nkped

I know MGDN is not a big fan of the Trudeaus. I don't know that much about them. Jr. did say something exceptionally stupid about Chinese communism in the past. On the other hand, he has a defence minister who is a combat veteran of Afghanistan. I was living in Michigan when Sr. died in 2000 and was able to watch Canadian coverage of his passing. There seemed to be rather broad agreement that if it had not been for Pierre's actions as PM, there would no longer be a Canada. The notable thing was that the Parti Quebecois (PQ), the separatists, seemed to agree with the difference that the PQ did not think that was a good thing.

I got my temporary driver's license at the Land Transport Office (LTO) today. I was a bit surprised to see that it is valid for two years. To be certain this was not a scrivener's error, I did a Google search when I got home. Apparently, this was a change effective March of last year. The subject was addressed ad naseam on Thai Visa. http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/836010-a-2-year-first-drivers-licence-a-mistake-or-luck/ I would note, it is a "license" and not a "licence." Also, 3pm is on a Thursday was a great time to go to the LTO with very few customers there.

Fat finger syndrome, I meant to give it a greenie.

I showed up around 10am. You sign in and get a number after stating your business, with the main choices being notary service or passport matters. I got #184. Shortly after I sat down, they called several numbers in the area of 30. They called 5 to 10 numbers every few minutes with specific numbers for passport service in a separate line. I think my number was called around 11:30am and I was definitely out the door by noon. The consular people were set up in a conference room with more than adequate seating. Due to the system for calling numbers, I only had to stand for 10 minutes or less. As it happened I had the USD to pay my notary fees. If you pay baht, you would want to be sure you have the exact change. Altogether, it was well-organized for a first come, first served operation and vastly better than a trip to Bangkok.

You get a meter taxi. Of course, the meter is not used. The app gives you the fare which is readily accepted.

The metered taxis do quite a bit of business, all without using the meters. I wonder if by unlicensed taxis, they mean the various unmarked cars/pickups taking fares or whether the also mean songthaew operating in taxi mode? In Bangkok, taxis pretty consistently use the meter so it can be done. Whether it will be in Pattaya is another matter.

"Maths" still sounds like something you attend on Sunday morning.

Consular Outreach: Pattaya The Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok is pleased to provide services in Pattaya on Friday, February 5, 2016 from 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM at the: Amari Ocean Pattaya 240 Pattaya Beach Road Pattaya, Bang Lamung District, Chon Buri 20150 03-841-8418 http://www.amari.com/ocean-pattaya/ Services will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis; no appointment is necessary. The following consular services will be available during our outreach visit. PASSPORT SERVICES: Renewal of adult passports ($110 / 4,070 TBH – exact change required) Renewal of minor (under age 16) passports ($105 / 3,885 THB – exact change required) – IMPORTANT: The child and both parents must appear in person. Replacement of adult lost/stolen passports ($135 / 4,995 THB – exact change required) Replacement of minor (under age 16) lost/stolen passports($105 / 3,885 THB – exact change required) IMPORTANT: The child and both parents must appear in person. IMPORTANT: There are two ways to receive your new passport: 1.) IN PERSON: Come to our office in Bangkok (or send a representative on your behalf) during our appointment hours (M-F from 7:30-11 AM or 1-2 PM, except Thursday afternoons, holidays, and the last Friday of every month), but no appointment is necessary. Present your old passport for cancelation and collect your new passport. 2.) BY MAIL: Purchase a prepaid Thai Post envelope at the outreach for 80 THB (exact change required). If you select this option, our staff will take your current passport to Bangkok, cancel it when the new passport arrives, and mail both passports to you at the same time. NOTARIAL SERVICES Income Affidavits (for retirees) and other affidavits ($50 / 1,850 THB – exact change required) SOCIAL SECURITY, VETERANS AFFAIRS, AND OTHER FEDERAL BENEFITS QUESTIONS Limited services available—We will attempt to answer questions and provide necessary forms CONSULAR REPORTS OF BIRTH ABROAD CANNOT BE PROCESSED AT CONSULAR OUTREACH EVENTS Please see http://bangkok.usembassy.gov/service.html for more information. Send questions to acsbkk@state.gov or call 02-205-4049. Follow us on Twitter by searching our username @ACSBKK. SPECIAL OPPORTUNITY: VISA PRESENTATION During this visit only, members of the visa team will give a 30-minute presentation on the immigrant (green card) and non-immigrant (tourist) visa process. The presentation will be repeated several times between the hours of 9 to 11 AM in the Mokara room at the Amari Ocean Pattaya hotel. Pre-registration is not required.

Doing a test.

The benefit to a Bangkok Bank account is that it has a New York branch which means the transfers into you account are domestic ACH transfers. I haven't done it myself, but Bangkok Bank says you can have your recurring US government checks directly deposited to one of their accounts. There is a quirky restriction on getting money out. Rather than paraphrasing the bank's language-- "The US Treasury Department has ceased issuing paper cheques for the payment of Federal retirement benefits such as pensions, annuities or payroll, including Social Security and Veterans Affairs payments, and now requires direct deposit of your benefit into your bank account. You will therefore need to notify the US government agency providing your Federal benefit how you wish to receive payments. As Bangkok Bank is the only provider in Thailand offering a direct deposit services into a Thai bank account, you can ask the relevant US government agency to route your payments into your Bangkok Bank account via Bangkok Bank’s New York branch. If you reside in Thailand, you can apply for the service in person at any Bangkok Bank branch (except for micro branches). Benefits of the Direct Deposit Service Your payments are deposited directly to your account every month. Funds will be converted into baht using the rate for receiving electronic funds transfers (Buying TT rate). How to apply: If receiving payments from a US Government Agency Download the 'Direct Deposit Sign-up Form (SF1199A)' from www.socialsecurity.gov/online. Complete the form to sign up for Direct Deposit with your relevant US government agency. Open a savings account at any Bangkok Bank branch (except micro branches). If you already have an account with Bangkok Bank, you can use your existing bank account for this service, however we will need to change the type of account in line with the Direct Deposit’s terms and conditions. Complete a 'Direct Deposit Service Application' form, which you can pick up at any Bangkok Bank branch (except the micro branches). You can also opt to fill out an SMS Remittance Alert Service Request Form to receive an SMS notification on your mobile phone when funds have been successfully transferred into your Bangkok Bank account. Submit all forms to Bangkok Bank with the following supporting documents: Identification Card/Government Official ID Card/Passport together with a customer identification document such as your Social Security Card, Annuitant ID Card etc. A document from the relevant agency giving evidence of your right to receive the payments. After verifying your documents, Bangkok Bank will submit your application to the government agency asking them to approve your request to receive the funds via Direct Deposit. After the request is approved by the US Government Agency, your payments will be electronically deposited directly into your Bangkok Bank account. Important If you use a direct deposit service to receive funds from a US Government Agency, you must appear in person at a Bangkok Bank branch to withdraw the funds. Bangkok Bank cannot authorize the withdrawal of funds from your direct deposit account by an appointed representative, or via ATM or any other electronic channel. You must appear in person at a Bangkok Bank branch to withdraw the funds. You can, however, open a normal savings or current account and transfer the funds from your direct deposit account to this account. You may then withdraw your funds as usual via ATM or any other electronic channel. You can also opt to directly contact the US Government Agencies to send funds into your savings account with Bangkok Bank. However, we still need to request that you change your savings account to a Direct Deposit account. Failure to comply will result in Bangkok Bank not being able to deposit funds transferred from the US Government Agency into your account." http://www.bangkokbank.com/BangkokBank/PersonalBanking/DailyBanking/TransferingFunds/TransferringIntoThailand/ReceivingFundsfromUSA/Pages/ReceivingFundsfromUSA.aspx I do know a Thai lady who is getting her military widow's check through Bangkok Bank so I believe it can be done.

Phya Thai to 33 would be Skytrain.

Want to say 35-40 baht to Phya Thai. Have never gone as far as Soi 33 but I suspect you could make the entire trip from the airport for under 100 baht. You will have lots of company on the Skytrain at that hour.

Properly speaking, it's the airport link and not Skytrain. You could take it all the way to Phya Thai and then take the Sukhumvit line to Soi 33. You could shorten the mileage but probably not save any time by getting off the Airport Link at the station which connects to the MRT (subway) and taking that to Asoke and switching to the Skytrain there.

In and out today in about 10-15 minutes for a reentry permit at around 9:30am.

You do realize it would be a very small % of the population in North America and, I would think, the UK, which would recognize the items in post #10 as handles for any kind of fork.

Interesting. With at least one trip a year since 2002, I've had only one time my baggage didn't arrive when I did. That was in January this year when a scheduled tight connection in Incheon got even tighter due to strong head winds coming across the Pacific.

So much for my power of observation. The Marriott facility does have some barbells and associated benches for their use.

The free weights at the Marriott are all dumb bells. Not an issue for me, but may or may notherwise meet your requirement. I drive by the Tony's at Pattaya Tai and Third Road regularly. It's a big operation and may have free weights including bar bells.

With a Samsung A5, I had to stumble around a bit. When I go to settings, I start in Quick Settings. Eventually, I tried the More Networks option and things began to look like the instructions on the AIS site. And, yes, you do need to restart your phone.

Although I remember a female friend talking to another woman, "Well, fuck him. Better yet, don't fuck him."

Well, it is a news story rather than the rule itself, but I wouldn't be overstaying.

It appears there will be another concert and night market this Friday and Saturday--12 and 13 December--at the same location. Combined with high season evening traffic, it should be really interesting. If you are going to Jomtien for some other reason, you probably don't want to go via Thrapprya.

If you have, or can get, a library card number from home, you may have access to a significant number of ebooks. The app for downloading and reading them is Overdrive which has its own eccentricities but is definitely usable. I was on the verge of buying the novel Ghost Fleet but thought to check the Anchorage library and discovered it had the ebook. And, yes, downloads to a Thai ISP work just fine.

When I went back to school in Nebraska in the late 80's, there was a significant number of Malaysian students. Many of them were girls (often cute) who wore the hijab so they were visible. One day, when it was about 0F/-16C, I saw 3 or 4 of them making their way across campus. Later, I commented to my brother that they were probably reconsidering their concept of hell.