Drumbuie

Did you see a bear or a Bactrian camel while you were in Russia or Mongolia? Does that mean there are no bears or Bactrian camels in Russia or Mongolia? Always beware of generalising from personal experience. There are over 2.3 million motorcycles in Russia so that's about 1.6% of the population. But it's still over two million motorcyclists, in a country which makes its own motorcycles as well as importing them https://siberianlight.org/russian-motorcycles/ ...and it's a country which has a lot of motorcycle clubs, some of which are like Hell's Angels with international chapters, eg the Night Wolves who have featured in the news fighting in Ukraine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Wolves I knew absolutely nothing about Russian motorcycles before you made that sweeping generalisation and it's been fascinating spending a few minutes finding out. You should try it sometime.

In the winter much of Russia is usually cold and icy. In the spring it thaws, in summer much of Russia is warm ( by European standards: 20C +) and dry. The autumn can be frosty at night but real winter doesn't usually start till November. You know you can find this sort of stuff out on the internet and save yourself embarrassment?

Not only am I a woman, I'm the mother of three sons, and stepmother of another. Having seen them all through adolescence, including sharing a school run with another family with three boys, I'm injured to the kind of chat that is widespread in these forums. Although I must confess to being slightly surprised that so many fifty-plus year olds' conversation is eerily similar to that of a carful of hormonal, Lynx-drenched teen boys. .

A scholarly analysis of "EastEnders" [a long running soap opera in the UK, for those lucky enough never to have seen it] showed that on average characters were shown having an alcoholic drink every 30 seconds. That, combined with the last few decades of Radio 1 shows in which presenters gloried in the previous night's excesses, has helped to normalise the over-consumption of alcohol in the UK. Before then, being visibly drunk was a source of shame. And rightly so.

There are separate totals for the UK and England - which rather undermines the reliability of this chart.

If the putative farang has a bank account or any personal possessions in Thailand, he has, in legal terms, an estate in Thailand and if he dies without making a will he is going to cause a lot of problems for people including the Consul of his own country. Far better to get free legal counselling on this and any other legal matters ( now) from the Office of Human Rights. www.humanrights.ago.go.th Yes, it's free for all those living on Thailand, whether Thai or foreigner. A humane and considerate policy which other countries would do well to copy.

And another Bella Caledonia quote. "As former *Conservative* MSP Adam Tomkins, writes in the Herald: “Under the Hate Crime Act, the threshold of criminal liability is not that a victim feels offended (a subjective test), but that a reasonable person would consider the perpetrator’s action or speech to be threatening or abusive (an objective test).” He continues: “Asserting that sex is a biological fact or that it is not changed just by virtue of the gender by which someone chooses to identify is not and never can be a hate crime under this legislation.” * My emphasis. For the hard of reading.

There is an absolute tsunami of misinformation at the moment in the UK media, especially in the mainstream which is, of course, majority extreme right wing, and it's important to remember that when this is aimed at Scotland, it's because according to some recent polls, there is actually a danger that the SNP could equal or even outnumber the Tories in Westminster after the next election. So the misinformation machine in Tufton Street has gone into overdrive and all its apparatchiks like Andrew Neil are frothing away at maximum speed. Always ask yourself, cui bono? Who benefits? And you can rest assured, it's not the ordinary people (who in Scotland have done increasingly better than their English counterparts since the SNP took over in 2007).

Call me naive but even I was surprised by the level of anti-Scots prejudice on here. Can I just quote Mike Small in "Bella Caledonia" today - "Embarrassingly for the narrative that’s been built-up, age, disability and transgender identity have been added along with religious grounds and sexual orientation, bringing Scotland into line with *checks notes* England which have had religion and sexual orientation as crimes down south since 2006 and 2008 respectively". So wheesht, you lot. Just wheesht.

There are many things you could do and there'll be plenty of facetious suggestions on here but if this is a serious question, sign up for a language course and learn to speak Thai properly. (And good luck in your recovery - it's a hard road, but it's worth it)

I would usually take Dr Jack's advice on all immigration matters but in this case, I humbly beg to differ. if it is not too late to get an extension, apply. It appears that Immigration are not only now operating digitally but are in the process of digitising all their records. It is very easy to write code that will pull up all overstays and flag the individuals for further investigation; if I were Immigration, I'd be doing that already and I've noticed a flurry of news reports that could indicate they are. So I'd go for the extension, smartly dressed. Explain that you've miscalculated the dates, only just realised your mistake, can't change your ticket and please can you have the extension? Quite apart from anything else, it's the truth. With a respectful, apologetic attitude , they might give you the extension - but at any rate you've shown you're an upright citizen trying to do the right thing, not another cheapskate farang trying to dodge paying an extra 800 baht.

The clue is in the word "retirement". If you've worked your whole life, the chance to get up without an alarm going off, to read without interruptions, to write (I thoroughly recommend getting your life story down 'on paper' as part of your spiritual 'death-cleaning'), to go to the cinema/theatre/concerts/art galleries, to make and meet up with friends, to learn new skills (have you tried an art class?), to explore at leisure, to wander occasionally with no purpose other than looking around at life, to sit down and appreciate a beautiful view without looking at one's phone/watch to check the time.... it's wonderful. Seriously, perhaps if you didn't want to stop working, you shouldn't have applied for a retirement visa?

I'm a woman, and a mother, so perhaps I pay more attention to the statistics regarding attacks on women by men than some. Taking the UK as an example, there are over 40,000 sexual assaults of women recorded every year. That's the ones that are reported. The vast majority of women don't report them because the process of reporting them is almost worse than the assault and the chances of prosecution are only 1.3% - the chances of a conviction are even smaller. "She was asking for it" being a very common reaction - and one I'm sure a lot of you are already saying. [Trust me, guys, no women is EVER asking to be assaulted, despite what films might show you - films made, in many cases, by men who've assaulted a lot of women in the course of their careers]. Nearly a million women in the UK reported domestic violence every year. Again, the percentage of women who report this is tiny. Then there's stalking and harassment (some of which leads on to murder, though most women are murdered by their partner - and most children are murdered by someone known to them). I can't be bothered to check the US stats but because guns are involved it's not hard to imagine the stats per head of population are even worse. Now, imagine you're in the UK/USA and read about an immigrant assaulting a British/American woman - how would you feel? And how would you feel towards all "immigrants"? Think about it.

It's been creeping up since COVID and Ukraine. Cost me £1100 basic ( I paid more on top of that for extra legroom) return to UK last May/June (KLM via Schiphol to avoid the hell of LHR,). Some of my family are flying over in July, going back August and it's around £1200 each return (Qatar Airways). Student friends flew out last month on Air China via Beijing (don't ever do this, folks) to get the cost below £1,000 each. No more cheap longhaul flights, I fear.

Switzerland has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Europe, (and one of the lowest rates of accidental shootings due to its strict gun control laws). However gun ownership combined with poor anger management control and entitled attitude? - probably a good thing he's going to be deorted.