3STTW

Having a bit of a class crusade today? Can't beat a good beer anywhere as long as it's in good company.

Me neither, remember Caffrey's in the '90's? We would order the first round and once the last pint was delivered, we'd order the next round... and so forth. I lost 1997 to 1999 due to Caffrey's. Somehow I got a degree in Computer Engineering but fukt if I can remember! On the upside I don't remember the Spice Girls either.

Yeah, and there was always some muppet who would say "I'm not drinking that - it's been sat there for ten minutes!" which is the same as saying "Please miss, can I go to the back of the queue." ???????? And the real reason for super-chilling most beers (especially Thai beer) is so you can't taste them.

In the UK you can get Guinness or Guinness Cold so it doesn't matter really. In TH, they need to chill it to keep the gas (and hence the pour) under control otherwise you end up with a Guinness fire extinguisher.

Slightly off-topic but I've heard a few times that Thai car insurance is invalid unless you have a Thai DL. Is this true, given that the insurance companies don't require evidence of one? I mean, there are thousands of tourists renting cars with get-out-of-jail-free insurance on non-Thai licences. Is that different if you actually live here?

I'm sat in Outback right now and the missus is just tucking into a 290Bht pint and I have to say it's excellent, every bit as good as any Guinness I've had in the UK. TBH, I resent paying any more than 250Bht for any drink here, if only for the falang-gouging tax they put on the stuff. But for good Guinness I can always make an exception.

The box that they added was probably an LED driver circuit. So let's have a nerd moment; an LED driver provides two functions: 1. Incandescent light bulbs are constant voltage devices, i.e. if you put ten of them in series in a 12v circuit, you would need to apply ten times the current to get each one to emit the same brightness as a single bulb in the circuit. The opposite is true of LED's; if the forward current of a single LED is 1 Amp, even if you put 10 in the circuit the current needs to be maintained at 1 Amp, however you need to increase the voltage in order to get them all to switch on. So LED's won't work well with a fixed 12v system and this is why they need a constant current driver. 2. If you keep LED's switched on all the time, they don't last long because they aren't very good at dissipating heat. The best way to increase their life is to have them switched off half the time, if you switch them on-off 20 times/second this is what happens in practice. The LED driver takes care of this, it also explains why when you shoot a video of cars at night their lights appear to be flashing - this is the stroboscopic interference between the LED drivers' switching frequency and the camera shutter speed.

Of course I didn't purchase on a whim. That's my point.

I have a ten year TE visa and now view it as a colossal waste of money. You don't get a ten year visa at all; you get a one year visa which you have to renew annually at your own cost. This is not made apparent to you and, as many people on this forum have discovered, you can end up with a massive overstay fine and exclusion from the Kingdom if you miss it. None of the services they provide are free - you literally have to pay for almost everything they do for you. You still have to do 90-day reporting, TE will do it for you - but for a fee. And don't get me started on passport renewal; my wife had to renew hers last year and our costs, including TE's charges, were well over Bht 8000.00. When I got my visa, none of the above was made apparent and, as far as I can tell, there is still no fixed tariff of service charges. Even worse, their telephone support is (and I need to be careful here) 'sub-optimal'. Granted, their staff have bee WFH for a long time, but still. As far as I'm concerned, the only 'privilege' I will get is fast track at immigration; i.e. the choice between waiting for an hour at immigration or waiting an our at the baggage claim. Retrospectively, I would have gone for retirement visa. I'm still kicking myself.

I have a TE visa and my advice would be to take a very close look at the small print. All the services they provide are at an additional cost, depending on the visa type and service you require. If you believe that the visa offers you some kind of tax break, go back and read the conditions carefully. And then take a look at what you can and cannot do in terms of work/business under Thailand's general visa regulations. The TE visa does not exempt you from any of those conditions. All that glitters isn't gold.

You could just drop in to Home Pro and get a box of these for B990.00.

Thanks for putting this straight. I've worked in IOC management and tactical withdrawals take years, otherwise very bad things happen and you can take Venezuela as an example. As Ballpoint mentions; the strategic withdrawal from Myanmar began long before the coup. Not only does an IOC need to negotiate the sale of its assets, it needs to ensure that there is a viable plan for decommissioning the infrastructure once the fields are depleted. Not to mention a million other considerations. But let's look at another aspect of this situation. After the oil crash of 2014, a very large proportion of the investment community were led to believe that the "oil age" was over and we were entering an entirely new age of energy production. Oil & gas investing became toxic and COVID drove energy prices down even further. New energy generation from wind and solar was trumpeted as the way forward and all the "smart money" went into these projects - with a hefty dollop of taxpayers' and billpayers' money included. In the early 1980's, global energy production relied on fossil fuels to the tune of about 80%. After massive global investment in renewables over recent decades, our reliance on fossil fuels is approximately... 80%. At the same time, the lack of investment in oil means that the IOC's are struggling to meet the ongoing demand, OPEC+ can barely keep up and non-OPEC supply chains are disintegrating. Every country needs to look after its energy security. Some, including Germany and the UK, have decided to ignore common sense and get off the bus while it's still moving. Now we have the situation in Ukraine which was entirely predictable to anyone who understood demand and supply economics. Back to the original post, Thailand's production activities make a lot more sense, not only are they securing their energy policy, they are acquiring oil products for non-energy use - refined products which are the basis for millions of products that we take for granted. However, all this may change when we can make TV's, paint and MRI machines out of reconstituted bamboo. I'm not holding my breath.

Pumpui’s on the Pattaya side of the ‘chicken’ junction on Soi Siam Country Club (Nongprue) is excellent. Try the kebab pizza, much better than it sounds! There’s also Sicily at Pong next to Mapbrachan Lake, authentic but I prefer Pumpui’s.

Mercedes should have them, they’re for overtaking Verstappen when he’s on fresher tyres.

I had exactly the same problem as the OP earlier this year. I called them in the morning from TH (out of usual UK banking hours) and got everything resolved in about 20 minutes. New app installed, face and voice recognition sorted out. The operator was clearly a native English speaker and extremely helpful. AFAIK, the only call centre in India is the fraud protection service (stop sniggering at the back) and I agree that it is a truly [expletive] awful experience. The telephone quality is dreadful and the operators sound like they are trying to talk with a mouth full of marbles. I once asked to speak to a supervisor and the little [expletive] responded by cancelling all my cards. The UK Banking Ombudsman didn't like that and I was compensated accordingly - eventually. From a moral standpoint, I think HSBC are reprehensible but I've had the account with them for ages and it doesn't make any sense to change to another bank just because of mild indignation.

This was not the case at all, my father was planning a trip to see me and my wife and had no intention of going anywhere else. My father is in his 80's and needs to be extremely careful when traveling - not least because his travel insurance is so expensive. He visited family in Europe in August and was especially diligent, he made sure he complied with all the COVID testing requirements, before and after his trip. However, he was fully informed of the consequences of a failed test. This was not the case with Thailand. The agent could offer no information regarding the outcome of the local tests and, ergo, he was advised not to travel at this time. The agent is one of the UK's most reputable travel services and they excel in non-package trips for business travelers. They also told him that ABTA had made several attempts to obtain clarification from the Thai authorities about the implication of the on-arrival COVID test results, and there was no clear or decisive response. The implication was that, if he traveled, once he was in Thailand he was basically on his own and there was no recourse for compensation or mediation. It appears that other travelers are finding this out in the worst possible way.

This is exactly why my Dad cancelled his trip. Even the travel agent advised him that the on-arrival testing was open to abuse, a possible scam, and that he'd have no recourse with the Thai authorities - even if he tested negative. And here we are, QED.

I'm looking for a pro spray shop which can match paint color to existing components. It's metallic so back-yard Joe's needn't apply! Any recommendations?

My father was planning on coming to LOS in November. Due to the confusion surrounding the subject of the OP, he asked a reputable travel agency and was advised that a failed PCR test would result in him being transferred to hospital at cost to his insurance. They also advised that there was no apparent way to verify the result of the test independently, therefore avoid any travel to Thailand at this time. Reading between the lines, travel agencies are viewing this a potential scam. they'll put you on a flight but, once you hit Swampy, you're on your own.

What about kids? Kids coming from the approved countries will not be double vaccinated. Will they need to be quarantined for 7 days or are they just banned from entering? Apparently you need an app for the Thailand Pass, again, what about kids who don't own smartphones? How many travelers can be included on one app? What happens if your PCR test at the AHQ hotel comes back positive? How long do you need to remain quarantined? Will that be in the same hotel or do they move you to a hospital - or a different hotel? So many unanswered questions...

Get on to Udemy and take some courses, great way to kill time and you get to learn something new.

Essentially the entire month of November will be a non-starter. Who are they expecting? Millions of nuns who enjoy paperwork? Until they get the bars and entertainment open, scrap the COE, and get their plans in the Royal Gazette, nobody is coming. My Dad is trying to get out here but the airlines are like "Meh... too many unknowns. Stay at home."

Yep, hence the original question. The aluminium parts need a special non-metallic blast media which will remove the existing paint but not the metal. I'm working on the drives next week with the intention of getting them back in the water ASAP, currently they need some new seals and bellows, etc. However, if I find a bunch of other nasty issues then I'll do a general rebuild which will include the repaint. Otherwise I'll leave the redressing to next year. Powder coating is looking like a good option but, for marine applications, the surface prep and primer need to be top quality, otherwise the coat falls off within 12-18 months. The other issue is that powder needs to be baked (AFAIK) so I would need to strip the dives down completely. If I use a marine paint this wouldn't be necessary.

Thanks folks. Actually they're marine outdrive components, so not that delicate. I hadn't really considered powder coating and I'm not sure if it's good for marine use - I'll look into that - but first I need to get the old paint off. There's these guys who have an interesting alternative. And for concrete/brick, try these.

I need to get some aluminium parts cleaned up and sprayed.