HauptmannUK

This is in Pattaya ?

If you are married and have to pay tax on your income you can use part of your wife's unused tax allowance.

Along with my sister I own a used car dealership and Service/MoT workshop. It was founded by my grandfather in 1921. Although I spend half my time in Thailand I still keep an active interest in the business. The used car market is always a barometer of the economy and its clear that the UK economy has been struggling for a while, but in the last few months things have taken a turn for the worse. Used car trade prices have been dropping hard for the past three months. We generally have 40 cars in stock, priced between £5k-35k. Anything over £15k is now very hard work indeed and the value of large SUVs is dropping like falling masonry. Small/cheap cars is really the only active part of the market and demand for sub-4k cars has rocketed. I think interest rate increases are now feeding through to middle class families and the disposable income is just not there any more. An additional factor is that we are still bedevilled by parts supply issues. Whether its still from Covid or from Brexit, I don't know, but we've had many repairs held up for weeks due to non-availability of parts. Few months ago we just couldn't get clutches and the factors we use only ever seem to have half of what we order. Its not looking good.

All over the world it seems that there is a push to 'cashless'. Invariably it involves use of a phone, some 'app' or other and then 'registration'. Invariably there is no interoperability between the various systems/apps. I know in the UK there are 20+ different apps in use for paying for car parking. Earlier this year my wife and I were in UK and visiting a popular beauty spot. The parking machine had been converted to cashless. I downloaded the required app but couldn't get it to work, gave an error message when I tried to register, and so I had to abandon the visit.

I bought my wife a set of 'Drsaec J55' earphones for THB594. Used everyday in the gym for the last 6 months and they seem very good. No problems at all.

Sign up to Theadulthub - there are members in Thailand. There is also a bar in the Pratamak area of Pattaya - but I'm not going to name it. Ask around in person.

I doubt there are many guys living in Thailand on just the basic UK state pension. The vast majority will have additional private pensions, investment and property income etc.

MG use legacy General Motors technology. The MG5, ZS etc are based on a cost-reduced GM D2 platform. D2 was originally designed by GM/Opel Russelsheim for the Astra, Cruze etc. in Western markets but was deemed too expensive for MG products and so a simplified and lighter version was produced (GM PATAC platform) with slightly shorter wheelbase. Not really a very surprising result if you had anything to do with MG.

I assume this is a Mazda 2 or 3. They go bad frequently and we replace a lot in the UK. Resistance of the sensor should be 550kohm +/- 30k. If its high (usually they go over 1Mohm) replace with a genuine Mazda part. The sensor is under the inlet manifold IIRC, so need to remove inlet to replace.

She is pretty good on a motorbike and has owned a 'big bike' up in Udon. She's 'had a go' at driving on quiet roads and wasn't too bad, to be fair. She's never had any kind of licence for anything...... Last year her sister bought a brand new DMax. Failed the driving test twice and then paid ฿2000 for a licence!

Ok thanks. Just looked on Google and it seems to have decent reviews. We'll pay them a visit.

Thanks. The idea is that she'd be able to drive if I was incapacitated for some reason. I'd like her to learn properly and be safe.

Can anyone recommend a driving school for my (Thai) wife, located Pattaya/Jomtien please? I'd prefer one where a school car is provided, rather than using our car.

Mine worked about 2 hours ago...

In the UK NHS mpMRI is normally done on a 3T machine without ERC. If a 1.5T machine is used then ERC is required. When I needed a prostate MRI back in 2018 the cost on a 3T machine was about ฿50k - same as a private scan in the UK, so I ended up having one in the UK. I know many people praise healthcare in Thailand but my experience of both government and private systems has been rather poor. For example, last year my wife had some gyno symptoms. Spoke to my daughter in the UK (she's a doctor in Urology) who wasn't sure but suggested it might be endometrial hyperplasia. Went to supposedly one of the best consultants in Bangkok and spent about ฿40k on blood tests, scans consultations etc. Doctor dismissed suggestion of EH and my wife ended up with some hormone pills. Daughter says 'that doesn't sound right'.. Back to the UK NHS.., see the GP, two weeks wait for scan, two weeks wait for hysteroscopy. Diagnosed as EH and then two weeks wait for outpatient op with tissue removal device. All done and fine now.

Plenty of more important issues for Thai cops to focus on before going off on this wild goose chase. Absolutely ridiculous!

As I stated further up in this thread, its usually a question of reflowing the solder on the multilayer capacitors on the back of the cluster. I've probably done half a dozen in the UK. Any small electronics repair shop should be able to do this for a couple hundred baht.

It will also be popular with low and averagely paid workers in the UK who have for years been undercut by immigrant workers.

The £18600 threshold was set many years ago and high inflation over the past few years means that a couple would be living in poverty on that income. It obviously needed increasing, but perhaps not to over £38k.

DW-TV is 'respected' by who? Having watched that documentary I thought it was sensationalist nonsense. DW-TV might be better turning their attention to some of the things going on in Germany right now - including forced betrothals of underage girls and 'temporary marriages' in some communities.

I think the chances of a Westerner becoming the victim of random street violence are relatively small. Traffic presents a much greater threat to life and limb. There is, however, lot of Thai-Thai crime and violence bubbling under the surface. One of the more surprising things I found out about my wife after I met her and visited 'the village' is that her father was a local 'mafia boss'. Indeed his local claim to fame was having calmly walked into a bar and put a bullet through the head of a rival. Wife's uncle was shot dead and on one occasion a few years ago my wife and I were out driving in the car when a motorcycle pulled alongside us and the pillion passenger released three shots, possibly on account of my wife being recognised. FiL sadly passed away last December and things have quietened down a lot, although we seldom visit the area these days.

Hmm......wife and I were planning a trip up to CM/CR around mid-December. What's it like around Chiang Rai? Just as bad?

Looking for a salt-water swimming pool in Pattaya or Jomtien, which will belong to a hotel I guess, which offers entry to non-residents. Any suggestions?

Non-O ME is no longer available from London. They confirmed this to me last month via an email. Single entry is the way to go for you since 2x SE (£60 each) is cheaper than the cost of £150 for the ME, when it was available.

Well, that's one they caught. Around another half million still on the loose...