JohnC

Anyone know which hospital & ward , some of his friends would like to go and see him.

I do'nt know about Chaingmai but in Pattaya Immigration there is a board with the phone number and e mail address of the Superintendant inviting you to contact him if you have a problem. You might also want to look at the immigration website for info/help. http://www.pattaya-immigration.org/index.php?lang=EN I suspect Chaingmai have a similar website.

I bought my Triton 15 months ago and have never regretted it, I recently added the new softop with electric opening and I find its great when travelling down to samasan as I can get all the dive gear in the back under cover and sit 4 passengers in the double cab. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder as they say, some people love it others hate it.

Go to an internet cafe, log into your g mail account, look for instructions on how to set up outlook, download and print. log out making sure you have not ticked the box "remember me" I have Office 2003 and had no problems configuring Outlook as opposed to Outlook Express which would not accept g mail, hotmail or yahoo unless I purchased an add on programme.

My yougest daughetr was a nightmare! she had a very small appetite and worried us very much, after consulting with a paedatrician he said she was healthy and not to worry, she will eat when she is hungry. Now she is a healthy 24 year old with a son of her own and has never had any health problems so my advice is to stop worrying , he will eat when he is hungry. Interestingly here many Thais do not eat first thing in the morning, they eat when they are hungry, my partner often does not have their first meal until mid afternoon.

The original Marmite (black jar , yellow top) is stocked bt the Tops Chain, The Friendship Chain and The Villa Market Chain. If any of those chains have a branch near you they should be able to obtain it for you as they all have it on their shelves here in Pattaya. In addition, The Villa Market Chain promise to obtain anything requested that they do not stock.

wonder how livable the state pension will be by the time I reach retirement? If you consider the baby boomers and the ever increasing longevity of UK citizens you wouldn't really expect the pension scheme to cope, or would you? What will be interesting to see though that because of these factors the majority of the voting populace will be of retirement age.

Which is why (presumably) the pension age is being raised to 68 for both men and women, in addition the dependants allowance is being phased out People who claim State Pension on or after 6 April 2010 will not be able to claim extra money for their spouse or civil partner. People who are already getting this extra money (known as an Adult Dependency Increase, or ADI) before 6 April 2010 will keep it, but only until 2020 at the latest.

http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/pensio...m/act.asp#basic

This is he biggest shake up in pensions since the introduction of the welfare state and I recommend you read it and see how it affects you and/or your spouse (civil partner)

http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/retire...ncome-tax.asp#i

If you're a pensioner and you go to live abroad, you will still have to pay UK tax on your income from the UK. But you may be entitled to claim a personal allowance. If you go to live in a country that has a double taxation agreement with the UK, you may be able to pay less tax.

Double taxation agreements can mean that if you are living abroad you may pay less income tax in the UK. How much in tax you will have to pay will depend on your personal circumstances.

You can get a wide range of leaflets on income tax from HM Revenue & Customs. You may find leaflet IR121 Income tax and pensioners especially useful.

In addition you might want to look at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/

Finally a simple Google search would have given you thisd information!

Could a couple live on 22k a month? I guess there would also be problems meeting the criteria for the retirment visa as well?

How did you arrive at 22,000 baht? I got a pension forecast (BR19) two years ago when I retired that showed I was two years short of the then maximum contributions therefore my pension at todays rates would be £120 a week which on todays exchange rates is around 38,000 baht per annum. There are many changes being implemented in 2010 not least the qualifying period being reduced to 30 years which gives you the full state pension which will rise in line with earnings rather than prices (from 2012 at the earliest). Given these changes I will have qualified for the full pension plus with the new increases in line with earnings I would expect my pension to be more than the original forecast shown above. In answer to your original question, no 22,000 is way below the amount that a farang couple could live comfortably here in LOS (unless you inend to go 100% native) plus of course there is the question of qualifying for the retirement extension.

I would give up all hope, the sparrow will no doubt now be dead.

The tax year runs from 1st January until 31st December for all income earned in that year, individuals are responsible for ensuring they are paying the correct tax, if you are unsure ask your payroll dept (in writing) to confirm your tax liability and what has been paid on your behalf.

Simple, see a good Thai lawyer and protect yourself (and her). A small investment now could be worth it.

New dental clinic opened on Pattaya Klang called Dental Paragon Clinic three quarters of the way down, root canal treatment 8500 baht , crown 10,000 baht. Had a replacement crown fitted last week, very good, I think the breakdown was 8000 for the crown and 2000 for the post.

They also extracted part of an old tooth, cost 500 baht ! Tel: 038 720919 open 10am 8pm

If I opened a Company which I intend to do anyway. Could I just transfer the asset to the company. Ethier way she is intitled to 50%. That is not the issue. Not worried about her running off with it. Just want to keep some sort of control over it and protect my long term interst.

Maybe opening a different can of worms as you can only own 49% of the company plus with the problems with the previous elected government it became difficult to get companies registered. In addition companies become liable for tax and annual balance sheets tehreby incurring annual accountancy costs. My own view is a 30 year lease from your wife or usfruct are the best options, however, no doubt others will differ.

I would have thought you could set up your own company and become self employed, no need to register it anywhere, then just bill your ex employer as you are now self employed, at the same time open a bank account to which you pay in your fees and apply to them for their credit card using the bank as the address for the card and you collect from your branch. You then give them a mailing address for statements or better still go paperless and do it all online! You could use your home addres in Thailand for the application but explain that you travel worldwide as a consultant. As you would not be working in your home country you would not be liable for any tax I would have thought. Further down the line what about social security benefits? if you dont pay in then you may find you lose all your pension and health care rights? I am not from Canada so I do not know how your system works. Just my thoughts for what they are worth!

Your best bet would be the dive shops that could use the equipment for rental, unfortunatley second hand gear only fetches around one third of the original price, I don't know your area but here in Pattaya many of the big stores (Carrfour etc) have for sale notice boards, in addition we have a shop called cash convertors where you can take things and they buy them , its a Thai chain so there might be one near you in Buriram. Finally do a google search for dive clubs in both areas and find out if they have chat rooms or message boards and post your details there.

I wonder if the new immigration procedure announced last week will have any impact on a UK national wanting to bring(take) their non eu partner into the UK.?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7269790.stm

The airline will probably ask you to sign a waiver, normal rules are that a passport must have six months validity for travel. If the airline were to accept you and on arrival immigration refuse you entry the airline is liable to a fine for accepting you. As I understand it, others may have different experience.

A Thai will averages 6000 baht, if its a good lawyer it will be written in both Thai & English

As in all things in LOS the answer to this is to consult a reputable Thai lawyer (dont laugh) and have a will made by both parties, never presume your spouse will outlive you! You only have to look at the road fatalities to realise that age is not the only deciding factor on life expectancy in LOS. In addition, in common with the rest of the world its amazing what comes out of the woodwork when a person dies!

contact a lawyer and lease the house in your name for 30 years ,she still owns the land but cant borrow money against it as you own the house on the land legally

Absolutely! Even without leaving the country you need to get your affairs in order, what happens if your wife pre-deceases you? her family could throw you out and sell the property (not an usual occurence here in LOS!) As with all things its better to see a lawyer now rather than later when you may have problems and if you indicate where in Thailand you live Im sure someone will recommend a good lawyer.

I think you missed the point, the sim card fits into either a solomons modem or a Aircard, aCDMA Card, alternatively if you have a mobile phone with gprs/edge you can use that on your laptop and if you have bluetooth on both laptop and mobile then you dont need cables to connect.

Advert in the local press quote: ALCOHOL SALES BAN DATES. We wish to announce that due to the Senate Elections all Alcohol sales will be banned in Bars and Restaurants during the periods from 22nd February and 23rd February and 1st and 2nd March from 18:00pm to 05:00am unquote.

And before anyone has a go about the local press etc I am only the messenger! dont shoot the messenger!

Interestingly in the same paper there is an advert for the opening party night of a new club on Soi Day & Night!! March 2nd!! That could be interesting or not!

I have suffered from this since living in LOs but put it down to the a/c being on all night plus I do sleep more deeply than I used to and I do snore which results in sore throat along with dried mouth occasionely!

http://www.veoh.com/downloadFlow.html

Just tried it and got this.

Sorry, the web site you are accessing has been closed by Royal Thai Police due to inappropriateness such as pornography, gambling or contain any information which is deemed to violate national security.

For more information, please contact "Police Information System Center" Bld#19 2nd Flr, Royal Thai Police, Rama I, Patumwan, Bangkok 10330 Tel. 0-2251-0164,

email : [email protected]