sandyf

That's the way it works. When I did my first marriage extension one witness was my wife's uncle who had Parkinsons. When the IO called him forward to be interviewed my wife asked if she could come and sit next to him as the other witness had to stand. The senior IO overheard and shouted that he wasn't suitable to be a witness. She changed her tune when she saw his ID card, a retired senior officer, the bowing and scraping was unbelievable.

Not always. I have had 5 and no two visits have been the same. On the first one they all went for a look around the garden and then left leaving all the paperwork on our table, included all visits done that day. One came back following morning to pick it up. Last visit was in November only one guy turned up with a tripod. Took a couple of photos that included himself and left after a few minutes, nothing else. Never been any suggestion of any "gratuity".

How can it be impossible, the unit charge is the amount you pay divided by the number of units used. In the real world it is the only figure that makes any sense and the only one that can be used in comparison to tenants on a landlord's rate.

Are you saying you do not need to pay service charge and vat?

I have one 18K btu aircon running for 12 hours a day now that the temp is up a bit. Just had the bill and the useage has jumped 120 units over the average without aircon. That would equate to about 4 units a day so your 19 units does need looking at. I run at 27 degrees, maybe you are running a bit on the low side. Also the rate is a bit higher, including taxes our rate is about 5 baht a unit.

That is exactly right. When I got mine from the bank they were spotless and flat and i immediately sealed some, I worked in an instrument bay and we had a heat sealer. I kept them flat in a book for 40 years and the dealer still saw signs of slight creasing, why he said it may only be £2000 at auction. Had they been truly uncirculated and with a couple of oil magnates interested, sky would have been the limit.

I had my house drawn up to my requirements and took the plans to a builder. I lived on site and everyday checked what they had done, picked up several errors. Overall though they did a very good job, 13 years old this month and no real complaints.

But they don't put a pint of beer in a half litre glass. When they made the change to metric, beer and milk were allowed exemptions. Ask for a whisky and you will get a metric measure.

Quite. I used to work in a fabrication factory and used to smile at the shop floor, when they refered to the sheel sheets as 8 x 4 x 1 mil, actually 2.5m x 1.25m x 0.9mm. They preferred the metric thickness, as opposed to saying 20 gauge, but kept overall dimensions in imperial feet.

Back in the old days it was a spouse visa and they specifically asked for copy of spouse passport. When it became a general visitor visa the wording changed to show the sponsor is in the UK legally as the passport may not be that of UK national. Yes, not bad at the moment, we applied 17th Feb and it was back exactly 14 days after Trendy. Out of 11 applications the best it has ever been was 10 days, normally about 3 weeks. Last year we were told 6 weeks which was a bit of concern, but came back in 3.

Neither did I, but then I have had my windfall on banknotes. In 1970 I was stationed at Sharjah near Dubai and one day I got some notes from the bank that looked brand new, so I kept a few. I had 3 x 1 Riyals and 1 x 5 Riyals, worth about 10 bob old UK money, half a pound. When I cleared my flat in 2010 I found them and took them to a dealer. He said I should take them to auction, could fetch £2000, I was emigrating and didn't have the time, just accepted his £900. The currency was Qatar & Dubai Riyal, only in circulation for about 5 years.

Rayong is a province so you ought to be a bit more specific. I have lived in Muang Chonburi for about 15 years and passed through Rayong more times than I care to remember. Only ever thought of it as an industrial area, not anywhere anyone would want to live. During the pandemic we used the WTT scheme as much as we could and one of the places we decided to go was the Kantary Bay at Saeng Chan beach. I was quite surprised, i think what they have done with the beach is superb, not much there at the moment but in 10 to 15 years could be one of the top spots in Thailand. Had some friends down from the north during the week and took them to the beach and stayed the night in Rayong. Can't help with the schools but there is no problem with the air in this part of Thailand, particularly if you are somewhere near the coast. You really need to go and have a look around, there are some very good budget hotels, the one I was in Wed, 15 East Inn, was only 420 for the night. Good luck.

Better to do it yourself. There are webapps around where you can create your floorplan, insert the furniture and move it about.

Each to their own. I wouldn't dream of doing transactions on a smartphone, touch screen technology and my fingers do not get along. I don't think I have opened my Thai bank app since it was installed, and only use Wise and HSBC apps to verify webapp transactions.

Good deflection. Remind me, who tried to say tuition fees were not based on nationality. As usual, you would think that 3 years is ok in the UK but the Thais should recognise 3 minutes of residency. Nothing like a bit of dualing.

No, I know the difference. Some years ago, pre brexit vote, I used to get my pension direct from the DWP and there was some debate on the topic. I saw at the time something on the bahnet website about all inward remittances being processed by the BOT at beneficial rates and distributed to banks via bahtnet. I can no longer find that page and would accept that things may have changed and Thai banks themselves may be doing the conversion which would as you say be the telegraphic transfer rate.

I am not interested in your calculations, only my own. As far as I am concerned it is more advantageous for me to use HSBC than Wise and you can dispute that as much as you want, makes no difference. I said before, each to their own, and you even disputed that.

You are being ridiculous. Exactly the same could be said about dual pricing in Thailand, it is residency based. Very few on this forum could claim to be resident for more than 12 months at a time. If you have to continually renew your permission to stay, it would be considered consecutive, not continuous. Like many others the argument is always about why foreigners are hard done by. Why come to Thailand and complain about how the Thais do things. At the end of the day the good outweighs the bad so live with it.

And we are all aware of your idea of uniformity. Does your country pay any attention to whinging expats, thought not.

You would only get away with that on a direct flight, otherwise would be denied boarding.

The statement was from the UK government but you are perfectly free to dispute what they say.

As already said. "The "cost" is not less with Wise, it may be or it may not, too close to call."

Foreign remittances are converted by BOT and THB is credited to your Thai bank.

Exactly. Their country, their rules.

Almost anywhere along the coast, oyster beds everywhere. Would depend on how you want to eat them, many restaurants serve them as a sizzler, bit of a sticky mess.