rickudon

Halifax Clarity card is 0% commission, but as the payment is processed by Mastercard, their will be the Mastercard exchange rate fee. I used my card on Monday, and the pending rate was 45.1xxx. Sure they company that took the credit card payment didn't do dynamic conversion to GBP for you? Whenever i check Wise rates, once you take into account their exchange rate and fees, Clarity nearly always cheaper. Cash withdrawals - at Krungsri, i do a counter withdrawal and avoid the ATM fee.

My wife runs a shop. She has to pay for various licences, or opt to do accounts and pay VAT. She pays for the licences ( at least one of which is self declared turn over related). She obviously chooses the cheapest level. Their are no real accounts, most is cash purchases. She doesn't even know how much profit she makes! She isn't registered for income tax; but i doubt if she makes much more than 10,000 baht a month profit.

A year ago in Udon Thani an electric car was still a novelty. Now, doing the morning school run i will see some every day.

A question about frequency of taking Atorvastatin. I am on 10 mg per day, but hospital can only provide 40mg tabs. They say cut into 4, but this is difficult to do, cutting into 2 is easy though. Rather than every day, can i take 20 mg every other day? I could buy different size tabs from a pharmacy, but the 40mg tabs are really cheap from the government hospital (less than half the price). I am also beginning to experience some problems with my feet. Seems to affect my metatarsals, feel dislocated in the mornings, then gets better after walking a bit, but get pains if you walk a lot.....

I live in Udon Thani. I like the parks. We have 3 urban parks, and all are infinitely better than most in the UK. Many years ago UK parks were OK, but 30 years of cost cutting has left many parks with no permanent staff, just a contractor with a mowing machine. The only things there are grass and a few trees. On my very first day in Udon, i walked through a park, and fell in love.... Other attractions - Chinese temple, Sino-Thai friendship centre, both free to visit. UDtown, also very attractive water features and vegetation, and at Halloween, Xmas, Chinese new year also have some nice displays for the kids. Rural areas just a few kilometres from the centre. Could do with a few big hills though, rather flat.

Pollution. Heat. Humidity. Dangerous roads. Four reasons why bikes are a bad idea. Not that keen on walking in those conditions any distance.

Not many volunteers for this job. Make a mistake, and it is desecration of a holy book. Penalty in some countries - death (assuming a mob doesn't lynch you first).

It already exists, called an Agent....

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.