Nurseynutcase

I could be wrong on this but I think vat is applied to printed matter.

I know of only two Thai people who regularly read books.

It doesn't seem to be in the Thai culture for reading books for fun, let alone to learn something about the world outside their own 'little bubble'.  But then again, if you are on a minimum wage the cost of books does become prohibitive.

Also has anyone noticed any public libraries in their area?  Would be interested to know.

I live in Phuket and for the past two months my electricity usage has shot up from an average of 600 units/month to 800.  Both a/c units professionally cleaned every 6 months and no extra usage on any electrical items.  House cool so no fans needed, only use a/c for sleeping.

Weird

19 hours ago, legend49 said:

they needed to get home quickly before their car got wet.

So very true.  sad though.

22 hours ago, stephenterry said:

I understood, for the UK, that a Foreign Office audit had recommended additional cost cuts, which included to discontinue issue of income letters for Brits in Thailand.

 

IMO, the current British government is a waste of space.

 

 

 

 

How true!!!

I think I got my last jar from Makro - might be worth a try?

On 4/23/2019 at 1:52 PM, RichardColeman said:

Very strongly recommend not selling it IF it is your property and IF it is your only property. 

 

There are so many stories of people going to Thailand, ending up with no money - mostly bad planning and even badder women - and now near potless with nowhere to return to. 

 

I had been living in Thailand previously on a retirement visa by only renting out my house - working fine until I ended up with a bad tenant - who luckily for me (not him) actually died thereby saving me the issues of evicting him. Just taken me away from Thailand and my family for 6 month to repair and repaint it !

 

Sure I could sell it and never worry about money in Thailand again - probably. If I sold it it would be about 310k £ - about 30 years worth at a grand a month spending. BUT, why bother - the rent on the house would be 1000 a month minimum anyhow ! (I now get a small pension on top for anyone worrying that is not enough)

 

But Thailand is NOT the UK, we are only guests - unless they change the law. We are at their biding and at the mercy of there immigration laws.

 

No do not risk it if its your only home.

 

 

 

I too have a property in the UK which I rent out.  In my previous job in the UK I met so many people who sold up and moved abroad - Spain, France, Cyprus, Greece, Italy etc and when 'something' happened to a partner - ill-health/death they wanted to move back to the UK.  The only trouble was that house prices had shot up in the meantime and the only option was to buy somewhere much smaller or move to the North of England(I am from the South).

I am single with only a brother as a family member and I do intend staying in Thailand 'til I hand in my dinner ticket.  But you never know what may happen in the future.  For this reason I will never sell my house.  I agree whole heartedly with the above poster

From personal experience - anything that bites just loves me - I take an antihistamine daily and use avon skin so soft.  If I do get bitten I use the green tiger balm.

with regards to an earlier poster with the light bulb thingy there is now available on the market something called 'bite-away'.  Basically it heats the bite up to 54C and the itching stops immediately.  It is available on Amazon.  Not tried it myself but a friend of mine swears by it.  It is cheap and works on batteries.

Also if you do have mossies in room you could try turning the A/C down to 16C for half an hour - this makes it too cold for the mossies to live and then they die!!!!

Maybe this is a new way of stopping at truck - find a pole, aim, hit it, job done. Truck stopped.

sorry for my sarcasm but there does seem to be a propensity for trucks to crash into poles.

I cannot be the only person who thinks that having to issue a law against child abuse is appalling.  Surely any right-minded person would know that it is wrong, wrong, wrong.

But hey the perverts in the various churches believe they have "god on their side"

I did read this correctly 56000 baht for 2 injections!!!!  My husband was on this many years ago when it was one of the first anti-TNF drugs for AS.  At the time is cost the NHS £1200 a year and I would have thought that the patent on this had now expired and there were generics available.?

Good luck to you - this drug changed my husbands life for the better for the few short years he had left.

On 3/19/2019 at 4:09 PM, worgeordie said:

Stottie bread ,pease pudding,ham sandwich

regards worgeordie

OMG Stottie cakes - yum, yum.  I used to live in the South of England and had a friend who visited Newcastle always bought me back stottie cakes..Made a wonderful chip buttie!!!

To the OP - have you thought about trying to acclimatise yourself?  Try inching the a/c up bit by bit say til you hit 24/25C and feel comfortable.

coming from the UK and feeling perpetually cold all my life I love the warm weather here.  Very,very occasionally I feel hot.  I definitely get goose-bumps when I go into the likes of Makro, 7/11 etc.

I ride a push-bike everywhere, I do go swimming in the sea but I do find it cold in there sometimes.

The amount of times I have contacted the wildlife centre in Phuket when nothing appears to happened is uncountable.  

Nothing ever happens and I doubt that it ever will.

so bloomin' sad.

OK, in the picture there is a view of Canary Wharf.  In the background I can make out seven cranes.  Now this might seem a bit off the wall but bear with me please.

My brother who lives in the uk and travels around does what he calls a crane count.

Everywhere he goes from the home counties to the midlands he sees a huge number of cranes(he does not visit ports).  Now logic says these cranes are building something be it residential tower blocks, office blocks, shopping centres, warehouses etc, so why does the economy appear depressed?  The footsie250 is much higher than in 2008 so why all the doom and gloom?  

I sincerely hope the brexit will happen despite the smug-faced Bercow appearance and statement in the commons yesterday.

10 hours ago, White Christmas13 said:

This must be a pommy website nobody has reported that the Australian doctor became Australian of the year

Actually I did read this somewhere - it might have been on the BBC Australia site.

I did think it was a most fitting honour.

Kudos to ALL involved.

On 2/26/2019 at 9:52 PM, EricTh said:

I've never met any Danish in Thailand so I doubt it is significant.

 

Outside the big four UK, Australia, America, Canada, I've only met French and Germans and of course Japanese.

You have to be kidding!!!!! Danish not significant!!!!!

Where I live in Phuket we have an area called Little Denmark - also a street there  that we locals know as Tuborg way.  Not to mention the bar that is sometimes referred to as the Danish Embassy!!!

OK I have read all of this post and whilst in some respects I agree with you in others I do not.  You say you are a retired law enforcement officer so you must surely have had to use computers?  Whilst the immigration data on the website is not always accurate you could have avoided all of these problems(and money) by doing it yourself.  Yes the annual paperwork is a nightmare but if you had prepared well in advance you should not have had any of the difficulties you describe.

Maybe I am lucky in that here in Phuket we have volunteers in immigration who will point you in exactly the right direction to take with your paperwork - no referral to agents.

Good luck with your travels(if you bother to read this)

On 2/17/2019 at 10:39 AM, SheungWan said:

One thing I discovered back in 2014 was that there was a discrepancy between what appeared on the website re O-A and the guidance sheet handed out at the Embassy. I went to the Embassy to ask which one prevailed. The answer was the guidance sheet handed out at the Embassy. I found that the website specified notarisation, whereas the guidance sheet allowed certification. That saved a lot of money. I also made a second additional visit to ask whether the request for the British Police Force docs were necessary as specified on the website or if the online Scottish Police printouts were acceptable. The Scottish ones OK. It seemed odd going to the Embassy just to ask questions on separate occasions, but it turned out to be worth it. 

Guess you were lucky with the Scotland police clearance I had this and checked with the Thai Embassy if that would be ok and was told categorically NO = it must be Scotland Yard.  This was in 2014.  But then again it might just have been I got a stroppy IO officer.

22 hours ago, Bullie said:

To me it sounds like she is angry because farang can sometimes have the law on their side, too. It is well possible the man has mental problems, and the consulate is rightly assisting a citizen in need of help.

 

Apart from anything I have yet to meet the first farang that got his deposit back after termination of a rental agreement, so I am quite enjoying this spat....

Actually I DID get my deposit back on the last house I had rented for three and a half years.  The landlady was sorry to see me go.  

When after a couple of days I went back to get my deposit returned the only deduction was for the electric I had used and the broadband.  Which I felt was fair enough.

I saw a Television programme in the UK some time ago about a pensioner who used to 'work' the taxi ranks in the town where he lived.  He swept the gutter and picked up all the change that was there.  One year he 'made' over £4000 in dropped coins and notes.

Then some a**holes beat him up for his nights 'takings' and the police asked him to stop.

He didn't stop as he felt it was too profitable.

Food for thought?