Andrew Dwyer

My current car is the first with a HUD but tbh i could do without it quite easily, after 28 months and 45k driven i still looking through it and find myself glancing down at the speedo for speed readings like i forgot it was there. 45 years driving without a HUD has made it difficult for me to change, or maybe am just a slow learner ? ( rhetorical question, i am 😀) . People talk about having navigation symbols on the HUD as being great, maybe that would encourage me to look at it more?? It wouldn’t be a major factor for me when choosing a new car.

I renewed mine with VFS around a year ago, at that time HMPO had moved location and there were a lot of people having problems, myself included. But, now i think the dust has settled and it should be plain sailing. I didn’t receive any returned passport page copies though.

As stated above, have to wait until the end of the Motor Show to get the full picture. What I find interesting is the position of Honda in the current booking table, normally up there in the top 3 they appear to be struggling currently. Lack of Honda innovation or the EV trend expanding ?? I would say a bit of both !

Just found my old topic, many thanks to @Fruit Trader for the information supplied. This is what the diaphragm/spring looks like: and the limescale buildup on the diaphragm. I opened the water supply from tank to pump briefly to flush out the “ life save unit “ as well as cleaning the diaphragm.

So, a quick test for anyone suspecting they have some pressure switch issues on Hitachi brand water pumps. Turn off the pump electric supply and shut off water supply from tank to pump. Open a tap to relieve pressure from pump to the house. Remove the 3 screws highlighted ( a small amount of pressure will be retained in the pump itself but will drop quickly). Lift off the pressure switch to reveal a rubber diaphragm and, i believe, a spring. Remembering which way it is assembled remove the diaphragm and give it a good clean. Reassemble and hopefully you will see some improvement in the pump’s performance.

Okay, will send you a photo of where to locate the offending diaphragm.

The limescale buildup can affect other things also: At the beginning of 2025 after returning from a road trip we noticed that after flushing the toilet when filling the cistern with water ready for the next flush the pump would cycle briefly a couple of times as if restricted ( like when you open a tap just a little bit ). I started a topic on here thinking it might be water in the pump hydrogen tank or a pressure switch issue. Someone kindly posted that it was a build up of limescale on the diaphragm under the pressure switch. Sure enough i followed his advice, stopped the flow of water, relieved the pressure, removed the switch ( 3 screws) and cleaned the rubber diaphragm which showed some light brown buildup on it. 5 minutes and problem solved ! In January it started again, followed the previous instructions and problem solved again. Anyone with a Hitachi pump who has noticed similar changes in pump/water supply would be advised to take a look. Other than a little “ hardening of the arteries “ on shower heads i wouldn’t say we have a limescale issue, only takes a little bit.

New EV’s at the 2026 Bangkok Motorshow. For those unable to attend here is a summing up from thaiautonews in English.

Yellow house book and pink card summed up simply: “ Want one, don’t need one “

It depends on how easy it is to obtain. First you need the yellow house book and the pink card should be easily obtained afterwards. The ease of obtaining the yellow house book will depend on your location and Amphur, it has been reported ( on here ) that it can be obtained as easily as offering your passport and a 20 baht fee to an outright refusal to issue and anywhere in between. Often documents ( passport certifications and translations, birth certificates etc) or witnesses ( as proof you are living at the yellow book address) are required and these requirements vary. Sometimes they will refuse if you are not married to a Thai. Only correct thing to do is visit your Amphur and ask for the list of requirements, then decide for yourself if it is worth pursuing. Asking on here you will receive varying information and opinions, visit your Amphur.

Yeah, i think you are right, have been looking to see where i can buy a steel tamping tool online and enquired at a couple of the big box stores ( Thaiwatsadu and Homemart ) without success. Could possibly get a local guy to weld one up for me for an appropriate fee. Plenty of YouTube videos of people making a diy tamping tool by strapping a 10” x 10” piece of wood to the head of a sledgehammer which seems to work well for soil but probably needs a steel plate for asphalt which complicates it a little.

Yeah, i missed that boat i’m afraid, now have some guys painting the lines, asphalt guys are long gone.

It is a fairly hefty hoe similar to the photo: Yeah, a good idea as the asphalt doesn’t seem very flexible but is in a thick plastic bag. Certainly adding some of the stuff to the asphalt should hold it all together. Gonna be interesting !

Bought a couple of diy asphalt bags from Thaiwatsadu but they were oblivious to any bonding agent . The bag instructions shows just to clean out any dirt from the hole, pour the asphalt in and tamp it down which is probably okay for an asphalt driveway laid over compacted dirt. But, further research and by watching them lay it on the road tells me i need some sort of bonding agent when laid on concrete. So, have sourced some stuff which is used to seal inbetween concrete slabs on roads or bridges for expansion joints etc, applied hot has excellent adhesion to concrete and no doubt will stick to the asphalt like <deleted>e to a blanket !! Not what i had in mind but am sure will do the trick. Comes in a 6kg block of which needs melting to a liquid so will fire up the bucket barbecue and utilise an old pan tomorrow. Brush on a layer then lay the asphalt on top and tamp it down with a hoe, aiming to leave it slightly higher in the middle so the water runs off either side. Normally the water will sit in front of the ramp covering around 3/4 of the length of my gate opening so hopefully I can make it look better and stop the water pooling in front of my gate at the same time. With any luck this time tomorrow I can post a photo of the finished product ( except for replacing the ceramic tiles ) and be proud of my work.

Watched that and enjoyed it, Stephen Graham has a wide range of acting abilities and in this movie he plays one of his darker characters. He also has a minor role in Peaky Blinders: An Immortal Man . Having only seen a few of the Peaky Blinders episodes I decided to give the movie a try, enjoyed it, a great cast, along with Stephen Graham are some of my favourite actors, Cillian Murphy, Barry Keoghan and Tim Roth. Following the movie searched for the Peaky Blinders series and am currently binge watching the whole thing.

Have traveled, and explored, plenty in the last 10 years, from the Golden Triangle to NST , from Kanchanaburi to Roi Et, next trip will be further south. Still up and about regularly but slowing down a little bit now. Still plenty to see and plenty of remarkable moments to remember.

I think the Atto 1 and Atto 2 are coming to the Motor Show, might be worth a look. Can’t comment on all the BYD range but it appears the Dolphin beeps and gongs stay off i know they do on my Seal also.

My driving licence was sufficient 1 year ago.

Some reports coming from the U.K. about the MY 2026 Seal and how owners are feeling its a step backwards from the 23/25 version. Lack of flexibility on the instrument cluster means you are now stuck with this layout, no option to adjust. Or dark mode. No rotating main screen ( some might not care but i use it in portrait for navigation ), seems like BYD will drop this feature for future cars. Crappier wheels, their words not mine. Apparently running the Sealion 7 software so i guess will have the updated UI but they got that on the Seal in the U.K. anyway.

My 2 year + 3 month allotment of 2GB per month expired Feb 30th 2026 ( car picked up Nov 30th 2023 ) yet I receive messages via the app saying it will expire March 1st 2026 and now April 1st 2026, probably an automated recurring message that will repeat after the 1st of each month ! As stated before on here Rever are at a loss on how to progress with this sim expiration/subscription program and prefer to just let it slide. I see in the U.K. they are offered a yearly paid subscription ( £99 I think ) when their 1GB 2 year free subscription ended. Rever missed a trick there and could have been pulling in a fair amount of baht ( with a lower subscription fee of course ) if they had pulled their fingers out !!, not everyone is aware or willing to simply hotspot their phone. On a slightly different, but related note, I am always surprised at how much cheaper things are here than rip off Britain. I pay half the price for iCloud storage by using Thai location as opposed to the U.K. one. I just paid £530 ( 22,900 baht or around 700 USD ) for a MacBook Neo delivered from the Thai Apple Store whereas the exact same thing would cost me £699 ( 934 USD !!) from the U.K. store. Just reminding myself why i left the U.K. to live here !!

Ayutthaya limited to 500 baht , not sure of status of gasoline or diesel. Last time i entered a pump was around 2 weeks ago to get 400 baht worth of 95 in a container for the mc. They limited me to 300 baht back then.

Thanks, i will add them to the one i got for my drawing of the lead singer of Chicory Tip when i was 11 .

So, the moobahn i live in has decided to lay asphalt on top of the existing concrete and, although they have apparently laid a nice carpet down ( remains to be seen, especially in the rainy season ) they don’t go right up to each individual house, most of which have a concrete/tiled ramp up into the garage/carport. This is kind of understandable with the amount of different angles and lengths of ramps adopted by the owners. What it has left me is a “ channel “ approximately 30 cm x 5 metres long which i know from experience will retain water ( always had a puddle here after raining). ( ignore the broken tiles, just another on my to do list ) There are drainage points either side of the ramp but a dip in the concrete right in front of the ramp meant there was always a small puddle. I hadn’t tackled this earlier, been here since 2017, as have seen others attempting to divert the puddle using a build up of concrete failing badly, had considered some drainage holes but feared hitting the main water supply which runs somewhere under the ramp or washing away the subsoil, nobody wants a sinkhole opening up outside your house !! Irrespective of any water just this channel across my access will become annoying very quickly as i usually line the car up straight to go inside. Anyway, Thaiwatsadu sell 20 kg bags of asphalt premix so i figured i could tackle this myself and be careful enough to leave a small rise in the middle of the gate to send water towards the drains. So my question ( finally ! ) is has anyone used this product ? What tips can you give me ? Am assuming better adherence is created using some tar like substance beforehand ? and heating the product would make it easier to work with ?? Will visit Thaiwatsadu to check out the product but don’t hold out for too much information from the staff so am relying on the good folks here at AN to give me some pointers. TIA

Scarpetta gets some pretty bad reviews, mostly from readers of the books who say it strays too much from the original. That aside there’s a lot I don’t like about this only 2 episodes in ( maybe it will improve ? ). Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis should be able to do better imho, the scenes between them are mostly just sisters fighting and are unnecessary. The black/gay niece also takes up too much of the storyline chatting to her girlfriend. The serial killer storyline seems almost secondary ! Then there’s the flashbacks which aren’t always clear what time zone we are in. Most of the main characters are featured in both times but as there is 28 years between sometimes you have to figure out who is who. Seemed like they purposely made the boyfriends/husbands extremely different to identify them, they certainly give off a Starsky and Hutch vibe. Has all the makings of a good story but let down by too many incidentals, secondary storylines get in the way and some unusual choices. e.g. the first flashback ( from 2026 to 1998 ) is accompanied by The Animal’s House of the Rising Sun which seems a bit off, of all the songs available pre and including 1998 they went with one with no relevance to the storyline and is usually reserved for 60’s flashbacks !! Okay, so maybe am overthinking this but it is not keeping my attention, will persevere, maybe it concentrates more on the story we want to see and improves !