delboy

I did my visa last week (not the 90 day), and was informed that the grade period will soon be shortened so that you must notify your address from 7 days before up till the date it is due. So you can't be up to 7 days late now.

I did my 90 day report at Chiang Mai and asked about this. The officer said he hadn't heard about it. The only change from last time was the requirement to produce copies of the pages in the passport.

Mind you, just because the officer was not told of any change does not mean that it will not happen. TIT

As the "package" which contains the England Away matches does not appear to include the FA Cup it seems extremely unlikely that True will be covering it, however, This Is Thailand and we have no way of knowing for sure until later.

In previous years Thai TV Channel 7 has shown FA Cup matches but if this year's competition is covered by a new contract then there is no way of knowing about this either.

I think it would be advertised on the True Visions web site if they had the rights to the FA Cup, the same as they advertised the Premier Leage last year, but no such ad has appeared.

True Sports, ESPN, Star Sports, or the Thai TV channels are not covering the match.

Thai Channel 7 Programme Schedule - http://www.ch7.com/entertain/onair.aspx

Thai Channel 3 Programme Schedule - http://www.thaitv3.com/schedule/schedule.html

Both are in Thai, but it's fairly easy to see that the match (kick off 23.15 Thai time) is not scheduled on either channel. No other Thai TV channel, at present, shows live football.

Looks like we either find a bar or try JustinTV.

Delboy, how do you split the file into parts?

Colin

Personally, I use a program called Cool Edit Pro which I've had for a long time and has since been renamed under new ownership. If you have Nero burning software you can use their Wave Editor. A quick search on Google for "mp3 split" reveals lots of free software out there, I'm sure you can find one that you like.

I have a Creative Zen MP3 player which I mostly use in the car for playing music or audio books. It has a pause button which is useful when I'm out shopping and stopping at several shops.

If I have a big file, say 2 or 3 hours long, then I split it into 30 minute long segments, so that if I have to fast forward then it's not too bad.

My dad was born on the day that Chelsea played their first league match and he was a regular at the Bridge between the wars and afterwards. We lived in Battersea and we could walk to the home matches across Battersea Bridge, along the embankment and through the side streets to the ground.

I went to my first away match, at Birmingham, in 1964 and then went to most away matches on the supporters club coach through the 60's, then by car. We had a season ticket in the old North Stand from 1963 until it was closed in 1971, then we moved to the West Stand until my father passed away. I continued my season ticket until 1987 and travelled to nearly all the away matches including the European matches in the early 70's. A great time in Athens in 1971.

We made some good friends in Liverpool (Everton fans) and Manchester (City fans) and always stayed with them overnight when playing in the North West, and they stayed with us when playing in London. Many great nights at the Everton Supporters Club in the old cinema and then at the 500 club at Goodison and the City Social club at Maine Road. We still keep in touch by Skype & E-Mail.

I left the UK for Thailand in 1987 and have only seen Chelsea live once since then, in 1998 when they visited Bangkok. I count myself lucky that I can follow the matches live on the TV, but it's not really like being there.

From a quick search I discovered that M-League Marketing Sdn Bhd (MLM) is a media rights marketing agency based in Kuala Lumpur. I assume that this means that it buys the rights for sporting events and then sells them to TV broadcasters.

Not only have they bought the media rights for the F.A. football matches, they also seem to have bought the rights for the 2010 World Cup. They already had the rights for the 2006 World Cup.

I stumbled upon an ESPNSTAR press release dated 9th November 1997 which explains why the Community Shield and the England internationals are not being broadcast this season in Thailand.

http://www.espnstar.com/about-us/press-rel...ease/item63473/

The first part of the press release states:

9 November 2007, Singapore: ESPN STAR Sports, Asia's No. 1 sports broadcaster, has renewed a multi-year exclusive agreement with England's governing body of football, The Football Association (The FA), for broadcast rights to The FA Cup, England Internationals and The FA Community Shield on multimedia platforms for the 2008/9 - 2011/12 seasons.

Under the agreement, ESPN STAR Sports will maintain exclusive broadcast rights for all FA Cup matches, from Round 1 to the Final; The FA Community Shield and all Senior and Under-21 England Team home matches, including the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship qualifiers played at home and all friendly matches. These matches will be broadcast to 20 markets across Asia including China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea as well as Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Macau, Myanmar, North Korea, Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam. For the first time, ESPN STAR Sports will also have exclusive rights to present the content on digital media platforms which include www.espnstar.com, www.espnstar.com.cn, www.espnstar.com.tw, mobileESPN and the soon-to-be launched STAR Sports Mobile, in a reflection of the evolving trends in sports viewing.

________________________________

Whilst not actually stating that these matches will not be shown in Thailand, it doesn't mention Thailand in the list of countries.

It explains why there has been no coverage of the F.A. matches and indicates that there will be no coverage of the FA Cup later in the season, but Champions League matches should be broadcast.

If this was known nearly a year ago, why did UBC/True indicate that the Community Shield match would be shown?

This arrangement will last for 4 seasons. Have the Thai TV or True secured the rights for the FA Cup matches? Only time will tell.

Channel 7 is listed as covering the Holland v Australia friendly international from 2am on Sunday morning.

However, the UBC/True schedule shows the Andorra v England match will be broadcast on Truesports 1, channel 61, from 1am.

There is no schedule shown for Truesports 1 for the date of the Croatia match. I think that's because the True channels change on September 9th.

With UBC/True's past record we really just have to wait and see.

Further checks reveal that the UBC/True schedule shows Champions League matches listed for ESPN/STAR SORTS as for previous years. No conformation will be availble from the ESPNSTAR website until next week as their schedules now only show one week ahead.

No details of Channel 7 coverage will be available until next week. Channel 3 is not listing the Champions League matches in it's list of "special programmes". It did so last season. It is listing the Man C v Chelsea match for Sept 13th live.

In fairness to True, if the trailer was shown on ESPN then it was probably ESPN that made it, so it is they who do not know to which countries they are broadcasting.

Another trailer that I saw last night was for England's match with The Czech Republic to be shown early on Thursday morning. That too had a line saying not available in Thailand.

A check of the ESPNSTAR schedule for Thailand, the TrueVisions online schedule, and the Thai TV schedules indicate that the match will not be shown here.

Both the ESPNSTAR website TV listings for Thailand, and the TrueVisions online schedule have Football Forecast and First Edition listed for Friday evening.

Strange that the ESPNSTAR website was showing the game in it's schedules for Thailand even as the game was in progress.

Was this a very late decision not to show the match, or are ESPNSTAR just as incompetent as UBC/True?

I do believe that the Premier League matches will appear as normal, but I'm unsure about the ESPN coverage (FA Cup, Football Focus etc.).

The ESPNSTAR website is showing Football Focus in it's schedule for Thailand tonight at 19.00 and it's also shown in the True online schedule, so maybe things will get a little clearer then.

Important - If you hold UK State Pension Rights - This Could Cost You Money.

But there is now a time limit at the bottom of page 3 in this UK National Insurance - Voluntary Payments Guide there is a statement that Voluntary Payments must be made before 6th April 2009

There is nothing new in this, it's been known ever since the UK government made their cock-up. The time limit of 6 April 2009 applys ONLY to voluntary contributions for the years 1996-2002, voluntary contributions for other years can still be paid up till 5 years after the year in question. For example you can pay voluntary contributions for the tax year 2007-2008 up to March 2013, but they will be increased in line with inflation.

However it is a great way to pay for years that you have missed at a bargain price, and anybody who does not have the 30 years credits should avail themselves of this opportunity to boost their pension.

Any idea on how to disable the yahoo search toolbar?? As, I'm sure that is what is in conflict with my google search toolbar.

Tried their info and didn't find anything.

I installed AVG 8 and chose to install the Toolbar by mistake. To get rid of it, re-install AVG 8, without unistalling your current copy. In the installation process, choose the Add/Remove Components option. It will then ask you to choose which components you want to retain. When it shows the Toolbar option, ensure that the box is unchecked.

It worked for me. The Toolbar and Yahoo Search facility is gone.

Try as hard as they could Chelsea had no answer to the brave tenacity of these Yorkshire lads.

Not one of the Barnsley team was a Yorkshireman, they were born in places like Rotterdam, Sao Paulo, Jamaica, Nigeria, and Hungary.

I'm not knocking their performance, the better team won, but I don't think I'll be looking forward to a Cardiff v West Brom final.

The big clubs are only interested in the competition for the money it generates. The English players do realise what it still means to the supporters, but to the foreign players, it's a nothing competition.

While it is probably not a legal retirement to contact the Immigration Office when you arrive back in Thailand, I would think that it's a good idea to do it anyway.

Then they can calculate the date that you next need to do a 90 day visit. You wouldn't need to complete the 90 day form, just request them to give you the next date.

This would prevent the possibilty of you making a mistake in your own calculations and finding yourself in an overstay situation.

I realise that it's not exactly rocket science maths needed, but we all have bad days.

Comparing Newcastle's results so far this season against the corresponding matches last season (substituting promoted teams for relegated teams) they have scored 3 goals more, conceded 13 goals more and have 4 points less.

For the "Big Four" clubs, Man U have 2 points less, Chelsea have 1 point less, Arsenal have 11 points more, and Liverpool have 3 points more.

The biggest gainers are Man City with 19 points more, and the biggest losers are Reading with 11 points less.

The three clubs promoted from the Championship last season all have less points than the 3 clubs that were relegated from the Premier League. Sunderland 1 point less than Sheff U, Birmingham 1 point less than Charlton, and Derby have a whopping 10 points less than Watford had. Watford finished last season with 28 points.

This is comparing the matches the teams have played, with the matches played against the same opponents last season, not just the first 21 matches of the season.

A few weeks ago Harry Redknapp (concerning the England Manager job) said that he was happy at Portsmouth and did not need the money and aggro attached to the job. Now, I know that he was never a serious contender for the England job and he could afford to say that, but the Newcastle job is just as dangerous, reputation wise, as the England job, so now we can see just exactly what his words are worth.

Personally I think that he would be stupid to give up a good job in an area that he loves so much to move to Newcastle where he knows he's got till the end of the season (at most) to impress.

There won't be a shortage of applicants though, what a cushy post for someone that wants it. Sign a 4 year contract, do nothing for a few months, and walk away with a few million in the bank.

Where do I sign?

That website is miles out of date....imagine my surprise....

For 1024/512 on Premier which Im going to change to is 1166 inc tax now, the old price for 256/128. Sure hoping it solves my problems with my java trading application that will only work with a VPN connection (which takes 3/4 reboots of router to login to a connection that works!) ....ah the joys of Thai ISP's. Never known anything quite like it.....nothing quite like trial and error to get a nice consistent ISP service....er...er....

Will post back to report on whether it solves my problems....fingers crossed

That price of 1,090 baht per month before tax is a promotion price until December 31st, the normal price is 3,400 baht per month before tax. Nobody knows yet if current subscribers will see a price increase at the end of the year when the promotion ends.

The Chelsea jinx strikes again.

Valencia lose to Chelsea at home - Valencia manager leaves.

Bolton lose to Chelsea at home - Sammy Lee leaves

Wigan lose to Chelsea at home - Chris Hutchins leaves.

Derby lose to Chelsea at home - Billy Davies leaves.

I extended my visa recently with 2 bank accounts, and Bangkok Bank issued just the one certification letter that covered both accounts. As one account was a joint account with my wife, I had to produce the marriage certificate and her ID for Immigration, but there were no problems with the application.

Managers must be very nervous when they play Chelsea at home. Sammy Lee lost his job after Bolton played Chelsea, Hutchins went after Wigan played Chelsea and the Valencia manager didn't last long after they played Chelsea. Is David Moyes worried?

No Wiki for me either for 3 days. I'm on Maxnet, other friends having no problems. ok to access it on dial-up connection.

I haven't been able to connect to hotmail from my Maxnet connection for several weeks. With Firefox I get the "never complete" message, with IE6 the page times out. I can connect easily using my dial-up connection and I use that to check my mail.

It seems speeds on Maxnet have taken a horrible dive over the past few weeks as well. It's all a bit of a mystery at this point - one more part of the this greater mystery we all love...called Thailand

It's no mystery at all if you're on the Maxnet Indy service. This is a service designed for Thai web surfing only and over the past few weeks Maxnet and other ISPs have been restricting the bandwidth allocated to international connections and boosting the bandwidth available to domestic connections. If you have a torrent that has a connection to at least one Thai IP address then it downloads fairly fast. If all your connections are to international IP addresses it will dribble. This is unlikely to improve in the future and Maxnet are advising anyone that uses international connections to upgrade to their Premier service at a much higher charge.