scorecard

Sure but hotel owners need to prioritize what services are critical to getting customers. It's called identiying 'Critical Success Factors' and ensuring they re getting enough attention. Nowadays very few customers will book a hotel which doesn't have internet. Reality. comparison could be the 'ice machine on level 3 is broken', that's not critical, and if necessary guests can order an ice bucket from room service. There's a workable easy alternative.

It's not that simple, any bank will want to be convinced that you or your wife (if it's a pesonal mortgae loan) or the company (if thre bank gives the loan to the company, can already prove a past income stream and can prove there will be a continuing income stream to support the repayments. If it's a new company then theres' no past business history (sales/revenue/profit margins/operating expenses, etc., therefore bank likely to be hesitant to loan money to the company.

A few more points I guess worth sharing re gaining the OAP: - Visit any Centrelink office ASAP to get a personal CRN (Centrelink Reference number), take with you several items to help to peove your identity: - Passport - Birth certificate - Second item issued by a gov't org., or similar. They acepted my plastic Thai Drivers License. (county of issue is not relevant). - Download the: - OAP application form (24 pages, looks daunting but lots of free space and If your single and no complictions re divorce etc., 85% of the questions you can cross out. The approx. 15% of the questions are very straightforward. - OAP application Assets and Income (A&I) form. If you have money in Thai banks you will need to show this on the A&I form and you need to get a document for each account (in English) for each account with abank stamp. I got these at K bank, nothing difficult. Should include any joint savingsa coount. - Take the 2 forms above with you when you visit Centrelink. My experienc: the plesant lady asked If I wanted her to look at my forms and make some comments. I said YES. She looked carefully and said 'your forms are totally complete so I have some suggestions': - Take the forms home and make a final check then submit the forms yourself by e.mail. or - If you want I can scan the forms and attachments right now to actually submit them - I SAID YES PLEASE. The lady did that and their multi-purpose machine added a printed stamped reference number and she gave the forms back to me. Don't believe the stoies you'll find on this site about rude, uncoopertive Centrelink officers. Not true. Don't believe the commnts you'll find tht it takes 3 or 4 months to get the appoval. No true Mine was approved in less than 3 weeks and that included about 4 day to get a new birth certificate and submit the new refernce numbers (the C'link system to prove ID wouldn't accept my old birth certificate numbers - turned out when th old hand written entries or birth certicate details were computerised there was a data entry mistake. As soon as the problem was realized a new birth certificate was issued and I submitted it). As soon as my OAP was approved I got a phone call from a very pleasant young man from C'link who confirmed approval and then crefully explained the details of the first payment (incl., back payment to the date I submiited the application). He also mentioned that the first payment would be deposited the next afternoon. It was, about 2.30pm. ________________________ Re the 2 years. It starts from the day your arrive in Australia, NOT from the date you submit your OAP application.

Stated requirement is that the CEO must be Thai national. My suggestion to any CEO candidiate would be demand a gurantee that all of the current Thai management* staff must go and quickly. Seems to me if they remain they will continue all the current/old attitudes, behaviors and ethics and won't follow any new policies etc., given by any new CEO. *All managers, all levels including all levels of supervisors. And all remaining staff be put on 6 months probation during which time employ an outside management consultancy to watch and assess all staff, especially for their attitudes and baheviors. Yeah I know this is LOS.

Also big rain today here in Chiang Mai, luckily our village is on high ground.

Further, when I had the interview (yes 25 years ago), the immigration officer (one officer) was keen for me to share how my degrees/knowledge/skills/experience was helpful to the development of Thailand. Also, he asked me to explain, in detail, how I was sharing these items with my Thai colleagues, and share some examples of how I could clearly see that my Thai colleagues had gained from this. The Imm. officer was clearly/specifically very focused on this subject and a lot of time was devoted to it. A couple of times he mentioned something like 'to get PR foreigners must be able to explain/prove they are strongly/specifically contributing to the development of Thailand'. In fact my agent discussed this before we* went to the interview and suggested I prepare some bullet points on these points. I did that and after discussion with the Imm officer I gave him the document I had prepared which he scanned for a minute then said 'thank you' and found a place to put it in his documents. *The one Imm. officer spoke perfect English as did my agent. There was no Thai language in the interview. The Imm. officer invited my agent to join the interview however he did mention clearly that the agent should not speak during the interview. I had 2 masters degrees at that time, the officer did mention 'this is to your advantge'. He did also mention, If a PR applicant has no university degrees but can explain in strong detail their skills etc., and how they are sharing this with their Thai colleagues then this can be considered. Yes 25 years ago and perhaps many factors/policies/attitudes have changed/adjusted, but I wonder if the above might be relevant. Perhaps folks who have had the interview in much more recent times might share some comments.

So now we have different colours, which will just achieve one thing; confusion.

Agree, has the TAT published a specific list of projects/items/services which will be improved and how they will be improved and how this will impress tourists? I haven't seen it. I note more serious trouble yesterday at Phuket airport re vans/taxis/airport staff telling visitors who had booked a van in advance to get out of the van and use a taxi. Where has TAT been? They've had a great opportunity over the 2+ years of zero/very little flights/passengers at Phuket airport to sit down with all concerned and agree a full solution. Nothing.

Just noticed on the CNN website, some photos / text re the first all electric powered commercial aircraft. This brings a question for the pilots / aviation experts on the site : - Will there be a big (or any) noise reduction noticed in the cabin? What's your thoughts?

I submitted a copy of my rental agreement for an apartment near Sydney plus proof of payment. I was expecting to be asked for more documentary proof but they didn't ask. I did receive a form e.mail from Centrelink asking If I had any plans to go abroad in the next 12 months*? I was at Centrelink the same day and I showed the e.mail to the pleasant Centrelink lady. Her polite comment: 1. Just say 'no plans at the moment'. I responded as suggested. No further question from Centrelink. 2. *It's a bit counterproductive to ask this question because Australians who return to OZ and claim/receive the OAP can go abroad multiple times in the first 2 year period and many do just that. And keep in mind that Centrelink has an always live 24/7 link to immigration records of people arriving/departing Australia. And it's continuously scanned to show Centrelink 'customers' but there's no action unless it's an OAP recipient who is spending close to all of their time abroad. Multiple short trips in and out are ignored. She also commented 'If you're going to do trips abroad in the first 2 years, which you can, I suggest you never stay out of Oz a full 12 months, or more, in one block of time, that might attract some attention. She also confirmed that time out of Oz in the 2 year period is still counted in building the 2 year period. In other words, building the 2 year period doesn't stop when you depart and restart when you return. In reality, because of Covid, I didn't leave Oz at all in the 2 year period. Perhaps also worth sharing, about 10 days after my 2 years was up I called the 'older Australian Line', as per normal quickly answered, a quick security check and I asked the pleasant lady if she could please confirm that I was now 'eligible for permanent' portability. Her calm reaction, 'sure just let me do a quck check, I need to call up a specific screen which gives me an easy YES or NO answer to your question. A few seconds later she responded 'YES you're eligible for 'permanent portability' from about 10 days ago. She continued, do you have any questions what to do next? I mentioned I've done some research on this and I've found some info on the Centrelink site and a couple of public webboards with detailed personal experiences. She continued, 'well don't hesitate to call this line as many times as needed if you need and clarification'. Then she mentioned 'have you decided whether to have your benefits transferred by automatic interntional bank transfer to your resident country? I confirmed yes. She continued 'do you have the specific Centrelink document needed to start that?' She continued 'I'll e.mail it to you anway, and it's a very easy form, just make sure you write the account name and account number in big very clear letters. I responded 'I'll type a simple Word document with the account names, bank details, account number in very big font, print it and attach it to the completed Centrelink document. She confirmed 'that's a good idea'. She also gave me a different e.mail address to return the completed banking form. A few days after I sent the form I got a phone call from the international banking section of Centrelink, the polite young man said he must repeat all the details over the phone and ask me to confirm 'all correct'. He shared that there would be a gap in payments to get me fully into the 4 weekly cycle and he gave me a date to expect the first transfer into K Bank. It worked. I must be honest all of the above was by very pleasant discussions, with the Centrelink staff being sure there was no confusuion in any way and that my questions had been fully / clearly answered.

I asked my well trusted Thai lawyer, she and her lawyer colleagues have plenty of experience writing wills. Her law & accounting company is the preferred law/accounting company for quite a list of western businessmen in Thailand. My question to her was "Is it true that under Thai law a will is automatically void/cancelled when a Thai person gets married? Just got her reply: "Dear xxxxxxxx It is not true, as the Will shall be canceled when a person make a new one and mention that the previous will be canceled with the new Will."

No.

No, a different unit, but several times quite close by when the artillery was doing mass bombardment.

An interesting point; if Putin uses a nuclear weapon seem to me that biden can't ignore it and will order a fast bigger nuclear drop on Russia.

Have you ever been near one of these guns when firing? The noise is extremely loud, surprisingly very very loud, no wonder they're all deaf after some time with these guns in battle.

Here in Chiang Mai I go to one of the seveal Phama Choice shops. Never ever a problem and many time some excellent advice re best nedicine/cream etc., for the issue. Staff always pleasant, good listeners, and always very reasonable prices.

So be very very carfeul and double check you key in the correct account number to receive the funds.

Correct of course. Keep in mind that the dealer might say they want 24 hr delay in delivery of the car until the cheque is banked and cleared. Even if it's a cashiers cheque.

Homepro (same store), saw a nice desk lamp with cantliver operation. it was black colour. Asked several staff 'what colour do you have?', response 'see deow', basically meaning one colour / this colour only. At same time I was looking at the boxed products in the shelves below. Item open and on display had a code number, I looked yes many boxes below with same code no. I opened one box, exact same lamp silver colour then red coulour white colour. Great customer servvice - basically just lazy and assumption that customers are stupid.

Thank you Dr. Sheryl.

Several times members have shared that on resigning from a Thai company they have been able to contine private payment to contine their 30Baht health fund membership. I think I recall an amount of 543Baht a month paid direct to the fund. Can members who are in this situation please share the correct monthly amount and other relevant information (E.g. does this bring coverage for both outpatients and inpatients fees Also I'm not sure if I am using the correct words / correct fund name etc. Would you please correct my words as needed. Thanks.

Are you eligible to receive a pink Thai ID card?

Or put it another way, seems to me that any 'witness protetcion' activity would be ripe for corruption, leakage of info., etc.

I can share that they actually prefer to use the ID number on your pink card, if you have one. Banks, like all businesses, are focused on reducing/mimimizing costs. Every time they do an update in their records there's costs: - Staff - salaries etc., cost - IT costs - every entry has an IT processing cost (buying, installing, upgrading, maintain their IT systems is not free.) - Every time they update your/my passport number that incurs costs (above). - If they use the pink card number these costs are minimized (it's a once only IT processing cost), when there's hundreds of thousands / million of accounts, these costs add up to large amount of money.

Really, can you share something which supports your comment. Thanks. Ultimately a will is the expression of the personal wishes of the person making the will. In Thailand if a person dies without making a will (dies intestate) then there are national laws which dictate how the assets must be shared and that includes what 'share' the wife or husband and the children are entitled to by law*. However if the deceased person has made a valid will then the law (mention paragraph just above) are not relevant. What is valid is (if the person has made a valid will before their death) the personal wishes of the deceased person as specifically detailed in their will, and this is not / cannot be influenced by the 'died intestate - no will' laws (paragraph above marked *).