In the jungle

You thought I was serious? I think you are going to get burnt worse than a Russian tank crew.

Damn. The Russian Ruble is doing so well I must put all my money into it right now; well perhaps with a little Mexican Peso thrown into the mix.

I think your current servicing schedule is fine. Stick with it.

You don't need to modify anything. Just chuck the weight in the back of the truck. It is what the truck was designed for. You may need to increase tyre pressures. The owner's manual will cover this.

It is interesting that you choose the US flag as your thumbnail. Presumably you know that, given a free hand, the Chinese would happily destroy everything that flag stands for. Why would you choose to give them money to help them do that?

On the immigration point I believe that if you have no close connections to the UK all legal avenues for settling open to you in the UK involve very substantial inward investment. I suggest you do some research on that.

Having just spent five months in the countryside near Inverurie for me the climate is the overriding consideration. Even in August at times it was necessary to have a fire burning in the evening as the temperature dropped to single figures (celsius). I don't think I would be prepared to live there twelve months a year. But if you want a suggestion for an area to look at mine is the Moray coast north of Aberdeen. No shortage of stone and slate cottages up there although they tend to be poor in terms of thermal efficiency.

Whenever I see someone driving a Chinese MG I assume they are an idiot.

If I remember correctly a lot of the Rover SD1s were banana yellow for some strange reason.

Tell her to find a good independent VW specialist.

1949 international driving licence is the requirement for Thailand.

I like the CT125 but it is not that easy to find in showrooms and you could build a ghetto version from a Wave or Cub/Dream for not much money. Plenty of people do that round here for farm use.

The most implausible part of Liz Truss' CV is that a man had an affair with her.

I am in the process of doing a rebuild on my Honda Dream 100. I bought the bike new in 2001 and in recent years I have kept it only because I was curious as to exactly how long it would run without work on the engine. I now have my answer. After 217,000 km a main bearing failed. I find this longevity from a cheap, small, air cooled single cylinder pretty remarkable and it is one of the reasons why I am a big Honda fan. It did not actually break down and it never has in 21 years but when the bearing failed vibration increased markedly. I am doing the rebuild myself and my guess, based on previous experience, is that the rebuild will cost 3K or so and certainly less than 5K. After that it will be good to go for another twenty years. Another thing I find remarkable is parts availability on these old Hondas. Back in 2017 I went to the local main dealer to check availability on a complete set of new bodywork. I thought it was a long shot given the age of the bike but my enquiry was met by a question as to what colour I would like. From memory the bodywork cost about 2.5K.

Half a Rai is not that big and you can probably get by with a cheaper mower with a Honda engine. Be prepared though for the general crappiness of the Non-Honda parts such as control cables, blades, wheels, the deck etc. Patco is probably the best of the local brands I have come across as they do a model with an aluminium deck of reasonable quality. Patco blades are made of cheese but at least they are cheap. The Honda HRJ216, which I assume is what you are talking about at around 30K, is a great mower and high quality in all respects. Be aware though that it is pretty heavy at around 48kg and that the blades are hideously expensive if you buy them in Thailand. I use a Honda HRJ216 as a back up to an imported Honda ride on mower. Any parts I need for the ride on have to be sourced from abroad which is why I have a back up. I source the blades for the HRJ from Australia where you can buy tradesmen's packs of genuine blades for sensible money. Bought this way the blades are one sixth the price you will pay in Thailand. One set of blades will last years. I have about three Rai of lawn to cut in total.

“Applicant is required to upload his/her passport pages which contain all travel records for the past 12 months (1 year) since the last international trip.” More gibberish from the Thai E visa website. My guess is that what they want is passport endorsements within the last twelve months. Does anyone have a better informed view as to how this requirement is interpreted?

Is it really the case that the London Thai embassy expect to see a 5,000 Pound bank balance for the issuance of a sixty day tourist visa? I am in the process of preparing an application for a sixty day tourist visa and the bank balance on the statement I have uploaded, but not submitted, is around 3,300 Pounds. If they really require a bank balance of 5,000 Pounds that leaves me somewhat scuppered as my bank only issues statements on a monthly basis and the next statement is not due until around 7 August. Even if I paid money in tomorrow it would not appear on a document the Thai embassy would/might accept until 7 August.

My apologies for not keeping up to date on this post. This Suzuki Carry was sold on 22 March 2022.

It's a pain that they don't have an ATM air side in Suvarnabhumi. I don't really want to be wandering around with 20K in cash in my pocket. If they had an ATM air side I could withdraw 20K there only if required to show the money by immigration.

I renewed my new British passport in November 2021. They said allow 11 weeks and I picked up the new passport in Bangkok after 7 weeks.

The Saab Gripens are based at Surat Thani in the South. It's about 200 km south of where I live and a few times I have seen them overhead here.

And then there was the Saab Gripen they crashed at an air show in Hat Yai. "I have seen the Red Arrows and Blue Angels on Youtube. I've got this."

About 15 years ago I used to give a fair amount of work to a very good machine shop in Rangsit not far from Don Meung airport. They were often producing copy aircraft parts for the RTAF. So much for rigorously tested traceable aircraft components.

But just to make it more confusing. They still have the map for their old office on the website here: http://www.chumphonimmigration.go.th/map.php The old office was kinda small. The redundant photocopy documents were up to waist level.

While on a multiple entry visa I once got berated by an immigration officer for "using the visa too much".