MartinL

I like the thought of the Thai Red Cross creating a body. I'm sure you meant 'cremate' though 🙂

Please move to a more appropriate forum if not suitable for "HEALTH and Medicine". My 90 y.o. friend made formal arrangements, years ago, to donate his body to a hospital medical school in Khon Kaen on his death. Now he feels he's approaching the end of his life, he checked to make sure arrangements were still in place. He was told that the hospital can no longer take the bodies of foreigners because of "problems with embassy", something they couldn't or wouldn't elaborate on. I can't see why his embassy - UK - would have any objections to or interest in him making such a donation after death. He has no children, no UK family, nobody to make claims on him. His Thai wife is his next of kin. I don't think he's made a Will in which he could specify donation of his body since he has nobody to inherit his estate except his wife so that's taken care of by Thai inheritance law. His wife agrees to his donation. A forum search resulted in a Chiang Mai forum recent thread on the same subject that suggested donation by a foreigner IS possible and a hospital in the north-east is specifically mentioned in one post. Is there, in reality, a restriction on taking foreigners' bodies? Is it up to individual hospitals to accept or reject foreigners? Is the hospital basing its rejection on out-of-date instructions from the government? Of course, they might be rejecting him because of age without actually saying as much. I've been thinking of doing this myself but if the restriction stands, there doesn't seem much point.

So now even "resembling foreigners' is a potential offence, is it? There seems to be no end of ways they're trying to finger foreigners for Thai crime. Surely, if the thieves definitely were foreigners, it would have been one of the first things used to describe them by the shop staff.

Since when has Phrae province been in Isaan, or has there been a wholesale redefinition of Thailand's regions while I was asleep? A few weeks ago it was 'crocodiles in Nakhon Sawan' now this.

Attempted rape of a doctor by a Thai and kicking of a doctor by a foreigner ...... it'd be interesting to know the comparison of the final sentences in both these cases. But we'll never know because, while the foreigner's case will be publicised widely and enthusiastically, the Thai's will be lost in the mass of other news.

A peacock.

I've been here 15 years and, literally, the only food I've REALLY missed from UK is a Cheddar cheese (preferably English) and Branston sarnie on seedy bread. Luckily, both are available here so, from time to time I get my fix and can then continue for a while ...... until the next one.

Exactly the thought going through my mind too.

Thanks Crossy. They're either PEA or tessaban poles, PEA installed/renewed last July, and it's PEA who've been asked to perform the move. As in your case, an extra pole would work but it seems a real hassle just because someone feels 'unlucky',

Does anybody here know whether there are any regulations governing the spacing of PEA electricity poles in a domestic situation? It seems sensible to me that there would be but ........ A long-vacant plot opposite us is finally being built upon 🙂. The new owners want to move an existing pole because it's 'unlucky' in the current position. At present, there's about 15m between poles. In the position proposed, there'll be about 5m and 23m between poles. In addition, it'll cause problems getting an electricity supply to our house since there'll then be another building in the way, between the pole and our house. I'm sure this will be resolved in an amicable way but I want to gather facts so I can be prepared. Thanks.

Nakhon Sawan, Isaan???

I checked my online HMRC Personal Tax Account (PTA) today to find out whether or not they'd presumed my frozen pension for 24/25 had received the annual increase when, of course, it has not. Sure enough, the pension figure had been increased by 8.3% and my tax code had decreased = more tax. I called HMRC on +44 135 535 9022 and eventually spoke to someone after a half-hour wait and that awful 'music'. She initially said that they'd have to wait until officially advised by DWP that the pension was frozen before any correction could be made. When I pushed it a bit, she spoke to somebody and came back to say that, since the figure for frozen pension was the same in 24/25 as it was for all previous years that I've received the pension, they could change it there and then which she did. Ten minutes after completing the call, I rechecked my PTA and the correction had already appeared there. If you have this same problem and your pension amount is unchanged, ask the advisor to check because they CAN make the correction immediately if pension amount is unchanged

She's retired now but when my wife was teaching, she also had to do weekend security duty maybe one w/e in 4, buy stock for and run the school 'tuck shop' and, towards the end of her time, buy food for school lunchtime once a week, I think. Only the female teachers had to do that last one. It all drove me up the wall and I told her so but she wouldn't complain. I almost had words with the school director but she looked horrified and said "No! You can't do that".

From the linked article:- "John, a retired teacher, received his UK pension .... John could potentially qualify for the “Wealthy Pensioner” category once he reaches 50 years old in a few years". So 'John' appears to be retired from teaching in his mid-40s or earlier. I can't imagine that any UK teachers' pension fund would allow a member to draw a pension at such a young age. I thought the minimum age for pension eligibility was 55 with, I seem to recall, moves being proposed to increase this minimum age. Something not right about this example but I doubt it's 'real people'.

This https://waqi.info/#/c/15.803/102.606/14.2z website currently shows the air quality about 2 km from my house as 19 yet we're surrounded by values of about 170, with 300 only 30 km away. I have to ask, is our local monitoring station broken? EDIT - a few minutes after posting, the value had gone down to 4!

Can anybody recommend a good bicycle shop in KK city? I'm after one with a good range of types, sizes and prices. My local shops, far from the city, only have bottom-of-the-range machines and I might want to choose something more than that. I'm returning to cycling after a loooong break and am after something for dirt road exploration and, maybe, a bit of mild off-roading on the pretty flat local terrain.

Are there any recommendations for a pocket-sized field guide to the birds of Thailand, please?

I like that description of a wife and it caused a big smile. I've read enough of your posts to know you make very few spelling mistakes so it's clearly intentional and quite humourous.

After reading about problems with this online TM30 reporting, I was expecting the same but No. We'd been registered on the old system although we'd never used it but have had to re-register now. I set it up using my wife's details - ID card, blue book etc. - and in English. She knew what I was doing, of course, but took no part in it. It's far easier for me to complete everything in English than for her to do it in Thai. I then downloaded the example Excel sheet, completed it and sent it off. There were small problems caused by my unfamiliarity with the website but nothing that couldn't be sorted in a couple of minutes. Only thing I didn't like about it was that I couldn't submit in advance of the arrival date, despite knowing all the details. Once the report had been submitted, I took a screenshot of the webpage, including details of the person staying with us, and that was it - finished. I suppose it took about 30 minutes in all.

Yes, of course that's necessary. But an executor mightn't be available or willing to give that long-term support. Private pensions are the main concern. As you say, State Pension - dead. Banks and insurance - not too difficult. How about tax on your widow's pension? Do you know whether or not your widow can receive the same tax-free allowance (currently £12,570) that you received? She might have to pay 20% income tax on any widow's pension she might be entitled to. Luckily I know the answer to that question but do you? The answer, if you don't, is here:- https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/residence-domicile-and-remittance-basis/rdrm10340 HMRC might like to keep that quiet. Looking back at an old thread, I think that you, Billd766, DO know about that but others might not know. I've also heard that it needs to be applied for annually but haven't got time to look for a reference now.

I'd think it's at least as important to help foreigners' widows who live in Thailand. While it might be daunting for a widowed Thai living in her spouse's country, it must be far more of a challenge for a Thai in Thailand and having to deal with (in my case) distant British government, banks, insurance companies, pension providers etc.

Last June had no trouble hiring on a 5 year Thai licence except ...... Only problem was paying some of the fees. I paid the main hire fee in advance, online from Thailand, with a UK card. However, when it came to paying the refundable deposit etc. at the hire office in UK, they wouldn't accept the UK card because the card address and licence address didn't match. They could see on the hiring record that the major part of the costs was paid with the UK card but there was no way the computer would accept that card once a Thai licence had been registered. I used my Bangkok Bank card with no problem. I've been told that if you hold a valid UK licence, you MUST use it to drive on UK roads. Most of the time, there'd be no consequences, I suppose, if you used the Thai licence anyway but in the event of an accident, the hire car insurance would probably be invalid.

No yellow light in this video but is there anything in it that might help you? Maybe search for a video specific to your Forza model?

The usual dashboard symbol for 'Low Oil Pressure' is a red oilcan, not a yellow light. A better description of your problem, rather than "wee yellow light" might get better answers. Low oil levels usually don't initiate a fault light unless that low level also leads to low oil pressure. A yellow light could be ABS, engine management, for example, not necessarily related to oil at all.