Andrew Dwyer

Recent events have made me think about my own demise . My Thai bil died last Sunday age 50, he had been in the ICU in a Nakhon Sawan hospital for around 3 weeks with a brain haemorrhage. We visited around 10 days ago and was told his chances were 50/50, on Sunday his heart failed and attempts to resuscitate failed. What surprised me and others in his family, including his wife, was that he had donated his body to a Chiang Mai hospital ( could possibly be the medical facility in a university) for medical research and any fit for purpose organs ( which later became known as eyes, ear drums, liver and kidneys ) to a hospital in Bangkok. After some family discussions, it came as quite a shock to some !, his wishes were acted upon. The Nakhon Sawan hospital removed said organs for transport to Bangkok and his body was transported to a hospital in Tak where the Chiang Mai hospital transport would pick up. A service will be held in his hometown ( near Nakhon Sawan ) 7 days after his death but the body will only be released for cremation 2 years later!!, I find this hard to believe and may have got lost in translation. A niece then announced she had donated her body to the Thai Red Cross. My wife showed an interest in doing the same, which I applauded, until her mother talked her out of it stating that she would not come back (reincarnation) if she did this !! Anyway, i understand this might be unpopular with many Thai due to their religious beliefs but could be a good option for foreigners, cut down the expense and trauma of a 3 or 4 day funeral with a good deed. A quick google search tells me that contacting the Thai Red Cross or your preferred university hospital is the easiest way to go. If your Embassy needs to be informed I am not sure ? Anyone else considering or have already made arrangements for this ?

Looks like my rat protection is working IMG_4211.mov …. now he’s just showing off !!

Why don’t you give that a try then ……… oh wait a minute 🤔

Just don’t let Mrs Owl know you now have around $100k going spare !!

Make sure you keep it clean, some reports that they are prone to rusting.

Yup, this is what the real men are driving !!

Clearly you have never been to Argentina, they are the most conceited of the South American countries. Brazilians don’t come close, even the Cariocas.

What about Wise ?

Quite clearly an MG ES

For me, on True, games are on PPTV ( ch 36 ) and MCOT HD 30 ( ch 30 ).

BYD did this before with the Dolphin, they removed the free wall charger and installation ( offered both for 25k ) and no free servicing only to add those back to the deal again shortly after. Difficult to keep up with these marketing ploys.

Unless you side loaded them of course !! I can access YouTube and a few different browsers while on the move, but obviously don’t and limit it to YouTube Music .

Killer error message ?? It is actually telling the driver that YouTube can only be used in parking mode, but you probably know that already ??

Another BYD owner is happy with his purchase: ” I think that EVs are really the bees knees, best thing since sliced bread. The ride is so smooth, the acceleration so imperceptible that very often, I surprise myself at the speed that I’m travelling at. I’m definitely a convert “ Yes, without a link it is just someone’s opinion. Touché

Most of us will already know to avoid any “ strong “ liquid ( acetone, perfume etc ) in the car as these can cause damage to the delicate materials in your car. But as is the way in these parts cluttering your dashboard or hanging stuff from the rear view mirror is good luck ….. until it isn’t. Seen 2 or 3 examples of this on FB groups: This one is easily covered with an accessory but have seen similar damage to the inside of the door !!

Yes, those “ silly oversized reusable red ribbons 🎀 “

If anyone wishes to illuminate their front BYD badge there is a kit available from this website: https://nicebyd.com/products/for-byd-seal-front-logo-light-keep-on Not for me, but someone might like it, the Thais will snap this up I’m sure !

Visa exempt to 90 day non imm O visa and subsequent extensions is, imo, the easiest way to get one year extension of stay here in Thailand. You can go Tourist visa/non imm O and subsequent visas but why bother with the Tourist visa unless you cannot get visa exempt. You could get a non imm O visa in your home country and get extensions from it here but some find dealing with their home country Thai embassy online visa process to be complicated. Imho, exempt/O visa and extension from is such a clear and easy route ( did it a couple of years ago when dumping the OA ) that i wouldn’t consider anything else if i had to start again for any reason.

Está voltando para casa 🇵🇹 🐺 🐺 🐺

Waiting for her ladyship at the local Rong Kluea have been experimenting with the 3 finger update and have come to the conclusion that it is not very user friendly. If you just touch on with 3 fingers, in any orientation, you will get either of the two options ( temp/fan speed ). You have to stroke the screen slowly ( up/down for temp, left/right for fan speed ) determine which one you get, okay if you want instant max fan speed just swipe right with 3 fingers but minor adjustments are finicky. It can be done anywhere on the screen, I don’t have a problem with reach, but is an unnecessary addition and would have preferred to see our other preferences attended to. On the other hand, Wireless CarPlay is great, I leave 2 cables attached under the armrest anyway ( will probably delete one now ) but even so is good. I prefer my whole music library on my phone to Spotify or YouTube Music. Vehicle location is good if you don’t trust your significant other, not so good if she doesn’t trust you !! I am the only driver in the household so no worries on that score, but will be handy as I approach “ now, where did i leave the car ? “ syndrome. It shows your location together with the car.

I have my own protection !! Sometimes they even come along for the ride !!

Now this is something that has always bugged me but with the Seal’s higher tyre pressures spurred me into action. Around where i live has always been a bit scarce for pumping the tyres up to the correct pressure and on occasion have used Be-Quik or gas stations further afield. On this occasion i endeavoured to top up the tyres locally and it was the final straw: 1st gas station couldn’t achieve over 35 psi. 2nd gas station was “ out of order “ 3rd gas station had connected hose to valve adapter with a huge butterfly type clip making it unusable. 4th gas station worked but was 3 psi out of calibration ( despite my allowance for hot tyres ). Decided to try the BYD air pump ( supplied with the car ) minus the foam: This worked but the gauge only reads to 40 psi and the needle vibrates so much it is laughable. My hand pump ( originally used for the bicycles ) would also work but the gauge shows a much higher value. The Seal tyre pressure monitor does not reset immediately so wasn’t helpful. My hand held pressure gauge was far from accurate , although it has a dial the adapter is the same as those “ pen size “ pressure checkers and only achieved a loss of air every time I attempted a reading. What I need is a digital air pump i told myself and opened the good ol’ Lazada app. Now the cheapest air pumps ( one shaped like a hand held temp gun and the other like a power bank ) only achieve 2.5bar ( 36 psi ) despite saying “ support 150 psi “ !! …… buyers beware ! But there was a couple of more expensive ones, a Xiaomi and a 70Mai ( i thought 70Mai were part of Xiaomi ? ), anyway, after owning a 70Mai dash cam i knew they were good quality stuff and plumped for one at 630 baht ! What a thing of beauty and so easy to use, set the pressure you want and turn it on , very quick also, with a proper screw on adapter not those cam lever types. IMG_4119.mov So, the wife uses the scooter mainly to take the boy to college and the girl to the market. As it had been a while since I had checked the pressures (should be front 29 and rear 33 psi) i decided to use my new toy ……… 65 psi front and 70 psi rear !! …… no comment 😶

Nice number and plate !! I changed mine to black to suit the license plate support also with perspex. If i remember rightly the plate holder came with 4 screws, so was sorted.

Yes, I was just playing with the air con control update and if you are not careful ( go slow ) it shoots up to 7 or 30° !! Might be handy if you forget to start air con remotely and want to cool the car down ( i use this all the time via app and remote ) but otherwise … meh !

So I got wireless Apple CarPlay to work ( after a lot of fannying around ). It would connect via the cable no problem but wireless the CarPlay icon was greyed out even though it was showing a connection and pairing with my iPhone and after trying for around 30 seconds it said something like “ Apple CarPlay connection failed please try again. So, I had already disconnected BT on both car and phone and “ forget this device “ in BT settings to no avail. This time i redid that and went to Settings/General/Carplay on my phone , turned off CarPlay and “ forget this phone “. Connected and paired again ( got the pairing code number ) and Bingo !! the icon turned white ( as it does when connected with the cable ) and connected !!. Whether i had hit the magic sequence as @Pib stated earlier I don’t know but it is working. Time to celebrate with a little Derek at high volume !!