rickudon

Heathrow arrival queues are horrific if you have a visa, Last year travelled with some Thai family members (first UK visit) so stayed with them in the queue. One hour later not even half way to the desk. I collared a border force officer and explained i was in danger of collapsing, and got us all out of the queue and processed in a couple of minutes. As for the other visa people, i guess UK will not be a preferred choice this year.

Before i got married to my Thai wife i was advised best to do it in Thailand. Much simpler and and no need for Embassy verification etc. Just get married at the Amphoe (not a ceremony, just sign some docs), and get a marriage certificate and a Kor ror 2. Then get a new KR 2 each year before extension (issued by amphoe on demand, about 20 baht). No problems with them docs at extension time.

That is being pedantic. Ignoring ice, less than 1% of water is 'fresh', and a lot of that is already polluted to some degree. You take water from one place, you affect life that was living there. Many parts of the world already use the majority of their freshwater for human related needs (think Colorado river).

Southern Spain is only green if they irrigate, rivers drying up. Same problems in Amazon (lowest water levels ever recorded). Lake Chad drying up, Aral sea already a shadow of itself. The greening is only because of 2 things - One - More CO2 means plants can grow faster, but not necessarily better. Two - many arid areas are being turned into farmland, and irrigated, means more green but the water is fast running out.

There are just too many factors to take into account which would be best. Depends on the age of the couple, visa type, how much money or other assets they have, and Inheritance could be an issue, depending in which country the beneficiary/executor lives. I split mine about 50/50. Also, as many have found out, do not burn your boats, keep your options open.

As already said, Domestic violence is one of the mainstays of Thai TV - and only the most serious events make it to TV. I was subjected to Domestic violence by my ex-wife in the UK, mainly verbal. I put up with it because she also subjected my daughter to it and to a lesser degree my son. No way was i going to leave them alone with their mother to raise them alone. She Tried to stab me once and also grabbed the steering wheel of the car and tried to crash the car once (while the kids were in the back). Eventually while listening to yet another verbal assault about my relatives, i finally slapped her. Fight ensued, it was a draw. But she realised i was not going to be her punch bag any more. A few years later, once my son left home for University, I left and came to Thailand.

Keir Starmer is an islamist puppet? I thought he was a Jewish one .... Doing his best to avoid any criticism of Israel.

Forest fires are an issue. Becoming more frequent, which means more CO2 produced, and if we keep planting trees (to reduce CO2) we just provide more fuel for forest fires. It may not be the biggest issue, but to many forest fires do not help.

Thanks for posting your proof of climate change. seems they have been monitoring floods for over 150 years, but half of the 10 biggest floods happened in the last 30 years. That is statistically significant... Hunting pigs at 40 degrees Centigrade - how about fishing at 45 degrees centigrade (northern Territory). And that was back over 40 years ago. The fish were usually dead by the time you got them on the bank, the hot water in the shallows killed them. Many tropical fish are already living close to there upper temperature limits, last year i lost lot in April and May that were in Aquaria - it got to hot for too long. The importance of climate change/warming is not that new records are being set every year, but the frequency of events is increasing, whether it is heat waves, droughts, storms, fires or floods. Eventually you hit a point where these events start affecting the environment, like when all those fruit bats died in Australia a couple of years ago. As gecko said, this year some vegetables have not been growing well. Same for me.

Can only think of 4 fights in my life. I am only 5' 6" so discretion is the better part of valour. Fight One - attacked by the school bully - big, ugly and overweight. He sought of won, as he forced me to the ground - I think he expected me to burst into tears but i didn't, just grabbed his legs and tried to tip him over. He backed off just grabbed my school bag and threw it over a fence then walked off. never hit on me again. Fight two - at school i was grabbed around the neck from behind; i managed to get hold of a finger and twisted. Got a satisfying scream as it dislocated. Fight over. Another notorious bully. Fight 3 - At a party at University, one man, ex-borstal (juvenile prison) quite tough looking was harassing a girl, she wasn't interested. No one was intervening, they just looked afraid. I stepped in and told him to stop. I got thrown physically through a door, which came off it's hinges. A number of verbal threats followed, so i walked away. Aftermath - no thanks from the girl, but the next day the Borstal lad approached me - i thought does he want to fight? He just said " No hard feelings, you know you were the only one who stood up to me, I respect that". Fight 4 - A 'friend' was harassing his girlfriend, she tried running away and he knocked her over. I wrestled him to the ground, and held him down until he went quiet. This time i did get thanked by the girl. That is my total fight history......

You will be lucky to open an account with GSB. Non-Thais have to have a work permit. I tried to open an account twice but flatly refused, even when i got a Thai relative who worked for them to help. Krungsri is the best, Kasikorn OK but in branch always have to queue for ages. Krungsri a couple of minutes. I also have the mae te dai account.

They forgot to bribe the forestry department........

Is Bridge designated as a gambling game in Thailand?🤣

Flying to Istanbul is logical, Turkish airlines do many flights to West Africa. I would have thought Nigeria would be next stop, then cross the border (if they had any sense, illegally) to Cameroon. Looks like their quick apprehension means they thought that they had got away with it and didn't try to hide their whereabouts or identity very hard.

From my experience of University in the 70's, most had at least tried it. And most gave up within a few years. Didn't realise there were so many 'nevers' on this forum! Haven't partaken for about 40 odd years, as usually made me feel slightly sick, and i stopped smoking cigarettes nearly 50 years ago.

My tax status is that i would pay little if any tax in Thailand. I have a pension which is tax exempt under the UK/Thailand tax agreement, and the rest would be covered by the allowances available. BUT the issue is how to prove this, the money isn't paid direct to a Thai bank, and is transferred from one account to another, with other money, before transfer. There is, of course, absolutely no guidance as to what information i need to provide. And i doubt from what i have heard others say, that at the actual revenue office they have any clue as to what to do either. So we just sit back and wait to see if we get a tax demand in arrears?

20,000 sterilisations a year. Wow. What about the other 980,000 new soi dogs every year? Just pissing on a forest fire.

Online? I stopped at a garden centre and bought 2 rose plants for cash. Later went to restaurant, paid cash. About only time the credit card used is for cash withdrawals (no fees).

Without greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, Earth would be a snowball. Also, the sun was much cooler a billion years ago, so it needed a LOT of greenhouse gases to keep water liquid at the surface. Fortunately there was a lot. Once photosynthesis evolved, there was a problem - it reduced CO2 levels - far enough to cause earth to freeze over at least twice. Fortunately this decreased photosynthesis, allowing other natural processes to increase CO2 levels again (e.g. CO2 in volcanic gases). Ever since this is a fine balancing act - sometimes higher, sometimes lower, depending on MANY factors. How critical this balance is cannot be underestimated. There are some interesting hypotheses around. What ended the Medieval warm period? Possibly the Black death - so many people died that a lot of farmland was abandoned, resulting in more trees. Then the new world was discovered - and the impact of colonisation bringing new diseases decimated the New world's native population - resulting in more trees again, keeping the temperature on a downward curve. Industrialisation, land clearance from the 19th century onwards has reversed this by releasing more CO2, hence more warming. The trees may have been a marginal factor, out of many, but perhaps enough to tip the balance. Warming has accelerated in the 21st Century. IPCC predictions have been called alarmist by skeptics, but in fact are proving to be far to conservative. I predicted that the holy grail of 1.5 degrees Centigrade would be breached this decade, not the 2030's, and i was right. The rapid growth of forest fires is just accelerating this change, and brings a problem - whats the point of planting trees if they just end up burning in fires? We are reaching a tipping point when many species of animals and plants will no longer thrive, due to heat stress and environmental degradation, possibly going extinct. The impact of this is hard to predict, but is unlikely to be good.

One barber tried double pricing in Udon Thani about 5 years ago. Got reported on the local forum, he lost a few customers. Not heard the dual pricing mentioned again, so i expect it was quietly withdrawn. The barber i use, large shop with up to 3 barbers, same price as Thai, 120 baht.

Finnomick, The grass problem is because the pond dries out. My old pond (now dugout deeper) used to have this problem if the bottom dried out for more than a month, and new grass would grow. If a wet year and didn't dry out, not much new grass. Slaked lime (calcium Hydroxide) (much harder to get than ordinary CaCo3 lime) might burn the grass enough to prevent regrowth. Once it starts to rain again it will gradually suck up CO2 and become relatively harmless.

Thai bureaucracy is not solar friendly. Very hard to get a system which will pay you for energy exported to the grid, for domestic installations. It is farcical that you see many more solar panels in the UK (where the latitude and weather limits production) than in Thailand.

Just checked and Bangkok AQI has fallen to 90. But pm 2.5 is 6.2 times the WHO recommended max. Here in Udon Thani we see a lot less burning now compared to 10 years ago. AQI usually below 100 (currently 58) - and those are readings next to main roads. I have an air purifier but have only needed 3 times in last 2 years.

Government hospital in Udon Thani prescribed me Duodart .... 1620 baht for 30 capsules

Fredwiggy needs a course in english comprehension. His 70% is the amount of women suffering domestic violence, in domestic violence cases, and sexual violence is only a smaller fraction of this. And of course not every Thai woman suffers domestic violence every year! It is a shame when stupid claims are made as if they are facts.