delboy

A great man and a sad day for football.

RIP Sir Bobby.

I've had no Maxnet connection at all this morning, using dial-up with Loxinfo.

Love this one.

Maradona to Pompey as "global ambassador".

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/...ual_090053.html

edit to correct typo

This appears to be a recent change by TT&T. I too was told that you can only pay the bill at SCB or Krung Thai banks. No more payment in the shop, by DD, or by Internet banking.

I hope this is just a temporary thing.

I have a Kasikorn K-Web card and a Bangkok Bank Be1st Debit Card. I've used both on the internet to make purchases. Not all sites will accept them, even though they are both registered with "Verified By Visa". It appears to me that it's not the site itself that rejects the card but the company they use to verify the card. For example, WorldPay will accept the cards. I have not used either card to purchase air tickets or book hotels, just simple purchases.

Anyone know how to activate verifed by visa for the web card?

This is the info that I got from Kasikorn. I haven't tried it myself yet as I haven't had any problems using the K-Web card . Let us know if it works.

Enter the link to

apply Verified by VISA (for Web card) <https://rt03.kasikornbank.com/eweb/enroll.aspx>

-Fill in the online secured form with your credit card number or Web card number and details as required.

-Specify your own Personal Assurance Message (PAM)** and password.

-Specify your reset password question and enter your e-mail address to receive information about benefits and marketing activities from KASIKORNBANK.

-You can use your Verified by Visa password immediately after registration.

** Personal Assurance Message (PAM) is the message that you specify during registration and will be appeared on the website while you are making online transaction to ensure that online shop is a Visa-authorized merchant.

I've watched all of England's group matches on Thai Channel 7 and they are scheduled to cover the Semi-Final on Friday.

The problem is that their coverage is due to begin at 1.40 am (Saturday Morning) but the England match is due to kick off at 23.00 Friday evening (Thai times). Whether they are showing the England match delayed, The Germany match live, or have mis-scheduled the match, we will, no doubt, find out on Friday evening.

It's on Thai Channel 3 and Channel 7

If you have platinum True visions package, every single game is televised for you.

Every match is now shown live on the Gold package as well.

The Hull-Bolton match was shown live last week, I watched it. Channel 99 I think, but my memory ain't good.

I couldn't find an official explanation for calculating league positions, but this is from the Sporting Life site and also Wikipedia.

If two or more teams finish level on points the team with the better goal difference will finish higher.

If two or more teams have the same points and the same goal difference, the team which has scored the higher number of goals will finish higher.

If two or more teams finish level on points, goal difference and goals scored, and the championship, a relegation place or European qualification is at stake, they will then play off to decide who finishes higher.

The playoff would be on a neutral ground. If a playoff is not required, the teams would share the position.

I was born in Battersea SW London and lived there for the first 35 years of my life. A Chelsea fan since first taken to see Chelsea play Cardiff by my dad in 1954. I was a season ticket holder at the Bridge from 1963 until I moved to Thailand in 1989 and went to most away matches from 1965-1983. Now happy enough to see all the matches on TV, but would still like one more visit to the Bridge someday.

I used to travel to most of Chelsea's away matches in the 1960's and 70's and one trip that stands out is the visit to Anfield for the match on Boxing Day 1966.

We left london on Christmas evening in a Ford Prefect because we had to collect two friends that were staying at King's Lynn which is on the east coast of England. Then we had to cross the Peak District on our way to Liverpool.

The trip started to get exciting when we were high up in the Peak District and the driver found that he had no brakes. It was 2am on Boxing Day morning and we still had a long way to go. Then. luckilly, we stumbled upon one of the few all night garages in the area.

Examinations showed that the brake fluid system was leaking, but they didn't have the expertise to fix things, all they could do was to top up the brake fluid and sell us a couple of cans to top-up as we went.

It was a bit hair-raising, and nobody slept as we stopped every hour or so to top-up. Eventually the fluid was all used up as we headed north on the M6 and we came to a halt at Knutsford service station by using the handbrake. They also were unable to fix the problem, but were able to supply more brake fluid.

Onward to Anfield and, near the ground, we found a garage who could fix the problem whilst we were at the match. Funny how I don't remember a thing about the return journey.

Oh, and the match went the way of nearly all our matches at Anfield at the time, Willie Stevenson & Roger Hunt scored for the Scousers and Bobby Tambling got a consolation penalty for us.

Not really a memorable match, but certainly a memorable trip.

I first came to Thailand in 1981 and first came to Chiang Mai in 1985 for a holiday, and then in 1989 to settle here. Not quite the 30 years requested, but I thought my reminiscences might be interesting.

Having been used to driving through central London in the rush hour to work and back, driving in Chiang Mai was a doddle, the biggest problem was the 3 wheel bicycle taxis and the operators of these always had huge calf muscles. There was no one-way system around the moat, each side was two-way with traffic lights (that usually were not working) at each crossover point.

There was a massage parlour where the car park for the Computer Plaza now is. The current Icon building used to be a Tantraphan store which sold farang food in the supermarket. The original Tantraphan store was on Thapae road near the Bangkok Bank and, when I first arrived here, was virtually the only source of farang food that I knew of. The Tantraphan later moved to the Airport Plaza when that was built around 1991-93, later to be taken over by Robinsons.

Kad Suan Geuw and the Central Department Store opened in January 1992 and was really the place to shop in the early 90's for farang stuff. Makro on the Superhighway opened around 1993 with Tesco at Hang Dong opening in October 1997.

Applying for my first "Thai Wife" visa in 1989 was easy, financial requirement was "Tell us what you have, and we will tell you if it's enough". The visa was approved in a week. Subsequent visa extensions took much longer, as Sassienie has already stated, sometimes the application was still being considered when it was time to re-apply. Passports filled up quickly with frequent trips to Immigration.

JJs was ok for farang food which was thin on the ground until the mid 90's.

My first car was a Toyota Corolla which had to be ordered specially from Bangkok and was driven up to Chiang Mai (no car transporters in those days) after a week.

Satellite TV arrived in 1992 with the Star TV system from Hong Kong including a fledgling BBC World.

As others have said, people stared at a farang, and when I took my wife to visit friends, lots of children would come out of their houses to look at me and old people would stroke my arm, as if not believing the colour of my skin.

We had no telephone until 1995, any local calls were made from a local house that was specially fitted with a phone for use by the local people, but for international calls I had to use the phone at the Post Office at the airport, or the head Post Office.

The airport only had one check-in desk which would spring into life about 1 hour before each plane departed and upstairs there was a large observation lounge.

I have a device that I bought at Amorn a few years ago for 150 baht. On one end of the cable is an plug that fits the earphone socket of my MP3 player and on the other end of the cable is a pseudo tape cassette. I insert the cassette into my tape player in the car and the music or audio book plays through the car speakers.

My car is rather old so I have no idea if modern cars have cassette players anymore.

That's just about correct now.

I was recently issued a Be1st Debit Card from Bangkok Bank. After attempting, with no luck, to use it on the Internet, I discovered that my EDC daily limit had been set to zero which effectively told the BB computer that I had no credit. I had to get that adjusted myself through the 1333 phone system, the local BB branch had no authority to amend my details.

Since then I have found that using the card on the Internet is very hit and miss. I usually make several attempts before either giving up or being successfull. On one occasion despite the transaction being rejected several times online, I found that payments had beed deducted from my account. I informed BB and the payments were speedily refunded.

I usually eventually succeed in using the card, but it does need patience. I too have encountered sites where it's just not possible to select the correct expiry date. I wrote to one such company whose choice of dates was limited to 2015. I was amazed to receive a reply which suggested that if I wanted to use their service I should wait 4 years until my card would be accepted.

All of my transactions have been on sites outside of Thailand.

The photo looks as if it was taken some time ago and I doubt if the current Immigration Office was even built then.

The co-ordinates below are where the office now is, slightly to the right is the car park and further right is the old Immigration Office. To the left of these co-ordinates the distinctive semi-circular driveway of the building next door can be seen. I think this is a Customs building and it serves as an overflow car park for the Immigration Office.

On the other side of the main road are several buildings including a large petrol station. None of these is shown, so the conclusion is that the photo is several years old.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?cd=2&ie...002253&z=18

I recently got a Be1st card from Bangkok Bank that I was told can be used on the Internet. When it was rejected by one website, I retried 6 times varying the name and address details because I did not know the precise details of the card's registration, but with no joy.

On checking my account later, I found that BB had deducted the amount 7 times. E-Mails to the company confirmed that they had received no money as the card had been rejected. I contacted my local BB branch and they put me in touch with the claims department at Bangkok. I sent them copies of the e-mails that I had sent and received, and within 24 hours the money was refunded.

Several other sites rejected my card because it has an expiry date of 2019 and their entry fields only allowed dates upto 2016.

On the plus side, I was able to use it to access the Guardian newspaper archive section.

My application was countersigned by a bank official that I have known personally for some years, I also had a doctor at the Suan Dork as a reserve in case it was needed.

can anyone who has done this advise on the procedure please? is the simplest thing to take your expiring passport to the UK consulate with your 6,000 baht and they then do the necessary?

I got my passport renewed in 2005, don't know if the procedure is still the same but this is what happened to me.

I called at the consulate and was given an application form to complete and also a printed paper in Thai to take to the bank. This was very useful as it informed the bank what type of bank draft they required, how much it was to be for, and who it was payable to.

I had to provide a 2 photos, one of which had to be signed by an official (police officer, doctor etc) that had known me for some time, and he/she had to sign the form as well.

I returned the form to the consulate and I was asked if I wanted the new passport sent to my home, or to the consulate for my collection. I settled for the latter option, and about a week later the consulate phoned me and I collected the new passport.

All in all, very easy.

The foreign commentator who did the English commentary on the Barcelona match last week and spent the first 10-15 minutes giving details of the other matches played in the Spanish League that weekend and then followed that by listing the fixtures coming up for all of the top teams, all of this instead of commentating on the match in progress. When he finally did some commentary he always predeceded a player's name with "is" such as "is messi" or "is Henry".

Then there was a classic comment by one commentator in a match in which Ronaldo hit the bar with a free kick which was "he hit that ball just right, what bad luck". No he didn't you pratt, he didn't score.

Still no problems here, I don't like hearing about problems with a tracker that I use, it may mean trouble for me also later.

For the record I use Firefox, Maxnet and Azureus.

The match is scheduled for Thai TV Channel 7 at 10pm on Sunday.

Yes, I'm using Firefox. If they have problems, I hope they get sorted quickly, it''s my main source of UK TV.

Any other people out there having trouble with "the box " or does anyone know the reasons for the problems. I'm waiting to download the last episode of Oz and James drink Britain.

No problems for me, downloading and seeding as normal. Must be either your connection or the individual torrents.