Andrew Dwyer

My first album was also from Woolies, one of those compilations from popular “ hits”, it was called Hot Hits or something like that and usually had a scantily clad female on the cover to attract attention …… certainly attracted my attention !! The songs were usually a mixture of popular and unheard of songs from the era, I do remember Joe Cocker’s Delta Lady was on there.

Here in Ayutthaya the water pressure is very hit and miss ( mostly miss ). Initially I thought there was no water at the weekends ( as that is what the wife would say ) but it was actually reduced pressure which was failing to make it up into the tank !! I added another tank and joined them together using the drain plugs, put a couple of taps in the line so they can be drained individually for cleaning. They are around 5 metres apart but works great. Also noticed the float valve was quite low down so lifted it up with some additional pvc pipe. Now have 1500 litres instead of 700 litres storage when the water pressure increases, usually at nighttime. As the kids became teenagers the water consumption increased, what are they doing in that shower ?? !!, so went old school. Piped straight from the mains into 2 bathrooms and installed “ douche “ type bathing, also ran a line to the washing machine and installed another outside tap, before the tank, for watering the garden. Despite all these modifications we still run out of water occasionally so following a lead from a neighbour I bought a submersible pump, for garden fountains etc , and if the water level in my storage gets down to around half then i open the mains water into one of those large storage containers with rollers underneath and pump it into the tank. Works a treat. I try to keep on top of it as a couple of weeks ago there was zero city water coming in but luckily we had enough water until it came back. It was really low pressure for a couple of days so I put the pump into action and filled the two tanks, sorry neighbours 😐. A year ago we had a big outage and there was zero water for about 10 or 12 days, we had to resort to the Tessabahn water truck filling our tanks, the water was terrible, looked like it was straight from the khlong. When it settled could see silt and bits of straw covering the bottom, had to clean both tanks when water resumed !!

Would be early 70’s it got passed to me but was obviously very old, very basic not like in the photo.

Remember those candy striped bed sheets well ! Had to clear my dad’s house back in 2018 and found some in a cupboard, must have been from the 70’s at least, brought a couple back here for cleaning rags while doing some diy, excellent quality !!

My mother had the Sound of Music and King and I soundtracks, my dad had the Band of the Coldstream Guards ! But having 2 older brothers ( 1 was 3 years older and the other 5 years older ) the house was soon full of music in the late 60’s .

My record player was handed down from my grandad, it was like a mini suitcase and the top half was the speaker. Mono of course. A bit like the photo only the lid detached and was the speaker .

No information about your area but where I live the wife is in a group chat with residents in the moobahn and get warnings about power cuts or water outages etc from the headman. Seems very reliable and also gets other useful info about any burglaries etc, last week got a message about a snake roaming the streets looking for a way out !! Might be worth enquiring if there is anything similar in your moobahn/condo/village ??

I could walk, at a stretch, to my nearest Woolies, also used to peruse the record selection. Think I bought my first single there: Gudbuy T Jane : Slade .( had to google the spelling 😀) 1972, i would have been 11 years old.

Interesting , I took it as the coupons are in 100 baht increments ?, maybe just me misinterpreting the promotion ? I still have the majority of my initial 300 baht left and the 50 baht coupon which I doubt will be included in the promotion ?? Using this premise my intention was to charge up to 50 baht, to clear the coupon, then charge another 100 baht …… yep, am probably overthinking this !! Tbh, this coming week is very quiet and probably won’t be able to take full advantage, have a couple of ongoing diy projects and no plans to visit the mil’s ( my regular 420/450 km round trip ). Although the girl is home from uni and the boy has tomorrow as a holiday from college (in lieu of today ) so have already mapped out a little trip to one of our favourite touristy spots for some lunch which is around 30 km’s drive up the Super Asian Highway and a Spark charger at a Bangchak pump is 5 km’s before that. So an opportunity to check out the promotion could well be on the cards ! ….. watch this space !

Similar to what i do only i tend to charge when it gets to around 40% ( never know when the little lady is to spring a surprise “ hey, let’s go see my mum “ journey ☹️ ) and charge up to 80/90 %. Only charge up to 100% if a trip is due. Regularly drive around 420/450 km round trip and can often make it back with around 8 to 10%. I can put it to do the battery calibration thingy late Sunday and overnight but only do it around every 4 or 5 months as might not use the car the next day, plus from 8 to 100% takes around 12 hours. Otherwise can put it to charge at around 10 pm ( TOU meter and 7 kw charger ) be up in time to stop it at around 80/90 %.

As a BYD Seal owner for nigh on two years i was interested in this section to see if i could improve any of my practices. - Frequent DC fast charging depends on circumstances ( access to a home charger ) and the trend is to increase the charging speed, vehicle permitting. - the next bullet points are all slightly related: Fast charging when battery hot. Charging immediately after fast driving. Charging in hot sun. Aggressive driving. Don’t see many alternatives for the above: Many EV drivers want to make use of the usually large HP available. When travelling longer distances and DC charging is required charging in hot sun is obligatory ( with a couple of exceptions, usually only the charger itself is shaded sadly ) and facing a lengthy charging session I don’t see many prepared to let their car cool down before plugging in. - In FB groups or EV forums it is often stated that LFP batteries can be charged to 100% daily without any detrimental effects, the BYD manual also recommends to charge to 100% weekly ( as well as the battery calibration process of charging, on AC, <10% to 100% every 3 to 6 months ). But even so i have changed my charging regime to keeping the charge between 40 - 80% unless i am due a longer trip when i will charge to 100% just before departing. It is often said on some in-depth battery reviews that keeping the battery fully charged for any length of time can cause degradation ( more in NMC than LFP but still recommended even for LFP ) and repeat charging to very high percentages or letting the battery percentage get too low is not advisable for any battery chemistry. While picking up a second hand EV will become more common the SOH should be readily available to enable future owners to see whether their purchase has been abused or cared for. I see, on mainly FB EV groups , a lot of owners ignoring any advice to prolong the longevity of their battery and frequently see phrases like “ i drive it like i stole it “ , “ i just want to charge as fast as possible and get back on the road “. While the advice to care for your battery can be confusing it is usually simplified by marketing strategy statements about how fast you can charge your car or how charging to 100% is not detrimental and in some cases recommended. As someone looking at holding on to my BYD for a few more years and likely passing it down to a family member when the time for something new comes I am aware that some care is required to prolong the life of the battery.

Better than those sad sacks that have gone back to their home countries yet continue to post their GGarbage on here !!

Doesn’t sound like the IO’s were in the photos of Champers ??, so there goes that theory .

I regularly travel on the Asian Highway from Ayutthaya to the mil’s at Northwest of Nakhon Sawan . A 410 km round trip but occasionally will take the old lady out for some sightseeing and lunch meaning the round trip will be more like 450/460 km. In which case usually stop at one of PTT ( EV station Pluz ) or Bangchak ( PEA Volta ) pumps to add 10 or 20 % battery. I have a TOU meter and most of my charging takes advantage of its 3 baht/kWh tariff. After registering for Spark charging app and getting the complimentary 300 baht voucher i thought I would take advantage of a bit of free charging !! Normally use the bypass but can drive through Nakhon Sawan also ( the difference is a couple of km’s but the bypass avoids the downtown traffic lights ! ). So, the Spark charger is located right in the back of a Bangchak pump on the main road on the north side of Nakhon Sawan City going southbound. 300 baht got me 38 kw at some good speed, peaking at 149 kWh, my fastest yet !!, but taking 25 minutes. Great to have some faster speeds available but tbh I only DC charge for a little top up or on a road trip ( twice a year ). Would prefer to see more chargers available rather than being replaced by faster. Of course some might argue that faster charging will make for more availability but not if the car is restricting the charging speed !! At the moment not many EV’s available here with charging > 200 kWh , i think the majority, currently would be happier seeing more chargers in place.

This looks good, imho, available at the end of October. Written by one of the Slow Horses writers so has a chance at being watchable, imho. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32132630/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk ( cue those who hate everything and those who only watch stuff with glimpses of naked females or leather clad beauties, hence the imho added)

Incorrect Not every kid in the UK used to drink it I hate it.

One of those cult movies ( meaning some will hate it, others will love it ) which I have never watched. Seen a few clips on FB and not been enthusiastic to follow up with the whole movie. Seems to me that the two main characters are miscast, put Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson in there and I would be all over it.

Peacemaker season 2 just popped up on my radar so thought i would give it a go. Not having watched the movie The Suicide Squad it straight away recommended I watched that to get the context, so I did. Not being a big fan of Marvel and DC etc I was a bit apprehensive but both SS and Peacemaker are very much dark comedy with Idris Elba and John Cena in the lead roles. Just started Peacemaker and loving it, not everyone’s cup of tea for sure but I would say if you liked The Boys you will love Peacemaker ( Suicide Squad was okay also )

In the end i bought some film from AliExpress i think and did it myself, wasn’t too bad a job as the windows are easily removed. So took out the windows and spun them round, cleaned them meticulously and put the film on from the outside, made it a pleasant job to work on. Did another window just for privacy this time and I couldn’t remove the windows, so had to take out the security bars, didn’t end up as satisfactory on that job, working from the outside was a lot easier!. Here’s a photo after i did the left side pane, in the end was so happy with the results that i didn’t bother with the blackout curtains. Went for a mirror finish but they are see through at night time if you turn the bedroom light on !! Just getting rid of that hideous green paint pleased me greatly also !!

I don’t think i did, after changing passport and doing 1st 90 days in person I didn’t expect to. I am pretty sure i got all my details right, but who knows, also as my IO is close and 90 days is quick so didn’t worry too much. Next time around i will be more attentive. I do remember that i didn’t realise my 90 days was due until the day before due date, did it and after 5 or 6 days pending went to the IO. ( i have an app that sends me a reminder 14 days before my “events” but still forgot ! )

Have to wait until Dec 1st to try online again.

Disappointed ☹️ There was I reaching for the Kleenex when it went all Mills and Boon ! Waste not want not …… where did i put that Victoria Secrets catalogue ??

Wasn’t aware of this requirement ( have to leave the country after obtaining new passport to restart online reporting ) but I did get a new passport, here in Thailand, in March. Did first 90 days in person and next 90 days i attempted online it sat there “ pending “ until i went in person. In hindsight i could have cancelled the online application and tried again or enquired at the IO, but did neither. Luckily my IO is ten minutes away and a 5 minute process for 90 days but after seeing the above posts will be interesting to see how it pans out next time ( Dec 1st ). Ayutthaya IO ( for you know who 😀).

Yeah, 2 or 3 weeks delivery on the Apple website, the Apple Stores are a bit of a trek although I have driven into downtown Bangkok on several occasions and don’t find it too bad. Have asked at a few Studio7’s and while they do have a few Air/Pro and Pro Maxs available the base models are being snapped up. Closest I got to was an iPhone 17 512gb but that is another 8k for storage that i wouldn’t need ( my current 256gb 13 PM still has half it’s storage available ). So, seems like they are coming but slowly so am still happy to wait it out and enquire when i come across a store. Banana’s policy of “ you can have one if you shell out a few more thousand baht “ has annoyed me though and although i have bought an iPhone and 2 iPads from them in the past i will avoid them from now on.

……. not necessarily …… because my U.K. driver’s licence doesn’t !