pattayadingo

£18600 pa is barely a living wage for one person now in the UK. I spend time in both countries and at present we just do the visit visa. I couldn't see us living here(UK) on that amount of income, though I am sure it can be done, its not much of a life.

I think we might go for the settlement visa next year for easier travelling between the two countries and after ILR for the option of travelling together to other places .

Wages in the UK are crap and inflation and devaluation are taking the value of peoples savings away so it gets harder and harder to maintain a Thai based life on UK earnings, let alone a UK based life.

None of the UK/Thai relationships I know of here involve benefits of any kind, bit of a red herring . Most Thai wives seem happy to work if they can from what I have seen, or husbands have good enough incomes. The ridiculous questions in life in UK exam are a puzzle to me as most school leavers in the UK are flummoxed by them.

Good luck to all applying for settlement.

If that £18,600 is barely a liveable wage, how on earth do all the U.K. pensioners survive? The greatest majority get a lot less than that.

The U.K. income support level is also way below that figure too, yet there are people who manage on that.

Two different newspapers & 2 different angles to this.

The Aussie was drunk according to the 2nd report posted. If that is the case, many people make mistakes or take offence at some triviality when they are the worse for wear regards drink. Maybe a former incident, we obviously do not know.

Yet, that was an expensive throw of a brick.

It does seem an odd reaction from the Oz tourist. I doubt that the report contains all the information and seems very one sided. Maybe a previous incident(s) with this taxi driver or others. He may simply be a crazed tourist.

But hurling a rock through the window of the taxi is a no-no in any country. He is lucky that those restraining him did not give him a good kicking while waiting for the police to arrive.

Why not use one of the many machines located in the streets / shops here? Cheap enough, but then you would have to wait for the washing to finish and dry and iron the clothes yourself.

Sad as it is, there is also likely to be a minumum number of ambulances available too and one accident here does not take preference over another for the ordinary folk. Then there is the time to contact the ambulance and get things moving here, unlike the U.K. for example where you dial 999 and get put directly to the emergency services and generally get a quick response.

It could well be that the ambulance used the small local hospital to get the patients assessed, especially as those on the ambulance generally have little equipment or ability to diagnose the medical condition of the patients.

Don't ask them to start counting to 24 without some extra fingers and toes or a calulator. They do struggle with their own time frame already

I think having a good MIL helps with life for the daughter too. Especially one who has a sense of humour.

One example being the other day. The g/f walks around the house in her bra and briefs most of the time. She was on the phone to her mother and said her mother wanted to speak to me. After i finished speaking and handed the phone back, I slapped the g/f's ass playfully a couple of times. The MIL heard it and asked what the sound was. After the g/f explained the mother had a great laugh about it.

There have been phone calls with the sister too and she always seems to end up giggling.

I think having a sense of humour can be a great leveller and Thai's do have one.

It's not like you get first quality meat at those barbecue buffets, also you have to cook the meat yourself which gets quickly boring and the side dishes are really cheap

This. The meat is likely very low quality.

Well, since IKEA stopped serving "meatballs", there is more mystery meat available for these buffet joints.

You know you've been eating too often at the buffet when you start whinnying and counting with your foot.

Neigh.

Cider but not available outside of touristy places and bloody expensive.

140 Baht a glass if I want cider. That's over £3 a glass.

Lovely cider when I did have a glass though.

As the topic suggests. What is the current cost of taxing an 1800cc car, please?

Thanks.

150 Baht ! Yes; things have gone up a lot these days; just four years ago we used to go to a really good one at 99 Baht per head in CM, always plenty of choice too.

Same here. 99 Baht per head. The whole family and others would pile into 2 trucks and head off to the buffet once a month. They could eat a lot too.

1st bottle of water each was free and paid after that. Paid for the beers.

Seems to me there was not a lot of profit in the buffet itself but in the sale of beers and extra water. I'd think of it more like a bar where they make money on each beer sold and these buffets would pack in a lot of people which equalled quite a lot of beer sales too.

The irony of the OP's post is that his friend has a shiny new car that he can show off to people who come and visit but he cannot afford the petrol to take it out and about to show it off.....

Maybe in 5 or 10 years when he has paid for the motor, he can afford the petrol and take it out to show it off, but then it is an old banger......

TBH I have no idea exactly where I fit in with the current family.

I do know that they find it strange to have a foreigner in their midst and that foreigner dating one of their daughters. My understanding though, is that they want this daughter to be happy.

When the g/f goes back to Issan - as in recently when her grandfather died - I spoke to either the mother, father and one of the sisters every day on the phone. They wanted me to know the g/f was with them and not off elsewhere.

I was and have never been asked for any money, though I did make a donation towards the funeral expenses. I also gave mother 1,000 Baht for her birthday last month.

On one visit, I was treated well - within limits of language. I was fed, watered and generally made welcome. Taken along to a local football festival and asked to partake in other things that were going on.

What is said about me within the family, I have no idea - same as most of us - but the family do seem okay.

I'll add that I have always got on well with the majority of mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers in the past. Then again, I try to be polite, smile and take part in what is happening when i am with family - but I was brought up to be polite.

<snip>

Fair enough. Then I'll stick with what version I have for now. If they insist I have to upgrade at any point, they can get stuffed

I'd not be surprised if they lose a lot of customers if this is their idea of e-mail.

<snip>

I think they already can get stuffed

Read this

>Beginning the week of June 3, 2013, older versions of Yahoo! Mail

(including Yahoo! Mail Classic) will no longer be available. After that,

you can access your Yahoo! Mail only if you upgrade to the new

version.

So my guess is that you are already using the new version and thus accepted the TOS

To give you an Idea.

This is a screenshot of the new version

yahoo_new.jpg

and this of the old version (notice the word Classic)

yahoo_old.jpg

thanks for the jpegs

No, not the same as the new one. I am still on Yahoo classic.

Yet I do wonder IF they are using / accepting more spam.and have not really said anything about doing so.

I wonder how long before he turns off that phone number because he is inundated with complaints.

Does that mean the mirror on my ceiling has to come down?

Thanks fellas.....much appreciated from a OLD man..

Do you remember the days at school where calculators were not allowed. I do.

We had a calculator....

An Abacus

And no-one thought to question him or stop him in broad daylight?

Amazing Thailand.

Odd, but Yahoo have said nothing to me about this.

If you switch from the old version to the new version, you are accepting the new TOS. Read post #4.

> When you upgrade, you will be accepting our Communications Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This includes the acceptance of automated content scanning and analyzing of your communications content.”

Fair enough. Then I'll stick with what version I have for now. If they insist I have to upgrade at any point, they can get stuffed

I'd not be surprised if they lose a lot of customers if this is their idea of e-mail.

I currently see no reason to encrypt what I send out but I do notice that there is more and more snooping going on with text messages, e-mails and the like. All in the name of 'terrorism' etc. And to me that is a massive breach of privacy for anyone.

Come to think of it, I have noticed a hell of a lot more spam coming through from insurance companies, supermarkets and other places over the last 2 weeks or so to my main e-mail account with Yahoo, yet I've not changed or accepted any change of service.

No wonder he looks sick

In the newspaper with photos = bad publicity and now a refund. i wonder why?

Maybe good place to ask this question? My wife starts running thru the house unplugging every electric cord in the house when there's a lightning storm. Is this a common safety practice in Thailand? I remember my Grandmother doing this 50 years ago in Canada but no one does it now.

My g/f will watch tv in a lightning storm but refuses to use her mobile phone. Mother, father and sister are the same.

She needed spectacles?