Sorridstroker

link a paypal account to the bank account.

exchange Fees are high for large sums though.

Something has happened to the quality of Thai produce over the past few years, so not surprising that the EU have had enough. In Londons Chinatown, the best Thai Basil is now from within Europe and is cheaper. The best and cheapest Jasmine Rice available is now from Laos not Thailand.

Thai exporters must be suffering but i doubt anything will change.

We have to grow our own thai basil now.

We buy Indian papaya

Can't get any good quality thai stuff in Worcestershire.

..........while watching Sky TV back in the UK

How do you manage that in Chiang Mai?

I would imagine something like this:

http://www.slingbox.com/go/slingbox

Very wise words.

Will be sure to enjoy ourselves, and may well visit some of those places in that link you referenced.

Thanks guys.

Hi.

Just a bit of our history, Me and my wife used to live in Thailand in Ubonratchatani we ran a minimart for a couple of years in a very poor area. When my wife became pregnant with our first child that changed our needs somewhat so I took the family back to Blighty (UK) we now have a second child and have decided it's high time we came to visit 'coon yai' Excuse my spelling! in Buriram.

So in April next year we are coming back to Thailand for 30 days, most of that will be spent with Granny, however we will spend a bit of time travelling. Now it is our retirement plan to comeback to Thailand in 20 or so years, and based so far on some of your stunning pictures of Chiang Rai and the surrounding areas I am opting to settle here.

With that long term goal in mind, next April we would very much like to spend a few days up here seeing what there is to see, so I thought I would ask the people that live here what would they recommend to see, and additionally where is your favourite area of the province.

So far the only thing on the list is the white temple.

Don't necessarily want to spend all of our time visiting tourist hot spots, we would like to get a true feel for the place as I am well aware of the rose tinted effect.

You will need to take him to a Thai Embassy to register the birth.

process usually takes about 6 weeks, allow 6 months.

You can do this when the child is any age, I took my daughter when she was 2 1/2

Make sure you have correct docs and fee (contact details below)

http://www.thaiconsulateireland.com/

The Wattage basically means how quick and hot it will heat the water.

It has no bearing on the water pressure.

For a 6kw shower you should be looking to provide a dedicated circuit from the distribution box at 6mm2 CSA Ideally protected by at most a 30ma RCD and 32Amp MCB or 32a RCBO.

You will require an Earth/ground that has an actual path to earth/ground.

A 100m legnth of 1.5mm2 copper should have approx 1.133333333ohm resistance.

This does alter with ambient temp.

If in doubt follow this simple test:

Copper has known resistance values for known CSA and legnth they are documented in tables such as:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470998373.app4/pdf

or work out the figure by formula:

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/resistance-resisitivity-d_1382.html

check your purchased cable against these figures.

As it is TT I would put the 40a submain on a 100ma rcd.

Unprotected sso on TT? - think you may require at least some sort of rcd protection to be compliant with BS7671 2008

You could drop it down to 500ma so long as you zs is below a certain value (value escapes me at the moment).

Yes, fitting RCDs was a wise investment in electrical safety.

The main switchboard is MEN, the sub mains and all final subcircuits have a separate neutral and earth. (TN-S).

The 4 volts between the neutral and the earth (at the distribution board or at the airconditioner?) when an airconditioner is running. Did you find the actual cause of it? No earthing of the airconditioners may explain this. The 4 volts itself is not a hazardous value.

Crossed neutrals will cause RCDs to trip. (correct circuit connections)

Neutrals to earth will cause RCDs to trip. (insulation test)

Each final subcircuit must have its own individual neutral conductor. (correct circuit connections) for reasons of safety neutrals must not be shared between final subcircuits.

RCDs must trip at between 50% and 100% of their rated current in mA. Max leakage current should not exceed 30% of rated current of the RCD in mA, otherwise nuisance tripping may occur.

　

　

Why would neutral to earth cause an RCD to trip? And, why is that an insulation test?

Cheers

An RCD monitors difference in current between the phase and neutral conductors both values have to be balanced.

So if a neutral conductor is connected to earth the current value in the neutral is going to be lower than that of the phase conductor as you will get 'earth leakage' so if the values are inbalanced the rcd will trip.

If you carry out an insulation resistance test between conductors it will tell you if the insulation is sound or not hence no 'earth leakage' should occur

Hi,

Just wondered if anybody has a decent list of Thai food suppliers in the UK I'm not wanting vast quantities.

Either On-line or Off line.

Thanks in advance.

Well my wife has got on the bus tonight to travel to bangkok from Ubonratchatani.

Hopefully we will have a visa waiting for us in the passport.

Just one quick question?

What format do the visa's take now? - Are they still paper visas pasted into your passport?

fingers crossed the vfs will stay open tomorrow.

I contacted the VFS today and yes they are contacting people directly about alternative pickup points.

This does not help me however as my papers are already at the VFS and they said no one is willing to go to that building yet to retrieve them, I can't blame them.

so Applications - ok (different country)

passport pickup - ok (as long as your passport was still at the embassy when they shut)

I will be waiting until all this blows over and they reopen the VFS.

"Whilst both the Visa Application Centre and the Embassy remain closed we are also unable to return documents ready for collection. We apologise for the inconvenience. Please continue to monitor this website for updates and further information."

This gives me hope, if the embassy re-opens they may try to send our passport via them

Yes whenever we tried to use the system it never worked, whatever number we used. So in the end we just gave up. Although today my wife got the text saying that her visa is ready to be picked up, but we never got the frist text lol.

So she is traveling down to bangkok tomorrow morning to collect the passport, hoping that it is granted. I know this will be the worst and lost 18 hours of my life. Although the embassy did call my wife last week to ask some questions so for the passed week i have been on end. Fringers crossed it will be ok, i will keep you all posted. We applied on the 12th of march so it took around 8 weeks.

Regards

Vfs is shut today.

I'm in same posistion passport ready - vfs shut.

the easiest and cheapest way by far would be to get a uk passport for your child.

if you already have a british birth certificate it is just a case of filling out one form and paying the fee (about 80 - 100 pounds) you can have it couriered to any address worldwide.

I submitted on the 11th of march and still waiting too.

Holidays and red shirt closures haven't helped.

You cannot pay online in Bangkok, there are some countries that provide this facility but sadly Thailand isn't one of them.

You have to pay by 'Cashiers Cheque' or 'Bankers Draft' when the hard copy copy of the application is submitted and the biometric process undertaken.

yup this is correct.

Be sure to check the amount too as I bought a cashiers cheque on the friday (to save time on monday morning) and by monday it was unacceptable as they had changed the price over the weekend - no slack or compassion I had to go back on tuesday with a new cashiers cheque.

Thanks again.

Thats made me feel a bit easier, hopefully the situation will never become an issue but who knows during the recession.

Thanks for the reply - that all makes sense.

I'm not sure however why they ask if I have claimed jobseekers or housing in the last two years, don't get me wrong I don't plan to live off benefits but heaven forbid I should loose my job then I'm not keen on doing something that may affect my wifes status in the future.

Hi.

Currently my wife is waiting for spouse visa to enter the uk, my question however is regarding the future application of ILR and benefit claims.

I understand that my wife is unable to claim benefits such as unemployment/housing while on her spouse visa.

my question is:

Can I as a British citizen claim benefits such as unemployment/housing without having a detrimental affect on my wifes application for ILR?

I ask because I notice on the ILR application form it specifically asks which benefits we BOTH have claimed during the previous two years.

Thanks for any help offered.

Hi.

We are just about to start getting a visa for my wife who is Thai, I am English.

I am wondering if you can apply for a spouse visa within the UK while my wife was on a Tourist visa?

This would be far easier for us rather than applying from Thailand.

Thank you for your answers.

Thank you for your concise information.

Many regards.

Ok I am in the process of sorting out all the paperwork for a UK settlement visa.

Now I have read the UK border agency's website info on TB certificate it has a link to the thai visa partner for specific info on this certificate, this link however contains no relevant info that I can find.

Basicly I want to know:

At what stage in the application is this required?

Where can we get it? (we live in Ubonratchathani so local to there would be preferable)

How much does it cost?

How long is it valid?

Thanks