tomgreen

Thanks to every one for your comments and advice. When I married my Thai wife I paid no SinSod and did not have any party or celebration , we just went together to Bangkok and registered our marriage at my embassy and at the Thai government marriage office. One thing I forgot to include in my original post was the fact that my wife’s parents owned a small house with some attached land. My wife’s deadbeat layabout older brother told his parents that he had been offered a fantastic job in Korea , but the agency who offered that fantastic employment opportunity was asking for a ‘’ deposit ‘’ to pay for arranging a visa , air fare and accommodation in Korea, and the deposit amount was …. 95,000.00 Baht. The wife's parents who are poor farming folk and who worked on the land , in no way had that sort of money . What the wife's parents did have was another small house they owned in another province that had been empty for many years , so the deadbeat layabout older brother managed to talk his parents into selling that current house and move to the other small empty house in another province . The parents once they had sold their current house and moved into the once small empty house in another province , now had a bank balance that contained several hundred thousand Baht . So the parents then gave their deadbeat layabout son the deposit money of 95,000.00 Baht so he could go to Korea and in the deadbeat layabout son’s words , pay his parents back the 95,000.00 Baht loan and send large amounts of money that he would be earning in Korea back home to his parents every month . I have a funny feeling you know whats coming next .😁 Well the deadbeat layabout son paid the deposit money of 95,000.00 Baht to the employment agency and never heard from them ever again. To my utter amazement after the layabout son had lost the 95,000.00 Baht deposit money , his parents as far as I know never made a big issues about it and felt sorry that their deadbeat layabout son was scammed. Now the wife’s parents are living in the small house in another province and the money they managed to get from the sale of their first house , is now due to the deadbeat layabout son’s stupidity down 95,000.00 Baht . Around a month later the deadbeat layabout son tell his parents that his friend ( another deadbeat layabout ) is going to start a transport company delivering metal steel work for building company’s using large trucks, and the friend wants the deadbeat layabout son to become a partner in the new venture .The deadbeat layabout son goes on to tell his parents that to become a partner in the new transport company, he needs to help pay for the truck leasing costs and a rented building to safely keep the trucks overnight . The deadbeat layabout son then assures his parents that he know’s what he’s doing and this new transport business is going to make a lot of money . As far as Ive managed to find out the deadbeat layabout son’s parents ( my wife’s parents ) handed over all the money from the sale of their past house , to their deadbeat layabout son in order that he could become a partner with his friend in a soon to be highly profitable transport company. It seems that the deadbeat layabout son’s friend on receiving a large amount of money from the deadbeat layabout son’s parents , promptly disappeared with all the money . So the wife’s parents are now living hand to mouth in the small house in another province and their once healthy bank balance has all gone , due to them believing what their deadbeat layabout son had told them. Its a sad situation that the deadbeat layabout son managed to convince his parents to hand over their entire life savings . My wife tells me that her deadbeat layabout older brother is still unemployed and is still asking his parents for money . Now you can see why I don’t give any cash to the wife’s parents , as I know that money would for sure end up in the deadbeat layabout son’s pocket. Any requests for money come from my wife’s mother and my wife then tells me. My wife can clearly see the situation and is in agreement that we don’t send any cash to her parents , but help by providing things directly. Tom .

To put my question into some sort of context Ive been married to a Thai woman for over 20 years and have live permanently in Thailand for all of that time. After we first married the wife’s parents started to ask for money from us ( me ) saying that they need to buy a new gas cooker or fridge or to carry out repairs to their house etc . Being fairly new to what was expected after marrying a Thai woman , when it came to giving her parents any money , I just smiled and paid the request for money , thinking that I was doing the right thing and of course helping the wife’s poor parents along the way. Over time the number of requests by the wife's parents for money steadily grew and increased in the cash amount that they were asking for. Those requests for money always seemed to centre around the need to buy new house hold appliances / vehicle repairs / repairing their house roof etc. I never really visited the wife’s parents house very often , but one day just after the latest request by the wife’s parents for more money ( to replace broken windows at their house and replace a damaged toilet bowl ) I decided to visit the parents house a month after I had given the parents the money to to replace the broken windows and replace the damaged toilet bowl. When I turned up at the wife's parents house , it soon became apparent that ‘’ no ‘’ new household appliances had ever been purchased or ‘’ any ‘’ house repairs had been ever been carried out. It turned out that the vast majority of all the money that I had ever given to my wife’s parents in the hope that it would better help their living standards had in fact always been passed on to one of my wife’s older deadbeat / alcoholic brother's . This deadbeat older brother had constantly been taking money from the parents under the pretense that he needed to purchase and run a pickup to help him find work . To date he has never purchased a pickup or found employment of any kind. Once I found what had been going on I told my wife that if her parents asked for money , I wanted to know exactly what the money was needed for , and if the request for money involved buying new house hold appliances , then I would personally buy the needed appliances my self and personally take them to the parents house. If the money was requested for house repairs or other services, I would personally arrange and pay for the work directly my self. If the request for money involved medical treatment , I would directly pay the money my self. In other words no cash would ever again be handed over to the parents , for obvious reasons. Over time the requests from the wife’s parents for money slowed down , over time Ive purchase various household appliances and equipment , and delivered those items to the parents house my self, along with personally paying for any medical treatment that the wife's parents needed . So I’m now wondering how others here who are married or in a relationship with a Thai woman deal with any requests for money that come from the Thai wife / partners parents or family , and do you have any tips or advice on how to deal with those requests for money . Tom .

I may be an old fuddy duddy and getting on in years ( 74 ) who could just be out of touch with the so called latest trends and social media goings on , so I’m now having a hard time trying to understand current social media sites like Instagram , TikTok and Twitter ( X ) . Thinking back I fondly remember social media being a nice way to keep up with friends and family but its now it seems to have turned into a distasteful rabbit hole and wasteland for idiotic content posted by halfwitted and mindless ‘’ look at me ‘’ attention seekers. And don’t get me started by the so called ‘’ influencers ‘’ who generally seem to possess the mentality of a 12 year old . And of course there’s the endless never ending flood of idiots posting in my mind stupid videos of them selves doing such crazy and idiotic stunts , which in many cases put the idiot in hospital or an early grave. In my simplistic view social media seems to have taken the concept of being stupid to the next level and now I have a strange gut feeling that It's definitely not going to get any better and almost certainly get worse . So whats your take on the current state of social media platforms like Instagram , TikTok and Twitter ( X ) has it become a saturated cesspool full of content posted by emotionally damaged pathological narcissistic attention seekers and clickbait scams and in the long term may be responsible for our downfall due to the spread of misinformation and not forgetting the increasing AI altered videos and photographs so that we never know what's real anymore. Or do you think the world is a better place with the likes of Instagram , TikTok and Twitter ( X ) being around. Tom .

Looks great - price and link Please 👍 .

I need a new computer monitor and I came across a wide screen monitor ( can't remember where I saw it ) that you can have two independent different desktop views on its screen from two separate different computers at the same time . Also you only needed one mouse and one keyboard. I don't play games so I don't need any thing high spec. From what I remember the wide screen monitor I saw was not crazy expensive and had a screen size of ( I think ) 34 inches. Any one have a suggestion as to which monitor I saw or a recommendation – Thanks. .

Many Thanks , its appreciated Tom .

I have 3BB fiber internet at my house , but I did not know about using a 3BB email account , can you please tell me a bit more Tom .

I was sent this video by a friend , and his question was ........... If there is a God why would he allow this to happen . I’m in no way a religious man , but my friends question got me thinking . So whats your thoughts on ........ If there is a God why would he allow this to happen Link to the video below https://streamable.com/vb63wj Tom .

I have purchased a Honda 4 stroke petrol brush / weed cutter to cut down tall grass and small bushes on some land.( see photograph D ) The Honda brush cutter is working well , but I’m now looking for some advice . One problem I’m having is finding decent cutter blades that last more than a few hours . So far Ive used some cutter blades purchased off Lazada + some given to me ( see photograph C ) those cutter blades were not that expensive. Those cutter blades shown on the photograph worked fine for a short period of time , but all of them eventually stopped cutting and became useless. I suspect that the problem may be in the fact that those cutter blades were cheap in price. I’m wondering if paying more money for a better cutter blade would be the answer and the more expensive cutter blades would last longer, or could it be that some how I’m using the wrong type of cutter blade for the job. With the now worn out and not cutting very well cutter blades , would it be possible to re sharpen those cutter blades and would it be worth the effort. After now cutting all the tall long grass down , it leaves a bottom stump ( photograph A ) where the long grass is rooted into the ground . The cutting blades ( circular type ) can cut those long grass rooted stumps out of the ground , but its hard work . I’m wondering if theres another easier / better way / cutter blade to deal with removing the long grass rooted stumps. Along with the long grass that needed cutting theres also some old small lemon trees that need to be removed ( see photograph B ) . Ive tried cutting those small lemon trees at their base , but the circular cutting blades struggles to cut into the lemon tree wood , and the circular cutting blades start to get hot and some smoke appears from the circular cutting blade. I’m wondering if using a different type of circular cutting blade to cut the small lemon trees would be the best option. Currently all the tall long grass has been successfully cut down , leaving only a lot of tall grass bottom stump areas that need to be removed along with the small lemon trees. I’m still learning so any advice , suggestions or recommendations very welcome . Tom .

Would it be possible to normally run the laptop ,if the battery has been taken out , but its still plugged into the mains power supply that came with the laptop? Tom .

Thanks for posting the screen shot , it makes things clearer 👍 Tom .

Hi and thanks , I'm going to check them out 👍 Tom .

Hi , No Uk credit card 🙄 Tom .

Thanks, I'm only looking at sending small amounts ( 1,000 Baht ) to my UK HSBC bank to keep it active , so may be the SWIFT procedure may not be worth all the trouble for a 1,000 Baht every few months. Tom

Thanks, what did you have to do to make that SWIFT transfer from your Bangkok Bank account to the UK . Tom .

Thanks , so it looks like using a money transfer option ( Wise ) may not be possible , and the only option for me to send small amounts of money from Thailand into my UK HSBC bank account , would be directly from my Bangkok Bank account Tom .

Thanks , when you used the Bangkok Bank mobile app to send money from your Bangkok Bank account to the UK , were you asked to sign up / or use a separate money transfer company like ( Wise ) , or was the transfer of money from your Bangkok Bank account all done in house by Bangkok Bank . Tom .

I wondered about using the Bangkok Bank mobile app , I'm going to have another go opening the Bangkok Bank mobile app and see what the procedure is to send money from my Bangkok Bank savings account to my UK HSBC bank savings account , from past experience dealing with any thing Bangkok Bank related , it may be a bumpy ride 😀 Tom .

Hi , Ive no idea if theres any regulation in play . Tom .

Hi , I'm only looking for a simple way to send money ( Thai Baht ) from Thailand to my UK HSBC bank account . Ive just checked out the Wise web site and its saying that sending Thai Baht to Europe is not possible with their platform ( unless Ive got it all wrong ) Tom .

Just checked the Wise web site and its saying that sending Thai Baht to Europe is not possible . ( unless I've got it wrong some how ) . Tom .

I'm still trying to find a simple way of sending small amounts of money ( 1,000 Baht ) to my UK HSBC bank account ( to keep it active ) I have just installed the Bangkok Bank app on my Android phone, and I can now log into my Thai Bangkok Bank savings account . Ive noticed that in the Bangkok Bank Android app , there's an option to send money abroad. Ive not yet tried that option ( just in case I get it wrong ) Now I'm Just wondering if any one here also has the Bangkok Bank app on their mobile phone and has used the '' send money abroad '' option from their mobile phone. Also on the internet web page for Bangkok Bank , which I can log into , to see my Bangkok Bank savings account , there does not seen an option to send money abroad. Tom .

Hi , I looked at the cost of a new battery and its around 2,000 Baht , and the Laptop is really old , so knowing my luck I would buy and install a new battery and the week after the mother board would pack up 😀 Tom .

My old Dell laptop running Linux is about to take its last breath ( swollen battery ) so I’m looking for ideas to replace it . I don’t really want another laptop . So I’m wondering about a Mini PC or small tower PC sort of thing . It will only be used for web surfing / torrenting / photos / music . I’m planning to install Linux Mint on the new computer and connect it to an external monitor . Any ideas , suggestions or recommendations Please . Tom .

Thanks again Sheryl I want to post some thing in a new topic about recommended / suggested types of foods , snacks and drinks that people who have high Cholesterol eat and drink , but I'm not sure where to post that type of subject . Tom .