rickudon

I am not a great fan of private schools, because they churn out elitists who look down on state educated pupils. However, yes, we all want our kids to get a good education. In my case and that of my brother, we both went to state grammar schools and then on to university. I have no issues with the education i received. My UK wife wanted to send our kids to private school, but reality was no way could we afford it. When my UK kids were growing up, we moved to a small town with an excellent state secondary school - one of the top ones in the county. No regrets about that, both went on too University and the younger one on to a masters at Cambridge, So state education can compete with private schools, However, not all state schools are good - particularly in cities. My daughter has 3 children but lives in London, and because of the poor schools available locally decided on private schooling (still infant/primary level) she managed to get part scholarships but still the bill was well over 20,000 GBP a year for 2 of them. Could only do it by living in in-laws home, But now the school is shutting - 20% VAT made the fees astronomical and it was a very small school. She doesn't know what will happen now. Also a private school near my old children's school is also closing - they have space for 400, actual numbers now done to 100. I do think Labours policy was ill advised - Brexit, Covid and Ukraine war have all caused financial stress to many families, and 17 years of austerity has seen education under funded (especially maintenance). slapping 20% VAT on to school fees will be the last straw for many middle class families; their are many areas with few if any spare places at state schools. It will also cost at least 500 million pounds to provide for these ex-private school pupils - many will end up being bussed long distances and kept in prefabricated cabins. 20% VAT, higher national insurance for teachers and no business rates relief is a triple blow applied all at once, with no time to beef up the State sector. A very poorly thought out policy, which will have effects for years to come.

Zelensky never refused to sign the deal (which was actually the 3rd version drawn up, which gave better terms to Ukraine). It was Trump and Vance who picked the fight with Zelensky. Bully boy tactics at work. Strange that your so called alley tries to dictate a Versailles reparations deal on you, not the enemy!

More likely that they didn't want to return on a SpaceX rocket, which have a high failure rate (like yesterday).

Not necessarily true. First half of I940 was a good year for the Germans, but after that there luck was not so good. Lost the battle of Britain, their allies the Italians got there arse kicked in Africa, and the London Blitz didn't work all that well. Britain was then mobilising the Empire troops and navies, and was then on the offensive. Russia and USA were late to the fray. Admittedly without them it would have become a stalemate.

Well, Israelis have plenty of experience of trashing other countries and abusing the inhabitants. It is a sense of entitlement.

Trump, Netanyahu and the defeat of Iran's proxies actually make Iran's need for a nuclear weapon much more urgent. A 'little boy' Uranium 235 bomb is quite simple and could be made in a few weeks as long as the fully enriched Uranium 235 was available. Also, it is not true that Iran's missile attacks failed to penetrate Israel's defences - this is something which has been hushed up. There was plenty of evidence that some missiles did get through - several craters were filmed by journalists before they were caudoned off and quickly filled in, also satellite photos showed some damage at Israeli airbases.

I doubt that this carbon tax will achieve anything in Thailand (except increase fuel costs?). However, for all you deniers out there, climate change is happening and man is behind most of it. 2023 and 2024 saw new sea ice lows, in 2025 already a new low in February. Less sea ice means reduced albedo, therefore more heat absorbed by the oceans - a feedback which accelerates warming. I do understand that the complexity of climate change effects is beyond the comprehension of most posters on this thread....

The problem with climate change is that it is not just about getting hotter. There are other effects as well. More violent storms, floods, droughts and forest fires. How do you adapt to all those? you need different solutions, but you do not know which one(s) you WILL need. Also for those of us in Northern Europe there is the problem of AMOC failure. The current in the Atlantic has been getting weaker for some time. Nobody knows if it will fail (it has done in the distant past) but it could be abrupt and happen quickly; nobody knows how to restart it! Latest predictions are it could happen within this century, maybe in only 30 years. This could cause a temperature drop of 10 degrees Centigrade or more. Fancy trying to upgrade the insulation of 20 million buildings in the UK in under a decade? Climate change is a bigger problem than most realise. Complacency only works until it doesn't.

Worst was 1980-1981. I had just been made redundant from my job in Australia (reasons would be a post on its own, but basically my specialism was no longer required after mining plans were changed); i enjoyed a nice long holiday ended up back in the UK, where i thought with my recent experience in environmental monitoring i would at last get the job i was looking for with the water authorities. How wrong I was! The new Thatcher administration did a hatchet job on the economy (and the water authorities), and i spent 18 months unemployed. No-one would employ a scientist to do mundane retail jobs; there where plenty of less educated people for that. Also house was burgled (twice), the insurance company refused to renew my insurance; housemate got mugged, and 2 race riots took place within one mile of me. Strikes happening all the time. When i did finally get a job (as a civil servant), had to do a 6 week IT course which I struggled with for a while. Then we had one of the worst winters on record in 1981 and my house (empty at the time) suffered severe damage from freezing and snow - pipes burst, toilet cracked, and water penetrated the walls causing massive mould problems. House was for sale at the time and i had to take a loss as no-one would buy it in a riot zone. If not for fishing and my savings from the Australian work to live on, I would have got utterly depressed.

Do not really like the toasted sandwiches, as i prefer wholemeal. I do like the cheese and ham croissants.

15 years here, and still cannot get the monthly budget below 30,000 baht for family of 3. That includes no nights out, no alcohol ( both rarely taken). Some eating out or takeaway. Does not include trips to UK, major house improvements etc, health insurance not practical due to chronic issues. If you cannot find 500,000 baht a year until the pension kicks in, go back to work. I was in the same boat waiting for my state pension to kick in; small company pension, savings slowly eroding, made it with about 18 months to spare. Phew!

I live in a small village on the edge of Udon Thani. I feel safe, worst problem are some territorial dogs. As far as crime goes not much in the village/city unless ostentatious displays of wealth. Yes, Yabba and drunks are around, but rarely a problem. I do know of some killings but these are nearly all Thai on Thai or loss of face (e.g. one farang fired his bar manager over missing money). Health and safety are not priorities here. Several people in the village have died in road accidents, a couple of drownings and electrocutions. Just treat all road use as needing extra vigilance - and avoid using motorbikes. In the UK, over the years my home was burgled 4 times over a 40 year period - it is like a tax. I know of people who have been mugged or assaulted for no reason. Better off in Thailand

Problems with growing strawberries? How does Thailand manage! Just change varieties.

I have an ASUS. For me, that problem happened if you allowed it to go into sleep mode for a long time. When you try to wake it up, all you got was a blank screen. Had to play with the sleep settings but fixed it eventually (about 3 years ago, so no details).

Well, i have been here for 15 years and my Thai is abysmal. But i have my excuses. 1. A hearing problem. Not the volume, just a very narrow range of pitch. It makes a Tonal language like Thai a struggle. On the phone, even English words are misheard to often. 2. Also maybe slightly dyslexic. Dyslexia was not really recognised when i was young. I can read English OK but writing was always a bit harder. Do not start me on Thai characters! 3. Not for want of trying. I have, at various times, tried to learn French, Spanish, German, Dutch, Swedish, Slovak, Cantonese, Arabic and a couple of West African languages as well as Thai. After a month i hit a wall, know a few words but mainly, they just do not 'stick'. 4. In Thailand, rarely had any problems. in shops and Offices, between my Thai, their English, a phone translation app and my wife, get a result. Thais all learn some English at school, just most do not care about it and never try to learn it properly. Thai casual conversations? For me, forget it. Am i stupid? No, i have 2 science degrees and can do basic maths in my head (something my wife couldn't understand). Music, languages not easy.

I use the Soffel spray and find 90% effective. Lasts for some 3 or more hours. I do not use the lotion because leaves you a bit sticky and of course, a lot on your hands... I have used the natural version but only lasts for about 2 hours. I am also O rhesus positive, and yes, mosquitoes are unfortunately, rather too friendly.

I originally came on Thaivisa mainly for the immigration/visa updates after having fallen foul of a change i was not aware of. I also look at serious Thai news (not every murder and road accident) and for the rare informative thread. Unfortunately of late a lot of threads are just reposts of existing ones or clickbait. Also the forum has become rather dominated by political hatred, no point debating that because those posters just do not want to know any alternative view.

sea ice in the Arctic is decreasing. Their may be transient increases in some areas but it is going down. https://nsidc.org/sea-ice-today Glaciers are loosing mass. A few might grow, due to increased snowfall, but most do not. https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-mountain-glaciers Nid noi is cherry picking.

Yeah, i thought when the conservatives and Margaret Thatcher took over that returning to UK would be a good idea. Hahaha. I spent the next 18 months on the dole, the employment situation was 10 times worse than when i left. Had to retrain as a computer programmer, throwing away all my scientific experience in water management. Thatcher deliberately restricted the ability of the regional water authorities to borrow money for investment, then blaming them for failing to meet standards, privatised it; Look where we are today - in 2017, 83% of people wanted all water services to be renationalised - the only people to benefit from the privatisation were shareholders, who asset stripped the companies to line their pockets, and water services today are in a worse state than 40 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_privatisation_in_England_and_Wales I will never vote conservative, foe ruining the water industry and my career.

It is called climate change rather than global warming for a reason. the extra heat energy can cause normal weather events to be more severe. The jet stream now ventures further south, which can pull down the polar vortex over the United states, also more storms floods, droughts, forest fires. The day After tomorrow seemed to far exaggerated when it came out. Current conditions make me think now not so much!

The revenue department boss needs to first tell his staff they are taxing all those expat pensioners, because most of his staff think we do not need TINs or to file! THEN he needs to train all his staff on how to advise farangs (in English and maybe dozens of other languages) how to file, and how to deal with income covered by the 31 double taxation agreements. IF he can do that, THEN we can file our taxes.......

Depends on what you mean by 'most'. There are other allowances that pensioners can also claim; an exemption of up to 100,000 baht on your pension, spouse allowance, parents of a Thai child and more. I reckon i have at least 400,000 baht of allowances and exemptions, plus also a pension covered by a Double taxation agreement. I expect to pay no tax. Also, you can gift to a spouse up to 10 million baht a year! (but careful how you gift it).

I get regular check-ups at my local government hospital, as i have CKD (chronic kidney disease). My first visit i just picked a couple of tests i wanted, no problem, but they insisted i see a doctor to discuss the results. Typically a doctors consultation was 200 baht. Now it is all pre-arranged appointments (but can usually get one on the day, if the right doctor is seeing patients). 1. Tests first, 2. when results are available get a spot in the queue, 3. see doctor, wait for prescription, 4. go order medicine, wait and pick up. Most Public hospitals have someone with some English to get you to the right place if you are not sure where to go. Typically a visit at public hospital would take half a day (best if you do tests day before, that saves time waiting for results). Typical bill for everything (a couple of tests, consultation and meds) would be about 1000-2000 baht. Obviously depends on the tests and the meds; in my experience basic meds are a lot cheaper than a pharmacy.

No, in a western suburb of Tripoli, where my employers were based. Was just trying to find another persons house, who had borrowed my jacket out in the desert one night, None of the houses had numbers! so had to walk around looking for one that fitted the description, Only found out they were secret police when the office asked where i had been, They asked me to describe the uniforms, said "you are lucky, that was the secret police, not many see daylight again".

The war will end this year, just depends on who blinks first. Ukraine is running low on men to conscript (but still has theoretically about one million in uniform), Russia has used up 75% of its armoured units, hence uses mainly infantry assaults; manpower is maintained by paying massive sign-on bonuses; the economy is suffering massive inflation. As for Russian re-armament, it is mainly drones and refurbishing obsolete stuff, aircraft and armoured vehicle production is stagnant. By 2026, the only advantage Russia will have is manpower using 1917 tactics.