Geoff914

Yes that did the trick, thanks.

A couple of years ago there was some hacking incident and Royal Mail had to suspend all international mail. Strangely at this time of the year. I had sent some mail to Taiwan. It never got delivered when the mail got back to normal. I assume there is a warehouse full of undelivered mail somewhere. One of those never answered problems. A few years ago I ordered some special drills from a US supplier that never arrived so I naturally took it up with the credit card company. This began the most strange saga of events. The US supplier was a bit miffed, not surprised really as the goods had been tracked into the UK. But when I took this up with UK parcel force they said they hadn't got the package. So the US were quite rightly saying but the goods arrived into the UK so nothing to do with them. It was even suggested that UK customs and excise had seized the package thinking the package contained drugs. But no Customs and Excise didn't have it. It wasn't a large order, £30 or £40 an fair on the US company they sent the good again at no charge. But some where, along with all the other undelivered mail, is my original package. Are the authorities our there not curious about the warehouses full of undelivered mail?

Are both passports in the same name? My ex wife can't renew her UK passport at the moment as she rather stupidly produced her Thai passport in her maiden name at the Post Office when renewing the UK passport. The UK PP office refused to renew the UK passport unless she changed her name in the UK or Thailand. She has elected to change her name in Thailand. Either way it is being right pain for her. Nothing to do with me of course. Just pointing out if the names are different then which ever passport she uses the flight booking must be the same.

When at home I tend to use Line and Whatsapp on the laptop. Not sure what I have done but when I open a Line message the message is transparent and I can read the application underneath the Line message. Anybody come across this and how to undo it. Quite annoying to still see any open application behind the Line message.

Then they must have a string of back to back exempt entries. Why are Immigration so dumb they can't see that somebody who goes to Thailand once or twice a year clearly isn't living there.

You see the deformation in that right hand rail. How much force would you need to apply to a rail to produce that much deformation.

Hang on a minute "Thailand’s Ministry of Digital Economy and Society has issued a stark warning about a fake announcement alleging a new rule that limits visa-free entry for foreigners to only twice a year. This comes amid the ministry's ongoing efforts to combat the spread of fake news, which poses significant threats to security and social stability." If this is fake why isn't the announcement from the Thai ministry responsible for Immigration? Thailand's Ministry of Digital Economy, right I am going to trust that one.

If this was true why set the limit at a ridiculous two. Getting 60 days seriously affects people such as myself would want to use Thailand as a base and explore other countries. On of the two used for the first entry then only allowed one more for the whole year. Somebody actually living in Thailand would need to do six entries per year. If the reason was true set the limit at a more realistic 4 or 5. But it makes me wonder if this wasn't a leak to test the water. Make an announcement about thinking of doing something without actually implementing anything. Having tested the waters and seen the backlash then just withdraw it. In the UK the Government has just announced a humiliating climb down over the introduction of digital ID.

Poetic justice then.

Aren't the Chinese complicit in running the scam centres?

When I first went to Thailand the number of annual visitors was about the same as the current monthly figure. And even then the majority of visitors were from Malaysia. Long distance International visitors were very rare.

I thought I would check the tourist figures for my own country and see how they compare. "In 2024, the UK welcomed 42.6 million international visitors, a 12% increase compared to 2023 and 4% higher than pre-pandemic levels in 2019. The top five inbound markets included the USA, France, the Republic of Ireland, Germany, and Spain." So figures against pre-covid are up, not by much but are up. So what is Thailand doing wrong to be down on pre-covid figures?

Yes there is a tone control and I do adjust it for the best sound.

I don't use a sound bar but I do use external speakers. Nothing fancy, just a pair I bought to use with the computer. The difference with the external speakers is noticable. The internal speakers in the tv are appalling in comparison.

To true. I am often asking people to repeat what they say. I can hear perfectly well, that isn't the problem. It seems to be the norm now that words are slurred and merge words into each other. As for people on the phone speaking at 100 miles per hour. Usually scammers so not really too bothered. And why do they think that they speak English so well with that undecipherable Indian version of English.

What annoys me is the level of the volume of a TV show or film isn't consistent. I put the volume at a suitable level then it comes to a dramatic bit and the volume blows my head off. Same with ads, at a higher volume level. As soon as ads start I am rushing for the remote to lower the volume or better still mute the sounds completely.

https://indianexpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Hong-Kong-fire.png?resize=1536 Bamboo scaffold in Hong Kong.

Looking at the historical data in 2024 the tourist figures more or less equalled the 2017 figures. 2018 and 2019 figures have yet to be matched. The figures for 2025 more or less match 2016. Am I missing something?

How do Russian tourists bring revenue to Thailand. Let me guess, Thailand is sanction busting?

I am trying to apply for a METV and it is definitely asking for 3 months worth of bank statements showing not less than 20,000 baht balance. I have periods when it goes less that that and why shouldn't it, it is a working bank account not a savings account. That is if I could even submit the accounts. First you can only submit one file so I have to merge PDFs together then it exceeds 4 MB and is too large to upload. I trying to find a way of creating 3 bank statements that when merged don't exceed 4 MB.

Not saying Britain weren't involved, just that is wasn't Britain doing the torturing.

What complete utter pain in the rear end it is applying for a visa. Right I can merge the individual bank statement PDFs into a single PDF but the size of the file exceeds the size limit. It says submit jpg or pdf not zip file. If I convert the pdf to a jpg is it likely to be smaller?

Why is Britain paying for American torture?

I worked for a satellite company and they would build two satellites. The first fitted with the payload and the second just the frame but with out the payload. The if anything went wrong on launch there was a back up already partly built just needing the payload fitted. For commercial satellites at least. I also worked on an Ion drive satellite that was 2 years late so fortunately missed its launch on the first Ariane 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gp_D8r-2hwk Almost as good as this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl7IqyEyqhY And this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71AwkBt3_ts Watching Musk's stuff is quite satisfying.

Yes I see that now. I didn't realise you could do that.