Buffy Frobisher

G'day lads and ladies. I've discovered that a mango tree has grown its roots through cement drainage pipes on one side of my property, effectively blocking half my stormwater drainage, and I'm trying to find a plumber who either (a) has a roto-rooter to run through the pipe and cut through the roots, or (b) someone who can slide PVC pipe through the wide diameter cement pipes and replace the drainage system without too much earth upheaval. Has anyone had any experience with this and can recommend someone in Bangkok? Cheers.

If you haven't seen it yet, this is Elon Musk's worst nightmare, and the reason you should dump Tesla stock as quick as you can. The specs on the "Max" version are astonishing.

Screw the taxpayers. Oh, that's right, that's what they've been doing during their entire time in the Senate. They're just pigs with their snouts in the trough. Nothing more than that.

My wife, the chief cook and bottle washer and all-round handyman, and instructor of the chang of course, tells me that we use either TOA or Beyer brands, premium Weathershield in all cases, depending on what deals Home Pro have. She says that glossy is best because it's easier to keep clean. I can't complain - we paint every 3 years and the place looks brand new after 18 years.

Helpful to us, certainly, but not so for you it seems. It was a nightmare out there this morning. The IO at Counter 29 (the front desk - is that 29? - the boss) is retiring this year, and things have slowed down dramatically. She told me years ago to get off the married-to-a-thai visa and said she'd give me the "sabai sabai" visa - retirement. Worth getting if you're over 50. Much less paperwork.

Couple this censorship demand with Sretta suggesting that he bring Chinese police in to "help" police Thailand streets at night, and you've got the Solomon Islands sellout Part 2. In no time you'll have the Chinese "donating" football stadiums and other facilities to win Thai hearts and minds, and before you know it Mandarin will be compulsory in schools. It only ends in tears. Sretta and his kowtowing to Xi may well be worse for this country than TS and his cronies ever were.

Which side of Bangkok are you on now? If you're anywhere near Crystal Park (Lad Prao area - NE Bangkok) I can recommend possibly the best hairdresser in Bangkok - certainly the best I've found in 20 years.

@tontong7 This is by far the best advice, from @ChrisP24. These girls usually have a few marks that they go after - you're not the only one she's doing this to - and the stupid ones send money and stay on the hook to Hell forever. Just block her on everything, and change your number if she calls. Fade away, have no contact, and she'll go after someone else when the effort exceeds the reward. In answer to your original question, no, there is no blacklist for bargirls to report tourists who didn't fold with blackmail, and if everything else about you is above the law then you have nothing to worry about. That said, if you have broken any law here then you have a LOT to worry about and you shouldn't come back. If you have any further problems with Immigration next time you come back, DM me. I have someone who fixes these things quite effectively. Just keep a copy of everything she's ever written to you.

I'm in NE Bangkok and in our area we've lost all Bangkok Bank ATMs and their branch at a nearby mall, plus 3 of 4 SCB ATMs and their branch too. Even the 7-11s are dropping ATMs. And Zen, the Japanese competitor to Fuji at the Plearnary Mall, have now decided that they won't take cash at all, so they're off my menu too. This cashless society is being forced upon us way quicker than I thought it would.

See what @Adumbrationsaid about Thai vs overseas. I only buy 99.9% so that I can move it out of Thailand. If you want to trade just in Thailand then buying Thai gold makes sense.

I agree with @Proton. Hua Seng Heng is by far the best for commissions, at least for 99.9% gold which I've been buying from them for years. And be sure to get physical gold and stash it safely in a vault, not paper receipts which they also offer. At some point demand will outstrip supply if there's a failure of the $, and those holding paper will have a huge headache.

Sorry for the late response. I use the main Chaeng Wattana office in Bangkok. Renewed my retirement three days ago. Same procedure, and all went well. It helps with Bangkok Bank if you update your bank book after each transfer because they use all the FFT lines in the book to generate your statement for Immigration. If you don't update, as I didn't this year, it adds 3 days to the process while the branch requests a statement of every transaction for the year from the Silom Road Head Office, from which the branch extracts the transfers. The book makes them much happier. I hope that helps.

Pretty crappy. AQI is 114 at Bang Khen in NE Bangkok just now. Over 100 across the whole city, up to 152 in places. Still nowhere near what the folk in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai are enduring. Grab the IQ Air app from your app store. It's as accurate as the meter I have at home, collated from many private and Government weather stations across the country.

Each year when I get a statement from Bangkok Bank to prove incoming transfers (I prefer that option to keeping 800K in an account), Immigration just count the number of transfers - it has to be 12 - and don't seem that interested in what the amounts are. They're always well over the base amount, so perhaps they just look to see if the total amount meets or beats that. It's definitely 12 transfers though, but they don't need to be every month. Once I was asked and just said "exchange rate bad" for the months I missed. Hope that helps.

Can't wait to miss it. ????