The Fugitive

My Thai Mrs 'loaned' 150,000 baht to a Thai female friend who wasn't able to pay for her falang husbands funeral. He had drunk his savings and was living (or rather drinking) from day to day on his pension. His stomach and liver were destroyed. I don't know if the lady repaid her or not but the reason was genuine so I have sympathy.

Santander UK suspended my online access. I telephoned to ask why? Customer services told me they had written to me, but because no reply was received, they suspended my internet banking. I told them I was out of the country 'until further notice' hence had not received their letter. They told me I could answer their questions now over the 'phone. They wanted to know my future intended use of my savings and current account? I told them I was now using Chase UK as my main bank because of the interest and cash back. They told me this was satisfactory and reinstated my on-line access.

Google Drive is great for the portability it gives to Word/Docs and Excel/Sheets alone. I use Mega (free) for my photos. When I signed up I got 50GB for free which continues to apply. I understand it's only 20GB now. However, well worth having for nothing. I see they have just launched their own VPN for 0.99 Euros per month or included if you have a paid for Mega subscription.

Are you backing up/saving your photographs to a cloud service? If so, you don't need to transfer them. If not, recommended to do so immediately.

Bought this from my local Advice computer shop a couple of months ago. I don't play computer games either so it's for browsing internet, emails, basic office functions and audio/visual. No optical disk drive. No built in card reader. Seems to do what I want fast enough. My Thai neice was impressed with it and bought the same model for herself also from the same shop. https://www.advice.co.th/product/notebook/notebook-asus/notebook-asus-vivobook-15-x1502za-ej577wf-quiett-blue-

Excellent! Yamaha Fino just keeps on going. We have one of same era for family use.

100% in agreement. Excellent reasoning.

Thai friends keep dogs and appear to treat them very well. However, they won't have them spayed. I would happily give them the money. Recently, one gave birth to six puppies. Next time we visited I asked where they were? My Mrs explained that 'some big bird must have carried them away'. I suppose that translates as husband took his spade to them?

Safety of the animals isn't my prime concern. I believe the public has the right not to endure excrement everywhere and dogs chasing them.

In my home area (UK) a teenage girl shot a cat in her garden. The crossbow bolt went completely through the animal. The girl was sentenced to three months imprisonment.

I suspect you replied to a troll post. Having said that, there are people who genuinely believe that 10 deaths per annum out of a population of 66 million represents such an infinitesimal risk that rabies vaccination is preposterous.

Far too many cats and dogs everywhere unfortunately. At one time we used to bury the corpses we found poisoned in our garden with foam at their mouths. It became so frequent, and too much effort, especially when the earth was hard. We now use a suitable shovel and catapult them over walls etc.

My experience too! I now always book via Trip.com. Last week the first leg of our two leg AirAsia flight was cancelled. Automatically rebooked onto the next available AirAsia flight. Unfortunately, that was too late to connect with the second leg. There were no other flights available with other airlines to make the connection. I couldn't change or cancel the second leg because of the terms of booking. I cancelled the first leg. Trip.com refunded my card within 24 hours. Fast and painless!

Botswana are unarmed too. Apparently, following independence they decided to retain UK style policing. However, although capital punishment had been abolished they decided to reintroduce it, albeit reserved for the very worst offenders only.

UK was an 'open door' for immigration until 1971. Those to whom you refer were most likely born in UK, thus cannot be deported.

It isn't always possible but I've noticed that Thai's don't even seem to try to keep a wall between themselves and the gas cylinder.

I did think of that but wanted to buy there and then and have done with it (or, rather my Mrs did) so simply chose from the laptops upon display in the shop.

Thanks for your info and also thanks for buying from your local Advice shop. I bought an economical laptop from mine a couple of months ago. It's good to get the product in your hand and know that if there are any issues they have an English speaking technician in-store. The sales assistant speaks good English at mine too. When I got home I wiped Windows 11 and installed MX Linux instead. Unfortunately, I managed to lock myself out at the UEFI password stage. Went back to shop. It took the techie two internet searches plus one phone call and some head scratching but he sorted it very quickly. Didn't want payment but my Mrs gave him and the sales girl 100 baht each upon the basis; 'With you, we don't know when we're going to need them again!'.

Risk category 3 applies from what I can see? https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/hcp/prevention-recommendations/pre-exposure-prophylaxis.html

Totally agree! Since my Google bookmarks and passwords were hacked a couple of years ago I think that way too. I receive my OTP's via a VOIP service. Not the most secure as they are received on more than one device in my case. Also, receiving OTP's on the same device that you use for your mobile banking apps is obviously convenient but less secure.

Agree! On the subject of Samsung, my Mrs won't entertain anything else. Only the most recent air conditioner we bought was based upon a high rating at the time (LG Dual Inverter). We haven't had any problems with Samsung branded products.

Do you remember Margaret Thatcher gave police a 45% pay rise ahead of the anticipated trouble?

My Mrs tips 10% or 100 baht (whichever is the greater). Her logic is that the waiter/waitress is from Laos or Cambodia etc. and they deserve it.

When working (in UK) I only used to drink when on holiday. The 'cafe culture' of Spain and Portugal suited me fine. Cheese and ham toasties, bolos, coffee and draught lager anytime between 6am and midnight (or later) in air conditioned comfort was great. A jug of vinho branco de casa with my meals in small family run restaurants was great too. Not the same in Thailand, at least not where I live. Limit myself to the odd can of Chang at home for thirst quenching purposes only.

Good thinking thanks! I realise I might not live long enough to get my money back, however if we're only talking 90,000 Baht it isn't crucial.