sandyf

12 hours ago, tazly said:

These weather topics with subjective observations always crack me up. 

This type of thread is the same class as "the lowest low season ever", or the "things were better 10 years ago" twaddle.  Every year the same type of post appears.

Conjecture is wasted energy.

 

A quick look at wiki shows that May is the 3rd rainiest month in Pattaya, just after Sept/Oct.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattaya#Climate

 

If someone has real stats showing that this year is worse than normal, or the worst in "36 years", please post them for analysis. 
 

 

One of the problems with weather is that no one can be everywhere at the same time and average stats are just that, average. I live on the outskirts of Chonburi city and I have seen Pattaya flooded and we not get any rain whatsoever.

In December 2015 the rain for that year came to and end and we never saw any rain again prior to going to the UK on 13th June 2016. By the time we left we were down to about 2 weeks domestic supply and had been buying water for the garden. Rainy season started while we were in the UK.

In the months prior to Christmas I put a lot of time and effort into redesigning my sprinkler system, laying pipes all around the garden, but have never used it. The rain from 2016 continued well into January and has not stopped for more than 4 weeks at a time. In March we experienced a couple of weeks of very heavy rain very similar to March 2011.

I can tell you from many years experience that last year was a lot closer to the norm than this year, but you living 40 miles away may have experienced something completely different.

BTW. I can remember in years gone by that around April time bars in Walking Street would close the toilets because there was no water available.

1 hour ago, Naam said:

i had an interesting experience working in Saudi Arabia in the 70s where British expats were on the lowest pay scale of expats from so-called "1stworld countries".

That sounds about right. A lot of the guys I worked with ended up in Saudi and Oman, many moved from Saudi to Oman because the companies with the contracts were screwing them into the ground.

The guy who came to work in Germany was a real life 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet' and is a multi millionaire now, will catch up with him in a few weeks time.

Since the UK went into the Europe I think the differentials between UK and Germany decreased quite significantly but more than likely change direction once brexit kicks in.

20 hours ago, onthesoi said:

Their public services, particularly education, are still better than anywhere else ...& what seems expensive to you might not to a German who is also willing to pay more for quality.

Tell me about it, I spent two and a half years in Germany in the early 70's. A guy I went to school with came to work as a labourer on building sites in the local village, he was paid 3 times as much as me, an engineering SNCO in HM service. But time moves on.

In 2011 the rainy season started in March and by the middle of the year the supply chain was starting to break down. Supermarket shelves were virtually empty of canned and bottled goods, particularly beer. My nephew came over from Canada and we couldn't get into Bangkok for flooding. Don Muang was closed down and a large percentage of the country was under water.

Is this year going the same way? Its certainly not normal. I have been here Dec/Jan for nearly 20 years and have never known it rain so much in January.

14 hours ago, mommysboy said:

Not sure Germany's domestic market is doing so well.  A lot of its worthwhile ventures are now abroad, and the profits are out there too.  Very ageing workforce and increasingly poor infrastructure.  The idea of this super efficient economy is a bit of a myth. Public spending squeeze too.

That's right, I seen an item on BBC news last night highlighting the effects of lack of spending on essential services, particularly schools. The closing statement said that people were now beginning to ask why in this booming economy is their standard of living not improving.

I have been to Germany many times, last time was Cologne about 18 months ago, and their standards, and prices, have always appeared to be much higher than that in the UK, maybe stagnation has set in.

18 hours ago, pitrevie said:

 

The curious thing is that despite many requests I have yet to have any TV poster step forward and admit they bought shares in the Great British fire sale or even admit to selling them as quickly as possible so they could make a few extra quid.

 

I will put my hand up, I bought a couple, can't remember which ones, just additions to the portfolio at the time. If I sold them it would have been to buy something else. Unfortunately a change in circumstances forced total liquidation, haven't dabbled since.

11 minutes ago, janclaes47 said:

 

From the sports replay addons I pick any sports event that has been aired in the last 2 months at least, some sports disciplines like F1 or Moto GP even the whole season.

 

For catch up live tv I select just one of the catch up addons, and i get more than only UK channels in catch up

This is simplicity.

32 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

WOW!!!

 

Confirmed, Ivacy VPN to Singapore! (works from the US too, so I suspect any VPN outside Thailand will work)

 

 

As to how long for ...

I tried a free vpn and got the same channels but found the sky movies and CNN were not available but most of the main ones seemed to be.

6 minutes ago, janclaes47 said:

No idea what you mean with simplicity, since i don't use expat tv, but I can't imagine anything easier to use than this.

 

How do you pick any programme that has been aired in the last 10 days?

22 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

 

Yes, I pay for the simplicity and above all the 7-day catch-up. I used to have a UK Tivo in Europe and havent watched live TV for more than 12 years. Once you lose the habit it's hard to go back.

I get 10 days catch up, introduced a while back, which is very useful and also the recording facility.

When I built my house about 7 years ago I had a large dish fitted and we used to watch movies on the foreign channels that were in English but they all disappeared in favour of dubbed movies. I tried various ways of trying to get TV but they were all a bit of a hassle till I came across expat. Be a bit of a pain if I have to start messing about again.

1 hour ago, virgomjh said:

An income letter will prove that you do potentially have B65k to cover what immigration regards as the safe minimum to cover living expenses. When it comes to renewing the extension, I had thought that immigration would want to see evidence in your bank book that the full minimum B65k income was actually being transferred over rather than just assuming that you are transferring it over. So I guess they want to see a bank book for the B800k deposit route because its easier than asking for proof of overseas deposits, not because they want proof that you have actually transferred the funds over for your living expenses? 

 

This is very relevant to the unusual situation that I am in. I am moving over there next year with my father who is blind, and Thai banks are very averse to issuing ATM cards to blind people. He will be doing his extensions on the pension income route and it would be far better for us if he can transfer his pension from the UK into my account so I can manage both our incomes for our expenditures. I had thought he would have to open a separate account and show his bank book as part of the extension renewal process.

 

If he just needs an income letter and there is no need for him to have a Thai bank account in his name it makes life a lot simpler in our case, so thanks for clarifying this!

Your last sentence is correct.

The income letter from the UK embassy will show the income in GBP and immigration will work out what that amounts to on the day the extension is applied for, and provided it equates to over 65K baht a month nothing else is required.

If the pension income is below 65K then PM me and I will explain what needs to be done. Last year the referendum vote brought my pension below the 65K level.

19 hours ago, janclaes47 said:

Everything in the world is a pain in the a**e for people who don't know how to use it.

This is what people like you fail to understand, one of the things about expat is the simplicity of operation, my wife loved it.

If you wish to fart about with the 'free' options that is up to you but do not try and make out its the best thing since sliced bread.

Expat is back up and running, watched Masterchef and Question Time last night, bit disappointed with the reduced channels, wanted to watch King Charles III.

Their handling of the situation is a bit pathetic, I am off to the UK in a few weeks and my subscription runs out when I am away so see what the position is when I get back.

37 minutes ago, dick dasterdly said:

"A lop sided playing field where wages and production costs in many EU countries are much lower than the UK."

 

I agree, but despite this un-level 'playing field' Germany is still doing well - not only because the Euro works in its favour, but also because it has invested in industry/has a far better educational system and has FAR better worker/company policies and balance between the two 'sides'.

 

In short, I blame UK politicians mostly - whilst also blaming the EU for 'open borders' that only encouraged greedy UK companies to take advantage of cheap labour.

 

 

It is an unequal situation trying to compare the UK and Germany. In the years following the war they were not allowed military manufacturing so industrial investment went into the grass roots like machinery and vehicles. It wasn't until Airbus came along that the Germans re-entered the aviation industry.

It is a fact of life that Germany is where it is today, it should be remembered that production costs are determined by productivity and as Phillip Hammond said.

“It takes a German worker four days to produce what we make in five, which means, in turn, that too many British workers work longer hours for lower pay than their counterparts.”

You are quite right about the politicians, after all, who is responsible for spending the money. Over the years they have repeatedly thrown money down the drain through bad decisions.

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

Android player is back up, but still no BBC2 etc etc

My android and windows were available this morning with about half the channels but windows has gone down again this afternoon. Not checked the TV yet.

On 5/10/2017 at 2:06 PM, rott said:

Thanks for that, never thought of looking on Wiki.

 

Don't remember it being in Pattaya before 1998 though. But then we were all flash gits due to the exchange rate, so would not have considered it. A mate of mine who once described Chang and Leo as the dregs from the breweries, has recently upgraded from Archa to Chang, changing times.!!

It wasn't very common back in those days, it wasn't until Carlsberg disappeared that Chang became more available.

I have always drunk Chang when available, they had it in 5 Star bar on Beach Road but the problem was that so few were sold it had invariably turned to ice, well the water content had.

9 hours ago, neek said:

I respect your opinion, but in respect of this tragic story, it sounds unnecessarily critical of the modern era, the way you phrase it. If I just jump ahead a little.. She wasn't engaged in the more puerile activities modern phones allow, games, the internet, live chat and such.  She was actually talking to someone on it, using it as a telephone.  So this 'pathetic black box' she was 'bumbling along with' has been around since the 70's (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_mobile_phones)  I think the people you are complaining about are doing things this poor lady was not, and your inferred insult of her misses the point, which is traffic awareness. She was involved in this accident due to a distracting factor, in this case being on the phone, which is not a very recent problem, and could have been for a number of other reasons, e.g. dog, child, shopping bags, nearby noise, and so on.  Her main fault that I see was traffic awareness.  She walked out into traffic, albeit the third lane of traffic but this is not uncommon, lanes of safe traffic often provide a sense of safety, that given the aforesaid distraction contribute to disaster. 

I also respect your opinion but I think you are wrong. The mobile phone is a tremendous asset but its abuse has become a modern day curse. Despite what you may think, effective concentration whilst multitasking is not in our DNA.

Unfortunately it would appear that people have lost the ability to say "I'll call you back."

1 hour ago, Grouse said:

Be careful what you wish for; the Cons ARE selling you a pup

 

Take automotive manufacturing. What do you think WTO rules and no customs union do to supply chains?

 

https://www.smmt.co.uk/2017/01/17-year-high-british-car-manufacturing-global-demand-hits-record-levels/

 

and yes, the NEEDS of the many outweigh the needs of the few. You seem to confuse this with the opinions of the many which is not necessarily the same....

 

Jeremy Bentham invoked what he described as a ‘fundamental axiom, it is the greatest happiness of the greatest number that is the measure of right and wrong.’

 

I'll take Bentham and his Utilitarianism over Spock in The Wrath of Khan any day ?

Some do not want to acknowledge why they got rid of customs regulations.

The brexiteers want to believe it was an EU whim, nothing to do with being a barrier to trade.

18 hours ago, Grouse said:

Labour has some good ideas

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/10/labour-party-manifesto-pledges-to-end-tuition-fees-and-nationalise-railways

Yes.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/election-2017-labour-minimum-income-rule-foreign-spouses-migrant-threshold-visa-immigration-uk-a7729846.html

21 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

"This marks a worrying trend for an industry in which some skills are already in such short supply, that British firms are offering non-UK nationals an average of 28 per cent more than local applicants in order to fill job vacancies, according to Hired."

 

Perhaps if those companies increased salaries by 28% for local as well as foreign people, more UK people would be encouraged to train in these fields - eventually resulting in fewer shortages of suitably trained staff within the UK?

Very good point, but in practice would never happen, once shortages were relieved salaries would stagnate and back to square one.

I would have thought that the differential would raise a discrimination issue. a bit like male and female salaries.

17 hours ago, mommysboy said:

 

Tuition fees should be scrapped for Degrees with a strong vocational link, eg, science, business, and medical.

Quite, retain the fees on the 'soft' degrees.

Maybe the EU will take it on board and scrap the fees on the 'soft' brexit.

11 hours ago, virgomjh said:

So if you apply for the extension using the income route with an income letter, and the funds don't necessarily have to be transferred into your account, would immigration still want to check your bank book? I am thinking about a situation where you have a few relatives / friends transferring money over from the UK monthly at £15-£20 per transfer, they could save quite a lot of money over the year by just making one monthly transfer to one account?  

There seems to be a bit of confusion between income and money in the bank.

" transferring money over from the UK monthly at £15-£20 per transfer," - moving money from one account to another is not income. must be from an external source.

If you have the letter from UK embassy confirming income, that is all you need for immigration in respect of income.

2 minutes ago, jak2002003 said:

How do you know the food you get in other restaurants is not worse?  You have not seen the rats running about in the kitchens, the way the staff handle the food with cross contamination and not washing hands or surfaces.

 

I had a friend who worked in a well know supermarket here... she told me that it all looks clean and healthy for the customers, but go behind the scenes and there are rats, dirt and unsafe food preparation going on.

 

Also, where do you think the restaurants buy their food from?  The get it from markets or macro...

 

Market food is cooked fresh each day... in restaurants the food is often stores for days.. maybe in bad conditions or incorrect temperatures. 

 

I have eaten food from markets and street stalls for 10 years nearly every day... and NEVER been sick from it.  I was sick from eating at Pizza company though with bad food poisoning!!!!

A friend of mine also got serious food poisoning from one of the pizza establishments in Pattaya, can't remember which one.

16 minutes ago, cerox said:

As many said before the portions for 30-40 THB are quiet small but it varies from person to person. Some eat more like me, some are less hungry, or depending on age etc. etc.

 

For me to be full I need 1 1/2 of those dishes or four per day at least. But this is only to be full, I also buy lots of fruit which I eat at home.

 

On average if I go for cheap food I can get by with four meals which is about 150 THB daily to round it up, but considering you will buy snacks, fruit, water, drinks etc. I see the minimum at 300 THB like other guys said here before.

 

If you're on a very tight budget you should also think about funds for health care, unexpected things etc. So planning all that you might find that you are better off in your country compared to Thailand.

It does depend on where you live, I have travelled a fair bit around Thailand and portion size varies quite considerably. I think Bangkok is probably the worst and I always feel I want 2 of their portions. Around here in Chonburi they are quite good and one would be ok for most people. The J & J market at Bang Saen is one of the best, most of the Thai food around 35/40 baht or if you want western style you can get a chicken/pork/beef steak with salad and a heap of chips for 80 baht.

Nearly all the food is freshly cooked and the best thing is you can order and have it delivered to your table in the purpose built bar whilst enjoying a large bottle of beer at around 80 baht.

2 hours ago, wgdanson said:

But do I have to show that the UK money is transferred to Thailand Bank or can it stay in UK as long as I want?

If you are referring to income, the UK embassy uses a set form on which you list your income sources on an annual basis and then divide the annual total by 12 to create a monthly figure. You only need to show some proof of the income, not necessary for the funds to be in Thailand. The embassy will then provide a letter addressed to immigration indicating your monthly income and that they have seen confirmation of said income.