other.

Not sure why its not believable. Over the years a lot of things have happened to me in Thailand that you just couldn't make up.... Many in connection with my wife and her 'interesting' friends and family and various 'business dealings'. We are back in the UK for a couple of months and last week she was on the phone to a cop she knows in Udon negotiating the price to arrest a guy who'd shot out the windows of a house she owns. 7k was agreed on and she transferred the money to his account. The guy is now locked up apparently (I'm told he didn't go quietly and they had to taser him).

When my wife was setting up a restaurant about seven or so years ago I remember us both flying to UK on Emirates BC with Skywards Gold and we had the best part of 100kg checked luggage most of which was Thai foodstuffs of every type you can imagine. Probably illegal but my wife is not one to pay heed to the law. We struggled to move it. Many times travelled with combined 70kg. Was only ever stopped once - I was alone and had few kilogram dried fish and was waved through.

That Aussie is of Indonesian ethnicity. 'Australian' seems to cover a multitude of sins these days....

I don't regard 58 as 'elderly'!

I used to travel a great deal and after several years of using 'mid range' luggage brands I decided to buy myself a nice quality Samsonite wheeled suitcase. On the VERY FIRST TRIP it arrived in Dubai with a couple of wheels smashed off and the handle damaged. Basically it was unusable. Bad luck probably... Anyway, Emirates wouldn't compensate me (wheels not covered apparently). I took lots of photos of the damage and got a copy of the damage report from Emirates but Samsonite knocked it back - 'not covered by guarantee'. I was bitterly disappointed and out of pocket. I bought a cheap replacement ('Tripp' - a UK brand I think) still using it today although its very knocked about and on its last legs.

20-30 years ago it was rare to find a chubby Thai woman of any age. Now they are everywhere. Its the abundant availability of sugary and ultra-processed foods. My wife doesn't like anything sugary and eats a very healthy traditional diet with lots of green leafy salad and vegetables. Her 14 year old niece eats masses of snack foods from 7-11, likes KFC and pizza - she is very slim at the moment, but that won't last.

The new BA route is LGW-BKK, not LHR, and only three times per week using older aircraft. BA have almost no domestic connections to LGW either so its very unattractive to those of us north of Watford. BKK is mainly a leisure destination hence at the moment less interest from carriers and less capacity.

I think there are somewhat fewer seats on this route than prior to Covid. A friend travelled LHR-BKK on TG at end of Feb and is returning end of March - booked a few months ago. Was just over £1000 I believe - quite pricey for low season. I think the era of cheap long-haul is over - although you do ocassionally see limited promotional offers on indirect flights, but usually only available for a few days and checked baggage an expensive extra.

Given that she doesn't want to eat what you'd cooked and was instead eating junk food suggests a relationship problem and depression. Further red flags are that you say she doesn't respect her body and (it seems) was 'upstairs' and not eating with you. She could potentially become obese in a lot fewer than 10 years.... I would suggest getting to the root of her depression. A woman who is happy and positive about life will take pride in her physique. My wife of 12 years is still the same weight as the day we married. She gets up early and is very active - exercises every day and avoids sweet stuff.

IMHO contracts related to land and housing (lease/usufruct etc) are barely worth the paper they are written on for Wrsterners in places like Thailand and Laos. If there is a change of heart or death of a signatory etc then whoever owns the land will simply make your life a misery until you eventually leave - or even just kill you if you cause too much trouble.

Given your account of the fault I don't think its related to your lighting installation. More likely is a power quality issue on the supply side, either in the building or upstream of the building. Flickering is often caused by a bad connection - maybe corrosion or a poor crimp on the neutral line. Your voltmeter doesn't have a sufficiently fast response to show what is going on. There may well be quite large voltage excursions over a short timescale. Try to beg or borrow a power quality analyser that will log short-term voltage excursions. Then monitor in your apartment and at other locations in the building.

Not unusual. Thais are often wary of other Thais. About 13 years ago my wife bought a couple of new condo units in Pattaya - very basic rooms near King Power off Sukhumwit. She will only rent to Westerners... not Thai, Indian or Russian.. 'too many problems'. Its worked out OK so far and I think she's now got back more in rent than she paid for them with only a lick of paint and some minor repairs. One is occupied by an elderly 'down on his luck' American and the other is a Czech guy.