Polar Bear

At Chula, they have lockers, and they usually leave their books there. Most of the material is available online anyway. I assume they have laptops at home, but in class, they mostly use their phones or sometimes a tablet. That's not special to Thailand. I've worked in multiple countries, and most students work from their phones in class. Some of them don't bother with laptops at all, they write everything on their phones in Google Docs. I don't know how they can do it. I get frustrated writing emails on my phone, but it doesn't seem to bother them.

I have a Eufy G10 robot vac. I'm happy with it, but I only use it upstairs. I use the vacuum daily and mop weekly. It's fine for picking up the dog fur and keeping the dust down. The mop also helps with the dust and can cope with occasional light paw prints. I used to have a Roomba, but the prices here are ridiculous. In terms of cleaning, I'd say they are the same, but the Roomba was much better at mapping awkward shapes/areas. I wouldn't bother with a robot vac downstairs, especially not the mopping. It would be useless for mopping in a kitchen with grease or muddy footprints.

Shingles vaccines aren't recommended for children. They are intended for people 50+. If she hasn't already had chicken pox, there is a difference vaccine for that.

They claim Shingrix is 97% effective. One of the big problems with Zostavax was that it was less effective the older you are. Initially it was claimed to be 65% (I think?) effective, but that turned out to be for under 50's who don't usually get it. It dropped to ~50% for over 60s and less than 20% for over 80s. But the risk of getting shingles increases with age. Shingrix gets a tiny bit more effective with age, up to ~ 98% in over 70s. I got Shingrix at Medconsult (Dr Donna) today. It cost 5,300 THB, but that was the total price. There were no extra hospital/clinic/dr fees added on. No side effects yet, but let's see what happens tomorrow.

Shingrix, the shingles vaccine, is starting to turn up in clinics around Bangkok (e.g. medconsult, Medpark, Thai travel clinic, etc.) It's not cheap, 5,500-6,000 THB per dose. If I am reading this correctly, it was approved for Thailand in June. https://pertento.fda.moph.go.th/FDA_SEARCH_DRUG/SEARCH_DRUG/pop-up_drug.aspx?Newcode_U=U1DR1C1072660000911C

I don't know if it's the same because we are both British, but we've been non-dom and non-resident for years. My husband recently inherited a pension from his mother, and it was exempt from IHT. They did deduct income tax at 40%. He could have claimed some of that back, but we just offset it against his tax bill instead.

How long ago was this? Are you going to challenge it now?

Getting into an argument with them before anything has even happened is just drawing attention to it and creating problems for yourself. Say nothing, and just give them the Wise bank details. Chances are they won't even notice. If they do reject it, that's the time to start complaining and making a fuss.

Find a trained psychologist/therapist that offers cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). It is the single most effective treatment for anxiety, far more so than medication. Many psychologists have started offering sessions online since COVID, so you aren't restricted to finding someone in Thailand. Most people need weekly sessions for around 2-4 months to start getting anxiety under control. Some people find it helpful to to continue with more general therapy for a longer period after the initial CBT course has finished. CBT doesn't 'cure' anxiety, but it teaches you how to control it and stop your thoughts running away from you.

Ah, rolling in dead things. That's a whole other issue. If you find an air freshener that helps with that, please share the details! A degreasing shampoo is the only thing I know that helps, and you need to let it soak in for a while before rinsing it off. My dog likes to roll on dead fish. If I don't catch him in time, and he really gets into it the stench is unbearable. It lingers even after I've washed him, and then sent him to the groomer and they've washed him too. ????

If she refuses to drink water indoors, she might be intentionally restricting her water intake because she's worried about peeing in the house. If she's smelly, brushing her will be more effective than air freshener. It gets the dander and dead fur off, and keeps the skin healthy and the fur clean. Let us know if you try the paw cleaner thing.

Ah sorry, my mistake. It's the PayPal card you are getting in the UK, not a UK Wise card. Hopefully the PayPal workaround does the trick.

If you have funds in your Wise account, you can withdraw cash from an ATM with a Wise debit card. You can make 2 withdrawals a month, at a max of £200 each, without a fee. More than that, and they start charging you. As far as I remember, they don't charge you for overseas spending on it. (By free, I mean they don't charge a specific fee there will still be a markup on the exchange rate.)

I think you are talking about different things. Cash back, when the bank gives you a small (usually 1% ish) amount back of everything you spend. A bit like loyalty points, but it goes back into your bank account. And cash back, where you add a cash withdrawal (usually up to £50 or £100) on to a shopping transaction, where the cashier gives you money like an ATM would.

I have another account with a regular UK bank, and I have physical card for that. But I avoid using it for overseas transactions so it doesn't attract any unwanted attention. If I need to spend GBP here, I transfer it to my Starling account and use that instead. (Starling doesn't charge a fee for overseas spending, only for ATM withdrawals). I also only transfer to Wise from Starling, never from my other UK account. You can have a physical card as well as virtual cards with Starling. It's not an either/or thing.

With Starling, create a 'Space' in the app and then you can create a virtual card for it. I have UK Spending and TH Spending spaces, and they each have their own Virtual card as well.

We were able to renew a 2 year licence after 14 months in Phra Khanong, Bangkok to get an international driving permit. You can't get an IDP on a 2 year licence only a 5. We paid an agent from Fatboy's to help with it, on account of the early renewal. I don't know if that was necessary or not, but I felt it was worth it to have someone to explain what was needed in Thai. If you are fluent, it probably doesn't matter. You will have to get the IDP at the same time, so you need to tell them which country it is for. You might as well choose one that accepts the 3 year IDP rather than 1 year, if you don't have anywhere in mind, or get both if you think you might need them. The information says you need a separate residence certificate for each one, but in practice, they accepted the same certificate for the renewal and IDP. We didn't actually need IDPs but the UK car rental companies didn't like the 2 year temporary licence, so we needed the 5 year. DM me if you want the number for Fatboy's. They've split the company up now, so it's harder to track down the right people.

I have a virtual card with Starling as well. Obviously, it's no use at an ATM, but I use it here online with Grab and Lazada sometimes. (I actually have 2 virtual cards with them, one for here, one for the UK because that works better for me.) It's convenient to have the debit card functionality without having to deal with the hassle of arranging a physical card delivery in the UK.

I love my Skype-in number, but it's not so useful for receiving OTP.

If you have a UK phone number, try Starling or Monzo. If you don't have a UK phone number, giffgaff will send a SIM to Thailand for you. If your Play Store (or whatever equivalent you use) is geolocked and you can't see the app, use a VPN. Zoog has a free monthly allowance and you can install it on a phone. It's not a great VPN, but it'll do for this if you don't want to pay for one.

This is the only information available to the reporter or anyone else. Only the first 200 get individual ranks. The next 200 get ranked in a block of 50, the next 200 in a block of 100 and so on.

The entrances don't have doors, but other than that it's enclosed. Habito Mall, 101 True Digital Park, Central Festival Eastville, all allow dogs, but I don't know them well. We only go to K-Village because we specifically go to use their dog park.

According to the original post, they have to be in a bag or stroller, so they can't walk around anywhere.

This is how most of the pet-friendly malls operate. You can take them into the building (some say they have to be in a stroller/bag, some let say they can walk on leash.) Once you are inside, it's up to the individual stores whether they can go in. We go to K-village quite often, as it has a small dog park as well. You can take a dog into the mall, but not into most of the shops. The restaurants with outdoor seating are all fine with you having a dog there. (I'm not sure if they would let you go inside a restaurant, I've never asked.)

The information on their website says dogs won't be able to go in the supermarket zone, so it sounds like they can only be in the mall part of the building, not around the food.