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Riley'sLife

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Posts posted by Riley'sLife

  1. OP.... The problems you are experiencing with the Spanish Embassy requiring your wife to provide UK certified documents that her marrriage is recognition by the UK is just the first hurdle.


    The fatal flaw in your plan is that - at the present time, and regardless of any EU Law or recent EU case Law - the Surinda Singh route is only open to a returning UK citizen and non-EU citizen spouse (etc) when it can be demonstrated that the returning UK citizen exercised their EU Treaty Rights following economic activity in another EU country.


    In short, you will need to prove "centre of life", and "economic activity" with tax/wage slips etc.


    So, if you think it's just the Spanish being obtuse, wait until you try to use the SS Route as a retiree at UK Immigration !!

    (I can hear you saying "recent case law"......but UK Imm insist not applicable for UK.......ask a specialist UK Immigration lawyer if you need confirmation.)


    I empathise with your plight as I am currently attempting a workaround and am anxious to use the SS Route as soon as possible, fearing any 2016 pre-Brexit negotiations may move the goalposts.



  2. Tax and insurance on my motorcy expired 8th June. (It hasn’t been used since Jan). I want to use it from mid Sept. It needs to be insured, have its annual govt check and then be taxed.


    Questions:


    1.Does the tax back-date to 9th June? ,and


    2.Is there a fine to be paid? Or,


    3. Does the tax start from when it is paid?


    Many thanks for any help.


  3. Yes, it’s that elusive “sweet spot” that I need to determine!!!

    Just to clarify… the whole-house fan will feed into fully insulated ducting connected to a dedicated screened louvre at the gable-end of the Bali-style roof so that the expelled air will not enter the roof void, Other adjacent screened louvers will vent the roof void itself , as will the extensive soffit vents and all will be thermostatically fan assisted 24/7 to hopefully eliminate the possibility of condensation affecting the steel roof.

    The house will be raised above ground level on either 1.4m or 2.4m high conc pillars (the "boss" didn't decide yet!) and will be on one level. The roof will be Off-white Colorbond with foil barrier on steel frames with suspended ceilings incorporating at least 150mm fiberglass insulation. The livingroom will have only one external wall -east facing with double or triple glazed French windows opening onto a balcony extending out just over 3m. The ceiling heights for other rooms which surround the livingroom to the south, west, and north (and will be used with aircon whenever they are used) will be 2,4m.

    Your valued input is greatly appreciated. From other posts you have made on the forum relating to construction I can see you know what you are talking about.

  4. At night, we propose to draw cooler air into a well insulated living-room from outside, while expelling the warmer air via a ceiling mounted whole-house fan at the same time

    In the mornings, we hope to be able to keep the lower temperatures achieved in the room for as many hours as possible without using the aircon in that room at all, or at least not until it becomes absolutely necessary.

    I am mind-juggling the benefits of a low ceiling when using aircon with the advantage of a room with high ceilings for keeping any warmer air stored above head height, against the cost of running aircon in a high ceiling room and the more rapid effect of heat building up in a low ceiling room.

    Anyone know what the optimum ceiling height is for such a living-room in the Tropics? The room will be 32sq. metres.

  5. Un !@#%@!# believable. Thainess and desperation at its finest.

    I thought it was mostly an asian thing to make selfies so much. Although this is a good idea to get people out to different tourist attractions i serioualy doubt it will encourage any would-be travellers to choose thailand as their destination nor do i think anyone visiting already would change their plans just to enter a selfie contest.

    More likely this would only encourage people to take more selfies on their pre-scheduled trip

    The target is not foreign tourists, it is to encourage domestic tourism by Thais.

  6. Head for Sapa in the NW. A great journey. Make sure you return to Hanoi in daylight hours early morning using the train as it's an adventure of its own passing through interesting countryside. It will definitely be cool.

    Or, south of Hanoi, nearer Saigon is Dalat, also cool and interesting.

    With the time you have available you could do both....use the trains and buses, and take in Hoi An which is different!

    Maybe post in the SE Asia forum to get more ideas/responses.. this is not really a Thailand travel forum topic

    • Like 1
  7. Plastic surgery should never be performed in a clinic. Rather, it should be performed in a hospital with all the emergency facilities available on-site. Of equal importance is the training of the surgeon and his/her medical reputation and speciality.

    Start with the doctor (research), then the hospital (international standard only, and in Bangkok). Stay away from all clinics. It would be your ultimate nightmare to be stuck in traffic in an ambulance in Bangkok traffic having to travel from a clinic to a hospital for emergency treatment

  8. Can my Thai wife or myself collect and deliver customers between their hotel and our business using our private SUV? We are contemplating buying a business and the current owner - a Thai - states they do this every day (4 or 5 people collected and returned, twice a day) with no problems (from the Taxi mafia).

    Confirmation from someone else already doing this would be re-assuring!

  9. Time to chill people. We'll all be reincarnated a number of times before things change here. Meanwhile read one of my stories: (-if you can be bothered to wade through it!!) Yes, it is on-topic.

    The road from my village to the local regional hospital was designed for travel by motorbike rather than by car. It is paved now, but still dusty from the mud brought onto it in the rainy season by vehicles entering from the surrounding rubber plantations through which it weaves a strange, almost aimless track, with many sharp bends.

    To overtake the motorbike I was driving behind in my car would have enveloped the riders in a cloud of dust for a few hundred metres. I held back, as I knew I would have to wait for a while once I arrived at the hospital to collect my in-laws. I was in no rush. On the motorbike a small pair of child’s feet dangled to the right side between the two adults. I hadn’t noticed the child before, but that confirmed in my mind that I had made the correct decision to not overtake.

    Without warning, the motorbike driver threw a large plastic cup to the ground. The ice from the discarded drink gave the glistening appearance of glass as it hit the road and I instinctively braked. As we continued, I pulled back slightly, to leave more space between my car and the motorbike. Several bends later as we entered town, just before the hospital entrance, the female motorbike passenger held out her right hand holding her drink. At first I thought she was signaling a turn, as she made no attempt to release her drink, but then, suddenly, she flicked open her fingers dropping her plastic cup of ice which scattered across the centre of the road. She kept her open-fingered hand outstretched, like a dancer would, for dramatic effect. As I pulled into the hospital car park the elegance of her gesture distracted my thoughts before I internally berated the riders for being so inconsiderate both to me, and to society in general for their lack of awareness and disregard for the environment.

    I was able to find a parking space, but, as the multi-storey car park was full, as it always is by mid-morning, I settled for an un-shaded vacant bay in the new overflow car park in front of the hospital. This area, bordered by an ancient knee-high stone wall, had always been the parking place of choice before the multi-storey park had been built. The tall acacia trees offered much needed shade. Now, food vendors were forbidden entry by the security staff, the old stone wall had a sparkling new stainless-steel security fence fixed above, topped with security cameras, and more than half the trees had been felled. The dusty, uneven ground with exposed tree roots had been blessed with a modern black tar macadam surface that radiated the heat, but looked smart and efficient with the new parking bays clearly marked out in white lines.

    I had called my in-laws to let them know I had arrived. They said they could see my car from the hospital window and would be ready soon.

    As I waited for my in-laws to appear I was thankful for my car’s air-conditioning and audio system bathing me in their soothing, soporific atmosphere, isolating and insulating me from the noise of the food sellers on the street and the heat of the tropical sun. I thought again of the discarded drinks cups, and wondered if my car engine was causing more or less damage to the environment than the unwanted plastic seen everywhere.

    From my vantage point I watched the comings and goings. The occasional ambulance arrived, a line of vehicles endlessly circled the car park waiting for a bay to be vacated. A family emerged from the hospital and slowly wandered into the car park. An elderly lady was trailing behind the main family group, holding the hand of her very young grand-child. Both were eating ice-cream. The other family members - one early teenage boy, two older teenage girls and mother and father - were all sipping drinks. As they reached their pick-up truck, the father gave the keys to the teenage boy who opened all the doors of the vehicle to allow the heat to dissipate, before returning to the group who were now all standing in the shade of the trees.

    I saw the father hand his empty soda bottle to the teenage boy, who placed it at his feet. One by one as each finished their drink, their plastic cup or soda bottle was placed on the ground at the boy’s feet. As they departed I was amazed to see the father instruct his son to place all their drink containers on the old stone wall, below the stainless-steel rails. The new car park had numerous waste bins. Two bins were closer than the wall! This country will never be environmentally friendly if parents don’t teach their children to respect it, I thought. Why not place unwanted items in the waste bins provided?

    Twenty minutes later I was exiting the car park with my in-law passengers. As I passed through the security gate and gave the car park token back to the security guard in return for a smart salute, I looked left and right waiting for a gap in the traffic on the busy main road. It was then that I noticed to my right, a frail and very elderly lady, almost bent double, walking slowly behind the food vendors and alongside the stone wall of the car park, dragging a huge sack behind her.

    She stopped, reached carefully through the rails of the new stainless-steel security barrier above the stone wall, and retrieved all the plastic cups and bottles, one by one, before placing them in her sack. Behind her, all the containers had been collected, but, ahead of her, were many, carefully placed, used plastic containers. I looked left to see even more containers awaiting her on the top of the stone wall. In my rear view mirror I saw the security guard stiffen to attention and give his best, white-gloved salute as the old soul passed behind my car unseen except for the slow moving sack of plastic waste.

    I smiled to myself as I drove off into the crowded street of cycles, motorbikes, overloaded pick-up trucks, and handcarts. I wondered how many other times in the past I had wrongly judged people.

    • Like 1
  10. Surely it is exactly these kind of people who should be banned from any political activity for life. The laughable sentences dealt by the courts are only exceeded in comedic effect by everyone knowing that no prison time will be served at all.

    Known as "drawing the tiger", this ridiculous Thai custom does not work to prevent crime, rather it encourages corruption.

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