Sheryl

Yep I've got the electricity blues again, of the wires cooking, smoking, shorting out type, with my woes much aggravated by the "mai pen rai" assurances of what unfortunately passes for electricians in my area.

Can anyone tell me what  a SURGE PROTECTOR is called in Thai? I had one, it fried, would like to replace it (unless it is repairable which I doubt). Nobody locally has a clue about it so I have travelled further afield to the Ampur, doesn't look too promising there either but will give someone who the largest electrical shop swears is actually a trained electrician a whirl.

And when the surge protector fried, one of the wires up in the roof area shorted out as well, knocking out all power. I was away at the time, a local "chang fai" (AKA person with no training in electrical work whatsoever) went in and repaired the short, successful in the sense that power has been restored but I know from bitter experience that the odds are great that he did the repair using wires of too small a capacity which will thus soon overheat and short out again. So when the new "electrician" comes by i need to try to convey this concern to him and get him to go up and check whether the spliced repair wire is in fact of the right gauge ior whatever it's termed.. I know it's ":sai fai" but are there any special words used to convey the idea of a wire's eectrical carrying capacity? (i.e. how do I explain what it is I want him to check - that the spliced in wire repair is the right gauge).?

And lastly what are the terms for CIRCUIT BREAKER, is it just "Brahk-uh"? And the main power supply, is there a term for that or is it just "Main" (doesn't seem to register when I say that)? 2 of the A/cs in the house are not on circuits and I would like to get them on. Need a way to convey that.

Thanks

P.S. I suspect it is a lost cause but if by some miracle any of you know of an actual, qualified electrician in the Sakeo-Kabinburi-Prachinburi-Nakhon Nayok area, maybe even Thanyaburi, please let me know. Anyone who would be willing to come out to Prachin for a comparatively small job.  I'll pay extra for the gas/travel time.

I know it's a straight shot down Rte 4 but wonder if there are any short cuts I can take to get onto Rte 4 south of the Bkk area so as to minimize the traffic?

Departing from saklaya/Phuttamonthon area

Thanks!

Word 2003

Created doc today, saved it only once then did hours of extensive work and then in my fatiugued state hit the "no" rather than the "yes" button and the save option. Auto recovery option was on, as was automatic backup but the latter I think no use since it comes into play only when changes are saved which is exactly what I didn't do.

Already searched for *.asd, zilch. Search for *.tmp finds ~(docname).tmp but with only 1 kb in it and I'm unable to open it.

I much fear I'm totally screwed here but posting in case there is something more that can be done

Computer hasn't been shut down since this occurred. i did exit and then reopen Word (advice from Microsoft site), hope that didn't cost me anything..

Help!

The evil demons who inhabit printers particularly hate me and way too many hours I'll never get back have been spent trying to coax the pages out of a number of printers. repeat paper jams or misfeeds being the main affliction. And then of course there are the outrageous toner costs.

I'm ready to buy a new printer and looking for recs for a brand and model that is reasonably fast, economical in terms of toner costs, and that has a paper feed mechanism that doesn't jam at the least provocation. Of these the reliability and speed matter most but would be nice if the toner didn't cost a fortune.

I'm buying it in Phnom Penh so not limited in terms of available brands, it's pretty much all here.

Some coworkers have suggested Brother brand.

While scan feature would be nice I could live without it as that aspect of my old printer works OK. What I really need is just to be able to rapidly and reliably print out long documents without having to stand over the bleeping thing. while it gives false error messages, misfeeds the paper, jams etc etc

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Does anyone have experience getting an non-imm visa on education grounds while in Thailand on a visa exempt tourist entry?

Due to the floods my niece, who is a student at Mahidol, could not extend her visa (couldn't get letter from the school because it was shut down) so left the country and returned on a visa exempt stamp (should have gotten a tourist visa while out of the country, but that's water under the bridge).

School admin offices finally reopened, she got letter from the school and went to immigration today but was told it is impossible to convert from a visa exemption to a non-imm 'O-ED' . This was at the (temporarily reolcated) immigration office at Nakhoin Pathom and we're trying to decide if it is worth trying in Bkk on Tuesday in case they didn't know what they were talking about or if she should just leave the country now. Her visa exemption expires Tuesday so if she met with no luck in Bkk she'd have to leave at once.

Either way she'll miss the start-up of classes but will miss the least if she goes to Bkk and is successful, the most if she goes to Bkk and they also say no., with leaving now & coming back in on a new non-imm visa falling in between... and, of course, the leaving the country/returning option will also be costly.

Appreciate hearing of any experiences, successful or otherwise, on converting to an O-ED from a visa exemption status

Thanks!