The Fugitive

When I last looked into donating my cadaver the rules stated up to age 65. It wasn't clear whether that was when you applied or when you died. Either way, I was over the limit. The Mrs insists on traditional Thai funeral with guests, food and drink over several evenings so she's taken out Life Insurance on me. Cancelling that now would involve loss of premiums paid to date.

Agree. Have (or rather my Mrs does) a 2012 Mitsubishi Pajero V6 3 litre petrol automatic. Purchased in 2020. Only repair necessary has been steering rack which cost 14,900 baht supplied and fitted. Seats 7 with ease.

As you state the main thing is getting pain relief when you need it. That and avoiding suffocation. I too am entitled to UK NHS treatment. However, end of life service is something our NHS don't want to do. Once you reach the stage where your health cannot be improved any further you are no longer entitled to remain in hospital. At home you get three fifteen minute visits per day by a district nurse. I would also like to know the cost in Thailand of the essential drugs needed in your friends case.

Wow! That's really impressive. Mrs bought 1995 Toyota Mighty X for 80,000 baht in 2017. It became difficult to start, lots of smoke and we finally burnt out the engine by failing to keep an eye on coolant level. Add 58,000 for engine repair. Respray also. Keeping hold of it as sure it'll become a classic!

Your family must be very adventurous! Possibly for many the change from burial to cremation came about due to family graves becoming full? I recall that from around 1963 Catholics were allowed to be cremated. I only knew one family in UK who kept cremation urns on their mantlepiece. According to the church they should be interred in consecrated ground. The family urns here in Thailand were kept in my mother-in-laws house until she died when we purchased a column for the local temple.

Well thought out! In UK I was totally sick of gridlocked roads. Even after the peak morning traffic a local journey might be at approx 6mph. Small town Issan provides me with Lotus's, Mini Big C, three 7/11's and CJ More plus independent shops, cafe's, barbers and coffee bars plus local community hospital all within 1km from home. We like to travel but mainly Nationally only. Next larger town is 11km distant and has railway and bus station. Regional airport (63km about 1hour) was domestic only but has recently enlarged by building an international terminal.

Can confirm this. I was diagnosed with and treated for hypertension in 1986. No recurrence, hence no medication since. I collapsed with low blood glucose in 2018. Cheaper companies insisted upon excluding both as pre-existing conditions. Cigna Global determined that my hypertension was 'resolved' and, as I wasn't diagnosed as diabetic following the collapse, no exclusions apply for either.

Thanks for that! Tried Testmy.net and I'm getting 1.2 Mbps down and 1Mbps up. Same for both True and AIS. Proves I don't really need it because I've never noticed. Certainly not for two phones. I have streamed audio via bluetooth to car media player and that was satisfactory.

I thought that too. I'm on WiFi at home and almost everywhere else. I just wanted cellular data for the odd occasion when I'm not. I have True pre-paid on my main mobile and AIS pre-paid on my backup phone. I've subscribed to the 1Mbps unlimited data add-on packages at 1,800 baht per annum for both. Admittedly, the speeds vary, considerably. Just done a test now and I'm getting 101Mbps downstream and 5.15Mbps upstream. Most times it is around 50Mbps down and 25Mbps up. Approximately the same for both providers.

My Thai Mrs has a necklace that she's had since age 18. Whenever she has spare cash it gets weighed in and a more expensive one purchased. Since we've been together I've upgraded it each birthday. She's content with 20,000 baht! She says all gold shops are the same. In our town we have two or three in each adjacent street! She doesn't seem to fear being sold underweight or fake gold. She's never heard of that happening.

Does anyone really need unlimited calls and texts these days? Why not pre-pay, maintain minimal balance and validity so that you could make the odd call and receive SMS. An add-on unlimited data pack can be bought for 1,800 baht (150 baht per month).

Very kind of you to try to help. At the end of the day it isn't your problem though. His relatives in the US should be the ones taking responsibility, organising his funeral and releasing his assets. It may seem heartless but it won't make any difference to the gentleman now if you were to distance yourself from this dilemma.

Thanks for your info, very useful to know these things. My Thai Mrs has a friend with a mobile phone shop. He takes part-exchange and we've bought laptops and tablets from him as well as phones. My step-daughter was happy to get my iPhone 7 plus when we upgraded to iPhone 8 plus two years ago. I had an Android phone from same year which even then wouldn't instal the app for my neo-bank. Two years later our iPhone 8's remain good. How much longer remains to be seen but from my experience I will continue buying 5 year old secondhand iPhones.

A Thai friend pointed out that my iPhone and Android backup phone were both seriously bulging and could be dangerous. He persuaded me to let a friend of his instal new batteries in both. The iPhone very soon split apart but the Android phone continues to work satisfactorily. 50% success rate has to be good?

Thai Mrs had tumours cut out of her leg at Khon Kaen Regional Hospital. She was covered by the 30 baht scheme but decided she wanted a private room. It was basic but adequate and very clean. Cost 1,000 baht per day. Her daughter stayed with her to provide personal care and fetch noodles. The surgery was performed under local anaesthetic by the tumour doctor who runs the hospital clinic. Most satisfactory.

At it since 7th century AD. Doubt it will ever end.

Thanks for your information. It sounds as though it isn't a problem with the OP's operating system.

Providing your data is safe (external hard drive or cloud service) the simplest solution may be to instal a different Linux distro. Personally, I favour MX Linux and Linux Mint. A reinstall of the same distro you are already using might do the trick too.

Just tried Bangkok Bank on MX Linux (updated today), using Google Chrome browser (stable). No VPN selected. All OK.

Agree! In my experience, all the Phuket and Krabi hotels we've stayed in insist upon passport from myself and ID cards from ALL Thai's. I have watched whilst they search for the latest retirement extension stamp and make a copy of that plus, of course, the data page.

Agree. A solicitor (criminal defence) once told me that I'd be amazed at what is found on 'ordinary' peoples computers. Also what people collect; printed matter, cine films, VHS cassettes, DVD's and, of course, download. I asked if it made a difference whether the material was illegal at the time it was obtained or legal/illegal where it was sourced from but she didn't give me an answer.

I have heard a judge tell a defendant that he will not send him to prison because the length of the sentence would not provide sufficient time for his rehabilitation. A community order was made instead.

It's been known since Victorian times that it's not the severity of the sentence that acts as a deterrent, it's the certainty of being caught. Locking people up with other similar minded people can only make them worse. Prison should be reserved for those who would otherwise, physically, cause harm to others.

I've read that OTP's via SMS are considered less secure than such as authenticator apps. However, how many people receive OTP's and install their authenticator apps upon the same device as their banking apps?

Thanks for this, things do change. Santander contacted me wanting to know my future intended use of their current and savings account. I told them I was abroad until further notice and the lack of use was due to Chase UK paying 1% cash back on purchases with their debit card. I told them if their account became competitive I would recommence use. They were happy with this and left it at that.