Andrew Dwyer

My U.K. bank has a system in place where you can notify them on the app that you will be in Thailand, it needs refreshing every 90 days. Have only just discovered this feature, as is buried in the app, after suffering from card being blocked in many different countries for many years, resulting in a phone call to the “ fraud squad “ which is the only option to unfreeze.

Should have bought an EV 😬

Yup, was waiting for a letter from the U.K. and today is the 19th day. Went to the local delivery office and showed them my drivers licence ( name and address ), lots of “ no have, no have “, 1 hour later they posted it in my box ! Sometimes they just need reminding that these things don’t deliver themselves !

So, my mystery has revealed itself ( the whereabouts of the first email still in question, I could have deleted it accidentally ). Anyway, my main priority now is to get the second passport to them asap so they can decommission ( ? ) it and continue on with my application for renewal of first passport before it disappears into the system. Probably already in the pending tray below many others on the desk of an intern who has just departed for 3 weeks in Ibiza !! Anyway wish me luck 🍀

when it suits them .

Can play YouTube videos on the go on some cars now ……. madness !

Remarkably quickly the HMPO replied and cleared up the mystery, although they do still claim they sent the elusive first email ! As i have two valid passports i have to supply an accompanying letter from my employer explaining why i need two, where i will travel and for how long etc or return the “second “ passport to HMPO. I had made it known i had two passports on the application form, section 3, and supplied a photocopy of every page of BOTH passports but the lady checking the docs at VSF had failed to notice the missing letter . One could say that I should have read the guidance notes more carefully but no lets blame it on her 😟 Anyway i chose to write an accompanying letter and post passport 2 back to Blighty .

Somehow i got to fill in a request on GOV.UK and told them the whole story, they should reply within 72 hours !!

Thanks, just got an automated reply that it was only concerned with the visa side of the business, despite the name 🙄, and steered me towards the Gov.uk site for passports which only accept phone call queries unless you applied online or using Royal Mail in which case you have a specific reference number. Going round in circles, will leave it a few days and see if there is a way to contact them or the passport tracking function decides to work !

The VFS passport tracking form which only gave a “ something went wrong “ reply.

So this is the text I received ( presumably from the U.K. office) and my failed attempts to reply:

Thanks. You didn’t get any text or email from HM Passport then ?, only VFS ?

So, on Feb 18th I traveled to Bangkok ( VFS ) to apply for my U.K. passport renewal. All went well, the lady gave me my receipt and an estimate of 4 weeks. A week later the fee ( which i had authorised via my U.K. debit card) was debited from my U.K. account. Another week passed and i received a text from “ HM Passport “ stating that they had received my application and would contact me if any more information was required, plus a reference number. So, all well and good , and still early doors. Yesterday i received another text from HM Passport stating “ we have emailed you about your passport application “, plus the same ref number. These messages do not accept a reply and i received no email. ( checked junk mail folder also ). Checked VFS tracking passport application by logging in using reference number ( tried both the ref number on receipt from VFS and on text from HM Passport ) and email address only to get “ something went wrong “ message various times. Yep, i know it is far too early to panic but wondering if any other recent recipients of a U.K. passport renewal got the HM Passport text or succeeded in tracking their passport application ?

Some people call them 4 wheelers but my post, as is yours, is totally irrelevant to the topic.

Weird. Just Weird.

So, seems like the 2 year 2gb per month ( + additional 3 months ?? ) is coming to an end for some early Atto 3 adopters but no rumours about what comes after, anyone know ?? Note: apparently the poster of above photo has already changed to the True sim. Several replies, to the fb group, suggesting just to fit your own but then there’s no access to the app and I like the remote A/C start. Not sure what else would be affected, OTA’s ??

The other two dogs were not dead. Latest is that GH had been dead for 10 days before being found by two maintenance workers, time of death estimated from his pace maker report.

I think it is an attempt at humour …… with the emphasis on “ attempt “ 🙄

Latest video from Bjørn, Xpeng G6 or BYD Sealion 7 comparison . Like this comparison, ideal for those in the market for either of these EV’s.

The reason I think Navigation is running in the background is that the data used in “ data monitor “ increases without any any Navigation or voice command usage.( irrespective of when you got the SIM card 😬 ). Typically i use Spotify only when local, starting tomorrow i will monitor how much data is being used by Navigation without any input from me.

Seems like both GH and his wife had similar time of death. From the BBC: A sheriff's detective who responded to the scene said that they believed the couple had been dead for some time because of Ms Arakawa's "decomposition" and "mummification" in the hands and feet. "The male decedent also showed obvious signs of death, similar and consistent with the female decedent," said the search warrant.

New Mexico and Mexico are not the same !

Thai’s : some good, some bad, mostly indifferent !

Got to agree with Malcolm on this, foreigners are quick to attack the Thai at any opportunity. Way i understand this story is the two foreigners did a good deed by giving the two monks a lift on their mc’s. The monks were appreciative of the gesture, photos were taken and blessings, from the monks, received. The “ Backlash “ was some netizens fearing the two monks riding on the back of two Farang mc’s might somehow bring the religion into disrepute, imho, seeing problems when no problems exist.

Boo !! Recently discovered BBC Sounds and have a lot of stuff bookmarked, particularly like the Desert Island Discs. Have a Radioplayer app which i use for general radio channels ( select any BBC station and it redirects you to BBC Sounds ) Capital, Absolute, Virgin, Nation and Planet etc and all their different genre stations so a boatload of stuff available …. only the Beeb not playing the game. BBC are like the Apple of media !